# The Sad Story of Darwin’s Self-Procleimed “Stupidest” Child

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844/the-sad-story-of-darwin-s-self-procleimed-stupidest-child
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844/the-sad-story-of-darwin-s-self-procleimed-stupidest-child.md
Podcast: [The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844)
Published: 2025-04-22T13:15:00+00:00
Episode link: https://samkean.com/podcast/
Audio file: https://audio2.redcircle.com/episodes/8c692e54-7a44-433c-b0fb-4f3ecd23b9af/stream.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844/episodes/the-sad-story-of-darwin-s-self-procleimed-stupidest-child
Duration seconds: 1110

## Resource

Leonard Darwin had a lot to live up to. He was the son of the legendary Charles, and several siblings proved to be brilliant scientists as well. But Leonard never quite measured up as a mediocre military officer and two-bit politician. In his fifties, he pronounced his life a “failure.” But in his sixties, he finally found his calling—the dark pseudoscience of eugenics, a field he embraced in part to prove that he wasn’t the failure he imagined. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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## Transcript

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