What's on Your Mind?

“The gyoza needs to look a little whiter. It’s too pink.” Nigel Ng is genially micromanaging the look and feel of Fried, an animated series that will premiere on YouTube later this year. His feedback comes during an early planning session at Toonstar, the company producing the show, which is headquartered in a former furniture warehouse in downtown L.A.’s arts district. Ng has every right to be fussy about Fried’s world. The show represents the cartoon debut of Uncle Roger, the volatile middle-aged Chinese guy he has portrayed in live-action YouTube videos since 2020. They famously depict the character growing agitated as he watches western chefs—such as Gordon Ramsay, …

October is usually a month for innocent frights and fun scares, but for Bitcoin investors, this month has left many holding the token legitimately fearful. In the last 24 hours alone, the cryptocurrency king has lost nearly 7% of its value. Bitcoin is currently sitting at below $104,000 per token. That’s especially notable considering that the cryptocurrency hit an all-time high of more than $126,000 just 12 days ago. Here’s what you need to know about Bitcoin’s most recent crash. Bitcoin’s tumultuous 2025 Bitcoin has been on a wild ride in 2025. The token began the year with considerable faith from investors, largely due to the incoming The President adm…

Thanksgiving is now less than six weeks away, which means many families are making plans for travel and meal prep. But the cost of inflation will also be weighing heavily on their minds, especially for those who have large Turkey Day gatherings to feed. However, the world of grocery shopping is highly competitive, and one chain, Aldi, is aiming to outdo the competition in enticing cost-conscious consumers to shop at its stores. The national grocery store chain has announced that it will put a full Thanksgiving meal, which feeds 10, on your table for just $40. Here’s what you need to know as the turkey dinner wars kick off for 2025. Aldi announces a Thanksgivin…

Fear over credit quality in U.S. regional banks rippled through markets on Friday, dragging global financial stocks lower and reviving memories of the crisis of confidence that shook sentiment just over two years ago. The selloff hit Wall Street, with main equities indexes seeing a mixed open, as investors stayed on edge with banking sector worries adding to anxiety already heightened by escalating U.S.-China trade tensions and renewed worries about the global economic outlook. The banking sector’s exposure to two recent U.S. auto bankruptcies has rekindled concerns about lending standards more than two years after Silicon Valley Bank’s failure, when high interest…

Last night, New Yorkers and viewers across the country tuned in to watch the first general election debate for mayor of New York City. And as far as debates go, this one was charged, full of spats, and came with a direct and thoroughline of questioning that didn’t leave anything off the table. Within minutes, Democrats Andrew Cuomo (who is running as an independent) and Zohran Mamdani, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, made clear that they came not just prepared to share their positions, but also to follow up, push back on criticisms or mistruths, and repeatedly fire well-rehearsed jabs at one another. The trio let viewers know just how different they are—not…

ChatGPT will be able to have kinkier conversations after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced the artificial intelligence company will soon allow its chatbot to engage in “erotica for verified adults.” OpenAI won’t be the first to try to profit from sexualized AI. Sexual content was a top draw for AI tools almost as soon as the boom in AI-generated imagery and words erupted in 2022. But the companies that were early to embrace mature AI also encountered legal and societal minefields and harmful abuse as a growing number of people have turned to the technology for companionship or titillation. Will a sexier ChatGPT be different? After three years of largely banning …

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…

If there’s any doubt whether people are willing to pay $900 for a premium credit card, just look at the latest quarterly results for American Express: The credit card issuer reported Friday that it beat third-quarter earnings estimates and raised its full-year outlook. It’s been a month since American Express refreshed its Platinum line of credit cards, raising the annual fee by $200 to $895, and that change is already paying dividends. The company has seen “strong” demand for these cards and more than 500,000 people have requested the New York-based issuer’s new pocket mirror card. “The initial customer demand and engagement exceeded our expectations, with new U…

Would you want to be in a group chat with your favorite sports celebrities and athletes? You’ll have your chance this fall thanks to a collaboration between WhatsApp and OffBall. OffBall, a year-old sports media startup that focuses on careful curation for its followers, announced on Friday that it was bringing back The Chat, which it had previously conducted with sports stars such as LeBron James. The franchise is designed to get users to participate in big group chats and discuss sports or anything else. High-profile personalities—such as professional athletes or others—also take part, and everyone can text or message each other like any other group chat, or s…

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 U.S. stock market seems to be steadying on Friday, as banks recover some of their sharp losses from the day before. The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% in midday trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 23 points, or 0.1%, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% lower. All three indexes drifted between gains and losses through the morning, but the moves weren’t as jarring as the big hour-to-hour swings they had earlier in the week. Drops for Big Tech stocks weighed on the market, including a 0.5% dip for Nvidia. They’re fighting criticism that their stock prices have soared too high because of the frenzy around artificial-intelligence…

An American businessman whose firm invested in several European soccer clubs that struggled under its ownership has been indicted in New York on charges of financial wrongdoing in an alleged $500 million fraud scheme. Josh Wander was a co-founder of Miami-based 777 Partners that owned stakes in an Australian airline, plus soccer clubs Hertha Berlin in Germany, Genoa in Italy, Standard Liege in Belgium, and Vasco da Gama in Brazil. The 777 story became a cautionary tale in the global soccer trend of multi-club ownership — investors taking stakes in several clubs in different countries. European soccer body UEFA has identified the trend as a threat to the integrity …

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 …

Apple’s mission to remake Apple TV into a streaming hub for sports is on track, literally. Apple will buy exclusive broadcast rights to Formula One (F1) races in the U.S. for the next five years, the company announced Friday. Apple cited the success of F1: The Movie in its decision to partner more deeply with Formula One, as the international motorsport gains a foothold among U.S. viewers. The five-year deal aims to extend the appeal of an Apple TV subscription to a broader swath of viewers while converting existing Apple TV users into racing fans, if things go as planned. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but reports from CNBC and New York Times-owned The Ath…

It might start with a cassette deck that streams Spotify and charges your phone. It doesn’t have to stop there. These days, yesterday is big business. A retro revival is underway in the design world: mushroom-shaped lamps, walnut stereo consoles, daisy dishware, neon Polaroid cameras. It’s like our homes just hustled over from “One Day at a Time” or “That ’70s Show” or moonwalked in from “Thriller”-era 1982. Welcome to the retro reset, where ‘70s, ’80s, and ’90s aesthetics are getting a second life. It’s not just in fashion and film but in home décor and tech. Whether you actually lived through it or long for a past you never experienced, nostalgia is fueling …

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…

Formula 1 announced a five-year deal Friday with Apple, which will be the global motorsports series’ U.S. broadcast partner beginning next season. ESPN had been the broadcast partner since 2018 and through the explosion of popularity of F1 in the United States, but notified the series at the start of this year it would not be extending its deal. At the same time, Apple was working with the series on “F1 The Movie,” an original film released internationally in cinemas and IMAX in June. It will make its global streaming debut on Apple TV in December, has already grossed nearly $630 million globally as both the most successful sports movie in history and most lucrati…

We’ve all heard it: For decades, it’s been a crux of career advice. Keep every door open. Stay on good terms. Never fully walk away. Don’t burn that bridge. But that advice was followed during a different time and for workplaces that were designed to keep you in line, not further your career. In today’s fast-moving workforce, clinging to outdated relationships, toxic workplaces, or unfair structures isn’t loyalty. It’s self-sabotaging. It’s time to rethink what was once considered the norm. Sometimes burning a bridge isn’t reckless. It’s strategic. It’s the first step toward building something better in your career. Why “Don’t Burn Bridges” No Longer Works …

When Starbucks announced that it would phase out its mobile-order pickup-only locations beginning in 2026, it raised a question: Why abandon a format seemingly built for speed and efficiency? As Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol explained in an earnings call, the pickup-only stores have a “transactional” feel, lacking “the warmth and human connection that defines our brand.” While Niccol also touted the mobile-order options at its traditional coffee shops, I see Starbucks’s move as an attempt to return to its roots as a “third place”—a destination between home and work where people can gather and connect. But this sort of pivot comes with trade-offs, and it creates i…

More than 2,700 “No Kings” anti-The President protests and community events are scheduled to take place today, Saturday, October 18, in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. And a majority of those events are in small and medium-size towns, as the grassroots pro-democracy movement spreads to all corners of the country. This latest protest comes amid a federal government shutdown and as The President has deployed National Guard troops to an increasing number of American cities. The event is organized by Indivisible, a progressive grassroots movement, and a coalition of more than 20 partners that includes the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the American…

I like chatting with my friends—who doesn’t?—but I don’t always know where to find them. There are simply too many apps. Some of my friends text, others use WhatsApp, while others yet insist on using Discord or the DM feature in whatever random social network they prefer. It’s a mess, and it can mean keeping several tabs open all day just to keep the conversations flowing. It makes you wish some application could combine all of your conversations into one place. This is a dream that used to be reality. Applications like Trillian, Pidgin, and Adium all combined instant messaging services like AIM, MSN, and ICQ in one handy interface. Over time, though, messaging se…

I was thrilled this week when Apple issued a press release announcing that its original film, F1 The Movie, starring Brad Pitt, would make its streaming debut on the company’s video service December 12. But it wasn’t the news about the movie that excited me. Rather, it was a small line at the end of the press release that quietly announced something else: “Apple TV+ is now simply Apple TV, with a vibrant new identity.” The “+” branding on Apple TV+ always bugged me. Whenever I looked at it, I thought, “Apple TV plus what?” Apple News offers a free base version and a paid version that gets you more content, called “Apple News+,” which makes sense. But there’s never bee…

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…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. In early October, a post on X by FreightWaves founder and CEO Craig Fuller caught my attention: Speaking with a home builder last night (Chattanooga, TN): High-demand in the low-end of the market (<$300k), as people are looking to upgrade from renting. Can't build enough. Almost no demand in middle market ($300k-700k), as it tends to be the upgrade market and the buyers… — Craig Fuller 🛩🚛🚂⚓️ (@FreightAlley) October 4, 2025 While Fuller’s narrative rings true in some pockets of the country, it isn’t the case everywhere. The dynamics he des…

You’ve probably heard of House of Highlights—even if you’re not a sports fan, it’s hard to miss, whether on YouTube or scrolling through your social feeds. What started as a college dorm Instagram account has grown over 11 years into the #1 sports media brand on the platform, boasting 100 million followers and billions of monthly views. Today, House of Highlights is a multi-platform sports media powerhouse, producing creator-led content and original series that rival traditional TV. Drew Muller, vice president and general manager at House of Highlights, spoke with Yasmin Gagne and Joshua Christensen on the Most Innovative Companies podcast about growth strategies,…