The Limits of Genius cover art

The Limits of Genius

The Surprising Stupidity of the World's Greatest Minds

 Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Limits of Genius

By: Katie Spalding
Narrated by: Susie Riddell
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

A hilarious look at how the line between 'genius' and 'extremely lucky idiot' is finer than we'd like to admit.

The more you delve into the stories behind history's greatest names, the more you realise they have something in common: a mystifying lack of common sense. Take Marie Curie, famous for both discovering radioactivity and having absolutely zero lab safety protocols. Or Lord Byron, who literally took a bear with him to university. Or James Glaisher, a hot-air balloon pioneer who nearly ended up as the world's first human satellite...

From Nikola Tesla falling in love with a pigeon to non-swimmer Albert Einstein's near-fatal love of sailing holidays, The Limits of Genius is filled with examples of the so-called brightest and best of humanity doing, to put it bluntly, some really dumb s--t. These are the stories that deserve to be told but never are: the hilarious, regrettable and downright baffling lesser-known achievements of the men and women who somehow managed to bungle their way into our history books.

©2023 Katie Spalding (P)2023 Headline Publishing Group Limited Civilization Comedy & Humour History Funny Witty
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

 James Tiptree, Jr. cover art
How Westminster Works...and Why It Doesn't cover art
Depraved New World cover art
Life Unseen cover art
Albert Einstein: Full Biography: A Man of Many Faces, Life, Facts, Quotes cover art
Galatea 2.2 cover art
Everything Is Going to be K.O. cover art
A Short History of Queer Women cover art
Conspiracy cover art
Assholes cover art
That Mitchell and Webb Sound: The Complete Series 1-5 cover art
There Plant Eyes cover art
The Know-It-All cover art
Parfit cover art
Haywire cover art
Cosmic Trigger II: Down to Earth cover art

Critic reviews

Katie Spalding is one of those annoyingly talented writers. Funny, and with an absurd amount of obscure knowledge, The Limits of Genius is a must-read on how everyone is much, much stupider than they make out. What more could you ask for than a book that'll make you feel less of an idiot than Einstein? (James Felton, author of 52 TIMES BRITAIN WAS A BELLEND)
The Limits of Genius is a masterful combination of historical research and comedic storytelling, infused with erudition and judiciously dropped F-bombs. I laughed out loud on nearly every page. It is truly inspiring to read about the stupidity of geniuses. Thank you, Katie, for knocking these wunderkinds down a few pegs and making the rest of us feel smarter in the process. (Justin Gregg, author of IF NIETZSCHE WERE A NARWHAL)
With wit and charm, each of Katie Spalding's stories in The Limits of Genius nudges, pushes and eventually shoves some of our most illustrious celebrity thinkers right off their pedestals. (David McRaney, author of YOU ARE NOT SO SMART)

What listeners say about The Limits of Genius

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
No Reviews are Available