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Human Intelligence

Great minds don't think alike. Naomi Alderman investigates brilliant thinkers with 50 stories that celebrate the human mind.

Radio 4,37 episodes

Episodes

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Series 2
Live from Hay Literary Festival 2025
Naomi Alderman and guests celebrate Human Intelligence at the Hay Literary Festival.
29 Dec 2025,34 mins
Series 2
Exiles: Karl Marx
Exploring the mind of Karl Marx, a revolutionary political thinker and philosopher.
05 Jan 2026,14 mins
Series 2
Exiles: Ishi
The mind of Ishi: how one man worked to preserve the knowledge of an entire community.
06 Jan 2026,14 mins
Series 2
Exiles: Marie Curie
Marie Curie had to go into exile to do her work, but she never forgot where she came from.
07 Jan 2026,13 mins
Series 2
Exiles: Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz
How did exile enable a self-taught intellectual and proto-feminist to do her best work?
08 Jan 2026,14 mins
Series 2
Exiles: Ovid
Ovid was Rome’s funniest, wittiest poet. How was his mind shaped by exile?
09 Jan 2026,14 mins
Series 2
Perfectionists: Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel wanted all his work to be the best, but it came at a cost.
12 Jan 2026,14 mins
Series 2
Perfectionists: Simone Weil
Simone Weil was a perfectionist of ethics, calling on us to attend to others’ suffering.
13 Jan 2026,14 mins
Series 2
Perfectionists: Al-Khwarizmi
Al-Khwarizmi laid the groundwork for the modern world in setting down the rules of algebra
14 Jan 2026,14 mins
Series 2
Perfectionists: Leonardo Da Vinci
The quintessential Renaissance man, artist Leonardo da Vinci was curious about everything.
15 Jan 2026,14 mins
Series 2
Perfectionists: Martha Graham
Martha Graham was to modern dance what Picasso was to painting.
16 Jan 2026,14 mins
Series 1
What Is Human Intelligence?
Naomi Alderman looks at brilliant minds from the past.
20 Dec 2024,1 min
Series 1
Disruptors: Socrates
Naomi Alderman explores the mind of Socrates, the original disruptor.
06 Jan 2025,14 mins
Series 1
Disruptors: George Washington
Naomi Alderman explores the mind of the first US president, George Washington.
07 Jan 2025,14 mins
Series 1
Disruptors: Mary Wollstonecraft
Naomi Alderman explores the mind of the brilliant feminist pioneer, Mary Wollstonecraft.
08 Jan 2025,14 mins,
Series 1
Disruptors: Martin Luther
Naomi Alderton explores the mind of Martin Luther, who inspired the Protestant Reformation
09 Jan 2025,14 mins
Series 1
Disruptors: Malcolm X
Naomi Alderman explores the mind of Malcolm X and his role in black nationalism in the US.
10 Jan 2025,15 mins
Series 1
Teachers: Michael Faraday
An obsessive, meticulous intellect that gave us ideas behind world-changing technology.
13 Jan 2025,14 mins
Series 1
Teachers: Maimonides
The celebrated medieval philosopher who reconciled faith and reason.
14 Jan 2025,14 mins
Series 1
Teachers: Mary Somerville
A remarkable 19th-century polymath inspired by the natural world and the universe beyond.
15 Jan 2025,14 mins
Series 1
Teachers: Peter Ramus
A radical teacher who believed passionately in knowledge and education for all.
16 Jan 2025,14 mins
Series 1
Teachers: Diogenes
The irascible Greek thinker who lived in a barrel and argued for a simpler happier life.
17 Jan 2025,14 mins
Series 1
Collectors: Sei Shōnagon
The author of a Japanese masterpiece who saw the beauty and absurdity in everyday life.
20 Jan 2025,14 mins
Series 1
Collectors: Denis Diderot
The Enlightenment encyclopaedist; the ultimate interdisciplinary thinker.
21 Jan 2025,14 mins
Series 1
Collectors: Pamphila
A prolific historian from ancient Greece – female, freelance and working from home.
22 Jan 2025,14 mins
Series 1
Collectors: Samuel Johnson
Working in chaos at a desk strewn with papers, 'Dictionary Johnson' left a great legacy.
23 Jan 2025,14 mins
Series 1
Collectors: Charles Darwin
A life-long collector of curiosities, Darwin saw massive significance in tiny changes.
24 Jan 2025,14 mins
Series 1
Manhattan Project: J Robert Oppenheimer
The father of the atom bomb who longed to be an all-American hero.
17 Mar 2025,14 mins
Series 1
Manhattan Project: Niels Bohr
A scientific genius who saw poetry in the subatomic world
18 Mar 2025,14 mins
Series 1
Manhattan Project: John von Neumann
The game theory pioneer who made the information age possible.
19 Mar 2025,14 mins