What's on Your Mind?

This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. Typing isn’t always the best way to get your thoughts down. Sometimes talking through an idea leads to better clarity. New AI tools can reliably transform those spoken thoughts into clean, organized text. I’ve spent months experimenting with voice AI tools—first on my phone, and now on my laptop. They’ve been helping me pull ideas from my brain onto paper. The tools below have become crucial to my workflow. Why voice AI beats traditional transcription Traditional transcription simply converts speech to text. Mod…

The Oscars are less than a month away, but before Hollywood’s biggest night, the folks across the pond have their turn to celebrate. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards (BAFTAs) will take place on Sunday, February 16, at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Historically viewed as a strong predictor of the Oscars, the BAFTAs just might offer a sneak peak of what’s to come—especially in this unconventional year full of controversies, disasters, and shifting front-runners. Here’s everything you should know and how to tune in. What does Prince William have to do with it? As part of his royal duties, the prince of Wales is the president of BAFTA. He and…

Watch any sporting event live or on television, and you’re guaranteed to be treated to the spectacle of at least one athlete celebrating. Football players develop elaborate dances in the endzone following a touchdown. Soccer players will tear off their shirts as they run to the corner of the field after a goal. Volleyball teams will congregate on their side to congratulate each other on winning a rally. In sharp contrast to these ubiquitous celebrations, many of us fail to acknowledge great things that have happened in the workplace. Work successes are also worth some demonstration of joy. So, why do athletes get to have all the fun? There are several reasons why …

These days, when you head to a shop to buy clothes, most brands package your purchases in a recyclable paper bag, which looks more eco-friendly than plastic. But behind the scenes—in back rooms that most customers never see—every single clothing retailer has enormous piles of flimsy plastic bags (sometimes called poly bags). These bags keep clothes clean as they travel across the complex global supply chain before arriving at the store. “We need to keep clothes in good condition as they move from factories to shipping containers to trucks,” says Candan Erenguc, chief operations officer at Anthropologie. Most local recycling facilities don’t have the equipment …

Ever since DeepSeek burst onto the scene last month, there’s been no shortage of opinions about what the Chinese startup’s artificial intelligence accomplishments mean for America’s AI giants like OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Meta. However, there’s one company that’s usually been absent from any discussion of just how bad DeepSeek’s arrival is for many of America’s tech giants: Apple. Whenever a tech insider or analyst mentions Apple and DeepSeek together, its usually to suggest that the arrival of the Chinese LLM could be beneficial to the iPhone maker. Is that really the case? AI technology is moving so quickly (DeepSeek virtually appeared out of nowhere) th…

Apple delivered financial results during its summertime quarter that exceeded analyst projections, despite being caught in the crosshairs of a global trade war at the same time the trendsetting company is scrambling to catch up to its Big Tech peers in the artificial intelligence race. The performance announced Thursday was driven largely by strong initial demand for its iPhone 17 lineup that went on sale last month. Although the iPhone 17 lacks the AI wizardry featured in rival devices recently introduced by Samsung and Google, Apple spruced up its latest models with a redesign highlighted by a sleek “liquid glass” appearance on the display screens. Apple also largely…

In early 2024, Ryan Broderick, a surgeon at UC San Diego Health, was commiserating with some colleagues about the profusion of screens in today’s operating rooms. Though the displays provided essential guidance for minimally invasive operations in progress, they also added complexity. “We were looking around the operating room,” he remembers. “We have a lot of monitors, a lot of clutter. We were like, ‘There’s got to be a better way to do this.’” It wasn’t just about tidiness. ”For [a] monitor to be in the ideal position for surgery, it really should just be directly in front of your head without having to turn your neck or adjust your body,” explains Dr. Broderick. “Bu…

Do artists and scientists see the same thing in the shape of trees? As a scientist who studies branching patterns in living things, I’m starting to think so. Piet Mondrian was an early 20th-century abstract artist and art theorist obsessed with simplicity and essence of form. Even people who have never heard of Mondrian will likely recognize his iconic irregular grids of rectangles. Tableau I by Piet Mondrian, 1921. [Image: Kunstmuseum Den Haag] When I saw Mondrian’s 1911 “Gray Tree,” I immediately recognized something about trees that I had struggled to describe. By removing all but the most essential elements in an abstract painting, Mondrian demonstrated som…

When brands hire illustrators, animators, or other artists, they typically know what they’re paying for: a defined set of creative assets, delivered on deadline, with clear usage rights. But in the age of generative AI, that’s no longer the whole picture. Commissioned artwork is increasingly being used not just in finished campaigns, but as training data to power AI models—models that, in turn, generate new, derivative outputs. Often, this use isn’t spelled out in contracts. It’s not malicious. It’s just . . . new. That’s left brands, agencies, and artists in a tricky spot—trying to apply old licensing logic to a new generation of tools. The result is a growin…

Kendrick Lamar. Drake. Lady Gaga. The charts of music streaming services pretty much all look the same these days, with familiar names dominating the top spots—except on up-and-coming Spotify competitor Audiomack. The current No. 1 album on Audiomack belongs to Nigeria’s Seyi Vibez, whose hypnotic Afrobeats tracks have amassed around 1.8 billion plays on the platform. Vibez is one of many African and Caribbean artists who have found breakout success on the platform. Many of them consistently draw larger audiences on Audiomack than on Spotify or Apple Music, largely due to the platform’s strong presence in local markets. “We are the most-used streaming service in a…

László Toth, a Hungarian Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor, emigrates to the United States after World War II in search of a new life. After a rough start, a wealthy businessman recognises his talent and offers him a job that will change his life. This is a very brief summary of Brady Corbet’s film The Brutalist, which stars Adrien Brody as Toth. While the protagonist of this almost four-hour film is fictional, his story is inspired by many real figures. During the rise of Nazism in Germany, and especially after the de facto demise of the Weimar Republic in 1933, many intellectuals, scientists and other educated people chose to emigrate in search of a…

From the Three Graces in ancient Greek and Roman mythology to the Three Wise Men in the Bible, the number three has been revered throughout history as a symbol of balance and harmony. Jackie and Shadow, the internet-famous bald eagles of Big Bear, California, would probably agree—their last egg has officially hatched, bringing their final chick count this season to three. These little fluffs might not have names yet but that hasn’t stopped 1.73 million people and counting from following their journey. Let’s break down the numbers and timeline of Chick 3’s arrival in the nest. The webcam that captured the attention of the world The bald eagle live streams a…

On a scorching hot Saturday in San Antonio, dozens of teachers traded a day off for a glimpse of the future. The topic of the day’s workshop: enhancing instruction with artificial intelligence. After marveling as AI graded classwork instantly and turned lesson plans into podcasts or online storybooks, one high school English teacher raised a concern that was on the minds of many: “Are we going to be replaced with AI?” That remains to be seen. But for the nation’s 4 million teachers to stay relevant and help students use the technology wisely, teachers unions have forged an unlikely partnership with the world’s largest technology companies. The two groups don’t always se…

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket successfully made its way to orbit for the second time on Nov. 13, 2025. Although the second launch is never as flashy as the first, this mission is still significant in several ways. For one, it launched a pair of NASA spacecraft named ESCAPADE, which are headed to Mars orbit to study that planet’s magnetic environment and atmosphere. The twin spacecraft will first travel to a Lagrange point, a place where the gravity between Earth, the Moon, and the Sun balances. The ESCAPADE spacecraft will remain there until Mars is in better alignment to travel to. And two, importantly for Blue Origin, New Glenn’s first stage booster successfull…

If you’ve been on Google or virtually any social media website over the last few days, you might have seen stories about Amazon layoffs making the rounds. And if you were curious enough to click through to any of those stories, you might have discovered that Amazon is supposedly planning to lay off 14,000 managers by the end of this quarter—a stunning figure, even for a company as big as Amazon. But that figure is untrue. Not only that, it seems to have been essentially conjured up out of nowhere, before being picked up by a stream of headlines on Google News, viral Reddit threads, and would-be LinkedIn influencers dissecting it as if it were fact. In reality,…

The bookstore cafe at Literary Arts’ new headquarters in Portland, Oregon was a hive of activity on a recent weekday morning. A few 20-somethings gathered for coffee in a corner, while at a nearby table, New Yorker cartoonist Tom Toro discussed his new book, And to Think we Started as a Book Club. . ., with a journalist. Meanwhile, Olivia Jones-Hall, Literary Arts’ director of youth programs, chatted with some colleagues about upcoming events. Just a few days earlier, President The President had announced on social media that he was ordering his ‘Secretary of War,’ Pete Hegseth, to send the national guard into “War ravaged Portland” to bring the city to heel—a direct…

Recruitment is a big part of what HR teams do, but it’s no secret that it can be both challenging and expensive. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), replacing an employee can cost a company anywhere from six to nine months of their salary. For highly trained positions, research shows that number can climb to as much as 213% of their salary! No matter your company’s size or industry, that’s a serious expense. The good news? A brand-savvy HR team can help bring these costs down. By addressing the key concerns of potential employees and attracting top-tier candidates who are a great fit, they can save valuable time and money in the recruitment …

Cultivating a loyal fan base is every brand’s dream. So why not take a page out of the book of companies that have made fandom the foundation of their business? Earlier this month at the Fast Company Grill at SXSW, executives from Weverse, Crunchyroll, and Wattpad/Webtoon spoke about how their companies cultivate and serve their diehard fandoms—and how you can apply that approach to your customers. For Joon Choi, president of Weverse, a platform bridging fans to artists, fandom always starts with authenticity, particularly with the artists on the platform. He recognized that “special” and “happy” experience of being in a fandom. So if an artist isn’t authenticall…

Featuring Fara Howard, Chief Marketing Officer, GoDaddy; Taylor Montgomery. Chief Marketing Officer, North America, Taco Bell and Dan Murphy, SVP, Marketing, Liquid Death. Moderated by Jeff Beer, Senior Staff Editor, Fast Company. Brands have a history of leaning into the unexpected to capture customers’ attention and cultivate loyal fan bases. But what’s the secret to properly executing such a campaign? And if the unconventional has become your calling card, how do you switch it up without losing your brand identity? Hear from executives navigating these questions and get insight into how you should approach your next marketing strategy. View the full article

Spring is officially here. It’s beautiful outside, and let me guess: You are spending all of your time indoors. Don’t worry, you’re in good company. On average people spend 90% of their time indoors. Not to mention that the other 10% is probably mostly spent in cars or other built environments. Workers in cubicles spend eight hours every day in a small gray box, separated from human interaction, marinating in stagnant air and fluorescent lighting. It’s cramped, uncomfortable, and unhealthy. One 2018 study found that workers in cubicles were 31.83% less active and reported being 9.10% more stressed at the office compared with workers in open bench seating. Not to menti…

When a gunman began firing inside an academic building on the Brown University campus, students didn’t wait for official alerts warning of trouble. They got information almost instantly, in bits and bursts — through phones vibrating in pockets, messages from strangers, rumors that felt urgent because they might keep someone alive. On Dec. 13 as the attack at the Ivy League institution played out during finals week, students took to Sidechat, an anonymous, campus-specific message board used widely at U.S. colleges, for fast-flowing information in real time. An Associated Press analysis of nearly 8,000 posts from the 36 hours after the shooting shows how social medi…