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The 2002 sci-fi thriller Minority Report depicts a dystopian future where a specialized police unit is tasked with arresting people for crimes they have not yet committed. Directed by Steven Spielberg and based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, the drama revolves around “PreCrime”—a system informed by a trio of psychics, or “precogs,” who anticipate future homicides, allowing police officers to intervene and prevent would-be assailants from claiming their targets’ lives. The film probes at hefty ethical questions: How can someone be guilty of a crime they haven’t yet committed? And what happens when the system gets it wrong? While there is no such thing as an al…

Generative AI is radically reshaping the job market—creating new roles, changing some, and phasing out others. But here’s one effect of the transformative technology that’s not as widely talked about: It’s deepening long-standing workplace gender gaps. A double disadvantage According to a recent report from the World Economic Forum and LinkedIn, women systematically face a two-part problem in the ongoing AI transformation. Relatively fewer women are currently in jobs that are being augmented by generative AI, and relatively more are in roles that are being disrupted. According to LinkedIn data for the US, 24.1% of men work in augmented occupations, while 20.5%…

Your flights will probably get noticeably bumpier over the next few years, according to new research on how climate change is affecting turbulence. Paul Williams is a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Reading in England who has researched turbulence for more than a decade. In a presentation at the European Geosciences Union conference last week, Williams shared his research showing how global warming is likely leading to an uptick in something called “clear-air turbulence,” or turbulence that can’t be seen on an airplane monitor or from the cockpit. Based on Williams’s research, severe clear-air turbulence has increased by 55% since the 1970s…

Effective leadership isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor. It requires adaptability, self-awareness, and a deep understanding of when to step in and when to step back. Leaders often struggle to find the right balance between empowering their teams and maintaining strategic oversight. But there’s a way that you can do both. By adopting the practical 2×2 leadership framework that I’ll get into in this article, leaders can assess their approach based on two critical dimensions: Degree of Empowerment and Degree of Strategic Altitude. The leadership quadrants When you map out leadership approaches across these two dimensions, four distinct quadrants emerge. Each …

Many leaders view employee activism as a disruption or threat. They see it as something to contain, avoid, or manage behind closed doors. This perception isn’t surprising because activism challenges established hierarchies, questions the status quo, and introduces unpredictability into organizational life. Yet a 2007 study has shown that employees who feel heard are more engaged, innovative, and committed to their organization’s success. In contrast, when employees feel ignored or dismissed, trust and morale decline, and disengagement is likely to set in. Activism is one form of voice, and is often the last resort when other channels have failed. The business case…

Real ID, the new format for driver’s licenses and state IDs in the U.S., shows how design can set federal standards while minimizing federal oversight. When Congress passed the Real ID Act in 2005 at the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, it was an attempt to standardize minimum security requirements for state IDs and driver’s licenses nationwide, as well as make consistent the forms of identity recipients needed to show to get an ID. On the surface, it might seem like a simple ask, but in practice, the legislation butted up against privacy concerns and ideological opposition to federal overreach. About half of states opposed the law after it passed, and 13 pa…

Sahil Lavingia has had just three jobs over a 15-year career in tech. The first was as the second employee of Pinterest. The second was by founding the startup Gumroad, a successful, famously lean company that makes it easy for content creators to sell digital goods. The third? As an unpaid contractor supporting the Department of Veterans Affairs in a role facilitated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a fact recently revealed in a Wired piece. One of these things is not like—and is far more controversial than—the others. But Lavingia, who chose not to speak to Wired but reached out to me after I drew attention to the piece, makes no excuses fo…

If you’ve ever been to the Vatican or watched for a puff of white smoke on live TV, you probably noticed something colorful. Or rather, something wholly mind-blowing in the modern era of tactical military design—a troop of tri-color pantalooned papal protectors wielding halberds, seemingly straight out of a Raphael painting. But these are not hired cosplayers. This is the Swiss Guard, the pope’s personal security team—and today they’re protecting the college of cardinals as they vote on the next Catholic leader, decked out in what Encyclopedia Britannica has dubbed “among the oldest uniforms in continuous use.” It’s more Met Gala than military. Here’s how this bol…

Bible designs tend to be variations on a theme—tissue-thin paper and unforgiving font sizes, owing to the 783,000 words crammed into a single normal-sized book (the average novel, by comparison, clocks in at 70,000–100,000 words). Cheap faux-leather covers. A bookmark ribbon, maybe. If you’re a person of faith, it’s perhaps not the most fitting frame for what is defined as the literal word of God. If you’re a design zealot, it’s heretical object quality. If you’re both, well—prayers. The Bible is a book utterly ripe for a redesign. So Dylan Da Silva did just that with his Byble project, which released a bespoke hypermodern 11.5-pound edition of Genesis (the fi…

Ambition is one of the most defining forces in human affairs—a psychological engine that propels individuals beyond the realm of survival into the arena of creation, disruption, and transformation, and significantly predicts educational attainment, career success, job performance, and income. At its core, ambition is the refusal to accept the status quo, the internal pressure to stretch personal limits and societal boundaries. In a way, the best way to understand ambition is as the inability to be satisfied with one’s accomplishments. Ambition fuels leadership by pushing individuals to take responsibility, imagine alternatives, and mobilize others toward a vision. Amb…

Continuing from the “year of yeehaw,” professional bull riding is having a moment on TikTok. Since the beginning of this year, Professional Bull Riding (PBR)—the largest bull riding league in the world—has gained 650,000 followers across its social media platforms, Mashable recently reported. That’s just 200,000 fewer than they gained throughout all of 2024. Mitch Ladner, PBR’s social media lead, told Mashable’s Christianna Silva that most of this growth comes from followers between the ages of 18 and 35. On PBR’s TikTok, which is nearing 3 million followers, many recent videos tap into viral trends and audio—with a cowboy twist. “Aligning our chakras,” one captio…

The average person changes jobs every two years and nine months, according to a survey by the career advice website Career Sidekick. If you work for 40 years, that translates to about 15 jobs—and 15 resignations. While the conversation can feel difficult, it’s important to be thoughtful about how you say goodbye, says Melody Wilding, author of Managing Up: How to Get What you Need from the People in Charge and human behavior professor at Hunter College in New York City. “A lot of people boomerang back to a company, team, or manager in a fairly short time,” says Wilding, who is also a contributor to Fast Company. “Having strong relationships with leaders and colleague…

Scam calls are turning the world on its head. The Global Anti-Scam Alliance estimates that scammers stole a staggering $1.03 trillion globally in 2023, including losses from online fraud and scam calls. Robocalls and phone scams have long been a frustrating—and often dangerous—problem for consumers. Now, artificial intelligence is elevating the threat, making scams more deceptive, efficient, and harder to detect. While Eric Priezkalns, an analyst and editor at Commsrisk, believes the impact of AI on scam calls is currently exaggerated, he notes that the use of AI by scammers is focused on producing fake content, which looks real or on varying the content in messages d…

In Texas, parts of Houston are sinking at a rate faster than 10 millimeters—or about two-fifths of an inch—per year. Parts of Dallas and Fort Worth are sinking more than 5 millimeters per year. While that may sound small, it adds up: Every few millimeters that a city sinks can cause cracks in roads or tilt building foundations, and make that region more vulnerable to extreme flooding. And those Texas cities aren’t alone: Twenty-five other major cities—from New York and San Francisco to Boston and Oklahoma City—are also sinking, according to a new study, putting more than 34 million people at risk. Cities can sink for a few reasons. Buildings are heavy, and so so…

Greg Creed spent 25 years at Yum Brands, including more than a decade in leadership roles at Taco Bell, before he retired from the company in 2020. He offered this unsolicited advice after a rough quarter for McDonald’s, in which same-store sales fell over 3%, the company’s worst drop since the pandemic. The problem, Creed asserts, is that McDonald’s isn’t chasing menu options that its customers will crave. And without a menu that elicits a strong reaction—either positive or negative—from diners, McDonald’s is just “being beige.” “Nothing as a brand is worse than being beige,” Creed wrote in a recent LinkedIn post. “It upsets no one, but let’s be honest: No one l…

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. The speed and breadth of the changing political/cultural status quo in the U.S. has been breathtaking and disorienting for brand leaders across the tech/business community. Some leaders ​​have gone all in to kiss the ring of the new status quo. Many more are wrestling with the question “How do I continue to support the ideals my brand believes in without causing serious self-sabotage?” Thi…

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. While virtual doctor visits were available prior to 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic kicked them into overdrive: From 2018-2022, the percentage of American hospitals offering telehealth jumped over 14% to 86.9%. In 2021, McKinsey reported that the use of virtual care had stabilized at 38 times higher than before the pandemic. That same year, 85% of doctors offered it and 37% of adults surveyed had us…

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. When architects constructed the Notre-Dame Cathedral in the 13th century, they reinforced its structure with 28 flying buttresses. These famous buttresses are credited with saving the entire roof from collapse during the devastating 2019 fire. Today, as nonprofit organizations brace against shifting economic winds, I’m reminded of these critical architectural supports when I consider the wraparo…

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Digital wallets have fast become part of daily life. By 2027, they’re expected to account for half of all retail sales—around $25 trillion worldwide. It’s easy to see why. Paying with a digital wallet is easy, secure, and requires nothing more than a phone. But there’s potential for wallets to do so much more, beyond payments. Digital wallets started as payment tools. Now, they’re becoming…

One of the worst parts about flying might just be, well, the fellow passengers. In fact, a 2023 Fast Company-Harris poll even found that 62% of airline customers are most dissatisfied with other travelers. Now, that might just be backed up by the new 2025 North America Airline Satisfaction Study from J.D. Power. The study noted that the volume of fliers has decreased in the first quarter of 2025. But surprisingly, customer satisfaction is slightly up compared with last year, which potentially means that people think overcrowding is one of the worst elements of air travel. The study is based on feedback from 10,224 passengers, all of whom had flown on one of the ma…

At a time of skyrocketing costs in the U.S., looming tariffs, and fears of a recession, New Yorkers are finally getting some good news: Over 8 million people in the Empire state will receive a sort of stimulus check, or officially, an “inflation refund check” this year, according to Democratic governor Kathy Hochul. The refunds come as Americans continue to battle high inflation, driving up prices on everything from housing to groceries, stemming from the global COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. While inflation has steadily decreased from its 2022 high of 9.1%, prices have not re-adjusted to levels before the pandemic, according to Newsweek. Last week, Hochul s…