Innovation Hub

A spoonful of sugar may help the medicine go down… but what about a spoonful of Splenda? And what if the medicine you were taking with that sugar was a little less private than you thought? This week we’ve got stories about healthcare, artificial sweeteners, and the math behind our fears. First up, if you think that Sweet’N Low is healthier than sugar… you might want to reconsider. It turns out, the health benefits of sugar substitutes aren’t exactly clear-cut. We talk with University of Manitoba researcher Meghan Azad about how artificial sweeteners have proven unable to combat weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease. Then, a conversation with Carolyn Thomas about how sugar substitutes made their way into American households. Do you get scared when your plane takes off? It’s a common reaction, even though airline travel is one of the safest ways to travel. Eugenia Cheng, a mathematician at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, explains the math behind our fears… and how we might be able to overcome

*Do you take your coffee black, or do you put a little something in it? Many Americans reach for an artificial sweetener if they’re concerned about their waistlines. But it turns out, the health benefits of sugar substitutes aren’t so simple. We spoke with University of Manitoba assistant professor Meghan Azad about her meta-analysis (a study of studies) on how artificial sweeteners could actually contribute to weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease. Then, a conversation with University of California, Davis professor of American studies Carolyn Thomas about her book, Empty Pleasures: The Story of Artificial Sweeteners from Saccharin to Splenda. *

Despite a recent death in an accident on a Southwest flight, it’s still safer to fly than drive. So why do we still get sweaty palms before takeoff? Eugenia Cheng, a mathematician at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, explains the math behind our fears… and how we might be able to overcome them.

In 2017, the fact that companies have access to personal data about us is common knowledge. But the data available to companies goes beyond just what websites you browse and where you’ve checked in on social media. Your (anonymized) medical information can be sold to drug companies to promote drugs - and to sell those to doctors in a process that is, shockingly, legal. Adam Tanner, a writer-in-residence at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science, has written a book on this called “Our Bodies, Our Data: How Companies Make Billions Selling Our Medical Records.” We talk with him about the alarming trade in health data.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, it’s Superman... A character who both reflected - and changed - American pop culture. There’s a huge achievement gap in education. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek explains when it starts, and tells us how to combat it. If you’re looking for some controversy, look no further than board games. Seriously. Clue was scandalous, Twister was called “sex in a box.” We look at why why.

Superman has been around for 80 years. His comic book just released its thousandth issue. Movies featuring him have made billions of dollars at the box office. All told, he’s one of the most successful and popular characters in American fiction. And that success started in 1938 with two teenagers from Cleveland. To explore Superman’s origins, and his legacy, we talked with Brad Ricca, author of the book Super Boys: The Amazing Adventures of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster - the Creators of Superman.

It’s not hard to see the achievement gap in education. Students from lower-income backgrounds on average score lower on their SATs and are less likely to graduate from college than their higher-income peers. But this gap doesn’t just appear when kids reach adolescence. It stretches back to the early years of a child’s life, according to author Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, co-director of the Temple University Infant and Child Lab in Philadelphia. She says by the time children turn three years old, you can already observe a “dramatic” gap between those from lower-income and middle-income families. We talk with her about how this sets the foundation for future learning, and the best ways parents - and the government - can help kids progress.

When we break out a board game, we are rarely doing it because we want a history lesson. But many board games mirror social trends from years past. Monopoly’s creator used her board game to demonstrate the evils of capitalism. The Game of Life started out as a way to reinforce 19th-century moral values. We speak with author Tristan Donovan about his book “It’s All a Game: The History of Board Games from Monopoly to Settlers of Catan” about the evolution and legacy of board games.

First up: We live in a world run by complicated systems. And the failure to understand those systems can have pretty dire consequences. Then: What’s that one song you keep listening to on repeat? Turns out, that tune could be used as therapy to improve your quality of life as you get older. Finally: It might seem like rich people don’t have a care in the world, but sociology professor Rachel Sherman found that some 1 percenters feel uneasy about publicly displaying their wealth.

The Three Mile Island disaster caused hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate their homes. It absolutely dominated the news cycle. It led to a complete rethinking of nuclear energy. And it all stemmed from a plumbing problem, a valve that didn’t shut. But the Three Mile Island accident isn’t the only meltdown caused by a seemingly small issue that snowballed into a gigantic disaster. To find out exactly how this happens, we talked with Chris Clearfield, co-author of “Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About it.”

ABBA, Patsy Cline, and Frank Sinatra are filling the earbuds of elderly people all over America. Why? Eldercare services and nonprofit organizations are increasingly using music as a therapeutic tool to stir up memories and soothe anxiety. Innovation Hub takes a look at the science behind these programs, as well as the lives that they’re changing.

Let’s say that you make more than $500,000 a year. You have a million bucks in the bank. Maybe you have a second home in the Hamptons. You’re rich, right? Well, to most people, it certainly looks that way. But even if you’re part of the 1%, you might not think of yourself as that wealthy. Rachel Sherman is a professor of sociology at The New School and the author of Uneasy Street: The Anxieties of Affluence.” She interviewed 50 wealthy New Yorkers about their attitudes toward their money. What she found was surprising, and impacts the lives of even those who might not have a million dollars in the bank.

First up, after WWII, lots of soldiers came home and started families. And businessman Bill Levitt saw that as an opportunity. We’ll talk with Lawrence Levy, the Executive Dean of Hofstra University’s National Center for Suburban Studies, about the rise of the American suburbs and how this new version of the American dream left some people out. Then, an entirely different sort of baby boom. According to Stanford’s Hank Greely, “In 20 to 40 years, most babies born to people with good health coverage anywhere in the world will not have been conceived in bed or in the backseat of a car, but will have been conceived in a clinic.” Yep, you read that right. And finally, will a pay raise really make you happy? Turns out, not necessarily. Cornell economist Robert Frank walks us through the value people put into their paycheck - and what kinds of jobs are worth taking a pay cut for.

When people get sick of urban living, there’s a clear alternative: the suburbs. But how did the suburbs become so popular in America? After World War II, Bill Levitt cleared a few potato fields on Long Island, New York, and created an orderly suburb, Levittown. We talk with the Executive Dean of Hofstra University’s National Center for Suburban Studies, Lawrence Levy, about how Levittown, and the advent of the modern suburbs, changed the nation.

We’ve made babies pretty much the same for a very long time. No need to get into the specifics, but for the majority of people throughout human history, sex and reproduction have been inextricably linked. But, according to Hank Greely, a professor at Stanford and author of “The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction,” that all may change. And it may change sooner than we think.

We know the old adage, “money can’t buy you love.” But, we also know the feeling that if we had just a little more money, we might be just a little more happy. Figuring out the balance between the two can be tough. How much value should you put in your paycheck? Cornell economist Robert Frank agrees that it’s complicated, but he might also have some answers for us.

The human body is kind of a mess. Why is that? Politicians are willing to do anything to bring new jobs to their city. That’s not necessarily a good thing. The Spanish Flu was the most devastating pandemic since the Black Death. And it’s been mostly forgotten.

Humans have a tailbone for a tail we don’t have, wisdom teeth that don’t fit in our mouths, and tonsils that only seem to cause problems. Each of these “mistakes” can tell us a little bit about how we evolved and why we were so successful in spite of these flaws. We talk about our body’s quirks with biologist Nathan Lents, author of “Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes.”

The competition for Amazon’s second headquarters has gotten a lot of attention recently. And that makes sense. After all, cities have offered Amazon billions of dollars in tax incentives, free workforce training, and all sorts of other perks. Bloomington, Minnesota, even suggested building a monorail. But cities and states aren’t just trying to woo Amazon. They’re fighting over all sorts of corporations. And that might be a big mistake. Nathan Jensen, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and co-author of Incentives to Pander: How Politicians Use Corporate Welfare for Political Gain, explains what’s going on in the incentives arms race.

The competition for Amazon’s second headquarters has gotten a lot of attention recently. And that makes sense. After all, cities have offered Amazon billions of dollars in tax incentives, free workforce training, and all sorts of other perks. Bloomington, Minnesota, even suggested building a monorail. But cities and states aren’t just trying to woo Amazon. They’re fighting over all sorts of corporations. And that might be a big mistake. Nathan Jensen, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and co-author of Incentives to Pander: How Politicians Use Corporate Welfare for Political Gain, explains what’s going on in the incentives arms race.