S2E4: Savants: When Brilliance Drops In

In this bonus episode, we visit the Archipelago event held by the Treffert Center - the first and largest gathering of savants in the world. We meet two incredible born savants: Tony DuBlois, a completely blind musician who learned to play the piano at age two and now plays over ... Show More

<p>Animal communication moves from theory to lived experience. A non-speaking teen, Trevor, spells intimate details from his therapy horse, knowing about deaths, emotions, and conversations no one told him. Animal communicator Alex Anderson recounts the moment her own horse “spok ... Show More

<p>We’re sharing a special preview of an exclusive Backstage Pass AMA with Dr. Jeremy Chapman, child and adolescent psychiatrist and Medical Director of the SSM Health Treffert Center. In this conversation, he dives into your most thought-provoking questions — from how savants mi ... Show More

Traumatic brain injuries can be life-altering. Imagine surviving one and coming out the other side completely different. Furthermore, imagine suddenly being able to do things you’ve never done, like master a musical instrument, instantly calculate huge sums in your head or recall ... Show More

<p>The girlies talk genius. Is it a magical trait only available to a lucky few? Is it a practiced skill that can be honed by anyone? They use two geniuses from history — Temple Grandin and Leonardo DaVinci — as case studies to talk about what makes up the most ingenious among us ... Show More

Synesthesia is a connection between senses. It could be the key to understanding brilliance. Most people are born with it, but in a few rare cases people have acquired it after a traumatic brain injury. We'll also cover the neurodiversity of autism with Dr Simon Baron-Cohen. For ... Show More

<p>It's happened to all of us: We're in the shower, or on a walk, and boom — a big idea or a brilliant solution appears out of nowhere. These sorts of insights often seem to arise without explanation. But researchers increasingly find there is a science to cultivating creativity. ... Show More

<p>Across every domain of our lives, our minds have a tendency to get accustomed to things. In fact, the brain seems evolutionarily designed to focus on the new and unexpected, on novel threats and opportunities. In our daily lives, this means we take wonderful things for granted ... Show More

<p>As we go through life, we’re constantly trying to figure out what other people are thinking and feeling. Psychologist <a href="https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/mcas/departments/psychology/people/faculty-directory/liane-young.html">Liane Young</a> says this ability to assess o ... Show More

<p>For most people, learning any skill is a long, at-times challenging journey. Humans struggle to acquire expertise and, after attaining it, they must regularly use this knowledge or risk losing it. But what if you woke up one day, after an injury, to find you suddenly understoo ... Show More

If you've ever wondered why the smartest people in the room can do the dumbest things (and especially if you think you might be one of those people :-), this week's episode explores the double-edged sword of the intellect and how to wield it wisely in the world! 

<p>Have you ever been in a situation where you felt that people wrote you off? Maybe a teacher suggested you weren't talented enough to take a certain class, or a boss implied that you didn't have the smarts needed to handle a big project. In the latest in our "Innovation 2.0 ser ... Show More

<p>From the time we are schoolchildren, we are ranked and sorted based on how smart we are. But what if our assumptions about intelligence limit our potential? This week, psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman proposes a more expansive notion of what it means to be "smart."</p><p><i>If ... Show More