Roughly one out of three Americans has a side hustleand that number is expected to increase in 2026, something thats driving a shift in the modern working world.
Many of those with a side business are just looking for a little extra income, but roughly one in five are hoping to make their side hustle into a full-time business. Those who are entrepreneurially minded will want to chose a side business that has the potential to scale. Here are some fields that are showing a lot of promise for 2026.
Consulting and online courses
No matter what field youve worked in, your wisdom could be lucrative via a consulting business. Firm up your résumé, highlighting achievements such as successful campaigns or large-scale product launches, to help as you pitch potential clients. Have some former co-workers you worked well with? Consider recruiting them and launching an agency. Companies want seasoned counsel without the overhead, and senior talent wants more control over how they work, Brooke Kruger, founder and CEO of top communications search firm KC Partners, told Inc. in December.
You can also turn your expertise into online educational content. The e-learning market reached $314 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to $615 billion by 2029.
Skilled-trade business
AI is threatening millions of white-collar jobs in the coming yearsand some of those displaced people wont be able to quickly find work. But AI cant fix a sink. Nor can it build a deck or install an air-conditioning unit. Rates for this specialized work run as high as $300 per hour.Skilled-trade businesses are a hot field right now for entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA). ETA involves buying an established business (usually from baby boomers looking to retire), which gives the new owners existing revenue, customers, and infrastructure. New owners then streamline, scale, and modernize the business, boosting profits.
Dropshipping
E-commerce had one of the largest revenue growth rates of any industry in recent years, according to a study by McKinsey, jumping from $15 billion in 2005 to more than $1 trillion in 2023. Dropshipping is a side business that can act as an on-ramp into that field. You set up an online store, and find a third-party supplier to manufacture and ship the product to the customer, freeing you from having to worry about things like storage, fulfillment, or up-front production costs. Your focus will be on creative and marketing.
In the past year, tariffs and the end of the de minimis exemption have made business more challenging for drop shippers who work with manufacturers and warehouses overseas, but there are many U.S.-based drop shippers.
Mobile car washing
The service industry has shown resilience amid the economic volatility of the past yearand a growing number of people are looking to have the car wash come to them. A forecast by Future Market Insights predicts the global market for mobile car wash service businesses will grow to just under $283 billion by 2035. Thats more than double the $126 billion the businesses are expected to bring in this year.
Its a low-barrier, high-demand opportunity with flexible hours and low overhead. The density of competition in your local market will help you decide the appropriate rate to charge customers, but national averages range from $40 for a basic wash to more than $350 for a full detail.
Localize businesses
The past several years have illustrated the fragility of global supply chains. Tariffs have disrupted some shipments and made many products much more expensive. That could be an opportunity for the right entrepreneur. If youre dialed into local suppliers in your area, consider starting a side business as a facilitator.
Its a matchmaker-like role. You help connect suppliers with retailers and other businesses, localizing their inventory and lowering the risk they face from shipping or manufacturing hiccups, collecting a commission on each deal. Youll need strong communication, listening, and networking skills. Youll also have to have or quickly learn marketing skills to promote the benefits of your services.
Chris Morris
This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc.
Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
When New York-based Autumn Myers, 31, was interviewing for her current digital marketing job, she pushed back the interview date so it didnt fall during Mercury retrograde. Those jobs have always ended up in more grief for me, she tells Fast Company.
Myers also looks up her colleagues zodiac signs to guide her interactions with them. For example: People born under fire signs often thrive in leadership roles, but they can struggle with impulsiveness. Earth signs tend to be more dependable, but they can be risk-averse.
Its very Scorpio of me to be that calculated, she admits. But its needed sometimes.
Myers isnt alone. According to a 2024 Harris Poll of more than 2,000 U.S. adults, some 70% say they either somewhat or strongly believe in astrology, with 69% of millennials turning to it for comfort and confidence during challenging moments.
Its also a massive global business. According to industry reports, the astrology industry will top $22 billion by 2031.
Whether its Diors zodiac-themed line, astrology influencers posting videos to huge audiences on TikTok, or audio streamers like Spotify curating playlists based on your zodiac sign, the millennia-old belief system has continued to become more and more mainstream over the past few years, especially among millennials and Gen Zers.
The Co-Star app, which uses AI to combine NASA data with the predictions of professional astrologers, has over 30 million global users. There are work-focused astrology tools, too, like Bizmos, a project management tool with the ability to forecast the optimal month, week, or day for completing certain tasks and achieving goals. And more than 6 million videos can be found under TikToks astrology hashtag.
It’s kind of hard to ignore astrology when everyone’s talking about it, Myers says.
In times of economic uncertainty, political turmoil, and a tumultuous job marketlayoffs hit record highs last yearits no surprise that people are seeking comfort and advice from farther afield.
And since were talking about things that involve light-years . . . perhaps the farthest afield.
Personalized goal-setting
According to a 2025 survey of 2,000 Gen Zers by writing platform EduBirdie, 27% of Gen Z men and 16% of Gen Z women say they let the universe choose their career path. But folks have been consulting the heavens long before todays zoomers at work.
The practice of astrology originated in ancient Mesopotamia in the second millennium B.C. A widely accepted subject taught at universities during the Middle Ages, astrology was closely intertwined with sciences like astronomy, medicine, and philosophy. That all stopped around the 1700s during the Scientific Revolution, and despite a resurgence during the New Age movement in the 1970s, many dismiss astrology as magical thinking or frivolous woo-woo.
At its core, astrology holds that celestial events in the cosmos reflect what happens on Earth. Some believe that the actual transits of planets and positioning of stars directly influence our lives; others simply use astrology as an invitation to spot archetypal patterns in their lives, and then apply those lessons in productive ways. For example, in need of inspiration? See where Aquarius shows up in your birth chartthe sign most associated with innovation. Thats the area of life where you can naturally think outside the box, astrology holds.
Brand strategist Giselle La Pompe-Moore, 36, checks what astrological season we’re in every month to guide her work and how she interacts with customers. During Sagittarius season (November 22 to December 21), shell focus on broader strategies and larger frameworks to do with her business, since Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, the planet tied to expansion and progress.
Or shell consult her birth chart for hints about her personality and life themes. At the time of her birth, multiple planets were in Capricorns region of the sky; since Capricorns archetype is about structure and discipline, she takes this as a guide on the optimal way she should approach her long-term goals.
I think business advice often sticks to the business as this entity. It kind of forgets that the business is run by a person, La Pompe-Moore says. Astrology really speaks to that.
A way to work that feels “more natural”
Many proponents will say that astrology is most useful as a spiritual framework, not a crystal ball that predicts the future. They say that astrology helps us to navigate emotional challenges and relationships, and to find greater balance in our lives.
Jessica Maniatis, 44, consults the stars in her work as a coach to founders of small to scaling businesses. She creates reports that include clients birth charts, and also brings in other self-discovery tools, like the Enneagram, which attempts to outline peoples core fears and defense mechanisms.
The first half of the report is a breakdown of their charts, and the second halfand this is a 100-plus-page reportis really how they all overlay, Maniatis explains. From there, she offers clients insights into the best ways to approach issues, from decision-making to self-regulation.
What I’ve seen with my clients is that none of this information is necessarily newthey’re seeing themselves reflected back to them, she says. It almost gives them permission to approach life and work in a way that feels much more natural to them.
For the corporate lawyer who posts anonymously on TikTok under the handle @astrologybro, astrology didnt tell him to go into law. But it can help you understand your individuality and your strengths and weaknesses, he says, which can give you a richer domain of reflection.
He explains that astrologys use lies in prompting oneself to ask certain questionsin his case: What would I like to do, and how does being a lawyer contribute or not contribute to that?
Rachel Ruth Tate, a full-time consulting astrologer, also finds astrology a neutral, shorthand language for patterns or behavior that may otherwise be trickier to identify and articulate on your own. For example, if youre a hotheaded, blunt communicator, an astrologer might invite you to see where Mars (the planet of drive and anger) shows up in your chart. From there, you can spend time introspecting how that fiery energy shows up in your behavior and lifein good ways and bad.
Those who get it, get it: Me saying that you have a moon in Capricorn is easier than me telling you you’ll often work yourself into a corner because you’re a workaholic, Tate tells Fast Company.
Utilizing a “flexible language” for decisions
For nonbelievers, astrology is written off as a pseudoscience or sometimes an outright moneymaking scam. But instead of debating whether or not its real, its perhaps more useful to consider what its widespread appeal says about modern life, says Shiri Noy, associate professor of sociology at Denison University in Ohio.
Noy was a coauthor on a study about astrologys contemporary uses, which was published last year in Social Currents, the official peer-reviewed journal of the Southern Sociological Society. Astrologys popularity reflects a broader moment of social, economic, and political uncertainty, Noy tells Fast Company.
Nowadays, traditional sources of authorityreligion, institutions, expertisefeel less stable or less trusted, she says. Research has shown that people are more likely to be drawn to divinatory practices in times of uncertaintysomething theres no short order of in 2026.
For many users, astrology isnt about believing the stars control their fate, Noy says. Instead, it operates as a flexible language for thinking about identity, relationships, timing, and choicessimilar to personality tests or therapeutic frameworks.
Astrological charts are typically open to interpretation, and are highly individualized. As any astrologer will tell you, no two Geminis or Leos are the same. People are obsessed with being one sign or another, because it’s easy to attach an identity to that, says Scarlett Woodford, 37, founder of a PR agency for brands who wish to be guided by divine or cosmic timing. For example, Leos are often stereotyped as relishing in the spotlightbut depending on what else is in your chart, you might not instantly relate to being the center of attention and find that your Leo energy shows up in less obvious ways.
It’s definitely worth seeing the bigger picture, Woodford says.
Finding the perfect job
I think millennials as a generation [are] more open to seeking alternative ways of understanding their place in the universe, says Chris Brennan, professional astrologer and host of The Astrology Podcast, which has more than 250,000 subscribers on YouTube. He says theyre also more likely to take advantage of any available tools that might help them to navigate the world during these increasingly uncertain times.
In a time of shifting workplace normswhere remote work and portfolio careers are increasingly common, and the traditional career ladder shakier than everworkers have never had more agency over how they choose to work. For some, especially younger folks like Gen Zers and millennials, consulting the stars is part of that path.
Content creator Amelie Polk says, To find your optimal career, you’ll want to look into your whole chart: mainly the Midheaven, North Node, Saturn sign, and second house.
That might sound like a foreign language to laypeople. But astrology fans say using the bevy of online astrology tools and apps out there to dive into your birth chart, and spot patterns or invite self-questioning, might trigger certain intuitive aha moments. For instance, depending on which planets were in which location at the time of your birth, that could help determine whether youd benefit from a nurturing, slower-paced work environment or a faster, more competitive one.
This career is gonna be good for you. This career won’t work for you, Polk says. This will burn you out. This won’t.
Dont just take an astrologer’s word for it: Famous businesspeople and politicians have been rumored to credit astrology with some of their success. As J.P. Morgan famously didor didntsay: Millionaires dont use astrology. Billionaires do. Or as one former aide told The New York Times, look to President Ronald Reagan reportedly timing the announcement of his reelection campaign after consulting astrological signs.
For Myers, shes also used astrology to guide her decision-making at work. After paying closer attention to her birth chart, she made the decision to step down from her role as director at her company to be a senior strategist. I realized I dont want to be climbing the corporate ladder, she says.
Understanding astrological patterns has, in many ways, regulated Myers nervous system at work, too: New York is an intense city, and advertising can be an intense field, she says. But, she adds, astrology provides perspective.
Astrology has actually made me feel more likeits not that deep.
As AI takes on more analytical and operational decision-making, the leaders who will stand out are those who can do what machines cant: read emotional cues, build trust, and inspire teams to act.
In this new landscape, emotional intelligence is more than a soft skill. Its becoming the core differentiator of effective leadership.
I once advised a CEO whose metrics looked flawless. Revenue was rising, costs were under control, and the company was steadily gaining market share. Yet during their board review, the room was uncomfortably quiet.
The results are fine, one board director finally admitted. But people dont trust him anymore.
Spreadsheets might tell you if targets are met, but not whether teams are aligned, engaged, or on the verge of burnout. Emotional intelligenceunderstanding your impact, reading others, and managing human dynamicsis no longer a soft skill.
Its the strategic edge that separates leaders who can sustain success from those whose results plateau.
Why Emotional Intelligence Is the Edge That AI Cant Imitate
Artificial intelligence can process mountains of data and surface recommendations. But it cant read a room, detect unspoken tension, or inspire the extra effort people give when they feel seen and understood.
Leaders who master emotional intelligence can turn insight into action by aligning teams, building trust, and keeping people motivated when uncertainty hits.
Emotional intelligence isnt about being nice. Its about mastering awareness and influence. It means recognizing how your words land, sensing team dynamics in real time, and regulating your own responses to lead with clarity.
And boards are paying attention. Across industries, board directors are quietly redefining what effective leadership looks like. Beyond the numbers, theyre now asking whether a CEO can:
Create psychological safety that fuels innovation
Stay composed when the stakes are high
Leads teams through ambiguity without losing alignment
Leaders who demonstrate emotional intelligence make better decisions, communicate more effectively, and retain top talent, even during disruption.
In other words, emotional intelligence is no longer a personality trait. Its a strategic asset.
Practical Ways to Cultivate Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence isnt innate. Its a skill developed through self-awareness, reflection, and consistent effort. The most effective leaders I advise understand this. And they work at it with intention.
Audit your emotional impact. After meetings or key interactions, ask trusted peers: How did my tone land? or What signals might I have sent unintentionally? These quick debriefs help surface blind spots. Even small shifts in tone, body language, or word choice can significantly improve how your message is received and strengthen alignment across your team.
Pause before interpreting emotion. When tensions rise or signals seem unclear, take a step back and ask yourself: What is this person really trying to communicate? Approaching emotions with curiosity rather than assumption helps you defuse potential conflict and uncover the needs or concerns beneath the surface.
Separate intensity from clarity. High-stakes moments often come with heightened emotions. But urgency doesnt require volume. Communicating calmly, even when the stakes are high, improves your ability to be heard and understood. It also sets the tone for more thoughtful, grounded responses from others.
Practice dual awareness. Emotional intelligence means tuning into both the external dynamics of a situation and your own internal reactions. By observing what’s happening both in the room and within yourself, you can respond more intentionally.
Build emotionally diverse teams. Surround yourself with people who are attuned to different emotional cues, i.e., those who pick up on what you might overlook. Their insight is a strategic advantage that deepens your perspective and strengthens team decision-making.
Leading in the Age of AI
AI is taking over many tasks once seen as markers of intelligence, including things like speed, recall, and analytical precision. What remains squarely in the hands of leaders are the uniquely human capabilities: judgment, empathy, and the skill to translate complexity into clarity.
Leadership today means making sense of ambiguity, anchoring teams in shared purpose, and sustaining trust over time. Those who excel lead alongside AI, using emotional intelligence to turn insight into action.
The most effective leaders of the next decade wont be those who know the most, but those who see the most in themselves, their teams, and the emotional terrain they navigate daily.
Because emotional intelligence isnt a luxury. It is the infrastructure of effective leadership.
Isaac, 33, has been a mid-level software development engineer at a Big Tech firm for four years, and noticed entry-level job postings dropping at his workplace at the start of 2025. The work, however, didnt vanish with them. Tasks once handled by junior engineerslike writing and testing code, fixing bugs, and contributing to development projectswere absorbed by senior staff, often with the assumption that AI would make up the difference.And while AI has sped up the velocity of shipping code and features, there are fewer people to do tasks like designing, testing, and working with stakeholders, which AI has zero grasp on. The cracks have been hard to ignore. Seniors are burning out, and when they leave, theres no rush to replace them, because the AI will do it! Isaac says. Worried that hell become the next strung-out senior, hes looking for his exit, ideally at a smaller tech firm. (Isaac spoke to Fast Company under a pseudonym to avoid possible retaliation.)
The shift is striking, given how recently corporate America was courting Gen Z with fanatic fervor. Organizations raced to prove they understood younger employees. They flooded LinkedIn with thought leadership on the multigenerational workplace of the future, and retooled benefits programs to include wellness stipends and mental health days. Reverse mentorship programs, through which younger employees share knowledge and perspectives with more senior colleaguestouted by companies like Target, Accenture, and PwCpromised to give junior employees a voice in shaping culture and strategy. Some firms even brought Gen Z voices into the boardroom.Yet now, in the case of firms like Isaacs, entry-level workers, once heralded as essential to innovation and growth, are struggling to get a toelet alone a footin the door. Internships, starter jobs, and junior roles, the indispensable on-ramps to white-collar careers, have been evaporating for several years due to cost pressures and post-pandemic belt-tightening. Since 2023, entry-level job postings in the U.S. have sunk 35%, according to labor research firm Revelio Labs.The advent of AI is accelerating the entry-level apocalypse. Two-fifths of global leaders revealed that entry-level roles have already been reduced or cut due to efficiencies made by AI conducting research, admin, and briefing tasks, and 43% expect this to happen in the next year.
While theres steady hiring or even growth in the skilled trades, were seeing entry-level vacancies fall significantly in tech and customer service and sales roles, says Mona Mourshed, founder of the workplace development nonprofit Generation. Being in the business of training and placing people into entry-level roles, we find it deeply concerning. Graduates are clearly not okaybut neither are the companies that decided they could do without them.
AI at work: the supercar with no driver
The logic was seductive in its simplicity. Cut costs, move faster, shrink training budgets, let AI and a leaner workforce handle the rest. In reality, its producing something else entirely: flattened teams with little agency, endless cycles of rework, and exhausted senior employees juggling all task levels at once.
One redditor who posted about how their company has stopped hiring entry-level engineers, received hundreds of other responses as others chiming in with similar stories. One commenter noted: Not sure what the plan will be after the knowledge transfer is over.Isaac has watched this dynamic unfold firsthand. Leaders at his company see AI as a force multiplier, and are fixated on shipping features quickly. Isaac can see their point: [AI] can straight up write better, faster, more legible code than most developers, he admits. However, he points out, any seasoned engineer knows the hard part isn’t writing the code, its the design and testing. Yet, theres far fewer people to delegate this work to, so senior developers are left to do this on their own.
Compounding the problem is the fact that AI doesnt understand the problem its meant to solve. Left unchecked, it can go rogue. Isaac recalls multiple instances of chatbots deleting production stacksunpromptedbecause they couldn’t figure out how to solve an issue. Without an expert who knows how to prompt and guide it, AI is just a supercar with no driver, he says. The team has seen their workload steadily increase in line with automation, so the time savings it creates have had little impact. Many seniors have checked out, with several burned out engineers signed off for medical leave.
Research from the project management platform Asana underscores this growing “efficiency illusion.” While 77% of workers are already using AI agents and expect to hand more off to them in the next year, nearly two-thirds say the tools are unreliable, and more than half say agents confidently produce incorrect or misleading information. The result is time down the drain: a U.S. study found that employees are spending an extra 4.5 hours a week fixing AI workslop. AI can make work look faster on the surface, but it can also create a lot of cleanup workdouble-checking outputs, correcting errors, and redoing steps that were based on faulty information, Mark Hoffman, Asanas Work Innovation Lead, tells Fast Company. When something goes wrong, accountability is murky, he adds, and the responsibility often falls back on the employee to catch errors, explain outcomes, and manage the risk. Its driving up already record-high levels of burnout; 77% of knowledge workers say their workloads are unmanageable, and 84% are digitally exhausted.When errors slip through, the consequences are costly and embarrassing. Three-quarters of Americans report at least one negative consequence from poor AI outputs, including work rejected by stakeholders (28%), security incidents (27%), and customer complaints (25%). In October, Deloitte was forced to refund the Australian Department of Employment and Workplace Reltions after a report was found to contain AI hallucinations and workslop. In the past, newbie consultants would have handled tasks such as this. However, notably, Deloitte cut its graduate cohort by 18% and slashed hundreds of early-career roles earlier that summer.
The demographic time bomb
Not only are workloads increasing, by hollowing out their junior ranks, businesses are putting themselves squarely in the path of a slow-burning demographic time bomb as seniors begin to retire in record numbers.From 2024 to 2032, 18.4 million experienced workers age 55 to 64 with postsecondary education are expected to retire, but only 13.8 million younger workers (currently age 16 to 24) are entering with equivalent qualifications. Even in an AI-powered economy, where certain jobs will be automated, companies still need humans with judgment-, context-, institutional-, and sector-specific insight.
Yet plenty are making movesat least for todayto wipe out the training ground that turns beginners into experts.There wont be an endless supply of experienced hires to fall back on, so everyone will be fighting for the limited, increasingly expensive talent with domain expertise, says Cali Williams Yost, futurist and founder of flexible-work consulting firm Flex+Strategy Group. Companies have maybe five years to train younger workers to take over and gain the niche knowledge, so AI has something to augment.
Moe Hutt, an entry-level recruitment marketing expert and director of consulting at recruitment marketing agency HireClix, has watched clients scale back or abandon entry-level hiring, citing AI-aided workflows and economic uncertainty. Hutt points to the less visible fallout within organizations beyond damaging the talent pipeline. Its human nature to want to help, she says. When theres no release valve of training juniors, it creates friction everywhere.
For middle and senior management, delegating, teaching, and watching someone grow is a reward for the experience. Research consistently shows that sharing knowledge and mentoring improves motivation, boosts psychological well-being, and reduces burnout among experienced employees. With no one to train or teach, disengagement spreads, eroding a workforce where most people have already checked out.
Being AI-savvy and being prepared for the demographic cliff arent mutually exclusive. Organizations can build pro-worker environments where employees are augmented with AI, without hollowing out their future talent pipelines. PwCadmittedly, another firm which has been open about its cuts to entry-level recruiting, at least in the U.K.is experimenting with what that balance could look like by training junior accountants to become managers of AI. Entry-level employees gain early exposure to leadership and accountability, while the firm builds a cache of managers that are fluent in both human judgment and machine output. Its proof that efficiency and succession planning can coexist.
This matters because disappearing entry-level jobs arent just a problem for the corporate workforceit will be a societal crisis, too. A functioning society depends on younger generations steadily taking over from older ones. AI might be able to write the code, but without people trained to guide it, question it, and eventually replace their elders, there will be no one left to keep the lights on.
Until recently, Peter Attia was best known as a wellness influencer and a newly appointed contributor at CBS. He hosts a popular podcast, boasts more than 1.6 million Instagram followers, and wrote a best-selling book about longevity.
That image cracked this week when it was revealed that Attias name appears more than 1,700 times in the latest Epstein files release.
As the emails circulated on social media, longtime followers of his methods, along with medical professionals, reacted with outrage.
Peter Attia being Epstein’s concierge doctor is by far the weirdest crossover, one X user wrote. Another one X user quipped: Peter Attias stress level right now must be entirely undoing whatever longevity gains he has enjoyed.
Peter Attia being Epstein's concierge doctor is by far the weirdest crossover— AJAC (@AJA_Cortes) February 1, 2026
Others said the revelations were not surprising. The Peter Attia stuff is sad but not surprising, author Brad Stulberg posted on X. The entire health, performance, and longevity space is filled with narcissistic sociopathic grifters.
The Peter Attia stuff is sad but not surprising. The entire health, performance, and longevity space is filled with narcissistic sociopathic grifters.— Brad Stulberg (@BStulberg) February 1, 2026
Why are people surprised that someone who dropped out of residency, worked for an international consultancy firm, pretended to cry on TED stage, and charges over $100K/year for concierge “longevity” medicine…turned out to be unsavory? another medical professional wrote. Some of y’all will never learn.”
Why are people surprised that someone who dropped out of residency, worked for an international consultancy firm, pretended to cry on TED stage, and charges over $100K/year for concierge "longevity" medicine…turned out to be unsavory?Some of y'all will never learn.— Remnant | MD (@RemnantMd) February 2, 2026
Some zeroed in on new context around Attias own prior admission, detailed in his book, that he failed to be at his wifes side when his son fell seriously ill. As his baby son lay in ICU, Peter Attia told his wife that he was too busy with important work in NYC to fly home to see him, one X user noted. He was with Jeffery Epstein.
As his baby son lay in ICU, Peter Attia told his wife that he was too busy with important work in NYC to fly home to see him. He was with Jeffery Epstein. pic.twitter.com/lcfBMcaa5z— Dave @ Longevity Labs (@Dave_Longevity) February 2, 2026
The released correspondence shows Attia maintaining a friendly and at times flippant tone with Epstein. In one message dated June 24, 2015, Attia wrote: You the biggest problem with becoming friends with you? The life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I cant tell a soul In perhaps the most gratuitous email, Attia joked about the carb content of performing a sexual act.
In July 2016, Attia asked Epstein what he was doing in Palm Beach, where Epstein allegedly sexually abused underage girls during the 2000s. Guess, Epstein replied. Attia answered: Besides that.
Attias regular correspondence with Epstein continued years after Epstein pled guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor. In a lengthy X post addressing the emails on Monday, Attia said he questioned Epstein about those charges and claimed Epstein grossly minimized them.
Attia has since stepped down as chief science officer of David Protein, the company confirmed Monday. CBS editor in chief Bari Weiss has also faced public calls to cut ties after Attia was named among 19 new CBS News contributors just days before the emails were made public.
Attia said on X that he never witnessed illegal behavior and never saw anyone who appeared underage in Epsteins presence. He added that he was never on his plane, never on his island, and never present at any sex parties.
The following email is what I sent my team last night. I sent a similar version to my patients, also. ***Youve put your trust, your credibility, and your hard work into what we have built together, and I take that responsibility seriously. You deserve a complete and honest— Peter Attia (@PeterAttiaMD) February 2, 2026
Other released emails show Attia saying that he goes into JE withdrawal when I dont see him and suggesting that he hoped to one day go to Epsteins private island. I need to visit some time, Attia wrote.
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter.
During the Pandemic Housing Boom, housing demand surged rapidly amid ultralow interest rates, stimulus, and the remote work boom. Federal Reserve researchers estimate new construction would have had to increase by roughly 300% to absorb the pandemic-era surge in demand.
Unlike housing demand, housing stock isnt as elastic and can’t quickly ramp up. As a result, the heightened demand drained the market of active inventory and caused home prices to overheat, with U.S. home prices in June 2022 sitting a staggering 43.2% above March 2020 levels.
Since that national boom ended in mid-2022, the housing market has been moving through a cyclical cooling phase and undergoing a period of recalibration and normalization after such a large burst.
Look no further than the share of U.S. homes that sold below their original list price, by year, according to a new Redfin report:
2018 > 62%
2019 > 64%
2020 > 55%
2021 > 38%
2022 > 42%
2023 > 54%
2024 > 58%
2025 > 62%
The share of homes selling below their original list price varies by region. Many Sun Belt pandemic-boom marketsparticularly across Florida and Texasare seeing the highest prevalence of homes selling below their initial ask.
By contrast, many Northeast and Midwest metros remain, relatively speaking, more resilient, with fewer than half of homes selling below list in several markets. Parts of San Francisco and San Jose have regained a bit of mojo amid the AI boom.
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Some sellers are recognizing the market has changed and others are not . . . I have one seller who overpaid for their home a few years ago and wants to list it at $950,000. The problem is recent comps call for a list price of $825,000,” writes Connie Durnal, a Redfin Premier real estate agent in Dallas. “I have another seller who paid $400,000 for their home but was willing to list it at $385,000, which was a great strategy. Because the home was fairly priced, it got multiple offers and sold for $10,000 over the asking price.
Redfins analysis is based on annual MLS data comparing original list prices with final sale prices. The firm didnt publish data for every metro.
These are tough times for many businesses across corporate America, many of whom are cutting down on business travel, and perks on the road. And in these times, one company’s policy on business travel is going viral: According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, Cracker Barrel employees reportedly must follow a new policy that they can only eat at Cracker Barrel restaurants while traveling for work.
But according to Cracker Barrel, that’s not exactly true.
“The policy for employees to dine at Cracker Barrel while traveling for business, whenever practical based on location and schedule, is not new,” Cracker Barrel explained to Fast Company in an email statement. “Also, it is not the only place that our employees may eat when on the road, as previously reported. The change was to further limit reimbursement of alcoholic beverages under the policy.”
Still, backlash to the reported policy comes during a rough patch for the American restaurant chain known for its Southern charm, marked by declining sales, and more customer backlash over a recent botched attempt to rebrand.
In August, Cracker Barrel unveiled a new campaign starring country music artist Jordan Davis that revamped its “Old Timer” logo and menus, and lightened up the restaurant’s dining rooms, to the dismay of longtime customers. (The reaction can be summed up by one TikTok user who posted, I prefer the darker cozier look, I also dont like change.”) The company was soon forced to walk back the plans, and later said it wouldn’t change the logo.
Cracker Barrel financials
Shares of Cracker Barrel (NASDAQ: CBRL) were down less than 1% in midday trading on Tuesday at the time of this writing.
The Tennessee-based chain’s first quarter fiscal 2026 earnings missed expectations, with total revenue at $797.2 million, down 5.7% compared to the prior year first quarter; same-store restaurant sales down 4.7% over the prior year quarter, and comparable store retail sales down 8.5%.
PayPal is replacing CEO Alex Chriss with Enrique Lores, saying that the pace of change and execution at the company has not met board expectations over the past two years.
Lores has served as a PayPal board member for almost five years and has been board Chair since July 2024. He’s also spent more than six years as president and CEO of HP Inc.
The payments industry is changing faster than ever, driven by new technologies, evolving regulations, an increasingly competitive landscape, and the rapid acceleration of AI that is reshaping commerce daily, Lores said in a statement on Tuesday. “PayPal sits at the center of this change, and I look forward to leading the team to accelerate the delivery of new innovations and to shape the future of digital payments and commerce.
PayPal’s board thanked Chriss for his contributions, including the role he played to monetize Venmo and grow the Buy Now Pay Later business.
Lores will take over as PayPal CEO on March 1. David Dorman will serve as independent chair, effective immediately.
PayPal’s Chief Financial and Operating Officer Jamie Miller will serve as interim CEO until Lores assumes the position.
PayPal also reported its fourth-quarter results on Tuesday. The technology platform and digital payments company posted an adjusted profit of $1.23 per share on revenue of $8.68 billion. The performance missed the expectations of analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research, who were looking for a profit of $1.29 per share on revenue of $8.77 billion.
The San Jose, California-based company also forecast lower profit for the first quarter.
Shares slid 16% before the market open.
Michelle Chapman, AP business writer
Amid nationwide outrage over the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, two House Democrats are pressing Google and Meta to answer for recruitment campaign posts that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has recently run on their platforms. The lawmakers, Reps. Becca Balint of Vermont and Pramila Jayapal of Washington, have accused the companies of being complicit with the Trump administration and enabling ICEs efforts to promote slogans thatthey sayhave also been employed by white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups.
The inquiries were sent on January 21, and as of Monday, the platforms still had not responded. “What is going on with ICE is a five-alarm fire for our democracy, and these corporations are in it up to their necks,” Balint tells Fast Company. “They can no longer claim they ‘didn’t know.’ They are not only profiting from cruelty but actively helping to perpetuate it at everyone else’s expense. We expect answers, and we expect them now.”
Under the Trump administration, ICE has sought to rapidly scale up recruitment. The agency aimed to spend $100 million on the effort, according to a document reported by The Washington Post last year, and it outlined a wartime recruitment strategy that included targeting people who show interest in firearms, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) events, and podcasts focused on patriotism.
ICE has run about 65 different advertisements on Google since the beginning of the year, according to the platforms ad library. These posts include a $50,000 signing bonus offer, opportunities to Defend the Homeland, and heavy use of Uncle Sam imagery. ICEwhich Rolling Stone reports has spent at least a few hundred thousand dollars running ads on Meta platforms in recent monthshas used its Facebook account to post provocative imagery alongside recruitment posts. These include posts featuring a picture of knights with swords alongside the text, THE ENEMIES ARE AT THE GATES,” as well as another displaying a man riding a horse and the phrase, WELL HAVE OUR HOME AGAIN.” Some of the posts are more explicit, including one showing a man carrying the Betsy Ross flag with the message, SEND THEM BACK.
The politicians’ letter to the companies aims to draw a direct line between Big Techs ad systems and the normalization of rhetoric that civil rights groups say echoes white supremacist propaganda. Just last week, DHS posted a recruitment ad on Instagram proclaiming well have our home again, which is a song popularized in neo-Nazi spaces and used in white nationalist calls for a race war. The same lyrics were found in the manifesto of Ryan Christopher Palmeter, the white supremacist who shot and killed three black people in Jacksonville in 2023, wrote Balint and Jayapal in their January letter to Meta. It appears Meta is complicit in furthering this content on behalf of the Trump administration.
These Facebook posts have racked up tens of thousands of likes or shares.
Though Google, which also owns YouTube, and Meta, which owns both Facebook and Instagram, are the platforms the lawmakers focused on, theyre not the only place where ICE has posted content. The agency has posted job ads or recruitment content on LinkedIn, which didnt respond to a request for comment. It’s not immediately clear that these platforms are the primary way the agency is actually finding new recruits. Still, the letter highlights that platforms stand to be drawn into the nationwide discussion over ICE and its tactics.
The companies confirmed receipt but havent responded yet, Balints office tells Fast Company. Meta declined Fast Companys request for comment, and Google did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The silence isnt necessarily surprising. Tech companies have a real interest in not ruffling feathers with the Trump administration, and some platforms have, in the aftermath of the 2020 election, already done a major about-face about their decisions to boot or suppress the presidents account. Balint’s and Jayapals letter isnt a new strategy for lawmakers either. Members of both parties have previously pushed platforms to censor or restrain posts that they find odious. In highly polarized times, critics argue that this approach essentially amounts to working the refs, and it seems unlikely Google and Meta would move to censor an official government agency.
Ignaz Semmelweis was a physician working in a maternity ward in the 1840s. He noticed something disturbing: women giving birth in the ward staffed by doctors and medical students died from “childbed fever” at rates of 10-35%, while a nearby ward staffed by midwives had death rates under 4%.
The key difference was that doctors were coming straight from performing autopsies to delivering babies, without washing their hands. They would dissect cadavers in the morning, then examine pregnant women in the afternoon with just a quick rinse. In 1847, Semmelweis instituted a policy requiring doctors to wash their hands with a chlorine solution between the autopsy room and the maternity ward. Death rates plummeted dramatically to around 1-2%.
Great news, right? But instead of celebration, the medical community mocked Semmelweis for his claim that handwashing was worth the time and effort. He was driven out of the profession, and the childbed fever deaths went back up. It took more than 50 years after his discovery for handwashing to go mainstream in hospitals.
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The case for cameras
Right now, in early 2026, state legislatures across the country are trying to outlaw a proven treatment for traffic injuries and fatalities.
Speed enforcement cameras are proven to reduce vehicle speeds and reduce crashes. According to the US Department of Transportations Proven Safety Countermeasures initiative, fixed speed cameras can cut crashes on urban principal arterials by up to 54% for all crashes and 47% for injury crashes.
For obvious reasons, school zones are the first place communities tend to install safety cameras. Speeding near schools creates unacceptable risks for kids crossing streets or waiting at bus stops.
Montgomery County, Marylands, automated speed enforcement program found that cameras reduced the likelihood of a crash involving a fatality or incapacitating injury by 19%, decreased the chance of drivers exceeding the limit by more than 10 mph by up to 59%, and fostered long-term changes in driver behavior that substantially lowered overall deaths and injuries.
In New York City school zones, fixed cameras have reduced speeding by up to 63% during active enforcement hours. Many other case studies demonstrate similar outcomes. The bottom line is automated speed enforcement saves lives.
Pre-installation surveys at some Virginia schools revealed a whopping 95% of drivers were blazing through school zones at 10+ mph during arrival and dismissal. Nearly every driver was risking the lives of young kids, including parents. In Fairfax County, the safety cameras at Key Middle School issued 7,429 citations from August 2024 to May 2025. But after the cameras had been in place for a while, average speeds fell from 33.1 mph to 27.8 mph.
People need consequences for dangerous driving. Automated cameras deliver fair, unbiased enforcement where officers can’t patrol constantly, holding reckless drivers accountable in high-risk areas like school zones while freeing up police for other duties.
Bills to ban
But while automated enforcement is saving lives, politicians in multiple states are advancing bills to ban, restrict, or phase out speed cameras.
Virginia: SB 297 (introduced January 13, 2026) repeals the authority for law-enforcement agencies to use photo speed monitoring devices. It has been referred to the Senate Committee on Transportation and remains under consideration in the 2026 Regular Session.
Arizona: SCR 1004 (advanced through the Senate Appropriations, Transportation, and Technology Committee in mid-January 2026) aims to place a statewide ban on photo radar enforcement (including speed cameras) on the November 2026 ballot for voter decision.
Georgia: HB 225 repeals all laws authorizing automated traffic enforcement safety devices (speed cameras) in school zones, with an effective date of July 1, 2028, to phase out existing contracts. Reintroduced in the 2025-2026 Regular Session (published January 13, 2026), it previously passed the House 129-37 in 2025 but stalled in the Senate.
Texas: Building on the state’s existing prohibitions on most fixed speed and red-light cameras (banned statewide in 2019), recent efforts like HB 2810 (introduced in the 2025 session but died) sought to expand bans to include portable devices enforcing speed limits. Similar measures could resurface in the 90th Legislature starting January 2027, driven by complaints about distractions from flashes and potential safety risks in local deployments.
Minnesota: Rep. Greg Davids (R-Preston) announced in late 2025 that he would author a bill to ban automated speed cameras statewide, to be introduced in the 2026 legislative session. This follows Rochester’s City Council narrowly approving a request for a speed camera pilot program, highlighting opposition amid concerns over enforcement fairness and local authority.
Robust evidence from federal and local sources supports speed cameras as effective for slowing drivers and preventing crashesespecially in child-heavy school zones. Its a shame to see politicians working to dismantle them.
Speed enforcement cameras save lives. The victims and survivors of traffic violence deserve better than the misguided bills that will directly lead to more life-altering crashes.
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