What's on Your Mind?

Think about how we commonly seek to motivate human performance in our workplaces: Employees are treated as costs to be minimized rather than people to be invested in. Performance is managed through fear of consequences. Supervisors closely monitor daily tasks, requiring frequent check-ins or reports. Being available at all hours is treated as evidence of commitment. Directives flow one way—downward. Feedback is delivered as judgment rather than support. In practice, if not in intention, we still manage people more like machines than human beings. How did we get here—and, more importantly, why have we never left? Most of what we call “modern management” isn’t moder…

Miklu Silvanto, Oura’s chief design officer, says incorporating advanced computing power into a tiny ring is a major challenge. It’s just as challenging to make a ring that people will actually want to wear around the clock. So Silvanto, an industrial design veteran who has worked at Apple and Bang & Olufsen, must also think of himself as a jewelry designer. “A ring is such an intimate object,” he says. “You might wear it alongside your wedding ring. You need to think comfort, and beauty, and fashion.” On October 1, Oura launches a new collection of ceramic rings that are more fashion-forward than its previous ones, which resemble metallic wedding bands. Since…

Fans of the Outback Steakhouse chain will be disappointed to learn that its parent company, Bloomin’ Brands, has recently closed a number of locations. The closures are yet another sign that major restaurant chains are facing significant headwinds as costs increase and consumers grow increasingly cautious of how they spend their discretionary dollars. Here’s what you need to know. What’s happened? Recently, Bloomin’ Brands, owner of Outback Steakhouse, closed a handful of chain’s locations. Many of these closures were first reported on social media and by local news outlets. Outback Steakhouse is an Australian-themed casual dining chain that was first fou…

The last thing you want when dealing with a hot oven is any added burn risk. But some owners of Oster’s countertop ovens have experienced just that. Oster’s parent company, Sunbeam Products, is recalling over a million units of Oster French Door Countertop Ovens due to its doors unexpectedly closing. The company has received 95 reports of this occurring, leading to burn injuries, two of which were second-degree burns. Where and when was the product sold? According to a notice from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the recall includes about 1,290,000 units in the United States and another approximately 104,195 units in Canada. In the U.…

Turkish authorities have detained 1,133 people across Turkey since the start of protests five days ago against the detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Monday. The detention last Wednesday of Imamoglu, President Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival, has triggered the biggest street protests in Turkey in more than a decade. On Sunday, a court jailed him, pending trial, on corruption charges that he denies. Despite bans on street gatherings in many cities, the mostly peaceful anti-government demonstrations continued for a fifth consecutive night on Sunday, with hundreds of thousands taking part. Yerlikaya said 123 …

For decades, the American Dream was rooted in opportunity at home. Today, a growing number of workers are redefining that dream and increasingly, it doesn’t include staying in the United States. A mix of economic pressure, shifting expectations, and global opportunity is pushing employees to consider life and work abroad in ways that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. New research from Preply’s Language and Global Career Mobility Report underscores just how widespread this shift has become. Preply, a foreign language learning platform, surveyed over 1,800 adults in the U.S., U.K. and Canada who had studied a language or were interested in learning one. …

Women face discrimination on several different fronts at work. They are 14% less likely to be promoted than their male colleagues. They still face pay gaps. And they suffer professionally for being caregivers at home, facing higher levels of burnout and a higher incidence of leaving the workforce altogether. According to a new report, working women also face unfair assumptions about their health from men. A new survey from Mira, a fertility tracking and health site, found that more than a third (37%) of men surveyed said they attributed a female colleague’s behavior to their hormones. Even more men (39%) said that they expect women to manage their emotions “diff…

There were 30,000 fewer U.S. drug overdose deaths in 2024 than the year before — the largest one-year decline ever recorded. An estimated 80,000 people died from overdoses last year, according to provisional Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released Wednesday. That’s down 27% from the 110,000 in 2023. The CDC has been collecting comparable data for 45 years. The previous largest one-year drop was 4% in 2018, according to the agency’s National Center for Health Statistics. All but two states saw declines last year, with Nevada and South Dakota experiencing small increases. Some of the biggest drops were in Ohio, West Virginia and other states tha…

A startup called Orion is ready to take on America’s sleep loss epidemic with a new, AI-enabled mattress cover that can adjust its temperature throughout the night to maximize comfort and rest. Cofounder and CEO Harry Gestetner previously cofounded the startup Fanfix, which helped Gen Z content creators build paid subscription programs. After the company sold to SuperOrdinary for a reported $65 million, Gestetner says he became interested in sleep and its well-documented links to health and longevity. “Every longevity expert tells you that sleep is the cornerstone of longevity,” he says. Gestetner found that most sleep and fitness trackers could detect bad …

So, you landed a job—and you’re already way too good at it. Maybe you took it out of necessity, maybe it was meant to be temporary, or maybe you thought it would be more challenging than it is. Whatever the case, now you’re stuck wondering how to stay motivated in a role that doesn’t come close to tapping your full potential. The good news? You’re not alone—and you’re definitely not stuck. Being overqualified doesn’t have to mean being overlooked or underutilized. In fact, with the right mindset and a few smart strategies, it can be a surprisingly powerful launchpad for growth, connection, and future opportunity. We spoke to 10 professionals who’ve been there—and …

Stellantis, the maker of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, issued a “do not drive” warning for certain late-model vehicles, telling drivers not to use their vehicles until defective air bags are replaced, according to a notice from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). This stop-drive directive was issued for 225,000 U.S. vehicles from 2003 to 2016 that contain the “defective, deadly” Takata airbag inflators, and is part of a larger, ongoing recall. More than 67 million Takata air bags have been recalled in tens of millions of vehicles across U.S. “Over time, the chemical propellant inside certain Takata inflators can degrade, particularly in hot a…

As researchers approach the front doors of Oxford’s new Life and Mind Building (LaMB), they’re greeted with a towering concrete facade, rendered with a rippling surface effect. What first appears to be a mere stylistic choice actually encodes something more special: Each of the concrete’s waves and dips is derived from the brain scan of an Oxford researcher. Designed by the architecture firm NBBJ, the LaMB is a massive, 269,000-square-foot space that brings together two departments: experimental psychology, which studies the human brain and how it operates; and biology, which encompasses both zoology (animal studies) and plant sciences. When it opened last October af…

Ozempic-maker Novo Nordisk turned to the actors from Apple’s 2000s “Get a Mac” ads to differentiate its GLP-1 medication amid a rising sea of competitors. On January 20, the Danish pharmaceutical company announced its “There’s Only One Ozempic” campaign starring Justin Long and John Hodgman. The actors are reprising their roles from Apple’s Mac vs. PC ads playing the personifications of a name brand and the alternative—but now for weight-loss drugs. Long personified Mac in the original Apple campaign by dressing in a more youthful, casual way than Hodgman, who personified a stuffy, dorky PC by wearing glasses and a suit and tie with a closely cropped haircut. …

For the record, this is not a sponsored post. I’m just frugal, and I like to travel as lightly as possible. Every piece of tech in my tightly packed bag needs to earn its keep by doing at least two jobs. As such, I’m a sucker for anything that can serve more than one purpose and does so on the cheap. Anker happens to make a lot of that type of stuff. If you’ve bought an aftermarket charger or power bank in the last decade, you’ve probably seen the name. I’ve found their gear to be equal parts reliable and budget-friendly in an age where buying off-brand tech accessories is a total crapshoot. So, if you’re ready to ditch the dead weight, here are three inexpens…

TV host, producer, author, and United Nations Development Program Goodwill Ambassador Padma Lakshmi has some candid advice for business leaders when it comes to speaking out, showing courage, and staying true to themselves, particularly amid the The President administration’s violent immigration crackdown. A passionate voice at the intersection of food, culture, and identity, Lakshmi shares how she’s shaking up food media with her new series America’s Culinary Cup, and offers a refreshingly human take on modern work life. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former Fast Company editor-in-chief Robert Safian. From the team b…

Growing up, WNBA star Paige Bueckers says she was “huge” on sports memorabilia. She collected items across a range of sports from her favorite players, including their posters, autographs, and jerseys. Today, she’s having a full circle moment: Bueckers just announced an exclusive, multi-year deal with Fanatics, which will make the sports apparel juggernaut the sole provider of her memorabilia and collectibles. The Paige Bueckers Fanatics collection pulls from both her collegiate career with the UConn Huskies (which she led to four Big East Tournament wins, four Final Four appearances, and a National Championship title) and her current professional career as a guard on…

Pakistan gets almost all its oil and gas from the Middle East, where U.S. and Israeli bombing of Iran have caused crude prices to blow past $150 a barrel and tankers can’t get through the Strait of Hormuz. But it has one edge in the crisis: a rapid, recent shift to solar power. The country’s solar boom started in the wake of the Ukraine war, when Pakistan couldn’t afford to buy liquefied natural gas and that led to power outages. “It also led to soaring electricity bills,” says Rabia Babar, an energy market analyst at the Pakistan-based nonprofit Renewables First. Some power bills were as much as 30-40% of people’s income, sometimes more than they were spending on…

A dispute between AI company Anthropic and the Pentagon over how the military can use the company’s technology has now gone public. Amid tense negotiations, Anthropic has reportedly called for limits on two key applications: mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. The Defense Department, which The President renamed the Department of War last year, wants the freedom to use the technology without those restrictions. Caught in the middle is Palantir. The defense contractor provides the secure cloud infrastructure that allows the military to use Anthropic’s Claude model, but it has stayed quiet as tensions escalate. That’s even as the Pentagon, per Axios, threatens to d…

The software company Palantir has waded into online fashion discourse after its head of strategic engagement, Eliano A. Younes, posted pictures of a “lightweight Palantir chore coat” to X. the lightweight Palantir chore coat [04.30.2026 • 0930 AM EST] pic.twitter.com/9K5fmu3bSs — Eliano A Younes (@eliano) April 21, 2026 In his post, Younes detailed the make of the coat (100% cotton, designed and made in America, “relaxed fit”), adding that it goes on sale April 30. The perplexing framing has caught people’s attention: Is this internal merch for a controversial tech company, or a drop from a streetwear brand? Increasingly, those worlds are getting uncomforta…

Palantir is undoubtedly controversial. Many view the data and software company as a beacon of technological progress, with some even sporting a photo the company’s CEO on their t-shirts. Others see it as the pinnacle of all modern evil, primarily due to its involvement with the U.S. military and the The President administration’s anti-immigration initiatives. Now thanks to a viral social media post, the debate is once again in the spotlight. On Sunday, Palantir’s X account posted a lengthy summarization of the key points argued in The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West, a book published last year by Palantir CEO Alex K…

Rumor has it that Palantir Technologies is poised for a stock split. An analyst for RBC Capital Markets recently polled investors, who reportedly indicated a desire for the software company to make such a move. “Retail investors are also largely focused on the potential for a stock split, and although this topic decreased quarter over quarter, it remains the most relevant topic,” analyst Rishi Jaluria stated, according to Investor’s Business Daily. He continued: “With Palantir’s $6 billion cash balance, we think retail investors may be starting to become frustrated by the company’s lack of willingness to return capital to shareholders given no apparent intere…

Shares in Palantir Technologies (Nasdaq: PLTR) are rising this morning, one day after the AI data analysis software company with significant U.S. government contracts reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings. Here’s what you need to know about Palantir’s latest results and its rising stock price. Palantir’s Q4 2025 beat Wall Street expectations Yesterday, Palantir announced its Q4 2025 earnings, and investors breathed a sigh of relief. For Palantir’s Q4, which ended on December 31, the company brought in $1.41 billion in revenue, signaling 70% year-over-year growth. The majority of that revenue comes from Palantir’s U.S. customers, which is split roughly even…