Archives

Today on Word of Mouth, simple innovations for the developing world: MIT's International Development Design Summit creates inexpensive technologies to improve life in impoverished areas. Plus, we dip into to addictive world of virtual reality. A new documentary looks at gamers who have trouble leaving the online world behind. Plus, we look at the science behind so-called "enhanced beverages" like Vitamin Water, VitaRain, and Snapple Antioxidant Water. And we visit a school in Ohio that pays students for good test scores.

You’ve probably noticed that so-called “enhanced health drinks” are taking up more shelf space at your local gas station or super market - drinks like Sobe, Propel, Vitamin Water, VitaRain, Snapple Antioxidant Water, just to name a few. Functional beverages are the fastest growing sector of the U.S. drink market. Sales in the U.S. reached $24.8 billion in 2006, and are projected to leap to $38.8 billion by 2011. It's part of a boom in technologically-advanced health foods.

One company, Function Drinks, was founded by Alex Hughes, a 31-year-old doctor and recently chief specialist of orthopedic surgery at the UCLA Medical Center. The company makes different beverages for different uses, among them Urban Detox, Light Weight, Brainiac, Shock Sports, Night Life, Vacation, and House Call. Their sales last year reached $10 million, and that figure is expected to double this year.

But skeptics remain: Gerry Khermouch, editor of Beverage Business Insights, explains the appeal of Vitamin Water this way: "they’re indulging the consumer’s sweet tooth and offering them psychological cover for drinking sugar water."

Nathanael Johnson is a freelance reporter based in San Francisco. His article about the enhanced water industry appears in New York magazine, and he joins Word of Mouth to talk about the science behind the health claims.

(Photo by Food Chronicles)

Your neighbor, your local cop, your checkout clerk, your grandmother, maybe even you. Millions of people around the world spend countless hours interacting in virtual worlds, playing massively multiplayer online role-playing games, or MMORPG’s.

Seated behind a flickering screen, they can log on to games like World of Warcraft, Second Life, and Everquest, and become idealized version of themselves - the chiseled knight mounted on a bucking steed, or the svelte female warrior, skilled at fighting monsters - online personaes that battle with other players, able to make friends, tell their secrets, even flirt.

It's also a major economic industry. World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade earned $96 million in one day. Compare that to the highest one-day gross for a film last year – $60 million. And Blizzard Entertainment, the company that makes World of Warcraft, has an annual gross of $1.2 billion.

A new documentary called Second Skin explores the lives of those people. We meet couples who fall in love without meeting, disabled players who have found new purpose, addicts whose lives fall down around them, Chinese gold-farming sweatshop workers, and wealthy online entrepreneurs - all living in a world that doesn't quite exist.

To find out more about this world we’re joined by Second Skin's director, Juan Carlos Pineiro. The film’s New York premiere is set for September 5th. We also hear from Marie Harriman from Antrim, NH. She isn’t able to leave home often due to a disability, and says that playing Second Life allows her to feel less secluded.

Watch the trailer for Second Skin: