Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list is out! We chatted with Fast Company Executive Editor Amy Farley to hear about the top five winners and who her personal faves were. Spoilers: Nvidia, OpenAI and Microsoft were at the top but some surprises were the National Women's Soccer League, United Auto Workers and ... Chess.com. Then, Fast Company Senior Staff Editor Jeff Beer sat down with Taco Bell CEO Sean Tresvant and CMO Taylor Montgomery to discuss how the fast-food company is one of the...
Mar 20, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s CEOs can’t rely on their CMOs to tell them what’s on the minds of consumers. The modern chief executive must be fully plugged in to consumer wants and needs, which change more quickly than ever as technology evolves. Fast Company Editor-in-Chief Brendan Vaughan chatted with Verizon Consumer CEO Sowmyanarayan Sampath at the Fast Company Grill at this year's South by Southwest to discuss how the leader of Verizon’s consumer business stays on top—and how you can do the same.
Mar 18, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast This past weekend, Fast Company hosted a three-day event as part of SXSW in Austin. Yaz moderated a bunch of panels, Josh was producing podcasts, and best-friend-of-the-pod Max Ufberg also moderated a number of panels. We met up with Max in person to record the show for the first time! Here's our recap of the weekend at the Fast Company Grill. Then, Netflix’s new series “3 Body Problem” is based on the first volume of the Chinese science fiction trilogy “Remembrance of Earth’s Past.” The series ...
Mar 13, 2024•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast How artificial intelligence is shaping the product journeys from procurement to end customers.
Mar 11, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast What is an Oscar campaign? How do studios run them? When does Oscar campaigning start? We spoke with Allie Carieri to learn all about the work (and the money) that go into creating Oscar campaigns. Carieri creates experiences and events around entertainment, awards, film, and television as an independent marketing strategist. She also oversees experiential marketing activations as an accounts director at Civic Entertainment Group. She told us about the history of Oscar campaigns, the budgets beh...
Mar 06, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this podcast, leaders in HR and AI reveal what it will take for businesses to get their staff on board.
Mar 04, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2022, The Bored Ape Yacht Club was kind of inescapable on some parts of the internet. People—including a range of celebrities from Gwyneth Paltrow to Eminem—were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire some monkey jpegs store on the blockchain as NFTs. The conglomerate overseeing the collection along with other NFT series, such as CryptoPunks, is called Yuga Labs. VCs including A16z flocked to invest in it, valuing the company at $4 billion. Yuga’s stated ambition at the time was...
Feb 28, 2024•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast January was a big month for AI hardware, and we wanted to go over some of the biggest devices and tech out there. ‘Fast Company’ global design editor Mark Wilson joined us to chat about a couple of devices, including the Humane Pin, the Rabbit r1, and a wearable AI microphone called Tab. For more on these, check out Mark’s reporting, and what he thinks about the Apple Vision Pro. In 2022, the beauty market—defined as skincare, fragrance, makeup, and haircare—generated approximately $430 billion ...
Feb 21, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast We’re about to hit the end of peak dating season with Valentine’s Day this week and what better way to commemorate that than to chat about the state of the dating industry. Fast Company Staff Writer Jess Bursztynsky joined us to chat about what the apps are doing to address dating fatigue and how they're continuing to incorporate AI into their strategies, for example, Tinder is able to use AI to help users pick out which photos in their camera rolls would work best for their profiles. Then Angar...
Feb 14, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Super Bowl is set to kick off this Sunday, and we’re taking a look at some of the ads that are already out there. ‘Fast Company’ senior staff editor Jeff Beer joined us to share what he thinks about this year’s slate of ads. He’s noticed how brands are evolving to use the Super Bowl itself in their teasers and ads, which shows the trajectory of the way brands are going . . . they used to go for funny or emotional but now it’s an ad about being an ad. Using the game itself to help advertise a...
Feb 07, 2024•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Yaz wrote a story about an upstart wrestling league called All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and its founder and CEO Tony Khan. ‘Fast Company’ deputy editor David Lidsky joined us to chat about Yaz’s piece on Tony, why he formed AEW in 2019, and how he was a huge wrestling nerd who grew up doing e-wrestling. And here are some more wrestling updates: Starting in January 2025, WWE’s flagship series, Raw, will be moving to Netflix WWE will still have some shows streaming on Peacock and still has pay-per-vi...
Jan 31, 2024•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Daily Harvest is introducing a new collection of meals tailor-made for people on weight-loss medications like Ozempic. Daily Harvest president Ricky Silver explained how Daily Harvest’s January Jumpstart program includes GLP-1-focused meal plans. Then we chatted with Sharp Entertainment CEO Matt Sharp. Sharp is the guy behind such reality TV hits as ‘90 Day Fiancé,’ ‘Inmate to Roommate,’ and ‘Help! I’m in a Secret Relationship!’ He told us about how many nos he got from networks before finding s...
Jan 24, 2024•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast A number of recent court cases are using a new tactic to take on tech platforms, including Snap, Meta, and TikTok. ‘Fast Company’ contributing writer Issie Lapowsky walked us through the complicated legalese behind these cases. Basically, they’re using a novel legal workaround to Section 230 called a ‘product liability claim.’ Rather than faulting these platforms for other people’s posts—the kind of claims Section 230 protects them from—these cases accuse the companies of essentially building fa...
Jan 17, 2024•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast We spoke with Jeff Lee, cofounder and CEO of DIBS Beauty about his approach to building brand awareness, partnering with celebrities, and starting a company during the pandemic. “What makes us so unique, I think, is the way we speak with our customer at DIBS; we like to joke that it’s reverse master class. People used to learn about makeup from celebrities, from celebrity makeup artists. . . . We’re just about, take the stick, take the brush, take the powder, put it on—you won’t mess it up. And ...
Jan 10, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast And that's a wrap on 2023. Join our podcast hosts, Kathleen Davis, KC Ifeanyi, Yasmin Gagne and Josh Christensen as they look back on this past year. Happy New Year!
Dec 27, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the United States, nearly three-quarters of adults qualify as overweight or obese, 42% of whom are considered obese. The World Obesity Federation predicts that 51% of the global population will be overweight or obese by 2035. ‘Fast Company’ contributing writer Adam Bluestein joined us to break down how Novo Nordisk, the company behind Ozempic and Wegovy, developed and marketed its weight-loss drugs. He also explained why the drugs have become so popular in the U.S., how drug pricing is extrem...
Dec 20, 2023•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast From YouTube to late night to actor to writer, Lilly Singh has always been a storyteller. In that vein, she started a company called Unicorn Island Productions a few years ago. The company has both a production arm and a nonprofit arm, which is Unicorn Island Fund. Singh told us that the company's mandate is simple. It's making stories that look like the real world. That means making stories that highlight underrepresented voices—which, more and more that's becoming South Asian voices—and ensuri...
Dec 13, 2023•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Shein is a giant fast fashion retailer that's looking into filing an IPO. Fast Company Senior Staff Writer Liz Segran helps break down what that might mean for both the company and the fast fashion industry at large. For more on Shein, check out Liz's article Serendipitously, Shein’s head of strategic communications Peter Pernot-Day also joined us. He filled us in on how the company's on-demand model is constantly responding to consumers, creating low inventory levels, which leads to virtually n...
Dec 06, 2023•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast The long-simmering fault lines within OpenAI over questions of safety with regard to the deployment of large language models like GPT, the engine behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Dall-E services, came to a head on November 17 when the organization’s nonprofit board of directors voted to fire CEO Sam Altman. But then he was reinstated on November 22. It’s been a wild ride, but Fast Company senior writers Ainsley Harris and Mark Sullivan joined us to help break down the confusing back and forth at the ...
Nov 29, 2023•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ideo is one of the most famous global design agencies in the world. Founded in 1991, it is celebrated for popularizing the modern corporate mantra of design thinking. It’s also known for a top-tier client list including companies such as Coca-Cola, Disney, and Apple, with estimated annual revenues of more than $100 million. But Ideo has been shedding employees since 2020. This is the second round of layoffs in 2023 alone. Ideo has since confirmed to Fast Company that it’s eliminating 32% of its ...
Nov 22, 2023•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast After 118 days, the SAG-AFTRA strike finally came to a close. Fast Company deputy digital editor Morgan Clendaniel breaks down what happened this past summer with the strike, as well as the overall state of unions at the moment. As of airing this episode, the union’s national board approved the new contract with major studios and sent it to membership for ratification. “I’m completely uninterested in building small things.” Emma Grede has started a LOT of businesses. Probably best known for cofo...
Nov 15, 2023•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast WeWork’s tumultuous ride has come to an end. We chatted with journalist Reeves Wiedeman, author of Billion Dollar Loser: The Epic Rise and Spectacular Fall of Adam Neumann and WeWork, about one of the wildest and most dramatic startup stories in corporate America’s history. “The brand is bruised.” What’s going on at Marvel Studios? ‘Fast Company’ senior staff editor Jeff Beer breaks down the Marvel Cinematic Universe with culture writers Joanna Robinson and David Gonzales. They chat about MCU’s ...
Nov 08, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast A year ago, Elon Musk bought Twitter for a whopping $44 billion. Since then the platform has changed dramatically . . . even its name. Senior staff editor Max Ufberg joins us again to break down what’s been going on at Twitter, er X, over the past year. Also, “Black women are the fastest-growing segment of entrepreneurs in this country,” says Nyakio Grieco, “yet still receive less than 1% of venture funding.” Grieco, founder of Relevant Skin and cofounder of Thirteen Lune, chats about her experi...
Nov 01, 2023•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Companies now have mountains of data to help drive decisions and develop products, but a holistic approach to product development must also prioritize customers’ needs and preferences. In this podcast interview, Stephanie Mehta, CEO of Mansueto Ventures, the parent of Fast Company, sits down with Emily Roberts, Senior Vice President and Head of Enterprise Consumer Product at Capital One to hear how to harness the power of technology and customer feedback loops to innovate products and experience...
Oct 30, 2023•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Halloween season is here! And actor-director-producer Emma Tammi joined us to chat about her upcoming film, Five Nights at Freddy’s, based on the popular video game franchise. She told us all about adapting a video game to a movie, working with large animatronic puppets, and creating a horror movie that’s aimed at a PG-13 audience. But the scariest part of the movie process, according to Emma? Reading the reviews. . . .Opening Friday, October 27, in theaters and on Peacock, Five Nights at Freddy...
Oct 25, 2023•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Actor, producer, and entrepreneur Issa Rae has several businesses under her belt already, and now she has partnered with Gallo to launch her own prosecco line, Viarae. We chatted about her business ventures, and how she decides which creative projects to pursue. It comes down to backing things that she loves and/or needs. When she wanted to start a coffee business, for example, it was because she wanted a coffee shop in her neighborhood—specifically to have a place where she could write all the ...
Oct 18, 2023•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Only 10% of Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs, even though women make up 47% of the workforce. And female founders only get 2% of venture capital. When Sophia Amoruso coined the term ‘girlboss’ in her 2014 memoir, #Girlboss, she helped spark a movement for women to step into more leadership roles. But then she and a couple of other girlbosses faced backlash over their management practices, including creating toxic work environments. Compared to some of their problematic male counterparts, t...
Oct 11, 2023•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mitch Reback, CFO of Sweetgreen, is one of the rising corporate financial stars who is helping to take their companies to the next level. When he started, Sweetgreen had 25 stores; today, there are more than 220—and Reback says the company is still in its “infancy.” In this podcast, part of the SAP-sponsored Growth Agents series, Reback takes a deep dive into his role as a growth agent. Capital is the engine that drives growth, and Reback says his job is to make sure the company has adequate cap...
Oct 10, 2023•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Duolingo’s freemium subscription model, beloved brand and strategic investments have allowed it to execute its educational mission and become a cultural touchstone. Matthew Skaruppa, CFO of Duolingo, is one of the rising financial stars who are helping to bring their businesses to the next level. Since he joined the company in 2020, Duolingo has grown its base of monthly active users by more than 80%. Each month, 75 million users hone their language skills on the Duolingo app. In this podcast, p...
Oct 10, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast The company’s director of finance explains how her job goes well beyond accounting. Tina Hetzer, director of finance at Pink Lily, is one of the rising financial stars who are helping to bring their businesses to the next level. She built Pink Lily’s finance team from scratch and has helped the company become one of the fastest-growing retailers in the country. In this podcast, part of the SAP-sponsored Growth Agents series, Hetzer discusses the cash-flow challenges unique to fashion retailers a...
Oct 10, 2023•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
