What's on Your Mind?

For decades, the discussion around organic farming has centered on important tenets of sustainability, environmental health, animal welfare, and a vision for food that heals rather than harms. But in America’s fields today, a different conversation is taking root and is grounded in profits. With new economic data and over 40 years of side-by-side comparisons between organic and conventional systems, we can now confidently say that organic is no longer just a values-driven choice; it’s the most profitable model available to U.S. farmers. At Rodale Institute, the latest Economics of Organic report examines farm-level data across crops, regions, and production systems. T…

Microsoft stock just suffered its biggest single day drop since 2020. Meanwhile, Meta stock popped by 10%. Both tech giants are spending billions on AI talent and infrastructure, but investors clearly feel skittish about Microsoft at the start of 2026 and bullish on Meta’s tale of near-term upside. For a company that famously whiffed on the metaverse, Meta is looking more reasonable these days. The company is still poised to invest eye-popping sums into artificial intelligence in the coming years, but so are all of its peers, Microsoft included. In an era of AI hype and sky-high expectations, Meta is following the crowd—not leading it—for better or worse. In 2026,…

For most people, it’s natural to assume that if something is exclusive to the wealthiest echelons of society, it must be better. Asset management firms looking to access trillions of “retail” investor dollars explicitly reference this exclusivity when marketing private equity offerings. But investors should be wary when fund marketers talk about “democratizing investing” or opening access to areas previously only available to the elite. Reasons to be wary Investing is already democratized. The SEC eliminated fixed trading commissions in 1975, and innovation has made investing in publicly traded stocks cheaper and easier ever since. Online trading platforms allow pe…

December is a month that many look forward to as holiday festivities kick into full gear and extended R&R with our loved ones nears. But for cryptocurrency investors, the month is off to anything but a good start. As of the time of this writing, cryptocurrency prices are down across the board on the first day of December trading. This encompasses significant price drops of major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana. Here’s what you need to know. Cryptocurrencies begin December with steep declines Nearly every major cryptocurrency is seeing significant declines on the first trading day of December. As of the time of this writing, mo…

Chinese spirituality just adopted a new icon: American “momager” Kris Jenner. Jenner, best known for launching the mega-successful careers of her daughters Kourtney, Kim, and Khloé Kardashian, is suddenly the go-to profile pic for Gen Zers on Chinese social media, including apps like RedNote, Weibo, and Douyin. The reverence for Jenner doesn’t stop there. Her photo is also being used for wallpapers on computers, tablets, smart watches, and more, all as part of Chinese Gen Z’s manifestation for good luck. How did Jenner of all people become a Chinese symbol for good fortune? Chinese influencer Marcelo Wang broke down the trend in his own viral TikTok. He explai…

Epic Games‘s Fortnite video game was not available on Apple’s iPhone devices in the European Union and the United States on Friday. Access to Fortnite via Apple’s iPhone Operating System and through its App Store will be unavailable worldwide until Apple unblocks it, Epic Games said. Epic Games did not give a reason why Fortnite was blocked, but Apple said it had asked Epic Sweden to resubmit the app update without including the U.S. storefront so as not to impact Fortnite in other geographies. “We did not take any action to remove the live version of Fortnite from alternative distribution marketplaces,” an Apple spokesperson said. Epic, a U.S.-based studi…

Record cold temperatures are once again expected to hit a swath of the country this weekend—even plunging Florida into its coldest stretch of the last 15 years, potentially bringing snow to areas of the state that haven’t seen it in four decades. This arctic blast is actually a sign of climate change, and how more extreme weather happens in an increasingly warming world, despite erroneous claims by the president and others. There’s a difference between weather and climate Ahead of the winter storm that brought intense snow, ice, and freezing temperatures to about two-thirds of the United States earlier this month, President The President took to Truth Social …

Picture the scene. You’ve advertised a job on LinkedIn and received applications from around Europe. The perfect candidate lives in one of the world’s top tech cities—Paris, Berlin, or Amsterdam, for instance. Your company is based somewhere in Europe, so hiring them should be easy, right? Unfortunately, no. Despite their geographical proximity, countries in Europe still vary significantly in their hiring rules and regulations, making it hard to compliantly pay cross-border workers. Let’s take a closer look at the problem. So close, yet so far There’s naturally a certain amount of friction in terms of labor law compatibility between European states in…

After 25 years of obsessing over Mars, Elon Musk announced that SpaceX has shifted focus from invading the Red Planet to invading the Moon. He claims he will build a self-sustainable lunar metropolis in less than a decade—a sharp contrast to his proposed Mars colony, which he says would now take at least 20 years. Both timelines are as fictional as Star Trek, but at least now his plan makes sense. It is a jarring plot twist from January 2025, when Musk dismissed the Moon as a “distraction.” Now, he says, the satellite is the “overriding priority” to secure civilization. Musk argues a lunar base is necessary because a “natural or man-made catastrophe” on Earth could c…

Sprinkles Cupcakes, the company known for its sweet treats and iconic cupcake ATMs, is no more. Candace Nelson, the company’s founder, ended 2025 by confirming that all Sprinkles locations were shutting down as of December 31. In a video shared to Instagram and TikTok, Nelson said, “This isn’t how I thought the story would go. I thought Sprinkles would keep going and be around forever. I thought it was going to be my legacy.” Sprinkles has yet to make a formal announcement, but its Instagram profile appears to be gone and the store locator tab on its website now produces an error message. Fast Company reached out to the brand’s PR contact for additional deta…

As the midterm election primaries inch closer, some candidates are focusing their campaigns on how they’ll regulate artificial intelligence. On the right, populist Republicans are warning that the AI industry stands to undermine the Make America Great Again movement. On the left, there’s worry about the sector’s growing political and social power. Across the spectrum, there’s near-universal concern about what the technology might be doing to children. The donor class is now getting involved: A super PAC called Leading the Future backed by OpenAI executive Greg Brockman and Andreessen Horowitz plans to spend as much as $100 million in the midterms to support its prefe…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is refusing to consider Moderna’s application for a new flu vaccine made with Nobel Prize-winning mRNA technology, the company announced Tuesday. The news is the latest sign of the FDA’s heightened scrutiny of vaccines under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., particularly those using mRNA technology, which he has criticized before and after becoming the nation’s top health official. Moderna received what’s called a “refusal-to-file” letter from the FDA that objected to how it conducted a 40,000-person clinical trial comparing its new vaccine to one of the standard flu shots used today. That trial concluded the new vaccine was s…

The stock prices of RAM and NAND manufacturers surged yesterday, with Micron Technology (Nasdaq: MU) up 10%, Sandisk Corporation (Nasdaq: SNDK) up 27%, Western Digital Corporation (Nasdaq: WDC) up 16%, and Seagate Technology Holdings (Nasdaq: STX) up 14%. The driving factor behind this recent stock surge is a shortage of RAM, or random-access memory. The shortage expected to last throughout 2026, and it could mean that you’ll pay much more for personal computers and smartphones this year. Here’s what you need to know about the RAM shortage of 2026. Why is there a RAM shortage in 2026? The RAM shortage in 2026 can essentially be blamed on one thing: artific…

It’s the day after Super Bowl Sunday, otherwise known as National Hangover Day. Because, let’s face it—even if you have zero interest in football and can’t even remember who won the game, if you’re like many Americans, you probably at least went to a watch party. (If for nothing else than for the joy-bringing halftime show led by the one and only Bad Bunny.) But if you’re feeling a little, er, off today. . .you’re far from alone. According to UKG’s annual Super Bowl Absenteeism Survey, an estimated 26.2 million U.S. employees were anticipated to stay home today. That means, that no matter who wins or loses the Super Bowl, the big loser on Super “Sick Monday” is t…

Work is full of potential rejection. Ask a colleague for a favor, and they may refuse. Apply for a job, and you may not get it. Seek a promotion, and you may be passed over. Submit a proposal to a client, and it may not be accepted. One key part of success is to be willing to learn from these failures, rather than to be paralyzed by them. Yet, you may find it hard to get over a rejection. Before you can learn anything from a failure, you first have to get beyond the emotions associated with rejection. Dealing with rejection sensitivity The first question you have to ask is whether a particular rejection is bothering you, or whether rejection in general is a pro…