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PepsiCo is sick of being left out of the prebiotic soda craze—and to catch up with competitors, the multinational food and beverage corporation just dropped $1.65 billion to acquire the functional soda startup Poppi. The deal, announced this morning, will bring Poppi’s range of 14 colorful, low-sugar, prebiotic-packed sodas into Pepsi’s expansive existing beverage portfolio. The move comes as young consumers are increasingly turning away from traditional soda in favor of more health-conscious, “functional” beverages, which typically come with a mood or health benefit derived from a specific set of ingredients. Popular prebiotic brands like Poppi and Olipop fit in this…

Many things are considered distinctly millennial: a man bun, avocado toast, axe-throwing bars. Now you can apparently add millennial burger joints to that list. On February 11, TikToker fairylights2007 shared a clip using Kyle Gordon’s “2011 Millennial” parody song, along with a caption that read: “This song is so truffle fries overpriced burger brick walls metal tin of ketchup.” You know the type. As the video points out, the burgers are typically overpriced—$19 to be exact—always with a brioche bun. Fries are extra and come served in a fryer basket with a special “house sauce” (i.e., ketchup mixed with mayo). Somewhere in the restaurant, a chalkboard li…

Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Company’s work-life advice column. Every week, deputy editor Kathleen Davis, host of The New Way We Work podcast, will answer the biggest and most pressing workplace questions. Q: How can I get over decision paralysis? A: I feel this one. I think we all do. By most estimates, the average person makes around 35,000 decisions per day. Most of those are small choices like what to wear, what to have for lunch, what to post on social media. Hopefully you’re not paralyzed by those choices. But you also shouldn’t discount them completely. If you spend too much time mulling over the less consequential parts of life, you can end up with dec…

In 2014, Stephen Hawking voiced grave warnings about the threats of artificial intelligence. His concerns were not based on any anticipated evil intent, though. Instead, it was from the idea of AI achieving “singularity.” This refers to the point when AI surpasses human intelligence and achieves the capacity to evolve beyond its original programming, making it uncontrollable. As Hawking theorized, “a super intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren’t aligned with ours, we’re in trouble.” With rapid advances toward artificial general intelligence over the past few years, industry leaders and scientists have express…

What do prison and business have in common? At first glance, nothing. One is a place where hope and trust are scarce, and every decision you make is a matter of survival. The other is a world built on innovation and collaboration, full of opportunities. But when you strip them both down to their core, you’ll find the same thing: leadership. And not the kind of leadership you read about in glossy books. I’m talking about real-life, earned leadership. My name is Andre Norman, and I was once sentenced to more than 100 years in prison. That kind of time breaks most men. But I worked day in and day out to earn my freedom and, after 14 years, I reentered the world as a comp…

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. OpenAI’s “deep research” gives a preview of the AI agents of the future OpenAI announced this week its AI research assistant, which it calls “deep research.” Powered by OpenAI’s o3-mini model (which was trained to use trial and error to find answers to complex questions), deep research is one of OpenAI’s first attempts at a real “agent” that’s capable of following instructions and working on its own. OpenAI says deep research is built for people in fields like finance, science, policy, …

Graham Allcott has written six books, including the global bestseller How to Be a Productivity Ninja. He is the founder of Think Productive and has privately coached prominent international business leaders. What’s the big idea? Kindness, empathy, and psychological safety at work are not just fluffy, hippie ideas. They are key drivers of outstanding performance. Kindness is a practice that requires strength, skill, and intentionality. With it, every team can create an environment of abundant wellbeing, innovation, and growth. Below, Graham shares five key insights from his new book, KIND: The Quiet Power of Kindness at Work. Listen to the audio version—read by …

Japan’s Seven & i, the parent company of the Japanese 7-Eleven convenience store chain, said Thursday it is selling its supermarket store assets to Bain Capital for about $5.4 billion. The company announced the deal a day after naming Stephen Dacus, its board chairman, to be its president and CEO. It also said it plans an initial public offering in the U.S. of 7-Eleven or SEI, its convenience store business in North America, by the end of 2026. Funds from the IPO and the sale to Bain will be returned to shareholders in the form of share buybacks worth 2 trillion yen ($5.4 billion). Seven & i’s share price jumped 6.1% in Tokyo. The deal follows Seven & i’s …

When workers repaved part of Interstate 94 near Minneapolis last fall, it looked like they were pouring ordinary concrete. But instead the highway was the first to use a new, near-zero-emissions material. It’s one of a series of large projects to use material from C-Crete, a Bay Area-based startup. Shortly, the highway was repaved, and the company poured slabs and foundations at San Francisco International Airport. Earlier in the summer, it also poured a floor slab in a super-tall skyscraper under construction in Manhattan, the future headquarters of JPMorgan Chase. Other projects are underway now. [Photo: courtesy C-Crete Technologies] Producing cement, the gl…

Windstorms can seem like they come out of nowhere, hitting with a sudden blast. They might be hundreds of miles long, stretching over several states, or just in your neighborhood. But they all have one thing in common: a change in air pressure. Just like air rushing out of your car tire when the valve is open, air in the atmosphere is forced from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. The stronger the difference in pressure, the stronger the winds that will ultimately result. On this forecast for March 18, 2025, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, L represents low-pressure systems. The shaded area over New Mexico and west Te…

In 2023, creator and social agency Whalar Group announced an ambitious plan to create physical campuses for content creators to learn, make, and collaborate with their peers. Now the company is opening the doors to its first campus in Venice, Calif. this month with an additional location in Brooklyn launching this spring and a London location slated for 2026. Part production studio, part co-working space, part university, The Lighthouse is membership-based community designed to help creators and their teams level-up both their content and the businesses they’re building around it. “If you look at [20th century German art school] Bauhaus, Andy Warhol’s Factory, Sil…

The first thing anyone will notice about the new electric pickup from Telo Trucks is its compact form. Snubnosed and sporty, the five-seater has a bed the size of a typical pickup but an overall footprint the size of a Mini Cooper. When it goes into production next year, it will offer a radical counterpoint to the gargantuan trucks that dominate the U.S. automobile market. Today, Telo is unveiling the first drivable preproduction model of its new truck, the MT1, and Fast Company has an exclusive look at the innovations inside the truck that make its seemingly impossible size possible. [Image: Telo]The key to the Telo truck’s interior design efficiency is its focus on what…

It’s been a year since Intuitive Machines (IM) made history with the first private soft landing and first American spacecraft since the Apollo program to land on the moon, after a nail-biting descent that came perilously close to failing. But this time around, they’re veterans. As they ready their second mission, IM-2, with an updated lunar lander named Athena, the vibe at the startup’s Houston headquarters is decidedly more relaxed and confident. “We’ve made 85 improvements to the vehicle and the process used for building and flying it,” says Trent Martin, IM’s senior VP of space systems. “That includes 10 for landing and determining its location in space, which we s…

After watching videos of a Delta Air Lines jet catch fire upon landing and flip over on a Toronto runway, it’s fair to wonder how anyone could have survived. But aviation experts said it was not surprising that all 76 passengers and four crew walked away from Monday’s disaster, with 21 people suffering minor injuries and only one still hospitalized on Wednesday. It’s a credit, they said, to advances in plane design as well as a crew that flawlessly executed an evacuation plan. “When I first saw (footage of) that aircraft upside down at the airport, I was like: ‘How can that happen? And how can anybody survive that?’” Michael McCormick, an assistant professor and p…

Starchitecture is heading to the moon. A lunar design from the international architecture and design firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) is part of a just-launched rocket mission that expects to land on the moon in early March. Not architecture per se, the design encases a shoebox-size data storage center that’s attempting to prove the concept of off-world disaster recovery services. Commissioned by Florida startup Lonestar Data Holdings, the solar-powered 8-terabyte data storage device is tacked onto the side of the lunar lander now making its way to the moon. A thin, 3D-printed object with sleek curves and a matte-black finish, BIG’s design sets a higher bar than the wire-ju…

It’s the dynamic pulse that surges through our electrical lines, the unseen force that illuminates the dark, and the silent but commanding engine propelling the future of artificial intelligence. Though intangible, its influence is omnipresent in our daily lives. This invisible force is power. As the world shifts from fossil fuels to embrace renewable energy, power is emerging as an ultimate finite resource. The ever-growing demands on our electrical grid, driven by the explosion of data centers, electric vehicles, and the proliferation of AI are creating a race against time where needs outpace supply. Consequently, our insistence on tech innovation may be hindering e…

Every year, Employee Appreciation Day comes and goes, prompting organizations to rush into gratitude mode—offering lunches, shoutouts, and small gifts. But if March 7 is the only time leaders express appreciation to their teams, they’re missing the mark. It’s like only telling your partner “I love you” on your anniversary. If appreciation is absent the rest of the year, the sentiment feels hollow. In fact, a once-a-year show of recognition can do more harm than good, as employees may perceive these actions as insincere. Whether in relationships or the workplace, real appreciation is built through consistent, meaningful recognition. Recognition is even more critica…

I don’t know about you, but I tend to think about my favorite tech tools as being split into two separate saucepans: the “classic” apps we’ve known and relied on for ages and then the newer “AI” apps that have shown up over the past several months to serve some super-specific purpose. More and more, though, I’m realizing that the most effective apps are the ones that seamlessly blend those two concepts and create a whole new recipe with the best of both worlds. That’s precisely what the tool I’ve got for you today manages to do. It’s a brand new app released just moments ago that’s basically Google Maps combined with ChatGPT, Perplexity, Wikipedia, and more. A…

There are plenty of questionable examples of companies shoehorning useless artificial intelligence features into their products (Meta’s AI-powered profiles say hello!), but finally, Crocs has found one that actually makes sense. The casual footwear brand has partnered with ABLO, an AI fashion design platform, to let people use AI to design their own Jibbitz charms. Crocs are already all about customization, a strategy that’s helped the brand grow its revenue 4% over last year. Jibbitz charms, which can be plugged into the holes on the shoes’ upper and heel strap, add an extra layer of personalization, and AI takes that to the next level. “We have Jibbitz for ever…

Americans largely agree that women have made significant gains in the workplace over the past two decades. But what about men? While many Americans believe women are thriving, over half believe men’s progress has stalled or even reversed. To make matters more complex, recent research has revealed a massive divide along gender and partisan lines. The majority of Republican men think full gender equity in America has been achieved, while the majority of Democratic women think there’s still work to be done. As researchers at the Rutgers Center for Women in Business, we think this divide matters a lot. And for business leaders, this gap isn’t just a social or politica…

Yellow Tail, the budget-friendly Australian wine brand known to college students everywhere, has barely touched its branding since its debut in 2001. Now, though, the company is tweaking its look—including its iconic kangaroo logo—in an attempt stand out on shelves as younger generations turn away from the wine aisle and toward trendy canned cocktails. The new branding, which includes a more vibrant “Roo” mascot and crisper product labels, will hit shelves in the U.S. this coming June. The understated update seems like a bid to remind consumers of what once made Yellow Tail’s accessible, easy-to-parse branding so innovative—but it’s less likely to make a splash in a n…

A painting by street artist Banksy with an environmental message and an estimate of up to 5 million pounds ($6.3 million) is going up for auction, with some of the proceeds helping victims of the Los Angeles wildfires. Sotheby’s auction house said Tuesday that “Crude Oil (Vettriano)” is being sold in London next month from the collection of Mark Hoppus, bassist with California skate-punk band Blink-182, who sees Banksy as a kindred spirit. Hoppus said he was drawn to the subversion, humor and intelligence of Banksy’s work and the similarities between “skateboarding, punk rock and art.” “I feel like street art and punk rock have the same core,” Hoppus said. “Th…