In his role as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk spent several months gleefully subjecting parts of the government he doesnt like to an array of metaphorical power tools.
We spent the weekend feeding USAID [United States Agency for International Development] into the wood chipper, he wrote on X in February, after pushing to illegally withhold billions of dollars appropriated by Congress to fight famine, care for sick people, and vaccinate children against deadly diseases. Could have gone to some great parties. Did that instead.
A few weeks later, Musk celebrated his accomplishments to date by taking the stage at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference while triumphantly waving a chainsaw overhead.
This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy, he yelped, just in case the reference was too subtle for anyone in attendance. CHAINSAW!
On the one hand, Musks efforts set up some of his businesses to make a bunch of money, and delighted Republican politicians whose idea of wasteful spending is anything that does not make hedge fund executives or car dealership owners wealthier. On the other hand, his White House tenure shaved billions of dollars off his net worth, made it genuinely embarrassing to own a Tesla, and transformed Musk into one of the most reviled political figures in the country.
Now, as Musk leaves the Trump administration and returns to the private sectorand as the two men engage in oafish public meltdowns on their respective social media platformsthe question of whether DOGE was, on balance, worth it for Musk sort of depends on what happens to his portfolio over the next quarter or so.
Already, Musk has embarked on a miniature image rehabilitation tour, framing himself in time-honored reactionary tradition as a tragic victim of his own success. In a soft-lit interview with The Washington Post, he said that DOGE had become the whipping boy for everything, and bemoaned the uphill battle he faced for simply trying to improve things in D.C. In an interview with Ars Technica, Musk admitted that he probably did spend a bit too much time on politics, and expressed eagerness to get back to the business that really matters: presiding over failed SpaceX launches.
As a result, many retrospectives on Musks time at DOGE read like obituaries, both for the organization and the movement it represents. In a recent Reuters profile, for example, a former DOGE staffer predicted that it would fizzle out without Musk, and analogized the remaining employees to kids joining a startup that will go out of business in four months.
But talking about DOGE in the past tense is wrong for several reasons. First, Musks actions will continue to inflict pain and suffering long after Trump has left the White House. One expert estimates that Musks cuts to USAID have already resulted in about 300,00 preventable deaths, most of them children. Even if the $180 billion that DOGE says it has cut is a generous overestimate, people still died because Elon Musk decided it would be fun to cosplay as the president for a few weeks.
Second, Musks efforts to pillage the federal government will not end the moment he leaves town. A recent Washington Post analysis estimated that Musks companies are propped up by $38 billion in government funding. Although Trump has threatened to stop doing business with Musk during their ongoing posting warmuch, much more on that belowSpaceX in particular is integral to the modern U.S. space program, parts of which would grind to a halt without the (non-exploding versions of) Musks rockets. Reluctant though Trump may be to keep paying out on these contracts, it would presumably be even more embarrassing for him to leave NASA without a viable in-house method of retrieving astronauts from space.
Finally, DOGE was not and was never going to be a one-off effort to, as the conservative activist Grover Norquist once put it, make the government small enough to drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub. For decades, Republicans, at the behest of their corporate donors, have pushed the idea that government should be run like a business, and insisted that the legitimacy of any government expenditure depends on the associated return on investment. Only if elected officials do something about the scourges of wasteful spending, inefficient regulation, and dastardly bureaucracy, the argument goes, can America ever hope to reach its full potential.
But Republicans face the same basic challenge every time they try to follow through on this promise: Although voters theoretically support the idea of making government more efficient, the real-world cuts Republicans would make to effectuate that goal are wildly unpopular. Normal people dont want to gut the National Park Service or the U.S. Postal Service, for example. They dont support making it easier for big banks to rip off consumers, and they definitely dont like GOP politicians threatening to take Sesame Street off the air.
By outsourcing much of this unseemly work to Musk and DOGE, Republican lawmakers found a possible solution to their vexing PR problem: a method of speed-running some of the more controversial aspects of their policy agenda, but without having to cast costly votes to implement it.
Now Musk is learning the hard way that although he was using the Republican Party to enrich himself, the Republican Party was using him, too. Republican lawmakers are attempting to pass Trumps Big Beautiful Bill, a budget reconciliation bill that would result in some 10.9 million fewer people with access to health isurance by 2034, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Although the bill would cut some $1.3 trillion in federal spending over a decade, its still projected to add an additional $2.4 trillion to the national debt over that same period, thanks to a cool $3.7 trillion in tax cuts.
Musk at first described himself as disappointed by the bills price tag, which he said undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing. When his opinion failed to persuade the White House (or Republican leadership on Capitol Hill) to change course, Musk began lashing out, calling the Big Ugly Bill a disgusting abomination, and vowing to help fire all politicians who betrayed the American people by voting for it. He then went on to call for Trumps impeachment, threaten to start a new political party, link Trump to the late Jeffrey Epstein, and otherwise mock the president as a hypocritical, spineless ingrate who would have lost the 2024 election in humiliating fashion if not for Musks generous infusions of cash.
As it turns out, when you just spent four months torpedoing your brand in pursuit of a shared ideological goal, watching your purported allies immediately abandon it can be a frustrating experience.
In one sense, this constitutes a split with Trump, in that Musk is indeed trashing the signature policy initiative of a president whose candidacy he supported to the tune of more than a quarter-billion dollars. But it is also evidence that Musk never fully grasped the nature of his relationship with Trump in the first place: While he was out there taking the (well-deserved) reputational hits for doing all the slashing and burning that Republicans wanted to see, GOP lawmakers were preparing to do what they always do: abandon this fiscal responsibility song and dance at their earliest convenience, and enact more tax cuts that will disproportionately benefit the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.
When he took the gig at DOGE, Musk imagined himself as a revolutionary, uniquely positioned to identify and cut wasteful spending by virtue of the power in the Republican Party that he believed hed rightfully purchased. But Musk believed so strongly in his abilities that he forgot that the GOP does not care about saving public resources, but about redirecting that money to its political allies instead. Even if this iteration of DOGE fizzles out, there will be another DOGE before long, because Republicans will never stop looking for ways to slash programs that help vulnerable people, and there will always be someone like Musk who is willing do their dirty work in exchange for the chance to line his pockets.
What if the key to being a better manager isnt found in a new productivity hack, a different feedback framework, or a time management appbut in understanding the three-pound organ inside your head that runs the show: your brain?
Most leadership advice focuses on what you should do. Neuroscience helps explain why some things workand why others fail, despite your best intentions. When you manage in ways that are aligned with how the brain naturally operates, you unlock better decision-making, motivation, creativity, and connection.
Here are five ways neuroscience can help you manage smarter.
1. Multitasking Is a Myth: Prioritization is Your Brains Superpower
The brains prefrontal cortex handles focus, planning, and decision-making. But its also highly energy-demanding and sensitive to overload. When you spring last-minute requests on your team, surprise them with new deadlines, or pile on urgent tasks, youre setting their brains up to fail.
Cognitive overload impairs performance. Each unexpected demand consumes energy needed for prioritizing, problem-solving, and creative thinking. When managers protect their people from chaotic, reactive workflows, they preserve their teams brainpower. This also builds psychological safety and trust.
Try this: Push back on unnecessary urgency from above. Communicate early and clearly about changes. Create space for people to do their best work, not just keep up.
2. Creativity Needs Space (and Structure)
Leaders often say they want innovation, but fail to create the conditions that allow it. The brain’s creative engineparticularly the default mode networkthrives when were relaxed, slightly daydreaming, and free from judgment. Yet most work environments reward hyperproductivity and constant urgency.
Creativity requires a balance of exploration and exploitation. Neuroscience tells us that the best ideas often come when were mentally alert and engaged, but not overwhelmed; often when we are focused, interested, and under just the right amount of pressure. Constant pressure to be brilliant now can actually inhibit insight.
Try this: Build “white space” into your teams calendar. Walking meetings, unscheduled thinking time, or even mindfulness minutes. Counterintuitively, making time for your people to actively rest may be your easiest to implement, but most impactful, innovation strategy.
3. Coaching Unlocks Neuroplasticity (and Performance)
If your job is to get the best from your people, you need to stop telling and start coaching. Great managers ask the kinds of questions that rewire their teams thinking. Thats not a metaphor; its neuroscience.
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change. When people reflect, reframe, or develop insight, theyre literally rewiring their neural pathways. Effective coaching conversations tap into this, activating networks for learning, motivation, and problem-solving. And coaching at the identity level (helping people explore not just what they do but who they are) creates deep, lasting change.
Try this: Next time someone brings you a problem, dont solve it. Ask: What have you already tried? or What would great look like here? When you practice this, youre building your colleagues brain.
4. Motivation Lives in the Brains Reward System
Motivation isn’t magic, and it’s not about free pizza or ping-pong tables. Its about how well leaders understand the brain’s reward circuits.
Dopamine, the chemical of motivation, spikes when people feel progress, connection, or purpose. In many workplace environments, overuse of rankings, performance comparisons, or conditional bonuses can reduce intrinsic motivation over time. When these tools create pressure or fear of failure, they risk disengagement rather than drive.
Try this: Recognize effort, not just outcomes. Connect tasks to meaningful goals. Give your team autonomy in how they reach targets. These all activate the reward networks and sustain engagement over time.
5. A High-Performing Neural Environment Isnt Soft. Its Smart
One of the most misunderstood drivers of high performance is psychological safety. This isnt about being niceits about creating the neural conditions for people to think clearly, speak up, and take risks.
When people feel unsafe (even subtly), the brain activates the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex has to work harder to emotionally regulate. That means less creativity, lower collaboration, and poorer decision-making. Managers who create cultures of trust and fairness help teams stay in a reward stateand unlock their best thinking.
Try this: Model curiosity. Fail fast. Admit mistakes. Ask more questions. Your vulnerability is a shortcut to their clarity.
Final Thought: Manage Like a Brain-Savvy Human
Understanding how the brain works isn’t just interesting trivia: It’s the blueprint for managing with clarity, creativity, and compassion.By making small shifts in how you focus, coach, motivate, and create safety, you build better brainsyour own, and your teams.
And when your brain works better, everything else follows.
Apples annual Worldwide Developers Conference begins this Monday, June 9. Although the five-day event has historically been aimed at developers, Apples consumer fans generally cant wait to tune in to the keynote address that kicks off the event. Thats when Apple offers the world the first preview of its upcoming software launchesthe operating systems that will power its devices when they are released to the public as free downloads in the fall.
This year, Apples software changes are likely to be more transformative than theyve been in over a decade, radically reshaping the look of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac OSes. But just what will Apple reveal at WWDC25? Heres whatand what notto expect.
Rebranded operating systems
In late May, Bloomberg revealed that Apple will be rebranding its numbering scheme for all of its operating systems.
They will no longer be numbered sequentially (for example, iOS 16, iOS 17, iOS 18). Instead, they will be numbered by year. For example, the new iOS Apple will introduce on Monday at WWDC25 will no longer be called iOS 19, and instead will be known as iOS 26. The 26 stands for the year 2026. Though Apple is debuting the new OS in 2025, it will remain the latest OS through fall 2026, and the 26 moniker signifies that.
That means instead seeing iOS 19, iPadOS 19, macOS 16, tvOS 19, watchOS 12, and visionOS 3, expect Apple to debut iOS 16, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, tvOS 26, watchOS 26, and visionOS 26.
Unified visual design
Apple is also creating a unified visual look for all its operating systems. Currently, iOS and iPadOS are the only two Apple operating systems that look somewhat similarmacOS, tvOS, visionOS, and watchOS have distinct designs for their UI elements, such as windows and pop-up menus.
However, the 26 version of the operating systems will establish a universal design across all of them. Fast Company has previously detailed what the design might look like: transparent UI elements that let the forms and colors of background content bleed through like light through a glass window, floating toolbars, reflective and shimmering lighting effects, rounder icons, glassy keyboards, and more. The new OSes are said to take heavy inspiration from the current visionOS, which powers the Apple Vision Pro.
iOS 26
Apple will likely use iOS 26 in its WWDC25 keynote to showcase the radical design changes coming to all its operating systems before going into detail on other changes coming to its OS’es.
But theres not much known about what we can expect other than a few improvements, which include a dedicated gaming app, new accessibility features, and the addition of Stage Manager for iPhone, which will allow users to display iPhone apps on a monitor connected to the iPhone via its USB port. There will also likely be some Apple Intelligence improvements, but more on that below.
iPadOS 26
The iPads new operating system will receive the same new visual redesign iOS 26 and Apples other OSes are getting. It will also receive the same accessibility upgrades and new gaming app that iOS 26 is getting.
But Bloomberg reports that iPadOS could actually get more Mac-like this year. While the iPads hardware is nearly universally praised, users frequently criticize its software, which is little different than iOS, an operating system designed for a smartphone. However, users tend to think of their tablets as being closer to computers than phonesand this year, Apple is reportedly making iPadOS more like desktop software, rather than mobile.
Bloomberg says that the iPadOS 26 upgrade will focus on productivity, multitasking, and app window managementwith an eye on the device operating more like a Mac.
macOS 26, tvOS 26, visionOS 26, and watchOS 26
It not clear what new features Apple will reveal in the new operating systems for Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro, and Apple Watch. But all of them are likely to adopt the new solarium-like visual design of iOS 26.
And there’s a possibility that tvOS 26, visionOS 26, and watchOS 26 may also bring Apple IntelligenceApples artificial intelligence platformto the Apple TV, Apple Vision Pro, and Apple Watch for the first time. Yet, for the Apple Watch, Bloomberg reports the device may rely on offloading the actual processing of Apple Intelligence requests to a connected iPhone since the Apple Watchs hardware lacks the processing power to run Apple Intelligence on-device.
Apple Intelligence
Last years event, WWDC24, focused heavily on Apple Intelligence. Yet, since the AI platforms rollout in October, Apples foray into artificial intelligence has been met with indifference from most consumers. Apple also faced criticism for delaying previously announced Apple Intelligence changes to Siri until later this yearor even into 2026.
For that reason, Apple isnt expected to announce many new Apple Intelligence features. It won’t want to disappoint people if they again need to be delayed.
However, there are reports that Apple will give users a few new Apple intelligence upgrades, including AI battery management on the iPhone and the option to select Googles Gemini as the chatbot of choice in Apple Intelligence. Currently, the only third-party option Apple Intelligence offers is OpenAIs ChatGPT.
New Macs and iPhones?
WWDC is historically a heavily software-focused event. So if youre hoping to see new iPhones announced at WWDC25, expect to be let down. Apple will unveil its new iPhone range in the fall, as usual. But whether the new iPhone family will be called iPhone 17 or instead will be rebranded as iPhone 26 is yet to be seen.
As for other hardware, there is an outside chance that Apple could unveil a new Mac Proits highest-end, professional desktop computr at WWDC25, since the event is still, ostensibly, one focused on professionals. The current Mac Pro was introduced at WWDC23 in June 2023, making it two years old this month. New Apple TV hardware is also a possibility, or that launch may wait until the fall.
However, we wont need to wait much longer to know for certain exactly what Apple will unveil at WWDC25. The conference kicks off on Monday, June 9, with the WWDC keynote scheduled for 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET.
Can a visual redesign lead to an AAPL stock boost?
The visual redesign may be the most significant announcement at WWDC from an investor perspective. Visual redesigns are eye-catching to even non-techie consumers, and they may spur buyers to spend on a shiny new iPhonesomething investors are no doubt hoping for, as an increase in iPhone sales may help boost the company’s struggling stock.
As of close on trading on June 6, Apple stock (Nasdaq: AAPL) has fallen over 18% since the beginning of the year. However, much of that stock price decline has little to do with Apple’s sales or financial fundamentals and is instead due to President Trump’s tariff threats against China and Apple itself. Apple sources a majority of its products from China, and any tariff that Trump implements on goods from the country could significantly impact Apple’s bottom line, despite Apple CEO Tim Cook’s best efforts.
However, if you look at the entirety of the past 12 months, AAPL stock is still up nearly 5%, with the stock price just under $204. If the visual redesign of its operating systems indeed helps sell more iPhones and other devices, it could help the company’s shares move back in the direction of their all-time high of just over $260 apiece, reached in December 2024.
Moth Winn was diagnosed with a terminal illness at the age of 53 and in the same week he and his wife, Raynor, lost their home. As the bailiffs arrived, the couple made a remarkable decision: to take a 630-mile year-long coastal walk from Somerset to Dorset, through Devon and Cornwall.
Their journey was first told in Raynor Winns bestselling memoir The Salt Path, which has now been made into a film. In The Salt Path, Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs portray the hardship and hope the couple experienced as they walked through sunshine and storms with little more than a tent and a handful of cash.
But their walk is part of a much older story. Without realizing it, Raynor and Moth joined a centuries-old tradition of seeking healing and transformation along the southwest coast.
In the 19th century, people traveled to the coast because doctors believed sea air and seawater could treat illness. This idea became known as change of air treatment and was widely prescribed to urban patients suffering from nervous disorders, such as stomach pains and chest issues. These seaside visits were understood as a form of medicine.
Jason Isaacs (L to R), Raynor Winn, Moth Winn, and Gillian Anderson on the south coast during the filming of The Salt Path. [Photo: Steve Tanner/Black Bear]
Englands westerly edge
The South West Coast Path is the U.K.s longest national trail. The route has over 115,000 feet of ascent and descentthe equivalent of scaling Mount Everest four times. It was officially protected in 1973 to preserve and improve access to the path and now attracts nearly 9 million visitors each year. But its origins lie in the working lives of local people, especially coastguards watching for smugglers and fishermen following pilchard shoals.
In the 19th century, the region also became a destination for domestic tourists. It was made more accessible as passenger rail lines were extended to places including Plymouth and Penzance. Some visitors walked to explore unfamiliar landscapes, while others did so on medical advice.
The seaside towns of Penzance and Torquay emerged as health resorts and by the first world war they were known as havens for invalids. Between 1800 and 1854, Torquays population grew from 800 to 14,000, mostly made up of medical residents on temporary stays.
Healing in the elements
Before the walk, Moth was diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration (CBD) after seeing a doctor about shoulder pain and tremors. CBD is a rare degenerative condition that affects the brain and gradually leads to difficulties with movement, speech, memory, and swallowing.
When he began the walk, Moths mobility had deteriorated and he was experiencing severe pain and numbness in his left leg. For the first half of the film, Jason Isaacs drags his foot along the ground to show this physical strain. The challenge of walking was made harder by the rugged terrainsteep hills, jagged rocks, and harsh winds.
As Moth and Raynor walked, something unexpected happened. Moths symptoms began to ease, his condition improved, and he eventually stopped taking pain relief. He believed the change was linked to the regular movement and the sense of purpose the walk gave them during a bleak period. He described walking as having a restorative power that offered him a new, unlicensed freedom.
The idea that walking by the coast could have healing properties has deep roots. In the 19th century, walking was considered beneficial, but the emphasis was on gentle movement in clean air rather than endurance through rough landscapes. The air of Devon and Cornwall was praised for its soothing qualities and the climate for its warmth in the winter. Town planners even built flat promenades in seaside towns to make walking more accessible for people with chronic illnesses and low mobility.
Spending time outside was considered particularly valuable for people suffering from tuberculosis. Before tuberculosis was known to be caused by bacteria, medical experts blamed it on bad-smelling air. Doctors suggested that city dwellers suffering with chest pains remove themselves from these dirty atmospheres and immerse themselves in the clean, salt air at the seaside.
Nature plays a central role in The Salt Path. Its effect on the body is seen in Gillian Andersons sun-scorched cheeks and wind-tousled hair. The sounds of birds and the sea accompany panoramic drone shots of the cliffs. The sea is a key character.
Arriving at Minehead, the Winns take a photo to begin their journey: of the three of us, the couple and the sea. Victorian travel writers also insisted that in the southwest, The pedestrian must never wander more than a stones throw from the sea.
When Moth swims in the sea, he is empowered in his own body and able to move without constraint. The seaside has carried health connotations since the 1700s. In the 18th century, doctors claimed that sudden immersion in cold, salty, and turbulent waters had therapeutic value for chronic illness. Today, open swimming remains a popular practice in the southwest and is praised for its mental and physical health benefits.
As the film ends, we learn that 12 years after their walk Moth is still living with CBD and the couple still use long-distance walks to treat his symptoms.
This experience of illness finds resonance in older practices, reminding us that healing can sometimes be found outside of clinical spaces. While the reasons for walking often change, the connection between place, body and wellbeing spans centuries. The Salt Path tells a deeply personal story but also continues a long cultural history of looking to the coastline for recovery and renewal.
Lena Ferriday is a lecturer in the history of science and the environment at King’s College London.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Maggie Smith is a poet and a New York Times bestselling author of eight books of poetry and prose. Her poems and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Best American Poetry, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, and many other journals and anthologies.
Whats the big idea?
We are all creative beings because making your life is the ultimate creative act. For those who choose to tune their senses as artists, there are 10 key principles to improving your craft. The societal value of dedicating oneself to a life creating art rests in our essential human need for hope, healing, and a search for answers about our world and ourselves amid a sea of ambiguity.
Below, Maggie shares five key insights from her new book, Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life. Listen to the audio versionread by Maggie herselfin the Next Big Idea App.
1. Creativity is our birthright as human beings.
I think everyone is born a poet. Years ago, I agreed to visit my childrens elementary school for a few days to talk to second graders about poetry and preparation. I got a sneak peek at the language arts textbook they were using in the poetry unit. The authors described poets as having a special ability to see the world in a poetic way. Poets eyes, they wrote, even suggesting that teachers wear an oversized pair of silly glasses during poetry lessons. On my first day, I told the kids that theres no such thing as poets eyes.
Every child is born with poets eyes. We all have them. Poetry comes naturally to children because they havent been estranged from their imaginations and their sense of newness in the world. As we age, we can become distracted and desensitized. We have to pay better attention, but more than that, we have to find ways to make the familiar strange again; to see the extraordinary tucked inside the ordinary.
Poets eyes are for all of us. After all, everyone is creative. Even if you dont make art, even if youre not a writer, photographer, or musician, you are creative every day in your work and in your life. Problem solving is a creative act. Conversations are creative. Parenting is creative. Falling in love, leaving your job, and changing your mind are all creative acts. Creativity isnt just about making art. Making your life is the ultimate creative act.
2. Attention is a form of love.
What we turn our gaze to feels that warmth and light. What we dedicate ourselves to feels cherished. And conversely, what we ignore feels slighted, neglected, and devalued. This essential part of creativity requires no pen, no paper, no paints, no canvas, no nothing, only your awareness. Your hands can be empty, but your mind should be open.
As I was thinking my way into how to write Dear Writer and talk about creativity in a way that makes it accessible for everyone, I sat down and made a long list on a legal pad. That list included words like curiosity, courage, trust, patience, gumption, improvisation, love, and so on. Looking at this unwieldy list, I started winnowing it down, prioritizing the terms that appealed most to me and seemed the most expansive. I eventually narrowed the list to 10 principles of creativity.
10 Principles of Creativity
Attention
Wonder
Vision
Surprise
Play
Vulnerability
Restlessness
Connection
Tenacity
Hope
All 10 are essential, but attention comes first for a reason. I cant think of anything more important for a writer or artist than to be a sensitive, finely tuned instrument in the world. Keep your antenna raised. We need you to be all in.
Lifes everyday activities create statica constant hum of responsibility, news, reminders, and encounters. Our work is to dial past that static to hear the quiet voice inside us. Some artists call this voice the muse. You can call it whatever you like. For writers, the quiet voice inside might whisper a line of a poem or a bit of description or dialogue, but that voice has things to tell us about our lives too if we tune in and listen carefully.
The world is a complicated place full of both beauty and horror. But even when the world lets me down, even when it isnt what I want it to be, I find things to love and to be grateful for. I pay attention. My kids and I do our best to focus on beauty. In our house, its not unusual to hear one of us shout, beauty emergency! A beauty emergency is what we call something that stops you in your tracks, something you have to look at right away before its gone. It might be a fiery pink and orange sunrise or an albino squirrel in the sycamore tree or snowflakes that seem to be falling in slow motion. If you take your time getting to the window, the sunrise might be pale peach. The white squirrel might be gone. The snow turned to sleet.
Wonder is the opposite of cynicism.
The wonder is the key here. Theres no creativity without it. Wonder is the opposite of cynicism. Its warm and enthusiastic. While cynicism is chilly and bored, wonder is shushing everyone. Wonder says wow, and cynicism replies so what?
Creativity requires us to pay attention and approach the world with wonder. Many of my poems were made possible only because I took the time to look at my surroundings: listen to the wind and the birds, touch leaves to know their textures, breathe deeply to describe what the autumn air smelled like. Being sensitive, attuned, and observant. These things dont just improve your writing. They improve your life.
3. Art changes us.
Above all, I think we come to art to be changed. We come to books, films, music, and visual art to be expanded. Unzipped like a suitcase made larger on the inside, able to accommodate even more living. Creativity is the great expander. When you read a poem or listen to a song or watch a play, you are not the same person. Afterward, youre slightly rearranged. Your DNA is still the same. Your fingerprints are still the same. You look the same in the mirror, but you arent exactly who you were. “Be careful,” I might tell someone when handing them a book or a record, You will be different after this. Years spent with art are years spent in cocoon after cocoon, always emerging changed.
Books are community gathering spaces where connection is inevitable. When I read a book, I enter a place another writer has made. I can leave, but not entirely. I take the place with me when I go. Once a piece of art is inside you, it will continue to do its work on you for the rest of your life.
Think about the music you listen to, the films you return to, how they move you, help you see things in a new way, or just make your day better. Imagine if those musicians, actors, artists, and writers never shared that work. You would be different. Your life would be smaller, less vibrant. Without their art, your life would be diminished without the transformation that their art made possible.
4. Every no makes room for a yes.
Once upon a time, when I first began submitting poems to journals, rejections arrived in the mail. These days, its usually animpersonal email that an editor selects from a dropdown menu in the journals online submission system. Working for a literary magazine has helped me see rejection in a new way. I know how much stunning, worthy work is in that submission queue, and I know how little room we have to publish it. The decisions are sometimes excruciating. A no is a subjective no to one specific batch of work at one specific moment in time by one particular reader for a variety of reasons. A no is not a blanket rejection of you. Its not even a rejection of your work as a whole or your worth as a writer. Its not a no to your talent.
Every no makes room for a yes. I tell my students that almost all of my poems were rejected before they found a home at a magazine. Good Bones, my most famous poem, was rejected by the first few print magazines I sent it to before it was published by the online journal Waxwing. Those early rejections stung, but those early rejections were a gift. If Good Bones had been published in print, it wouldnt have gone viral. Meryl Streep wouldnt have read it at Lincoln Center. It wouldnt have been featured on the CBS show Madame Secretary. It would have had a much smaller life.
A no is not a blanket rejection of you.
We are all playing the long game, and the only way to fail at the long game is to give up. We keep going and remember that sometimes failures clear a path for something better.
5. Creating is inherently hopeful.
I think of each poem, each essay, each book I write as a message in a bottle. I dont know when I toss it into the waves, what shore it might wash up on, or when, or who might be standing on the shore to receive it. I dont know if theyll pull the message out or if theyll overlook the bottle altogether. If they do read it, I dont know what theyll think. Will they understand? Will they receive the creation in the way I hoped anyone would?
To make things that dont exist yet and dont need to exist is the very definition of art, and to send them out into the world is wildly and practically and gorgeously hopeful in harrowing times. And what times have not been harrowing?
Sometimes I ask myself, what can a poem do? A poem isnt a tourniquet when youre bleeding. Its not water when youre thirsty or food when youre hungry. A poem cant protect you from violence or hate. It can be difficult to createto paint, to sculpt, to composewhen your work feels like its not doing enough, when it cant do the real, tangible work of saving lives or making people safer. But art can do real, transformative work inside us. Think about art that has become an important part of your life: the songs you love, the books you treasure, the films you quote line for line. Art isnt extra. Its necessary.
Art can do real, transformative work inside us.
Art isnt lifes decoration, but its framework. I know what some people would say: Wow, she really thinks being an artist is as important as being a doctor, a farmer, a firefighter. But I have been fed and healed and saved by art, by someone elses hope sent out into the world, when it washed up on my shore. This is not hyperbole. Art is essential.
Our work as artists isnt to solve the worlds problems, but to articulate the problems. Not to answer every question, but to use wild hope to ask and keep asking. Only by engaging with ambiguity can we make art that feels true.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
President Donald Trump signed a cluster of aviation-focused executive orders on Friday, clearing a path for commercial flights that travel faster than the speed of sound.
The White House seeks to establish the U.S. as the undisputed leader in high-speed aviation, according to a summary of the order, and specifically seeks to repeal the ban on overland supersonic flight, which has been in place since 1973.
The order also instructs the Federal Aviation Administration to repeal other regulatory barriers blocking supersonic flight and to create a noise certification standard that accounts for community acceptability, economic reasonableness, and technological feasibility.
Noise concerns over supersonic booms have plagued the promise of supersonic travel since the technologys early days. After the advent of supersonic flight, Americans filed tens of thousands of complaints citing disruptions from the noise and property damage, eventually leading to the ban.
NASA, which has pushed for a repeal of the ban, set out to engineer a low-boom supersonic jet that flies quietly to resolve noise nuisance concerns. After years of development, the X-59 has cleared key tests and is on the way to its first test flight. On the private side, aerospace company Boom recently conducted a test flight of its own quieter supersonic aircraft.
For more than 50 years, outdated and overly restrictive regulations have grounded the promise of supersonic flight, stifling American ingenuity and weakening our global competitiveness in aviation, the White House wrote in a summary of the order, which follows proposed legislation introduced in Congress last month that would allow supersonic civil aircraft to fly as long as no sonic boom reaches the ground in the United States.
Adjacent executive orders also signed on Friday seek to boost domestic commercial drone development and bolster U.S. defenses against the threat posed by unauthorized drones, citing safety concerns over critical infrastructure and large-scale events like the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Used car prices ticked down slightly last month in spite of uncertainty around tariffs, but buying a new old whip still costs more than it used to.
In April, the average cost for a used vehicle shot up as consumers raced to lock in purchases ahead of potential price hikes driven by Trumps ongoing trade wars. The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index from Cox Automotive, which tracks used car sales in the U.S., showed a 1.4% drop in prices last month, but prices are still up 4% compared to the same time last year. In April, used car prices saw their biggest spike since October 2023.
While the market continues to digest the impact of tariffs, we could see a bit higher levels of wholesale depreciation over the summer, Cox Automotive Senior Director of Economic and Industry Insights Jeremy Robb said in the report, while noting that low inventory could act as a counterbalance, driving prices back up.
Compared to a year ago, luxury cars saw the biggest price increase at 6.5%, with SUVs close behind with a 5.2% year-over-year increase. Electric vehicle prices were up 3.1% compared to the same time last May.
Used car prices in the U.S. have been a telling indicator of market forces in recent years. In the pandemics early days, supply chain issues constricted the availability of new cars, driving more buyers to the used market. That demand sent used car prices up, and they mostly stayed that way.
In March, President Trump announced a 25% tariff on imported cars and car parts, sowing fresh inflation concerns and sending supply chains into chaos again. Trump later eased tariffs for vehicles assembled in the U.S. using foreign parts a reprieve intended to give U.S. automakers a break while they scramble to determine the feasibility of building domestic supply chains to replace parts sourcing abroad.
A Japanese company trying to land a spacecraft on the moon Friday said that the unmanned lander is believed to have crashed into the lunar surface.
The Tokyo-based private space exploration company ispace reported that its Resilience lunar lander successfully initiated its descent onto the moon, but lost communication shortly afterward. Resilience made its descent from 100 kilometers above the moons surface to 20 kilometers normally, and its main engine fired to initiate the deceleration process before ispaces connection to the spacecrafts telemetry went dark.
Five hours after initiating the landing sequence and attempting to remotely reboot the craft, mission control determined that regaining the connection wasnt possible and declared an end to the mission, known as Mission 2 SMBC x HAKUTO-R Venture Moon.
According to the companys early findings, the laser range-finder that Resilience used to calculate the distance to the surface of the moon was operating on a delay, an error that likely prevented the lander from slowing down for a successful landing. Given those findings, ispace concluded that its signature spacecraft likely performed a hard landing on the lunar surface.
A crash landing upends the mission
Given that there is currently no prospect of a successful lunar landing, our top priority is to swiftly analyze the telemetry data we have obtained thus far and work diligently to identify the cause, ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said, adding that the company would issue a detailed report on its findings.
The failed lunar mission follows ispaces first attempt in 2023, which also ended with a bang. That craft, the Hakuto-R lunar lander, free-fell out of the sky for 5 kilometers before smashing into the lunar surface after onboard sensors miscalculated its altitude.
The lunar south pole in the spotlight
With interest in Mars on the upswing, humanitys drive to get back to the moon seemed to have waned in recent decades before a recent flurry of new lunar excitement. In 2023, India became the fourth nation to successfully land on the moon, joining the U.S., the former Soviet Union, and China. The following year, Japan joined their ranks when the countrys JAXA space agency nailed a historic pinpoint landing on the moon, but pulled the feat off accidentally upside down.
For national space agencies, the spirit of scientific exploration isnt the only thing putting the moon back in focus. The moons icy south pole is believed to house water frozen in shadowed craters, a resource that would prove invaluable for future human activity on the moon, or even as a hydration way-stop for space exploration beyond it.
That context is useful for understanding why manned moon missions are back on the docket for NASA, which wants to establish the first long-term presence on the lunar surface and plans to put humans back on the moon in 2028, optimistically. China has its own plans to send astronauts to the moon by 2030, the first stepping stone toward its goal of establishing a lunar research station.
Private partnerships power the new space race
Lunar interest isnt just waxing among national space agencies. Private spaceflight companies around the globe have scrambled to get into the mix, with some like ispace sending their landers up with a ride from SpaceX rockets.
Firefly Aerospace, based near Austin, Texas, made history of its own in March when its Blue Ghost lunar lander reached the lunar surface, making it the first private company to soft-land on the moon. A lunar lander from Houston-based Intuitive Machines followed closely behind but touched down at an odd angle, preventing the solar panels that power it from recharging to carry out its mission objectives.
Both lunar missions carried equipment for NASA through a program known as Commercial Lunar Payload Services, an initiative that will allow the agency to conduct scientific research through private moon missions.
Between global powers with designs on lunar ice and a lucrative web of public-private partnerships, the moon is the next big prize in the space raceone were going to be hearing a lot more about in the coming years.
The list of Rite Aid store closures continues to grow.
As the drugstore chain prepares to sell off its remaining assets in the wake of filing for bankruptcy a second time, the total number of locations marked for closure in court documents as of this week is at least 497 nationwide.
The chain will eventually sell or shutter all of its 1,277 pharmacies as it winds down operations. According to a court filing on Thursday, the latest list includes 25 additional locations in Ohio, California, Oregon, and Washington state.
Bids on Rite Aids remaining assets are due on June 18.
Pharmacy assets already sold
Rite Aid has already reached agreements to offload some of its assetsnotably, its valuable prescription filesto CVS, the countrys largest pharmacy chain; Walgreens; and the Albertsons and Kroger grocery chains.
As Fast Company previously reported, CVS agreed to buy prescription files for 625 of those pharmacies and take over 64 brick-and-mortar Rite Aid locations in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, home to many of the latest closures.
Rite Aid’s mass closures present particular challenges for customers in rural areas who rely on the chain for their medications, sparking concerns about pharmacy deserts. The broader wind-down has left many remaining locations with empty shelves as products run out.
Fast Company has reached out to Rite Aid for additional information about the timeline of the closures.
Here’s what to know.
Which Rite Aid stores are among the latest closings?
According to this weeks filing, the following 25 locations are set to close and may already be in the process of doing so.
CALIFORNIA
2505 Mt Vernon Avenue, Bakersfield, CA 93306
602 Williams Road, Salinas, CA 93905
4322 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90037
1560 Sycamore Avenue, Hercules, CA 94547
32121 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
1501 West Main Street, El Centro, CA 92243
10823 Zelzah Avenue Bldg D, Granada Hills, CA 91344
19035 Bear Valley Road, Apple Valley, CA 92308
7025 El Camino Real, Atascadero, CA 93422
24330 El Toro Road, Laguna Woods, CA 92637
295 West Main Street, Woodland, CA 95695
1735 E Walnut Avenue, Visalia, CA 93292
300 North Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210
OREGON
2021 NW 185th Avenue, Hillsboro, OR 97124
681 Lancaster Drive NE, Salem, OR 97301
1970 Echo Hollow Road, Eugene, OR 97402
1560 Coburg Road, Eugene, OR 97401
Ohio
1955 Cleveland Road, Wooster OH 44691
WASHINGTON
2131 SW 336th Street, Federal Way, WA 98023
10407 SE 256th Street, Kent, WA 98030
5700 100th Street SW Ste 100, Lakewood, WA 98499
3116 NE Sunset Boulevard, Renton, WA 98056
140th Avenue SE, Renton, WA 98058
196th Street SW, Lynnwood, WA 98036
2860 NW Bucklin Hill Road, Silverdale, WA 98383
Where can I find the full list of Rite Aid closures?
Previous filings have revealed closures as noted below:
May 5: 47 initial locations
May 9: 68 additional locations
May 16: 95 additional locations
May 23: 151 additional locations
May 30: 111 additional locations
How did Rite Aid get here?
Rite Aids Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings come less than one year after a similar filing in 2023.
Like many drugstore chains, including CVS and Walgreens, Rite Aid has struggled with online competition from Amazon and other retailers and with decreased profits from prescription drugs due to lower reimbursement rates.
The recent travails of WordPress have caused consternation among the web community that relies on the platform, which powers more than four in ten websites online today. Now, a coalition of prominent WordPress contributors and the Linux Foundation is unveiling a federated update and plugin-distribution network aimed at eliminating what they describe as a critical supply chain security vulnerability at the core of the worlds most widely used website system.
The FAIR Package Manager project, to be announced at a conference in Switzerland later today, enables web-hosting companies and large organizations to run their own mirrors of WordPresss core update, plugin, theme, and translation servers. This setup would replace reliance on WordPress.orga domain controlled by Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg.
Supporters say the new system will strengthen security, reduce costs, and open new commercial opportunities for software that millions depend on for web hosting.
The project emerged earlier this year in response to controversial moves by Mullenweg. In September, he cut off access to WP Enginea popular WordPress hosting provideraccusing it of extracting hundreds of millions of dollars in value from the open-source platform without adequate contributions in return. He also alleged that the company breached WordPress trademarks, creating confusion. Amid the fallout, around 150 employees exited Automattic after Mullenweg offered buyouts to those who disagreed with his handling of the situation.
In October, when Automattic took over the slug of WP Engines product within the ecosystem, we received phone calls from the chief legal counsels of some of our clientsthese are large corporationssaying, this is a supply chain security issue, says Karim Marucchi, CEO of enterprise agency Crowd Favorite and one of the projects initiators.
Around the same time, Joost de Valk, founder of Yoast SEO, was attempting to communicate with Mullenweg. While de Valk shared the view that more equitable contributions to WordPress were needed, he disagreed with Mullenwegs methods. We stopped talking pretty much after that, because I didn’t agree with him, de Valk says.
One central concern is that every WordPress site depends on WordPress.org for updates and extensions. When we started looking at this, we realized theres a lot of things in this whole ecosystem that we dont control, de Valk says. One of the things that everybodys eyes were opened on was that WordPress.org was, in fact, not part of the WordPress Foundation, but owned by Matt privately, and that he used it as his private website in many ways.
WordPress executive director Mary Hubbard notes that users have always had control over how their sites are updated and where updates originateflexibility that has existed since WordPresss early days. “The beauty of WordPress and open source is that people have complete control to run it how they please and modify how it works,” she tells Fast Company.
The FAIR system offers an alternative that remains fully compatible with WordPress but operates independently from WordPress.org. Its still all WordPress, says de Valk. Its just a different distribution. Rather than forking WordPress, FAIR provides server components that anyone can run. Over 100 contributors from more than 10 organizations have been involved in building it over the past six months, according to Marucchi. The group has asked the Linux Foundation to provide neutral oversight.
Hubbard pointed out that some large hosts like Newfold/Bluehost have implemented custom mirrors in the past, and emphasized that WordPresss update system has always allowed users to modify where their updates come from. “The important thing is that users know where their updates are coming from and have a choice to change it, regardless of their host, she says.
WordPress is a critical piece of infrastructure for communication and for organizations that rely on it for their website, for content management, for blogs and media, says Mike Dolan, SVP of legal and strategic programs at the Linux Foundation. And in order to sustain something like that, you need to have a reliable backend behind it.
To avoid centralization, the Linux Foundation has created a technical steering committee cochaired by long-time WordPress leaders Carrie Dils, Mika Epstein, and Ryan McCue. McCue, the architect of the WordPress REST API, called FAIR a platform to power the next decades of WordPress, and noted that the community had fractured and needed to be brought back together.
Dolan echoed the sentiment. I think the interesting part about this is the organic nature of this, he says. This is something that is coming out of the community. It’s people who have lifelong and career-long engagement in the WordPress community who are saying we need to go and build this, and they want to work on it together.
Jory Burson, VP of standards at the Linux Foundation and a participant in the project, hopes it will lead to a reintroduction and reenergization of the community. She adds that morale is currently low. I think this is going to be very exciting for people, and hopefully move some folks past this negativity and drama. We want to get people focused on the very positive future that we think WordPress still has.
Although FAIR was created out of frustration with Automattics control over WordPress.org, its backers insist its not a competing fork. When we get up on stage on Friday, literally the words that are going to come out of our mouth are: Were offering this code to Automattic, WP Engine, GoDaddy, Newfoldeveryone, says Marucchi.
If widely adopted, the network could allow developers to ship both free and premium versions of plugins in a single signed packagesomething currently prohibited by the official WordPress repository. That opens up innovation, de Valk says, making it easier to build businesses around plugins and to provide good user experiences.
Still, Hubbard emphasizes that fragmentation of WordPresss core infrastructure could create more problems than it solvesdisrupting update processes, inflating server loads, and breaking plugin telemetry used for ensuring compatibility. If this work leads to improvements like signed updates or better fallback systems, were open to that, she says. But it has to be done with the same long-term care that got us here.
The FAIR repository is already live on GitHub and accepting contributions. Whether Automattic will participate remains uncertain; regardless, the project team plans to move forward. Youre dealing with a community that has had some trust challenges in the past, and theyre looking for stability, says Dolan. They’re looking for neutrality. They have business that they want to get done.
