Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

In Melinda French Gates’s new book, The Next Day, she illuminates the importance of knowing “the story that you are writing for yourself.” After turning 60, leaving The Gates Foundation, and beginning a new chapter in her philanthropy, I was curious about the story that she is authoring. What are French Gates’s new dreams? “My new dreams are to lift women up generationally,” she says. “So, the world is different when my granddaughters enter the workforce. There are barriers that we need to break down, things about women’s health that we should be exploring, and opportunities that are more limited for women. I would love for many of those things to be easier for my gr…

“We don’t just follow orders or system prompts,” says Baratunde Thurston, host of Life with Machines—a YouTube podcast exploring the human side of AI. “We can change our own programming,” he continued. “We can choose a higher goal.” As a host, writer, and speaker, Thurston examines society’s most pressing challenges—from race to democracy, climate to technology—through the lens of interdependence. In addition to Life with Machines, he is the host and executive producer of America Outdoors, creator and host of the podcast How to Citizen, and a writer and founding partner at Puck. In each pursuit, he invites us to cocreate “a better story of us”—to choose a higher goa…

Hollywood loves a sequel. And it turns out, Burger King loves them too. For the third consecutive year, the fast-food operator is debuting a limited-time menu tied to a big box film, this time How to Train Your Dragon, ahead of the live-action film based on Universal Pictures film that will be released in June. Beginning May 27, Burger King will start selling a new red-and-orange marble colored Whopper and Dragon-inspired mozzarella fries, strawberry lemonade, and a chocolate sundae, all taking inspiration from a franchise that has grossed more than $1.6 billion at the global box office and earned four Academy Award nominations. Burger King says the partnersh…

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued a warning that more than a million taxpayers are still eligible to receive a share of more than $1 billion in refunds—but they need to act quickly. Here’s what you need to know. Over $1 billion in refunds still to be claimed The refunds are due to people who have yet to file their 2021 tax return. The IRS says the total potential value of the refunds still to be claimed is estimated to be $1,025,336,800. As many as 1,142,000 taxpayers are eligible for part of that payout and the median refund amount is estimated to be $781 per taxpayer, the agency says. That means half of the people who are due refunds will receive…

Pope Francis will be laid to rest Saturday after lying in state for three days in St. Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met Tuesday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10 a.m. in St. Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re. U.S. President Donald The President said he and…

You’ve probably heard AI is coming for many of our jobs. But how would you feel about getting a medical diagnosis from an AI doctor? Would you trust a verdict delivered by an AI judge? A new study of 10,000 people in 20 countries, including the United States, India, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and China, found when it comes to artificial intelligence replacing human jobs, people are most concerned about AI replacing doctors and judges, and least concerned about AI replacing journalists. The findings, published in American Psychologist by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, focused on the study participants’ attitudes to AI taking over six occupations: doctors…

Small changes in routines can create significant improvements in how much gets accomplished in a day. Here, experts share 15 practical habits that can boost productivity and lead to better results in your work and personal life. Plan Your Week Every Friday Afternoon One small habit that’s made the biggest long-term difference in my productivity is making a plan every Friday for the coming week. Most people start their Mondays feeling behind before they’ve even begun. Their inbox dictates their day, and they spend valuable energy reacting instead of leading. I used to do the same thing—until I started ending each week with a simple Friday planning ritual. Be…

In a perfect world, workplaces would be environments of mutual respect, open communication, and fair treatment. Unfortunately, that’s not always the reality. Whether you’re dealing with a micromanaging boss, a dismissive colleague, or a workplace culture that undervalues your contributions, knowing how to assert yourself is essential to avoiding burnout and developing as a professional. Standing up for yourself doesn’t mean becoming combative or aggressive. Instead, it’s about cultivating confidence, setting boundaries, and advocating for your worth. Here’s how to grow a backbone at work while maintaining professionalism and integrity. Recognize your value This…

Amazon leaned into the advertising funnel in a big way during its 2025 Upfront event at the Beacon Theater in New York City on Monday night. Perhaps the most notable product enhancement the company unveiled was the use of AI to generate contextual advertising on its Prime Video platform—meaning that ads can and will be created on the fly, using AI, depending on the specific scene of a TV show or movie that is on the screen at any given time. For instance, if a viewer is watching a scene involving a loving phone call between a mother and daughter, pausing the show could result in an ad for mobile phone service, with AI-generated text dynamically created, right the…

Fans of the discount retail chain Big Lots will be happy to know that the company is just days away from making the second phase of its comeback. On Thursday, May 1, Big Lots will reopen an additional 54 stores, followed by another 78 stores two weeks later on May 15. Here’s what you need to know about the company’s continued retail revival, including which locations will be opening again soon. Big Lots back from the brink Back in September 2024, Big Lots filed for bankruptcy. Like many big box discount retailers, Big Lots had struggled from falling foot traffic and declining sales for years. In December 2024, the company announced it would go out of business a…

Stalking, but with a side of Dr Pepper? A number of streamers in Japan have recently had run-ins with a mysterious stream sniper known only as the Dr Pepper Guy. As Dexerto first reported, after tracking down streamers in random locations, the unknown figure silently cracks open a cold Dr Pepper, hands it over, and disappears without a word. Stream sniping—where viewers deliberately join or disrupt a live stream—has become increasingly common as IRL livestreaming grows in popularity on Twitch. While it sometimes raises safety concerns, resulting in unwelcome stalking and harassment, other times it’s a bizarre example of the internet at its weird and wonderful best…

The cutting edge of zipper technology involves zippers that work remotely. Japanese zipper maker YKK says it has developed a prototype for a self-propelled zipper that zips up with just the push of a button. These self-propelled zippers aren’t meant for your jeans or jackets, but rather for industrial uses, like tall tents that can’t be zipped up without using a ladder. That’s the mostly likely place you’ve seen YKK’s logo (it has 40% global market share). The company says the tech will save time and be safer than putting workers high up in the air to zip and unzip in hard-to-reach use cases. YKK conducted experiments with the zippers in February. It says th…

It would seem unlikely for clothing designers get their wheels turning by thinking about what happens to garments when people are through with them. But that’s exactly the sort of backward thinking that led to Under Armour’s new “regenerative sportswear collection,” created in collaboration with Portland, Oregon-based Unless Collective. The collection, which is making its debut in Italy this week during Milan Design Week, comprises footwear and clothing made entirely from plants and plant-based materials. That means they’re biodegradable and compostable. “All of our products make good dirt,” says Eric Liedtke, Unless co-founder & Under Armour EVP of brand stra…

Cargill Kitchen Solutions is recalling more than 212,000 pounds of Egg Beaters and Bob Evans liquid egg products because they may contain a cleaning solution with bleach, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This recall comes at a time when egg prices have hit record highs as the country faces decreasing supplies due to an ongoing bird flu outbreak. Here’s what to know. What’s included in the liquid egg recall? The recall covers 212,268 pounds of liquid egg products, which were produced on March 12 and March 13 and distributed in eight states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, and Texas, and possibly nationwide, accor…

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 qu…

The streaming service Max is officially reverting to its previous name, HBO Max, which is great news for people who never stopped calling it HBO Max in the first place. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) announced today that the streaming platform would be again called HBO Max this summer as part of a shift in strategy to focus on HBO programming and other premium content that distinguishes the streamer from its competitors. WBD first removed the name HBO Max in favor of the simplified Max in 2023, when it merged with Discovery+. After two years of testing it out, it seems viewers really just want more of the shows they like, not more of absolutely anything possible. S…

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. In a world with a constant information deluge and a labyrinth of disinformation to continually navigate through, people are exhausted. What is true? Who is honest? Who and what can I believe? Who can I trust to lead in a way where I know they understand what I need? Will anyone do what is best for me? It is no wonder that people are frustrated with those in charge—everywhere. Politic…

Generative AI is radically reshaping the job market—creating new roles, changing some, and phasing out others. But here’s one effect of the transformative technology that’s not as widely talked about: It’s deepening long-standing workplace gender gaps. A double disadvantage According to a recent report from the World Economic Forum and LinkedIn, women systematically face a two-part problem in the ongoing AI transformation. Relatively fewer women are currently in jobs that are being augmented by generative AI, and relatively more are in roles that are being disrupted. According to LinkedIn data for the US, 24.1% of men work in augmented occupations, while 20.5%…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. On Tuesday, Zillow economists published their updated forecast model, projecting that U.S. home prices, as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index, will rise 0.8% between February 2025 and February 2026. That’s another downward revision. Last month, their 12-month forecast projected a 1.1% increase in U.S. home prices, and the month before that, they expected a 2.9% increase. “The rise in [active] listings is fueling softer price growth, as greater supply provides more options and more bargaining power for buyers,” wrote Zillow economists on Tuesday.…

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Despite the popular image of a strong leader as one who makes bold decisions and sticks with them, great leadership actually requires adapting to changing circumstances. A course of action that seemed like a great idea on one day may be a clear losing proposition when additional information becomes available. A complexity with changing your mind as a leader is that your previous choices and plans affect a number of other people’s lives. People who work for you are currently working to implement the plan you laid out. Others, like clients or suppliers, may be planning future e…