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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For the first time, Apple's iPad has some competition: Google's Nexus, Amazon's Kindle Fire HD and the Microsoft Surface. Tech reporters Steve Henn and Laura Sydell have been testing out the latest tablets this holiday season — and found that content is king. -
A nor'easter Wednesday promises new electricity outages in a region already reeling from Hurricane Sandy. The Long Island Power Authority is facing intense criticism for not acting more quickly to restore power in Sandy's wake, and beleaguered residents' patience is wearing thin. -
About a third of the roughly 1 million without power in New York live on Long Island. With temperatures falling, residents are desperate to get back in their homes. Officials, however, say powering up homes is a challenge because of electrical fire risks that could make a bad situation worse. -
The estimated price tag for Superstorm Sandy could run as high as $50 billion. But homeowners and businesses in the Northeast aren't just dealing with damage from Sandy; they're also dealing with insurance companies. And figuring out what's covered and what's not can get very complicated. -
Sixty years ago, computers were used for the first time to predict the outcome of a presidential race. CBS used the UNIVAC, one of the first commercial computers, on loan. The prediction was spot on, but a decade passed before the computer's potential was finally realized on election night. -
Microsoft has been trying to break into the smartphone market for years, but it hasn't had much luck. When the iPhone was introduced in 2007, Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer derided it as overpriced and poorly designed. Since then Apple has become the most valuable company in the world, and Microsoft has struggled to capture just 4 percent of global smartphone sales. But the company and Ballmer haven't given up.
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Google is doing for the backcountry what it has done for cities and towns — making digital maps that can be accessed on the go. Will it change the experience of the wilderness? NPR's Steve Henn travels to the Grand Canyon as Google engineers make their first trip with the Street View Trekker. -
This week, Microsoft will roll out the largest upgrade of its Windows software in more than a decade. And for the first time, it's marketing a tablet, called Surface. Microsoft still commands a formidable computing empire, but it's an empire under siege. -
Supporters of the technology say it will save a million lives a year and prevent a global carmageddon. But among the questions still to be worked out: If a self-driving car runs a red light and gets caught, who gets the ticket?
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Tesla Motors is an automotive rarity — a startup, and a car company that comes out of Silicon Valley, not Detroit or Japan or Germany. Tesla hopes the technology it uses to make electric cars will upend the industry.
