When I lived in Florida, I had a neighbor named Ms. Carmen. She was in her late 70s, fiercely independent, and lived alone with her two dogs and one cat, which were her closest companions.
Each hurricane season, she would anxiously ask if I would check on her when the winds began to pick up. She once told me: “Im more afraid of being forgotten than of the storm itself.” Her fear wasnt just about the weather; it was about facing it alone.
When hurricanes hit, we often measure the damage in downed power lines, flooded roads, and wind-torn homes. But some of the most serious consequences are harder to see, especially for older adults who may struggle with mobility, chronic health problems, and cognitive decline.
Emergency preparedness plans too often overlook the specific needs of elders in Americas aging population, many of whom live alone. For people like Ms. Carmen, resilience needs to start long before the storm.
The number of older adults in the U.S. and the percentage of the population age 65 and older have been rising. [Image: US Census Bureau]
I study disaster preparations and response. To prepare for hurricane season, and any other disaster, I encourage families to work with their older adults now to create an emergency plan. Preparing can help ensure that older adults will be safe and able to contact relatives or others for help, and will have the medications, documents and supplies they need, as well as the peace of mind of knowing what steps to take.
Recent hurricanes show the gaps
In 2024, Hurricanes Helene and Milton put a spotlight on the risks to older adults.
The storms forced thousands of people to evacuate, often to shelters with little more than food supplies and mattresses on the floor, and ill-equipped for medical needs.
Flooding isolated many rural homes, stranding older adults. Power was out for weeks in some areas. Emergency systems were overwhelmed.
A tornado tore into a senior community in Port St. Lucie, Florida, during Milton, killing six people. Some long-term care facilities lost power and water during Helene.
At the same time, some older adults chose to stay in homes in harms way for fear that they would be separated from their pets or that their homes would be vandalized.
These events are not just tragic; they are predictable. Many older adults cannot evacuate without assistance, and many evacuation centers arent prepared to handle their needs.
How to prepare: 5 key steps
Helping older adults prepare for emergencies should involve the entire family so everyone knows what to expect. The best plans are personal, practical, and proactive, but they will contain some common elements.
Here are five important steps:
1. Prepare an emergency folder with important documents.
Disasters can leave older adults without essential information and supplies that they need, such as prescription lists, financial records, medical devices andimportantlycontact information to reach family, friends, and neighbors who could help them.
Many older adults rely on preprogrammed phone numbers. If their phone is lost or the battery dies, they may not know how to reach friends or loved ones, so its useful to have a hard copy of phone numbers.
Consider encouraging the use of medical ID bracelets or cards for those with memory loss.
Hurricane season begins June 1. Dont wait until its too late.To prepare ahead you can develop an evacuation plan, assemble a disaster supply kit, create a communications plan and more.For more hurricane preparedness tips, visit: https://t.co/gG4ogHLnOg pic.twitter.com/Wukb1C1CUt— Polk Emergency Mgmt (@polkemergency) May 6, 2025
Critical documents like wills, home deeds, powers of attorney, and insurance records are frequently kept in physical form and may be forgotten or lost in a sudden evacuation. Use waterproof storage thats easy to carry, and share copies with trusted caregivers and family members in case those documents are lost.
2. Have backup medications and equipment.
Think about that persons assistive devices and health needs. Having extra batteries on hand is important, as is remembering to bring chargers and personal mobility aids, such as walkers, canes, mobility scooters, or wheelchairs. Do not forget that service animals support mobility, so having supplies of their food will be important during a hurricane or evacuation.
Ask doctors to provide an emergency set of medications in case supplies run low in a disaster.
If the person is staying in their home, prepare for at least 72 hours of self-sufficiency in case the power goes out. That means having enough bottled water, extra pet food, and human food that doesnt need refrigeration or cooking.
3. Map evacuation routes and shelter options.
Identify nearby shelters that will likely be able to support older adults mobility and cognitive challenges. If the person has pets, make a plan for them, toomany areas will have at least one pet-friendly shelter, but not all shelters will take pets.
Figure out how the person will get to a shelter, and have a backup plan in case their usual transportation isnt an option. And decide where they will go and how they will get there if they cant return home after a storm.
If your loved one lives in a care facility, ask to see that facilitys hurricane plan.
4. Create a multiperson check-in system.
Dont rely on just one caregiver or family member to check on older adults. Involve neighbors, faith communities, or local services such as home-delivered meals, transportation assistance, support groups, and senior centers. Redundancy is crucial when systems break down.
5. Practice the plan.
Go through evacuation steps in advance so everyone knows what to do. Executing the plan should be second nature, not a scramble during a disaster or crisis.
Planning with, not just for, older adults
Emergency planning isnt something done for older adultsits something done with them.
Elders bring not only vulnerability but also wisdom. Their preferences and autonomy will have to guide decisions for the plan to be successful in a crisis.
That means listening to their needs, honoring their independence, and making sure caregivers have realistic plans in place. Its an important shift from just reacting to a storm to preparing with purpose.
Lee Ann Rawlins Williams is a clinical assistant professor of education, health and behavior studies at the University of North Dakota.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Americans often receive a lot of grief for being less internationally traveled than citizens of other countries. But in recent years, more Americans are traveling abroad than ever before. Numbers compiled by the digital magazine Travel and Tour World (TTW) show that in March 2025, 6.56 million Americans flew outside of the country. Thats 1.6% more than the same period a year earlier, and more than 22% more than in 2019the year before the pandemic caused international travel to grind to a halt.
TTW cites pent-up demand, strong personal savings among affluent demographics, and a growing appetite for immersive cultural experiences as the main reasons more Americans are traveling overseas. And those numbers from March will likely increase this month as the school season ends and Americans start heading out on summer vacations, especially since ticket prices have been dropping lately as airlines lower their fares to entice inflation-wary consumers to travel.
But if it’s your first time traveling internationally, you may not be aware that the reigning transportation and mapping app kings in the United States, Google Maps and Apple Maps, arent always the best to use in other countries. There are others that will enable you to navigate new lands more easily, especially the abundant public transportation options that most other countries offer. With that in mind, here are some apps to download before you head out on your global travels.
Citymapper
Citymapper is probably the most recognizable app on this list, and thats because it does one thing better than nearly any other app: It helps you navigate some of the worlds best cities, whether that be by foot, car, bicycle, scooter, tram, ferry, or other city-specific modes of transitway more modes than Apple or Google offers in most locales.
Citymapper is already pretty popular in America because it helps residents and visitors in big cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., get around. However, while the app supports just 28 cities in America, it supports 72 in Europe, along with prominent Asian destinations, including Tokyo, Seoul, and Hong Kong.
Moovit
If you need public transit directions in America or most major European cities, Google Maps or Apple Maps can do a decent job of getting you from point A to point B. But if you are in less frequently traveled countries of the world, you’ll find that Google Maps and Apple Maps dont always reveal all the public transportation options that are available when trying to get across a cityor from city to city.
Thankfully, theres Moovit, which boasts public transit directions for more than 112 countries and 3,400 cities across the globeincluding many in the Global South, which many transit apps frequently overlook. If you are traveling in Eastern Europe, South America, Africa, or large parts of Asia, Moovit will likely show you the most public transportation options available. Another great thing about the app is that it lets you download a citys transit maps for offline viewing.
Naver Map
Few countries have a geopolitical postwar history that’s as fascinating as South Korea. The country, which is still technically at war with North Korea, rapidly industrialized after the 1960s to become one of the worlds most economically and technologically advanced nations. If you plan to visit South Korea, be sure to download Naver Map before you go.
Naver Map is the Google Maps of South Korea, and it features nearly everything you would expect to find in Google Maps, including transportation directions and business listings. You can still use Google Maps or Apple Maps in South Korea, but their real-time transportation direction capabilities are significantly nerfed. Thats because South Korean law requires mapping providers to store their mapping data within the countrysomething neither Google nor Apple does. And yes, while Naver Map is predominantly used by locals, the smartphone app is also available in English, making it a must-have for American visitors.
Rome2Rio
The apps above are mostly very city- or country-specific. But what if you are going on a multination journeysay from Portugal to Finlandand stopping at multiple cities on the way? There is probably no better app that helps you get from one country to another than Rome2Rio.
Fast Company has previously spotlighted the platformwhich is basically like a Google Maps for major modes of travel between any two points on the planetbut it’s worth mentioning here again because it is so useful (and the smartphone app is great). Rome2Rio will show you how to navigate between two placesno matter if by car, train, bus, plane, or ferryand show you how much it is likely to cost based on your selected mode of transport.
Transit
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that one of the easiest transportation apps to use is Transit, thanks to its excellent user interface, which makes following step-by-step transit directions a cinch. As soon as you open the app, youll instantly see the public transport options closest to youno searching required. It also displays route options in a color-coded bar chart format, letting you choose the best one for you at a glance.
Transit is currently available in 25 countries and over 870 cities. The majority of those cities are in the United States, Canada, and France, but the app also supports major cities in popular destinations for U.S. tourists, including the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and other select global cities.
Paula Davis is the founder and CEO of the Stress & Resilience Institute. She is a globally recognized expert and adviser regarding burnout prevention at work and building resilient teams. Previously, she practiced law, and then during her postgraduate training for her psychology masters degree, she was selected to be part of the University of Pennsylvanias faculty teaching resilience skills to soldiers for the Armys Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness program.
Whats the big idea?
To increase well-being, motivation, engagement, resilience, or the many words that describe thriving teams, we must understand that leadership behaviors drive employee experience. Leaders can control the conditions that allow for sustainable high performance. We need to advance the conversation beyond individual remedies for burnout and address root causes of stress and disengagement.
Below, Paula shares five key insights from her new book, Lead Well: 5 Mindsets to Engage, Retain, and Inspire Your Team. Listen to the audio versionread by Paula herselfin the Next Big Idea App.
1. Activate sticky recognition
When people are keenly aware of their impact at work, it ignites a powerful psychological fuel. Sticky recognition is a way for leaders to show an individual or team their impact, as well as awaken something even deeper: a sense of mattering. Its a fundamental human need to know that we matter. Mattering emerges from a combination of achieving goals that are personally important and being noticed or recognized for that work.
There are two tiny noticeable things (TNTs) that can activate sticky recognition. The first is saying a thank you, plus a little bit of extra added to it. That extra piece is the why. Instead of only saying thank you to someone, you can say to them, Thank you. The way you summarized those reports helped me see the key takeaways and I was able to have a much clearer conversation with the CEO because of it. That little extra piece sticks or resonates beyond the thank you.
The second TNT that activates sticky recognition is calling out peoples strengths. For instance, I was leaving a restaurant with a friend when I noticed a different friend walking down the sidewalk. I hadnt seen her in a long time, so I ran up to her and gave her the biggest hug, saying, Sandra, its so great to see you. When I got in the car, the friend I had gone to dinner with said, I really like the way your face lights up when you see your friends. Being complimented on that kindness in me was very powerful.
2. Amplify A, B, C needs
A stands for autonomy, B stands for belonging, and C stands for challenge. This trio forms the basis for several well-being models. There are several TNTs that can expand the A, B, C needs of your team.
For autonomy, we oftentimes think solely about where people work and when people work, but I want you to think about how you can give people more decision-making authority. Can you allow them to be more creative? Can you allow them to take more control? Being able to expand autonomy is great. A TNT for autonomy is setting context for rules and goals. Give the rationale, the backstory that explains why a change is happening or why they are assigned a particular project. Or tell a little bit more about the story of a client the company is working with.
This trio forms the basis for several wellbeing models.
Belonging comes next. A sense of connection is important and needs to be fostered more intentionally in hybrid or remote work models. One of the TNTs that amplify connection is scheduling unstructured time with someone, just 10 or 15 minutes every couple of weeks, to ask whats on their mind. Or, a much more powerful question would be, What has your attention right now? Over time, this inquiry allows leaders to understand their team in a deeper way.
People want to feel a sense of opportunity and growth from their workthey want the right challenge. If they dont see a clear path for that, they will not hesitate to leave the organization. A TNT for this is helping them seek mastery experiences. Help them understand or get to know different skills that they might want to consider developing to reach their goals. Then, suggest opportunities that allow them to pursue those skills. If someone says they want to get better at public speaking, maybe you can offer that they can lead a team meeting or present at a conference.
3. Build workload sustainability
There are a lot of things within leaders control that can make workloads sustainable. It comes down to two things: establishing teaming practices and recovery practices. A TNT for teaming practices is conducting a meetings audit. Take a step back and look at how many meetings you take part in. How many meetings are people on your team involved with? Are all those meetings necessary? Is there another way that information can be communicated? Can meetings be shorter? Can you add an agenda so that there is structure and clarity?
4. Design systemic stress resilience
Resilience is one of the most misunderstood words in our world of work. Basically, resilience is meant to help people develop their capacity to manage challenges, problems, failure, setbacks, and grow from those obstacles. Resilience lives at the individual level, team level, and organizational level. Resilient teams show four big capacities:
Team efficacy. They have a lot of collective confidence in their ability to achieve goals and manage challenges.
Clear roles and responsibilities. Clarity increases autonomy.
Improvisation. If they encounter a challenge, theyre able to chat, pivot, and proceed with a new game plan.
Psychological safety. This allows for cohesion, trust, and the ability to discuss failure when things dont go right.
A TNT for expanding your teams resilience is to debrief together after micro-challenges. Dont wait for the big project to finish. Whenever your team encounters a minor stumble, use that as an opportunity to come together and talk.
5. Promote values, alignment, and meaning
Values misalignment is one of the six drivers of burnout. Values need to be lived. People want to see their leaders walking the talk. Research shows that there are six ways that leaders can build a sense of values, alignment, and meaning at work:
Communicate the works bigger impact.
Recognize and nurture potential.
Foster personal connections.
Discuss values and purpose during hiring and onboarding.
Model values-based behavior.
Give employees autonomy.
Youll notice that the A, B, C needs are part of this structure as wel. One TNT that you can use for yourself and encourage within teams is to revive a dormant connection. Who is someone you had a strong connection with in the past, but the relationship has been quiet for a while? Reach out to that person and revive that connection.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
When disasters happensuch as hurricanes, wildfires, and earthquakesevery second counts. Emergency teams need to find people fast, send help and stay organized. In todays world, one of the fastest ways to get information is through social media.
In recent years, researchers have explored how artificial intelligence can use social media to help during emergencies. These programs can scan millions of posts on sites such as X, Facebook, and Instagram. However, most existing systems look for simple patterns like keywords or images of damage.
In my research as an AI scientist, Ive developed new models that go further. They can understand the meaning and context of postswhat researchers call semantics. This helps improve how accurately the system identifies people in need and classifies situational awareness information during emergencies. The results show that these tools can give rescue teams a clearer view of whats happening on the ground and where help is needed most.
From posts to lifesaving insights
People share billions of posts on social media every day. During disasters, they often share photos, videos, short messages and even their location. This creates a huge network of real-time information.
But with so many posts, its hard for people to find whats important quickly. Thats where artificial intelligence helps. These systems, which use machine learning, can scan thousands of posts every second, find urgent messages, spot damage shown in pictures, and tell real information from rumors.
During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, people sent over 20 million tweets over six days. If AI tools had been used then, they could have helped find people in danger even faster.
Training AIs
Researchers begin by teaching AI programs to understand emergencies. In one study I conducted, I looked at thousands of social media posts from disasters. I sorted them into groups like people asking for help, damaged buildings and general comments. Then, I used these examples to train the program to sort new posts by itself.
One big step forward was teaching the program to look at pictures and words together. For example, a photo of flooded streets and a message like were trapped are stronger signals than either one alone. Using both, the system became much better at showing where people needed help and how serious the damage was.
Finding information is just the first step. The main goal is to help emergency teams act quickly and save lives.
Im working with emergency response teams in the United States to add this technology to their systems. When a disaster hits, my program can show where help is needed by using social media posts. It can also classify this information by urgency, helping rescue teams use their resources where they are needed most.
For example, during a flood, my system can quickly spot where people are asking for help and rank these areas by urgency. This helps rescue teams act faster and send aid where its needed most, even before official reports come in.
Addressing the challenges
Using social media to help during disasters sounds great, but its not always easy. Sometimes, people post things that arent true. Other times, the same message gets posted many times or doesnt clearly state where the problem is. This mix can make it hard for the system to know whats real.
To fix this, Im working on ways to check a posts credibility. I look at who posted it, what words they used and whether other posts say the same thing.
I also take privacy seriously. I only use posts that anyone can see and never show names or personal details. Instead, I look at the big picture to find patterns.
The future of disaster intelligence
As AI systems improve, they are likely to be even more helpful during disasters. New tools can understand messages more clearly and might even help us see where trouble is coming before it starts.
As extreme weather worsens, authorities need fast ways to get good information. When used correctly, social media can show people where help is needed most. It can help save lives and get supplies to the right places faster.
In the future, I believe this will become a regular part of emergency work around the world. My research is still growing, but one thing is clear: Disaster response is no longer just about people on the groundits also about AI systems in the cloud.
Ademola Adesokan is a postdoctoral researcher in computer science at Missouri University of Science and Technology.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Its no secret that warming temperatures, wildfires and flash floods are increasingly affecting lives across the United States. With the U.S. government now planning to ramp up fossil fuel use, the risks of these events are likely to become even more pronounced.
That leaves a big question: Is the nation prepared to adapt to the consequences?
For many years, federally funded scientists have been developing solutions to help reduce the harm climate change is causing in peoples lives and livelihoods. Yet, as with many other science programs, the White House is proposing to eliminate funding for climate adaptation science in the next federal budget, and reports suggest that the firing of federal climate adaptation scientists may be imminent.
As researchers and directors of regional Climate Adaptation Science Centers, funded by the U.S. Geological Survey since 2011, we have seen firsthand the work these programs do to protect the nations natural resources and their successes in helping states and tribes build resilience to climate risks.
Here are a few examples of the ways federally funded climate adaptation science conducted by university and federal researchers helps the nation weather the effects of climate change.
Protecting communities against wildfire risk
Wildfires have increasingly threatened communities and ecosystems across the U.S., exacerbated by worsening heat waves and drought.
In the Southwest, researchers with the Climate Adaptation Science Centers are developing forecasting models to identify locations at greatest risk of wildfire at different times of year.
Knowing where and when fire risks are highest allows communities to take steps to protect themselves, whether by carrying out controlled burns to remove dry vegetation, creating fire breaks to protect homes, managing invasive species that can leave forests more prone to devastating fires, or other measures.
The solutions are created with forest and wildland managers to ensure projects are viable, effective and tailored to each area. The research is then integrated into best practices for managing wildfires. The researchers also help city planners find the most effective methods to reduce fire risks in wildlands near homes.
In Hawaii and the other Pacific islands, adaptation researchers have similarly worked to identify how drought, invasive species and land-use changes contribute to fire risk there. They use these results to create maps of high-risk fire zones to help communities take steps to reduce dry and dead undergrowth that could fuel fires and also plan for recovery after fires.
Protecting shorelines and fisheries
In the Northeast, salt marshes line large parts of the coast, providing natural buffers against storms by damping powerful ocean waves that would otherwise erode the shoreline. Their shallow, grassy waters also serve as important breeding grounds for valuable fish.
However, these marshes are at risk of drowning as sea level rises faster than the sediment can build up.
As greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels and from other human activities accumulate in the atmosphere, they trap extra heat near Earths surface and in the oceans, raising temperatures. The rising temperatures melt glaciers and also cause thermal expansion of the oceans. Together, those processes are raising global sea level by about 1.3 inches per decade.
Adaptation researchers with the Climate Adaptation Science Centers have been developing local flood projections for the regions unique oceanographic and geophysical conditions to help protect them. Those projections are essential to help natural resource managers and municipalities plan effectively for the future.
Researchers are also collaborating with local and regional organizations on salt marsh restoration, including assessing how sediment builds up each marsh and creating procedures for restoring and monitoring the marshes.
Saving salmon in Alaska and the Northwest
In the Northwest and Alaska, salmon are struggling as temperatures rise in the streams they return to for spawning each year. Warm water can make them sluggish, putting them at greater risk from predators. When temperatures get too high, they cant survive. Even in large rivers such as the Columbia, salmon are becoming heat stressed more often.
Adaptation researchers in both regions have been evaluating the effectiveness of fish rescuestemporarily moving salmon into captivity as seasonal streams overheat or dry up due to drought.
In Alaska, adaptation scientists have built broad partnerships with tribes, nonprofit organizations and government agencies to improve temperature measurements of remote streams, creating an early warning system for fisheries so managers can take steps to help salmon survive.
Managing invasive species
Rising temperatures can also expand the range of invasive species, which cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars each year in crop and forest losses and threaten native plants and animals.
Researchers in the Northeast and Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Centers have been working to identify and prioritize the risks from invasive species that are expanding their ranges. That helps state managers eradicate these emerging threats before they become a problem. These regional invasive species networks have become the go-to source of climate-related scientific information or thousands of invasive species managers.
The Northeast is a hot spot for invasive species, particularly for plants that can outcompete native wetland and grassland species and host pathogens that can harm native species.
Without proactive assessments, invasive species management becomes more difficult. Once the damage has begun, managing invasive species becomes more expensive and less effective.
Losing the nations ability to adapt wisely
A key part of these projects is the strong working relationships built between scientists and the natural resource managers in state, community, tribal and government agencies who can put this knowledge into practice.
With climate extremes likely to increase in the coming years, losing adaptation science will leave the United States even more vulnerable to future climate hazards.
Bethany Bradley is a professor of biogeography and spatial ecology at UMass Amherst.
Jia Hu is an associate professor of natural resources at the University of Arizona.
Meade Krosby is a senior scientist for the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Its one thing to invent something cool within controlled laboratory environments. Its entirely another to scale that new baby for sale.
The tension between innovation and commercialization is something we regularly wrestle with at Abstrax. Every morning, we don lab coats and ask the same question: “How do you make money from research done in a lab?”
Balance innovation with commercial reality
Discovery for its own sake isnt enough. Many R&D-heavy companies discover that brilliant ideas can languish for years if they dont have a system for bringing them to market. We decided early on to build that bridge proactively. This meant investing heavily not just in research, but in the systems and machinery that connect lab work to real-world products. Our scientists dont concoct in ivory towers, they work hand-in-hand with product developers to ensure (most) experiments align with market needs.
This pragmatic approach focuses our curiosity. We poured resources into advanced analytical technology. Among other exquisite toys, we operate an ultra-sensitive aroma analysis platform nicknamed OMNI. With it, we can break down a complex flavor into hundreds of molecular components and pinpoint the ones that matter. By capturing a “3D metabolite fingerprint” of a material (cannabis flower, hop varietals, etc.), we get a complete map of that samples aroma chemistry.
Why go to these extremes? Because understanding a flavor at that granular level is the key to replicating it, enhancing it, and ultimately monetizing it. We can identify over 500 distinct compounds in a single hop strain. That level of resolution lets us see opportunities others might miss, like the trace molecules that round out pineapple, or a sulfur compound responsible for skunky notes.
From breakthrough to beer glass
To illustrate how lab research turns into revenue, take our recent work with Citra, one of the most celebrated hops in craft brewing. Citras appeal lies in its remarkably juicy, complex flavorthink grapefruit, lime, peach, and passionfruit steamrolled into one. This tropical medley makes a Citra-hopped beer delicious. But heres the rub: Achieving that same flavor consistently at scale is hard. Hops are agricultural products, subject to the whims of weather and yearly variation. The Citra you get this year might not taste exactly like last years crop.
This is where our lab-to-market philosophy shines. Using OMNI, we profiled Citras chemical makeup in exquisite detail. Armed with that blueprint, we developed an Omni Hop Profile extract that mirrors Citras flavor profile with uncanny accuracy. For brewers, this is a game-changer. Instead of being at the mercy of Mother Nature, they can rely on our Citra extract to deliver the exact same flavor in every batch, forever. And because its made from botanically derived ingredients, it stays true to the clean-label standards brewers abide by. We even worked with veteran brewmasters on pilot brews to fine-tune the extracts performance in different beer styles. By the time our Citra profile hit the market, it was brewer-tested and production-ready.
Our Citra victory highlights our core principle of reasonable innovation. We didnt stop at discovering what makes that hop special, we pushed to make it a tangible solution to a real problem. That is the essence of monetizing R&D: moving from Eureka! to a viable SKU.
No fluff, only real solutions
In avant-garde industries like cannabis and craft beer, its easy to get caught up in hype and bold claims. We prefer a different tack: Let the results speak. If we say our new formulation improves a beers shelf-life or an extract boosts an IPAs aroma, weve got the data to back it up. Grounding innovation in evidence keeps us credible and ensures we stay focused on real market value.
We also recognize that not every experiment will pan out, and thats okay. Part of our system is knowing never to become 100% pot committed. Well test 10 ideas, then swiftly double down on the one or two that show commercial promise. By failing fast and smart, we conserve resources for the innovations that count.
The new R&D playbook
Our journey from lab to market hasnt been quick or easy. It took patience and a willingness to invest up front. But that patience is paying off. Today, Abstraxs approach is turning niche scientific insights into mainstream products. What others consider to be a cost center is our engine for growth.
When scientists and strategists work in sync, every discovery is viewed through the lens of real-world impact. The healthy tension between invention and commercialization keeps us sharp. As it turns out, the lab and the market are pretty good at balancing each other.
Kevin Koby is CEO and cofounder of Abstrax.
The Ford Pinto. New Coke. Google Glass. History is littered with products whose fatal flaw whether failures of safety, privacy, performance, or plain old desirabilityrepelled consumers and inflicted reputational damage to the companies bringing them to market.
Its easy to imagine the difference if these problems had been detected early on. And too often, businesses neglect the chance to work with nonprofits, social enterprises, and other public interest groups to make product improvements after they enter the marketplace or, more ideally, upstream, before their products have entered the crucible of the customer.
For companies and consumer groups alike, this is a major missed opportunity. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, partnering with public interest groups to bake an authentic pro-consumer perspective into elements like design, safety, sustainability, and functionality can provide a coveted advantage. It gives a product the chance to stand out from the crowd, already destined for glowing reviews because problems were nipped in the bud thanks to guidance and data from those focused on consumers interests. And for the nonprofits, working proactively with businesses to help ensure that products reflect consumers values from the outset means a better, safer marketplace for everyone.
Zoom, in a nutshell
Weve already seen the difference working together can make, especially if its early in a products introduction to consumers. Just look at Zoom. The videoconferencing platform, while launched as a tool for businesses, had not been introduced to a wide consumer audience before the COVID-19 pandemic made its services a global necessity. In early 2020as Zoom was poised to explode from 10 million monthly users to more than 300 million by AprilConsumer Reports (CR) testing experts went under the hood in our digital lab to assess it from a consumer well-being perspective.
CR uncovered serious flaws. These included a protocol allowing the company to collect users videos, call transcripts, and chats and use them for targeted advertising, as well as features that allowed hosts to record meetings in secret and alert them when a participant clicked away from the screen. At the precipice of a moment when elementary school classrooms to therapy sessions would be conducted over Zoom, theres no telling what the fallout might have beenfor the company or its customershad these problems persisted.
But CR reached out to the businessand the business reached back. Within days, Zoom had worked with CR to solve a wide array of problems, helping strengthen its case as a lifeline for users all over the world.
Partnerships require new ways of thinking
Now imagine what could be possible if such a partnership began even earlier in the process. This is the relationship CR has worked to build with businesses, providing companies our testing expertise and data about consumers needs and desires. Our advisory services have led to us providing feedback on prototypes, and with feedback implemented earlier in the product development lifecycle, weve seen immediate impact for consumers: improved comfort of leg support in vehicles; privacy policy changes for electronics; reduced fees for a basic checking account; an improved washing machine drying algorithm for one brand; improved safety of active driver assistance systems; and strengthened digital payments app scam warnings before users finalize transactions. These partnerships have proven productive, but they remain the exception to the rule.
Building more of those cooperative, upstream relationships will require new thinking on both sides. Advocacy organizations must adopt an entrepreneurial spirit, leveraging their insights and expertise as a collaborator to companies theyre more accustomed to critiquing. Businesses must embrace these relationships as a central part of their research and development process, understanding that embedding pro-consumer values gives them a real edge in todays hyper-social marketplace.
This cooperation is especially important in the modern digital era, when many consumers are making choices that reflect their principles and where products and services are growing increasingly complex. As the rise of AI-fueled products brings a new wave of threats and vulnerabilities in its wake, it is critical that businesses and public interest groups make an effort to forge strong relationships.
By coming together early and often around their common interestthe consumerthey can improve products, craft strong industry standards, burnish the reputation of companies that act responsibly, and help maintain the health and integrity of the marketplace.
Phil Radford is president and CEO of Consumer Reports.
Feeling like youve overdone it on the scrolling? Now you can take a break from TikTok to meditatewithout ever leaving the app.
TikToks new in-app meditation feature, announced Thursday, was first tested earlier this year with a group of teen users and is now rolling out to everyone. Designed to improve sleep quality, the meditations activate during designated sleep hours and serve as a gentle nudge to put the phone down during a late-night scroll session.
For users younger than 18, the feature is enabled by default. If teens are still on the app after 10 p.m., their For You feed will be interrupted by calming music and breathing exercises. If ignored, the prompt returns to remind them it’s time for bed. Adults who want a similar reminder can set their own bedtime in TikToks Screen Time settings.
Although the meditation can be skipped, TikTok says 98% of teens who encountered it during testing chose to keep it on. Still, not everyone appreciated the intervention. I disabled it, ima scroll how long I want on my phone, one TikTok user commented. Why do they care how late we are on TikTok? another asked. To Instagram I go, added a third.
@cbsmornings TikTok is launching a new feature to encourage users to stop scrolling late at night in the form of an in-app guided meditation session #tiktok #sleep #meditation original sound – CBS Mornings
The update comes amid growing scrutiny of TikToks impact on youth mental health. A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that nearly half of U.S. teens say social media disrupts their sleep (45%) and hurts their productivity (40%).
TikTok is also facing lawsuits that claim it prioritized profit over safety by downplaying the effects of its addictive algorithm. Previous attempts to limit screen time havent always worked. Court documents show teens were still spending an average of 107 minutes per day on the app, even when a 60-minute limit was in place.
As part of the rollout, TikTok also announced a $2.3 million donation in ad credits from its Mental Health Education Fund to 31 organizations, including Crisis Text Line, Active Minds, and the Alliance for Eating Disorders.
Food rations that could supply 3.5 million people for a month are moldering in warehouses around the world because of U.S. aid cuts and risk becoming unusable, according to five people familiar with the situation.
The food stocks have been stuck inside four U.S. government warehouses since the Trump administration’s decision in January to cut global aid programs, according to three people who previously worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and two sources from other aid organizations.
Some stocks that are due to expire as early as July are likely to be destroyed, either by incineration, using them as animal feed, or disposing of them in other ways, two of the sources said.
The warehouses, which are run by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), contain between 60,000 to 66,000 metric tons of food, sourced from American farmers and manufacturers, the five people said.
An undated inventory list for the warehouseswhich are located in Djibouti, South Africa, Dubai, and Houstonstated that they contained more than 66,000 tons of commodities, including high-energy biscuits, vegetable oil, and fortified grains.
Those supplies are valued at over $98 million, according to the document reviewed by Reuters, which was shared by an aid official and verified by a U.S. government source as up to date.
That food could feed over a million people for three months, or the entire population of Gaza for a month and a half, according to a Reuters analysis using figures from the World Food Programme, the world’s largest humanitarian agency.
The U.N. body says that one ton of foodtypically including cereals, pulses, and oilcan meet the daily need of approximately 1,660 people.
The dismantling of USAID and cuts to humanitarian aid spending by President Donald Trump come as global hunger levels are rising due to conflict and climate change, which are driving more people toward famine, undoing decades of progress.
According to the World Food Programme, 343 million people are facing acute levels of food insecurity worldwide. Of those, 1.9 million people are gripped by catastrophic hunger and on the brink of famine. Most of them are in Gaza and Sudan, but also in pockets of South Sudan, Haiti, and Mali.
A spokesperson for the State Department, which oversees USAID, said in response to detailed questions about the food stocks that it was working to ensure the uninterrupted continuation of aid programs and their transfer by July as part of the USAID decommissioning process.
“USAID is continuously consulting with partners on where to best distribute commodities at USAID pre-positioning warehouses for use in emergency programs ahead of their expiration dates,” the spokesperson said.
Some food likely to be destroyed
Although the Trump administration has issued waivers for some humanitarian programsincluding in Gaza and Sudanthe cancellation of contracts and freezing of funds needed to pay suppliers, shippers, and contractors has left food stocks stuck in the four warehouses, the sources said.
A proposal to hand the stocks to aid organizations that can distribute them is on hold, according to the U.S. source and two former USAID sources briefed on the proposal. The plan is awaiting approval from the State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance, the two former USAID sources said.
The office is headed by Jeremy Lewin, a 28-year-old former operative of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, who is now overseeing the decommissioning of USAID.
The Office of Foreign Assistance, DOGE, and Lewin himself did not respond to requests for comment.
Nearly 500 tons of high-energy biscuits stored at a USAID warehouse in Dubai are due to expire in July, according to a former USAID official and an aid official familiar with the inventories. The biscuits could feed at least 27,000 acutely malnourished children for a month, according to Reuters calculations.
The biscuits are now likely to be destroyed or turned into animal feed, the former USAID official said, adding that in a typical year, only around 20 tons of food might be disposed of in this way because of damage in transit or storage.
Some of those stocks were previously intended for Gaza and famine-stricken Sudan, the former official said.
The State Department spokesperson did not directly respond to questions on how much of the food aid in storage was close to expiry and whether this would be destroyed.
USAID plans to fire almost all of its staff in two rounds on July 1 and Sept. 2, as it prepares to shut down, according to a notification submitted to Congress in March. The two former USAID sources said many of the critical staff needed to manage the warehouses or move the supplies will depart in July.
Children dying
The United States is the world’s largest humanitarian aid donor, amounting to at least 38% of all contributions recorded by the United Nations. It disbursed $61 billion in foreign assistance last year, just over half of it via USAID, according to government data.
U.S. food aid includes ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) such as high-energy biscuits and Plumpy’Nut, a peanut-based paste.
Navyn Salem, the founder of Edesia, a U.S.-based manufacturer of Plumpy’Nut, said termination of transportation contracts by USAID had created a massive backlog that had forced the firm to hire an additional warehouse to store its own production.
The resulting stockpile of 5,000 tons, worth $13 million, could feed more than 484,000 children, she said.
Salem said that email exchanges with Lewin have left her “hopeful” that a way will be found soon to get her product to the desperate children who need it.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF warned in late March that RUTF stocks were running short in 17 countries due to funding cuts, potentially forcing 2.4 million children suffering from severe acute malnutrition to go without these crucial supplies for the rest of the year.
The four USAID warehouses contain the majority of the agency’s pre-positioned food stockpiles. In normal times, these could be rapidly deployed to places like Sudan, where 25 million peoplehalf the country’s populationface acute hunger.
Jeanette Bailey, director of nutrition at the International Rescue Committee, which receives much of its funding from the U.S., said it was scaling back its programs following the cuts.
She said the impact of global shortages of therapeutic foods due to the disruption to U.S. aid flows is difficult to measure, particularly in places where aid programs no longer operate.
“What we do know, though, is that if a child is in an inpatient stabilization center and they’re no longer able to access treatment, more than 60% of those children are at risk of dying very quickly,” she said.
Action Against Hunger, a nonprofit that relied on the United States for over 30% of its global budget, said last month that the U.S. cuts had already led to the deaths of at least six children at its programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, after it was forced to suspend admissions.
Cuts causing chaos
The Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs, which coordinates the U.S. government’s aid efforts overseas, was plunged into caos by the Trump administration’s cutbacks, the five sources said.
The bureau’s staff were among thousands of USAID employees put on administrative leave pending their terminations. While some staff were brought back to work until their severance dates, aid administration has not recovered.
Three sources told Reuters that the contract to maintain USAID warehouses in the South African port city of Durban had been canceled, raising questions about future aid distribution. Reuters was unable to confirm that independently.
Two former USAID officials said that the Djibouti and Dubai facilities would be handed over to a team at the State Department that has yet to be formed. The State Department did not comment.
A spokesperson for the World Food Programme, which relies heavily on U.S. funding, declined to comment on the stranded food stocks.
Asked if it was engaged in discussions to release them, the spokesperson said: “We greatly appreciate the support from all our donors, including the U.S., and we will continue to work with partners to advocate for the needs of the most vulnerable in urgent need of life-saving assistance”.
Jessica Donati, Emma Farge, Ammu Kannampilly, and Jonathan Landay, Reuters. Writing by Ammu Kannampilly.
Cava Group Inc. (NYSE: CAVA), the parent company of Cava, a Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant brand, announced it is opening up to 68 new U.S. locations in fiscal 2025, after reporting better-than-expected first quarter earnings results.
Cava, also known as Cava Grill, currently operates 382 locations across the United States, in 26 states and Washington, D.C. (as of the close of Q1). 2024 was Cavas first full calendar year as a public company.
While Cava told Fast Company it does not release a full list of future locations, a look at the website shows restaurants in the following cities are “coming soon:
Phoenix, AZ
Huntington Beach, CA
Plantation, FL
Bel Air, MD
Burlington, NC
Charlotte, NC
Cava told Fast Company of the targeted 64 to 68 new restaurants it plans to open this year, it has already opened 15 net new locations (in Q1) representing an 18.3% increase in total restaurants year over year. Those are in the following states:
Florida (Ocala, Palm Harbor, Hialeah)
New Jersey (East Brunswick, Union, Marlton)
Massachusetts (Chelmsford, Chestnut Hill)
Louisiana (Lafayette, New Orleans)
Texas
Virginia
Indiana
North Carolina
New York
The company previously said it wants to reach 1,000 locations by 2032.
At the same time many fast-food chains and casual-dining restaurants are struggling, Cava’s growth stands out. Chief Financial Officer Tricia Tolivar told CNBC that over the last few quarters, Cava has found it’s hitting a sweet spot for customers who are trading up from fast food to purchase Cavas healthy bowls and pitas, while trading down, seeing it as cheaper than other casual-dining options.
Cava cofounder and CEO Brett Schulman said the chain has purposely priced food items for the current economic times, while focusing on healthy food and hospitality.
“At a time when guests are being more selective about where they dine, the appeal of our Mediterranean cuisine continues to resonate with the modern consumer,” Schulman told Fast Company. “We’ve also stayed focused on delivering our unique value proposition, investing in our guests, and underpricing inflation. We offer a warm, welcoming environment that fosters a genuine human connection. Its why we continue to drive traffic and sales growth, crossing $1 billion in revenue in the past 12 months.”
Speaking of revenue, here’s a look at Cava’s first-quarter earnings numbers:
Revenue grew 28.2% to $328.5 million, compared with $256.3 million in the prior year quarter
Same restaurant sales growth of 10.8%, including guest traffic growth of 7.5%
Cava Group net income of $25.7 million, compared with $14.0 million of net income and $11.9 million of adjusted net income in the prior year quarter
Despite a strong quarter, Cava’s same-store sales forecast of a 6% to 8% increase remained consistent with last quarter, and could be one reason shares were down about 3% in afternoon trading on Friday.
As Fast Company previously reported, while Cavas revenue grew 33% in 2024 along with a 9% jump in traffic, with same-restaurant sales up 13%, last quarter the chain forecast slower growth in the later half of fiscal 2025.
