Garth Zietsman
Garth Zietsman is a professional statistician with 40 years’ experience applying his skills to social, medical and economic issues. He has written on wide-ranging topics, from tax policy to health spending to global warming, and has a blog called Freakostats. In 2001, Zietsman was described in the media as the World's Smartest Man on the strength of his performance in a high-level IQ test in which he was bettered only by Marilyn vos Savant, listed in the Guiness Book of Records as having the highest recorded IQ.
Articles By This Author
The import of personal appearance
The 2025 Miss Universe contest just happened in Thailand. The world’s premier bodybuilding contest occurred a month before. This time of the year also sees
Making sense of abortion policy
Abortion is one of those issues that quickly separate people into warring camps with no common ground. I have to say that I and my
Risk, and political reactions
We all have a constitutional, and common law, right to not be harmed by other people or the state. One implication is that we also
The Blue versus Red zones of healthy lifestyles
A great many of you will be familiar with National Geographic’s study of countries that produce more than their fair share of centenarians (100-year-olds) per
Thinking more about what our genes say about us
An analysis of Adolf Hitler’s DNA made a splash in the media last week, and of course that intrigued many people but also caused a
Inequality – a crisis?
The latest G20 gathering is about to happen in Johannesburg and as part of that economics Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and co-authors published a report
Why democracies often choose bad policies
It seems that an important election happens somewhere in the world every weekend. And almost everyone who has something to say about it will tell
What it takes to be an extremely good person
Almost everyone likes the more prosocial people among us and dislikes the more antisocial types. The more extreme the behaviour the more we like or
The unimaginable cost of Communism
Communism and socialism are experiencing a resurgence in the West and are part and parcel of former revolutionary movements in South Africa. What do the
What influences your attitude to environmental issues?
Why do you believe what you do about environmental issues? I am sure you believe it to be purely based on a sober reflection on