What's on Your Mind?

While some parts of the country deal with freezing temperatures and blizzards, Los Angeles sits comfortably in the mid-70s. Beyond the sunshine, the forecast calls for red carpets and celebrity gossip as award season is in full swing. The newly rebranded Actor Awards Presented by SAG-AFTRA is arguably the most emotional and meaningful celebration of the season because it is where fellow performers honor their own. Here’s everything you need to know about the 32nd iteration of the former Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG Awards). The opening monologues While it’s easy to assume that being an actor is all glamour and glory, the opening monologues dispel t…

Smartphones have been the greatest drivers of creative democratization over the past 15 years, giving people a powerful voice and platform. Recent advancements in the “brains” behind these devices are almost limitless, from their software and processing power to their AI capabilities. But what about their bodies? For years, the smartphone’s physical form has remained a familiar slab of glass and ceramic. This form factor, once revolutionary, is now becoming a physical constraint on creativity. Over time, smartphone design has created a paradox. The very tool meant to capture our memories can prevent us from truly living in the moment. While the intention was to connec…

Let’s be honest: The web browser is the modern-day operating system for everything from managing spreadsheets to pretending to work while reading tech blogs. Google knows this. That’s why the Chrome team announced a trio of new productivity features designed for people who basically live inside their browsers. Best of all? They’re actually quite useful. Here’s what you need to know to get your tab-hoarding, PDF-losing life back in order. Split View You know the drill. You’re trying to reference a document while writing an email, or maybe you’re watching a tutorial while trying to write code. You end up clicking back and forth between two tabs until your eye…

People change jobs all the time. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the oldest people in the workforce have probably held more than 12 jobs over the course of their lives. Those aren’t just new titles within a firm, they likely include larger career shifts. With globalization and changes in technology, the need to shift career paths can happen to people even in the last decade of their work lives. I myself have recently moved to the private sector after more than three decades as a university faculty member. If you make a significant career switch, what can you do to ease the adjustment to the new role and make a contribution quickly? Don’t be afraid of …

The light is shining through the windows of what looks like a well-appointed, book-lined apartment where Dario Amodei, the chief executive of AI giant Anthropic, is giving an interview. He smiles and laughs at the interviewer’s jokes, giving the impression of an approachable, amiable, ever-so-slightly unkempt scientist. But when the questions turn to AI’s impact on humanity, Amodei’s demeanor shifts. He says that while he is not a doom-and-gloomer, he is certainly worried. Previous disruptions took place over longer timescales, and he frets that the speed and scope of this one will make it much harder to manage. His concern “is that the normal adaptive mechanisms wil…

We live in a world, especially in Western cultures, that relentlessly promotes positive thinking and celebrates self-belief to the point of sidelining reality—that inconvenient thing that does not disappear simply because we ignore it. Self-help advice and pop-psychology slogans urge us to stop worrying about what others think, to believe in ourselves no matter what, and to focus on our strengths. They rarely stress the value of acknowledging our flaws and limitations, even when this requires revising, if not abandoning, our childhood ambitions. It may sound harsh, but science shows clear benefits to confronting our shortcomings, aligning our self-assessments wi…

In 2025, New York Times columnist Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson from The Atlantic released a book called Abundance, which posited that America had developed a culture of scarcity. Overregulation and overall risk aversion from the government, the authors argued, were stifling the development of infrastructure and housing in the country. To remedy this, they proposed an “abundance agenda,” one that focused on a growth mindset among elected officials that would help foster long-term prosperity. Although the provocation has its challenges, it got me thinking: What if we applied the idea of abundance to our work? For over a decade, I’ve occupied two worlds simultaneously—o…

The rise of full-body MRI scans has been framed as a victory for consumer empowerment. Skip the referrals. Skip the waiting. Pay out of pocket and finally see what is happening inside your body, before it’s too late. For many, especially women, these scans are compelling. They offer agency in a healthcare system that often feels slow, dismissive, and reactive, rather than preventive. What many women would be surprised to learn, however, is despite the name, many full-body MRI scans do not reliably screen for breast cancer, the most common cancer in women. Women make roughly 80% of healthcare purchasing decisions in the United States. They spend more out of pocket …

Australians dramatically reduced their water usage during the Millennium Drought in the 2000s. It was one of the longest recorded droughts in Australian history, and in some places where sprinklers weren’t allowed, people watered their plants and grass with shower water. Like turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth and using shower timers, keeping buckets in the shower became a part of daily life during the drought. Now a newly designed device seeks to update that water-saving impulse with a watering can specifically designed for the bathroom. The 17-by-17-inch Sevas water catcher is about the size of a bathroom scale, and holds 5 liters of water. The…

Reality is melting away before our eyes. Identity spoofing against older adults alone grew by 8x between 2020 and 2024, driven in part by convincing AI impersonations of friends and loved ones. It’s a problem costing people in the U.S. nearly half a billion dollars a year with no end in sight. Which is why a pair of design studios teamed up on a provocative solution that starts with a real-life handshake. Called Quartz, it’s a ring that adds friends to your network by literally shaking hands. And from there, it gatekeeps your online communications by proving you’re alive, proving you know the person you’re talking to, and proving provenance through encrypted chan…

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. Fourteen years ago, Graham Dugoni decided to start a movement to address what he viewed as the deleterious effects of rampant smartphone usage. “What I saw was kind of impending nihilism, the sense that everyone is going to be inundated with media, and it’s going to hollow out the meaning i…

Octopuses are brilliant, emotional, and mysterious. Can they ever be farmed humanely? And if they can, should they be? Fast Company contributor Clint Rainey is the first journalist in the world to be let inside a cutting-edge effort to build the first commercial octopus farm. View the full article

It’s 4:59 PM on a Friday. You’re the Head of Design at a mid-sized biotech firm—mid-sprint, mid-thought—building out a set of specialized design roles that will define how your team delivers value for the next three years. Then the email arrives. Your recruiting partners have sent a pre-written job description, authored by a product manager, with a mandate to use it as-is. The title: UX/UI Designer. You pause. Not because the gesture wasn’t well-intentioned—it was. But because you recognize exactly what this moment represents: a quiet, recurring erosion of role clarity that has followed the design profession for over a decade. One ambiguous title, multiplied a…

Are you intimidated by personal finance? Vivian Tu wants to help. Tu is known for her TikTok account, “Your Rich BFF,” where she makes entertaining videos about personal finance. Topics include how to negotiate your salary and practical tips for dealing with credit card debt. Tu, who refers to herself as “your favorite Wall Street girly,” has 10 million followers on social media and has published two personal finance books. Tu, born and raised in Baltimore, often connects her interest in personal finance to her upbringing as the daughter of Chinese immigrants. Her parents raised her to be frugal and appreciate money from an early age, but it wasn’t until a few years int…

After a near awards-season sweep by “One Battle After Another,” “Sinners” won best ensemble at the Screen Actors Guild’s 32nd Actor Awards on Sunday, shaking up the Oscar race and setting up a potential nail-biter finale in two weeks at the Academy Awards. The guild’s awards, formerly known as the SAG Awards, are one of the most closely watched Oscar precursors. Actors make up the largest slice of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and their choices at the Actor Awards often align. The victory for Ryan Coogler’s blues-soaked vampire saga showed that it has a strong chance to win at the Oscars, too, despite an almost unblemished run of awards for Paul Thomas…

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) just placed a $50 billion bet on rural healthcare, but the odds are not in its favor. CMS, now led by Mehmet Oz, MD, created the Rural Health Transformation Program to help the 60 million Americans in rural areas have better access to care, modernize facilities and technologies, and support innovation that brings “high-quality, dependable care closer to home.” But CMS only gave states a few months to create and submit their transformation plans to secure a piece of the pie. Early rollouts are underway, and many states are in over their heads. There is a real danger that technologies are about to be deployed that i…

AI is now the first stop for many customer journeys, from brainstorms and searches, to recommendations and planning. Recent research from The Knot Worldwide found that 36% of couples are now actively using AI in their wedding planning—nearly doubling year-over-year—as couples turn to AI platforms for wedding inspiration, writing, and organization. A couple might use AI to start their wedding planning journey, but as they move closer to choosing a venue or vendor, they naturally look for signals that help them feel confident—authentic reviews, a consistent online presence, and expert content—so that they gain additional context and trust before taking their next step. …

During the last decade, digital innovations have produced a range of recruitment and evaluation tools: now, whenever you first apply for a job, you are less likely to be judged by humans and more likely to be assessed by AI. Before you can even get the opportunity to impress a human interviewer, you will first need to impress the algorithm! More recently, AI has also been used to assist current employees in doing their jobs and then to help their employers evaluate how well employees are performing in those jobs. In fact AI adoption is now the norm across knowledge economy jobs, with estimates indicating that at least 70% of people use AI regularly at work (a figure t…

Following U.S. and Israeli strikes in Iran this weekend, airlines around the region and world have canceled thousands of flights amid continued conflict in the Middle East. Temporary regional airspace closures have led to airspace restrictions, forcing airlines to cancel flights and stranding countless passengers. As of Monday, March 2, 2026, airspace across many parts of the Middle East remained partially or fully closed. According to FlightRadar24, the following airspace regions remain partially or fully closed today: Iran Iraq Qatar Bahrain Jordan Kuwait Syria Israel United Arab Emirates (OMAE) airspace remains heavily restri…

If you’re in need of a winter pick-me-up, look no further than your local IHOP. The pancake chain just reminded folks that its yearly National Pancake Day holiday is about to take place. To celebrate, IHOP will be dishing out some free buttermilk pancakes all day long. The breakfast chain will be giving out free short stacks of buttermilk pancakes on Tuesday, March 3, from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. That means whether you’re in the mood for pancakes for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, IHOP will grill them up for free. The deal is only good for guests who are dining in and other flavors aren’t included in the deal—just the original buttermilk recipe. “As the leader in bre…

While much has been discussed about what the AI takeover means for those in entry-level roles, it seems even CEOs aren’t exempt. Uber employees have created an AI version of their company’s top executive, according to the company’s CEO. “One of my team members told me that some teams have built a Dara AI, you know, so that they basically make the presentation to the Dara AI as a prep for making a presentation to me,” Dara Khosrowshahi said on a recent episode of The Diary of a CEO podcast hosted by Steven Bartlett. “You can imagine, like, you know, by the time something comes to me, there’s been a prep and a meeting of the slide deck has been beautifully hone…