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The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. The economy is something of a rollercoaster and consumer behavior is shifting just as fast. From fluctuating costs to changing shopping habits, today’s market represents a real opportunity to support transformation for brands. As trusted marketing partners, our role isn’t to predict what’s next but to help clients confidently navigate the complexity, adapt with agility, and stay closely attuned to wh…

California-based seafood manufacturer Tri-Union Seafoods has issued a voluntary recall of select canned tuna products due to a potential contamination risk from Clostridium botulinum, a bacteria that can cause serious and potentially fatal food poisoning. The recall follows a supplier notification that a manufacturing defect in the “easy open” pull-tab lids may compromise the product’s seal, leading to leaks or contamination over time. While no illnesses have been reported, Tri-Union say it’s taking precautionary measures to ensure consumer safety. Which products were impacted? The recalled tuna products were distributed across multiple retailers nation…

Severance is a set design wonderland. From a massive mirrored corporate monolith in New Jersey to a classical train station in upstate New York, the show’s distinctive visual language—which has captivated audiences and critics alike—relies on actual places that have been carefully chosen to mess with your head. These aren’t just random pretty buildings. They’re psychological weapons that connect the dots in the same way the writers weave the tapestry of the tale. Severance follows a group of humans that go through a procedure to separate their (outie) real lives from their (innie) corporate bees working for a mysterious industrial conglomerate call Lumon, effectively tu…

For many new mothers, one of the most mysterious and elusive parts of breastfeeding is the latch. While some babies’ mouths manage to automatically make an airtight seal around their mother’s nipple, others can have difficulties, or physical impediments, that make achieving good suction and proper nursing almost impossible. One solution care providers have offered is the nipple shield, a cuplike perforated silicone device that fits on top of a mother’s nipple and areola and improves the way babies make their latch. It’s typically a short-term method for addressing issues ranging from tongue-ties to flat nipples to engorgement. The problem with nipple shields—and even for…

Last weekend, when Puck announced that the sustainable fashion startup Everlane had been acquired by the Chinese ultra fast fashion retailer Shein, it sent shockwaves throughout the fashion world. Michael Preysman, who founded Everlane in 2011, was just as shocked. “I found out the same time as everyone else,” he said in a LinkedIn post a week ago. “I’m not involved with the company anymore, and like many, am still digesting the news.” Well, Preysman is done digesting. And it seems that he’s ready to do something about it. Preysman just announced stillradical.com, a new venture that we know little about other than the bare bones website it launched with. The…

Spring is just around the corner, ushering in new growth, brighter days, and the heady anticipation of summer. For those of us with sizable screen time, spring’s arrival also means that the dreary weather is no longer an excuse for spending hours doomscrolling TikTok and Instagram Reels until our eyes glaze over. And now there’s an app that can help you feel like it’s spring year-round. Rhys Kentish is a senior software engineer at the London-based app design firm Brightec. He’s spent the past four months building an app that makes users literally touch grass before they can open social media. “I was sick and tired of my reflex in the morning being to reach for my…

2026 may still be more than seven months away, but it’s already shaping up as the year of consumer AI hardware. Or at least the year of a flurry of high-stakes attempts to put generative AI at the heart of new kinds of devices—several of which were in the news this week. Let’s review. On Tuesday, at its I/O developer conference keynote, Google demonstrated smart glasses powered by its Android XR platform and announced that eyewear makers Warby Parker and Gentle Monster would be selling products based on it. The next day, OpenAI unveiled its $6.5 billion acquisition of Jony Ive’s startup IO, which will put the Apple design legend at the center of the ChatGPT maker’s quest…

In the business world, advertisers are the stunt performers. Our fragmented media and pop cultural landscape has forced brands to really push stunts into the weird and wonderful. Whether it’s Snoop threatening to give up smoking, Ben Affleck working a Dunkin’ drive-thru, or a devil baby terrorizing the streets of New York. Meanwhile in Hollywood, the stunt performers are the ones who actually pull off the death-defying action that can make us gasp. They’re a breath of IRL fresh air in a world blanketed by visual-effects technology. Now, for the biggest night in entertainment, these two worlds converge for a pretty epic stunt by both worlds’ definition. Disney Advertisin…

U.S. consumers often pay more for gluten-free products, yet these items typically provide less protein and more sugar and calories compared with gluten-containing alternatives. That is the key finding of my new study, published in the journal Plant Foods for Human Nutrition. This study compared gluten-free products with their gluten-containing counterparts, and the findings suggested that many perceived benefits of gluten-free products—such as weight control and diabetes management—are exaggerated. Currently, many gluten-free products lack dietary fiber, protein, and essential nutrients. Manufacturers often add supplements to compensate, but the incorporation of d…

The death of downtown is now a familiar refrain. Central business districts (CBDs) in cities around the world—once bustling centers of office work—were hit hard by the pandemic and the shift to remote work, leading many to predict they would never fully recover. But instead of demise, downtowns are being reinvented. And Tokyo is leading the way. Traditional downtown business districts in cities around the world were defined and dominated by vertical towers where legions of white-collar professionals and support staff were stacked in isolated office buildings. The world’s largest metropolitan area is pioneering a new model where the city itself increasingly takes on func…

This jacket grows on trees. Vollebak, a London-based experimental clothing lab, has released a prototype garment made out of timber panels overlaid on a fabric interior. The long-sleeve hooded men’s Wooden Jacket is a feat of fashion design, turning a stiff material into pliable and stylish outerwear. Once it becomes available, the jacket will sell for $3,295. For now, there’s a waiting list “while we grow them,” Vollebak says. [Photo: Sun Lee/Vollebak] The jacket is par for the course for Vollebak, which experiments with sustainable materials to make its unlikely apparel. The company has also designed an antiviral jacket made from copper, a decomposable ho…

It’s inevitable that you’ll experience a slow period as a freelancer. No matter how long you’ve been at it, you’ll be faced with lulls from time to time where opportunities are coming in less frequently or not at all. Sometimes it’s not about you: Certain types of projects are impacted by seasonality, budget cycles, and economic conditions. But other times, you could be the reason the engagements are starting to taper off, whether you’ve not staying up to date in your field or the competition is outpacing you. To get out of these slumps, and prevent them from happening often, be intentional about what you’re doing during these slow stretches. Reframe your mindset I’ve …

You’re mid-sentence in a meeting, sharing an idea or outlining a strategy you’ve been thinking through for weeks—then it happens. Someone jumps in, cuts you off, and shifts the conversation. You fade out while they take the spotlight. It’s frustrating—but even more so when it’s subtle. Maybe you weren’t shouted over, but you were redirected, ignored, or sidelined. Over time, it takes a toll on confidence, clarity, and leadership presence. So how do you know it’s happening—and how do you stop it? Here are five signs you’re being talked over in meetings, plus practical strategies to reclaim your voice and authority. 1. You’re constantly “circling back” to what y…

Efforts to hollow out the federal workforce by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have resulted in a dramatic rise in layoff announcements. The latest monthly data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows that employers in the United States announced more than 172,000 layoffs during February, which was an increase of 245% from January and the highest monthly total since mid-2020, during the pandemic. Further, it was the highest number of layoffs for the month of February since 2009, in the middle of the financial crisis and subsequent Great Recession, when more than 186,000 layoffs were announced. So far, through the first two mo…

Nothing strikes fear in a leader’s heart more than an upcoming announcement. Yet big changes and announcements are the turning point for many organizations. Whether its layoffs, acquisitions, launches, or reorganizations, the pressure to “get it right” is real. Company performance, team morale, retention, and public image are all on the line. Unfortunately, most leaders rely on advisers and experts when it comes to how, when, and what to communicate. Well-meaning attorneys, publicists, or CFOs typically water down the message, and the company ends up with something that is factual but uninspiring. Oftentimes, that message is also ambiguous with no plan, next steps, or in…

The Girl Scouts have been sued by consumers over the alleged presence of “heavy metals” and pesticides in its popular Thin Mints and other cookies. A proposed class action lawsuit was filed on Monday night in federal court in the New York City borough of Brooklyn against the 113-year-old nonprofit and the cookies’ licensed producers, ABC Bakers and Ferrero USA’s Little Brownie Bakers. It cited a December 2024 study commissioned by GMO Science and Moms Across America that tested samples of 25 cookies from three U.S. states. The study said Girl Scout cookies contained at least four of five heavy metals – aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury – that can ha…

Tech founder and provocateur Travis Kalanick made millions betting on key parts of the young adult lifestyle with Uber (transportation) and dining (ghost kitchen startup CloudKitchens). Can he hit a trifecta with a bet on tech-focused, community-driven apartments? Kalanick has partnered with Oliver Ripley, founder of the luxury hospitality company Habitas, to launch Sekra, a bid to tackle the massive multifamily housing market with a firm that will focus on building and managing upscale rental apartments. It’s a market that’s sure to grow: Ripley estimates 80% of people younger than 40 globally rent, and that’s only going to increase as stubborn housing affordability im…

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. Carter G. Woodson is the reason we celebrate Black history this month, and every February. Not many people know him, but he was a scholar, a journalist, and an activist who decided in the early 1900s to document how formerly enslaved Africans and the broader African diaspora contributed to the prosperity and growth of this country and beyond. At the time, our nation’s narrative assu…

The first thing anyone will notice about the new electric pickup from Telo Trucks is its compact form. Snubnosed and sporty, the five-seater has a bed the size of a typical pickup but an overall footprint the size of a Mini Cooper. When it goes into production next year, it will offer a radical counterpoint to the gargantuan trucks that dominate the U.S. automobile market. Today, Telo is unveiling the first drivable preproduction model of its new truck, the MT1, and Fast Company has an exclusive look at the innovations inside the truck that make its seemingly impossible size possible. [Image: Telo]The key to the Telo truck’s interior design efficiency is its focus on what…

With its goofy block lettering and bright colors, the MetroCard feels like a relic, which it sort of is—an early 1990s design, complete with gradients and drop shadows, that’s managed to stick around long enough to become one of New York’s defining symbols. At a time when generic minimalism and the sheen of AI-generated graphics have taken over, its unmistakable graphics feel refreshing. And the fact that a 31-year-old fare payment system is still in circulation when most tech today becomes obsolete in a matter of months is a remarkable achievement. But the end is near: on December 31st, the MTA will stop selling MetroCards and completely phase them out on an imminent d…

Leaders today are stretched to the breaking point. Many managers enter their roles wanting to coach and care for their teams. But in today’s workplace, that vision is colliding with a lengthening list of competing pressures: performance metrics, shifting workplace norms, and the unrelenting emotional labor of guiding teams through crisis after crisis. As one manager told me, “I want to be an empathetic leader and support my team, but we still have to make the numbers. Mostly, I just stay later myself.” Another admitted, “Last year I ended up in the hospital.” Newly released workplace data from Gallup reflects this worrying reality. In 2024, global engagement declined f…

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. Last June, global architecture and design firm Gensler named Elizabeth Brink and Jordan Goldstein as co-CEOs, succeeding Andy Cohen and Diane Hoskins, who jointly led the company for nearly 20 years. Though some U.S. companies, including Netflix, Zola, and Warby Parker, have two chief exe…

Michelle Obama and her brother, Craig Robinson, will host a new weekly podcast series starting this month featuring a special guest pulled from the world of entertainment, sports, health and business. “IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson” will address “everyday questions shaping our lives, relationships and the world around us,” according to a press release. IMO is slang for “in my opinion.” Some of the guests slated to speak to the former first lady and Robinson, the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, include the actors Issa Rae and Keke Palmer and psychologist Dr. Orna Guralnik. Other guests include filmmakers Seth…

Struggling chipmaker Intel has hired former board member and semiconductor industry veteran Lip-Bu Tan as the latest in a succession of CEOs to attempt to turn around a once-dominant company that helped define Silicon Valley. Tan, 65, will take over the daunting job next Tuesday, more than three months after Intel’s previous CEO, Pat Gelsinger, abruptly retired amid a deepening downturn that triggered massive layoffs and raised questions about the chipmaker’s ability to survive as an independent company. This won’t be Tan’s first time running a semiconductor company, nor his first association with Intel. He spent more than a decade as CEO of Cadence Design Systems, whic…