Commenter ruhkukah wants me to estimate the IQ of Chris Langan which got me addicted to listening to interviews with him on the internet.   There’s something so intimate about radio.  You can listen in the pitch black darkness of your bedroom against the freezing cold of a Canadian winter (yes we finally got snow).

I’m struck by how much Langan has in common with Oprah:

1)Both have super-human head size (Oprah 25.25” around; Langan 25.5” around)

2)Both learned to talk early

3) Both learned to read by age 3

4)Both skipped multiple years of primary school

5)Both are now  in their early 60s

6)Both got scholarships to mediocre colleges and dropped out (though Oprah went back to complete her degree after becoming rich and famous to set a good example)

7)Both don’t know for sure who their biological fathers are

8) Both were raised illegitimate in poverty by a mother who bounced from one bad relationship to another

9) Both were abused in childhood.

10)Both have weighed way over 200 lbs: Oprah from fat, Langan from muscle, which incidentally makes Oprah’s head even more impressive for her body size since such adjustments are made for only fat free body-weight

11)Both are obsessed with the idea of  God and speak of the universe as though it were a conscious entity, yet both embrace a universal theism and respect all faiths equally instead of being religious partisans.

12)Both seem to believe in controversial metaphysical ideas and are resented by the scientific establishment because of it.

Although I do think Oprah is EXTREMELY intelligent, I’m not suggesting she’s anywhere near the same IQ league as Langan, who has been called the smartest man in America, and is much more analytical about his metaphyisical ideas than Oprah is.

And yet it was Oprah who overcame the adversity to become the billionaire Queen of All Media while Langan became a bouncer earning $6000 a year.  If not IQ, what made the difference?  Oprah probably had certain talents, opportunities, personality traits, and support systems that Langan lacked.

Here’s an especially long interview with Langan.