What's on Your Mind?

When I talk with business leaders about Gen Z, the same frustration often bubbles up: “They won’t stay.” It’s said with a kind of bewildered shrug, as if the younger generation has suddenly rewritten the rules out of thin air. I heard it again last week during a radio segment I did about generational dynamics at work. The host asked why Gen Z feels so comfortable moving on so quickly. Here’s what I’ve learned after a decade teaching them, coaching them, and watching them navigate the workplace: Gen Z doesn’t think they’re doing anything unusual. And frankly, once you look at the data, it’s hard to argue with them. A new Youngstown State University study of 1,000 f…

This year delivered whiplash: geopolitics, tariffs, and technology all shifting at once. And heading into 2026, the disruption isn’t easing up. Bob Safian distills hard-won lessons from his Rapid Response podcast this year on how to lead when the ground won’t stop moving—featuring standout moments from Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, Runway’s Cristóbal Valenzuela, Meta’s Clara Shih, LinkedIn’s Aneesh Raman, Planned Parenthood’s Alexis McGill Johnson, and the NWSL’s Jessica Berman, with practical takeaways for turning uncertainty into advantage. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. F…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. According to our analysis of the Zillow Home Value Index, U.S. home prices are up +0.2% year-over-year between November 2024 and November 2025. While that pace has decelerated over the past year—back in November 2024, the national year-over-year home price growth rate was +2.3% —it has ticked up slightly from the recent low of -0.01% in August 2025. In the first half of 2025, the number of major metro area housing markets seeing year-over-year declines climbed. That count has since stopped ticking up. 31 of the nation’s 300 largest housing m…

For most of my career at L’Oréal, I sold confidence in a tube: lipstick. But lipstick isn’t just about applying color to your lips. It’s about identity. Ritual. Power. Beauty has never been superficial. It’s always been about self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-expression, knowing that how you’re feeling inside is reflected on the outside. Today, the boldest expression of that confidence comes from beyond the makeup bag: It’s a full night’s sleep working with a skincare routine, balanced hormones supporting a healthy glow, nutrients fueling both energy and radiance, and gut health supporting complexion. The truth is simple: Health is the new lipstick. Healt…

Do you share your innermost thoughts with ChatGPT? You might want to think twice—or at least change your settings fast. View the full article

In the world of the long-running kids show Cyberchase, Motherboard, a sort of digital queen and literal technocrat, is the beneficent but impaired leader of all of cyberspace. She is—we are to understand—a legitimate ruler, yet faces constant attacks from the odious Hacker, a green-skinned android who dresses like a vampire and whose only goal is to sow chaos and eventually take control of Motherboard’s realm, which we might describe as something akin to a metaverse, or ever-expanding digital world. Luckily, a trio of human kids named Inez, Mattie, and Jackie—a squad—visit cyberspace frequently, where they embark on missions to help protect the ever-embattled Motherbo…

How should leaders prepare for AI’s accelerating impact on work and everyday life? AI scientist, entrepreneur, and Pioneers of AI podcast host Rana el Kaliouby shares her predictions for the year ahead—from physical AI entering the real world to what it means to onboard AI into your org chart. El Kaliouby cuts through today’s biggest AI headlines, bringing to light the insights that will matter most in the months to come. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by former Fast Company editor-in-chief Robert Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business…

One April night eight years ago, two tech leaders sat down with a former Forest Service employee at Terroir, a natural wine bar in San Francisco. Then they started sketching out a plan that would eventually reshape California’s housing policy. Landmark housing reforms that passed in the state in 2025, one that allows more housing to be built near transit stops, and another curbing the use of environmental law to block new housing—and which many believed would never succeed—can be traced back to that night, five bottles of wine, and crucial backing from Silicon Valley executives. An unlikely new leader Brian Hanlon, the Forest Service employee, was an unlikely l…

In December 2024, our survey with Harris Poll asked B2B marketers to share their top areas for investment in 2025. Artificial intelligence tools were at the top of the list. It also wasn’t surprising to see the AI architects named Time magazine’s Person of the Year as the ripple effects of the technology continue across every sector. And in 2026, we will see B2B decision makers do something new: return to basics andembrace AI to reimagine what’s possible. This approach reveals a compelling duality in how marketers are planning for 2026. There’s a return to what we’ve always known while also betting big on AI as a force not only reshaping work, but rewriting today’s B2…

We used to argue whether design was about aesthetics or about functionality. But in 2025, those conversations seemed downright quaint. Simpler debates for a simpler time. Now we’re wondering if craft can survive the age of AI, and if we’ll ever escape the politicization of every brand and object again. For the December episode of our podcast By Design, I discussed these trends and more with Fast Company senior editor Liz Stinson. We were joined by some of our brightest friends in the industry who shared their biggest own moments in design for the year, including Paola Antonelli (senior curator at MoMA), Cliff Kuang (FC Design’s first editor and senior staff d…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss pill on Monday, giving the Danish drugmaker a leg up in the race to market a potent oral medication for shedding pounds as it looks to regain lost ground from rival Eli Lilly. The pill is 25 milligrams of semaglutide, the same active ingredient in injectable Wegovy and Ozempic, and will be sold under the brand name Wegovy. Novo already sells an oral semaglutide for type 2 diabetes, Rybelsus. The approval could help spur a turnaround for Novo after a rocky year of sliding shares, profit warnings and slowing sales of its injectable Wegovy amid intense competition from Lilly and pressure from c…

Last weekend, a gnarly power outage in San Francisco took out a number of traffic lights, which, in turn, sent a number of self-driving Waymo robotaxis into a sort of fugue state. Instead of driving, some of the Waymos responded to these now-analog intersections by turning on their hazard lights, blocking traffic, and, well, not doing much of anything. There were multiple instances of Waymo cars clogging up roads, turning futuristic technology into glorified bollards. The city quickly asked the company to turn off the service. The immediate issue has been resolved—the power is back on and the Waymo service had resumed in San Francisco as of Sunday. But questions ling…

The fintech industry has spent the last decade obsessing over seamless experiences and bringing financial products inside the tools that consumers were already hooked on. Instant approvals, one-click funding, and frictionless onboarding became the benchmarks of success. And for good reason; they removed friction that had frustrated their customers for generations. But here’s what we’re learning as embedded finance matures: The consumers and businesses that use embedded financial products repeatedly and stay loyal to their platforms are not just staying for the technology and platform. They’re staying because when they need it, they’re able to get help from people who …

I’ve read a lot of business memoirs. One I keep coming back to is Grinding It Out by Ray Kroc—the man who built McDonald’s into the global giant it is today. Kroc was 52 before he even heard of the McDonald brothers who originally started the company. That fact alone says a lot about how he thought: Success comes eventually, but only to those who keep showing up. Which brings me to McDonald’s third-quarter earnings call Wednesday. McDonald’s reported solid results: global comparable sales up 3.6 percent, U.S. sales up 2.4 percent, revenue of $7.08 billion. The company is outperforming most competitors, but in a brutal environment: Fast-food traffic is…

In recent weeks, a project called Jmail.world has quickly recreated the online life of Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender with myriad ties to the rich and powerful. The effort started with a reproduction of the tranche of released emails in common Gmail style, searchable just like your own email app. Earlier this week, the team behind Jmail, software engineer Riley Walz and CEO of Kino Luke Igal, revealed JPhotos, which is inspired by Google Photos and is full of images that have been made public. The Jmail.world archive now includes sections imitating Google Drive, as well as “JFlights,” a section tracking Epstein’s flight history, “Jemin…

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. Last December, Modern CEO named the inaugural Modern CEO of the Year. The goal was to recognize a business leader who embodied the traits frequently covered in this newsletter: inclusion, accessibility, humility, and innovation amid unprecedented uncertainty. We looked for a person with vis…

The U.S. Federal Reserve agreed to cut interest rates at its December meeting only after a deeply nuanced debate about the risks facing the U.S. economy right now, according to minutes of the latest two-day session. Even some of those who supported the rate cut acknowledged “the decision was finely balanced or that they could have supported keeping the target range unchanged,” given the different risks facing the U.S. economy, according to the minutes released on Tuesday. In economic projections released after the December 9-10 meeting, six officials outright opposed a cut and two of that group dissented as voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee. …

In 2026 (and beyond) the best benchmark for large language models won’t be MMLU or AgentBench or GAIA. It will be trust—something AI will have to rebuild before it can be broadly useful and valuable to both consumers and businesses. Researchers identify several different kinds of AI trust. In people who use chatbots as companions or confidants, they measure a feeling that the AI is benevolent or has integrity. In people who use AI for productivity or business, they measure something called “competence trust,” or the belief that the AI is accurate and doesn’t hallucinate facts. I’ll focus on that second kind. Competence trust can grow or shrink. An AI tool user, qu…

The past year was a landmark for AI proliferation, with sweeping implications for virtually every area of business and life. But with progress came peril. We saw cyberattacks explode in number and sophistication, outmaneuvering legacy security defenses to create record damage. These trends will only accelerate from here, and it’s not enough for teams to simply brace for impact. Instead, organizations must anticipate what’s ahead and reimagine their security stacks, thinking about how to preempt attacks and optimizing their workflows. Thinking about cybersecurity in the new year, it’s critical to have a clear vision and get to work fast to meet the moment. Here are…

After years of “career experiments,” two clear life paths stand out to me. Just two choices people make, sometimes without realising it. Decisions that define almost every area of our lives. The most successful people pick one of these paths early. And stick around long enough for it to work. Everything that follows grows from those two decisions. The work you do. The skills you build. And the doors that open for you. I’ve seen both work. Different roads. But they can all help you build the life you want. You don’t need to have it all figured out. You can’t. No one can. But once you understand these two choices, you start aiming for what you want. Choice one: Be the b…

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. Twenty twenty-six will be a year of financial corrections, AI-driven biological breakthroughs, and new thinking about cybersecurity and executive protection—at least according to the CEOs I recently asked to provide bold prognostications. Here’s how 12 of them responded. New threats, ne…

A massive 243-kilogram (535-pound) bluefin tuna sold for a record 510 million yen ($3.2 million) at the first auction of 2026 at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market. The top bidder for the prized tuna at the predawn auction on Monday was Kiyomura Corp., whose owner Kiyoshi Kimura runs the popular Sushi Zanmai chain. Kimura, who has won the annual action many times in the past, broke the previous record of 334 million yen ($2.1 million) he set in 2019. Kimura later told reporters he was hoping to pay a bit less for it, but “the price shot up before you knew it.” The auction started when the bell rang, and the floor was filled with torpedo-shaped fish with their tails cut off so …