Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.
In the summer of 2000, moviegoers flocked to see Gladiator and Mission: Impossible II, Finlands Nokia was the leading maker of cellphones, and American telephone companies Bell Atlantic and GTE completed their $52 billion merger. They changed the entitys name to Verizon Communications.
Im not big on writing about company anniversariesto me they seem like the corporate equivalent of Hallmark holidays. However, as a business journalist in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a big part of my job was to chronicle the regulatory and technological changes that led to the formation of Verizon 25 years ago. Ive interviewed all of Verizons chief executives, going back to its original co-CEOs, Chuck Lee and Ivan Seidenberg. And I wanted to speak to current CEO Hans Vestberg about the state of telecom today and how hes positioning the company for its next 25 years.
Making a big request
For Vestberg, who became CEO in 2018 and led the companys launch of its fast, low-latency 5G wireless technology, that means future-proofing the business by investing in its network. In 2021, Verizon pledged more than $52 billion to acquire wireless airwaves auctioned by the U.S. government. (For context, Verizons annual operating revenue last year was about $135 billion.) Vestberg says the purchase sets the company up to deliver products and services well into the next decades. I promise you, 25 years from now, we are going to be the leading telecom company in this country, he says. To do that, he says, you need spectrum, or radio frequencies for wireless communications.
Vestberg says the board of directors supported his massive spending request. Our board is committed to think long-term, he says. Investors have been less enthusiastic. The companys stock price is about $42 a share, roughly where it was trading in early 2021, when it agreed to buy the spectrumand the company underperformed the broader market in that time frame.
An investment in the future
Vestberg notes that today, phone calls and text messagesthe main applications for wireless phones when Verizon was born 25 years agorepresent about 3% of the networks total usage. Nearly half of the usage is for streaming movies, games, and other digital fare. He says he believes the capacity and design of Verizons network will allow the company to accommodate new technologies that will flow over its airwaves and fiber. Im here to manage the legacy of my predecessors and see that this company continues to be the number one in everything were doing in this market, he says.
Future-proofing your business
How are you future-proofing your company for the next 25 years, and how do you get your board, investors, employees, and others to support your plans? Send me examples of your strategiesId love to share your stories in a future newsletter.
Read more: birthday bashes
LinkedIn turns 20: An oral history of an unlikely champion
50 stories celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing
4 pitfalls to avoid when navigating corporate anniversaries
On a recent flight home to Cincinnati, I found myself in a Wi-Fi pickle.
Delta was offering free in-flight Wi-Fi for all SkyMiles members, but only after logging in through a web page. That created an obstacle for connecting my recently-acquired retro gaming handhelds, which dont have web browsers onboard. With no access to Deltas login site, I couldnt get them online to track my gaming progress.
Quite the first-world problem, but after a bit of searching, I found a solution: Using my Android phones personal hotspot feature, I could relay Deltas Wi-Fi to any nearby device without having to go through a login page. Even with my phone in airplane mode, I was able to set up the hotspot and get my gaming handhelds online.
It turns out that Windows PCs, MacBooks, and many Android phones can share a local Wi-Fi connection this way. I wish Id known about this earlier, because it can be useful in all kinds of scenarios:.
Youre paying for hotel, in-flight, or cruise ship Wi-Fi, but each device connection costs extra.
Youre using a guest Wi-Fi network that limits the total number of devices you can connect.
Youve brought a Fire TV Stick or other streaming device to use in a hotel room, but the guest Wi-Fi network has a login page that your device cant navigate.
In all of these situations, relaying the Wi-Fi connection from a phone or computer provides a workaround. To the network, it just looks like youre connecting one device, but in reality youre distributing it to your other devices as well.
This story first appeared in Advisorator, Jareds weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up for free to get more tips every Tuesday.
A personal hotspot refresher
When you set up a personal hotspot on your phone, it effectively becomes a tiny wireless router, with its own network name and password. You can join this network from your other devices, and theyll use your phones internet connection to get online.
Typically, youd use a personal hotspot to extend your phones cellular connection to laptops, tablets, or other nearby devices when Wi-Fi is unavailable. If your wireless plan supports hotspot use, its a great alternative to device-specific data plans (like those pricey iPad plans the major carriers love to push on unsuspecting customers).
But with the in-flight Wi-Fi pickle I mentioned above, connecting to cellular wasnt an option. My phone was in airplane mode with cellular disabled, and theres no cell reception at 10,000 feet in the air anyway.
Instead, I used the same personal hotspot feature to share Deltas Wi-Fi connection with my gaming device. That allowed me to get online even though that device couldnt log into Deltas network on its own.
Side note: If youve never used your phones personal hotspot feature before, I suggest giving a try:
On iPhones: Head to Settings > Cellular > Personal Hotspot. From here you can turn on the hotspot and look up or change the networks password. (The Wi-Fi network name will be the same as your phones name, set under Settings > General About > Name.)
On Android: Instructions vary by phone, but look for Settings > Network & Internet (or Connections) > Hotspot & Tethering. You can set both the network name and password from this menu.
With personal hotspot turned on, your phone should appear in the Wi-Fi menu on other devices, so you can connect with whatever password you set up.
Just remember that hotspot mode puts a strain on your phones battery, so turn it back off when youre not using it.
Setting up the relay
Wi-Fi sharing is buried inside Samsungs hotspot menu
To relay a Wi-Fi connection, youll need a compatible Android phone, Windows laptop, or MacBook. (Sadly, the hotspot feature on iPhones only works with cellular data; it cant share local Wi-Fi connections.)
To see if your Android phone is compatible, try turning on your personal hotspot and Wi-Fi at the same time. If your phones top status bar shows both the hotspot and Wi-Fi symbols, any devices you connect to the personal hotspot should route through Wi-Fi instead of your cellular network. (You can also test this by turning on Airplane Mode before enabling the hotspot.)
On Samsung phones, you should also head to Settings > Connections > Mobile Hotspot and Tethering, tap on the words Mobile Hotspot, then tap the Password field. Hit the Advanced button at the bottom, then make sure Wi-Fi sharing is turned on.
If you cant use your phone to relay a Wi-Fi connection, try sharing from your laptop instead:
Windows 11: Head to Settings > Network & internet > Mobile hotspot. Set a password under the Properties heading before turning the hotspot on.
MacOS: Head to Apple Menu > System Settings > General > Sharing, then click the i next to Internet Sharing. Turn on the Wi-Fi toggle, set your network name and password, then turn Internet Sharing on.
Wi-Fi sharing in Windows 11
Wi-Fi sharing in MacOS
Just like the personal hotspot feature on phones, your laptop will create a small Wi-Fi network for connecting your devices, and theyll share whatever internet connection the laptop is using.
Keep this in mind next time you run into an overly restrictive guest Wi-Fi network, whether its on dry land or not.
This story first appeared in Advisorator, Jareds weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up for free to get more tips every Tuesday.
CEOs have become more than just corporate leaderstheyre among the most valuable assets on the balance sheet. Great leadership can drive billions in market cap by shaping narratives and galvanizing stakeholders. But what happens when the communication tools they use to build credibility start to erode it?
Were entering a new era in CEO communications, one where human messages increasingly filter through the lens of AI. Analysts and investors have long leaned on AI-powered language models and sentiment analysis to dissect earnings calls, parsing executive tone, word choice, and delivery for signals on strategy, risk, or future performance. Now, CEOs and their teams are flipping the scriptcrafting messages with the help of generative AI to appeal to the very same systems analyzing them.
Its a feedback loop of machines talking to machines. And while the tech arms race might make earnings calls look polished and sentiment scores spike, it also risks creating a sentiment gap. In the end, credibility is still the most valuable currency in leadershipand AI cant replace that.
The CEO Premium Meets the AI Arms Race
Corporate valuation has always been about more than just numbers. Investors have baked intangibles like brand equity, leadership narratives, and cultural impact into their models. As NYU finance professor Aswath Damodaran puts it, valuation is as much about a companys story as it is about spreadsheets.
The CEOs job is to integrate those stories with their strategies. Jensen Huang didnt make Nvidia a trillion-dollar company because of flawless financial executionhe did it by selling a vision of AI as the engine of the future, powering everything from healthcare to climate solutions. Thats the CEO premium in action: the ability to turn a strategic story into market-moving value. But heres what no ones saying out loud: when that story is over-engineered with AI, something critical is lost.
Consider this: Bank of Americas S&P 500 corporate sentiment tracker, based on an analysis of thousands of earnings transcripts, hit an all-time high earlier this year, even as analysts lowered growth expectations for 2025. The disconnect is stark. While executives are optimizing their tone and language to look and sound bullish, its masking underlying realities.
Were looking at a sentiment bubble, where polished communications are designed to impress algorithms but are creating distance from actual performance. The result? A risk to long-term stakeholder confidence and broader market integrity.
The Credibility Gap is Realand Risky
AI-powered communications is an incredible asset. It can help executives sharpen their messages, anticipate audience reactions, and streamline delivery. But when it starts to obscure realityor worse, is used as a veilit risks blowing up the most important thing any CEO has: credibility.
Markets thrive on credibility. Investors place a premium on CEOs who communicate clearly and consistently, and are transparent about their strengths and challenges. When communication becomes engineered for algorithms rather than stakeholders, it creates a hollow effectpolished on the surface, but leaving questions below.
This is more than theoretical. A recent study published in Harvard Business Review found that employees rated CEO messages as less helpful if they thought the message was AI-generatedeven when it wasn’t. Perception alone was enough to damage trust. That finding underscores the growing credibility risk CEOs face when misusing or leaning too heavily on AI.
What CEOs Need to Do Now
So where does this leave us? The CEOs who win in this new reality wont be the ones with the most AI-polished messagingtheyll be the ones who balance technology with authenticity. Heres how:
Speak to Stakeholders, Not Just Algorithms: Say what you mean. Own the hard truths. AI should enhance a message, not sanitize it. AI-generated communications might score well with language models, but stakeholdersinvestors, employees, customersarent grading on polish. Theyre looking for clarity.
Anchor Narratives in Performance: Narratives drive valuation, but theyre meaningless without numbers. If the results are strong, show your math. If theyre weak, explain why. Dont let AI overinflate optimism. Instead, use it to sharpen transparency.
Ensure AI Augments, Not Replaces: AI is great for refining delivery and identifying blind spots, but it cant replace human judgment or instinct. Companies that over-rely on AI-driven clones or sentiment engineering risk losing the real connection that drives stakeholder engagement.
Anticipate the Credibility Pivot: As sentiment inflation continues, markets will inevitably adjust. Investors will begin looking for the next differentiator, pivoting from polished delivery to deeper signals of authenticity. CEOs who lean into direct, unvarnished communication will stand out.
Get Ahead of Whats Coming: The tools analyzing your every word are only getting more advanced. The only sustainable strategy? Consistency. Authenticity. Messages that hold up under scrutinyalgorithmic or human. If your leadership story cant survive deep analysis, it was never leadership to begin with.
The Way Forward: Still a Human Game
AI is reshaping the rules of executive communications, but the most successful leaders will recognize that technology is a supporting actnot the star of the show. At the end of the day, the algorithms dont close deals, inspire employees, or build relationships with customersCEOs do.
In this next chapter of leadership, The CEOs who win wont be the ones scoring highest on sentiment trackers. Theyll be the ones who use AI responsibly, stay grounded in performance, and lead with clarity and authenticity. Because when machines talk past each other, the whole system breaks down.
Credibility is still the most valuable asset a CEO has. And no algorithm can replace that.
For the Los Angeles area neighborhoods devastated by January’s wildfires, rebuilding is a question of how, not if. A new effort involving 40 architecture firms from L.A. and beyond aims to broaden the scope of what that rebuilding looks like.
Case Study 2.0 is a model home design program that is creating a catalog of preapproved and deeply discounted house plans for fire victims in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods. Combining the quality of custom design with the speed and affordability of mass production, the designs are intended to be easily permitted, quick to build, relatively affordable and, just as importantly, beautiful.
Xenia Projects [Image: courtesy Case Study 2.0]
This effort was launched in February by Crest Real Estate, a land-use-consulting and permit-expediting company that works with architects, developers, and municipalities to get development projects approved for construction. Third-generation Angeleno Steven Somers, who founded Crest with his brother, Jason, 13 years ago, says that once the fires broke, he knew the company was obligated to do something to help in the eventual recovery. “We’re in a position where we understand the next steps,” Somers says.
Emre Arolat Architecture [Image: courtesy Case Study 2.0]
To expedite the rebuilding process, Crest recruited 40 top architecture firms from L.A. and beyond to develop more than 50 fire-resilient home designs that can be quickly approved for construction permits. The homes range from Spanish Colonials and compact bungalows to minimalist ranch-style single-story homes and modernist spectacles with sculptural rooflines. Designed to meet the parameters of the eight most common lots in the fire-affected areas, these house plans are contemporary in design but intended to be built in multiples rather than as one-offs.
Tracy Stone [Image: courtesy Case Study 2.0]
The architects have agreed to make their plans available to fire victims for $25 per square foot, which, depending on the firm, is just 25% to 35% of what they’d usually charge for architectural services. And once each design goes through the initial approvals process with either the city or county, it will take less than half the usual amount of time to get any additional build of that design permitted.
“The question we were asking was how do you rebuild 100 years of character over the next five years?” Somers says. “People are really concerned that what gets built back feels like a tract development and doesn’t have the unique variation from lot to lot that made these communities entirely unique.”
Solkatt [Image: courtesy Case Study 2.0]
A historical precedent
This effort was inspired by the postwar-era Case Study House Program, which sought to meet the booming demand for housing in the 1940s and ’50s by commissioning architecture firms to design replicable modern homes for the L.A. region. The resulting houses are now regarded as icons of mid-century modern design, but they didn’t achieve their intended scale.
Stahl House: Case Study House #22 [Photo: kjmagnuson/Flickr]
“Today we have a similarly urgent need for thousands of units of housing to be built. We want that to be done beautifully, just like the first Case Study House Program, but it must be done economically,” Somers says. “That’s where we feel like we’re picking up the baton.”
Grant Kirkpatrick is founding principal of L.A.-based KAA Design, and he worked with Somers as Crest was developing the idea for the Case Study 2.0 program. “As someone who has worked in the hillsides of Los Angeles for over 35 yearsand has seen more than a dozen of our projects lost to fireI feel a deep responsibility to be part of the solution,” Kirkpatrick says. “We see this as an opportunity to help reimagine whats possible after lossnot only to restore homes, but to restore hope.”
Marmol Radziner [Image: courtesy Case Study 2.0]
Somers says the program cuts the cost of rebuilding in several ways. First is the discount on the designs offered by all the participating architects, including Morphosis, Marmol Radziner, and Tighe Architecture. Second is a range of 15% to 30% discounts offered by partner companies on building materials including doors, windows, roof tiles, and exterior cladding. There’s also the reduced overall cost that comes from having plans that are already preapproved.
Morphosis [Image: courtesy Case Study 2.0]
Once the first iteration of a design goes through that four-to-six month permitting process, Somers says each subsequent use of that design should be approved in just two months. And if the same contractor is used to build each iteration of a design, there are likely to be further cost and time savings. “They’re going to start to really create almost an assembly line process,” he says.
Solkatt [Image: courtesy Case Study 2.0]
All this combines to reduce the cost of building a nearly custom contemporary home by 20% to 35%, Somers says. In L.A., that could translate to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The goal, Somers says, is for the houses to be built for between $600 and $800 per square foot. That translates to between $1.2 million and $1.8 million for a 2,000 square foot house, which is more than the $970,000 cost of the average home in the city of L.A., according to Zillow. For the affluent residents of the Pacific Palisades, the cost may be more manageable than for the middle class residents of Altadena.
The homes offered through this program are not the cheapest option on the market, nor are they intended to be. “The real goal here is giving homeowners an option to rebuild something beautiful and that they’re really excited about, but that can cost less than what a typical one-off custom home would cost to build,” Somers says.
The program is still in its early phases, and none of the designs in the catalog has gotten to the point of going up for official city or county approval. But Somers says multiple architects are currently working with clients to pursue rebuilding through the program. “I’m absolutely confident that some of these homes will be built,” he says. “Whether that’s 10 homes or 250 homes remains to be seen.”
Kings Hawaiianthe maker of the sweet, buttery rolls that were a staple in many American childhoodsjust got a fluffy rebrand.
The updated identity, which includes a new wordmark, logo, color palette, and packaging, was executed by the creative agency Mrs&Mr for Kings Hawaiians 75th anniversary. The brand crests this milestone at a tricky time for the grocery industry, as inflation and the rising cost of living continue to dampen consumer spending. Based on a report from the market research firm Circana, bread and rolls sales have declined by around 1% in the past yearbut, in an interview with CNN, Kings Hawaiian chief marketing officer Raouf Moussa shared that the brands sales have actually grown year-over-year despite this overall downturn.
According to Kate and Daniel Wadia, the duo behind Mrs&Mr, the goal of the new look included a careful balance of two priorities: modernizing the brand while also reconnecting its identity with the decades-long heritage thats turned it into an enduring source of nostalgia. To do that, they started by turning to the classic rolls themselves.
[Image: courtesy King’s Hawaiian]
75 years of Hawaiian rolls
Before it became a packaged goods company, Kings Hawaiian was a small local bakery in Hilo, Hawaii, in 1950. Its founder, Robert R. Taira, was the Hawaiian-born son of Japanese immigrants, who ultimately perfected a more shelf-stable version of the Portuguese sweet bread hed enjoyed in his childhoodan invention that would later become Kings Hawaiians iconic packaged Hawaiian rolls. Kings Hawaiians current CEO, Mark Taira, is Roberts grandson. He worked directly with Mrs&Mr to help transform King’s Hawaiian’s branding.
[Photo: courtesy King’s Hawaiian]
[Kings Hawaiian] saw themselves as this heritage brand that really needed to modernize, but also to stay true to its DNA and to its heritage, Daniel says. The impetus for the project was, How do we become relevant to new generations of Kings Hawaiian consumers, while building on our legacy as this iconic brand that’s been around since 1950?
[Photo: courtesy King’s Hawaiian]
To answer that question, Daniel and Kate parsed through archival materials from the brands early days, including original signage, vintage packaging, and old advertisements. And, because Daniel grew up in London and Kate in Australia, they also had to actually try the product for the first time.
Once we experienced the fluffiness, the squidginess, it reminded me of a French briochemy mother’s brioche has that squidginess, Daniel says. We really saw an opportunity for both the crown itself and also the wordmark to reflect the puffiness and the softness of the product. We wanted it to feel as if it had been bakedlike, literally, the logo just came out of the oven.
[Image: courtesy King’s Hawaiian]
Kings Hawaiians former logo, adopted in 2018, included a thin, uppercase serif font, encased in a pointed crown and surrounded by a bursting floral motif. Kate notes that the look had a messy quality, but, more significantly, it also had a very regal, formal feel.
It felt almost a little standoffish,” Kate says. “This product is a family recipe, there’s such love and warmth and humanity that goes into this product, that we wanted it to feel a little bit more approachable.”
[Image: courtesy King’s Hawaiian]
Baking the King’s Hawaiian brand
To give Kings Hawaiian a friendlier feel, Mrs&Mr started by metaphorically baking the brands core assets.
The crown logo, for example, has been given rounded edges and a chunkier feel. And, alongside lettering artist Alec Tear, Daniel and Kate developed a custom wordmark font that looks freshly risen. While the wordmarks font is still a serif, in keeping with the brands history, its now bubbly and weighty. The dots above each i, as well as the letters tails, are shaped to mimic a puffy Haiwaiian roll.
[Image: courtesy King’s Hawaiian]
Crucially, Daniel and Kate decided to keep the brands signature orange packaging, which has come to be strongly visually associated with the brand. To give the identity a brighter feel, though, they lightened the core hue a few shades and kicked up its vibrancy. They also expanded the brands usable color palette to include complementary colors like golden yellow and bright red. In place of the packagings former floral motif, Daniel and Kate opted to add in a more simplified pattern of illustrated hibiscus, monstera, and plumeria plants, all of which are native to Hawaii.
[Image: courtesy King’s Hawaiian]
The result is a versatile branding system thats now been applied across Kings Hawaiians entire portfolio of products, as well as on its website and social media.
It’s an iconic, beloved American brandand it’s something that people are very nostalgic about, Kate says. They sell Kings Hawaiian merch; people wear their T-shirts and hats and socks. So its really exciting, but there’s also a true responsibility when you rebrand these iconic brands that you dont give people design whiplash: it has to be familiar, yet updated.
Every entrepreneur faces challenges on their professional path. Many women, in particular, share experiences of doubt and difficulty in making their voices heard. But rest assured, there are tried-and-true ways to get you past these speed bumps and back onto the right track.
In my two-decade career at Christies auction house, I learned to navigate these dynamics. And when I eventually left to start my own talent agency, I had to use strategies I learned from my time in the male-dominated corporate world to get buy-in from new clients. My ability to speak up in rooms full of men, pitch ideas to them, and feel confident doing so proved to be critical.
The truth is, entrepreneurial life can have a higher barrier to entry for many women. But common obstacles dont need to stop you in your tracks. Here are five hidden roadblocks women should anticipateso you, too, can approach any business challenge confident in your ability to own it.
Decision-makers dont look like you
A common issue women face when they walk into a pitch meeting is a room full of people who dont look like them. As a result, when they start to pitch their product or idea, the people in the room cant relate and the deal falls apart quickly.
But knowing this will likely be the case gives you all the power. Do your research before you walk in the room so that you know exactly who you are going to be pitching tothat way, there are no surprises. Find out as much as possible about everyone who will be in the room so that you can find a natural point of synergy to connect you.
Since youve done the prework, you can ask leading questions that will steer the conversation in the way that you want. Dont hesitate to practice your pitch on friends who might be similar to the people you are about to pitch to, so they can punch holes in your presentation. The more prep work you do, the easier pitch day will be.
Juggling invisible labor
Are you drained at the end of the workday, only to walk in the door at home to find that you are in charge of everything there, too? The second shift is a common trap for working women. And it can stop today.
Have conversations with your partner early and often about dividing invisible work at home. The sooner you get into a rhythm where youre both aware of what it takes to keep a household moving, the less time you will spend arguing about it. Together, list out everything that has to get done around the house, and allocate it according to the things you are good at or like to dountil you get to the tasks neither of you want to do. Tackle those together. You cant do it alone, nor should you.
Limited access to funding
Women have access to less than 3% of venture capital money; its a shocking disparity that bears repeating. So be loud. This statistic will only improve the more we talk about it.
Tell anyone and everyone who needs to hear it that women need more access to capital. If youre a woman seeking VC money, get in touch with organizations like Female Founder Collective or Female Founders Fund, who help connect women with potential investors (and invest as well). Make the issue known, and align yourself with communities working to solve it.
Limited access to networks
My father always says network or diemeaning not that youll die if you dont network, but your network certainly will. Fewer women than men in positions of business leadership means that curating connections is essential. If you find that your network isnt growing, or your world seems small and you need a larger reach, its time to take matters into your own hands.
Organize a breakfast with a friend and ask her to invite six people you dont know. Do the same with your network. Make it meaningful, not just transactional. At the event, let each person talk about their work and life, then ask a question that everyone at the table has to answer.
Artificial timelines
The world of constant updates that we live in can make success seem easyas though if you arent killing it all the time, you arent successful.
If you find yourself scrolling on social media, concerned that everyone else is miles ahead of where you are supposed to be, say this to yourself as often as you need to: I am living life on the timeline I am supposed to be on. Things will happen when they are meant to happen and not before. I am exactly where I need to be. You will arriveroadblocks in your rearview mirror.
Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles is one of the countrys busiest general aviation hubs, as residents nearby can attest. Those who live near the airport say they hear a relentless roar of planes overheadbut none of those flights are commercial. Instead, Van Nuys serves private air travel, and its where celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk store their private jets.
Van Nuys is also the third most polluting private airport in the world, according to a new study from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). Its also just one example of the way private jet use has been growing, particularly in the United States. Of the 20 largest airports for private jet use, 18 are located in the U.S., including Van Nuys, Palm Beach International Airport, and New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport, which is just 12 miles from midtown Manhattan. (The other two top airports for private jets were located in France.)
[Image: ICCT.org]
Private jets come with a huge carbon footprint. One typical private jet emits the same amount of greenhouse gasses per year as 177 cars. And the use of private jets has been increasing. ICCT estimates that private jets produced up to 19.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2023, a 25% increase over the past decadeand equivalent to driving nearly 50 billion miles in an average gas car.
Aviation overall accounts for 2.5% of the worlds emissions. But how you fly can change your personal carbon footprint. On a commercial flight, those spacious business-class seats are responsible for up to five times as many CO2 emissions as seats in economy. That means people who take private jets, which typically have between six and 19 seats, are responsible for an even bigger share of emissions.
[Image: ICCT.org]
Private jet use accounts for about 2% of global aviation emissions. In 2023, global private jet flights collectively emitted more greenhouse gasses than all flights departing from Londons Heathrow Airport, which is the busiest airport in Europe.
Private jet flights also tend to be quick jaunts: less than 900 kilometers, and lasting fewer than two hours. (Short haul flights produce a disproportionate amount of emissions, accounting for about a third of aviations total carbon footprint.)
[Image: ICCT.org]
And most of the private jet flights happen, or at least start in, the U.S. Two-thirds of all private jet flights in the world departed from U.S. airports in 2023, accounting for 55% of all private jet emissions globally. Private jet use here has made headlines multiple times, as people have tracked Taylor Swifts personal plane journeys or the fact that Starbucks CEO Brian Niccols would be using a business jet (a type of private jet) to commute from his home in Newport Beach, California, to the companys headquarters in Seattle.
The U.S. is so flush with private jets that Florida and Texas together were the source of more private jet flights and greenhouse gas emissions than the entire European Union.
When it comes to curbing private jet use, some policymakers have floated the idea of taxing private jet emissions or fuels. In 2023, Congress introduced legislation to raise private jet fuel taxes from $0.22 to $1.95 per gallon, which would essentially be $200 per metric ton of a private jets CO2 emissions. While that proposal didn’t gain much traction, the tax proposal has recently been reintroduced.
Such a tax, the ICCT report estimated, could generate $3 billion annually for decarbonization efforts. Given the slow pace of technological progress, said Dan Rutherford, ICCTs Senior Director of Research, in a statement, its reasonable to charge ultrawealthy travelers more for their pollution.
For some in Hollywood, as Silicon Valleys AI models have become impossible to ignore, its better to have a seat at the table as these new technologies emerge, rather than sitting back and letting the tech titans take full control.
This, at least, is the impetus behind Asteria, the generative AI studio cofounded by the filmmaking couple of Bryn Mooser and Natasha Lyonne, who promote their company as using ethical AI. Lyonne has justified her embrace of the technology by explaining: Its better to get your hands dirty than pretend its not happening. The company has faced some backlash, both because Lyonne (tastelessly, her detractors would argue) claimed the late David Lynch had endorsed AI, and because its flagship model is proprietarymeaning we have no way to verify that it is indeed trained only on licensed material (as Lyonne and co. say it is).
Meanwhile, James Cameron is on Stability AIs board, and has expressed his hope for using AI to make blockbuster filmmaking cheaper. Jason Blums Blumhouse Productions has partnered with Meta for AI testing and chatbots. Lionsgate signed a deal with Runway, an AI startup valued at $3 billion, to let the company train its model on the studios 20,000+ films and TV series; Runway also signed a deal with AMC.
This embrace of AI, though, puts the James Camerons and Natasha Lyonnes of the world at odds with industry peers who are opting to push back on these would-be robot overlords before they take over.
Studios are understandably wary of copyright infringement, especially since generative AI models trained on publicly available data can reproduce intellectual propertyfor example, creating an image of Elsa from Frozen upon request.
That concern is at the heart of several ongoing lawsuits against AI companies, including one from Disney and Universal against Midjourney, which includes dozens of side-by-side pictures comparing the studios own IP to Midjourneys outputs.
Meanwhile, last year Disney formed an Office of Technology Enablement to oversee how the company can responsibly use AI in postproduction and VFX, among other initiatives. This demonstrates the balance Hollywood is trying to strike, with attempts to protect whats theirs while ensuring they are not left behind by these technological developments.
Tensions are running high. Are you on board, or standing in the way? Nuanced decisions being made by studios, producers, investors, and talent right now will determine whether Hollywood will look recognizable in a decade.
Similar tensions have sprung up before in Hollywood. Past introductions of television, cable, streaming, and more have sent shivers down the spines of studios and their labor forces alike. In each instance, when you are fighting for the right to continue running your business, its understandable that you would leave no stone unturned, says Brandon Katz, director of insights and content strategy at Greenlight Analytics.
The issue is finding the right approach, as the use of AI in the creative industries remains deeply contentious and presents a different sort of multitiered threat. As Katz understands it, the studios are trying to preserve as much as they can before the machine takeover, as it seems clear that this technology is inevitable. This means everything from licensing content to train AI, cutting production costs by streamlining visual effects, dubbing and subtitling more efficiently to serve global markets, and flirting with full generative production. It is that final one, of course, that tends to draw the most scrutiny.
We are enduring a painful contraction of the entertainment industry, Katz says, because legacy media doesnt have the same money to play with that they once did, so these companies need to figure out cost-cutting moves. It is unfortunate that the result is not only job cuts but reliance and embracement of technology that might otherwise replace some of the creative human labor force.
With this in mind, Hollywoods unions are unsurprisingly deeply invested in how AI use in the industry develops, and the technology was key to the writers and actors strikes in 2023, when they won protections from nonconsensual cloning of actors and from AI scripts. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, executive director of the Screen Actors GuildAmerican Federation of Television and Radio Artists, tells Fast Company that since then, the industry has largely taken a more cautious approach to the technology. He notes that people think they have a right to their own image, but they donthe should know, since he himself was subject of a deepfake video during the strikes. The union is advocating for the No Fakes Act in Congress, to protect individuals from the misuse of their likeness (some argue the Act could actually do more harm than good). As efforts like Asteria and Runway have emerged, he adds, we want to make sure to talk to every single company that wants to use this technology.
Meanwhile, various courts are regularly issuing (often contradictory) decisions, including a recent win for AI companies in California which ruled that these companies do not violate fair use law when they train their models on copyrighted material. As both the tech itself and the discourse and legislation around it rapidly develops, Crabtree-Ireland recognizes that the union represents vast swaths of performers with different attitudes, as many want to find ways to use AI as a tool, while others (he estimates 10 to 15%) would prefer to prohibit it completely. From the unions perspective, though, what were able to do best is focus on the core principles of informed consent and intended use, so performers not only give their consent but are also told exactly how their likeness or image will be used by the technology.
The bigger question is whether audiences will accept what these companies intend to do with AIand the way these backlashes have played out is not going unnoticed. Crabtree-Ireland says performers have been protected by the uncanny valley for longer than we expected, as even the best models today still look rather unnatura. Nevertheless, itd be irresponsible to keep counting on that, or to assume that audiences wont [start to] respond to it.
Were focused on making the right push, contractually and legally, he adds. We want to be able to channel how this technology is going to be used.
Katz points out that AI is also a boon to the creator economy, and will almost certainly help to further close the gap between professional and amateur productions, as YouTubers like MrBeast have already proved. Can they approximate 50 to 75% of what a Warner Bros. can do for a fraction of the cost? Katz says about how online creators will make use of AI. What kind of bite does that take out of Hollywood?
The only thing that is certain as workers of all kinds struggle to carve out their place in the future of entertainment is how little anyone seems to know.
With more and more people moving to urban areas, there’s an ever-growing need for people who can think at the scale of a city in order to solve problems. Experts in urban design are very much in demand.
Fast Company’s new analysis of job listings across several design disciplines puts a number on it: job postings for urban designers are up 102% compared to the previous year.
This boom may reflect the increasing relevance of the kind of work urban designers do, which is to create functioning communities and regions. Spanning architecture, city planning, landscape architecture, and urban development, urban design takes in the whole picture of a city and looks for ways that interventions at all scales can improve the system.
“It’s really a field of integration,” says Tyler Patrick, chair of the planning and urban design department at Sasaki, a large multidisciplinary design firm. Patrick says that Sasaki has been hiring more and more urban designers every year, and including their input on nearly every project. “It’s a field that continues to add a lot of value.”
Part of rise in demand for urban designers may stem from the fact that the way cities operate is inseparable from the issues of the day. From sustainability to community health to economic development, some of society’s biggest challenges canand perhaps mustbe addressed at the urban level. “Every project we go into we try to understand, How does this fit into the system? How does it change the system?” says Nick Leahy, co-CEO of the design firm Perkins Eastman.
Urban designers are typically trained to use sophisticated data analysis tools, including geographic information systems (GIS) and site planning software like Autodesk Forma. These programs and visualization tools help to quantify the ways design decisions play out at the level of a city system. Leahy says this type of analysis is increasingly critical in projects, whether it’s a 2,000-acre plan in Mumbai or the redevelopment of a key parcel in a city’s downtown.
And there’s plenty of work to do. Kris Krider, chair of the urban design and preservation division of the American Planning Association, says that the rise in urban design job postings is not surprising, especially in the U.S. “We’re looking at a lot of redevelopment within our existing cities and our communities, and it gets complicated pretty quick,” Krider says.
Urban designers, who are skilled in interdisciplinary thinking, are well suited to this messy job, able to weave new elements into the fabric of a living city. “This is not a greenfield site where you can design the perfect town square,” Krider says, using an industry term for undeveloped land. “You’ve got to fix stuff.”
The increased demand is likely to continue, especially given trends in American cities to try to move away from the car-centric planning of the past, and to make even suburban areas more vibrant, walkable, and livable. It would be hard to argue that most communities in the U.S. yet check all those boxes. That’s part of the reason, he says, that this type of designer can expect job security. “Urban designers never run out of work to do because there are so many mistakes to correct.”
This article is part of Fast Companys continuing coverage of where the design jobs are, including this years comprehensive analysis of 170,000 job listings.
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.
Wes Lowe uses so much Claritin that he started an Amazon subscription to avoid running out. His kids take two asthma medications. This reflects the normalcy of pollution in Californias San Joaquin Valley, where residents breathe some of the dirtiest air in the nation.
Lowe lives about 20 miles outside of Fresno, in the valleys heart. More than a dozen highways, including Interstate 5, run through the region, carrying almost half of the states truck traffic. The sky is usually hazy, the air often deemed hazardous, and 1 in 6 children live with asthma. You dont realize how bad it is until you leave, Lowe said.
He understands Californias urgent need to clear the air by electrifying the trucking industry and pushing older, more polluting machinery off the road. That would reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 17.1 tons annually by 2037, significantly reduce the amount of smog-forming ozone,and go a long way toward meeting federal air quality requirements. But as a partner at Kingsburg Truck Center, a dealership in Kingsburg, hes seen how difficult this transition will be.
More than 15 percent of medium- and heavy-duty trucks sold statewide in 2023 were zero-emission. But the road has been bumpy amid growing uncertainty about Californias regulations and the Trump administrations hostility toward electric vehicles, the clean energy transition, and the states climate policies.
The Golden State started its trucking transition in 2021 when it required manufacturers to produce an increasing number of zero-emission big rigs, known as Advanced Clean Trucks, or ACT. The following year, it mandated that private and public fleets buy only those machines by 2036, establishing what are called Advanced Clean Fleets, or ACF.
The Environmental Protection Agency granted the waiver California needed to adopt ACT in 2023. But it had not acted on the exemption required to enforce ACF by the time President Donald Trump took office, prompting the state to rescind its application as a strategic move to keep options on the table, according to the California Air Resources Board.
The U.S. Senate threw the fate of the Advanced Clean Trucks rule into question when it revoked the states EPA waiver on May 22, stripping the state of its ability to mandate the electrification of private fleets, though it can still regulate public ones. Now the one bright side for the states efforts to clean up trucking is the Clean Trucks Partnership, under which several manufacturers have already agreed to produce zero-emission rigs regardless of any federal challenges.
All of this limits Californias ability to ease pollution. The Air Resources Board has said the Advanced Clean Fleet rule would eliminate 5.9 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions in the San Joaquin Valley by 2037. Another rule, the In-Use Locomotive regulation, bans internal combustion trucks more than 23 years old by 2030 and would reduce those emissions by another 11.2 tons. Even with those rules in place, the state would have to cut another 6.3 tons to bring air quality in line with EPA rules.
With the fate of Californias campaign to decarbonize trucking in question, even those who want to see it succeed are wavering. Kingsburg Truck Center started selling battery electric trucks in 2022, but saw customers begin to cancel orders once the state was unable to enforce the Advanced Clean Fleet requirement. Lowe has had to lay off seven people as a result.
We got heavy into the EV side, and when the mandate goes away, Im like, Shit, am I gonna be stuck with all these trucks? Lowe said. If I were to do it all again, Id probably take a lot less risk on the investment that we made into the zero-emission space.
California remains committed to cleaning up trucking. But the transition will require creative policymaking because the Trump administrations hostility to the idea makes it extremely difficult for the state to hit its goal of 100 percent zero-emission truck sales by 2036, said Guillermo Ortiz of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Still, he sees ways the state can make progress. Lawmakers are considering a bill that would give the Air Resources Board authority to regulate ports, rail yards, and warehouses. That would allow regulators to mandate strategies to advance the transition, like requiring facilities to install charging infrastructure. Several state programs underwrite some of the cost of electric trucks, which can cost about $435,000about three times the price of a diesel rig.
Thats not to say California isnt fighting back. It plans to sue the Trump administration to preserve its right to set emissions standards. Losing that will make it impossible to ease the Valleys pollution enough to meet air quality standards, said Craig Segall, a former deputy executive director of the Air Resources Board. Advanced Clean Fleets and Advanced Clean Trucks arise out of some pretty hard math regarding whats true about air pollution in the Central Valley and in California, which is that its always been largely a car and truck problem, he said.
Even if the state loses the ability to regulate vehicle emissions and require electrification, Segall is confident market forces will push the transition forward. As China continues investing in the technology and developing electric big rigs, he said, companies throughout the rest of the world will need to do the same to stay competitive. He also said that trucking companies will see zero-emission trucks as an opportunity to lower maintenance and fueling costs. The Frito Lay factory in the Central Valley city of Modesto has purchased 15 Tesla electric big rigs.
Ultimately, the economic argument for ditching diesels is simply too appealing, said Marissa Campbell, the cofounder of Mitra EV, a Los Angeles company that helps businesses electrify. She said the states decision to table the Advanced Clean Fleets rule hasnt hurt business.
No one likes being told what to do, she said. But when you show a plumber or solar installer how they can save 30 to 50 prcent on fuel and maintenanceand sometimes even moretheyre all ears.
Valerie Thorsen leads the San Joaquin Valley office of CalSTART, a nonprofit that has, since 1992, pushed for cleaner transportation to address pollution and climate change. She sees the Trump administrations recalcitrance as nothing more than a hurdle on the road to an inevitable transition. But any effort to ditch diesels must be accompanied by an aggressive push to build charging infrastructure. You dont want to have vehicles you cant charge or fuel, she said.
The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District won a $56 million federal grant in January 2024, to build two solar-powered EV charging sites along Interstate 5 with 102 chargers specifically for big rigs. About 45 percent of Californias truck traffic passes through the region, which has, over the past 25 years, eased nitrogen oxide emission from stationary sources by more than 90 percent. A majority of the remaining [nitrogen oxide] emissions and smog-forming emissions in the valley come from heavy duty trucks, said Todd DeYoung, director of grants and incentives at the district.
The Trump administration quickly halted grant programs like the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program that would have expanded charging infrastructure. But DeYoung remains confident that construction of the truck chargers will proceed because work started almost immediately. Similar projects are underway in Bakersfield and Kettleman City.
Not everyone is convinced the infrastructure needs to roll out as quickly as the trucks. Ortiz said emphasizing the adoption of the trucks will pressure the market to ensure chargers come online. That sends a signal to charging infrastructure providers, to utilities, saying, These vehicles are coming, and we need to make sure that the infrastructure is there to support it, he said.
That support is crucial. Bill Hall is new to trucking. He spent decades as a marine engineer, but during the pandemic decided to try something new. He runs a one-man operation in Berkeley, California, and as he carried loads around the state he noticed a lot of hydrogen stations. Intrigued, he reached out to truck manufacturer Nikola to ask about its electric hydrogen fuel cell rigs.
His engineering background impressed the startup, which thought hed provide good technical feedback. Hall bought the first truck the company sold in California, augmenting his personal investment of $124,000 with $360,000 he received from a state program in December 2023. Despite a few initial bugs, he enjoyed driving it. As an early adopter, Nikola gave him a deal on hydrogen$5.50 per kilogram, which let him fill up for about $385 and go about 400 miles. I proved that you could actually pretty much take that hydrogen truck to any corner of California with a minimal hydrogen distribution system that they had, Hall said.
But weak sales, poor management, and other woes led Nikola to file for bankruptcy in February. Without its technical support, Hall no longer feels comfortable driving his truck. The companys collapse also meant paying full price for hydrogen, about $33 per kilogram these days. Hall is still paying $1,000 a month for insurance and $225 a month for parking. He says the state shares some of the blame for his predicament because it didnt do enough to support the technology. He would have liked to see it distribute 1,000 hydrogen trucks to establish them and subsidize fuel costs. I did the right thing, which ended up being the wrong thing, he said.
Beyond the obvious climate implications of ditching diesel lie many health benefits. In addition to generating a lot of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide, the transportation sector is responsible for 80 percent of Californias ozone-forming emissions. Theres no question that the transition away from combustion trucks to zero-emission would save lives, prevent asthma attacks, and generate significant, significant public health benefits all around the state, said Will Barrett, senior director for nationwide clean air advocacy with the American Lung Association.
The state has come a long way in the decades since smog blanketed Los Angeles, and the San Joaquin Valley has enjoyed progressively cleaner air over the past 25 years. But people like Luis Mendez Gomez know there is more work to be done, even if the air no longer smells like burning tires. He has lived alongside a busy highway and not far from a refinery outside of Bakersfield for 40 years. It has taken a toll: His wife was hospitalized for lung disease earlier this year, and he knows 10 people who have died from lung cancer.
This pollution has been going on for years, Mendez Gomez said. Nobody had cared before, until now. Were pushing the government and pushing companies to help us.
But just when it looks like things might change, the federal government appears willing to undo that progress, he said. All the ground they gained is going to go away. Benton Graham
This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/transportation/california-rolls-on-with-electric-trucks-despite-trumps-roadblocks/.Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org
