logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2024
42m 32s

25: The smartest man who ever lived - hi...

KATY BELLOTTE
About this episode

Meet William James Sydis, the “smartest man who lived.” Sydis’ IQ score is estimated by some, to be somewhere between 50 and 100 points greater than that of Albert Einstein. By the time he was just 18 months old, Sydis was able to read The New York Times. At age 2, he taught himself Latin, and by age 6, he was fluent in eight languages, including Greek, French, Russian, German, and Hebrew. Sidis is not a household name, but he was an extraordinary individual whose brilliance often went unnoticed. Let’s explore the life of one of the most enigmatic and misunderstood prodigies of the 20th century, along with Albert Einstein, and the history of IQ testing. It’s a battle of the brains today on Found Objects podcast.


Follow us on Instagram:

Instagram.com/katybellotte


SOURCES:


Albert Einstein – Biographical. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Wed. 21 Aug 2024.

Anglis, Jaclyn. “The Surprisingly Tragic Story of the Smartest Man Who Ever Lived.” All That’s Interesting, All That’s Interesting, 2 June 2024, allthatsinteresting.com/william-james-sidis.

Barbas, Samantha. “The Sidis Case and the Origins of Modern Privacy Law.” Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts, 2012, pp. 21–69, https://doi.org/10.7916/D8M335S5.

Cherry, Kendra. “Why Alfred Binet Developed IQ Testing for Students.” Verywell Mind, 13 Mar. 2023, www.verywellmind.com/history-of-intelligence-testing-2795581.

Dombrowski, Stefan C. “The Dark History of IQ Tests.” TED, TED-Ed, 2020, ed.ted.com/lessons/the-dark-history-of-iq-tests-stefan-c-dombrowski.

NPR Staff. “Meet William James Sidis: The Smartest Guy Ever?” NPR, NPR, 23 Jan. 2011, www.npr.org/2011/01/23/132737060/meet-william-james-sidis-the-smartest-guy-ever.

Piccotti, Tyler, and Biography.com Editors. “Albert Einstein: Biography, Physicist, Nobel Prize Winner.” Biography.Com, 20 July 2023, www.biography.com/scientists/albert-einstein. 

“William James Sidis.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James_Sidis. 



Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Up next
Sep 2024
27: The first lady with 3,000 pairs of shoes - history of Imelda Marcos & Marie Antoinette
“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” Well, that is the embodiment of Imelda Marcos, the former First Lady of the Philippines, and Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France before the French Revolution. You probably know these women’s stories, so you may not see it at first, ... Show More
35m 45s
Sep 2024
26: Were the moon landings fake? - history of the Apollo Moon landings
To this day, 5% of Americans believe that the Apollo Moon landings were faked - that’s more than 16 million people. How did this theory start? And why, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, do some still believe it? This & the Flat Earth conspiracy theory will be discussed t ... Show More
38m 20s
Sep 2024
24: The first self-made female millionaire in America: history of C.J. Walker & A'Lelia Walker
One of the loudest voices in the early years of the Harlem Renaissance (1918-1930’s) was Madam C.J. Walker, a woman who defied the odds and became America's first female self-made millionaire with her Black haircare brand. Her journey is one of resilience, innovation, and emp ... Show More
38m 27s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2023
Albert Einstein
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the man who, in 1905, produced several papers that were to change the world of physics and whose name went on to become a byword for genius. This was Albert Einstein, then still a technical expert at a Swiss patent office, and that year of 1905 bec ... Show More
49m 29s
May 18
The Einstein murders
In the summer of 1944, as the German forces were retreating in northern Italy, a small group of soldiers made a detour to a remote villa in search of Albert Einstein's cousin. Robert Einstein posed no threat to the Nazi regime, but nonetheless they were determined to hunt him dow ... Show More
39m 2s
May 2019
Alfred Bernhard Nobel
The prize most coveted by the best and brightest minds in society owes its name to one man: Alfred Nobel. This Swedish inventor born in 1833, has a complicated history after battling through childhood poverty in which only three of his seven siblings reached adulthood. Parcasters ... Show More
44m 48s
Dec 2024
Fyodor Dostoevsky – The Wisdom of a Genius
Fyodor Dostoevsky is considered one of history’s greatest novelists, but he is also one of history’s greatest psychologists. His stories contain depictions of characters who span the spectrum of human personality, from those of abject evil, to those saintly in nature. Friedrich N ... Show More
20m 24s
Mar 2025
Multiple Intelligences w/ Dr. Howard Gardner
In this special episode, Scott welcomes the legendary Dr. Howard Gardner, a developmental psychologist and professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. Best known for his groundbreaking Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Dr. Gardner’s 1983 book Frames of Mind challenged th ... Show More
1h 6m
Jul 2024
Alan Lightman, "Einstein's Dreams" (Vintage, 1992)
Einstein’s Dreams (Vintage, 1992) by Alan Lightman, set in Albert Einstein’s “miracle year” of 1905, is a novel about the cultural interconnection of time, relativity and life. As the young genius creates his theory of relativity, in a series of dreams, he imagines other worlds, ... Show More
55m 6s
May 5
195. Nuclear Physicist or Soviet Spy? The Enigma of Bruno Pontecorvo with Dr. Frank Close
Today Justin talks with Dr. Frank Close. Frank is Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics and Fellow Emeritus at Exeter College at the University of Oxford. He was formerly the head of the Theoretical Physics Division at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Vice President of the ... Show More
1h 9m
Aug 2024
Human Sinfulness and the Study of the Past w/ Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. & Prof. Brad Gregory
Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with Prof. Brad Gregory about intellectual genealogy, what virtues are needed for historians, the unintended consequences of the Reformation, and the theological implic ... Show More
53m 45s
Aug 2018
Episode 44, The Steven Pinker Interview
As Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, Steven Pinker’s list of accomplishments is incredible; he has been named Humanist of the Year, a top “100 Global Thinker” by Foreign Policy and included in Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World Today.” Steven h ... Show More
55m 32s
Sep 2024
Ep483 - Robert Greene | Mastery
Robert Greene visits Google to discuss his latest book, "Mastery." What did Charles Darwin, a middling schoolboy and underachieving second son, do to become one of the earliest and greatest naturalists the world has known? What were the similar choices made by Mozart and by Caesa ... Show More
1h 1m