Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Block Inc, is not only laying off nearly half of the company’s workforce, but he wants investors to think he’s an AI-focused trailblazer for doing so. In a letter to shareholders on Thursday, Dorsey shared that Block’s workforce is shrinking from over 10,000 people to just below 6,000 people, with some employees entering consultation. Dorsey credits “intelligence tools” with motivating the change, explaining that these tools and a “significantly smaller team” will allow the company to be better and do more. Block owns fintech brands such as the Square point-of-sale system, Cash App, and Afterpay, along with the music streaming service Ti…

If you walked into Oyuna Uranchimeg’s office at the University of St. Thomas’ emerging media department, you’d see a poster from the Beijing 2022 Olympics and two other tokens of Olympic memorabilia. It’s not something you’d likely think twice about. She’s not the only person to have sports-themed office decorations. What you won’t know—unless you’re told—is that Uranchimeg is herself a Paralympian. She competed in Wheelchair Curling for Team USA in 2022, and will do so again in the 2026 Games. But that hasn’t stopped her from working full-time for the university’s emerging media department as an administrative assistant. She’s the department’s problem solver. Pe…

Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran’s late supreme leader, has been named as the Islamic Republic’s next ruler, authorities announced Monday, as Tehran widened its attacks across the Mideast to strike oil and water facilities crucial to its desert sheikdoms. With Iran’s theocracy under assault by the U.S. and Israel for more than a week, the country’s Assembly of Experts chose as the next supreme leader a secretive, 56-year-old cleric who maintains close ties to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The Guard has been firing missiles and drones at Israel and Gulf Arab states since the younger Khamenei’s father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed Feb. 28 during the …

In 2012, NASA launched two probes into space: Van Allen Probe A and Van Allen Probe B. Their goal was to collect data on charged particles passing through Earth’s magnetic field. Those particles can wreak havoc on communications and other technologies on our planet, so understanding them is important. In 2019, the Van Allen Probes’ mission ended. With its fuel spent, the “A” probe is set to reenter Earth’s atmosphere today, and the parts of it that are not burned up upon reentry may crash onto our planet in the next 24 hours. Here’s what you need to know. Which probe is crashing? Thankfully, we only need to worry about one probe crashing into Earth to…

We’re now one month into a partial U.S. government shutdown due to a Department of Homeland Security funding lapse. Yet, employees with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are still expected to show up for work. As of last Friday, many TSA employees missed their first full payday and instead received $0 paychecks. Due to financial concerns, many have been calling out sick or resigning to find alternative income sources. Staffing issues have led to longer lines and increased wait times at U.S. airport security checkpoints nationwide. Now the CEOs of major U.S. airlines are publicly calling on Washington to end the shutdown. In an open le…

Most organizations genuinely want to support their people. We invest in wellness apps, coaching programs, and leadership development, all with good intentions. Yet burnout rates keep climbing. Aflac’s WorkForces Report from November 2024 referenced that burnout affected nearly 3 in 5 American workers with employees experiencing high levels of stress rising to 38% in 2024, up from 33% in 2023. The issue isn’t effort or resources. It may simply be that we’re solving for the wrong problem. I recently sat down with Natallia Miranchuk, founder of SOULA, an AI-powered emotional support platform that combines neuroscience, health expertise, and artificial intelligence to add…

Happiness may be hard to quantify, but for the data-obsessed, the World Happiness Report is as close as you can get. The annual report, published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, leverages data from Gallup to rank every country in the world by self-reported life satisfaction. For the second year in a row, not a single English-speaking country has cracked the top 10. The exact reason is tough to pin down, but this year’s lead researchers point out one major factor that could be to blame. As per usual, Nordic countries dominate the top 10 happiest countries, with Finland claiming the number one spot for the ninth consecutive year. Ic…

K-12 teachers and students across the country are increasingly using AI in and out of classrooms, whether it is teachers turning to AI to refine lesson plans or students asking AI to help them research a particular topic. An estimated 85% of K-12 public school teachers recently reported that they used AI during the 2024-2025 school year, often for curriculum and content development. In 2023, 13% of teens said they used ChatGPT to complete their schoolwork, while 26% of them said in 2025 that they were using ChatGPT for this purpose. Similarly, 86% of K-12 students shared in 2025 that they have used AI in general. An estimated 50% of students reported that they…

With Social Security on track to go broke in less than seven years, a new report from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) is proposing a solution: Cap Social Security payouts to $100,000 a year for couples, as part of an overall plan to save it from insolvency. (That’s $50,000 for a single retiree.) The renewed spotlight on Social Security follows a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that the main trust funds responsible for paying benefits, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, could be insolvent by as early as 2033. By law, that would automatically trigger a massive 24% cut in benefits. On top of the higher cost …

Wednesday, April 1, marks 50 years since Apple was founded. Over the next week, you’ll no doubt see countless articles examining the company’s influence, with many likely focusing on which single Apple product had the most consequential impact on the tech industry and society as a whole. To be sure, there are myriad options to choose from, most notably, the original Macintosh, the iMac, the iPod, and the iPhone. Yet to me, Apple’s most important contribution over the past fifty years isn’t a physical product. Rather, it’s a policy—one asserting that privacy is a fundamental human right, and, to protect that right, products must be designed with privacy in mind. It…

It might not seem like the maker of lawn and garden products and a skincare and cosmetics company have much in common. But both ScottsMiracle-Gro and Clinique have recognized that people are likely to seek out advice online these days, which is why they’re meeting consumers where they are with educational resources. “We’re using a lot of agentic AI to help people in any given market,” said John Sass, senior vice president and chief creative officer at ScottsMiracle-Gro, speaking at the Fast Company Grill at SXSW. “We have 158 years of experience; we can help you learn how to grow, whether you’re in Miami or Austin or Columbus, Ohio.” Recognizing this opportunity f…

Your upper chest could be the key to your long-term health. A new study found a correlation between the health of a human’s thymus and the likelihood of cardiovascular disease or cancer. Published on Wednesday in the science journal Nature, researchers detailed the “crucial” effect of the thymus on long-term health and lifespan, reshaping prior assumptions about the organ. “These findings reposition the thymus as a central regulator of immune‑ mediated aging and disease susceptibility in adulthood,” the report states. Thymus health a key indicator Using AI tools, scientists analyzed more than 27,000 patient scans and medical records to evaluate thymus he…

JetBlue announced Monday plans to give its top-tier credit card a refresh, adding new travel credits, companion perks, and loyalty boosts as airlines and issuers keep escalating what “premium” actually means. The updates to the JetBlue Premier World Elite Mastercard, issued by Barclays, are set to roll out later this spring. The annual fee isn’t changing, remaining at $499 even as new benefits are added. Companion passes, but with a twist The headline addition is a companion pass benefit, a familiar perk that JetBlue is now bringing into the mix. Cardholders can earn a pass worth up to $500 after spending $15,000 in a calendar year, and a second one worth u…

In October 2025, the beloved Minnesota Pizza chain Gina Maria’s Pizza abruptly closed its doors. The closure of all four of the nearly 50-year-old chain’s locations was a shock to its loyal fans—and since then, many have been left wondering exactly why the chain shuttered its doors. Now we know. What was Gina Maria’s Pizza? While not widely known outside of Minnesota, Gina Maria’s Pizza was a locally cherished pizza joint in the Minneapolis area. According to an Internet Archive capture of its now-defunct website, Gina Maria’s Pizza was founded in 1975, when it opened its first location in Minnetonka, Minnesota. The chain served a small collection of…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. KB Home announced on Thursday that it will relocate its corporate headquarters from Los Angeles to Tempe, Arizona, beginning in spring 2027. The builder, which has a $3 billion market capitalization, said the new headquarters in the Phoenix metro area will bring executive leadership and key corporate functions into a more centralized, lower-cost operating environment. While the giant homebuilder—ranked No. 526 on the Fortune 1000—emphasized that it will maintain a significant presence in California (in particular in San Bernardino County, CA)—a state…

The world can’t seem to escape the Brooklyn-based Gen Z band Geese. Some call them “America’s Most Thrilling Young Rock Band,” while the band and their frontman, Cameron Winter, are drawing endless comparisons to their predecessors the Strokes and Julian Casablancas. Just last week, the band took the stage at Coachella as they gear up for an already sold-out tour. But as Geese finds their footing in the limelight, suspicion is mounting over their relatively quick rise to fame—and now some are saying the seemingly indie artists might have fallen into our laps on purpose all along. In a now viral story by Wired, the publication reveals that Geese hired digital marke…

In a new neighborhood in Helsinki, you can skip owning a car. One key part of the district’s design? A new bridge that’s part of the city’s growing bicycle superhighway network. The 1.2-kilometer-long bridge, about three quarters of a mile, connects an island called Laajasalo to the city center. It opens to cyclists and pedestrians on April 18 and will soon also include trams. No cars can cross it; drivers have to take a longer route over an older bridge. On one edge of the island, a former industrial site is now filled with apartment buildings, and the population is quickly expanding across the whole island. “We’re looking at quite large new numbers of reside…

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…

Picture it: You’re in an economy seat on a 17-hour flight. Would you pay an extra $300 for just four hours lying flat? Air New Zealand hopes the answer is yes. The airline is finally launching its Economy Skynest lie-flat sleep pods, starting at $495 NZD ($291 USD) for a precious four hours. Passengers in economy and premium economy will have the option to book one of six individual pods nestled in three-tier bunk beds. The “nests” will be available on select Air New Zealand flights between Auckland and New York—one of the world’s longest flights. “For a country as remote as New Zealand, the journey matters,” Air New Zealand CEO Nikhil Ravishankar said in a …

One of the weirdest brand collaborations of 2026 just dropped: The non-profit organization StoryCorps is teaming up with Prego—yes, the pasta sauce brand—on a device shaped like a pasta sauce lid that will record your family’s dinner conversations. The device is part of a limited-time offering called the Connection Keeper Bundle, which launches on April 27 for $20. It includes some Prego sauce, a “Connection Keeper” recording device and instruction manual, and a pack of conversation prompt cards to spark discussion. StoryCorps, which is dedicated to recording the stories of Americans “from all backgrounds and beliefs,” is billing the Connection Keeper as a “simpl…

Conflict, while uncomfortable, is a fact of life. However, few of us deal with it well–either we avoid it until it swells into resentment, or it explodes creating damage we often fail to repair. In her new book, Anchored, Aligned and Accountable: A Framework For Transcending B*llshit and Transforming Our Lives and Work, (foreword by Brené Brown) leadership coach Aiko Bethea lays out a framework for transforming conflict into personal growth. For Fast Company, Brené Brown sat down with Aiko Bethea to discuss the cornerstones of the framework and how applying it can change our lives. Brené Brown: Your Anchored, Aligned and Accountable Framework, has completely shi…