Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang is one of the tech industry’s longest-serving chief executives, leading the chipmaker since cofounding it in 1993. Now he’s the recipient of a long-standing technology award: the IEEE Medal of Honor, established by a predecessor of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 1917. Huang was named the recipient of the medal (and an accompanying $2 million prize) at the Consumer Electronics Show on January 6 in recognition of his lifetime of work in accelerating computing—the technique of using specialized chips like Nvidia’s graphics processing units to speed specialized operations such as rendering images for video games, crunching …

Everybody knows this coworker—the one who spirals about cost-cutting layoffs when snacks vanish from the break room. The one who thinks they’re getting fired because their boss hasn’t been using emojis with them lately. The one who’s the office Chicken Little: anxious, somewhat frantic, often misguided . . . and who can’t stop talking to others about whatever it is they’re anxious about. This person—and it could be you—may be justified, as it makes sense for employees to be nervous right now: layoffs are at an all-time high, and January is a common month for layoffs. But for the office Chicken Little, it’s not the dismal mass termination numbers alone that are sc…

Fast-casual salad chain Salad and Go is closing more stores and exiting Texas and Oklahoma completely. The eatery will close a total of 32 stores, 25 in Texas and seven in Oklahoma, by January 11. The closures will impact around 600 employees. The company will also close its Dallas headquarters and relocate to Phoenix. Salad and Go operates as a drive-through and grab-and-go business, known for affordable salads, wraps, and other healthy menu items. The fast-casual chain was founded in 2013 in Gilbert, Arizona. Salad and Go began rapid expansion efforts in 2022. However, the salad chain has recently been reducing its retail footprint, closing 41 of its stores …

I had to submit my résumé for a role. Then I went through three interviews, with nearly identical questions each time. The problem? The role was for a freelance writing position. Not to become a company employee. I got all the way to the third interview only to learn that the role paid a fraction of my usual rate, even though I’d provided my rate up front. I’m experienced enough as a solopreneur to know that going through three interviews was a bad sign. The potential client wasn’t communicating internally (as confirmed by the fact that my rate had been overlooked). Multiple interviews are incredibly uncommon in my line of work, and indicated to me that the comp…

A reader asks: A while back, an employee who reported to me (I’m a man) became visibly pregnant soon after she started. But she never brought it up. Not with me, not with HR, not with anyone. I didn’t ask her about it, though nearly everyone else in our office asked me. I cringed when I responded since it was obvious she was pregnant but I felt that I needed to protect her privacy. I felt like I was walking around on pins and needles with this very obvious elephant in the room. Her job description included occasionally lifting objects up to 40 pounds, and the only way I treated her differently was that I went out of my way to pick up anything remotely heavy. E…

I told myself I won’t check emails until I check off my “one thing” to do for the day. I couldn’t do it. I always reach for the phone in the morning. Willpower wasn’t enough. The brain is wired to take the path of least resistance. Fighting it every day with willpower won’t work. These days I use systems. I work with rituals. I get my most important tasks (MIT) done between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. I schedule my MIT’s the night before. And get straight to work at the scheduled time. Ninety percent of the time at the same place. I’ve done it for so long, I do it on autopilot now. My three-hour block means no motivation required. I’m not relying on willpower to stay “producti…

For a long time, I told myself I was choosing stability. I was working at a prestigious university, doing work that mattered, surrounded by smart people. The role had legitimacy and the paycheck came on the same day, in the same amount, every month. The path forward was clear and the structure well-defined. At that point in my life—raising very young kids—that predictability felt not just comforting, but necessary. My work mattered, and it held up easily when I described it to others. I could justify why staying made sense. And yet, I was unhappy. Not in a dramatic, crisis-driven way. There was no single bad boss or catastrophic moment that forced my hand. I…

A self-described “rat pack” of five “food-loving journalists” just bought the trademark to the defunct food magazine Gourmet, updated it for the modern reader, and brought it back as an online newsletter—all without consulting the magazine’s former publisher, Condé Nast. And if you didn’t know that already, you might’ve been able to guess it from the publication’s new wordmark. The logo looks nothing like what you’d expect from the magazine that shuttered in 2009. Instead of a crisp, delicate script, this wordmark is unapologetically blocky, chunky, and weird. It’s more reminiscent of forgotten sheet pan drippings: certainly not pretty too look at, but more delicious …

The Sundance Film Festival may be a little bittersweet this year. It will be familiar in some ways as it kicks off on Thursday in Park City, Utah. There will be stars, from Natalie Portman to Charli XCX, and breakout discoveries, tearjerkers, comedies, thrillers, oddities that defy categorization and maybe even a few future Oscar nominees. The pop ups and sponsors will be out in full force on Main Street. The lines to get into the 90 movies premiering across 10 days will be long and the volunteers will be endlessly helpful and cheery in subfreezing temperatures. But the country’s premier showcase for independent film is also in a time of profound transition after decades…

In a powerful speech before the Minneapolis City Council, a nurse broke down as she shed light on the fear so many in her profession are feeling as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have stormed the city. “In Minneapolis, I feel like I’m a sitting duck,” the speaker began in a January 15 address. “I don’t feel safe at home. I don’t feel safe at work. Kids aren’t safe at school,” she said through sobs. “I was born in Minneapolis and I am scared out of my mind because I have skin that is not white and that is not fair.” The speaker went on to contend that ICE’s presence and the aggressive tactics agents have increasingly been using has created a “publ…

Labor unions, faith organizations, and local businesses in Minnesota are calling for a statewide “collective pause” this Friday—in which they urge residents not to go to work, school, or do any shopping—in protest of the The President administration’s aggressive deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the Twin Cities and beyond. The action, called the “Day of Truth and Freedom,” is planned for January 23, and includes plans for a march in downtown Minneapolis at 2 p.m. Here’s what to know. What’s the situation with ICE in Minnesota? On January 6, the Department of Homeland Security announced it was deploying 2,000 officers to the M…

Bags of ice-thwarting salt aren’t usually a hot item at Bates Ace Hardware in Atlanta, but store manager Lewis Pane sold all 275 he had in stock in one morning as residents braced for a major storm to deliver heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain on a broad section of the U.S. in coming days. Payne said he had 30 online orders for “ice melt” before 8 a.m. People sprinkle the salts on the ground before a storm to disrupt the formation of ice. “It’s impossible to get right now,” Payne said. “We have had to make special trips to our warehouse to pick up extra items because people need them.” The storm was expected to hit starting Friday, stretching from New Mexico to New En…

Have you ever had the experience of rereading a sentence multiple times only to realize you still don’t understand it? As taught to scores of incoming college freshmen, when you realize you’re spinning your wheels, it’s time to change your approach. This process, becoming aware of something not working and then changing what you’re doing, is the essence of metacognition, or thinking about thinking. It’s your brain monitoring its own thinking, recognizing a problem, and controlling or adjusting your approach. In fact, metacognition is fundamental to human intelligence and, until recently, has been understudied in artificial intelligence systems. My colleagues C…

The University of California Irvine’s new healthcare campus has a long list of innovative features, from its combined inpatient-outpatient surgical suite to its outdoor chemotherapy infusion terrace to an entire floor dedicated to staff only. The one thing it doesn’t have is a gas line. The multi-building healthcare campus with 144 hospital beds officially opened in December as one of a very few major hospitals around the world that runs entirely on electricity. CO Architects, which designed the all-electric hospital alongside design-build partner Hensel Phelps, claims it’s the only hospital larger than 500,000 square feet to pull this off. “Healthcare is just…

Most professionals spend their days focused on performance, deadlines, deliverables, and doing good work that gets noticed. That’s normal. But there’s an overlooked truth about work (and life, really) that doesn’t show up in job descriptions or KPIs. Work feels better, and often goes better, when it’s shared. Shared in the human sense: letting someone in, acknowledging others, and enjoying progress together instead of alone. That idea comes through clearly in a story Oprah Winfrey often tells about growing up in Mississippi and learning an early lesson from a candy bar. “I’m telling you, if you do something to make someone else happier, it’s almost like it co…

Pizza Hut is closing hundreds of “underperforming” locations nationwide, according to parent company Yum! Brands, which reported fourth-quarter 2025 earnings on Wednesday. The company said it will shutter about 3% of Pizza Hut’s U.S. locations, or some 250 locations in the first six months of 2026, as the fast-causal chain struggles amid competition from Dominos Pizza and an overall decline in store sales and consumer demand. Fast Company has reached out to Pizza Hut for a list of locations that will be closing. Globally, Pizza Hut opened over 440 new restaurants in the fourth quarter of 2025 and nearly 1,200 restaurants in 2025, in 65 countries. Taco Bell…

Comparing social media platforms to casinos and addictive drugs, lawyer Mark Lanier delivered opening statements Monday in a landmark trial in Los Angeles that seeks to hold Instagram owner Meta and Google’s YouTube responsible for harms to children who use their products. Instagram’s parent company Meta and Google’s YouTube face claims that their platforms addict children through deliberate design choices that keep kids glued to their screens. TikTok and Snap, which were originally named in the lawsuit, settled for undisclosed sums. Jurors got their first glimpse into what will be a lengthy trial characterized by dueling narratives from the plaintiffs and the two remai…

For many Black tech founders, raising venture capital is often positioned as the ultimate milestone. It signals that your idea is validated, your business is taken “seriously,” and opportunities begin to take shape. As the managing partner of an early stage VC firm, and a 3X Black tech founder that speaks and meets with thousands of founders a year, I can tell you the truth is far more nuanced. Venture capital can be powerful, but it’s not for everyone. Before chasing your first check, founders need clarity, preparation, and strategy. Fundraising is not just about storytelling or networking; it’s about understanding the system you’re stepping into and deciding whethe…

At $600, Jamie Haller loafers aren’t an impulse buy, but they’ve become one of those rare fashion items people evangelize anyway. The shoes, which resemble classic men’s leather loafers, have quietly built a cult following thanks to a surprising claim: Fans—from TikTokers to Wirecutter—say they mold to your feet the moment you step into them. This didn’t happen by accident. The Los Angeles-based designer spent years seeking out a factory that would be willing to make her loafers using sacchetto construction, a labor-intensive Italian technique more often found in bespoke men’s footwear. “Take all of the hard bits of the loafer out,” she remembers telling the cobbler i…

From AI tools to self-driving cars, new technologies regularly tout themselves as being autonomous. Yet, their companies often have to recruit us humans for help in unexpected ways. The most recent example comes courtesy of Waymo’s self-driving cars. The Alphabet-owned company has been hiring DoorDash drivers to close vehicle doors after a passenger leaves them open, CNBC reports. Yes, Waymo’s whole thing is driverless cars, but it needs another type of driver to show up and fix the simplest things. The arguably embarrassing predicament came to light when an Atlanta-based DoorDash driver shared Waymo’s request on Reddit. It reportedly offered the gig worker $…

Wendy’s is moving ahead with its plans to close hundreds of restaurants, amounting to between 5 and 6% of its total stores in the U.S., according to its fourth quarter earnings report. The report, published on February 13, showed that Wendy’s business in the U.S. is currently lagging behind its international efforts. Total same-store sales fell 10.1% over the quarter, driven by performance in the U.S., where same-stores sales were down 11.3% compared to 2% at international locations. Overall, global systemwide sales were $3.4 billion, a decrease of 8.3% from the previous quarter. According to Wendy’s interim CEO Ken Cook, one way the company is addressing this tr…

Tax filing season is in full swing, and while preparing your taxes can often be filled with stress, misplaced documents, and worries about proper filing, this year, there may be a silver lining. According to analysts, many Americans may get larger refunds in 2026 due to The President’s 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill legislation. Last year, the average refund was $3,167, but, given there are a number of new changes and deductions, experts say many Americans are looking to get back an additional $1,000 or more. Overall, that could come out to around $90 billion more dollars in tax returns. Here are the biggest changes that could boost your tax refund this year: No tax…

JPMorganChase said Wednesday it plans to open more than 160 new bank branches in over three dozen states—and renovate nearly 600 more—as part of a nationwide, multibillion-dollar push for more affordable financial services. Those branches will include locations in rural and low-to-moderate income (LMI) communities in the Northeast, Southeast, America’s “Heartland” or Midwest, and Southwest—including in North and South Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Massachusetts, and Tennessee this year. JPMorganChase tells Fast Company those will include branch locations in: “Greater Philadelphia, Greater Boston, the Tampa Bay area, Minneapolis–Saint Paul metro area, R…

Alysa Liu, who quit skating at 16, didn’t ‘need’ a gold medal, she told reporters in Milan—she had already found joy. The 20-year-old from California, who won the first individual Olympic gold in women’s figure skating for the U.S. after 24 years, didn’t need to be champion. She says she was just thrilled to perform. “I don’t need this [medal],” Liu said right after winning, full of joy, while cheering on her competitors. “But what I needed was the stage and I got that, so I was all good. No matter what happened.” Liu isn’t feigning enthusiasm for the cameras. You can feel it radiating from her body when watching her skate—which she did, flawlessly, when perfo…

After officials released millions of pages of documents related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, revelations in his emails and other files have led to the resignations of multiple corporate executives, new investigations into abuses by Epstein and potential accomplices, and even the arrest of the United Kingdom’s former Prince Andrew. For those looking to research Epstein’s vast correspondence and web of connections across industry, government, and academia, some of the most effective tools have been built not by federal investigators or big-name news organizations but by a scrappy team of volunteer developers. Starting with a website called Jmail, which …