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I’ve always been vocal about the need to fight inequality in our own backyards. As a resident of New York’s Capital Region, I built my marketing business here. And in 2020, I founded Business for Good Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropy organization focused on closing the growing wealth gap and providing a hand up to underserved entrepreneurs. The inequality is blatantly real. The 23.3% poverty rate is more than twice as high in Albany versus the 11.1% national average. In fact, New York is one of the most economically unequal states in the country. While local and state government have made promises to help clean up the city, reduce crime rates, and create more affo…

Lindsay Orr was active and healthy, running marathons and hiking all around Colorado. During pregnancy, she developed a persistent headache and dangerously high blood pressure—hallmark symptoms of preeclampsia, a leading cause of preterm birth as well as maternal mortality and morbidity. She was induced at 32 weeks to save her and her baby’s life. Now, two years later, she continues to experience the long-term impact of preeclampsia as Lindsay developed chronic high blood pressure, a condition she never had before pregnancy. Pregnancy complications like preeclampsia, preterm birth, and fetal growth restriction are dangerous for mom and baby. These complications ca…

In today’s evolving workforce, a growing number of individuals are embracing a new identity: the sidepreneur. These are people who, in addition to their traditional jobs, are launching entrepreneurial ventures on the side. They’re not just taking on additional work—they’re creating new opportunities to pursue passions, build wealth, and gain control over their financial futures. From moonlighting chefs to weekend photographers, tech consultants by day, and digital creators by night, sidepreneurs are the embodiment of resilience, adaptability, and entrepreneurial spirit. The rise of sidepreneurs isn’t just a reaction to economic pressures; it’s a reflection of how mode…

Nearly two months after an explosion sent flaming debris raining down on the Turks and Caicos, SpaceX launched another mammoth Starship rocket on Thursday, but lost contact minutes into the test flight as the spacecraft came tumbling down and broke apart. This time, wreckage from the latest explosion was seen streaming from the skies over Florida. It was not immediately known whether the spacecraft’s self-destruct system had kicked in to blow it up. The 403-foot (123-meter) rocket blasted off from Texas. SpaceX caught the first-stage booster back at the pad with giant mechanical arms, but engines on the spacecraft on top started shutting down as it streaked eastward for…

Management at the Bay Area transportation startup Glydways wants you to be clear about what the company is not: It may plan to move people in futuristic autonomous pods, but it’s not hyperloop-grade vaporware. And its funding by big-name Silicon Valley investors does not make it a ride for the 1%. “Public transit for everyone, everywhere,” says founder Mark Seeger. But Glydways is starting smaller than that. Its first green-lit project (after a temporary test track now under construction next to an abandoned mall in Richmond, Calif.) and others under consideration by local governments will have Glydways’s four-seat electric vehicles plying short on-demand routes between …

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) stock (NASDAQ: AMD) fell 9% before the bell on Wednesday after the company fell short on sales for its data centers, despite reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings. (The stock is down 7% as of midday Wednesday.) That’s because the chipmaker’s core business is selling data center chips for graphics processing units used to power AI. It’s currently going head-to-head with Nvidia for market share of the lucrative, high-powered AI chip market. Shares in Nvidia (NVDA), meanwhile, were up 4% in midday trading Wednesday after Google’s parent company, Alphabet, announced it will spend $75 billion in expected capital expenditure…

Honeywell, one of the last remaining U.S. industrial conglomerates, will split into three independent companies, following in the footsteps of manufacturing giants like General Electric and Alcoa. The company said Thursday that it will separate from its automation and aerospace technologies businesses. Including plans announced earlier to spin off its advanced materials business, Honeywell will consist of three smaller entities in hopes that they will each be more agile. “The formation of three independent, industry-leading companies builds on the powerful foundation we have created, positioning each to pursue tailored growth strategies, and unlock significant value for…

Nissan is slashing production at its U.S. plants and offering buyouts to factory workers there as part of the Japanese automaker’s urgent efforts to return to profitability. The move is part of Nissan Motor Corp.’s plans, announced two months ago, to slash 9,000 jobs globally, including in China, after it racked up a quarterly loss due to sinking sales and ballooning inventory. At Nissan’s plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, one production line will maintain two shifts, while the other line will consolidate to one shift, the company said. The Smyrna plant makes Murano, Pathfinder and Rogue sport-utility vehicles and the Infiniti QX60 luxury model. In the Canton plant in Missi…

Autodesk forecast annual revenue and profit above Wall Street estimates on Thursday, boosted by strong demand for its design and engineering software across industries such as construction and manufacturing. The company also said it would reduce its workforce by about 9%, representing roughly 1,350 employees, and laid out plans to invest more heavily in cloud and artificial intelligence, adding that it would reallocate resources towards those areas. Companies across sectors such as architecture, engineering, construction, and product design are making extensive use of Autodesk’s 3D design solutions, with the software maker’s artificial intelligence and machine lea…

The eyes might be the window to the soul, but how their overall health impacts our own souls is rarely discussed. VSP Vision Care, an eye insurance company, partnered with Workplace Intelligence to survey 800 HR leaders and 800 full-time employees in the United States about the state of their eye health. Here are the key findings: We live on our screens: In a typical week, employees report spending 97 hours on screens, which translates to 210 days a year. Thirty-four of these hours are on a computer for work, 17 on a computer for personal use, 23 hours watching TV, and 23 hours on a cellphone. The majority of people have at least one eye problem: 63% of respo…

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here. Inside the new Grok 3 model In just two years, Elon Musk’s xAI has become one of a dozen or so labs capable of developing state-of-the-art AI models. Now xAI is out with its Grok 3 large language model, which beats state-of-the-art frontier models, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4o and DeepSeek’s V3, in common mathematics, science, and coding benchmarks by a wide margin. Meanwhile, the smaller Grok 3-mini performs at par with the larger competing models. The new Grok model reportedly was trained …

I have spent my career watching companies make bold declarations about gender equality, only to see those promises fade when tested. Women are often spotlighted in recruitment campaigns but left behind in promotions, appointments, and development opportunities. Policies designed to level the playing field disappear without explanation, replaced with vague references to “merit,” “culture fit,” and the elusive “gravitas.” The 2025 U.N. International Women’s Day theme—For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment—is urgent. However, progress in gender equity is not accelerating; it is stalling. In recent months, executive orders have gutted diversity program…

For the first time in 27 years, we saw a Nike commercial in the Super Bowl. Has it really been that long? Hard to believe that one of—if not the—world’s greatest marketing brands hasn’t been on the big game stage for almost three decades. “Hare Jordan” is arguably a Top 10 all-time Super Bowl ad. Blame complacency, the fragmentation of media and culture, or whatever you like, but getting the swoosh back to the Super Bowl just feels right. Not only that, but the brand is using this opportunity to re-establish its hardcore athlete bonafides, in case anyone forgot. Created with Wieden+Kennedy, and narrated by Grammy winner Doechii, here we get a cranked up, black an…

Having a helicopter manager can bring you down. It’s exhausting to have a boss who constantly monitors you, requires you to check in all the time, and takes away your authority to make decisions. This sort of micromanagement can lead to decreased employee morale, lower productivity, and reduced job satisfaction, according to experts. “Whether intentional or not, helicopter managers send clear signals that they do not trust their direct reports and are concerned about the work getting done correctly,” says Matthew Owenby, chief strategy officer and head of human resources at Aflac. “Helicopter managers can often exacerbate burnout by making employees feel that they ar…

Here in Atlanta, the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum has been part of my daily life for years. Parks and trails surrounding the center connect my neighborhood to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park downtown and everything in between. At the end of December 2024, thousands of people walked to the library to pay their respects to the former president as he lay in repose. The cold, snow and darkness of the evening were a stark contrast to the warmth of the volunteers who welcomed us in. Our visit spiraled through galleries exhibiting records of Carter’s life, achievements and lifelong work promoting democracy around the world. U.S. presid…

All Swedish schools and pre-schools will have to make plans to keep unauthorised people off their premises, the government said on Wednesday, as the country tries to come to terms with the worst school shooting in its history last week. Ten people were shot dead at the Campus Risbergska school in Orebro, before the suspected perpetrator – identified by a Reuters source and Swedish media as Rickard Andersson, a 35-year-old Swedish recluse – turned a weapon on himself. The attack has raised questions about whether security at Sweden’s schools needs to be improved. Unlike in many other countries, schools are generally seen as semi-public spaces and rarely have any co…

Denny’s is the latest restaurant chain to add a temporary egg surcharge due to the rising cost of eggs caused by a nationwide shortage and the current bird flu outbreak. Last month, Waffle House added an upcharge of 50 cents per egg. Meanwhile, many supermarket chains, including Trader Joe’s, Market Basket, and big-box retailers including Walmart, Costco, and Sam’s Club, have raised prices and limited the number of cartons shoppers can buy. “This pricing decision is market-by-market, and restaurant-by-restaurant due to the regional impacts of the egg shortage,” Denny’s told Fast Company in a statement. “We will continue to look for ways to provide options on our m…

Kendrick Lamar aims to infuse his Los Angeles hip-hop flavor into New Orleans while staying true to his storytelling roots during Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime performance. “Being in the now and being just locked-in to how I feel and the energy I have now, that’s the L.A. energy for me,” he said Thursday at a press conference hosted by Apple Music. “That’s something I wanted to carry over to New Orleans and for the world to see. This is me. This is Kendrick Lamar, 37 years old, and I still feel like I’m elevating, I’m still on a journey.” The rap megastar will take the Super Bowl stage fresh off a Grammy triumph, where he claimed two of the night’s biggest awards —…

It’s the end of an era for surf-and-skate-inspired clothing enthusiasts, as some once-beloved stores close their doors. Liberated Brands, which owns Billabong, Quicksilver, Volcom, Roxy, and other brands, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware this week. As a result, 120 stores across the U.S. owned by the company will close. The company will also close its international offices, and has laid off 1,400 employees. In a declaration filed along with the Chapter 11 petition, CEO Todd Hymel blamed the rise of fast fashion brands, as well as high interest rates and inflation, for the brand’s demise. “The average consumer has shifted their spending away from dis…

A few years ago, I chronicled the journey I went on to manually merge two Apple ID accounts into one. I was attempting to rectify a problem that I and many other long-time Apple users had been stuck with: Our data—emails, contacts, movie and app purchases, photos, logins, and more—was spread across two different Apple accounts. This segregation made accessing this data on our various devices a chore. Imagine opening your closet to look for a specific shirt, only to realize it’s hanging instead in the closet at your old house across town. The process took me days. At the time, Apple provided no automated way for users to merge two Apple IDs. Yet, this week that fin…

Jefferson Early Learning Center bears little resemblance to elementary schools many adults recall attending in their earliest years. The classrooms have child-size boats and construction vehicles children can play on, and ceilings painted to resemble outer space. There are no desks—all space is devoted to learning through play. Windows are low to the ground so children can easily look outside. The gym floor is made of “pre-K friendly” layered vinyl, rather than hardwood, to cushion inevitable trips and falls. Hallways are lined with a corrugated plastic for wiggly fingers to touch as children transition to other locations. Children love coming to the building, said te…

Rain-parched Southern California finally received some much-needed precipitation recently, offering some relief from the Los Angeles wildfires which displaced more than 150,000 people from their homes—and either razed or damaged some 15,000 structures. Of course, not everyone jumped to help. But amid the widespread devastation came what seems like, in our socially and politically fraught times, an unlikely ray of hope: A convergence of communities, of neighbors helping each other in whatever way possible and even heading out to assist complete strangers. The goodwill and altruism born from this calamity has been a boon to exhausted and overwhelmed firefighters and p…

A child-size table and small chairs make up the centerpiece of a playroom. It’s where children do crafts, host tea parties for their dolls, play hide-and-seek, and build forts. So it makes sense that people buy a lot of them: By 2030, Americans will spend an estimated $12 billion on play tables. [Photo: Bauen] The market is flooded with sets, ranging from inexpensive ones like Ikea’s $50 version to more design-forward varieties like Lalo’s $300 set. Still, husband-and-wife entrepreneurs Lynn and Cassidy Rouse believe there’s room in the market for a better-designed version. More specifically, they wanted to create a set that was indestructible, easy to assemble, us…

In the days before a recent ballot referendum in Seattle that would determine the future of social housing in the city, large tech companies spent big. Amazon and Microsoft, both of which are headquartered in the Seattle metropolitan area, each donated $100,000, and opponents of a tax to fund social housing spent a combined $780,000 in the lead-up to the February 11 vote. Despite this, the vote on a corporate tax to fund the city’s social housing authority won, with 63% of voters supporting it. In 2023, voters had already resoundingly approved the social housing authority, agreeing that a new entity would be created to acquire and construct mixed-income housing and ke…