What's on Your Mind?

In June 2024, a team of divers sank a curious assortment of 24 sculptures off the northern coast of Bali. The sculptures look like works of art—and in many ways they are. But they are also memorial reefs that turn cremated ashes into structures that regenerate marine life. Over the past three years, a British startup called Resting Reef has been working to revamp the death care industry. Instead of keeping ashes inside an urn (which often ends up gathering dust on a shelf) or scattering ashes at sea (a fleeting gesture that leaves no lasting trace), you can have Resting Reef integrate them into an underwater memorial that can double as an artificial reef. Now, the…

Road congestion is a persistent thorn in the side of our car-centric society. It’s loud, stressful, dangerous, and worsens air quality. It’s been linked to all kinds of adverse health effects, including lower birth weights, memory and attention problems in school kids, higher mortality in elderly adults, and even crime. But traffic might also affect our eating habits—and not in a good way. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, published in the Journal of Urban Economics, examined weekday traffic data from Los Angeles County highways between 2017 and 2019 and compared it with cellphone GPS data tracking customer visits to fast food restaurants …

As the Super Bowl clock ticked just below three minutes left in the game, Eagles wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith picked up the giant Gatorade cooler, snuck behind head coach Nick Sirianni on the sideline, and hit him with the traditional shower celebration. It was probably one of the best ads of the Super Bowl, and it wasn’t even a commercial. And yet, it still told a story about how close the ties are between this brand and one of the most significant moments in sports. This year, Gatorade celebrates its 60th anniversary since Dr. James Cade first concocted his formula to keep the Florida Gators football team hydrated. Gatorade chief brand of…

Featuring Stan Adams, Public Policy Specialist, Wikimedia Foundation; Nicole Ozer, Technology and Civil Liberties Director, ACLU of Northern California and Alissa Starzak, Deputy Chief Legal Officer and Global Head of Policy, Cloudflare. Moderated by Max Ufberg, Senior Editor, Fast Company. In an era of mass surveillance, mounting attacks to cybersecurity, the death of net neutrality, and geopolitics fragmenting the internet, it’s never been a more important time to fully understand what’s at stake regarding your digital rights and freedom. Join this panel of leaders at the forefront of securing a better and more open digital space for all. View the full article

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. The famous computer scientist Bill Joy once said, “No matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else.” If you want to build something on the bleeding edge, you must have an open ecosystem that can pull in as many ideas as possible, skills and talents that exist beyond the four walls of your office building. This is the ethos of open source, the idea that the world is open …

While home sales and remodeling rates remain low, Thumbtack—which connects homeowners with professionals to do work on their houses—says business is booming. In fiscal 2024, Thumbtack saw revenue of $400 million, up 27% from the previous year, with billions of dollars going to the roughly 300,000 small businesses that book work through the platform. Cofounder and CEO Marco Zappacosta attributes the company’s success to more than 15 years of work helping users find the right, trustworthy professional—even if they’re not entirely sure what they need to fix a problem in their home—bolstered by recent advances in artificial intelligence. “You’ve got to remember this i…

Flashes, a photo-sharing app that’s linked to X-alternative Bluesky, launched in beta this week before disappearing from the test store due to what its developer said was technical difficulties. Flashes developer Sebastian Vogelsang said in a Bluesky post that Apple’s engineering team is working on a fix. Apple didn’t immediately respond to Fast Company‘s request for comment. Flashes, which was revealed last month, supports photo posts of up to four images and videos up to one minute long. Items posted on Flashes will also appear on Bluesky. Comments from Bluesky users on the posts will appear back on Flashes. Flashes could be attractive to users who want to …

Shares of semiconductor manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) rose 6% Wednesday on news the company is issuing a $6 billion stock buyback, which represents about 3.3% of the company’s current market value, according to data from Bloomberg. The $6 billion stock buyback authorization comes in addition to a $4 billion existing buyback, for a total of $10 billion in share repurchases, CNBC reported. The news comes after AMD announced a multi-year $10 billion AI partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Humain, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, focused on developing advanced AI infrastructure and technology, i…

You don’t need tickets to see Metallica in concert anymore—just a $3,499 Apple Vision Pro headset. Starting today, Apple Vision Pro users can experience Metallica’s 2024 Mexico City concert as an immersive, ultra-high resolution experience complete with 180-degree video and Spatial Audio. The concert, filmed on September 29 as part of the sold-out finale of Metallica’s M72 World Tour, includes fan-favorites like “One” and “Enter Sandman.” “With Metallica on Apple Vision Pro, you feel like you’re right there: front row, backstage, and even on stage with one of the biggest bands of all time,” Tor Myhren, Apple’s vice president of Marketing Communications, said in a…

It’s been less than a year since the world’s largest dam removal project was completed along 420 miles of the Klamath River, near the border of Oregon and California. But if you look at the river now, you might not know that four dams had ever been in place. Instead of concrete walls and artificial reservoirs, the river is now free-flowing—and parts of the former infrastructure have been replaced by wildflowers that are in bloom. Los Angeles Times “It’s been an incredible transition,” says Ann Willis, California regional director at American Rivers, a nonprofit that supported Native American tribes in a decades-long fight to take out the dams. “It’s really strange …

If you’ve ever felt like your pet knows exactly when to pull you away from the stress of your computer screen, you aren’t alone. A landmark study surveying over 30,000 pet owners in 20 different countries found that 78% of dog or cat owners report that their pets remind them to take breaks during work or tasks, with 50% of the participants saying this happens daily. The study, which was conducted by YouGov on behalf of Mars, is the largest international survey of its kind in the world. The findings resonated deeply with David Reilly, Global VP at Mars Petcare. “If my dog’s at daycare, I don’t take a break at lunch time,” he says. “But if my dogs’s not at daycare…

The chronicle of the polygonal failure known as the Cybertruck continues as Tesla issues a new physical recall that covers all 2024 and 2025 models built between November 13, 2023 and February 27, 2024. In the announcement, Elon Musk’s company says that “the stainless steel panel of the cantrail assembly may delaminate at the adhesive joint, which may cause the panel to separate from the vehicle.” The cantrail is the portion of the roof that joins the pillars that form the vehicle’s roof structure. Tesla adds that, “if the cantrail panel separates from the vehicle while in drive, it could create a road hazard for following motorists and increase the risk of injury or…

When we think of climate change, we may consider extreme weather events – record-breaking heatwaves, heavy downpours and devastating floods. But have you considered that these changes could also increase your risk of exposure to certain viruses? We now live in world where extreme weather events are common. With the increasing frequency of prolonged rainstorms and heatwaves, climate change may raise the likelihood of being exposed to sewage-associated viruses in rivers, lakes and coastal waters. Intense rainstorms can also result in rainwater overloading urban sewer systems. As a result, raw untreated sewage is released into rivers, lakes and coastal waters. Newly …

In the defining years of American business, founding CEOs were virtually synonymous with the companies they led. Walt Disney was Disney incarnate; Dale Carnegie came to represent the steel industry itself. These figures were not just company leaders; they were the gravitational center around which entire industries revolved. Those days are gone. Though we still have echoes in modern chief executives like Tim Cook or Richard Branson, these figureheads, too, are becoming rarer. In fact, the average CEO tenure is the lowest in recent history. Over the past three years, CEO turnover has reached record highs, with 58 leadership changes in the S&P 500 alone. This patter…

The ability to stay connected through technology plays a pivotal role in our everyday lives, but in some areas of our lives we are only beginning to realize the life-saving potential of smart technology. This is particularly true in the world of fire and carbon monoxide (CO) safety, where timing can be the difference between life and death. We know that having working smoke alarms in the home can double the likelihood of safely escaping a house fire. Due to modern synthetic materials and open floor plans, fires today are burning hotter and faster. In an emergency, every second counts. Smart technology that provides real-time notifications and remote monitoring cap…

It’s not been a good start to 2025 when it comes to major retailers shuttering locations. Since the end of last year, numerous companies have announced their intention to close swaths of their brick-and-mortar stores, including Party City, Big Lots, Walgreens, 7-Eleven, and Macy’s. Just this week, another retailer—Joann fabrics—announced it would be closing hundreds of locations, as well. And now, department store icon JCPenney has also announced it’s closing some locations. Here’s what to know: JCPenney has had a roller-coaster few years The iconic department store chain has faced several struggles in recent years, most notably from the fall of foot traffic …

On a remote Polynesian island, an eccentric lottery winner uses his earnings to bring his favorite musicians back together—and they’re also former lovers. What could go wrong? The Ballad of Wallis Island is a new film that tackles this zany scenario; it premiered at Sundance to critical acclaim and will hit movie theaters March 28. This past weekend at the Fast Company Grill at SXSW, editor-in-chief Brendan Vaughan sat down with the film’s cast, writers and director to talk about how they found the right note for their musical rom-com. Panelists included four executive producers who all had additional roles behind and in front of the camera: James Griffiths, the …

We’re exposed to microplastics in myriad ways: Those tiny, degraded bits of plastic are in our soil, our water, even in our air. They then get into our bodies, lodging themselves in our organs—including our brains. An adult human brain can contain about a spoon’s worth of microplastics and nanoplastics, recent research found—not a spoonful, but the same weight as a disposable plastic spoon. That amount was higher—by seven to 30 times—than the amount of microplastics found in other organs, such as livers or kidneys. The concentrations were even higher (by three to five times) in individuals diagnosed with dementia. And even more concerning, experts say, is how these l…

Within Walmart, employees known as merchants make decisions about which products the company carries online and in stores, as well as pricing for those items. Naturally, the job involves plenty of data analysis, with merchants breaking down sales numbers by product category, sales channel, region, brand, item characteristics, and other factors. But manually running all of those reports and examining results using tools like Excel can be time-consuming, especially when merchants need to run multiple reports. “You can see how these reports can become time-consuming when analyzing customer behavior across so much data,” says Brian Knapp, senior vice president for mer…

KitchenAid just unveiled its “color of the year,” a retro, comforting Butter yellow. While most people are aware of Pantone’s color of the year program (hello, Mocha Mousse), fewer might be clued in to the fact that the beloved appliance company KitchenAid has been running its own version of the concept since 2017. Each year, KitchenAid picks a trendy new hue to outfit a line of its iconic stand mixers. In 2023, the pick was an electric pink Hibiscus, followed by a powdery Blue Salt in 2024. Now the company is all-in on its nostalgic buttery hue. The new mixer retails online for $499.99. [Photo: KitchenAid] A team of analysts from KitchenAid’s parent company, …

Featuring Brad Charron, CEO, Aloha and Carla Vernón, CEO, The Honest Company. Moderated by Yasmin Gagne, Staff Editor, Fast Company. When a company’s momentum reverses direction (or is even on the brink of bankruptcy), how does a leader pivot toward recovery and a return to success? In this panel, you’ll hear from CEOs who seized the reins of their companies when they were struggling—and managed to get things back on track. View the full article