Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

Trader Joe’s is settling a class action lawsuit for $7.4 million, after a complaint claimed that the grocery giant printed 10 digits—the first six and last four—of customers’ cards on transaction receipts. The 2019 class action lawsuit alleged that Trader Joe’s violated the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. No customers reported identity theft as a result, Trader Joe’s said on the settlement website. However, identity theft is not a requirement to prove a FACTA violation. The court did not rule on the case, and Trader Joe’s’ decision to settle did not confirm the validity of the claims. In the settlem…

For many Americans, 2025 wasn’t a great year financially. The affordability crisis and general economic concerns became defining themes of the year as people dealt with rising costs and a worsening job market. But for billionaires, 2025 was a boon to their already exuberant wealth. The 15 richest billionaires in the United States saw their wealth grow by more than $1 trillion over the course of the year, according to a new analysis from the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank. As of the end of 2025, those 15 billionaires—each with assets over $100 billion—have a combined wealth of $3.2 trillion, up from $2.4 trillion a year ago. …

Shares in Beyond Meat (Nasdaq: BYND) are again rising in premarket trading today after the company’s stock price surged a massive 36.4% yesterday. As of the time of this writing, BYND is up an additional 12.6% in trading before the bell. But is anything more than another round of meme stock mania driving the rising price? Here’s what you need to know. A volatile December The first day of asset trading for December kicked off yesterday, and already the final month of the year looks to be shaping up to be a volatile one. Yesterday, cryptocurrencies plunged across the board as nervous investors sold off the digital tokens amid ongoing uncertainty about next w…

Increasingly, the media and entertainment brands that thrive are ones that can build on their core business in creative ways. Two of the 2025 Brands That Matter honorees in the media and entertainment world—Ebony and Essence—are legacy Black publications that have grown their audiences and cultural cachet by building events around their flagship editorial product. Overtime is partially a sport brand, but it’s also a company that knows how to engage with younger consumers around sports—that’s how it’s gotten noticed by major brands and other sports leagues. Those three examples of the six outlined below, are just some of the ways companies are rethinking what a me…

McDonald’s limited-time McRib sandwich is a cultural icon. And like any item of its ilk, it’s divisive. On the one hand, the saucy, vaguely rib-esque boneless pork sandwich has a fan base so dedicated that it’s inspired its own Reddit megathread, merch, and a website called the McRib Locator. But on the other, the McRib has long been critiqued for its off-putting form factor and dubious ingredients. Now, a new class action lawsuit is asking the question that’s always plagued the sandwich: Is the McRib actually rib? The lawsuit, which was filed on December 23, 2025, in the Northern District of Illinois, alleges that McDonald’s has purposefully been misleading cust…

The 2025 Brands That Matter United States honorees aren’t just united by their shared geography—they are all identifying their target audience and meeting them exactly where they need to. Whether solving a uniquely American problem, as GoodRx does in addressing the cost of prescription drugs, or pioneering innovation that can help people globally like Owlet, these companies are showing how American brands can step up in authentic and impactful ways. GoodRx GoodRx has built its brand equity by being present where its customers need it—the pharmacy counter. Over the past year, the prescription savings platform introduced a feature that gets users to engage with …

As Fast Company‘s Brands That Matter marks its fifth year, the goal remains to honor globally recognized brands that inspire and resonate with audiences. This year’s honorees demonstrate the same qualities that have defined the program since its inception: a deep dedication to their core mission and meaningful connections with both their customers and the wider cultural landscape. While the recognized brands span diverse industries and achievements, they’re united by these fundamental commitments. METHODOLOGY With more than 1,200 entries, choosing Brands That Matter honorees requires months of researching and vetting applications, until finally landing on the …

Organizations are increasingly turning to “Culture Coaches” to address workplace challenges that traditional management approaches can’t solve. These specialized professionals bring outside perspective and emotional intelligence strategies to help teams build stronger communication patterns, employee engagement, and alignment. In this article, experts share insights on how culture coaching is reshaping the way companies approach employee growth, leadership development, and organizational success. Leaders Shape the Operating System of Business Companies are hiring Culture Coaches because many leaders are finally recognizing that culture is not a perk and not a mood.…

Americans are likely to have spent a record $1 trillion-plus this holiday shopping season alone, and about $5.5 trillion in retail sales in all of 2025, according to estimates by the National Retail Federation. That includes many unhappy returns for retailers: And when it comes back to them, a lot of the $850 billion in returned merchandise is often cheaper to discard than to inspect, sort, and resell—adding millions of tons to landfills every year. “This is a massive ecological problem, as well as a financial problem for these companies,” says Ryan Ryker, CEO of rScan. Based in South Bend, Indiana, the startup has developed software and logistics services to help tra…

Remember that scene in The Devil Wears Prada when Miranda Priestly silences Andy Sachs with a perfectly delivered monologue about a cerulean blue sweater? Andy had dismissed it as trivial—just another fashion detail. But Miranda’s lesson wasn’t about the sweater. It was about power: When you think you’re outside the system, you’re actually reinforcing it. You can’t opt out of the fashion system. You can only choose whether you’re aware of it. In an era obsessed with authenticity, what we wear is the first language we speak. Yet most leaders remain unconscious of this language’s strategic power. They treat their closets like personal decisions rather than professional …

LinkedIn’s AI-powered job search feature is expanding to new audiences. The tool—which lets job seekers find relevant open positions without needing to exactly match keywords in the job title or description—will soon be available to all LinkedIn members using the site in English and expanding to Spanish, French, German, and Portuguese. AI-powered job search is already used by 1.3 million people daily, with more than 25 million job searches conducted via the tool every week. And initial data indicates that job seekers without a four-year college degree who use the tool are 10% more likely to get hired than before, according to the company. “This is a really meani…

New York City’s famed Fifth Avenue is best known for its sparkling, fantastical holiday windows. Now, luxury brands are transforming an often overlooked, sometimes maligned part of city architecture—scaffolding—into artful branding displays. Located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 56th Street, Prada has unveiled new scaffolding on its building, currently undergoing renovation, that covers its facade in rippling layers of semitransparent Prada-green scrim paper. The result is a beautifully nuanced design solution that turns what’s typically a functional safety requirement into a moiré urban dreamscape that becomes a visual extension of Prada’s brand. Prada isn’…

CES is a show that’s all about the future. Usually, that future is within the next year or two. Companies show off products to kick off marketing campaigns and begin building consumer demand. Sometimes, though, they offer a peek a good bit further down the road. Several prototypes at this year’s CES offered clues about how companies expect the consumer electronics world to evolve. Many, of course, will fall by the wayside. Almost all of them will experience changes before getting anywhere close to market. Despite that, though, they offer a look into a consumer electronics crystal ball. Here are some trends they’re prophesizing for the years to come. Smart watc…

In a remarkable rebuke of Republican leadership, the House passed legislation Thursday that would extend expired health care subsidies for those who get coverage through the Affordable Care Act as 17 renegade GOP lawmakers joined every Democrat in support. The tally, 230-196, signified growing political concern over Americans’ health care costs. Forcing the issue to a vote came about after a handful of Republicans signed on to a so-called “discharge petition” to unlock debate, bypassing objections from House Speaker Mike Johnson. The bill now goes to the Senate, where pressure is building for a bipartisan compromise. Together, the rare political coalitions are rushing t…

Handmade punch cards are currently trending on TikTok as a cute, visual way to track 2026 goals. Modeled after the punch cards that will secure you a free coffee or sandwich after showing loyalty to one cafe or another, users instead punch, stamp or check off a square every time they make progress on their goals, whether that’s staying consistent at the gym, completing a no-spend weekend or paying down debt. “Today’s New Year’s Eve, and I made these little punchcards this morning of goals I have for myself starting this new year,” TikTok user @camiunderthesea said in a video showing off her deck of cards. “The first one is to read five books. I’ve been trying to…

A few of the neatest gadgets at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2026 weren’t anywhere near the Las Vegas Convention Center trade show venue. Instead, they were sitting on a table at The Venetian Resort’s food court, at least on Monday when Core Devices founder Eric Migicovsky was holding press meetings. He had a couple of quirky Pebble smartwatches to show off, with lo-fi e-paper screens in round and rectangular forms, and he was wearing an early version of the Pebble Index, a smart ring whose main job is capturing voice notes. (He moved to a booth in the bowels of the Venetian expo when CES officially got underway.) Unlike a lot of exhibitors, Migicovsky isn’…

Generative artificial intelligence technology is rapidly reshaping education in unprecedented ways. With its potential benefits and risks, K-12 schools are actively trying to adapt teaching and learning. But as schools seek to navigate into the age of generative AI, there’s a challenge: Schools are operating in a policy vacuum. While a number of states offer guidance on AI, only a couple of states require local schools to form specific policies, even as teachers, students, and school leaders continue to use generative AI in countless new ways. As a policymaker noted in a survey, “You have policy and what’s actually happening in the classrooms—those are two very differ…

The following sentence might cause anxiety. As Thanksgiving looms near, it’s time to begin holiday shopping. The current level of inflation makes that even more stressful. How can you show your love without breaking the bank? It turns out, shoppers are turning to off-price retailers such as Ross, T.J. Maxx, and HomeGoods, according to recent earnings reports and data from location analytics company Placer.ai. Let’s break down the numbers. Ross Stores posts rosy earnings It’s fair to say that Jim Conroy, CEO of Ross Stores, is very pleased with the third-quarter earnings report released on Thursday, November 20. The company earned $1.58 per share…

As best I can tell, the über-wealthy believe the world as we know it is ending, that there won’t be enough to go around, and that this means they need to accumulate as much money and land as possible in order to position themselves for the end of days. The way they do that is with an induced form of “disaster capitalism,” where they intentionally crash the economy in order to have some control over what remains. So the function of tariffs, for example, is to bankrupt businesses or even public services in order to privatize and then control them. Stall imports, put the ports out of business, and then let a sovereign wealth fund purchase the ports. Or as is happening r…

Time capsules are designed to be resilient by nature. But no time capsule has survived as long as designers hope “America’s Time Capsule” will. The time capsule, designed for the semiquincentennial of the U.S. founding, is being created by America250, the nonpartisan, congressionally mandated group organizing commemorations for this year. The plan is to bury the time capsule underground in Philadelphia at Independence National Historical Park on July 4, and for it to be opened in another 250 years, in 2276. The problem is time capsules, which are typically buried underground, and exposed to the elements, don’t really last that long. “We’ve unburied some time …

When people complain about a lack of work-life balance, they’re typically feeling that they are spending too much time working. They may be spending a lot of combined time at the office and commuting, or just putting in a lot of hours both at work and at home. Fixing that problem can’t be done abstractly, though. If you’re going to address the balance of work and life activities, you have to start getting specific about where your time is going and where you really want it to go. Think about how you’re spending your time. At work, you’re spending time in meetings, writing documents, engaging with clients, or doing particular technical tasks like coding. Similarly,…

Benson Lu’s life revolves around Pokémon. The 26-year-old has played the mobile game Pokémon Go every day for a decade, watches the animated show every week, goes to the local card shop in his Los Angeles suburb to play the brand’s trading card game every week, and has a whopping collection of cards worth more than $70,000. “I don’t remember when was the last day I did not think about Pokémon at all,” he said. In the 30 years since Pokémon debuted in Japan with the 1996 release of Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green for Nintendo Game Boy, the franchise has taken over the globe with its animated shows, mobile games and highly coveted trading cards. Its popularity continues wi…

Nissan is recalling thousands of its 2025 and 2026 vehicles due to a flaw which could potentially cause the door to open while driving, increasing the risk of injury or a crash, according to a notice from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Nissan North America, Inc. is recalling approximately 26,432 vehicles, including certain “2025 Altima, Sentra, 2025-2026 Frontier, and 2026 Kicks” because the door strikers, which hold the door in place, may have been improperly welded and can break. The company estimates about 1% have the defect that prompted the recall. “Customers may notice a rattling noise from the door striker if only one side of …

Most of the executive teams I work with have been investing in AI for a few years. The ones who are frustrated are not the skeptics. They are the believers whose programs have not connected to the P&L. They have the pilots, the internal momentum, the board slide showing everything in flight. What they do not have is a clear line between that activity and business performance, and at this point in the AI cycle, that gap is no longer acceptable. I spent several years running AI at scale inside Kroger and its data science subsidiary 84.51°, where we processed millions of predictions per second across thousands of store locations. We measured work in margin, basket si…

It’s shaping up to be a busy year for initial public offerings from some of the most closely watched companies. Rumors have been floating around for a while now that SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space company, and Anthropic, the artificial intelligence startup behind Claude, could make their market debuts in the summer and by the end of 2026, respectively. And now, a report says that OpenAI—Anthropic’s main competitor, and the owner of ChatGPT—could go public before the end of the year, too. Here’s what you need to know about OpenAI’s rumored IPO plans. OpenAI may go public in 2026 A report from the Wall Street Journal yesterday has investors buzzing: ChatGPT owner…