What's on Your Mind?

The hottest parties right now are happening in the metaverse. VRChat, a video-game-like social platform hosted in virtual reality, saw more than 130,000 people in attendance on New Year’s Day 2025, according to a VR culture blog. Before 2020, VRChat had hardly seen more than 20,000 concurrent users, according to Wired. While virtual clubbing began in the early 2000s on platforms like Second Life, VRChat, and AltspaceVR, the COVID-19 lockdowns brought a new wave of virtual ravers as traditional nightclubs closed and people looked for online alternatives. Today, VR clubbers line up each week for dozens of fully immersive virtual parties hosted across the U.S., Europ…

As news worsens, the potential for comedy rises. No one understands this inverse relationship better than the team behind The Onion, which has channeled today’s dystopian political slide into banger headlines (“The President Spends Entire U.K. Trip Trying To Figure Out Where He Knows Prince Andrew From”). The news site has attracted nearly 54,000 subscribers since its relaunch last year, and is on track to generate $6 million in revenue in 2025, according to The Wall Street Journal. Which is why it seemed particularly comical when, in May, the satirical news outlet issued a press release announcing a “foray into advertising” in order to “expand its marketplace dom…

Nathan Fielder’s comedy can feel like watching a slow-motion plane crash. On semi-scripted shows such as Nathan for You and The Rehearsal, the comedian makes real people squirm with his bizarre suggestions, which he offers with rigor mortis-level deadpan. Some of it is best viewed through the slightly parted fingers of a face-obscuring hand. The second season of The Rehearsal, returning to HBO on April 20, is no exception. Like its predecessor, the show again uses elaborate role-play to game out difficult social scenarios, only this time the stakes are way higher. Season 2 focuses on the dynamic between copilots—and how it can lead to, or possibly prevent, plane crash…

The latest TikTok trend is leading to fire evacuations at schools across Connecticut. As part of the trend, students are filming themselves inserting items such as pencils, paper clips, and push pins into the charging ports of their school Chromebooks to set them on fire. Why? For a laugh and a brief break from schoolwork. One such “tutorial” gained 1.5 million views on TikTok before being removed, showing a student pushing a lead pencil into the back left corner of the port. “You might have to wiggle it a bit,” the user explained. Another student tried to film a “how-to” video last week, managing to cause a laptop fire and triggering an evacuation at Newingto…

There’s a reason Haliey Welch seemingly vanished from the internet overnight: she’s the focus of an upcoming documentary exploring her meteoric rise—and dramatic fall—from viral fame. The 22-year-old influencer will be the subject of an upcoming documentary from Emmy-winning production company Bungalow Media + Entertainment, according to Deadline. “The documentary will chronicle how Welch, a young woman from a small-town with no active social media presence, unknowingly created a viral moment that gave way into a global phenomenon,” per a press release shared with the outlet. The documentary will focus on Welch’s “unexpected rise to fame, the scrutiny that followe…

The breakout star of this season of The White Lotus? Aimee Lou Wood—and her distinctive real-life smile. “I mean, I can’t believe the impact my teeth are having,” the English actress told Jonathan Ross last month on Ross’s eponymous British chat show. “I hope that people don’t start, like, filing their teeth so they have gaps.” Too late. Unfortunately, Wood may have unintentionally reignited a troubling DIY dentistry trend. On TikTok, users are once again taking nail files to their own teeth, with hashtags like #teethfiling and #teethfile, racking up more than 130 posts, according to Screenshot Media. While Wood’s smile may be the most recent inspirati…

The world’s largest retailer has announced massive job cuts before the holidays. On Tuesday, Amazon said in a memo to staff that it will lay off 14,000 employees. Here’s what you need to know about the Amazon layoffs, and why these aren’t the last jobs that Amazon will likely cut in the future. What’s happened? On Tuesday, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, Beth Galetti, announced the company was eliminating “approximately 14,000” positions. Galetti sent a memo about the layoffs to Amazon employees, which was then published to the Amazon website. The headcount reduction of 14,000 positions is less than the up to 30,000 job …

The internet can be a great place to learn random life hacks and cry over anglerfish. But what about when it comes to managing your money? According to new data from Intuit Credit Karma, 77% of Gen Z and 61% of millennials are turning to social media for financial advice. Millennials mainly seek out YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram for information, while for Gen Z, TikTok has emerged as an unlikely hub for financial advice, under the hashtag FinTok. Here, content creators such as @YourRichBFF and @JohneFinance have combined followings of millions with videos that offer tips on everything from credit card rewards to flight costs to 401ks, crunched into less than a minu…

Crypto mining companies are actively negotiating contracts with Brazilian electricity providers, such as Renova Energia, that would benefit from the South American country’s surplus renewable power without burdening the grid during peak times. Following crypto heavyweight Tether, which announced in July an investment in the South American country, there are at least six negotiations for small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as one for a larger project of up to 400 megawatts (MW), people from six different companies told Reuters. Mining machines that solve complex mathematical problems to back crypto transactions have overloaded grids in multiple countries. H…

There’s a new sheriff in Bentonville. Today, Walmart announced that John Furner will become the company’s new CEO and president, effective February 1 next year, succeeding longtime boss Doug McMillon, who is retiring. McMillon has been at the helm of the retail giant since 2014. Prior to becoming CEO, he led Walmart’s international division for four years, after leading Sam’s Club, a Walmart subsidiary, between 2005 and 2009. “Serving as Walmart’s CEO has been a great honor and I’m thankful to our Board and the Walton family for the opportunity,” McMillon said in a statement Friday. Why is McMillon retiring? “This is the right time to retire because th…

The contributions of Black Americans built the nation’s economic foundation, sustained industries, and shaped countless communities. Yet, even today, disparities in the workplace persist, limiting the opportunities available to Black professionals, which has been exacerbated by the recent White House Executive Order to terminate all Federal DEI programs and positions. Black employees comprise 12.8% of the workforce but hold just 7% of managerial positions. In senior leadership, representation drops to 4–5%. These numbers are beyond dismal and reveal more than gaps in representation—they reflect systemic barriers that prevent Black talent from reaching their full poten…

Botox can be expensive. You know what isn’t? Bananas. A new beauty hack making the rounds online involves rubbing the inside of a banana peel all over your face for a few minutes to brighten and tighten skin. You’ve heard of chemical peels for your skin? Now it’s all about the banana peel. “This actually made my face feel so much tighter,” one TikToker said after giving the hack a go. “Me, after seeing a banana peel can help with hydration, brightening, hyperpigmentation & be preventative Botox,” wrote another over a video of them rubbing the peel on their skin. “POV: When you’re 37 years old & do banana peel scrubs instead of Botox,” a third creator pos…

For decades, talk of UAPs—unidentified aerial phenomenon, for the uninitiated—was relegated to conspiracy forums and X-Files reruns. Not anymore. The Age of Disclosure, which premiered to a standing ovation at South by Southwest this month, reframes the conversation with journalistic clarity and a big assist from some of the most powerful people in government going on the record. With critics and audiences alike buzzing over the documentary, director Dan Farah is pushing the UAP conversation out of the shadows and into the mainstream. That momentum is owed in large part to the fact that Farah (who is otherwise best known as a producer on the 2018 adaptation of Ready P…

A trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third film in James Cameron’s galactically successful series, starts by delivering on the title’s promise. Rivers of lava cascade through the forests of Pandora, reducing it to charred rubble. Soon, the score swells to epic proportions as the hulking, Smurf-colored Na’vi survey their ruined territory and swear vengeance on an unseen enemy. Released back in January, this trailer already has 3.5 million views. Not bad, considering it contains not one second of footage from the actual film. Whenever Cameron and 20th Century Studios do release the official first trailer for Avatar: Fire and Ash, which is headed to theaters in Decemb…

“Tron: Ares” powered up the box office grid in the top spot this weekend, but Disney’s third entry in the sci-fi franchise fell short of expectations. Despite some favorable reviews — including a three-out-of-four-star one from The Associated Press — the new “Tron” film starring Jared Leto, Greta Lee and Jeff Bridges earned $33.5 million, according to Comscore estimates on Sunday. The big-budget project, reported to cost around $150 million, arrived 15 years after “Tron: Legacy” opened to $44 million before grossing more than $400 million globally. The latest chapter follows a battle between two powerful technology firms, Emcom and Dillinger, who face off against the s…

Lurking on sites like LinkedIn and Indeed, or among your incoming text messages and emails, lies yet another disappointment to dodge in the already lacking job market: fake recruiters. Posing as representatives from top companies, they’ll contact you out of the blue, offering a job so tempting, that 40% of targets ignore the warning signs and move forward with the “interview.” More than half of them, 51%, end up being scammed to give up personal data or money. Those findings came from a survey of more than 1,200 U.S. job seekers published in October by Password Manager. “The prevalence of fake recruiters came to my attention several years ago,” says Gunnar K…

Grindr is expanding its scope in a way that is entirely on brand. On Tuesday, the company unveiled Woodwork, a telehealth service that will help users access medication for erectile dysfunction. Currently available to Grindr users in Illinois and Pennsylvania, Woodwork will expand nationwide throughout the rest of 2025, according to the company. Grindr CEO George Arison says the company performed internal research that found more than a third of its users take erectile dysfunction drugs. “That gave us a very clear opportunity,” he tells Fast Company in an exclusive, in-depth interview on how he’s growing Grindr’s scope. “Users want it, but they’re buying these product…

Shares of Meta Platforms (Nasdaq: META) were down about 9% in premarket trading on Thursday. It follows what can only be described as a mixed bag of a quarter-three earnings report on Wednesday, October 30. On the one hand, Meta announced $51.2 billion in revenue, a 26% increase year-over-year (YOY) from $40.6 billion and a quarterly record for the company. The boost also beat Wall Street’s estimate of $49.6 billion, according to consensus estimates cited by Bloomberg. However, Meta also reported a non-cash income tax charge of $15.93 billion. This one-time charge led to a significant decrease—83%—in Meta’s net income YOY. It also meant the company’s earnings per …

Hawa Hassan was only 4-years-old when fighting forced her and her family from their home in Somalia. Hassan spent the next three years in Kenya, where some of her earliest memories were of running around tents in a refugee camp with her siblings and helping her mother stock the goods store she’d opened there. When she was seven, Hassan’s mother sent her to live with family friends in Seattle. It would be another 15 years before she saw her family again. “A lot of my childhood was spent wondering about my own background and my own identity,” said Hawa, a chef and entrepreneur who now lives in New York. “For many years, I had this deep desire to find people like mys…