What's on Your Mind?

The upside of friends, roommates, or family members sharing a multiline phone plan is everyone has a lower monthly bill. The downside, however, is one person is ultimately responsible for both paying that bill—and gathering what is owed to him or her from their friends each month. AT&T is offering a new way to divvy things up, though. The carrier, on Thursday, will introduce AT&T SplitPay, which will individually bill people on select shared wireless plans. The service will be available immediately. “College kids are Venmo-ing each other to share accounts,” says Erin Scarborough, AT&T’s President of Broadband & Connectivity Initiatives. “They’re h…

When you walk outside, you might be concerned about how a nearby idling car or a faraway factory are polluting the air you breathe. But when you’re inside, the products you use to make your home smell good—like wax melts, air fresheners, or diffusers—warrant the same worries. These products create nanoparticles that pollute your indoor air, at times even making the air inside your home more polluted than the urban outdoors. Researchers at Purdue University have been studying how everyday products create air pollution inside our homes. In a lab that resembles a tiny house—called the Purdue zero Energy Design Guidance for Engineers (zEDGE) lab—they study the emissions t…

Frustration is a common emotion. It’s a close cousin to anger, because both deal with your reaction to an obstacle that is preventing you from achieving your goals. Where they differ is that anger is (usually) directed outward at an external obstacle. The energy and rage that anger generates may be useful for trying to influence that external obstacle physically. Frustration is often directed at an internal or systemic obstacle that you can’t do much about. You may be frustrated because you don’t have the capability or time to do something, or may feel like some aspect of your company (or society) prevents you from accomplishing a goal. But frustration is often u…

The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Virgin lithium mining is a focal point for the U.S. and is necessary for the nation’s growth in the critical minerals market. Yet, there is another primary source to secure key battery materials (lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese), and that is recycling end-of-life and scrap batteries. Domestic sourcing is crucial to expanding our manufacturing efforts, and it’s imperative …

The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Healthcare navigation was supposed to be the ultimate guide—a GPS for the healthcare maze. Instead it’s more like an old paper map with half the roads missing. What was meant to simplify care has become just another layer of complexity, dressed up as concierge support but too often steering people based on cost, not quality. At a time when AI, telehealth, and integrated care mo…

When he was a teenager, Collin McKenna’s interest in changing the food system led him to move from Colorado to Hawaii for high school. It was on that school’s regenerative farm that the now 30-year-old has entrepreneur discovered mead—the sweet, fermented honey beverage often referred to as “honey wine.” His first taste of alcohol was mead made by Hawaiian locals. With his 10-month-old brand LIXIR—a sparkling ready-to-drink mead brand he’s billing as “hard honey”—McKenna wants to make the ancient beverage accessible while turning LIXIR into just the second Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) alcoholic beverage brand. “So many different cultures made different variati…

This week, the startup Humane—which raised $240 million to build an iPhone-killing AI Pin—announced its sale to HP for $116 million. While far short of the company’s original $1 billion asking price, it’s astonishing the brand scrapped for anything at all. A product that had promised to change the world instead became a worldwide laughing stock, indicative of the worst tendencies of Silicon Valley founder hubris. Universally panned, Humane sold fewer than 10,000 units. Sometimes its returns outpaced its sales. Units could catch fire. Humane co-founders Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno thanked their few loyal customers by announcing their Pins would no longer work…

Amid a month of skyrocketing stock prices and unprecedented social media buzz, Hims & Hers is expanding its territory into at-home blood testing and diagnostics. Hims has acquired at-home lab testing facility Trybe Labs, the telehealth company said Wednesday. Using at-home blood draws, Hims will now offer over 70 at-home diagnostics tests, ranging from heart health to certain cancer detection tests. All these can be arranged through the app, without a doctor’s visit. “At-home lab testing is one more exciting step towards elevating the personal, comprehensive care customers in this country should expect,” Dr. Patrick Carroll, Hims & Hers chief medical o…

Starbucks is shaking things up with a new approach to its cold drink cups. Instead of the usual clear plastic, many locations are now serving iced drinks in cold compostable cups—a big step toward cutting down on plastic waste. The switch officially rolled out on February 11 across 14 states, according to Fox Business. A Starbucks spokesperson confirmed that the company “switched to commercially compostable cups and lids as part of our efforts to reduce waste and meet local market requirements.” Right now, about 580 stores have made the change, which is just a small fraction of Starbucks’ 17,000+ locations in the U.S. But if you’re grabbing an iced coffee in Calif…

Apple has introduced its first new product of 2025: the iPhone 16E. The new iPhone replaces the iPhone SE from Apple’s lineup—the company’s entry-level, budget iPhone. But the iPhone 16E is more than just a minor spec update to the existing third-generation iPhone SE, which debuted nearly three years ago. As its name suggests, Apple’s new entry-level device has more in common with its flagship iPhone 16 series, introduced last year, than the now-discontinued iPhone SE of old. Here are five major changes Apple has made and who, exactly, the new iPhone 16E is for. [Photo: Apple] A new design with a 6.1-inch display The most noticeable thing about the iPhone 1…

With a new streamlined application, it’s easier than ever to apply to Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators. Here are six reasons why you should apply to our seventh annual BWFI program. 6 reasons to apply 1. Brand exposure. Every company ranked in the top 100 or earning honoree status in a category will appear in the fall (September) issue of the magazine and on fastcompany.com. 2. Talent retention. Public recognition as a Best Workplace for Innovators honoree provides powerful third-party validation that enhances your ability to recruit and retain top talent. 3. Editorial access. Fast Company editors will review all applications; the application …