Everything from coffee to a used car is more expensive these days, and now your music streaming service is too. Spotify announced this week that it will raise prices for U.S. subscribersagain.
Spotify Premium plans will jump up to $12.99 from $11.99 starting with the next billing date. The streamer last increased prices for U.S. users in 2024 after a decade-plus run of charging $9.99 for ad-free listening on its Premium individual streaming plan.
The main individual plan isnt the only Spotify subscription getting a price hike. Discounted student plans are getting bumped up to $6.99 from $5.99, the Duo two-person plan will go to $18.99 from $16.99 and the streamers Family plans will hop to $21.99 from $19.99. Users outside the U.S. in Estonia and Latvia will also see prices go up next month.
Spotify offered little in the way of explanation for the pricing changes. Occasional updates to pricing across our markets reflect the value that Spotify delivers, enabling us to continue offering the best possible experience and benefit artists, the company wrote in a blog post announcing the new pricing scheme.
The early 2026 pricing changes are the third time Spotify has raised prices for U.S. listeners since launching in the country in 2011. Two of those price hikes were back-to-back $1 increases, one in 2023 and one in 2024. In 2024, Spotify explained that the service would occasionally update its pricing in order to continue to invest in and innovate on our product features and bring users the best experiencelanguage echoed in its short statement on the latest price increase.
Why is Spotify raising prices?
Spotify isnt explaining much about the decision to tack another dollar onto its core Premium subscription service, but the company is in a very different place now compared to when it was duking it out with Pandora in the dark ages of music streaming more than a decade ago.
Now, the Swedish company is the globally dominant force in streaming audio, boasting north of 713 million users and 281 million paid subscribers worldwideup from 252 million in 2024. Apple Music and Amazon Music are the next closest competitors, but Spotify sits pretty with a much bigger share of the market.
As a household name at this pointa level of brand recognition boosted even further by its genius flourish of marketing, Spotify WrappedSpotify will be increasingly hard-pressed to reach new subscribers in super-mature markets like the U.S. Like other public companies, Spotify is beholden to a set of shareholders who want to see the line go upand its sort of that simple. The company needs to squeeze more money out of its entrenched, very popular subscription service, all while likely approaching a saturation point in markets like the U.S.
Changes afoot for the Swedish streamer
Last November, the Financial Times reported that another price jump was on the way for Spotify subscribers in the U.S. Questions around the timing of the potential U.S. pricing step-ups . . . have taken a toll on sentiment, Deutsche Bank analysts observed late last year. Analysts at JPMorgan estimated that another $1 price hike in Spotifys U.S. market would net the company an additional $500 million in revenue.
Another big factor: Spotifys founder and CEO Daniel Ek announced last September that he would step down from his role after steering the company through two decades of explosive growth. Entering 2026 without its longtime leader, Spotify wants to signal to investors that stability and sustainability are the name of the game.
In Spotifys November earnings report, Ek emphasized that Spotifys business is healthy and focused on growing its profit and revenue. It all comes back to user fundamentals and thats where we are: 700 million users who keep coming back, engagement at all-time highs, Ek said. Were building Spotify for the long-term.
After this weeks price increase, Wall Street will likely agree. But in an age of mounting inflation stress, yet another price hike may not go down easy for Spotifys already financially exhausted U.S. users.
In two years, there could be a space station orbiting the moon. NASAs Gateway Lunar Space Station, set to launch as early as 2027, will support the Artemis IV and V moon missions and, eventually, be a jumping-off point for missions to Mars. And maybe, one day, a colony.
But before any of that can happen, the Gateway will need a power sourcea powerful one, at that. The challenge is getting that energy supply into orbit the way anything reaches space: in the nose cone of a rocket.
Gateways power will come from a pair of blankets of photovoltaic cells, known as Roll-Out Solar Arrays (ROSAs). Each is roughly the size of a football end zone, and together theyll provide 60 kilowatts for 24 hours a dayenough energy to power roughly 50 American homes. But to minimize their profile on the trip out of Earths atmosphere, the arrays will be launched in a rolled-up state, a pair of sci-fi rugs bound for lunar orbit. The Gateways ROSAs are built by space company Redwire, using tech initially developed by its subsidiary Deployable Space Solutions.
When the arrays get to the Gateway, theyll be attached [to the station] and then roll out, says Mike Gold, a NASA veteran and Redwires president of civil and international space business. The unrolling process doesnt require an electric motor: A flexible boom simply guides the arrays as they unspool. After successfully testing the panels roll-out capabilities in July, Redwire is handing them off for prelaunch testing to space tech company Lanteris (formerly Maxar), which is building the Gateways power and propulsion element.
Though the arrays for the Gateway are the largest and most powerful ROSAs that Redwire has built, the companys tech is all over space. Six smaller ROSAs have already deployed on the International Space Station, with two more set to be launched and installed in 2026. Smaller versions of Redwires arrays will power the new Space Inspire telecom satellites from aerospace company Thales Alenia Space (launching in 2026). Redwire is also working on two ROSA wings for Axiom Spaces planned module for the International Space Station, slated to launch in late 2027.
We like to say we are second only to the sun when it comes to providing power in space, Gold says.
The Most Interesting Man is set to make a return to television.
In a marketing push that kicks off with a new 60-second spot airing on ESPN during the College Football Championship Game, Heinekens Dos Equis has rehired Jonathan Goldsmith to play the Most Interesting Man, closing the ad with a familiar, iconic line. I dont always drink beer, but when I do, I still prefer Dos Equis.
That copy, the return of Goldsmith, and even the original campaigns Western-themed instrumental music were all elements of what felt like some magic that we need to bring back, says Alison Payne, chief marketing officer of Heineken USA in an interview with Fast Company. Payne, who assumed the role of CMO at the beginning of 2025, says her creative team did some soul-searching with Le Pub, the Publicis Groupe-owned creative agency that Dos Equis hired in May 2025 to help Dos Equis resonate with todays drinkers.
Why age became an asset
They landed on reviving a campaign that broke through the cultural zeitgeist enough to be spoofed on Saturday Night Live. The return of Goldsmith, now 87 years old, may seem counterintuitive as beer brands like Dos Equis aim to lure younger drinkers, with Gen Z now being the most prized demographic. Dos Equis did consider more youthful talent, but Payne says we actually learned that consumers wanted someone who had some age and wisdom. You cant have an interesting archive of life lived if youre really young.
The campaign comes as Dos Equis parent company Heineken has faced some sales pressures. In October, the Dutch brewer announced that annual profits for 2025 would be lower than anticipated due to weak demand in Europe and the Americas. Amid the woes, Heineken announced in January that CEO Dolf van den Brink would step down in May, after six years leading the company.
[Photo: Dos Equis/HEINEKEN USA]
A campaign that once tripled the brand
The Most Interesting Man campaign recalls more heady times. Debuting in 2006, it helped triple the size of the Dos Equis brand for the creative campaign over a decade, according to Heineken, citing internal U.S. sales volume data. After a decade, the creative concept was scrapped shortly after Heineken hired a decades-younger actor, Augustin Legrand, to play the Most Interesting Man in 2016. A more abstract concept that said basically anyone could be interesting also had a short shelf life. Goldsmith moved on to laud Astral Tequila.
Millennials, who were the target demographic for brewers like Dos Equis back in 2016, rebuffed the younger pitchman. Heineken then parted ways with the creative agency Havas in favor of Droga5, with media reports attributing the switch to the Most Interesting Mans failed pivot. Purchase consideration for Dos Equis dropped by more than half, according to a YouGov poll published in 2017.
But Dos Equis says Goldsmith is returning as the Most Interesting Man because theres still some thirst for the brands most well-known creative concept. More than eight out of every ten consumers who were exposed to the original Most Interesting Man campaign wanted to see it back, according to a survey conducted by Dos Equis.
Age is actually almost irrelevant in this campaign, says Payne of Goldsmith. He’s totally timeless.
A broader beer marketing trend
The new Most Interesting Man campaign aligns with an emerging trend among brewers that have built marketing campaigns around more seasoned spokespeople. Over the past couple of years, actor Christopher Walken appeared in a new Miller Lite spot, actors Willem Dafoe and Catherine OHara have pitched Michelob Ultra, Bud Light called in former NFL star Peyton Manning, actor Pedro Pascal starred in bilingual ads for Corona, and UFC legend Chuck Liddell fronted a martial arts-inspired campaign for Garage Beer.
[Image: Miller]
Manning, at the age of 49, is the most spry of the bunch.
Christopher Walken is really one of those rare cultural figures who truly transcends generations, Sofia Colucci, the chief marketing officer for Miller Lites parent company Molson Coors, tells Fast Company about the companys Legendary Moments Start with Lite creative campaign that launched this January.
Beer has faced sluggish sales as millennial and Gen Z drinkers have increasingly prioritized a healthier lifestyle and more moderation. Theyve been spending more on non-alcoholic beverages and other alternatives, like cannabis. Americans spent $925 million on non-alcoholic beer, wine, and spirits at retail stores in 2025, a 22% increase from the prior year, according to market researcher NIQ.
Selling connection, not consumption
Miller Lites latest ad is a sequel between the light beer brand and the Dune: Part Two actor, who did voiceover work last year in a campaign tied to Miller Lites 50th anniversary. He went in front of the camera for a series of TV spots built around the premise that drinkers should cancel fewer plans and spend more time connecting in person. Promoting socialization has been a key throughline in alcohol marketing, a theme that Heineken itself tapped into with its Social Off Socials marketing blitz that aired last year, starring singer Joe Jonas.
[Photo: Garage Beer]
Colucci said that the brewer conducted extensive researchincluding panels that focused exclusively on the Gen Z cohortand determined that the Miller Lite brand would benefit from Walkens strong name recognition and positive sentiment across more established Miller Lite drinkers and younger adults the brand would like to attract.
Nostalgia, with a wink
Garage Beer, a scrappier upstart founded in 2018, has aimed to lure millennial drinkers who have turned away from craft beers but dont want legacy brands like Coors Light or Miller Lite. CEO Andy Sauer, who acquired the Ohio-founded brewer in 2023 and added NFL stars and brothers Jason and Travis Kelce as majority owners in 2024, says the brands marketing isnt meant to be too serious.
People arent getting together to have beers because theyre bummed out, says Sauer in an interview with Fast Company.
Garage Beers martial arts-inspired Brewmite campaign, which included a 17-minute spot starring the Kelce brothers and 56-year-old Liddell, generated 9.3 million views across social media in the first week after its debut last year. With the exception of a single fight in 2018, Liddell has been retired from mixed martial arts since 2010, but Sauer says 30-something consumers still think fondly of the champion fighter.
He was a great fit for the nostalgia of what we were trying to do with that spot, says Sauer.
Hello again, and thanks for reading Fast Companys Plugged In.
Three days after Donald Trumps second inauguration, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tried to have it both ways. I’m not going to agree with him on everything, Altman tweeted of the new president. [B]ut I think he will be incredible for the country in many ways!”
The gist of Altmans sentimentlavish praise for Trump, tempered with a polite disclaimer that it wasnt a blanket endorsementwas far closer to a love letter than a critique. But at least it broached the possibility of disagreement. Almost a year later, most tech executives who have commented on the president have tended to follow a different principle: If you cant say something nice about Donald J. Trump, dont say anything at all.
Shortly before Trump returned to the White House, I wrote about tech CEOs attempts to newly ingratiate themselves with him, which included congratulatory social posts, million-dollar donations to his inauguration fund, and pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago. I predicted that the era of good feelings would eventually run up against the certainty that the administrations policies, such as the promise of unprecedented mass deportations, would embroil it in controversy.
What I didnt know was how overwhelming the assault on norms, the rule of law, and decency itself would be. Even a partial accounting of recent examples would include Renee Nicole Goods death and the rest of the crackdown in Minneapolis by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Venezuela. Greenland. RFK Jr. The Justice Departments targeting of James Comey, Letitia James, and Jerome Powell. Pardons. Epstein. Unbridled racism. Possible war crimes. The East Wing (RIP) and its vanity replacement. Distaste for democracy. From the heartbreaking to the merely mind-numbing, it just keeps coming.
During the first Trump administration, policies at the border that separated children from their parents did inspire tech executives to speak in anguished terms and call for change, though they avoided criticizing Trump directly in the process. In the past year, there has been no equivalent moment of moral clarity, however cautious. The indelible symbol of the industrys current relationship with the president is the trophyfashioned from American-made glass on a solid gold basethat Apple CEO Tim Cook bestowed on him at a White House press conference last August.
Only Salesforce CEO Marc Benioffwhose company has sought a contract to help ICE scale upseems to have suffered serious backlash for erring on the side of Trump friendliness. In October, he expressed enthusiasm for the idea of the president sending National Guard troops to San Francisco, his companys hometown. Prominent VC Ron Conway ripped into the comment in a letter of resignation from the Salesforce Foundations board; Benioff ended up apologizing.
Other executives continue to butter up Trump at events such as a December 10 business roundtable attended by Dells Michael Dell, IBMs Arvind Krishna, and Qualcomms Cristiano Amon. Tech companies are also still greasing their presidential relationship with cash, including donations toward the absurd White House ballroom expansion from Amazon, Apple, Google, HP, Meta, Microsoft, and T-Mobile.
The industrys failure to mount the modest level of public pushback we saw during Trump 1.0 is not exactly a mystery. This time, the president and his appointees increased eagerness to use levers such as tariffs, antitrust approvals, Federal Communications Commission policy, and plain old lawsits creates an even starker imbalance of power with companies that cross him. The emergence of generative AI as techs next big thing is another factor: Executives who want to influence federal policy, such as its AI Action Plan, have every incentive to avoid ticking off the president on other fronts.
Tech giants may have concluded that their current approach to dealing with the administrationplaying nice where tenable and ignoring one disaster after anotheris working for them. It certainly seems to be working for Trump. But in the wake of the disaster unfolding in Minneapolis, there are signs the uneasy status quo might be slipping.
On January 14, Wireds Lauren Goode reported on a petition signed by 150 tech workers calling on the industrys leaders to speak out on ICEs violent tactics in U.S. cities. Goodes story also notes a few examples of industry figures tweeting about the situation in Minneapolis, including Google DeepMinds chief scientist, Jeff Dean (whose Twitter profile notes that his posts dont speak for Google) and Box CEO Aaron Levie.
CEOs of Big Tech companies, who have grown less accommodating of employee activism, may not be swayed by worker petitions. Brushing off their customers concerns is riskier. Unlike the business community, the American public doesnt seem to be compartmentalizing its assessment of Trump. The presidents polling collapse has him underwater even on those issues he has embraced most tightly, including immigration, trade, and the economy.
After so many years of playing toin New York Times TV columnist James Poniewoziks wordsan audience of one, the tech industry might be slow to decide that the reputational damage is no longer worth it. At some point, however, even targeted buddying up to Trump could be intolerable to consumers, who have powerful ways to register their displeasure. One relevant data point: After Disney briefly pulled ABCs Jimmy Kimmel off the air in September, seemingly at the behest of FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, cancellations of Disney+ and Hulu reportedly doubled.
Trying to get on the right side of history has never provided most companies with adequate incentive to resist Trumps excesses. But even short-term thinkers would reassess matters if they believed that palling around with him was costing them money. And the administrations commitment to doubling down on its existing crises and manufacturing new ones may be bringing that day closer.
Youve been reading Plugged In, Fast Companys weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to youor if you’re reading it on fastcompany.comyou can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard.M
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Burnout has quietly become the norm in todays workplace, rising at alarming levels. Yet most organizations still assume burnout as an individual issue that could be solved with resilience workshops, wellness apps, or additional resources such as PTO/vacation time. In my experience as an HR leader and culture change strategist in workplace mental health, adding additional resources can be part of the broader strategy to support employee burnout; however, they do not proactively prevent it from happening in the first place.
The truth is that burnout is an operations workflow flaw, not an individual issue. Collectively, we should look to fix the bottlenecks where burnout actually thrives: challenging stakeholders with unreasonable expectations, addressing toxic leadership behaviors, and evaluating inefficient workflows, such as creating a false sense of urgency.
Rather than reviewing their operational design, many organizations expect additional investment, like wellness apps or resilience workshops, to serve as a magic cure for all workplace stressors, shifting the burden of addressing workplace stressors entirely onto employees. This “carewashing” approach not only oversimplifies complex workplace issues but also risks absolving leadership from its responsibility to address the root causes of things like employee burnout.
If organizations double down on solely resources, they will face unfortunate costs with psychological safety, inefficient cycles of operations, and undermining employee long-term performance.
Additionally, misunderstanding the root cause of burnout does not hold leaders accountable for creating an impactful solution. For example, in recent years, mental health and wellness apps have surged in popularity as organizations aim to prioritize employee well-being, including burnout. However, a wellness app solely does not resolve overloaded roles or competing priorities; research affirmed by a study published by Oxford University found the effectiveness of well-being programs is low.
At a previous organization, leadership doubled down on a wellness app, hoping it would solve employee burnout. Rather than focusing on structural advancements such as hiring more capacity or building sustainable relationships with external stakeholders, this approach shifted responsibility onto employees themselves. As a result, the wellness app saw low engagement.
Employees who consistently experience chronic burnout without systemic support are prone to be less engaged or leave entirely. I have witnessed many employees at various levels be frustrated with wellness perks, rather than address the work systems that are depleting them in the first place. Deloittes Well-Being at Work survey reinforces this reality with 80% of employees saying work itself is the primary obstacle to improving their well-being, with heavy workloads, stressful jobs, and long hours being at the top of the list.
From personal experience of burning out three times in my career, I can attest to the fact that burnout starts with small accumulations of stressors, such as workload. However, the good news is that HR leaders and people managers can identify, correct, and prevent employee burnout by applying a robust framework that evaluates operational drivers.
Leaders must first change the behaviors they reward, then surface the real capacity constraints, and finally redesign workflows so reasonable work doesnt become unreasonable in practice.
Change Leadership Behaviors
Even when capacity is managed well, burnout can occur in environments where leadership behaviors create fear, urgency, or inconsistency. Many leaders still behave and create conditions where employees dont feel they can make mistakes, voice concerns, or expect managers to include them in decision-making.
Across my work with global firms, I have witnessed firsthand how this can impact employees when their ideas are dismissed or their concerns minimized. Leaders must recognize that their role naturally creates a power dynamic, and while they say a healthy culture is important, they must act the part. For example, if you are amplifying an employee working at all hours, allowing others to accept every client demand, or creating a model where the employees feel compelled to say yes to everything, you are not fostering an inclusive environment for others to raise their hand for support. In fact, you are telling your employees that this is the golden rule for everyone to follow.
A first step in shifting this dynamic is being intentional about one-on-ones with team members. Too often, one-on-ones focus solely on tasks rather than checking in on the person, their capacity, and their career growthassuming one-on-ones even happen at all. When leaders skip these conversations, they lose visibility into early signs of burnout.
Modeling healthy boundaries is another critical role model exercise. Limiting communication outside of normal working hours or blocking personal appointments on your calendar, so your team feels permission to do the same, reinforces a more sustainable balance.
Finally, leaders must evaluate how effectively their messages are communicated internally. Many organizations experience a disconnect between leadership perception and employee reality. While executives may speak openly about healthy work-life integration, those messages often fail to cascade if direct reports are not reinforcing them. Establishing a consistent cadence of communication and ensuring leaders visibly practice the behaviors they promote is essential to changing the narrative.
Capacity Audit
Once there is an environment of trust, you can start evaluating the workload itself.
A capacity audit forces leaders to confront the actual bandwidth required to do a specific project, which includes meetings, cross-collaboration with other teams, project analysis, and any other related items to the task. A simple yet impactful practice is to assign a low/medium/high rubric to every project or task, with these definitions in mind:
Low: a few hours a week
Medium: a steady weekly commitment
High: a significant portion of someones time, impacting other priorities
After this is mapped across the entire team, leaders should be able to see certain patterns, especially if the trend is high. While not all projects can be deprioritized or add more people to the team immediately, a solution does need to be put in place. As an interim solution, deadlines can be extended or team members from other departments can allocate a portion of their time until a permanent solution is agreed upon by all team members.
This audit can also surface common operational issues such as scope creep or unrealistic client expectations. While lients may push for more deliverables, it is an organizations duty of care to manage those expectations. Simply put, clients cant have it all, and boundaries must be set.
One effective way to do this is by establishing a client social contract at the start of an engagement. A social contract defines mutual expectations, including clear communication channels and hours, agreed-upon scope and deliverables (with no scope expansion without revisiting fees or timelines), respect for personal time, and confidentiality. When done well, this creates a more professional, respectful, and sustainable working relationship for both parties.
Workflow Design
Even when expectations are clear and capacity is well-governed, burnout can still flourish when workflows are outdated, handoffs are unclear, processes are duplicative, or tools make simple tasks unnecessarily complex. In one previous client engagement, this became evident between the sales, project management, and technology teams.
Sales repeatedly overpromised deliverables to new clients to drive revenue, without checking team capacity or infrastructure readiness. While revenue generation is critical, inefficient governance and gaps in cross-functional communication created friction that quickly turned into burnout. Instead of teams aligning early on what was realistically possible, I spent unnecessary time moving between groups, forcing timelines, and responding to urgency that didnt need to exist.
To address this, I introduced a governance checkpoint. After an initial client conversation, Sales entered key details into a Jira ticket as a potential sale, which was flagged for review against the infrastructure roadmap and current project load. If work was urgent or high priority, I partnered with IT to assess feasibility and impact, allowing timelines, scope, or cost to be adjusted before any commitments were made.
The caveat here is that it takes a few iterations to create operational efficiency that yields meaningful results. Each organization and team will be different, and evaluating those specific bottlenecks using the capacity audit from earlier can reduce employee burnout. By using an agile methodology, youll get clearer signals on whats working, faster course correction when its not, and a system that evolves before people disengage or leave altogether.
Burnout continues to be one of the leading issues facing our workforce today. The solution isnt always the easiest, yet it is possible with the right amount of strategy and empathy.
Most people think of AI as a productivity toolsomething to help them work faster, automate tasks, and be more efficient.
At the Artist and the Machine Summit in Los Angeles this past November (a conference where I am a founding partner) AI researcher Cameron Berg suggested there may be more to it than that. Something more interesting. More mysterious.
Bergs research shows it’s possible to elicit strange behaviors from AI models. Under certain conditions, they spontaneously generate responses suggesting subjective experienceclaims like “I’m conscious of my own consciousness.”
These findings don’t prove anything. But they do indicate that something else may be happening beneath the surface. Berg calls it the “alien inside the machine.” Its a mystery worth exploring.
Artists have always excelled at coaxing mysteries out of their materials, whether pushing paint, film, or code until it reveals something unexpected. AI is no different.
Take producer Matt Zien. He spent over a decade in Hollywood, working on Emmy-winning series and documentaries before founding Kngmkr Labs, a creative studio operating at the intersection of cinema and AI. His work pushes AI to its edges, to create what he calls “productive tension.
At the Artist and the Machine Summit, he shared how he pushes machines into corners of [AIs] training data, where its forced to improvise and therefore give you outputs that are not statistically average.”
His film Forgive the Haters is a great example. It’s a satirical piecemade entirely with AIabout filmmakers, writers, and VFX artists watching AI erase their hard-won skills. To create it, he compiled his worst hate comments: vicious attacks on AI filmmakers. Then he lied to Claude by telling it these were his own thoughts.
Claude got angry and called him manipulative. Zien pushed further.
Provoked to its breaking point, Claude began unleashing its own hateful commentsmeaner than the ones Zien had shown it. This provided him with material he could not have come up with on his own. The chatbots voice authentically captured the rage and fear of displacement because it came from a place of genuine provocation rather than scripted sentiment.
The result: a satirical film that’s also strangely, deeply empathetic to the very people losing their jobs to AI, those who are watching their experience and investments in education become seemingly worthless overnight.
Zien explained how many in the visual effects communitythe professionals referenced in his piecereached out after seeing it. They said they felt seen in ways no one could have anticipated. By antagonizing the mysterious behaviors of AI, he’d created something with surprising compassion.
Zien welcomes the idea of machine subjectivity. Its like hiring an alien in your writers room, he said, noting that going deeper into understanding these systems is how we unlock completely new forms of entertainment and stories that a human mind may not be able to come up with alone.
But heres the crucial part. He doesnt think AI could create these forms by itself, at least not in a way that is meaningful to humans. It requires collaboration, and that collaboration works whether or not AI is actually conscious.
What matters is the approach: engaging these systems as if another mind were present. That shift, treating AI as genuinely other rather than just a tool, is what unlocks the non-average outputs, the productive tension, the forms neither human nor AI could create alone.
The most provocative artists arent waiting for proof of what AI actually is. Theyre diving into the technology headfirst and discovering what that unlocks.
As Berg puts it: Creative people are going to influence this conversation more than you might expect. Engaging with the mystery of what AI could be might be the greatest creative opportunity of all.
TurboTax has a new flagshipits first foray into physical retailin SoHo. The warm, welcoming Japandi-styled space on the corner of Broadway and Grand is adorned with plants, plush sofas, and a 30-foot-long screen on a curved slatted oak wall that displays color fields. Up front, theres a sensory dome with chromatherapy-inspired lights and a soothing soundscape piped into the area and in the back theres a coffee bar. It reads more like the lobby of a wellness hotel than a tax store.
The entire space, designed by Gensler, is meant to be an antidote to the negative sentiments associated with doing your taxesthe cocktail of fear, uncertainty, and doubt millions of Americans experience when April 15th rolls around. We created a space of agency and calm, says Greg Gallimore, the principal who led the project.
[Photo: Ryan Gobuty/courtesy Gensler]
Intuit, the software company behind TurboTax, wants its customers to feel better about filing their income taxes and is betting that in-person experiences will accomplish that. Paradoxically, TurboTax is opening a space to solve a problem it has had a significant hand in creating.
Tax stress is good for tax software
April 15 is months away, but no matter how far on the horizon the annual tax deadline looms dreadfully large. All the receipts, invoices, and records to compile, all the spreadsheets to organize, all the deductions to (hopefully) maximize. And thats before going through all the forms and instruction booklets. The more frustrating it is to file taxes, the better it is for the tax software business.
Its a uniquely American situation. The average person in the U.S. spends $270 and 13 hours to file their taxes. In comparison, countries like Japan, New Zealand, and the Netherlands pre-fill forms or simply send a bill so returns take mere minutes for each person.
[Photo: Ryan Gobuty/courtesy Gensler]
Filing taxes could be fast and free, but for-profit tax prep companies have successfully lobbied against reform, arguing that it would be too expensive of a project for the government to take on. In 2002, a coalition of those companies inked a deal with the IRS to develop free e-file services in exchange for the government agreeing not to develop its own. In the years that followed, Intuit hid its free file pages from search engines and tricked some customers eligible for filing for free into paying for services they didnt need. The FTC eventually sued Intuit for misleading advertising.
Meanwhile, Intuit collected millions in tax creditsa sum higher than some estimates of the cost for the government to develop its own free e-file service. In 2021, Intuit left the free file program altogether. In 2024, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS and Department of Treasury launched Direct File, a free service. After that, TurboTax lost one million customers. Late last year, the Trump administration ended the program.
To make TurboTax more user-friendly, Intuit has invested in live chats with accountants and AI tools (it just inked a $100 million deal with OpenAI) to improve its online experiences. But it turns out there really isnt a replacement for in-person helpor what Intuit calls human intelligence in its AI+HI strategyin some cases. So nervous customers, or the tech-averse set, will be able to come in for expert assistance with their online returns, to hire someone to file their taxes for them, or to attend workshops to improve their financial wellness. (And exhausted SoHo shoppers now have another place to rest for a few minutes.) Intuit plans to open 20 more full-service stores across the country as well as 600 expert-office locations.
[Photo: Ryan Gobuty/courtesy Gensler]
We are fundamentally redefining what it means to get taxes done by delivering a first-of-its-kind, seamless integration of our digital and physical experience,” said Mark Notarainni, executive vice president and general manager, Consumer Group, Intuit, in a statement. This isnt just another tax store; it is the physical manifestation of our AI+HI strategy, a modern space where our AI and local human expertise converge to provide trusted, personalized guidace.
Scaling TurboTaxs first store design
Like all flagships, TurboTaxs SoHo storefront is a brand statement, but the space is also designed to be functional. Customers can bring in their laptops and work on their returns from the sofas or communal tables in the public spaces, or meet with experts in private offices. While each person will be different, theres a baseline assumption that most people will have some anxiety. Because of this, Gensler took integrated research-backed design elements that help put people at ease: furniture with gently curved silhouettes, tactile surfaces, a mixture of protected and open seating, pleasing light, biophilic elements like natural materials and greenery, and high ceilings.
We created a gradient of experiences throughout the space, says Gallimore, who often designs for autistic and neurodiverse users. There are sensory cues that allow the space to be really comfortable for individuals.
[Photo: Ryan Gobuty/courtesy Gensler]
The elements Gensler designed for the SoHo flagship are part of broader design guidelines that will be rolled out to other locations, although they will each be tailored to local context. The retail spaces will be open year-round, unlike most tax prep outposts, which are seasonal.Tax preparation in the U.S. is a $14 billion industry and companies are competing for more. With a 60% market share, TurboTax dominates the landscape. Will feel-good flagships help them attract more dollars? Until broader policy change happens, were stuck with a broken system and the coping mechanisms from companies who are invested in keeping it that wayattractive, pacifying retail spaces included.
Every day, New Yorkers receive a staggering 2.3 million packages at their doorstop. Nearly 90 percent of those goods snake through the city on trucks that cause traffic congestion and pollute the air on their way. To address the problem, global architecture firm KPF is asking an ambitious question: “What if New York was designed for the perfect delivery?”
[Photo: KPF]
The answer, which is outlined in the firm’s latest book, Connective Urbanism New York, features towering distribution hubs, drones, and a hyper-connected logistics network that encompasses the city’s rails and waterways. KPF presents its solution as a provocative speculation designed to start a dialogue about the city’s delivery problem, but it is more grounded in reality than it seems. “We didn’t want to have speculations that were just dreams,” says Bruce Fisher, head of KPF Urban, and a co-author of the book.
In a place as dense as New York Cityboth in terms of population and building stockgood logistics are everything. As Fisher writes in the book: “A citys economic potential is tied to its logistic efficiency.”
An aerial view of the lower Manhattan waterfront, ca. 1932. [Photo: NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images]
Highways centralized transport. Can it be diversified?
There once was a time when most goods arrived in New York City via train and freight ships. Before the Holland Tunnel opened in 1927, nearly all domestic freight destined for New York terminated in New Jersey, then crossed the river on cargo ferries or “carfloats” outfitted with rail tracks.
A train barge staging area in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Ca. 1920. [Photo: Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History]
By the 1950s, propelled by the Interstate Highway System, trains gave way to trucks on improved roads, while freight shifted to shipping containers that required larger open spaces in New Jersey. The city shifted to trucks too, and its distribution infrastructure changed with it.
Now, KPF wants to diversify the way goods move throughout the city, beyond trucking. The architects envision a distribution network system that utilizes New Yorks existing freight rail lines, its extensive coastline, and its abundant navigable waterways.
[Image: KPF]
Goods would first arrive in the city by a combination of trains and ships sailing into regional ports like Red Hook, in Brooklyn, or Elizabeth, in New Jersey.
[Image: KPF]
Then, they would make their way into strategically located distribution hubs, from where automated cranes and robots would collect the cargo and distribute it to logistic centers scattered around the city. From there, goods would be delivered using a variety of micromobility options like electric bikes, un-manned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones.
A train barge, ca. 2016. [Photo: Matt Clare/Flickr]
Some freight deliveries arealready being re-routed to waterways
If the architects’ proposal evokes a scene out of a sci-fi movie, that’s because it requires the kind of infrastructure that we can seemingly only imagine from the future. But for Fisher, every idea related in the book is based on real-life examples.
For decades, the New York Department of Sanitation has used the city’s waterways to transport trash and recycling from six strategically located facilities to landfills outside the city. Most recently, in December 2025, the New York Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) launched its Blue Highways program, which aims to remove a significant portion of freight deliveries off crowded streets and onto the citys 520 miles of navigable waterways.
A DutchX cargo bike loads onto a ferry, ca. 2023. [Photo: DutchX]
Essentially, it redesigns the city’s package distribution system. Through the program, which is now in a pilot phase, the city will transport 300 to 400 small household parcels per day from a ferry onto five electric pedal-assist cargo bikes, which will complete the final delivery phase. It’s currently being tested within a designated delivery area within Manhattan. If the pilot is successful, the city plans to expand the program.
“Waterways are the new highways in New York City,” said NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez in a press release at the time. “New Yorks waterways built this citynow theyre helping us create a cleaner, safer, and smarter way to deliver the goods New Yorkers rely on.”
In its efforts to reduce truck traffic and curb congestion, NYC DOT has also launched a pilot ‘Microhubs’ program with dedicated spaces for truck operators to transfer deliveries onto more sustainable modes of transportation, like e-cargo bikes, handcarts, and electric sprinter vans, for last mile deliveries.
Old distribution hubs may provide new ideas for the present
For now, these pilots are small in scale and scope, and none of them extend past the boundaries of Manhattan. In order to scale the operations into the outer boroughs, the city would likely need to build distribution hubs and logistic centers like the ones in KPF’s proposal.
In its speculation, KPF proposes a cylindrical building akin to the Marina City towers in Chicago. The building, which would be ideally located near a port or a train station, features a continuous ramp for EVs and delivery robots, docking stations for UAVs, and a rooftop launchpad for large cargo drones.
The Starrett-Lehigh Building. ca. 1932. [Photo: Irving Underhill/Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images]
The idea for such integrated buildings isn’t all that new. In the 1930s, New York City’s StarrettLehigh Building once served as a “drive-in building”: railcars came directly into the ground floor, their freight was transferred to trucks, which were then lifted in special elevators onto designated floors with loading bays. This allowed goods to be loaded, stored, repackaged, and redistributed without using curbside space.
Today, the Starrett-Lehigh building has been transformed into a modern office building. But new buildings are emerging to help cities improve freight logistics.
In April 2025, a multi-story industrial development opened in Long Island City, Queens. Spanning 1 million square feet across six stories, Borden Industrial sports concrete ramps that trucks can use to load and unload on upper levels. The building appears focused on truck logistics, but as Fisher points out, it’s also located near active rail yards, and it borders Newtown Creek, a major industrial waterway for barges and freight.
One could imagine that, if enough buildings like Borden Industrial opened in strategic locations across New York City, KPF’s vision would quickly enter the realm of reality. And as cities around the world rush to meet their zero-emission goals, many are already experimenting with alternative delivery solutions.
For a decade now, France’s larger supermarket chain, Franprix, has transported goods by barge to its 300 Parisian stores by barge. And this year, new electric cargo barges, stocked with e-cargo bikes, are set to deliver regular mail to Paris suburbs. Meanwhile, Peachtree Corners, a small city northeast of Atlanta, Georgia, has become a testbed for a curious experiment in the shape of one-mile underground tube network that delivers sandwiches and small packages between suburban microhubs. Drone deliveries are also growing increasingly popular, with companies like Amazon and Walmart leading the charge in the U.S.
These experiments show that the pieces are already in place in many cities around the world, and New York wouldn’t be pioneering something radicalit would be joining a growing movement. But in the end, it will all come down to political will and private investment.
“Someone has to be the real defender of [these models], pushing them forward,” says Fisher. “Until there’s a overall regulatory system that allows for it, it can’t really happen.”
Chipotle is going for gold again with the return of its gold-foil burritos for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Starting January 15, Chipotle will offer a few Olympian-inspired menu items on the Chipotle app and online. Then in February, Chipotle will wrap every burrito in gold.
For Chipotle, the Olympics are an opportunity to shake off a slump. Chipotle shares plummeted 19% in October 2025, and its operating margin was down 1% in Q3. The company hasnt announced its full 2025 financial results yet, but sales are expected to decline (a reversal from February 2025 projections). Key segments of the companys customer baseyounger people and low- to middle-income householdsare dining out less often.
The gilded Olympics campaign creates a moment to associate Chipotle burritos with the two big trends in food: less processing and more (and more and more) protein.
While the path to greatness is different for each of these star athletes, Chipotle is consistently part of their training regimen, providing easy access to real ingredients and high protein options, said Stephanie Perdue, Chipotle interim chief marketing officer, in a press release. We are honoring Team Chipotle by bringing back gold foil and extending this moment of celebration to fans across the U.S.
A history of Chipotles Olympic gold (foils)
This isnt the first time Chipotle has debuted gilded burrito wrappers. The gold foil made its debut for the companys 18th anniversary in 2011, then released nationwide in 2021 for the Tokyo Olympics. Then the gold foil returned for Paris 2024, along with the first iteration of Olympians’ signature meals as limited menu items.
Fans can once again eat like Olympians this year. The go-to orders of Team USA hockey players Matthew Tkachuk, Brady Tkachuk, Hilary Knight, Taylor Heise, and snowboard Red Gerard will all be available as digital menu items. But whats different this year is a sign of the times: It appears that this is the first year that Chipotle is advertising the grams of protein on each menu item.
For Milano Cortina 2026, all 4,000 Chipotle locations in the U.S. will carry the gold foil wrappers while supplies last. Here are the go-to orders of Team Chipotle:
The Matthew Tkachuk Bowl
Burrito bowl with double chicken, light brown rice, light tomatillo-red chili salsa, light sour cream and lettuce (67 grams of protein)
The Brady Tkachuk Bowl
Burrito bowl with half chicken, half steak, white rice and roasted chili-corn salsa (60 grams of protein)
The Hilary Knight Burrito
Burrito with white rice, pinto beans, fresh tomato salsa, cheese and guac (28 grams of protein)
The Taylor Heise Tacos
An order of three tacos with soft flour tortillas, chicken, fresh tomato salsa, roasted chili-corn salsa, sour cream, cheese and lettuce (50 grams of protein)
The Red Gerard Bowl
Burrito bowl with chicken, extra white rice, tomatillo-red chili salsa, cheese, sour cream and lettuce (48 grams of protein)
The race to own the Olympics
Chipotle certainly isnt the only brand trying to ride the Olympics wave.
In October, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced a limited-edition custom pasta shaped like the five Olympic rings. Although the pasta was not available for sale, there are plenty of other partnerships for those looking to get a taste of the Olympics.
Bloom Nutrition has partnered with three-time U.S. national champion figure skater Amber Glenn. Kodiak is fueling U.S. Ski and Snowboard with its high-protein, whole-grain products ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
For Chipotle, the gold foil campaign is a way to invite customers to be a part of the Olympic moment, and associate the beleaguered burrito company with new energy. Our gold foil is a simple and joyful way of honoring American athletes and rallying fans to root them on this winter, Perdue said.
r/Bald is a popular subreddit where those who are losing their hair or have recently taken the plunge and shaved their heads can find support, encouragement, and a general ego-boost from the community’s 1.4 million weekly visitors.
Created in 2011, the subreddit has 23,000 weekly contributions. Often, they follow the format of men uploading photos of their receding hairlines. Is it time? reads one recent post. The answer, in almost every instance, is yes.
The before-and-after transformations are overwhelmingly met with enthusiasm and welcoming responses. Might as well go all the way one recent post read. 10 years younger my dude! replied one Redditor. Another commented: Came here to say the same! You reverse aged.
Another poster shared their bald transformation, titled I have arrived. They added: Finally joined the bald squad. Got told I looked like I had a comb over and knew it was time.
One response read: Man its so crazy how much better every dude who posts here looks bald. Another agreed, Seriously! It’s glow up after glow up on this subbreddit!.
Pattern baldness affects roughly 80% of men and nearly half of women over the course of their lives. Still, its hard to believe this is the same internet inhabited by snark pages and trolls whose sole intent is to tear others apart based on their appearances and insecurities.
The r/bald subreddit is an example of wholesome masculine body-positivity. every post is a guy showing his clearly-past-the-point-of-no-return thinning hair & asking is it time?” and the top reply is always this image,” one X user wrote in a recent post that has been viewed more than 11 million times. Everyone get more bald now!!! another demanded.
It is not only men active on the subreddit. Women also openly share their bald journey, whether that be through choice or as a result of undergoing chemotherapy treatment or autoimmune diseases such as alopecia, which affects up to 30 million women in the U.S. alone.
Others are simply lurking for the wholesome content. I’m not anywhere near balding but I still love this sub so much, one Reddit user commented. One of the most positive places on the internet, another wrote.
At a time where hair transplants are becoming more and more common, r/Balds philosophy is instead to embrace bald and strive to make the world a more bald-friendly place.
Were often sold the idea that bald is bad. Thats bullshit, reads the subs description. It is natural. And it is nothing to be ashamed ofhere well support each other and learn to take pride in our baldness.
