Conflict management is one of the most critical leadership skills today, yet many leaders are struggling to get it right. Companies are implementing return-to-office mandates; shifting stances on diversity, equity, and inclusion; and dealing with climate change and an uncertain economy. All of these factors put pressure on businesses and the people who work for them. Over 80% of workers report escalated tensions in the workplace, and 90% of workers say they have witnessed political clashes between coworkers.
Employees are feeling uncomfortable because they are unsure how they fit into company goals, or dont feel clear about where the company is headed. This tension leads to conflict, and its up to the leaders to manage the situation.
When we teach conflict management, there are several classic models and approaches. Some call for weighing goal achievement versus relationship orientation, while others look to balance assertion versus cooperation. In all scenarios, there is an underlying assumption: Leaders foster the climate that determines whether employees will engage in collegial discourse. In other words, people who disagree should be comfortable advocating for their position while listening to others points of view. While this notion works well in theory, the practical manager knows this is not always the case.
In recent years, hybrid work has made free-flowing communication opportunities and seeing things eye-to-eye more challenging, literally. While its widely recommended that you should not accept what you read, having a conversation to ask for more clarity is not always natural (or even possible) in a hybrid setting.
So, what do you do when mixed-work modality team members are in conflict with one another, with the company, or even with you? As the leader, your job is to manage the situation. The challenge is determining how to approach conflict in a way that is both constructive and comfortable.
The Remote Work Factor
There are many efficiencies afforded by flexible work arrangements, but a side effect of remote (and sometimes asynchronous) work is that conversations between coworkers are often limited to scheduled check-ins and meetings. Consequently, coworker interactions are relatively two-dimensional. Employees make inferences and judgments from emailed statements or Slack DMs that rarely, if ever, tell the full story of ones perspective and context.
Compounding this issue is the fact that todays multigenerational workforce has significantly different comfort levels using different modalities for collaboration. Gen Z and millennial employees have learned communication norms that entail a heavy reliance on direct messaging and video calls versus talking things through with one another. In fact, 46% of workers report they have engaged in full arguments over chat-based applications. Meanwhile, members of all generations have varying preferences for direct communicationwhether in person, via phone, or video.
The shift toward remote and hybrid work has complicated communication particularly as it pertains to giving feedback. In traditional office settings, mentorship and sharing feedback often occur naturally through hallway conversations, post-meeting discussions, or informal manager check-ins. One of the drawbacks of remote work can be the elimination of these spontaneous opportunities.
Without casual in-person interactions, employees must deliberately schedule feedback conversations, which can make the process feel more formal and high-stakes than a quick chat in the office. As a consequence, performance itself can become a source of conflict since remote employees are 32% less likely to receive real-time feedback, including what has been working well, and what needs to change.
Navigating the Next Era of Workplace Conflict
When teams realize that what they are doing is not working, conflicts will happen. Due to not having the opportunity to bring issues up until they become undeniable, conflicts may have festered and therefore may be emotionally charged. We recommend three considerations for those ready to rise to the challenge of hybrid or remote conflict management.
1. Be honest about what you’re seeingand why it’s a problem
A first crucial element to managing conflict is that leaders call out what they are seeing and then discuss observations with their team. For example, although sentiments are mixed when it comes to how politics should be brought into or left out of the workplace, there is no denying that stakeholders and stockholders alike have been impacted by various international events and executive orders. From the impact tariffs may have on a companys ability to import materials, to the impact layoffs may have on staffing, what needs to be considered in our work today is different than it was a few weeks ago.
Leaders cant ignore what is going on around them. One of the tenets of psychologist and author Daniel Golemans model of emotionally intelligent leadership posits that a leaders primary responsibility is to be in sync with their followers. In order to be able to react in a way that resonates with ones team, leadrs should know whether something may cause apprehension, excitement, or concern among their reports. In fact, if managers are oblivious to or ignore any elements of the world that concern their employees, they will cause further frustration or be dismissed themselves.
One option is for leaders to start their weekly check-ins with a current events update. Share top headlines and explain how news may impact the organization in the coming week or months. If a company does change its policies due to shifts in federal or state sentiments, acknowledge these and explain how this shift will affect your team members directly or indirectly.
If you dont know how to get discussions going, its likely that your companys communication department has created talking points for managers to use. In smaller companies, ask the human resources department for some guidelines on how to explain changes to employees. You should not feel alone in what you say, but you should take responsibility for bringing changes up.
2. Get to know your team
If a leader doesnt know what the team cares about in the first place, it will be impossible to connect their perceptions to conflicts that may erupt. Meanwhile, those employees who have not learned how to self-advocate may struggle finding the right time and place to raise their concerns (and voices) constructively. Leaders who bridge these two scenarios can mitigate conflicts or manage them when they arise.
As mentioned earlier, resonant leaders are those in sync with their followers emotionally. They understand that an employee who is seeking international relocation may see global affairs differently than one who has a domestic promotion agenda. If your company conducts business with countries involved in tariff discussions, some company leaders may worry about how financial reporting will be adversely impacted. Knowing what is important to your team enables you to proactively manage topics that may become conflicts.
Because of this, its important that leaders take the time to listen to their employees when they share what matters to them. Whether there is data from a formal performance review and goal-setting session, or youve gone to lunch with a member of your team, take inventory of what you know about each individual and what is important to them.
If you are not already in the habit of doing so, use your one-on-one meetings as opportunities to bring up what you know, and ask your team members to share how they are feeling about a related element of their job or development plan they had established.
If employees dont share topics of frustration or worry, ask open-ended questions that provide the opportunity to express their concerns or identify paths they wish to explore. And, if youre not having in-person or virtual on-on-ones, now is a very good time to start.
3. Learn to communicate proactively and address conflict remotely
If you were walking down a hallway and heard someone complaining, youd know they are unhappy. But if your interactions with your team members are limited to when they choose to turn their webcams and microphones on, you will not have the same windows of insight. Identifying potential conflicts and managing ones that have already come into focus require an adjustment of management techniques.
Similar to knowing and understanding what team members may value, its incumbent upon a manager to know some of their direct reports attitudinal tells. If an employee shakes their head a little more than usual in agreement or asks the same question more than once and does not seem to apply what they learn, these may be signs that remote workers are struggling to stay focused or engaged.
It has been said many times before, but when working with a remote workforce, you cannot overcommunicate. Leaders need to establish a cadence of regular meetings and also be sure to casually check in with informal conversations and temperature checks. Information that is verbally shared in a meeting should also be documented and distributed via written communiqués to avoid miscommunication or misunderstanding, which can also lead to conflict.
When remote employees are simply not performing according to expectations, leaders need to manage their performance in the same way they would for in-person employees. Letting issues go or looking the other way is not an option.
On the flipside, its important to understand that sometimes what youthe leaderare doing is the cause of the conflict. One-third of employees have indicated that their bosses are too aggressive in text messages. Therefore, to avoid greater conflicts, leaders must address the situation directly and manage just as they would if the employee worked in the office.
To preempt any issues, leaders must become comfortable saying, Hey, can you stay on the line for a minute? Use this time after the regular meeting to acknowledge what you are seeing and ask for feedback on the initiative, the players, or the process being employed to address the work.
If the opportunity to talk right after another meeting is missed, its okay to email or send a Slack message to an employee to ask: Do you have time later to hop on a quick Zoom? I want to go over X topic. Its important to be specific about the agenda so that there isnt cause for alarm as to the subject of the conversation. That said, we also suggest doing this when you are able to jump on a call in the not-too-distant future, as requesting a meeting may still induce anxiety.
Bring People Together to Manage Conflict
When workers are not in the same physical space, facilitating conflict management is not easy. While its easy enough to ignore what may be distressing your team or assume that everyone interprets things the same way, managers should openly address differences, ask questions, and demonstrate flexibility when conflict arises.
By deliberately managing communication in a way that normalizes healthy conflict, leaders create an environment where everyone feels heard and understood.
The European Commission is coming for SkinnyTok.
EU regulators are investigating a recent wave of social media videos that promote extreme thinness and tough love weight-loss advice, assessing whether TikTok is doing enough to protect children online, per Politico.
Frances minister for digital media, Clara Chappaz, recently reported #SkinnyTok to both the French media regulator Arcom and the EU. These videos promote extreme thinness. Protecting minors online is one of my priorities, Chappaz said in a TikTok video posted Friday.
@clara.chappaz Et si on parlait plutôt de #StrongTok ? Saimer, commence par se respecter. Ces modles dextrme maigreur peuvent faire beaucoup de mal. #skinnytok #fyp son original – clara.chappaz
Arcom told Politico it is collaborating with the European Commission to examine the trend given the public health risk it may pose. A Commission spokesperson also confirmed to Politico that it is aware of the issue and ready to cooperate.
This comes alongside an ongoing EU investigation into TikToks algorithm and its impact on minors. The Commission is already looking into how the platform promotes content related to eating disorderssuggesting that further action may soon follow.
Although the investigation is still in its early stages, discussions with TikTok are underway. The platforms community guidelines claim it does not allow showing or promoting disordered eating and dangerous weight loss behaviors. Still, content that shows or promotes potentially harmful weight management is permitted for users over 18 and is excluded from the For You feed. Fast Company has reached out to TikTok for comment.
Search SkinnyTok on TikTok, and the first thing youll see is a platform-generated message stating, You are more than your weight. Tap it, and youll find links to resources for disordered eating support, including the National Eating Disorder Association.
But once you move past that well-meaning message, you’re hit with thousands of videos promoting restrictive eating, body checks, and before-and-after transformations. Unhinged skinny advice, one post reads. Another declares: Being skinny is an outfit. And, of course, the old favorite: Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.
Weight-loss and pro-anorexia communities have long thrived on social mediajust ask anyone who used Tumblr in the 2010s. In recent years, this kind of content has surged on TikTok, coinciding with the rise of GLP-1 medications. Many credit these drugs with pushing back against body positivity and ushering in a resurgence of thinness as the ideal.
The effects arent just digital. According to a recent report by Trilliant Health, eating-disorder-related health visits among those youths younger than 17 have more than doubled in the past five years. From 2018 to mid-2022, these visits rose by 107.4%, with visits related to anorexia nervosa increasing 129.26%.
In 2021, a report revealed that Instagram had failed to protect vulnerable users from pro-anorexia content. Lets hope TikTok learns from those mistakes.
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A companys corporate brand name should be its hardest working marketing asset. Nothing will be used more often or for longer than the companys name. And in a world where competitors can copy almost everything else, they cant duplicate your name. However, sometimes the original name, chosen long ago, no longer fits and it’s time to rebrand. Rebranding a company is not just a superficial exercise; this strategic move can redefine your business, energize your team, and reshape your future.
Steve Jobs, a master at communication, understood that a brand is more than a name or logoits a story, a purpose, a promise, and the right name can make or break a brand. After all, the man turned a company named after a fruit into one of the most successful brands in the world. Here is some guidance on when to rebrand and the steps to make a rebrand successful, with inspiration from Steve Jobs.
When to rebrand
So, when is it time to rebrand? Maybe your brand no longer reflects who you are or what you stand for. If your company has evolvedexpanding into new markets, adopting new technologies, or shifting its missionyour brand must evolve too. Just as Jobs famously redefined Apples purpose to focus on innovation and simplicity, you must ensure your brand reflects where youre headed, not where youve been.
Perhaps your brand is facing increased competition. If customers cant tell the difference between you and your competitors, its time to stand out. A rebrand can help clarify what makes your business unique and why it matters. And most common, you are merging or acquiring another company. Mergers and acquisitions often demand a new identity that reflects the combined strengths of the entities involvedan opportunity to tell a fresh story.
Once a decision has been made to rebrand, here are five steps for success.
1. Tell the story first
We are all wired for story. When someone says, I have a story to tell you, we lean in. So the first step is to tell the story of the rebrand with emphasis on the benefits to the audiences. Why you are changing is a good start, but what does this mean for your customers? Craft a narrative that resonates emotionally and aligns with your audiences needs. As Jobs said, People dont buy what you do; they buy why you do it. Anchor your rebrand in a strong why. And an even stronger what!
2. Write your future headlines
Imagine the article you want to see in The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times about your brand. What would they say about your rebrand? This exercise will clarify your vision and guide all creative efforts. While this sounds simple, the strategic exercise can be your compass as you prepare your creative and launch activities.
Take a recent Lexicon name, Lucid Motors. The companys mission statement expresses that through technology, we create exceptional experiences to drive the world forward. For this assignment, the client was looking for a name that would capture that notion while setting itself apart from any other auto brand. The name Lucid achieves this by working on our imagination, moving us from the literal meaning clear-headed to exceptionally efficient brain powerto exceptionallyefficient battery power. While this is going on in the intellectual realm, weexperience the shock of the names unexpectedness in its category. Of course, shock by itself is not enough. As we see, the name also moves us from the literal meaning of lucid to one that fits the character of the car.
3. Focus on the unexpected and emotion.
Humans like to think of themselves as rational animals, but it comes as no news to marketers that we are motivated to a greater extent by emotions. Logic brings us to conclusions; emotion brings us to action. Whether we are creating a poem or a new brand name, we wont get very far if we treat the task as an engineering exercise. True, names are formed by putting together parts, just as poems are put together with rhythmic patterns and with rhyming lines, but that totally misses what is essential to a name’s success or a poem’s success. Consider Microsoft and Apple as names. One is far more mechanical, and the other much more effective at creating the beginning of an experience. While both companies are tremendously successful, there is no question that Apple has the stronger, more emotional experience. What is that worth?
4. Identify your audience and speak directly to each group
Different stakeholders care about different things. Employees need inspiration; investors need confidence; customers need clarity on whats in it for them. Break down these audiences and craft tailored messages for each group.
Identifying the audience groups can be challenging. While the first layer is obviouscustomers, employees, investors, and analystsall these audiences are easy to find and message. However, what is often overlooked is the individuals in those audiences who can more positively influence the rebrand. It may be a particular journalist, or a few select employees. Once you have identified these influencers, develop more relevant conversations that help them understand the rebrand.
5. Plan for longevity
A successful launch must be roadmapped with events and reminders over a 9-18 month timeline. It is much more than simply reannouncing the name change; it becomes an opportunity to build stronger relationships with the audiences that matter most to your brand. Consistency builds trust. Plan events and marketing efforts over a longer timeframe to reinforce your new identity. For example, company or industry conferences are excellent venues to reinforce the change and show where the company is headed. Any event must be viewed as an opportunity to strengthen the reasons for the rebrand.
Steve Jobs approached branding with clarity, simplicity, and a relentless focus on storytelling and user experience. He didnt just change Apples logohe transformed its identity by aligning every touchpoint with its purpose: empowering individuals through technology. By following these principles, you can ensure that your rebrand isnt just a name change but a strategic leap forward that captures attention, inspires loyalty, and drives growth. As Jobs might say, Think different.
David Placek is founder and CEO of Lexicon Branding.
The death of Pope Francis has been announced by the Vatican. I first met the late Pope Francis at the Vatican after a conference called Saving Our Common Home and the Future of Life on Earth in July 2018. My colleagues and I sensed something momentous was happening at the heart of the church.
At that time, I was helping to set up the new Laudato Si Research Institute at the Jesuit Hall at the University of Oxford. This institute is named after the popes 2015 encyclical (a letter to bishops outlining church policy) on climate change.
Its mission is rooted in the popes religiously inspired vision of integral ecologya multidisciplinary approach that addresses social and ecological issues of equality and climate breakdown.
Originating from Argentina, Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope, witnessed firsthand the destruction of the Amazon and the plight of South Americas poorest communities. His concern for justice for vulnerable communities and protection of the planet go hand in hand with his religious leadership.
In his first papal letter, Laudato Si, he called for all people, not just Catholics, to pay more attention to the frailty of both our planet and its people. What we need is no less than a cultural revolution, he wrote. As a theologian, I recognise that he inspired significant change in three key ways.
1. At global climate summits
Its no coincidence that Pope Francis released Laudato Si at a crucial moment in 2015 prior to the U.N. climate summit, Cop21, in Paris. A follow-up exhortation, or official statement, Laudate Deum, was released in October 2023, just before another U.N. climate summit, Cop28 in Dubai.
Did the decisions at these global meetings shift because of the influence of Pope Francis? Potentially, yes. In Laudate Deum, Pope Francis showed both encouragement and some frustration about the achievements of international agreements so far.
He berated the weakness of international politics and believes that Cop21 represented a significant moment because the agreement involved everyone.
After Cop21, he pointed out how most nations had failed to implement the Paris agreement which called for limiting the global temperature rise in this century to below 2°C. He also called out the lack of monitoring of those commitments and subsequent political inertia. He tried his best to use his prominent position to hold power to account.
Promoting a general moral awareness of the need to act in ecologically responsible ways, both in international politics and at the local level is something that previous popes, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI also did. But, Pope Franciss efforts went beyond that, by connecting much more broadly with grassroots movements.
2. By advocating for Indigenous people
Cop28 marked the first time that close to 200 countries agreed to transition away from fossil fuels. Pope Franciss interventions potentially helped shift the needle just a little in the desired direction.
His emphasis on listening to Indigenous people may have influenced these gatherings. Compared with previous global climate summits, Cop28 arguably opened up the opportunity to listen to the voices of Indigenous people.
However, Indigenous people were still disappointed by the outcomes of Cop28. Pope Franciss lesser-known exhortation Querida Amazonia, which means beloved Amazonia, was published in February 2020.
This exhortation resulted from his conversations with Amazonian communities and helped put Indigenous perspectives on the map. Those perspectives helped shape Catholic social teaching in the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, which means all brothers and sisters, published on October 3 2020.
For many people living in developing countries where extractive industries such as oil and gas or mining are rife, destruction of land coincides with direct threats to life. Pope Francis advocated for Indigenous environmental defenders, many of whom have been inspired to act by their strong faith.
For example, Father Marcelo Pérez, an Indigenous priest living in Mexico, was murdered by drug dealers just after saying mass on October 23, 2023, as part of the cost of defending the rights of his people and their land.
While 196 environmental defenders were killed globally in 2023, Pope Francis continued to advocate on behalf of the most marginalised people as well as the environment.
3. By inspiring activism
Ive been speaking to religious climate activists from different church backgrounds in the U.K. as part of a multidisciplinary research project on religion, theology and climate change based at the University of Manchester. Most notably, when we asked more than 300 activists representing six different activist groups who most influenced them to get involved in climate action, 61% named Pope Francis as a key influencer.
On a larger scale, Laudato Si gave rise to the Laudato Si movement, which coordinates climate activism across the globe. It has 900 Catholic organizations as well as 10,000 of what are knownas Laudato Si animators, who are all ambassadors and leaders in their respective communities.
Our institutes ecclesial affiliate, Tomás Insua, based in Assisi, Italy, originally helped pioneer this global Laudato Si movement. We host a number of ecumenical gatherings which bring together people from different denominations and hopefully motivate churchgoers to think and act in a more climate-conscious way.
Nobody knows who the next pope will be. Given the current turmoil in politics and shutting down of political will to address the climate emergency, we can only hope they will build on the legacy of Pope Francis and influence political change for the good, from the grassroots front line right up to the highest global ambitions.
Celia Deane-Drummond is a professor of theology and director of Laudato Si’ Research Institute, Campion Hall at the University of Oxford.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
If you’re feeling detached from work and lacking motivation lately, know that you are not alone.
Gallup’s most recent State of the Global Workplace report revealed that employee engagement fell to 21% in 2024, declining 2 points from the previous year. In the last 12 years, employee engagement has only fallen one other time, in 2020, due in part to COVID-19, the shift to working from home, and increased isolation.
The report “offers what may be our last snapshot of a workforce on the cusp of seismic change,” Gallup CEO Jon Clifton said in the report. “We are witnessing a pivotal moment in the global workplaceone where engagement is faltering at the exact time artificial intelligence is transforming every industry in its path.”
The most recent decline can be linked to disruptions in the workplace over the last five years, including layoffs, the introduction of AI across industries, ongoing friction around RTO policies, and more.
Broken down by region, the U.S. and Canada tied with Latin America and the Caribbean for the region with the highest engaged employeesalthough the percentage was still low, with less than a third being engaged. The region also ranked at the top for employees experiencing daily stress.
Managers need help
The report found that the global decline in engagement centers around one particularly affected group: managers. Managers under 35 years old and female managers were the most affected, with engagement declining by 5 and 7 percentage points, respectively.
The findings suggest that a lack of engagement from the top is trickling down to employees, and resulted in a loss of $438 billion in productivity to the world economy.
Despite the declining rates, Gallup identified ways that employers can take action and lean toward a productivity boom:
First, training managers on basic roles may boost engagement, with 44% of managers reporting a lack of training.
Second, Gallup suggests teaching managers techniques for effective coaching, which could boost performance by up to 28%.
Lastly, improving manager well-being should be prioritized, with manager development training and an encouraging peer working environment boosting well-being by up to 50%.
Starbucks is brewing up something new in Texasand this time, it’s not just what’s in the cup. Next week, the coffee giant will open its first-ever 3D-printed store, a drive-thru-only location in Brownsville that looks more like the future of construction than your average café.
Built with layers of concrete piped out by a giant robotic printer, the 1,400-square-foot structure is part of the companys ongoing effort to modernize operations and trim costs. But does a 3D-printed café actually save moneyor is this just a buzzworthy experiment?
Is 3D-printing more cost-effective?
Peri-3D, a German company, used a giant 3D printer to pump out layers of concrete mixture to create the structure. According to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, the cost for building the small scale coffee shop was about $1.2 million.
The accounting platform Freshbooks says building a restaurant from the ground up can cost up to $2 million. However, a smaller-scale quick-serve restaurant may cost less to build. According to KRG Hospitality, it costs around $535 per square foot to build a quick serve restaurant, which comes out to $749,000 for a 1,400-square-foot structure like the new Starbucksa bit less than the $1.2 price tag for the 3D-printed build.
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Of course, the new method is a first for the brand. And builders say, the more they use the technology, the more efficient they are at it. In Georgetown, Texas, an entire community of 100 homes was recently built using 3D-printing. The company who built the community, Lennar, says they’re seeing costs drop with each build. Stuart Miller, chairman and co-CEO of Lennar, told CNBC earlier this year that the construction company says their costs and cycle time go down “by half” by adopting 3D-printing.
“This is significant improvement in evolving a housing market that has the ability to change over time and being more adaptable and more functional in providing affordable and attainable housing for a broader swath of the market, said Miller.Likewise, many building materials are becoming more expensive all the time. According to a 2023 report by construction cost data tracking firm Gordian, 82.5% of construction materials have skyrocketed since 2020, with the average increase at 19%. Now that the impact of tariffs is looming, those costs are expected to increase even more.3D-printing is also much faster, meaning that projects can be completed in a fraction of the time, potentially drastically cutting labor costs. According to the World Economic Forum, 3D-printing can cost just 30% of what building structures the old-fashioned way costs. That’s why some companies are using it as a tool to address labor shortages and the housing crisis.
The future of restaurant building?
3D-printing is gaining momentum for construction purposes, given it’s less time-consuming and has the power to be less costly. In addition to housing, in Japan, a 3D-printed train station was just erected. And Peri-3D, itself, has completed at least 15 construction projects, including residential buildings in Europe and Germany.3D-printing has been incorporated into some restaurants when it comes to customizing food, or even making 3D-printed furniture, too. But building restaurants with the technology is a brand-new development. With restaurant chains looking for cost-cutting initiatives in the wake of inflation, rising operating costs, and the impact of tariffs, 3D-printing could eventually become a time-slashing, and cost-slashing way for establishments to expand.
Especially because, no matter how the restaurants are built, the food, and the coffee, are likely to taste the same.
The infamous Am I the A**hole? subreddit is making its way to the small screen.
Hosted by Jimmy Carr, the new game show for Comedy Central U.K. will feature members of the public appearing before Carr and a panel of two comedians to reveal their deepest secrets and most bizarre disputesbefore receiving judgment, per Deadline.
The show is based on the popular Reddit subreddit of the same name, which boasts 24 million members at the time of writing. The subreddits creator, Marc Beaulac, is one of the executive producers of the series. Jimmy Carrs Am I the A**hole? is being produced by STV Studios-owned Tuesdays Child. Filming will take place in late spring, and the series is set to premiere later this year on Comedy Central U.K., consisting of eight hour-long episodes.
Steph Harris, executive producer at Tuesdays Child, said per Chortle: Am I the A**hole? is only a question you ask if you’re convinced you’re right in an argument, but will our guests get the answer they’re hoping for when they share awkward real-life scenarios with comedians who pull no punches in delivering judgments?
Carr added: Seems odd that anyone would ask me to host a show about a**holes. I should be grateful, but I feel a little insulted. I guess I’m an a**hole. Well, it takes an a**hole to know an a**hole, so I’m the right man for the job.
I’m very much looking forward to being Comedy Central’s proctologist-in-residence. There are an impressive number of a**holes in our country, and they’re finally getting the recognition they deserve on national television.
From giving your stay-at-home wife a written performance review (kind of the A-hole) to calling out a lactose-intolerant milk thief (not the A-hole), Reddit’s “Am I the A**hole” threadalso known by the acronym AITAhas become a safe space for people to vent anonymously and ask an impartial jury of Internet strangers: Am I in the wrong?
Since its creation in 2013, AITA has evolved from a niche online forum into a cultural phenomenon, the subject of philosophical and demographic study and endless internet discourse. Over a decade on, it has inspired an entire ecosystem, including TikToks and podcast episodes dedicated to dissecting the most viral posts.
Now, a panel of comedians and a TV audience will have their turn weighing in on real-life conflictsoffering insight, validation, or, in some cases, a much-needed dose of self-reflection.
Leo Robitschek says he loves gin-based martinis and negronis. Unfortunately, they dont always love him back.
After two, that decision to have a third is usually a tricky one, says Robitschek, who has worked in the liquor industry for more than two decades, including serving as a bar director for Manhattan hot spots Eleven Madison Park and the NoMad Hotel.
To lessen the pain after a boozy night out, Robitschek joined forces with another bartender, Nick Strangeway, and the founder of the sparkling beverage brand Dry Soda, Sharelle Klaus, to launch Second Sip Gin. The London dry gin is 20% alcohol by volume (ABV), roughly half the level of most gins, and was formulated over the course of six months as somewhere between Beefeater and Tanqueray gins. Second Sip has a juniper forward flavor, along with angelica root, coriander, bitter orange, and licorice, so it can retain an array of botanicals that gin is known for.
[Photo: Second Sip Gin]
Two martinis are better than one, says Robitschek. But hopefully, theres no regrets in the morning.
The rise of mindful drinking
Lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a spike in alcohol consumption as Americans were stuck at home with little to do. After life returned to normal, many consumers sought to reset their relationship by participating in Dry Januaryavoiding booze for the full monthand giving nonalcoholic beverages a try. All this coincided with the rise of Gen Z into legal drinking age, a generation thats drinking less than other young people before them.
But industry data shows that a vast majority of adults that consume nonalcoholic drinks arent exactly sober. More than 90% drink alcohol, too. And often, they will alternate between alcohol and N/A brands within the same evening, a social concept called zebra striping.
That idea of zebra striping and the consumer having two options results in this low alcohol space in the middle, says Kaleigh Theriault, associate director of beverage alcohol thought leadership at research firm NIQ. They can trust that the product is going to be moderate for them and they dont have to be as conscious about making a decision between a non-alc and a regular ABV [alcohol by volume].
Lower alcohol sales total nearly $3.6 billion annually in U.S. grocery, liquor, convenience, and other retailers tracked by NIQ, but the category is also evolving differently across beer, wine, and spirits. Within beer, there has been less appetite for low-strength alternatives because major brands like Miller Lite and Coors Light are already naturally low in alcoholic content and the N/A brands that have emerged, led by Heineken 0.0 and Athletic Brewing, taste similar to their full-strength cousins.
Redefining the buzz
Fabian Clark says he enjoys N/A beers, but when he worked in hospitality and ran a restaurant in London, he consistently declined to stock Seedlip and other N/A spirits he was pitched. For me, I felt they didnt deliver on the flavor that I was looking for, says Clark.
[Photo: Quarter Proof]
After his restaurant shut down due to COVID, Clark cofounded Quarter Proof in 2022, launching with a gin and later a tequila and vodka that all contain 15% ABV, a level he says allows the startup to deliver spirits that retain a similar flavor profile to the higher proof competitors. Theyre not looking to abstain, theyre looking to moderate, Clark says of the shifting consumer mindset. And we feel that we offer seamless moderation. As we like to say, All of the buzz, none of the blur.
Stateside, Quarter Proof is only sold in bars and restaurants in New York and Miami, but Clark is in talks with a national distributor to bring the brand to additional markets. Clark also intends to move to the U.S. before the end of the year to have a more active in-person role building up Quarter Proof.
Brandon Joldersma, the CEO of N/A wine brand Surely, says that the dealcoholization techniques changed the flavor profile too much for some consumers. You really want to taste as similar as possible, says Joldersma. Its just much more difficult to do with wine than it is for beer.
[Photo: Arlow]
With that in mind, he launched the low-alcohol wine brand Arlow last year, with varietals including sauvignon blanc, rosé, and cabernet sauvignon, all with a 6.5% ABV and fewer calories and sugar than the full-strength wines. The brand is sold online in nearly all states and has scored wholesale distribution in New York as a test market.
A category without clear rules
NIQs Theriault says theres no set guidelines for lower roof alcohols and thus the ranges for each category arent yet settled. Generally, NIQs unofficial definitions settle on beers under 4% ABV, and most wines under 10% and spirits below 30%. This presents both a challenge and an opportunity for upstarts like Arlow and Quarter Proof.
ABV math is something that consumers dont necessarily do when at the shelf making a purchase, says Theriault. And probably not while ordering a drink while at a bar.
Beyond explaining the claims about ABV and better-for-you proposition for Arlow, Joldersma says hes fielded questions like if Arlow adds water to dilute it (they dont). This is a brand new category that we are introducing and theres some education that comes with that, says Joldersma.
Some say Americans are finally playing catch-up by embracing mid-strength cocktails like the aperol and hugo spritzes. That lighter daytime drinking moment has always been part of European culture, says Emma Fox, global VP for St-Germain elderflower liqueur and Martini vermouth.
[Photo: St-Germain]
Fox estimates that globally, the aperitif and N/A-low alcohol segment is worth $11 billion and projected to grow 6% over the next four years. Google Search volume for the hugo spritz, made with St-Germain, prosecco, and mint, spiked by 130% in 2024 from the prior year and saw content on TikTok more than triple.
St-Germain launched a global ad campaign with actress Sophie Turner last year to bolster the hugo spritz during the summer, when the cocktail tends to be more popular. To bolster popularity during the colder months, the French liqueur brand has also developed aprs-ski pop-ups at ski resorts.
A new standard for bar menus
Proof Creative, which conceptualizes cocktails menus for luxury hotel clients like the Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton, anticipates menus will soon be engineered to offer N/A, low ABV, and full strength options across every beverage category. Bobby Carey, creative director for bar consultancy Proof Creative, says the lower-proof brands are also emerging in response to some consumer pushback that the N/A brands were being sold at lofty price points on par with the full strength spirits and wines.
Why am I paying so much for a nonalcoholic drink?, asks Carey, explaining a common gripe hes witnessed. If you can turn around and say, This is still alcohol. Its still giving you the same flavor. Thats a more winning proposition.
A bold new building at Spelman College in Atlanta is all about breaking down barriers. Designed by the architecture firm Studio Gang, the Center for Innovation and the Arts is the new home for collaboration between students of science, technology, art, and performance at the historically Black women’s liberal arts college. It will provide a new space where Spelman’s programs in dance, documentary filmmaking, photography, theater and performance, and music can tap into emerging technologies from the worlds of science and computer science.
Studio Gang founder, Jeanne Gang, says the primary goals of the project were to help the college better connect its programs and events with the broader community, and to help its robust arts and science programs have more opportunity to overlap and intersect. Our job was to make sure that there’s fluid connections between them, Gang says.
[Photo: Tom Harris/courtesy Studio Gang]
The four-story building is a mashup of labs, studios, and collaboration areas, with a publicly accessible performance hall on the ground floor, and college-only learning spaces above. There are design spaces, a recording studio, galleries, faculty offices, and a tech-filled Innovation Lab for experimentation and prototyping.
[Photo: Tom Harris/courtesy Studio Gang]
All this is built around a central atrium that’s lit from above by a large skylight and either visibly or physically accessible from nearly every other space in the building. This central space, known as the Forum, is meant to be used for events, gatherings, exhibitions, and, most often, design critiques for students studying a range of creative disciplines.
[Photo: courtesy Studio Gang]
Even if you’re not walking right through the middle of the crit space, you’re always circulating around it, Gang says. So it’s a way of giving character to this space where these interactions happen.
[Photo: courtesy Studio Gang]
Giving so much of the building over to a central atrium was a decision informed by Gang’s own design school experience, as a student, as a professor, and as a seasoned designer with several university buildings in her firm’s portfolio. People are comfortable staying in their silos, she says. How can you make it natural for people that are from different disciplines to interact?
That thinking extends to Spelman’s expansion beyond its campus gates. Located directly adjacent to the campus, the Center for Innovation and the Arts was intended from the start to be a way for the college to spread its impact past its historical edge. After the project had to pause for a few years during the pandemic, this aspiration felt even more relevant. Gang says that during the early research her firm did for this project, they found a smattering of small art galleries in the surrounding Westside neighborhood. By the time the project picked back up a few years ago, those had grown and more had followed. It has really developed into a more full neighborhood, she says. It made sense to us for this project to be a center.
[Photo: courtesy Studio Gang]
It also stands out. The 84,000-square-foot building is a large square peeking out through the neighborhood’s tree cover, and bordering n a popular public plaza. Gang says the building was designed to counter Atlanta’s heat, with its upper floors forming a shaded canopy over the ground floor, creating what she calls a porch-like feeling.
[Photo: Tom Harris/courtesy Studio Gang]
The rest of the building is wrapped with a slitted facade of sun shades that resemble a woven basketa notable departure from the traditional brick buildings that make up much of Spelman’s campus. The baffles are specifically tuned to block sunlight and glare from each part of the building, with a tighter weave on the south and southwest. They’re very functional but also makes it feel more friendly, Gang says. It’s not a hard exterior of solid brick, and this lets it be more in the environment, breathing.
All of which helps the building foster connections with the surrounding neighborhood. But the main users will be the students of the college, and Gang says the fluidity of the spaces inside were essential elements of designing a building so focused on collaboration and innovation. The building creates the relationships that you’re going to have with other people, other creators, and your own work, she says, so it’s really important to get it right.
Former employees of OpenAI are asking the top law enforcement officers in California and Delaware to stop the company from shifting control of its artificial intelligence technology from a nonprofit charity to a for-profit business.They’re concerned about what happens if the ChatGPT maker fulfills its ambition to build AI that outperforms humans, but is no longer accountable to its public mission to safeguard that technology from causing grievous harms.“Ultimately, I’m worried about who owns and controls this technology once it’s created,” said Page Hedley, a former policy and ethics adviser at OpenAI, in an interview with the Associated Press.Backed by three Nobel Prize winners and other advocates and experts, Hedley and nine other ex-OpenAI workers sent a letter this week to the two state attorneys general.The coalition is asking California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, both Democrats, to use their authority to protect OpenAI’s charitable purpose and block its planned restructuring. OpenAI is incorporated in Delaware and operates out of San Francisco.OpenAI said in response that “any changes to our existing structure would be in service of ensuring the broader public can benefit from AI.” It said its for-profit will be a public benefit corporation, similar to other AI labs like Anthropic and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s xAI, except that OpenAI will still preserve a nonprofit arm.“This structure will continue to ensure that as the for-profit succeeds and grows, so too does the nonprofit, enabling us to achieve the mission,” the company said in a statement.The letter is the second petition to state officials this month. The last came from a group of labor leaders and nonprofits focused on protecting OpenAI’s billions of dollars of charitable assets.Jennings said last fall she would “review any such transaction to ensure that the public’s interests are adequately protected.” Bonta’s office sought more information from OpenAI late last year but has said it can’t comment, even to confirm or deny if it is investigating.OpenAI’s cofounders, including current CEO Sam Altman and Musk, originally started it as a nonprofit research laboratory on a mission to safely build what’s known as artificial general intelligence, or AGI, for humanity’s benefit. Nearly a decade later, OpenAI has reported its market value as $300 billion and counts 400 million weekly users of ChatGPT, its flagship product.OpenAI already has a for-profit subsidiary but faces a number of challenges in converting its core governance structure. One is a lawsuit from Musk, who accuses the company and Altman of betraying the founding principles that led the Tesla CEO to invest in the charity.While some of the signatories of this week’s letter support Musk’s lawsuit, Hedley said others are “understandably cynical” because Musk also runs his own rival AI company.The signatories include two Nobel-winning economists, Oliver Hart and Joseph Stiglitz, as well as AI pioneers and computer scientists Geoffrey Hinton, who won last year’s Nobel Prize in physics, and Stuart Russell.“I like OpenAI’s mission to ‘ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity,’ and I would like them to execute that mission instead of enriching their investors,” Hinton said in a statement Wednesday. “I’m happy there is an effort to hold OpenAI to its mission that does not involve Elon Musk.”Conflicts over OpenAI’s purpose have long simmered at the San Francisco institute, contributing to Musk quitting in 2018, Altman’s short-lived ouster in 2023 and other high-profile departures.Hedley, a lawyer by training, worked for OpenAI in 2017 and 2018, a time when the nonprofit was still navigating the best ways to steward the technology it wanted to build. As recently as 2023, Altman said advanced AI held promise but also warned of extraordinary risks, from drastic accidents to societal disruptions.In recent years, however, Hedley said he watched with concern as OpenAI, buoyed by the success of ChatGPT, was increasingly cutting corners on safety testing and rushing out new products to get ahead of business competitors.“The costs of those decisions will continue to go up as the technology becomes more powerful,” he said. “I think that in the new structure that OpenAI wants, the incentives to rush to make those decisions will go up and there will no longer be anybody really who can tell them not to, tell them this is not OK.”Software engineer Anish Tondwalkar, a former member of OpenAI’s technical team until last year, said an important assurance in OpenAI’s nonprofit charter is a “stop-and-assist clause” that directs OpenAI to stand down and help if another organization is nearing the achievement of better-than-human AI.“If OpenAI is allowed to become a for-profit, these safeguards, and OpenAI’s duty to the public can vanish overnight,” Tondwalkar said in a statement Wednesday.Another former worker who signed the letter puts it more bluntly.“OpenAI may one day build technology that could get us all killed,” said Nisan Stiennon, an AI engineer who worked at OpenAI from 2018 to 2020. “It is to OpenAI’s credit that it’s controlled by a nonprofit with a duty to humanity. This duty precludes giving up that control.”
The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI access to part of AP’s text archives.
Matt O’Brien, AP Technology Writer
