In 1980, R.E.M. played their first concert at a friend's birthday party. Thirty years later, they've become an iconic American alternative rock band with over 15 albums, containing almost 300 songs. In 2007, music blogger, Matthew Perpetua, decided to write a post about every single one of them. He joins the us to talk about some of his favorites.
Move over, Thanksgiving. Easter weekend is shaping up to be a big one for televised sports. The Final Four square off in Indianapolis Saturday, and Major League Baseball opens (in a major way) at Fenway on Sunday. Takeaway sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul Matin joins us to talk about what the weekend holds for the NCAA, and for the Yankees and the Red Sox.
Russia says it is suffering from a "tsunami" of heroin flooding the country, and all of it is coming from the poppy fields of Afghanistan. Addicts and counter-narcotics officers in Russia want NATO to do more to stop the influx of the drug.
The New York Times reported this week that top Vatican officials, including the future Pope, did not defrock an American priest who had sexually abused as many as 200 boys at a Milwaukee school for the deaf. Arthur Budzinski is one of the deaf victims named in the abuse case and he tells us how the experience changed his life. We also hear from his daughter, Gigi, who interprets on the air.
What does it mean to be categorized as "white" in this day and age? The census arrives in the mail this week and if you've gotten yours, you've seen these boxes to check off, indicating race: White, Black, Hispanic-White, Samoan, Filipino. But these categories are not static, and have changed over time as our cultural views of race have changed.
Even though his book, “The Genius In All of Us”, has the word "genius" in the title, author David Shenk doesn’t think it's a particularly useful term.
All week, The Takeaway has been discussing genius with David Shenk, author of a new book called "The Genius In All of Us." Today, the conversation takes a turn. Math educator, John Mighton, joins the program to answer this question: On the road to genius, can failure be any help? Even Einstein famously struggled in academics before becoming one of the world's most revered geniuses.
In this third installment of our series on genius, we look at the problem of child prodigies. Author David Shenk and chess champion Josh Waitzkin, who was the inspiration for the main character in 1993's Searching for Bobby Fisher, join us to discuss where prodigy comes from, and where it goes when the child grows up.
Practice, practice, practice. In this second installment of our weeklong series on genius, we talk to violinist Sarah Chang who was recognized as a child prodigy, recording her first album at age ten. Together with author David Shenk, the violinist shares some simple ingredients to astonishing success.
When you hear the word "genius," you might think of Einstein, Mozart, or Da Vinci. But how they became geniuses is the subject of debate. Where they born that way? Or does it come from sheer tenacity?
We begin a week-long conversation about genius and how any of us can get that way. David Shenk, author of "The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You've Been Told about Genetics, Talent, and IQ is Wrong," tells us about some surprising research about what it takes to, as he puts it, "get good at stuff." Turns out it's not as hard as you might think.
Segment : [2F] SLUG: [GENIUS] [CH] leads
Guest: David Shenk, author of “The Genius in All of Us”.
Location: IN STUDIO
Please pay attention to the arc – it’s important that we hit on Mozart at the end. Also please note that there is a lot of audio pulled to pepper in over this series – a well of “geniuses on genius” to draw from.
ROLES (if they exist)
David Shenk will intro the ideas behind the book/the week - a debunking of “genius” as an inborn trait, in favor of the idea that high achievement comes from the interplay of genes and experience.
Betty Hart (prerecord) will support this claim with her research. She discovered that early intelligence is *highly* correlated with the number of words spoken in the home.
Jim Flynn (prerecord) will support this claim with his research. He discovered that, in the last century, the average worldwide IQs rose dramatically.
ARC
--straw man (genius is from god/genes)
--genes aren’t destiny - state thesis (genes x experience)
--intelligence can grow - support thesis (pre-record audio)
--practice is key - (Mozart)
--tomorrow, we’ll talk to a genius.
INTRO
TKTKTK [JAY COWIT] BRANDING SOUND FOR GENIUS HOUR
“MUX MUX MUX...”
We can all agree on who the geniuses are - Einstein, Mozart, Da Vinci, Edison. But where does that genius come from? Is it a gift from god? Is it in our genes? And - here's the question that's important to all of us - are only a select few chosen to excel, while the rest of us are doomed to mediocrity? Not so, says David Shenk. He’s the author of “The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About Genetics, Talent and IQ is Wrong”. This week, all week long, David Shenk will join us in a conversation, here and on the website at thetakeaway.org, about how we can *all* tap into our own extraordinary abilities.
QUESTIONS
David, you don’t hear so much, anymore, about talent coming from God. But you do hear a lot about genes. When my child was born, people said, oh, he’s got your eyes, or your nose, and when he does something great, I’m tempted to say, oh, he got that from me. But your book seems to say that that idea isn’t *quite* right.
[yes, genes are nothing without expression – without experience.]
So, when people visit the sperm bank and choose a smart man… does that ensure they’re going to have a smart child?
[not really. There is no *smart*ness in genes. It’s a lot about how you help those genes be developed]
But it’s true that some kids just do better in school, right from the start. We recently talked to a researcher you mentioned in her book. Her name is Betty Hart, and she was trying to figure out what happened in the years before pre-school that made some students much better prepared.
GENIUS 1 HART OBSERVED – 11s
BETTY HART, PRE-RECORD, HOME IN KANSAS
“we observed for an hour a day and recorded all the talk that went on. some parents talked very little to the kids, some parents talked huge, huge amounts, as you can see from the numbers...”
David, what were those numbers, and why do they matter?
[it’s not about smart people inheriting smart genes, it’s about early exposure.]
So, just how smart can we get? David, in your book you speak to a researcher named Jim Flynn. We talked to him earlier about some work he did, comparing IQ scores over the last century – and here’s what he discovered.
GENIUS 2 FLYNN IQGROWTH – 22s
JIM FLYNN, PRE-RECORD, HOME IN NEW ZEALAND
“IQ gains were moving at about 3 points a decade. well, over a hundred years, that would be thirty points, wouldn't it? well, if our grandparents were 30 points below us, that would put them at 70. and 70 is the cutoff point for mental retardation. and that hardly seemed to make any sense..”
David, what does he mean by that?
[our brains are plastic, the parts we use get much bigger and better.]
So, if genius isn't something that's just *given*, what does it take to *attain* genius?
[well, not so much. Mozart got his gift from quite a lot of practice]
For more on this idea, visit our website where you can read an excerpt from the book. Or you can email us with questions, at TKTKTK. David will be answering those on the site.
Well, tomorrow we’ll talk to someone who really took that challenge to heart. We'll speak to Sarah Chang, a concert violinist who first picked up the violin at age 4.
AUDIO AVAILABLE (TOP BEST CUTS):
GENIUS 3 FLYNN DOGSRABBITS – 21s
JIM FLYNN, PRE-RECORD, HOME IN NEW ZEALAND
“and the solution that I hit on was that it's not so much that we're brighter than they are, but that we've put on scientific spectacles. you see if you asked a kid in 1900 what dogs and rabbits have in common, they'd say you use dogs to hunt rabbits. well that's the wrong answer. you're supposed to say they're both mammals.”
GENIUS 4 FLYNN SMARTER – 15s
JIM FLYNN, PRE-RECORD, HOME IN NEW ZEALAND
ASKED: SO HAVE WE GOTTEN SMARTER IN 100 years?
“if you mean are we exercising parts of our brain that we didn't exercise in 1900, for example the parts that deal with abstractions and logic, then probably under a microscope would look a little different.”
GENIUS 5 HART MESSAGE – 12s
BETTY HART, PRE-RECORD, HOME IN KANSAS
“it's an important message. that people realize that they can't count on capacity. they've got to do their part! tell the kids about things..”
FACTS (if any)
page #s
p 35-37 Jim Flynn’s study
p 37-39 Betty Hart’s study
p 50-51 Mozart story
ARTICLE (if any)
All this week we're talking about geniuses — people who've attained extraordinary success. But it's not just about the elites in society. David Shenk is the author of the reassuringly titled book "The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You've Been Told About Genetics, Talent and IQ is Wrong." We're asking you, Who is the genius in your life and why?
David will also be taking your questions about genius all week. Add them to the comments section below.
Click here to read the first chapter of "The Genius in All of Us," and check out David Shenk's blog here.
In the meantime, here are some examples of what people consider genius throughout history:
Today marks one month since an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude shook Port-au-Prince, Haiti. At dawn on that first day, the capital was filled with dust, rubble and disoriented Haitians searching for loved ones. Today, the sun rises on a changed city, full of tents, foreign aid workers and the first signs of rebuilding.
On Valentines Day, romance usually starts once the food is on the table. Couples will go out to a special restaurant and gaze into each others' eyes over someone else's cooking. But what about bringing the romance into the kitchen?
That's what Pat and Gina Neely do everyday. They're high school sweethearts, restaurant owners, and co-hosts of the Food Network show "Down Home with the Neelys."
Haitian airlifts have resumed, but they're still flying almost exclusively to Florida – and to Miami's overburdened hospitals. According to Florida Governor Charlie Crist, the state has taken more than 500 injured evacuees from the Haiti earthquake since it struck three weeks ago. Doctors there says 150 of those have gone to two hospitals in Miami.
The show is a co-production of WNYC Radio and Public Radio International, in collaboration with The BBC World Service, New York Times Radio and WGBH Boston.
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