What's on Your Mind?

It’s that time of year. Fall is around the corner, but it still feels like summer on some days. In an age of global warming, this transitional season is likely to stretch out longer than it did before. Designers are aware they need to create jackets and coats appropriate for this in-between season. The market is now full of good options beyond the outdoorsy puffer or fleece that will keep you at the right temperature. Many are designed to be good for both work and life, allowing you to look put-together for the office, but also relaxed enough for weekends. We’ve scoured the market for five coats that offer an additional layer, along with some style and polish, th…

As a small child in the 1980s, I tuned in weekly to see the hilarious antics of the Golden Girls. I loved seeing the friendship and support between the three 50-something housemates of Blanche (Rue McClanahan), Rose (Betty White), and Dorothy (Bea Arthur), while the affectionate bickering between Dorothy and her unfiltered 80-something mother Sophia (Estelle Getty) always struck me as mother-daughter relationship goals. While the show was ahead of its time in myriad ways, one important legacy it has given Generation X is a blueprint for adult communal living. Our generation understands what a “Golden Girls retirement” means, and we have all likely spent some happy hou…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Zillow economists just published their updated 12-month forecast, projecting that U.S. home prices—as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index—will rise +1.2% between August 2025 and August 2026. Heading into 2025, Zillow’s 12-month forecast for U.S. home prices was +2.6%. However, many housing markets across the country softened faster than expected, prompting Zillow to issue several downward revisions. By April 2025, Zillow had cut its 12-month national home price outlook to -1.7%. However, in recent months, Zillow has stopped issuing downward r…

With more than 30 years in digital transformation, I’ve seen technology cycles come and go. And the latest wave I’m seeing is AI-powered automation. It promises sweeping gains in productivity, but without ethical guardrails, it risks undermining the trust leaders depend on to grow. That’s why leaders can no longer treat ethics as an afterthought. Automation isn’t just a technical upgrade. It is a human, cultural, and reputational challenge. The choices that leaders make today will determine whether automation drives sustainable progress or fuels mistrust and inequity. The promise and the peril Automation has a lot of benefits. It can free workers from repetitiv…

“Climate tech” isn’t a thing. It has shifted in recent years from a category to define clean energy companies to an umbrella phrase that loses meaning the more we use it. Granted, the term is everywhere: inserted into VC pitch decks, plastered on billboards along highways from San Francisco to Austin to Boston, wedged into government policy papers, and featured prominently on conference agendas. Media properties from CNBC to GreenBiz rely on it as a traffic-driving category. And there’s a reason why. A changing climate is the most complex and vast challenge and opportunity confronting our society today. That also means we can’t afford ambiguity. We need accountabi…

Burger King is getting into the Halloween spirit. The fast food chain just introduced its first-ever Monster Menu to kick off spooky season. According to a news release, the vamped up menu will drop on Sept. 30. “BK fans have come to expect something spirited from us during the Halloween season, and each year we try to bring even more fun to families,” said Joel Yashinsky, chief marketing officer, Burger King US&C in the release. Yashinsky continued, “This year, we’ve dialed up the fun and flavor, not only with our ‘Monster Menu’ line-up complete with themed menu innovation, packaging and a special crown, but also with collectible buckets and Scooby-Doo toys—…

Here he is, depicted at six months in office, chiseled and brawny, as mighty as the very nation. Here he is as a Star Wars Jedi wielding a patriot-red lightsaber, rescuing our galaxy from the forces of evil. Here he is taking over Gaza, transforming the strip into a luxury resort complete with a golden effigy of himself. You can be anything, perhaps you were told growing up. Doctor. Astronaut. Maybe, one day, the president. But even the chief executive of the United States, the free world’s leader, frames himself as something more epic — as someone not entirely himself. On the social media accounts of Donald The President and his second-term administration, a new,…

As press releases go, it was a mic drop moment. On September 4, OpenAI announced that it was coming after LinkedIn. And it was coming after job search specifically. For those unfamiliar with the story, it was reported across multiple sources that not content with torpedoing Google, education, interpersonal relationships, and entire industries such as psychiatry or management consultancy (both smugly considered untouchable until about 15 minutes ago), OpenAI is now coming after the age-old industry of human resources. Specifically, the $300 billion company wants to streamline the process of hiring by automatically matching candidates to roles via context alone,…

Shopping for a used car? Hertz is making it easier than ever to buy a car from its fleet: You can now browse, finance, and purchase vehicles entirely online, the company announced Tuesday. The car rental giant has revamped its website, HertzCarSales.com, allowing customers to now browse thousands of vehicles, get a trade-in offer, get prequalified, and secure financing so they complete the purchase entirely online. These changes mean that car buyers no longer need to visit one of Hertz’s 45 retail locations to complete the purchase. “Our new e-commerce platform marks a major step forward in modernizing how we serve our customers with a seamless journey from browsi…

AI isn’t a cost-cutting tool. It’s a revenue multiplier. Yet too many companies are stuck asking how AI can help them run leaner with fewer people, faster processes, lower costs. That question won’t unlock exponential growth. The better one is: How can AI help us grow faster, sell more, and drive new revenue streams? Yes, cost savings will deliver marginal gains. But accelerated and/or new revenue unlocks step-change impact. If your AI doesn’t show up in your P&L as higher conversion, more long-term value, and stronger monetization, then it’s not a strategy. It’s just automation. THE REVENUE UNLOCK IS HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT AI’s real power lies in how it tra…

The U.S. is in the middle of a digital infrastructure revolution. Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and edge technologies are transforming industries and redefining what’s possible, from national security to personalized medicine. But as AI headlines focus on coders and cutting-edge tech, the real story is unfolding in workshops and job sites where skilled workers are making innovation physically possible. Unlike the dot-com boom or the mobile era, this AI-driven transformation isn’t just about servers and software. It’s about the concrete, steel, cables, power, and cooling systems that serve as the nervous system of our digital society. As the demand for hype…

Halloween candy shoppers who bought Reese’s pumpkin-shaped candy said they felt tricked when the picture on the outside packaging didn’t exactly match the treat inside. They were so upset, in fact, that they filed a lawsuit in late 2023 seeking $5 million in damages. Now a judge has dismissed their claims. At issue is Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins, whose wrappers show an image of a pumpkin-shaped candy with a jack-o’-lantern face carved into the chocolate outer layer. In reality, the chocolate inside is faceless. In a class-action suit filed in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida, plaintiffs claimed Reese’s candy wrappers were deceptive. …

A comedy festival in the capital of Saudi Arabia has provided golden material for comedians who declined the offer on principle—or would’ve done, if they’d received an invite in the first place. The debut Riyadh Comedy Festival, running Sept. 26 to Oct. 9, bills itself as “the biggest comedy festival in the world.” In the line up of more than 50 comedians, some like Bill Burr and Pete Davidson, whose firefighter father was killed in the 9/11 attacks, came as a shock and disappointment to fans. The irony is also not lost that many of these same comics, who have publicly railed against cancel culture and preached about freedom of speech, sold out to a regime that …

What are the qualities of a great team? You’ve probably been taught that team success requires building trust, fostering psychological safety, and cultivating a unified mindset. Seems logical. You might have learned that consensus is important and hierarchies are bad. Okay. You’ve undoubtedly been given that old chestnut, “There’s no I in team.” A classic. Team building 101. It’s conventional wisdom, and yet it completely misses the paradox of teams: While companies often focus on merging everyone into a single homogeneous entity, truly great teams embrace the distinct, diverse roles and talents of their team members. Every high-performing group in an organization wil…

Your inbox is brimming with new emails, and you need to decide which to reply to quickly and which to ignore. You try to schedule something for next week, but your calendar is already packed with recurring meetings. So many employees have asked for a particular day off—or requested a particular shift schedule—that you can’t grant all their requests. You post a job listing for a single position and get 250 applications. These situations arise constantly in our work lives, and their analogues come up in our personal lives. But despite their frequency, we often struggle with how to handle them. We barrel through our inbox and move things around on our calendar. We follow…

Glen Powell has proven that he can hold it down as the star of blockbuster movies, from Twisters to Hit Man. But on October 3, in his hometown of Austin, he was holding down the grill at the parking lot of his local Walmart. Powell’s grill work was pulling double duty as promotion for his new TV comedy, Chad Powers, and for Smash Kitchen, his clean food brand, which launched at Walmart in April. The brand debuted with a suite of condiments including ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and barbecue sauce that look and taste on par with heritage brands but are made with all-organic ingredients. Priced from $1.97 to $4.97, they’re just pennies more expensive than their legacy …

There’s a double whammy hitting the U.S. alcohol industry lately: Americans are drinking less, while foreigners have soured on our exported spirits amid higher tariffs. Those dynamics have worsened a crisis that’s already seen some distilleries go out of business this year and thousands of jobs eliminated. Exports of U.S. spirits to Canada plunged by 85% in the second quarter from a year ago, marking the steepest declines among four key markets, according to data released Monday by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DSCUS). Overall, exports of American spirits fell 9% in the second quarter as U.S. spirits makers pay the price of persistent trade tensi…

Up until a week ago, I was really quite satisfied by my iPhone 17 Pro. Not the Liquid Glass, but its soft orange aluminum frame felt just new enough to give me a spark. Then I opened the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Yes, its name is too long. Yes, it costs $700 more than my iPhone. Yes, it’s still heavier than I want it to be. And yet, I hate to admit it . . . the Fold justifies every analyst who has cried that Apple’s hesitance to adopt flexible screen technologies is starting to make it look dated. An estimated 17 million folding smartphones sold last year, representing a scant 1.5% of the smartphone market, but about every analyst expects that figure to balloon …

Every working parent has that one thing keeping them from completely losing it. Some have the Mary Poppins-like nanny who knows exactly when to show up with wet wipes and organic muffins. Others swear by meal kits, color-coded Google calendars, or chore charts their family actually follows (unicorn families, basically). For me? It’s a group text. Not glamorous, not particularly organized, but it’s my lifeline. This is where playdates get arranged, last-minute pickup emergencies get solved, and critical intel on the latest stomach bug gets dropped. It’s also where I can admit, “I fed my kids popcorn and blueberries for dinner,” and instead of side-eye, I get heart …

Before I was ever involved in the flower business, I jumped from job to job, trying to figure out where I belonged. I grew up in South Queens, New York, where the role models on my block were police officers and firemen who showed up when others needed them most. Naturally, I thought I’d follow that path and become a cop. That dream shifted into social work, a field that fed my heart but not my wallet. To make ends meet, I took on whatever work I could, flipping houses, tending bar, you name it. Through it all, I never forgot what my dad, a painting contractor, used to tell me: “If you’re old enough to walk, you’re old enough to work.” On paper, none of this looke…

Long John Silver’s is known for its seafood, but it’d like to be better known for its poultry. So much so, that it just swapped the fish in its logo for a chicken. In time for national seafood month, Kentucky-based chain announced that it’s dropping the golden yellow fish illustration for a similarly styled chicken illustration. It’s also adding the words “Chicken” and “Seafood” to its lock-up. “Guests have been telling us for years that our chicken is a best-kept secret,” Long John Silver’s senior vice president of marketing and innovation Christopher Caudill said in a statement. “It’s time we let that secret out.” For now, the new logo shows up on the Long J…

This year’s wellness and fitness honorees encompass innovations in sleep, fitness, and mental well-being. They help users chill out, de-stress, and take concrete actions to reduce their chronic disease risk. Sure, some of these may seem over the top. But as technologies improve and reach scale, what’s over the top now could become a basic necessity tomorrow. Ammortal For building the ultimate rejuvenation machine The Ammortal Chamber may be the ultimate self-care flex at the moment. The fully immersive “wellness experience” combines red light therapy for cellular regeneration, vibro-acoustic sound therapy to harmonize the nervous system, pulsed electromagnetic fields to…

“We are fully committed to AI adoption,” the CEO told me, proud of the company’s recent employee training initiatives. “But is AI just another tool in their toolbox, or a new way of working?” I asked. Silence. “Your number one enemy is the lack of an answer to this question,” I continued. “Your employees are hearing doomsday predictions about how AI will soon eliminate their jobs, so they resist and reject these technologies. Most importantly, they have no idea who they will become after AI is adopted,” I concluded. This isn’t the first time I’ve witnessed this overly enthusiastic, roll-the-dice approach to AI. Once again, technologists are scaring busines…

Every office has that coworker that turns up to a meeting coughing and sniffling while proudly proclaiming they have never once taken a sick day in their career. (If there isn’t one, maybe it’s you.) But as one viral TikTok makes clear, those attitudes towards taking sick days may be changing—just as sick days themselves are changing, as some think being sick isn’t a real excuse to not work in the WFH era. The skit—which has more than 2.3 million views—sees popular TikTok creator Delaney Rowe adopting the role of that coworker, turning up to a meeting with a hospital tag still on wrist, oh-so bravely battling through the workday while simultaneously making it eve…

Martin Luther King, Jr., did plenty to change the world for the better. And nearly 60 years after his assassination, he’s at the center of a major concession by the world’s leading AI company that puts a battle over intellectual property and the right to control your image into the spotlight. In the weeks after OpenAI released Sora 2, its video generation model, onto the world, King’s image has been used in a number of ways that his family have deemed disrespectful to the civil rights campaigner’s legacy. In one video, created by Sora, King runs down the steps of the site of his famous “I have a dream” speech, saying he no longer has a dream, he has a nightmare. In an…