Innovation Hub

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.