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I personally can never bring myself to tell people that I’d rather forgo their gift and just get cash instead—or better yet, a Venmo. It feels almost too blunt, a cheap shot. So each year, when I unwrap another pair of socks, I smile through gritted teeth. I feel a twinge of guilt in admitting it. But, to my relief, it appears I’m not the only one. A new Wells Fargo survey finds younger generations are driving a shift toward digital cash gifts, choosing convenience and flexibility over traditional wrapped presents. A staggering 45% of Gen Z and 42% of millennials say they’d rather receive digital payments, compared with 27% of Gen X and just 10% of baby boomers. …

If the holiday hustle and bustle is stressing you out, the night sky is providing a perfect moment to pause and wonder at some majesty this weekend, as the Geminid meteor shower (Geminids) is set to peak. The Geminids are technically active annually—this year, from around December 1 through 21, and the action peaks on the evenings of the 12th and 13th. Let’s take a look at the science and history behind this cosmic phenomenon, before we dive into how best to view it. When was the Geminid meteor shower first discovered? These days, the Geminid meteor shower is considered by NASA to be “one of the best and most reliable annual meteor showers.” The event s…

Wealthfront Corp. is looking to rake in the wealth after going public on Friday. The Palo Alto-based automated digital wealth platform raised $486 million after selling 43.6 million shares, putting the company’s valuation at roughly $2 billion. Wealthfront shares began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker “WLTH.” The company made more than 34.6 million shares of common stock available for the IPO for $14—an offering that expires on Monday, December 15. The stock was up around 4% by mid-afternoon on Friday afternoon after trading began. To mark the occasion, the company’s leadership—including CEO David Fortunato, cofounder and chairman Andy Rachleff, a…

Time magazine has named the “Architects of AI” as its 2025 Person of the Year, a decision that has sparked significant backlash from gamblers who lost out on semantics. The companies behind AI tools and infrastructure aren’t “AI” in the literal sense, so prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket ruled that anyone betting on “AI” doesn’t win. As author Parker Molloy pointed out on Bluesky, gamblers on the site are not pleased. “Someone please explain to me how this is not a trick?” one user complained after betting on billionaire Elon Musk on Kalshi. “Person of the year is a singular title…” “ThE aRcHiTeCtS oF AI,” another user wrote. “Fuck you pay me.” Oth…

If you’re planning on buying a PC, laptop, or cell phone in the coming months, a word of advice for you before Christmas: Buy now, not later. Prices are likely set to spike in the new year—due to a shortage of memory chips. Memory and storage for DRAM and NAND, two major types of computer memory, have seen costs rise between 30 and 40%, year-on-year—in some cases, they’re even doubling. This impacts the bill of materials (BOMs), or the cost of individual items to make, PCs, and especially low-end smartphones, where margins are thin and the proportional cost increase is more severe. The sudden spike in memory prices is part of a decades-long pattern of semiconducto…

The value of cryptocurrency XRP continues to slide, dipping as low as $1.92 as of Monday morning. XRP—the native crypto token of the XRP Ledger, created by Ripple Labs—has seen its value hover around the $2 mark for roughly a month, and has been on a downward trend since late July, when values peaked at more than $3.50. Values remained elevated through most of the summer months, catalyzed by U.S. regulators dropping legal actions against Ripple Labs, which had stretched on for several years. Additionally and subsequently, XRP ETFs have hit exchanges, theoretically broadening XRP’s appeal and reach within the crypto space. That, it seems, should have increased demand …

Since the tragic news broke that director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, have died, tributes have been pouring in. And amid the stories of kindness, compassion, and political action, one story stands out: How the couple’s chance first meeting altered the ending of the 1989 classic When Harry Met Sally—possibly the most beloved romantic comedy of all time. Had the couple not met during filming, the movie’s memorable New Year’s Eve ending might’ve not been a part of the film at all. During production of the iconic rom-com in New York City, photographer Michele Singer Reiner (then Michele Singer) stopped by the set. According to a 1989 New York…

As the rest of the world rushes to harness the power of artificial intelligence, militant groups also are experimenting with the technology, even if they aren’t sure exactly what to do with it. For extremist organizations, AI could be a powerful tool for recruiting new members, churning out realistic deepfake images and refining their cyberattacks, national security experts and spy agencies have warned. Someone posting on a pro-Islamic State group website last month urged other IS supporters to make AI part of their operations. “One of the best things about AI is how easy it is to use,” the user wrote in English. “Some intelligence agencies worry that AI will contribut…

If you grew up pre-Y2K, chances are you’re familiar with the concept of a lava lamp. It’s much less likely that you’ve ever encountered a lamp made out of literal lava. That’s the basic description of a series of three lamps made by the luxury Italian lighting company Foscarini. The company’s new Alicudi, Filicudi, and Panarea lamps, designed by Italian father-and-son design team Alberto and Francesco Meda, are formed from actual lava rock sourced from Mount Vesuvius. To own a piece of Italy’s iconic volcano, you’ll have to fork over $866 for any one of the lamp models. The real lava lamp may be pricier than its ‘70s predecessor, but that’s thanks to the labor…

Platforms from Amazon to YouTube—and, of course, the headline-dominating Spotify Wrapped—have spent much of December rolling out year-end recaps that show users how they engaged with the platforms’ services throughout 2025. Today, one of the last anticipated recaps of the year makes its debut: Snapchat Recap 2025. Here’s what you need to know. What is Snapchat Recap 2025? Snapchat Recap is Snapchat’s annual year-in-review feature for users of the Snapchat app. Users are able to see a special year-end Story that showcases how they spent their time Snapchating throughout 2025. Snapchat owner Snap Inc. says the 2025 recap features insights and highlights on …

Rob Reiner, the son of a comedy giant who became one himself as one of the preeminent filmmakers of his generation with movies such as “The Princess Bride,” “When Harry Met Sally …” and “This Is Spinal Tap,” has died. He was 78. Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer, were found dead Sunday at their home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation confirmed their identities but could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Authorities were investigating an “apparent homicide,” said Capt. Mike Bland with the Los Angeles Police Department. The Los …

Public trust in the media and in data has been undercut by information overload, relentless social media cycles, and targeted influence campaigns. Whether driven by politics, social movements, or commercial interests, the credibility of what we see and hear is under threat. By thinking through the ways that we’ve lost our trust, we might find more ways to reverse the trend and bring people back together. Last month, Gallup released the latest results of a survey on trust in the media that began in 1972. It showed that current confidence in the mass media is at a new historic low. A majority trusting public in 1972 has now flipped to being a majority distrustful public…

Shares of iRobot Corporation (Nasdaq: IRBT), maker of the Roomba autonomous vacuum cleaner, are crashing today after the company announced that it will seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As of this writing, IRBT shares are down more than 78%—and the news is only expected to get worse for common shareholders. Consumers, on the other hand, may be wondering if their Roombas will stop working. Here’s what you need to know. What’s happened? On Sunday, iRobot Corporation said it has filed for bankruptcy. The Massachusetts-based company is seeking Chapter 11 protection in the District of Delaware. As part of the process, iRobot has entered into a Restructuri…

For the first time in eight years, pay TV is rising. According to the latest Cord-Cutting Monitor report from analyst firm MoffettNathanson, the number of subscriptions to linear video packages actually rose during the third quarter of 2025. The estimates, which include subscriptions to virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) like YouTube TV, show that the pay-TV industry had 303,000 subscriber additions in the third quarter, marking the first quarterly gain since 2017. However, the research notes that the increase was “reasonably small” and seasonal given that it happened during the quarter when the NFL season began, meaning it could pote…

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. The authors of the most powerful memoirs, self-help books, and leadership bibles combine deep research and self-reflection—in the same way today’s executives need to blend data insights with emotional intelligence. As we look ahead to 2026, I asked eight authors of recent business and busin…

When you’re trying to snazz up your emails with a signature at the bottom, it’s all too easy to overthink it. Gmail’s signature tool offers extensive formatting options. (Want to sign off in Comic Sans? Go for it.) And typical signature-builder sites can get even more complex, with seemingly endless fonts, buttons, and shiny doodads to choose from. The truth is, you don’t need all that to sign your emails in a presentable way. Just an image and a handful of descriptive lines should do the trick, and this free tool will give you just that without tempting you to go overboard. This tip originally appeared in the free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. …

In 2021, two people you’ve probably never heard of—FaZe Rug and Adin Ross—faced off in a one-on-one basketball game at a Los Angeles gym. Winner gets $25,000. Sam Gilbert led a two-person team that streamed it live on YouTube from a single iPhone. The players weren’t professional athletes, and it was, Gilbert says, “a very below average basketball game.” Still, nearly 80,000 people tuned in live, most of them under 34 years old. “That was the biggest eye opener to me,” says Gilbert, director of content for Bleacher Report’s House of Highlights. “That’s when I knew there was something here.” Gilbert saw that something fundamental had shifted in sports consumption. …

Burnout and boredom are the two dreaded b-words of the modern workplace. We fear one, dismiss the other, and often fail to see how easily they trade places. Too often, boredom masquerades as burnout. To the untrained eye, exhaustion and disengagement can look identical. Boredom is typically a form of cognitive under-stimulation, while burnout is emotional and physical overextension. Both can leave people feeling unmotivated and fatigued. But here’s the twist: in cultures that tend to glamorize busyness, many employees feel safer saying they’re burned out than bored. Burnout signals you worked “too hard.” Bored, on the other hand, signals the opposite. Recent repor…

The conversation about AI in the workplace has been dominated by the simplistic narrative that machines will inevitably replace humans. But the organizations achieving real results with AI have moved past this framing entirely. They understand that the most valuable AI implementations are not about replacement but collaboration. The relationship between workers and AI systems is evolving through distinct stages, each with its own characteristics, opportunities, and risks. Understanding where your organization sits on this spectrum—and where it’s headed—is essential for capturing AI’s potential while avoiding its pitfalls. Stage 1: Tools and Automation This is w…

CNBC and its sister networks, including USA, Golf Channel, and E!, are spinning off from their former parent company Comcast NBCUniversal to form a new publicly traded company called Versant. As part of the new company, some of the brands in the portfolio have to rebrand to get rid of NBC’s iconic Peacock mark, CNBC included. CNBC’s new logo, which goes live December 13, might take viewers some time to get used to. The financial news network’s new logo was designed in house to easily match the preexisting visual assets it uses on air. The typography of the mark based is on the network’s font, Gotham, and it shows a triangle cutting into the letter N and float…

Can ChatGPT dethrone Gemini? Is Tim Cook capable of leading Apple into the next wave of AI? As 2025 winds down, journalist and podcast host Kara Swisher cuts through the noise and decodes what’s really happening across OpenAI, Meta, Google, and more. Then, Swisher sizes up the state of Disney, Netflix, and the escalating bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery. 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 leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid R…