Innovation Hub

Money and politics have always been paired. But journalist Jane Mayer and professor Theda Skocpol both say that something new is afoot, thanks in part to a couple of very rich brothers.

Is a patent troll coming after your idea? Well, maybe you should check out Alex Reben's algorithm.

One of the reasons there aren't more women in leadership positions? Professor Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic says that it's our inability to differentiate between confidence and competence.

Judy Cockerton saw a problem and decided to do something about it. At 48, she shut down her toy store and created a village of sixty homes. The catch? They were reserved for seniors and families with foster kids. We visited Cockerton's village to learn how she built it.

The Industrial Revolution spawned more than just machinery. Author Chris Jennings says it was a catalyst for a pretty old idea: that heaven could be found on Earth. Plus, Judy Cockerton saw a problem and set out to fix it. And finally, something surprising: the Amish have wildly successful businesses, often without using cell phones, websites or email addresses.

Even without cars and computers, the Amish have managed to start and grow successful businesses. Professor Donald Kraybill tells us how they've developed a surprising culture of innovation without the help of the latest tech.

What would your personal utopia look like? Well, it probably wouldn't involve furniture making and no sex. Chris Jennings talks 19th century American utopias.

Our leaders should be deeply empathetic people, right? Well, according to Paul Bloom, empathy can actually get in the way of helping people. Mandatory voting, a council of presidents, more bureaucrats... Parag Khanna says that this is what American democracy should look like. Man-made climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. So why exactly aren’t we doing more about it?

Parag Khanna believes technocrats get a bad rap in America, and our country could improve - and recover from what he calls “degenerative politics” - if it had more of them in office.

Empathy is an inherently good human quality. So, why is Yale psychologist Paul Bloom against it? We talk with him about why feeling others' pain makes for bad public policy.

Climate change looks like it will drastically change all of our lives. So why aren’t we doing more about it? We’ll take a look at why some are reticent to accept the consensus view on climate science, and what those in power are doing now to prepare for a new world.

Camilla Benbow and David Lubinski spent their lives studying child geniuses. Their advice on how to create a baby Einstein? Do nothing. Plus, conspiracy theories have gotten a lot of attention in the last year, but psychologist Rob Brotherton says they've been around for a long time. And finally, Thomas Gilovich thinks he can make you wise... or at least, the wisest person in the room.

What makes a genius? Camilla Benbow and David Lubinski have worked on that question for decades; they think they might have some answers.

Do you believe that the illuminati run the world? That there was a second gunman? That everything is NOT WHAT IT APPEARS? Well, even if you don't, conspiracy theories help shape our world. We look at the psychology behind them.

Want to become wise? Well, you should first figure out what wisdom actually is. Psychology Professor Thomas Gilovich explains.

It's been quite a year. Whether you started 2016 on the Trump train, heavily invested in the rising British pound, or confident that Pantone's color of the year was an accurate forecast of the twelve months to come, you're probably surprised. Don’t worry -- we are too. But thankfully, we've curated some of our favorite segments to help you bookmark a very surreal year.

A winter chill is in the air, and there's way too much Christmas music being played. So curl up in an armchair, grab yourself a mug of something, and take a mental vacation with some fascinating conversations from Innovation Hub.

If you want to live near a vibrant downtown but don't want to share a walk-in-closet with eleven roommates… maybe you should consider someplace other than San Francisco or New York. And yes, we know, self-driving cars are coming. But you'll never guess how they're actually going to change your city. Finally, refugee camps are becoming more and more permanent. And we need to build them better.

Self-driving cars are going to be a thing. Soon. But how are they going to reshape cities?

Kilian Kleinschmidt thinks we need to wake up to the world's refugee crisis. And it starts by reimagining where they live.