What's on Your Mind?

Google Flights is one of the most popular flight aggregators on the web. The site lets users search millions of flights to find the best routes and prices that meet their needs. Unsurprisingly, millions of people use Google Flights to find the best deals on holiday tickets. And the search for cheap flights has also led to many nuggets of so-called conventional wisdom that, if followed, will supposedly help you find the cheapest fares. But with the holidays rapidly approaching and finding the best deals on flights at the top of mind for millions of Americans, I wanted to find out if these bits of conventional wisdom were actually true—particularly when it comes to Goog…

Featuring Elly Dembo, Global Head of Data and Intelligence, McCann and Daryl Lee, Global CEO, McCann. Moderated by Kc Ifeanyi, Executive Director of Editorial Programming, Fast Company. America feels more divided than ever. Seventy-two percent of Americans believe this is the most complicated time to be an American, and 76% feel like the country is eroding. But beyond the headlines, there are powerful forces still holding the nation together: shared values, cultural touchpoints, and the evolving American dream. Join McCann Truth Central for an exclusive discussion about their latest study, revealing the surprising ways the American dream is evolving and how brands can…

Rumors of a Tumblr comeback have been bubbling for a couple of years—think a pair of Doc Martens here, a splash of pastel hair dye there. Now, Gen Z is embracing the platform as a refuge from an internet saturated with influencers and algorithm fatigue. Launched in 2007, just ahead of Instagram’s 2010 debut, Tumblr, with its blog-style format, encouraged users to craft personal aesthetics and immerse themselves in niche communities—where American Apparel tennis skirts, oversize flannels, and black wire chokers once reigned supreme. At its peak in early 2014, the platform had more than 100 million users and was often mentioned in the same breath as Facebook and other r…

It’s official: Twitter.com is about to bite the dust forever. According to a series of tweets from X’s @Safety account, posted between October 24 and October 25, the social media platform plans to finally retire the Twitter domain on November 10. Currently, searching for Twitter.com still leads directly to X, but soon, that will no longer be an option. The domain’s phase-out comes more than two years after Twitter owner Elon Musk renamed the platform X in July 2023, much to the dismay of many loyal users. At the time, critics argued that the rebrand was destined to fail, with some going so far as to call it “brand suicide.” And while many former users …

After years of living on the street and crashing on friends’ couches, Quantavia Smith was given the keys to a studio apartment in Los Angeles that came with an important perk—easy access to public transit. The 38-year-old feels like she went from a life where “no one cares” to one where she has a safe place to begin rebuilding her life. And the metro station the apartment complex was literally built upon is a lifeline as she searches for work without a car. “It is more a sense of relief, a sense of independence,” said Smith, who moved in July. She receives some government assistance and pays 30% of her income for rent — just $19 a month for an efficiency with a fu…

It’s no secret that internships offer a higher chance of landing a full-time job. However, they can be hard to nail down. Landing a full-time graduate job has become increasingly competitive, especially in an era where AI is prevalent. Researchers such as Sarah Bana talk about how companies will use AI to perform tasks like research and information gathering, basic content creation, and administrative tasks that were usually given to entry-level employees. In one study, 69% of hiring managers believed AI could do the work of a recent college graduate. This begs the question: How can you land an internship or a job as a young person just starting in the workplace…

The Great British Railways has a great British brand. The U.K.’s new public railway is leaning on well-known, classic symbolism for its visual identity unveiled this month. Train liveries for the new brand will show a design of a stylized Union Jack flag, while the new logo brings back an old double arrow concept designed in 1965 by Gerald Barney for the old state-run British Rail. The brand’s font is the simple, modern sans-serif Rail Alphabet 2, an updated version of the British Rail font designed in the 1960s by Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir. The new brand was designed in house by the U.K.’s Department for Transport and it will begin rolling out on trains, …

The risk of a partial U.S. government shutdown beginning next week is rising as congressional Democrats and Republicans hit an impasse over how to continue to fund the federal government. A shutdown could affect financial markets by limiting the operations of financial regulators and delaying the publication of key economic data. How might markets react? Historically, markets have tended to shrug off shutdowns. However, this time could be different. A prolonged shutdown risks delaying or canceling key economic data releases investors use to assess macroeconomic trends, such as the monthly employment and inflation reports, analysts at Nomura said in a note t…

Countries around the world have been discussing the need to rein in climate change for three decades, yet global greenhouse gas emissions—and global temperatures with them—keep rising. When it seems like we’re getting nowhere, it’s useful to step back and examine the progress that has been made. Let’s take a look at the United States, historically the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter. Over those three decades, the U.S. population soared by 28% and the economy, as measured by gross domestic product adjusted for inflation, more than doubled. Yet U.S. emissions from many of the activities that produce greenhouse gases—transportation, industry, agriculture, …

This story was originally published by ProPublica. The icebreaker Aiviq is a gas guzzler with a troubled history. The ship was built to operate in the Arctic, but it has a type of propulsion system susceptible to failure in ice. Its waste and discharge systems weren’t designed to meet polar code, its helicopter pad is in the wrong place to launch rescue operations and its rear deck is easily swamped by big waves. On its maiden voyage to Alaska in 2012, the 360-foot vessel lost control of the Shell Oil drill rig it was towing, and Coast Guard helicopter crews braved a storm to pluck 18 men off the wildly lurching deck of the rig before it crashed into a rocky beach…

Grok’s digital undressing scandal is horrifying. In recent days, countless women, including the mother of one of Elon Musk’s children, have found AI-generated and nonconsensual sexual images of themselves propagating across the web. According to one analysis, Grok was, at least as of early January, generating thousands of sexually suggestive, or undressed, images of people per hour. (Elon Musk now says that image generation will only be available to paid users.) Investigators from several countries have launched inquiries to investigate whether xAI had run afoul of the law, including rules about pornographic deepfakes and child sexual abuse material. Of course, none of t…

Well, this could be awkward for Americans traveling abroad. Beginning on January 21, the U.S. will indefinitely suspend immigrant visa processing from 75 countries as part of the The President administration’s crackdown on immigration. While the suspension only applies to those visas needed for employment or to join family in the U.S.—and not student or tourist visas—it includes many beloved travel destinations for Americans. The countries selected—including the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Thailand—were deemed “high risk of public benefits usage” by the State Department, according to a statement on Wednesday. The ban goes into effect next week, at which time no immigran…

North Dakota is the 11th state in the U.S. with a measles outbreak, logging its first cases since 2011. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s confirmed measles case count is 935, more than triple the amount seen in all of 2024. The three-month outbreak in Texas accounts for the vast majority of cases, with 702 confirmed as of Tuesday. The outbreak has also spread to New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Two unvaccinated elementary school-aged children died from measles-related illnesses in the epicenter in West Texas, and an adult in New Mexico who was not vaccinated died of a measles-related illness. Other states with active outbreaks—which the CDC defines…

In 1957, Hollywood released The Deadly Mantis, a B-grade monster movie starring a praying mantis of nightmare proportions. Its premise: Melting Arctic ice has released a very hungry, million-year-old megabug, and scientists and the U.S. military will have to stop it. The rampaging insect menaces America’s Arctic military outposts, part of a critical line of national defense, before heading south and meeting its end in New York City. Yes, it’s over-the-top fiction, but the movie holds some truth about the U.S. military’s concerns then and now about the Arctic’s stability and its role in national security. A poster advertises The Deadly Mantis, a movie released …

A penny for your thoughts? Well, maybe try a nickel. Though it will remain legal tender, the last-ever one-cent coin was printed Wednesday—and not without some drama. After being in circulation for 232 years, the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia hosted a ceremonial event during which U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach struck the final circulating penny. There are an estimated 300 billion pennies currently in circulation, a number “far exceeding the amount needed for commerce,” the Mint said in a statement but retailers say they’ve already been dealing with coin shortages and a lot of confusion about how to price goods and services. It took about nine months for the penny’s fi…

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. Tariffs, trade, imports, exports, prioritization, energy, and dominance are all words that have been flooding the headlines lately. In this world of globalization, it is an equilibrium of exchanges, ensuring we have enough of something but not too much. We see this balance come to life in supply and demand graphs of critical minerals, often in the context of batteries or energy dominance. …

Oceans cover about 70% of the Earth’s surface, yet the ocean floor remains largely untouched by humans. But perhaps not for long. A Canadian-based firm called the Metals Co. (TMC) recently announced plans to ask the The President administration to allow it to mine the deep seabed for valuable critical metals in the Pacific Ocean. President Donald The President is reportedly considering an executive order that would speed up permitting for deep-sea mining, which has prompted outrage from other countries. While some small and exploratory deep-sea mining operations already exist, the practice has yet to happen on a large commercial scale, partly due to fears that it cou…

A grocery store is offering to buy pennies in a 2-for-1 deal. Sound like pennies from heaven? Too good to be true? The news comes a day after the U.S. Mint pressed its final penny on November 12 in Philadelphia, following an order from President Donald The President to stop making the one-cent coins back in February. Market 32 and Price Chopper stores are inviting customers to double the value of their spare change by bringing in their pennies this Sunday, November 16 for “Double Exchange Day.” The only catch is that customers will receive a gift card instead of cold hard cash for their trouble, according to a statement on the company’s website. Market 32 is a…

A regional supermarket chain is offering to buy pennies in a two-for-one deal. Sound like pennies from heaven? Too good to be true? The news comes a day after the U.S. Mint pressed its final penny on November 12 in Philadelphia, following an order from President Donald The President to stop making the one-cent coins back in February. Market 32 and Price Chopper grocery stores are inviting customers to double the value of their spare change by bringing in their pennies this Sunday, November 16, for “Double Exchange Day.” The only catch is that customers will receive a gift card instead of cold hard cash for their trouble, according to a statement on the company’s w…