A veteran jazz ensemble announced on Monday it was canceling its New Year’s Eve performances at the Kennedy Center, the latest group to withdraw from the Washington arts institution after it was renamed to include U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice. Some of us have been making this music for many decades, and that history still shapes us,” the Cookers jazz ensemble said in a statement.
The Kennedy Center had promoted two New Year’s Eve performances by the Cookers as an “all-star jazz septet that will ignite the Terrace Theater stage with fire and soul.”
Richard Grenell, a longtime ally of the U.S. president whom Trump named as the center’s president, said on Monday that such boycotts are a “form of derangement syndrome” and the cancelations are coming from artists booked by the institution’s previous leadership. He has previously termed cancelations a “political stunt.”
The withdrawal adds to a growing list of cancellations since the name change was announced this month by the Center’s board, which the Republican president filled with allies during a broad takeover earlier this year.
A Christmas Eve jazz concert was canceled last week, with the host of the show, musician Chuck Redd, attributing it to the name change. The New York Times reported that Doug Varone and Dancers, a New York dance company, has pulled out of two April performances. Democrats have called the decision by the board of the Kennedy Center to add Trump’s name to the institution illegal, while John F. Kennedys family denounced the move as undermining the slain president’s legacy.
The board voted to rename the arts venue The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, or Trump Kennedy Center for short.
Trump has been eager to put his stamp on Washington and his name on buildings in his second term. His critics say he has compromised institutions by installing loyalists and making funding threats. Trump says he is tackling what he calls those institutions’ liberal bias.
Kanishka Singh, Reuters
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the global workforce and rapidly expanding the expectations placed on todays learners. The World Economic Forum predicts that technological advancements like AI, alongside economic and demographic factors, will lead to a net increase of 78 million global jobs this decade. Educational institutions now face a pivotal moment. They must evolve how students learn, how instructors teach, and how technology supports each step of that journey.
For decades, the education sector adopted new technologies cautiously. However, the profound impact of AI on the workforce has accelerated interest and experimentation. Our latest research at Cengage Group shows that both positive perceptions of AI and classroom usage are rising. While this enthusiasm is a promising step toward ensuring learners are prepared for an AI-forward future, its critical that institutions approach AI responsibly.
With new AI tools launching at unprecedented speeds, it can be difficult to determine which will truly enhance learning outcomes. In some cases, rapid launches have created more friction for educators and confusion for students. To ensure responsible deployment, the conversation must shift from racing to market and instead toward measured, purposeful development aligned with how learning actually occurs.
WELL-INTENTIONED, BUT MISSING THE MARK
Many big tech companies have rushed to develop AI-based educational tools. But while tech innovators have made strides in exploring AI to enhance the educator and student experience, the critical reality is that education is an incredibly complex ecosystem. Education is simply not fit for plug-and-play solutions.
Googles recent homework help feature is one example. Designed to give students an AI overview of what appeared on the screen including assessment answers, the tool inadvertently made it harder for instructors to validate work and accurately gauge understanding. Instead of reducing friction, it increased workload for both educators and students, ultimately leading to a pause in deployment.
A similar challenge emerged this past summer with OpenAIs Study Mode. While designed to guide students and ask questions rather than provide answers, it is just one click away from ChatGPT, where answers are readily available. Without a deep understanding of teaching fundamentals, and how and when real learning happens, technological developments can lead to unintended consequences that disrupt rather than improve learning.
These examples highlight an important truth. Innovation alone is not enough. Educational impact requires domain expertise, intentional design, and clear boundaries that promote understanding rather than shortcuts.
BALANCE MEANINGFUL INNOVATION AND REINFORCE LEARNING
To deliver educational support that blends innovation with learning outcomes, AI product development must balance the needs of both educators and students. Faculty are increasingly being asked to do more with less. AI should lighten that load, not add to it. For example, AI can surface classroom trends, flag areas where students are struggling, and help educators personalize instruction.
Students, meanwhile, need support tools that build understanding, and dont just provide answers. Success in student deployment lies in cultivating curiosity and critical thinking. For example, AI can provide study support outside of classroom hours, deliver personalized feedback, and encourage further exploration to strengthen learning.
This balanced approach requires maintaining human oversight. Collaboration with institutions and faculty ensures AI experiences align with course objectives and reinforce, rather than disrupt, proven teaching practices.
THE PATH FORWARD: PRIORITIZE PEDAGOGY
As AI continues to evolve, pedagogy must be at the core of all innovation, ensuring academic integrity and quality content that builds trust and drives meaningful student outcomes. Through controlled, confined subject knowledge and consistent training to ensure accuracy and academic integrity, AI tools can prioritize pedagogy and remain narrowly focused on driving specific student learning outcomes.
AI should act as a supporting coach who helps break down problems, prompts curiosity, and encourages persistent learning so students can confidently reach the correct answer on their own. This purpose-built approach to AI complements the human teacher and enhances instruction by confirming student understanding and pinpointing knowledge gaps to support educators in delivering more personalized learning.
The key to unlocking AIs potential in education goes beyond speed to market, and lies in thoughtful development rooted in intentional and responsible design. With pedagogy at the core, AI becomes more than a tool. It becomes a partner in improving learning outcomes for students and reducing the educators load.
Darren Person is EVP and chief digital officer of Cengage Group.
When internet services platform Cloudflare suffered an outage in November, it took a big chunk of the online world down with it.
Major platforms like ChatGPT, X, and Canva became unreachable. So did digital services offered by countless banks, retailers, and many other businesses. During the six-hour meltdown, as many as 2.4 billion users could have felt the impact.
Software outages like this have always been and always will be part of online life. But today our systems are more interconnected than ever, so a single failure can ripple outward. AI only amplifies that risk.
Yet, too many companies still lack protection against such disasters. In an era when outages are inevitable, theyre effectively operating without a safety net.
The fundamental missing ingredient is something simple but easily overlooked: resilience testing.
In a nutshell, resilience testing is all about pressure testing your software, before issues happen. It ensures that systems keep workingor quickly bounce backwhen things go wrong.
Think of resilience testing as a small safety step to prevent big problems. The annual median cost of a high-impact IT outage is about $76 million. Businesses can also suffer reputational damage, lose customers, and get hit with regulatory penalties. Cloudflare is only one recent example. In the past year alone, AWS, Microsoft 365, and Starlink all went down, to name just a few.
So why arent more businesses stress-testing their software for inevitable failure? Heres why, and what companies can do about it.
MOST COMPANIES DONT BOTHER WITH RESILIENCE TESTING
As high as the stakes are, businesses have reasons to avoid software resilience testing. The process is technical, and it can get messy.
Modern resilience testing, also called chaos engineering, was put in the spotlight 15 years ago by Netflix software developers. Realizing that the only way to test for resilience is to simulate problems in the wild or in production, they created a suite of tools that replicated network crashes, cloud services meltdowns, and other real-world failures.
Netflix might have been able to roll with the punches, but few other companies have the expertise or the stomach to compromise their systems like this. Its the equivalent of starting a controlled fire to ensure you have the resources to put it out.
Resilience testing requires the technical acumen to know what failures to simulate for and responses to take. Putting these drills into action also entails risk, like triggering your homes fire sprinkler system which could ruin the furniture. Most importantly, developers need to know what to do when tests reveal weaknesses.
Because the threshold for resilience testing is so high, it isnt integrated into most companies software development processes. Theres rarely a dedicated team, and often no one except maybe the CTO is clearly in charge. As a result, resilience testing becomes a bottleneck, so companies dont bother with it.
A BETTER WAY FORWARD: HELP FROM AI
The good news: It no longer has to be this way. For companies that want to adopt resilience testing, new platforms and toolspowered by AIare making the process safer and easier.
Specialized resilience testing agents now enable companies to automate and optimize testing, without needing dedicated experts or teams.
First, the AI agent identifies likely edge casesunusual or unexpected scenarios that could compromise reliability. It examines system behavior in production, how services interact, and where similar systems have previously failed.
For example, the agent might highlight a scenario where a service slows, rather than fails outright. Another edge case: A code deployment updates only half the companys servers, leading to inconsistent user experiences.
The agent then generates and prioritizes the test cases most likely to reveal resilience issues, explaining why each one matters. It can also set up and run those tests.
After problems are identified, the AI agent suggests targeted fixes, making the software more resilient. With the heavy lifting completed, developers can review and apply those insights.
WHY RESILIENCE TESTING NEEDS TO SHIFT LEFT
Having the right tools is one thing, but effective resilience testing requires more than just software.
Creating a culture of resilience is part of the solution. Software teams need to include testing in their routine. Ultimately, the only way to strengthen yourself against failures is to practice for them. If you never run those drills, you never know how bad things can get until its too late.
Developers should also remember that resilience testing isnt just about full-scale, five-alarm outages. Its also about small, partial failures that create a poor user experience for customers, without necessarily taking the whole system down.
Lets say a platform like Cloudflare has an issue affecting a major banks consumer app, leaving millions unable to check their balances. Resilience testing should anticipate this problem and provide a viable workaround.
But the best way to encourage a culture of resilience is to shift leftmoving resilience testing to the software development preproduction phase, before code ever goes live.
Shifting left helps teams catch weaknesses long before customers feel them. Thats crucial with todays complex, interconnected software systems, where seemingly minor issues can rapidly spiral into major outages. Rather than scramble to diagnose problems during live incidents, developers can uncover and fix them in a safe environment.
Shifting left can save money and stress, too. Fixing resilience issues in production is costly and disruptive, often pulling team members away from other vital tasks. By taking a proactive approach, developers and business leaders can be more confident in the product they deliver to customers.
Ultimately, resilience testing isnt rocket science. Companies that run fire drills for their software and embrace a culture of resilience testing will find themselves in a stronger position when the next disruption strikes. And in an increasingly interconnected world, where AI tools and features depend on more underlying services than ever, its safe to say that might be sooner rather than later.
Jyoti Bansal is CEO of Harness.
If you’re a millennial or simply a fan of sci-fi, you likely remember 2010’s smash hit Inception, written and directed by Christopher Nolan. The story follows Dom Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), a professional thief who specializes in stealing privileged secrets from peoples minds while they dream. He uses advanced technology to enter another persons subconscious while theyre asleep and take whatever information he wants. The problem DiCaprio’s character faces is that the line between reality and dreams become blurred, making it increasingly difficult to tell whats real.
In many ways, especially for retail investors, that’s a picture of the modern market. A place where rumor, rhetoric, and anticipation can impact price action in unpredictable ways. When you add the ever-changing realities of our current political and macro-economic environment, the average Joe trader can feel like the odds are stacked against him. But there is one set of data that more often than not, cuts through the noise. And that’s the options market.
OPTIONS PROVIDE ACCURATE VIEWS
Options give us a more accurate picture of what the people who move the markets are actually thinking. Institutions and hedge funds make their living on positive returns. And while stocks can often be manipulated, options have a shorter shelf-life and are way less forgiving. And it’s there, in the nuances of the “put to call ratios” of the options market, that AI is quietly giving retail traders a helping hand.
Let me give you an example. OnOctober 9th, our Prospero.ai AI-driven Net Options Sentiment (a gauge of real-time, market options data and positioning), plunged from a bullish 33 to an ominously bearish zero in a matter of minutes. No headline. No Fed speech. No earnings shock. Just a massive bearish shift, seemingly out of nowhere. We saw the shift and sent an alert to our followers on X. At 10:30 a.m. the next morning, the numbers were still sitting at zero. We issued another alert warning that a possible market reversal might be brewing. Thirty minutes later, without any warning, President Trump posted on social media about a looming trade war with China. The market fell off a cliff.
Several fintech influencers noticed our early warnings and brought positive attention to it on X. Some were skeptical. @cyberdaddy mused, “Today’s selloff was 100% correlated to the China tariff threats, which were impossible for any person or algo to forsee.this was 100% random luck. But the reality is that this wasnt the first time our signals picked up on a major market move before it happened. The same pattern appeared in February when we saw SPY Net Options Sentiment lead the market down. We warned about it (Dont Trim the Hedges) on March 3rd, just a few days before a historic market correction on Liberation Day. Twice now, the data revealed massive bearish options positioning before a drop in price.
WHATS REALLY HAPPENING?
That brings us to an important question. If the data is picking up on signals before theyre public, whats really happening? Is AI becoming smart enough to sense fear before humans can express it? Or is information, intentional or not, pulsing through back channels in a way once thought unimaginable 20 years ago?
In earlier eras, Wall Street’s most valuable information moved in whispers and was confined to smoke-filled rooms and the back nine of golf courses. Today, that same information moves with lightning speed through social media threads, encrypted group chats, and algorithmic pattern recognition. One whisper in the right chat room can ripple through a thousand terminals before the SEC finishes its coffee. A policymakers assistant, a janitor overhearing a senator’s conversation as he informs a colleague of a military contract, or heightened tensions in the White House can all lead to that same outcome. The lines between what’s public, private, and privileged are dissolving. So maybe the question isnt whether AI is getting smarter or if those in the know are getting bolder. Maybe it’s that AI is hearing the market’s whispers more clearly than ever before.
Cyberdaddy backed off his protest of the validity of our system: After doing some more research, I found that the de-risking and drop in options sentiment likely occurred for logical reasons that your model picked up on. The China export-control announcement on October 8th probably drove much of that defensive positioning among people paying attention to geopolitics (which major firms obviously do). My apologies for jumping the gun, I was wrong.
THE CRUX OF THE ISSUE
This is the crux of the matter. Did a shift in the perception of risk regarding the situation with China lead to a massive hedge or bet against the QQQ (an index including 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange, heavily weighted toward technology and growth)? Or were some more in the know about the political winds changing? How could we even begin to differentiate between the two?
By the way, the word inceptionisn’t just a movie title, it’s a word that means the beginning, or start of something brand new. And maybe we are at a point of inception. Because for the first time, AI isn’t just leveling the playing field; it’s changing who gets to play on that field in the first place.
George Kailas is CEO of Prospero.ai.
A wild winter storm was expected to bring strong winds, heavy snow and frigid temperatures to the Great Lakes and Northeast on Tuesday, a day after a bomb cyclone barreled across the northern U.S. and left tens thousands of customers without power.The storm that hit parts of the Plains and Great Lakes on Monday brought sharply colder air, strong winds and a mix of snow, ice and rain that led to treacherous travel. Forecasters said it intensified quickly enough to meet the criteria of a bomb cyclone, a system that strengthens rapidly as pressure drops.Nationwide, more than 153,000 customers were without power early Tuesday, more than a third of them in Michigan, according to Poweroutage.us.As Monday’s storm moved into Canada, the National Weather Service predicted more inclement weather conditions for the Eastern U.S, including quick bursts of heavy snow and gusty winds known as snow squalls.New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned that whiteout conditions were expected Tuesday in parts of the state, including the Syracuse-metro area.“If you’re in an impacted area, please avoid all unnecessary travel,” she said in a post on the social media platform X.Snow piled up quickly in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on Monday, where as much as 2 feet (60 centimeters) fell in some areas, according to the National Weather Service. Meteorologist Ryan Metzger said additional snow was expected in the coming days, although totals would be far lighter.Waves on Lake Superior that were expected to reach 20 feet (6 meters) Monday sent all but one cargo ship into harbors for shelter, according to MarineTraffic.com. Weather forecasting on the lakes has improved greatly since the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in 1975 after waves were predicted at up to 16 feet (4.8 meters).The fierce winds on Lake Erie sent water surging toward the basin’s eastern end near Buffalo, New York, while lowering water on the western side in Michigan to expose normally submerged lakebed even the wreck of a car and a snowmobile.Kevin Aldrich, 33, a maintenance worker from Monroe, Michigan, said he has never seen the lake recede so much and was surprised on Monday to spot the remnants of old piers dating back to the 1830s. He posted photos on social media of wooden pilings sticking up several feet from the muck.“Where those are at would typically be probably 12 feet deep,” he said. “We can usually drive our boat over them.”Dangerous wind chills plunged as low as minus 30 F (minus 34 C) across parts of North Dakota and Minnesota on Monday. And in northeast West Virginia, rare, nearly hurricane-force winds were recorded on a mountain near Dolly Sods, according to the National Weather Service.In Iowa, after blizzard conditions eased by Monday morning, high winds continued blowing fallen snow across roadways, keeping more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) of Interstate 35 closed. State troopers reported dozens of crashes during the storm, including one that killed a person.On the West Coast, the National Weather Service warned that moderate to strong Santa Ana winds were expected in parts of Southern California through Tuesday, raising concerns about downed trees in areas where soils have been saturated by recent storms. Two more storms were forecast later this week, with rain on New Year’s Day potentially soaking the Rose Parade in Pasadena for the first time in about two decades.
Associated Press writers Julie Walker in New York; Corey Williams in Detroit; Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; Susan Haigh in Norwich, Connecticut; and Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed.
Leah Willingham and Jeff Martin, Associated Press
Shares opened mixed in Europe on Tuesday after slipping in Asia as some regional markets wrapped up trading for the year.Crude oil prices edged higher and gold and silver resumed their ascent. U.S. futures were flat.In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi rang out the final session for 2025 in a traditional year-end ceremony.“By realizing a Japanese economy that earns the trust of investors around the world, we will create a virtuous cycle in which global capital flows into Japan,” Takaichi said.The benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 0.4% to 50,339.48, its first year-end close above 50,000. It ended 2025 up nearly 25%.With just two trading days left before the year ends, most big investors have closed out their positions and volume has been thin. Most global markets will be closed Thursday, New Year’s day, and some will also be closed Wednesday and Friday.In early European trading, Germany’s DAX was nearly unchanged at 24,348.38. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged up 0.1% to 9.876.73, while the CAC 40 in Paris had barely budged at 8,112.37.Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 0.9% to 25,854.60, while the Shanghai Composite index was virtually unchanged at 3,965.51.In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1% lower to 8,717.10.South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.2% to 4,214.17, while Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.4%.India’s Sensex was down less than 0.1%.On Monday, stocks slipped in quiet trading on Wall Street. The S&P 500 fell 0.3%. It’s still up more than 17% for the year and it remains on track for its eighth monthly gain in a row.The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5%, while the Nasdaq composite fell 0.5%.Big technology stocks with outsized valuations were among the heaviest weights on the market. Nvidia and several other companies focusing on AI or benefiting heavily from the developing technology have become some of the most valuable in the world.Nvidia fell 1.2% and Broadcom fell 0.8%.Tech shares have wobbled recently as investors have grown skeptical over the whether the eventual payoff will justify hefty investments in artificial intelligence.The price of gold gained 0.7% early Tuesday after falling 4.6% the day before. It’s up about 64% for the year.Silver prices gained 4.4% after slumping 8.7% on Monday. They have more than doubled in 2025.The precious metals fell back on Monday when the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, one of the largest trading floors for commodities, asked traders to put up more cash to make bets on precious metals.Treasury yields fell in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.11% from 4.13% late Friday.Treasury yields have fallen significantly from the start of the year, after the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark rate to help counter a slowing jobs market. That risks heating up inflation that is already stubbornly above the central bank’s target rate of 2%. Interest rate cuts could boost the economy by making loans less expensive, but that benefit could be nullified by rising inflation stunting economic growth.In other dealings early Tuesday, U.S. crude oil gained 14 cents to $58.22 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, picked up 12 cents to $61.61 per barrel.The U.S. dollar slipped to 156.00 Japanese yen from 156.05 yen. The euro fell to $1.1769 from $1.1774.
AP video journalist Mayuko Ono in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Elaine Kurtenbach, AP Business Writer
Ive done it, youve done it, weve all done it. With the best of intentions, we set big goals for our future: get a work promotion, lose 20 pounds, run a marathon. And too often, we give up a few months later, realizing we bit off more than we could chew. Why? We get enamored with the idea but the execution? Not so much. Goals can seem straightforward, but without a specific plan or realistic milestones, they quickly fizzle out.
The Appeal and Problem of Big Goals
Big goals can quickly inspire us and make us feel like were putting effort into forward progress. But goals are only as good as the plans that support them. You cant build your dream house without an architectural drawing.
New Years resolutions are a great example. Every January, we feel compelled to proclaim a grand milestone well achieve to make our lives betterlike quitting a bad habit or getting eight hours of sleep. According to a study by Strava, 80% of New Years resolutions fail by February. Sounds familiar? Thats because while setting a goal might feel empowering, the lack of planning leaves us with nothing but good intentions.
Taavo Godtfredsen and Samantha Allison, authors of The 5x CEO, studied cohorts of CEOs to determine what made the best leaders and their teams rise to the top. As one portfolio company CEO told them, “Create the strategic outcome that you’re trying to get to and then align your actions relentlessly to deliver it.”
The Danger of Wildly Ambitious Goals
Im not saying to not set big goals. The mistake to avoid is setting goals that are too big or too vague. For example: imagine deciding that youre going to lose 30 pounds in two months. First of all, good luck. Second of all, while this is a noble goal, its incredibly easy to get discouraged if progress doesnt come quickly, or if you dont have a clear path to follow. The goal is so large (or intimidating) that it becomes a demotivator.
A better approach would be to set smaller goals with milestones that you can realistically achieve. Instead of losing 30 pounds, break it down into manageable milestones: lose five pounds in the first month, aim for three workouts a week, and so on. Each small achievement gives a feeling of progress, and the cumulative effect is much more sustainable over time.
Similarly in business, setting a goal to “Be the category leader!” is ambitious and inspiring, but without a step-by-step plan on how to get theremarket research, increased sales support, innovative partnershipsits just a distant dream. Setting smaller goals within that larger vision (e.g., increase sales by 10% this quarter, build a social media presence, etc.) gives you specific targets to work toward.
Goals Need Plans. Period.
Goals are like the destination on a map, but your plan is the GPS that gets you there. Without that road map, you could be driving in circles. Plans that break down larger goals into smaller, actionable steps make the journey manageable, measurable, and motivating.
I like the example of Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx. As an entrepreneur, she had a big goal: to create a revolutionary undergarment that would change the way women feel about their clothing. But Blakely didnt just rely on this one big idea. She broke her goal into smaller steps: she spent time learning about manufacturing, secured a meeting with potential investors, and went through the process of patenting her product. Impressively, Blakely started Spanx with just $5,000, but by creating a detailed plan and breaking her vision into incremental steps, she eventually created a billion-dollar business.
Create a Plan That Works
So, how do you turn goals into actionable plans? Try these tips:
Break it Down: Divide your goal into smaller, manageable chunks. If your goal is to write a book, dont just aim to write a book. Set specific targets, like write 500 words a day or complete one chapter per month.
Set SMART Goals: The SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) is a simple yet effective way to ensure your goals are grounded in reality. Rather than saying, I want to get fit, say, I will work out four times a week for 30 minutes for the next three months.
Create a Timeline: Every goal needs a timeline attached to it. Deadlines create urgency and help you stay accountable.
Eliminate Obstacles: What might stand in your way? Whether its time, money, or motivation, identifying potential barriers helps you plan for and eliminate them.
Track Progress: Regularly check your progress. Are you meeting your milestones? Make adjustments as needed.
The Power of Consistency
Like many things in life, its not the grand gestures but rather the accumulation of daily actions that make an impact: the daily writing, the daily workouts, the daily efforts that add up to lasting change. The more you break them down into manageable steps and stay consistent, the more achievable they become.
Its tempting to set huge, audacious goals, but without a plan to back them up, you risk disappointing yourself. So start small, plan your steps, and stay consistent. Its the journeyone small step at a timethat leads to big results.
Ketchup-inspired luggage. Soap based on the characters from Stranger Things. A hot sauce energy drink. These are just a few of the brand collaborations that weve seen in 2025and its safe to say that alls not well in the world of brand partnerships.
A few years ago, the art of the brand collab most often involved bringing together two brands that already had overlapping design styles, fanbases, or product categories. Recall partnerships like Nike and Apples successful 2016 Series 2 Watch launch, for example; or Dolce & Gabbanas elevated designs for Smeg in 2019; or even Legos 2020 collection with Ikea. All of these pairings make some measure of intuitive sense. But over the past couple of years, something has clearly changed.
As the online attention economy becomes increasingly saturated through the daily deluge of marketing content on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, its becoming more and more difficult for brand collabs to make a splash and reach widespread audiences the way they mightve in years past. So, brands have started adopting a new tack: rather than selecting partners that make obvious sense within their brand world, theyre opting for collabs with the most shock value possible.
In an interview with Fast Company on the topic back in September, Grace Murray Vazquez, executive vice president of strategy at the influencer marketing company Fohr, explained the strategy: Its less about getting audiences to try the collaboration, and more about reminding them to reach for the original thing. Its ultimately not just bizarre; it is like a calculated unexpectedness.
The end result is that, nowadays, lots of brand partnerships seem more like they were randomly selected out of a hat rather than carefully considered. Here are a few of the weirdest examples of this late-stage capitalist phenomenon that weve seen in 2025.
[Image: 5 Hour Energy]
5-hour Energy x Taco Johns
Nothing says gut health quite like energy drinks and hot sauce. Thats why, to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, 5-hour Energy linked up with the Mexican fast-food joint Taco Johns on an “energized” hot sauce and a spicy energy drink. This one would be perfect to try out right before a long runwhat could go wrong?
[Photo: Heinz]
Heinz x Herschel
Elsewhere in the realm of wacky food brand collabs, Heinz tapped the travel supply company Herschel to turn its iconic ketchup into a carry-on and roller bag. Both pieces included a tear here ketchup visual, an interior print featuring Heinz ketchup packets, and a custom removable belt and luggage tag in the shape of, you guessed it, a Heinz packet.
Apparently, the collab was inspired by the quarter of Gen Z and millennials who pack their own condiments when dining on-the-gobut, to be honest, if you pack single-serve ketchup packets in your luggage, we cant trust you.
[Photo: Chipotle]
Beis x Chipotle
If you went to the airport without repping your favorite food brand this year, did you even travel? Heinz and Chipotle would like to say no.
In December, Chipotle got an up-market boost through an 11-piece capsule collection with the luxe travel brand Beis. The lunch included an $128 burrito-inspired duffle bag; a $378 silver roller bag; and a $48 burrito sling designed to carry a Chipotle burrito and insulated to keep it warm. Surely no one will mind when you dig into a hearty burrito on the plane, as long as it comes in a chic wrapping device.
[Photo: P&G]
Wicked x Swiffer
Frankly, it would be gross negligence to write a list of weird brand collabs from 2025 without mentioning Wicked: For Good. The duologys first installment racked up more than 400 brand partnerships and integrationslikely more than any film, everand while an official number hasnt been revealed for the second film, its almost certainly also in the hundreds.
There are a lot of weird collabs to choose from this year, but one of the strangest has to be Wicked: For Goods product launch with Swiffer, which makes the bold assumption that if fans liked Glinda and Elphabas singing, theyd probably love to clean the floors with mops inspired by them, too.
Stranger Things x Dr. Squatch
Speaking of cleaning, are you keeping up with Stranger Things season 5? If so, the soap company Dr. Squatch is betting that youre probably wondering when you can lather up in the shower with a product inspired by its iconic charactersand its bravely stepping in to meet that need.
The brand recently launched four soaps based on the show, with innovative scents like Vecnas Curse (featuring notes of juniper and blood orange) and “Squack Signal (featuring notes of iced lavender and cherry soda, and also a picture of Steves face, because, duh).
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.
Its the time of year when we all make promises to ourselves. Im committing to read more, procrastinate less, and squeeze in an extra hour of piano practice a week. I asked other CEOs to share their 2026 New Years resolutions; here are seven responses, in their own words.
Omar Abbosh, chief executive officer, Pearson
My resolution next year is to climb a tough peak in the Chamonix Valley in France. The why is because its been on my list for 15 years, and its overdue. The how is a detailed set of logistical, physical, mental, and family preparations.
Guru Gowrappan, CEO, Asurion
I am obsessed with customer experience, so my New Years resolution is to personally use and engage with every customer touchpoint across [device insurance company] Asurions products and services on a regular basis to ensure we are delivering truly world-class experiences. I am a huge user of our productsand was even before my tenureand when I tested a few touchpoints just before joining, the insights I was able to share with the team were immediately actionable and improved real customer journeys. I am also currently going through the same training we require of all of our customer-facing employees so I can also be on the ground, supporting our customers directly.
Marcin Kleczynski, CEO, Malwarebytes
My life mantra is, Evolve or die. True in business and tech, true in daily life. That means my New Years resolution has three prongs. For my mind, to read as many books as possible. For my body, to do 100,000 push-ups. And for my business, to talk to at least five customers a week. I want to make sure we dont forget the power of humans in cybersecurity amidst all the focus on AI.
Gerrit Marx, CEO, CNH
My New Years resolution is to accelerate the shift toward AI-powered predictive farming. AI can now read field, machine, and environmental signals in real time, giving farmers earlier clarity to boost productivity and reduce uncertainty. When growers can anticipate issues and fine-tune inputs with precision, it strengthens efficiency, sustainability, and the long-term health of their most valuable assetthe soil.
Penny Pennington, managing partner, Edward Jones
My resolution is to be even better at being human. Thats different from be a better human. Theres an active debate right now about what being human is all about, and I believe being human is an advantage and to be greatly prized. A better human means I am measuring myself against humans. To be actively part of the debate about human and machine, I would like to set a challenge for myself to be better at being what only a human can be. Fundamentally, I believe that what sets us apart is that we value and thrill at emotions [that] are uniquely human. I believe the joy of epiphany is uniquely human, and I want more epiphany in my life in 2026.
Scott Strazik, CEO and president, GE Vernova
The world needs much more energy than it has today, and a larger portion must be electric power for people and communities around the world to thrive. In order to deliver the breakthrough innovations that will meet surging global demand, the industry is going to need thousands of innovators, builders, scientists, and engineers. In 2026, all of us at GE Vernova are committed to investing in programs and opportunities that encourage the brightest and the best young minds to choose careers in our sector and shape the future of energy.
Graham Weaver, founder and CEO, Alpine Investors
My New Years resolution is to have more fun, be lighter, and enjoy myself moreespecially at work. I think its easy to take life and work too seriously. But when I really reflect, life is about sharing an epic journey with extraordinary people. I know that when I look back, Ill see this time Im in right now as the good old days. I want to have the awareness to recognize that while Im in them, not just after theyve passed.
What will you achieve in 2026?
What are your personal or professional resolutions for 2026? Send your resolutions to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. Id love to feature some of the most compelling commitments in a future newsletter.
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My bus rolls into Port Authority. I’ve got 10 minutes to get across town for my first meeting. I sprint down the escalator, run through droves of people, and arrive at a subway turnstile. I swipe my MetroCard through the magnetic reader, step forwardonly to get crotch-checked by a locked metal bar and flipped the finger by a screen that displays PLEASE SWIPE AGAIN. I give it another swipe. INSUFFICIENT FARE.
To refill my MetroCard, I power walk toward the kiosk. It refuses to read my credit card. I swipe a few more times. Nothing. I sift through my back pocket, discover a crumpled ten-dollar bill, and slide it into the machine. It won’t accept my cash. I waffle-iron the bill flat with my hands and feed it back in.
[Photo: Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News/Getty Images]
The kiosk spits out my refilled MetroCard. Baked into its awful blue and yellow design is this same awful experience, on repeat.
The MetroCard has been a defining artifact of New York City’s subway system for more than three decades. In that time, some might argue, it has become an icon of design. I respectfully disagree.
Design is inextricable from experience. The MetroCards design is as outdated as its technology. Fortunately, after years of poor MetroCard experiences like mine, the MTA has made its final update to the swiping technology.
In 1993, the MetroCard was introduced as a replacement for subway tokens. It existed for decades as New Yorkers dominant method for accessing the subway. But in 2019, the MTA announced they were introducing a tap-and-go system called OMNY. That year, they installed it on Staten Island buses and across 16 subways as part of a pilot program. Over the next four years, they installed OMNY machines throughout all five boroughs.
Manhattan and Brooklyn were early adopters. By November 2024, 60% of riders were using OMNY, according to Shanifah Rieara, the MTAs chief customer officer. Running two systemswith their duplicative costsmeant we had to set a certain date, she says. But that date was continually delayed due to slow installation and technical issues with the remaining vending machines. Now, with an OMNY reader and vending machine at nearly every transit location, the MTA will say goodnight to the MetroCard. And theyll save at least $20 million in operational costs.
A Design That Wouldnt Go Away
The MetroCard design remained more or less the same since the ’90s. Why? Were wedded to the nostalgia and the brand, says Rieara. We had no interest in changing it.
[Photo: MTA]
When it was redesigned in 1997, the look of the MetroCard was novel. There were new gradient and perspective tools at the designer’s disposal. Someone at the MTA had a field day: they created a glowing yellow sunset, a reflection, and a skewed MetroCard logo, which mimicked a train. This design looked fast. Riders would have expected a frictionless swiping experience, not a constant PLEASE SWIPE AGAIN.”
In contrast, the original MetroCard design from 1993 was less ambitious. It was also more honest. The gradient was pure utility: it directed the rider to swipe left. And that MetroCard logo? It floated in a vague 3D space. The design didnt mimic. It didn’t overpromise.
[Photo: MTA]
Transit card design shouldn’t put you to sleep. In Hong Kong, they have the Octopus card, which features a dynamic yellow, green, and blue infinity loop. Paired with a small typographic Octopus logo, the cards modernist design looks like something out of Chermayeff & Geismar & Havivs studio. Its confident. And since 1997, the cards functionality has delivered upon the designs promise with mostly reliable tap-and-go service.
[Image: Octopus]
One of my favorite parts of the Octopus card? It embraces being a collectible item. Riders can customize their cards with ornaments like Pokémon keychains and plastic googly eyes from the movie Minions. This level of customization creates the perception of quality serviceyou wouldn’t chuck your tricked-out card in the trash next week.
David Bowie collector’s edition Metro Cards, 2018. [Photo: Eduardo MunozAlvarez/VIEWpress/Corbis/Getty Images]
Over the years, MetroCard riders would receive special cards, but the design was a half-measure: a partial print on the back of the card. It looked like an ad. These cards featured a range of icons, from artist Barbara Kruger to baseball player Jackie Robinson to musician Olivia Rodrigo. For a plastic card that was often reissued, the MTA could’ve treated each of these heavy-hitters to a full redesign of the card. Other countries do it.
[Photo: Eye Ubiquitous/Universal Images Group/Getty Images]
Londons transit card, the Oyster, will occasionally trade in its signature two-tone blue for a special design on the front of the card. Theyve celebrated the royal wedding of William and Kate, the Queens Diamond Jubilee, the 150th anniversary of the Underground, and even the 20th anniversary of the Oyster card itself, which debuted in 2003. These designs arent anything to write home about, but at least they create a shared celebratory moment for the rider.
[Photo: John Phillips/UK Press/Getty Images]
Looking Ahead
Oysters parent company, Transport for London, licensed its scanning technology to the MTA for the OMNY. So far, Ive had a solid experience with the new card. Every Thursday afternoon, I rush downtown to my office after teaching a class at School of Visual Arts in Gramercy Park. I need to catch up with three hours of missed work and meetings, and unlike my Port Authority MetroCard nightmares, the OMNY taps without a hitch. That keeps me sane.
This functional experience is reflected within OMNY’s design. That black and white card is straightforward, no b.s. It uses Neue Haas Grotesk, aligning with the utilitarian typography of the MTA’s graphics system. The inline cutaway of the letters signal road lanes and railroad tracks, the barcode highlights the card’s scanning technology. This design isn’t overly dramatic like the MetroCard of yore.
[Photo: Schvaxet/Wiki Commons]
But is a functional design enough for New Yorks transit card of the future?
Design is culture. The comedian Kareem Rahma turns a MetroCard into the microphone for his podcast. The store OnlyNY sells MTA-licensed merch, like metal subway signs and mini-lampposts. To others, those objects are utility. To New Yorkers, they’re identity.
The OMNY card is a real opportunity to intertwine culture and design. This year, the MTA proved they truly care about design: they unveiled an animated movie by designer Giorgia Lupi, titled A Data Love Letter to the Subway. Their new subway mapthe first update in 50 yearsnods to a classic design by Massimo Vignelli. And most subway stations finally have digitized schedules with slick typography.
If the MTA continually updates the OMNY card, in print and digital form, it will become a cultural artifact. New York is full of designers with pride whod love to create a special edition OMNY. Champions Design could give the card attitude. Collins could celebrate civic glory. Center could give it a sports flair. These special designs would create a shared moment among New Yorkers. But, those designs need to hit at the right moment.
When Zohran Mamdani takes the NYC mayoral office in January, design shouldnt sit at the bottom of his to-do list. He’s got audacious ideas. If they go well, great design will cement the experience in our minds. A free bus that runs on time? A special-edition OMNY card would floor us with a sense of New York pride.
