What's on Your Mind?

Uber is on Wednesday launching its own version of a bus system along busy routes, calling it its most affordable ride option yet. The rideshare company has introduced Route Share, a new service offering pickups every 20 minutes along busy corridors during weekday commute hours. Available from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. local time, the service will launch in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Boston, and Baltimore Riders can select the Route Share option to see nearby routes and book a seat anywhere from seven days to 10 minutes before their intended pickup. They’ll then be prompted to walk to the set pickup area where the drive…

California’s top insurance regulator said Tuesday that State Farm can soon start raising premiums by 17% for all of its home insurance customers in the state to help the insurer rebuild its capital following the Los Angeles wildfires. State Farm has argued the emergency rate hikes are necessary to help the company avoid a “dire” financial crisis that could force them to drop more California policies. The state’s largest home insurer said it was already struggling financially before this year but the LA fires, which destroyed more than 16,000 buildings in January, have made things worse. The increase will apply to all of the roughly one million homeowners State Farm insu…

Apple just announced new accessibility features coming to its operating systems. There’s a redesigned braille input experience, and a new reader that allows you to customize your text so it’s more legible. But there’s one that will be great for anyone attending any lecture or presentation: Magnifier for Mac. The iPhone and iPad got their Magnifier apps back in 2016. It worked pretty much like the iOS camera: You point your device anywhere you want and zoom in to the desired level. It also allows you to apply real-time filters to enhance readability depending on your vision’s condition, like turning a book’s black text over white page into white text over blue, as well as …

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has spent its first 100 days slashing government programs and firing employees. Yet Musk views DOGE not just as a downsizing force, but also as a team of technologically elite shock troops tasked with rapidly modernizing outdated government systems. One of DOGE’s primary targets on that front is the Office of Personnel Management’s antiquated retirement application system, which still relies on paper forms and manual processing. The system handles retirement applications and manages benefits for former federal employees and their families, coordinating closely with agency HR teams and payroll centers. DOGE and its…

Ever wonder why the sound of rain makes you instantly drowsy, but a ticking clock drives you up the wall? That’s because not all noise soothes the brain in the same way. Sleep sounds might seem like just background buzz, but they’re carefully engineered to allow your brain to let go. Behind every babbling brook or rainforest storm track is an intricate design meant to quiet the mind, block out distractions, and nudge you toward sleep. As more people rely on sleep sounds to wind down, the industry behind them has surged, which is evidence of just how common this nightly ritual has become. Mediation and mindfulness app Headspace, says 51% of listeners use its sleep con…

Digital banking fintech firm Chime disclosed a rise in 2024 revenue in its IPO filing on Tuesday for a long-awaited U.S. stock market launch. Financial technology companies have increasingly entered the U.S. lending space, aiming to wrest market share from major players such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup. Chime’s revenue rose to $1.67 billion in the fiscal year ended 2024, up from $1.28 billion, a year earlier. The IPO window has reopened as markets recover sharply amid progress in trade talks, offering companies an opportunity to list their shares after months of turbulence driven by tariffs. A strong debut by Chime could pave the way f…

Ikea just debuted its first-ever rewards program for customers in the U.S., and it could mean a major discount on your next plate of Swedish meatballs—or even a price cut on a new vintage-inspired piece of furniture. The rewards program launches today, and it allows shoppers to accrue points for a range of actions and then redeem them for various discounts. The rewards are a free add-on to Ikea Family, the store’s existing loyalty program (which is also free to join and currently boasts around 24 million members). Any current members of Ikea Family will automatically be enrolled in the rewards program, and new members who sign up will start earning points automaticall…

The hottest parties right now are happening in the metaverse. VRChat, a video-game-like social platform hosted in virtual reality, saw more than 130,000 people in attendance on New Year’s Day 2025, according to a VR culture blog. Before 2020, VRChat had hardly seen more than 20,000 concurrent users, according to Wired. While virtual clubbing began in the early 2000s on platforms like Second Life, VRChat, and AltspaceVR, the COVID-19 lockdowns brought a new wave of virtual ravers as traditional nightclubs closed and people looked for online alternatives. Today, VR clubbers line up each week for dozens of fully immersive virtual parties hosted across the U.S., Europ…

REI has long enjoyed a reputation as a progressive company that promises strong benefits and promotes a culture of inclusion and sustainability. As a consumer cooperative, the outdoor retailer has also eschewed a typical corporate structure. But in recent years, against the backdrop of a union drive, some workers have described a culture at odds with REI’s purported values. Despite successful union efforts at 11 of its 180 total stores, REI workers have not managed to successfully negotiate a contract with the company. The National Labor Relations Board is also currently looking into dozens of unfair labor practice charges brought by workers. Last week, REI members vo…

Over the past few weeks, I’ve traveled across the U.S. and Europe, attending back-to-back leadership conferences. These weren’t your average networking events; they were filled with C-suite executives asking difficult questions in a particularly charged moment: What’s next for DEI? How do we adapt and innovate when it comes to AI? How do we steer employees in a politically divided country? On stage, speakers repeated polished points, but to me, the most important part of what these gatherings offered wasn’t the panel talks—it was the smaller, informal meetings taking place, the standing around high-tops, and the walks to the various meals. In these candid conversation…

Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Company’s workplace advice column. Every week, deputy editor Kathleen Davis, host of The New Way We Work podcast, will answer the biggest and most pressing workplace questions. Q: How do I make a good first impression? A: Since this is a work-life advice column I’ll focus mostly on how you can make a good impression at work, but many of these tips work for other situations in life. Be interested: Ask questions It’s a simple truism of most conversations and human interactions: People like to feel like they’re interesting and important. If you know whom you’ll be meeting, you can go one step further and do a little research in ad…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. As I’ve been closely tracking in ResiClub’s monthly metro- and county-level housing inventory analysis, over the past year the supply-demand equilibrium—measured by shifts and levels in active housing inventory and months of supply—has shifted directionally in favor of homebuyers. That doesn’t mean buyers have all the leverage, or that the picture is the same in every market. Directionally, however, homebuyers in most markets have gained leverage compared to the 2024 spring housing market. This shift is also showing up in the pricing data—specificall…

Disability is often framed as something to accommodate instead of celebrate. But Visible Voices, a new digital platform launching today on Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2025, is challenging that mindset. The platform is part magazine, part gallery, and part curated e-shop. As a whole, it’s repositioning disability as a source of culture, creativity, and style, fueled by the belief that accessibility and aesthetics should not be at odds. Cofounded by journalist Bérénice Magistretti and creative entrepreneur Reuben Selby, both of whom live with invisible disabilities, Visible Voices is the platform they wish existed when they were first navigating those identi…

As automakers look to get more people in electric vehicles, they continue to make advancements in EV batteries—developments that add range, speed up charging times, or lower costs, all of which entice customer adoption. Now, General Motors says it has developed a new kind of EV battery that provides a higher range at a more affordable price, and that it aims to become the first carmaker to deploy the technology. Called lithium manganese-rich (LMR) prismatic battery cells, these batteries use a higher amount of less-expensive minerals, like magnesium, rather than more of the most expensive minerals like cobalt and nickel. Most EVs in the U.S. use lithium-ion batteries…

Natural disasters—from tornadoes across the South and Midwest, to the fires in Los Angeles to Hurricane Helene’s devastation in North Carolina—have upended communities, with small businesses among the hardest hit. As extreme weather events become more frequent, these businesses have emerged as vital anchors of community recovery. While urban enterprises navigate complex rebuilding amid dense infrastructure, rural businesses face distinct challenges in disaster response. Yet across geographies, small businesses play a critical role in stabilizing and revitalizing their communities after catastrophe. Rural small businesses, in particular, serve a dual role: They’re not …

After weeks of searching and applying, you’ve made it to the interview stage, a victory in and of itself. But what happens if you land multiple interviews with different companies at the same time? While it’s certainly a good problem to have, it’s still one that needs to be handled with care—especially if one of the companies asks whether you’re interviewing elsewhere. But does interviewing with multiple companies make you seem like a more desirable candidate—or someone less committed? What if you get a job offer from one company, but are midway through the hiring process at another? These questions are common, and how you handle them can impact not only you…

It’s been less than a year since the world’s largest dam removal project was completed along 420 miles of the Klamath River, near the border of Oregon and California. But if you look at the river now, you might not know that four dams had ever been in place. Instead of concrete walls and artificial reservoirs, the river is now free-flowing—and parts of the former infrastructure have been replaced by wildflowers that are in bloom. Los Angeles Times “It’s been an incredible transition,” says Ann Willis, California regional director at American Rivers, a nonprofit that supported Native American tribes in a decades-long fight to take out the dams. “It’s really strange …