Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

Watch any Olympic event, and you’ll notice this universal ritual: The moment an athlete completes their performance, they turn to their coach for feedback. There’s no defensiveness—just a hunger to know how to improve. They understand that even the smallest adjustment could be the difference between standing on the podium or watching from the sidelines. For athletes, feedback is not criticism. It’s a tool for enhancement. This mindset isn’t confined to sports. High performers in every field—whether that’s business, academia, or the arts—share an insatiable appetite for actionable feedback. It’s their secret weapon for continual improvement. Why feedback fuel…

I was a latchkey kid. Most afternoons, I came home to an empty house, let myself in with my own key, and figured it out—homework and snacks. There was inherent trust from my parents that I’d figure it out, and everything would be alright. You learned fast. If you got stuck, you improvised. If you were scared, you got practical. If you needed help, you decided whether it was “worth” bothering anyone. And if you were the oldest—if you were parentified—you were given responsibilities without guidance, expected to “just know.” Thirty years later, I’m watching middle managers experience the exact same thing. We hand them keys instead of house rules, responsibil…

Gallup recently released new data on employee engagement, and the results are dismal. Just 3 out of every 10 employees are actively engaged—which is the lowest percentage in a decade. But despite decades of effort and investment in tackling disengagement, this persistent issue endures. If you conduct an Amazon search for books on employee engagement, you’ll get thousands of results. There are also dozens of apps and “platforms” that promise to “unleash human potential” and “help people transform,” not to mention countless, self-described “coaches” offering services related to “re-engaging” the workforce. We’ve seen the rise and fall of “perks culture,” added opp…

In 2010, Phil Gilbert was a longtime startup entrepreneur when IBM acquired the software company he ran. The “slower, process-oriented culture” was a struggle for someone who was used to the faster pace of startup life, he writes in his new book, Irrestible Change: A Blueprint for Earning Buy-In and Breakout Success. When IBM tapped him to lead a transformation of the company, it was a daunting task. Over the next few years, Gilbert guided IBM’s shift toward design-thinking and re-trained thousands of employees to work differently, all without mandating a thing. Today, he sees corporate mandates as pointless: They don’t work, he says. And yet, they’re ubiquitous—take …

After months of rigorous searching, you’ve found your ideal executive candidate. They tick every box on paper and seem perfect in interviews. But then reality hits: Your “Cinderella candidate” isn’t prepared for the real-world challenges of the role. Now what? A popular study highlights just how common—and costly—this scenario is. A 2015 research report from Corporate Executive Board found that 50% to 70% of leadership hires fail within 18 months. And that can cost the company one-half to twice the hire’s annual salary, according to a 2019 Gallup report. Given the high levels of remuneration, the financial impact can be even more severe at the executive level. As …

A Jesuit priest says he prefers going to prison than paying a 500-euro ($541) fine for participating in a climate activists’ street blockade in the southern German city of Nuremberg. The Rev. Jörg Alt started serving his nearly month-long prison sentence on Tuesday in Nuremberg. “Today, I am starting my 25-day alternative custodial sentence in Nuremberg prison,” he said before entering the prison. “I don’t like doing this, especially as my health is no longer the best at the age of 63. But I see no alternative, because it’s the last form of protest I have left in this specific case to draw attention to important issues” such as climate change. In November, Alt…

It looks like it could be sitting on the campus of any number of major universities across the country, but this sleek, glass-lined educational building is far from the conventional teaching space: It’s a new training facility for the Ironworkers Local 63 union in Chicago. The training facility is being used to give young ironworkers hands-on experience welding, climbing, and installing the essential elements that underlie buildings around the world. As anxiety snowballs over just which professions will survive the emergence of artificial intelligence, physical trades like ironwork are seeming more and more AI proof—the building itself a counterargument to the percept…

On a freezing cold Wednesday afternoon in eastern Kentucky, Taysha DeVaughan joined a small gathering at the foot of a reclaimed strip mine to celebrate a homecoming. “It’s a return of an ancestor,” DeVaughan said. “It’s a return of a relative.” That relative was the land they stood on, part of a tract slated for a federal penitentiary that many in the crowd consider another injustice in a region riddled with them. The mine shut down years ago, but the site, near the town of Roxana, still bears the scars of extraction. DeVaughan, an enrolled member of the Comanche Nation, joined some two dozen people on January 22 to celebrate the Appalachian Rekindling Project buyin…

Alexander Balan was on a California beach when the idea for a new kind of drone came to him. While tossing a football, he realized that its form factor could translate into a lightweight unmanned aerial system (UAS) designed for rapid deployment and autonomous targeting. This eureka moment led Balan to found Xdown, the company that’s building the P.S. Killer (PSK)—an autonomous kamikaze drone that works like a hand grenade and can be thrown like a football. To create the PSK, Xdown teamed up with several defense companies, including Corvid Technologies, a North Carolina-based military contractor that specializes in the design, development, and prototyping of weap…

When companies rolled out return-to-office mandates starting in late 2024 and early 2025, labor force participation among mothers of young children fell from roughly 80% in 2023 to 77% by August 2025, reversing years of hard-won gains. Yet if you’re pregnant or postpartum, you have more rights than you may realize, including some that can help you keep your job while growing your family in a way that works for you. For all things working and mom-ing, we always turn to Daphne Delvaux, an employment attorney who represents working mothers, founder of the Mamattorney, and author of the new book Moms in Labor: An Employment Lawyer’s Secrets to Protect Your Baby and Your C…

At the Aysaita Refugee Camp in northeastern Ethiopia’s Afar region, there are about 40,000 Eritreans struggling to meet their basic daily needs. For the 10,000 children younger than 10 who live in the camp, that includes one often overlooked resource: play. At many refugee camps around the world, play can, understandably, become an afterthought as humanitarian organizations focus on delivering essentials like housing and food. But studies show that play is critical for helping kids develop executive motor function and relational skills. It’s also a key therapeutic tool for children who have experienced trauma. These insights inspired Playrise, a U.K.-based charity designi…

“Embrace the suck.” One of the first things you learn as a Marine is to “embrace the suck.” Not because it sounds tough—but because it’s how strength is forged. In today’s world, where ease is glorified, we need to remember this truth: real strength comes from struggle. Before I became a leadership coach and positive psychology expert, I was a United States Marine Corps officer. I learned quickly that discomfort isn’t a barrier to success—it’s the path to it. And that truth still guides everything I do. You don’t build strength by avoiding discomfort. You build it by seeking it. We live in a world where ease is glorified—but that pursuit is costing us our …

If you grew up pre-Y2K, chances are you’re familiar with the concept of a lava lamp. It’s much less likely that you’ve ever encountered a lamp made out of literal lava. That’s the basic description of a series of three lamps made by the luxury Italian lighting company Foscarini. The company’s new Alicudi, Filicudi, and Panarea lamps, designed by Italian father-and-son design team Alberto and Francesco Meda, are formed from actual lava rock sourced from Mount Vesuvius. To own a piece of Italy’s iconic volcano, you’ll have to fork over $866 for any one of the lamp models. The real lava lamp may be pricier than its ‘70s predecessor, but that’s thanks to the labor…

The 2017 fire that burned down much of Enchanted Hills Camp in Napa, California had a silver lining. The camp was originally designed in the early 1900s for people with sight, but it has become a beloved retreat for the blind and visually-impaired for the last 75 years. When more than a dozen of its buildings were destroyed in the fire, the chance arose to rebuild the camp for the unique needs of the people who have been using it for decades. “This really was never designed with the thought of access in mind,” says Helen Schneider, associate principal and project manager at Perkins & Will, the architecture firm that redesigned the camp. Working closely with the ca…

After 23 years as part of advertising and marketing services holding company IPG, creative agency R/GA bought back its independence through a new partnership between R/GA’s global management and private equity firm Truelink Capital. It marks the official announcement of a move reported by AdAge earlier this month, and after leaks about a potential sale emerged last summer. The management team leading the agency back to private business is headed by R/GA’s global CEO, Robin Forbes, and chair and global chief creative officer Tiffany Rolfe. Truelink Capital is also an investor in marketing tech companies Flipp and Ansira, as well as experiential marketing firm GES. Fin…

German aviation group Lufthansa is cutting back on flights amid fuel price surges related to conflicts in the Middle East. On Tuesday, the company announced plans to eliminate 20,000 short-haul flights through October, a decision expected to save around 40,000 metric tons of jet fuel. The adjustments to the flight schedule will impact the unprofitable routes across the Lufthansa Group network, which includes Lufthansa Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and ITA Airways. “Passengers will therefore continue to have access to the global route network, particularly long-haul connections,” the company said in a press statemen…

A major Japanese beverage producer says it has been hit by a cyberattack that left its operations disrupted for the fifth day on Friday, and Japanese media are reporting that stocks of the company’s popular beer and other beverages are running low in some stores. Asahi Group Holdings said its computer systems were hit by a cyberattack on Monday, creating glitches that have affected orders, shipments, and a customer call center in Japan. Overseas systems were not affected. A company spokeswoman told the Associated Press on Friday that the problem had still not been fixed, though some emergency shipments were made on Wednesday, with employees entering information into com…

Los Angeles just became the first major school district to put limits on screen time at school. The resolution, which was brought by Nick Melvoin, a concerned parent, passed 6-0 with one recusal. Now, screens in schools will no longer be a free-for-all. The district will have to create policies around screen time based on both grade level and subject. The resolution will also prohibit screens in first grade and below, bans screen time at recess for middle and elementary schoolers, and will restrict access to YouTube in class. Additionally, it will make clear to parents how they can go about opting out of using screens at school. Screen time is part of most …

I like chatting with my friends—who doesn’t?—but I don’t always know where to find them. There are simply too many apps. Some of my friends text, others use WhatsApp, while others yet insist on using Discord or the DM feature in whatever random social network they prefer. It’s a mess, and it can mean keeping several tabs open all day just to keep the conversations flowing. It makes you wish some application could combine all of your conversations into one place. This is a dream that used to be reality. Applications like Trillian, Pidgin, and Adium all combined instant messaging services like AIM, MSN, and ICQ in one handy interface. Over time, though, messaging se…

Art gallery, science exhibition and 21st century funhouse, Paradox Museum Miami takes guests on a tour through optical illusions and other enigmas geared for the age of Instagram. The 11,000 square-foot (1,000 square-meter) museum, housed in Miami’s trendy Wynwood arts and entertainment district, features more than 70 exhibits that challenge the imagination, executive director Samantha Impellizeri said. “It ebbs and flows between periods of highly tactile and interactive exhibit pieces and fully immersive photo opportunities where you yourself become the paradox and walk away with some really fun and unique social media content,” Impellizeri said. Paradox Museum has mo…