What's on Your Mind?

Every year in the United States, thousands of families face a devastating reality: Their child has a rare disease, but they won’t know it until it’s too late for effective intervention. Thirty percent of children with rare diseases don’t live to see their fifth birthday. For too long, we’ve relied on limited newborn screening panels that vary from state to state, waiting until symptoms are severe and irreversible before acting. This approach is not only medically irresponsible, it’s fiscally unsound. Experts estimate rare diseases cost the U.S. healthcare system $1 trillion annually. Beyond the cost to our healthcare system, families too often find themselves in the…

The world of popular psychological ideas, which is largely the self-help industry, is not short of contradictions. For instance, it simultaneously promotes the benefits of emotional intelligence (the ability to empathize with others and engage in strategic impression management) and authenticity (the tendency to express what you really feel and think without much consideration for others’ opinions). It also frequently celebrates self-acceptance and constant self-improvement (“love yourself as you are”… but also “become the best version of yourself”), mindfulness and relentless ambition (“stay in the zone, present and serene”… while hustling aggressively toward big goals),…

The Bronx stands apart from New York City’s four other boroughs in stark ways. Home to 1.4 million residents and the nation’s poorest congressional district, it once flourished as fertile farmland. Today, we’re restoring this land—not to its agricultural roots, but as fertile ground for raising healthy, happy, and prosperous children. And in the process, we’re cultivating opportunity for a new generation of citizens. My wife Lizette and I founded and run Green Bronx Machine (GBM). Our nonprofit is dedicated to rewriting the narrative about the Bronx and its residents. Inside Community School 55, just across the tracks from rows of dilapidated public housing towers…

Russian authorities said Thursday they have imposed restrictions on Apple’s video calling service FaceTime, the latest step in an effort to tighten control over the internet and communications online. State internet regulator Roskomnadzor alleged in a statement that the service is being “used to organize and conduct terrorist activities on the territory of the country, to recruit perpetrators (and) commit fraud and other crimes against our citizens.” Apple did not respond to an emailed request for comment. The Russian regulator also announced that it has blocked Snapchat, a messaging app for sharing photos, videos and text messages, citing the same grounds it gave…

The rise of artificial intelligence is transforming every industry, but it also creates enormous demand for digital infrastructure and natural resources. Data centers, the engines of this transformation, consume vast amounts of water and energy. A single hyperscale data center consumes up to 5 million gallons of potable water every day. In Phoenix, 58 centers together demand more than 170 million gallons daily, enough to ​​serve up to several hundred thousand households. This is the internet’s hidden water footprint, amplified by AI, cloud computing, and data-heavy services. Training a single large AI model in a Microsoft data center can require about 185,000 ga…

From reality TV to fashion and beauty and everywhere in between, you’ve unmistakably heard of Kim Kardashian. Critics may talk, but there’s no denying she’s one of the most influential and accomplished women of our time—with a net worth of $1.7 billion. And she’s still expanding. Now, after building a multibillion-dollar empire, Kardashian is taking on a new role: instructor. Her new MasterClass, “The New Rules of Business: The Ten Kimmandments with Kim Kardashian,” launches today. “Master them and you’ll create marketing that commands attention and build businesses that will scale,” Kardashian says. The tenets cover a range of 10 lessons, but Kimmandment #8—“Know…

Only about 10 percent of venture funds ever make it to a fourth vintage. Of those, just 5 to 10 percent are led by women. I’m one of them. When I started Female Founders Fund in 2014, I believed that solid returns and conviction would speak for themselves. Strong performance would unlock capital and the industry would reward the achievement, especially from those breaking new ground—or so I thought. What I’ve come to learn is that venture capital isn’t a pure meritocracy. It’s a network-driven ecosystem where who you know often matters just as much as what you build. Cultural and political changes, and a tight market environment, are making it especially difficul…

It’s a great week to have a disposable income and act like you know how to ski. North Face x Skims today launches its second winter outerwear capsule, again channeling ski culture with a campaign shot on the powder-coated Chilean mountains. (Skis and airfare not included.) The 2025 drop expands on its collection from last year with even more silhouettes, like the wrap puffer coat, and a thoughtfully cropped, hooded puffer jacket with drop shoulder that brings some fashion to the line, which is aesthetically more oriented toward sport. It also includes men’s and kid’s styles for the first time (prices range from $55 to $800). Even considering the new styl…

The numbers are in for Spotify Wrapped: After the streaming music app dropped its popular year-in-review recap for 2025, the company said it has already seen a huge increase in user engagement, hitting 200 million users just 24 hours after the recap’s release, a 19% increase year-over-year (YOY). Compare that with last year, when it took 62 hours to hit that same number. Why the uptick in user engagement? One reason could be because the platform is growing. A look at the numbers shows Spotify’s monthly active users grew 11% YOY to 713 million in Q3 of 2025, according to the company’s third quarter earnings report. Spotify Wrapped is for sharing Sharing …

Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) rose on Thursday after Bloomberg reported the technology company was planning to cut spending across its division by 10%, with as much as 30% cuts to its virtual reality group, which includes the so-called metaverse. This could potentially include layoffs, which could come as early as January, and are part of the company’s 2026 budget, according to the article. Meta—the owner of Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Messenger, and WhatsApp—develops metaverse technologies, such as the Horizon Worlds platform. Fast Company has reached out to Meta for comment. Meta stock rose 5.7% in early trading Thursday, before settling up a…

Twenty years ago, not too long after Youtube itself launched, Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla started uploading videos to the platform. What started as two teenagers trying to make each other laugh turned into the biggest channel on YouTube. It was the first ever to reach 10 million subscribers. Eventually Smosh was acquired by a company called Defy Media. The company would expand rapidly–more videos, more cast members, even a movie–but then came turmoil and uncertainty for Smosh. Padilla left the company in 2017, largely due to creative differences with Smosh’s parent company. He returned to the business in 2023, when he and Hecox purchased Smosh from YouTuber-led med…

It’s been a tumultuous year for the legacy retailer, shaped by new tariffs, shifting consumer habits, and the constant flip between “wartime” and “peacetime” leadership. Tony Spring, Macy’s Inc. chairman and CEO, shares why his team is now on “version 27 of the plan,” and what it really means to court the next generation of shoppers. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former Fast Company editor-in-chief Robert Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you ge…

When Jon LaMantia, a Long Island-based business reporter, was in journalism school, his professor drilled one rule into his students: you get two exclamation points a year and no more. “So if you use them in January,” LaMantia recalls being told, “you better hope there’s nothing to exclaim for the rest of the year.” The rule stuck. LaMantia still thinks about that rigid quota today. “I use exclamation points all the time in texts and emails. If you don’t, the message sounds more stern,” he says. “But I can’t remember the last time I used one in a business article.” Strong feelings about the exclamation point aren’t uncommon. People tend to either love it or l…

For a while now, we’ve been hearing warnings about AI eliminating jobs. First, it was only at the fringes. But now it’s starting to bite into roles once thought untouchable. It isn’t just administrative work, copywriting, or design anymore; even advisory roles, data analytics, and coding are being reshaped by automation. But history teaches us that technological disruption doesn’t eliminate work, it reshapes it. The industrial revolution, for example, didn’t end human contribution, it simply redefined the places where humans bring the most value. AI is doing the same thing today. While it does, in fact, take (or reduce the need for) some jobs, it can, and will, p…

In April 2000, Elsevier published an article in the journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, which claimed that the herbicide Roundup (glyphosate) from the Monsanto Company didn’t pose a risk of cancer or other health issues for humans. Twenty-five years later, the publisher has retracted that paper, citing litigation that revealed it was based solely on unpublished studies by Monsanto itself. Furthermore, Elsevier states that the article (titled Safety Evaluation and Risk Assessment of the Herbicide Roundup and Its Active Ingredient, Glyphosate, for Humans) appears to have been co-written with Monsanto employees, despite no explicit accreditation. Mo…

When film cameras were invented, people didn’t become filmmakers overnight. We pointed cameras at theater stages, digitizing what already existed. It took us a while to reimagine what film cameras could unlock. The real opportunity wasn’t recording theater plays. It was stepping outside and inventing cinema. That’s where many nonprofits are with AI today. Most still layer it on top of existing processes, not because they don’t care about innovation, but because they lack both the frameworks to identify the right use cases and the capacity to act on them. True innovation starts when organizations have the space, skills, and confidence to reimagine how impact itse…

It is a relatively rare phenomenon: While the stock market continues to experience record gains (the S&P 500 is up over 16% this year), Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continue to struggle, making it the first time the crypto and stock markets have split since 2014, Bloomberg reported. That split, with Bitcoin down while stock markets soar, is somewhat unusual. On midday Friday, at the time of this writing, the digital cryptocurrency (BTC) was trading down over 4%, hovering around $88,945—far below its record high of over $125,000, but still above a recent low of $85,000 (down almost 30% from the high). Here’s what to know. Why is the split between cryp…

The way consumers search is changing faster than the industry expected. This holiday season, many shoppers are looking for gifts inside AI platforms, rather than retailer sites or traditional search. They are asking natural questions like: “Find me a cruelty-free skincare gift for sensitive skin under $100.” “What are good gift ideas for a three-year-old that are safe and durable?” “What are the safest, nontoxic treats for my Golden Retriever?” This shift is already measurable. Adobe Digital Insights reports a 4,700% year-over-year increase in retail visits driven by AI assistants between July 2024 and July 2025. At the same time, click-through rates from SEO …