Aporia Podcast

Today I'm speaking with the Australian writer and retired lawyer, Helen Dale. Helen is best known for writing The Hand that Signed the Paper, a novel about a Ukrainian family who collaborated with the Nazis in The Holocaust. The book was published in in 1994 and won the Miles Franklin Award, Australia's top literary prize. Helen became the award's youngest winner. However, controversy ensued after it became known that Helen had been trolling the diversity obsessed literary establishment by claiming to be Ukrainian and basing the book on interviews with her relatives (she'd published under the pseudonym “Helen Demidenko”). Today, however, I'm speaking with Helen about something much more personal: growing up gifted. Helen has, in her own words, a “freakishly high” IQ. As someone very interested in giftedness, I thought I could pose some of the most asked questions on Quora to Helen about living life with an IQ at the 99.9th percentile. The conversation is wide-ranging, so you might like to make use of the timestamps in the YouTube video. I’ve also pasted them below. Links to Helen’s work: Helen has authored three works of fiction. She writes for Law & Liberty (you can find the full archive of her articles here). And make sure to subscribe to Helen’s Substack here. Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 4:05 Helen discusses her early infamy 14:30 The right to write & elite overproduction 16:08 How “The System” works & going into law 18:00 How Helen and I met & the big brains of headline writers 19:45 Helen’s “lived experience” with a high IQ 22:35 The intricacies of Latin & Greek 25:10 On being challenged intellectually in law 27:45 Professionals are often smarter than academics 32:58 Helen’s thoughts on education policy and her own schooling 37:15 The value of school discipline & the Michaela School 43:13 What is school for? 53:54 American ignorance & social class 58:48 The duty of the gifted 1:01:05 On Taleb’s critique of IQ 1:07:30 Helen’s obsession with law 1:11:32 Who’s the smartest person Helen has met? 1:13:28 Why piloting is so “g loaded” 1:16:50 How maths students are ranked at Cambridge 1:18:19 Preemies and left-handers 1:19:50 Is it lonely at the right-hand tail? 1:22:20 Organising the Jewish lobby in Australia & being right-wing 1:26:18 Australia’s gift to the world 1:31:30 The law & embryo selection 1:38:20 Authoritarian states creating super athletes & soldiers 1:39:02 Helen talks about her speculative fiction books 1:41:20 Competing with other countries 1:44:14 The biggest legal challenges for new genetic technology 1:50:42 What does it mean to be truly educated?

Noah Carl is a British sociologist and independent researcher. He currently writes for a number of outlets, but his most consistent output can be found on Substack (link below). Apologies in advance if this conversation isn't up to the usual standard, Noah actually messaged me out of the blue asking if I wanted to do a podcast, so I only had an hour or two to put some questions together. We only had an hour, but I think there’s a lot in here. Some of the spicier topics we touch on include: dysgenics, global IQ differences, and whether the West should "recolonise" parts of Africa. Noah's Substack: https://noahcarl.substack.com/ My links:   Substack: https://ideassleepfuriously.substack.com  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Ideas_Sleep  Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ideas_Sleep

This week I’m speaking with Parker Settecase, a philosopher and host of the Parker’s Pensées podcast, which you can find here:  https://www.youtube.com/c/ParkersPens... I really enjoy Parker’s show. He interviews fascinating philosophers and theologians and gets deep into the weeds with them. Parker is also a Christian, so I thought it’d be interesting to chat about how his views have evolved. We also discuss the problem of evil, free will, and whether my rationalism is self-defeating. Enjoy!  You can you can find Parker on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/trendsettercase  My links:   Substack: https://ideassleepfuriously.substack.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Ideas_Sleep Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ideas_Sleep

Torill Kornfeldt is a Swedish science journalist, author and speaker focusing on biology and biotechnology. She is the author of two books. The first, The Re-Origin of Species, discusses the reconstruction of extinct animals using gene modifications. However, in this conversation we mostly speak about Torill’s second book, The Unnatural Selection of Us. We talk about the power of CRISPR, why China is winning the tech race, designer babies, longevity, and the obligatory mention of Jurassic Park.   My links:   Substack: https://ideassleepfuriously.substack.com  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Ideas_Sleep  Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ideas_Sleep

Nicholas Colangelo is a world-famous scholar in gifted education. He is the author of numerous articles on counselling gifted students and acceleration. He has edited three editions of the Handbook of Gifted Education. He co-authored the famous national report “A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students.  My links:   Substack: https://ideassleepfuriously.substack.com  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Ideas_Sleep  Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ideas_Sleep

What you’re about to watch or listen to is my most important podcast so far. Today I’m speaking with Zac Kriegman.  Zac is a former director of data science at Thomson Reuters, perhaps the world’s most important news organisation. He’s a former director because he was fired after sharing research on the company's internal social media platform showing that American police killed more unarmed white people than black people as a proportion of the population. This wasn’t just one statistic thrown carelessly into a group chat. Zac compiled a 12,000 word report with the rigour you’d expect from a director of data science earning 350,000 a year. In that report, he also pointed out that the Black Lives Matter movement are probably responsible for the deaths of thousands. He also noted Thomson’s biased coverage when it came to BLM.  As you can imagine, several outspoken white knights pounced on Zac’s bravery. And soon he was no more. Zac is obviously taking legal action and you can support him in that fight, too. This case really is a litmus test for America and the western world. A billion people read or see Reuters news every day. And as you’re about to hear, they aren’t exactly getting the impartiality Reuters claim to offer.   Apologies for the slight hiss on the recording today, but without further ado, I give you my most important guest to date: Zac Kriegman. Zac's Substack: https://kriegman.substack.com/ My links:   Substack: https://ideassleepfuriously.substack.com  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Ideas_Sleep  Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ideas_Sleep

John Jost talks about his childhood, education, cowboys and Indians, the psychology of political conservatism and system justification, the horseshoe theory of political orientation, ideological asymmetries, political polarization, capitalism, fear of socialism, the existence of racial microaggressions, being misunderstood by the left and the right, and the work of Ezra Klein, Mahzarin Banaji, Joshua Greene, Kurt Gray, Dan Kahan, Jonathan Haidt, and Jordan Peterson.   My links:   Substack: https://ideassleepfuriously.substack.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Ideas_Sleep  Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ideas_Sleep

Peter is a Visiting Research Associate at King's College London and a PhD candidate at Sheffield University. He is a multi-award-winning author for Bloomsbury Education and author and editor for Crown House Publishing on The Philosophy Foundation Series of books. He is a commissioning editor for The Philosophers' Magazine.  Peter read philosophy at University College London and Birkbeck College, completing his MA in 2004. He has been working with children in education since 1993 and has been doing philosophy with children since 2002. To read more about him and his work, click here:  https://www.philosophy-foundation.org/executive-officers My links:   Substack: https://ideassleepfuriously.substack.com  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Ideas_Sleep  Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ideas_Sleep

Emil Kirkegaard is a social scientist and prominent blogger focussing on a range of topics deemed controversial (and therefore interesting), from intelligence, to crime and migration. He publishes a very popular blog and Substack (links below). https://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/  https://kirkegaard.substack.com/  My links:   Substack: https://ideassleepfuriously.substack.com  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Ideas_Sleep  Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ideas_Sleep

Bo Winegard received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Florida State University in 2018 under the supervision of Professor Roy Baumeister. Winegard became an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Marietta College in 2018; he was fired in 2020. In this podcast, Bo shares his story. We talk about all things controversial in psychology and much, much more.  You can find Bo's writing here: https://quillette.com/author/bo-winegard/ If you'd like to subscribe to my Substack and learn about giftedness, stupidity, and other interesting things: https://ideassleepfuriously.substack.com If you'd like to get your name in the credits, early access to videos, livestreams, and private Zoom calls, you can support the show on Patreon from just $1:  https://www.patreon.com/Ideas_Sleep TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/Ideas_Sleep