What's on Your Mind?

Independent bookstores are beacons of hope, offering intangible commodities such as connection, empathy, and knowledge, in addition to physical books. The convenience and discounts of Amazon have long threatened their very existence. Since 2015, Independent Bookstore Day has worked to combat this threat on the last Saturday of April. This year’s festivities fall on April 25. Fast Company sat down with Andy Hunter, founder and CEO of Bookshop.org, to talk not only about the holiday and his organization’s work to offer an Amazon alternative. A cultural awakening around independent bookstores Since the pandemic and continued high cost of living, we as a …

Below, Richard Davidson and Cortland Dahl share five key insights from their new book, Born to Flourish: How New Science and Ancient Wisdom Reveal a Simple Path to Thriving. Davidson is a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as the founder and director of its Center for Healthy Minds. He also founded a nonprofit, Humin, which translates science into tools that cultivate and measure well-being. Dahl serves as a contemplative scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Healthy Minds and as chief contemplative officer at the center’s affiliated nonprofit, Humin. What’s the big idea? Feeling ha…

Two new experiments show that most people do not even consider that a personal message could be AI-generated, even when they themselves use artificial intelligence to write. To see how people judge someone based on their writing in the age of ChatGPT, my colleague Jiaqi Zhu and I recruited more than 1,300 U.S.-based participants, ages 18 to 84, and showed them AI-generated messages like an apology sent in an email. We split our volunteers into four groups: Some people saw the messages with no information about who or what wrote them, as in everyday life. Others were told the messages were definitely written by a human, definitely AI-generated, or that the source could…

There are ​more than 20 billion things​ to watch on YouTube, but sometimes that endless choice can feel constraining. It’s all too easy, for instance, to get trapped inside an algorithmic bubble that keeps stuffing you with more of the same thing. And that’s before you get sidetracked looking at comments, descriptions, and sidebar recommendations. Fortunately, a new tool makes watching YouTube feel more like watching old-school TV—with a grid-based channel guide to flip through and minimal distractions. This tip originally appeared in the free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. Get the next issue in your inbox and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech …

Staples is ready to party, just in time for graduation season. The office supply retailer is adding Party City shop-in-shops to 700-plus of its stores in 34 states across the U.S. Customers will be able to buy party supplies and decor, including balloons, gift bags, and favors; have helium balloons inflated; and order other celebration must-haves like personalized invitations, banners, and posters using Staples’ same-day print and marketing services. The companies announced their partnership in a joint news release on April 21. As part of the collaboration, Party City will also sell its products at Staples.com. Shoppers can use this store locator tool to find …

There appears to be a recent epidemic of users hijacking companies’ AI-powered customer service bots to turn them into generic AI assistants. The goal is to get the branded bots to do their bidding, without having to subscribe to an AI service. Sometimes, people force the bots to do things that they are not supposed to do, like giving extraordinary product deals and even helping them to take legally problematic actions. Most recently, a wave of LinkedIn posts and social media videos went viral for claiming that users had coaxed McDonald’s customer-service virtual assistant to abandon its burger-centric purpose and to debug complex Python programming code instead. One …

Thousands of AI startups are fighting for the VC funding needed to win a slice of the enterprise market. But according to Scott Stevenson, cofounder and CEO of the legal AI startup Spellbook, many are inflating their real revenues to get it. In a viral tweet on April 17, Stevenson called out these fledgling companies for perpetuating a “huge scam” in their metric reporting. It’s time to expose a huge scam in AI startups: Contracted ARR The reason many AI startups are crushing revenue records is because they are using a dishonest metric The biggest funds in the world are supporting this and misleading journalists for PR coverage. The setup:… pic.twitter.com/NQ0qFSn…

The time-honored tradition of scouring a new cereal box in search of a prize is coming back to the breakfast table. WK Kellogg Co. is partnering with Disney ahead of the release of Toy Story 5 this summer, rolling out cereal boxes with either classic in-box playable toys or collectible items inspired by the animated movie franchise. When and where to find them Beginning April 26, customers nationwide will be able to get their hands on the Toy Story 5-inspired cereals across Kellogg’s many brands including Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, Corn Pops, Apple Jacks, Frosted Mini-Wheats, Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes, and Cocoa Loops. The limited-edition boxes can be id…

Just days after the record-breaking Artemis II splashed down in the Pacific, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is ready to talk about what comes next. An entrepreneur turned space chief, Isaacman gets frank about the agency’s ambitions to build a permanent lunar base, put boots on Mars, and push the search for extraterrestrial life further than ever before. Plus, he shares why he sees the accelerating space race with China as one of the most consequential competitions of our time. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid …

The main reason Shark Tank star Barbara Corcoran fires people? Having a bad attitude. On a recent podcast episode of The Burnouts, Corcoran shared that after hiring her first salesperson from another firm and training her “like crazy for a year-and-a-half,” there was one thing training couldn’t fix: her attitude. That experience taught her a straightforward, non-negotiable hiring principle. While skills can be taught, a good attitude cannot. “I learned a very valuable lesson: [if you] have somebody who has a bad attitude, they’re going to suck up other people into their attitude,” Corcoran said in the podcast episode. One person’s negative outlook c…

When The Las Vegas Raiders announced Indiana University quarterback Fernando Mendoza as the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft yesterday, it kicked off what might just be the most special time of year for any football fan. This three day draft period—April 23-25—is unquestionably the moment in the year when the highest number of fans are at their most optimistic. No wins, no losses, just new beginnings, new players, new possibilities. It’s also a marquee event for the league. About 600,000 people attended last year’s draft in Green Bay over its three days, across seven rounds, 32 teams, and 257 picks. On TV and streaming, the draft drew massive audiences, …

If you’ve had a Capital One savings account in recent years, the bank may soon send some money your way after a U.S. judge approved a $425 million settlement this week. Better yet? You don’t have to do anything to claim your stake in the class action lawsuit that was initially filed against the McLean, Virginia-based bank in 2024. To be eligible for settlement funds, you must have had a Capital One 360 Savings account at any time from mid-September 2019 through mid-June 2025. WHO IS ELIGIBLE FOR A PAYMENT The case stems from allegations that Capital One “acted deceptively regarding the marketing and payment of interest on its 360 Savings account product,” acc…

The job search is exhausting: an application, several rounds of interviews, skills assessments, and, increasingly, even a work trial. Work trials are when an interviewee is asked to complete job-related tasks over a short period of time—often a few days or up to a week—so an employer can evaluate how they perform in a real working environment before making a hiring decision. As recruiters and hiring managers sift through a flood of applications that can sound increasingly similar—especially in the age of AI—these trials have emerged as a way to evaluate candidates in real time. This shift raises important questions: Are work trials a better predictor of succe…

As Madonna promotes her new album, she’s going where only one pop diva has gone before: Grindr. Ahead of the July launch of Confessions II, Grindr will feature an evolving takeover with exclusive content and limited-edition drops. The partnership debuted Thursday with Madonna’s profile nestled in Grindr’s grid of nearby users. Tapping the profile opens an ad with a voice memo from the singer, and a link to preorder a limited picture disc vinyl of Confessions II as a nonstop mix that blends each track into the next. “Hi Grindr, it’s mother,” the voice memo says. “I wanted to go where the hottest action was, so I got on the grid.” The partnership—which the compa…

Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC) has long played second fiddle to the more established giants in the AI race. For much of that race, the technology powering the hardware AI needs to run on has been GPUs, like the kind Nvidia excels in making. But as industry focus shifts towards how CPUs can accelerate AI tasks, Intel’s recent earnings report shows the company is starting to benefit significantly, sending its stock price surging today. Here’s what you need to know. What’s happened? Yesterday, Intel reported its first-quarter 2026 financial results for the period that ended on March 28. Those results were much better than analysts had been expecting. The most s…

Hello again, and welcome back to Fast Company’s Plugged In. Last weekend, I stopped by a gadget kiosk at my local mall—but not to buy a phone case or get a cracked screen replaced. Instead, I was there to get my irises and face scanned by a device called the Orb so I could receive a credential known as a World ID. Its purpose: to provide verifiable proof I’m a human being. Like everyone on the internet, I have grudgingly accepted the need to complete CAPTCHA tests, a truly irritating form of personhood verification that has been with us for almost 30 years. But until fairly recently, it hadn’t dawned on me that more conclusive evidence might be necessary. It did, howeve…

Prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket have roared into the public consciousness, drawing scrutiny from regulators and politicians. They’ve also captured the imagination of social media users, some of whom post outlandish claims of striking it rich by pointing AI models at prediction markets and making bank. But a new study published in the Cornell University archive arXiv suggests it’s not as easy as that. Researchers at Arcada Labs, through its Prediction Arena benchmark, tested six frontier AI models by giving each $10,000 to trade on prediction markets over 57 days earlier this year, tracking how they handled real-time information and decision-making on pla…

Earlier in my life, I worked for a global company. I passed my manager in the hallway, and wanted to ask her a question. She was stressed and answered before I had even completed the question. I tried again. She did it again. On the third attempt, I looked at her and said, “Can you please be quiet until I have finished my question?” She stopped. I finished. She answered and then rushed away. Five minutes later, I did the exact same thing to one of my own people. That moment has stayed with me for decades. It wasn’t the most dramatic experience of my life, but it was one that made me embarrassed. I’d like to think that I’ve learned something since then. But it’…

Last August, as the internet piled on Cracker Barrel over its new “modern” logo, something even stranger was unfolding at Steak ’n Shake. For one week, the chain’s X account didn’t try to sell a single burger. Instead, it attacked Cracker Barrel’s “destruction of shareholder value,” alongside other financial grievances. It sold $20 red MAGA-style hats bearing the words “Fire Cracker Barrel CEO,” and drew attention to a billboard near Cracker Barrel’s Nashville headquarters that Steak ’n Shake had secured, repeating the line. Days later, Cracker Barrel admitted defeat. The logo reverted. The internet moved on. Steak ’n Shake did not. The account remained fixate…

For publishers, one of the observations that’s often cited about AI search is that the people who click through are more intentional than those who come from traditional search. In other words, sure, AI might be nuking your referral traffic, but at least the people coming from there are more likely to engage, and potentially become loyal readers. And that’s true—the stats show it. But it’s an oversimplification of a more interesting reality. It turns out that the audience in AI search isn’t just a blob of traffic that you need to work extra hard to get the attention of. People who ask AI portals for information about something can have wildly different intentions…

Over the past year, a quiet shift has been unfolding across the internet. A growing wave of AI-generated news and content sites has flooded search results. Many of them are technically accurate, cleanly written, and structurally sound, yet they feel strangely interchangeable. A recent analysis by NewsGuard identified more than 1,000 AI-driven content farms producing articles at scale, often without original reporting, perspective, or voice. The information is there. But something essential is missing. It is not accuracy or clarity; it is a point of view. That absence points to a deeper question: If everyone is using the same models, trained on the same data, to generate i…

The modern email inbox can be disorganized and unwieldy. Important emails get lost under spam and receipts, and the search function doesn’t always work like you hoped it would. Many of us gave up on inbox zero long ago. If that sounds like you, this new smart email client might be exactly what you’re looking for. Extra is an email inbox app designed by Build Forever, a software company founded by a trio of former Pinterest employees. The app intriguingly reimagines the entire user experience of the inbox from one of stacked, accumulating, text-only subject lines to an image-rich interface that surfaces the most important emails for you using AI. Build Forever …