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A new hotspot just opened in New York—and it’s in terminal 5 of John F. Kennedy International Airport. BlueHouse, a 9,000-square-foot space exclusively available to select JetBlue Airways customers, welcomed its first guests at 5 a.m. this morning as the airline’s first foray into the pitched battle for lucrative premium fliers. Designed by Gensler, BlueHouse is a smorgasbord of New York’s iconic and eclectic design heritage. From the Art Deco elevator indicator to black-and-white deli tile on the floor and the Grand Central Terminal-inspired ceiling mural, the space screams Big Apple while staying true to JetBlue’s quirky and, well, blue heritage. “It’s unqu…

It might surprise people that my husband and I pay a financial planner, given that I spend a lot of time on financial, tax, and investment planning at work. However, hiring a planner has delivered a return that can’t be quantified: peace of mind. Here are some key reasons we pay for financial advice. 1) We wanted a second opinion on a few important decisions. I wanted a different perspective on less-familiar subjects, such as handling employer stock, and whether we needed long-term care insurance. We could have confronted both issues on our own, but having professional guidance helped us move forward more confidently. 2) We found a business model that makes sense for …

One hot new phone of 2025 has no screen, can’t send a text, and needs to be plugged into the wall. But to buyers of the Tin Can, that’s a definite plus. The Tin Can, from a Seattle startup of the same name, grew out of conversations cofounder and CEO Chet Kittleson had with fellow parents about the challenges of enabling kids to connect with friends and relatives without giving them full-fledged cellphones. While children of the 20th century could pick up the house landline to call a grandparent or schedule a sleepover, today’s kids are often left dependent on parents for scheduling playdates and connecting with family until they’re old enough to carry their own smar…

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. I’m Mark Sullivan, a senior writer at Fast Company, covering emerging tech, AI, and tech policy. This week, I’m focusing on Big AI’s biggest sales pitch—the quest for AGI—and the idea that the industry should focus on more modest and achievable tasks for AI. I also look at Databricks’s new $4 billion-plus funding raise, and at Google’s new Gemini 3 Flash model. Sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. And if you have comments on this issue and/or ideas for future ones, drop me a line at sullivan@fastcompany.com, and follow me on…

Christmas is coming, and our bank accounts are getting, well, obliterated. But luckily, it’s no longer just your quirky aunt who appreciates a good secondhand store: Shopping for gently used items, especially during the holidays, is now on trend. And if you get on board, you might be able to save a bundle by swapping your mall run for a day of thrifting. In recent years, “Thriftmas”—or shopping for Christmas gifts at stores like Good Will, The Salvation Army, Savers, and online platforms that sell used items—has been creeping into the mainstream. And this year is no different. According to global data from online store ThredUp, in 2025, shoppers plan to dedicate near…

America’s small businesses are the backbone of our economy. They create two-thirds of new jobs, power innovation, and anchor communities across the country. But that backbone is under real strain. Rising healthcare costs dominate the headlines, but what’s missing from the conversation is how deeply they impact the small businesses that keep our economy running. At Gusto, we see this strain firsthand. Our latest Small Business Jobs Report showed hiring slowed in November as owners continue to navigate higher costs and uncertainty. Rising healthcare premiums aren’t the only challenge, but they’re making it that much harder to grow and hire with confidence. Since 202…

Experts have compressed their predictions for when artificial general intelligence (AGI)—the type of AI that can equal or exceed human intelligence—will arrive. When predictions were first made in 2023, AGI was expected to arrive in 50 years. Newer estimates say five years. When GPT-5 came out this summer, it demonstrated surprising leaps in reasoning and memory, further accelerating those timelines. Progress is moving faster than anyone anticipated, and what once felt speculative now feels inevitable. Meanwhile, small teams are shipping products that would have required 100-person companies two years ago. The gap between the AGI debaters and the builders (those w…

British oil giant BP just announced a new CEO, marking its fourth chief executive shake-up in the last six years alone. The company named Meg O’Neill, who previously led Australia’s top oil and gas company Woodside Energy for the role. O’Neill will become the first woman to hold the top executive spot at one of the world’s biggest oil companies. She said that she looks forward to working to “accelerate performance” at BP and plans to prioritize shareholder growth and reestablishing BP—now a possible takeover target—as a market leader in the oil and gas industry. O’Neill will take over from Murray Auchincloss, a longtime BP employee who was first appointed as inte…

The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage edged higher this week, though it remains relatively near its low point so far this year. The uptick brings the average long-term mortgage rate to 6.22% from 6.19% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.6%. Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also rose this week. The rate averaged 5.54%, up from 5.44% last week. A year ago, it averaged 5.84%, Freddie Mac said. Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations f…

The rapid growth of data centers during the AI boom has been a dominating narrative of 2025—and, in many instances, not a popular one. Across the country, communities have pushed back against data centers planned for their cities and states. Some have even turned to online petition sites to raise awareness and voice collective opposition to data center projects in their communities. One such site, the popular platform Change.org, says it has seen a significant spike data center-related petitions in recent months. Change.org saw at least 113 petitions that mentioned data centers in 2025, the platform shared with Fast Company, totaling around 50,000 signature…

In the heart of Aceh province in northwestern Sumatra, the Ketiara Cooperative, led by the remarkable Ibu Rahmah, is facing a crisis unfolding as we speak. This community of women-led farmers was devastated by the rare Cyclone Senyar over the Thanksgiving weekend, which caused catastrophic mudslides. Farms have been decimated, homes destroyed, and two vital bridges have been washed away, isolating entire villages and cutting off access to essentials like food, clean water, and electricity. Hundreds of people have died and hundreds more are still missing in their worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami. Grace Farms, a cultural and humanitarian center in New Canaa…

Bitcoin investors are bracing for “Witching Friday” tomorrow, December 18, when billions of options are due to expire—making for what could be a highly volatile, roller-coaster ride at the end of the week for the markets. Some $23 billion in contracts are set to expire just on Deribit, the largest Bitcoin exchange, according to Bloomberg. Here’s what to know. What is ‘Witching Friday’? “Witching Friday,” also known as “triple witching” or “the triple witching hour,” refers to the last hour of the stock market trading session on the third Friday of March, June, September, and December, when three kinds of securities expire simultaneously, often leading to i…

Don’t beat yourself up if you do some serious damage on a cheese plate during holiday festivities this year: You just may do your future self a favor. A new study has found that eating nearly 2 ounces or more of high-fat cheese each day has been associated with a 16% lower risk of dementia, according to the study published this week in Neurology. Lest you think this is some sort of propaganda by Big Cheese, the study followed nearly 28,000 adults in Malmö, Sweden for roughly 25 years. The study’s findings indicate that Swedes who ate more cheese with a fat content exceeding 20%—which includes many varieties of cheddar, gouda, and blue cheese, among others—had a lo…

The flap of a butterfly’s wings in South America can famously lead to a tornado in the Caribbean. The so-called butterfly effect—or “sensitive dependence on initial conditions,” as it is more technically known—is of profound relevance for organizations seeking to deploy AI solutions. As systems become more and more interconnected by AI capabilities that sit across and reach into an increasing number of critical functions, the risk of cascade failures—localized glitches that ripple outward into organization-wide disruptions—grows substantially. It is natural to focus AI risk management efforts on individual systems where distinct risks are easy to identify. A senior ex…

Inbox pinging. Deadlines stacking. Morale slipping. One choice could change everything. These 11 books unpack the decisions—and strategies—that distinguish great leaders. Learn something new every day with “Book Bites,” 15-minute audio summaries of the latest and greatest nonfiction. Get started by downloading the Next Big Idea app today! Inspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others By Adam Galinsky Every leader leaves their mark on the hearts and minds of a workforce. This can go one of two ways: leaders can leave behind a legacy of inspiration, or infuriation. Based on thousands of perspectives collected from around the globe, Adam crea…

Dead cartoon owls, brain-rot cookie content, fake rebrands, and library thirst traps. Welcome to the era of DGAF branding. In this episode of FC Explains, Grace Snelling breaks down why major brands and public institutions are ditching polished ads for chaotic content and seeing massive results. From Nutter Butter’s unsettling TikToks and California Pizza Kitchen’s fake midlife crisis to Duolingo “killing” its iconic owl and libraries going viral with memes, this episode explores how being weird online has become a serious marketing strategy. We look at the numbers behind these stunts, the cultural forces driving them, and why leaning into chaos can sometimes …

Thomas Kuhn was a philosopher whose groundbreaking 1962 book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, is credited with bringing the term paradigm shift to pop culture. Kuhn described how scientific communities stick to established paradigms, even as evidence of their limitations mounted. Widely accepted paradigms for understanding and interpreting knowledge don’t crumble under the weight of mere data. Instead, they tend to persist until a crisis emerges—when anomalies become so disruptive that a shift to a new paradigm is unavoidable. Zoning was established in the early 20th century as a way to protect homeowners from unwanted industrial developments nearby. It was p…