Required Readings: The Genius Myth by Helen Lewis

Decoding the Gurus

Christopher Kavanagh and Matthew Browne

Science, Leisure, Social Sciences, Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In another exciting Required Reading episode, Chris and Matt offer their penetrating, high IQ thoughts on the latest book by journalist and podcast quizmaster, Helen Lewis. Titled 'The Genius Myth: The Dangerous Allure of Rebels, Monsters, and Rule Breakers', the book tears into some of the long-enduring myths surrounding historical and contemporary geniuses from Picasso to Elon Musk. It's a critical dissection of gurus and devoted fans, so very on topic! And yes, it is better than Cod...

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Links

Required Reading: The Genius Myth

00:00 Book Review: Genius Myth

04:11 The Genius Myth: Book Thoughts!

07:02 Exploring the Concept of Genius

08:49 IQ Tests and High IQ Societies

10:55 Social Perception of Intelligence

12:20 Elon Musk and Modern Genius

16:08 Historical Perspectives on Genius

18:42 The people behind the Geniuses

25:15 The Role of Context and Luck

27:44 Mythmaking and Cultural Icons

45:01 The Flawed Genius Stereotype

50:50 What about Tim Robinson?

52:51 The deranging impact of attention

01:03:33 Overall Thoughts

01:12:44 Better than Cod

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm
0:02.0	.
0:03.0	I'm
0:04.0	.
0:05.0	I'm
0:07.0	. Hello and welcome to Decoding the Guru's Decoding Academia Edition, you might have forgot, but this is a book review segment as part of the Decoding Academia series.
0:39.7	That's a good idea. That's a good idea. Because our spin-offs were, we're multiplying.
0:44.1	There are too many of them. I like that we can do book reviews and we can also review
0:48.6	articles in the same thing. Exactly.
0:51.5	Thing. Yes, you're right.
0:53.2	It makes sense when you think about it.
0:56.0	It's a completely coherent.
0:58.0	They're both forms of the written word, Chris.
1:01.0	That's right.
1:02.0	Yeah, they're not gurus talking shit in audio format.
1:08.0	Although, to be fair, in this case, so as many people will already know,
1:13.6	this is the genius myth,
1:17.0	the dangerous allure of rebels,
1:20.1	monsters and rule breakers by Helen Lewis.
1:24.0	Published by Penguin.
1:25.8	That's a little penguin thing.
1:27.7	Yeah.
	...

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