What's on Your Mind?

If you ask my friends or colleagues to describe me, the unanimous response would be “she’s someone who gets sh*t done.” It’s become a well-worn badge of honor for me. Productivity isn’t something I do, it’s become something I am—and it’s exhausting. As it turns out, I’m not alone in this. For those of us who value productivity above all else, we’re far more likely to experience chronic stress or burnout. One 2025 study shows just how widespread levels of chronic stress and burnout are, with over one-third of the workforce reporting they were chronically stressed or burned out last year. Many of us feel like we’re walking a delicate line between balance and overwh…

Last week, four Condé Nast staffers were abruptly fired after participating in a union protest at the publisher’s 1 World Trade Center headquarters. The journalists had confronted chief people officer Stan Duncan outside his office, demanding answers on a fresh wave of layoffs that had just hit the company. The incident followed Condé Nast’s announcement that Teen Vogue would be folded into Vogue.com, resulting in multiple layoffs, including Teen Vogue’s editor-in-chief. Footage obtained by The Wrap shows Duncan declining to engage with employees, instead repeating that they should “go back to the workplace.” In the clip, one of the journalists asks, “What c…

Congress may stop California from implementing its first-in-the nation rule banning the sale of new gas powered cars by 2035. A Senate vote expected as soon as this week could end the nation’s most aggressive effort to transition toward electric vehicles as President Donald The President’s administration doubles down on fossil fuels. California makes up roughly 11% of the U.S. car market, giving it significant power to shape purchasing trends. Vehicles are one of the largest sources of planet-warming emissions. The Republican-controlled Congress is targeting three California waivers that set stricter emissions rules than the federal government. The House voted to block…

Right now, too many physicians and patients are trapped in a fragmented system. Information exists—but rarely in a form that’s usable or easily actionable. Too often, lab results arrive as scanned images. Medication histories show up late or unreadable. Critical details hide in pages no one has time to sift through. What clinicians feel in those moments is not just inconvenience—it’s strain. They’re carrying the weight of navigating a complexity that shouldn’t sit on their shoulders in the first place. Many expect artificial intelligence (AI) to solve the problem but while it can be an important part of the solution, AI is only as smart as the data it feeds on and onl…

If you’re in the market for a car, you might be one of a growing number of people considering a used EV. In the past month alone, Cars.com says searches for used EVs jumped 25.5%, pointing to how quickly interest is shifting. Gas prices likely won’t drop much anytime soon, even if the Strait of Hormuz can stay open. And with hundreds of thousands of used EVs coming off lease this year, consumers have affordable options, even though the federal tax credit went away last year. You get more for your money than with used gas cars: for the same price as a five-year-old Toyota Camry or RAV4, you can get a newer Tesla Model 3 or Volkswagen ID4 with tens of thousands of fewer…

What’s your favorite brand? Now ask yourself, why? Brands That Matter is Fast Company’s effort to answer that question on a broader scale. To recognize the brands that have significant cultural relevance, find unique and powerful ways to connect with audiences, and of course, drive business impact. Now, we’re calling for brands of all shapes, sizes, and stripes to apply. Tell us your story! Here are three reasons why you should apply: 1. Celebrate cultural relevance It’s what distinguishes a brand from its competitors. It’s what forges emotional connection with people. It may be a film, an event, or something that helps make our days easier or more effici…

Design culture loves the fantasy of “blue sky” thinking. No constraints. No limits. Pure imagination. It sounds liberating, but it often produces design that only works in ideal conditions for an ideal user who does not exist. Blue sky leads to paper design—“great” ideas that never come to market. The truth is simple: Constraints fuel creativity. The most valuable constraint is the human one. When designers embrace real limits like limited dexterity, low lighting, fatigue, mobility restrictions, sensory sensitivities, small living spaces, and tight budgets, they stop designing for abstraction. They start designing for reality. That is where innovation becomes inev…

As a teenager, my Sony Walkman was my most treasured possession. It was a portal to another world that let me consume music in industrial quantities. By the early 1990s, it wasn’t new—Sony invented it in the late ’70s—yetit still held incredible power. Sony sold more than 220 million units globally. When one died, often from overuse, I’d use a birthday or Christmas present to upgrade it, usually with a trip to an electronics store with my Dad. Those places felt mythical. That feeling came flooding back when I visited a big-box electronics store with my kids. Retail is under pressure as e-commerce reshapes how we shop. But my overriding thought was: where did the e…

Protein powders are notoriously hit-or-miss when it comes to taste. But according to a new study from Consumer Reports (CR), gym bros and casual proteinmaxxers should be less concerned with how their protein powders taste, and more concerned about whether they might contain lead. The study, published on October 14, tested 23 of the most popular protein powders and ready-to-drink shakes for heavy metal contamination. CR purchased multiple samples of each product, including two to four distinct lots, over a three-month period beginning in November of 2024. The samples were then tested for protein, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and other elements. The results were st…

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. As an amateur historian, I can say with certainty that technology has never embedded itself into society as rapidly as it has in the last decade. Today’s consumer relationship with technology is complicated and multifaceted—understanding that intersection is at the heart of everything we do as a company, and personally for me as Verizon’s Consumer CEO. Given our focus on the…

Meta’s decision to end its professional fact-checking program sparked a wave of criticism in the tech and media world. Critics warned that dropping expert oversight could erode trust and reliability in the digital information landscape, especially when profit-driven platforms are mostly left to police themselves. What much of this debate has overlooked, however, is that today, AI large language models are increasingly used to write up news summaries, headlines, and content that catch your attention long before traditional content moderation mechanisms can step in. The issue isn’t clear-cut cases of misinformation or harmful subject matter going unflagged in the absenc…

Contract roles can feel like the perfect job setup: flexible hours, work-from-home perks, and a way to break into your dream company. For some, they also serve as a temporary solution until a more permanent position comes along. Yet sometimes when freelancers decide to transition to a full-time gig, their contract history can potentially come back to bite them—even when it shouldn’t. In a job interview, employers might ask: Can you work effectively on a team? Can you take direction from a manager? Will you think about your work long term? Or they might not ask at all, but they’ll still wonder. To be clear: Freelancing or contract work is work, of course. …

Heartwood Preserve doesn’t look like typical stormwater infrastructure. Instead of a primarily utilitarian design, this project in Omaha doubles as public art. Meyer Studio Land Architects created a series of 14 sculptural water retention basins across 500 acres of land that sit in a watershed at risk of flooding. The project is meant to be enjoyed by the public and even has features that educate about climate change. Heartwood Preserve is a winner of Fast Company’s 2025 Innovation by Design Awards. View the full article

An annual United Nations conference on biodiversity that ran out of time last year will resume its work Tuesday in Rome with money at the top of the agenda. That is, how to spend what’s been pledged so far—and how to raise a lot more to help preserve plant and animal life on Earth. The talks in Colombia known as COP16 yielded some significant outcomes before they broke up in November, including an agreement that requires companies that benefit from genetic resources in nature—say, by developing medicines from rainforest plants—to share the benefits. And steps were taken to give Indigenous peoples and local communities a stronger voice in conservation matters. But two w…

Fashion weeks around the world are dominated by four main shows: New York, Paris, Milan, and London. But in 2020, Copenhagen Fashion Week (CPHFW) made a bold move that helped it garner attention. It launched a framework with nearly 20 sustainability standards that fashion brands must meet to participate. The choice came at a time when fashion’s sustainability practices were under increased scrutiny. Every year the industry contributes up to 10% of global carbon emissions, pollutes billions of cubic meters of clean water, and produces metric tons of textile waste. Copenhagen’s fashion week was applauded for its forward-thinking approach. However, over the nex…

For the first time in eight years, pay TV is rising. According to the latest Cord-Cutting Monitor report from analyst firm MoffettNathanson, the number of subscriptions to linear video packages actually rose during the third quarter of 2025. The estimates, which include subscriptions to virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) like YouTube TV, show that the pay-TV industry had 303,000 subscriber additions in the third quarter, marking the first quarterly gain since 2017. However, the research notes that the increase was “reasonably small” and seasonal given that it happened during the quarter when the NFL season began, meaning it could pote…

CoreWeave is having a very eventful week, and its stock price reflects it. Shares of the AI cloud-computing firm (Nasdaq: CRWV) are up more than 37% in five days following deals with Meta Platforms and Anthropic. On Thursday, April 9, CoreWeave announced a six-year agreement with social media giant Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram. CoreWeave will supply AI cloud capacity to Meta through December 2032. “The dedicated capacity will be deployed across multiple locations and will include some of the initial deployments of the Nvidia Vera Rubin platform,” CoreWeave stated in a release. “This distributed approach is designed to optimize performance,…