Stefan Sagmeister is one of the most famous designers in the world, known for projects ranging from album covers for the Rolling Stones and David Byrne to branding for Levis and BMW to his experimental documentary on happiness. With an emphasis on an artist’s hand, Sagmeister cut through a century of strict geometries to define the visual style of the ’90s in ever-evolving work continuing today.

But before any of these ideas was realized, first, it was sketched.

As part of a recent retrospective at SVA, running through October 12, Sagmeister reprinted about 35 years of his sketchbooks tracing back to his time as a college student, which contain the musings that brought him to the Lou Reed and Aerosmith covers and to the many moments for which he’d use his own body as a canvas.

Generously shared with Fast Company Design, it’s a delight to explore Sagmeister’s books—full of references that are sometimes iconic and sometimes lost to the churn of brands and search engines. Such is the result of work never intended to be seen by the public, even for an auteur known for putting everything of himself out there.  

On his first day of sabbatical in Madrid, Sagmeister connected with me to answer every question I have ever had about his sketchbooks and the work of drawing in the creative process.

First off, I can’t believe you’re taking this call on your sabbatical.

I’m not the [kind of] person who could sit around on a beach drinking and reading. I can read an hour a day or so. So it’s a working sabbatical, but I work on stuff I normally wouldn’t work on. On my days here, I created a list of things I’m interested in . . . then I divided it into five hours a week if important, or one hour a week if not. It’s like in grade school. I do a little sketching, and after 2 to 3 months, I have so much going I don’t have to plan anymore.

There are so many recurring motifs in your books. So let’s go through a few. You start most sketchbooks with a quote. Generally a newspaper clipping, actually. Why? Does this center your thoughts?

Of course, these were never meant to be shown. I basically made a sketch in my latest sketchbook today, but I’m not self-conscious about it, meaning this is completely for me. 

If there’s a newspaper article in it, it’s something I found hilarious, ridiculous, or fantastic. It’s not really a quote that has an importance in my life.

I remember one excerpt you have where a writer suggests throwing out all your annoying CD jewel cases. Which begins a book after you’ve probably drawn 1,000 different layouts for albums you were working on.

Interesting! (laughs)

You have this recurring motif where you place speech bubbles over dry stock photography. Making little stories.

We did it for a book for David Byrne, and he just gave me some sort of corporate text. And it’s fantastic to work with David because he’s sort of the ideal collaborator. He gives the direction but then leaves a lot of room for interpretation. If I remember correctly, in this case, he gave me some sort of corporate business-gobbledygook text, and we made seven or 10 spreads out of it using stock photography.

There are other themes to your work that show up in sketches. Dismemberment and sliced appendages is a big one. What drew you to that?

I haven’t used it in many many years, but I think for a long time, I believed it was a strong image. Like, a sliced poodle is pretty on one side and quite cuddly, and when you sliced it, it’s the opposite. So you have this graphic contrast in a single image. And I think in graphics—in general, the profession—you’re always looking for contrasts. In many ways, the work I’m doing now, where I insert some sort of minimal shape (that’s ultimately a data visualization) into 19th century figurative art, also works in that same direction of being very contrasty.

In general, it’s using contrast as means of visual interest—which is ultimately my bread and butter.

Visual contrast or topical contrast? 

Both. Contrast is a technique to create visual interest. 

How did you use these books? Because while I know you say they weren’t meant to be seen, they do feel curated. 

Yes. You are totally right. There’s a whole other class of sketchbooks that’s smaller and much less orderly and have a lot of crap in there. Basically, what you’re seeing here starts when I was at Pratt Institute, which would have been 1986 or ’87. So you’re probably seeing 35 years of sketchbooks. 

What you’re looking at here [are] mildly curated sketches. I found that sometimes the good stuff was beneficial for me to save because I could look back or it might trigger something else. That’s probably why they appear relatively orderly. 

I might have done a scrappy little sketch in a small sketchbook, which I might cut out for a large sketchbook, or I might resketch it because this is something that might lead to something else in the future. But I always have tons of smaller sketchbooks running [aside from this collection]. I found some of the stuff in these sketchbooks was interesting, but most was just crap. I doodled something down or did some math. Some have nothing but math because I’m figuring out how big a form should be as a percentage for some statistics I’m visualizing.

So these were your references for later? You found value in that?

Here and there, yes. Not necessarily to find ideas for reuse. But much more likely, if I’m working on something totally different, to go back and it might trigger something that would go into a maybe different direction—something that might have had nothing to do with the work I’m working on. There’s also a little history: I left various traces on how I arrived on something, but that’s less important [for me].

The Rolling Stones’s Bridges to Babylon cover feels so like that—you really see musings become a formalized cover.

It wasn’t created for a viewer. But at the end of the job, I put the stuff that was also coming along, Polaroids of things I would glue as well. I remember the Stones wanted to have me sign a contract where they own all my sketches, and I said that’s not going to be happening because they’re in sketchbooks and I’m not going to give you my sketchbook. And they agreed to it! But then they borrowed one of the sketchbooks for an exhibition, and I almost forgot about it until years later.

I did find myself almost hallucinating visual motifs becoming actualized ideas over the years. I think back to a collection of chairs for two New York Times Magazine covers, then I swear I started to see a chair silhouette pop in now and again before you created your physical Darwin Chair decades later.

The Darwin Chair is an interesting thing. I do believe this did come out of the sketchbook. I might have drawn it 10 years earlier in Indonesia on sabbatical, but only later had the time to have that thing become a real chair as opposed to a sketch in a sketchbook. In this case, it really was something that was a little sketch there and years later, it became an actual chair which was bought by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

Ultimately, I don’t really put any value on the ideas in the sketchbook. It only has value when it’s done, created, and out in the world. And it happened the other way! I’ve made a sketch in the sketchbook, nothing happens to it, and three years later there is someone else who made it into a real thing. And I’m like, “Fuck I shoulda done it,” but I was too lazy or ignored it.

Somewhere in the books, you’ll see a photoshoot we did for a metal band. It went nowhere. But it was kind of gothic typography with nails hammered through it. And years later, I did a promotional book from a photographer who had the same gothic typefaces with nails and the shadow going in the same direction. There was no way this photographer could have seen the stuff in my sketchbook! But I took a photo and sent it to him and he was just amazed. It was not just the same idea, but the exact same execution!

Part of the fun of these books is just seeing your hand at work. You illustrate objects and totally bespoke typefaces so comfortably. Were you always good at drawing? Did you study?

When I was a child, I was not a particularly good drawer. When I was in grade school, there was a classmate who could draw spaceships and people would give them their lunch for his spaceship drawings. This was not me! I was a very mediocre drawer, even in high school. I came to design through a magazine. At 15, I started to write a bit for a local youth magazine. When the person who did the layout left, I took over the layout and realized I liked it more than the writing.  

Through that, I wanted to study design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. There was a conservative professor who wouldn’t take any students who couldn’t draw. I failed the entry exam incredibly. But in the year after I failed the entry exam, I basically went to a small design school but forced myself to do nature studies for hours every day. That’s how I learned to draw, and drawing is a learnable skill. I’m sure if you want to draw like David Hockney there’s talent involved, but if you want to draw to be a good [designer], that’s totally learnable. And I can guarantee if you have the desire . . . you’re going to become great. And it’s going to sometimes be frustrating because you have good days and bad days, but if you do it for a year, you’ll be a 100 times better drawer than you are now. 

You’d make it into Vienna!

I was [still] not very good. The Vienna realists were a small group of artists who drew these fantastically realistic paintings, and they could draw like crazy, but they were very narrow-minded . . . for me it was unbelievably frustrating to be in a drawing class with these people who could draw unbelievably well. But I was always good enough to show a client what I was thinking, or to basically make a sketch of an idea we’d then realize in photography or much more realistic illustration.

It’s interesting because as a designer, your aesthetic is largely defined by your hand. And that’s stayed true, even as you’ve lived through a transition from analog to digital tools. I’m curious how you’ve managed to work between those two mediums so long.

In the ’80s, when corporate modernism ruled (and even into the aughts), so much of the desire of designers was to make it look like a machine made it. Which always seemed completely ridiculous to me. That seemed like an interesting goal in the 1920s when modernism was invented, and you could say, “Let’s get rid of the 19th century stink and all that ornamentation and bring in the machine age of the industrial revolution,” but by the 1980s this seemed ridiculous. 

We wanted everything we could design or create to look like it was made by humans, by a person, and a person is talking to you. 

You see this on a completely different level now, at how unpopular anything is that has that AI stink on it. Within months! It was unbelievable to see [that] it went from, “Wow!” to “I can’t stand this shit.” I think that’s very, very much connected to this idea that ultimately we don’t very much like the machine made.

I agree with you, until I look at the greatest Apple products, or even the way photography is super saturated today (because Google will tell you people invariably choose to look at less natural, more contrasty colors). We do desire the imprint of machines!

Absolutely, I’m looking at a super slick lamp right now that would be impossible to blow by hand. And no, I think it’s ultimately probably the mix of the two. I don’t think either one is going to go away, and both of them have their own gorgeousness. I was possibly the very last generation that, when I started studying type in art school, I started completely manually. The first year we painted 10 pt type with a brush, with serifs and things. Not that I’m proud of that at all, but I think it’s the combination where the truth ultimately lies. 

And I can see people who grew up with computers not bothering with manual sketches because, if you’re really good digitally, you’re probably not hindered by the tools. I myself am much, much faster figuring something out with a pencil than I would be digitally. Not for everything, but many things.

Example? 

Today, in the morning, I sketched an installation—an idea for some future exhibition somewhere. It was very clear I was going to make a sketch with markers and colored pencils because I’d be much faster sketching it than I could do it digitally. But I wouldn’t show this to a gallery or museum. The next step would be we visualize this thing in the studio, make visualization that would involve digital programs to visualize it. Then in this case, we’d ultimately build it in 3D. Because we might make an injection mold from it to create the actual thing. 

Injection mold for an installation? 

Oh, in this case, I’d want tens of thousands of it.

Talking to designers, it’s clear that AI is becoming the sketch tool of our age. You mentioned the soulessness of AI renders, and I’m really of two minds on this. On one hand, you lose the hand of the person and the mastery behind it. On the other hand, as someone who sucked at drawing for most of his life and walked away from it, I would have felt empowered to realize ideas.

It will definitely affect the work. I have no doubt about it. If you look at the history of design, we always follow tech with new developments. Design is completely influenced by technical innovation. Starting from the stone axe, all the way through the Roman typography with serifs for being part of our tools, to printing to Gutenberg to desktop publishing and digitalization, all the way now to AI. Basically all this technology came and it had a gigantic influence of where design ultimately went. Especially when you’re talking about communication design and product design.

I’m very much, as you are, of two minds. I could probably argue it both ways . . . and people who have a much clearer crystal ball when they look at AI than I do, they are also of two minds. There are experts who think it’s going to be fantastic, a disaster, and in the middle. 

I’ve spent the past five years very much looking at the long term, and it’s become clear to me that after any initial time of insecurity, where lots of crap was developed, we tended to use our technology more for better than worse. My usual line is, “With the invention of the hammer more people built their house than killed their neighbor.” Moving forward, that’s my prediction. We’ll ultimately have this time now where we have so many side effects of AI that we will have to first eliminate or find rules against them. As they disturb us. But ultimately more people will use AI for something good than use it for something bad. That would be my guess. Ultimately, I’m positive about it. 

The United Auto Workers is taking steps toward holding strikes that could interfere with some of Stellantis’s operations in the United States. Stellantis, formed in 2021 through a merger, is the international automaker of Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, and other vehicles.

These labor actions would be happening less than one year after the UAW secured historic deals with Detroit’s three big automakers that followed strikes by thousands of its members.

The Conversation U.S. asked Marick Masters, a Wayne State University scholar of labor, politics, and business issues, to explain why the union could be on the verge of a new round of strikes and other developments that are keeping the UAW in the news.

What’s behind the rift between the UAW and Stellantis?

On September 16, 2024, the UAW filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against Stellantis.

The UAW is accusing the company of violating the commitment it made in the 2023 labor deal to invest in the U.S. Its biggest concerns are over the lack of progress seen so far with Stellantis’s planned reopening of an idled factory in Belvidere, Illinois, and the establishment of additional operations in that small city. The other main point of contention is that the company reportedly plans to stop producing Dodge Durango SUVs in Detroit and to assemble them in Mexico instead.

Stellantis “wants to go back on the deal,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in September, in reference to the contract his union agreed on with the company in 2023. “We intend to enforce our contract, and to make Stellantis keep the promise”—possibly by holding a strike.

The automaker denies breaking the terms of the labor contract it signed with the UAW in the fall of 2023. That deal included clauses that allow the company to shift investments and operations to new locations as market conditions and the company’s financial performance require.

Stellantis’s sales have declined sharply around the world, including in North America over the past year. The company’s profits fell by nearly 50% in the first half of 2024. Stellantis has laid off almost 2,500 workers at a plant in Warren, Michigan, and the company has indicated that it could furlough more employees.

The UAW argues that Stellantis has other options, such as holding back on raises for its top executives.

What’s going on with Ford?

The UAW announced that it had authorized a strike at midnight on September 26, 2024, that would have involved about 500 tool-and-die workers at the Dearborn, Michigan, factory where Ford produces its popular F-150 pickup trucks.

UAW Local 600 and Ford had been negotiating for more than a year on a local agreement that expired in 2023 at the same time the national agreement did. The two sides reached a tentative agreement on September 25, 2024, averting a strike.

The main points of contention with Ford were job security, outsourcing and wage parity for skilled trades.

How has Fain performed to date?

I believe Fain has earned high marks for his performance since taking office in March 2023. He led the UAW through an innovative strike, using a new strategy to simultaneously negotiate contracts with Detroit’s Big Three automakers. Those deals substantially increased wages and provided for billions of dollars in new investments in the U.S. that would enhance job stability for the union’s members.

While leading the UAW through the 2023 strikes and seeking to attract new members, Fain has opened and expanded direct lines of communication with the union’s rank and file. For example, he frequently does livestreamed presentations to update members and make important announcements. He also makes many visits to strike and organizing sites to convey the UAW’s message to members and their local communities.

But there are setbacks and tensions, too.

Fain and the rest of the UAW’s leadership are still contending with a strict oversight process led by Neil Barofsky, the federal monitor for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. He was appointed in 2021 to make sure that the union would be corruption-free following a settlement the UAW reached in 2020 with the federal government. The settlement closed a multiyear corruption probe that resulted in convictions and prison sentences for several of the union’s leaders who were found guilty of embezzlement, racketeering, and other crimes.

Barofsky is now investigating allegations that Fain retaliated against two other senior union officials for their refusal to follow orders they deemed to be improper, such as providing benefits for Fain’s fiancée. Barofsky has also accused the union of being too slow to release documents.

How is the UAW’s drive to gain new members going?

The UAW launched an ambitious organizing campaign in late 2023 to unionize the more than a dozen nonunion automakers operating in the U.S. It has won one major victory so far.

Workers at Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted to join the UAW in April 2024. The union is now negotiating its first contract with the German company.

But a month later, the UAW lost an organizing vote at the Mercedes-Benz plants in Alabama, where 56% of rank-and-file workers voted against UAW representation.

The UAW has not filed any other petitions with the NLRB to vote on union membership at a nonunion plant.

What’s the UAW’s role in the 2024 elections?

After securing additional commitments from the Biden administration for a more union-friendly transition to the production of electric vehicles, the UAW endorsed President Joe Biden. It endorsed Kamala Harris soon after Biden dropped his reelection bid—as have most labor unions.

But that doesn’t mean every UAW member will vote for Harris in 2024. Only about two-thirds of union members believe the Democratic Party best serves their interests, according to a 2024 Gallup Poll.

Some UAW members who don’t back Harris support Donald Trump, even though the former president has declared that he “hates” paying overtime and supports the firing of striking workers, which is against the law. Other UAW members oppose the Biden administration’s policies in the Middle East.

Despite that division, the UAW had committed to turning out votes for Harris, especially in Michigan, an important swing state where about 130,000 of its members live.

“I believe we’re gonna win Michigan,” Fain said in an early August interview with CBS’s Face the Nation. “We got to keep the pedal to the metal until the end of this thing. And ensure it happens, and it’s going to happen.”

Marick Masters is a professor emeritus of business at Wayne State University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Two students in Munich, sipping beers on their dormitory couch in 2022, chatted about a recent lecture describing the use of banana fibers in Colombia to make sustainable building materials.

Wouldn’t it be great, the Technical University of Munich students joked, to do something similar with a local product in Bavaria—perhaps with the waste from the region’s famous hops?

The next day, they began researching. Within months, they’d launched a startup called HopfON—a play on Hopfen, the German word for hops—that’s now scaling up from its lab models and pilot project to real-world products.

While HopfON’s goal is to reduce waste created by the construction and beer industries by making products that use the leaves, spines, and vines left over from the hops harvest, the Society of Hop Research in the heart of Bavaria is breeding new varieties that reduce the plant’s excess from the beginning.

The figures surrounding waste are staggering. More than one-third of all waste generated in the European Union comes from the construction and demolition industry, according to an EU report published in January.

And when hops are harvested each fall in Germany’s Hallertau region—the world’s largest hops-growing area that’s about an hour north of Oktoberfest—for every 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of material inside the cones that can be used to brew beer, there are 3.5 kilograms (7.7 pounds) of wasted biomass from the rest of the plant. That’s a ratio that’s roughly 20% usable product to 80% waste.

Some of the hops waste can be used for fertilizers, and a portion can be sold to biogas plants to produce energy. But the majority is unusable for farmers, who may be forced to rent additional farmland to dump piles of the waste away from their crops. The piles can ferment and emit greenhouse gases—and sometimes catch fire.

“We saw a huge potential in sourcing locally and also using a waste stream that was neglected by basically most people,” HopfON entrepreneur Mauricio Fleischer Acuña told the Associated Press.

HopfON seeks to reduce the construction industry’s waste, and its planet-warming emissions, by limiting the need for finite resources through hops-made products. The startup has also launched a circular model where customers can return their products to be remade into new materials.

During the fall harvest, the team takes the fresh material from farms and dries it immediately, Fleischer Acuña said, then removes any impurities and recyclable metals. It’s chopped up and separated out for a patent-pending process that uses binding agents already in the plant to turn the biomass into products like acoustic panels, thermal insulation and building boards.

A coworking space in the southwestern German city of Mannheim was the startup’s first customer for the acoustic panels. A future plan is to make drywall alternatives.

Fleischer Acuña and his partners—Marlene Stechl and Thomas Rojas Sonderegger, the two students in the university dorm—also plan to widen their business to use other organic materials and will eventually change their name from HopfON to Onmatter.

The trio is not the only group in Bavaria seeking to solve this problem. At the Society of Hop Research in Hüll, researchers have developed new varieties of hops that are more sustainable and produce less waste. Managing Director Walter König says the new varieties mean that for every 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of cones, there are just 1.2 to 1.4 kilograms (2.6 to 3.1 pounds) of waste.

Perhaps most importantly, König said the research did not sacrifice the quality of the hops—meaning they ultimately retained the traditional taste that brewers, and beer lovers, want.

“It’s a very sophisticated thing to bring them all together for a new variety that smells good and that fits to the beers that we need,” he added.

—By Stefanie Dazio, Associated Press

Pietro De Cristofaro contributed to this report.

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Email newsletters are great. When there’s an update, it comes straight to your inbox. You don’t have to check a web page over and over again.

But many websites don’t offer email updates. You may find yourself repeatedly checking a page to learn when a product comes out, for instance, or to see when new show dates are announced, or to discover when a company posts new job opportunities.

These are just a few examples, of course—there are endless reasons you might find yourself refreshing a website to look for something new.

Good news: There’s a better way. The tool I’m about to introduce you to takes that page-checking work off your plate—keeping an eye on any page on your behalf and then letting you know whenever an update is made.

It even has an AI feature that’ll summarize the changes for you—although it’s equally effective if you don’t care about AI, too.

Unearth all sorts of little-known tech treasures with my free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. A spiffy new discovery in your inbox every Wednesday!

Watch for web updates the easy way

This web-based tool is a convenient, easy-to-use solution for checking any web page for updates. Whenever something you care about gets updated, you’ll get an email complete with an AI summary of the changes.

➜ It’s called ​Visualping​, and you can use it in your browser on both phones and computers. It’s a freemium tool, and the free plan will let you monitor up to five pages, checking them for updates once per day. That’s plenty for most people.

⌚ You can get started in about 30 seconds:

• First, open the Visualping website​ in whatever web browser you like on any device you’re using.
• Type or paste the address of the web page you want to monitor into the box on the page.
• Wait while Visualping loads the page . . . .
• Then, draw a box over the specific part of the page you want to monitor for updates.

You’ll have to enter your email address to receive the alerts and configure a few other simple settings. Then, just click “Start free monitoring.”

Visualping will guide you through creating an account. Again, you won’t have to pay a thing unless you want to go beyond five different web pages or once-a-day check-ins.

Once your account is created, you’ll have a convenient dashboard on the Visualping site where you can keep track of all the pages you’re monitoring for updates.

And, most important, you’ll get updates delivered straight to your inbox anytime one of your pages changes—complete with a skimmable AI-generated summary.

When it comes to keeping an eye on important pages and staying on top of how they evolve over time, it doesn’t get much easier than that.

• Visualping works entirely on the web, no matter what browser or type of device you’re using.
• It’s free for once-daily monitoring of up to five pages. For more, you’ll have to pay for ​a subscription​—starting at $10 per month.
• Visualping’s ​privacy policy​ says the service may use your usage information to personalize ads. The service makes money by selling subscriptions, though—not selling your data.

Want even more productivity-boosting goodness? Check out my free Cool Tools newsletter for an instant introduction to an AI-powered supertool that transcribes your brain—and another off-the-beaten-path gem every Wednesday!

I am not a business coach. But as life in corporate America shifts, I’ve become a version of one to many of my C-suite clients who now find themselves in a career holding pattern. As the ground shifts beneath these executives, they are suddenly mighty curious about the lessons I’ve learned from four decades of navigating the kind of uncertainty freelancers deal with all the time.

Perhaps a new CEO is minimizing your role or changing your title in order to engineer your exit without a big payout. Maybe you’re waiting for stock to vest or struggling to find the right new position before moving on. In any case, you are uncomfortable in this unfamiliar role: You feel stuck, instead of just in neutral.

Because executives are high achievers whose careers have often been linear progressions, they view success in black-and-white terms. My job is to help them live in the grays, using counsel based on the self-reliance and resilience I’ve earned in my 40 years as a freelancer. 

Executive tip: Save yourself

I tell my C-suite clients that I had to learn the hard way that you can’t care more than they do. (“They” being whoever is in the hierarchy you’re dealing with.)  Whether your instincts and experience on projects are not being valued because of CEO ego, corporate groupthink, or data blindness, you job isn’t to save that project, but to save yourself. Have the self-respect to hold your ideas for the right audience. It is impossible to inspire the disinterested, and trying will only make you feel like a failure when you never had a chance. 

Executive tip: Extract value

To paraphrase Hunter Thompson, you bought the ticket, now take the ride. You’ve done the work to earn your spot in the room, so now you have to find ways to continue to extract value. This is not Quiet Quitting. It’s actively accepting where you are right now and putting effort into finding the benefits that are undoubtably there—because there’s always a worthwhile takeaway, even in difficult situations. When there’s a lack of positive engagement with your hierarchical C-suite colleagues, turn your energy toward the people who report to you—those who may hold your experience in greater esteem. Call for general brainstorming sessions just to hear their ideas, participate in their project development at earlier stages instead of waiting for fully baked ideas to hit your desk, make the time to be a better mentor. Not only will this enrich your current situation, when you go off to another executive position, you may find yourself in need of their skills, which you now better understand; and their loyalty, which you’ve now earned.

Executive tip: Incremental accomplishments

To equate your own success with the successful completion of an idea that’s accomplished by a group will break your heart. You have to find value in incremental accomplishment. When you are not able to control a project’s final execution, it’s useful to break your idea-to-implementation process down into stages and acknowledge your accomplishment at each interval (to yourself). That way, even when the idea doesn’t work the way you envisioned—and it rarely does—you will still feel some sense of satisfaction, instead of judging your own success by the secondary work of others.

Executive tip: Highlight reel

Be sure to create a highlight reel. In addition to the detailed multipage résumés they already have (which most people won’t ever read completely), I urge my old clients to develop a one-pager that focuses on what they do best. Their super power. This clarity helps them—as well as their headhunters—direct their job search. To make the information easier and more interesting to read, I always suggest they hire a designer. A good one. Because these days, you are your own retail footage. Invest in your storefront.

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Last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported another increase in its weekly refi index, as refinancing continues to slowly gain traction. Given that the average 30-year fixed-mortgage rate, as tracked by Mortgage News Daily, has dropped from this year’s high of 7.52% in April to 6.25% as of September 25, some borrowers who secured 7.0% to 8.0% rates over the past 24 months are taking advantage of the recent rate dip for relief.

Here’s how the Mortgage Refinance Index reading for the third week of September compares to that of previous years.

2018: 947

2019: 1,928

2020: 3,580

2021: 3,391

2022: 588

2023: 415

2024: 1,133

The recent refinancing jump raises the question: How much room does refi, given current mortgage rates, actually have to climb?

Given that 76% of outstanding mortgage borrowers have an interest rate below 5.0%, the pool of potential traditional refis will likely have a lower ceiling this cycle. (Many experts across the industry agree, some suggesting instead that home equity loans could see a resurgence.)

To obtain a more precise estimate of potential refinancing activity, ResiClub reached out to Intercontinental Exchange.

Intercontinental Exchange—a financial services giant that owns the New York Stock Exchange and in 2023 completed its purchase of housing finance giant Black Knight for $11.9 billion—has a proprietary calculation to estimate how many mortgage borrowers, based on their underlying rates and current rates, are “in the money” for a potential refinance.

To be “in the money,” a mortgage borrower’s current interest rate must be at least 0.75 percentage points (75 basis points) above the 30-year fixed-mortgage rate.

Back in July 2021, when the average 30-year fixed-mortgage rate was 2.80%, 25.2 million mortgage borrowers were “in the money” for a refi. By June 2024, when the average 30-year fixed-mortgage rate was 6.87%, that number was just 1.3 million.

As of September 17, 2024, when the average 30-year fixed-mortgage rate was 6.07%, that number was up to 4.2 million.

Big picture: The recent dip in mortgage rates has unlocked some potential refinances, helping to lift refis off their ultralow levels over the past two years. However, as of September 2024, the total number isn’t substantial—especially compared to past refinance booms.

Over the coming year, most mortgage rate forecasters expect a slight drop in mortgage rates.

Here’s the forecast for the average 30-year fixed-mortgage rate in Q4 2025:

Mortgage Bankers Association: 5.80%

Fannie Mae: 5.70%

Wells Fargo: 5.55%

Moody’s/Mark Zandi: 5.50%

If these forecasts are directionally correct, it could unlock some more potential refis.

As an adult, you’ve gotten used to certain things about your parents that your childhood never prepared you for—like your mom’s affinity for pickleball or your dad’s sudden fascination with ancient alien documentaries. But the frailty that comes with aging can be the most difficult change to see in your parents. You might be tempted to ignore the signs of aging in your parents, but it’s likely that they will need some kind of eldercare in the future.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, someone turning 65 today has a 70% chance of needing some kind of long-term care in the future. No matter how well prepared your parents are, some part of that care will probably fall to you.

Here’s how to afford the cost of caring for your elderly parents.

What is eldercare?

Seniors have varying needs that depend entirely on their health and situation. That means eldercare can mean something different for nearly every family. Your mom and dad’s eldercare might include any of these types of caregiving:

• Adult day care: This kind of daily program offers care and planned activities during the work week. Adult day care is typically for seniors who either need supervised care or are isolated or lonely; it provides any family members who are caring for an aging parent at home with a needed respite. Five days of adult day care per week costs an average of $24,000 per year.
• Home health aide: Whether your elderly parent still lives independently or lives with you, a home health aide can help them with daily activities, such as bathing, grooming, dressing, eating, and mobility, as well as monitor their physical and mental health and check vital signs. Forty-four hours per week of in-home care from a home health aide costs an average of $75,500 per year.
• Assisted-living facility: Moving your parents into assisted living will allow them to continue living independently in a private residence in a larger facility that offers meals and planned activities, but also provides easy access to nursing care and medical professionals on site. While assisted living can be an excellent option, it doesn’t come cheap, costing an average of $64,000 per year.
• Nursing home: If your parents need consistent medical care or 24-hour supervision, you may choose a nursing home to provide their care. These facilities generally offer three meals a day and assistance with daily activities, as well as rehabilitation services if needed. Medicare generally does not cover nursing home care, and a private room in a nursing home costs an average of $117,000 per year.

Paying for eldercare

Very few people have the kind of cash laying around to pay out-of-pocket for these kinds of services. And even if your parents planned ahead for their graying years, shelling out anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 per month can put a dent in even the best-laid retirement plans.

Unfortunately, most eldercare is not covered by Medicare, and your family will be stuck paying out-of-pocket for your parents’ care needs. Medicaid does pay for some of this kind of care, but your parents will have to have completely exhausted their assets to qualify for Medicaid.

That does not mean you’re stuck choosing between your mom’s care and your groceries, however.

Eldercare options

There are several options available that could help improve the affordability of your parents’ care, including:

• Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE): This government program provides eldercare services to seniors who would otherwise need to receive nursing home care. Seniors who join PACE have a dedicated team of medical professionals who help coordinate their care. PACE is a joint program between Medicare and Medicaid that is only available in 33 states and the District of Columbia. You can find out if it is available in your home state using the PACE Finder site.
• State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP): This nationally available government program offers one-on-one counseling and assistance with Medicare and Medicaid. It can help you and your parents navigate the options and programs available to you so you can find the least expensive eldercare options. You can find your local SHIP office via their website.
• Long-term-care (LTC) insurance: If your parents are already retired, long-term care insurance may be a nonstarter, since this kind of insurance policy grows more expensive as you age. The best time to purchase this insurance is typically prior to age 60, as the premiums can become prohibitively expensive with age. Additionally, a negative health diagnosis could mean the insurer denies your LTC coverage. But LTC insurance pays for care in a variety of settings, including home health care, adult day care, and nursing and assisted living facilities.
• Life insurance: Some life insurance policies offer what’s grimly known as an “accelerated death benefit.” This benefit allows the insured individual to access tax-free cash advances while still alive. The advanced money is subtracted from the proceeds the beneficiaries would receive after the insured individual dies. Even if your parents’ current life insurance policy does not offer this benefit, you may be able to add it as a rider.

Getting paid for eldercare

Taking care of an aging parent in your own home may be the most affordable option for your family—unless it interferes with your ability to work outside the home. For families in this position, you may be able to get paid for your time caring for your loved one at home.

Some state Medicaid programs will pay family caregivers for their in-home care work. This means your loved one must be eligible for Medicaid for you to receive payment for caregiving. In addition, the program is not available in every state, and the requirements, rules, and amount you are paid varies from one state to the next. To find out if payment for caregiving is available in your state, contact your state’s Medicaid office.

If your parents are not on Medicaid, you may still be able to get paid for your caregiving. Some long-term-care insurance policies will allow family members to receive payment for caregiving as part of the LTC insurance coverage.

If you’d like to be the one helping Mom or Dad, these options may allow you to afford the time away from your day job.

Making the years golden with Mom and Dad

Taking care of your parents as they age can be challenging, rewarding—and expensive. Learning what types of eldercare are available can help you make the best choices for your parents’ needs, and investigating government programs and private financing can help you figure out how to afford it.

Because it’s much better to spend your time listening to Dad explain how aliens built Stonehenge than stressing about his care.

For many Americans, pumpkins mean that fall is here. In anticipation, coffee shops, restaurants, and grocery stores start their pumpkin flavor promotions in late August, a month before autumn officially begins. And shoppers start buying fresh decorative winter produce, such as pumpkins and turban squash, in the hot, sultry days of late summer.

But these fruits—yes, botanically, pumpkins and squash are fruits—don’t last forever. And they may not even make it to Halloween if you buy and carve them too early.

As a plant pathologist, gardener, and self-described pumpkin fanatic, I have both boldly succeeded and miserably failed at growing, properly carving, and keeping these iconic winter squash in their prime through the end of October. Here are some tips that can help your epic carving outlast the Day of the Dead.

Pick a healthy pumpkin and transport it carefully

This may seem obvious, but shop for a pumpkin in the same way that you shop the produce aisle. Whether you plan to carve them or not, choose pumpkins that are not damaged, dented, or diseased. Is the stem loose? Is there a clear break in the rind? Are there any water-soaked spots on the exterior?

Post-harvest diseases—those that occur after the pumpkin is removed from the vine—can happen anywhere between the field where they were grown and your front step. A bruise or crack will allow opportunistic fungi, bacteria, water molds, and small insects to invade and colonize your pumpkins. Keeping the rind defect-free and stem intact ensures your prized pumpkin a longer shelf life.

The trip home also matters. Most of us transport pets, kids, muddy hiking boots, and food in our cars, which makes our vehicles giant petri dishes harboring common environmental molds and bacteria. Some of those microbes could colonize your unsuspecting pumpkins.

Secure your pumpkins en route to your house so they don’t suffer bruising or stem breakage. My family often uses seat belts to protect ours. Once home, don’t carry your pumpkin by the stem, which can lead to breakage, especially if it’s big and heavy.

Keep them clean and dry

Pumpkins spend most of their lives in fields, developing on top of soil that teems with fungi, bacteria, water molds, and soil-dwelling animals like nematodes, insects, and mites. Removing these organisms, and any eggs they may have affixed to your pumpkin’s rind, will help preserve it.

To get rid of them, wipe down your pumpkins, preferably with a bleach wipe or two. This is especially important if you plan to carve them: Piercing the dirty rind with a sharp tool will introduce these eager visitors deeper into the heart of your pumpkin. Be sure to use clean tools as well. Microbes can reside and multiply on small amounts of pumpkin debris stuck in the teeth of dirty carving knives.

Even if you’re not carving your pumpkin, wiping it down isn’t a bad idea, since it may have small bruises or cracks that are easy to overlook.

Hollow pumpkins out thoroughly, but don’t overdo it

Much of the work of carving a pumpkin involves separating the fibrous strands and seeds inside it from the harder pulp that makes up the pumpkin’s walls. As you scoop out the pumpkin’s innards, thoroughly inspect the inside walls for soft rotten patches or dark tissues, which may have been colonized pre- or post-harvest by bacteria, fungi, or water molds. Diseased pumpkins sometimes produce an off-putting odor, so use your nose as well.

If you find these issues as you carve, you may want to try carving another pumpkin. You can also paint your pumpkins instead of carving them, which averts the need to peer inside.

Some online tutorials and YouTube videos recommend thinning out pumpkins’ walls to better allow candle or LED light to pass through. But if you make the walls too thin, your jack-o’-lantern’s fangs will become inward-curving skin tabs as the pulp desiccates and deforms. A toothless jack-o’-lantern scares no one.

Another advantage of maintaining thicker walls is that it enables you to try a 3D carving. This involves shaping the pumpkin’s surface as you would carve a piece of wood, without breaking through the shell, and can produce dramatic results.

Some people soak their carved pumpkins in diluted bleach or vinegar water after completing them. But this technique is a double-edged sword: Adding more free moisture to your masterpiece invites windblown mold spores and rain-splashed bacteria to colonize it. However, applying a light coating of petroleum jelly or vegetable oil to all the exposed parts can extend the shelf life of your sculpted squash.

Protect your creation

October is a wet month with frequent rains in many parts of the U.S. Rain falling on your jack-o’-lantern will invite every mold in the neighborhood to take up residency in or on it. For this reason, I recommend keeping your pumpkins on a covered porch or displaying them from indoors in a window.

It’s okay if some mold forms inside it, as not all fungi cause soft rots (diseases that produce wet spots that spread, become mushy, and turn black). If a pumpkin does become overly moldy on the inside walls, move it outdoors to avoid producing a lot of spores in your home.

When your pumpkin does start to mold and collapse, don’t throw it in a landfill. Put it out for your neighborhood deer or atop your compost pile. Or find a spot in your yard where you can watch it degrade over time, until it turns back to soil in time for next year’s pumpkin patch.

Matt Kasson is an associate professor of mycology and plant pathology at West Virginia University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Back in 1970, the economist Milton Friedman famously argued that businesses have a single responsibility: to increase profit. For decades, the so-called “Friedman doctrine” amounted to dogma in certain circles, including at many business schools.

A lot has changed since those days. Governments and other education funders are increasingly demanding that universities prioritize social goals, like those set out in the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Meanwhile, business schools are dealing with new market pressures, including global rankings that are now taking societal impact into account, and students, professors and accrediting bodies that increasingly value social responsibility.

But just what is “societal impact,” and can it be measured? As a professor of entrepreneurship and the former dean of a business school that went through the process of determining impact, my interest in these questions is more than just theoretical.

A new standard of impact

In 2020, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, or AACSB — the organization that accredits more than 600 business schools in the U.S. — made a big decision: It revised its accreditation standards to include engagement and societal impact.

Societal impact, as defined by AACSB, refers to “how a school makes a positive impact on the betterment of society, as identified in the school’s mission and strategic plan.” While AACSB-accredited schools are now required to “demonstrate positive societal impact,” the organization offers schools wide discretion on how they work toward meeting the standard.

While the overall response has been positive, business schools have been seeking additional insight that will help them identify and measure their societal impact. After all, universities benefit their communities in many ways. If you wanted to track a business school’s impact, where should you even begin?

Tools for assessing impact

Based on my personal experience, it’s good for a business school to start by looking at its strategic plan.

That’s because determining impact is a complex process that requires analyzing massive amounts of data. Because it can be so sprawling, determining and measuring impact is best approached in alignment with the strategic intent of the organization.

A school’s strategic plan can serve as a strong basis for identifying areas of impact that align with the school’s aspirations. It also sends a message to accreditors and all stakeholders that the areas of impact are close to the core of its operations.

The next step for many schools, including my university, is to adopt an impact framework. An impact framework is a tool that organizations use to identify initiatives and measure progress toward goals. Research shows that impact frameworks can be effective at keeping organizations locked into a purposeful journey, offering guardrails to prevent people from losing sight of their objectives.

One such framework bespoke to business schools is offered by the European Foundation for Management Development, which is a global accrediting organization based in Brussels. Alongside its accreditation activities, the foundation offers the service known as the Business School Impact System, which has been initiated at more than 90 business schools worldwide.

The Business School Impact System is likely the longest-established system of its sort, since it was launched in 2012. At that time there was no other resource available – unless a school acquired the services of a consulting firm to undertake an impact analysis at great expense. The Business School Impact System framework looks at 120 indicators across seven dimensions of impact.

Other organizations, such as the U.N.-sponsored Principles for Responsible Education, offer further guidance.

What’s in it for business schools

Assessing impact offers many benefits for business schools. For example, it can boost a program’s reputation, attracting prospective students, employers and faculty. It can also offer compelling evidence for fundraising campaigns and grant applications. Additionally, insights from impact assessments can inform curriculum development, making programs relevant to contemporary social challenges.

Finally, societal impact assessments can foster stronger partnerships with community organizations and industry, encouraging universities to prioritize real-world learning opportunities for students and enabling them to contribute directly to society through collaborative projects and research initiatives.

Business schools have long played a crucial role in shaping society — it was true in Milton Friedman’s era, and it’s still true now. What’s new is that business schools are trying to measure their impact. I think this is a welcome change.

Andrew Gaudes is a professor in entrepreneurship and former dean of the Goodman School of Business at Brock University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

NASA plans to send crewed missions to Mars over the next decade – but the 140 million-mile (225 million-kilometer) journey to the red planet could take several months to years round trip.

This relatively long transit time is a result of the use of traditional chemical rocket fuel. An alternative technology to the chemically propelled rockets the agency develops now is called nuclear thermal propulsion, which uses nuclear fission and could one day power a rocket that makes the trip in just half the time.

Nuclear fission involves harvesting the incredible amount of energy released when an atom is split by a neutron. This reaction is known as a fission reaction. Fission technology is well established in power generation and nuclear-powered submarines, and its application to drive or power a rocket could one day give NASA a faster, more powerful alternative to chemically driven rockets.

NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are jointly developing NTP technology. They plan to deploy and demonstrate the capabilities of a prototype system in space in 2027 – potentially making it one of the first of its kind to be built and operated by the U.S.

Nuclear thermal propulsion could also one day power maneuverable space platforms that would protect American satellites in and beyond Earth’s orbit. But the technology is still in development.

I am an associate professor of nuclear engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology whose research group builds models and simulations to improve and optimize designs for nuclear thermal propulsion systems. My hope and passion is to assist in designing the nuclear thermal propulsion engine that will take a crewed mission to Mars.

Nuclear versus chemical propulsion

Conventional chemical propulsion systems use a chemical reaction involving a light propellant, such as hydrogen, and an oxidizer. When mixed together, these two ignite, which results in propellant exiting the nozzle very quickly to propel the rocket.

These systems do not require any sort of ignition system, so they’re reliable. But these rockets must carry oxygen with them into space, which can weigh them down. Unlike chemical propulsion systems, nuclear thermal propulsion systems rely on nuclear fission reactions to heat the propellant that is then expelled from the nozzle to create the driving force or thrust.

In many fission reactions, researchers send a neutron toward a lighter isotope of uranium, uranium-235. The uranium absorbs the neutron, creating uranium-236. The uranium-236 then splits into two fragments – the fission products – and the reaction emits some assorted particles.

More than 400 nuclear power reactors in operation around the world currently use nuclear fission technology. The majority of these nuclear power reactors in operation are light water reactors. These fission reactors use water to slow down the neutrons and to absorb and transfer heat. The water can create steam directly in the core or in a steam generator, which drives a turbine to produce electricity.

Nuclear thermal propulsion systems operate in a similar way, but they use a different nuclear fuel that has more uranium-235. They also operate at a much higher temperature, which makes them extremely powerful and compact. Nuclear thermal propulsion systems have about 10 times more power density than a traditional light water reactor.

Nuclear propulsion could have a leg up on chemical propulsion for a few reasons.

Nuclear propulsion would expel propellant from the engine’s nozzle very quickly, generating high thrust. This high thrust allows the rocket to accelerate faster.

These systems also have a high specific impulse. Specific impulse measures how efficiently the propellant is used to generate thrust. Nuclear thermal propulsion systems have roughly twice the specific impulse of chemical rockets, which means they could cut the travel time by a factor of 2.

Nuclear thermal propulsion history

For decades, the U.S. government has funded the development of nuclear thermal propulsion technology. Between 1955 and 1973, programs at NASA, General Electric and Argonne National Laboratories produced and ground-tested 20 nuclear thermal propulsion engines.

But these pre-1973 designs relied on highly enriched uranium fuel. This fuel is no longer used because of its proliferation dangers, or dangers that have to do with the spread of nuclear material and technology.

The Global Threat Reduction Initiative, launched by the Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration, aims to convert many of the research reactors employing highly enriched uranium fuel to high-assay, low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, fuel.

High-assay, low- enriched uranium fuel has less material capable of undergoing a fission reaction, compared with highly enriched uranium fuel. So, the rockets needs to have more HALEU fuel loaded on, which makes the engine heavier. To solve this issue, researchers are looking into special materials that would use fuel more efficiently in these reactors.

NASA and the DARPA’s Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, or DRACO, program intends to use this high-assay, low-enriched uranium fuel in its nuclear thermal propulsion engine. The program plans to launch its rocket in 2027.

As part of the DRACO program, the aerospace company Lockheed Martin has partnered with BWX Technologies to develop the reactor and fuel designs.

The nuclear thermal propulsion engines in development by these groups will need to comply with specific performance and safety standards. They’ll need to have a core that can operate for the duration of the mission and perform the necessary maneuvers for a fast trip to Mars.

Ideally, the engine should be able to produce high specific impulse, while also satisfying the high thrust and low engine mass requirements.

Ongoing research

Before engineers can design an engine that satisfies all these standards, they need to start with models and simulations. These models help researchers, such as those in my group, understand how the engine would handle starting up and shutting down. These are operations that require quick, massive temperature and pressure changes.

The nuclear thermal propulsion engine will differ from all existing fission power systems, so engineers will need to build software tools that work with this new engine.

My group designs and analyzes nuclear thermal propulsion reactors using models. We model these complex reactor systems to see how things such as temperature changes may affect the reactor and the rocket’s safety. But simulating these effects can take a lot of expensive computing power.

We’ve been working to develop new computational tools that model how these reactors act while they’re starting up and operated without using as much computing power.

My colleagues and I hope this research can one day help develop models that could autonomously control the rocket.

Dan Kotlyar is an associate professor of nuclear and radiological engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

What if you couldn’t see others as they really are? 

What if you couldn’t see yourself as you really are? 

And what if you had no way of knowing that what you thought you saw was not at all what there was to see? 

On a recent episode of This American Life, producer Alix Spiegel interviewed Jason Werbeloff. For more than 13 years, Werbeloff unwittingly sabotaged every close relationship in his life because of a peculiar quirk of perception. Out of the blue, a sudden visual flash momentarily transformed the physical appearance of friends and partners, revealing a diabolical, hidden side to their personality that Werbeloff had never previously recognized or imagined. Equally disturbing, Werbeloff’s perception of himself also appeared to morph over time when he looked in the mirror. 

Then, in an online forum, he met a woman who claimed to know the source of his problems. With some prodding, she convinced Werbeloff to buy a special lamp with a control knob that changed the light to different colors. While looking in the mirror, Werbeloff cycled through the spectrum until the light turned green.  All of a sudden, his face lost its asymmetrical, repellant appearance and became the normal, attractive face he remembered from his youth. When he turned the light to red, his appearance turned demonic once again. 

In one instant, a lifetime of inexplicable interactions with others became clear.  Werbeloff was not peering into the darkness of others’ souls. He was suffering from a condition that is this week’s entry into the Ethical Lexicon: 

Prosopometamorphopsia (pro·​so·​po·​met·​a·​mor·​phop·​si·​a) noun 

Also known as demon face syndrome; a rare neurological disorder of visual perception that causes faces to appear distorted 

Also known as PMO, prosopometamorphopsia develops for reasons doctors still can’t identify. It sometimes disappears after a few weeks, but it can persist for years, as it did with Jason Werbeloff. In his case, Werbeloff mistakenly interpreted these flashes of fiendish perception as a glimpse into the malevolent character of others. 

Another sufferer, Victor Sharrah, nearly had himself institutionalized, believing he was experiencing a psychotic break. Fortunately, Sharrah and Werbeloff discovered the source of their delusions and compensated for it. 

But there is a profound lesson here even for those unaffected by PMO.  The way we see others, interpret their actions, and assess their character, may have more to do with factors of our own perception and external circumstances than with those we observe.  In the same way that Jason Werbeloff restored his clarity of perception with a tinted bulb, we can recover objectivity in how we perceive those around us by looking with a different “light” or through a different “lens.” 

How quick we are to demonize others the moment we see something in their character that doesn’t align with our worldview. Their political affiliation or religious beliefs, their nationality or ethnicity—any one of these might be enough for us to brand others as deeply flawed and with whom we must sever all contact and communication. 

In some cases, our misperceptions become farcical. My neighbor in Israel, an exceptionally bright Israeli, had taught himself English by reading books. On a trip to the United States, he was hosted by a couple who had invited him for dinner.  Once he finished his portion, the hostess asked if he would like a second helping.  He replied: 

“No, I am fed up.” 

Only later did he learn that the meaning of the idiom does not match the simple meaning of the words. At the time, he couldn’t understand why his hosts suddenly acted offended. 

I can’t understand how anyone could be so clueless as to not recognize an innocent case of cultural miscommunication. But how often do we jump to conclusions about what other people mean without trying to uncover their actual intent? 

Consider the applications in business or organizational decision-making. We want to encourage civil debate and constructive disagreement as the surest way of reaching the best possible conclusions. But too often our egos and personal agendas get in the way.  

Just because someone questions my ideas or suggestions doesn’t mean they’re out to get me. On the contrary, they are doing me a favor by forcing me to reexamine my views. A little pushback allows me to confirm whether my ideas truly have merit, should be revised, or are best discarded. 

Presuming positive intent is not just a warm-and-fuzzy aphorism.  It is a mindset for preserving relationships and promoting an ethical society.  True, there are nasty and malicious individuals in the world, and we need to protect ourselves from them.  But most people are well-intentioned, and we serve neither them nor ourselves by assuming the worst without having compelling evidence to support our visceral intuitions. 

Before rushing to judgment because you think you’ve caught a glimpse of inner ugliness, first readjust the lighting, look from a different angle, and consider a fresh perspective. When you do, you might well discover that what you had interpreted as a flash of darkness was nothing more than a trick of the mind’s eye. 

You made it to the end of the first interview. Chances are, the hiring manager will ask this final question: Do you have any questions for me? You probably know you should ask something—having a question at the ready will show that you’re interested—but there are some things better left unasked because they can send the wrong message.

“We’ve seen a shift in what types of questions candidates are asking, and whether or not it increases or decreases their likelihood of being an appealing candidate,” says Natalie Boren, senior vice president for the recruitment and advisory firm Career Group. 

Boren says some questions that were common to ask just a year or two ago could be considered a deterrent to bring up in a first-round interview. In today’s competitive job market, she recommends avoiding these top four:

Is there an option to work remotely or hybrid? 

Since the pandemic, it was common to ask about remote schedules and work-from-home arrangements. However, with an increase in return-to-work mandates, this question can be a deterrent in a first-round interview, says Boren. 

“Companies are pushing to bring the workforce back on site as much as possible,” she says. “They want to make sure that the person they invest time in training and getting up to speed is not going to come to them 90 days or six months later and say that they prefer working from home.”

If you bring up this question too early, you might look like someone who might not commit to being at the office. Boren says most job ads will specify if an opportunity is remote. If it doesn’t say so in the posting, it’s safe to assume it will be an on-site position.

“And if the job is advertised as on-site, don’t bring up remote work or hybrid options too early,” says Boren. “Asking for special exceptions before proving yourself can signal a lack of commitment to the company’s current needs and culture.”

What are the growth opportunities in this role? 

Growth opportunities are one of the main reasons people accept roles, especially Gen Z. Growth is also important to your potential employer, who will want to see you thrive within the company. However, asking about a career path too soon could be a red flag for an employer. You may appear overly ambitious, or it may look like you consider the job they need to fill as just a stepping stone in your career, says Boren.

“Instead, what are the priorities for the position you’re interviewing for?” she asks. “Your focus should be about being the right fit for that job and doing the best that you can do within that role before you start fast-forwarding to next steps.” 

What is the work-life balance here? 

Another important aspect of choosing the right role is having a good work-life balance. No one wants to take on the risk of burnout because they’re tied to their job. While this is a valid question, Boren says it could make a hiring manager wonder about how invested you’d be.

“Somebody who’s interviewing you for a position wants to know that you’re ready to work hard and do whatever it takes to succeed,” she says. “If you’re in the infancy stages of interviewing, asking ‘What is the work-life balance like’ projects an aura that you are not looking to work hard, and that you’re more focused on what’s happening outside of work.”

Instead, frame your questions in a way that shows you will be dedicated. If you have outside responsibilities, Boren suggests bringing up your needs in a way that establishes boundaries while demonstrating your commitment. For example, you could ask, “I have a child that I need to pick up at four o’clock. I can log back online if needed to make sure I’m able to finish everything that I start. Would that schedule work for this position?”

What can I expect to receive as a salary?

Let’s get real. Everyone wants to know what their salary will be. And many states have passed pay transparency laws that make getting this information a lot easier. Inserting high salary expectations right up front, though, can derail your interview progress. 

“Everybody has every right to understand what the earning potential is in a position that they’re interviewing for, but it should never be the first or second thing that’s discussed,” says Boren. “An organization wants to feel that somebody’s interviewing for a position because they’re invested in the company; because they’re excited about the day-to-day; because they’re passionate about what they’re doing.” 

Hiring managers will discuss the financial aspect of the role, but they’ll want to first talk about job responsibilities, why you’re a good fit, and what’s important to the organization. Money alone should not be the reason somebody is interested in the position, says Boren.

If money isn’t discussed during the interview, it’s fine for a candidate to ask about the salary during the final steps of the interview process. And if a hiring manager provides a range, Boren says it’s also acceptable at the end of the interview for the candidate to ask how the company goes about placing someone within that range.

While these questions will give you information that will help you decide if the job and the company are a fit for you, asking them too soon could stop you from moving forward. The lesson here is to make sure you’re asking the right questions at the right time. 

When Jeremy Benson approaches a restaurant table as a sommelier, he’s prepared to talk about what you might expect: flavor profile, geography, terroir, and mouthfeel. Sometimes, he takes down a map from the wall to illustrate the origin of different varietals from across the globe. 

But Benson, general manager of New York City’s Crave Fishbar, is not imparting advice about wine. He’s been summoned to talk about, well, oysters. He’s one of the first people in the world to obtain a Level 2 Oyster Specialist certification from the newly created Oyster Master Guild. In January, he hopes to become the world’s first official oyster sommelier. 

Julie Qiu cofounded Oyster Master Guild (OMG) last year with Patrick McMurray, a restaurateur, inventor, and culinary educator, who holds three Guinness Book Records for oyster shucking (for one, he shucked 1,114 oysters in one hour). Qiu is an international oyster expert and educator, founder of the oyster-focused website, In a Half Shell, and author of 33 Oysters on the Half Shell.

Based in New York City, OMG is a for-profit oyster-education company dedicated to creating better oyster experiences through education and by cultivating a community of oyster stewards. The professional certification program, which OMG launched last summer, is meant to fill a gap Qiu and McMurray see in the restaurant industry. “This is the first time this has been done,” says Qiu, explaining that “in the business of oysters, knowledge is power. Having this training unlocks meaningful earning potential as an employee, entrepreneur, or foodservice leader.”

Becoming an oyster sommelier

McMurray and Qiu met in 2014 at the Galway International Oyster Festival and found themselves stumped by the lack of formal education around oysters. “Customers were always asking, ‘What’s the difference between this one and that one?’ And to answer, you just learned on the job,” McMurray says. “There are five different species of oyster in North America alone, [but] there was never a course on oysters, their history, or proper shucking technique. It was all self-taught.”

Qiu wanted to move the conversation beyond “Is this West Coast or East Coast?” toward the larger topic of oyster farming and sustainability, which was lost without an oyster steward in the restaurant to serve as a guide for diners. “When you visit oyster farms and see these amazing places where the oysters tastes like where they come from, you feel this connection to the people producing this beautiful food,” she says. “These stories were not being told.”

The two decided to create a syllabus that was modeled loosely on the world of wine education. “The way we talk about oysters and wine is so similar, so we thought of a sommelier, a term that people understand,” Qiu says.

Oyster Master Guild launched in the summer of 2023 with two education tracks. Its trademarked Certified Oyster Sommelier program is geared for those who aspire to be oyster gurus—highly knowledgeable about provenance, production, seasonality, and flavor profile—and are able to evaluate, source, and curate oysters for a menu, in conjunction with a chef and wine sommelier or a beverage director.

The second professional track, Certified Oyster Shucker, is geared toward those eager to hone their skills behind the raw bar, shucking and plating oysters cleanly and efficiently. Lest this sound like an easy task, McMurray emphasizes that shucking technique is far more than just wedging open a shell; it can make or break the guest’s experience. “If your shucker lobs off the top of the oyster you don’t get it all, and you don’t get the flavor or what you are paying for,” he says. Plus, a proper shuck is also a way to pay respect to the farmer. “A typical grower has spent years growing the oyster, and you tear it apart with your oyster knife and you ruin that story, too.”

Both tracks involve two levels of online coursework plus hands-on work that involves shucking lots of oysters: 40,000 for the shuckers track and 5,000 for aspiring sommeliers. There is field work, too—visiting oyster farms, hosting tastings, working at an oyster bar— and a 100-question written exam plus a skills presentation that functions as a practical exam. It includes perfectly opening a dozen oysters (3 varieties, 2 species each) while being peppered with questions from Qiu and McMurray—just like ones from a diner in a restaurant. “You need to know how to describe each kind [of oyster],” says McMurray. “We want to see how your station looks and the final product of the plate.”

A career boost on the half shell

The total cost for the full range of coursework is $1,685, with a sliding scale for food service teams. Qiu says it can take anywhere from 4 to 12 months to achieve the Sommelier Certification, largely due to the shucking requirement. “As an estimate, if you take on 10 catering gigs where you open 500 oysters, that would likely happen in a season or two, depending on where you’re located. The Level 3 coursework would take 14 to 16 hours to complete.

To date, nearly 200 students from 16 countries have enrolled in one of OMG’s certification programs. They include staffers from some 35 restaurants across the U.S.—such as Oyster House in Philadelphia; Scales Restaurant in Portland, Maine; Locals Seafood in North Carolina, and Mink in Detroit—and some nonculinary enthusiasts, too, such as Jason Murbarger, a priest from South Daytona, Florida, who has a passion for food and travel. 

Dave Seigal, executive chef of New York’s Cull & Pistol Oyster Bar in Chelsea Market and its adjacent seafood market The Lobster Place, says he is eager to hire OMG-certified staff for his restaurants, part of LP Hospitality Group. “Anyone who has an OMG certification would automatically leapfrog over other candidates for raw bar front-of-house staff,” he says. “When our staff is well-informed as to the origin and flavor nuances of each oyster, they are better positioned to sell more oysters and improve the bottom line.”

At Crave Fishbar, Benson’s certification has already had an impact. Like a sommelier curating a wine list, Benson has developed a deep oyster roster that spans beyond the typical Malpecs, Bluepoints, Wellfleets, and Kumamotos, reaching up to the cold waters of Maine’s Damariscotta River for Salty Mariners and down to Virginia’s salty Mobjack Bay for Wavelengths. 

Plus, it’s not bad for business,” he says. The certification gives you some level of authority.” The way a fine-dining restaurant has a sommelier to show you that you can get a great bottle of wine, this certification says, ‘You will have a different experience; you will have fun, you will taste amazing oysters, and you will learn something too.” 

Meeting a growing young market

The OMG program is debuting at an opportune time; the global oyster market is forecasted to grow from $8.25 billion in 2024 to $10.29 billion by 2031, according to Metastatinsight.

A recent IMARC Group analysis also shows that consumer demand for premium oysters is on the rise. So is a general appreciation for locally sourced seafood overall. 

“Demand is being fueled by millennial and Gen Z populations who have gotten hooked on raw bars,” says David Branch, seafood sector manager for the Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute. It’s “not only for taste and as a lifestyle,” he says—though there’s effortless glamour in an icy tray of shellfish and a bone dry martini—but because oysters “have a positive impact on the environment.” (He points to recent studies by the Food Distribution Research Society and Circana on consumer behaviors presented at this year’s Global Seafood Market Conference.) “Research shows that these groups focus a lot more on sustainability.” 

Public education around the positive impact of oysters on the environment has been increasing, thanks to nonprofits like the Billion Oyster Project, which has spent the past 10 years working to restore oyster reefs in the New York Harbor to help clean the water, provide reef habitat for hundreds of species, and protect the city’s shorelines from storm damage. Oysters filter water as they grow, clearing upwards of 50 gallons a day; they require zero fertilizer, store carbon in their shells, and help remediate harmful nutrients. 

(Note that unlike oysters bred for filtration, the ones you find at a raw bar are typically from very high-quality water and may also undergo purification, called “depuration,” a process that eliminates potential pathogens before they go to market. “Until New York City can get their sewage management plan under control, we will likely not be able to eat oysters from the New York City area,” says Qiu.)

The certification can build confidence in the safety of a restaurant’s raw bar program. “We were able to bounce back [after the vibrio scare] in no small part to the information shared with me by OMG on how to assuage the fears of our guests,” Benson told me, which was that “if you’re nervous about contamination, make sure to get your oysters from a place you trust, and the farther north oysters are grown, the lower the risks.” 

It can help customers feel better about spending upwards of $4 for one briny slurp since, like most food products, oysters have seen price increases driven by inflation, labor costs, and the impacts of climate change. (Oyster prices are not quite as high as they were post-pandemic when they reached $114/gallon of shucked oysters, but they’re still not cheap at $84/gallon.) 

The program is also meaningful for families of growers across the country and into the bays, oceans, and rivers where oysters are bred. “As farmers, being able to tell our story to the end consumer is so important,” says Shina Wysocki, a second-generation farmer at Chelsea Farms in Olympia, Washington—known for what an oyster sommelier might describe as “estate-grown tide-tumbled oysters.” “To connect the oyster with the bay it was grown in makes the food experience richer,” Wysocki explains. “Having people who can accurately describe our farm, and have the oyster presented beautifully shucked, is so valuable to us.” 

Ryan Kaji was just three years old when his YouTube channel, Ryan’s World, took off. Initially launched by his parents in 2015 as a way to keep friends and family in Japan updated on Ryan as he grew up in the States, the channel now has more than 37 million subscribers and 58 billion views.

As Ryan has grown from a kid to a teen, his videos have evolved from toy reviews to science experiments and even animation. His empire now includes a Nickelodeon TV show, a licensed toy brand, and a number of other YouTube channels, including a Spanish-language one, a gaming-focused channel, and one featuring the animated adventures of his sisters, Emma and Kate. A spring-off film, Ryan’s World the Movie: Titan Universe Adventure, hit theaters this summer. (It struggled at the box office, making just $624,000 on an estimated budget of $10 million.) It’s now available to watch on several streamers including YouTube.

For a recent episode of the Most Innovative Companies podcast, we spoke to Ryan’s father, Shion Kaji, and Albie Hecht, Ryan’s manager and the chief content officer at digital media studio PocketWatch, about raising a child in the spotlight and building a brand that can grow with him.  

Shion, you and your wife, Loann, started the original YouTube channel as a way to stay in touch with extended family. Did you ever expect or plan for it to become such a global phenomenon? 

Shion Kaji: We had no idea how big this became. Our intention was to share Ryan’s daily life to our extended families, and [it] quickly evolved into something bigger. Four months after we launched our channel, the views exploded. We started getting lots of comments from viewers around the world. We quickly reached the top 10, top 20 among all the different channels, within the first year. That’s when we started our production company to help streamline the production and minimize the participation requirements for Ryan. When we started, Ryan was only three years old, and all our content centered around him. I felt creators had the power of influence that could go beyond the YouTube platform, even though at that time there was no other channel that became big and broke out from YouTube.

When did you start making money off of your content?

SK: We received an email from YouTube telling us we were hitting some milestones. Then we started getting emails from brands—big companies in toys and gaming, like Nintendo—saying they would like to collaborate. But I wondered whether we could establish our own brand if we had that much influence. That recognition helped us break out. We reached out to the PocketWatch team. We worked together to launch a consumer product line and TV series. Now we’re doing the movie.

How did you let Ryan have a childhood while growing this business, and managing his brand as “the world’s most popular kid.” I know he couldn’t come on this podcast because he’s having a digital detox at the moment.

SK: Lots of planning. Ryan’s private life as a normal child is important to us. The YouTube filming takes up 30 minutes to an hour each week. When we moved forward with the [Nickelodeon] TV series Ryan’s Mystery Playdate for four seasons, we would film in the summertime because we don’t really interfere with Ryan’s schooling. There was also a teacher on set every time he came. To fit the entire production in the summer, we would shoot multiple camera angles at the same time so there wouldn’t be too many repeated scenes and we could get the best out of Ryan. The crew became his friends. He did a lot of pranks on them.

You began making videos when Ryan was three, before he could really make his own decisions about being online. How do you figure out whether he still wants to do this?

SK: We always have open communication with all our kids, whether they still feel excited to film videos, what kind of videos they want to film. When Ryan started at three, he was reviewing toys, but now he doesn’t review toys as much. Now he does science experiments as well as videos about gaming. We’re trying to evolve the brand toward his current interests and expand our connection with our fanbase through Ryan’s growth. I think about our work like parents whose kids are interested in doing sports seriously. They start early: Many pro athletes start when they’re three or four. They didn’t necessarily have a decision, but parents always make a commitment believing that’s the right choice for them, which can change depending on the reaction from the kids.

But the difference between sending your kid to sports camp and having them star on a YouTube channel is that a large part of your income probably depends on him working, right?

SK: We’ve diversified our business. We have some animated characters within the brand independent of Ryan.

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about how child stars and kids who are involved in the creator economy get compensated. How do you handle that?

SK: We study a lot to figure out the best way to set up financially, for our kids. The first thing we did was set up a trust account for all three of our kids and compensate them through it. That way, the fund is secure and safe and when the time is right, Ryan can use his own money for himself. For the movies and TV series, we set up a Coogan account [a protected trust fund]. We are legally required to have 15% of the revenue [from projects] deposited there, but that’s the bare minimum and we always strive for more. A hundred percent of his talent fee goes into the Coogan account.

What happens when Ryan becomes an adult? Would you still work with him?

Albie Hecht: There’s no cutoff. But one of the reasons we made the movie is that it’s animated. Ryan has animated personas, Red Titan and Super Spy Ryan. Through animation, he has an opportunity to keep servicing his preschool and young audience. 

Do people recognize Ryan on the street?

AH: Going to Chuck. E. Cheese with them is like . . . oh my God!

SK: What’s fortunate for us is that a lot of parents are very supportive and those fans are with their parents. When Ryan’s tired or when we’re in a hurry, they understand.

What advice would you give parents who want to pursue this?

AH: You need to have parents who have an understanding of the business side of things. They need to supplement the kid’s talent and take an active interest in it. It isn’t just putting a video up and suddenly it goes viral. It can catch on, but what you do with that and how you build a business and a brand and create an environment that the kid can thrive in is something that parents have to take an active interest in.

What do Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, and a British baker known as The Bread Bamboozler have in common? They’re all artists to Scam Goddess author Laci Mosley, the actor and comedian who admires the audacity of con artists the way others applaud the elegance of painters and poets.

Scammers have always fascinated Mosley, who costarred in the recent iCarly reboot and in such films as Netflix’s The Out-Laws. She sees frauds as highly motivated strivers who may not have the credentials, talent, or connections to achieve their goals, and yet decide to go for it anyway. This fixation led Mosley five years ago to start the Scam Goddess podcast, a cheeky weekly treatise on con artists of note, which in turn led to the just-released Scam Goddess book, along with an upcoming TV series, currently in production. Of all the benefits that have come from turning scam scholarship into a brand, though, perhaps the top one is absorbing enough dirt about how fraudsters operate to make herself utterly scam-proof.

“The confidence of con artists is something I think we can all learn from,” Mosley says.

Some of what she’s picked up recently from studying the likes of Fyre Fest founder Billy McFarland and scheming activist Shaun King has helped her protect herself. Prior to that, however, she was emulating con artists in her own life, in non-nefarious ways.

“Walking into every room and acting like you belong there was probably the most impressive thing I learned from scammers in the beginning,” she says. “I used to sneak into Hollywood parties I had no business being in because we would just walk in dressed like everyone else and act like it was the most dusty shit we had ever seen in our lives.”

By the time she began landing auditions and booking roles, the bigger picture had cohered. Mosley saw the matrix of machinations undergirding Hollywood. She realized her fellow actors were trying to posture their way past casting directors, while film and TV execs pretended to possess hit-picking powers that were more akin to a psychic’s predictions. Farther north, in Silicon Valley, she saw the fleece-vests at tech startups selling a future that might never exist; and beyond the state’s borders, an orgy of jacked-up “sale” prices, bartending academies, and all manner of crookery. She could now see the whole universe, and it was scams all the way down.

Fortunately, immersing herself in them offered all the insights needed to inoculate against them.

Don’t engage in the first place

The best way to shut down a scam, Mosley claims, is to not engage with one in the first place. That advice doesn’t translate to never talking to strangers on general principle—making friends while on line for a bar bathroom, after all, is one of life’s lovely little pleasures. There’s no need to give time and attention, though, to random characters with suspicious intentions.

“We all have a sense of politeness where, if someone approaches us on the street with a sob story, we tend to hear them out because of the social contract,” she says. “But sometimes, you’ve got to just keep walking or hang up the phone or not answer that email.”

If someone makes themselves impossible to ignore, though, make them play the waiting game. 

“When someone approaches you with an emergency, an opportunity, or a big ask, just say wait two weeks,” Mosley says. “Most things can wait two weeks.”

Be aware of your needs

That feeling of being bound by unfailing politeness is a hallmark of the people-pleaser, a type of person Mosley claims is supremely susceptible to scammers. People-pleasers might be more preoccupied with the imagined needs of others than their own actual needs, leaving themselves vulnerable to silver-tongued scammers who intuit their lack of fulfillment and pounce.

“Every human being has needs, and if a scammer catches you at the right time with the right level of desperation, they could certainly exploit yours,” Mosley says. “When you’re aware of what you need, though, you can start figuring out when you’re getting desperate and stop projecting it.”

Whether those needs include more downtime, a higher salary, or a new relationship, understanding their magnetic pull to you is like kryptonite to any huckster dangling them as bait. 

If it’s too convenient, it’s probably con-venient

If the tech world seems overrun with Juicero-like scams ensconced in a thin patina of legitimacy, it’s for good reason. “Scammers are innovators,” Mosley says. “When a new window opens, they’re there.”

It’s for this reason that one should always have their guard up when perfect solutions to new problems arrive at a convenient-yet-statistically-improbable time. Take, for instance, the wave of charlatans who emerged very early in the pandemic, hawking homemade COVID tests before the real thing was ready for mass distribution.

“They would be hanging out in parking lots, and all they did was put on a little costume, set up a fake tent, get some swabs, and charge people like $200 for a COVID test they weren’t actually getting results for,” Mosley recalls. 

For anyone who does get taken in by a convenient offer too good to resist, though, the U.S. government has a website for reporting the situation. 

Remember: Anyone can be a scam target

People who aren’t pleasers aren’t automatically safe from scams either. In fact, the people who most think they’re safe might be putting themselves at risk just through sheer overconfidence. According to Mosley, the biggest mistake people make that leaves them potentially exposed to scammers is thinking it could never happen to them.

“Not being judgmental toward those who’ve been victimized definitely keeps you in a safer space,” she says. “Because then, when you see red flags, instead of thinking, There’s no way this would ever happen to me, you start to actually do the math. And if the math’s not mathing, maybe you won’t get scammed.”

While Mosley allows that it’s technically possible for even her to get scammed, even today, she’s earned the right at this point to higher-than-average confidence on that front. She’s still an occasional target for grifters, like anyone else, but five years into crafting a brand as a connoisseur of con artists, the odds are in her favor. A would-be blackmail operation learned as much recently, when Mosley declined to panic and ignored the blackmailers’ creepy email.

“Obviously, if they had done one quick Google, they would’ve realized I was a scam goddess,” she says. “Like, dude, you’re not gonna get me like this.”

As a writer and editor and manager, my job involves words. One of the most important things I need to get right is getting a message across clearly. And yet still, like all humans, every day has moments of crossed wires and misunderstandings.

In all jobs—and in all aspects of life—communication is what matters most: It’s how relationships are built and maintained, how ideas get off the ground, and how we understand the world. And, maybe because it’s so critical, it’s so easy to mess up.

Here’s how to improve:

Become better at listening

Charles Duhigg researched why some people are so much better at communicating and connecting than other people. He wrote the book Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection.

He says that “super communicators” think about who they’re talking to as much as they’re thinking about what they want to say. In other words, the people who are the best at communicating are the best at listening and are in conversations to better understand the people they are talking to. He outlines a process called “looping for understanding”: 

1. Ask a good question.
2. Repeat back what you heard in your own words.
3. Ask if you got it right.

Duhigg says the last step is the one most people skip. “Not only does it prove to the other person that I genuinely want to understand what they’re telling me, it shows that I’m genuinely listening,” he says. “Also, if I go into a conversation, knowing that my assignment is to repeat back what you have said, then it gets me to listen more closely.”

Overcommunicate to save time

It may sound counterintuitive, but time management coach Elizabeth Grace Saunders says that overcommunicating can be more productive and can save you hours of writing lengthy updates or attending status report meetings.

Here are two ways she says you can spend a few minutes overcommunicating in order to save much more time on follow-ups:

1. Let people know you got their message. When you get an email, send a two-second acknowledgement like “I got it. Thanks!” or “Received! I’ll be in touch soon.” This helps reassure others that their message did land in your inbox and that you’re aware of their need. 
   
2. Clarify a time frame. When you don’t clearly communicate about your expectations, you could end up with a lot of miscommunication and confusion. For example, you could be planning to get a report to someone by next week, and they might expect it by close of business today. It’s an easy fix to clarify a rough time frame at the start: “I’ll get back to you by tomorrow,” or “I’ll send a draft next week.”

Pay attention to your body language and stay present 

Communication coach Anett Grant says that paying attention to your facial expressions and body language when you’re speaking at work can make a huge difference in your colleagues trusting you.

She says the first step is to make sure what you’re thinking matches what you’re saying. For example, if you say, “I’m so excited to be here,” while thinking, “I wish I wasn’t so nervous,” your facial expressions will reflect your feelings, not your words. This can lead to confusion and mistrust.

Don’t try to impress with your vocabulary 

It’s a rule of journalism that I try to remember in all my communication: Don’t use a big word when a simple one makes the same point. It’s a mistake many people make in workplace settings to try to appear smarter.

This approach can backfire, as many people admit they use big words that they don’t fully know the meaning of. It can also irritate your audience—or worse, make them tune out. This is especially true for corporate jargon. I guarantee no communication has ever been improved by a promise to “circle back.”

In the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Helene in the United States this week, a new storm emerged on social media — false rumors about how disaster funds have been used, and even claims that officials control the weather.

Local and national government officials say they are trying to combat the rumors, including one spread by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

One of the more far-fetched rumors is that Helene was an engineered storm to allow corporations to mine regional lithium deposits. Others accuse the administration of President Joe Biden of using federal disaster funds to help migrants in the country illegally, or suggest officials are deliberately abandoning bodies in the cleanup.

Republican Congress member Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X Thursday night: “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

The conspiracy theories come at a pivotal time for rescue and recovery efforts following the storm, one of the deadliest U.S. hurricanes this century. And the presidential election between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is just over a month away.

Republicans and Democrats alike say the rumors are causing problems.

“I just talked to one Senator that has had 15 calls TODAY about why we don’t stop …….. ‘fill in the blank,'” said Kevin Corbin, a Republican in the North Carolina Senate — a state that is one of the hardest hit by Helene. “98% chance it’s not true and if it is a problem, somebody is aware and on it,” he wrote on Facebook.

“I’m growing a bit weary of intentional distractions,” he added.

White House officials on Friday accused some Republican leaders and conservative media of intentionally peddling rumors to divide Americans in a way that could harm disaster relief efforts.

“Disinformation of this kind can discourage people from seeking critical assistance when they need it most,” a White House memo said. “It is paramount that every leader, whatever their political beliefs, stops spreading this poison.”

The memo highlighted a claim by Trump during a rally this week that Biden and Harris had used federal emergency funds “on people that should not be in our country.”

“This is FALSE,” the memo said. “No disaster relief funding at all was used to support migrants housing and services. None. At. All.”

In response to a request for comment for this article, the Trump campaign repeated accusations that FEMA funds had been spent on housing migrants in the country illegally.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has the funds for immediate response and recovery efforts for Helene, the White House memo said, and has provided millions of dollars in relief to those recovering.

FEMA has been the target of so many falsehoods it has set up a rumor response page on its website to try to tamp them down.

Helene slammed into Florida a week ago and has killed over 200 people and devastated a half dozen states in the U.S. Southeast.

Some officials are trying to combat the disinformation themselves on social media. Katie Keaotamai, who works at FEMA but said she was speaking on social media in a personal capacity, explained FEMA’s disaster response processes in several TikTok posts with thousands of views.

Disaster events are often politicized, said Kate Starbird, co-founder of the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington, adding that social media rewards “sensationalism and outrage with attention.”

“Manipulating the sensemaking process (e.g. spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation) and politicizing the event will both make it harder to respond and recover now — and to make informed decisions about how to prepare for and mitigate the next one,” Starbird said.

—Stephanie Kelly, Reuters

If you have stained or chipped teeth, you might be considering veneers, customized teeth coverings that can restore a photogenic smile without more extensive dental work.

But dentists warn that these pricey cosmetic enhancements are at the center of a worrisome online trend: unlicensed practitioners without proper training or supervision offering low-cost veneers.

These self-described “veneer techs” often promote themselves on Instagram and TikTok, promising a full set of veneers for less than half of what dentists typically charge. Some also market their own training courses and certifications for people looking to get into the business.

It’s misleading, health professionals warn—and illegal. All states require dental work, including veneers, to be performed under the supervision of a licensed dentist.

On Thursday, Georgia law enforcement officials arrested Brandon Diller, who promoted himself to 158,000 Instagram followers as “Atlanta’s top veneer specialist and trainer.” Diller practiced dentistry without a license and sold “training and certificates, which were worthless” and “provided no legitimate or legal credentials,” according to an arrest warrant from Fulton County’s District Attorney’s office.

Here’s what to know about veneers and how to avoid bogus providers and services:

What are dental veneers?

Veneers are thin, custom-made dental coverings used to hide minor imperfections or to fill in gaps between teeth. Unlike crowns or more invasive dental implants, veneers are almost always considered cosmetic dentistry and generally aren’t covered by insurance.

Dentists usually charge between $1,000 and $2,000 per tooth for veneers, with higher prices for those made from porcelain compared with lower-grade materials.

Placing veneers involves stripping some of the natural enamel from the tooth and bonding the new covering into place. Because of that process, getting veneers is considered an irreversible procedure, according to the American Dental Association. They are not permanent, and can be expected to last between 5 to 15 years before they degrade and need to be replaced.

In recent months the ADA has been stepping up warnings about the risks of veneer procedures done by unlicensed individuals.

“Quality control is lost without the involvement of a licensed dentist,” said Dr. Ada Cooper, a New York-based dentist and ADA spokesperson. “We undergo years of education and training and need to be licensed by various regulatory bodies before we can practice.”

What are the risks of getting veneers from someone who isn’t licensed?

Improper veneer procedures can cause a range of health problems, including severe pain, nerve damage and tooth loss.

Patients need to be anesthetized before the enamel is removed from their teeth.

“It could be incredibly painful if they’re not anesthetized correctly,” said Dr. Zach Truman, who runs an orthodontics practice in Las Vegas. “You can also go too deep into the tooth and penetrate what’s called the pulp chamber, which contains blood vessels and nerves.”

One of the biggest problems Truman sees with unregulated veneer work is that customers aren’t getting screened for existing dental problems, such as gum disease and cavities.

“If you put a veneer on a tooth that has an active cavity, you’re just going to seal it in there and eventually it’s going to progress to tooth loss,” Truman said.

Dental veneers aren’t the only option for improving the appearance of teeth. Over-the-counter whitening kits can help with minor stains and discoloration. And dentists can sometimes use composite materials to reshape chipped or uneven teeth. But Truman says those fillings are prone to crack and won’t last as long as veneers.

How can I spot bogus veneer providers online?

One clue: Many individuals performing unlicensed dental work promote themselves on social media as “veneer technicians.”

Instead of working out of a dental office they often perform treatments at beauty salons, hotel rooms or private homes. Some advertise multi-city tours and encourage clients to message them to book an appointment in advance.

Much of the appeal of the services is in their pricing, with some offering a full set of veneers for a flat fee of $4,000 or $5,000. That’s less than half of what patients can generally expect to pay at a dental office.

Performing dental work without an appropriate license is illegal, the ADA notes.

Dentists and hygienists are licensed by state governments, who also define the work dental assistants can perform. But in all cases, veneers and other dental procedures must be supervised by a licensed dentist.

Earlier this year, Illinois law enforcement officials arrested a woman running a business called the Veneer Experts after she posted videos of herself fitting braces, veneers and other dental products without a license. She was previously arrested in Nevada on similar allegations of practicing dentistry without a license.

What are the best ways to find legitimate dental providers?

The ADA maintains a website detailing the training and licensing requirements for dentists across the U.S. Most states also maintain websites where you can lookup and verify licensure information and find any past disciplinary actions for dentists and other health professionals.

“It’s really critical to understand that dentistry is a regulated health care profession that requires formal educations and licensure,” Cooper said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

—Matthrew Perrone, AP Health Writer

In 2023, the number of anti-transgender state laws increased by 300% compared to 2022. These laws are having a devastating impact.

A recent study by the Trevor Project, published in Nature Human Behavior, found that trans and nonbinary teen suicide attempts increased by as much as 72% in the wake of anti-trans legislation.

The Trevor Project conducted the study to highlight the impact that anti-trans laws were having on young people.

“There was research showing associations between these policies and negative mental health outcomes for trans youth, but we’ve also been hearing people say that the evidence was weak, so we wanted to see if we could show causality,” said Dr. Ronita Nath, vice president of research at The Trevor Project.

How the study was done

The researchers analyzed a sample of 61,000 responses from national surveys they’d conducted between 2018 and 2022 for trans and nonbinary youth between the ages of 13-24. They compared states with and without anti-trans laws and looked at up to three different time periods after one or more anti-trans bills had been passed in a state.

During the first time period, overall suicide attempts did not increase. However, during the second time period, suicide attempts increased 38% for the entire group. For the third time period, suicide rates rose overall by 44%. “We were expecting an impact,” said Dr. Nath, “but we weren’t expecting it to be so devastatingly large.”

What the data revealed about at-risk groups

Young teens were particularly at risk. In the first time period, suicide attempts rose by 7% for teens between the ages of 13-17, and a staggering 72% during the second time period. This dropped to 52% for the third time period.

The researchers hypothesized that attempted suicide rates might be higher among teens because several of the bills were aimed at restricting gender affirming healthcare and activities for children below the ages of 18, while older trans and nonbinary youth might have more access to resources.

Dr. Nath noted that while suicide rates dropped from 72% to 52% for younger teens, they still rose for the overall group. “Potentially between the second and third time period, teens were able to access more resources or some of the initial shock wore off,” she said.

Changing policies is nontrivial, and in the meantime trans and nonbinary youth are at risk. Dr. Nath stressed that the onus is now on individuals to make a difference.

“Our research shows that LGBTQ+ youth with just one accepting adult in their life report lower rates of attempting suicide,” she said. “[Creating] accepting environments at a local level, whether that’s gender inclusive education, using preferred names and pronouns, and learning more about LGBTQ+ identities, can all make a difference.”

The Trevor Project also has a guide on how to be a good ally to trans and nonbinary youth.

“Trans and nonbinary youth are not inherently at-risk for suicide,” Dr. Nath said. “They are placed at a higher risk because of discriminatory laws.”

Women make up roughly half of U.S. labor union membership, but representation in top level union leadership positions has lagged, even in female-dominated industries and particularly for women of color.

But Black and Latina women are starting to gain ground, landing top positions at some of the biggest unions in the U.S. That has translated into wins at the bargaining table that focus more attention on family-friendly benefits like parental leave and health care coverage, as well as protections against sexual harassment.

Often when people think about unions, “they think of a white guy in a hard hat. But in fact, studies show that about two-thirds of working people who are covered by a union contract are women and/or people of color,” said Georgetown University labor historian Lane Windham.

Indeed, hospitality union UNITE HERE’s membership is majority women and people of color. And last month, more than 12,000 of them across six states went on strike to push for wage increases, fair workloads and more affordable health care under the leadership of Gwen Mills, who in June became the first woman to be elected union president in its 130-year history.

Data from the U.S. Department of Labor shows that Black and Latina women experience a particularly wide gender pay gap. They also face intersectional headwinds of both racism and sexism in their careers, making them even more attuned to inequities in the workplace and motivating them to increasingly step up the fight as union leaders.

Black and Latina women are driving labor union growth in the U.S. amid a decades-long decline in membership. In 2023, Black women’s union membership rate notched a slight bump from 10.3% to 10.5%, while Latinas went up from 8.5% to 8.8%. But that’s still more than white men and women as well as Asian women, whose membership experienced a decrease during the same time period.

Momentum for Black and Latina women rising into labor union leadership has picked up in the last five years. But the work began long before that by “our foremothers who laid this foundation and have been pushing and kicking those doors open for decades,” according to Liz Shuler, who in June 2022 became the first woman in history to lead the AFL-CIO, a federation of 60 national and international labor unions.

“The #MeToo movement, I think, has really emboldened women across the board, including in labor, to say, you know what? I’m not going to be sitting on the sidelines,” Shuler said. The pandemic also put a spotlight on essential workers such as nurses, service workers and care workers, who are predominantly women and minorities.

Today’s examples of diverse union leaders include Becky Pringle, a Black woman who leads the National Education Association, the nation’s largest union; Bonnie Castillo, the first Latina to serve as executive director of National Nurses United; and April Verrett, who in May became the first Black woman to lead the Service Employees International Union, which says about 60% of its service worker members are people of color, and two-thirds are women.

“If we want to build power on those who are perceived to have the least amount of power, then we’ve got to create space for our people of those identities to be able to lead,” Verrett told The Associated Press.

But while female-dominated fields have made strides in union leadership diversity, “there is still a long way to go” for unions in male-dominated fields like building and manufacturing trades, said University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign labor historian Emily Twarog. Despite some headway through DEI and apprenticeship programs, “there hasn’t been that kind of culture shift.”

Men still have a higher union membership rate than women—10.5% versus 9.5% respectively, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And workplace sexual harassment and biases still run rampant in many places, including for Chicago-based Lisa Lujano, a journey-level carpenter and member of Carpenters Union Local 13.

Things might get better, she said, if more Black and Latina women held union leadership roles and were more aware of their memberships’ needs, including safety gear that fits women’s bodies, or parental leave, which Lujano does not have.

“I think we would get more respect out in the field,” she said.
Here’s a look at the impact women union leaders have had at the bargaining table:

Education

Teachers’ unions have in recent years begun to use their collective power to push for wraparound benefits to help their surrounding community in a method known as “bargaining for the common good,” which aims to go beyond wages and benefits at the bargaining table and tackle wider social issues. The Chicago Teachers Union, for example, included demands for affordable housing citywide during a strike in 2019 — in part organized by then-vice president Stacy Davis Gates, who is now CTU president.

Some teachers’ unions are also fighting for racial justice, including the United Teachers Los Angeles, which demanded that the school district stop subjugating students to random metal detector screenings and locker checks without cause, decrying the practice as disproportionately targeting Black and minority students.

“We need to address the inequities that are built into every single social system in this country that determine whether our students come to school ready to learn every day,” Pringle said. “It was our female leaders, particularly our leaders of color, who really leaned into that.”

Hospitality

Unionized hotel workers like Maria Mata have made strides toward fighting the rampant sexual harassment in their profession.

Mata, a Hispanic housekeeper and UNITE HERE union leader at the W San Francisco, helped lead a successful push at her hotel for workers to be equipped with panic buttons in 2018 to summon security help in an emergency, now implemented by several major hotel chains.

“We needed more protection,” especially during night shifts spent cleaning entire floors alone, explained Mata, who has herself twice experienced sexual harassment on the job. “It’s very dangerous.”

It’s also vital for the women doing the work to also sit at the bargaining table, “because sometimes as women, we need something that the men don’t know,” said Mata, whose hotel is currently in bargaining for a new contract.

Flight attendants

Keturah Johnson in 2022 became the first queer woman of color to serve as international vice president for flight attendant union AFA-CWA, which is led by Sara Nelson and represents over 50,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines.
People often think of a flight attendant as “a white woman with hair put up in a bun,” and Black flight attendants frequently face microaggressions from managers about their appearance, Johnson said. “It’s happened to me many times because of my natural hair.”

And for gender nonconforming flight attendants, being able to wear a uniform that reflects their gender identity is important, Johnson said. So she’s leading the fight to update uniform standards to be gender inclusive and permit natural hairstyles, which has resulted in several airlines making changes.

United Airlines, for instance, updated its uniform standards to include gender neutral options in 2021, and Alaska Airlines management adopted gender neutral uniform and appearance standards in 2022, according to AFA. Frontier allowed natural hairstyles for flight attendants in 2021, and this year implemented standardized pricing for all uniforms regardless of size or gender.

“We’re not just there to serve Diet Coke. And so it’s our job to make sure that flight attendants are represented and seen just as they are,” Johnson said. “The world is changed now.”

The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

—Claire Savage, Associated Press