What's on Your Mind?

Between July and September, electric vehicle sales in the U.S. hit a record high. Americans bought more than 430,000 EVs, up 40% from the previous quarter, as they race to qualify for federal tax credits before they expire. That EV boom wasn’t just limited to the U.S., though: Global EV sales hit an all-time high of 2.1 million in September. Two-thirds of those sales were in China, the world’s largest EV market. And yet, there’s still talk of an “EV retreat,” both in the U.S. and abroad. Automakers have expressed concerns about their EV profits, and policymakers in Canada and the European Union are pausing, or adjusting, their EV mandates. There’s an “inherent…

The U.S. has succeeded in blocking a global fee on shipping emissions as an international maritime meeting adjourned Friday without adopting regulations. The world’s largest maritime nations had been deliberating on adopting regulations to move the shipping industry away from fossil fuels to slash emissions. But U.S. President Donald The President, Saudi Arabia, and other countries vowed to fight any global tax on shipping emissions. The U.S. had threatened to retaliate if nations support it. The President urged countries to vote “No” at the International Maritime Organization headquarters in London, posting on his social media platform Truth Social on Thursday th…

The MrBeast burger. MrBeast toys. Rumors of a MrBeast phone company. Could a MrBeast bank next? The world’s most-subscribed-to YouTuber, with 446 million subscribers, has filed an application with the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office for a service called MrBeast Financial. The recent trademark application for the latest venture from MrBeast — whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson — lists plans for a “mobile app and online services for a range of banking, financial advisory, crypto exchange, and other services.” The venture has not yet been approved and the full details remain unclear. However, the trademark application, which was filed on Oct. 13, aligns with …

It’s human nature to wait until the last minute rather than plan ahead—perhaps especially when it comes to retirement planning. There’s always plenty of other excellent uses for your money, until suddenly you’re staring at an underfunded 401(k) with only a few years left before you’ll need it. This is why president George W. Bush passed legislation in 2001 that (among other things) allowed for catch-up contributions among workers who were 50 or older. This gave older workers a chance to beef up their 401(k) accounts while they were typically at the peak of their earning years and let them continue to take advantage of making pre-tax contributions. Other than incre…

People are fascinated with leadership, and rightly so. After all, most of the “big things” that happen in the world (both good and bad) can be directly traced to decisions, behaviors, or choices of those who are in charge: presidents, prime ministers, CEOs, executives, and anyone tasked with turning a group of people into a high-performing unit, coordinating human activity, and shaping the impact institutions have on society, all the way down to individuals. In line, scientific research shows that up to 40% of the variability in team and organizational performance can be accounted for by the leader—in other words, who we put in charge, or who emerges as leaders, drast…

So long, nine-to-five. There’s a new work schedule that’s taking over. The grueling “996” schedule—which stands for 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week—is gaining momentum across the U.S., especially in certain industries. If a 72-hour work week sounds all-consuming, that’s precisely the point. The 996 schedule—which became popularized in China, eventually leading to protests and even claims that it led to a handful of worker deaths—is meant to foster a eat-sleep-work lifestyle. Keith Spencer, a career expert at FlexJobs, told Fast Company that the trend is most commonly being seen across AI startups that “are embracing this approach to accelerate growth and remain comp…

When someone opens the door and enters a hospital room, wearing a stethoscope is a telltale sign that they’re a clinician. This medical device has been around for over 200 years and remains a staple in the clinic despite significant advances in medical diagnostics and technologies. The stethoscope is a medical instrument used to listen to and amplify the internal sounds produced by the body. Physicians still use the sounds they hear through stethoscopes as initial indicators of heart or lung diseases. For example, a heart murmur or crackling lungs often signify an issue is present. Although there have been significant advances in imaging and monitoring technologies, t…

Yelp users looking to learn more about restaurants, businesses, and other locations on the platform can now get information from an AI-powered Yelp Assistant. When logged-in users on Yelp’s iOS and Android apps visit particular business pages, they can now ask specific questions ranging from where to park to whether a restaurant offers vegan options. The answers are generated based on facts from reviews posted on Yelp, information provided to the platform by businesses, and businesses’ own websites, with relevant sections and even photos from Yelp reviews highlighted in the AI response. The assistant also provides a list of suggested questions to ask about a particul…

In July, President The President signed an executive order aimed at expanding access to alternative investments like private equity and cryptocurrency in retirement accounts. The move reflects a broader shift in how Americans think about wealth building and financial freedom, and it is a signal to employers that the future of employee benefits is going to look very different. While crypto may have once seemed fringe or speculative, digital assets have steadily moved into the mainstream. From Fortune 100 companies to institutional investors, the appetite for diversification beyond traditional asset classes is growing. According to a survey by NYDIG, 36% of employees ag…

It feels like they match anything. Black. Silver. White. Cream. All rendered in gloss and knit. I wasn’t sure how the silhouette would look in person when I first saw it in photos from Junya Watanabe’s Fall/Winter 2024-25 show. But they made my stomach churn in just the right way. I needed them. And so did a lot of other people. The New Balance 1906L launched last year, kicking off a new type of shoe: the sneaker loafer, aka (and please never say this term aloud) the snoafer. With a loafer silhouette, technical fabrics, and bouncy foam outsoles, they represented a new mix of formal wear and street style. Nike, Hoka, and Puma all quickly followed suit with sno…

For most of its two-decade history, ActBlue hummed along in relative obscurity—and for Democrats, it might have been better off that way. The online donation platform for the left was founded in 2004 with a mission to harness the power of the internet and fuel political campaigns through small dollar donations. In the 2008 presidential cycle, it set out with the humble goal of raising $100 million for Democrats; this year, it raised nearly eight times that much in the first half of 2025 alone. ActBlue processed another $482 million in the third quarter of this year. As ActBlue’s coffers have grown, so has the target on its back. What began as a series of spu…

Earlier this year, things looked dire for Google. AI search was rapidly eroding the company’s market share, as people turned to ChatGPT and dedicated generative apps like Perplexity to search for information. In January, reports showed that the company’s search market share had dropped below 90% for the first time in almost a decade. And as the year continued, it seemed like it would keep plummeting. Now new data from search analytics company BrightEdge shows that the bleeding appears to be over. Google’s market share has stabilized, and has even begun to tick up. Why? Google is fighting back against the onslaught of AI search. And it’s winning. S…

Elon Musk is the kind of entrepreneur who likes to have an enemy as motivation—traditional carmakers, the mainstream media, the “deep state.” His newest undertaking, launched October 27, is no exception: Grokipedia is positioned as an alternative to Wikipedia, which Musk claims is biased and “woke.” A product of Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, Grokipedia’s inner workings are unclear, but the pitch is that it’s an AI-generated compendium of what Musk calls “truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” One major factor that makes Grokipedia different from Musk’s other rival-fueled enterprises is that Wikipedia is quite popular, well-liked, and widely …

I keep seeing articles and conferences about “humanizing” AI in one way or another. And while I get the sentiment, I think they’re taking the wrong approach. There’s no point in making technologies more human. Being human is our job. If anything, AI is less an opportunity to humanize technology, than to re-humanize ourselves. Let’s start at the beginning. AI is just the latest, perhaps greatest advancement yet in what OG computer scientist Norbert Wiener dubbed “cybernetic” technologies. Unlike traditional technologies, cybernetic ones take feedback from the world in order to determine their functions. They work less like a machine you turn on than a home heater’s th…

House fires burn hotter and spread faster than ever before, leaving families with as little as two minutes to safely escape their homes. Despite that short window to reach safety, families are startlingly unprepared: Only 26% of American families have developed and practiced a home fire escape plan. The disconnect between the urgency of fire safety and actual household preparation points to a fundamental challenge in home safety education. Traditional approaches (pamphlets, static demonstrations, and classroom presentations) often fail to create the lasting behavioral change needed when seconds matter most. At Kidde, our ultimate goal is to help keep everyone safe…

I’ve been writing professionally since 2002, and in that time, I’ve experimented with lots of different strategies to keep myself on track. (I’ve been a columnist at Fortune and Fast Company, and am now a contributing writer for The New York Times Opinion Section, in addition to cohosting Slate’s Money podcast, and I’ve been an editor, reporter, and opinion writer for a number of other places.) I also have, shall we say, a fragmented attention span, and my therapist likes to routinely bring up how many women my age have undiagnosed ADHD, which I now take as a not-so-subtle hint. So I need systems and routines maybe a bit more than the average person, and it has taken …

Ann Hummond knew the office software like the back of her hand. Based in Yorkshire, England, she could untangle any spreadsheet snafu in her sleep. Over the past 23 years, she had worked her way up from a data entry clerk to her finance company’s administrative director, quietly becoming the person everyone relied on when things went sideways. She was, in short, indispensable. And then, one Tuesday morning last year, during a quarterly team meeting attended by directors, colleagues, and a team leader, her boss—who is nearly 10 years her senior—told her publicly, in a roomful of people: “You’re too old to do this job.” “I must have looked like a goldfish…

As artificial intelligence enters its dating era, it has taken on an increasing number of roles: cupid, wingman, even romantic interest. Where once people’s biggest concern was being unfortunately catfished by old photos and flattering filters, now if a person seems too good to be true, well, they might not even be human at all. Hily’s Dating App T.R.U.T.H. report surveyed 1,559 U.S. daters and found 82% of Gen Z and 87% of Millennials are already turning to AI in their dating lives. Up to 95% also plan to use it in the future. Just as in traditional dating, there are some double standards at play. For Gen Z, 62% say they’d be turned off if they discovered…

Brands matter now more than ever. You don’t have to say it, I know what you’re thinking: the CEO of a brand agency arguing for brands? How surprising. But this isn’t for me. This is for every CMO looking to secure their seat at the table and fighting to keep brand investment alive. This is for every CEO and CFO balancing the pull of GenAI and the flood of new tools that promise optimization, automation, personalization, and agentic transformation. And yes, dare I say it, this is for my competitors, who I know are on their own crusade to prove that brand still matters. Because brands are quietly under attack, through budget cuts, short-termism, and the …

Over the past decade, Figma has transformed how people within companies collaborate to turn software ideas into polished products. Now the company is itself being transformed by AI. The technology is beginning to show its potential to take on much of the detail work that has required human attention in design, coding, and other domains. But the end game involves far more than typing chatbot-style prompts and waiting for the results. I spoke with Figma’s head of AI, David Kossnick—one of Fast Company’s AI 20 honorees for 2025—about what the company has accomplished so far and where he’s trying to steer it. “We’re still in chapter one, maybe the start of chapter two,” he t…