Daily Poll Question: Genes or money - which shapes a child's brain more?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Get ready to vote on today's daily poll question at smerconish.com.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:05)
But first, Michael explains it for you right here.

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Welcome to The Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM.

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For Independent Minds.

**Michael Smerconish** (0:14)
Hi gang, today is Monday. It is the 15th of June, 2026, halfway through June.
Holy smokes. Today's poll question at smerconish.com. Jeans or money? Which shapes a child's brain more? Oh, come on, Michael. You're mailing it in. Do you really need to do nature versus nurture? Hang on. There's a reason why I'm asking this question today. Yesterday, roughly 60-40 said no to the question of, did Elon Musk earn his trillion? I was channeling Elizabeth Warren when I asked that question. It was back in 2019
Seemingly extemporaneous and at a coffee clatch, running for office, she said, There's nobody in this country who got rich on their own. Nobody. You built a factory out there. Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads. The rest of us paid for. You hired workers. The rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that a marauding band was going to take over your factory. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea. God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along. And I assume based on the outcome yesterday that most were saying to me they agreed with Elizabeth Warren.
I was thrilled with the Saturday vote. Saturday was my mingle project special on CNN. And yes, I had a poll question. It was rather unspecific, but that suited the topic. I was asking people to make a commitment to re-engage to save this country. And that was the poll question. Are you ready to re-engage to save America? When all was said and done, 38,665 voted and 83.5% said yes.
In advance of last night's UFC at the White House, I asked whether it was sport or spectacle. That was 84.44% of 28,000 in change who said spectacle. And finally, if I go way back to last week, when attacked should the US respond proportionally or overwhelmingly, 53.41% said proportionally.

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This is Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM.

**Michael Smerconish** (2:48)
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**SPEAKER_2** (4:16)
The Daily Poll Question at smerconish.com.

**SPEAKER_1** (4:19)
A non-scientific social political question designed to spark broader discussions about current issues.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:24)
Get ready to cast your ballot and leave a rating and review of this podcast on your favorite podcast app.

**Michael Smerconish** (4:31)
Okay, back to the Monday Poll Question at smerconish.com. Pardon me. When you hear today's poll question, I know you're going to say, what's the deal? Did he run out of poll questions? My God, is this not the epitome of the evergreen file, little nature versus nurture, when Michael is asking us, genes or money? Which shapes a child's brain more? But there is a reason. I am asking this oldie but goodie today, and it's this. There's brand new data on the age-old question, and it lines up with something else that I've been wanting to talk about for a while. The new piece, and a great guest scheduled on radio today to talk about this. There was a study just published in the journal Science. They looked at brain scans from more than 2,300 kids, kids who were nine and 10 This is from Wash U, Washington University in St. Louis. Great school, great campus. I did my radio show. I remember they're from the Paul Harvey Theater in the Senator John Danforth Building, if my memory is correct. Anyway, at Wash U, they looked at every variable they could measure in this analysis, meaning income, parental education, neighborhood quality, health care access, IQ, mental health, screen time, sleep, stress.