What's on Your Mind?

A startup marketing to Gen Z on college campuses filed a lawsuit this week alleging that Instacart engaged in federal trademark infringement and unfair competition by naming its new group ordering app “Fizz.” The plaintiffs, Fizz Social Corp., claim they have been operating their event planning platform under the “FIZZ” trademark and have become a well-known social platform used on more than 400 college campuses. The app, which requires users to sign up with a college email, features anonymous text posts, polls, photos, and the ability to send direct messages. The company has raised at least $41.5 million as of last summer, TechCrunch reported in 2024. “This new F…

Big city or small town? Tourist trap or undiscovered sights? Following an itinerary or spontaneous exploring? Travel has become a trend as generations raised on social media catch flights, not feelings. But Gen Z and millennials may also be redefining travel—all in the search of a more authentic adventure. Hidden-gem locations and no-stress getaways are top of the list for young travelers. It’s a shift from the kinds of bucket-list destinations that have saturated Instagram and TikTok and fueled an overtourism crisis in recent years. As traveler-favorite towns are combatting high influxes of visitors, some travelers are looking to new horizons. They’re …

Gen Z isn’t “quiet quitting”—they’re rejecting outdated leadership. That’s the conversation my recent Fast Company article sparked, and the response has been overwhelming. Leaders, managers, and employees from across industries have reached out, confirming what many of us have seen firsthand. Workplace culture is changing fast, and leadership needs to evolve with it. But as the dust settles on this conversation, I’ve been thinking about a different question: If leadership needs to evolve, what role does Gen Z play in shaping the change they want? It’s easy to say leadership is broken—and in many cases, it is. But just as bad leadership creates disengaged employees, di…

When it comes to deciding on a job, Gen Z isn’t just thinking about paid time off, return-to-office mandates or salary negotiations. They’re checking whether a company will cover GLP-1 weight-loss drugs—and they’re not alone. It’s a benefit that could actually push young employees from one job offer to another. A new ZipHealth survey of over 1,000 workers found that nearly half (47%) of Gen Z said GLP-1 coverage would affect their choices between two similar jobs—that’s compared to 35% of millennials and 36% of Gen X. In more extreme cases, another 7% of workers said they would be open to taking a pay cut if it meant working somewhere that offers GLP-1 coverage. …

Every January, we’re bombarded with resolutions rooted in consumption—buy this, try that, subscribe to something new. For Gen Z, this consumer-first vision of the New Year feels outdated and hollow. Instead, Gen Z is turning to peers for a community-driven “soft start” to the year ahead. Popularized on TikTok, January resets offer a modern alternative to the outdated idea of resolutions. This shift from consumer-driven goals to community-supported resets is especially visible in how Gen Z is approaching health and wellness in 2026. It’s not surprising either. Earlier in 2025, millions of young people took to social media to publicly document their quit journeys us…

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. For Generation Z, real estate is more than just settling down—it’s about staying connected, empowered, and mobile. Born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s, they are the first fully digital generation, raised on smartphones, cloud-based everything, and on-demand convenience. Gen Z’s influence on the housing market is rooted in their expectations. They bring a consumer mindset to renting …

Jonathan Haidt, author of ‘The Anxious Generation,’ breaks down the psychology behind Gen Z’s social media addiction and what digital dependance actually does to a young person’s brain. View the full article

McDonald’s, Wingstop, and Starbucks are among Gen Z’s most popular and appealing restaurant brands, according to Dcdx’s new Magnetic 100: Restaurants report, measured by organic, user-generated content. The report looks at what young consumers spent their hard-earned money on in the first quarter of 2025, noting which brands attracted the most organic conversations, either by generating online buzz or through word-of-mouth, including during big cultural moments such as the Super Bowl and holidays like Valentine’s Day. Some surprising names to crack Dcdx’s top-10 roster this year were Crumbl Cookies (#6) and Raising Cane’s (#7), a fast-casual chain specializing in …

Multiple reports this week revealed that General Motors is cutting hundreds of jobs in its IT department—but not with the intent to replace them outright with AI. The layoffs are reportedly impacting about 600 employees, or about 10% of the IT team, and the job cuts are partly designed to allow the company to bring on new employees with specific AI skills. General Motors has confirmed the layoffs and suggested they were part of a broader change to its IT operations. “GM is transforming its Information Technology organization to better position the company for the future,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “As part of that work, we have made the difficult de…

General Motors lifted its financial outlook for the year and slightly lowered its expected hit from tariffs, as the automaker awaits expected relief on tariffs in the U.S. while confronting a weakening market for electric vehicles. The company now expects its annual adjusted core profit to be between $12.0 billion to $13.0 billion, compared with its prior estimate of $10.0 billion to $12.5 billion. The Detroit automaker said tariffs would hit its bottom line less than anticipated, lowering its updated impact to a range of $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion, from a previous $4 billion to $5 billion. Shares rose about 8% in premarket trading. GM’s outlook hike lifted cros…

In the high-stakes world of revenue orchestration, a quiet but costly friction is slowing down deals. It isn’t market volatility or budget cuts—it’s a fundamental disconnect between the generations tasked with closing the sale. Steve Cox, CEO of the newly merged sales tech powerhouse SalesLoft and Clari, sat down with me recently to discuss a startling finding from their latest report: generational conflict is costing sales organizations an estimated $56 billion in lost productivity annually. That’s not a typo. Billion, with a B. “When Boomers hear ‘AI makes you faster,’ what they really hear is ‘You’re too slow,’” Cox explains. Meanwhile, 39% of Gen Z sellers pre…

Generic store brand groceries can increasingly be found in the pantries, fridges, and freezers of Americans across all income groups. Once designed to communicate value and affordability, a new generation of private labels designed for high earners is driving sales. Among households earning more than $100,000 a year, 82% say they’ve increased the frequency of buying store-brand groceries “often” or “very often,” according to a report from Alvarez & Marsal Global, a consulting firm. That’s compared to 74% of households earnings less than $100,000 a year who also say they’ve increased their store-brand grocery purchases. Grocers have rebranded and grown the…

If you have ever welcomed a new baby into the world, you know the mix of hope and uncertainty that comes with those first days. For decades, newborn screening has been a quiet triumph of public health, catching rare but serious conditions before symptoms appear and giving families a head start on care. Now, genomic newborn screening, which includes whole genome sequencing, is poised to take this life-saving work further by screening for hundreds of genetic conditions at birth and changing the standard of care. FROM RESEARCH TO REAL-WORLD IMPACT The GUARDIAN study is pioneering genomic newborn screening in New York City. As the largest genomic newborn screening prog…

It turns out 2025 isn’t the year for legalized sports betting in Georgia. Efforts to send a state constitutional amendment to voters failed Thursday in the state legislature, as neither the amendment nor a bill laying out details ever came to a vote in the House. Voters in Missouri narrowly approved sports betting in a 2024 referendum, making it the 39th state to legalize the practice. But like in Georgia, legalization faces high hurdles in the 10 remaining states that bar sports gambling. Thursday was the deadline for each Georgia chamber to pass its own legislation to the opposite chamber. The measures still could be revived in the last month of the session, but it m…

Gerber Products Company and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have issued a serious recall notice, discontinuing all batches of Gerber’s Soothe ‘n’ Chew Teething Sticks due to fears that they could present a choking hazard for babies. The baby food brand confirmed that at least one emergency room visit has been linked to the product. The recall and discontinuation notice was posted to the website of Nestlé USA, Gerber’s parent company. Here’s what you need to know: Which products were affected? The recall includes both Strawberry Apple and Banana flavors in all package sizes. Where were the products sold? The affected products were available onl…

A private European aerospace company scrubbed its attempt on Monday to launch the first test flight of its orbital launch vehicle from Norway. Unfavorable winds meant that the Spectrum rocket couldn’t be launched from the island of Andøya in northern Norway, Munich-based Isar Aerospace said. The launch is subject to various factors, including weather and safety. The company said it could also conduct the test flight later in the week. Another date hasn’t yet been set. The 28-meter (91-foot) Spectrum is a two-stage launch vehicle designed for small and medium-size satellites. The company has largely ruled out the possibility of the rocket reaching orbit on its first co…

Forget SpongeBob SquarePants, Sesame Street, and the sourdough starter craze: a depressed German loaf of bread named Bernd das Brot is celebrating his 25th anniversary as the reluctant star of a children’s television program that accidentally became equally popular with adults. A cult classic in Germany, Bernd das Brot (Bernd the Bread) is a puppet renowned for his deep, gloomy voice, his perpetual pessimism and his signature expression, “Mist!” (Think “crap!” in English.) Played and voiced by puppeteer Jörg Teichgraeber, Bernd is a television presenter who wants nothing to do with TV and can’t wait to go home to stare at the wallpaper. This year, his friends—…

Raymond Ward wants to see solar panels draped over every balcony in the United States and doesn’t understand why that isn’t happening. The technology couldn’t be easier to use—simply hang one or two panels over a railing and plug them into an outlet. The devices provide up to 800 watts, enough to charge a laptop or power a small fridge. They’re popular in Germany, where everyone from renters to climate activists to gadget enthusiasts hail them as a cheap and easy way to generate electricity. Germans had registered more than 780,000 of the devices with the country’s utility regulator as of December. They’ve installed millions more without telling the government. He…

Another year, another fresh start. And if you’re like me, that fresh start often comes with the best intentions of getting into shape. But then reality hits: It’s January, it’s cold, and the idea of leaving the house to brave the gym (and all the other resolution people) is wholly unappealing. Fear not, fellow homebody. This year, we’re going to conquer those fitness goals from the comfort of our own living rooms. No gym fees, no icy commutes, no waiting in line for a treadmill. Seven (iOS/Android) For better or worse, if you have a phone and seven minutes, you no longer have an excuse. Seven is the heavy hitter in the “micro-workout” space. It focu…

In 2020, as people began to realize they would be spending significantly more time at home than they had planned in January, a lot of people splurged on a new TV. Approximately 315.6 million new sets found their way to households around the world that year, a 6% increase from the year before. Those sets still have some life in them. The average TV will run for 10 years or more without issue, but many homeowners are starting to feel like their sets are getting a bit long in the tooth. And over the next year or two, the industry could see a big rush in customers. Circana, which monitors consumer purchases, says the average TV is replaced every 6.6 years. That figure…

When Kitty got her fourth layoff call, she took it via Bluetooth in her car. She knew the script by then: the sudden 15-minute meeting invite, the HR rep that pops into the call, the platitudes that precede the devastation of being unemployed — again. “My boss says, ‘Hi Kitty,’ and I said, ‘You’re laying me off. Just go.’” Something happens after the second, or third, or even fourth layoff. Shock gets replaced by trauma-informed familiarity. Grief turns into exhaustion, shame calcifies. The way a person understands work changes, imbuing the next job with cynicism that’s hard to shake. A layoff victim’s relationship with work changes. Sometimes forever. But in…

If your sofa was made between 1970 and 2014, its foam is likely loaded with flame retardants—chemicals that can escape into dust and end up in the air you breathe. A new study led by the California Department of Public Health shows the payoff of swapping it out: people who replaced their old, chemical-filled sofas or chairs with new, flame-retardant-free models saw levels of one common chemical, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), drop by half in just over a year. The chemicals became ubiquitous in upholstered furniture thanks to older regulations in California. The state’s large market meant that flame retardants were used in furniture nationwide. The tob…

California-based Ghirardelli Chocolate Company has voluntarily recalled 13 of its powdered beverage mixes over concerns of potential Salmonella contamination. The storied confectionery says it issued the recall after dairy producer California Dairies recalled its milk powder, which is used in the affected powdered beverage mixes. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a recall notice on Tuesday, April 28. To date, no illnesses have been reported. What products are included in the recall? The recall covers a limited selection of powdered beverage mixes packaged for food service and institutional customers. However, Ghirardelli cautions tha…