YANSS 287 – The complex task of defining, categorizing, and classifying “genius”

In this episode, we  are exploring the complexity of the concept of “genius” with two experts on the topic. First you’ll hear from David Krakauer, the president of The Santa Fe Institute, a research institution in New Mexico dedicated to the study of complexity science, and then you’ll hear from professor Dean Keith Simonton, one of the world’s leading researchers into the psychological mechanisms and influences that generate the phenomenon we so often refer to as “genius.” 

Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify Listen on Patreon

 RSS – Amazon Music – Audible

David Krakauer

David Krakauer is the President and William H. Miller Professor of Complex Systems at the Santa Fe Institute. His research explores the evolution of intelligence on Earth. He is also a member of the C4 research group at SFI. He served as the founding Director of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, the Co-Director of the Center for Complexity and Collective Computation, and Professor of Mathematical Genetics all at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. David has been a visiting fellow at the Genomics Frontiers Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, a Sage Fellow at the Sage Center for the Study of the Mind at the University of Santa Barbara, a long-term Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and visiting Professor of Evolution at Princeton University. Krakauer was included in Wired Magazine’s 2012 Smart List as one of fifty people “who will change the world,” and Entrepreneur Magazine’s 2016 list of visionary leaders advancing global research and business.

Dean K, Simonton

Dean Simonton is a distinguished professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California, Davis. He is a member of a number of professional organizations, having served as president of the Society for General Psychology, APA Division 1, from 2011-2012 and previously as the president of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics, and the Society for Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, APA Division 10. He also serves on a number of editorial committees and is currently associate editor of The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Adulthood and Aging, as well as direct submissions editor for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. At UC Davis, Professor Simonton has served in a number of executive roles, including chair of the faculty for the executive committee and representative assembly, and departmental vice-chair, among others.

Links and Sources

Apple – RSS – Spotify – Amazon Music – Audible – Patreon

Previous Episodes

The Santa Fe Institute

Dean K Simonton

How Minds Change

David McRaney’s Twitter

YANSS Twitter

Newsletter

Patreon