Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

When people talk about how AI might reshape media, the term “hyper-personalization” comes up a lot. In broad terms, it means that AI can tailor the experience around your preferences—assuming it has enough data about you. To some extent, algorithms and ad tech have been doing this for years, recommending links and stories based on your clicks and browsing behavior. What generative AI brings to the table is the ability to adapt the content itself. A large language model could, in theory, understand the kinds of stories I care about and modify what I’m reading—maybe by adding an angle relevant to my region. It could even offer up different lengths or even formats. If I’…

Hiring professionals who see countless job applications every year begin to notice patterns of red flags that can instantly disqualify a candidate. Here, experts share their thoughts on the most commonly made mistakes. Avoid the White Fonting Trick Surprisingly, many candidates still use the “white fonting” tactic on their résumés. This practice stems from an outdated piece of advice that has spread over time: include extra keywords or copy the entire job description, reduce the font size, and change the color to white. The intention is to make the text invisible to the eye but still detectable by applicant tracking systems. It’s essentially an attempt to game the …

Workers without college degrees have, for some time, faced declining opportunities in the workforce. However, new data signals that this may be changing, a sign that hiring managers are less focused on educational attainment and more focused on skills than they were in years past. That’s according to new research from Opportunity@Work, a nonprofit focused on increasing career opportunities for workers who lack college degrees but are “skilled through alternative routes,” aka “STARs.” The research, which analyzed trends in so-called paper ceilings, finds that between the years of 2000 and 2020, 70% of newly created jobs often required a college degree. However…

On Main Street in the village of Freeville, New York, on a 2.8-acre lot where a dilapidated single-family house once stood, there are now a dozen tiny storybook-like cottages surrounded by the property’s pine trees. The development, completed last year, is helping bring new life to the village. It’s one example of what’s possible when towns don’t have overly restrictive zoning. It’s charming. The design encourages neighbors to know one other. And it offers housing for far more people on the same amount of land. The project is the third tiny house village in the region from a local developer, Bruno Schickel. His career started as a typical general contractor—he bui…

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. Building a resilient technology company is hard. Building one that can withstand constant policy change is another level of hard. Right now, companies across sectors—not just fintech—are staring down government and regulatory shifts happening faster than most orgs can process, let alone implement. For industries like financial technology, where regulatory changes directly impact how produc…

When my emergency IAR app sounds at 3 a.m., there’s no room for ego, second-guessing, or hesitation. In that critical moment, all that matters is trust, teamwork, and execution. While I have spent decades in the corporate world, some of my most valuable leadership lessons have come from my experience as a volunteer EMS first responder. In the field, when I’m assisting in a life-threatening trauma situation or responding to a car accident, leadership is put to the test under extreme pressure. But whether I’m piloting an ambulance on a dark highway or guiding my company through turbulent times, the principles remain the same: Know your role, remove the noise, maint…

A jury in Georgia has ordered Monsanto parent Bayer to pay nearly $2.1 billion in damages to a man who says the company’s Roundup weed killer caused his cancer, according to attorneys representing the plaintiff. The verdict marks the latest in a long-running series of court battles Monsanto has faced over its Roundup herbicide. The agrochemical giant says it will appeal the verdict, reached in a Georgia courtroom late Friday, in efforts to overturn the decision. The penalties awarded include $65 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages, law firms Arnold & Itkin LLP and Kline & Specter PC said in a statement. That marks one of the larges…

In recent months, the New York City subway system has seen a string of shocking and deadly incidents of violence, including several passengers who have been shoved from the platform into the paths of moving trains. A recent report finds that misdemeanor and felony assaults within the subway system have tripled since 2009. For everyday riders and visitors alike, there is now a lurking fear that their next trip on the subway could be dangerous. Many, including the governor of New York, are seeking solutions, which range from adding more police presence to increasing surveillance to installing more lighting to combatting fare evasion. But there’s another approach that co…

The year is 2014, and I’m stuck in Ukraine. I have a particularly antsy mother who wasn’t keen on me visiting the country just weeks into Russia’s attempted invasion, and she is expecting me back home. In Odessa—hundreds of miles away from the Maidan and the nascent conflict—the worst example of war I’d seen was a heated snowball battle between those who wanted to remain Ukrainian and those who wanted to be Russian. The reason I’m stuck has nothing to do with Russia: It’s bad fog grounding flights at the tin hut airport I’m due to fly out of. But with no reliable phone communication back home, I know my family will put two and two together and make five. The probl…

Being the great-grandson of the French artist Henri Matisse can be complicated. Alex Matisse grew up in the Northeastern United States, and being a Matisse meant being immersed in art. It’s what his family talked about at the dinner table; the walls of his home were full of paintings usually seen only in museums. By the time he was in elementary school, Alex could recite his great-grandfather’s most notable works, like La Danse and the Nu Bleu series. Like many of the Matisse children, Alex had artistic inclinations. Throughout his school years, he thrived in art classes, and in fourth grade he fell in love with pottery in an after-school program. But when Alex be…

Many companies are acutely aware that a notable portion of their workers are struggling with burnout. The data makes that much clear: A Mercer report from last year found that 82% of workers said they were at risk of burnout. In another study conducted by the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Ipsos, over half of the workers surveyed said they had experienced burnout because of their job in 2023. Even so, it seems that employers may be underestimating just how widespread burnout really is among the workforce. A new report by the online marketplace Care.com indicates that while the vast majority of companies surveyed—84%—know that burnout can noticeably impact ret…

Over the last century of glorious, tragic, turbulent, and innovative human endeavour, the cover of the New Yorker magazine has used only the illustrated image to communicate talking points of American—and specifically New York City—life and culture. Beyond the masthead and issue date, no set typography has ever been allowed, maintaining a unique wordless space in magazine publishing where only an image connotes the idea. The absence of copy is arresting, the silent core of what the solely visual can communicate. Though notably, the majority of weekly sales are by subscription, not impulse buys. There are few of the New Yorker’s 1925 newsstand contemporaries left. …

Walgreens has agreed to pay up to $350 million in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, who accused the pharmacy of illegally filling millions of prescriptions in the last decade for opioids and other controlled substances. The nationwide drugstore chain must pay the government at least $300 million and will owe another $50 million if the company is sold, merged, or transferred before 2032, according to the settlement reached last Friday. The government’s complaint, filed in January in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleges that Walgreens knowingly filled millions of illegal prescriptions for controlled substances between Augu…

Fun fact: The saying “work smarter, not harder” is coming up on its 100th birthday. Coined in the 1930s by industrial engineer Allen Morgenstern, this simple, pithy directive is arguably more achievable today than ever before. Thanks to generative AI chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude, it’s never been easier to quickly create text, images, code, and more. Here are few practical ways you can leverage them to power up your productivity. Create content If you spend any time crafting marketing copy, drafting emails, outlining blog posts, or even brainstorming ideas, generative AI tools can save you an incredible amount of tim…

Those who work a 9-to-5 know nabbing one of the few available weekend slots with your hairdresser or nail technician requires a huge amount of forethought. Or how time-consuming it can be to get your oil changed, buy your groceries, or wait in line at the post office. The two-day weekend is simply too short to squeeze in all the errands and life admin that builds up throughout the week. So rather than wasting precious leisure time—or worse, PTO—some workers are going ahead and scheduling their appointments on company time. “A little reminder to everyone who works in corporate that no one at work actually needs to know what your appointments are for,” one viral T…

Every year, millions of Muslims take part in observing Ramadan: a spiritual month dedicated to cleansing the soul and spirit, hallmarked by the practice of fasting. This means that for 30 days, from sunrise to sunset, practitioners abstain from eating food and drinking water, only breaking their fast once the sun disappears in their respective geolocation—a time that shifts up or down depending on the season. Yep, not even water. As someone who observes Ramadan, every year I am both amused and baffled by the awkwardness that surrounds the month in the workplace. Inquiries about what fasting entails are far and few, whether out of fear of disrespect, uncertainty, …

On the first Saturday of May, millions of Americans tune in to the Kentucky Derby to watch horses and their jockeys compete on the Churchill Downs racetrack in America’s longest-running sporting event. The Derby has been held annually on the same racetrack since 1875; it’s an event largely built on tradition. Horse racing viewers tend to skew older, but this year, Churchill Downs is looking to modernize the event for new viewers by embracing old traditions while also introducing brand partnerships that appeal to Generation Z. Casey Ramage, Churchill Downs’ vice president of marketing, brand, and partnerships, says the Kentucky Derby is a “cultural moment” for eve…

Norman Foster has always treated technology as a form of expression. As one of the pioneers of high-tech architecture (along with his friend and colleague Richard Rogers), his buildings celebrate exposed structure, advanced engineering, and machine-age style. Think of the flashy steel trusses and tension rods of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank headquarters, the transparent spirals of the Reichstag dome in Berlin, or the diagonal frame of the elliptical Gherkin in London. His latest project, dubbed the Gateway to Venice’s Waterway, recently unveiled at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, extends that tradition into electric mobility. Developed with Porsche and the …

The Netherlands expanded a government-run initiative on Monday allowing legal cannabis sales. While growing cannabis is still illegal, cannabis shops—known as coffeeshops—in 10 municipalities will be allowed to sell marijuana from 10 licensed producers. “Weed was sold here legally for 50 years, but the production was never legal. So it’s finally time to end that crazy, unexplainable situation and make it a legal professional sector,” Rick Bakker, commercial director at Hollandse Hoogtes, one of the regulated producers, told the Associated Press. Some 80 coffeeshops are taking part in the experiment which advocates hope this will ultimately end a long-standing …

Big Lots continues to trickle back to life after a bankruptcy last year that was widely expected to lead to its demise. The discount retailer will see another 54 store reopenings at the beginning of next month, according to Variety Wholesalers, the North Carolina-based retail company that has taken control of hundreds of Big Lots leases. These “second wave” store openings will span 12 states across the South and Midwest, a Variety spokesperson shared with Fast Company. The stores are expected to open on Thursday, May 1. What happened to the original Big Lots? After suffering declining sales and foot traffic for years, Big Lots filed for Chapter 11 b…

It is hard to believe that in 2025, we are still dialing to schedule doctor appointments, get referrals, refill prescriptions, confirm office hours and addresses, and handle many other healthcare tasks. In fact, I created Zocdoc nearly 20 years ago to help patients avoid the dysfunctional phone experience and schedule appointments online. But I must confess that I have to pick up the phone sometimes, too—and I dread it. I am not alone. According to a recent survey my company conducted, most Americans say they dread calling their doctor about as much as they dread getting a shot. At best, it is an inconvenience. At worst, the phone is a barrier to care and a wildly ine…

For some, Microsoft Teams is a necessary evil: the modern day equivalent of an ever-ringing desk phone. But the fact is that in many organizations, it’s become an essential tool for communication and collaboration. And as long as you’re using it, you might as well transform your Microsoft Teams experience from simply functional to truly powerful. Here are some quick tricks you should be using to get the most out of Microsoft Teams. Slash your way around the interface Slash commands save you time by providing quick access to frequently used features. Simply type a forward slash (/) in the search box at the top of the screen and a list of available co…

Want to watch history being preserved in real-time? The Internet Archive, the digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts, has started live streaming on YouTube from its scanning center in California for anyone to watch. Monday through Friday, from 10:30 a.m. ET to 6:30 p.m. ET, viewers can tune in and watch live as fragile film cards are turned into searchable public documents, soundtracked to relaxing lo-fi beats. This work is part of Democracy’s Library, a global initiative to digitize and make publicly available millions of government records. “This livestream shines a light on the unsung work of preserving the public record, and the cri…