Innovation Hub

American democracy. Where the people tell the politicians what to do… right? It turns out, politicians actually influence voters more than you think. Then: We know more about the brain than ever before. Law professor Francis Shen talks about how what we’ve learned is playing out in our legal system. Finally: That sugar-filled doughnut might bring you pleasure, but it probably doesn’t make you happy. Pediatrician Robert Lustig says, yes, there’s a difference between the two, and Americans are focusing too much on pleasure.

Francis Shen says that he often calls neurolaw a “new” and “emerging” field, but even he doesn’t completely believe that. Shen is an associate law professor at the University of Minnesota and executive director of education for the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law. He says we’ve been using neuroscience in law for decades, but there have been some major developments over the last few years. For example, brain science is increasingly informing how we view criminals — especially adolescents — and how we sentence people. We talk with Shen about the influence neurolaw has on society and how the field has developed over time.

In the last few decades, Americans have become fatter, sicker, more depressed, more addicted, and, often, unhappy. At least, that’s according to physician Robert Lustig, author of the book “The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brains.” He says that we’re facing four big crises in our country: a health care crisis, a social security crisis, an opioid crisis, and a depression crisis. And he argues that while these crises might seem different, they’re really all about the confusion of “pleasure” and “happiness.”

You’re at the voting booth, ready to cast your vote for the candidate who will support the issues you care about. But how did you come to care about those issues to begin with? Did you and your fellow Americans set the political agenda, or do politicians dictate what’s important? Gabriel Lenz is the author of “Follow the Leader?: How Voters Respond to Politicians’ Policies and Performance.” We talk with him about political influence and how it shapes democracy.

Henry Ford didn’t just bring standardization to his plants. He also wanted to standardize his workers. Joshua Freeman walks us through the history of the factory. Doesn’t everyone seem so self-involved nowadays? Well, maybe, but not necessarily for the reasons you might think. Turns out, being a perfectionist might just make your work less perfect.

Look around you: at your computer, your phone, your water bottle, or the books on your desk. Chances are, all of these things were made in a factory. Factories fuel the modern world. And they’ve shaped our society - from politics, to work, to leisure. Joshua Freeman, author of Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World, walks us through the history of the factory, and how it still impacts our daily lives.

Twitter. 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 history, and why we’re so self-involved today.

It’s 1:30 in the morning, and you’re obsessing over whether the conclusion you’ve written captures the essence of your research paper. But is putting in all this time and effort actually paying off? Eugenia Cheng, a scientist in residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, explains that by using the concept of diminishing returns, we’ll find that perfectionism isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.

First, U.S. News releases its college rankings each year to much fanfare. But are they actually hurting higher ed? We ask journalist Scott Jaschik and U.S. News’ Robert Morse. Then, there will be 10 billion people on the planet by 2050. That’s a lot of mouths to feed. Can we do it without destroying Earth’s resources? We talk with science writer Charles Mann about different approaches to tackling this problem. Finally, you’ve heard the name Martin Shkreli, but there are many other executives responsible for hiking drug prices. We peek into the complex world of Big Pharma.

In 1983, U.S. News & World Report began ranking America’s colleges. More than 30 years later, they continue to release annual lists of the “best” schools in the country. We talk with Inside Higher Ed’s Scott Jaschik and U.S. News’ Robert Morse about how these rankings have shaped how students select colleges in America.

The global population is steadily climbing, and by 2050, scientists expect that 10 billion people will call Earth home. This got science writer Charles Mann wondering: How are we going to feed all of those mouths without completely destroying the planet? Mann explores this question in his new book, “The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World.” We talk with him about whether innovation, conservation, or some mixture of the two, that will save humanity.

If you've noticed the cost of your medication going up over the years, you're not alone. Humira, the top selling drug in the U.S., has doubled in price since 2012, costing more than $38,000 a year. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies are finding it harder and harder to develop new products. We talk with journalists Matthew Herper and Barry Werth about the challenges of developing affordable drugs.

Surgery in the 19th century was a special kind of gross. We’re talking maggot-ridden hospital beds and unwashed tools. We take a look at how surgery turned into the sterile practice we know today. Then, we tend to love or hate wealthy philanthropists depending on whether their politics align with our own. David Callahan explains how the political influence of billionaires is changing our world. Finally, it’s tempting to spend your hard-earned paycheck on fancy gadgets and kale. But what if, instead, we spent it on services that saved us time? Turns out, we all might be a lot happier.

For most of 1800s, surgery was disgusting, filthy, and unsafe. Hospitals were places people desperately tried to avoid, and operations didn’t always result in a clean bill of health. You might even get your testicles accidentally sawed off during a leg amputation. But this all changed with Joseph Lister, who transformed the way that doctors approach surgeries. We talked to Lindsey Fitzharris, author of “The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine” about how this shift happened.

When the super-wealthy make the decision to give away their money, many of them choose causes that align with their personal values and politics. From Bill and Melinda Gates’ donations to put the Common Core in classrooms to the Koch brothers’ sweeping financial support of conservative causes, it is apparent that the wealthy can use philanthropy as a tool to shape the world in the ways they see fit. David Callahan explores the outsized influence that these donations can have -- and how they can undermine civic equality -- in his new book, The Givers: Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age.

You’re counting down until payday, waiting for the moment when a direct deposit turns your bone-dry bank account into a lush oasis. But what should you spend your hard-earned money on? Fancy dinners? The new iPhone? Avocado toast? We talk with Harvard Business School associate professor Ashley Whillans, who says that if you truly want your money to make you happier, consider spending it on things that will save you time.

He was a dynamic entertainer and a prolific business man, but P.T. Barnum was also responsible for shaping how we view celebrity and fake news. We look at how Barnum’s impact lives on. Then, we have a lot of faith that self-driving cars - and a bunch of other technologies - will be a part of our life very soon. But, according to roboticist Rodney Brooks, we should take that enthusiasm down a notch. Finally, Americans pay more for solar panels than people in other countries. Andrew Birch, former CEO of the solar installer Sungevity, says permits and regulations are to blame.

He was a huckster, a showman, and a consummate businessman. P.T. Barnum and his exhibitions presented “freaks” and oddities from abroad, while also shaping the definition of what it means to be an American. We speak with Stephen Mihm, editor of the book, The Life of P.T. Barnum, Written by Himself, about Barnum’s lasting contribution to American culture.

If you could talk to some folks who attended the 1964 World’s Fair, they might be a little disgruntled. After all, they were promised jet packs, flying cars, and vacations to Mars in the near future. Alas, we have none of those things, and yet we still expect transformative technologies like self-driving cars to be part of our lives soon. This week, we talk with robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks about the art of predicting when new technology will go mainstream.

Let’s say you want to install some solar panels on your home. For the average homeowner, that will set you back around $16,000, according to Andrew Birch, former CEO of the solar installation company Sungevity. In Australia, you would pay about $7,000. And it’s not just Australia where it’s cheaper. Birch says that the US is an outlier when it comes to how much solar installation costs the regular consumer. Why? Birch explains.

Willpower isn’t the only thing dictating what you eat. Neuroscientist Rachel Herz says the color, shape, and presentation of food has a major impact on our diet. Then, there’s not as much evidence-based decision-making in medicine as you might expect. We take a look at why. Finally, we talk with physics professor Robbert Dijkgraaf about why funding basic scientific research can yield powerful results down the road.

We know that our brain plays tricks on us, but did you know the size of your plate can dictate how much you eat? Or that a bowl filled with jelly beans in a variety of colors will induce you to eat more than a series of bowls with the jelly beans separated out by color? Rachel Herz, a neuroscientist at Brown University and the author of Why You Eat What You Eat: The Science Behind Our Relationship with Food, describes the psychology that influences our eating habits.

Nearly half of medical procedures may not be based on sound science. That’s according to Eric Patashnik, director of Brown University’s public policy program. And he says it’s not necessarily your doctor’s fault. How did we get to this point? We put that question to Patashnik, who is co-author of the new book, “Unhealthy Politics: The Battle over Evidence-Based Medicine.”

Back in the 1990s, the Digital Libraries Initiative from the National Science Project supported a small project out of Stanford University. It sounded obscure, and a lot of people thought it wasn’t exciting, and would have little real-world application. But on that team were two graduate students – Larry Page and Sergey Brin – the founders of Google. The modest grant ended up paying off very well, according to Robbert Dijkgraaf, a physics professor and the director of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton. He recently wrote a companion essay to Abraham Flexner’s 1939 piece, “The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge,” explaining why Flexner’s ideas are even more relevant today. We talk with Dijkgraaf about why governments should fund more basic research that doesn’t necessarily have immediate results, like the project at Stanford – and how it can actually reap huge rewards in the long run.

Behind movies like “Sunset Boulevard” and “Singin’ In The Rain,” there’s a real story about how Hollywood adapted to a groundbreaking innovation: sound.* *A smart watch might make sense… but a smart toilet? We talk with David Rose about the future of the connected home. Turns out, some members of the Amish community are using 3D printers. Find out how their community has thrived without - and with - technology.

IMAX, 3D glasses, VHS, technicolor… technology has continually reshaped Hollywood. But perhaps the biggest, most important change happened early in the industry’s history: the transition from silent films to talkies. Marc Wanamaker, a longtime Hollywood historian and consultant on films like “La La Land,” walks us through what happened, and how it forever transformed the silver screen.

David Rose has spent much of his career designing products that try to make the ordinary devices we use every day more magical: an umbrella that can tell you whether you actually need an umbrella that day, a pill bottle that alerts someone if you haven’t opened it in a while. We ask him how our products are learning more and more about us… and why that’s both good and bad.

How have the Amish thrived in a world without technology? They’ve hacked and innovated, says Elizabethtown College professor Donald Kraybill. Entrepreneurs can still succeed within the confines of their culture. It just takes a little imagination.

Turns out, the Russian Revolution can teach us a lot about the power of Twitter. Niall Ferguson walks us through the history of networks. Olympic athletes aren’t born with a tolerance for pain. They’ve just learned how to suffer. A tree a day keeps the doctor away. Florence Williams explains why going outside can make you feel better.

It’s easy to look at our social networks and think that they’re completely unprecedented. After all, it wasn’t like Abraham Lincoln could see how many likes he was getting on Facebook. But according to Niall Ferguson, that’s a narrow view of history. Ferguson, author of the new book, The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook, explores how networks have altered the course of human events, and tells us what we can learn about our own social networks by examining the networks of the past.

As you watch Shaun White execute a trick on the halfpipe, or Ashley Wagner land a triple axel, or Lindsey Vonn race down the slope… you might ask yourself a question. What exactly separates me from these Olympic athletes? Obviously, there’s the years of training and the fact that they’re extraordinarily fit, but there’s also something else. Something mental. Something that lets them push their limits. To find out exactly what this is, we talked with Alex Hutchinson, author of Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance.

The sound of waves on a rocky beach. The smell of soil after the rain. The warmth of the sun on your skin. Nature just feels good. But a growing body of research suggests that it might be good for you, too. Florence Williams, author of The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, explains why going outside can make you feel better.

Corporations and brands are weighing in on hot-button issues. Aaron Chatterji explains why that might be good for business. More than 10,000 women worked as codebreakers during World War II, but their contributions have largely been ignored. Liza Mundy tells their story. The jobs that went to China? Well, a lot of them are moving to Africa.

"The President Stole Your Land." These words stood front and center on the website of outdoor gear company Patagonia last year. The message followed President Trump's announcement that he would severely reduce the size of several national monuments in Utah. Patagonia is one of many companies that have started taking public stances on social and political issues. We speak with Duke University associate professor Aaron Chatterji about what's motivating big business to get more political.

During World War II, a flurry of coded messages were sent by the Axis powers. Data on troop movements, supplies, ship locations... all transmitted via code. But these messages didn't necessarily stay coded for long. The Allies were able to intercept, decode, and learn the vital wartime secrets contained within many of these transmissions. These codebreaking efforts were vital in ending the war. And the people who actually did a lot of this work were women - over ten thousand of them. Liza Mundy is the author of Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II, and she tells us about this little-known part of American history.

If you listen to politicians, it may seem like America is losing its manufacturing jobs to China. If you’ve listened to our show before, you know that’s not the whole picture. Automation has taken many jobs, China isn’t the only manufacturing powerhouse, and even when jobs do move to China... they don’t necessarily stay there. In fact, some Chinese manufacturing is moving to an area of the world you might not expect: Africa. Irene Yuan Sun, author of the forthcoming book The Next Factory of the World, has studied this shift, and she thinks that it’s a big deal.

What do Russian hackers want in the 2018 elections? P. W. Singer says they're not engaged in a charm offensive. Instead, they're trying to divide Americans and sow distrust of the media. Then, from your romantic partner to your boss, there's no way of escaping criticism. But Paul Green says that negative feedback is actually changing the way we create social circles. Finally, media outlets are catering their content to your clicks. But what does that do to the news? Franklin Foer talks about how the digital media landscape is evolving and what it takes to turn a profit.

At this point, it's obvious that Russia attempted to influence the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election. But on the brink of another season of primaries and elections, the question becomes: what happens now? Is Russia going to get involved in the 2018 elections? And what, if anything, can America do about it? To answer these questions, we talked to Peter Singer, a senior fellow at the New America think tank, and author of Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know.

Whether it's at home or at the office, we're always facing criticism. And while feedback isn't always a bad thing, it can affect your relationships. We talk with Paul Green, a doctoral candidate at Harvard Business School, about his research on criticism and why it's important to build connections with people before doling out feedback.

For the last decade, newspaper circulation has seen a staggering drop. Meanwhile, more than 90 percent of today's adults get their news online. So how are journalism outlets adjusting to a digital world? We talk with Franklin Foer, author of the book, "World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech," about how social media and CEOs like Jeff Bezos have changed the journalism game.

We’re always so concerned about how to do something, but we don't always consider when we should do it. When should we start a new project? When should we take a nap? We talk to author Daniel Pink about why timing is everything. Even though beards are currently in style, there was a time when being clean shaven was the way to go. We take a look at the man who revolutionized the shaving industry. Plus, if it seems like food allergies are on the rise, they are. One in every 13 children in America has some sort of food allergy, which marks a huge spike over the last few decades. We look at what could be causing the allergy increase and what’s being done to combat it. Finally, killing rats may seem like the best way to deal with them. But, in fact, it's probably not be our best option when it comes to pest control. We find out what is.

Rats: The bane of any city-dweller’s existence. We spend millions of dollars each year trying to kill these pests, putting out poison and traps. But new research poses the question: Should we be killing rats at all? Innovation Hub producer Marc Filippino reports on what could be a surprising new solution to rat control.

Did you ever trade lunches at school when you were a kid? Maybe you gave away your peanut butter sandwich in exchange for some chocolate pudding. With rampant food allergies, a trade like that probably wouldn't happen today. And while schools and other organizations are very aware of the increased number of people who have allergies, we know little about what causes them. Innovation Hub spoke with Dr. Wayne Shreffler, the director of the Food Allergy Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and Dr. Katie Allen, the Group Leader of Gastro and Food Allergy at Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne, about the rise of food allergies, how to prevent them, and treatments that are in the pipeline.

If you're the type of person who shaves, you've probably used a disposable razor at least once. But where did this seemingly ubiquitous part of American life come from? It all goes back to the late 19th century, and a man with the absolutely incredible name of King Camp Gillette.

Does it matter when you go in for an operation? When a jury hears your case? What year you're born in? The answer in all three of these cases: yes. Dan Pink took a deep dive into the science behind how timing affects our lives. He's author of the new book, "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing."

First up, we examine a question that most kids ask at some point: “Where do babies come from?” Science writer Edward Dolnick walks us through how humanity discovered the answer to that question. And the story involves Leonardo Da Vinci, sea urchins, and staring at sperm under a primitive microscope. After that: What can scientists learn from the natural world? We visit the lab of Jeff Karp, a biomedical engineer who seeks inspiration from porcupines and geckos. Take a listen to find out how investigating sea slug slime led to the development of a glue that can adhere to almost any tissue in the human body. (The glue actually just received market approval in Europe.) Finally, humans are living longer and longer. What does that mean for our society? Andrew Scott, co-author of The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity, believes that we’re going to have to create entirely new stages* *of life.

For most of human history, we didn’t know where babies come from. Sure, we knew it involved sex, but beyond that, things got a little fuzzy. The story of how we got clarity on the birds and the bees is as circuitous as it is strange. Its cast of characters includes kings, philosophers, sea urchins, and the father of microbiology. Science writer Edward Dolnick, author of the new book “The Seeds of Life,” tells the tale.

Who would’ve thought that geckos could revolutionize medical technology? Jeff Karp, an associate professor at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, was inspired research in nature, most specifically by the gecko’s incredible ability to stick to vertical walls. And he realized that that ability - sticking and unsticking easily, without leaving a residue behind, like a band-aid does - could be useful in the hospital. And this nature-inspired realization was just the beginning. We visit Karp’s lab to learn about his inventions, his reverence for evolution, and his biomimetic vision.

Hopefully, you’re going to die a very long time from now, surrounded by friends and family, having lived a meaningful life. But exactly how far away is death going to be? When you look at the broad sweep of human history, life expectancy has pushed upwards (albeit not always in a straight line), almost doubling over the last century. And, it may well keep rising. Andrew Scott, co-author of The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity, believes that longer lifespans are about to alter society in some fundamental ways.

First, The lives – and regrets – behind the scientists who created our weapons of war. Then, Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov tells us what he learned from losing to a very smart computer. And finally, writer and blogger Cory Doctorow explains how science-fiction can help us imagine the future, and prepare for it.