Terman's Termite Study: The Pursuit of Genius

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In 1921, Dr. Lewis M. Terman conducted a study at Stanford University to identify children with high IQs. He called them Terman's termites and followed their lives. Although they were successful, none of them achieved anything significant. This study aimed to find geniuses and understand their abilities.

In this show you'll hear the first episode of a documentary series I made for Himalaya, an audio service devoted to inspirational and educational content that asked me if I had any ideas for a book that I had yet to pursue, and sure enough, I did. The series is all about the difficulty of defining the word "genius," and out of that launching point it goes deep into the science of human potential and the history of the both the word and all the ideas we have attempted to understand and express when using it.

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Exploring Genius Audio Documentary