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President Donald Trump’s tariffs are unpopular and expected to raise costs for Americans, but he’s trying his best to message them in a positive light. When his proposed new tariffs on foreign goods go into effect on Wednesday, he’s calling it liberation day. We have liberation day, Trump said last week. Many countries have taken advantage of us, the likes of which nobody even thought was possible for many, many decades. Trump has long been one for hyperbole, and when it comes to trade, he’s not holding back, calling the word tariff the most beautiful word in the dictionary. But the choice of liberation day to describe tariffs is a true misnomer. In Europe, Liberation Day is observed by countries in celebration of the liberation from Nazi Germany. For Trump, he simply uses the phrase to describe a day on which he enacts his agenda. Already, Trump called his 2025 Inauguration in January liberation day during his speech, and he’s repeating the phrase to apply to tariffs hitting Wednesday. How to make a political phrase stick For words and phrases to take hold, both inside and outside of politics, they must meet the FUDGE test, according to the mnemonic device devised by linguist and Predicting New Words author Allan Metcalf. He wrote that new words need to meet a threshold for frequency, unobtrusiveness, diversity, generating new forms and meanings, and endurance in order to take hold. In other words, they need to be simple to pick up, used a lot, and able to be used flexibly across different groups and in different ways. Trump is a master of bumper sticker-style slogans and political rhetoric, repeating straightforward, memorable phrases to explain his political agenda that becomes widely used, like America first and drain the swamp. Perhaps the best example is his already tired campaign slogan, Make America Great Again, which he cribbed from President Ronald Reagan. That became so ubiquitous in Trump’s rhetoric that it spawned an acronym and inspired spin-offs, like Make America Healthy Again. Whether liberation day can similarly take hold remains to be seen. For Daniel Rogers, a Princeton University history professor who’s studied political rhetoric, the phrase is a distraction tactic. Changing the subject has always been one of Trump’s favorite tactics, Rogers tells Fast Company. Don’t engage with those who want to know on whom the cost of tariffs is going to fall, or what steep new tariffs will mean for the cost of living. Get people to believe that tariffs will free the nation from the oppressive trade policies of the commercial enemies that surround it. Get them to think that there’s a ‘war’ going on, and that tariff is another, beautiful word for victory. Whether voters outside Trump’s base ever find his trade-war rhetoric convincing seems unlikely. A majority of U.S. adults (55%) believe the Trump administration is focusing too much on tariffs and 64% think it’s not doing enough to lower prices, according to a CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday. It’s not as if Americans squeezed by years of post-pandemic inflation will greet as “liberators” the higher costs that tariffs will add to cars, housing, food, and other regularly purchased goods.
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E-Commerce
A new study confirms what urban residents and advocates have known for decades: that Americas urban highways are barriers to social connection. The research, published this month in the journal PNAS, quantifies for the first time how highways have disrupted neighborhoods across the 50 biggest U.S. cities. Every single city studied showed less social connectivity between neighborhoods where highways are present. Nobody could put a number on the disruption, and now we can give a score to every single highway segment, says Luca Aiello, a professor at the IT University of Copenhagen and the studys lead author. By comparing the social connections among people living on either side of highways to a baseline model of the same city with no highways, researchers found that the three U.S. cities that have experienced the most social disruption from highway infrastructure are Cleveland, Orlando, and Milwaukee. To infer individual social ties, the study relied upon geolocated user data from social media platform X. Researchers assumed that two individuals were connected if they had mutual followers and estimated users home location based on where their posts were sent from. Aiello notes that there has long been qualitative or small-scale evidence that highways and other urban infrastructure are disruptive to local communities, especially Black neighborhoods. The problem is that nobody had any way to quantitatively measure how much this infrastructure impacts or decreases peoples opportunities to connect across these large highways, he says. If we can quantify and put a number on this, we can quantify the damage that it is doing to our social fabric. In all the cities studied, the barrier effect was stronger at shorter distances (less than about 3 miles) and weaker at longer distances (of about 12 miles and more). If someone wants to cross a multilane highway, it takes a lot of effort, explains coauthor Anastassia Vybornova of the IT University of Copenhagen. So highways connect over long distances, but divide over short ones. A long history of disruptive infrastructure Researchers found several examples of highways as interracial barriers, where a predominantly Black community lives on one side of the highway and a predominantly white community exists on the other. Detroits Eight Mile Road is a classic example. They also found examples of highways as intraracial barriers, where the highway runs directly through a predominantly Black community. Nashvilles I-40which split up a vibrant middle-class Black neighborhood, displacing about 80% of Nashvilles Black businesses, more than 600 homes, and close to 1,500 peopleis one of many such cases. Highway infrastructure has long been connected to racial segregation practices across the United States. In 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower passed the Federal Aid Highway Act, allotting $25 billion to build 41,000 miles worth of highways. The goal was to create a way to connect cities and address the poor road conditions. Ultimately, though, building highways through cities provided white suburbanites with convenient commutes to urban centers, while also allowing governments to remove entire communities of color in the name of urban renewal and slum clearance. As Black Americans began migrating to cities to pursue economic opportunities, wealthier white residents left urban areas for the suburbs in a phenomenon known as white flight. The interests of white suburbaniteswho wanted to use highways to access the city for work and entertainment but also wanted to protect their own property values and businessesheavily influenced infrastructure development plans. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, these interstates displaced more than 475,000 households and more than 1 million people. Today, community leaders and historians alike acknowledge that highways were a key tool for segregating and displacing Black communities during the 1950s and 60s. A call for policy solutions Research has long established negative long-term health impacts for those living and working near highways. The exposure to increased air and noise pollution, particularly with 300 meters of highways, can lead to an increased risk for lung disease, heart problems, premature birth, respiratory diseases, neurological disorders, and more. But more sparse social connections have very real consequences for residents health and economic well-being, too. [Highways] limit social opportunities, and those social opportunities are connected directly to financial opportunities, Aiello says. Over time we see how these communities continue to lose. City governments and urban planners have increasingly begun working to mitigate these effects by removing or capping highways, with former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg noting in 2021 that there is racism physically built into some of our highways. Last year, the Biden administration announced $3.3 billion for projects to reconnect neighborhoods divided by the federal highway system. Funds for this program, and others with equity goals, have been halted under the Trump administration. This story was originally published by Next City, a nonprofit news outlet covering solutions for equitable cities. Sign up for Next Citys newsletter for the latest articles and events.
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E-Commerce
Spatial intelligence is an emerging approach to deploying AI in the physical world. By combining mapping data with artificial intelligence, it aims to deliver smart data tied to specific locationseven indoors and across multiple stories. With this technology, maps become more intelligent, evolving into 3D representations that offer contextual information not just about places, but also about the people and activities within them. While Google Maps and other platforms have long mapped streets and roads, the vertical, or Z-axis (i.e. spaces above and below ground) has remained largely uncharted. Until now. The ability to project dynamic intelligence into our world has long been a staple of science fiction and has indeed inspired some real world innovations in Silicon Valley such as early cellphones at Motorola, which were inspired by the Star Trek communicator; or the metaverse, which was inspired by Neil Stephensons novel Snow Crash); any one of several technologies inspired by the film Minority Report, and holograms inspired by Star Wars, to name a few. Today, with large language models handling the delivery and interpretation of information, maps are struggling to catch up. Embedding AI more deeply into our physical environments not only gives contextual relevance to the structures and parts of our physical world, it creates new channels for data collection and analysisabout people, behaviors, and interactions. This means, in effect, that information about places is no longer limited to a flat map; it can now be dynamic, hyper-localized, and personal. Whos building spatial intelligenceand why Many companies are working on spatial intelligence from different angles. Some, like Descartes Labs, synthesize satellite, weather, and market data into actionable intelligence. Blacksky supports military and commercial partners by tracking rapid changes in geography. Mapbox customizes route planning by adding layers of intelligencelike dining options, scenic routes, or even music. Carto helps businesses analyze spatial data to identify patterns and turn those insights into strategy or revenue. While companies like Carto work on backend analytics, others like Mapbox provide direct consumer utility. And the AR industry continues to geolocate content. However, todays spatial analysis is still largely limited to flat maps. To broaden its utility, mapping must become more immersiveaccounting for 3D objects, vertical space, and highly localized environments. Another ambitious player in the field, World Labs, was cofounded by Stanford professor Fei-Fei Li, often called the godmother of AI. The company is building Large World Models (LWMs) that can perceive, generate, and interact with 3D worldscomplete with physics, semantics, and control. With $230 million in funding from a sizable roster of Silicon Valley luminary VCs and companies, World Labs aims to generate limitless virtual spaces, essentially layering privatized dimensional data onto the digital world. Dr. Lis dual roleleading this company while also advising the state of California on AI policyraises potential conflicts of interest, especially as other companies lack such access or influence. The energy problem behind the tech Building and operating spatial intelligence systems demands massive power, and already AIs energy consumption is straining the grid. As AIs energy appetite grows, some tech companies are turning to nuclear power. Microsoft, for example, is funding the restart of Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania; and Amazon has acquired land near the plant. Alphabet/Google signed a deal to purchase energy from multiple small modular reactors through Kairos Power, and Nvidia, has been backing nuclear-powered AI deployments with PG&E at Californias Diablo Canyon by managing the facilitys First Commercial Deployment of an On-Site Generative AI solution for their Nuclear Energy Sector. Meanwhile Meta, whose prior attempts towards nuclear energy were thwarted by bees, has not given up its effort, and has released an RFP seeking nuclear power partners with either small or large reactors to help them reach their energy usage goals. It is worrying that the companies that have created the move fast and break things ethos are now getting into the nuclear energy gameand selling their generative AI software to run these nuclear power plants. Many small distributed reactors are being proposed by startups with limited nuclear experience, some near population centers. There are also questions about the dangers and resilience of AI-run software and testing practices, especially when applied to systems as critical as nuclear energy. The return of nuclear power in service of AI and spatial intelligence raises serious concerns, given past nuclear efforts in the U.S. have been fraught with issues such as meltdowns, leaks, and equipment failures. Now, with climate change intensifying and weather patterns destabilizing, previously safe waste storage sites may also be at risk. Spatial intelligence holds undeniable appeal to many, both for utility and profit. The ability to access real-time, contextual information about any spaceeven vertical onesis indeed seductive. But underneath that convenience lies a complex reality: a world where every space could be subject to tracking, surveillance, and monetization. And that, combined with a nuclear push, plays into powering the tech sector and governments vision for new kinds of smart cities, hinted to have less regulation and broader experimentation, with big energy needs. As AIs energy demands grow, the quiet revival of nuclear power by tech folks suddenly disrupting power to build, restore, and run private nuclear power plants, may carry many more unforeseen consequences that will impact all of our lives.
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E-Commerce
Ren Barrus was just an intern at Cotopaxi, an outdoor gear and apparel company, when he noticed piles of used backpacks and jackets sitting in boxes at the warehouse. The company was only 3 years oldstill a startupbut already, customers were eagerly using its 61-year warranty. One broken zipper and the brand would send a completely new backpack, no questions asked. It wasnt that consumers were gaming the system; they just expected durability. Two years later, by then a team lead, Barrus launched a guerrilla repair program: When customers sent in their broken gear, hed drive it to his moms house in Utah where she would fix it up on her sewing machine, and ship it back. While no one at the company knew about it, this type of initiative was encouraged in Cotopaxis culture. Once he had a few success stories, he pitched it to leadership and they made it official in 2018. That homegrown effort laid the foundation for Cotopaxis now fully developed circularity program. Today, the brand starts with sustainably sourced materials and extends the life cycle of products through Mas Vida, its resale platform that sells pre-loved gear. Although the brand still offers a lengthy warranty, repairsnot replacementsare now the first line of defense. [Photo: Cotopaxi] Lifetime warranties, which have long served as a signal of quality, used to be the gold standard. But in an era of fast fashion, shifting consumer habits, and rising climate urgency, that promise doesnt carry the same weight. Some companies now use lifetime warranties more as a customer loyalty hack than a commitment to longevityoften because sending out a new product is cheaper than handling repairs or returns. While many customers love the convenience, others are growing tired of the waste. Reddit threads are full of users whove replaced an item multiple times, only to run into the same flaw again and again. Brands like Cotopaxi are rethinking what it really means to stand behind a productand theyre betting that todays consumers want something more lasting, thoughtful, and adaptable. From Policy to Practice Mattress company Saatva, which has been around for 15 years, is another example of a long-standing repair model. Through its Friends for Life warranty, the company replaces any defective mattress within the first two years, free of charge. After that, we instead encourage our customers to repair if there’s a damage or defect versus disposing of a perfectly fine mattress, says Rocco DiMilta, senior vice president of business operations. Of course, not every brand has the infrastructure to make this work. DiMilta explains that most bed-in-a-box mattress companies would struggle to manage returns and repairs through third-party services like FedEx or UPS, which can be prohibitively expensive. Saatva, by contrast, operates more than 150 distribution centers across the country, which makes localized logistics far more manageable. Still, even Saatva asks customers to share in the cost. We ask the customer to understand that moving merchandise around isn’t cheap and that’s why they pay $149 for the transportation, DiMilta says. [Photo: Saatva] While the in-house repair model works for Saatva and other brands, it also requires keeping spare parts in stock and having a team that can refurbish products. For highly technical repairs. Cotopaxi works with third-party partners: Sometimes, it’s neither desirable nor effective to try to build out your own programs. There are already amazing providers in this space, says Annie Agle, vice president of sustainability and impact at Cotopaxi. We have a really amazing technical repair partner called Rugged Thread. Companies can also outsource the job by having a network of affiliated repair businesses around the country that carry the parts or materials needed to repair the brands products, says Anna Sáez de Tejada Cuenca, circularity researcher and assistant professor of operations, information, and technology at IESE Business School in Spain. This also reduces the carbon footprint, because a customer can drop by a local store instead of shipping a product back. However, theres no one-size-fits-all model. Each company should consider what works best for their materials and product category. When repair isnt realistic, brands like Levis and Arcteryx have implemented buyback programsin which brands purchase the used product from a customer and keep the item in circulation through resale or material reuse. Designing for Longevity A repair program is only as good as the product it supports. Brands and manufacturers have to make things designed to last a long timedesigned to be repaired, says Sáez de Tejada Cuenca. A poorly made itemone with thin fabric or weak seamsmight fall apart before the zipper even has a chance to fail. [Photo: Cotopaxi] Brands like Cotopaxi are using repair insights to inform future design choices. If we see the same repair happening over and over again on the same product, then that information goes back to design and development so that on the next iteration of that product we can implement changes, Agle says. Some companies are exploring modular designproducts built with interchangeable or replaceable partsto extend usable life even further. Running brand Nnormal, for example, created a shoe with replaceable midsoles, offering runners a more sustainable alternative to tossing the whole shoe once the cushioning is worn out. Fairphone takes a similar approach with its smartphones: Users can replace everything from the battery to the camera module with just a screwdriver. Its a stark contrast to the sealed, short-lifespan design of most mainstream electronicsand a glimpse at what a more circular tech industry could look like. Building Buy-In Circularity programs work only if consumers understand and believe in them. We try to educate the consumer from the very first moment that they’re introduced to our brand, says DiMilta. We make sure that we explain that the high-quality materials can be refreshed rather than discarded, right? Customers’ expectations are not only lived up to, but they’re known ahead of time. [Photo: Saatva] For both Cotopaxi and Saatva, sustainability is baked into the brand ethos. Theyre attracting many of their customers because of their earth-friendly policiesso many were already on board with these changes from the start. But some larger brands dont have that kind of credibility. With less of a sustainability track record, companies may face more frictionand more skepticism. Still, theyre the ones with the reach to drive real change. Big brands that already have the name should start taking the lead on these kinds of programs because the big impact is on the mainstream and the mass consumption, says Sáez de Tejada Cuenca. It’s a culture shift that needs to happen at the consumer and brand level at the same time. Streamlining the Process For consumers to actually choose the more sustainable option, it has to be easy. A lot of people want to do better for the planet but dont have the money, or time, or skills, says Riani Kenyon, consumer behavior analyst at Canvas8. If their favorite brand gives them the tools that they need, its kind of like handing it on a platter like, Ill make this easy for you. It allows people to bridge the intention-action gap when it comes to sustainability. This means eliminating as many logistical barriers as possible: prepaid shipping labels, home pickupsanything to make repair or resale as easy as throwing something away. If the experience of participating in these business models is as similar as possible to dropping something in your trash bin, more people will participate just naturally, Sáez de Tejada Cuenca says. Saatva, which offers pickups, has found that when the repair process is simple and affordable, customers are often eager to take that route. Customers are more likely to opt for the repair rather than the replacement option because they know that they can get the product fixed at no additional cost other than the transportation, DiMilta says. That kind of frictionless experience also builds trust and brand loyalty. Still, Sáez de Tejada Cuenca notes that getting the average consumer to buy in remains extremely difficult. Different consumers might need different reasonings to hop on board, she says. For some, its about environmental values and reducing waste. For others, it might resonate more if framed around durability, craftsmanship, or even Made in America pride. In todays polarized climate, brands may need to adapt messaging depending on their audience. A New Mode of Ownership For many consumers, a lifetime warranty no longer feels relevant. People are going from working in the office to going freelance to moving to a new country, Kenyon says. When people don’t even know what the next year is going to look like for them, they want offers that keep up with their changing lifestyles. [Photo: Cotopaxi] Resale or rental opportunities are providing much needed flexibility for consumers who care about waste but dont necessarily want to commit to owning something forever. Increasingly, brands like Cotopaxi, Zara, and Ganni are bringing these offerings in-houselaunching their own resale and rental programs instead of relying on third-party platforms like ThredUp. Giving customers an easy, branded way to return, repair, or recirculate products builds more trustand keeps them coming back. All of this doesnt mean warranties should disappear. However, they need to be part of a broader, more thoughtful approach. We need to rethink how we produce and consume things, says Sáez de Tejada Cuenca. Do we want to make a profit out of large volumes and thin margins? Or do we want to sell much less volume and establish long-term engagement with the consumer?
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E-Commerce
Tres Xemeneies (Three Chimneys) is a former coal-fired power plant in Sant Adri de Bess. Think of it as Barcelonas own Battersea Power Station, London’s iconic power station that has been redeveloped into a technological hub (and Apple’s new London digs). Like Battersea, Barcelona’s plant is set to undergo a radical transformation into the new Catalunya Media Citya cutting-edge hub for digital arts, technology, and education. The winning design is called E la nave va, a nod to Federico Fellinis film of the same name, which translates to And the Ship Sails On, a reference to how this long-dead structure that resembles a three-mast ship will keep cruising history in a new era. According to its creatorsBarcelona-based Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes and New York-Barcelona firm Marvelthe project promises to honor the sites industrial legacy while propelling it into a sustainable, community-centric future. The project is slated to break ground in late 2025 and be completed by 2028. [Image: Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes/Marvel] Three Chimneys looks exactly how it sounds: a gigantic structure dominated by three 650-foot-tall chimneys. The brutalist plant was built in the 1970s and faced controversy even before its opening. Many of the residents of Badalona and Barcelona hated it both for the aesthetics and the environmental implications. Its problems continued in 1973, when workers building the station went on strike for better working conditions, and one person was killed by police. The company that ran the station was also sued because of the pollution it caused, and the plant eventually shuttered. [Photo: courtesy Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes/Marvel] The structure is imposing. Its giant concrete vaults, labyrinthine floors, and towering chimneys presented a unique challenge to preserving its industrial DNA while adapting it for the 21st century. Guido Hartray, founding partner of Marvel, tells me over email that the buildings dense structure and distinct spatial qualities guided the strategy. Rather than force modern elements onto the existing framework, the team used the buildings features to organize its function. [Image: Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes/Marvel] For instance, the lower floorswith their enclosed, cavernous spaceswill house vocational training classrooms and research labs, while the airy upper levels with their panoramic coastal views will host incubators and exhibition halls. We kept the existing structure largely unaltered, Hartray says, retaining its experiential qualities and limiting modifications. This approach ensures that the power plants raw, industrial essence remains palpable, even as it accommodates immersive media studios and a modern, 5,600-square-meter exhibition hall likened to Londons Tate Modern Turbine Hall. The intervention isnt a sharp contrast between old and new, Hartray notes. Its a dialogue. [Image: Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes/Marvel] The architects leveraged the buildings robust concrete skeletona relic of its industrial pastas a sustainability asset. Barcelonas mild climate allows the thermal mass of the concrete to passively regulate temperatures, reducing reliance on mechanical systems. Spaces requiring precise climate control, such as recording studios and laboratories, are nested in a building within a building, insulated from external fluctuations, according to the studios. The rooftop will double as a public terrace and energy hub, with 4,500 square meters of solar panels generating renewable power. This dual function not only offsets the energy demands of lighting and HVAC systems but also creates a communal vantage point connecting Barcelona, Sant Adri de Bess, and Badalona. The rooftops role as both infrastructure and gathering space embodies our vision of sustainability as a social and environmental practice, Hartray says. [Image: Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes/Marvel] From turbine hall to coastal balcony The projects most striking interventionthe transversal cuts that slice through the turbine hallemerged from a meticulous study of the buildings anatomy. Marvel and Garcés de Seta Bonet identified natural breaks in the long, warehouse-like structure, using these to carve openings that link the interior to the outdoors. These cuts create fluid transitions between the industrial hall and the surrounding landscape, stitching together the Barcelona-Badalona urban axis and the natural borders of sea and mountains. [Image: Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes/Marvel] The north facades new balcony, overlooking the Badalona coastline, epitomizes this connectivity. Jordi Garcés, cofounder of Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes, tells me via email that they have designed a proposal that plays with connections and knotstemporal, landscape, and territorial. One of the key features will be linking the city with the sea, where users and residents can share a large communal space. For the first time, there will be a balcony facing the city of Badalona, north of Barcelona. The architectural elements at different heights will offer new landscape perspectives, as if it were a land art piece. In this shared communal space, he says, residents and visitors alike can engage with the Mediterranean horizon. [Image: Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes/Marvel] The building is the core of Catalunya Media City, which is a project that the regional government says will democratize access to technology and creativity. It claims that it will house educational programs for more than 2,500 students annually, including vocational training; research incubators partnering with universities and corporations; immersive installations and performances in a monumental hall with 56-foot-tall ceilings; and production studios, including an auditorium, soundstages, and UX labs.
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E-Commerce
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