What's on Your Mind?

Zohran Mamdani is entering his streamer era. The NYC mayor launched a series on Twitch, titled “Talk with the People,” on May 21. The series has Mamdani answering questions from New Yorkers live on the stream. He announced the series in an Instagram post this morning, featuring a photo of himself and one of a Franklin D. Roosevelt “Fireside Chat.” Mamdani’s campaign was unique in its engaging deployment of social media, and he has continued to create shortform video content since taking office. So it comes as no real surprise that the 34-year-old mayor is utilizing another popular social platform to increase his direct access to constituents. This is the first…

If you’re leaving meetings feeling destabilized and second-guessing yourself, you’re probably not imagining it. Workplace bullying looks a lot different than it did in middle school. Here’s how to recognize it, respond in the moment, and protect yourself when the bully has power over you. View the full article

Energy costs are increasing, and while it may cost a lot more than before to heat or cool a home, they’re basically peanuts compared to operating a hockey arena. That’s why the National Hockey League is bringing in a building automation heavyweight to help. This week, the NHL announced a new partnership with Honeywell aimed at increasing the efficiency of hockey facilities around the country in an attempt to lower operating costs. The multi-year partnership makes Honeywell—a massive company that provides products and services to many different industries—the “Official Building Automation and Energy Management Partner of the NHL.” The primary issue the partnership …

There’s no doubt that AI has accelerated product marketing. Your copy is getting drafted faster, your personas are cleaner, and your positioning frameworks are getting shipped before your coffee is even cold. But speed has made many teams less disciplined, not more insightful. Too much AI-assisted product marketing sounds polished but lacks grounding in reality. It borrows the language of strategy without doing the strategic work required. You get neat messaging frameworks, confident claims, and copy that sounds familiar in the worst way: “built for modern teams,” “streamline workflows,” “unlock efficiency at scale.” It reads fine. It just doesn’t mean much. T…

In an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said that every job will feel the effects of AI—including bankers. “I think [AI will] reduce some of our jobs down the road,” Dimon told Bloomberg’s Haslinda Amin. “I think we’ll be hiring more AI people and probably less bankers in certain categories.” Dimon said that AI will cause reductions and downsizing at the company, but he said, “that’s been happening my whole life.” As AI changes jobs, the billionaire CEO said JPMorgan will retrain and redeploy employees, and in some cases, offer early retirement. Dimon also said that society needs to “get prepared” for how AI will change the workforce.…

Earnings are in for two of the largest retailers, and they paint two very different pictures. Walmart, which has seen success in an economy where consumers are cutting back on spending and turning to budget retailers, now seems to be in a downturn, having just announced layoffs as it stocks falls. Meanwhile, Target, which was struggling a year ago amid a cost-of-living crisis and rising tariffs, and following consumer boycotts over a DEI rollback, seems to have hit reverse—with sales and stock price in an upswing. What’s happening with these two retailers? Here’s what to know. Walmart looks at impact of soaring gas prices On Thursday, Walmart reported s…

For years, Claire’s was a rite of passage for mall-going millennials who wanted to buy glittery accessories and butterfly hair clips, and also get their ears pierced. Now the iconic fashion accessories and jewelry retailer is set to expand well beyond the mall. Earlier this week, Ames Watson and Centric Brands announced a licensing partnership that will bring Claire’s to more than 7,000 new retail locations across North America. Currently, Claire’s operates more than 900 locations, many of which are in malls. But Claire’s is set to diversify more. Centric Brands will help expand Claire’s presence into new categories and across major retail partners, including…

There’s a saying I’ve found myself sharing in coaching conversations with senior leaders lately. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. It’s my response to a significant pattern playing out right now across every sector I work in, and that’s constant busyness masquerading as leadership. We know from the Microsoft Work Trend Index 2025 that 80% of employees and leaders lack sufficient time or energy to do their work. Meetings are ad hoc and continue after hours. Some 52% of leaders say their work feels chaotic and fragmented. These leaders are facing the biggest shifts or inflection points their businesses have possibly ever experienced. For many, this is da…

I work in front of a screen. And I’ve been thinking about how AI will change my work. What does it even mean for my future? It’s completely normal to wonder about this. Most people are convinced artificial intelligence is a threat to their careers. But what they are forgetting is the human value they bring to their work. Aaron Levie, CEO of the enterprise cloud company Box, recently pointed out that when people watch AI at work, they are most likely seeing it take over the first 80% of a task—the heavy lifting of repetitive processing. The last 20% is where you come in. Your domain expertise, judgment, and relationships. That is what makes you irreplaceable. AI can fi…

The release of Google’s latest AI models this week at Google I/O was yet another example of the direction of travel for the generative AI revolution. Facing a user base that is increasingly burning more tokens under basic subscriptions or API access, AI companies are starting to hike prices and throttle usage. In response to those cost pressures, consumers are beginning to cut their cloth accordingly. And while frontier AI providers are releasing ever more powerful models into the world, smaller companies are advancing, too. Often based in China, these are frequently accused of copying the innovations of U.S. models through techniques like distillation, or reverse eng…

Jeff Bezos is betting that the future of fashion won’t be made from cotton or polyester but, instead, from lab-grown fibers. Through the Bezos Earth Fund, Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos have committed $34 million to researchers developing next-generation textiles, including biodegradable fibers and plastic-free synthetic silk. Their aim is to replace some of the most resource-intensive materials in the global clothing industry with alternatives that could dramatically reduce the industry’s environmental footprint. The investment marks a notable shift for the fund, which has largely focused on conservation since Bezos pledged $10 billion to climate initiatives in 2…

It’s alive. The Terrarium Phone Case by U.K.-based designer Daniel Idle is a clear iPhone 16 Pro Max case with a vertical terrarium designed to show off small plants growing inside. “The idea came from noticing how personal phone cases have become,” Idle tells Fast Company. “People use them to carry objects, express themselves, and customize something they interact with all the time. That got me thinking about how much time we spend on our phones and how disconnected they make us feel from nature.” To bring nature to this most unexpected of places, Idle wanted to see if a phone case could include living elements by building an ecosystem directly into it. …

Google is quietly rolling out a redesign of the logos for its Workspace apps, including Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive. They now look like they’ve been run through a watercolor filter. Each new logo in the suite—which began showing up on May 18 on the web, Android, and iOS—is softer and rounder than its predecessor. What really stands out, though: Every single icon has been given some sort of color gradient. Gmail now smoothly transitions through Google’s brand palette of primary colors and green; Google Meet and Google Chat have lost the full palette in favor of yellow and green aura schemes, respectively; and Google Docs has gone from a flat blue to a…

When’s the last time you thought about pepper? Designers working in the consumer packaged goods category have reimagined many a pantry staple over the past several years, including olive oil, tinned fish, and even chili crisp, but pepper has remained as forgotten as it is ubiquitous. A playfully chunky new brand is giving the category design intentionality, functionality, and visual appeal—and could point to where food brand design is headed. Michael Laniak Michael Laniak, a former line cook, launched Milly on May 12 as a result of his failed attempt to source pepper in the same way he could olive oil or sea salt. Milly sells only whole peppercorns—black, white…

Building versus buying capabilities in-house or deciding whether to outsource them is a strategic decision. And it’s not a decision all executives think about the same way. So much depends on your company’s goals and strengths. It’s important to have a structured way to think about this decision, though, so when you need to incorporate a capability, you know how to make the decision. We asked our Fast Company Impact Council members how they decide when to build capabilities in-house versus outsourcing or partnering. It was a popular question, and we had to limit the responses—to just 27! There is wisdom in these words that you can apply to your situations. 1. PARTNER …

Teaching undergraduates gives you a different perspective on things. For many, they see their life already laid out: An analyst position at a prestigious bank or consulting firm after graduation, then graduate school and a string of impressive jobs at important institutions. Then family, travel, and maybe a board seat or two. We all know that life is messier than that, but that’s the type of thing you really have to learn for yourself. The management professor Henry Mintzberg once observed that we expect management to be like a conductor with an orchestra, with the leader on a pedestal directing each movement with expert precision. “But,” he argues, “management i…

Robotaxis are multiplying across American cities. But are consumers actually ready to trust them? Zoox CEO Aicha Evans discusses the company’s strategy as an Amazon subsidiary, its intensifying rivalry with Waymo, and why a new partnership with Uber could be the key to getting autonomous rides from novelty to scale. Evans also reveals why she recruits what she calls an “invisible army of rebels” inside Zoox. 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 Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders …

Most teams have a decision-making problem that no one can quite put their finger on. Meetings multiply. Decisions get relitigated endlessly. The choices that eventually emerge are often so cautious they accomplish almost nothing. The problem isn’t personal. Teams full of talented people routinely get stuck because they were never given a shared language for making choices under uncertainty. When conditions get murky, that gap becomes expensive. High-performing teams, by contrast, build their decision-making toolkit deliberately. They move from endless discussion to concrete proposals. They know the difference between a real objection and ordinary discomfort wi…