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The 2017 fire that burned down much of Enchanted Hills Camp in Napa, California had a silver lining. The camp was originally designed in the early 1900s for people with sight, but it has become a beloved retreat for the blind and visually-impaired for the last 75 years. When more than a dozen of its buildings were destroyed in the fire, the chance arose to rebuild the camp for the unique needs of the people who have been using it for decades. “This really was never designed with the thought of access in mind,” says Helen Schneider, associate principal and project manager at Perkins & Will, the architecture firm that redesigned the camp. Working closely with the ca…

This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. I like thinking on paper. That’s why I’ve got a box under my desk with 27 old idea notebooks. But when I’m looking for a specific note scrawled early in 2020, digital notes are helpfully searchable. Given that paper and digital have distinct advantages, I’ve been experimenting lately with hybrid approaches. Read on for what I’ve found to be most useful. My current notebook of choice: The reMarkable Paper Pro What it is: A specialized paper tablet originating from Oslo, Norway that feels like a cross between a Ki…

Hawaii’s Supreme Court ruled Monday that insurance companies can’t bring their own legal actions against those blamed for Maui’s catastrophic 2023 wildfire, allowing a $4 billion settlement that was on the verge of collapse to proceed. Other steps remain in finalizing the deal between thousands of people who lodged lawsuits and various defendants, including Hawaiian Electric Company. The massive inferno that was the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century decimated the historic town of Lahaina, killing more than 100 people, destroying thousands of properties and causing an estimated $5.5 billion in damage. Soon afterward, attorneys began lodging hundreds of l…

Most upstart companies prepping a new product launch would probably not be thrilled to receive a cease and desist letter from an established giant of their field. But as is readily apparent from its insane packaging (not to mention its insane name), the gummy candy purveyor Rotten is not most companies. Last May, founder and CEO Michael Fisher had his signature gummy worms on hand at the industry’s Sweets & Snacks Expo—and a flyer for a new product: Rotten’s Gummy Cruncheez, which launch today and bear resemblance to Nerds’s uber-popular Gummy Clusters. [Image: Rotten] “Nerds and their parent company Ferrara got wind of the product, took a photo of the flye…

Influencers are not only good for skinny jean and matcha recommendations. Now, they can advise you on where to invest your money. Founded by 23-year-old Steven Wang, Dub is an influencer-driven marketplace where users can now copy the entire portfolios of the likes of Rep. Nancy Pelosi or billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman for just $9.99 a month or $89.99 a year. At the same time, retail traders accepted into Dub’s top creator program will be paid royalties for users to access their model portfolio. “I want the next five Warren Buffetts to be surfaced and famous on Dub,” Wang told CNBC last month. “If we’re really successful with the top creator program,…

In his February 2025 cover story for The Atlantic, journalist Derek Thompson dubbed our current era “the anti-social century.” He isn’t wrong. According to our recent research, the U.S. is becoming a nation of homebodies. Using data from the American Time Use Survey, we studied how people in the U.S. spent their time before, during, and after the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic did spur more Americans to stay home. But this trend didn’t start or end with the pandemic. We found that Americans were already spending more and more time at home and less and less time engaged in activities away from home stretching all the way back to at least 2003. And if you t…

You’ve probably felt the thrill that comes with receiving a job offer. You read the congratulatory email, begin to imagine life in your new role, then quickly fill out all the required HR paperwork and receive the necessary equipment. And if all is well, you start preparing for your first day. But what if you find out that the job isn’t real? In the first three quarters of 2024, Americans lost $514 million due to business and job opportunity scams, and the Federal Trade Commission received over 93,000 complaints about this type of fraud. In the worst cases, people have already resigned from their jobs before they realize their new position isn’t real—and suddenl…

After 17 years, Airbnb’s Brian Chesky is hitting reset—reinventing the business from the ground up and expanding the brand in unexpected ways. Chesky joins Rapid Response to explain why now is the right time for Airbnb’s “great reinvention” and takes us inside his relationship with Sam Altman, revealing previously unheard details about Altman’s brief yet tumultuous dismissal from OpenAI. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders navigating real-time c…

When he was 17 years old, Arne Hillerns moved from his small village in Northern Germany to spend a year in Wausau, Wisconsin. For a brief period of time, he felt like the foreign exchange high school student that he was: “People look at you [and think,] ‘Who’s that kid?‘“ he recalls. Just a year prior, Hillerns had discovered skateboarding, and the skate scene in Wisconsin was buzzing. Within three days or so, he had found a community of skateboarders. “Skating made me so much more open in my personality and gave me confidence,” he says. “It was a very easy entry to this new world for me.” Fast-forward 25 years, and Hillerns’s passion for skateboarding has spread acr…

This story was originally published by ProPublica. The icebreaker Aiviq is a gas guzzler with a troubled history. The ship was built to operate in the Arctic, but it has a type of propulsion system susceptible to failure in ice. Its waste and discharge systems weren’t designed to meet polar code, its helicopter pad is in the wrong place to launch rescue operations and its rear deck is easily swamped by big waves. On its maiden voyage to Alaska in 2012, the 360-foot vessel lost control of the Shell Oil drill rig it was towing, and Coast Guard helicopter crews braved a storm to pluck 18 men off the wildly lurching deck of the rig before it crashed into a rocky beach…

Step inside a newly built apartment complex in almost any American city and you’re likely to find people congregating in an unexpected place. They’re not in the pool or the game rooms or the gym. The people are gathering in the mailroom. Through an unusual collision of building codes, postal regulations, shopping habits, and a global pandemic, mailrooms have become a new kind of social space in apartment buildings. And designers are finding new ways of taking what has long been a utilitarian peripheral space and turning it into a central square where residents can dwell and interact. Julia Lauve is an interior designer in Dallas and her firm Workshop Studio design…

It looks like brothers Jake and Logan Paul won’t be squaring off in the boxing ring anytime soon. Instead, they are launching a family reality series, Paul American, starting March 27 on HBO Max. Promotional social media posts on Tuesday teasing an “announcement” tricked fans into believing they could be going head-to-head in the ring on March 27. However, it was all a big ruse to create hype for their first foray into reality TV. “We’re the true American family,” Jake Paul says in the series trailer. What exactly that means, you’ll have to tune in to find out. “Everyone thinks they know Jake and Logan Paul—they’re the original superstars of influencer culture a…

In recent months, we’ve seen a wave of companies (including Amazon, JPMorgan, and Dell) and the federal government announce plans for a full-time return-to-office for workers. Other companies have slowly increased the numbers of the days they require in-office weekly. The subsequent pushback from many employees has been intense, with workers signing petitions, opting into “coffee badging” routines (where they swipe their badges, grab a coffee, and head home), or quitting all together. As multiple elements of psychological safety are broken by actions such as these, there is often some collateral damage. After accepting countless changes needed to survive and thr…

Literate in tone, far-reaching in scope, and witty to its bones, The New Yorker brought a new – and much-needed – sophistication to American journalism when it launched 100 years ago this month. As I researched the history of U.S. journalism for my book “Covering America,” I became fascinated by the magazine’s origin story and the story of its founder, Harold Ross. In a business full of characters, Ross fit right in. He never graduated from high school. With a gap-toothed smile and bristle-brush hair, he was frequently divorced and plagued by ulcers. Ross devoted his adult life to one cause: The New Yorker magazine. For the literati, by the literati Bor…

Kai Cenat is launching a “streaming university.” Cenat announced his plans during a February 13 stream, explaining how he wants to help streamers both big and small learn from his success. “I’m going to rent out a university over a course of a weekend. It will be streaming university. Okay? I’m going to rent it out,” Cenat said during his Twitch stream. “I’m going to put out enrolls and applications of people to enroll into the university, no matter if you’re big, no matter if you’re a small streamer, you can stream the entire weekend.” Cenat will install himself as school principal. Just like a real university, there will be dorms; unlike a real university, ther…

Whenever we have a free afternoon, my nine-year-old and I visit our favorite bookshop. By now, we have a routine. Ella makes a beeline to the graphic novels. Her favorite books—such as Smile, Roller Girl, and The New Girl—are part of a new genre of graphic novels that has emerged over the past decade-and-a-half specifically targeted at eight-12-year-olds. The books’ illustrations are colorful and fun, but the stories tackle serious issues: Mending broken relationships; confronting social anxiety; dealing with siblings and parents. Unlike prose, which takes her days to read, Ella will binge these graphic novels in less than an hour. But she’ll come back again and a…

The top is a fine suede. The bottom is a stack of foam so tall you’ll instinctively pop an energy ball. You can wear it barefoot. You could run a marathon in it. I just . . . wish . . . it didn’t look like an orthopedic pair of Vans. This is the Ahnu Sequence 1.1. Suede, launching today for $240. While you may not have heard of Ahnu yet (the boutique brand launched quietly in 2024), you do know the company behind it. Deckers owns brands including Teva, Ugg, and Hoka, which has celebrated healthy growth across its acquired brand portfolio over the past few years—sales across Deckers were up 17% over the past year. [Photo: Ahnu] Unlike its sister brands…

Are you ready for it? February 9 is Super Bowl Sunday. The Kansas City Chiefs are looking for the first-ever “three-peat” in Super Bowl history, while the Philadelphia Eagles are looking for redemption after their last unsuccessful attempt for the Lombardi Trophy . . . against the Chiefs. Super Bowl LIX is a rematch of Super Bowl LVII, in 2023, which the Chiefs won 38-35, and was the start of their three-peat quest. (Fun fact: The term three-peat was actually trademarked by NBA legend Pat Riley back in the late 1980s when he was head coach of the L.A. Lakers. This past week, the NFL struck a deal with Riley to use it if the Chiefs win.) Here’s what you need to know ab…

Nearly three in five people worldwide—a significant 58%—plan to look for a new job in 2025. That’s a lot of people in the hunt and if you’re one of them, it can feel a bit overwhelming. It doesn’t help that many job seekers are also feeling stuck, applying to more positions than ever yet hearing back less often. The shifting job market, influenced by more competition and the growth of AI, has made old strategies less effective. To succeed, job seekers need to rethink their strategy—focusing on roles that align with their skills, crafting tailored applications, and finding ways to stand out. The good news? With a clear, intentional approach, you can navigate these chal…

We live in an era of rapid technological change, where the rise of AI presents both opportunities and risks. While AI can drive efficiency and innovation, it also increases the temptation for leaders to prioritize short-term gains—automating decisions for immediate profit, optimizing for productivity at the cost of employee well-being, and sidelining long-term sustainability. Organizations that focus solely on AI-driven efficiency risk creating burnt out workforces, extractive systems, and fragile organizations that cannot withstand economic, social, or environmental disruptions. To build resilient organizations that can weather the future, leaders must embrace regene…

Everyone has a favorite moment from Super Bowl LIX. Eagles fans likely will long cherish the decisive victory over the Chiefs. Some will discuss Kendrick Lamar’s game-changing halftime show. Me? I was happy to see Puppy Monkey Baby again. The former Mountain Dew mascot, which made its disturbing debut in 2016 and was widely hated by pretty much everyone, was part of DoorDash’s 2025 Super Bowl commercial, a spot that crammed in more corporate mascots than anyone thought possible. For some reason, that stirred some nostalgic feelings in me and I took to Facebook to post “I, for one, am THRILLED to see the return of Puppy Monkey Baby!!!” That’s when things got weird. …

It’s okay to admit it: You want to stand out, get ahead, and achieve all you can. And while you may feel that you can’t mention these goals, they don’t actually make you a narcissist. In fact, it’s natural for people to want a sense of status at work. After all, status is an indication that the company and your peers respect and appreciate you. But you’re also wise to balance your desire for accolades with the appropriate humility. No one likes someone who is arrogant, self-serving, or disrespectful—and there is a delicate balance between being confident and being egotistical. AVOID ARROGANCE In a 2019 study published in Review of General Psychology researchers…

In 2017, Nathan Cozzolino started Rose, a “farm to edibles” brand based in Los Angeles. Cozzolino and his team cultivated organic hemp and marijuana, produced its own low-dose gummies with natural organic ingredients, and sold the product to licensed dispensaries. This structure required overhead that cost upwards of $80,000 a month. Six years in, the brand wasn’t able to sell enough products to cover its expenses despite being sold in more than 100 retailers. That changed in July of 2023 when Rose switched the entirety of its production to hemp. “We did it because it was that or go out of business,” Cozzolino says. He let go of his cannabis licenses, downsized his f…

Water scarcity is often viewed as an issue for the arid American West, but the U.S. Northeast’s experience in 2024 shows how severe droughts can occur in just about any part of the country. Cities in the Northeast experienced record-breaking drought conditions in the second half of 2024 after a hot, dry summer in many areas. Wildfires broke out in several states that rarely see them. By December, much of the region was experiencing moderate to severe drought. Residents in New York City and Boston were asked to reduce their water use, while Philadelphia faced risk to its water supply due to saltwater coming up the Delaware River. Before the drought, many people…

Not so long ago, a book deal and a live tour marked the outer limits of how far a hot podcast could hope to expand its horizons. These days, they’re only the beginning. Especially at Wondery, the fast-growing podcast network based in West Hollywood, California. Wondery has more than 240 podcasts, and more than 55 of them have hit the No. 1 spot on Apple Podcasts. The first book adapted from the network’s hit survival podcast Against the Odds is set for publication this June, but a better example of where things might be headed is the line of toys Wondery just launched for the family-friendly science show Wow in the World or the immersive cruise inspired by its Exhibit…