Innovation Hub
655 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 310 ratingsInnovation Hub looks at how to reinvent our world – from medicine to education, relationships to time management. Great thinkers and great ideas, designed to make your life better.
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Episodes
What IS evil, really?
April 26, 2019 08:00 - 17 minutes - 16.1 MBIf you’ve ever had an evil thought - or even a murder fantasy - you’re not alone. Julia Shaw, the author of “Evil: The Science Behind Humanity’s Dark Side” explains that most people have devilish notions sometimes. Shaw, a psychologist and research associate at University College London, says we all have the capacity for cruel deeds. She suggests that acknowledging our darker desires may in fact help us deconstruct and better understand the whole concept of evil. This understanding,...
The Evolution of American Privacy
April 19, 2019 09:00 - 19 minutes - 17.6 MBEvery day, it seems like there’s a new story about privacy: A Facebook hack that puts the private data of millions at risk. A years-long surveillance program of personal communications by the government. Endless concerns about how much of our lives we share on social media. With all this in the air, it can certainly feel like we have a lot less privacy nowadays. But is that really the case? Well, according to Vanderbilt professor Sarah Igo, author of The Known Citizen: A History of...
Selfies And The Self
April 19, 2019 08:30 - 18 minutes - 17.2 MBTwitter. Selfie-sticks. Reality TV. It can seem like our society is becoming more narcissistic and self-involved. (Just read a few of the boatload of articles and think-pieces on this topic) But are we really more self-centered? The answer involves Aristotle, Ayn Rand, and 80s-era California. At least, that’s according to Will Storr, author of the book, Selfie: How We Became Self-Obsessed and What It’s Doing To Us. He explains how our conception of self has changed throughout human ...
Kids These Days...And Yesterday, And Tomorrow
April 19, 2019 08:00 - 10 minutes - 9.59 MBEconomist John Quiggin wants to change the way we talk about millennials. That is, he thinks we should stop talking about them altogether. In a recent New York Times editorial, Quiggin argued that the notion of generations is a pop-culture myth. He thinks we should focus on how people are affected by more significant traits like class, gender, and age.
When Tech Gets Talkative
April 12, 2019 09:30 - 18 minutes - 8.36 MBTechnology has become more hands-free, thanks to voice-activated digital assistants like Alexa and Siri. Have a question? Ask away. But in the future it won’t be just a matter of using this technology to find out facts or to determine the best route home. James Vlahos, author of “Talk to Me - How Voice Computing Will Transform the Way We Live, Work and Think,” explains how companies are trying to make the Alexas and Siris of the world more sociable. Voice tech that can apply backgro...
Humans: We May Not Be As Special As We Think
April 05, 2019 08:30 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBIt’s easy to see ourselves as separate from the animal kingdom, but Adam Rutherford, author of “Humanimal: How Homo sapiens Became Nature’s Most Paradoxical Creature - A New Evolutionary History,” believes that we aren’t as different as we might think. Fashion design, interacting with fire, and making multi-step plans all seem like qualities that are unique to humans. But according to Rutherford, species across the animal kingdom - from crabs to birds of prey - exhibit many of these...
You Really Push My Buttons
April 05, 2019 08:00 - 19 minutes - 17.8 MBButtons make the world go round. How else would you tell an elevator to whisk you up to the sixth floor, or get a candy bar out of a vending machine? Buttons are the simple interface for how we interact with more complex technology. They cover up the wires and inner workings of your TV and microwave, and make tech accessible at, you guessed it, the push of a button. Rachel Plotnick, author of “Power Button: A History of Pleasure, Panic, And the Politics of Pushing,” explains the ori...
A Big, Bloody Business
March 29, 2019 09:30 - 20 minutes - 18.9 MBYou might guess that the United States is the world’s biggest exporter of corn, but did you know that it is also one of the biggest exporters of blood? In fact, the U.S. exports more blood than it does corn, soybeans, or gold. More specifically, blood plasma - the yellow liquid that separates out, once your blood is in a tube or a bag - since it is a critical component in many pharmaceutical products and medicines. Rose George, author of “Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Med...
Crime Is Declining. So Why Don’t We Feel Safer?
March 22, 2019 10:00 - 18 minutes - 16.8 MBTalk to anyone who lived in New York City in the 1970s, and they will probably highlight the city’s widespread crime. Times Square wasn’t yet Disney-fied and Brooklyn hadn’t been taken over by hipsters. Most people agreed that New York was a dangerous place. But then something happened: murders, and violent crime in general, began to drop. And that trend wasn’t unique to New York: It happened in many places across America. So who do we have to thank for the crime decline? To find ou...
Sand. It’s Slipping Through Our Fingers
March 22, 2019 09:30 - 14 minutes - 13.4 MBUnless we’re relaxing on it at the beach, or kicking it out of our shoes, we probably don’t think too much about sand. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t important. Sand is a vital ingredient in concrete. And glass. And asphalt. It makes our modern, urban life possible. And our hunger for it is causing more and more trouble. Vince Beiser, author of The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization, explains why sand matters, and how the quest to extract more of...
Rationality vs. Intelligence
March 22, 2019 09:00 - 14 minutes - 13.7 MBHave you ever taken an IQ test? Think about the results. Did you do well? You might have gotten a high score, but, often, intelligence doesn’t have anything to do with rationality. There is a marked difference between the two, although we often conflate them. We talk with York University associate professor Maggie Toplak and Boston University professor Carey Morewedge about why even smart people do irrational things.
Lessons From The World’s Quirkiest Innovators
March 15, 2019 09:30 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBObsessed with work, insensitive, socially detached, and neglectful of family and friends. Those may not be the most endearing qualities, but they are just a few of the common characteristics that longtime innovation researcher, Melissa Schilling found when studying some of the world’s most famous and prolific inventors in the fields of science and technology. Schilling, a professor of management and organizations at New York University’s Stern School of Business, explores the ingen...
Television Created the Scientist Star
March 15, 2019 09:00 - 23 minutes - 21.5 MBWe all know the legacy that Sputnik had on U.S. science education. Washington poured more than a billion dollars into overhauling the U.S. science curriculum. But television was transformed too. According to Ingrid Ockert, a Haas Fellow at the Science History Institute and a NASA History Fellow, the television show “Continental Classroom” was launched as a direct response to the Sputnik challenge. Five days a week, “Continental Classroom” was broadcast into American homes to encoura...
Cleanliness, Health...and Microbes
March 08, 2019 11:00 - 27 minutes - 25 MBAre you a self-proclaimed germaphobe like President Trump? Well, if you think your home is sparkling clean, try walking around with a microscope. According to Rob Dunn, a professor of Applied Ecology at both North Carolina State University and the Natural History Museum of Denmark, we are surrounded by thousands of tiny species, living on every imaginable surface. And while some bacteria can be harmful, most just humbly co-exist with us... and some are more helpful than we know. In...
The Fight For Our Rights During WWI
March 08, 2019 10:30 - 21 minutes - 19.3 MBIn 21st century America, citizens assert their individual rights loud and clear. Media coverage shows that Americans defend, debate, and demand individual liberties, including freedom of speech and the right to bear arms. Yet just over 100 years ago, Americans valued the greater good of the country more than their personal freedoms, according to Christopher Capozzola, the author of “Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen.” Capozzola explains t...
China Deal, or No China Deal?
March 01, 2019 11:00 - 33 minutes - 30.5 MBIn a modern-day Mexican standoff, the U.S. and China are confronting each other over trade practices. The United States believes China has been luring away jobs and stealing American technology. But what if the issue isn’t that China is stealing innovations, but that it is out-innovating us? George Yip, a professor of marketing and strategy at Imperial College Business School in London thinks that the Chinese are no longer mere imitators but have become serious innovators in their o...
What’s Worth Worrying About?
March 01, 2019 10:30 - 15 minutes - 14.2 MBSpiders and grizzlies and snakes, oh my! Ask someone what they are afraid of, and the answer is likely to be something like a plane crash or shark attack. But the authors of the book “Worried?: Science Investigates Some of Life’s Common Concerns,” Eric Chudler and Lise Johnson explain why they believe we often waste our energy worrying about the wrong things. Chudler, a neuroscientist at the University of Washington and Johnson, an assistant professor of physician assistant studies ...
Full Show: More Screens, More Problems
February 22, 2019 11:00 - 49 minutes - 45.7 MBIf you’re reading this on your smartphone, it might be time to reevaluate how much time you spend in front of a screen. Author Cal Newport offers a road map toward digital minimalism. Then, how did American capitalism become so unequal? And where is it headed? Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein thinks it’s time for a change.
Our Digital Dilemma
February 22, 2019 10:30 - 29 minutes - 27.4 MBThink you might need a digital detox? You’re not alone. It’s becoming more and more of a trend to take time away from our online lives. Cal Newport author of “Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused life in a Noisy World” shares his approach to avoiding digital distraction and reclaiming time. He discusses how to be more intentional about how you use technology, and more aware about how technology uses you. We’ll discuss everything from the neuroscience of the human brain to how to ...
Reinventing American Capitalism
February 22, 2019 10:00 - 18 minutes - 16.8 MBCapitalism is a recurring theme among the ever-growing list of Democratic presidential candidates. But many Americans of all political stripes have concerns about our free market economy and whether it is working for them, according to Steven Pearlstein, a Pulitzer-Prize winning columnist for The Washington Post and author of "Can American Capitalism Survive: Why Greed Is Not Good, Opportunity Is Not Equal, and Fairness Won't Make Us Poor." We talk with Pearlstein about the import...
Full Show: Twice Told Tales
February 15, 2019 11:00 - 50 minutes - 46 MBFirst, we revisit a classic debate: nature vs. nurture. One way to settle it? Through the lens of twin studies, which have opened up some curious revelations about how our genes affect us. Next, we turn to the 19th-century Midwest, and look at how Laura Ingalls Wilder reframed American history in the ‘Little House’ house series. Then, you sent us a whole lot of feedback about a recent segment on whether we spend too much money on education in the U.S. - and whether college educati...
Tapping Into Twin Studies
February 15, 2019 10:30 - 29 minutes - 26.9 MBSeeing double? It’s not your imagination - birth rates of twins have been rising sharply, and twin studies are now, more than ever, influencing various disciplines. Everyone from economists, to religious scholars, to scientists see the value in studying twins. Nancy Segal, author of “Born Together-Reared Apart: The Landmark Minnesota Twin Study,” talks to us about the far-reaching effects of twins. And if you’re not a twin yourself, don’t feel left out, because what we learn from tw...
The Story Behind The ‘Little House’
February 15, 2019 10:00 - 19 minutes - 17.8 MBFor nearly 100 years, the “Little House” books (and the subsequent television series) have been cherished by kids and adults around the world. Millions of children have aspired to be like Laura Ingalls, a pioneer girl who courageously helped her family start new farms across the Midwest - planting, harvesting, hunting, and fighting blizzards. The story of Ingalls’ family was based on the real-life adventures of Laura Ingalls Wilder, but Wilder’s real childhood was much harsher. As ...
Full Show: Changing Landscapes (Rerun)
February 08, 2019 11:00 - 48 minutes - 44.8 MBAre college kids becoming more fragile? Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt says yes. And he connects the change to parenting, polarization, and campus politics. How a Coney Island sideshow helped save infants’ lives. Termites! They may be super gross… but we can also learn a lot from them.
Full Show: Blackboards And Message Boards
February 01, 2019 11:00 - 49 minutes - 45.5 MBFirst, what does a well-rounded education mean to you? Does it make you smarter? Or are you simply jumping through hoops to try and impress future employers? George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan argues that the way the system is set up, it’s mostly become a hoop-jumping exercise. Then, it’s not that hard to imagine a place where ordinary people - not editors - determine the news. But when the website Reddit first launched in the mid-2000s, the idea was groundbreaking and ...
Why The Value Of Education Is Overblown
February 01, 2019 10:30 - 29 minutes - 27.4 MBWe hear all the time about the gap between those with college degrees and those without. In 2015, the gap hit a record high: people who finished college earned 56 percent more than those who didn’t (other sources have the percentage even higher, including scholar Bryan Caplan). Over the past few years, then-President Barack Obama and Senator Bernie Sanders proposed bills to either increase college attainment or make public colleges tuition-free for all. But Caplan is a contrarian...
Rethinking Reddit’s Radicalism
February 01, 2019 10:00 - 18 minutes - 16.7 MBReddit is the fifth most popular website in the U.S. and has become a focal point when discussing the intersection of technology and free speech. Communities on Reddit host lighter topics, ranging from financial advice to gardening. But it also has a dark side. Reddit has been known as a breeding ground for racist, sexist, and obscene dialogue. On a site where members have free reign to vote on what content is most interesting, Reddit can be viewed as a canary in the coal mine for ...
Full Show: A Work In Progress
January 25, 2019 11:00 - 49 minutes - 45.4 MBBrexit is just one of many issues threatening to tear the European Union apart. But where did the idea of European integration come from and was the concept doomed from the start? We talk to Gillian Tett from the Financial Times and Brown University’s Mark Blyth about the past, present and future of the EU. Then, ever text your crush and stare anxiously at your phone until he or she responded? As society and technology evolves, our expectations for wait times are changing too. And...
Waiting Really Is The Hardest Part
January 25, 2019 10:00 - 20 minutes - 18.8 MBIf you’ve ever been in line at the DMV, had your flight delayed, desperately needed an email reply to come NOW, or had a YouTube video buffer for more than a couple seconds, you know that waiting is awful. But what can we learn from it? According to Jason Farman, author of “Delayed Response: The Art of Waiting from the Ancient to the Instant World,” the answer is quite a lot. And it touches on everything from aboriginal message sticks, to pneumatic tubes, to loading icons.
Full Show: Fact In Fiction
January 18, 2019 11:00 - 50 minutes - 45.9 MBFirst, whether it’s FDR reassuring the nation through radio or Trump talking about hamburgers on Twitter, new technologies have always impacted American politics. Historian Jill Lepore walks us through the interactions between the machine of government and the tech we think can make that machine run better. Hint: it rarely works out as we anticipate. Then, if you really, absolutely, can’t wait to know who’s going to end up on the Iron Throne… well, there’s a scientific reason you c...
A Technological Fix For Broken Politics
January 18, 2019 10:30 - 29 minutes - 26.7 MBThere has been a continuous problem, dating back to founding of the United States, according to Jill Lepore, a professor of American history at Harvard University. Lepore, the author of “These Truths: A History of the United States,” says Americans have had tremendous faith in the notion that technological innovations could heal our divisions and fix political problems. But that faith has frequently been misplaced or misguided. And ethical conversations around how to keep newspape...
Why We Care About Fictional Characters
January 18, 2019 10:00 - 19 minutes - 18 MBFinding out that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father probably didn’t have any practical implications for your life. It didn’t translate into a raise at work or help you lose 15 pounds. So why do we care so much about the fates of fictional characters? William Flesch is the author of the book “Comeuppance: Costly Signaling, Altruistic Punishment, and Other Biological Components of Fiction.” He argues that we root for good guys and gals because we love making bets on people. And, o...
Full Show: Trying to Keep Up
January 11, 2019 11:00 - 49 minutes - 45.5 MBFirst, it might be tough to keep up with your New Year’s resolutions - especially if they have to do with dieting. But here’s some good news: some fats may be a lot better for you than you think and calorie counting isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. We take a look at the latest developments in nutrition science, and explain what it all means for your waistline. Then, we take a trip on the high seas and ask the question: How did America become such a dominant figure in global trade? ...
Eat Smarter, Eat Healthier
January 11, 2019 10:30 - 21 minutes - 19.5 MBWhen it comes to losing weight or maintaining a healthy diet, many of us have chosen to go either low-calorie or low-fat. But recent research has started to upend nutrition science, reframing our notions of “healthy” eating, according to Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and Dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. Mozaffarian explains why the science is changing, when a calorie isn’t just a calorie, how fat could be a lot better than we th...
The Rise of the Sea Barons
January 11, 2019 10:00 - 14 minutes - 13.4 MBBack in the mid-19th century, some American entrepreneurs sailed halfway around the world - to China - to make their fortunes. These merchants would later build dynasties back home by investing money in promising American industries, including railroads and coal, as well as new technologies, like the telegraph. It was the invention of the clipper ship that made it all possible. These were ships that were built for speed and profit, a profit that came not just by importing goods lik...
When Fashion Meets Tech: How One Company Is Transforming Our Closet
January 11, 2019 09:30 - 12 minutes - 11.1 MBRight now, there’s a wearable device for pretty much everything. Fitbits track your footsteps. Virtual reality headsets can transport you anywhere in the world. There’s even jewelry that lets others know when you’re in danger. But there isn’t much tech in the things we’re already wearing: clothes. We visit the Ministry of Supply, a company that’s trying to mix high-tech and apparel, and talk with the company’s founders, Gihan Amarasiriwardena and Aman Advani.
Full Show: New Year, New Ways Of Learning
January 04, 2019 11:00 - 49 minutes - 45.4 MBThe New Year is often seen as a blank slate. It’s a way to start fresh and maybe accomplish those goals you’ve been putting off for the last 365 days. But how you learn is just as important as what you learn. Our show this week will get you ready to tackle whatever is on your agenda. First, if you truly want to learn better, put down the highlighter. Author Ulrich Boser says strategies such as memorization and underlining passages in a book are outdated methods of studying. He prop...
Full Show: Starting From Scratch (Rerun)
December 28, 2018 11:00 - 48 minutes - 44.7 MBToday, American voters are likely to describe issues about immigration as a major concern, and much of that concern began with a landmark commission a century ago. Author Katherine Benton-Cohen discusses how America transformed from a country with relaxed immigration policies to one with a massive, new immigration infrastructure. Beer, airlines, retail, and many other industries are increasingly controlled by a few big players. The Brookings Institution’s David Wessel explains how ...
Full Show: Finding Order In Chaos (Rerun)
December 21, 2018 11:00 - 49 minutes - 45.2 MBFirst: Scurvy. Website design. Store promotions. Turns out, randomized trials affect many parts of our daily lives. Then: The Origin of Species… actually has a pretty interesting - and unexpected - origin. Finally: In news that shouldn’t shock anyone who has ever been to a meeting, they can make you less productive. But how about the toll they take even before they start?
Full Show: Watch What You Eat (Rerun)
December 14, 2018 11:00 - 49 minutes - 45.3 MBToday, the Food Network is a touchstone of the entertainment industry. But it took a decade for the channel to make money. Chef Sara Moulton and author Allen Salkin tell us about the rise and influence of the cooking channel. Plus: If you use Uber Eats more than you use your stove, you're in good company — 90 percent of Americans either don't like to cook or are on the fence about it. With cooking becoming more hobby than necessity, we look at how the food industry is trying to kee...
Full Show: Change In Unexpected Places
December 07, 2018 11:00 - 49 minutes - 45.5 MBFirst, a look at creative efforts to improve our health care system at the local level. Jon Gruber, an architect of the Affordable Care Act, and Sarah Kliff, a senior policy correspondent at Vox, discuss innovative steps that some states are taking to control health care costs and improve outcomes, including an effort to reduce the rate of premature birth. Hotels have shaped American life from the Civil War to the civil rights movement. A.K. Sandoval-Strausz, author of “Hotel: An A...
Reimagining Health Care
December 07, 2018 10:30 - 29 minutes - 26.9 MBA potent issue dominated the midterms this fall: health care. It was a top concern for voters, and it ultimately shaped the outcome of races across the country. Jonathan Gruber, an economics professor at MIT and an architect of the Affordable Care Act, and Sarah Kliff, senior policy correspondent at Vox and host of the podcast The Impact, weigh in on the future of health care. With a divided Congress, Kliff and Gruber suggest that state governments and possibly the private sector w...
Far More Than A Bed And A Bath
December 07, 2018 10:00 - 18 minutes - 17 MBAfter he was elected, President George Washington traveled through our newly-formed country. And along the way, he stayed at a series of inns and taverns. How did they stack up? Well, let’s just say our first president wasn’t much kinder than a modern-day disgruntled Yelp reviewer about his experiences. Washington wrote in his diary that he found, “No rooms or beds which appeared tolerable.” While places to stay were rudimentary during Washington’s day, hotels eventually came to si...
Full Show: What Is It Worth To You?
November 30, 2018 11:00 - 49 minutes - 45.7 MBWhether you like it or not, our life is made of plastic. It’s a material we use for almost everything, from toothbrushes to spacecrafts. But its convenience and low costs might not outweigh the effects it has on our health and environment. Science journalist Susan Freinkel walks us through the history of how we fell in love with plastics and considers the risks they pose. In the past, you might have seen your grandfather sending checks to a big charity every year, but charitable pr...
Marinating In Plastics
November 30, 2018 10:30 - 20 minutes - 19 MBPlastics are colorful, shiny, and flexible. They can also be sturdy, monochrome, and opaque. They come in different shapes and sizes, too. In fact, we’ve become so good at creating and molding plastics into whatever we want them to be that author Susan Freinkel says: it’s hard to imagine a world without them. In her book, Plastics: A Toxic Love Story, Freinkel chronicles the history of plastics and explores how, for better or worse, the material shapes our lives.
Tracking Trends in Charitable Giving
November 30, 2018 10:00 - 15 minutes - 14.1 MBThe Chronicle of Philanthropy has long kept tabs on charitable giving, but recently the publication unveiled a new ranking, which reveals that how we give and who is giving has been radically upended in America. Stacy Palmer, the editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, discusses the current trends in giving and what they reveal about our country - including the growing economic divide in the wake of the Great Recession. And she offers some advice about how to choose causes that ma...
China: Pharmacy To The World
November 30, 2018 09:30 - 12 minutes - 11.5 MBIn the ‘90s, most of the world’s medicines were manufactured in the United States, Europe and Japan. Today, almost 80% of them come from China. In her book, “China Rx: Exposing The Risks Of America’s Dependence On China For Medicine,” Rosemary Gibson says that China is becoming the world’s pharmacy, but that development, she argues, comes with many risks.
Full Show: Manufacturing The Mind
November 23, 2018 11:00 - 48 minutes - 56 MBFirst: ‘Tis the season for giving and sharing… and holiday shopping. Whether it’s toys, clothes, books, or electronics, chances are that most of these items were manufactured in factories. Joshua Freeman walks us through the history of factories, and how they continue to shape our modern world. Next: Do you ever find yourself flipping through photo albums and feeling nostalgic for old times? Well, according to Krystine Batcho, longing for the past can shape how we think about the p...
Full Show: Heart And Soul
November 16, 2018 11:00 - 50 minutes - 57.3 MBFirst, in the late 1950s, Berry Gordy Jr. - who had worked for Ford Motor Company, been a boxer, and owned a record store - had a vision. He wanted to introduce the world to a new sound: the sound of Motown. And with every hit he produced, Gordy slowly but surely began to transform American culture. Then, we know that the heart is a symbol of love and emotion. But for doctors, of course, the heart is a sensitive and vital organ that affects the entire body. Cardiologist and author ...
Motown: The History Of A Hit Factory
November 16, 2018 10:30 - 24 minutes - 28 MBShortly after Michael Jackson died in 2009, Helen Brown, a music critic for the Daily Telegraph wrote that the Jackson 5’s 1969 single “I Want You Back,” is “certainly the fastest man-made route to pure joy.” And while Michael, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Jackie may have stolen the spotlight, the group - like so many others - emerged from a hit factory created by a man named Berry Gordy Jr. Gordy founded Motown after stints as a boxer and as a worker in a Lincoln-Mercury plant. An...