Miles O'Brien

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

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.

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.

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):

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)