Â鶹Éç

Back up to: Human Intelligence

1. Perfectionists: Martha Graham

   Martha Graham was to modern dance what Picasso was to painting.
2. Perfectionists: Leonardo Da Vinci

   The quintessential Renaissance man, artist Leonardo da Vinci was curious about everything.
3. Perfectionists: Al-Khwarizmi

   Al-Khwarizmi laid the groundwork for the modern world in setting down the rules of algebra
4. Perfectionists: Simone Weil

   Simone Weil was a perfectionist of ethics, calling on us to attend to others’ suffering.
5. Perfectionists: Isambard Kingdom Brunel

   Isambard Kingdom Brunel wanted all his work to be the best, but it came at a cost.
6. Exiles: Ovid

   Ovid was Rome’s funniest, wittiest poet. How was his mind shaped by exile?
7. Exiles: Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz

   How did exile enable a self-taught intellectual and proto-feminist to do her best work?
8. Exiles: Marie Curie

   Marie Curie had to go into exile to do her work, but she never forgot where she came from.
9. Exiles: Ishi

   The mind of Ishi: how one man worked to preserve the knowledge of an entire community.
10. Exiles: Karl Marx

    Exploring the mind of Karl Marx, a revolutionary political thinker and philosopher.
11. Live from Hay Literary Festival 2025

    Naomi Alderman and guests celebrate Human Intelligence at the Hay Literary Festival.
12. Perfectionists

    Thinkers who searched for perfection weren’t always easy to work with.
13. Exiles

    Exile shaped all these thinkers - and they never forgot where they’d come from.
14. Recluses: Nikola Tesla

    Is the mind of Nikola Tesla worthy of such an extensive legacy?
15. Recluses: Michel de Montaigne

    What can we learn from the mind of Montaigne who invented the concept of the essay?
16. Recluses: Li Qingzhao

    Inside the mind of China’s greatest female poet: Li Qingzhao.
17. Recluses: Ibn Khaldun

    How did philosopher Ibn Khaldun invent a theory to explain the rise and fall of dynasties?
18. Recluses: Emily Bronte

    How did the writing of accomplished author Emily Bronte benefit from her reclusive nature?