To most visitors, Hobokens ResilienCity Park might look like a normal (if rather upscale) park, complete with a large lawn for lounging, a playground, a basketball court, and an athletic field. But hidden in plain sight, the park has another purpose: keeping two million gallons of rainwater off of Hobokens streets by storing them in a giant underground tank.
The parkand others like itis one of the main ways that Hoboken has transformed from a city devastated by Hurricane Sandy to one that, today, tends to recover from major rain within a matter of hours. Now, experts think New York City could use parks to follow Hobokens lead as extreme weather continues to worsen the citys flood risk.
[Image: courtesy Rebuild by Design]
According to a study published today by Rebuild by Design, an organization dedicated to using design solutions to solve complex urban problems, 70% of NYC parks will be flooded by 2100. The report comes on top of another recent study from the Regional Plan Association (RPA), which found that, by 2070, as many as 82,000 housing units in and around NYC could be lost due to flooding by 2040, and the number could double to 160,000 by 2070.
Amy Chester, director of Rebuild by Design, believes that Hobokens example could help NYC protect both its parks and its housing by turning green spaces into a form of storm management.
[Photo: courtesy Rebuild by Design]
How Hoboken’s parks keep its streets dry
In 2012, Hurricane Sandy flooded 80% of Hoboken, took out its power grid for two weeks, and cost the city $110 million in damages. In a recent talk shared to Rebuild by Designs YouTube, Caleb Stratton, the citys chief resilience officer, said that it was a wake-up call for the city of Hoboken.
The following year, Rebuild by Design was started as a design competition to promote resilience in regions that had been affected by Sandy. At the time, Chester says, cities were blindsided by both Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy: We didn’t really understand resilient infrastructure as we do now, she says.
[Photo: courtesy Rebuild by Design]
That was especially true for Hobokenwhich, despite its coastal location and long history of flooding, had almost no flooding mitigation infrastructure in place, Chester says. Hobokens proposed rain resilience project was one of Rebuild by Designs six winning submissions, and over the last decade or so, the city has used more than $660 million from various sources including the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the state of New Jersey, and FEMA to implement new flooding protection measures.
[Photo: courtesy Rebuild by Design]
Hobokens flooding resilience project includes several different levers. To keep floodwaters out, its building a 9,000-foot-long series of preventative seawalls, gates, and levies. Its also updating its sewer system with more flood pumps to move water out of storage quicker during heavy rain. And, its keeping streets dry by increasing above and below ground water storage. Thats where resiliency parks come in.
So far, Hoboken has completed construction of three resiliency parks and a series of waterfront parks, with several more parks currently under construction. Each of these parks uses green infrastructure on its surfaceslike pervious pavers and rain gardenswhich funnel water underground into holding tanks, keeping it out of the crowded sewer system and preventing overflows.
[Photo: courtesy Rebuild by Design]
The ResilinCity Park, the largest of the existing parks, can hold two million gallons of water, enough to collect runoff from 20 surrounding blocks during a notable rain event (typically defined as more than a half inch of water falling in a 24-hour period), Chester says. A large chunk of that water is kept in the parks underground tank, while some is held in other clever wayslike a sunken basketball court with a capacity to hold more than 100,000 gallons. In all, the existing parks can hold a total of 4.2 million gallons of water.
It’s different from green infrastructure, because green infrastructure is on top of the park, and that stops the park from flooding. This is pumps and storage that stops the entire neighborhood from flooding, Chester says. We’re really interested in doing this all over New York City and in any urban areas where there are neighborhood parks, because if you’re a couple blocks away from a park, that park could be the storage option for your community and keep the floodwaters out of your basements and out of your streets.
Rebuild by Designs data shows that, in 2022 and 2023, Hobokens new rain resilient infrastructure led to an 88% reduction in flooding events. In practice, that meant that across 121 storms, noticeable flooding only occurred 14 times. In September 2023, when Hurricane Ophelia led to thigh-deep water in Brooklyn and flooded subway cars in NYC, Hoboken was noticeably dry.
Projects like thesewhich plan not just for seawater flooding, but also for excessive rainfallare increasingly important as climate change ushers in rising sea levels, and as record-warm ocean temperatures lead to more intense annual storm seasons. According to the RAPs recent analysis, NYCs existing infrastructure is not prepared to account for the coming decades of flooding damage, which is expected to impact as many as 1.6 million New Yorkers by 2040. Chester thinks resiliency parks could be the first step toward preparing the city for whats ahead.
[Image: courtesy Rebuild by Design]
Why NYC’s parks could help keep residents safe from flooding
Rebuild by Design’s new NYC park analysis maps all of the city’s 2,385 parks based on their current and future flood risk. Users can search the interactive map to view the parks in their own neighborhood, or filter for todays flood risk and flood risk by 2100. The map is also color-coded based on FEMAs social vulnerability index (or the susceptibility of social groups to the adverse impacts of natural hazards) and the heat vulnerability index, as parks provide the added benefit of reducing urban heat.
The tool shows that 38% of parks are currently in flood zonesa number that’s expected to surge to 70% by 2100. While these statistics may seem alarming, Chester sees them as an opportunity.
We’ve mapped all of the floodplain in New York City and parks to see where [resiliency parks] could potentially be a solution, Chester says. We were able to show that 38% or 900 parks in New York City are currently on top of a flood plain. Interesting. Then if you look to the 2100 flood plain, it’s 70% of parks. That’s when we were like, Oh my goodness. This could be really incredible to be thinking about this on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis.’
Of all of NYCs parks, Chesters team has identified 177 sites that would benefit the most from a resilient makeover, based on both their flood risk and heat vulnerability. To make this happen, Chester says, the parks would have to be fully rebuilt to construct underground tanks that would pump water off of nearby streets, like the ResilienCity examplewhich is why we need to start now, she adds.
If every time the parks department upgraded a park, they rebuilt it this way, we could have a major headstart in addressing flooding across NYC neighborhoods, Chester wrote in a follow-up email to Fast Company. All of Hobokens flood infrastructure was built in the past decade (after Sandy.)
These parks are, admittedly, a major investment. ResilienCity, for example, cost $80 million, while the smaller Southwest Resiliency Park (which can hold about 200,000 gallons of water in its cistern) cost $12 million. However, Chester explains, pitching resiliency parks as flood protection can help to draw in new streams of federal and state funding.
Parks manage 14% of the Citys land, but only about 0.6% of the City budget over the past 40 years, far below the national standard of 12% allocation of a municipalitys budget, the Rebuild by Design interactive map page reads. Parks offer immense potential to draw down federal and state funds, including programs from FEMA, HUD, and state funding. If the City were to recognize parks as vital infrastructureas it does highwaysand properly invest in upgrading and maintaining its parks, these public spaces could protect and save lives and save billions of dollars.
For now, Rebuild by Designs NYC proposal is just that. But Chester believes that, if Hoboken could implement successful resilient infrastructure in just a decade, theres no reason that other cities cant do it themselves.
We’ve been working on this for a little while now, but like, it’s such an incredible model for urban areas nationally, because a majority of urban areas have neighborhood parks, and theyre these smaller areas that can be doing a lot more things, Chester says. None of these parks existed in Hoboken before, and Hoboken is not a city with a lot of money.
Efficiency standards for home appliances were once the conversational equivalent of beigeneutral, but aggressively uninteresting. But as political polarization has deepened, dishwashers, laundry machines, showerheads, and other household staples have begun to take on a new charge. With Republicans now in control of the White House and both houses of Congress, rules that quietly save Americans money on utility bills while conserving energy and water are suddenly at risk.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump doubled down on his long-standing complaint about low-flow showerheads taking too long to clean his beautiful hair. He ordered his administration to repeal a rule, revived by the Biden administration, that aimed to save water by restricting flow from the fixtures. A White House fact sheet promised the order would undo the lefts war on water pressure and make Americas showers great again.
Its part of a growing movement targeting efficiency standardslast year, House Republicans passed bills including the Refrigerator Freedom Act and Liberty in Laundry Act, though neither succeeded in the Democratic-led Senate. Now in charge of both houses of Congress, Republicans have already passed a resolution to repeal a recent energy-efficiency standard for gas-powered tankless water heaters, which awaits Trumps signature.
Efficiency standards used to have bipartisan support. But today, many Republican politicians see restrictions on gas stoves, refrigerators, and laundry machines as symbols of Democratic interference with peoples self-determination. Thats the idea Trump advanced when he signed an executive order targeting efficiency standards for home goods and appliances to safeguard the American peoples freedom to choose. The message echoes talking points from industry groups that have an interest in keeping homes hooked up to natural gas for stoves and water heaters.
This isnt the first time that weve seen efficiency standards thrust into the culture wars, said Andrew deLaski, the executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, which advocates for stricter energy-efficiency legislation. But President Trump has put that into overdrive.
The push for more efficient appliances began in response to the fuel shortages sparked by the 1973 oil crisis. Republican President Gerald Ford signed the bipartisan Energy Policy and Conservation Act in 1975, laying the groundwork for the government to set standards on household appliances. But state laws for more efficient appliances came first, forcing manufacturers to navigate a patchwork of rules. So Congress set nationwide efficiency standards for water heaters, air conditioners, dishwashers, and many other household appliances with the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act in 1987, signed by another Republican presidentRonald Reagan.
Congress continued to expand those standards with bipartisan support in 1992, 2005, and 2007. In total, the Department of Energy now oversees standards for about 60 categories of appliances and other equipment in homes and businesses, spanning toilets to commercial refrigerators.
In January, the pre-Trump Department of Energy estimated that these rules, taken together, saved the average U.S. household about $576 a year on their bills. They also cut national energy use by 6.5% and water consumption by 12%, making them a key tool for addressing climate change and drought. Voters are broadly supportive of energy-saving policies, with 87% of Americans polled by Consumer Reports in March agreeing that new home appliances should be required to meet a minimum level of efficiencyincluding 82% of Republicans. People arent clamoring for products that needlessly waste energy and money, deLaski said.
Despite broad popularity, there have been flare-ups of pushback and public outrage against efficient appliances dating back to the 1980s. Reagan actually vetoed the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act, saying it restricted the freedom of choice available to consumers who would be denied the opportunity to purchase low-cost appliances, the year before he signed it. In a 1996 episode of Seinfeld, Jerry, Kramer, and Newman were so fed up with the new low-flow showerheads in their building, they resorted to buying black-market Yugoslavian models from the back of a truck. Another culture war brewed over energy-efficient LED light bulbs in the 2010s as older, incandescent models began to be phased out, with Tea Party Republicans declaring that light bulb choice was a matter of personal liberty.
President Donald Trump speaks to workers at a Whirlpool manufacturing facility in 2020, in Clyde, Ohio. [Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images]
Matthew Burgess, an environmental economist at the University of Wyoming, said that efficiency rules are most likely to become a cultural flashpoint when people see them directly affecting their lives. People do notice the flow of their showerheads, he said. People do notice whether their stove is gas or electric. Some of the political tension over appliances resulted from ambitious changes, he said, such as when Berkeley, California, tried to ban gas connections in new buildings in 2019.
Every hour, the McDonalds in Hong Kongs crowded Admiralty Station sees more than 1,200 people bustle through its golden arches to grab a coffee or a burger. Thats one customer every three seconds. Its the second-busiest McDonalds in the world and the most-frequented restaurant in Asiaand now, its getting a makeover.To celebrate 50 years of McDonalds in Hong Kong, the Admiralty Station has been renovated for the first time in 10 years. The design takes inspiration from the subway station itself, using a clever new installation to set a mood, evoke the excitement of travel, and, crucially, keep foot traffic moving through the bustling restaurant. It also takes a tentative step away from the millennial gray branding thats dominated new McDonalds locations over the past several years, embracing a slightly more nostalgia-powered look.[Photo: Andrew Meredith/courtesy Landini Associates]The Millennial gray-ification of McDonaldsThe new Admiralty Station McDonalds design was led by the Sydney-based design agency Landini Associates. Back in 2015, Landini Associates also spearheaded Project Ray, an all-encompassing McDonalds rebrand named for Ray Kroc, the businessman widely credited with turning McDonalds from a small hamburger stand into a fast-food corporation. Project Ray included rethinking the chains interiors, modernizing its graphic design, and even changing employees uniforms, all in a bid to make McDonalds cool again and re-attract millennials to the brand. The first Project Ray redesign originally debuted at Admiralty Station, introducing a sleeker, more minimalist McDonalds model accented with concrete, glass, and stainless steelquite the contrast to the bright red-and-yellow stores customers might remember from the 80s and 90s. Landini Associates idea of a modern McDonalds quickly caught on at other locations in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Beijing, and more.[Photo: Andrew Meredith/courtesy Landini Associates]The energetic environments that have been the signature for McDonalds are now replaced with a simpler, calmer, and more classic feel, Mark Landini, creative director of Landini Associates, told Architectural Products of Project Ray in 2023. Ten years on, Project Ray is still expanding to new McDonalds restaurants. Still, the concepts millennial gray-ification of McDonalds has perhaps become a bit of a relic of the mid-2010s, when many fast-food restaurants began stepping back from expressive design for a more standardized fast-casual look. In contrast, over the past several months, McDonalds has been more broadly embracing its fans nostalgia for its 80s and 90s marketing, bringing back brand characters like Grimace, CosMc, and Uncle OGrimacey. Landini Associates updated Admiralty Station, which its calling a Ray-Naissance, seems to lean into this new tack by incorporating a bit more color, energy, and a few classic callbacks into its design.[Photos: Andrew Meredith/courtesy Landini Associates]McDonalds of the futureWhen visitors enter the new Admiralty Station McDonalds, theyll first be greeted with a gigantic, modernized version of the original golden arches, complete with a few subtle nods to the iconic branding of the very first McDonalds restaurants. As customers rise from the station below, theyre welcomed by a reflective double-canopy entrancea contemporary homage to McDonalds original roofline and a nod to Ray Krocs classic design, a press release on the redesign reads. Now framed by glowing feature walls in McDonalds signature yellow, aimed at creating an unmissable beaconjust like the earliest restaurants once were.[Photo: Andrew Meredith/courtesy Landini Associates]Past this bright yellow entryway is the new restaurants defining feature: a 70-foot-long curving digital screen called the Mood Engine. Shape-wise, its a bit reminiscent of the subway trains themselves, and its moving images also build on the idea that its a fantastical continuation of the stations transit. According to the press release, it pulses with curated animations, dynamic color transitions, and playful bursts of McDonaldland characters, bringing in a bit of the classic McDonalds character that mightve been missing in the previous design.To be clear, the new Admiralty Station McDonalds is a far cry from the fast-food restaurants of the 80s, when McDonaldland characters abounded. The concept is clearly intended for customers of the future, including a fast-service lobby filled with digital kiosks that can serve those 1,200 customers per hour; a first-of-its-kind McCafé Bar space made entirely from recycled plastic; tabletops made with 100% recycled laminate pulp and coffee grounds; and a fully LED lighting system intended for energy efficiency (that includes the Mood Engine wall.) Still, the design provides a sneak peek into what McDonalds might look like several years from now: slightly brighter, more personalized, and tied to the companys roots.Our original design for Ray has proven its intent, to be a classically neutral and long-lasting space, Landini said in the press release. This Ray-Naissance can now shift from calm to energetic, playfully branded to locally nuanced. . . . Like a chameleon, it responds to its environment.
Once upon a time, back in 1995, BYD was a little-known battery maker. Today, it is the worlds largest electric vehicle producer after surpassing Tesla in global sales in 2024. This rise reflects a relentless focus on automation and vertical integration. It controls every part of its supply chain. It makes its own batteries, with features unmatched in the industry, even mining raw materials like lithium. Its factories are robotic wonders that run about 97% on their own, building a never-ending stream of cars better than Western equivalents at lower price points. And it also transports its own cars across the world with its own fleet of ships specially designed to carry automobiles.
The latest is also the biggest ship of its kind on the planet: The BYD Shenzhen, which just sailed to Brazil on its first assignment. This colossal ship was designed to carry just wheeled cargo, what is technically called a roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) vessel. Unlike typical container ships, where vehicles are packed into boxes and containers, Ro-Ro ships allow cars to be driven directly onto decks via ramps, making loading and unloading faster. They are way more efficient to operate than regular transport ships because each minute shaved from loading and unloading translates into big financial savings for the company.
As BYDs general manager, Wang Junbao, pointed out at the Shenzhens delivery ceremony, Its efficient loading system and advanced protective technologies for stable and low-carbon logistics will be pivotal to [the companys] globalization strategy.
What’s so special about BYD’s ship?
At 721-feet longnearly twice the length of a soccer fieldthe Shenzhen is the largest car carrier by capacity, holding 9,200 vehicles across 16 decks.
According to the company, the ships design prioritizes efficiency and sustainability. It uses liquefied natural gas (LNG) dual-fuel engines, which burn LNG, a cleaner alternative to traditional marine diesel. LNG cuts sulfur oxide emissions by 99% and nitrogen oxides by 85%, aligning with stricter environmental regulations in markets like Europe. The Shenzhen also features anti-fouling paint, a coating that reduces drag by preventing marine organisms from sticking to the hull, improving fuel efficiency by up to 8%. It also employs shaft generators, devices that convert excess engine power into electricity, reducing reliance on polluting diesel generators. While BYD hasnt fully detailed its proprietary box-type battery packs onboard, their inclusion hints at efforts to electrify auxiliary systems, further lowering emissions.
Vehicles wait to be loaded onto BYD’s third 7,000-car carrier, the BYD Hefei, at the Taicang Port in Suzhou, China, in January 2025. [Photo: Ji Haixin/VCG/Getty Images]
Why BYD built this giant
BYDs decision to invest in ships stems from its explosive growth. The company sold about 455,000 vehicles in 2019, surging to approximately 740,000 units in 2021 and more than doubling in 2022 to 1.9 million. This growth strained existing logistics networks. Knowing where its heading, BYD announced it would invest $687 million to build its own seven-ship Ro-Ro fleet. Third-party shipping costs were skyrocketing, with daily charter rates hitting $150,000 per vessel in 2024. For context, leasing a single ship for a month could cost $4.5 million. The company estimates that per-vehicle shipping expenses drop 30% to 40% with its own fleet, saving up to $1.4 billion annually.
BYD plans to deploy seven car carriers over the next two years to address the shortage of shipping capacity for automobile exports, Wang Chuanfu, the companys founder and chairman, said last year. It has three more to go, including Shenzhen‘s twin, the BYD Changsha, which will be launched soon. No doubt the company will need it. Overseas shipments surged 124% year over year to 133,361 vehicles in Q1 2025, and the company is set to export 800,000 vehicles across the world this year. Such exponential growthwhich analysts believe will continue in the double digits for years to comeis why the company plans to make even more vessels. By 2026, BYDs seven-ship fleet aims to move more than one million vehicles yearly (or 83,300 per month, equivalent to nine Shenzhen trips). Thats one car shipped every 30 seconds, if you want an even more impressive figure.
BYD is not the only company that does this, even while it has the biggest ship for now. Its strategy mirrors a broader shift among Chinese automakers. SAIC Motor, Chinas second-largest automaker, operates 31 ships through its logistics arm, Anji Logistics, including the 7,600-vehicle SAIC Anji Sincerity. Unlike BYD, SAIC transports cars for multiple brands, including its rivals. But BYDs fleet will be reserved mainly for its own vehicles, out of pure necessity.
Globally, Hyundai GlovisHyundais logistics subsidiarymanages 60 ships and has just ordered a dozen 10,800-vehicle LNG-powered carriers. While larger, Glovis serves third parties like Toyota and Volkswagen. Legacy automakers rely on partnerships with shipping firms, a model BYD avoids, seeking instead to control every aspect of the production chain (the technology, the level of automation, the quality, and the price) to crush the competition. Its hard to imagine the beleaguered Tesla or any other Western manufacturer matching this kind of vertical integration. The massive BYD Shenzhen is yet another reminder that the race for EV supremacy may already have a winner.
Hotel art has changed. In the last few years, generic photography and reproductions of works by Old Masters have given way to remarkable pieces of artwork befitting top-notch museums and the worlds best private galleries.
Though it may feel like a 180-degree shift from the boring artwork that preceded these new and imaginative displays, hotels becoming cultural destinations unto themselves, by hanging up artwork ideal for the worlds top museums and private galleries, makes sense.
The standard used to be that youd put a picture in a frame and call it a daybut hotels dont cut it anymore with this, says Spencer Bailey, editor-in-chief of a multivolume book series starting with Design: The Leading Hotels of the World and cofounder of the media company The Slowdown. People expect more with the artwork, the furniture. People want to feel a sense of craftiness at every touch point at a hotel.
Millennial and Gen Z travelers in particular crave authentic, upscale, and culture-based experiences, a notion that has extended into the hotels branding itself through the use of artwork. Its something that still predominantly exists in the high-end, five-star hotel market, Bailey says.
The Damien Hirst Empathy Suite at the Palms, Las Vegas, 2019. [Photo: David Becker/WireImage/Getty Images]
Indeed, Denvers luxury-focused Art Hotel showcases a 22,000-piece LED light installation by Leo Villareal. Theres also Damien Hirsts outstanding art suite called the Empathy Suite at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegaswhere, for a whopping $100,000 a night, you too can gaze in disbelief at one of six original full-size pieces, like the one titled Winner/Loser, in which two taxidermied sharks float suspended in formaldehyde.
Some big-brand hotels are now breaking into the art hotel concept, using carefully curated art collections as a way to help define their brand identity and sharpen their claims of authenticity. Hilton recently jumped on the bandwagon with the Curio Collection, a series of 180 individually distinct and decorated hotels. Competitor Marriott has its Autograph Collection, which has grown to 154 hotels since launching in 2010. Smaller operators are now also embracing an art-forward approach.
[Photo: courtesy The Lytle Park Hotel]
Merging history and art at a Cincinnati boutique
The Lytle Park Hotel in Cincinnati, Ohiopart of Marriott’s Autograph collectionquite literally sits at the intersection of art and hospitality. The property, opened in 2020, combines the hotels structure from 1909 and themes from the next-door Taft Museum of Art. The venues Lytle Park neighborhood is now a lovely residential area, but at the turn of the century, Cincinnatis elite dwelled here and propagated the citys cultural and artistic center. Artwork from the museum adorns some of the hotels walls, a gesture to the hotels link to this rich, storied past. To better connect guests to the areas history and culture, the hotel in 2025 debuted its Taft Suite, which pays homage to the citys illustrious Taft family, including its most famous member, William Howard Taft, the 27th president of the United States.
[Photo: courtesy The Lytle Park Hotel]
Museums play a crucial role in the economy of American cities, contributing over $50 billion annually to the U.S. economy, says Rebekah Beaulieu, Ph.D, president and CEO of the Taft Art Museum. Hence Cincinnati, she hopes, will benefit from the hotel/museum cross-sector approach to cultural collaboration.
Todays hotel guests really want to be transported into a hotels story, says Colletta Conner, principal designer at ForrestPerkins, which designed the Taft Suite. Through its curated gallery experience, the suite offers hotel guests a glimpse into the Lytle Park of the early 20th century, when the Taft family lived there. Guests can peruse the spaces painted garden scenes and river valley motifs that feel vaguely reminiscent of the Ohio River Valley. For an added personal touch, there are even photographs of President Taft peppering the walls.
[Photo: courtesy The Lytle Park Hotel]
Creating a narrative is a very imprtant part of the design process, Conner explains. Sometimes you could walk onto a property and not feel a story. Sure, the hotel might be beautifulbut theres no story that pulls guests into the hotel experience.
Conner says ForrestPerkins works with a lot of different hotel brandslike Sheraton, Four Seasons, and Ritz Carltonto craft a brand narrative for each hotel. We provide local context to these properties, creating unique narratives for each that add up to unique, one-of-a-kind hotel experiences.
[Photo: courtesy The Lytle Park Hotel]
The design team wanted the suite to match the tone set by the gallery, which occupies a historic home that was built in 1820. Some of these hotels that think about the gallery concept are more like white-box museum gallery types of spaces, says Conner. But our intention here was to have almost this home feeling, which is how the Taft Museum next door is set up.
And yet, there might be an inherent contradiction in art hotels. Art requires taste, which can be a very controversial subject, and it requires lots of money, Bailey says. Owners of what was once considered the most valuable art collection in the west, the Tafts were obviously among Cincinnatis most privileged. Objects in the hotel, especially the Taft Suite, point to the Taft Museums Rembrandts and Turners, Italian majolica painted pottery, and Chinese porcelains, the latter a coveted collection both then and now. In many ways, art is a luxury item, and great hotels will need to understand that, Bailey says. The artand where it came fromchosen for each art hotel becomes an embodiment of that hotel as much as the architecture or furniture is.
If visitors sense any air of elitism at the hotel, its quickly dispersed by the interior designs and friendly staff. An open concept layout in the main lobby, complete with a stunning skylight that lets in plenty of natural light, mirrors the welcome attitude the hotel and its staff emanate. While they didnt plan these main areas, ForrestPerkins designers emphasize how convivial the spaces are meant to feel, and they sought to reflect this ambience in the Taft Suite. The idea was to have museum quality displayed in a home environment, to be welcoming, approachable, and accessible, Conner says.
21c Louisville [Photo: courtesy 21c]
A new kind of art hotel
As one-off hotels tailor their art offerings to their locales, boutique chain 21c Museum Hotels is scaling that approach. A chain of seven boutique hotels in the Midwest and South, the brand sees itself as a forward-thinking contemporary art museum first and a hotel second.
21c Bentonville [Photo: courtesy 21c]
When you walk into a 21c, youre walking into a hotel lobby, but youre also walking into a museum gallery, says Alice Gray Stites, chief curator for 21c Museum Hotels. Every 21c hotel lobby, hotel hallway, event space, and meeting room is treated like a museum gallery, where Stites installs a varied range of exhibitions.
21c Lexington [Photo: courtesy 21c]
The brand got its start in 2006, at a time when revitalizing urban cores and building preservation werent part of many peoples lexicons. As 21c cofounders, preservationists, and contemporary art collectors, Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson imagined that contemporary art could be a catalyst for revitalizing their hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. In the end, the pair combined their art collection with the hotel concept because a research firm they had hired revealed that their city needed more hotel rooms to spur tourism.
21c Louisville [Photo: courtesy 21c]
Laura and Steve wanted to take away the velvet rope that people sometimes perceive when walking into a museum. The result? A different kind of model for both the museum world and the hospitality industry. The hotel offers urated exhibitions that are open 24/7 and cover important topics of the day, and that cycle in and out every six months. 21c was a pioneer in thisthey were an early driver in the art hotel trend, Bailey says.
21c St. Louis [Photo: courtesy 21c]
At first glance, there seems to be some tension between the 21c idea of making art more accessible and the fact that its only available in a boutique hotel, where rooms cost upward of $185 a night. Most hotels dont invite anyone who hasnt booked a room to wander their lobbies or hallways, whereas 21c allows anyone, free of charge, into the hotels to view its artwork on display.
[21c has] created this idea of living with art and not being intimidated by art, breaking down the formal boundaries that feel so imposing sometimes for outsiders when they walk into an art gallery or museum,” Bailey says.
Because hiring staff is typically a time-consuming and costly process, many companies are now opting to interview multiple candidates at once. The Society for Human Resource Management reported that group interviews have become increasingly popular among employers.
For applicants, this changes the interview experience significantly. Instead of fielding questions about your résumé in a one-on-one setting, youve now got to vie for a role alongside other applicants and take part in real-world workplace scenarios designed to showcase your leadership skills.
Tech companies and brands such as Disney, Starbucks, and The Gap are choosing to adopt the trend. Not only can interviewers see how candidates work in high-pressure situations, but fewer interviewers need to be trained in the company.
By screening multiple candidates at once, this style of interview can save employers time, while also allowing them to observe candidates’ critical thinking and communication skills in action, says Sarah Skelton, managing director of recruitment company Flourish.
Skelton adds that this interview style can not only be a timesaver for companies, but it can also save applicants time, too. For the candidates, this can give an opportunity to showcase their skills in one day.
But it can also be a stressful process, especially if youre used to the traditional interview experience. The next time youre asked to participate in a group interview, heres what to keep in mind in order to make sure you stand out to the hiring managers:
Practice your networking skills
When taking part in a group interview, try networking to make you feel calm, grounded, and present. It may be helpful to warm yourself up by having a couple of light touch questions you ask other interviewees before the interview starts, for example, How was your journey?” says leadership coach Keren Blackmore from Leap of Thought.
Being interviewed alongside others might actually help reduce the amount of stress you feel, as youre all in the same boat. You can also use the opportunity to increase your network. The people you meet at the interview may be interesting contacts for the future, [so] why not, for example, connect on LinkedIn? says Blackmore.
Think about your body language
While it may be more difficult to stand out in a group interview, you can still make your presence felt, even when youre silent. Psychologist Albert Mehrabian said that 55% of our communication is through body language, rather than speaking. Beth Hope, an executive coach who specializes in resilience, says your body language in these group interview settings should reflect calm confidence.
Sit tall, ground your feet, keep your shoulders relaxed and open. This will help calm your nervous system and give you a boost of confidence, says Hope. Use purposeful gestures when speaking and avoid nervous habits like fidgeting or crossed arms. Confidence [is] about owning your space, staying grounded, and showing youre comfortable being yourself.
Executive coach Joseph Ball adds that to show engagement, you should nod, smile, [and] make eye contact with the speaker.
Know when not to talk
Group interviews may be embraced by extroverts, but the key is knowing when not to talk. The best way to stand out in any setting is not to be the loudest voice, but to be the clarifying voice, says Mike Manoske, executive coach at The Wharton School. The way to do that is through active listening and playback: replaying back what youve heard, followed by adding additional ideas to move things forward.
Make sure to keep your tone respectful. Leadership development trainer Andy Coley says you should avoid the word but when responding to someone elses idea or perspective. A but can be seen as confrontational, says Coley. Instead say yes, and this is my perspective. [This] implies youve acknowledged the other person’s point of view, whereas but comes across as a disagreement, which can lead to egos getting hurt, he says.
You can also show support for others without affecting your chances, says Coley. If someone shares a good idea, a simple comment like ‘Thats a great point,’ shows that youre thoughtful and team-minded, he says. That kind of behavior stands out because it shows you care about the whole group, not just yourselfand thats real leadership.
Treat other applicants as peers, not competition
Another way to gain confidence in this group setting is to view the other people as peers, rather than competition, says Blackmore. This helps frame them as equals rather than a threat. Dont spend your time distracted by how the other candidates may or may not be a better fit. They are no better or worse, but they do have different skills and experiences. If youre in the interview, you are there for a reason. How you show up in the group environment is likely to be just as important as your [credentials] and experience.
Work psychologist Dr. Marie-Hélne Pelletier says a group interview presents a good opportunity to work on your mental toughness. Identify what may get you off track and prepare. If another candidate saying a [great] point puts you at risk of losing your confidence, prepare now to put this aside mentally.
If you dont have the typical skills for the role, view this as a superpower. A great way to stand out is to connect insights from your nontraditional background to help move the group forward, says executive coach Kelly Ling. For example, if you are moving from a business development role into a product manager role, you can bring in your experience of understanding customers needs.
Keep an eye on the time
The whole idea of the group interview is to find someone who can do the job and even uncover a future leader. Skelton says that group interviews often include a timed component, so its important for candidates to demonstrate strong time management skills and help keep the group focused. Successful participants will guide the team toward hitting key milestones throughout the session and ensure a clear conclusion is reached by the end, says Skelton.
Launched in September, Overdrive, has taken an unconventional approach to harm reduction. Founded by Brian Bordainick, who also started emergency contraception company Julie and acne patch company Starface, the company has used its playbook of taking a fun, edgier branding approach to drugstore productsin this case testing kits for fentanyl and for seeing if a drink has been spiked to appeal to a newer generation of consumers.
Unlike sterile, medical-looking drug testing kits, Overdrives are designed to stand out with industrial-themed packaging that resembles a cigarette carton. Its all in the service of turning lifesaving testing into less of a buzzkill on a night out. The company’s branding helped make it one of Fast Company‘s 10 Most Innovative Companies in consumer goods this year.
Beyond encouraging testing, Overdrive is also interested in demystifying just how fentanyl gets into drugs. This week, the company released The Plug, a YouTube documentary and collaboration with photographer and director Sam Hayes (a former opioid user himself), aimed at highlighting the dangers of fentanyl and the importance of testing drugs given the widespread use of fentanyl to augment them.
Ryan Weaver, the companys creative director and branding mastermind, talked to Most Innovative Companies host Yasmin Gagne about the documentary, the companys messaging around drug safety, and his personal journey with drugs in his younger days.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Before Overdrive, you had experience in working on creative and business development. What did you learn from working on digitally native brands and channels?
After doing some independent production, I was at YouTube channels Full Send and Nelk Boys for a while and they were creator-driven channels that were doing banger numbers with prank stuff. These kids that were running it were supersmart and had no playbook for how YouTube channels are supposed to run. If somebody was trying to do a brand deal with them, they’d say, Fuck off, we’re going to do our own product. Everybody else in media, my whole life was like, well, there’s advertisers and there’s content creators. These guys did product development and put on a great show. They created this whole ecosystem where consumers could engage with both. In hindsight, its so obvious and smart.
How did you connect with your cofounder, Brian Bordainick?
Ive been working with him for three years. He shared his vision for where content was heading that brands dont need to do just advertisements, they can do storytelling with shared value sets around what the product stands for. Though that you can build an audience and fidelity. He also has really strong retail relationships and is really good at product development.
You started working with Bordainick at his emergency contraception company Julie. What attracted you to the project?
Julie was headed into launch and they wanted me to produce a hero asset. I came in to help produce their first commercial where two women were at a drugstore shelf shitting on their boyfriends and talking about how badly they needed the product. It did well and people were psyched about it. From there I got to understand how CPG worked.
[Photo: Overdrive]
Why did you want to build a brand around testing recreational drugs?
This inclination in the background to do something in the drug safety space had been percolating for Brian for some time and certain retailers had hit him up and said this is an important space. He has a grasp on how to tackle difficult topics. When he was ready to push play on this build, he brought me over from Julie to help spearhead the creative and design side of what the brand Overdrive would become.
I wanted permission to be intense and gnarly; you have to be aggressive and you have to stand out. With Overdrive, the market didnt really exist and social platforms arent especially stoked about us selling these products. So creatively you get to make different decisions because those platforms rules are so intense around what youre doing. From a creative standpoint, you’re looking at a project that has real stakes. You’re selling an actually helpful product, and you’re also able to not really focus on the product and focus on ethos because the product is so policed. Then you get to be a bit of an instigator because the brand isnt squeaky clean, you need a troublemaker attitude behind it.
Why did you feel the need to approach the project with that kind of attitude?
Youre appealing to people who might be in a situation where there is fentanyl. Theyre trying to get into the mosh pit versus watching from the sidelines. I have an addictive personality. Previously, in my 20s, I did hard drugs, so for me there was a lived experience access point. I didnt have to create a character to create the brand. I can speak to a version of myself and try to think of things I would have listened to or paid attention to from a safety perspective in my life. I wasnt guessing or relying on a case study.
Fentanyl wasnt as much of a problem when you were doing drugs, right?
No joke, I think about that all the time. Im really lucky that in my 20s that wasn’t something I had to worry about because the reality is most people don’t when they’re trying to have a good time and get lit. It’s really scary.
[Still: Overdrive]
Tell me about the documentary Overdrive is releasing this month.
Its a YouTube video we made with this awesome guy, Sam Hayes. I had this interest in fentanyl being this kind of gray area and a bogeyman that youre supposed to be scared of, but you dont know what it is. So Sam meets with people in recovery centers, actual drug dealers, and actual users. It shows you where you get fentanyl and how the dark web comes into it. Theres this one shot of a drug dealer grinding stuff up in a Vitamix, and when you look at the Vitamix . . . its not clean. You get a look at the process of creating these unregulated things.
Who is your target customer?
I try to think more psychographic than demographic. What’s the psychographic of someone using hard drugs? We try to look at places where thrill and danger intersect. This can be gnarly or louder forms of music or extreme action sports like skating or motocross. And then the thing that happens if it doesn’t go is a life or death stakes. There’s a tendency for that to be more gender- or age- or location- specific, but for us, we felt pretty confident that if we just talk to that psychographic of people that are looking for an extreme release from a hostile world.
How are you expanding your user base?
We want to broaden so that we’re speaking to the people around the user as much as the user. Some current parts of the brand will go away and there will be an emphasis on education over the next year or so. I think it’s cool that the DNA of the brand is representative of the user, but we’re going to start broadening things out so that it will feel a little bit more classic CPG product shot or an Instagram ad. The ads will provide an access point to more white collar people or parents. We want to target people that are caretakers and live in certain parts of the country.
How do you balance the edgier branding of Overdrive with a more education-first approach?
Last year we indexed really high on the edgier branding. The logic was that if we can create something somebody’s comfortable carrying around in situations [where they might have access to drugs], we’re already winning because our competitors aren’t. Theyre sterile and overly medical. An example of that could be the way our test strips come in packaging that looks like a pack of cigarettes. Youre not carrying a white box around.
So you dont look like a narc.
Exactly, because then it’s like, get the fuck out of here. We don’t want to fuck with this person. I think we did a really good job at that. The education piece, its almost easier to do. It’s like, this is what the product looks like and heres a stat about how many people this weekend will be exposed to fentanyl and a five-minute testing process can protect you or your loved ones. Its taking a step back from the lifestyle aspect of the space and creating more of a billboard with a few key pieces of information.
What inspired the design of the products?
We looked at companies that behaved like media companies but that didnt see themselves that way. Monster Energy is as much a media company as it is a product-driven company. When we were figuring out comps that made sense, a lot of it was power tools, action sports, cigarette companies, and beer ads. All of these companies have connective tissue to the partying and drug experience. Because the no-fly zones as fair as what they can claim and how they can advertise were kind of gnarly, those were the places we gravitated to really quickly. These are also areas that have higher fidelity. Some people’s favorite brand is Monster or Marlboro. We used a lot of higher contrast and bold designs. I think Ed Hardys cool. Minimal branding or this kind of flat design has been done.
What was the messaging strategy behind your products?Something I would say to people was, someone about to go in a UFC fight knows they’re about to get the shit beat out of them. You don’t need to tell them, This is dangerous. Not only do they know that, but that’s the last thing they want going through their head before they go fight. What we can say is, When you do this UFC fight, if you wear this mouth guard, you might not suffer serious brain damage.
My fundamental belief is that if you make the mouth guard look cool, like if it was chrome or had monster teeth or grills, that medical component can start to become aspirational and they might be excited to bring it with them. We can’t be a brand saying Don’t do drugs. You lose so many people out the gate telling them not to. We want Overdrive to feel like part of the experiencenot a scary reminder of the things our customer is trying to escape, like mortality.
One crucial factor helped keep Tesla profitable last quarter, and it wasnt direct car sales.
In its latest earnings report, the company said that it earned $595 million from selling regulatory credits to other automakers. The credits are issued by governments, including California, that require car companies to hit certain emissions goals by selling cleaner vehicles. If they dont, they have to make up the gap by buying credits from companies like Tesla that make zero-emissions cars.
Teslas sales tanked in the first quarter as Elon Musks dive into politics pushed away customers, both in the U.S. and internationally. The company reported that it earned $409 million in the first quarter of 2025, down 71% from the same quarter a year ago. Without the revenue from selling credits, Tesla would have posted a $186 million loss.
Now, President Trump is actively trying to dismantle the system that makes the credits possible. Republicans in Congress are helping that effort. The House is set to vote this week on a bill that aims to take away Californias right to have strict air quality standardsand the market for zero-emissions vehicle credits that exists in the state.
A long history of relying on credits
The credits have been important since Teslas beginning. In the early years, its really what kept them out of bankruptcy, says David Sperling, founding director of the Institute for Transportation Studies at UC Davis. Sperling previously helped set up the zero-emissions vehicle credit system in California.
Multiple other states that follow Californias air quality standards, from Colorado to Virginia, also issue the credits. While Tesla also earns money from a credit system in Europe and a small amount through a federal program, most of the credits it sells are in California and other states.
At points in the companys history when it particularly struggled, credits kept it going. The company was structurally unprofitable for a long, long time, says Ed Niedermeyer, author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors. If the cushion of the credits hadnt existed, the company might look very different now. Musk once considered a sale to Google at one of Tesla’s low points, for example. In theory, the company might not have even survived.
The credits still matter
Eventually, Tesla was selling enough cars that it became profitable without the credits (at least until now). But the credits continued playing an important role. Especially given the economic uncertainty right now, it remains an important driver for a type of profit in pre-cash flows, says Seth Goldstein, an equity analyst at Morningstar.
Credits also helped it accrue around $37 billion in cash. If we do have a long-term economic slowdown, Tesla should be able to withstand the slowdown because it does have such a strong balance sheet, Goldstein says. So I’ll attribute that to the credit allowing Tesla to put itself in a very strong position.
The credits werent designed to last forever, and Goldstein argues that Tesla is positioning itself not to need them. As more automakers make EVs, theyll have to buy fewer credits from electric-first companies like Tesla. Eventually, if California can keep its plan in place, all new car sales in the state will be zero-emissions by 2035. But as the state ramps up its emissions requirements on the way to that goal, some brands may not be able to keep up the pace and credits will become more valuable.
“The value of the credits is pretty low right now because the market is outpacing the regulatory requirements,” says Sperling. “But that’s going to change probably within a year or two. If the authority stays in place and the regulations stay in place, those credits are going to become more and more valuable.”
As Tesla’s sales falter, the credits play a more important role. The drop in sales isn’t solely because of the damage that Musk has caused the brand. Other car companies now offer a suite of options for EVs that customers may find more appealing, especially as Tesla has been slow to roll out new models. Musk has touted Tesla’s work on robotics and automation, but neither are ready to immediately come to market. (Both may be the latest examples of Musk’s hype machine.) The company has promised a new, more affordable car, but it likely won’t be out until next year. The sales of its current lineup of cars are still critical, which means that credits are, too.
No one knows what’s next
The state credits are at risk in two ways. Right now they’re possible because of California’s long-standing right to regulate air pollution. When the Clean Air Act passed in 1970, California already had air quality laws, so it was given a waiver to continue setting its own strict emissions standards for cars. Other states also have the option to follow California.
Trump tried to eliminate that waiver in his first term, and California and other states sued. (Four automakers then agreed to voluntarily meet California’s standards.) When Biden took office, with the lawsuit still underway, he restored the waiver. But fuel producers and industry groups suedsaying the Environmental Protection Agency shouldn’t have put the waiver back in placeand the Supreme Court is now considering whether that lawsuit can proceed.
Separately, Congressional Republicans are trying to reverse the EPA’s waivers for California’s plans to phase out new gas cars and trucks. The House will vote this week. In the Senate, the parliamentarian has said that Congress doesn’t have the authority to repeal the waivers. But Senate Republicans may try anyway.
Whatever happens, more lawsuits will follow. That means that the regulatory credits won’t immediately disappear. And Tesla, for now, will be able to keep using themeven as Elon Musk continues to rant about government handouts.
At around 8:40 a.m. on January 1, a disgruntled U.S. soldier blew up a rented Cybertruck in front of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. Seven bystanders were injured in the blast, though nobody was killed except the driver, who died by self-inflicted gunshot wound. The charred rubble and twisted metal left behind invoked both the cars creator, Tesla tycoon Elon Musk, and the hotels owner, returning president-elect Donald Trump. It also telegraphed untold carnage on the horizon from the prospect of this dystopic duo running the government together.The year had just begun and 2025 already delivered its most prescient visual metaphor. Plenty of other striking images have since emerged during the first 100 days of Trumps second term, though, that perfectly capture how this sequel presidency has played out so far.Elon Musk elongates his armFrom top: A neo-Nazi group salutes during a gathering in Orlando, Florida, in 2023; Elon Musk in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025. [Images: Sandi Bachom/Getty Images, Alex Wong/Getty Images]Although the sheer abundance of tech billionaires at Trumps inauguration raised some eyebrows, only one of those billionaires actions that day dropped jaws. During a speech about his then-gestating Department of Government Efficiency, Musk put his hand over his chest, said My heart goes out to you, and then, well, lets just say he made a memorable gesture. Twice.What kind of gesture? Media outlets have dog-eared their thesauruses searching for a euphemism that wont leave any legal exposure or get anyone fired. It was either a stiff-arm, odd-looking, or Roman salute, but it bore more than a passing resemblance to Sieg Heiling. Only Musk knows for sure whether he made the alarming gesture by mistake, on purpose in brazen earnestness, or on purpose but just to troll the left. Either way, he never apologized. Instead, he complained on X that all criticism of his gesture amounted to dirty tricks. No word yet on whether dirty tricks are why several people who mimicked Musks salute lost their jobs.Volodymyr Zelenskyy walks into a buzzsaw[Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images]Trump seems to delight in humiliating people he perceives as disloyal. Think of Mitt Romney looking medical-grade embarrassed to be photographed at dinner with Trump after criticizing him throughout the 2016 election, or Robert Kennedy Jr. being force-fed a Big Mac last fall after badmouthing Trumps diet. Those incidents seem like a mere warmup, though, for the humiliation ritual Trump put Volodymyr Zelenskyy through back in February. The Ukrainian president entered the Oval Office presumably expecting to reach an agreement about trading his countrys rare minerals in exchange for continued support from the U.S. Instead, Zelenskyy found himself ambushed. Trump and VP JD Vance took turns berating him on live TV for not being sufficiently grateful for U.S. support throughout the Russian invasion. (Days earlier, Trump falsely blamed Ukraine for starting the war.) Zelenskyys face during the disastrous meeting served as an apt avatar for leaders of other U.S. allies around the world, realizing in real time that a major geopolitical realignment may be currently underway.Trump take egg[Image: MrGeoff/Adobe Stock]Joe Bidens entire presidency was haunted by the specter of grocery store sticker shock. Whether he could have actually done more to assuage it or not, pandemic-driven inflation and supply chain issues kept driving up prices. Consumers were furious. Many were also desperate for relief, which Trump promised to deliver on day one of his second term. Instead, egg prices shot up further after Trump took office, for a variety of reasons. (DOGEs firing of the team assigned to study rampaging bird flu almost certainly didnt help.) Grocery store signage about egg rationing quickly showed up all over social media, forcing even Fox News to acknowledge it. The egg crisis has since receded, but not entirely, and not before birthing a massive meme.Gretchen Whitmer cant hideGretchen Whitmer temporarily shielded herself from the cameras when she was in Trumps Oval Office, per this photo from NYTs @erjleehttps://t.co/TFDPPnci7Q pic.twitter.com/hnLnvuQvlX bryan metzger (@metzgov) April 12, 2025After an election cycle spent warning Americans about the dire consequences of a second Trump term, Democrats in power have had difficulty finding their footing with it underway. Opposition took the form of holding up tiny signs of resistance during a Trump speech to congress, which GOP colleagues promptly snatched away. Although some Dems like Bernie Sanders, AOC, Cory Booker, and Chris Van Hollen have found meaningful forms of fighting back, the partys initial awkwardness out of the gate is crystallized in an April photo of Gretchen Whitmer. When the Michigan governor went to speak with Trump in the days after his Liberation Day tariff blitz, she had not been informed Trump planned on making a photo op out of her visit. To avoid looking like shed come crawling to Trumps bargaining table, Whitmer shielded her face with folderswhich only made the resulting photo exponentially more embarrassing. Its the image of a person who has been thoroughly outmaneuvered by someone who better understands the contours of visual manipulation.Heavy images tweeted lightly[Image: Official White House Twitter/X.com]The White Houses X account has undergone a radical vibe shift under Trump. Instead of serving up official dispatches from the government, most of its posts read like far-right shitposts from 4chan. Though many worthy contenders come to mind, the most egregious example is probably the photo of a woman crying while under arrest by ICE, which the White House social media manager then ran through an AI Studio Ghibli filter, rendering it paradoxically adorable. Regardless of her alleged past convictions, making fun of her pain on an official government channel is shameful behavior. Its an image that announces to the rest of the world: America runs on casual cruelty. The Epstein files stunt was very [redacted]Various right-wing influencers carry binders bearing the seal of the U.S. Justice Department reading The Epstein Files: Phase 1 as they walk out of the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., on February 27, 2025. [Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images]Although the White House has touted this administration as the most transparent in American history, that title hasnt always proved out. When congressional Democrats tried to enter federal government offices in the midst of DOGE shredding their staff, for instance, they found police officers standing in their way. You know, somewhat non-transparently? The moment that best visually captured the opacity of historys most transparent administration, though, was the release of the so-called Epstein files. In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi invited 15 far-right influencers to the White House to receive binders supposedly filled with declassified information about deceased human trafficker Jeffrey Epsteinand his suspected ties to powerful people. The binders contained scant new information; nothing approaching the realm of revelatory. If anything, the photo stunt invited further questions about just what might be missing from those binders and why. Not exactly an ideal outcome for an event (and an administration) so vocally proud of its historic transparency.These babies are priced to move[Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images]Considering Tesla stock is down 71% year-over-year this quarter, it seems as if quite a few people are not very happy with Musks gleeful chainsawing of the federal government. In an effort to help his embattled colleague stem the tide, Trump put on a White House-set version of a seasonal car saleTeslathon on the White House lawn. Trump gushed to the assembled press about how sleek and cool he found the phalanx of Teslas on the South Lawn. (Everythings computer! he crowed at one point.) The spectacle ultimately didnt help Musks fading fortunes one iota, but it did bring to life an image long lurking in certain corners of the public imagination: Trump as an overzealous used car salesman.A crimson tide washes over the stock map[Screenshot: Finviz/Internet Archive]Trumps red-light-green-light approach to imposing tariffs on more or less every countrynot all of which are even populatedhas created a lot of compelling images. Most of them, however, are stock brokers with their faces in their hands on some of the recent days when the Dow dropped by 1,000 points or more. The most lasting image from the post-Liberation Day stock free fall, though, is probably a stock market heatmap turning nearly all redalmost as if Americas economic security had bled out.Just say Noem[Photo: Alex Brandon/Getty Images]Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is apparently a fan of cosplay. Shes donned tactical gear several times to tag along on ICE raids, seemingly with the sole purpose of making content. On one of these raids, she even brought along Chaya Raichik, the far-right influencer better known as LibsofTikTok. Noems largest contribution to the visual vocabulary of Trumps second term, though, was her late-March stunt at El Salvadors Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison, where Noem filmed herself standing in front of a crowded cell full of mostly shirtless inmates, and threatened all criminal illegal aliens in the U.S. that they could soon be there, too. Using these men as props is already in poor taste, inviting painful memories of Abu Ghraib. That the administration admitted, just days later, to sending a man to CECOT by mistake made it even worse.Of course, for many viewers, the hardest part of looking back at any of these images from the past 100 days may be the shocking realization that it has only been 100 days.
If youre not on TikTok, you may not have heard of Aaron Parnas. But for many young people across the U.S., hes a prominent political news source, with over 3.5 million followers on TikTok and just under one million on Instagram.
Parnas isnt the only TikToker Gen Z and Gen Alpha turn to for news. Between 2020 and 2024, the share of adults regularly getting news from TikTok nearly quintupledwith adults under 30 leading the surge.
Who is Aaron Parnas?
After starting college at 14, Aaron Parnas completed his degree at 18 and graduated from George Washington University Law School at 21 in 2020.
That same year, Parnas transitioned from Republican to Democrat. He is the son of Lev Parnas and detailed both his familys political experiences and his personal journey in the memoir Trump First.
Outside of TikTok, Parnas has worked as a securities litigation attorney and a Democratic digital strategist. He first gained traction online by posting legal content during the pandemic. In 2022, he pivoted to covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine, sharing pro-Ukrainian stories from his relatives living there. His account quickly blew up, gaining 1.2 million followers in just a few weeks.
TikTok as a News Platform
TikTok is increasingly becoming a news platform, where users watch influencers summarize news stories and topicsgiving you the TL;DR in a way, Parnas said.
Parnas and others are often able to post as soon as news breaks. Ill post 20 times a day if I have to, he told the Daily Voice. For example, Parnas was among the first to report on President Zelenskyys March 5, 2022, call with U.S. lawmakers, during which Zelenskyy requested more resources and suggested it could be the last time they saw him alive.
Gen Z and Gen Alphas Shift in Media Habits
According to the Pew Research Center, 39% of adults under 30 regularly get news from TikTok.
However, less than 1% of the accounts users follow are journalists or traditional news outlets. Instead, young people are turning to social media influencers like Parnas. A lot of [his followers] say they dont go to CNN, FOX or MSNBC, he said.
Parnas believes Gen Z and Gen Alpha are disenchanted with legacy news media. He argues that traditional journalisms dedication to neutrality can be a turnoff, and that younger audiences are more open to editorializing and personal opinions from news sources. TikTok also makes space for diverse perspectives to be heardsuch as those of Parnass Ukrainian relatives.
Challenges of TikTok News Consumption
Parnas credits his ability to post quickly to the fact that he operates solo and doesnt need to go through multiple layers of approval. Still, his goal is to spread accurate information.
I would never consider myself an investigative journalist by any means, Parnas said in an interview. Instead, he views himself as a news aggregator who shares information from verified sources with his followers. He acknowledges that legacy media remains important due to its superior sourcing and fact-checking.
However, not all TikTok influencers prioritize accuracy. The platform lacks a system to prevent the spread of misinformationwhether its unverified claims, personal (and possibly uninformed) opinions, biased interpretations, or outright fabrications.
Parnas describes the relationship between traditional journalists and TikTok creators as a double-edged sword. While creators help traditional reporting reach younger audiences by repackaging it for social platforms, the original journalists often dont get the credit they deserve. As a result, many young users may struggle to recognize what trustworthy journalism actually looks like.
