What's on Your Mind?

Over the past 20 years, the Walt Disney Company has spent billions acquiring the world’s most recognizable intellectual properties, including Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar. It’s not just putting those assets to use on the big screen. Increasingly, those properties are an ever-larger part of the company’s theme parks, including Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida. Last August, Disney announced an expansion of its parks, and now, at the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin this month, Disney has provided more details about new experiences and rides coming to those parks—and yep, the upcoming theme park experiences are all about Marvel, Sta…

Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning recently surveyed leaders and L&D professionals about what they’re looking for in a leadership development program. At the top of the list? Scalability. One of my passions—and one of the reasons my company developed our own learning platform—is expanding access to leadership development, so it’s exciting to see companies recognizing how important scalability is. At the same time; however, I know that making scalability work at your organization can be a tall order. For a long time, scalability and quality have seemed at odds in leadership development. An organization could spend its budget on highly effective, b…

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. During December 2024, Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach and his leadership team, including cofounder and executive chairman Aneel Bhusri, arrived at a big decision: the software company would restructure itself to free up operating dollars for investment opportunities tied to artificial inte…

“This is for the crafty girls who want to save money,” goes the voiceover on a recent TikTok, panning over the cheerful purple-and-gray exterior of Savannah’s Starlandia Art Supply and its shelves stocked with art supplies. “You need to be going to creative reuse stores, which are like thrift stores, but for crafts.” Another TikTok keeps it even simpler, with the text “pov: you find out thrift stores for arts & crafts exist,” overlaid on a montage of the treasures available at Seattle Recreative—paint brushes, markers, a whole wall of yarn. In fact, there are dozens of these “creative reuse centers” spread out across the country, from Anchorage, Alaska, to Atlant…

Workplace stress reached an all-time high in 2022, according to a Gallup report. And a 2022 Work and Well-Being Survey from the American Psychological Association found that workers appreciate and seek mental health support in the workplace. That’s why it’s important for employees to learn and practice techniques that will help them lower their stress during moments when stress levels are high. One way to do this is by creating positive experiences during highly stressful situations, such as recalling times when we were confident, calm, and in control. These serve as emotional anchors that we can trigger at will. In my book, Emotional Intelligence Game Changers: 101 S…

Does it feel to you like there are way too many AI assistants to keep track of? Between ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude, DeepSeek, and others, it’s hard to remember what each one excels at—if anything. Beyond just the underlying differences in large language models, each AI assistant has its own features, integrations, premium features, and peculiarities. I’m writing this guide both for myself and for anyone who wants to stay informed about generative AI. While I have some reservations, I also think it’s worth keeping an eye on what’s available. Rather than getting into the technical details of how these AI assistants work, I’ll focus o…

The color of your house matters beyond aesthetics. An extensive body of research shows that painting buildings white (which reflects heat) can make them cooler, and painting them black (which absorbs heat) can make them warmer. This is the reason why most houses in Greece are white, and many houses across Scandinavia are black. But what about the rest of the world, where temperatures often shift with the seasons? Industrial designer Joe Doucet has developed what he calls a “climate-adaptive” paint that can change colors based on the temperature outside. The patent-pending formula, which is known as thermochromic paint, follows the same principle as 90s mood rings. Except …

When plastic entered the design world in the 20th century, it was hailed as a wonder material—something strong, durable, lightweight, affordable, and malleable enough to sculpt into expressive, futuristic-looking forms. But the material lost its halo as the environmental consequences became apparent, plastic waste being one of them. The design industry has been figuring out what to do about this for years. It’s tried recycling, reducing the amount of material in a product, developing bio-based compostable alternatives, or switching to something else entirely. But not all companies are able to easily switch up their production lines or find alternatives. Now, a growing bo…

A new scientific study warns that using artificial intelligence can erode our capacity for critical thinking. The research, carried out by a Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University scientific team, found that the dependence on AI tools without questioning their validity reduces the cognitive effort applied to the work. In other words: AI can make us dumber if we use it wrong. “AI can synthesize ideas, enhance reasoning, and encourage critical engagement, pushing us to see beyond the obvious and challenge our assumptions,” Lev Tankelevitch, a senior researcher at Microsoft Research and coauthor of the study, tells me in an email interview. But to reap those benef…

In business and sports, team dynamics impact outcomes. Whether you’re pursuing profits or championships, knowing what triggers your teammates can help you avoid conflict and stay on task. The problem is that taking time to better understand each other isn’t always our default setting, say John Eliot and Jim Guinn, authors of How To Get Along with Anyone: The Playbook for Predicting and Preventing Conflict at Work and at Home. “Blowups appear to be substance-driven, but they’re actually people-driven,” says Eliot. “The first step toward preventing and resolving conflict is to focus on figuring out the people participating in it not the underlying ‘problem.’” To wor…

Researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology just invented a building material that could make construction projects stronger and more sustainable—and it’s based on the skeleton of an invertebrate that lives at the bottom of the ocean. The material, recently presented in the journal Composite Structures, was developed by RMIT University engineers. It’s inspired by the skeleton of the deep-sea sponge, whose lattice-like internal structures, which have been optimized over millions of years in the ocean, allow it to thrive thousands of feet underwater. The material’s unique structural properties make it simultaneously lightweight, strong, and extra resi…

AI is poised to reshape businesses, but too many executives are oversimplifying its potential, focusing on automation rather than collaboration. As someone who’s spent my career studying the future of work, I’m excited about AI’s breakthrough potential—but cautious of the narratives being rushed into the spotlight. Recently, I reviewed Anthropic’s study, Which Economic Tasks Are Performed with AI? Evidence from Millions of Claude Conversations, and found that AI’s real impact isn’t as clear-cut as many believe. While AI is transforming business, leaders are overlooking key realities about AI’s impact and its real-world applications. Here’s what many are still getting…

There’s a special place in you-know-where for spam callers. They’re annoying. They waste time. They’re also dangerous. And while it’s challenging to eliminate spam calls entirely, the good news is that with a little time and effort, you can significantly reduce the number of spam calls you receive. Here’s what to do. Add yourself to the FTC’s Do Not Call list One of the easiest and longest-lasting ways to reduce spam calls is to add your phone number to the National Do Not Call Registry, which is a free service managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Once you’ve added your number, telemarketers have a month to remove you from their lists so you don’t…

Noticed all the blondes going back to their natural hair color lately? As much as many try to claim it’s because of a “hair health journey,” other factors seem to be at play here. “How’s the economy?” one TikTok user asks in a viral video. “Well, hasn’t been good for a while seems like my indicators tell me,” the former blonde says, measuring the inches of her incoming roots with her fingers. “THIS IS SO ACCURATE,” one commenter responded. I’m no expert, but root length has always been a pretty solid way to tell how people are doing financially. “Remember when balayage became really popular in 2009?” asked one person in the comments. During the 2007-t…

Featuring Ben Lamm, Founder and CEO, Colossal Biosciences and Joe Manganiello, Actor, Producer. Moderated by Kc Ifeanyi, Executive Director of Editorial Programming, Fast Company Since Colossal Biosciences launched in 2021, it’s skyrocketed to a $10.2 billion valuation to fund its mission of de-extinction. For Colossal, it’s more than the buzzy headlines that its resurrecting the woolly mammoth or the dodo—the company’s aim is to combat biodiversity loss and regenerate ecosystems and climates that have degraded over time. Hear from Colossal CEO Ben Lamm on how he’s making science fiction a reality—and how it could benefit us all. View the full article

It’s hard to imagine any industry not having to contend with the deepening sociopolitical division in America—brand marketing included. McCann Worldgroup’s intelligence unit Truth Central creates studies on what their clients are grappling with including data privacy, wellness, and Gen Z. And the past few years have paved a clear path toward their latest study: The Truth About America, which the team exclusively unveiled this weekend at the Fast Company Grill at SXSW. “We saw that not just our clients in America but our clients everywhere were asking more and more questions about America. What is going on in this moment? How do we navigate this market?” says Laura…

Featuring Tarana Burke, Author, Activist, Founder of the “Me Too” Movement. Moderated by Yasmin Gagne, Staff Editor. Just eight years ago, the Me Too movement inspired a viral hashtag, sparked a global conversation, and championed the voices of survivors. But it didn’t take long for opposing forces to mobilize. In the past few years, we’ve seen the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the platforming of influencers who proudly self-identify as incels, and sitting politicians perpetuating sexual abuse. Join Tarana Burke, founder of the Me Too movement and chief visionary officer of Me Too International, for a one-on-one conversation exploring what it means to plan for the move…

Featuring Paul Feig, Founder, FeigCo; and Director and Producer, Another Simple Favor. Moderated by Kc Ifeanyi, Executive Director of Editorial Programming, Fast Company. Producer and director Paul Feig is looking to strike gold twice with the follow-up to his 2018 hit film A Simple Favor starring Blake Lively, Anna Kendrick, and Henry Golding. Beyond the plot twists and intrigue, Feig’s sequel further exemplifies his commitment to telling women-led stories including Jackpot!, Ghostbusters, Spy, The Heat, and Bridesmaids. Join Feig for a one-on-one conversation on his unique approach to comedic storytelling with complex female lead characters at the center. View the…