Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

If you’re feeling anxious about AI right now, you’re not alone. It’s reasonable to wonder whether AI will soon be able to do a lot of what we used to think of as human work. As of now, this technology has already shown some degree of promise for all of the following very human psychological skills: diagnosing diseases, writing code, summarizing and teaching information, predicting markets, brainstorming, product design, project management, coaching, and much more. We probably all know some optimists who think AI will be merely an efficiency tool that gets you 80% there and humans will still be needed for the other 20%. But even in a scenario like that, some current j…

Many schools and colleges are underperforming when it comes to sex education. Going beyond the classroom condoms-and-bananas approach, a group of students have taken it upon themselves to deliver sex ed, TikTok-style. The TikTok account @sexedforguys, which has more than 117,000 followers, started as a school project by four students at Colby College, a private liberal arts school in Maine. Launched in 2022, the account features skits tackling consent, toxic masculinity, and homophobia—essential lessons in a time when manosphere content is flooding For You Pages and Gen Z boys and men are more likely than baby boomers to believe that feminism has done more harm than …

Almost half of Americans have considered or plan to move abroad to improve their happiness, according to a Harris poll published today. Specifically, the poll found that four in 10 Americans have at least thought about leaving the country within the next few years. And among Gen Z and millennials, almost one in five respondents reported “seriously considering” an imminent move. The results show that Americans are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the “American Dream” as the cost of essentials like rent, healthcare, and education continues to rise. Here are three main takeaways from the poll: Home ownership and cost of living are top of mind Per…

The color of your house matters beyond aesthetics. An extensive body of research shows that painting buildings white (which reflects heat) can make them cooler, and painting them black (which absorbs heat) can make them warmer. This is the reason why most houses in Greece are white, and many houses across Scandinavia are black. But what about the rest of the world, where temperatures often shift with the seasons? Industrial designer Joe Doucet has developed what he calls a “climate-adaptive” paint that can change colors based on the temperature outside. The patent-pending formula, which is known as thermochromic paint, follows the same principle as 90s mood rings. Except …

Unless you’re at the very top of the food chain in your organization, you report to someone. And that manager is important for your career success. They will evaluate your performance, give you feedback and mentoring, greenlight ideas, and provide support elsewhere in the organization for things you’re doing. Because of all the roles that a supervisor plays for you, it can be stressful when a new person steps in, or you get promoted and start reporting to someone new. There are several ways you can make this transition easier and lay the groundwork for a fruitful relationship with your new boss: Be mindful of the firehose When your supervisor is replaced w…

Influencing has a major pay gap, and it’s not what you might expect. A new report from Collabstr, based on over 15,000 influencer collaborations using first-party data, reveals a surprising disparity: male creators earn 40% more per collaboration than female creators—$291 compared to $208 on average. This gap persists despite women making up the majority of the content creator space. In 2024, 72% of influencers are women, up from 70% in 2023. These two facts are connected. The report, which focused predominantly on nano and micro-influencers, suggests that female creators are paid less largely due to the sheer number of women in the industry. Oversaturation d…

At least 112 North American bird species have lost more than half their populations in the past 50 years, according to a new report published Thursday. Among the birds showing the steepest declines are Allen’s hummingbirds, Florida scrub jays, golden-cheeked warblers, tricolored blackbirds and yellow-billed magpies. “These are the very real consequences if we are unable to conserve and protect the crucial habitats that birds need,” said study co-author Mike Brasher, a senior scientist at the nonprofit Ducks Unlimited. For several decades, waterfowl stood out as a conservation bright spot with duck populations growing nationwide even as many other groups of bir…

All live poultry markets in New York City and some of its suburbs were ordered Friday to close for a week after the detection of seven cases of avian flu, which has also hit farms nationwide, led to the slaughter of millions of birds and driven up egg prices. Gov. Kathy Hochul said there is no immediate threat to public health and that the temporary closure of bird markets in the city and its Westchester County and Long Island suburbs comes out of an abundance of caution. No cases of avian flu have been detected among humans in New York, officials said. The order came after birds infected with the virus were found during routine inspections of live bird markets in…

After nearly 40 years providing decor for countless birthdays across the United States, Party City is entering its final days of operations. And as the company’s last storefronts close their doors, competitors including Five Below and Dollar Tree are vying to move in for majorly discounted prices. Party City filed for bankruptcy twice—first in 2023 and again this past December—before ultimately announcing at the end of 2024 that it could not recover its losses and would be permanently shutting down its 800 locations. In a memo sent to employees at the time, the company listed February 28 as its last day of operations (though, since then, some Redditors have noted exte…

We live in a world that seems to get busier and busier! Not only do we have our daily work tasks but we also have more meetings, longer commutes, and more interactions with more people in more locations than at any time in the history of work. In addition to the many real and present external distractions, there are also internal obstacles to great listening. Our internal worlds can be loud. At times, they are a blaring noise of emotion, attitude, and motives that can make it impossible for us to give others our full attention. As two positive psychology experts, we’ve identified six of the most common internal barriers that can interfere with your ability to listen …

Otter, the AI-powered meeting assistant and transcription service, is introducing a new AI agent capable of answering spoken questions from meeting participants in real time. The AI can also perform tasks like scheduling follow-up meetings and assigning action items to the meeting record stored on Otter’s platform. When responding to questions, it can draw on both publicly available information for quick research queries and knowledge gained from previous company meetings. The AI will only provide answers based on meeting records that all current participants have permission to view, ensuring confidential information remains protected. [Image: Otter]The tool can also be c…

The workplace AI narrative has been dominated by fears of human replacement. But forward-thinking leaders are discovering AI’s real power: helping employees become more human, not less. Shifting from workplaces of human doings to a collective of activated human beings. And while AI can absolutely help eliminate busywork, opening employees’ time for more impactful work and meaningful progress, its impact can go far beyond productivity. In fact, having studied power shifts in modern workplaces for many years, I think the companies that will thrive moving forward will focus more on using these tools to improve employee well-being. Smart leaders should approach AI i…

TikTok’s U.S. operations are now managed by a new American joint venture, ending a long-standing debate over whether the app would be permanently banned in the United States. The good news for TikTok users is that this deal guarantees that the app will continue to operate within America’s borders. But there’s some bad news, too. Successive U.S. administrations—both Biden’s and The President’s—argued that TikTok posed a national security threat to America and its citizens, partly because of the data the app collected about them. While all social media apps collect data about their users, officials argued that TikTok’s data collection was a danger (while, say, Face…

Jason Momoa is a tough act to follow. Especially if you’re a Guinness marketer. Last year, the brand partnered with Momoa to direct and star in a U.S. spot for his favorite beer that ended up getting 13 billion impressions. So this year, Guinness decided to celebrate an even more valuable partner—its actual customers and fans. For the newest iteration of the long-running “Lovely Day for a Guinness” tagline—first rolled out in a 1935 ad campaign—the brand collected stories from customers across all 50 states. Among the stories is the Treme Brass Brand in New Orleans, who share pints of Guinness before taking the stage. The Chicago Plumbers Union are in ther…

The end of the year is the perfect time to take stock of where you are, what you’re good at, and what you want to develop in the new year. The job market continues to be intense and competitive, so you’re wise to consider hiring trends and how you can best prepare and set yourself apart. There is one skill that tops the list for getting the job, building your career, and becoming indispensable: resilience. Resilience has many forms. At a general level, resilience is about adaptability, flexibility, and responsiveness to multiple situations. But when you consider it through a few lenses, it brings terrific focus to what you must be wicked good at for the brightes…

We’re facing a career confidence crisis. Work is changing fast, yet many employees feel stuck. At LinkedIn, our data shows workforce confidence has dropped to a five-year low, and only 15% of employees say their manager has supported them with career planning in the past six months. Managers can play a big role in righting the ship—helping employees build the new skills they need to stay relevant and develop into future leaders. But this requires a fundamental shift: transforming them from task-overseers to coaches developing talent and sparking the best ideas from their teams. There are some key steps any company can take now to develop a culture of coaching that starts…

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here. OpenAI says it will release an open-source model–but why now? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Monday that his company intends to release a “powerful new open-weight language model with reasoning” in the next few months. That would mark a major shift for a company that has kept its models proprietary and secret since 2019. The announcement wasn’t a total surprise: After the groundbreaking Chinese open-source model DeepSeek-R1 showed up in January, Altman said during a Reddit AMA that he realized…

As the Super Bowl clock ticked just below three minutes left in the game, Eagles wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith picked up the giant Gatorade cooler, snuck behind head coach Nick Sirianni on the sideline, and hit him with the traditional shower celebration. It was probably one of the best ads of the Super Bowl, and it wasn’t even a commercial. And yet, it still told a story about how close the ties are between this brand and one of the most significant moments in sports. This year, Gatorade celebrates its 60th anniversary since Dr. James Cade first concocted his formula to keep the Florida Gators football team hydrated. Gatorade chief brand of…

For 40 years, Cisco has been best known for building routers, switches, and other networking technology that connects computers within offices, data centers, and across the internet. Cisco’s also a software business, known for its cybersecurity products and familiar applications like the conferencing and communications platform Webex. And last year, the company announced the $28 billion acquisition of big data company Splunk, part of Cisco’s growing role in powering data-driven AI technology. Cisco also last year named Jeetu Patel as executive vice president and chief product officer, with the goal of breaking down barriers within the company as it bets big on providin…

How did you get to this article? Maybe you opened a link in an email, or you navigated from the Fast Company home page. Perhaps you Googled “agentic AI” and this figured in the results. The point is, you almost certainly clicked, scrolled, tapped, or typed your way here, because that’s the digital grammar that shapes nearly every online experience. But that 30-year-old paradigm is about to change. Agentic AI is ripping up the rulebook, by creating a new layer of intelligent, autonomous mediation between us and the digital world. Personal shopping agents will handle routine purchases, while in the workplace, agents will automate workflows and streamline procurement. Inve…

In early February, the 22-year-old design brand Areaware announced it will close on May 1 citing tariffs and “mounting pressures on the home goods industry” in a letter posted to its Instagram account. “Every product we’ve made has been an act of optimism—a belief that good design can make our world a little better,” the letter said. “Lately though, our world has been making that difficult for us to do.” It’s been a challenging few months for good design brands. In December, Food52, the parent company of Schoolhouse and Dansk, declared bankruptcy; earlier in February, it was stripped for parts and sold at auction. While Areaware and Food52 don’t share the exact same bus…

I like to say that I spend most of my life negotiating—and if you consider your own work and life, you just might feel the same. My career has been full of back-and-forth: I sat across tables negotiating agreements for Christie’s for over two decades as Global Managing Director of Strategic Partnerships; I stand on stages around the world as a charity auctioneer, negotiating prices up to maximize fundraising; and I founded a talent agency that requires me to negotiate pay and conditions on behalf of my clients. To top it all off, I’m a mom of three kids. Over the years, I have listened to many people unknowingly sink their own negotiations with a mistake as simple as…

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. Taking the first step towards a new future for your organization can be a daunting effort—but for professional services organizations, the time is now. With 70% of organizations planning to track office attendance in 2025, the corporate real estate landscape is primed for potential. Leaders must fully capitalize on the seismic shifts in the new standard of in-office work and use their spaces to enhanc…