Innovation Hub

A Better City, One Street At A Time

By Kara Miller   |   Saturday, November 5, 2011
0 Comments   0 comments.

Listen:

Vassar Street, in Cambridge, is seen after a renovation. (Courtesy Cara Seiderman)

Urban planners, architects and designers are full of new ideas for remaking the city as a whole, one street at a time.

Winthrop St., in Harvard Square, was turned from a car throughway to a pedestrian-friendly walkway. (Courtesy Cara Seiderman)

We sit down with three experts to talk about how you get people to move from the suburbs back to urban areas, how you can repave streets to make way for pedestrians and bicyclists, how climate change affects cities and how urban spaces will evolve in the 21st-century city.

Guests:



Making Safer, Healthier Urban Neighborhoods

By Kara Miller   |   Friday, November 4, 2011
0 Comments   0 comments.

Listen to Part 1:

Listen to Part 2:

Nightingale Community Garden is seen in Dorchester. Managed by Boston Natural Areas Network, the garden was recently renovated to expand it and improve its accessibility. (Courtesy of Joel Wool)


This week, we think about remaking urban living. In the middle of the 20th century, young families began streaming out of cities, tempted by lawns, two-car garages, and spacious homes.

In the last twenty years, though, cities including Boston have lured suburbanites back, as creative planners brought new patches of green to cities and looked at how urban spaces could foster communities.

First, we tackle the problem of underserved urban communities. How do you redesign environment to enhance public health, to boost exercise, to discourage crime?

Guests:

A New Role For Video Games In Education

By Kara Miller   |   Saturday, October 29, 2011
0 Comments   0 comments.

A still from Muzzy Lane's Participatory Chinatown game, which turns students into virtual urban planners (via Muzzy Lane).


Once, they were a distraction from homework, something mom told kids to put away before their brain frittered away. But now, some designers and educators say video games can be cutting-edge educational tools. What happens when video games are homework?

A still from Muzzy Lane's Past Present game, in which middle-school students explore social history (via Muzzy Lane).

We look at their role in the classroom, whether they might replace textbooks, and how kids could be affected.

Guests:

Rethinking Urban Education

By Kara Miller   |   Friday, October 28, 2011
0 Comments   0 comments.

Listen:

At the Clap Innovation School in Boston, students are encouraged to cheer for the colleges where their teachers went. Here, a mural mixes math problems with the word "Harvard." (WGBH)


Almost half of students in large cities read below grade level, lagging far behind their suburban counterparts. Why does this problem exist, and how do we tackle it? How do you emphasize learning to students combating poverty and other hardships? 

We visit a school that’s turning itself around —  and ask a researcher what that sort of turnaround will take.

Guests:
 

Innovation In The Health Care System

By Kara Miller   |   Friday, October 21, 2011
0 Comments   0 comments.

Part 1:
Part 2:
Reducing the host of health care requires innovations across the system, from the insurer to the doctor's office. (Flickr)

In a recent study, the non-profit Commonwealth Fund found that the U.S. ranks 16th out of 16 nations when it comes to preventable deaths. If we did as well as the top-performing countries, France and Australia, close to 90,000 deaths could be prevented each year.

As costs continue to climb, adding to the country’s deficit and snarling our politics, we ask about innovative ways to rethink the delivery and business model of health care. How should doctors be paid? How do we address end-of-life care? Should we rethink the HMO system?

Guests:

Xconomy Report For Oct. 21, 2011

Friday, October 21, 2011
0 Comments   0 comments.

Oct. 21, 2011

BOSTON — A Boston-area tech company is involved in one of the most ambitious federal projects of our time. Security Innovation, based in Wilmington, makes the software behind what could be the nation’s first wireless collision avoidance system for cars. A pilot study of 3,000 cars is rolling out next year. Eventually, all cars made in the U.S. could be required to have the technology. 
 
In other innovation news:
 
Boston-based Third Rock Ventures put $35 million behind a new company, Sage Therapeutics, that aims to develop a novel class of drugs for schizophrenia, depression, and other brain disorders.
 
Cambridge-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals is seeking FDA approval for a drug that would offer a new way of treating cystic fibrosis.
 
Finally, two deals this week continue a recent trend of Boston-area tech companies being bought out by West Coast giants. Endeca Technologies, an enterprise search company in Cambridge, is being acquired by Oracle for an undisclosed sum. Boxborough-based BNI Video, a startup that makes Internet software for cable companies, is being snapped up by Cisco for $99 million.

The weekly roundup of business, technology and life science news from our partners at Xconomy.com airs every Friday on WGBH 89.7 Boston Public Radio.

About Innovation Hub

Each week, Kara Miller talks to Boston's most innovative thinkers, examining new ideas and potential solutions to today’s many challenges. Topics range from education to health care to green energy. Join us on Saturdays at 7 a.m. and Sundays at 10 p.m.

About the Host
Kara Miller Kara Miller
As a radio host, Kara Miller has interviewed thinkers from E.J. Dionne to Howard Gardner, Deepak Chopra to Lani Guinier. She is a panelist on WGBH-TV's "Beat the Press," as well as an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, The National Journal, The Boston Herald, Boston Magazine, and The International Herald Tribune.

Podcast: iTunes | XML

Browse our past programs


Podcast: iTunes | XML

RSS   RSS

WGBH Spring Auction 2013


Vehicle donation (June 2012) 89.7

Topics

 
You are on page 16 of 17   |