Wholesale Produce Supply, a food supplier based in Minneapolis, has recalled more than two dozen varieties of its fresh cut and processed cantaloupe products due to a risk of contamination with Listeria monocytogenes, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced.
According to a notice posted by the FDA on Monday, September 29, no illnesses have been reported to date, but Listeria has the potential to cause serious infections. Here’s what to know:
Which products are affected by the recall?
Wholesale Produce Supply fresh cut cantaloupe was sold to distributors in Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wisconsin, who may have distributed the product to other states.
The impacted products were sold under two brands: Harvest Cuts and Fresh and Finest. They were distributed to “traditional grocery locations.” The recall notice does not name specific retailers.
Fast Company reached out to Wholesale Produce Supply for additional details and will update this story if we hear back.
Affected products were packed in traditional plastic clamshell containers. Some packages included only cantaloupe, while others featured cantaloupe mixed with other fresh-cut fruits.
The potential Listeria contamination was discovered during routine testing performed by the company, according to the FDA. Wholesale Produce Supply has suspended production and distribution of the affected lot and is investigating the cause of the problem.
The company has recalled the following retail products. You can find the full product descriptions, UPC codes, and lot numbers on the FDA website.
Cantaloupe and Honeydew (12-ounce)
Cantaloupe Chunks (8-ounce)
Cantaloupe Chunks (16-ounce)
Cantaloupe Chunks (6-ounce)
Cantaloupe Chunks F&F (12-ounce)
Cantaloupe Chunks (5-pound)
Cantaloupe Spears (16-ounce)
Fruit Medley (8-ounce)
Fruit Medley F&F (12-ounce)
Fruit Mix (16-ounce)
Fruit Mix (6-ounce)
Fruit Mix CHWG (MCT) (5-pound)
Fruit Salad (16-ounce)
Fruit Salad (6-ounce)
Fruit Tray CHPG w/ Dip HC RND (2-pound)
Fruit Tray w/ Strawberries HC (2-pound)
Fruit Tray w/ Watermelons HC (2.5-pound)
Fruit Tray w/ Watermelons HC (2.5-pound)
Luau Blend Fruit Mix F&F (10-ounce)
Melon Mix (16-ounce)
Melon Mix (6-ounce)
Melon Mix Bowl (48-ounce)
Melon Mix Bowl & Grapes (48-ounce)
Melon Mix CHW (MCT) (5-pound)
Melon Mix Spears (16-ounce)
Consumers should not eat the recalled product
Customers who have purchased affected Harvest Cuts or Fresh and Finest products should not consume them. Rather, return the product to the place of purchase for a full refund.
If you have any questions, contact Wholesale Produce Supply by calling (612) 378-2025.
Some people are more at risk of Listeria infection
Consuming foods contaminated with Listeria can lead to infection, which can be potentially serious and even fatal.
According to the Mayo Clinic, healthy people rarely become very ill from Listeria infection. However, pregnant women, adults 65 and older, and people with weakened immune systems are more at risk for infection.
As reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Listeria infection is “the third leading cause of death from food borne illness in the United States.”
Charlie Javice, the founder of a startup company that promised to revolutionize the way college students apply for financial aid, was sentenced Monday to more than seven years in prison for cheating JPMorgan Chase out of $175 million by greatly exaggerating how many students it served.Javice, 33, was convicted in March of duping the banking giant when it bought her company, called Frank, in the summer of 2021. She made false records that made it seem like Frank had over 4 million customers when it had fewer than 300,000.Addressing the court before she was sentenced, Javice, who was in her mid-20s when she founded the company, said she was “haunted that my failure has transformed something meaningful into something infamous.”Sometimes speaking through tears, she said she “made a choice that I will spend my entire life regretting.”Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein largely dismissed arguments by Javice’s lawyer, Ronald Sullivan, that he should be lenient because the negotiations that led to Frank’s sale pitted “a 28-year-old versus 300 investment bankers from the largest bank in the world.”Still, the judge criticized the bank, saying “they have a lot to blame themselves” after failing to do adequate due diligence. He quickly added, though, that he was “punishing her conduct and not JPMorgan’s stupidity.”Javice was among a number of young tech executives who vaulted to fame with supposedly disruptive or transformative companies, only to see them collapse amid questions about whether they had engaged in puffery and fraud while dealing with investors.Her prosecution drew comparisons to the case against Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of a blood testing company, Theranos, that collapsed amid fraud allegations.Javice, who lives in Florida, has been free on $2 million bail since her 2023 arrest. The judge said she could remain free while she appeals the verdict. She was convicted of conspiracy, bank fraud and wire fraud charges. Her lawyers had argued that JPMorgan went after Javice because it had buyer’s remorse.A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, Javice founded Frank to launch software that promised to simplify the arduous process of filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, a complex government form used by students to apply for aid for college or graduate school.Frank’s backers included venture capitalist Michael Eisenberg. The company said its offering, akin to online tax preparation software, could help students maximize financial aid while making the application process less painful.The company promoted itself as a way for financially needy students to obtain more aid faster, in return for a few hundred dollars in fees. Javice appeared regularly on cable news programs to boost Frank’s profile, once appearing on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list before JPMorgan bought the startup in 2021.Sullivan told Hellerstein that his client was very different from Holmes because what she created actually worked, unlike Holmes, “who did not have a real company” and whose product “in fact endangered patients.” Sullivan said the bank rushed its negotiations because it feared another bank would acquire Frank first.A prosecutor, Micah Fergenson, though, said JPMorgan “didn’t get a functioning business” in exchange for its investment. “They acquired a crime scene.”Fergenson said Javice was driven by greed when she saw that she could pocket $29 million from the sale of her company.“Ms. Javice had it dangling in front of her and she lied to get it,” he said.And in seeking a long prison sentence for Javice, prosecutors cited a 2022 text she had sent to a colleague in which she called it “ridiculous” that Holmes got over 11 years in prison in the Theranos case.Prosecutors added that the message was “desperately needed” because of “an alarming trend of founders and executives of small startup companies engaging in fraud, including making misrepresentations about their companies’ core products or services, in order to make their companies attractive targets for investors and/or buyers.”
Larry Neumeister, Associated Press
Shares of Spotify Technology SA were put on the spot this morning as the Swedish audio-streaming company announced that CEO Daniel Ek will be transitioning out of the role at the end of the year.
He will be replaced by two new co-CEOs: Gustav Söderström, Spotifys current copresident and chief product and technology officer, and Alex Norström, copresident and chief business officer.
Ek will remain with the company and oversee its long-term strategy and capital allocation, and provide guidance in his new role as chairman of the board.
Kicking and streaming
Investors may take some time to absorb the news. Spotify stock, listed in the U.S. and trading on the New York Stock Exchange, was down nearly 4% as of 8:30 a.m. during premarket trading.
However, shares are up almost 6% over the past month and a whopping 60% year-to-date as Spotify has reported consistent user growth and its first full profitable year in 2024.
I always believed that Spotify could play an important role in revolutionizing listening around the world, and with more than 700 million users, weve truly charted a new course bringing creativity to every corner of the globe, Ek said in a company statement.
The CEO also announced his departure on Instagram.
The 42-year-old Ek cofounded Spotify in 2008 and has been with the company ever since, seeing it grow from a small Swedish startup to become the top music streaming platform in the world, with almost 700 million users worldwide along with 276 million subscribers in 180 markets.
More recently, the company has leaned into the burgeoning audiobook segment, rolled out new features like Mix mode, and more.
‘Can’t wait to get started’
With a lot of momentum, Spotifys new CEOs said in a joint statement that theyre confident theyll take the company forward.
Weve worked together a very long time and have seen Spotify through many different chapters,” Söderström and Norström said. “Nearly three years ago, when we stepped into our role as co-Presidents, we charged our teams with relentlessly focusing on building the best and most valuable experience available anywhere and that ambition hasnt changed.”
Shares of Beyond Meat slumped to a record low on Monday after the maker of plant-based meat launched an exchange offer for convertible bonds to cut more than $800 million in debt.
The stock was last down 32.1% at $1.93, after falling as low as $1.23.
The company last month posted a revenue drop and a wider-than-expected loss, citing weak U.S. consumer demand. It said it was still facing “an elevated level of uncertainty” and will not provide any full-year estimates.
Consumer spending has been affected by economic uncertainty and consumer tastes have been shifting in the plant-based meat market.
The company will exchange its $1.15 billion 0% convertible notes due 2027, with up to $202.5 million of new convertible payment-in-kind 7% notes due 2030, along with 326 million shares of its common stock, according to a filing on Monday. Payment-in-kind means Beyond Meat will be able to pay interest with additional debt instead of cash, with the payment-in-kind notes paying interest at a 9.50% annual rate.
The exchange offer is meant to sharply reduce leverage and extend maturity to support Beyond Meat’s long-term vision of being a global plant protein company, President and CEO Ethan Brown said in a statement on Monday.
The filing showed about 47% of holders of the 2027 notes have already agreed to the exchange offer, while other creditors have until October 28 to accept the offer.
Following Beyond Meat’s results, TD Cowen analysts said in an August note that the management and board have recognized the “existential threat facing the business and are taking steps to preserve cash and stabilize sales.”
However, they recommended selling the stock, noting that the company’s fragile financial situation and weak demand for meat alternatives create too much risk.
Of the nine analysts who cover Beyond Meat, three have a “hold” rating on the stock and six have a “sell” or “strong sell” rating, according to LSEG.
Beyond Meat’s stock is down about 50% for the year to date.
Additional reporting by Lance Tupper
Caroline Valetkevitch, Reuters
When the clock strikes midnight tonight, the U.S. government could shut down. If that happens, it will be because Congressional Republicans and Democrats could not reach an agreement on a new funding bill, which is required to keep the government running.
As noted by CBS News, one of the key sticking points between Democrats and Republicans involves healthcare provisions in the proposed bill.
Democrats want provisions in the bill that would help fund healthcare for millions of Americans across the country. They also want restrictions on President Trumps ability to withhold such healthcare funding. Republicans have so far refused to entertain these provisions.
If a deal cant be reached, the federal government will shut down on Wednesday, October 1. The shutdown will impact Americans in different ways, depending on their livelihoods and the services they rely on.
Heres how a government shutdown could affect three large groups of Americans, including Social Security recipients, travelers, and federal workers.
What if I’m a Social Security recipient?
The good news is that if you currently receive Social Security payments, the government shutdown will not stop those payments from being sent to you, reports CBS News. This is no doubt a relief for the 74 million Americans who get Social Security checks every month.
The reason Social Security checks will continue to come is that Social Security spending is mandatory and therefore does not need to be renewed on a yearly basis.
However, some administrative tasks of the Social Security Administration (SSA) could be impacted due to federal workers being furloughed during the shutdown.
This could include benefit verifications, earnings record corrections and updates, overpayments processing, and replacing Medicare cards, Max Richtman, CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare, told CBS News.
Will a government shutdown delay my flight?
If the government does shut down, not all federal employees who work in travel-related positions will be furloughed.
This is because some of these workers are considered essential, so federal law says they must continue workingalbeit without pay in many cases.
Essential federal workers include those who work for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Customs and Border Protection (CPB). It also includes those who work for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), including air traffic controllers, as noted by USA Today.
However, while these workers will continue to perform their roles, it’s possible that if the shutdown continues for a long time, some of them could attempt to strike over a lack of pay. If a strike occurs, it could cause delays at airports.
And then there are the non-essential federal employees who work in travel-related positions, such as those in the National Park Service. Many of these workers will be furloughed, which could lead to the closure of national parks or their understaffing.
How will a government shutdown affect federal workers?
Without a doubt, the most immediate impact of a federal shutdown will be felt by Americans who work for the federal government.
If a shutdown occurs, most federal employees who are considered non-essential workers will be furloughed. During the time they are off work, they will not be paid, which could have devastating financial consequences for them and their families.
A law passed in 2019 states that federal workers who are furloughed during a shutdown have a right to back pay once funding is restored, but that law does nothing to help those workers while the shutdown is in place.
What’s more, things could be worse for federal workers this time around when compared to previous government shutdowns. That’s because the Trump administration has stated that if the government is shut down, federal agencies should prepare to permanently lay off federal workers whose jobs dont align with President Trumps priorities, CNN reports.
If the Trump administration goes through with those plans, it could mean that when some federal workers leave their jobs on Wednesday, if there is a shutdown, they may never return to those roles again.
Will a federal government shutdown happen?
Congress has less than 24 hours to avert a federal government shutdown. And as of the time of this writing, there are no signs that the Republicans and Democrats are close to an agreement to pass the funding needed to avert a shutdown.
If the government shuts down, it will not be unprecedented.
As CBS News notes, government shutdowns have occurred 14 times since 1980. The most recent shutdown was in Trumps first term in 2018-2019, when the federal government shut down for 34 daysthe longest shutdown on record.
Whether the average American who isnt a federal worker feels the immediate impact of any shutdown depends on their situation, but most should experience a limited impact if the shutdown doesnt last long.
As noted above, this is because Social Security checks will continue to arrive, planes will remain in the air, and mail will continue to be delivered (since the United States Postal Service is a self-funded institution).
To see how a shutdown may affect other aspects of life, its worth checking out the various 2025 Federal Government Shutdown FAQs that are being posted by some members of Congress on their websites.
For decades, the baby food aisle has been dominated by big players like Nestlé, which makes Gerber brand products, and Danone, whose brands include Happy Family.
Angela Vranich and Ben Lewishigh school sweethearts turned entrepreneurswanted to change this. Even though they didn’t yet have children, they believed that millennial parents were looking for new sources of food for their growing families. “Millennials had spent their twenties drinking fresh-pressed juices and eating salads,” Vranich says. “When they started having kids, they were looking for food that was more nutritious than what they grew up eating.”
[Photo: Little Spoon]
In 2017, the pair launched their direct-to-consumer startup, Little Spoon. They used their previous experience in the food industry to develop a line of baby food that uses organic, non-GMO ingredients, and abides by EU standards of quality, which are higher than those in the United States. Customers could order products on the brand’s website and have them delivered, saving them regular trips to the grocery store.
According to the company, since that launch Little Spoon has delivered 80 million meals to families across the country, and now feeds more than 3% of babies in the U.S. It has expanded beyond baby food, creating developmentally appropriate food all the way into preschool, including a large selection of products for toddlers that are designed to be nutritious and fun to eat (like nuggets in the shape of spoons to better scoop up sauce!). Little Spoon’s full-plate meals and school lunches have been particularly popular.
[Photo: Little Spoon]
As of September 30, the brand is available at Target locations across the country. The brand’s 23 products will be spread out across five aisles, from fresh baby food in the fridge section to shelf-stable snacks in the grocery section to frozen chicken nuggets in the freezer aisle. Little Spoons redesigned packaging provides more insight into its products nutritional content. “While some parents love getting food delivered, many others prefer shopping in stores,” says Lewis. “As we grow, we want to make sure we’re meeting the needs of all our customers.”
Vranich and Lewis believe that for Little Spoon to scale, its crucial to go beyond the direct-to-consumer model. And they’re not alone.
[Photo: Little Spoon]
Designing for Retail
Little Spoon is among a number of food startups that got their start in the DTC boom of the mid-2010s and are now graduating into grocery stores to reach a broader market and tap into customers shopping habits. In their effort to appeal to millennial consumers whose tastes are different from those of their parents, these innovative companies are beginning to change the food industry (think Brightland and Graza olive oils, Fly by Jing and Brooklyn Delhi sauces, Magic Spoon cereal, and Olipop soda).
All of these brands offer a fresh take on the category, using more nutritious ingredients than their incumbent counterparts. Some have incorporated more protein. Others have focused on more diverse, global flavor profiles.
[Photo: Little Spoon]
Much like Little Spoon, these brands connected with consumers on social media and grew slowly at first, but expanded production as they started to scale. Building a food brand involves complex logistics and extensive quality-control checks. “It’s not just about developing a really compelling product,” Lewis says. “We needed to find factories that we could trust and that would make our food up to our specifications.”
Nearly a decade after the DTC boom, many startups realize that the direct-to-consumer model can only take a brand so far. Only 3% of U.S. shoppers get their food exclusively online; the other 97% shop in a physical store at least monthly. That’s why you can now find Graza and Fly by Jing at Whole Foods, and Daily Harvest, Magic Spoon, and Olipop at Target.
[Photo: Little Spoon]
Hitting a new target
Launching at a major retailer is no small task. While many DTC food brands have grown large customer bases through their e-commerce websites, stocking shelves at a national retail store involves producing at a much larger scale. And for startups, this involves working closely with their network of suppliers and factories. Lewis says revving up Little Spoon for the Target launch involved a substantial increase in production.
“It took us a long time to get our production up to the scale that Target requires,” Lewis says. “We had to work with our existing factories and find new ones so we could deliver trucks and trucks of food to meet Target’s demands.”
Vranich says they also had to rethink the companys packaging for retail. For one thing, many customers will not be familiar with the brand. So to increase brand awareness, Little Spoon made its logo much bigger.
[Photo: Little Spoon]
Then there’s the issue of what’s inside each package. When customers visit the Little Spoon website, they can scroll through images of the food; when a package arrives at their doorstep, its not covered with images of food but rather cartoons that will appeal to kids. For instance, in Little Spoon’s line of toddler school lunches, the website features images of chicken nuggets and sauces, but the exterior packaging has a funny picture of a cartoon nugget wearing sunglasses and getting dunked in sauce. “Shopping for food in store is a very different customer experience than shopping online,” Vranich says.
All of these food startups are still a fraction of the size of the larger incumbents, but their growing popularity is sending a jolt to the food industry, prompting larger players to create similar offerings. For instance, Trader Joe’s has been accused of ripping off startups, creating copycats of Brooklyn Delhi and Fly by Jing sauces. And Little Spoon appears to have prompted other baby food brands to focus on reformulating their products to make them organic and more nutritious.
For Vranich, the key to staying ahead is to continue innovating on every aspect of the product. For example, she says shes very proud of being the only kids brand that makes squeezable yogurt and smoothies in packages with fun ridges on the edges that are both pleasant to look at and easy to hold. Little Spoons food development team also works hard to create fun meals that kids will actually eat, like a “brunch lunch that features little chicken maple sausages, crunchy granola, a zucchini muffin, and an organic smoothie bowl.
“We’re constantly coming up with new products,” Vranich says. “It’s a way to keep our existing customers coming back for more, but it also means we’re ahead of the rest of the market.”
Experts are warning that tariffs on pharmaceuticals are likely to increase shortages of essential medications.
The governments ongoing investigation into the national security implications of importing pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients is widely understood as a precursor to sector-specific tariffs, which a White House advisor has said are likely. On the other hand, the administration recently issued a new executive order laying the groundwork for tariff exemptions for some pharmaceutical products imported from countries that reach trade agreements with the United States.
As a result, manufacturers, pharmacists, doctors and patients are in limbo. Digital health companies that make access to prescription medication simpler are also at risk.
But I already know firsthand what a drug shortage looks like. I am the CEO of Oar Health, a company that helps people struggling with alcohol misuse get access to prescription medication to drink less or quit. And naltrexone, the recommended frontline medication for treating alcohol use disorder, has been in shortage for more than a year.
Heres what Ive learned:
Patients suffer when essential medications are unavailable
Throughout the naltrexone shortage, I have heard from patients who have found medication critical to their recoveries. But instead of celebrating and building upon their progress, they were worried about continuing their treatment.
Retail and mail order pharmacies alike told patients that they could not refill their prescriptions nor provide a reliable estimate of when they would. Patients documented their experience and concern in social media posts.
As someone who took naltrexone for more than five years, I can relate to their unease. When a medication is proving helpful in ones recovery, the last thing a patient should be forced to do is remove that tool from their toolkit.
Beyond alcohol use disorder, direct-to-consumer telehealth companies like Ro, Hims, Nurx, and Cove have increased patient access to safe, effective medications across a broad range of health conditions. But access depends on availability. Tariffs on generic medications could harm patients who rely on everything from anti-depressants to birth control to migraine relievers to erectile dysfunction and hair loss treatments.
The generic drug supply chain is fragile
Americans often assume that generic medications will always be cheaply available from multiple manufacturers and at every pharmacy. This assumption is incorrect.
In the case of naltrexone, a shortage of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient meant that manufacturers had to slash production. Coupled with an increase in demand for the medications used to treat alcohol problems, shortages spread and prices went up.
But input shortages are not the only vulnerability in the supply chain. Manufacturing complexity, quality concerns, and geographic concentration have contributed to an increase in the number and duration of generic drug shortages according to the research organization U.S. Pharmacopeia. 253 drugs are in shortage in 2025 according to the American Society of Health System Pharmacists after reaching an all-time peak of 323 in 2024.
Because generic drug manufacturing, distribution and pharmacy dispensing all have very low profit margins, a cost increase including from tariffs at any point in the supply chain is likely to be disruptive. Facing even marginally higher costs, a manufacturer may decide that producing a generic drug is no longer economical. And, as our experience shows, the industry lacks the redundancy to make up the difference.
Industry can adapt, but not overnight
I am proud to say that we have kept medication in hand for every Oar Health member throughout the shortage. But it has not been easy.
Many of our members worked with us during the most acute phases of the shortage, shifting from shipments of 90 tablets to 30 tablets at a time out of concern for others who needed access to the medication. We also drastically reduced marketing budgets and briefly stopped accepting new patients, meaning that people who could have benefited from treatment did not.
Over time, we have seen API availability improve and manufacturers increase or restart production. But regulatory bottlenecks, manufacturing setup costs, and uncertainty about demand mean that bouncing back after a supply shock is a process measured in months and years, not days or weeks.
More than 18 months after the FDA officially declared a naltrexone shortage and almost two years after patients and pharmacists first began reporting problems, naltrexone remains in shortage.
This is unfortunately common. The average shortage lasts 18 months and can span as much as 15 years. Similarly, industry participants agree that reshoring manufacturing, a potential goal of tariffs, would be timely and costly.
The bottom line
I started Oar Health so that more of the 28 million Americans with alcohol use disorder could get access to safe, effective, FDA-approved medication proven to help them drink less or quit. Our more than 10,000 members and the millions of Americans who rely on essential generic medications are counting on policymakers to remember them.
Remember CDs? Theres a new company betting that, if you dont already, youre about to.
Jewel is a Norwegian company specializing in manufacturing high-end display cases for CDs. The brand recently soft-launched online in Europe and is planning to expand to the U.S. in the coming months. It offers products that range from an $130 freestanding case that fits four CDs to a $300, 16-slot case designed to be mounted directly onto the wall.
Launching a CD-based brand more than 20 years after CDs hit their peak feels like a counterintuitive prospect. After all, how many people even own a CD player these days? But Marius Brandl, Jewels founder, says the brands thesis is simple: Vinyl records have had their renaissance. CDs are next.
[Photo: Jewel]
Are CDs on the rise?
Retro tech and physical media have experienced an undeniable comeback, in part driven by young consumers looking to cut back on social media. Gadgets like iPods (yes, those are considered retro), Game Boys, film cameras, and even pagers have seen a resurgence.
And, as Brandl notes, that applies to the music industry, too. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), vinyl posted its 18th straight year of growth in 2024, generating $1.4 billion in retail revenue, its highest share of physical format revenue since 1984.
Meanwhile, CDs may have fallen out of fashion in the mid-2000s, but theyre not a dead medium. In 2024, the RIAA reports, 33 million CDs were sold in the U.S., up 1.5% from 2023.
[Photo: Jewel]
For some fanbases, theyre becoming a more popular collectors item: Taylor Swift, for example, has a longstanding partnership with Target and tends to sell several versions of her albums in the format, including the upcoming Life of a Showgirl album, which will include three exclusive CDs. Charli XCX also gave the CD an injection of instant cool last summer, when her brat CDs sold out almost instantly.
What’s interesting is the generation born before and after the year 2000, especially in Europe, have really, really been collecting [CDs], Brandl says. My feeling is that CDs will have a comeback.
[Photo: Jewel]
The making of a CD brand in 2025
Brandls idea for Jewela brand name inspired by the plastic jewel case that most CDs come inactually started back in the 90s, when he was in college. Brandl remembers attending a party where he saw a table strewn in CDs, and wondering to himself whether there might be a better way to organize and display them.
[Photo: Jewel]
At the time, Brandls concept of a grid-based display case received lots of positive feedback from his professors, who saw the CD as a promising new medium. He only made it to early development stages, though, before realizing that he couldnt find a way to both display the CDs and open their cases without damaging them, and the idea fizzled out.
[Video: Jewel]
When Brandls close friend convinced him to revive the idea in 2023, Brandl spent more than half a year developing the right blend of rubber to hold each jewel case inside his display prototype. The rubber, which lines two sides of each square-shaped slot,needed enough grip to keep the cases from sliding, but not so much that the cases would break when opened.
The rubber was the biggest challenge, and also how to be able to make it not to be too expensive to produce, Brandl says. He adds that the acrylic, aluminum, and hardware that serve as the backbone of the displays are all premium materials sourced from European manufacturers, which has bumped up the brands price points.
Instead of making it as cheap as possible with cheap materials, we thought, The ones who will buy this are probably the ones who like music so much that they have a nice Hi-Fi system, and they want new design solutions.
Given that Jewel just launched, Brandl says its difficult to measure sales numbers at this stage. From inside his street-level office in Oslo, though, he talks with interested customers every day who stop by to take a closer look at the product.
The people are from eight, nine yearsold to 82 years old,” Brandl says. I think the ones between 17 and 25 show the most interest. And I tell them, Your parents and grandparents and great grandparents listen to LPs. But the CDthat’s your generations physical connection to music.
We know that having friends at work is good for your performance and happiness. But could ChatGPT replace your happy hour bestie?
According to a new study from KPMG that surveyed more than 1,000 professionals, almost all (99%) would be open to the idea of an AI chatbot assuming the role of close friend or trusted companion at work.
That same study teases out a separate, also compelling thread: 45% of workers reported feelings of loneliness at work. Thats a huge jump, up nearly double from last year. On top of that, the survey found that friendship seems to be a big priority for most workerseven over money.
More than half (57%) of those surveyed said they would take a salary 10% below market rate if it meant being able to have close friends at work, as opposed to accepting a salary 10% above market rate and having no close friends at work. (Whether theyd be willing to take a pay cut for a chatbot is another matter.)
Still, it begs the question: Would people settle for Gemini as a close friend at work? The survey results suggest its possible. Plus, compared to “traditional” (read: human) colleagues, AI is always happy to assist, is hyperefficient, and doesnt complain when delegated tasks or when offered criticism.
(Theres also the fact that one in three U.S. employees say they would rather scrub a toilet than ask a human colleague for help.)
From therapists to relationship counselors to romantic partners, AI-powered digital companions are rapidly emerging as alternatives to any number of human relationships. Now AI may well be ready to assume its newest role of work spouse.
This reflects a deeper truth: People are craving connection, Sandy Torchia, vice chair of talent and culture at KPMG, told Fast Company. When something shows up consistently, listens without judgment, and responds in a supportive way, it starts to feel familiareven comforting.
We already know that having a work bestie or office ally isnt just good for happiness, its good for productivity and performance. Employees in the KPMG survey said that having workplace friendships increases their motivation to go above and beyond their job description. But right now, we have zero idea whether any of these benefits transfer to a human-chatbot work friendship.
What we do know is that the worker value on friendship is growing; 87% of employees consider work friendships “very important. And the youngest workers value workplace friendships more than their older counterparts: 90% of Gen Zers surveyed said those friendships are very important, compared to 77% of boomers.
The trend is playing out alongside an increase in public familiarity and comfort with AI tools. In the past couple of years, the share of U.S. employees who say they have used AI in their role a few times a year or more has nearly doubled, from 21% to 40%, according to a Gallup survey in June. While this is predominantly for work-related tasks, chatting with AI can also reduce stress, anxiety, and loneliness for some users, according to a 2023 study published in The Journal of Medical Internet Research.
Of course, correlation doesnt mean causation when it comes to chatbots being used more as stand-ins for human friends at work. But even if employees dont want AI to step into the role of friend, almost all surveyed in the KPMG report said they would like to use AI to aid their friendships in some capacity; 98% said they would like AI systems to connect them with coworkers based on shared interests.
Its still early days in terms of widespread chatbot adoption, so who knows what will happen. For now, dont count on a bot to fully replace your gossip buddy by the watercooler.
AI can mimic aspects of friendship; it cant replace the depth, nuance, and emotional resonance of human relationships, Torchia says. Thats where employers have a real opportunityto engineer environments where authentic connection can thrive.
More than a month after the Trump administration forced a nearly complete wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut to stop constructioncosting the developers more than $2 million per daythe project just resumed work.
On August 22, the government issued a stop-work order for the Revolution Wind project, which is designed to power 350,000 homes. It cited unspecified national security concerns despite years of review by federal agencies including the Department of Defense. Hundreds of workers were left idle. On September 22, a federal judge granted the developers a preliminary injunction to allow construction to continue. Judge Royce Lamberth, appointed to the U.S. District Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, said that the Trump administration’s arguments were “the height of arbitrary and capricious,” and noted that if construction didn’t begin immediately, the project was at risk of failing completely.
But the project, which is 80% done, still faces some risks. And the governments attack makes it less likely for other offshore wind projects to be builteven after Trump is out of office.
The Trump administration could still challenge the project
The government has 60 days to file an appeal. That may not happen: Its possible that the administration could give up. The courts opinion is right on in terms of the utter illegality of what the government was attempting to do here, says Kate Sinding Daly, senior vice president for law and policy at the Conservation Law Foundation. So it may be that they just decide to take the loss. But they might appeal, and if they do, the developer has to weigh that risk against the urgency of getting this project completed.
One industry legal expert told Fast Company that even within the administration, some Interior Department staff want to focus on other thingslike building more oil and gas projects or a $625 million plan to “rescue coal”rather than trying to kill the offshore wind industry, especially at a time when the president argues that theres an energy emergency.
Still, Trump may want to appeal. The administration has what weve described as a retaliatory posture towards offshore wind, says Timothy Fox, managing director at the research firm ClearView Energy Partners. To the extent that it doesnt like losing, they may try to look for any avenue or any lever they can pull to try to stop this project.”
It’s different from the Empire Wind project in New York (which the administration also tried to stop but then let proceed after New York’s governor reportedly made a backroom deal with Trump to allow an unpopular gas pipeline to also move forward in the state). There, Trump can point to getting something in return. In the case of Revolution Wind, the administration clearly lost, and may want to keep fighting.
What are the odds of an appeal?
An appeal is unlikely to succeed. The government would have to argue that there was a clear reason to stop the project, something that the first judge found that it had failed to do. But “who’s on the bench hearing the appeal is incredibly important,” says Mark James, a professor at Vermont Law and Graduate School. The case shouldn’t win on the merits, experts say, but judges sympathetic to Trump might find creative ways to interpret the law. (That could also be true if the case reaches the Supreme Court, though its more likely that the Court would decline to hear the case; it chose not to hear a case about the neighboring Vineyard Wind project.)
Agencies took a long time to carefully review the project, like other wind projects, before the permits were issued in the first place. “Part of the reason offshore wind projects have, to date, overcome judicial challenges was because the Biden administration knew that these projects would be challenged in court,” Fox says. “They didnt want to move fast in the short term just to lose on the back end. So they took their time issuing permits that could withstand judicial review.”
Sinding Daly adds, What I would say is that in normal times, it’s probably pretty low risk to go forward [with construction] because of the speciousness of the lawsuit. But we’re not in normal times, clearly. And so it’s very hard to make predictions.”
In theory, the government could also try to find a new reason to stop work on the project, though that would go back to the first judge and almost certainly be shot down. The administration can also carefully monitor construction to look for any potential compliance issues that would allow it to temporarily stop or slow the project again.
Construction is racing forward
As the threat from the government continues, workers are racing forward on the wind farm. In total, the project will include 65 massive wind turbines that will power homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Forty-five turbines are in place now. Installing the remaining 20 will take around three months. Crews also have to finish installing cables and connecting the power. Testing everything will take more time.
It’s not clear how much can be finished before winter weather pauses the work. There could be other challenges, including whether specialized vessels that the developers need to lease for construction will still be available as long as the company needs them. Revolution Wind declined to comment on how much the delay over the past month has changed the overall timeline for the project.
It may still be possible that it could finish next year, as planned, barring further legal delays. Once complete, since all of the federal permits were already issued, the project should be safe to begin sending power to shore.
A chilling effect on offshore wind
The government is still trying to revoke its approval of multiple other offshore wind projects, including SouthCoast Wind, a giant development near Massachusetts, and the Maryland Offshore Wind Project. Other projects are facing lawsuits that the federal government is declining to fight.
The industry is also facing rising costs. It’s extremely unlikely that any new projects will start during the Trump administration. But it’s also becoming less viable for projects to move forward afterward. States like Massachusetts have told utilities they need to invest in offshore wind. But that won’t work without federal support as well.
“I think this administration is purposely trying to scare away the industry even after they leave office,” says Fox. “A future administration may support the industryeven to the extent that the Biden administration didbut developers and financiers may be wary of investing in a capital-intensive sector with a long lead time that faces such demonstrable election risk. To put it more simply, can yo plan a project and get it online all within a four-year period of an administration that says they like offshore wind, before the next Trump 3.0?”
It could set a precedent beyond just the offshore wind industry. A future climate-focused president could decide to revoke existing permits for gas projects, for example. “A future administration could say, ‘Okay, let’s use this growing executive power to stop projects that we don’t like. Even if a court ultimately strikes down that action, like you’ve seen with Revolution Wind, it just injects so much uncertainty and risk, Fox says, adding, “We’re hearing from some of our clients that this is among the most difficult times to invest in the energy sector, which is ironic, given the growing power demand. The political uncertainty is growing.”
