What's on Your Mind?

Ben & Jerry’s cofounder Ben Cohen has been publicly fighting with the Magnum Ice Cream Company, which took ownership of the Vermont ice cream maker last year. Cohen says Magnum has silenced the brand on social issues, including the war in Gaza, racial justice, and student protests. He spoke to Fast Company about why his business partner, Jerry Greenfield, stepped away from the business, how he’s fighting to protect his values, and how companies can be both socially active and profitable. View the full article

Given its $24 billion price tag and two decades in development, one would think that the Artemis II mission’s Orion spaceship would be flawless. Alas, that’s not how things work in the space program. These machines’ designs are so complex and so many things can go wrong that there is always going to be a breaking point somewhere. Sometimes this involves comical but potentially dangerous consequences—like Artemis II’s toilet malfunction or its Microsoft Outlook glitches—while other times there are tragic endings, like the losses of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia and their crews. Still, I wasn’t expecting a “use a T-shirt or something to block the sunlight …

You don’t need all the answers to be a leader—but you do need this mindset. Emma Grede explains why excellence is non-negotiable and why trying to please everyone will hold you back. This is the leadership advice nobody tells you. View the full article

Ginny Wright, CEO of beauty conglomerate Orveon Global—owner of BareMinerals and Laura Mercier—is no stranger to the beauty business. She spent much of her career rising through the ranks of L’Oreal, eventually becoming president of legacy skincare brand Kiehl’s. Then, in 2021, she pivoted to work in luxury as one of the few female CEOs in the luxury watch business when she took the helm of Audemars Piguet Americas. During her tenure, she prioritized marketing to women, raising the percentage of women purchasing watches for themselves from 14% to more than 30% in just over four years. Now back in the beauty industry, Wright is using her knowledge of the luxury c…

Yesterday, astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen became the first humans in over 50 years to see the far side of the moon. Artemis II launched at 6:35 p.m. ET on Wednesday, April 1. The 10-day mission is a slingshot around the moon, paving the way for a moon landing with Artemis IV in 2027. (Artemis III, scheduled for 2026, will test out systems to land humans on the surface of the moon in orbit next year.) While there are satellites around the moon, and rovers and landers on the lunar surface, unaided human eyes have not seen the moon’s surface details since Apollo 17 in 1972. That changed on Monday, April 6. The …

Few people would rally behind a campaign described as “we should control what other people can or can’t build,” or “let’s block certain people from living near us.” But that’s exactly what comes from typical zoning, permitting, and development rules. These local policies continue to get support from residents because the narratives are framed as “defending neighborhood character” or “protecting community identity.” Same policy, but without all the troublesome truth. Reframing a narrative from oppression to protection doesn’t change the facts, it changes how people feel about them. Successful NIMBY activists are excellent marketers, whether they realize it or not. They…

Over the past few days, new billboards have slowly been popping up along a 130-mile stretch of desert into Indio, California. One features a giant image of a crying face emoji; another is a picture of an unexplained blob; a third shows an edit of the Mona Lisa sipping out of a delicate tea cup. Each of these eye-catching visuals is an advertisement for a performance at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Coachella 2026 takes place over two weekends: April 10 through 12 and April 17 through 19. And while billboard advertising has been a hallmark of the lead-up to the festival almost since its inception, it’s become increasingly intense in recent years…

Samsung is saying goodbye to its namesake texting app, at least for United States customers. According to an end of service announcement published on the tech giant’s U.S. support website, Samsung Messages will be discontinued in July. Impacted owners of Samsung smartphones and other gadgets are being asked to switch to Google Messages in the meantime, “to maintain a consistent messaging experience on Android.” All Samsung Galaxy phones run on Google’s Android operating system. To switch to Google Messages, Samsung’s website gives users instructions to download the app from the Play Store, if not already on their phone, and set it as the default. Some people may a…

Book lovers with aging Kindles might want to find a new e-reader soon, as Amazon is discontinuing support for its older devices next month. On May 20, the e-commerce giant is set to cut off support for devices released in 2012 or earlier, notifying active users of the affected devices via email. “These models have been supported for at least 14 years—some as long as 18 years—but technology has come a long way in that time, and these devices will no longer be supported moving forward,” an Amazon spokesperson told Fast Company. While the devices will still be able to power on, users will no longer be able to purchase or download new content for them. Additionall…

Some Buc-ee’s customers are complaining of pain at the pump—and it’s not the surge in gas prices that’s to blame, but rather the chain’s pay-at-the-pump policy. While it’s common practice for gas stations to require customers paying for gas with cash to prepay with a cashier, Buc-ee’s instituted a new policy in March that affects customers paying with credit or debit cards. Customers paying with credit or debit cards are now required to pay at the pump, and can no longer pay at the register, as reported by the Austin American-Statesman. The new policy is intended to speed up transactions and prevent people from shopping while their car sits at the gas pump. But wh…

Below, Nir Eyal shares five key insights from his new book, Beyond Belief: The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limiting Yourself and Achieve Breakthrough Results. Eyal is a best-selling author, former Stanford lecturer, and one of the world’s foremost experts on behavioral design. His previous books, Hooked and Indistractable, have sold more than a million copies and been translated into 30-plus languages. Next Big Idea Club readers can get an exclusive free download of Eyal’s 5-Minute Belief Change Guide at: NirAndFar.com/beyond-belief-live/. What’s the big idea? The best beliefs are both practical and provisional. They offer just enough certainty to act, yet e…

America’s housing market is finally starting to tip in favor of aspiring homeowners. A new analysis from Realtor.com reveals that nearly two-thirds of the biggest housing markets in the U.S. have now moved into “balanced” or “buyer-friendly” status, while only a quarter of the major markets still favor sellers. That’s in sharp contrast to 2021, when low interest rates and a buying frenzy gave sellers the upper hand in 98% of the top U.S. housing markets. Out of the top metros, only 26% qualify as seller’s markets right now, with a relatively large ratio of home shoppers to housing stock. Of those cities, 46% are in what Realtor.com calls a “balanced-loosening” pha…

Tax day is right around the corner, but for some, the true deadline to complete returns is nearly a week earlier. That’s because if you’re planning to mail your tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) instead of filing them electronically, they’ll need to be postmarked — not mailed — by April 15. Due to recent changes at The United States Postal Service (USPS) that impact transportation operations, mail may not arrive at originating processing facilities on the day it is mailed, the organization said in a January announcement. “This means that the date on the postmarks applied at our processing facilities will not necessarily match the date on which the cust…

Nobody wants to sound weak. We all have a desire to be heard and taken seriously when we speak in meetings and other situations. But so many people pack their prose with words that discourage people from taking them seriously. Avoid the following words if you want to come across as a strong, convincing speaker. 1) JUST This word is an attention killer! Yet it is used all the time by speakers. For example “I just want to say,” or “It’s just a thought,” or “Let me just add that….” In all these instances the word “just” reduces the speaker by suggesting that what follows is of little value. A throwaway gift to the audience. By removing “just” from your spe…

Hello again, and welcome back to Fast Company’s Plugged In. For years, progress in AI has been motivated by an industry-wide yen to create software that’s at least as capable as humans—not at some tasks, but all of them. The precise definition of the goal varies, and two maddeningly overlapping terms, artificial general intelligence (AGI) and superintelligence, both get bandied around. But no matter how you look at the aspiration (or how long you think it will take to achieve), it’s about the ways the world will change when software can do everything extraordinarily well. I’ve written—here and here—about why I believe fixating on that eventuality isn’t the best wa…

There has been no shortage of retailers closing locations over the last few years as consumer behaviors shift online and foot traffic at brick-and-mortar stores continues to decline for many chains. And now, iPhone maker Apple has announced that it will join the ranks of companies closing locations, with multiple Apple stores to close for good this summer. Here’s what you need to know. Which Apple retail stores are closing? Yesterday, Apple confirmed that it will close three Apple retail stores in the United States. While there have been a few instances in the past of Apple closing a retail store, this is the first time the company has announced the closu…

Steam cleaning should be a low-risk activity, but that hasn’t been the case for some owners of Bissell’s Steam Shot products. Michigan-based Bissell Homecare has recalled about 1.7 million of its Steam Shot OmniReach and Steam Shot Omni Steam Cleaners with attachments. The recall follows reports of the attachments coming undone and creating a burn hazard, according to an announcement from the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Another 96,000 or so units sold in Canada have also been recalled. Of the 206 reports of malfunctioning products, 161 accounts have included notice of minor burn injuries. In one case, someone reported a second…

The scariest movie you see this year might be set in a liminal space. While studios like Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are gearing up to release big-budget blockbusters this year, some independent distributors like A24 and Neon are embracing low-budget horror films that take place in one setting—specifically liminal spaces, which are empty or abandoned places that have an eerie and surreal feel to them. Undertone, which came out last month, was originally made on a micro-budget of $500,000 and acquired by A24 for an undisclosed mid-seven-figure deal, following its debut at Fantasia Fest last year. It has earned more than $18 million at the box office. S…

The real question about Anthropic’s new Claude Mythos Preview AI model is whether it (and future models like it) will be more helpful to defensive cybersecurity or to hackers. To find out, Fast Company asked a number of cybersecurity pros. Claude Mythos, released in “preview” on April 9, is Anthropic’s biggest and most capable frontier AI model. Anthropic researchers say that during its training, the model showed a unique ability to find security vulnerabilities deep within software code, then create exploits to gain administrator-level access to software systems, including operating systems. Because of this, Anthropic says, Mythos is too dangerous to release to…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. While active listings are rising year over year in most regional housing markets, a slight majority of markets are still below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels. Generally speaking, housing markets where inventory (i.e., active listings) has returned to pre-pandemic 2019 levels have experienced weaker home price growth (or outright declines) over the past 46 months. Conversely, housing markets where inventory remains far below pre-pandemic 2019 levels have, generally speaking, experienced more resilient home price growth over the past 46 months. …

I have spent the better part of a decade helping thousands of first-time founders raise their first round of outside capital, and evaluating thousands more for investment. In all of these data points, I found a pattern that explains every single VC round. In the last six months, I’ve seen this pattern play out more dramatically than ever before. Founders are failing to raise without ever really knowing why. I find myself bringing it up again and again to help folks who are raising. So I decided to write about it. Because every founder should know exactly where they fall, and plan accordingly. The only 3 types of rounds in venture capital There are thre…

We’re well past the point where “remote work” is a novel perk. In 2026, if a tech company isn’t offering some form of home-office flexibility, they’re basically recruiting from a time capsule. But as the novelty of the Zoom-from-the-couch era fades, a new frontier is emerging. The next evolution isn’t just about working from your home office, it’s about working from anywhere. We’re talking about companies that have decoupled productivity from time zones and borders. These “digital nomad” pioneers don’t care if you’re hitting your KPIs from a flat in London or a beach in Bali, as long as the work gets done. If you’re looking to upgrade your “out of office” …

When I was growing up in Turkey, the hallmark of a successful career was staying with one company for years, even decades. Today, that idea seems almost quaint. The Great Resignation may be receding into the rearview mirror, but workers are still job-hopping, especially younger ones. The average Gen Z tenure is 1.1 years, according to Randstad. Compounding the issue, newer hires are more likely to leave: employees with two years or less at a company are 38% more likely to quit within the next year. Companies must “earn” retention continuously. Some startups have come up with clever strategies for boosting retention, like offering employees early liquidity. AI tools ca…

When you think of an operating system, you probably think of interfaces to open, workflows to follow, screens to move through. Work has always lived inside those boundaries. At Anthropic, that logic is starting to break. The company is reorganizing itself around a simple, destabilizing premise: work no longer needs a fixed system to run through. Anthropic says employees now rely on Claude, its flagship AI model, along with its products Code and Cowork, for most of their day-to-day work. The model is starting to function as an “internal operating system.” What once required navigating multiple systems, stitching together data, and coordinating across teams now begins w…

For years, premium credit cards competed on points, perks, and airport lounge access. Now, the battleground is shifting toward something less tangible but arguably more powerful: experiences. Chase Sapphire Reserve is leaning further into that strategy with its latest offering, a one-night-only “Dinner at the Opry with Ella Langley,” which will bring cardmembers directly onto the stage of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry on May 31. Timed to the release of Langley’s sophomore album, Dandelion, the event blends live music, dining, and behind-the-scenes access in a way that reflects how the brand is trying to position itself at the center of culture. The event is part…