S1 Ep37: Waking Up to Miraculous Talents

Rudolf Diesel built the world's first internal combustion engine and had hopes it would help lift people out of poverty and prevent the devastation caused by mining for fossil fuels. He had friends and enemies in high places. And so, when he vanished off a boat in the middle of t ...  Show more

When Carl Tanzler was very young, he claimed a dead relative of nobility came to him and showed him the woman he would eventually marry. He spent the next four decades in search of the woman, and when he found her, he never let her go, even long after she had died.*Content warnin ...  Show more

Last week we wondered if ideas can be downloaded. This week, we ask if talent can be, too. We meet congenital, acquired, and sudden savants whose gifts in music, math, art, and memory appear without training. A psychiatrist’s lifelong work reframes savant syndrome as brillianc ...

In this special Rhett & Link-only episode, Rhett & Link discuss some of the rare cases of “Acquired Savant Syndrome,” a diagnosis given to someone who sustains a terrible injury to their brain that miraculously unlocks a hidden genius, like the orthopedic surgeon who was struck i ...  Show more

For most people, learning any skill is a long, at-times challenging journey. Humans struggle to acquire expertise and, after attaining it, they must regularly use this knowledge or risk losing it. But what if you woke up one day, after an injury, to find you suddenly understoo ...

“I felt like my brain was in Saran Wrap…you’re just not all there.”

Producer: Whit Missildine, Andrew Waits

Episode Summary: Having adapted to the challenges of growing up with cerebral palsy, a woman ...