What's on Your Mind?

Two in five Americans have fought with a family member about politics, according to a 2024 study by the American Psychiatric Association. One in five have become estranged over controversial issues, and the same percentage has “blocked a family member on social media or skipped a family event” due to disagreements. Difficulty working through conflict with those close to us can cause irreparable harm to families and relationships. What’s more, the inability to heal these relationships can be detrimental to physical and emotional well-being, and even longevity. Healing relationships often involve forgiveness—and sometimes we have the ability to truly reconcile. But …

A decade ago, when Claire Burgi moved to New York City, she decided to cut meat out of her diet. The 33-year-old actor and audiobook narrator, who lives in Queens, grew up in California, where she’d seen the effects of climate change firsthand. She knew that meat consumption was a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions and that vegetarianism was a way to help conserve resources and reduce pollution. “When I was young, it rained a lot,” she says. “Now, it rains much less. All the fires are astoundingly horrific.” The December 2017 Thomas wildfire burned more than 280,000 acres in and around Burgi’s hometown of Ventura, just north of Los Angeles. “I just didn’t w…

Meetings are breeding grounds for three highly toxic power moves: AMPLIFICATION: The boss speaks, and suddenly it’s gospel. People start self-censoring, sugarcoating bad news, and swallowing their dissenting opinions. INCOMPETENCE: When a leader can’t run a meeting, it drains the room’s energy. People leave annoyed and wondering why they bothered to show up. JERK BEHAVIOR: Bullies, interrupters, and blowhards hijack the room. Collaboration isn’t just stifled—it’s publicly executed. These power moves reduce meetings to lifeless, performative rituals where the people who hold the most power call the shots and everyone else plays defense. But it doesn’t h…

Two of Elon Musk’s best-known companies look likely to be headed for a megamerger ahead of a mooted IPO. SpaceX, the South African entrepreneur’s space exploration firm, and xAI, the AI company he established in 2023 to challenge OpenAI, are reportedly in discussions ahead of a merger and initial public offerings. Two business entities were established in Nevada on January 21, Reuters reported, that are potentially designed to facilitate the deal. Combined, the two businesses are worth more than $1 trillion. Tesla, Bloomberg reported, could be involved as well. The IPO could happen in mid-June. Why mid-June? Because that’s a point when Jupiter and Venus will be in…

Microsoft stock just suffered its biggest single day drop since 2020. Meanwhile, Meta stock popped by 10%. Both tech giants are spending billions on AI talent and infrastructure, but investors clearly feel skittish about Microsoft at the start of 2026 and bullish on Meta’s tale of near-term upside. For a company that famously whiffed on the metaverse, Meta is looking more reasonable these days. The company is still poised to invest eye-popping sums into artificial intelligence in the coming years, but so are all of its peers, Microsoft included. In an era of AI hype and sky-high expectations, Meta is following the crowd—not leading it—for better or worse. In 2026,…

The legendary $4.99 rotisserie chickens from Costco are under fire this week as a proposed class action lawsuit claims the big box retailer has been misleading customers. Two California shoppers noticed something that might seem obvious in retrospect: To sell an entire, slow-roasted chicken in a plastic bag, Costco added two preservatives. Problem is, the Issaquah, Washington-based company had promised on the packaging, in-store displays, and online that the chicken contained “no preservatives.” The lawsuit filed last week with the Southern District claims that Costco’s promise that its rotisserie chickens contain no preservatives signals to “reasonable consumers“…

Sunday’s Grammys mark a return to normalcy after the 2025 show was altered to focus on Los Angeles-area wildfire relief efforts. “I think we will see some history-making moments,” Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason jr. told The Associated Press. “With artists being nominated in categories they haven’t been previously nominated in, and a new crop of talent coming through the system this year — I think we’re going to see some really exciting results.” Here’s what you need to know about the 2026 Grammys, including how to stream and where you can see music’s biggest stars walking the red carpet. How do I watch the Grammys? The main show will air l…

Journalist Ira Glass, who hosts the NPR show “This American Life,” is not a computer scientist. He doesn’t work at Google, Apple, or Nvidia. But he does have a great ear for useful phrases, and in 2024, he organized an entire episode around one that might resonate with anyone who feels blindsided by the pace of AI development: “Unprepared for what has already happened.” Coined by science journalist Alex Steffen, the phrase captures the unsettling feeling that “the experience and expertise you’ve built up” may now be obsolete—or, at least, a lot less valuable than it once was. Whenever I lead workshops in law firms, government agencies, or nonprofit organizations, …

Virginia-based Gerber Products Company is voluntarily recalling limited batches of Gerber Arrowroot Biscuits, a cookie-like snack meant for children 10 months or older. On January 26, the baby food and snack producer issued the voluntary recall due to the potential presence of soft plastic and paper pieces that “should not be consumed,” the company said this week. The material comes from a supplier of arrowroot flour that initiated its own recall, Gerber said. The company said it was no longer working with the supplier, though it did not name the supplier in its recall notice on Monday. No illnesses or injuries have been reported. Gerber says it is issuing t…

Tax filing season is underway, and the IRS expects 164 million people will file returns by April 15. The average refund last year was $3,167. This year, analysts have projected it could be $1,000 higher, thanks to changes in tax law. More than 165 million individual income tax returns were processed last year, with 94% submitted electronically. People with straightforward returns should not encounter delays, but because of an exodus of IRS workers since the start of the The President administration, the national taxpayer advocate has cautioned that the 2026 tax filing season is likely to present challenges for those who run into problems filing. While last yea…

Coffee giant Starbucks just announced its rewards program is about to get a major overhaul. On Thursday, the chain said its newly revamped rewards program will make its debut on March 10. According to Starbucks, it will feature a new, three-tier membership structure that will allow for “greater earning power” for its 35.5 million active North American members. The new program will allow consumers to move through three tiers: green (the starter level), followed by gold, and finally, its reserve membership tier. To achieve gold status, 500 stars are required. To become a reserve member, you’ll need to accumulate 2,500 stars within a 12-month period. The higher the …

AI slop seems to be everywhere. Low-quality digital content made with artificial intelligence has flooded our feeds, screens and speakers. Is there anything we can do about it? If you want fewer cartoonish videos of dead celebrities, creepy or absurd images or fake bands playing synthetic tunes, a few platforms have rolled out settings and features to help minimize AI-generated content. Here is a guide on how to use them. But first, a caveat from Henry Ajder, who advises businesses and governments on AI and has been studying deepfakes since 2018. He warned that it’s “incredibly difficult” to entirely remove AI slop content entirely from all your feeds. He comp…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. In the second half of 2025, there was a notable jump in delistings, as some home sellers—particularly in the Sun Belt—who couldn’t get their desired price decided to pull their homes off the market. Indeed, U.S. delistings as a share of inventory ticked up to 5.5% in fall 2025—a decade-high reading for that time of year. In December 2025, ResiClub noted to readers: “Looking ahead, in markets seeing the biggest jumps in delistings right now, many of those listings will likely return to the resale market in spring 2026—or test out the rental market.” …

A startup called Adapt is betting that it can be an AI hub connecting other software tools to help answer questions and get things done. When users pose questions or ask for help with a business task, Adapt can answer based on information from the web and business data to which it’s been given access, similar to other AI tools. But it can also automatically launch a virtual machine, essentially a computer in the cloud from which it can connect to a wide range of internet-based software, pull information from databases, and craft custom code to analyze data and create charts and visualizations. It’s an approach that cofounder and CEO Jim Benton says lets users w…

Dearest gentle reader, Netflix humble requests your presence on your couch this today Thursday, January 29, 2026 to binge part one of the fourth season of its hit series Bridgerton. It is up to you whether or not to don your finest gowns, tiaras, and petticoats — or simply leave that to the actors gracing your screens. While Lady Whistledown’s identity is now common knowledge, society still has its eyes and judgement on you. So here are some facts you should know going into this next chapter so you are not the laughing stock of the season. Don’t say we didn’t try to help. What is the basic premise of Bridgerton? Netflix’s Bridgerton is based on a series of romance …

Senate Democrats are threatening to block legislation that would fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies Thursday, potentially bringing the government a step closer to a partial shutdown if Republicans and the White House do not agree to new restrictions on President Donald The President’s surge of immigration enforcement. As the country reels from the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, irate Senate Democrats laid out a list of demands ahead of a Thursday morning test vote, including that officers take off their masks and identify themselves and obtain warrants for arrest. If those are not met, Democrats sa…

Shares of Facebook owner Meta Platforms (Nasdaq: META) are surging in premarket trading this morning after the company announced its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings yesterday afternoon. The earnings not only exceeded investor expectations, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg also laid out his vision for how artificial intelligence is set to transform the company—and personal computing—in the years ahead. Here’s what you need to know. Meta reports strong Q4 2025 earnings Expectations for Meta’s Q4 2025 were relatively high, but when the company announced its latest quarterly earnings after the bell last night, they exceeded what most investors had hoped for. Here are the…

The more qualified you are today, the harder it is to get hired. This is not a guess. It’s a documented, scientific reality. A recent study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that when job candidates were perceived as “high-capability,” highly experienced, highly credentialed, or simply more advanced than what a role required, they were less likely to be hired than lower-capability applicants, even when all other factors were equal. The researchers behind this study discovered something most hiring managers would never admit: candidates who appear “too good” for a job are viewed with suspicion. Not because of any specific flaw, b…

As Italy prepares for the 2026 Winter Olympics, a crucial part of the prep is the manufacturing of artificial snow; the Olympics organizing committee plans to make 2.4 million cubic meters of the stuff. The practice has become more and more common as climate change leads to warmer temperatures and less reliable snow packs. But as climate change worsens, artificial snow won’t even be enough to help certain countries host the Winter Games. By mid-century, the number of countries that could potentially host the Winter Olympic Games could be cut nearly in half, according to a recent study from the University of Waterloo. Currently, the International Olympic Commi…