Steve Henn
Steve Henn is NPR's technology correspondent based in Menlo Park, California, who is currently on assignment with Planet Money. An award winning journalist, he now covers the intersection of technology and modern life - exploring how digital innovations are changing the way we interact with people we love, the institutions we depend on and the world around us. In 2012 he came frighteningly close to crashing one of the first Tesla sedans ever made. He has taken a ride in a self-driving car, and flown a drone around Stanford's campus with a legal expert on privacy and robotics.
But Steve's favorite technology stories are the ones that explain how little-understood innovations can change the way millions of us behave. Why do people buy cows in Farmville? Why are video games so compelling and why do some people have such a hard time setting Twitter aside? He is fascinated by how digital companies attempt to mold our behavior and study our every move in a world where we are constantly interacting with connected devices.
Prior to moving to Silicon Valley in 2010, Steve covered a wide range of topics for the public radio show Marketplace. His reporting kicked off the congressional travel scandals in late 2004, and helped expose the role of private military contractors at Abu Ghraib.
At Marketplace, Henn helped establish collaborations with the Center for Public Integrity and the Medill's School of Journalism.
Steve spent his early life on a farm in Iowa where his parents, who are biochemists, hoped to raise all their own food and become energy self-sufficient. It didn't work. During college Steve hoped to drop out and support himself by working in the fishing industry in Alaska. That also didn't work. After college he biked around the country with his sweetheart, Emily Johnson. He then followed Emily to Africa, volunteering at Soweto Community Radio. That did work out. He and Emily are now happily married with three daughters.
Steve graduated from Wesleyan University's College of Social Studies with honors and Columbia University's Graduate school of Journalism.
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Mt. Gox, the leading bitcoin exchange, has stopped doing business amid reports it was hit by a massive theft. The troubles at the exchange could prove to be a pivotal moment for the virtual currency.
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Chat rooms and websites offered support for many gay kids growing up in small towns in the 1990s who felt detached from their peers. In the span of 20 years in the same Louisiana town, one teen today has had a very different experience than a woman who grew up there in the '80s.
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After a long and closely watched CEO search, Microsoft has tapped Satya Nadella, an insider and 22-year veteran of the company. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is stepping down as chairman and will help Nadella shape technology and product development.
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In January 1984, Apple aired one of most iconic commercials in Super Bowl history — introducing the Macintosh computer. The marketing helped position Apple as a plucky upstart, and the machine fundamentally changed the way people interacted with computers. -
Despite the technical feat, researchers say that much basic research remains, and the relationship between glucose and tears is still unproven. -
In Silicon Valley, zero profit and even zero revenue don't make a company a loser. Tech companies like Snapchat and Twitter, which have not yet turned any profit, can be worth billions of dollars based on future potential alone. -
A handful of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs say it's time to turn your finances over to bots. Algorithms can monitor a person's financial behavior better than most advisers, they say, and aren't biased by commissions or complex fee structures. -
Silicon Valley has created mind-boggling amounts of wealth. Entire industries have been invented here. Billionaires are minted annually, but inequality is rising rapidly and the middle class is thinning out. Could the same technology that's making so many so rich undermine the labor market? -
The track record of products designed for digital privacy has been abysmal — at least until recently. Snapchat, wildly popular among teens, is changing assumptions about young people's desire for digital privacy. But it's not clear whether the trend will stick. -
Since the rollout of HealthCare.gov, many have wondered whether a private company could have avoided the federal site's many pitfalls. Oregon took that route, hiring Silicon Valley titan Oracle to create its state insurance exchange. But two months after its scheduled launch, the website is still not working.
