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David Brickley is something of a social marketing pioneer. In 2011, he founded STN Digital, a leading social-first digital marketing company in sports and entertainment. STN now has more than 50 employees and creates hundreds of pieces of content daily for partners like ESPN, Warner Bros., NBC Sports, Under Armour, the Philadelphia Phillies, and NBA star Jayson Tatum, among dozens of others. The company helped Elton John launch his TikTok. In 2023, digital sports viewership surpassed traditional television viewers for the first time. Forty-three percent of young adult sports fans follow their favorite league on social media, 54% follow their favorite athlete, and 32% …

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here. OpenAI says it will release an open-source model–but why now? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Monday that his company intends to release a “powerful new open-weight language model with reasoning” in the next few months. That would mark a major shift for a company that has kept its models proprietary and secret since 2019. The announcement wasn’t a total surprise: After the groundbreaking Chinese open-source model DeepSeek-R1 showed up in January, Altman said during a Reddit AMA that he realized…

Nothing strikes fear in a leader’s heart more than an upcoming announcement. Yet big changes and announcements are the turning point for many organizations. Whether its layoffs, acquisitions, launches, or reorganizations, the pressure to “get it right” is real. Company performance, team morale, retention, and public image are all on the line. Unfortunately, most leaders rely on advisers and experts when it comes to how, when, and what to communicate. Well-meaning attorneys, publicists, or CFOs typically water down the message, and the company ends up with something that is factual but uninspiring. Oftentimes, that message is also ambiguous with no plan, next steps, or…

Throughout February, a measles outbreak has been growing in West Texas. The potentially deadly disease, once eliminated from the United States in terms of its continuous transmission, has been making a comeback in recent years as vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccine movements rise. Unfortunately, this outbreak has now had deadly consequences. Earlier this week, it was reported that one unvaccinated Texas child has died as a result of the outbreak. The unfortunate event, along with the continued spread of the disease, has left many asking whether they need a measles vaccine booster shot. Here’s what you need to know. About the measles vaccine The good news is that…

For the first time in more than 40 years, a new hormone-free intrauterine device (IUD) is coming to market in the U.S.—and it’s designed with patients’ comfort in mind, both during the insertion process and once it’s in place. The new IUD, called Miudella, comes from the pharmaceutical company Sebela Women’s Health Inc. It was approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in late February, and is the second hormone-free IUD to be approved since 1984, when the copper-based option Paragard first became available. With the addition of Miudella, there will now be six IUD options available in the U.S. Not only does this advancement provide patients seeking a horm…

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 way we produce and consume food is changing. Not only is the current food system a threat to our health, it’s also a threat to our planet. As a food producer, the challenge is clear: How do we transition toward more nutrient-dense, environmentally responsible food choices without compromising taste or accessibility? Modern food production has often emphasized convenience, leading to hig…

If brands want to reach the shoppers of the future, they’ll need to meet them where they already are: playing video games. For this youngest generation, the coolest places to hang out aren’t the local mall or park but inside virtual worlds. While Millennials had Sega Mega Drives and Mario Kart, and Gen Z grew up on The Sims and Angry Birds, Gen Alpha — born between 2010 and 2024 and still under 17 — is coming of age in a world even more seamlessly integrated with technology. Gaming is no longer fringe culture; it’s where they socialize. Analysts at investment bank UBS recently found that while older generations still spend about two more hours per week on social p…

The world is moving fast—so fast that many people feel like they can’t keep up. The beauty industry is meeting consumers where they are, slowing things down, looking to the past, and consulting nature for inspiration. Nostalgia and a desire to claw back more time, any time, were major drivers in beauty innovation over the past year. Arcaea worked with bioengineers to recreate the DNA of extinct flora from Borneo and extract its essence to create indulgent fragrances under the brand name Future Society. (The company also donates a portion of proceeds to stave off further extinctions on the island.) Delavie Sciences looked to the cosmos for a groundbreaking skincare produc…

According to the latest Gallup State of the Workplace report, employees are seeking new jobs at the highest level since 2015. This trend has been coined “The Great Detachment.” A key reason for this is increasing employee dissatisfaction with management. For instance, Gallup’s research shows that those who work in companies with bad management practices are nearly 60% more likely to be stressed, and stress is the second most-cited factor influencing employees’ decisions to quit. People’s values have also changed post-COVID-19. Employees prioritize well-being. They expect their contribution to be recognized, and if they aren’t valued or supported, they aren’t prepa…

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. That means campaigns about anxiety, burnout, depression, and trauma will pop up in schools, offices, billboards, and magazines across the country. But few of those campaigns will mention a force that fuels all of those conditions—a force so normalized, it hides in plain sight. That force is Car Brain. Car Brain is an affliction that causes people to justify or ignore antisocial behavior that involves an automobile. It’s when someone who respects others in nearly every context suddenly becomes selfish, reckless, or even hostile just because a car has become part of the interaction. Once you start looking, you’ll see it everywhere, …

The German antitrust authority has charged Apple with abusing its market power through its app tracking tool and giving itself preferential treatment in a move that could result in daily fines for the iPhone maker if it fails to change its business practices. The move follows a three-year investigation by the Federal Cartel Office into Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature, which allows users to block advertisers from tracking them across different applications. The U.S. tech giant has said the feature allows users to control their privacy but has drawn criticism from Meta Platforms, app developers and startups whose business models rely on advertising trackin…

A Minecraft Movie just beat Captain America and Mario at the box office. The new film, inspired by the beloved brick-based video game and starring Jack Black and Jason Mamoa, pulled in $157 million at its domestic box office opening this weekend. That’s more than double analysts’ early prediction that the film would gross $60 million. It’s also well past the record of the previous top opener of 2025, Disney’s Captain America: Brave New World, which netted $88.5 million at its opening weekend—meaning A Minecraft Movie has now enjoyed the most successful opening weekend of the year. By video game-to-movie adaptation standards, the Minecraft film is also playing in a…

Some of Abir Barakat’s earliest childhood memories are of her father’s fascination with tatreez, a traditional Palestinian embroidery involving hand-stitching patterns and motifs on clothing, scarves, bedspreads, and pillows. Her father would collect thobes—tatreez-embroidered loose-fitting dresses worn by Palestinian women, ultimately amassing an extensive collection of unique, traditional tatreez pieces crafted decades ago by women in Palestine. “My memory is how passionate he was about it and how he would tell us different stories about (tatreez),” says Barakat. “He would acquire these old Palestinian dresses [some of which] are museum pieces, honestly, because th…

One of the more frustrating classes I took in college in the 1980s was a computer science course on data structures and algorithms. In that class, we learned about a variety of approaches to solving key problems in programming. For example, we learned several different ways to take a list of numbers given in an arbitrary order and to sort that list from smallest to largest. These approaches differed in their efficiency. What frustrated me about the class wasn’t the algorithms themselves—they were interesting. But we were never taught how anyone ever came up with those different approaches. What in the world would have gotten someone to even think of those things? …

When the Eaton Fire burned through Altadena in January, Patricia Lopez-Gutierrez and her children had to flee from the house they’d been renting for a decade. Lopez-Gutierrez also lost work: She’s a housecleaner, and her clients lost their own homes in the fire. “I’ve been here for 18 years, and I really don’t want to leave this area,” she said through a translator. “My children and their schools are here. I’m trying to get more work so I don’t have to leave.” As she struggles to pay her bills—including at her rental house, which ended up surviving the fire but was so heavily damaged by smoke that she’s desperate to find a new place to live—she turned to St. Vince…

We’re often told to stand up for ourselves, have boundaries, “do you,” and often in the process, frequently encouraged to say “no.” In recent times, we’ve seen entire books and productivity philosophies built around the art of refusal. Saying “no” works well for establishing healthy workplace boundaries and for self-preservation, and many see it as the stamp of a mature professional. The ability to say “no” creates a respectful and safe workplace, helps avoid burnout, and importantly, elevates and empowers individuals. But there is such a thing as saying “no” too often. And as a result, you might miss out on promotions, learning opportunities, and being part of im…

On Wednesday, Utah became the first state in the country to pass legislation mandating that app stores verify users’ ages and get parental consent for certain activity on minors’ accounts. The controversial App Store Accountability Act, which will now head to the desk of Utah Governor Spencer Cox, has pitted app store giants Google and Apple against social media companies like Meta and is part of a wave of similar proposals that have been introduced in a number of states, including Texas and Alabama. The bill received broad support from the social media platforms that have borne the brunt of criticism for failing to protect children online. Those platforms have …

When I asked Alicia Graf Mack, dean and director of The Julliard School’s Dance Division, to recall a moment that felt like a manifestation of her vision, she shared a recent Zoom conversation she had with seven Julliard seniors. They’re touring with dance companies and joined from around the world to share stories about their first performances. As a former principal dancer, Graf Mack understands her students’ journeys. She joined Julliard in 2018 with a bold vision to modernize dance education. As Julliard President Damian Woetzel captured: “on a macro level, what she is doing is influencing the very future of dance in the world.” “I’d love to see a field that…

Fans of the beleaguered retail chain Big Lots will be happy to learn that the first locations to reopen after its bankruptcy last year are currently undergoing a cleaning, remodeling, and re-merchandising process. Their reopening, the first in a series of four waves of “soft openings,” is scheduled for next month. Here’s what you need to know about when and where Big Lots stores will reopen. Big Lots ‘first wave’ locations Variety Wholesalers, the North Carolina-based retail company that has taken control of hundreds of the ailing retailer’s stores, has confirmed with Fast Company that it is gearing up to reopen some of the locations that it has acquired. As Fa…

Technology workers in Kenya have held a vigil for a colleague who died in unclear circumstances after she was unable to travel to her home in Nigeria for two years. Ladi Anzaki Olubunmi, a content moderator for TikTok employed by the subcontractor Teleperformance Kenya, died last week and her decomposing body was discovered in her house after three days. It was unclear what caused her death, but colleagues say she had complained of fatigue and was “desperate to go back home.” Teleperformance Kenya told the Associated Press on Wednesday that they didn’t deny Olubunmi her leave to go home. Her family in Nigeria says she only traveled once since coming to Kenya t…

Executives and managers are traditionally reluctant to express any tender inner feelings from their teams and peers. Yet leaders who are willing to tap into the power of vulnerability are seeing benefits to their ability to connect, motivate, and lead teams. The experience of vulnerability might feel weak to some, but researchers like Brené Brown have reframed the expression of vulnerability as an act of courage, a superpower that can boost psychological safety and foster a culture of innovation and creative risk-taking. Leaders and managers who share experiences of uncertainty can also create personal connections that can help motivate and inspire others. However…