What's on Your Mind?

Book lovers with aging Kindles might want to find a new e-reader soon, as Amazon is discontinuing support for its older devices next month. On May 20, the e-commerce giant is set to cut off support for devices released in 2012 or earlier, notifying active users of the affected devices via email. “These models have been supported for at least 14 years—some as long as 18 years—but technology has come a long way in that time, and these devices will no longer be supported moving forward,” an Amazon spokesperson told Fast Company. While the devices will still be able to power on, users will no longer be able to purchase or download new content for them. Additionall…

The spring bloom of cherry blossoms is a stunning sight. Across Japan, Korea, and places like Washington, D.C., the trees burst with dense, pink flowers for just one or two weeks, bringing millions of tourists. But climate change is threatening these blooms. As the planet warms, our winters are getting milder. And those mild winters can delay the flowering of cherry blossom trees by up to 32 days, according to a new study by researchers at the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute in Kyushu, Japan, and at Boston University. Without enough cold weather, the trees don’t know that winter has passed, and so they don’t know to come out of their winter do…

I started working as a remote employee back in 2006, long before it was common. I talked to my colleagues during the day, sure, but they were all in an office with cubicles. I worked alone. Later in my career, I was part of an executive team at a software company, making decisions about budget and strategy. So when I started my own business in 2022, many aspects felt like a natural extension of the way I’d always worked. Most advice about leaving corporate life focuses on the financial safety net: savings, pricing your services, and side hustles. But money isn’t the only reason people leave solopreneur life and go back to a nine-to-five. Some people are gen…

When companies rolled out return-to-office mandates starting in late 2024 and early 2025, labor force participation among mothers of young children fell from roughly 80% in 2023 to 77% by August 2025, reversing years of hard-won gains. Yet if you’re pregnant or postpartum, you have more rights than you may realize, including some that can help you keep your job while growing your family in a way that works for you. For all things working and mom-ing, we always turn to Daphne Delvaux, an employment attorney who represents working mothers, founder of the Mamattorney, and author of the new book Moms in Labor: An Employment Lawyer’s Secrets to Protect Your Baby and Your C…

Let’s get one thing straight: I love my 2015 Toyota Sienna minivan. But after a decade of navigating dirty dog paws, diaper changes, puking toddlers, cross-country road trips, dystopian Maritime Canadian winters, and more, it might be time to consider a succession plan. So, like reportedly half of American consumers using LLM search today, I recently opened up a chatbot and asked it to help me find a new car. My opening prompt was simple: What is the best vehicle for a family of four, that has to deal with daily commutes, winter weather, all in the $50,000 price range? According to ChatGPT: Best overall: Mazda CX-90 Hybrid Best for reliability and resale:…

This new outdoor fireplace—called the Totem Chiminea—would be at home in an art museum. It stands 5 feet tall, has a bulbous base that tapers into a slender flue, and is coated in porcelain enamel that comes in earthy colors such as sage green and burnt red. When you light a fire inside it, it emits warmth as well as a glow. At $4,500, it is not a casual purchase. But Neighbor, the 5-year-old brand that creates it, has found that many consumers are looking to invest in outdoor furniture that is as beautiful and thoughtfully designed as the pieces within their home. Neighbor was founded in 2020 in Phoenix by three friends—Nick Arambula, Chris Lee, and Mike Fretto—…

America’s housing market is finally starting to tip in favor of aspiring homeowners. A new analysis from Realtor.com reveals that nearly two-thirds of the biggest housing markets in the U.S. have now moved into “balanced” or “buyer-friendly” status, while only a quarter of the major markets still favor sellers. That’s in sharp contrast to 2021, when low interest rates and a buying frenzy gave sellers the upper hand in 98% of the top U.S. housing markets. Out of the top metros, only 26% qualify as seller’s markets right now, with a relatively large ratio of home shoppers to housing stock. Of those cities, 46% are in what Realtor.com calls a “balanced-loosening” pha…

With most of New York City surrounded by water, climate change poses a grave threat to its infrastructure, as devastating storm surges and coastal flooding have shown. Inland blocks are in danger, too. Researchers at the New York Botanical Garden have created a new interactive map of the city showing the areas most at risk of flooding. They’re calling them “Blue Zones,” places where water is, used to be, or will be due to climate change. More than one-fifth of the city is in a Blue Zone, according to a paper published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. “Everybody was startled, including us,” Eric Sanderson, vice president of urban conservation at t…

For those of us not born tall and strong, using a shared electric bike can sometimes be cumbersome—they’re often big, heavy, and hard to maneuver. Bike-share giant Lime has taken note, releasing a new generation of bikes tailored for riders who could benefit from more accessible design. One of the first dockless micromobility companies, Lime launched in 2017, eventually filling the streets of major cities across the U.S., Europe, Australia, and the Middle East with its bright-green two-wheelers. Now the company has introduced an alternative model to its standard Gen4, designed to reach riders—particularly women and older adults—who may have found its original model ch…

In operating reviews and boardrooms, I keep seeing the same pattern: leadership asks for rigor, teams deliver the numbers, and promising AI efforts get judged as underperforming before the organization has actually learned what it takes to make them real. Then someone pulls the plug, scales back the investment, or lets the initiative quietly expire. Sometimes they’re right. But often, they’ve just used the wrong test. The problem isn’t that leaders care about measurement. Strong measurement discipline is exactly what separates organizations that scale AI from those that accumulate pilots. The problem is that many leaders are applying a mature-business scorecard to…

The real question about Anthropic’s new Claude Mythos Preview AI model is whether it (and future models like it) will be more helpful to defensive cybersecurity or to hackers. To find out, Fast Company asked a number of cybersecurity pros. Claude Mythos, released in “preview” on April 9, is Anthropic’s biggest and most capable frontier AI model. Anthropic researchers say that during its training, the model showed a unique ability to find security vulnerabilities deep within software code, then create exploits to gain administrator-level access to software systems, including operating systems. Because of this, Anthropic says, Mythos is too dangerous to release to…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. While active listings are rising year over year in most regional housing markets, a slight majority of markets are still below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels. Generally speaking, housing markets where inventory (i.e., active listings) has returned to pre-pandemic 2019 levels have experienced weaker home price growth (or outright declines) over the past 46 months. Conversely, housing markets where inventory remains far below pre-pandemic 2019 levels have, generally speaking, experienced more resilient home price growth over the past 46 months. …

We’re well past the point where “remote work” is a novel perk. In 2026, if a tech company isn’t offering some form of home-office flexibility, they’re basically recruiting from a time capsule. But as the novelty of the Zoom-from-the-couch era fades, a new frontier is emerging. The next evolution isn’t just about working from your home office, it’s about working from anywhere. We’re talking about companies that have decoupled productivity from time zones and borders. These “digital nomad” pioneers don’t care if you’re hitting your KPIs from a flat in London or a beach in Bali, as long as the work gets done. If you’re looking to upgrade your “out of office” …

At long last, design nerds everywhere can build an outfit that’s (almost) entirely composed of apparel inspired by the works of the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Since his passing in 1959, Wright’s portfolio of iconic buildings and homes has become the inspiration for homeware, building block sets for budding designers, and even a Hollywood documentary that’s currently underway. But he’s also become the muse for a more unexpected segment of the American population: Gen Z fashion heads. In 2023, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation expanded its collaboration repertoire to include a colorful sneaker partnership with New Balance and two T-shirts with Kith. Now…

McDonald’s drinks menu is growing to soon include new flavors, dirty sodas, and eventually energy drinks. The fast food chain is adding new menu options later this year like a Red Bull Dragonberry Energizer, a Dirty Dr Pepper, and a Mango Pineapple Refresher, according to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news. McDonald’s confirmed to Fast Company that crafted sodas and new Refreshers will be introduced nationwide beginning next month. “Our fans’ love for McDonald’s beverages runs deep, from rallying for the return of Hi-C Orange Lavaburst to coining the iconic ‘Spicy Sprite,'” McDonald’s US tells Fast Company. “Next month, we…

More than a thousand movie stars, writers, directors, and other Hollywood professionals announced their “unequivocal opposition” to the proposed Paramount merger with Warner Bros. Discovery in an open letter published Monday. A large swath of the movie industry, including Denis Villeneuve, Kristen Stewart, J.J. Abrams, and Joaquin Phoenix came out forcefully against the $111 billion deal that would consolidate two legacy studios into one, arguing that it further reduce jobs and movies in an already downsized Hollywood. “The result will be fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs, and less choice for audiences in th…

Today, April 14, is World Quantum Day. The day marks the beginning of an annual event in which scientists and educators around the globe work to raise awareness of the underlying science behind technologies that could radically transform our world in the years ahead. Here’s what you need to know. What is World Quantum Day 2026? World Quantum Day is an annual awareness day organized by quantum scientists worldwide. According to the day’s official website, the initiative is “decentralized and bottom-up,” meaning there is no single organization promoting World Quantum Day. Instead, individual scientists work in tandem to promote the event. Those scientists, in tu…

In case you didn’t hear, we just went back to the moon. NASA has been heavily promoting the Artemis II mission for months, which concluded on April 10 after its four astronauts splashed down off the coast of California. No doubt, this venture was an objectively awe-inducing feat. The space agency successfully demonstrated the most powerful rocket it’s ever built, the Space Transportation System, and tested Orion, its crew vehicle, with a crew for the first time. NASA’s astronauts also traveled farther into space than ever before, and humans saw the dark side of the lunar surface with their own eyes (another major first). But how excited did the rest of humanity ge…

When the NFL Draft comes to Pittsburgh next week, civic leaders will be using the spotlight to celebrate football’s Steelers—and the city’s growing reputation as a technology and artificial intelligence hub. The events include an AI pitch competition where judges including area native Mark Cuban will award startups from a 1.75 million prize pool—with preference given to companies with a presence in Pennsylvania. There’s a growing number of startups that fit that bill. As the name suggests, VC firm Valley Capital Partners is based in Silicon Valley. But for the past few years, firm general partner Mitchell Kokko has been living across the country in Pittsburgh. …

In 2002, 45% of the world’s top 250 companies reported on sustainability. Today, 96% do. Sustainability metrics that once differentiated companies have become the new baseline. This doesn’t mean sustainability has stalled. Rather, it has matured. As geopolitical and regulatory risks continue progressing, what it means to be a sustainable business is evolving. For leaders guiding their companies into the future, sustainability must be more than an aspiration or a value. It’s a practical tool for operating stronger, more resilient businesses. The leaders best positioned for success are the ones integrating sustainability as a core business function, operating at the in…

Professional workdays are full, fast, and designed for productivity, not recovery. In Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index, 80% of global workers said they don’t have enough time or energy to do their work, and workers were interrupted about every two minutes during the day. That’s the experience of modern work: back-to-back meetings, endless emails and chats, and constant task-switching. The day doesn’t pause for you. We know breaks matter. But for most of us, the problem in taking them isn’t desire or discipline, it’s that the workday doesn’t seem to have room. The good news is you can build short, targeted recovery into the day you already have, once you learn to see …

When Maria looked at herself in the mirror for the first time after her mastectomy, she stood very still. One hand rested on the bathroom counter. The other hovered near the flat space where her breast had been. The scar was raw and angry. The loss was quiet but enormous. Her body felt foreign. In moments like these, people are often urged to be resilient – which can feel like being told to show no weakness, to push through no matter what. Or they imagine resilience as bouncing back: returning somehow unscathed to be the person you were before. But standing in that bathroom, Maria knew there was no going back. And toughness wouldn’t change what had happened. T…

It’s tempting to think that stacking a team with top talent guarantees results. Add AI, and you’ve got supercharged individuals. But star performers don’t automatically create high-performing teams—and AI can make things worse. Duke dean and professor Scott Dyreng saw this firsthand. His M.B.A. students worked in teams, with the option to “break up” for the final project. Before AI, about 5% did. After AI, over half went solo, he writes in The Wall Street Journal. Dyreng found that AI disrupted core teamwork skills, like negotiating and reaching agreements. But instead of banning it, he used AI strategically—for meeting analysis, summarizing discussions, and reporting…

Karlee Rea had a gut feeling she was going to get laid off. In February, there were whispers among coworkers that layoffs were coming for employees at LTK, the creator e-commerce platform where Rea worked for nearly five years. The Dallas-based 26-year-old decided to vlog her day: She woke up early, hit the gym. Then it was time for work. Turns out, Rea’s gut feeling proved to be correct. That morning, she was part of staff cuts that the company said impacted a “low, single-digit percentage of LTK’s overall head count,” from software engineers to creator-facing roles. Rea decided to include the devastating development in her vlog. “This was my first big-girl …

About 20 minutes into the Devil Wears Prada—the 2006 David Frankel film that constitutes one of the most important and perfect films ever produced (please hold all dissent)—Meryl Streep delivers a critical speech to Anne Hathaway that encompasses the plot’s primary tension. The moment, which may come up in the sequel (an Instagram post from a professional dyeing service in New York suggests this may be the case), comes as Streep’s Miranda, the frigid chief editor of a top fashion magazine is pondering items that might be featured for an upcoming issue, while surrounded by her stressed-out underlings. Also in the office is Andie (Hathaway), a comparatively disheveled …