What's on Your Mind?

It used to be that if you asked a classroom of kids what they want to be when they grow up, you’d get answers like “firefighter” and “astronaut.” These days, Gen Alpha dreams of becoming content creators. A survey of 910 U.S. Gen Alpha kids (ages 12 to 15) by social commerce platform Whop found that nearly a third want to be YouTubers, while one in five aspire to become TikTok creators. Content creation isn’t their only ambition—19.1% also expressed interest in becoming mobile app or video-game developers. While the “iPad kid” generation is learning plenty from screen time, many feel their schools aren’t keeping up with the rise of digital careers. More than half …

Manchester United unveiled plans on Tuesday to build the “world’s greatest” soccer stadium. A proposed 100,000-seater arena would replace its iconic Old Trafford home and surpass Wembley as the biggest in the United Kingdom. “Manchester United is the world’s most favourite football club and, in my view, is the biggest and deserves a stadium fitting of its stature,” part owner Jim Ratcliffe said. Ratcliffe, who is one of Britain’s richest people, said the new venue could be a tourist attraction in the manner of the Eiffel Tower. “We have 1 billion people around the world who follow Manchester United. They will all want to visit this stadium,” he said. D…

Parts of the Midwest and South faced the possibility of torrential rains and life-threatening flash floods Friday, while many communities were still reeling from tornadoes that destroyed whole neighborhoods and killed at least seven people. Forecasters warned of catastrophic weather on the way, with round after round of heavy rains expected in the central U.S. through Saturday. Satellite imagery showed thunderstorms lined up like freight trains to take the same tracks over communities in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, according to the national Weather Prediction Center in Maryland. The bull’s-eye centered on a swath along the Mississippi River and included the more …

Monday, April 21, 2025, is Easter Monday. It’s the final day of the long weekend of Easter celebrations that traditionally kicks off on Good Friday and is celebrated by millions of people across the world. But while Easter Monday may be a widely celebrated religious holiday, many institutions remain open on the day, even if they were closed on Good Friday or Easter Sunday. However, some institutions will be closed in observance of the day. Here’s what you need to know about what’s open and closed on Easter Monday 2025. Is Easter Monday a federal holiday? No. Easter Monday is not a federally recognized public holiday in the United States. This means that fe…

Smartphone cameras are still getting bigger and better by the year, particularly if you look at high-end phones coming out of China with huge sensors and protruding bumps to match. These phones can deliver awesome results, and I’m happy to use them in several situations where I would previously have had to rely on a dedicated camera. Just this week I used the Xiaomi 15 Ultra to shoot a Formula One event in Tokyo. But for all the advances that have been made, the laws of physics remain undefeated, and you’re still going to get better results from a camera setup that’s able to make use of larger lenses and sensors. Phones do need to be able to fit into our pockets, aft…

Digits is taking on QuickBooks and Xero, with the world’s first AI-powered Autonomous General Ledger, allowing small business owners and accountants to put their accounting needs almost completely in the hands of AI. Digits announced the service—which went live Monday—at HumanX in Las Vegas, after working on it for the past five years in stealth mode and putting it in the hands of hundreds of companies to test out over the past year. The platform serves as an alternative to other accounting software or platforms, such as QuickBooks or Xero, but stands out as it uses its own proprietary AI technology. Jeff Seibert, the co-founder and CEO of Digits, says that puts t…

After filing for bankruptcy protection and being nearly obliterated in the process, discount retail chain Big Lots is getting closer to determining the timeline for its path forward, the brand’s new owner has confirmed with Fast Company. Variety Wholesalers, the North Carolina-based retail company that is seeking to take control of hundreds of Big Lots locations—mostly in the South and Midwest—now has a tentative plan in place for the “soft openings” of many of those stores, according to a spokesperson. Although a bankruptcy filing earlier this month identified 200 locations that are expected to be transferred to Variety, not all of the stores have been assigned y…

The 2025 NFL Draft is next week, and the front-runner for the No. 1 overall pick, University of Miami quarterback Cam Ward, is an anomaly. In any other year, the top prospect being a journeyman who attended three schools in five years and ended his career by losing the Pop Tarts Bowl would be nearly impossible. But now it may be the new reality of the college-to-pro transition. The impact of the transfer portal and name, image, and likeness (NIL) legislation means the traditional “stay or go pro” dilemma is no longer binary. There’s now a third path: Transfer strategically, build your brand, enhance your draft value, and collect NIL checks along the way—all while …

An influx of copy-and-pasted Christian messages has recently taken over TikTok’s comment sections. Over the past several days, comments about Jesus Christ have surfaced among the top comments on a wide range of unrelated videos. There’s no obvious connection between the accounts posting them, but the pattern is hard to miss. “Jesus died on a cross for you. He defeated death, he defeated your sins. He did this for you, and he gave us the Holy Spirit. Spread the word,” reads one of the most frequently repeated comments. Others follow the same script: Jesus died for our sins, we’ve been given the Holy Spirit, and now it’s our job to evangelize. Some even admi…

An unsubstantiated online theory has recently taken hold, claiming that family vloggers are fleeing Los Angeles to escape newly introduced California laws designed to protect children featured in online content. In recent years, several states have introduced new legislation aimed at protecting child influencers from exploitation. In September 2024, California Governor Gavin Newsom, with support from former child star Demi Lovato, signed two key bills designed to “ensure children and teenagers who perform in online content are protected from financial abuse.” One of the most important bits of the new legislation “establishes financial and legal protections for min…

Bui Van Phong faced a choice when the Vietnam War ended 50 years ago: stay in his small village, helping his parents carry on the family’s centuries-old tradition of making fish sauce, or join the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing his country for a better life. Phong chose to stay behind and nurtured a business making the beloved condiment, known as nuoc mam in Vietnam, that is now in its fourth generation with his son, Bui Van Phu, 41, at the helm. Fish sauce from the village has been recognized by Vietnam as an indelible part of the country’s heritage and the younger Bui is acutely aware of what that means. “It isn’t just the quality of fish sauce. It is a…

Although the definition is a little loose, “middle age” is the name we give to the period of life before we decide someone is officially old. When someone in the United States has reached the age of 40, they can expect to live for more than 40 additional years, on average. Given this lifespan, as well as changes in beliefs about age and fitness, people don’t really start getting “old” until their mid-60s. So, middle age involves the period between 45 and 60 to 65. There are several excellent reasons to want to reconsider goals for your life somewhere in this period of life. In fact, it can be a great time to reset and think about what else you’d like to accomplish. …

A software application called Interview Coder promises to help software developers succeed at technical job interviews—by surreptitiously feeding them answers to programming questions via AI. Interview Coder’s 21-year-old cofounder and CEO Roy Lee says he and Neel Shanmugam, the company’s cofounder and COO, created the tool partly as a protest against longstanding industry practices that require job candidates to solve programming puzzles during interviews. Lee, who until recently was a sophomore at Columbia University, says he spent hundreds of hours practicing such problems—time that could have been spent on actual coding projects. “This kind of killed a lot of …

The traditional model of leadership, where a single individual is expected to provide all the answers, is becoming obsolete. In a world of accelerating complexity, hyper-specialization, and rapid change, no leader can single-handedly navigate the full spectrum of challenges facing modern organizations. The future of leadership is about curating the best insights, talent, and ideas, not dictating the direction. The best leaders will be those who act as architects of collaboration, assembling diverse perspectives and fostering an environment where expansive thinking thrives. This shift in leadership isn’t just about delegation—it’s about creating conditions for con…

More than a decade after Casey Anthony was accused of murdering her daughter in one of the country’s most notorious murder cases, this weekend she emerged on TikTok to reintroduce herself. “This is my first of probably many recordings on a series that I’m starting,” Anthony says in the three-minute-long video recorded from her car. “I am a legal advocate. I am a researcher. I’ve been in the legal field since 2011 and in this capacity, I feel that it’s necessary, if I’m going to continue to operate appropriately as a legal advocate, that I start to advocate for myself and also advocate for my daughter.” Anthony became a national figure when her 2-year-old …

A humanoid robotics startup co-founded by prominent artificial-intelligence futurist Ray Kurzweil said on Tuesday that venture capital firm Gauntlet Ventures will back its $100 million Series B funding round. The company, Beyond Imagination, will be valued at $500 million, and venture capital firm Gauntlet Ventures will be the round’s sole investor. Kurzweil is known for popularizing the term “the singularity,” when he predicted two decades ago that by 2045, artificial intelligence would surpass human intelligence and embark on a path of accelerating self-enhancement. These ideas, which once seemed like science fiction, are now viewed as mainstream by many technol…

During Milan Design Week—which encompasses Salone del Mobile, a furniture fair now in its 63rd edition, and Fuorisalone, the exhibitions held off-site—the Lombardian city transforms into a spritz-fueled celebration of all things design. Historic villas open their doors to become showrooms for new products and furniture, interior designers and architects flex their creativity in site-specific installations, and emerging practitioners debut work to an international audience that is eager to discover fresh, exciting ideas. And let’s not forget the brands. Milan Design Week has transformed from an interiors-focused event into a significant platform for fashion, auto…

The deadline to claim the Super Early rate for Fast Company’s Brands That Matter is this Friday. Rates go up March 28 at 11:59 p.m. ET. This is the fifth year that Fast Company will be honoring brands that have turned their marketing and branding strategies into cultural moments while still delivering for their core audience. It will also mark the second year that Brands That Matter will recognize CMOs of the Year—the marketers leading their organizations to new heights with ambitious, effective leadership that keeps their brands top of mind for consumers. Brands That Matter includes a main list of General Excellence honorees, as well as dozens of brands in seve…