IQ Tests are (Kind of) Dumb

Ridiculous History

iHeartPodcasts

History, Society & Culture

4.2 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Have you ever taken an IQ test? Originally envisioned as a way to determine which French children should be locked in asylums, Alfred Binet's attempt to quantify human intelligence took the modern world by storm. Yet, as Ben, Noel and Max ask in this follow-up to lead exposure: How accurate are the IQ tests? Are they genuinely accurate, or, ironically enough... their own sort of dumb?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Ridiculous History is a production of IHeart Radio. Welcome back to the show.
0:27.8	Thank you as always so much for tuning in.
0:32.2	Let's hear it for the man, the myth, the legend, our super producer Max Benet Williams.
0:38.5	Not Béne.
0:40.8	Béne.
0:41.4	Like Jean Bénez?
0:42.6	Similar to...
0:44.1	Dark, Benet.
0:44.5	We don't have the relationship.
0:45.6	Dark!
0:46.5	Well, we've got a, uh, we've got kind of a dark turn here.
0:50.7	Uh, this episode is following on the heels of our recent episode. We're quite proud of the title.
0:58.4	Did Lead Lead to the Fall of the Roman Empire? Right. Yes. Lead lead. Lead led.
1:06.9	You know, maybe, probably not. Spoiler alert.
1:13.3	Yeah, contributed to maybe.
1:15.2	You'll have to check out the episode, folks.
1:18.5	That is none other than the legendary Mr. Noel Brown.
1:20.1	Hello, it's you, Ben.
1:20.7	Is it you?
1:21.4	I think it's you.
1:23.9	We are all vast.
1:28.9	We contain multitudes for tax purposes that call me Ben Bullen here in the United States.
	...

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