Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

Your insurance needs change over time. The policies that work for a single, 20-something professional renting an apartment with three roommates may be completely wrong for the same person after marriage, babies, and a cozy mortgage in a good school district. If you’re struggling to determine how your coverage should change over time, the following guidelines can help. Auto insurance: Follow the bell curve Basic car insurance offers liability coverage, in case you cause an accident that injures a third party or damages their property. This is the kind of insurance that nearly every state in the nation requires drivers to carry. While liability coverage protects …

For years, I thought saying yes was the key to success. Yes, to my parents’ dream of me becoming a doctor. Yes, to the long hours in medical school. Yes, to a career that others admired, even as I felt a growing sense of unease. I loved medicine’s ability to make a difference in people’s lives, but deep down, I had questions: Did I truly want to be a doctor, or was I fulfilling the role others expected of me? Every yes felt like another step away from myself. One pivotal moment came while I was working in a hospital in the Cook Islands. I treated patients with heart failure so advanced that basic mobility was a struggle. What struck me most wasn’t the lack of reso…

Today, no matter where you are in the world, it’s not unusual to find yourself working alongside an analyst from Amsterdam, a strategist from San Francisco, or a designer from Dubai. As companies look increasingly further afield for workers, they unlock a range of benefits—from wider talent pools that make it easier to find specialized talent to the injection of new perspectives that offer insights into diverse customer bases. While most business leaders agree that developing the right workplace model is crucial to their company’s success, only 24% feel their organization is actually ready to fully embrace a distributed workforce. The list of potential reasons for thi…

The war in Gaza has come with an awful cost. Tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed, and thousands more are missing. And while a temporary ceasefire has allowed for increased aid delivery, easing the plight of those facing disease and hunger, experts predict malnutrition and health issues to persist for months or even years. Much of the territory’s infrastructure—its schools, hospitals and homes—has been damaged or destroyed. And yet, the tremendous human and societal loss has been augmented by a lesser reported but potentially catastrophic, consequence: environmental devastation. In June 2024, the United Nations Environment Programme conducte…

In another devastating blow to customers and employees of Joann Inc, the popular fabric and crafts retailer is moving to close a significant chunk of its brick-and-mortar locations as part of ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, according to a court filing on Wednesday. The company, which filed for Chapter 11 protection a second time last month, had initially said it would continue operating its approximately 800 stores as it restructured and sought a buyer. However, it told a court this week that it has now identified a number of underperforming locations during the bidding process that it wants to close as a way of cutting costs. “As the sale process progressed,…

A new startup is leaning on the power of recommendations to spread the word about indie films. Olyn offers a direct-to-consumer platform for film and video distribution, enabling filmmakers to retain up to 90% of their revenue. Billed as “Shopify for filmmakers,” Olyn removes the platform as a middleman, eliminating ads and algorithm-driven recommendations. This allows movies to shine based on their own merits and be monetized directly through viewership. Ana Maria Jipa, cofounder and CEO of Olyn, told TechCrunch that the filmmakers are responsible for the movie’s promotion, while Olyn handles the rest. “We provide all the tech that implies: from DRM, 4K streaming…

The category of unbuilt and fantastical design ideas known as “paper architecture” may have no better exemplar than the radical British architecture group Archigram. Founded in the early 1960s, its experimental architectural concepts envisioning everything from temporary cities to inflatable structures have never been built—but nonetheless have become staples of modern architecture canon. Archigram initially published its iconoclast ideas in the form of a self-published, self-titled magazine, which came out in 10 issues between 1961 to 1974. These days though, the magazines are rarely seen. Only a few complete sets exist in libraries. That is until now. [Pho…

Tucked in a forest of trees in Luxembourg City is a hulking piece of urban infrastructure that, if all goes to plan, will soon be taken over by birds. The structure is a two-columned concrete water tower that has been designed to function as a habitat for local and migratory birds. In contrast to most essential elements of a city’s infrastructure that usually try to avoid being infested by wild animals, this water tower had birds in mind from the very start. The water tower habitat was designed by Temperaturas Extremas Arquitectos SLP, an architecture firm based in Madrid. The project’s site is part of Natura 2000, a European ecological network of areas dedicated to…

Recently, an ear infection and subsequent case of hives kept me in bed for a week. The first few days, I was tired and told myself to rest. But the rest of the week? Well, I enjoyed staying in bed, drinking coffee, and lingering over Wordle, Spelling Bee, and emails. So, the following week, I stayed in bed a little longer than usual, too. Turns out, I was hurkle-durkling. Hurkle-durkle is a Scottish term that originated in the 1800s. It means “to lounge in bed when you should be up and about.” While it was meant to be judgmental, it became a TikTok self-care trend with mindful mornings that prioritize mental health over productivity. In the U.S., the practice goe…

Gerardo Valerio had been looking for a bathroom in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo neighborhood for 20 minutes when he stumbled across a blue and white trailer with “FREE BATHROOM” at the top. At first, he was hesitant to enter the bathroom, which had been installed by the Washington, D.C.-based portable toilet startup Throne. To get in, he had to scan a QR code which pre-loaded a text onto his phone. After sending the text, the door would automatically slide open. “What do I text, ‘I need to pee’?” he jokes. All in all, he says, it was a positive experience: “It was pretty to look at but it definitely has a smell to it. It needs to be maintained a bit more. But overall…

Many things remain uncertain about AI’s future impact on our lives. One that isn’t in doubt is that more and more of the world’s software will be written, at least in part, by software. Already, 25% of Google’s code is generated by AI, CEO Sundar Pichai said last October. By 2028, projects research firm Gartner, 75% of enterprise developers will use AI tools in their work. This trend is reflected in programmers’ embrace of products such as GitHub Copilot and Cursor, which let them call on generative AI to fill in some of the specific code as they tackle a project—essentially a fancy form of autocomplete for software engineering. The next step beyond that is AI coding …

Peavey Industries LP, Canada’s largest farm and ranch retailer, has announced the shuttering of all its locations across the country following its filing for creditor protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), granted by the Court of King’s Bench Alberta. The closures will impact 90 Peavey Mart stores and six MainStreet Hardware locations, with liquidation sales starting immediately, marking the end of nearly six decades of operations for the Alberta-based company, which has long been a key player in Canada’s rural and suburban retail landscape. ‘A profoundly difficult decision’ The news comes as Canada’s retail industry faces unpreceden…

Global sustainability models are failing. They’ve been designed to showcase ethical trade and environmental responsibility, but they fundamentally misunderstand how global supply chains operate—especially the critical, unseen work at the beginning of essential value chains such as critical minerals. For decades, these models have burdened African merchants, miners, and farmers—the backbone of global industries from cocoa to lithium—while corporations further along the chain claim the benefits. The systems celebrate end products, like sleek electric vehicles (EVs) or iPhones, while ignoring the heavy lifting at the start of the work, where it’s most difficult. Th…

Some 10,000 grocery store workers across the greater Denver area went on strike Thursday, claiming unfair and illegal negotiating practices by King Soopers while their union has been negotiating a new contract with the store chain. Striking workers at 77 King Soopers stores in Denver and its suburbs, plus those in nearby Boulder and Louisville, Colorado, urged customers not to cross picket lines that began taking shape before dawn. “Stand together. Stay strong,” United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 7 President Kim Cordova wrote union members in a Monday letter announcing the strike. UFCW Local 7 members voted by 96% last week to authori…

Soccer, football, futebol, voetbal. Whichever moniker the world’s favorite game’s 3.5 billion fans use to describe this mega sport, this beautiful game is going through a cultural evolution creating more impact beyond the game than ever before. When I joined Manchester City FC in 2009, soccer clubs and the broader sport were just starting to open their eyes beyond the traditional rules of category marketing for the game and its impact was felt in soccer only. At Manchester City FC, we saw an opportunity to do something different. Very quickly we went on a journey from being a “soccer club that sold entertainment” to strategically pivoting to be an “entertainment b…

Before a wildfire ravaged their street in northwest Altadena, Louise Hamlin and Chris Wilson lived next door to each other in nearly identical houses. “I chose an old home in an old neighborhood because it has soul,” said Hamlin, a 51-year-old single mom with a teenage boy, who bought her 1,500-square-foot home 10 years ago. Today, gone are their charming English-style cottages built in 1925 with the welcoming porches and Palladian windows. Amid the rubble and ash, little is left of their historic neighborhood. In the weeks since the Eaton wildfire took their homes, Hamlin and Wilson have been stumbling through the layers of business, bureaucracy and emotional…

In news outlets, business publications, and scholarly journals, there is a crescendo of commentary about the combined power of human intelligence and artificial intelligence. Without question, that convergence is already yielding exciting discoveries in many fields. Yet a third, equally crucial, kind of intelligence is being left out of the discussion: nature’s intelligence. The idea that nature itself displays the hallmarks of what we understand as intelligence—the ability to learn, to encode those learnings in new, more effective models, and to continually adapt—is not altogether new. Leonardo da Vinci understood this well. Nature was his teacher and his inspira…

LG Electronics USA is recalling half a million electric ranges that have been involved in at least 28 fires, resulting in numerous injuries and a few pet deaths. But instead of issuing a refund or replacement, the home appliance maker is sending customers warning label stickers. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) posted an alert on Thursday that it received at least 86 reports of “unintentional activation of the front-mounted knobs” leading to “at least five fires,” which “caused extensive property damage totaling over $340,000” as well as burns and eight minor injuries, with three fires resulting in pet deaths. According to the announcement, customers …

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. AI is no longer a side project. It now sits at the heart of how companies grow, compete, and make decisions. Yet many leaders still struggle to separate hype from value and wonder how to invest wisely without wasting time or resources. A key challenge lies at the top: a lack of AI literacy among executive teams. Research covering nearly 7,000 executives across 645 firms shows a clear patter…

There’s never a dull day in the world of weight-loss medication. This week brought new restrictions on compounded GLP-1 medication, the cheaper, copycat versions of brand-name drugs that telehealth companies like Hims & Hers and Noom had been offering. Other developments include news that GLP-1 pills are on the way, and that a bankruptcy filing by weight-loss giant WeightWatchers is imminent. Let’s dive in. The end of copycat weight-loss drugs When the Food and Drug Administration declared that GLP-1 drugs were in short supply in 2022, it opened the door for compounding pharmacies to legally fill the gap and make copies of brand-name medications by altering som…

The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Sterile, isolating, and stressful: Today’s hospitals can kindle deep discomfort. Because they must be designed adequately for everyone, they’re designed perfectly for no one. So, what would our healthcare experience look like if physical hospitals were to disappear altogether? Artificial intelligence that is generative, predictive, and integrated, combined with the power of …

Meta Quest 3 users will now be able to explore detailed 3D scans of sculptures, rock formations, plant life, and other interesting objects from around the world. The 3D images, which users can virtually zoom in on or walk around, are part of a new app from Pokémon Go-maker Niantic called Into the Scaniverse. Last year, the company released the latest version of a smartphone Scaniverse app letting users create detailed images of public scenes or objects within their phones, with the ability to add public images to a shared map. Already, the map includes more than 50,000 3D scenes, including renderings of Stonehenge, ancient ruins in Europe, Japanese temples, and even a shr…

Feeling the impact of eggflation? As egg prices have soared, and the avian flu continues to wipe out millions of birds, many egg producers are struggling, but Vital Farms has managed to keep growing. CEO Russell Diez-Canseco shares how the brand’s relationship with farmers and transparency with customers have allowed the company to turn crisis into opportunity. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by Robert Safian, former editor-in-chief of Fast Company. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Ra…

Robinhood said on Tuesday it is rolling back the event contracts that would let users bet on the result of the Super Bowl clash this weekend, after the online brokerage received a request from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The halt comes just a day after the launch of the product. Robinhood said it was “disappointed by the outcome.” “We are heeding their directive to cease offering these contracts despite the fact that the CFTC has not deemed Kalshi’s football championship contracts illegal,” said Lucas Moskowitz, Robinhood’s general counsel. Representatives for Kalshi and the CFTC did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. …