Innovation Hub

Vincent Felitti first made the connection between childhood abuse and adult health during an obesity research study he ran in the 1980s. During a routine checkup with one of his patients, she mentioned that the year after she was raped, she gained 105 pounds. Felitti recalled what happened next: “She looked down at the carpet and muttered to herself, ‘Overweight is overlooked. And, that’s the way I needed to be.’” Felitti started asking all of his patients about sexual abuse. The results were shocking. “It seemed every other patient in the program was acknowledging a history of childhood sexual abuse,” he said. In the end, 55 percent of his patients disclosed that they had been abused. That study kicked off Felitti’s life work. Felitti partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to survey more than 17,000 patients. He found that patients who experienced childhood trauma were more likely to be sick when they grew up. But, it took over 20 years for Vincent Felitti’s research to gain mainstre

The Chicago Defender has humble beginnings. Started by Robert Sengstacke Abbott in the rooms of a boardinghouse, the paper quickly grew into a nationally-distributed enterprise. (Abbott himself became one of the first black self-made millionaires.) Ethan Michaeli, author of “The Defender: The Legendary Black Newspaper Change d America,” traces the paper’s influence through history, from the Great Migration to the desegregation of the military.

Your family tree is less of a tree and more of a tangled web. Geneticist Adam Rutherford explains why. There’s a conversation that all high-powered couples need to have. Two Stanford professors tell us how to use ideas from product design to create a more fulfilling life.

As scientists apply our new understanding of the human genome to genetics, we’re getting answers to big-picture questions about our species. What is race? How did humanity spread around the globe? How should we pick a mate (genetically speaking)? We talk with Adam Rutherford, geneticist and author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived:The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes. about the history of our genes, and what they reveal about our species.

The number of women running Fortune 500 companies is higher than it’s ever been. And yet, there are only 32 female CEOs on that list. So… why aren’t there more high-powered women in positions of power? There are a multitude of reasons, but according to Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, author of the article “If you Can’t Find a Spouse Who Supports Your Career, Stay Single,” part of the issue lies with the support these women are receiving.

We all want fun and rewarding careers and personal lives. But, we never really learn how to achieve our life goals in college. Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, Stanford professors and co-authors of “Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life,” invented a college course to change just that.

We can thank one woman for a lot of the software still used today. A look back at the strides and struggles of Grace Hopper. Clean energy seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue. So why doesn’t the U.S. invest in it more? Jay Whitacre explains the business behind renewable energy technology. Ever notice the small pauses —  like “um” and “uh”  —  that pepper our daily conversations? They actually serve a purpose. We break down the rules of conversation.

She’s been called “the first lady of software.” A conference named after her attracted over 18,000 attendees last year. She had her own Google doodle. She was even on Letterman. It’s fair to say that Grace Hopper is one of the most celebrated coders ever. But, behind all the accolades, who was she? And how exactly did she change technology? We talk with Kurt Beyer, author of “Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age.”

Hybrid cars. Solar energy. Hydropower. In recent years, the federal government and private companies have both paid a lot of attention to clean energy. But, the future of the industry is uncertain —  especially in the U.S. We talk withCarnegie Mellon University professor and Aquion Energy founder, Jay Whitacre, about the advancement of new energy technology.

As human beings, we spend a great deal of time talking with others, but we don’t always stop to think about how and* why* we choose to say what we say. N.J. Enfield, author of “How We Talk: The Inner Workings Of Conversation,” breaks down the rules of conversation for us.

This week, we’re gearing up for the holidays with some serious shopping, a little chocolate... and a trip home. And when we say home, we’re talking Levittown, New York, where the modern suburb was born. We’ll examine the genius of businessman Bill Levitt, as well as his dark side. Then, a look at how retail has changed America. And finally, we dive into chocolate, and the story behind Hershey’s. That’s all this week on Innovation Hub.  

Middle-market stores, like Macy’s, are struggling to compete with large, low-priced retailers like Walmart and Amazon. And where we shop can have an enormous impact on jobs, communities, and how we spend our time. Darrell Rigby, a partner at Bain & Company, and journalist Charles Fishman, explore the battle of the retail giants, and the future of shopping.

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.   

Americans absolutely adore chocolate. The average American consumes 11 pounds of the stuff per year. But when did this love affair with chocolate start? Back in the 19th century, sugar was a luxury good, and chocolate was mostly for the rich. Milton Hershey, and his Hershey bar, changed all that. Historian Nancy Koehn, author of “Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times,” has written about Hershey’s life and company. She walks us through who he was, and how he gave America a taste for chocolate.

Thanksgiving involves getting stressed about the best way to cook a turkey, gathering around a table with the people you love, eating mountains of stuffing… and trying not to tell your family what you really think of them. So, in celebration of Turkey Day, we’ve got stories that explore how and why we think the way we do: from what the Rorschach test actually tells us, to what exactly is going on inside teenagers’ brains.

Lice-infested beds, unwashed surgical tools, and cut-off fingers - healthcare in the 1800s was a bloody affair. We take a look at the man who changed all that. Then, how much power does a protest really have? Zeynep Tufekci explores whether they have the power to change politics. Finally, there’s a common thread in art, music, storytelling, and even business-creation: creativity.

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.

Well over 5 million people around the world took part in the Women’s March. And hundreds of thousands attended the March for Science. With turnouts like that, you might expect such protests to reflect years of planning and organizational effort. In fact, though, they were organized online in the space of a couple months, using new tools like hashtags and Facebook events. Zeynep Tufekci studies what the rise of connectivity means for the efficacy of the protests. She’s an associate professor at the University of North Carolina, and the author of Twitter and Teargas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest.

Our creativity is influenced by how we think and interact every day. So what makes us so creative? We talk with composer Anthony Brandt and neuroscientist David Eagleman, co-authors of “The Runaway Species: How Creativity Remakes the World,” about the origins of our creative thinking.

Chinese students from cities like Shanghai are doing extremely well on worldwide standardized tests. What is the Chinese education system doing right? And what can we learn from it?