What's on Your Mind?

It’s a tale as old as the modern workplace: In the 1960s, women entered the workforce en masse, ready to compete with their male counterparts for promotions, pay, and opportunity—only to find the system wasn’t built for them. Today, women comprise almost half of the U.S. labor force. The playing field looks different now, but the fight for equal access hasn’t gone away. It just moved into subtler territory. Companies make quiet calculations about who’s worth “investing in,” says Corinne Low, gender economist and associate business professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. Women often face career penalties in anticipation of m…

Every office has that coworker that turns up to a meeting coughing and sniffling while proudly proclaiming they have never once taken a sick day in their career. (If there isn’t one, maybe it’s you.) But as one viral TikTok makes clear, those attitudes towards taking sick days may be changing—just as sick days themselves are changing, as some think being sick isn’t a real excuse to not work in the WFH era. The skit—which has more than 2.3 million views—sees popular TikTok creator Delaney Rowe adopting the role of that coworker, turning up to a meeting with a hospital tag still on wrist, oh-so bravely battling through the workday while simultaneously making it eve…

David Ko, CEO of Calm, speaks with Brendan Vaughan about the state of mental health solutions in the workplace. View the full article

Dr. Anne Welsh had her dream job as a clinical psychologist at Harvard University Health Services, working with undergraduate and graduate students. But in 2011, while pregnant with her second child and raising a toddler at home, she decided that her 60-client caseload was no longer sustainable. Welsh and another pregnant colleague developed a plan. They would share a caseload, splitting responsibilities so they could continue working part-time while caring for their growing families. They created a detailed job-share proposal covering logistics, scheduling, and continuity of care. Welsh brought it to their practice director. Their director barely glanced at it. …

Five years ago, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong did a bold thing. He banned political conversations at work. He made this decision because he knows what the job of a business leader is: to deliver for customers, employees, and shareholders. More recently, another executive did the opposite. Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry’s fame left the company as part of a row with its parent company over social activism. For Greenfield, political stances are not just part of the company; they ultimately outweigh everything else. This stark difference is very instructive at this time. Amid America’s rising polarization, what stance should businesses take? Many people who think…

A few years ago, I was in the middle of an important client meeting when my phone started vibrating. Buzz. Buzz. Not wanting to be impolite, I kept my focus on my client. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. Finally, I excused myself, peeked at my screen, and saw a string of texts from my son, increasing in urgency. The last few read simply: MOM. MOM. MOM. As the mother of three teenage boys, I had gotten texts like these before. There was no way to know how badly my son needed me: Was he just locked out of the house? Or was this a true, red-alarm emergency? In the end, he was fine—no blood or broken bones, no panic attacks or thoughts of self-harm. But as a parent and caregivers, t…

Soccer fans have accused FIFA of a “monumental betrayal” after latest prices for World Cup tickets began to circulate on Thursday. The governing body allocates 8% of tickets to national associations for games involving their team to sell to the most loyal fans. And a list published by the German soccer federation revealed prices ranged from $180-$700 for varying group stage games. The lowest price for the final was $4,185 and the highest was $8,680. Those group-stage prices are very different from FIFA’s claims of $60 tickets being available, while the target from United States soccer officials when bidding for the tournament seven years ago was to offer hundreds of th…

The long-awaited 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off in less than 45 days and fans may still be able to score some tickets—although not always for a low price. Soccer’s largest tournament is arriving in North America on June 11, with 16 host cities across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico readying for the quadrennial festivities. But even as the upcoming World Cup has expanded the number of qualifying teams from 32 to 48 countries with over 100 games scheduled, snagging affordable tickets remains difficult. In fact, this year’s World Cup has raised criticism over the sky-high ticket prices leaving many fans out of the stadium. Take the four tickets for the final game that ma…

The World Economic Forum, which runs an annual gathering of elites in Davos, Switzerland, says its board has given its unanimous support for an independent investigation into allegations of misconduct by founder Klaus Schwab. The statement from the Geneva-based think tank and event organizer late on Tuesday came after a report published in the Wall Street Journal cited a whistleblower letter alleging financial and ethical misconduct by Schwab, 87, and his wife Hilde. The newspaper reported that the allegations were sent in an anonymous letter to the board last week and included claims that the Schwab family mixed their personal affairs with Forum resources. In a statem…

Yet another powerful person has stepped down after being named in the Epstein files. Børge Brende, president and CEO of the World Economic Forum (WEF), best known for hosting an annual summit of world leaders in Davos, Switzerland, has stepped down after an internal investigation into his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In a statement released Thursday, Brende announced that after eight years in his role, he’d be resigning in the wake of the latest batch of files released from the federal investigation into Epstein. “I am grateful for the incredible collaboration with my colleagues, partners, and constituents, and I believe now is the right mo…

After a viral disappearance and rumors of his demise, Duo the owl is alive—and he’s finally ready to speak: “I said, ‘It’s either Spanish or vanish.’” Watch the full tell-all interview and hear from the bird behind the chaos. View the full article

My grandmother never realized she was practicing a die with zero philosophy. She liked to give generous presents to her children and grandchildren on birthdays, gift-giving occasions—and whenever the mood struck her. I once asked her why she kept her loved ones so well-supplied in gifts, and she remarked, “Why should you be glad I’m dead?” In other words, she didn’t see the point in holding onto the money that would come to her family anyway when she died. By spending her money on us while she was still alive, she enjoyed our delight in her generosity. She saw that as a better use of her money than letting it grow until it became our emotionally uncomfortable inherit…

Below, Nick Foster shares five key insights from his new book, Could Should Might Don’t: How We Think About the Future. Nick has spent the last 25 years working within companies at the very forefront of emerging technology, from Apple and Sony to Nokia and Dyson. Most recently, he was head of design at Google X. He has established himself as a leading figure in the field of Futures Design. In 2021, he was awarded the title Royal Designer for Industry, the highest accolade for a British designer. What’s the big idea? We need to have a conversation about the future, but not the kind you’d expect. Humans have already talked at length about what the future may or m…

Let’s say you were spending tens of thousands of dollars to build yourself a fancy home theater. How would you go about actually watching movies in it? While you could always set up a Roku or Apple TV box to stream on, they’re not going to feel all that theatrical. Most streaming devices are too bogged down with banner ads and obnoxious upsells, and the streaming services themselves compromise on audiovisual quality for the sake of smoother streaming. Maybe what you actually need is a device that explicitly caters to videophiles with obsessively-manicured home theater setups. That’s what Kaleidescape has been trying to accomplish for the past two decades. This sma…

Discussing English football ownership is turning into the ultimate name drop. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney at Wrexham. Tom Brady at Birmingham City. Michael B. Jordan at Bournemouth. J.J. Watt at Burnley. Even Snoop Dogg is in on the action, becoming co-owner of Swansea City this summer. But the American invasion of English football has moved beyond novelty. Twelve of the Premier League’s 20 clubs now answer to U.S. ownership—either wholly or partially. Drop down to the Championship, English football’s second tier, and nine more clubs are backed by American money. On Friday, when Wrexham hosts Birmingham City, it will be a clash of two celebrity-driven, Americ…

As companies continue to seek ways to harness artificial intelligence for concrete productivity gains, a company called Writer offers AI tools specifically geared toward getting things done at the enterprise level. Writer’s AI systems can connect to a wide variety of business software, including standard productivity tools from Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft, as well as a range of database systems. And customers can customize on a granular level what data the AI—and the humans using it—has access to read and write. But Writer’s platform is also specifically designed to enable white-collar workers without an engineering background to reliably get things done …

We’re at a rare inflection point. Robots are moving from research labs and factory floors into everyday life. Right now, they’re being dropped into human spaces and, often, missing the mark. Yet embodied AI is becoming more intelligent, manipulation more capable, and perception more attuned. These shifts are giving robotics a new expressive range, the ability to move, interact, and take shape in ways that feel natural in human environments. It’s a moment full of possibility. Currently, people see robots as humanoid helpers or robotic arms, but we don’t have to be limited to these. They represent only a small slice of a much broader category of intelligent and autonomo…

WeightWatchers said Tuesday it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to eliminate $1.15 billion in debt and focus on its transition into a telehealth services provider. Parent WW International Inc. said it has the support of nearly three-quarters of its debt holders. It expects to emerge from bankruptcy within 45 days, if not sooner. WeightWatchers, which was founded more than 60 years ago, has struggled recently. In 2023, the company moved into the prescription drug weight loss business—particularly with the $106 million acquisition of Sequence, now WeightWatchers Clinic, a telehealth service that helps users get prescriptions for drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy an…

As a child growing up with his grandmother in Haiti, the artist Wyclef Jean developed an early appreciation for the idea that any worthy pursuit requires a blend of agency and preparation. On the day I spoke to him, Jean recalled a time when a missionary visited his village. “At five years old, a car pulls up and a man gets out and this was like my first time seeing a white person ever. I looked at my grandma and I said, ‘Do you know who this is?’ And my grandma was like, ‘This is Jesus Christ.’” Later, Jean came to understand this man was a missionary, bringing rice and beans to his village. “When he’s leaving, I look at my grandma, and I’m like, ‘Yo, how come Jesus …

The social media platform X said Thursday it has blocked access to jailed Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu ’s account in Turkey, complying with a Turkish court order — the latest measure targeting a key rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. However, Elon Musk‘s X said that while the company abided by the order, it disagrees with it and is legally challenging it. It said X complied to avoid severe punishments, such as the throttling of the whole platform in Turkey. “X has been and will continue to object to removal orders including government requests in courts to protect users when those requests do not align with principles of free expression, due process, or oth…