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Don’t beat yourself up if you do some serious damage on a cheese plate during holiday festivities this year: You just may do your future self a favor. A new study has found that eating nearly 2 ounces or more of high-fat cheese each day has been associated with a 16% lower risk of dementia, according to the study published this week in Neurology. Lest you think this is some sort of propaganda by Big Cheese, the study followed nearly 28,000 adults in Malmö, Sweden for roughly 25 years. The study’s findings indicate that Swedes who ate more cheese with a fat content exceeding 20%—which includes many varieties of cheddar, gouda, and blue cheese, among others—had a lo…

The flap of a butterfly’s wings in South America can famously lead to a tornado in the Caribbean. The so-called butterfly effect—or “sensitive dependence on initial conditions,” as it is more technically known—is of profound relevance for organizations seeking to deploy AI solutions. As systems become more and more interconnected by AI capabilities that sit across and reach into an increasing number of critical functions, the risk of cascade failures—localized glitches that ripple outward into organization-wide disruptions—grows substantially. It is natural to focus AI risk management efforts on individual systems where distinct risks are easy to identify. A senior ex…

Inbox pinging. Deadlines stacking. Morale slipping. One choice could change everything. These 11 books unpack the decisions—and strategies—that distinguish great leaders. Learn something new every day with “Book Bites,” 15-minute audio summaries of the latest and greatest nonfiction. Get started by downloading the Next Big Idea app today! Inspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others By Adam Galinsky Every leader leaves their mark on the hearts and minds of a workforce. This can go one of two ways: leaders can leave behind a legacy of inspiration, or infuriation. Based on thousands of perspectives collected from around the globe, Adam crea…

Dead cartoon owls, brain-rot cookie content, fake rebrands, and library thirst traps. Welcome to the era of DGAF branding. In this episode of FC Explains, Grace Snelling breaks down why major brands and public institutions are ditching polished ads for chaotic content and seeing massive results. From Nutter Butter’s unsettling TikToks and California Pizza Kitchen’s fake midlife crisis to Duolingo “killing” its iconic owl and libraries going viral with memes, this episode explores how being weird online has become a serious marketing strategy. We look at the numbers behind these stunts, the cultural forces driving them, and why leaning into chaos can sometimes …

Thomas Kuhn was a philosopher whose groundbreaking 1962 book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, is credited with bringing the term paradigm shift to pop culture. Kuhn described how scientific communities stick to established paradigms, even as evidence of their limitations mounted. Widely accepted paradigms for understanding and interpreting knowledge don’t crumble under the weight of mere data. Instead, they tend to persist until a crisis emerges—when anomalies become so disruptive that a shift to a new paradigm is unavoidable. Zoning was established in the early 20th century as a way to protect homeowners from unwanted industrial developments nearby. It was p…

More than 20% of Americans will be diagnosed with mental illness in their lifetimes. They will, that is, experience conditions that influence the way they think, feel, and act—and that may initially seem incompatible with the demands of work. Our new research suggests that what people living with chronic mental illnesses need most to succeed at work is for their managers to be flexible and trust them. This includes the freedom to adjust their schedules and workloads to make their jobs more compatible with their efforts to manage and treat their symptoms. For that to happen, managers need to trust that these workers are committed to their jobs and their employers. …

“Mad Max mode” may sound like something out of a video game, but it is a real-life setting for cars currently plying America’s streets. And it poses genuine danger. In an homage to the main character from George Miller’s dystopian 1979 film and its sequels, originally portrayed by current The President supporter Mel Gibson, Tesla created Mad Max mode as an option for vehicles equipped with its “Full-Self Driving” (FSD) system. The Mad Max icon is a mustachioed smiley face wearing a cowboy hat, bearing less of a resemblance to the film’s titular vigilante than to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s brother, Kimbal. (Warner Bros., which released the films, has not filed suit.) De…

Nostalgia has been one of the dominant themes of 2025, from AI-generated scenes of the good ol’ days to the resurgence of analog hobbies. Retro, a friends-only photo journal, recently launched a new feature which taps into this mindset, turning your camera roll into a personal time machine. The Rewind feature, launched this week, resurfaces camera roll memories from this time last year. These are private to you unless you choose to share with others. “People are taking more photos than ever but they’re actually doing less with them. It’s almost as if those photos go into the ether,” Nathan Sharp, cofounder and CEO of Retro, tells Fast Company. “We buil…

AI is forcing every leader into a choice they can’t dodge: do you believe your people are fundamentally creative and motivated, or lazy and in need of control? Most leaders won’t want to answer that honestly, but their AI strategy already has. The AI mandates. AI-blamed layoffs. So-called AI-enabled “bossware.” The truth is in the tools: many leaders prefer “synthetic” employees they can control, and will treat human beings much the same way until they can be replaced. Sound hyperbolic? Just look at recent headlines. Klarna’s CEO famously bragged about AI replacing his staff after the company fired or lost 22% of its workforce a year earlier (this blew up in his f…

Over the past several years, the art of the rebrand has increasingly become a spectacle sport. From cultural institutions like the Philadelphia Art Museum, which reportedly fired its CEO over a poorly received rebrand this year, to the furniture brand La-Z-Boy, which was widely praised for its modern revamp, the internet’s attention economy has meant that almost no notable rebrand is safe from social media’s deluge of hot takes. In 2025, that was more true than ever. Brands that rolled out a new look this year were scrutinized for everything from their font and color choices to the potential ideological implications of their visual pivots. In September, after the desi…

First there was Spotify Wrapped. Then came Snapchat Wrapped, YouTube Wrapped, and even Uber Eats Wrapped—shortly after, SNL parodied the idea. If you thought you were officially wrapped up for the year, LinkedIn had other plans. The platform just dropped its inaugural Year in Review—essentially, LinkedIn Wrapped. LinkedIn’s Year in Review recaps your activity on the platform, from how often you logged on and when you were most active to how many posts you shared. It tallies your comments, new connections, and total profile impressions, then assigns you a personality type based on how you used LinkedIn. The feature also taps into the platform nostalgia trend, w…

Few brands have been more associated with the fast-fashion boom of the last two decades than Zara, the flagship apparel chain owned by Spanish clothing giant Inditex SA. It may surprise some consumers to learn, then, that Zara has in fact reduced its global footprint over the last few years since the pandemic. The brand’s decline in physical storefronts has been moderate but meaningful, from a third-quarter peak of around 2,139 stores in 2019 to just under 1,800 stores five years later, according to earnings statements from Inditex. That’s a reduction of 16%. Now, thanks to new accounting metrics from the company, we’ve learned that Zara’s physical footprint…

Visa and Mastercard have agreed to pay $167.5 million to settle a long-running class action lawsuit. The suit, which was first filed back in Oct. 2011, accused the two major credit card companies of conspiring to keep ATM fees artificially high. The proposed settlement, filed on Thursday in Washington, if approved, it will mean an end to “almost fourteen years of vigorously contested litigation.” The lawsuit alleged that both companies “participated in an unlawful conspiracy” involving Visa and Mastercard blocking independent ATM operators from offering lower prices. If approved, the settlement will have Visa and Mastercard pay millions to ATM users who say the…

Ford is recalling more than 270,000 electric and hybrid vehicles in the U.S. because of a parking function problem that could lead to them rolling away. The Detroit automaker said that the recall includes certain 2022-2026 F-150 Lightning BEV, 2024-2026 Mustang Mach-E, and 2025-2026 Maverick vehicles. At issue is the integrated park module, which may fail to lock into the park position when the driver shifts into park. Ford said that it will implement a park module software update for free. Vehicle owners may contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332 for additional information. View the full article

The discovery of the body of Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a Portuguese national who studied physics at Brown University, earlier this week in a New Hampshire storage facility brought closure to two alarming cases. Authorities say they believe Valente, a 48-year-old who recently arrived in Boston, was behind the December 13 mass shooting at Brown University, and the December 16 murder of MIT professor Nuno Loureiro. The identification of Valente brings calm to communities worried about a mass killer on the loose. But it also puts the lie to theories floated by right-wing influencers, including Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire. In recent days, Maguire, acting …

Most businesses start with a spark, an idea fueled by hunger, resilience, or grit. But sustaining that energy through scale is the real challenge. Founders and leaders play a defining role in that journey. The same values, authenticity, and style that ignite early momentum can easily crush it. That’s why builders and entrepreneurs are essential to a new business. Think Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, or Sara Blakely. But that style is NOT for everyone, especially those who prefer less “out-front” leaders. These founders are visionary, pushing their teams to act in the way they want every employee to show up. But leaders at successful companies realize that business and talen…

UnitedHealth Group has laid off dozens of remote employees in healthcare technology and services marketing from its Optum unit, who were given two weeks notice in November, sources told Health Payer Specialist. Fast Company has reached out to UnitedHealth for confirmation. Those employees were based in “multiple states on the East coast and in the Midwest,” according to that report, and are among UnitedHealth’s roughly 400,000 employees across the U.S. (It is the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest healthcare insurer.) The healthcare giant is just the latest company in a string of industries to announce layoffs, which have hit almost ever…

In the Star Trek universe, the audience occasionally gets a glimpse inside schools on the planet Vulcan. Young children stand alone in pods surrounded by 360-degree digital screens. Adults wander among the pods but do not talk to the students. Instead, each child interacts only with a sophisticated artificial intelligence, which peppers them with questions about everything from mathematics to philosophy. This is not the reality in today’s classrooms on Earth. For many technology leaders building modern AI, however, a vision of AI-driven personalized learning holds considerable appeal. Outspoken venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, for example, imagines that “the AI tut…

In today’s corporate landscape, optics often precede outcomes, especially in technology-led transformations. Announcements of new platforms, AI-powered strategies, or “digital-first” pledges frequently come long before the underlying infrastructure to support them. That was Ted’s reality as the chief growth officer at a global bank when his CEO unveiled a high-profile “AI-Powered Growth Strategy” positioned as a bold leap forward. The announcement made headlines and thrilled investors, but behind the scenes, the organization wasn’t prepared. Ted was given a skeletal team of two direct reports, a patchwork of third-party tools, and the mandate to partner with five glo…

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas for the stock market, which may be headed for a “Santa Claus Rally,” according to analysts, including those at Goldman Sachs and Citadel Securities. “Barring any major shocks, it will be hard to fight the overwhelmingly positive seasonal period we are entering and the cleaner positioning set-up,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s trading desk team said in a client note, as reported by Bloomberg. “While we don’t necessarily see a dramatic rally, we do think there is room to go up from here into year end.” Scott Rubner of Citadel Securities agreed, noting: “Following a year of strong portfolio returns and record household wealth,…

Happiness is taking control of a beloved comic strip. Sony is buying a 41% stake in the Charles M. Schulz comic “Peanuts” and its characters including Snoopy and Charlie Brown from Canada’s WildBrain in a $457 million deal, the two companies said Friday. The deal adds to Sony’s existing 39% stake, bringing its shareholding to 80%, according to a joint statement. The Schulz family will continue to own the remaining 20%. “With this additional ownership stake, we are thrilled to be able to further elevate the value of the ‘Peanuts’ brand by drawing on the Sony Groupʼs extensive global network and collective expertise,” Sony Music Entertainment President Shunsuke …