Is genius born or bred? That’s the question at the heart of this series, a branded podcast from industrial conglomerate General Electric (GE).

Hosted by Aussie mathematician Lily Serna (of Letters and Numbers fame!), Decoding Genius explores the lives of six extraordinary young minds across Australia, Canada and the US. Local talent includes a high school student running his own IT company, the creator of a mind-controlled wheelchair, and a 17-year-old mathematician.

Each episode follows the trajectory of one ‘genius’ – pointing out shared characteristics, the challenges to having an IQ similar to Einstein, and how to become a genius yourself. Apparently, you just have to pay close attention.

Bright-sounding and snappily produced (by Fairfax Media’s content-for-hire offshoot, Made by Fairfax), Decoding Genius invitingly opens out quixotic fields like pure mathematics – and terminology like inquiry-based learning – and introduces us to the next generation of big thinkers. In the hands of these altruistic, ambitious and generally nice human beings, the future bodes well.