Natural disastersfrom tornadoes across the South and Midwest, to the fires in Los Angeles to Hurricane Helenes devastation in North Carolinahave upended communities, with small businesses among the hardest hit. As extreme weather events become more frequent, these businesses have emerged as vital anchors of community recovery. While urban enterprises navigate complex rebuilding amid dense infrastructure, rural businesses face distinct challenges in disaster response. Yet across geographies, small businesses play a critical role in stabilizing and revitalizing their communities after catastrophe.
Rural small businesses, in particular, serve a dual role: Theyre not just economic drivers but also informal safety nets, stepping in to rebuild communities long before larger relief efforts arrive and continuing their work well after national attention fades. The resilience of these businessesand the communities they supportis being tested like never before. Systemic barriers, most notably access to capital, exacerbate their struggles, threatening their survival and the economic stability of their regions.
The first responders of local economies
When Hurricane Helene swept across the Southeast, it left behind destroyed homes and displaced families, in many cases causing severe damage to already distressed and underfunded communities. Small businesses were among the first to join the front lines, providing critical supplies and services. Across impacted zones, local service providers pivoted quickly, transforming their operations into vital relief centers. Neighborhood establishments became distribution hubs while entrepreneurs converted storefronts into community aid stations. This grassroots network of support reached residents in critical early days, delivering essential resources before larger relief efforts could fully mobilize.
While these actions highlight the essential role of small businesses in post-disaster recovery, they also reveal a stark reality: These businesses cannot, and should not, shoulder the burden of recovery alone. As they pour resources into helping their communities, they face significant hurdles in rebuilding their own operationsa challenge compounded by systemic imbalances in capital access.
Rural businesses face a persistent capital deficit, leaving them uniquely vulnerable to the compounding effects of natural disasters. In Appalachia, where 99% of businesses are classified as small, the unmet capital needs amount to an estimated $70 billion annuallya gap the Appalachian Regional Commission defines as aggregate capital demand significantly outweighing aggregate capital supply.
While rural small businesses rely heavily on local financial institutions61% obtain financing from small banks compared to 39% of urban enterprisesthese lenders often lack sufficient capital to meet emergency needs. Meanwhile, larger financial institutions hesitate to extend loans to rural businesses due to perceived risks, unfamiliarity with their business models, and concerns about profitability in less densely populated markets. This structural financing gap creates a dangerous cycle: Chronic underinvestment limits both disaster recovery capabilities and long-term resilience building. As a result, the very businesses that anchor rural communitiesproviding essential services, employment, and community gathering spacesremain the most financially vulnerable when disasters strike.
A call for collaboration
Philanthropy has made strides in addressing these challenges, but lasting solutions require collaboration across sectors. Natural disasters expose deep gaps in how we support small businesses in Americas heartland. Public, private, and philanthropic partners like those below are working together to create financing models that attract new capital for growth and resilience.
Public-sector innovation
Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) play a critical role in bridging the capital gap by offering tailored financing solutions focused on quality job creation, housing affordability, and economic mobility. For example, the governments Community Development Financial Institutions Fund created a Rapid Response Program that deployed $1.25 billion to crisis-impacted communities post-Helene. This model of emergency support, combined with streamlined disaster recovery systems, shows how federal resources can effectively reach businesses when they need it most.
However, shifting federal priorities and budget considerations could significantly impact these programs in coming years. With potential changes in funding allocations and regulatory frameworks on the horizon, rural communities may need to develop more diversified support systems that blend public resources with private and philanthropic capital. Strengthening these alternative funding mechanisms will be critical to ensure consistent disaster response capabilities regardless of policy fluctuations.
Private-sector leadership
Wells Fargos Open for Business Fund exemplifies how private enterprise can drive recovery. Launched in 2020 initially as a pandemic response, this $420 million initiative didnt just provide capitalit created a sustainable network of support through CDFIs and nonprofit organizations, helping thousands of business owners recover, rebuild, and grow.
This strategic approach has helped small businesses maintain approximately 255,000 jobs nationwide while building longer-term resilience. The fund’s focus on both immediate financial needs and capacity building offers valuable lessons for disaster recovery efforts in vulnerable regions like Appalachia, where similar public-private partnerships could help bridge persistent capital gaps while strengthening business continuity planning.
Philanthropic impact
Collaborative funding models are proving effective in addressing capital gaps in underserved regions. By bringing together numerous stakeholders, these partnerships help build sustainable support systems that can better withstand economic and environmental challenges. One example is the Emerging Appalachian Investors Fund, a $5 million initiative that empowers students at Marshall University, West Virginia University, and Ohio University to help manage real investments in local businesses and community development projects.
This hands-on model not only enhances financial infrastructure but also fosters long-term resilience in communities that are particularly vulnerable during times of crisis. By combining immediate support with strategic investment, such approaches ensure that local enterprises have the resources they need to recoverand grow.
While some collaborative models focus on long-term investment and resilience, others are designed for rapid response in times of crisis. In response to the Los Angeles fires, philanthropic groups stepped up with unique approaches that could be replicated in rural communities. The LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund, led by the J. Getty Trust and administered by the Center for Cultural Innovation, provides emergency support for artists and art workers in all discipline affected by the fires. A pooled fund of $12 million, launched on January 15, 2025, was made possible through contributions from dozens of foundations and individuals. Complementing these efforts, the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation Emergency Wildfire Fund equips local firefighters with tools and safety equipment to safeguard both lives and businesses.
The stakes extend beyond individual businesses to the heart of community survival. When small businesses have access to capital, they create jobs, strengthen local economies, and build community resilience. The Appalachian regions entrepreneurial spiritreflected in more than 305,000 new business applications in 2021highlights the potential waiting to be unlocked.
By implementing comprehensive financing solutions that bridge these capital gaps today, we can ensure rural businesses not only survive disasters but emerge stronger, ready to serve their communities for generations to come.
After weeks of searching and applying, youve made it to the interview stage, a victory in and of itself. But what happens if you land multiple interviews with different companies at the same time?
While its certainly a good problem to have, its still one that needs to be handled with careespecially if one of the companies asks whether youre interviewing elsewhere.
But does interviewing with multiple companies make you seem like a more desirable candidateor someone less committed? What if you get a job offer from one company, but are midway through the hiring process at another?
These questions are common, and how you handle them can impact not only your chances with each company, but also your reputation in the hiring process. We asked Christian Lovell, founder of Careers by Chris, to weigh in.
The benefits of interviewing at multiple places
In general, it’s fine, and honestly encouraged to let companies know that you are in interviews with other companies, Lovell says. For one, letting them know youre interviewing elsewhere can encourage them to make their decision more quickly.
Heres the thing: Whether youre receiving an offer or not, you want them to make a decision either wayyou don’t want to be in limbo, Lovell says. If they want to hire you, it will push them in that direction. And if you’re not their top candidate, it’s honestly a good thing for them to say, Hey, you know, we’re moving [forward] with another candidate.
How to disclose that youre interviewing elsewhere
When sharing that youre interviewing with more than one company, you dont have to explain too much, such as which company youre interviewing with or all the details about the other job, Lovell explains.
During your interview, you can say something simple like, Im in the final stages of interviews with another company, and I wanted you to know. This might also come up naturally when the company shares the timeline of their hiring process, or when you ask, When can I expect to hear back on next steps?
Following up
When you’re waiting to hear back about a job, especially from more than one company, its natural to feel eager to follow up. But according to Lovell, the key is doing it the right way, and that comes down to timing and professionalism.
Ive seen it happen, and its even happened to me, Lovell says. Someone emails every other day, sometimes every few hours, asking, Do you have a decision? Im super interested. It’s okay to say that you’re interested and that you’re interviewing with other companies. But you dont want to follow up with them so much that you seem desperate.
After giving it a week or two, Lovell suggests saying something like: Just to be transparent, Im currently interviewing with other companies and expect to receive a decision within the next week or two. Are there any updates on your end?
Sending a message like that once is completely fine. Its professional and respectful, and it doesnt make the employer feel rushed. You can also take the opportunity to reiterate your interest by saying, Youre my top choice because of X, Y, and Z. This helps remind them why youre a strong fit while reinforcing your enthusiasm.
If you receive an offer
If you receive an offer from one of the companies that youre interviewing with, the first thing to do is celebrate, Lovell says. That is a huge accomplishment.
Then the next step would be to request their offer in writing. That way you have something to review, and it also gives you time to check in with the other company or companies youre interviewing with.
It is honestly not expected of you to accept an offer on the spot, Lovell says. This might look like, “Hey, can I have the offer in writing?” Or “Can I have a couple of days to review this to make sure that it aligns with what I’m expecting?”
Once you’ve done that, it’s a good idea to check in with any other companies you’re waiting to hear back from, especially if one of those other companies is your top choice. You might follow up with a final message that reads: I’m still excited about this opportunity. I did receive another offer, and I wanted to check in and see if there are any updates on your end?
This will give them the chance to respond with an offer or let you go as a candidate. Either way, getting an offer, or even getting asked to do two interviews at once, is something to celebrate.
Consumer intelligence company Morning Consult has publicly launched a new AI platform that can almost instantly provide detailed insights into its survey data in response to questions posed in plain language.
Morning Consult conducts roughly 30,000 interviews daily across dozens of countries, enabling clients to access in-depth information about consumer sentiment toward brands, public figures, political trends, spending behaviors, and other factors critical to their businesses. Historically, extracting and analyzing that data required time and expertise in data analytics and visualizationa challenge for business leaders needing quick answers.
“The feedback I kept hearing from C-suite executives was: I don’t want to wait to send this email off and find out the answer after I had to make the decision,” says Morning Consult CEO Michael Ramlet. “I need the data right now, and I need to be able to ask it questions.”
With the new platform MorningConsult.AI, business leaders and other users can ask questions such as how a brand is performing in a specific country or how its key metrics compare with competitors over the past year. The AI typically generates answers within seconds, complete with data visualizations. Users can drill down further, filtering results by age, race, or other demographics.
Those monitoring fast-changing factors, such as U.S. tariff policies, can revisit the platform over time to track shifts using Morning Consults continually expanding data set. Because the AI internally queries Morning Consults proprietary data, the results shown in graph form are transparent and traceable, avoiding the hallucination issues found in general-purpose AI.
“This can’t hallucinate,” Ramlet says. “If there’s not data on that topic, it’s not going to bring you back any data that isn’t relevant to the specific business question.”
The platform is fast enough for real-time use during meetings or calls, whether viewed on a large screen or quickly accessed on a smartphone.
Michael Stutts, chief brand officer at Dollar Shave Club, says he recently used the AI to generate state-level breakdowns of brand awareness, net positivity, and other metrics, with heat maps produced almost instantly. “Within seconds I had what would have taken untold amounts of time and resources to do,” he says.
On a call with a retail partner, Stutts was able to immediately answer a question using the AI, eliminating the need to follow up later after internal consultation.
According to Ramlet, the platform continues to improve as AI models grow more powerful. Since its initial release to Morning Consult clients in November 2024, the system has gained the ability to analyze and summarize data in text, thanks to advances in commercial AI.
“All of a sudden, in the last four months, we’ve seen just an entirely different level of capability to do that type of comparative analytical analysis,” Ramlet says.
Currently in public beta testing, the platform is available to anyone. Ramlet envisions a free version will always exist, making Morning Consults insights accessible to students, small businesses, and others without extensive data capabilities. At the same time, the company is developing more advanced AI agents to generate tailored outputs, such as marketing reports or executive briefings.
Just as crucial as the AI, Ramlet says, is Morning Consults proprietary data, which competitors can’t easily replicate.
“You can’t go back in time and collect that data,” he says. “And I think that’s the part of this that’s going to be really compellingAI is going to make it easier to use proprietary data sets than in the past.”
Its been less than a year since the worlds largest dam removal project was completed along 420 miles of the Klamath River, near the border of Oregon and California. But if you look at the river now, you might not know that four dams had ever been in place. Instead of concrete walls and artificial reservoirs, the river is now free-flowingand parts of the former infrastructure have been replaced by wildflowers that are in bloom.
Iron Gate Dam, circa 2023 [Photo: Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images]
Its been an incredible transition, says Ann Willis, California regional director at American Rivers, a nonprofit that supported Native American tribes in a decades-long fight to take out the dams. Its really strange and wonderful to stand on the bridge that goes across the Klamath River and look upstream where Iron Gate Dam used to be. I used to imagine a river above it, and now I see the river.
Construction crews remove the top of the cofferdam that was left of Iron Gate Dam, allowing the Klamath River to run in its original path for the first time in nearly a century near Hornbrook, California, in August 2024. [Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images]
The dams were built between 1918 and 1962 to provide hydropower, and immediately blocked salmon from migrating. Over time, the ecosystem started to collapse. By 1997, coho salmon in the river were listed as endangered. (The river was once the third-largest salmon fishery in the continental U.S.) In 2002, when the federal government diverted water to farms instead of letting it flow downstream in the river, tens of thousands of salmon died. Local tribes like the Yurokwho have lived by the river for at least 10,000 years, and who consider salmon a central and sacred part of their culturestarted the long fight to take out the dams.
Beyond the direct impact on fish, the dams impacted the larger environment as the flow of nutrients down the river stopped. Willis compares dams to a blockage in human arteries that eventually lead to a heart attack. “When you put a dam in a river, there’s an entire living network of things that depends on the flow of the riverthe patterns and relationship of the river and its flow with the land around it,” she says. “When you block it, you start this long process of decline. That’s the bad news. The good news is one of the fastest ways to resuscitate a river and its surrounding ecosystem is to simply remove the dam.”
Copco No. 1 prior to removal [Photo: Daniel Nylen/courtesy American Rivers]
The advocacy was a challenge. But the tribes and environmental groups behind the campaign were helped by the fact that it was ultimately more expensive for the power company to keep the aging dams in place than to get rid of them. The power that the dams provided was also relatively easy to replace, since it made up only 2% of the utility’s power generation. (The utility’s overall plan to meet power needs includes more investment in renewable energy, more energy efficiency, and a small amount of natural gas.)
In 2016, after years of negotiation, the power company transferred the dams to a nonprofit in charge of their removal. In 2022, the federal government greenlit the plan, which had a cost of around $450 million, funded both by California state bond money and by utility customers.
From top: Before the removal of Copco No. 2, and after. [Photos: Shane Anderson/Swiftwater Films/courtesy American Rivers]
The dams were taken out in phases, with the smallest removed in 2023 and the rest last year, all carefully timed to avoid disrupting fish that might try to swim through the area. First, the reservoirs were drained. Then demolition crews blew up larger concrete structures. Dump trucks cleared away rocks, dirt, and sand, returning some of the material to the hillsides it was carved out of decades ago.
The former Copco reservoir site [Photo: Matt Mais/Yurok Tribe]
Plans for restoring plant life started earlier. A crew of primarily Yurok tribe members began collecting seeds from native flowers and trees in 2019. Most of the seeds went to nurseries, where they were grown in fields to produce more flowers and even more seeds. “There were over 2,000 acres that needed revegetation,” says Joshua Chenoweth, an ecologist who worked with the Yurok tribe on the project. “Because it’s so large, you can’t collect enough seed to just throw it back on the landscape.”
[Photo: Matt Mais/Yurok Tribe]
The crew eventually spread billions of seeds using a variety of methods, from hand-planting to using a helicopter in areas where it was too dangerous to walk. Right now, the hills are covered in California poppies and a mix of other plants. “The hand-seeding exceeded my wildest expectations,” Chenoweth says.
[Photo: Matt Mais/Yurok Tribe]
The fish also came back faster than scientists expected. “The dam removal was officially complete on September 30,” says Willis. “The first salmon was detected swimming upstream into that ancestral habitat in three days, which was just shocking. Then, within a month, 6,000 salmon were detected swimming upstream. I don’t think anyone expected this quick of a response at this really large scale.”
Amid polarization, AI disruption, and eroding trust in institutions, retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal argues that what leaders need now more than ever is character. Head of the business consulting firm McChrystal Group, he has written a new book on character, drawing from his decades of experience. From AI ethics and modern warfare to hot-button issues like Signalgate and transgender service in the military, McChrystal explains why character is the foundation of lasting leadership.
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 todays top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode.
I wanted to ask you about the changes that are afoot in the military and the Department of Defense. Some folks champion the idea of change. Some folks make dire predictions. For you, who have worked with military and military leaders for a long time, what’s your perspective about what’s being attempted?
I would say first, if I go to 30,000 feet and look at it from a big distance, change is needed, change is appropriate. And I think it’s going to mean significant change, adoption of new technologies, changing of force structures, all of those kinds of things. All of that is correct. Even firing generals, if it’s necessary, is a good thingif you are firing generals because they don’t have the skills or they don’t have the right personalities. So all of those things, I completely sign up for, and I wouldn’t recognize a lot of sacred cows that would be exempt from hard scrutiny.
Now, having said that, I am not aligned with where the current secretary of defense, how he defines some of the current issues and the direction. He talks about the warrior ethos. But the reality is, what we are trying to do is get the best military we can, and that’s not necessarily the strict warrior ethos, because soldiers are a little different. Soldiers are disciplined. They follow the rule of law. When you think about warrior, it’s got a little bit of a looser definition or interpretation usually.
So that I think is probably a mistake if you start to say, “You can’t have transgender soldiers.” My response would be: One, there aren’t many. And two, if a transgender soldier is really good, we need them. We don’t have that many extra people that are really good that we can afford [to lose]. So I have a much different definition of what a really effective service member might be. I think I do.
And then I also think that if you are judging military leaders on a political ideology, you’re playing with fire. And here’s why. We’ve had this extraordinary couple of centuries of the U.S. military being pretty apolitical, not always perfectly, but generally very apolitical. And although there’s friction between civilian leadership and uniforms, it’s one of the healthiest relationships that you’ve seen on the globe for 200 years.
Once you start to hire and fire senior leaders based upon their political alignment with any particular ideology, you are going to affect younger military leaders. They are going to shape their behavior. They’re smart people. They’ll look up, and they’ll say, “This is what it takes to succeed in this business,” and they will start to represent that behavior. And a decade from now, or two decades from now, we’ll have a very different kind of military, and we won’t like it. It will not be the apolitical, very professional force that I knew and that I think is largely the case today. So I think it’s understanding the danger of that dynamic that is really critical.
The issues around securitythis Signalgate scandal using publicly available tools to communicateis that really a big deal or is that sensationalized?
One, I do think it’s a big deal. I think using Signal, even though it’s encrypted, it’s not secure. And so you are transmitting future plans on an unsecured device, which is extraordinarily dangerous for the men and women who are going to go execute that operation. So I do think that was a big deal. It was almost a reflection of amateurism.
Now, the other side of it bothers me far more. We had the mistake. It comes out. Everybody knows it’s a mistake. They know that the information is extraordinarily sensitive, and they get up in front of cameras, and they say the information was not classified. Now they know that that’s not true. They know that’s a lie. It is classified, and yet they look at the camera, and they say something that maybe most Americans can’t parse the difference. But anybody who’s involved knows that people whose salaries you and I are paying in positions of great responsibility consciously and intentionally don’t tell the truth to you and I. That’s a big problem, and that’s the far greater issue here. We can minimize the event that occurred as a mistake, but we can’t minimize the lack of integrity.
I’m curious how you look at AI’s potential impact on the military, and how do we know if we’re ahead or behind, especially in that competition with China?
Yeah, we’ve never had anything quite like this. The closest analogy in my mind would be nuclear power, atomic weapons, and we got them first during World War II; we won the race to produce nuclear weapons and then used them first. And when other countries followed us and developed their own nuclear weapons, we got this sort of balance.
The problem with artificial intelligence, and I’ve had the opportunity to do some work and a big war game on it, is that if somebody achieves artificial general intelligence before their competitors, theoretically they could then sprint ahead in a way that their competitors almost couldn’t catch up. And you could have a dominant superiority, and we’re not even a hundred percent sure what AI will do on the battlefield. We know it will make a lot of things simpler, faster, easierlogistics, planning, all those thingswhich will make an army more efficient. But as AI starts to do target discernment, autonomous engagement with weapons systems and robotics, we have an incomplete picture. Ukraine’s like a glimpse of the future. We have an incomplete picture of how dominant that will be.
So I don’t think there’s any time except the pursuit of nuclear weapons where this idea of losing the race could mean losing the war. And when you think of AI, you have to blur the lines we had for many years of military power and separate from diplomatic or commercial power. Those things are now so interwoven, because the ability to leverage AI in production and things like that could give a country a decisive advantage that immediately shows itself in the military sphere.
So I think first, two things have to happen. We need to be pursuing those kinds of regulations and understanding around the world that give us some opportunity to put rules and norms in place for AI. But we’re not close to it. But parallel to that, we need to be at breakneck pace trying to develop AI. And those seem i tension, in contradiction, that here we are trying to develop new nuclear weapons and at the same time, we’re trying to set up rules to limit their use. But if we lose, if we don’t get parity with AI, then we’re going to be in a position that’s extraordinarily dangerous. And that’s, again, not going to be the military; it’s going to be this broader national effort.
And the topic of character that you’re so focused and compelled about. Today that applies to AI, too, and how we talk about it, whether it’s commercial uses or military.
Well, I would argue character becomes more important, because the power of the individual is dramatically more than it was even 200 years ago. When we think of the old saying about Samuel Colt, who created the six gun, we say: “God made man; Sam Colt made them equal”and he leveled the playing field for people who weren’t as big and strong, as they could have an effective weapon.
AI is going to do that and give extraordinary power not just to nation states, but to individuals. And so those people who have that extraordinary power, and almost all of us will have some form of it, have the ability to do great good or great evil. And so character, I think, is going to become more essential than ever.
Dr. Drew Ramsey is a board-certified psychiatrist and psychotherapist. He is a leading voice in nutritional psychiatry and integrative mental health. He is a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and the founder of the Brain Food Clinic and Spruce Mental Health. For 20 years, he was an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University. His book Eat to Beat Depression and Anxiety was an international bestseller, and his work has been featured by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Today show, NPR, and other outlets.
Whats the big idea?
The time to start working on positive mental health outcomes should not be when a mental health crisis begins. In a country that has an epidemic of loneliness and rising depression, anxiety, and suicide rates, our society cant afford to put off healthy brain habits until they are part of a treatment plan. Modern ways of life dont naturally promote a happy, healthy mind, so its important to take initiative and proactively nurture your own brain health every day.
Below, Ramsey shares five key insights from his new book, Healing the Modern Brain: Nine Tenets to Build Mental Fitness and Revitalize Your Mind. Listen to the audio versionread by Ramsey himselfin the Next Big Idea app.
1. Seeing mental health as mental fitness
Mental fitness is the habits, knowledge, and patterns that support overall mental health and sound well-being. Shifting from a mental health stance to one of mental fitness is key to healing the modern brain.
Our mental health epidemic is rife with concerning statistics. The rate of teenage depression has increased from 8% to 20%. There is a rise in suicide and overdose. Sixty-one million Americans are diagnosed with depression and anxiety alone.
Getting into a stance of mental fitness asks us to think about mental health differently. Instead of waiting and hoping to never see someone like mewaiting until you have a mental health crisis to addressmental fitness asks us to be proactive. The human brain requires some basics regarding care and feeding, and the modern world is taking a toll on those things. Being active is great for mental health, but 80% of jobs are now sedentary. Quality sleep is absolutely essential for mental health.
Shifting into a mental fitness stance asks us to be preventive about the tenets of a healthy brain. Mental fitness is different from many other programs and ideas because these tenets are very simple. If you look at heavily evidence-backed, agreed-upon healthy practices, youll find things like spending more time in nature. Grounding is one of the tenets, and, in a stance of mental fitness, you try your best to get more nature in your life, from week to week. Many great studies show that getting into nature, for even a little bit, improves and activates the immune system in wonderful ways. Research confirms that nature shifts our brains and calms us down. Change your stance into one of mental fitness by striving to build brain-healthy habits before problems arise.
2. Upgrades to brain science
The latest science in mental and brain health is really hopeful. One major new concept is neuroplasticity, the idea that the brain grows and repairs itself into adult life. I finished medical school in the year 2000. We didnt know about neuroplasticity, but now it is coming to light that there is a molecule that your genes code for called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), and certain activities and foods help you make more BDNF. Its like a brain growth agent. When our brain weakens or declines, its not necessarily permanent. We can turn on and off genes that promote brain growth and repair. We may not have complete control, but we can do much in our everyday choices to improve brain health.
Inflammation is now understood to be at the heart of some depression and anxiety cases.
Another part of upgrading brain science is thinking about inflammation in relation to the brain. Inflammation is a buzzword in science. It is part of our bodys natural and important protection and alarm systems. It is how we defend ourselves from viruses, bacteria, and all sorts of invaders. Inflammation is now understood to be at the heart of some depression and anxiety cases. Its important to start thinking about modern mental health in modern ways.
The last major upgrade to brain science is about the microbiome. Many people never thought that the organisms living in your colon relate to mental health. As it turns out, the gut is the biggest part of our immune system. Eating more plants and fermented foods shifts your microbiome into a healthier state that regulates inflammation. Never before in my career has there been so much great science to support recommending fermented foods to my patients.
3. The first tenet of mental fitness is self-awareness.
I start the nine tenets with self-awareness. In the book, I tell the story of a woman who started drinking a little more during the pandemic. I worked with her and came to appreciate her self-awareness. She started counting drinks, checking in with me about alcohol, and thinking more about the risks of alcohol in her life. That put her on the path to getting control of her drinking.
Self-awareness allows you to better understand how your activities shape the self. It doesnt have to be therapy. Im a big fan of journaling. By writing down thoughts and feelings, putting labels on what were experiencing, research has shown an associated increase in frontal lobe activity. These parts of our brain are involved in executive functioning, decision-making, and getting stuff done. There is brain health value in taking more time and a little more effort to focus on the self. Getting to know and care for yourself in new and different ways is at the heart of healing the modern brain.
4. Feeding mental health
Mental fitness as a concept really hit home for me through my work in nutritional psychiatry. When I was a young doctor training as a psychiatrist at Columbia, it was striking to me as a farm boy that we didnt talk at all about nutrition. We werent trained or encouraged to ask patients what they were eating, but it seemed like a big opportunity. If you have depression and eat a vegetarian diet versus a keto diet versus a junk food diet, all of those dietary patterns impact treatment and provide different opportunities. The SMILES Trial of 2017 showed that when individuals who were in mental health treatments for depression were counseled on a Mediterranean diet, they saved a lot of money and their depression got a lot better. A third of them went into complete remission from their clinical depression. This study is an example of an augmentation strategy with foods, meaning a Mediterranean diet is added on top of treatment.
There is brain health value in taking more time and a little more effort to focus on the self.
Feeding mental health well is a daily opportunity for everyone, not only patients. It can feel overwhelming. There is a lot of fearmongering and misinformation about nutrition; my work helps you cutthrough the noise to simple things like lentils, pesto, wild salmon, anchovies, and white beans. Those are some of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet, meaning they have more nutrients per calorie than other foods, and they also have specific nutrients that we know the brain needsan easy place to get started.
5. Boosting mental fitness
In my time with patients during classic 45-minute sessions, I see how important connections are. The recent surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, noted that we have an epidemic of loneliness and isolation in America. We increasingly see people losing friends, and spending less time socializing and less time going out. Young folks, especially, are growing more isolated. This awareness needs to be turned into action.
In my chapter about connection, I share the story of a middle-aged man I worked with who was post-divorce. He was very connected to his kids, so it was hard for him when they left for college. He enjoyed fantasy football, but was struggling to connect with the real-life elements surrounding the sport. Helping him to engage with other fans and attend games in person was a significant part of his healing.
A web of connections is not just friends and loved ones. It is important to map out all our different types of connections. Its not just the ride-or-die folks in your life: connections to institutions, mentors, mentees, or to meaningful places matter too. This process (great journal entry) can help a person feel connected to themselves and see pathways that can expand their life. You could end up going to the farmers market regularly to connect more with the people who grow your food, or attend a town hall meeting to feel part of your community. The best time to start caring for your brain is before something goes wrong.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Lately, Ive felt weighed down by the constant churn of chaos and uncertaintylike Im carrying a low-grade tension in my body that never fully lets up. The news is dizzying. The pace of change is relentless. Some days it feels like were lurching from one crisis to the next with no time to process, no moment to exhale. I find myself waking up already bracing for what the day might bring. Its like the ground is constantly shifting, and were all being asked to find our footing in real time.
And then there are the quieter, internal questions I carry with methe ones that tug at me in the middle of the night or when Im trying to make sense of the day: Am I doing enough? Am I doing the right things? What happens nextin my work, my community, this fragile world were raising our kids in? How do I protect what I love in a world that feels so unpredictable?
The truth is, uncertainty makes me anxious. I like a plan. A path. A sense of direction. Ive always found comfort in being the one who has it together, who can anticipate needs, offer advice, solve the problem. I used to believe that being preparedbeing in controlwas the answer. That if I could just think far enough ahead, work hard enough, care enough, I could stay one step ahead of the chaos. But that illusion has cracked open. The world is too complex for neat plans.
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1% more curious
The one (only?) good thing about being addicted to reading the headlines is that I get more exposure to other articles as well. A few weeks ago, I read a beautiful essay by Suleika Jaouad about her cancer diagnosis (gift link here). In it, she explores the evolution of her relationship with fearbeginning with an overwhelming unease around mice and culminating in a deeper confrontation with mortality and uncertainty following her leukemia diagnosis and relapse. But what really struck me was the final line:Thats what I found on the other side of fear: the knowledge that I can handle it, whatever it isas long as Im one percent more curious than afraid.”
Asking better questions
Yes! Yes. Curiosity.
Of course.
One of the first things I learned in coach training is that coaching isnt about having the answers. Its about asking better questions. Its about holding space for exploration instead of rushing to resolution. Its about trusting that people have wisdom inside themnot because you give it to them, but because you help them uncover it.
Needless to say, what we can seamlessly apply in other parts of our lives can be hard to internalize ourselves. We might be masters at holding space for others questions, but when it comes to our own, we often default to urgency, control, and the desperate hunt for answers.
But what I continue to learn and relearn is that certainty is often a false promise. It quiets anxiety in the short term, but it doesnt foster growth. Curiosity does. When I stop demanding answers from the world, I create a little more space to breathe, to move, to imagine.
That shift doesnt come easily. Its much more natural to grip tightly than to open up. But embracing curiosity is a practice, not a personality trait or a fixed mindset. And when I can extend to myself the same spacious, open-ended wondering I offer others, something inside softens. I dont need to have it all figured out. I just need to be willing to stay in the unknown a little longer.
Putting it into practice
Here are a few tangible strategies that help me when I feel myself bracing against the unknown:
Ask better questions
When I catch myself spiraling into fear, I try to interrupt the loop with questions that open space instead of closing it. Instead of, “What if this all goes wrong?,” I ask, “What might I learn from this? or Whats one small thing I can act on today? These questions dont have neat answers, but they remind me that I have agency, even in uncertainty.
Name whats true now
Fear tends to time-travel, pulling us into imagined futures. Curiosity helps bring us back to the present. I try to ask myself, What do I know for sure right now? Whats actually happening, and what am I projecting?
Be curious about your fear itself
Sometimes I sit with my fear and ask it questions: What are you trying to protect? Whats underneath this for you? Usually, I find something tendera deeply held value, a longing, a hope. And suddenly, the fear feels less like a threat and more like a signal.
Present in the mess
None of this removes the chaos or quiets the headlines. It doesnt give me a five-year plan or a tidy sense of control. But it does give me a way to stay present in the mess. A way to keep moving, even when the path ahead isnt clear. Curiosity doesnt promise certaintybut it offers something better: connection. To ourselves. To what matters. To each other.
So, these days, when the ground feels unsteady and I start to brace against the unknown, I tryimperfectly, but intentionallyto choose curiosity over control. To soften instead of grip. To ask, instead of answer. Its not always comfortable, but it helps me stay rooted in whats real and responsive to whats next.
And for now, that feels like a good place to begin.
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Social media was mankind’s first run-in with AI, and we failed that test horribly, according to tech ethicist Tristan Harris, whom The Atlantic called “the closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience.” A recent survey found nearly half of Gen Z respondents wished social media had never been invented. Yet, 60% still spend at least four hours daily on these platforms.
Bullying, social anxiety, addiction, polarization, and misinformationsocial media has become a cocktail of disturbing discourse. With GenAI, we have a second chance to ensure technology is used responsibly.
But this is proving difficult. Major AI companies are now adopting collaborative approaches to address governance challenges. Recently, OpenAI announced it would implement Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol, a standard for connecting AI models to data sources that’s rapidly becoming an industry norm with Google following suit.
With any new technology, there are unexpected benefits and consequences. As Harris put it, “whatever our power is as a species, AI amplifies it to an exponential degree.”
While GenAI helps us accomplish more than ever before, dangers exist. A seemingly safe large language model (LLM) can be manipulated by bad actors to create harmful content or be jailbroken to write malicious code. How do we avoid these harmful use cases while benefiting from this powerful technology? Three approaches are possible, each with its own merits and drawbacks.
3 ways to benefit from AI while avoiding harm
Option #1: Government regulation
The automobile brought both convenience and tragedy. We responded with speed limits, seatbelts, and regulationsa process spanning over a century.
Legislators worldwide are attempting similar safeguards with AI. The European Union leads with its AI Act, which entered into force in August 2024. Implementation is phased, with some provisions active since February 2025, banning systems posing “unacceptable risk” like social scoring and untargeted scraping of facial recognition data.
However, these regulations present challenges. European tech leaders worry that punitive EU measures could trigger backlash from the Trump administration. Meanwhile, U.S. regulation develops as a patchwork of state and federal initiatives, with states like Colorado enacting their own comprehensive AI laws.
The EU AI Act’s implementation timeline illustrates this complexity: Some bans started in February 2025, codes of practice follow nine months after entry into force, rules on general-purpose AI at the 12-month mark, while high-risk systems have 36 months to comply.
A real concern exists: Excessive regulation might simply shift development elsewhere. Building a functional LLM model costs only hundreds of millions of dollarswithin reach for many countries.
While regulation has its place, the process is too flawed for developing good rules currently. AI evolves too quickly, and the industry attracts too much investment. Resulting regulations risk either stifling innovation or lacking meaningful impact.
So, if government regulation isnt the panacea for AIs dangers, what will help?
Option #2: Social discourse
Educators are struggling with GenAI and academic honesty. Some want to block AI entirely, while others see opportunities to empower students who struggle with traditional pedagogy.
Imagine having a perpetually available tutor answering any questionbut one that can also complete your assignments. As Satya Nadella put it recently on the Dwarkesh Podcast, his new workflow is to “think with AI and work with my colleagues.” This collaborative approach to AI usage could be a model for educational settings, where AI serves as a thinking partner rather than a replacement for learning.
In homes, schools, online forums, and government, society must reckon with this technology and decide what’s acceptable. Everyone deserves a voice in these conversations. Unfortunately, internet discussions often devolve into trading sound bites without context or nuance.
For meaningful conversations, we must educate ourselves. We need effective channels for public input, perhaps through grassroots movements guiding people toward safe and effective AI usage.
Option #3: Third-party evaluators
Before the 2008 financial crisis, credit rating agencies assigned AAA ratings to subprime mortgages, contributing to economic disaster. The problem? Industry-wide self-interest.
When it comes to AI regulators, of course, we run the risk of an incestuous revolving door that does more harm than good. That doesnt have to be the case.
Meaningful and thoughtful research is going into AI certifications and third-party evaluators. In the paper AI Certification: Advancing Ethical Practice by Reducing, Peter Cihon et al. propose several notions.
First, because AI technology is advancing so quickly, AI certification should emphasize evergreen principles, such as ethics for AI developers.
Second, AI certification today lacks nuance for particular circumstances, geographies, or industries. Not only is certification homogenous, but many programs treat AI as a monolithic technology rather than acknowledging the diverse types, such as facial recognition, LLMs, and anomaly detection.
Finally, to see good results, customers must demand high-quality certifications. They have to be educated about the technology and the associated ethics and safety concerns.
The path forward
The way forward requires multistakeholder, multifaceted conversations about societal goals and preventing AI dangers. If government becomes the default regulator, we risk an uninvestable marketplace or meaningless rubber-stamping.
Independent third-party evaluators combined with informed social discourse offers the best path forward. But we must educate ourselves about this poweful technology’s dangers and realities, or we’ll repeat social media’s errors on a grander scale.
Peter Wang is chief AI and innovation officer at Anaconda.
Navigating the nexus between design innovation and practical application reveals a stark truth: Constraints, not freedoms, often spur the most creative solutions. Our journey into accessible furniture and product design is less about overcoming limitations and more about embracing the profound potential of human-centric design.
Imagine designers not just as creators but as researchers, delving deep into the daily lives of older individuals and people with disabilities through intensive ethnographic research. This approach involves hundreds of hours spent observing diverse populations in their most familiar environmentstheir homes. Here, every interaction and every struggle vividly illuminates the real needs and opportunities for innovation.
Empathy and Design With
In October 2023, our consumer preference testing for the recent Pottery Barn collection marked a pivotal moment. Picture this: Dozens of users, each facing unique challenges, interacting with our prototypes. We observed intently, listened carefully, and learned from every gesturewhether reaching out, hesitating, or expressing relief. Each moment provided invaluable insights, directly shaping the evolution of our designs, from initial feedback to final concepts.
What does it truly mean to design with someone? Collaboration is key. Its a dynamic interplay of give and take, where users lead with their experiences, and designers follow with their skills. This approach isnt just about making do; its about making things better. By transforming our design process into a dialogue rather than a monologue, we ensure our creations are not just useful, but transformative. We call this approach Design With, which means were designing with our target consumers.
Empathy isnt just a buzzword; its our blueprint. Inspired by the real challenges faced by our late founder, Michael Graves, and the broader community, we have embraced immersive empathyspending days in wheelchairs and navigating with canes for extended periodsnot just to imagine but to truly understand the barriers our users face. During the past 20 years, weve also faced our own disabilities, temporary and permanent, which have brought the issues to our own lives. This isn’t about sympathy; it’s about strategy. By actively putting ourselves in the shoes of those we design with, we transform empathy into action. Our commitment to Design With rather than Design For not only meets but anticipates users needs, creating solutions that are as innovative as they are inclusive.
Each solution should mirror human complexity
The future of accessible design is inspiring, and we look forward with purposeinviting designers, brands, and companies to join us. With each project, we edge closer to breaking down barriers, not just in physical spaces, but in perceptions. Our goal is to always craft designs that go beyond accommodation. We strive for solutions that are anticipatory, functional, and beautifulcelebrating the diversity of ability and preference.
In accessible design, the true challenge isnt simply balancing creativity with practicality. Its ensuring every solution reflects the complexity of real human lives. Thats why, for decades, weve grounded our work in ethnographic research and consumer preference testing: spending time in peoples homes, observing daily routines, and turning feedback into meaningful, inclusive products. This isnt theoryits design shaped by lived experience.
Weve seen firsthand how listening deeply and designing with, not for, leads to better outcomes for everyone. The opportunity now is for more designers, brands, and businesses to take part. Ask deeper questions. Watch how people really live. Invite feedback early and often. The more of us who commit to designing with empathy and real-world insight, the more inclusiveand innovativeour shared future will be.
Ben Wintner is CEO of Michael Graves Design.
Ask almost any pediatrician or child expert, and they will tell you: Good nutrition is the foundation for healthy development, especially during the first 1,000 days of a childs life. When children are well-nourished, they are better able to grow, learn, and engage with their communities, and to be resilient in the face of illness.
Undernutrition is linked to nearly half of all deaths in children under five. Today, an estimated 148 million young children are affected by stuntingbeing too short for their age as a result of chronic undernutrition, often starting in the womb. Stunting isnt just about height; it reflects lasting setbacks in brain development, immune strength, and overall healthconsequences that can limit a childs potential for life. Another 45 million children suffer from wasting, a life-threatening condition where they are dangerously thin for their height. There is enough food in the world to feed all children everywhere, and yet, we are still not on track to achieve global nutrition targets by 2030.
We are facing a pivotal moment for the worlds children. Poverty, climate change, and humanitarian crises pose critical challenges to feeding children sustainably. The sheer magnitude of the obstacles can seem overwhelming, but there is incredible news: The child nutrition crisis is completely solvable, if we come together to scale up sustainable solutions.
A core part of UNICEFs work is preventing malnutrition by improving childrens and womens access to nutritious, safe, affordable, and sustainable diets. We know what to do, but we need financing, at the right time, directed at the right places.
A solution aimed at ending child undernutrition
The Child Nutrition Fund (CNF), led by UNICEF, is changing how we tackle child undernutritionby making funding smarter, more coordinated, and built to scale. The CNF unlocks government investment by pooling global resources and expanding access to proven solutions. The ambition is bold: Reach 320 million women and children every year by 2030. To make that happen, the CNF is working to mobilize $2 billion over the next five yearsinviting partners to help drive lasting, system-level change for the worlds most vulnerable children.
The CNF is a massive undertaking that has the potential to change the lives of millions of children and women. With reductions in foreign aid putting more children at risk than ever, innovative partnershipslike the one driving the CNFare even more urgent.
A partnership effort to realize impact
Achieving goals at this scale means involving some of the worlds most influential people and organizations. The support of founding partners such as the Gates Foundation, the Childrens Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FDCO) of the UK government has been critical. For example, the Gates Foundations initial $70 million contribution supported CNFs development and launch, opened conversations for initial deals on scaling up maternal nutrition services,and helped local therapeutic food manufacturers expand production to meet unprecedented demand. Likewise, the respective $79 million and 21 million investments from the CIFF and FDCO to date demonstrate the catalytic nature of the fund and the necessity of partnership to meet its goals.
Momentum for the CNF continued at the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit in Paris in March, where Kirk Humanitarian committed the first pledge of$125 millionto accelerate adoption of prenatal supplements in high burden countries that have demonstrated readiness and political commitment for long-term, sustainable scale up. Kirk Humanitarian has already deployed over $34 million for 16 million bottles of prenatal supplements to the CNF in support of UNICEFs Improving Maternal Nutrition Acceleration Plan. At the same time, the Gates Foundation announced an additional $50 million commitment to the CNF to continue and expand on its work through 2028.
Also at the N4G, Jackie and Mike Bezos committed up to $500 million to the CNF in a landmark effort to end child undernutrition. This historic investment is poised to save millions of livesnot just today, but for generations to come. The matching component of their commitment is intended to inspire others to step up and multiply the impact.
The Womens Tennis Association Foundation has also joined the effort, supporting the CNF through UNICEFs Improving Maternal Nutrition Acceleration Plan to prevent anemia and malnutrition in pregnant women.
These partnerships support the CNFs ability to build robust and sustainable systems and strong infrastructure to create a future where no child suffers from undernutrition.
Promising early results show that it is possible to end undernutrition
These investments are already delivering results. In Pakistan, UNICEF, backed by the CNF, launched a program to bring essential nutrition and health services to the countrys most vulnerable communities.Through the CNF Match Windowwhich enables governments to double their investments in essential nutrition suppliesmore than 150,000 women received nutritional supplements leading to healthier pregnancies and stronger birth outcomes. The results were so compelling that Pakistans Ministry of Health partnered with UNICEF to scale up the program to reach 2 million women.
Weve known for a long time the devastating toll malnutrition has on a childs ability to live a healthy, full life. But with the CNF, what once felt insurmountable now has a clear path forward. By reimagining how we finance solutionsblending public and private investment, sustaining long-term support, and incentivizing government actionwere not just responding to a crisis, were building a system designed to end it. The tools are in place. The momentum is real. And now, theres an opportunity for bold partners to come together and change the future. With the right investments, we will end child undernutritionfor good.
Michele Walsh is executive vice president and chief philanthropy officer of UNICEF USA.
