What's on Your Mind?

Extreme weather is dangerous weather, and that’s particularly true for the heavy rainfall events that experts say are becoming more frequent with climate change. The powerful storms can pose threats ranging from falling limbs to downed power lines to drowning. Experts say disaster preparation and good planning can help protect lives and property. What should you do if you face record rainfall? Long before extreme weather happens, it’s important to consider whether your home meets building codes, and to know what your insurance covers, experts say. This is the time to address any shortcomings. Once storms draw near, stay informed by signing up for real-time …

Another day, another recall: On Tuesday, popular chocolate brand Tony’s Chocolonely recalled two of its bars, Tony’s Dark Almond Sea Salt Bar (6.35oz) and Everything Bar (6.35oz), following 12 reports from consumers who found small stones “not filtered during third-party almond harvesting and the almond processing process.” The bars were distributed nationwide from February 7 to March 24, 2025 and sold in various retail stores, as well as at Tony’s online store. “We are extremely sorry to have to issue this recall, and for the inconvenience that this will cause,” a company spokesperson told Fast Company. “Whilst the probability of a product being affected is low, …

If you were to establish an electric truck company today, would the trucks be built in America? In April 2025, the answer is yes. In 2022, even after the pandemic, the answer might have been different. That was the year I initially founded Chang Robotics, a company that manufactures what we believe to be one of the world’s most powerful battery-operated commercial rigs. Its first commercial use will be for fast snow removal in airports and other mission-critical facilities. At the time, advisors, investors, and partners all said “Let’s take this to China. I’ll bet we could get this done in six months.” I declined. New Manufacturing Should Focus on Bei…

The pending merger between Capital One and Discover Financial services received approval from several regulators Friday, bringing the $35 billion tie-up closer to completion. The Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency signed off on the deal, which was first announced in February 2024. The Federal Reserve Board said it entered into a consent order with Discover and assessed a fine of $100 million for overcharging certain interchange fees from 2007 through 2023. Discover has since terminated these practices and is repaying those fees to affected customers, according to the Federal Reserve. The board’s action is being taken in coordination …

If you’ve been thinking about skipping that Target run this weekend, you’re not alone. A grassroots group called The People’s Union USA is asking shoppers to sit out spending money at major retailers, restaurants, and banks from midnight on Good Friday through Easter Sunday. “No shopping, no spending, no fueling the corporate machine that has been bleeding us dry,” organizer John Schwarz said in a video posted to Instagram. The goal? Hit big brands where it hurts—their bottom line. The boycott follows weeks of frustration over corporate DEI rollbacks and rising political tension, especially with companies such as Target, which has been the focus of a separate 40-d…

“If this is your first time being poor, I’m Kiki, and I’m trying to make it affordable to eat by using depression, recession and wartime recipes,” says TikTok creator Kiki Rough in a video posted last month. While most people wouldn’t turn to the 1940s for dinner inspiration, Rough’s video has since racked up over four million views. “‘We are so back’ as says my 104-year-old grandparents,” one comment reads. “The economy must be cooked if this is trending,” added another. Rough’s video dropped just days after President The President’s global tariff announcements in April, which sent the stock market tumbling and triggered headlines warning of a looming rec…

eToro Group Ltd has announced that it plans to take itself public in an initial public offering. The company made the announcement in a press release today, in which it confirmed that it had filed its Form F-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, there are still many unknowns about eToro’s IPO. Here’s what we do know—and what still needs to be revealed. What is eToro Group Ltd? eToro Group Ltd is the name of the company that operates the eToro trading platform. Like other trading platforms, eToro allows investors to buy and sell a number of assets, including stocks and cryptocurrencies. But eToro is slightly differ…

Purdue Pharma asked a bankruptcy judge late Tuesday to consider the latest version of its plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of the powerful prescription painkiller OxyContin, a deal that would have members of the Sackler family who own the company pay up to $7 billion. The filing is a milestone in a tumultuous legal saga that has gone on for more than five years. Under the deal the family members — estimated in documents from 2020 and 2021 to be worth about $11 billion — would give up ownership of the company in addition to contributing money over 15 years with the biggest payment up front. Family members resigned from Purdue’s board, stopped receiving…

‘Fast Company’ global design editor Mark Wilson goes behind the scenes with the band in Budapest to decode the disciplined chaos of their genre-defying visual experiments. View the full article

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…

Financial markets are volatile. Consumer confidence is at its lowest level in five years. Economists say recession risks are rising. It all adds up to financial uncertainty for a lot of Americans. Roughly half of U.S. adults say that President The President’s trade policies will increase prices “a lot,” according to a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center of Public Affairs Research. And about half of Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the possibility of the U.S. economy going into a recession in the next few months. Matt Watson, CEO of Origin, a financial planning app, says it’s a period of uncertainty for everyone, including experts. “No one…

The headlines scream it daily: Markets are fluctuating wildly, AI is transforming entire industries overnight, supply chains are fracturing, and the workforce is reshuffling at unprecedented rates. According to the World Economic Forum, 78 million new job opportunities will emerge by 2030, but this comes amid massive workforce transformation, with 77% of employers planning upskilling initiatives while 41% anticipate reductions due to AI automation. All these moving parts are playing out against a global background of financial insecurity, war, climate change, and political disruption. The age of anxiety Welcome to the age of VUCA—volatility, uncertainty, complexity…

AI tools are everywhere, changing the way we work, communicate, and even create. But which tools are actually useful? And how can users integrate them in a way that’s both practical and ethical? In a recent conversation for FC Live, Fast Company tech editor Max Ufberg and longtime contributor Jared Newman explored the real-world impact of today’s AI tools—how they work, what they’re good for, and where they still fall short. From writing assistants to productivity hacks, they broke down what’s worth your time—and what’s just hype. If you missed the subscriber-only event, you’re in luck. You can catch the whole conversation in the video above. View the full articl…

Bottles and bags, food wrappers and straws. Piping, packaging, toys and trays. Plastic is everywhere — and yet some people may be surprised at how much they actually wear. A typical closet is loaded with plastic, woven into polyester activewear, acrylic sweaters, nylon swimsuits and stretchy socks — and it’s shedding into the environment nonstop. When garments are worn, washed and put through the dryer, they shed plastic fiber fragments. A single load of laundry can release millions that are so tiny wastewater treatment plants can’t capture them all. They wind up in local waterways that connect to the ocean. Marine animals eat them, and that can pass plastic to larger a…

Walgreens has agreed to pay up to $350 million in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, who accused the pharmacy of illegally filling millions of prescriptions in the last decade for opioids and other controlled substances. The nationwide drugstore chain must pay the government at least $300 million and will owe another $50 million if the company is sold, merged, or transferred before 2032, according to the settlement reached last Friday. The government’s complaint, filed in January in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleges that Walgreens knowingly filled millions of illegal prescriptions for controlled substances between Augu…

It’s easy to get swept up in headlines predicting the end of the design industry as we know it. It’s true: AI tools can now generate in seconds what once took days for teams of designers. So it’s no longer a question of whether these tools will be used—but how, why, and by whom. If design as we know it is being automated, what remains? And what becomes more valuable? In the 1930s, cultural critic Walter Benjamin argued that mechanical reproduction—photography, film, the printing press—was transforming not just how art was made, but how it was perceived. His concern wasn’t just about losing originality or craft; it was about losing aura—the sense of presence that comes…

3:52 a.m.: Wake up. 3:54 a.m.: Pour out a cup of Saratoga Water. 4:04 a.m.: Work out next to a bottle of Saratoga Water. 5:49 a.m.: Dunk face in ice-cold bowl of Saratoga Water. These are just a few of the steps of fitness influencer Ashton Hall’s extremely specific morning routine, which grabbed the internet’s attention over the weekend for its oddly regimented timing and near-comical flaunting of wealth. One particular video of Hall’s schedule has amassed 98.4 million views on TikTok and 674.5 million views on X, spawning countless reactions and copycats, as well as shout-outs from Mr. Beast and Sweetgreen. And there’s one brand that’s clearly the …

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand on Monday at a high-stakes trial in Washington over U.S. antitrust enforcers’ claims that the company spent billions of dollars to acquire Instagram and WhatsApp to fend off Facebook competitors. The FTC is seeking to force Meta to restructure or sell Instagram and WhatsApp, testing President Donald The President’s promises to take on Big Tech while posing an existential threat to a company that by some estimates earns about half of its U.S. advertising revenue from Instagram. Wearing a dark suit and light blue tie, Zuckerberg calmly responded to questions while seeking to combat allegations Meta bought the compani…

For the past few years, “hybrid work” has meant splitting time between home and office. And for the most part, people like it—flexibility, fewer commutes, more balance. But there’s a new hybrid model on the rise, and it has nothing to do with geography. As Artificial Intelligence is woven into the fabric of business alongside humans and begins to help support human workloads, the future of hybrid work won’t only be defined by where we work, but by how we work together with our AI counterparts. As Agentic AI enters a more mature phase, organizations are moving beyond experimentation to ask deeper questions: How does AI complement human strengths? What does meaningful c…

An often-overlooked competitive advantage in business isn’t your technology stack, market share, or even your talent pipeline—it’s your leadership team’s customer obsession. As someone who recently merged marketing, customer success, and renewals under one umbrella, I’ve experienced how customer obsession can transform an organization. However, from the C-suite to entry-level roles, we’re all navigating complex responsibilities, deadlines and metrics. These competing priorities make it easy to lose sight of what truly matters to the business: the customers who make our work possible. By putting customers at the heart of every decision, regardless of the role, y…

A typical electric bike starts at $1,000—and can top $10,000 or more. Even a cheap, low-quality model might cost $500. But a new attachment is designed to turn any bike into an e-bike for as little as $100. Clip, a Brooklyn-based startup, initially launched a higher-end version of the tech a few years ago, focused on commuters in the U.S. and Europe. Somnath Ray, one of the company’s cofounders, had started riding his bike a couple of miles each day to work, and realized that switching to an e-bike would make him more likely to keep up the habit. But it wasn’t safe to leave an expensive e-bike parked on the street. He also didn’t want to get rid of the bicycle he alre…