future

We explore the life of P.T. Barnum, the future of robotics, and why Americans pay more for solar panels that pretty much everyone else. That’s all this week on Innovation Hub. Read More...

If you strolled around Wall Street in the 1950s, you’d see hoards of dark-suited businessmen bustling about, briefcases in hand. Visit today, and the view is a little different: the businessmen are still there, but they’re accompanied by something else: strollers. Leigh Gallagher, author of “The End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream is Moving,” and Alan Ehrenhalt, author of “The Great Inversion and the Future of the American City,” say this is a trend that’s reshaping cities all over America. Once a place where people went to work - not live – younger generations are increasingly choosing to make the inner-city their home. 

When you think of farming in America, the first things that come to mind are probably picturesque golden cornfields, or dairy farmers rising at the crack of dawn to milk their cows. But, according to demographer Joel Kotkin, a new crop is on the rise in Los Angeles, and it says a lot about how America’s population is changing. The crop in question? Bok choy, a leafy cabbage popular in Asian cuisine (“of course,” Kotkin jokes, “there’s another crop that may not be quite as legal that might have higher numbers”).