Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

Matt Sia is a big fan of eggs. With his daughter, he’ll make slow scrambles bathed in pricey European butter. And as executive creative director at the design and branding firm Pearlfisher, he brought that same love to an egg carton he designed for the now retired brand Consider Pastures. The regenerative farming producers created eggs with rich burnt sienna shells, and Sia designed a complementary blue package that celebrated their natural hue. To reach this reveal, the carton unfolded in a dramatic, multi-tiered story much like an Apple product, with messages like “care” and “cultivate” highlighted in gold foil. These premium eggs sold for $5. But today, as another …

At last night’s Academy Awards, the standout star proved to be the indie film Anora, which raked in a whopping five awards on a budget of only $6 million. When director Sean Baker took the stage to accept his Oscar for best director, he used the moment to issue a call to action: a plea to the industry to reinvest in movie theaters. “Watching a film in the theater with an audience is an experience,” Baker told the crowd. “We can laugh together, cry together, scream in fright together, perhaps sit in devastated silence together. [. . .] It’s a communal experience you simply don’t get at home. And right now, the theatergoing experience is under threat.” Baker went on…

When he was a teenager, Collin McKenna’s interest in changing the food system led him to move from Colorado to Hawaii for high school. It was on that school’s regenerative farm that the now 30-year-old has entrepreneur discovered mead—the sweet, fermented honey beverage often referred to as “honey wine.” His first taste of alcohol was mead made by Hawaiian locals. With his 10-month-old brand LIXIR—a sparkling ready-to-drink mead brand he’s billing as “hard honey”—McKenna wants to make the ancient beverage accessible while turning LIXIR into just the second Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) alcoholic beverage brand. “So many different cultures made different variati…

Autodesk forecast annual revenue and profit above Wall Street estimates on Thursday, boosted by strong demand for its design and engineering software across industries such as construction and manufacturing. The company also said it would reduce its workforce by about 9%, representing roughly 1,350 employees, and laid out plans to invest more heavily in cloud and artificial intelligence, adding that it would reallocate resources towards those areas. Companies across sectors such as architecture, engineering, construction, and product design are making extensive use of Autodesk’s 3D design solutions, with the software maker’s artificial intelligence and machine lea…

Kendrick Lamar aims to infuse his Los Angeles hip-hop flavor into New Orleans while staying true to his storytelling roots during Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime performance. “Being in the now and being just locked-in to how I feel and the energy I have now, that’s the L.A. energy for me,” he said Thursday at a press conference hosted by Apple Music. “That’s something I wanted to carry over to New Orleans and for the world to see. This is me. This is Kendrick Lamar, 37 years old, and I still feel like I’m elevating, I’m still on a journey.” The rap megastar will take the Super Bowl stage fresh off a Grammy triumph, where he claimed two of the night’s biggest awards —…

Many things irk people about the way modern companies operate. Workplace communication tools and so-called enterprise social media platforms are among the low-stakes but high-impact bugbears. Reading through the latest dull update from that guy in accounts who continually spams the work comms platform, or worrying about when and how to engage with a problematic post can cause plenty of stress. Having to keep up with colleagues on a workplace communication platform annoys many. But new research suggests the much-maligned tools might actually serve a purpose—and can benefit workers and the businesses they work for. Princeton University professor Manoel Horta Ribeiro…

Does your manager hate to delegate tasks? It might sound like a good thing—after all, that means less work for you. But, just like having a micromanaging boss is no fun, having a manager who takes on much of your work can create a work environment that is both stifling and unproductive. We asked three experts about what causes some bosses to act this way and how to encourage your supervisor to step aside and allow you to do your job. What is a ‘snowplow manager’? A “snowplow manager” is a supervisor who takes on excessive work themselves rather than delegating to their team, says Frank Weishaupt, CEO of videoconferencing tech company Owl Labs. His team recentl…

A new artificial intelligence company from one of the cofounders of OpenAI is quickly becoming one of the most highly valued AI firms in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence (SSI) is in the process of raising in excess of $1 billion with a valuation topping $30 billion. Bloomberg reports San Francisco-based Greenoaks Capital Partners is leading the deal and plans to invest $500 million itself. Greenoaks did not reply to a request for comment about the investment. $30 billion might be well short of the $340 billion valuation OpenAI boasts, but it’s still well above many others in the space, including Perplexity, which has a $9 bi…

France just unveiled its charming new TGV Inoui trains, and they’re a jealousy-inducing reminder that America’s rail travel renaissance can’t come fast enough. The TGV Inoui is a high-speed rail system, running at around 200 miles per hour, that connects France’s major cities as well as providing connections into Italy, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany. This Tuesday, the manufacturing company Alstom and the TGV’s operator, SNCF Voyageurs, revealed the brand-new fifth generation TGV Inoui interior design at Paris’s Gare de Lyon. [Photo: Alstom] The new train, which is slated to hit the rails in 2026, includes a delightfully colorful aesthetic, an ultra-s…

When a hurricane or tornado starts to form, your local weather forecasters can quickly pull up maps tracking its movement and showing where it’s headed. But have you ever wondered where they get all that information? The forecasts can seem effortless, but behind the scenes, a vast network of satellites, airplanes, radar, computer models and weather analysts are providing access to the latest data—and warnings when necessary. This data comes from analysts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, known as NOAA, and its National Weather Service. Atmospheric scientists Christine Wiedinmyer and Kari Bowen, who is a former National Weather Service forecas…

There was a time when few people in the coastal Pakistani city of Gwadar understood what climate change was. After a decade of extreme weather, many more do. Rain battered Gwadar for almost 30 consecutive hours last February. Torrents washed out roads, bridges, and lines of communication, briefly cutting the peninsula town off from the rest of Pakistan. Homes look like bombs have struck them and drivers swerve to avoid craters where asphalt used to be. Gwadar is in Balochistan, an arid, mountainous, and vast province in Pakistan’s southwest that has searing summers and harsh winters. The city, with about 90,000 people, is built on sand dunes and bordered by the Ar…

Remote work is going mobile. Starting today, the Florida-based high-speed rail service Brightline is launching a partnership with the shared workspace provider Industrious to turn parts of its stations—and even entire train cars—into coworking spaces. Industrious coworking spaces are now open in Brightline’s stations in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Orlando, as well as a bookable train car for business meetings or private events on the move. “If people can work from anywhere, then anywhere can be a workplace,” says Jamie Hodari, cofounder and CEO of Industrious. “I think that’s something that’s been underdeveloped.” Brightline sees the addit…

If you’re on the cusp of buying a new iPhone, you might want to hold off until this Wednesday, February 19. That’s the day Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company will be launching “the newest member of the family.” But what does that cryptic tease mean, exactly? Is Cook talking about a new iPhone, a new computer, or even just a new accessory? Here’s what you need to know about Apple’s upcoming product launch. Get ready to meet the newest member of the family. Wednesday, February 19. #AppleLaunch pic.twitter.com/0ML0NfMedu — Tim Cook (@tim_cook) February 13, 2025 Get ready for the first new iPhone of 2025? Anyone who follows tech news knows that Apple always a…

Riddle me this: What exactly is Trello? Despite counting myself as a heavy-duty power user of the product for well over a decade now, it’s a question I’ve long struggled to answer. Technically, Trello has always seemed to fall into that group of apps folks like to frame as “project management tools”—products like Asana, ClickUp, and Notion that do a pinch of everything and are as much note makers, info savers, and life managers as they are project organizers. But Trello in particular has always been a bit of a chameleon. Personally, I’ve used it for everything from storing story ideas to mapping out my weekly newsletters and even organizing my home workouts. Part of what …

Does it feel to you like there are way too many AI assistants to keep track of? Between ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude, DeepSeek, and others, it’s hard to remember what each one excels at—if anything. Beyond just the underlying differences in large language models, each AI assistant has its own features, integrations, premium features, and peculiarities. I’m writing this guide both for myself and for anyone who wants to stay informed about generative AI. While I have some reservations, I also think it’s worth keeping an eye on what’s available. Rather than getting into the technical details of how these AI assistants work, I’ll focus o…

For the first time in 27 years, we saw a Nike commercial in the Super Bowl. Has it really been that long? Hard to believe that one of—if not the—world’s greatest marketing brands hasn’t been on the big game stage for almost three decades. “Hare Jordan” is arguably a Top 10 all-time Super Bowl ad. Blame complacency, the fragmentation of media and culture, or whatever you like, but getting the swoosh back to the Super Bowl just feels right. Not only that, but the brand is using this opportunity to re-establish its hardcore athlete bonafides, in case anyone forgot. Created with Wieden+Kennedy, and narrated by Grammy winner Doechii, here we get a cranked up, black an…

A $19 strawberry has broken the internet. Over the weekend, several content creators went viral with reviews of one very expensive berry, purchased from the upscale Los Angeles-based grocery chain Erewhon. “Apparently it’s the best-tasting strawberry in the entire world,” influencer Alyssa Antoci says in a video that has racked up more than 15 million views. It’s worth noting that Antoci appears to be a social media manager for Erewhon, and her family also owns the store. “Wow. That is the best strawberry. That’s crazy,” she adds. Along with the $19 price tag, the berries from luxury Japanese fruit vendor Elly Amai are individually packaged, set on a …

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. As the number of internet of things (IoT) devices is projected to reach 40 billion by 2030, IoT integration into our daily lives is undeniable. From smart homes to industrial systems, IoT devices offer unprecedented convenience and efficiency. Netgear’s 2024 IoT Security Landscape report found that IoT devices, including TV sets, smart plugs, routers, and more face frequent atta…

Here in Atlanta, the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum has been part of my daily life for years. Parks and trails surrounding the center connect my neighborhood to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park downtown and everything in between. At the end of December 2024, thousands of people walked to the library to pay their respects to the former president as he lay in repose. The cold, snow and darkness of the evening were a stark contrast to the warmth of the volunteers who welcomed us in. Our visit spiraled through galleries exhibiting records of Carter’s life, achievements and lifelong work promoting democracy around the world. U.S. presid…

Cancer research in the U.S. doesn’t rely on a single institution or funding stream—it’s a complex ecosystem made up of interdependent parts: academia, pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology startups, federal agencies, and private foundations. As a cancer biologist who has worked in each of these sectors over the past three decades, I’ve seen firsthand how each piece supports the others. When one falters, the whole system becomes vulnerable. The United States has long led the world in cancer research. It has spent more on cancer research than any other country, including more than US$7.2 billion annually through the National Cancer Institute alone. Since the 1971 …

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. When you factor in home, school, work, and other public spaces, the average person spends 90% of their time indoors. Given this, it’s probably no surprise that the built environment is responsible for 42% of the world’s carbon (CO2) emissions. This number is too big and the likelihood of it increasing is high when you consider aging buildings, extreme weather, a rising number of…

With TikTok’s future in the U.S. still uncertain, Substack is doubling down on attracting video creators. As of yesterday, creators can now publish video posts directly from the Substack app—a feature previously limited to desktop. This update marks a significant shift, enabling creators to upload, publish, and monetize videos entirely from their phones. They can instantly reach subscribers via email, app notifications, or both, streamlining content distribution like never before. “This isn’t just about adding video, it’s about creators building more engaged communities that make independent publishing stronger than ever,” Substack cofounder and CEO Chris Best tel…

To promote its newest shoes, the Swiss athletic apparel brand On filmed a fictional movie trailer with Zendaya. Zone Dreamers stars the actress as an elf-eared astronaut who wears athleisure, trains in space with her flight crew, and—On hopes—sells some merchandise. It’s all an elaborate ad campaign for On’s new low-profile sneaker, Cloudzone, its one-piece Studio Knit Bodysuit, and other offerings from the company’s Spring/Summer 2025 Movement Lifestyle collection, which Zendaya wears throughout. (Consumers hoping to get their hands on the futuristic space suit Zendaya sports in one scene will be disappointed to learn that it’s not part of the collection. Celebrity s…

Denny’s is the latest restaurant chain to add a temporary egg surcharge due to the rising cost of eggs caused by a nationwide shortage and the current bird flu outbreak. Last month, Waffle House added an upcharge of 50 cents per egg. Meanwhile, many supermarket chains, including Trader Joe’s, Market Basket, and big-box retailers including Walmart, Costco, and Sam’s Club, have raised prices and limited the number of cartons shoppers can buy. “This pricing decision is market-by-market, and restaurant-by-restaurant due to the regional impacts of the egg shortage,” Denny’s told Fast Company in a statement. “We will continue to look for ways to provide options on our m…