Syracuse University is rolling out a new Center for the Creator Economy, looking to train the new class of influencers, streamers, podcasters and YouTubers.
The center, the first of its kind in the U.S., is a joint project between the universitys communications and business schools, and aims to attract students planning to participate in the $250 billion creator economy.
With rising unemployment rates, and a college degree no longer unlocking the career opportunities it once did, the creator economy could be a beacon of hope for young graduates in a dismal job market. The number of creators globally is expected to grow at a compound annual rate between 10 and 20%. The total addressable market, from influencer marketing spend to platform payouts, is expected to increase to a projected $500 billion by 2027, according to Goldman Sachs.
In a 2023 Morning Consult survey of 1,000 Gen Zers, more than half said they want to be influencers. Two in five U.S. teenagers already earning income through digital channels. Influencers with followings over a million can charge upwards of five figures for just one post.
Higher education is now paying attention. From MrBeast and Alix Earle giving guest lectures to Harvard Business School students, to universities from Penn State to Duke introducing online courses, clubs, and summer camps dedicated to the business of content creation, colleges are embracing this once-dismissed career path.
For now, Syracuse doesn’t plan on offering majors or minors in content creation. Instead, the center will include undergraduate and graduate classes in creative content, audience engagement, and digital strategy, according to the university, to help young entrepreneurs optimize their chosen platforms. The center will also host workshops and speaker series and on-campus incubators, and provide avenues for mentorship and funding for student ventures.
Opening in spring 2026, the school is making an at least six-figure investment for equipment and design for the new space, according to reports, including a green screen, podcast booths, and a corner for gamers to livestream.
Of course, the appeal of content creation is anyone can pick up a camera and start. At the same time, a growing number of Gen Zs are questioning the value of a degree to begin with.
Yet, as the creator economy evolves, now with six-figure deals on the table, the algorithm to conquer and advertising laws and contracts to navigate, and a growing number of adjacent careers, a college degree might turn out to be a lucrative investment after all.
In early 2023, Shopify made a bold and deliberate decision that rippled through its entire organization. Without warning anyone or conducting a phased rollout, they removed over 12,000 recurring meetings from employee calendars. They put a company-wide pause on all Wednesday meetings, and consolidated larger group sessions into a single window each week.
From the outside, it looked like a scheduling adjustment. On the inside, it was an intentional reevaluation of how the company valued time, attention, and collaboration.
Surprisingly, the decision resulted in very little chaos. Teams adapted and work moved. Space led to clarity surfacing. Shopify reported that the shift freed up more than 322,000 hours annually of time that employees previously spent in motion, but not always in progress. This two-week experiment was an act of leadership that asked, what are we doing simply because we always have? For many, that became a permanent way of working.
Many organizations everywhere have practices and processes that persist by default. Meetings, reports, systems, and sign-offs become embedded not because they are essential, but because no one ever questioned them. But over time, demands on our attention continue to multiply. It becomes increasingly difficult to protect our time, and leadership needs to show its strength through discernment. They also need to let go of anything that no longer makes a meaningful contribution.
Our bias towards addition
Leadership, by its very nature, invites accumulation. Over time, it gathers layers: inherited systems, obligations that no longer serve a purpose. Often, theres the comforting illusion that being across everything means being in control. But this is a fragile place to be.
A study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology explored this human tendency toward addition. When researchers asked participants to improve an object, design, or process, they almost always added something, even when taking something away would have created a better outcome. The study revealed the instinct to equate improvement with increasing something. The act of removing feels risky because it disrupts what we know.
Ive watched this play out in countless organizations. Leaders respond to a growing workload by creating new layers of process, new forums for communication, and new metrics for accountability. They do so with the best intentions. However each layer eventually becomes another brick in the wall of complexity. And before you know it, employees are spending more time on the process than their actual work.
The weight of more
A few years ago, I began using the phrase red brick thinking to describe the moment a leader stops adding and starts questioning. It came from an exercise I often run in workshops using a small, uneven LEGO bridge. When I ask how to level it, most people instinctively reach for another brick. They start to build higher, wider, stronger. It takes only one person to realize that balance comes not from addition, but from removing the small red brick that caused the imbalance in the first place.
That simple shift in perception can change the way a leader approaches everything. To lead with subtraction is to lead with discrimination, but in a good way. It means pausing before responding, questioning before committing, and creating space before filling it again. It invites the kind of simplicity and creativity thats difficult to find when your calendar is full and your attention is divided across too many demands.
I worked with a senior executive who felt trapped by the very systems she had helped design. Her weeks were consumed by meetings, status reports, and requests for sign-off. When we examined her schedule, it became clear that she was operating inside a structure that no longer reflected her priorities. Together, we began removing the elements that had quietly accumulated: a report that no one read, a meeting that produced little value, and a responsibility that belonged elsewhere. Over time, her energy returned, her thinking sharpened, and her team grew more capable. It wasnt a dramatic shift, but it was decisive, And it all started with the willingness to ask one simple question, Does this still belong?
Leading with subtraction
Letting go is not about abandoning responsibility or lowering standards. Its a conscious act of leadership that requires courage, restraint, and trust. Doing this requires us to believe that we can create results by doing less. By releasing what no longer serves us, we create the capacity to serve better.
In the language of red brick thinking, we build every organization from necessary structure and unnecessary weight. Over time, those red bricks turn from supportive to obstructive and slow everything down. And when leaders choose to remove them, they dont just reclaim efficiency, they reclaim perspective. They begin to see what truly matters, and they allow others to see it, too.
When you lead by subtraction, its measured, deliberate, and deeply human. It recognizes that progress isnt always about movement. Sometimes, the most powerful thing a leader can do is stop, notice the weight theyre carrying, and decide that carrying less might just be the wisest way forward.
Japanese psychology often likens attention to a flashlight. Wherever you shine this flashlight is where your focus and energy go. However, problems can arise when people shine this flashlight inwards for too long. They focus obsessively on their thoughts and emotions, and particularly those related to things outside of their control. Another common tendency that causes problems is shining the flashlight on other peoples behavior, the past, or the future. These are all inherently uncontrollable areas.
Worrying about these factors can lead to a mental loop where it seems impossible to find solutions. When you start fixating on past events you cant change, it can lead to feelings of guilt, regret, and depression. Similarly, focusing excessively on the future and constantly trying to predict and prevent every possible negative outcome can lead to anxiety.
A powerful example
In a 2020 study by Lucas LaFreniere and Michelle Newman, the researchers asked participants with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) to track their worries over time through a journal. When they then looked back on those journal entries, they found that 91.4 per cent of their worries never came true. Whats even more striking is that 30 per cent of the worries that did come true turned out better than expected.
The implications of this study are profound. We waste the vast majority of the mental energy we invest in worrying. Thats because the vast majority of the time, the outcomes we feared either dont happen or arent as bad as we anticipate.
This research underscores the importancewhenever possibleof redirecting the flashlight of attention. You need to shift from uncontrollable, anxiety-inducing thoughts to more practical, solution-oriented thinking.
Attention in the world of high performance
I recently co-authored a research paper called Building a transdisciplinary expert consensus on the cognitive drivers of performance under pressure: An international multi-panel Delphi study. The study focused on identifying the cognitive elements of performance in high-pressure situations, including the military, first responders, upper echelons of business, and competitive sport.
The study included 68 experts from the military, elite sport, high-stakes business, and performance neuroscience. Our task was to identify the cognitive drivers under pressure and rate them in order of importance.
Across those four high-performance fields, the experts unanimously ranked attentional control as the most critical trainable skill for thriving under pressure. More than processing speed, more than working memory, more than effort, they identified attentional control as the number one driver of performance under pressure.
Thats because attention is the brains gatekeeper. It dictates what we notice, how we feel, and, ultimately, how we behave. If there are things hijacking your attention, whether that be notifications, headlines, or other distractions, you lose the ability to act with intention.
Practical exercises for shifting the flashlight of attention
Here are some quick tips to shift the flashlight of your attention:
1. Zones of control exercise
On a piece of paper, draw two circles. In circle 1, write down everything you can control about a problem. In circle 2, list whats outside of your control. Focus your energy solely on circle 1, which is what you can control, and do your best to let go of circle 2.
2. Attentional flashlight practice
Imagine your attention as a flashlight. Throughout the day, periodically pause and ask yourself: Where am I shining my flashlight? Is it focused on something productive and within my control, or is it caught in rumination or worry about uncontrollable events?
3. Social media detox
Take a break from social media for a day or a week. Use this time to observe how much better you feel when youre not comparing yourself to others. Replace your social media time with activities that enrich your life, whether that be exercise, reading, or spending time with loved ones.
4. The news headlines challenge
Set a timer for five minutes. Read todays news headlines on your preferred website (dont click through to articles). List each headline in two columns: zone 1, Can I directly influence this?, and zone 2, Outside my control. Notice how the zone 2 column is likely full while the zone 1 control column is nearly empty. This isnt about avoiding important issuesits about recognizing where you can spend your energy in a productive way. Focus on local actions you can take rather than global problems you have no way of solving.
5. Mindful breathing
Spend five to ten minutes each day practising mindful breathing. This exercise helps redirect attention from racing thoughts and worries to the present moment. This grounds you in what you can control, which is your breath and your immediate surroundings.
6. Attentional audit exercise
Grab a blank page and write out a list of categories for how you spend your time. Record every purposeful activity, social media, TV or streaming, ruminating or worrying in your own head, exercise/movement, meaningful connections, and hobbies or meaningful activities.
Estimate how much time you spent on each category in the last 24 hours. Finally, sketch this as a heat map, using circles of red or orange for activities of high attention, and blue or green circles for low-attention activities. Make sure the size of the circles reflects the time spent. Are you happy with your heat map? If you have a partner and/or kids, this activity is worthwhile doing it together, and then using your heat maps as discussion prompts for what makes a meaningful life.
Attentional deployment is about redirecting your focus away from the unhelpful and toward the helpful. Attention is your mental currency, so spend it wisely and dont waste it on worrying about things that are beyond your control.
Japanese psychology often likens attention to a flashlight. Wherever you shine this flashlight is where your focus and energy go. However, problems can arise when people shine this flashlight inwards for too long. They focus obsessively on their thoughts and emotions, and particularly those related to things outside of their control. Another common tendency that causes problems is shiing the flashlight on other peoples behavior, the past, or the future. These are all inherently uncontrollable areas.
Worrying about these factors can lead to a mental loop where it seems impossible to find solutions. When you start fixating on past events you cant change, it can lead to feelings of guilt, regret, and depression. Similarly, focusing excessively on the future and constantly trying to predict and prevent every possible negative outcome can lead to anxiety.
A powerful example
In a 2020 study by Lucas LaFreniere and Michelle Newman, the researchers asked participants with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) to track their worries over time through a journal. When they then looked back on those journal entries, they found that 91.4 per cent of their worries never came true. Whats even more striking is that 30 per cent of the worries that did come true turned out better than expected.
The implications of this study are profound. We waste the vast majority of the mental energy we invest in worrying. Thats because the vast majority of the time, the outcomes we feared either dont happen or arent as bad as we anticipate.
This research underscores the importancewhenever possibleof redirecting the flashlight of attention. You need to shift from uncontrollable, anxiety-inducing thoughts to more practical, solution-oriented thinking.
Attention in the world of high performance
I recently co-authored a research paper called Building a transdisciplinary expert consensus on the cognitive drivers of performance under pressure: An international multi-panel Delphi study. The study focused on identifying the cognitive elements of performance in high-pressure situations, including the military, first responders, upper echelons of business, and competitive sport.
The study included 68 experts from the military, elite sport, high-stakes business, and performance neuroscience. Our task was to identify the cognitive drivers under pressure and rate them in order of importance.
Across those four high-performance fields, the experts unanimously ranked attentional control as the most critical trainable skill for thriving under pressure. More than processing speed, more than working memory, more than effort, they identified attentional control as the number one driver of performance under pressure.
Thats because attention is the brains gatekeeper. It dictates what we notice, how we feel, and, ultimately, how we behave. If there are things hijacking your attention, whether that be notifications, headlines, or other distractions, you lose the ability to act with intention.
Practical exercises for shifting the flashlight of attention
Here are some quick tips to shift the flashlight of your attention:
1. Zones of control exercise
On a piece of paper, draw two circles. In circle 1, write down everything you can control about a problem. In circle 2, list whats outside of your control. Focus your energy solely on circle 1, which is what you can control, and do your best to let go of circle 2.
2. Attentional flashlight practice
Imagine your attention as a flashlight. Throughout the day, periodically pause and ask yourself: Where am I shining my flashlight? Is it focused on something productive and within my control, or is it caught in rumination or worry about uncontrollable events?
3. Social media detox
Take a break from social media for a day or a week. Use this time to observe how much better you feel when youre not comparing yourself to others. Replace your social media time with activities that enrich your life, whether that be exercise, reading, or spending time with loved ones.
4. The news headlines challenge
Set a timer for five minutes. Read todays news headlines on your preferred website (dont click through to articles). List each headline in two columns: zone 1, Can I directly influence this?, and zone 2, Outside my control. Notice how the zone 2 column is likely full while the zone 1 control column is nearly empty. This isnt about avoiding important issuesits about recognizing where you can spend your energy in a productive way. Focus on local actions you can take rather than global problems you have no way of solving.
5. Mindful breathing
Spend five to ten minutes each day practising mindful breathing. This exercise helps redirect attention from racing thoughts and worries to the present moment. This grounds you in what you can control, which is your breath and your immediate surroundings.
6. Attentional audit exercise
Grab a blank page and write out a list of categories for how you spend your time. Record every purposeful activity, social media, TV or streaming, ruminating or worrying in your own head, exercise/movement, meaningful connections, and hobbies or meaningful activities.
Estimate how much time you spent on each category in the last 24 hours. Finally, sketch this as a heat map, using circles of red or orange for activities of high attention, and blue or green circles for low-attention activities. Make sure the size of the circles reflects the time spent. Are you happy with your heat map? If you have a partner and/or kids, this activity is worthwhile doing it together, and then using your heat maps as discussion prompts for what makes a meaningful life.
Attentional deployment is about redirecting your focus away from the unhelpful and toward the helpful. Attention is your mental currency, so spend it wisely and dont waste it on worrying about things that are beyond your control.
Excerpted from The Hardiness Effect: Grow From Stress, Optimise Health, Live Longer. Copyright 2025 by Dr Paul Taylor. Available from Wiley.
President Donald Trump is getting rid of members of the federal agency that would have reviewed his planned building projects as he works to physically remake Washington, D.C.
Trump fired all members of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) on October 28. The commission, a federal agency established by Congress, has shaped the look of the nation’s capital for more than a century, from its museums and monuments to office buildings and parks, and now Trump is set to stack it with loyalists.
The CFA was expected to review Trump’s planned White House ballroom and arch monument, but the White House told The Washington Post, which first reported the firings, that the administration is “preparing to appoint a new slate of members to the commission that are more aligned with President Trumps America First policies.”
As Trump looks to remodel the White House campus with a massive ballroom where the East Wing once stood and build his own monument in Washington, D.C., amid a wider attempt at expanding presidential power and an ongoing government shutdown, he’s taking over the nation’s capitol’s commission on arts and architecture.
Here’s what the commission is and how Trump’s firings fit into a broader strategy to remake D.C. in his vision.
What is the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, or CFA?
Congress established the CFA in 1910 to “advise the federal government on matters pertaining to the arts and national symbols, and to guide the architectural development of Washington, D.C.,” according to the commission.
The scope of its work began first as advising on statues, fountains, and monuments, but it grew by executive orders in 1910, 1921, and 1950, respectively, to include the review of public buildings and park designs in D.C., and the “Old Georgetown” area of Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood.
As part of its responsibilities, the independent agency reviews federal construction projects, like the White House tennis pavilion constructed during Trump’s first term in 2019. It was also expected to review Trump’s planned triumphal arch and White House ballroom. The National Capital Planning Commission ultimately approves projects. It is now also run by Trump appointees.
The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts typically consists of seven members appointed by the president. Members serve four-year terms on the commission without compensation.
Who was on the CFA board?
The CFA’s most recent members had backgrounds in architecture. It’s members were:
Bruce Becker, president of the sustainable architecture and development firm Becker + Becker, who was appointed in 2024
Peter Cook, design principal at HGA Architects & Engineers, who was appointed in 2021
Lisa Delplace, director of the landscape architecture firm Oehme, van Sweden, who was appointed in 2022
Hazel Ruth Edwards, a Howard University architecture professor, who was appointed in 2021.
Bill Lenihan, principal and partner of the planning and design services firm Tevebaugh Architecture, who was appointed in 2024
Justin Garrett Moore, program officer for the Humanities in Place program at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, who was appointed in 2021
Former CFA chair Billie Tsien, whose firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects designed the Obama Presidential Center, was appointed in 2021 but resigned from the commission earlier this year.
Former members of the CFA contacted by Fast Company did not respond to a request for comment.
What do the CFA firings indicate about presidential power?
Trump’s firing of the entire board represents an expansion of executive actions first taken by then-President Joe Biden when he replaced four members in 2021.
The White House at the time said the change was made to bring “a diversity of background and experience, as well as a range of aesthetic viewpoints” to the commission. At the time, Luebke, the CFA secretary since the George W. Bush administration, told the Post he couldn’t recall a time a member of the CFA was replaced before their term ended unless they resigned.
For Trump, the firings represent just the latest attempt to clear guardrails. The move mirrors his administration’s past actions to similarly takeover other cultural institutions, like the Kennedy Center, which elected Trump its chair in February after Trump named an entirely new board, and the Smithsonian, which is facing a review. It also runs parallel to Trump’s other moves to expand presidential power, including the imposition of tariffs, deployment of troops to U.S. cities, and the bombing targets without congressional approval.
How does this fit in with Trumps plans to redesign D.C. architecture?
The removal of the CFA board ultimately makes it that much easier for Trump to execute on his plans to redesign Washington, and the firings fit into a larger aesthetic argument by the Trump administration.
Trump signed an executive order in August making classical architecture the preferred and default architecture in Washington, D.C. It’s a style whose proponents include McCrery Architects, the architectural firm behind his planned White House ballroom, and Justin Shubow, one of the Trump-appointed CFA members who Biden replaced. Considering the board’s advisory role on on matters of design and aesthetics,” according to its website, the firing of CFA members allows Trump to pack it with like-minded members who share his architectural point of view.
In addition to the ballroom, Trump has plans to remake the nation’s capital’s monuments. A statue of a Confederate general that was destroyed in 2020 was reinstated this week in Washington’s Judiciary Square. Trump has also announced plans for the arch near Memorial Bridge. New CFA membership could reduce any remaining friction that would otherwise make Trump’s plans more difficult to execute.
How have Trump’s building projects been received so far?
Trump’s building projects are off to a rough start, though, even facing criticism from the right.
Former Ronald Reagan speechwriter and Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan called photos of the East Wing demolition a metaphor, writing that “all this was done without public demand or support, and was done in a way that was abrupt, complete, unstoppable.”
And a YouGov poll of U.S. adults found out 53% oppose his demolition of the East Wing, compared to 24% who approve and 24% who aren’t sure; 28% of Republicans also said they oppose the demolition.
While the public isn’t yet sold on Trump’s D.C. renovations, his new commission will be. With only allies installed in the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, Trump has made any negative reviews from the agency tasked with advising him even less likely.
When Hurricane Melissa began moving toward Jamaica earlier this week, Amazons chief meteorologist was watching closelynot just for the companys global shipping operations, but also to see how its disaster relief team might need to act.
“As soon as the hurricane formed, we had eyes on it,” says Abe Diaz, principal technical product manager for Amazon’s disaster relief team. “We’ve been tracking this for multiple days.”
[Photo: Amazon]
Inside an Amazon fulfillment center near Atlanta, pallets are stacked with disaster relief supplies, from medical supplies to solar-powered lights. Its one of 15 massive disaster relief hubs that the company has stationed inside warehouses around the world. In the wake of the record-breaking hurricane that hit Jamaica, with flooding and 185-mile-an-hour winds that destroyed homes and infrastructure, the hub was poised to send shipments to partners like the Red Cross.
When the team spoke to Fast Company yesterday, they were planning a potential shipment of power supplies on a cargo plane for today. “Damage assessments are still underway at both of the airports and then they’re going to be prioritizing life-saving, rescue and response teams for access first,” says Jeff Schweitzer, who leads Amazon’s global disaster relief operations. If all went as planned, though, the power systems would also be on a flight, ready to support first responders and “provide augmented power in areas that just simply won’t have power for weeks to come,” he says.
Other early shipments will likely include tarps and solar lights that can also charge phones. Each delivery will happen only after nonprofits or agencies on the ground assess the situation and order what they need. “As with everything at Amazon, we work backwards from the customer,” Diaz says.
[Photo: Amazon]
In the warehouse, some pallets are wrapped in color-coded shrink wrap, to help nonprofits easily tell from a distance what’s inside, such as diapers. One pallet is designed to include everything needed for a nonprofit to set up a mobile office. Amazon first began its disaster relief work in 2017, after conversations with organizations about how difficult it is to get the right supplies quickly after disasters. Since then, it has been closely working with organizations to understand what they need and to track data about what’s used in each event so it can better prepare.
[Photo: Amazon]
The team works to find the most efficient products to donatefor example, water filters instead of bottled water. “It makes no sense for us to send a whole bunch of water bottles and fly them out to Jamaica when high-efficiency water filters can do 100 times the volume with just a pallet of product,” Diaz says. “These are the kind of items that we’re just trying to be really smart on what is needed and what we’re getting there.”
[Photo: Amazon]
The hubs, which are each located inside existing Amazon fulfillment centers to make use of the company’s existing infrastructure and workers, are each filled with products most likely to be needed locally. A hub near L.A. is stocked with supplies for wildfires, such as masks. The Atlanta hub has kits for cleaning up homes after a floodfrom gloves and shovels to respiratorsthat have been used in previous hurricanes and events like the floods in Central Texas this summer.
[Photo: Amazon]
Organizations also make their own preparations; the World Food Programme, for example, prepositioned a shipment of food and other suplies to the area before Hurricane Melissa hit. But Amazon can quickly respond as more is needed, with pallets ready to be sent out as soon as a request comes in.
It’s one example of corporate philanthropy that makes use of a company’s core competency, rather than simply giving money to causes. (Amazon also uses its delivery infrastructure to help food banks reach more clients at home.) Toyota did something similar when it donated kaizen training to the Food Bank for New York City, helping cut wait times for dinner from an hour and a half to 18 minutes.
A first-of-its-kind refinery has been in the works for a decade and half. Set to be completed this year, the facility is design to produce climate-friendly jet fuel, a material in increasing demand in response to climate commitments and regulations around the world. The refinerycalled the Freedom Pines Fuelswas designed to showcase new methods of producing the fuel, and was receiving government support to help clean up air travel.
Now, a year behind schedule due to a hurricane and equipment glitches, the project hit another roadblock this summer, when a major shift in U.S. energy policy under the new administration threw a wrench into the business model. It’s now a story of a company quickly adapting under pressure, and an illustration of the challengesand continued opportunityof clean energy in a more hostile political environment.
The goal of the company behind the project, Illinois-based LanzaJet, is to produce a close facsimile of the kerosene-based fuel that powers jets and many helicopters and propeller planes todaywithout using petroleum. Instead, the Freedom Pines Fuels plant in the forest hamlet of Soperton, Georgia, will use ethanol to make whats known as sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF. LanzaJet was ready to start with ethanol made from Brazilian sugarcane, until a new U.S. law forced a quick shift to midwestern corn.
The fuels that make modern travel possiblekerosene, gasoline, and dieselare typically refined from crude oil, rich in hydrocarbon molecules that release copious energy when burned. But burning them also inundates the atmosphere with heat-trapping carbon dioxide.
[Photo: Couresy of LanzaJet]
SAF is essentially lab-grown jet fuel, made from carbon already in the environment, rather than pumped up from oil wells. It’s a tweaked formulationfor instance, with less sulfurdesigned to burn cleaner. Sugarcane and corn are two of many possible carbon sources, along with cornstalks, twigs, vegetable oil, factory exhaust, and even garbage. The CO2 released by making and burning SAF should, in theory, be offset by the carbon captured to make more SAF, forming a closed loop.
The Freedom Pines Fuels plant is a mini version of a typical refinery, slated to produce nine million gallons of SAF and a million of green diesel fuel in its first year. (A standard crude-oil refinery could churn a billion or more gallons of fuels.)
But the Georgia plant is meant to be big enough to show the technology can work at scale. “Most process technology companies . . . almost never build plants of this magnitude,” says Jimmy Samartzis, a climate-focused airline industry veteran who became CEO when LanzaJet was founded in 2020. “It’s expensive, it’s big. But we thought and feltaccurately, looking back on it todayit was the right move to make.” Before the 2024 election, the federal government was also promising generous financial support for Freedom Pines.
A Potential Market Boom
LanzaJet is backed by companies that are counting on, or stand to benefit from, the shift to carbon-neutral jet fuel, including All Nippon Airways, British Airways, Southwest Airlines, and plane maker Airbus.
The UNs International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has committed the industry to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In addition, laws and regulations, such as in Singapore, the U.K., and the European Union, have started requiring airlines or suppliers to blend SAF into the jet fuel supply, beginning at around 12%, then ramping up in later years. More such requirements are in the works in India, Indonesia, and Japan. The European Union is by far the most ambitious. From a mere 2% SAF blend required today, quotas rise steeply about every five years, hitting 70% in 2050.
Theres further demand from companies, such as LanzaJet backer Microsoft, striving to meet aggressive greenhouse gas reduction goals. In addition to reducing its own footprint, Microsoft has announced plans to buy SAF Certificates,” which subsidize the cost of the fuel to boost its usage. SAF has a long way to go in making a dent. It will account for just 0.7% of all jet fuel in 2025, according to the International Air Transport Association.
[Photo: Couresy of LanzaJet]
Obviously, if you look at the size of the overall aviation fuel space, in theory the [SAF] market is potentially huge for those that can offer a product at a competitive price, says John MacDonagh, senior research analyst at capital markets research firm PitchBook.
LanzaJet has raised “approximately” $400 million, according to Samartzis, from these companies and other backers, including energy producers Shell and Suncor, the U.S. Department of Energy, airport operator Groupe ADP, and Bill Gatess Breakthrough Energy fund.
Another backer is LanzaTech. Founded in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2005, it relocated its headquarters to Skokie, Illinois, in 2014. The company has engineered microbes to convert waste such as carbon monoxide and dioxide from factories into ethanol, as another route to carbon-neutral fuel and other chemicals. In 2010, LanzaTech and the U.S. Department of Energy started collaborating on technology to transform ethanol into jet fuel. In 2020, LanzaTech spun out LanzaJet as a new company to continue the work.
LanzaJet is dipping a toe into the SAF market with Freedom Pines, with plans to build more plants, such as a collaboration with British Airways to open a facility in the U.K. by 2028. LanzaJet has also announced partnerships in India, Japan, and Kazakhstan to build additional facilities. But as it continues to announce expansion overseas, things have gotten messy back at home.
SAF Meets MAGA
As the largest art and design school in the United Stateswith nearly 17,000 students enrolled at its Savannah and Atlanta campusesthe Savannah College of Art and Design prides itself on offering a course of study for almost every type of creative person. Along with degree programs in animation, film and television, game development, graphic design, and illustration, SCAD tempts students with courses in beauty and fragrance, sneaker design, luxury and brand management, and equestrian studies.
There’s a new degree program this school year, in Applied AI, that is attracting a different sort of attention. As I learned directly from faculty, students, and industry veterans, and read on Reddit forums, the idea is enticing to someand prompting others to question the schools priorities and its very reason for existing.
Using AI Right
The idea behind the Applied AI program at SCAD is to . . .
. . . equip students with the knowledge and skills that employers want: SCADs website boasts that within a year of graduation, 99% of students are typically employed, pursuing further education, or both.
According to SCAD, the Applied AI program will prepare students for professions including AI product developer, AI design strategist, AI story engineer, autonomous agent designer, and ethical design strategist. SCAD is also offering a minor in Applied AI thats open to students across all majors.
This is a researched best guess about a changing employment landscape, says Nye Warburton, chair of interactive design and game development at SCAD, who leads the Applied AI program. Our assumptions are that AI will create new domains in product development, design, story, and ethically focused systems. Our major is designed to develop the skills and practices that we see emerging in those fields.
Guided by input from creative and design leaders in industry, the Applied AI curriculum was developed by Warburton in collaboration with SCAD’s curriculum and assessment team, the deans of the school of creative technology and the school of animation and motion, and various professors and department chairs. It has three pillars: story, action, and impact.
We already have foundational and general education classes at SCAD, says Warburton, referring to offerings such as drawing and design thinking, math and English. So if you’re a writer or an architect, or whatever, you still need to have those fundamental understandings. The AI story classes, he stresses, are not about that kind of basic storytelling, but aim to help students build more resilience and understanding of their purposewhat they want to use AI foras they move forward.
The impact component of the program involves making sure students understand intellectual property, environmental issues, and other broad concerns about the use of AI. The last component of this is an impact test, currently in development, that students will have to pass after their sophomore year. We dont let you go to the higher levelsdesigning AI agents and doing capstone workuntil youve placed out of these civics classes.
The action part of the program looks at workflow practices and application-specific ways of using them, says Eric Allen, associate chair of interactive design and game development and an instructor in the Applied AI program. Major game studios, for example, are already using AI models for generating and amalgamating ideas, he says. And, of course, they vibe code, building plugins that can help them in their workflows.
SCAD aims to engage faculty from across the school to teach these interdisciplinary classes, focusing on uses of AI that are most relevant to their fields. In addition to current faculty who will teach these cross-disciplinary classes, SCAD is in the process of hiring a dedicated Applied AI faculty.
One of our main goals for curriculum development is to embrace design and art workflows and push [them] further with applied AI learnings, Warburton says. It is an opportunity to invent new collaborative interdisciplinary things. And my hope is that thats where the jobs will bein the intersection between these disciplines, even if traditional disciplines become disrupted.
Disruption and de-skilling
Of course, AI is already disrupting fields like gaming, film and animation, graphic design, and copywriting. In a 2024 State of the Game Industry report from the Game Developers Conference, 84% of developers indicated that they were somewhat or very concerned about the ethics of using generative AI, which has already contributed to large-scale layoffs in the industry. According to an industry tracker, an estimated 14,600 people were laid off from game development positions in 2024, up from 10,500 layoffs in 2023.
Generative AI is an automation technology, full stop, says Reid Southen, a concept artist whose credits include movies The Hunger Games, The Woman King, and Matrix Resurrections. While he agrees that there are cases where AI tools can speed up certain tasks and potentially benefit artists, he says, “There’s no world in which it creates jobs. He and other artists are reporting less work and lower payand theyre increasingly asked by clients to fix up concepts originally created with AI. Adding insult to injury, image video-generating models such as Midjourney, Stability AIs Stable Diffusion, and Open AIs Sora are all facing lawsuits over the alleged use of copyrighted imagery in their development.
Another concern is that AI will lead to a broad de-skilling. As an artist, you make thousands of micro-decisions while making a piece of art, Southen says. Every brushstroke or click is a choice, and both you and the work evolve throughout that process. With AI, you give it a few large decisions about what you want, and it makes all those micro-decisions for you and fills in all the gaps.
Warburton understands the threat to artistry and industry know-how. I think it is an obligation to vehemently defend the expertise that we have. The friction is, How do you use these new tools to augment these skills, as opposed to just prompting your way through it? I’m worried that we’re not going to have a senior level of talent in the future, he says, noting that junior-level designers wont learn how to make creative decisions.
Enthusiasm varies
For these reasons and more, enthusiasm for the new AI curriculum varies widly among SCAD faculty and students. Many in industrial design, UX, architecture, and interior design are proactively moving forward in AI, Warburton says. They have a clear idea of how they can integrate it into their processes. The business classes are really interested in how we do simulations and predictive models. I thought photography would be way against it, but a lot of the professors said theyve already been disrupted by digital, so theyre kind of ready for [AI].
On the other hand, he says, Im not a very popular human being in certain majorssuch as illustration and sequential art (comic books, graphic novels). What I hear a lot is, I cant make a graphic novel with AI because the publishing industry will never accept it.
The schools animation department is ambivalent. The animation professors are really into it, because they see the possibility of the pipeline accelerations like rigging and compositing and different kinds of rendering. However, the students are very against it, Warburton says, noting that students express concerns about the use of artist data in training generative models, and issues with AIs environmental impact. However, I personally believe that automation anxiety is the root.
Since the program was announced this fall, four students have declared Applied AI as their major, and 25 have declared it as their minor. (The first official Applied AI class, AI 101featuring exercises in developing a personal story, and a crash course on LLMs and image modelsstarts this winter.) The school expects the number to increase significantly next academic year.
A cold day in hell
As always, the most honest discussion seems to be happening on Reddit. The general consensus among students here is that the ai major is a joke. and so are the bots studying it, writes Redditor @sunadherstars.
I just graduated from the SEQA [sequential art] program like this past quarter and let me tell you: itll be a cold day in hell before they ever push AI, writes @electricaaa. The entire department is extremely against it, no matter how much the administration tries to push it.
Still, theres no doubt that for companies hiring creative talent, familiarity with AI is high on their wish list. Ami Frost, who will graduate from SCAD with a BFA in industrial design in December, reports that thats a recent shift. Some friends have actually gotten jobs because they know AI. I think learning how to use AI is definitely going to be a good stepping point in your career, like it or not.
Taking a few extra classes to get better at AI makes sense, says a recent SCAD graduate in UX and industrial design, who preferred not to give their name in order to be able to speak more freely. But a degree drastically impacts the trajectory of your life. Would you want to choose something based on the hottest trend? Imagine if [SCAD] had started offering a major in NFTs when those were the next big thing. I think AI is too new to really have had the time for a robust education on how to use it to emerge. Personally, I’d rather wait for a boat to be fully constructed before taking it for a four-year ride down the Nile.
SCADs critics have often felt that the school operates more like a business than a traditional academic institution (even though it operates as a nonprofit). For the fiscal year ending June 2024, the school reported revenue in excess of expenses of more than $220 million, and president and founder Paula Wallace received compensation of more than $2.6 million. (Yearly undergrad tuition and fees, minus room and board, is currently $42,665.)
But while it may be tempting to write off the Applied AI degree as a slapdash money grab, its worth noting that SCADs rivals are increasingly AI-curious. ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, and Rhode Island School of Design in Providence both offer classes that integrate AI. Last year, Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, launched an AI certificate program similar to SCADs minor.
Perhaps todays new generative AI tools will become like once-novel programs such as Adobe and CAD, absorbed seamlessly into the design process. If they take designers jobs, though, or thwart students ability to learn the basics, there may be no one left to use them.
JPMorgan Chase’s new $3 billion global headquarters in midtown Manhattan was finally unveiled the week of October 20 after six years in the making.
But rather than highlighting the Danny Meyer-curated food hall, imported taps that pour a perfect pint of Guiness, or lighting that adjusts with circadian rhythms, online attention has been focused on another feature of the 270 Park Ave. skyscraper.
“Congratulations JPMorgan on the opening of your new headquarters!” billionaire Michael Dell posted on X last week, alongside a photo of what seems to be a trading floor in the new office. The image features row upon row of his companys monitors in four-screen setups, duplicated as far as the eye can see.
Less than a week later, and the post has more than 17 million views. But maybe not for good reasons.
Many in the comments are calling the image dystopian. Others are using it as an opportunity to rail against return-to-office mandates.
Remote work kills the culture and warmth that only real human interactions in an office can create, one X user mockingly cited, immediately followed up in the next line with the culture and warmth right above Dells computer-lined image of the trading floor.
Are these for cage free or free-range analysts? another quipped.
Some defended the setup, saying this is simply what a typical trading floor looks like these days. (Who thought wed be nostalgic for office cubicles in the year 2025?)
Imagine ripping a nothing from my end from row E, seat 15 at the new JPM HQ, one X user wrote.
For efficiency, they ask everyone with no updates to repeat nothing from my end at the same time, another joked in response. Every morning at 9:05am you can hear it reverberating throughout the building in a haunting hum.
Earlier this year, JPMorgan Chase enforced its return-to-office mandate, which requires employees to work at the site five days a week. Now I understand why everyone at JP wants to work from home, claimed another X user. This is an awful work environment.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has been a vocal supporter of scaling back remote work and getting employees back in the office full time. His employees, on the other hand, have other thoughts.
A large number have signed petitions asking for more flexibility in the workplace, and unionization efforts are underway in response to the policy. (Fast Company reached out to JPMorgan for comment but hasnt received a response as of this writing.)
For now, at least, Park Avenue is where youll find the banking giants 10,000-strong New York City workforce. The 60-story skyscraper is betting on a vision for the future of work that’s centered on in-person collaboration. Open all hours of the day, the building is packed with amenities, including a state-of-the-art gym, 24/7 food options, and even a pub.
Sounds incredible. Its almost like you never have to leave.
Below, Paul Leonardi shares five key insights from his new book, Digital Exhaustion: Simple Rules for Reclaiming Your Life.
Paul is a professor of technology management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a frequent consultant and speaker to a wide range of companies, such as Google, Microsoft, YouTube, McKinsey, GM, and Fidelity. He is also a contributor to the Harvard Business Review.
Whats the big idea?
We are the first generation in human history to carry the entire worlds information, connections, and distractions in our pockets. Its no wonder that the technology once promised to make life easier now leaves us tired and overwhelmed. Paul Leonardi refers to this as cognitive and emotional weariness, calling it digital exhaustion. But it doesnt have to be this way. With intention, we can turn our devices from sources of drain into tools of connection, empowerment, and creativity.
Listen to the audio version of this Book Biteread by Paul himselfbelow, or in the Next Big Idea App.
1. Exhaustion isnt weaknessits physics
Maya wakes up at 5:50 a.m. to her phone buzzing. Within seconds, she is scrolling on Instagram. A news alert pops upshe clicks it. Three text messages arriveshe switches to a different app. Her partner tries to talk to her, but she doesnt hear him because now shes checking WhatsApp. By the time Maya gets out of bed, she has made dozens of micro-decisions and context switches. Her brain has already started burning through its limited energy reserves, and she hasnt even had coffee yet. This routine is a growing epidemic.
In my research tracking over 12,000 workers across 12 countries for two decades, I found something startling. In 2002, the average digital exhaustion score was 2.6 out of 6. By 2022, it had skyrocketed to 5.5. My nine-year-old daughter looked at the graph and said, It looks like a snake about to strike. She was right. And that snake has struck.
Think about a phone battery. When its new, you charge it overnight, and it lasts all day. But after thousands of charge cycles, it drains faster and faster. Eventually, it barely holds power at all. Our brains work the same way. Every notification, message, and screen switch drains our cognitive battery.
Take Andi, a product manager I worked with at a software company. She told me, I feel like my brain is a phone battery that just doesnt hold a charge anymore. I used to be sharp all day. Now by 2 p.m., Im staring at my screen, unable to focus on even simple tasks.
Andi wasnt weak or lazy. She was experiencing what neuroscientists call cognitive depletion. Every time you switch your attention, blood rushes to your prefrontal cortex. Your brain sounds a two-tone alarm, searches for the right neurons to handle the new task, then activates them. This process, called rule activation, happens in tenths of a second. Each switch burns precious metabolic energy.
Every notification, message, and screen switch drains our cognitive battery.
Your brain accounts for only 2% of your body weight, but consumes approximately 20% of your daily calories. Most of that energy is devoted to keeping your body running: breathing, heartbeat, and temperature regulation. Only a tiny reserve is left for active thinking. As neurologist Richard Cytowic told me, The brains reserve margins are slim and quickly eaten up by constantly shifting attention.
I tracked 20 teams at three Fortune 500 companies and found that the average knowledge worker toggles between apps and websites 1,200 times per day. Thats 1,200 energy-draining attention switches. If each switch takes just two seconds, thats 40 minutes a day just transitioning between tools. But the real cost isnt time, its the cumulative exhaustion from all that switching.
Since ancient Greece, writers have described exhaustion as the depletion of a finite resource. Today, that resource is attention. Just like muscles grow sore from physical labor, minds weaken when overtaxed by constant switching, scrolling, and interpreting. The problem is that our bodies are great at signaling physical fatiguesore muscles, aching jointsbut our brains rarely wave a red flag. Instead, exhaustion sneaks up on us. We dont realize weve crossed the line until were already depleted.
Stop blaming yourself. If you feel exhausted by digital tools, youre not failing. Its the inevitable physics of finite energy colliding with infinite digital demands.
2. Tools multiply faster than our capacity
We often assume the solution to digital overload is better tools. If I just had the right app, we think, everything would be easier. But the more tools we adopt, the more fragmented our lives become.
Consider HealthCo, a global company I studied. When I asked employees to list their digital tools, I found that they werent just using email anymore. They had Slack for chat, Zoom for meetings, Jira for project management, Salesforce for customers, SharePoint for documents, Teams for cross-department updates, plus dozens of specialized tools. Each promised to make work easier. Together? They created chaos.
One employee, Marcus, told me, I spend more time figuring out where to respond than actually responding. Did that question come through email? Was it on Slack? Did someone tag me in Jira? Im constantly hunting for conversations across platforms.
My research revealed that the average knowledge worker spends 57 minutes per day switching between applications. They also spend 30 minutes daily deciding which tool to use for each task. Should I message on Slack or email? Should I put this in Notion or Google Docs? These micro-decisions seem trivial, but when youre making them 1,200 times a day, they create what psychologists call decision fatigue.
Let me tell you about Shireen, a marketing specialist who listed 36 different digital tools she used daily. Everything from Adobe Illustrator to TikTok to her banking app. After our conversation, she looked at her list and said, Oh God. That exhausts me just looking at it.
The average knowledge worker spends 57 minutes per day switching between applications.
Shireen decided to try an experiment: she cut her tools in half. She identified tools that were redundant (using both Alexa and Siri), tools she barely used (Evernote for notes when she had Word), and tools that werent essential (three different social media apps for posting the same content). Six months later, her exhaustion score dropped by 40%. She told me, I thought Id miss those tools, but instead I feel liberated. Its like I decluttered my digital life.
Technology expands faster than our cognitive capacity to manage it. Were running software from 2024 o hardware (our brains) that hasnt been upgraded in 300,000 years. Exhaustion isnt built from volume alone, but from fragmentation across too many platforms.
3. Interpretation is more draining than information
Its not the flood of emails and notifications themselves that exhaust us most. Its what I call inference fatigue, meaning the mental work of constantly interpreting ambiguous digital communication.
Take Aaliyah, who runs a nonprofit in Georgia. Her inbox was overwhelming, but what really wore her down was the constant interpretation. She told me, I spend so much mental energy trying to decode messages. Why did my colleague only reply with okare they annoyed? Why hasnt the donor respondeddid I offend them? What does that emoji really mean? Its exhausting trying to read between the lines all day long.
Digital communication strips away crucial context: tone of voice, body language, facial expressions. Our brains work overtime to fill in the gaps. This creates what neuroscientists Susan Fiske and Shelley Taylor call controlled processing, or slow, deliberate, effortful thinking that demands huge amounts of cognitive resources.
Researchers examined college students responding to ambiguous Facebook posts. Not only did students feel mentally exhausted trying to figure out if someone was genuinely depressed or just seeking attention, but the emotional toll of arriving at these conclusions left them feeling depleted and dispirited.
Think about your own digital life. How often do you reread a text, worrying about its tone? How many times have you analyzed a brief email response, wondering if the sender is upset? These micro-interpretations pile up until were mentally drained.
In the analog world, a face-to-face conversation offers dozens of cues that help us interpret quickly and accurately. A slight smile, a furrowed brow, the speed of responseall provide instant context. In the digital world, every interaction becomes a puzzle to solve.
These micro-interpretations pile up until were mentally drained.
But it gets even more complex. Were not just interpreting others; were also constantly evaluating ourselves through digital mirrors. Take Zoom fatigue. Jeremy Bailenson at Stanford found that seeing ourselves on video calls creates unprecedented self-scrutiny. As he put it, Imagine in the physical workplace, for the entirety of an eight-hour workday, an assistant followed you around with a handheld mirror. Thats essentially what happens on Zoom.
One of my students, Xiao, confessed to me, When youre teaching on Zoom, Im constantly managing how I appear. Am I nodding enough to show Im engaged? Can you see Im taking notes? I was so busy thinking about how I looked to you that I missed half of what you were saying. Exhaustion isnt just about too much input. Its about the invisible, constant work of decoding others meanings and managing our own digital presence.
4. Boundaries create energy, not limits
We tend to think of boundaries as walls that keep us from being responsive and connected. But my research shows the opposite: boundaries create energy.
Consider Vicente, a high school teacher and soccer coach I studied. He made one simple change: he turned off all notifications during soccer practice. No emails, no texts, no pings for two hours each afternoon.
At first, I was anxious, Vicente told me. What if I missed something important? But then something magical happened. I was fully present with my players. I could see their technique improving, and have real conversations with them. And when I checked my phone after practice, I had more energy to deal with messages because I wasnt depleted from constant interruptions.
Boundaries are like fences around your attention. They dont shrink your world; they protect the space where energy regenerates. In one study I conducted with companies using internal social media platforms like Jive, employees who set specific times to check messages improved their ability to find expertise by 31% and identify key contacts by 88%. Why? Because when they werent constantly interrupted, they could pay attention to patterns in communication and learn who knew what in their organization.
But many of us resist boundaries. We worry well miss something critical or appear unresponsive. Jed, an investment banker I interviewed, prided himself on responding to every message within minutes. Im dependable, he told me. People know they can count on me for fast responses.
We worry well miss something critical or appear unresponsive.
So, I interviewed his colleagues. Most didnt even notice his quick responses. His boss actually wished hed slow down: Sometimes Jed responds too quickly without thinking things through. Id prefer more thoughtful responses, even if they take longer. Jed was exhausting himself to maintain a reputation that didnt exist. His always-on approach scored him a five out of six on the exhaustion scale, while providing no real benefit to his colleagues.
Boundaries are about saying yes to energy, focus, and genuine connection. When we protect our attention, we create energy.
5. AI could save us . . . or exhaust us completely
Let me present two scenarios based on my current research with ten companies that are implementing AI.
AI as liberator.
Imagine an AI assistant that truly understands your work patterns. It filters your inbox, showing you only the three decisions that need your input today. It summarizes those lengthy Slack threads into two sentences of relevant information. It drafts routine responses that sound like you, leaving you free to focus on creative, meaningful work.
Im seeing glimpses of this at companies like HealthCo, where junior lawyers use AI to review contracts. Tasks that took days now take hours. They use their freed-up time to do higher-level work: strategic thinking, relationship building, creative problem-solving.
AI as amplifier of exhaustion.
My students recently used ChatGPT to write thank-you notes to a guest speaker. The AI expanded their brief thoughts into lengthy, formulaic essays. The speakers response? If youd sent me all these AI-expanded notes, I wouldve just fed them back into ChatGPT to summarize them. Think about the absurdity: Were using AI to expand our content, forcing recipients to use AI to compress it back down. Its an exhaustion amplification loop.
Im already seeing this at scale. One executive told me 70% of internal documents at his company are now AI-generatedlonger, more verbose, but not more valuable. As he put it, Were drowning in synthetic content that no human actually wants to read.
The scariest part? AI is getting better at keeping us hooked. In one study, personalized messages crafted by ChatGPT were remarkably effective at persuading people. AI can recognize our emotional states better than many humans, and it never gets tired of talking to us. A company I consulted for developed an AI sales assistant specifically designed to keep customers on the phone longer. As their product chief told me, Or AI figures out the perfect next thing to say to maintain engagement. Its like a conversation that never wants to end.
If we design and use AI thoughtfully, it can reduce exhaustion by handling routine tasks and freeing us for meaningful work. But if we let it run wild, it will accelerate our exhaustion to unprecedented levels. AI is either the beginning of the end of digital exhaustionor exhaustions final evolution. The choice is ours.
Enjoy our full library of Book Bitesread by the authors!in the Next Big Idea App.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
In these volatile times, how do we navigate the intersection between values and commerce? Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert and Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya join New York Times reporter David Gelles onstage at the Masters of Scale Summit to reveal their different strategies for dealing with an activist White House, the pressure for what moderator Gelles calls “anticipatory compliance,” and how they grow their businesses while also prioritizing causes like environmental conservation and immigration.
This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response recorded live at the 2025 Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with todays top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode.
Gelles: Ryan, Patagonia is a very different sort of company. This company has been meddling in politics, sometimes quite loudly, for more than 50 years now.
Gellert: Meddling is a strong word.
Meddling . . . oh, that’s a gentle word. [Patagonia founder] Yvon Chouinard has been donating to grassroots environmental activist campaigns for more than 50 years. In 2017, Patagonia sued President Trump and his cabinet during the first . . .
Gellert: Yeah, that’s meddling.
That’s meddling. And you still, even at a moment when most CEOs are afraid to say anything about this administration, you’re still out there raising the alarm almost every single week, it seems. When your business is selling clothes, why do you spend so much time talking about politics and policy?
Gellert: Well, first of all, it’s super interesting being on the stage with you, Hamdi, and with you, David. I think you made reference to it. You wrote a book that’s just come out in the last month about our founder and our 52-year history. You and I have gotten to know each other quite well over recent years, and I think there’s a lot that we have spiritually in common as companies.
And then I think, to the nature of your question, to each of us, there’s a lot that’s actually quite different in how we navigate that. I think for us to now answer your question, we are focused on protecting the natural world. Period. That’s why we exist. It’s not about making money. It’s not about being the biggest player in outdoor apparel and equipment. It’s about protecting the natural world.
And so that’s what we do, and we exist in a world right now, here in America, where the threats are absolutely unprecedented. And I think that what you might describe as speaking out, I just think is telling the [expletive] truth about what’s going on in the world right now.
Okay, so the climate’s at risk, pollution and polluters, the regulations are coming off, and conservation, particularly public lands here in America. I mean, it is one goddamn threat after another, every single day. And so what are we speaking up on? Those things that matter. Same things weve spoken up on for 52 years.
As the CEO of a company and as an individual, do you ever worry about the fact that this is a moment and an administration that has shown a willingness to be retributive?
Gellert: Yeah, of course.
And how do you navigate that? Is there any, I mean, the word is anticipatory compliance? Are you holding back at all?
I think we have to be very strategic. I think we have to be very considered. I think what we talk a lot about is, where do we have authenticity to offer an opinion on something, and where can we be truly additive? If it’s performative and we’re just offering an opinion to offer an opinion, that’s not a space we’re going to play in right now. I don’t think the times benefit from that. I think where we can be truly authentic is in one or two places.
One is we’re a business, and so we can speak from the business sector. And the other is on environmental and climate issues. We’ve got a 52-year history. We work our asses off to minimize our footprint. As you made reference to, we’ve supported grassroots activism for 40 years and counting. And so that’s who we are, what we do, and I think we’ve earned the right to offer opinions on that.
You get a sense of the different approaches to really a very similar and consequential set of issues. We’re going to talk about more than politics, I promise, but I do want to come back to this issue of, Hamdi, how you navigate a moment like this, and when you decide to work with Ivanka Trump, even when you decide to work with the White House. It can seem like a no-win situation. You work with someone, you piss one side off. You say something, you piss the other side off. How do you think about engaging in these partnerships where you are trying to find common ground without alienating any of your consumer base?
Ulukaya: Yeah, look, what I do and what we do at Chobani is really, we have the known instinct or reflex that we react regardless of what the world thinks and all that kind of stuff. Ivanka actually did not start now. I worked with her in Idaho after President Biden got into the White House, actually. And what we did is, we made boxes of food from the farmers, and we delivered to people in need in communities at that time.
And later on, even before the election, she and her partner, they created this organization called Planet Harvest, and she says: “Do you realize that in California, 40% of all the fruits and vegetables are wasted and left in the land because they don’t look good and there’s no buyer?” And I couldn’t believe it. I am aware of these things, but I didn’t even realize. And I went to the land and I saw, and partnered with her and her partners who had studied quite knowledgeably.
Absolutely, we’ll do it. Absolutely, we’ll do it. I’ll invest with it, and I’ll lead it and improve the concept. So to me this . . . and when I said we are going to hire refugees during the first, I don’t know how many years ago, we got death threats and boycottsall kinds of stuff like that.
The first time I wrote about your company.
Ulukaya: You wrote it in The New York Times, and we got death threats. We all have to react as human beigs, who we are. And businesses are a combination of people. You’ve got to do the right thing regardless of what lawyers and communication experts will say.
On the advisor council stuff right now.
Ulukaya: I want to invite everybody towe have some serious, serious issues that we have to bring everybody to the table to. Look, we really do. I do see some egocentric reaction . . . just anger because of the other person. Okay, they are enormous about the differences. I don’t know. I was invited to the White House because I’m announcing a huge investment in Idaho and another one in Rome in New York, and being part of Invest in America.
I don’t have any working relationship with the White House, but my view on immigration and refugees is the same. I have an organization called Tent. I just came from Mexico. I’m meeting all those people who are encouraging people to hire refugees and train refugees. These are timeless truths. People are going to move, and we have to make a system that works for every single person.
And we proved it in our factories, in our communities. And today, you will not have farmworkers, or you will not have functioning farms and agriculture, without immigration. Everybody knows that. Everybody.
