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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.

  • A visitor at the "NEXT Berlin" conference tries out Google Glass on April 24 in Berlin.
    Google Fights Glass Backlash Before It Even Hits The Street
    Steve Henn
    From privacy concerns to technology saturation, Google's new technology has had its fair share of criticism — and it's not even on sale yet. The company wants to change those negative perceptions of its wearable computer before it goes on sale to the public.
  • Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system was criticized when it was released last year for features some said didn't mesh with a desktop PC environment. The company has indicated that it will address some of those issues in an upcoming update.
    Will Tweaking Windows 8 Be Enough To Revive The PC?
    Steve Henn
    When Microsoft introduced Windows 8 last year, the software giant billed the new operating system as one of the most critical releases in its history. The system would bridge the gap between personal computers and the fast-growing mobile world of tablets and smartphones. But this week, the company sent signals that it might soon alter Windows 8 to address some early criticism.
  • Workers manufacture clothing in a factory near Dhaka, Bangladesh, in December. Labor activists and major clothing retailers met in Germany this week to try to hammer out a deal that would improve working conditions in Bangladeshi factories.
    Deal To Protect Bangladeshi Factory Workers Still Elusive
    Steve Henn
    After deadly disasters in clothing factories, labor activists are trying to persuade at least two more retailers to agree to improve working conditions in Bangladesh. Two retail giants have already signed onto a proposal that would mandate that fire and safety inspections be made public and require retailers to pay for needed factory repairs.
  • A Bangladeshi soldier walks through rows of burnt sewing machines Nov. 25, after a fire in the nine-story Tazreen factory in Savar, near Dhaka. The fire killed 112 people.
    Factory Audits And Safety Don't Always Go Hand In Hand
    Steve Henn
    One way Western brands have responded to consumer concerns about unsafe working conditions in foreign countries is to create an elaborate system of independent auditors. Despite that, incidents still happen. Last week a building collapse in Bangladesh killed more than 400 people.
  • After high-profile accounts have been attacked — including AP's, NPR's and the BBC's — Twitter considers how to thwart hackers and protect users.
    As Its Influence Grows, Twitter Becomes A Hacking Target
    Steve Henn
    The Associated Press, NPR and the BBC have all had their Twitter accounts hijacked in recent weeks. Hacks of high-profile accounts have real-world consequences, and the security at Twitter is coming under increased scrutiny.
  • Brown University student Sunil Tripathi, who has been missing since March, was wrongly identified in social media as a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. Reddit has apologized to Tripathi's family "for the pain they have had to endure."
    Social Media's Rush To Judgment In The Boston Bombings
    Steve Henn
    As Internet users injected themselves into the investigation of the Boston Marathon bombings, false rumors began to spread about possible suspects in the attack. One of those falsely accused in social media was a 22-year-old Brown University student who has been missing. The general manager of Reddit has now apologized to the student's family.
  • Drinks columnist David Wondrich is seen on <em>Esquire</em>'s new Talk to Esquire app, which allows users to interact with several of the magazine's columnists through voice recognition.
    Speak Up! Advertisers Want You To Talk With New Apps
    Steve Henn
    Advertisers want to hear what you have to say, and many are about to roll out new kinds of ads you can actually have a conversation with. Marketers are hoping to leverage the power of voice and the kinds of technologies that power Apple's Siri to start selling us all sorts of things.
  • The Ups And Downs Of Cyber Currency Bitcoin
    Steve Henn
    Bitcoin is a virtual currency that's traded online. It's been on a wild ride lately, soaring in value during the Cyprus banking crisis. And this week, the price plummeted after a Bitcoin trading exchange was hacked.
  • Facebook users post more than 2.5 billion messages and updates each day, worldwide. All posted content must comply with the company's standards, which ban many forms of speech that, in the United States, are protected offline.
    Facebook's Online Speech Rules Keep Users On A Tight Leash
    Steve Henn
    Social networks now hold tremendous power to regulate online speech. Their rules for allowable comments, art and video govern billions of posts worldwide each day. And while Twitter users enjoy a great deal of freedom, Facebook has relatively tight restrictions on what users can say and see.
  • The Solar Impulse, a solar-powered plane, flies over Switzerland. The makers will be journeying across the U.S. this spring, hoping the flight helps challenge assumptions about what solar technology can do.
    Solar-Powered Plane Uses Its Lightness To Fly In The Dark
    Steve Henn
    Creators of a solar-powered aircraft hope to fly it day and night across the U.S. with no fuel, and eventually around the world. It's a quixotic — some might call it nutty — undertaking. But the creators hope the flight helps challenge assumptions about what solar technology can do.
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