Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

Gold and silver prices rose to record highs in early trading on Monday, spurred on by a confluence of a few different political events and economic factors, including tensions over the U.S. seizing of possibly another oil tanker from Venezuela, speculation of future Federal Reserve rate cuts, overall economy insecurity, and bets on U.S. monetary policy in 2026. In 2025, gold has surged by nearly 70%, according to Bloomberg. Here’s what to know. What happened today? At the time of this writing, in midday trading on December 22, gold bullion (GC=F) was up over 1.9% to $4,472.20 and silver (SI=F) was up about 3.4%, heading toward $70 an ounce, making both he…

The Walt Disney Company has agreed to pay a $10 million civil penalty as part of a settlement to resolve allegations it violated child privacy laws, the Justice Department said on Tuesday. A federal court order in the case involving Disney Worldwide Services Inc and Disney Entertainment Operations LLC also bars Disney from operating on YouTube in a manner that violates the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, the department said. The order requires Disney to create a program that will ensure it properly complies with the privacy law on YouTube in the future, it added. The law requires websites, apps, and other online services aimed at children under 13 to…

With the start of the New Year squarely behind us, it’s once again time for the annual CES trade show to shine a spotlight on the latest tech that companies plan to offer in 2026. The multiday event, organized by the Consumer Technology Association, kicks off this week in Las Vegas, where advances across industries like robotics, healthcare, vehicles, wearables, gaming and more are set to be on display. Artificial intelligence will be anchored in nearly everything, again, as the tech industry explores offerings consumers will want to buy. AI industry heavyweight Jensen Huang will be taking the stage to showcase Nvidia’s latest productivity solutions, and AMD CEO Lisa Su…

Workplace training invites are dropping in many employees’ inboxes now that the new year is underway. Most employers require staff to complete multiple HR modules annually: training on harassment, workplace relationships, or conflicts of interest, for example, followed by a quick quiz. Recently, however, a new TikTok trend imagining fake workplace “training modules” is going viral. “It’s 5 pm and you notice one of your colleagues is crying at their desk,” creator @pepsimasc posted in November. “Do you A: check in and ask how they’re doing, or B: tell them to shut the fuck up?” the skit begins. He continues on to the next imaginary scenario: “You’re in a meetin…

Hiring likely remained subdued last month as many companies have sought to avoid expanding their workforces, though the job gains may be enough to bring down the unemployment rate. December’s jobs report, to be released Friday, is likely to show that employers added a modest 55,000 jobs, economists forecast. That figure would be below November’s 64,000 but an improvement after the economy lost jobs in October. The unemployment rate is expected to slip to 4.5%, according to data provider FactSet, from a four-year high of 4.6% in November. The figures will be closely watched on Wall Street and in Washington because they will be the first clean readings on the labor market…

There’s a quote from Charles Bukowski framed on my office wall: “What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.” We’re in that fire right now. For 25 years, our company has moved people to show up for entertainment. Then the world changed. Entertainment changed. Technology changed. Almost overnight, we had to throw the old playbook out the window. So, we paused. We looked inward and asked the hard question: Do we rebuild what we had or transform into what we need to be for the future? Companies need to choose the second. For us that meant becoming culture-led, not as a slogan or a rebrand, but as the infrastructure for how we operate. Becoming cultur…

Another year, another fresh start. And if you’re like me, that fresh start often comes with the best intentions of getting into shape. But then reality hits: It’s January, it’s cold, and the idea of leaving the house to brave the gym (and all the other resolution people) is wholly unappealing. Fear not, fellow homebody. This year, we’re going to conquer those fitness goals from the comfort of our own living rooms. No gym fees, no icy commutes, no waiting in line for a treadmill. Seven (iOS/Android) For better or worse, if you have a phone and seven minutes, you no longer have an excuse. Seven is the heavy hitter in the “micro-workout” space. It focu…

The next time you’ve got an itchy throat and a stuffy nose, Amazon wants you to describe your symptoms to an AI chatbot deputized to do medicine. On Wednesday, Amazon announced the launch of the new feature, inviting users who subscribe to its healthcare service to interact with an AI assistant for personalized medical advice. The chatbot is available now in the One Medical app, which patients can use to schedule appointments, message their primary care provider and access their medical records. “The U.S. health care experience is fragmented, with each provider seeing only parts of your health puzzle,” Amazon Health Services Senior Vice President Neil Lindsay sai…

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…

The Wienermobiles are coming back for a bite at the Brickyard in May, giving them another chance to relish the spotlight of racing’s biggest weekend. Oscar Mayer announced Sunday all six of its famed street-ready vehicles will compete for the second straight year on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s historic 2.5-mile oval. The Wienie 500 is scheduled for May 22 during the track’s annual Carburation Day festivities. Last year’s race was such a hit, organizers wanted to give fans a second round to savor the flavor of a light-hearted competition just two days before IndyCar’s marquis race — the Indianapolis 500. The presentation will have a familiar look for fans who…

Elon Musk is merging his rocket maker SpaceX with his artificial intelligence startup xAI in a deal that changes what a future SpaceX IPO represents. After rumors surfaced last week, Musk confirmed the move Monday in a SpaceX blog post, calling the combined company “the most ambitious, vertically integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth,” spanning AI, rockets, space-based internet, and his social media platform, X. Public records filed in Nevada and obtained by CNBC show the deal was completed February 2, with Space Exploration Technologies Corp. listed as the managing member of X.AI Holdings. Bloomberg reports that the merged company is expected to price s…

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…

Much to the chagrin of investors, the value of Bitcoin continues to slide. As of Wednesday morning, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency was trading around $75,000 per coin. That’s down more than 10% over the past five days, down 18% over the past month, and down a whopping 34% over the past six months. It’s a far cry from October of last year, when Bitcoin’s price topped out at nearly $125,000. Values are now roughly where they were in early April 2025, and before that, in November 2024. From bump to slump Notably, Bitcoin’s value is now lower than it was when The President took office last January, effectively giving up all of the “The President Bump”…

If you were up late celebrating the Seattle Seahawks’ win at the Super Bowl last night, you may need help from caffeine to get you through your busy Monday routine. You’re in luck. Today (Monday, February 9), Starbucks Rewards members can get a free tall (12-ounce) coffee with the purchase of another beverage. Find out what you need to do to score your free cup of Joe from Starbucks. Starbucks has added its brand-new 1971 Roast to the menu Starbucks’s hometown team, the Seattle Seahawks, won the big game last night, but that’s not the only win that the coffee chain is celebrating. On Monday, February 9, Starbucks is officially introducing its brand-new coffe…

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…

Gary Vaynerchuk prides himself on being ahead of the curve. As the chairman of communications company VaynerX and the cofounder of Resy, not to mention an angel investor in brands like Twitter, Facebook, Uber, and Venmo, he knows a thing or two about trends in business. And in a new interview with CBS Mornings, he shared what he thinks is to blame for consumer burnout: not advertisers, social media, or even consumers themselves—but modern parenting. “I think that parenting needs to be called out of the last 40 years,” Vaynerchuk said. “I believe that the burnout, the insecurity, all the stuff we talk about, I believe the reason we’re buying more stuff is, we’re using …

In December 2025, Andrea Lucas, the chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, invited white men to file more sex- and race-based discrimination complaints against their employers. “Are you a white male who has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex? You may have a claim to recover money under federal civil rights laws. Contact the @USEEOC as soon as possible,” she wrote in a post on X. In February 2026, the EEOC began to investigate Nike on what the agency said was suspicion of discrimination against white workers. Both initiatives followed the EEOC’s March 2025 characterization of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts…

West Virginia’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against Apple on Thursday accusing the iPhone maker of knowingly allowing its software to be used for storing and sharing child sexual abuse material. John B. McCuskey, a Republican, accused Apple of protecting the privacy of sexual predators who use iOS, which can sync images to remote cloud servers through iCloud. McCuskey called the company’s decisions “absolutely inexcusable” and accused Apple of running afoul of West Virginia state law. “Since Apple has so far refused to police themselves and do the morally right thing, I am filing this lawsuit to demand Apple follow the law, report these images, and stop re-v…

Eight times the output. Same job. Same title. Not 80%. 800%. That’s a lot. And yet, most hiring systems and processes are almost perfectly designed to miss those people. This isn’t a talent shortage. We’ve normalized a measurement problem for so long that it barely registers as a problem anymore. Across industries, hiring has been optimized for efficiency and familiarity. We screen for credentials that look impressive, resumes that read cleanly, and career paths that resemble the ones we already trust. It feels rigorous. It feels fair. But it isn’t actually predictive of performance. In fact, the more polished a hiring process becomes, the more likely it is to filter for…

“Do you want to know the biggest career hack I’ve learned in 25 years of recruiting?” That’s the opening of one TikTok video. The answer, the creator Elite Recruiter says, is “skill stacking”: combining complementary skills to give you an advantage in job applications. “You’re not just a teacher—you’re a teacher who understands UX,” she gives as an example. That emphasis on skills over experience matches a growing chorus online that’s singing the praises of self-taught skills in the job market. “3 courses to take for early career success,” another creator suggests. “Skill stacking is the new degree flex,” a comment read on another recent TikTok video. Rat…

Reality is melting away before our eyes. Identity spoofing against older adults alone grew by 8x between 2020 and 2024, driven in part by convincing AI impersonations of friends and loved ones. It’s a problem costing people in the U.S. nearly half a billion dollars a year with no end in sight. Which is why a pair of design studios teamed up on a provocative solution that starts with a real-life handshake. Called Quartz, it’s a ring that adds friends to your network by literally shaking hands. And from there, it gatekeeps your online communications by proving you’re alive, proving you know the person you’re talking to, and proving provenance through encrypted channels. …

Gold-medal moments for American athletes abounded at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Among a slew of highlights, Alysa Liu brought the U.S. Olympic gold in singles figure skating for the first time since 2002, Breezy Johnson and Mikaela Shiffrin topped the podium in Alpine skiing. The Paralympics, which start March 6, will likely see more medals for women athletes, and many of them will be celebrating in Las Vegas this summer. But data from ticket exchange and resale site StubHub shows that the U.S. women’s hockey team’s triumph over Canada for gold in Milan will have a lasting effect on attendance at Professional Women’s Hockey League games. The company’s internal dat…

Authenticity is a critical leadership trait. Research shows that it facilitates more trusting relationships and a more positive working environment. Often, though, in my executive coaching practice, I hear senior leaders use ‘authenticity’ as a covert excuse to resist development. When clients say, “That doesn’t feel authentic,” it’s often a signal they’re avoiding growth. They’re fearfully or righteously attached to a static version of their leadership. This is a major liability. As leaders elevate in seniority, they must adapt their approach. They need to experiment with different ways of thinking, communicating, and engaging to navigate increased scope and complexity.…

In too many organizations, design is treated as a downstream function or even a cost center. In the best case, it’s a nice-to-have that is applied to refine or beautify after strategy is set, budgets are approved, and decisions are largely already locked. It could be used to communicate strategic choices made earlier in the innovation or creation process. Perhaps it is leveraged in the sales and business development process. Yet the world’s most forward-looking organizations do the opposite: They start with design. To begin, let’s establish the fact that I do not believe design is about aesthetics or brand polish. Design is a strategic lens—a way of seeing systems, so…

The past week has been a brutal one for many working in the tech and financial industries. Thousands of jobs have been lost—or will be lost soon—from companies including Block, Morgan Stanley, Capital One, eBay, and, as reported today, software giant Oracle. Here’s what you need to know about the layoffs. Oracle to cut ‘thousands’ of jobs The most recent news of layoffs came yesterday, after Bloomberg reported that the database software giant Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) is planning to cut “thousands” of jobs as soon as this month. And yes, artificial intelligence is to blame—but not solely because AI is directly taking jobs. Instead, Oracle i…