What's on Your Mind?

Matt Ries has lived in Florida only three years, but everyone told him last summer was unusually hot. That was followed by three hurricanes in close succession. Then temperatures dropped below freezing for days this winter, and snow blanketed part of the state. To Ries, 29, an Ohio native now in Tampa, the extreme weather—including the bitter cold—bore all the hallmarks of climate change. “To me it’s just kind of obvious,” said Ries, a project manager for an environmental company and self-described conservative-leaning independent. “Things are changing pretty drastically; just extreme weather all across the country and the world. . . . I do think humans are speeding up …

The prospect of banning the sale of so-called lab-grown meat might seem like a no-brainer in Nebraska, where beef is king, but some of the proposal’s staunchest opposition has come from ranchers and farming groups who say they can compete without the government’s help. Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen — one of the largest pork producers in the country — is behind the push to ban cultivated meat, saying he wants to protect ranchers and meat producers. The Republican governor signed an executive order last August to keep state agencies and contractors from procuring lab-created meat, even though it could be years before such products are on store shelves. A number of ranchers and…

You’re mid-sentence in a meeting, sharing an idea or outlining a strategy you’ve been thinking through for weeks—then it happens. Someone jumps in, cuts you off, and shifts the conversation. You fade out while they take the spotlight. It’s frustrating—but even more so when it’s subtle. Maybe you weren’t shouted over, but you were redirected, ignored, or sidelined. Over time, it takes a toll on confidence, clarity, and leadership presence. So how do you know it’s happening—and how do you stop it? Here are five signs you’re being talked over in meetings, plus practical strategies to reclaim your voice and authority. 1. You’re constantly “circling back” to what y…

Most of us are used to using internet chatbots like ChatGPT and DeepSeek in one of two ways: via a web browser or via their dedicated smartphone apps. There are two drawbacks to this. First, their use requires an internet connection. Second, everything you type into the chatbot is sent to the companies’ servers, where it is analyzed and retained. In other words: the more you use the chatbot the more the company knows about you. This is a particular worry surrounding DeepSeek that American lawmakers have expressed. But thanks to a few innovative and easy-to-use desktop apps, LM Studio and GPT4All, you can bypass both these drawbacks. With the apps, you can run various …

Ever miss the thrill of the 2016 Pokémon Go craze? A new anti-swiping dating app has come to fill that void, but instead of cute Pokémon you can catch yourself a hot date. These days, trying to find a partner IRL, whether at a bar or reluctantly joining a singles running club, is no easy task. Dating apps are still one of the most common places for people trying to meet The One, but . . . have you seen the apps? 2024 has been widely dissed as the year the dating apps died. Both Bumble and Match Group saw stock prices steadily decline since reaching all-time highs in 2021. Left Field, the latest dating app launched in New York City this week, has the goal to combat…

Forget SpongeBob SquarePants, Sesame Street, and the sourdough starter craze: a depressed German loaf of bread named Bernd das Brot is celebrating his 25th anniversary as the reluctant star of a children’s television program that accidentally became equally popular with adults. A cult classic in Germany, Bernd das Brot (Bernd the Bread) is a puppet renowned for his deep, gloomy voice, his perpetual pessimism and his signature expression, “Mist!” (Think “crap!” in English.) Played and voiced by puppeteer Jörg Teichgraeber, Bernd is a television presenter who wants nothing to do with TV and can’t wait to go home to stare at the wallpaper. This year, his friends—…

Few self-help ideas are as prevalent and widely celebrated as the advice to “just be yourself.” Whether in job interviews, workplace interactions, or career choices, we are frequently encouraged to act “authentically”—without compromise or concern for external pressures. While this sounds comforting and empowering, authenticity as an interpersonal strategy is fundamentally flawed and at odds with hundreds of scientific studies on emotional intelligence, social skills, and career success. As I illustrate in my forthcoming book, Don’t Be Yourself: Why Authenticity Is Overrated and What To Do Instead, authenticity is not a helpful life hack, but rather a misguide…

As the founder of a high-growth SaaS business, Evan was the quintessential entrepreneur. Ideas and innovation were his strength, and they led to his success in attracting investors and inspiring his early hires. With the infusion of investment capital, the company entered a new stage of growth. To scale successfully, the business needed to standardize operations and develop repeatable processes to reliably deliver services to its customers. But these were not Evan’s strengths. With a near-constant flow of ideas and a desire to resource them, he soon earned a new nickname among his team: “chief distraction officer.” Eventually, investors grew tired of Evan’s lack of f…

After nearly 40 years providing decor for countless birthdays across the United States, Party City is entering its final days of operations. And as the company’s last storefronts close their doors, competitors including Five Below and Dollar Tree are vying to move in for majorly discounted prices. Party City filed for bankruptcy twice—first in 2023 and again this past December—before ultimately announcing at the end of 2024 that it could not recover its losses and would be permanently shutting down its 800 locations. In a memo sent to employees at the time, the company listed February 28 as its last day of operations (though, since then, some Redditors have noted exte…

As the economist Milton Friedman once said, “Only a crisis—actual or perceived—produces real change.” Humanity has of course been faced with countless crises, leading to profound and often unexpected change. These crises define and differentiate generations and leave lasting impacts for years to come. In 2020, a crisis that would change everything hit the world seemingly overnight. Everyone remembers where they were the day the world shut down. Offices stood empty. Cars, previously stuck in traffic on daily commutes, sat parked in driveways. Trains and buses ran empty, if at all. The bustle of Times Square turned silent and Broadway went dark. As smog cleared from cit…

U.S. grocer Kroger said on Monday CEO Rodney McMullen has resigned after a board investigation found that his personal conduct was “inconsistent” with certain company policies. The conduct is not related to financial performance, operations or reporting, and it did not involve any Kroger associates, the company said. The surprise ouster of the 64-year-old executive comes after the company in December terminated a two-year effort to buy rival Albertsons in a $25 billion deal, an attempt McMullen had staunchly defended as a way to fight higher prices and better compete with Walmart and Costco. Meanwhile, Albertsons has sued Kroger for an alleged breach of contra…

It took decades, but Rachael Kelly broke the insidious cycle of abuse she’d been stuck in since childhood. At the time, she was leading human resources at a restaurant group in 2020. “I’m new in this job, and my toxic marriage start[ed] to peak,” she says. Meanwhile, she was trying to help the employees at her restaurant who were suffering through the trauma and joblessness of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ending her marriage to an abusive husband while helping those workers establish safety nets made her think: “How do we package [what I’m doing here] and model it forward?” Kelly ended up doing just that by first launching her nonprofit HiveStrong, which helps survivors of …

For 40 years, Cisco has been best known for building routers, switches, and other networking technology that connects computers within offices, data centers, and across the internet. Cisco’s also a software business, known for its cybersecurity products and familiar applications like the conferencing and communications platform Webex. And last year, the company announced the $28 billion acquisition of big data company Splunk, part of Cisco’s growing role in powering data-driven AI technology. Cisco also last year named Jeetu Patel as executive vice president and chief product officer, with the goal of breaking down barriers within the company as it bets big on provi…

The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Over the past decade, the rising cost of insulin epitomized the broader systemic issue of higher healthcare out-of-pocket costs that prevented many Americans from accessing essential care. People with diabetes, who rely on insulin to maintain their health, were routinely priced out of accessing their medications—forced to choose between filling their prescriptions or paying othe…

We’ve known since launch that the Cybertruck is a flop. Sales have been residual after they peaked at 5,175 units registered in July 2024, gradually falling to just 2,000 units sold in April 2025. The dip has been so deep that the Boring Company would have a hard time reaching the bottom of its sales chart pit, which has totaled 46,000 units since production started in late 2023. Now we have learned that things are getting worse for Cybertruck owners: The Cybertruck has depreciated by 45% after only one year, according to Car Guru. The depreciation is so bad that Tesla wasn’t accepting its own children as trade-ins until three days ago, as the Cybertruck Owners Club …

As my husband was growing his finance career, the year-end bonus became a pivotal moment: to see how much his hard work translated into cash. And rather than rushing to tell me the news, he and his close peers would gather at a local bar on bonus day to share their numbers. They wanted to know who got paid how much. “You share your bonus number with your colleagues?” I asked in disbelief. “Why would you do that?” “We want to know the range of bonuses given out,” he shared. “This also helps us understand how we can get paid more next time around and do better.” When I started my career, I remember a mentor once telling me, “Don’t talk about religion, sex, or po…

Lawrence Cappello is an award-winning professor of U.S. legal & constitutional history at the University of Alabama and a graduate of New York City Public Schools. He is the author of None of Your Damn Business: Privacy in the United States from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age (University of Chicago Press) and a certified information privacy professional (CIPP/US & CIPM). His work on the right to privacy has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Economist, The Hill, and other media outlets. What’s the big idea? In an age of constant connectivity, privacy can feel like a thing of the past—but award-winning professor Lawrence Cappello makes…

While Valentine’s Day and football get the majority of publicity during February, there’s more to this month than love and sports. You may want to consider changing up your typical happy-hour order this weekend to celebrate an unconventional holiday. Saturday, February 22, is National Margarita Day. This refreshing beverage has a long history of making those who imbibe forget their troubles for a while. Let’s take a look at the invention of the drink and some fun deals to take advantage of. What’s in a classic margarita anyway? While many variations of the beloved drink have popped up over the years, in its purest form, a margarita is comprised of tequila, li…

Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Company’s mini-advice column. Every week, deputy editor Kathleen Davis, host of The New Way We Work podcast, will answer the biggest and most pressing workplace questions. Q: What should I do about a coworker who dresses inappropriately at work? A: My first instinct is to advise you to keep it to yourself. Commenting on someone’s appearance is fraught and how someone dresses or styles their hair, etc. very often falls into the category of none of your business. But, there are nuances and circumstances where something is actually inappropriate. Before you say anything, run though these checks: Does your workplace have an offic…

A popular “true crime” YouTube channel has been pulling in millions of views with videos about gruesome murders. As it turns out, None of them are real. One of those videos, titled “Husband’s Secret Gay Love Affair with Step Son Ends in Grisly Murder,” claimed to detail a gruesome crime in Littleton, Colorado. After it amassed nearly two million views, viewers reached out to local reporter Elizabeth Hernandez. But there was no record of the crime—because it never happened. The murder was entirely fabricated by a YouTube channel called True Crime Case Files that used ChatGPT and AI-generated imagery. According to 404 Media’s Henry Larson, over 150 similar videos ha…

America has been dealing with a bird flu outbreak for some time, and now fears over possible contamination in cat food have led to a recall. Here’s what to know about the recall of cat food linked to possible bird flu contamination. What’s happened? On March 1, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a recall notice relating to certain products sold by Wild Coast LLC (dba Wild Coast Raw) of Olympia, Washington. The recalled products are raw pet food for cats. The reason? The products may be contaminated with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1, better known as bird flu. The bird flu virus can live in manufactured products, including pet …