The Easter holiday is celebrated by billions of Christians around the world. But even if you are not partaking in the festivities, store closures or reduced store hours might impact you. Heres what to expect on Easter Sunday.
Grocery store closures
Whether you need to stock up on eggs and chocolate bunnies at the last minute or simply run out of milk, be aware that many supermarkets are closed for Easter Sunday, including Aldi, Costco, H-E-B, and Sam’s Club.
For last-minute purchases, try a Trader Joe’sunless you live in Portland, Maine, where the local stores will be closed.
Albertsons, Safeway, Jewel-Osco, Acme, Vons, and Tom Thumb will all be open.
Clothing store closures
Plan to shop ahead for your Easter outfit, as retailers JCPenney, Macys, Marshalls, Target, Kohls, and TJ Maxx will close their doors Sunday, as will HomeGoods, Sierra, and Homesense locations.
Walmart will remain open for business. For the status of other major retailers today, you can find a nice roundup from USA Today.
Home improvement and crafting store closures
Some hobbies might have to wait as well.
If Lowes is your home improvement store of choice, know that it will be closed on Easter. Home Depot is a good alternative.
In a similar vein, if Michaels or Hobby Lobby are your craft supply spots, stock up ahead of the holiday, as neither will be staffed for your creative pursuits.
Pharmacy closures
Major pharmacy chains such as Walgreens and CVS will be open for Easter but may have reduced hours, so check ahead if you need medication.
A brief look at religious affiliation in America
The U.S. remains a predominantly Christian nation. A 2023 Gallup Poll found 68% of the country considered themselves Christian. There is diversity of denomination in that figure. Breaking it down further, 33% identify as Protestant, 22% are Catholic, and 13% are considered other or just prefer the Christian label.
Around the U.S., about 90,000 tons of nuclear waste is stored at more than 100 sites in 39 states, in a range of different structures and containers.
For decades, the nation has been trying to send it all to one secure location.
A 1987 federal law named Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, as a permanent disposal site for nuclear wastebut political and legal challenges led to construction delays. Work on the site had barely started before Congress ended the projects funding altogether in 2011.
The 94 nuclear reactors currently operating at 54 power plants continue to generate more radioactive waste. Public and commercial interest in nuclear power is rising because of concerns regarding emissions from fossil fuel power plants and the possibility of new applications for smaller-scale nuclear plants to power data centers and manufacturing. This renewed interest gives new urgency to the effort to find a place to put the waste.
In March 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments related to the effort to find a temporary storage location for the nations nuclear waste; a ruling is expected by late June. No matter the outcome, the decades-long struggle to find a permanent place to dispose of nuclear waste will probably continue for many years to come.
I am a scholar who specializes in corrosion; one focus of my work has been containing nuclear waste during temporary storage and permanent disposal. There are generally two forms of significantly radioactive waste in the U.S.: waste from making nuclear weapons during the Cold War, and waste from generating electricity at nuclear power plants. There are also small amounts of other radioactive waste, such as that associated with medical treatments.
Waste from weapons manufacturing
Remnants of the chemical processing of radioactive material needed to manufacture nuclear weapons, often called defense waste, will eventually be melted along with glass, with the resulting material poured into stainless steel containers. These canisters are 10 feet tall and 2 feet in diameter, weighing approximately 5,000 pounds when filled.
For now, though, most of it is stored in underground steel tanks, primarily at Hanford, Washington, and Savannah River, South Carolina, key sites in U.S. nuclear weapons development. At Savannah River, some of the waste has already been processed with glass, but much of it remains untreated.
At both of those locations, some of the radioactive waste has already leaked into the soil beneath the tanks, though officials have said there is no danger to human health. Most of the current efforts to contain the waste focus on protecting the tanks from corrosion and cracking to prevent further leakage.
Waste from electricity generation
The vast majority of nuclear waste in the U.S. is spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants.
Before it is used, nuclear fuel exists as uranium oxide pellets that are sealed within zirconium tubes, which are themselves bundled together. These bundles of fuel rods are about 12 to 16 feet long and about 5 to 8 inches in diameter. In a nuclear reactor, the fission reactions fueled by the uranium in those rods emit heat that is used to create hot water or steam to drive turbines and generate electricity.
After about three to five years, the fission reactions in a given bundle of fuel slow down significantly, even though the material remains highly radioactive. The spent fuel bundles are removed from the reactor and moved elsewhere on the power plants property, where they are placed into a massive pool of water to cool them down.
After about five years, the fuel bundles are removed, dried, and sealed in welded stainless steel canisters. These canisters are still radioactive and thermally hot, so they are stored outdoors in concrete vaults that sit on concrete pads, also on the power plants property. These vaults have vents to ensure air flows past the canisters to continue cooling them.
As of December 2024, there were more than 315,000 bundles of spent nuclear fuel rods in the U.S., and 3,800-plus dry storage casks in concrete vaults above ground, located at current and former power plants across the country.
Even reactors that have been decommissioned and demolished still have concrete vaults storing radioactive waste, which must be secured and maintained by the power company that owned the nuclear plant.
The threat of water
One threat to these storage methods is corrosion.
Because they need water to both transfer nuclear energy into electricity and to cool the reactor, nuclear power plants are always located alongside soures of water.
In the U.S., nine are within 2 miles of the ocean, which poses a particular threat to the waste containers. As waves break on the coastline, saltwater is sprayed into the air as particles. When those salt and water particles settle on metal surfaces, they can cause corrosion, which is why its common to see heavily corroded structures near the ocean.
At nuclear waste storage locations near the ocean, that salt spray can settle on the steel canisters. Generally, stainless steel is resistant to corrosion, which you can see in the shiny pots and pans in many Americans kitchens. But in certain circumstances, localized pits and cracks can form on stainless steel surfaces.
In recent years, the U.S. Department of Energy has funded research, including my own, into the potential dangers of this type of corrosion. The general findings are that stainless steel canisters could pit or crack when stored near a seashore. But a radioactive leak would require not only corrosion of the container but also of the zirconium rods and of the fuel inside them. So it is unlikely that this type of corrosion would result in the release of radioactivity.
A long way off
A more permanent solution is likely years, or decades, away.
Not only must a long-term site be geologically suitable to store nuclear waste for thousands of years, but it must also be politically palatable to the American people. In addition, there will be many challenges associated with transporting the waste, in its containers, by road or rail, from reactors across the country to wherever that permanent site ultimately is.
Perhaps there will be a temporary site whose location passes muster with the Supreme Court. But in the meantime, the waste will stay where it is.
Gerald Frankel is a distinguished professor of materials science and engineering at the Ohio State University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Patricia Grabarek and Katina Sawyer are cofounders of Workr Beeing, where they help clients create thriving workplace environments. They are both industrial/organizational psychologists. Patricia has a background in consulting and internal roles, having led people analytics and talent management initiatives for more than 60 companies. Katina is also an associate professor of management and organizations at the University of Arizona, where she focuses her research on workplace wellbeing.
Whats the big idea?
Achieving a culture of wellness at work goes way beyond a steps challenge or mindfulness program. Leaders need to demonstrate vulnerability about their own struggles to build bonds of trust and openness with their employees. They also need to spread gratitude and positivity. Once these pillars of a so-called Generator leader are put into action, then employees will be more willing to step up, engage, and invest their best effort for their team and company.
Below, coauthors Grabarek and Sawyer share five key insights from their new book, Leading for Wellness: How to Create a Team Culture Where Everyone Thrives. Listen to the audio versionread by both authorsin the Next Big Idea app.
1. Workplace wellness matters.
When leaders support employee wellness, employees are healthier, perform better, achieve their goals, and are more committed to their work. In addition, when employees feel better, they are more committed to the leaders and team members helping them feel that way. In turn, they help leaders achieve their goals, band together with others to tackle challenges, and ultimately create more innovative and productive workplaces.
Yet, organizations struggle to support employee well-being. A recent Gallup poll found that employee engagement has sunken to an all-time low, with only 31% of employees reporting that they are engaged at work. Whats worse, not engaged or actively disengaged employees account for approximately $1.9 trillion in lost productivity nationally. Caring for employees well-being and improving the bottom line are aligned goals.
Companies that dedicate time and money to employees health and wellness do better. Its as simple as that. Even better, improving employee wellness can also improve society. Happy, healthy employees bring positivity to their communities, making the world a better place.
Our research repeatedly concluded that leaders are the key to driving employee well-being. While most organizations invest wellness dollars in step challenges, mindfulness programs, or team-building events, we find that the quality of day-to-day experiences with leaders is what really matters.
We refer to leaders who promote healthy and supportive workplaces (while also driving results) as Generators. We term leaders who do the opposite Extinguishers, as they deplete workplaces of energy by undermining their teams well-being. The aim is to become a Generator: the type of leader that employees aspire to work for and whom they can be proud to represent.
2. No one wants a superhero.
Employees dont want superheroes for leaders. Employees want authenticity from their leaders. They are looking for leaders who show their true selves at work. They do not trust inauthentic leaders who seem to put on a facade. Employees trust authentic leaders because they believe they are more willing to be transparent and honest. Employees can then better predict how their leader will behave. This predictability makes employees more likely to take risks by sharing their own truth and raising important issues that good leaders would want on their radar. As a result, employees with authentic leaders perform better, are more productive, more engaged, and have better well-being.
Lets talk about a leader named Melanie, who is a senior executive at a telecommunications company. When interviewing her for our research, she described herself as having been a leader who always had her game face on. She admitted that she started her leadership journey as a no-nonsense leader. She believed her team would find comfort in her tough exterior when things became stressful or hard. That she could be a rock they would depend on. Instead, she learned that if her team members were struggling, they avoided bringing things up to her. Her perfect exterior made her unapproachable.
She told us everything changed for her after enduring an unimaginable tragedy in her family. Her youngest sibling was murdered in a horrific random act of violence. This obviously impacted her greatly, but she continued to show up at work while hiding her true self and emotional state. Even though she did her best to hide her experience and feelings, her team could tell something was off. She was falling apart, and others could sense the shift.
Then, one day, a campaign started around the company to support mental health. Other leaders started sharing their struggles, being vulnerable with the whole organization. She appreciated that their openness allowed her to know them as whole, complex people. Melanie began to wonder if her team would appreciate her more if she did the same.
In her next team meeting, an employee shared that they were dealing with a challenge that could derail a project. At that moment, Melanie felt overwhelmed with the information and decided to take a pause. She told the team she appreciated all their hard work and was having a reaction to this new information because of the struggles shes been hiding in her personal life. She then proceeded to tell the team what she had been going through and how it had been impacting her and her work. To Melanies pleasant surprise, the team quickly rallied around her with empathy and compassion. They stepped up and wanted to help her as she navigated her loss. The team was more than willing to accept her as an imperfect leader.
The team culture shifted that day. Other people began opening up, and they would flag challenges and issues as they happened. They were more willing to ask for help and give support to other team members as authenticity and vulnerability became the norm.
One practice we teach leaders is to write struggle statements. Struggle statements help you communicate a set of challenges or difficulties you face at work, both past and present. When you are open about your struggles, employees can build their trust in you, and your openness helps them open up to you. This situation is great for employees and leaders because teams that can be open about their struggles usually do so because they are in a safe and supportive environment, making them more productive and higher-performing.
3. Its the tone, not the time.
Being a role model for balancing work and life and showing positivity and gratitude toward team members can inspire employees to follow your example. Positivity and gratitude are contagious. When leaders share these sentiments with employees, those employees spread them to others.
One of our favorite examples involves a leader who made it a point to spread positivity and gratitude to his team. To make sure he remembered to show gratitude to his team, he would put three coins in his left pocket at the start of each day. Each time he told someone on his team they were valued or thanked them for their efforts, he moved a coin to the other pocket. The physical reminder to show gratitude kept him on track and ensured he lived out his intentions. After a while, though, he didnt need the coins. His gratitude practice had become a habit. Even better, he noticed that his employees were paying i forward to one another. With a small shift in his behavior, he had created lasting change in his team culture.
Employees are motivated to help each other if they see you and other team members doing the same thing. Generators create cultures of work-life balance, positivity, gratitude, and support. As team members begin practicing good behaviors, leaders dont have to be the sole architects or reinforcers of the culture. Employees become cultural caretakers so that leaders have their time freed up to focus on other things.
Generators also understand how to become confidants to their employees quickly and meaningfully. To do so, they leverage what we coined as the SWIFT Process:
Setting aside time for relationship-building sprints.
Welcoming others warmly.
Intentionally inquiring about employees lives.
Following up with appropriate questions to dig deeper.
Taking time to reflect on how to improve relationships with employees.
By creating a positive team environment and building strong relationships with employees, Generators set the right tone for their teams: they focus on the quality of the work experience rather than narrowly focusing on how many hours are worked as a measure of success or productivity.
4. Work should support life.
Work should support life instead of the other way around. As a leader, its important to be elastic by demonstrating flexibility and recognizing that your way isnt right for everyone. Its also important to protect and respect employees boundaries between work and life. Generators are boundary bouncers because they help employees set boundaries, serve to enforce those boundaries, and block employees from people or situations that violate boundaries. Boundary bouncers also protect their own boundaries by leading by example.
Generators value work-life balance and recognize that employees preferences for balancing work and life may differ from their own (and other employees).
For example, people differ in their preferences for integrating or segmenting work. Segmenters like to keep work and life separate. These employees like to put in their nine-to-five and then fully stop working at the end of the day. They do not like it when their personal life bleeds into their work life and vice versa. When they are working, they want to focus on work. When they are away from work, being pinged by someone from work is particularly stressful.
On the other hand, some people prefer to integrate work and life. Katina and I both prefer integration. We are happy to shift between both domains throughout the day. Integrators may take a few meetings in the morning, then do a workout at lunch, followed by another meeting. After that, they might do laundry and complete a few work tasks. They may pause around 5 p.m. to spend time with family and grab dinner but then log back in for an hour at 7 p.m. to finish some tasks. They shift between work and personal life seamlessly, and it helps their productivity.
Generators create work environments that better match employees unique needs and preferences in managing their work and life. When Generators earn employees trust, make them feel cared for, and act in ways that honor their preferences and needs for managing work and life, they retain their employees longer.
5. One size doesnt fit all.
One size doesnt fit all when it comes to wellness. Generators recognize this and engage in what we call person-centered planning, a practice centered on the famous work of psychologist Carl Rogers, who used it in a clinical setting. Engaging in person-centered planning helps Generators find solutions that are tailored to employees real wellness needs, which can vary significantly from employee to employee.
Person-centered planning is effective because it helps leaders to get to the root of the actual problems that employees are facing, so solutions can be tailored to their needs.
Consider this example. An employee, Ollie, struggles with staying organized. His leader, Marta, is very skilled at organization and easily structures her workday, assignments, and deadlines. If Ollie shares with Marta that he is struggling with organization, she might assume that he just isnt putting in the effort. She might also assume that tips or strategies that help her stay organized will automatically work for Ollie. Ollies confidence might decrease as he is overlooked for opportunities, or he might take her advice and follow similar strategies that she has, but without getting results. Instead, if Marta engaged in person-centered planning, she would follow three steps:
First, Marta would provoke honest and transparent responses. She would create an open and comfortable environment for Ollie to share what is getting in his way regarding his organizational skills.
Second, she would suspend judgment. Even if Ollies situation doesnt resonate with her own experience, she will listen and validate his perspective, recognizing that she has likely struggled with things before that others found easy.
Finally, she would show empathy by working with Ollie to devise solutions that work for him. Instead of feeling for him, she feels with him, invoking a more collaborative and unified stance toward solving the problem.
This three-part process helps employees feel safe when sharing their wellness struggles, allowing leaders to respond to their challenges in ways that drive effective long-term solutions.
Taking a person-centered approach also requires that leaders chip away at mental health stigma at work. Generators are vulnerable about their own mental health challenges, speak inclusively about mental health, and use experts to help their teams understand mental health more deeply. Reducing this stigma is another way that Generators learn what employees really need and allow these employees to gain true acceptance and validation from their teams.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
First impressions matterthey shape how were judged in mere seconds, research shows. People are quick to evaluate others competence, likability and honesty, often relying on superficial cues such as appearance or handshake strength. While these snap judgments can be flawed, they often have a lasting impact. In employment, first impressions not only affect hiring choices but also decisions about promotion years later.
As a researcher in cognitive science, Ive seen firsthand how first impressions can pose a challenge for individuals with autism spectrum disorder, or ASD. People with ASD often display social behaviorssuch as facial expressions, eye contact, gestures, and sense of personal spacethat can differ from those of neurotypical individuals.
These differences are often misunderstood, leading people with ASD to be perceived as awkward, odd, or even deceptive. People form these negative impressions in just seconds and report being reluctant to talk to, hang out with, or even live near people on the spectrum.
Its not surprising, then, that unfavorable first impressions create barriers for people with ASD in the workplace.
The interview trap
It starts with the job interview. Whether youre seeking a position as a computer programmer at a tech firm or a dog groomer at a vet clinic, the job interview is a critical gateway. Success depends on your ability to think on your feet, communicate your qualifications, and present yourself as likable, agreeable, and collegial.
My research demonstrates that job seekers with ASD often perform poorly in interviews due to the social demands of the situation. This is true even when the candidate is highly qualified for the job they are seeking.
In one study, my colleagues and I videotaped mock job interviews with 30 young adults (half with ASD, half neurotypical) who were all college students without an intellectual disability. We asked them to discuss their dream jobs and qualifications for five minutes. Afterward, evaluators rated them on social traits, such as likability, enthusiasm, and competence, and indicated how likely they were to hire each interviewee. As in most professional interviews, the evaluators werent aware that some candidates were on the autism spectrum.
Candidates with autism spectrum disorder were consistently rated less favorably on all social dimensions compared with people without the condition, and those unfavorable social ratings weighed heavily on hiring decisions. Even though candidates with ASD were rated as equally qualified as neurotypical candidates, they were significantly less likely to be hired.
Interestingly, when evaluators only read the candidates interview transcripts without watching the interviews, ratings for ASD candidates were the same as, or even better than, those for neurotypical candidates. This suggests that its not just what candidates say in an interview but how they present themselves socially that affects hiring decisions.
This is especially problematic for jobs that require minimal social interaction (think data analyst or landscaper), where a candidates qualifications should be the main consideration. By relying on interviews as a primary screening tool, employers may miss out on competent, qualified applicants with unique strengths.
Rethinking what makes a good candidate
Scientists have explored whether its possible to teach adults with ASD how to improve their interview skills, for example by maintaining more eye contact or standing at a socially acceptable distance from an interviewer.
While such training can help, it addresses only a small part of the problem, and I think this approach may not significantly improve employment outcomes for autistic adults.
For one, it reduces the challenges faced by adults with ASD to a limited set of behaviors. ASD is a complex condition, and research shows that the negative evaluations of individuals with ASD are not driven by a single difference or a collection of specific differences, but rather by the individuals overall presentation.
In addition, this type of training often encourages individuals to mask their autistic traits, which could make a stressful interview even more difficult. Finally, if ASD candidates successfully mask their autism during the interview but cant maintain that mask once they are hired, their longevity in the position could be at risk.
A more effective approach may be to change how interviews are conducted and how candidates are perceived. This includes giving employers meaningful education about autism and giving job applicants a way to disclose their diagnosis without penalty. Research shows that when people know more about autism spectrum disorder, they have more positive views of people with ASD. In addition, ratings of people with ASD are often more favorable when evaluators know about their diagnosis. Combining these two approachesthat is, pairing ASD education for employers with diagnostic disclosure for candidatesmay lead to better outcomes.
My colleagues and I explored this possibility in a series of studies. Again, we showed raters the mock job interviews of candidates with and without ASD. This time, however, some evaluators watched a brief educational video about autism, learning about characteristics and strengths often associated with ASD before evaluating the mock interviews. In addition, these raters knew which candidates had an ASD diagnosis.
Even though raters still perceived the candidates with ASD as more awkward and less likable, they rated those candidates as equally qualified as neurotypical candidates and were just as likely to hire them. This boost in hiring ratings persisted even when the educational video about autism was viewed months before candidates were evaluated.
Notably, neither of these interventions was effective on its own. In different conditions, some evaluators simply got the training but didnt receive diagnostic information about candidates; others received no education about autism but were aware of which candidates had ASD. Both groups continued to select against candidates with ASD in hiring decisions, even though the candidates with ASD were rated as highly qualified. It appears that both knowing a person ha autism and understanding more about autism are important for overcoming negative first impressions.
We believe that our training fostered a greater understanding of the atypical interactive style and behaviors that can be common among adults with ASD. This understanding, when coupled with the knowledge of a candidates diagnosis, may have helped evaluators contextualize those behaviors and, in turn, place more emphasis on qualifications when making hiring decisions.
When hiring decisions are based on merit, both employees and employers benefit. First impressions, though impactful, can be deceptive and often bias decisions, particularly for individuals with ASD. Our findings highlight an important truth: Understanding autism enables employers to focus on qualifications, giving candidates with ASD a fair opportunity to succeed based on their true potential.
Cindi May is a professor of psychology at the College of Charleston.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Do you know where your drinking water comes from?
In South Florida, drinking water comes from the Everglades, a vast landscape of wetlands that has long filtered the water relied on by millions of people.
But as the Everglades has shrunk over the past century, the regions water supply and water quality have become increasingly threatened, including by harmful algal blooms fueled by agriculture runoff. Now, the water supply faces another rising challenge: saltwater intrusion.
[Photo: South Florida Water District/Flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0]
Protecting South Floridas water hinges on restoring the Everglades. Thats why, 25 years ago, the federal government and universities launched the worlds largest ecosystem restoration effort ever attempted.
Im involved in this work as an ecosystem ecologist. The risks I see suggest continuing to restore the Everglades is more crucial today than ever.
What happened to the Everglades?
The Florida Everglades is a broad mosaic of freshwater, sawgrass marshes, cypress domes and tree islands, mangrove forests, and seagrass meadows all connected by water.
But it is half its original size. In the early 1900s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began installing canals and levees to control flooding in the Everglades, which allowed people to build farms and communities along its edges. The Tamiami Trail became the first road across the Everglades in 1928. It connected Tampa to Miami, but the road and canals cut off or diverted some of the natural water flow in South Florida.
Since then, Floridas economy, agriculture, and population have explodedand with them has come a nutrient pollution problem in the Everglades.
The major crop, sugarcane, is grown in a region south of Lake Okeechobee covering 1,100 square miles thats known as the Everglades Agricultural Area. Nearly 80 tons of phosphorus fertilizer from federally subsidized farm fields runs off into the Everglades wetlands each year. And that has become a water quality concern. Drinking water with elevated nitrogen is linked to human health problems, and elevated phosphorus and associated algal blooms can cause microbes to accumulate toxins such as mercury.
Healthy wetlands can filter out those nutrients and other pollutants, cleaning the water.
Some of the ways the Everglades filters water contaminated with phosphorus. [Image: South Florida Water Management District]
Rain falling in the Everglades percolates through the porous limestone and recharges the Biscayne Aquifer, which supplies drinking water for 1 in 3 Floridians.
But wetlands need time and space to function properly, and the damage from farm pollution has harmed that natural filtering system.
By the 1990s, Everglades wetlands and the wildlife they support hit a critical stress level from elevated concentrations of phosphorus, a nutrient in fertilizer that washes off farm fields and fuels the growth of toxic algal blooms and invasive species that can choke out native plant populations.
The changes led to seagrass die-offs and widespread invasion of sawgrass marshes by cattail and harmful algal blooms. Degraded wetlands can themselves become pollution sources that can contaminate surface water and groundwater quality by decreasing oxygen in the water, which can harm aquatic life, and releasing chemicals and nutrients as they decay.
A vast restoration campaign
Congress approved the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan in 2000 to support reducing phosphorus concentrations by re-creating large wetlands areas to remove excess nutrients and reestablishing more of the natural water depth to bolster native populations.
That restoration effort is making progress in reonnecting wetlands to natural water flows by rehydrating large areas that were cut off. Phosphorus levels are lower in many wetlands that now remain hydrated longer, and in these wetlands freshwater is recharging the aquifer, helping sustain the drinking water supply.
However, delays in critically important components of that work have left some wetlands in degraded conditions for longer than expected, especially in regions near and downstream of the Everglades Agricultural Area, where phosphorus concentrations remain stubbornly high.
An algal bloom spreads in Floridas Lake Okeechobee, at the heart of the Everglades. [Photo: Nicholas Aumen/USGS]
South Florida continues to experience harmful algal blooms from phosphorus reaching rivers and the coast, resulting in fish kills and the deaths of manatees. Red tide can shut down fishing and keep beach-going tourists away, harming local economies. This pollution is estimated to have cost Floridas economy US$2.7 billion in 2018.
The unexpected risk: Saltwater
An unforeseen threat has also started to creep into the Everglades: saltwater.
As sea level rises, saltwater reaches further inland, both in rivers and underground through the porous limestone beneath South Florida. Saltwater intrusion also occurs when wells draw down aquifers to provide water for drinking or irrigation. That saltwater is causing parts of the Everglades marshes, often referred to as a river of grass, to collapse into open water.
The loss of these freshwater marshes reduces the capacity of the Everglades to remove phosphorus from the water. And that means more nutrients flowing downstream, contaminating aquifers and causing harmful algal blooms to form in coastal waters.
The red line shows how far saltwater had intruded into aquifers beneath Fort Lauderdale as of 2019. [Image: South Florida Water Management District]
Scientists have learned that marsh plants need freshwater pulses during the wet season, from April to November, to avoid saltwater intrusion.
For example, saltwater intruded about one mile inland between 2009 and 2019 in parts of the Fort Lauderdale area. More freshwater is needed to push the saltwater back out to sea.
However, the restoration effort was never intended to combat saltwater intrusion.
Reasons for optimism
Despite the continuing challenges, I am optimistic because of how scientists, policymakers and communities are working together to protect the Everglades and drinking water.
I lead part of that restoration work through the Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research program. The effort started at Florida International University on May 1, 2000, the same year the Everglades restoration plan was authorized by Congress.
Our research was used to set the levels of nutrients allowable to still protect the regions water supplies, and we have been working for 25 years to reduce saltwater intrusion and phosphorus pollution to ensure drinking water for South Florida remains both fresh and clean. We continually use our research to inform water managers and policymakers of the best practices to reduce saltwater intrusion and pollution.
As saltwater intrusion continues to threaten South Floridas freshwater aquifer, Everglades restoration and protection will be increasingly important.
Everyone in the region can help.
By rehabilitating degraded wetlands, allowing for more freshwater to flow throughout the Everglades ecosystems, reducing the use of freshwater on lawns and crops, and reusing municipal water for outdoor needs, South Florida can keep its drinking water safe for generations of future residents and visitors. This is something that everyone can contribute to.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Miamis renowned conservationist who helped establish the Everglades National Park, often said, The Everglades is a test. If we pass it, we may get to keep the planet.
John Kominoski is a professor of biological xciences at Florida International University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
We all know the Sunday scariesthat creeping anxiety as the weekend winds down. But what you might not realize is that leaders experience it too.
As a CEO, Ive found that the best way to fend off Sunday dread is by fully unplugging. At least once a week, I do a digital detox, shutting off my devices to be fully present with my wife and kids.
Sometimes, we turn on the radio and play board games; other times, we stay in pajamas and take on a new cooking or baking challenge. Its our version of sndagshyggethe Danish idea of embracing cozy Sundays with tea, books, music, blankets, and other at-home rituals.
While personal rituals can help, leaders can also play a role in easing their team members back-to-work anxiety. The question becomes: How can we support employees in making that transition? While theres no silver bullet, Ive found a few strategies that make a meaningful difference.
Leading with empathy
When it comes to facing challenges, togetherness is one of the most powerful antidotes to managing stress.
Its like heading into a storm in a rowboathaving just one person by your side, paddling with you and understanding your perspective, can make all the difference.
Thats what empathy is aboutdemonstrating to others that you truly identify with and understand their thoughts, emotions, and perspectives.
Empathetic leaders show they care about their employees through words and through actionschecking in with them, actively listening, and acknowledging each persons unique circumstances. The result is a workplace where employees feel psychologically safe, fostering open and honest discussions.
Studies have shown that employees with highly empathetic leaders are more engaged at workand more innovative, too. When a leader listens and genuinely makes an effort to understand their teams perspective, it builds trust and fosters collaboration.
Knowing that this kind of supportive, understanding environment exists beyond the weekend can go a long way toward quelling the Sunday scaries.
Promoting a healthy work-life balance
Respecting each employees need to maintain a work-life balance is an essential part of an empathetic work environment. That means treating employees as individuals, not just cogs in a machine.
I reflect on my own experience when my wife and I had our children. For me, it was crucial to be able to delegate responsibilities and take parental leave. Each time I returned to the office (admittedly a bit tired, as newborns dont care about your sleep schedule) I was ready to dive back in. I aim to offer the same flexibility and understanding to our team members.
Research backs up the idea that supporting employees work-life balance can have a major positive impact. A 2023 survey from the American Psychological Association found that 92% of workers believe its important to work for an organization that values their emotional and psychological well-being.
Studies conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health have shown that when managers are trained to respect work-life harmony, employee job satisfaction increases and turnover decreases.
Offering flexibility based on personal circumstanceswhether that means allowing employees to fully unplug for the evening or weekend, or taking a few hours off to attend their childs soccer gamehas helped us to maintain a low turnover rate at Jotform.
When employees return refreshed, they might not whistle every moment while they work, but they seem genuinely engaged and content to be back at their desks on Monday.
Gamifying the workplace
Its hard to explain why adding a game-like dimension to an everyday activity can fuel motivation, but it does. Why else would brands like Nike and Fitbit offer users personalized feedback, social interaction, and even some friendly competition? Knowing youll earn that badge or publicly top your personal best pushes you to clock that extra mile.
Experts call it gamificationleveraging game-like mechanisms, like the ones youd find in video games, to make real-world activities more engaging.
Gamification has been shown to increase motivation and engagement. It makes employees more willing to take on repetitive tasks, engage in risks, and even fail.
Surveys have found that gamification provides a sense of belonging and connection in the workplace. Employees report being more productive and happier at work. In short, gamification makes work, including the occasional mundane task, more fun.
When employees participate in incentivized tasks, theyre not just motivated, theyre also excited. This excitement helps counteract the Sunday scaries. Instead of dreading the workweek ahead, employees are looking forward to the challenges and rewards of gamified tasks.
Whether its earning points for hitting targets or engaging in friendly competitions with coworkers, the gamified experience gives them something to anticipate.
And with AI making gamification more accessible and fun than ever, theres no reason why leaders cant bring this kind of excitement to the workplace, helping employees feel energized and eager to start their weekon Monday and beyond.
The 2025 NFL Draft is next week, and the front-runner for the No. 1 overall pick, University of Miami quarterback Cam Ward, is an anomaly. In any other year, the top prospect being a journeyman who attended three schools in five years and ended his career by losing the Pop Tarts Bowl would be nearly impossible.
But now it may be the new reality of the college-to-pro transition.
The impact of the transfer portal and name, image, and likeness (NIL) legislation means the traditional “stay or go pro” dilemma is no longer binary. Theres now a third path: Transfer strategically, build your brand, enhance your draft value, and collect NIL checks along the wayall while staying in college.
The age of player mobility and monetization
For decades, college athletes were not allowed to make money in any way, shape, or form related to their sport or likeness without sacrificing their amateur status. That changed in 2021, when NIL legislation empowered athletes to sign endorsement deals, monetize their social media, and collect appearance fees, ending the era in which players could lose eligibility for something as simple as eating too much pasta at a team banquet.
Now, players in marquee positions at top schools can average between $75,000 and $800,000 in NIL dollars annually. In 2024, University of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders led all college football with $6.2 million in NIL dealssomething that likely factored into his decision to forgo last years NFL draft and return to Colorado for his senior season.
Meanwhile, the transfer portal now allows players to transfer freely between schools without having to sit out a year, as was previously required (think free agency, but for college). Under these new rules, FBS scholarship transfers rose from 1,946 in 2021-22 to 2,303 in 2022-23, reaching 2,707 in 2023-24, according to NBC Sports.
In 2023-24 alone, the total number of NCAA football players across all divisions who entered the portal exceeded 11,000. Already this year, more than 400 players have entered the spring portal since it opened on Wednesday, meaning more players are using it every year to take control of their college careers and future NFL prospects.
Case study No. 1: Cam Ward
Ward and Sanders, this years top two quarterback prospects, took different routes to the draft, yet are each a product of the new landscape.
Ward finished high school as an unknown zero-star prospect who went to the only school that wanted him: the University of the Incarnate Word, an FCS program in Texas. Two years and 71 touchdowns later, having made a name for himself, Ward transferred to Washington State, further elevating his national profile over two seasons before declaring for the 2024 NFL Draft.
The problem was that some experts didnt even consider him a top-100 prospect at the time. So with the opportunity to improve his draft stockand the promise of NIL dollarshe chose to return to school, transferring for a second time in three years, this time to Miami. As a Hurricane, Ward was a Heisman Trophy finalist and won the Davey O’Brien Award, given to the nations top quarterback. He also landed $2 million in NIL deals along the way while positioning himself as the potential No. 1 overall pick, where he is likely to match or exceed the $39.5 million fully guaranteed contract last years No. 1 pick, University of Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams, signed with the Chicago Bears.
According to one NFL evaluator, had Ward stayed at Incarnate Word, as he would have in a pre-transfer portal world, he would likely be a fifth-round pick at best.
Case Study No. 2: Shedeur Sanders
Projected to go as high as eighth overall in the 2024 draft, Sanders, who transferred to Colorado from Jackson State before his junior year, passed on the NFL and returned to college, where he earned $6.5 million in NIL deals.
The Atlanta Falcons selected Michael Penix Jr. eighth overall in that draft. Had Sanders been that pick, we can assume he would have received something akin to Penix Jr.s four-year, fully guaranteed rookie contract worth $22.88 million with a $13.46 million signing bonus. This year, Sanders has been projected to go as high as No. 3 to the New York Giants, with whom he held a private workout this week. Should that happen, he could expect to receive at least what University of North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye received at the No. 3 slot last yeara fully guaranteed four-year, $36.63 million deal with the New England Patriots (with a $23.46 million signing bonus).
If thats how Sanderss chips fall on Thursday, his net gain will be roughly $13.75 million in NFL contract dollars, plus the $6.5 million in NIL money, meaning he will effectively have netted more than $20 million just for staying in school.
But Sanders’s gamble carries risk. Recent mock drafts show Sanders sliding, with some analysts predicting he could fall outside the top 10. If that happens, his decision to skip last year’s draft might prove a financial miscalculation, even with his NIL earnings.
This is the calculus today’s college stars faceimmediate pro security versus betting on themselves while earning NIL money. It’s a high-stakes game with career-defining consequences.
Risky for players, good for the NFL
NFL draft analysts project only 55 to 65 underclassmen in the 2025 draft, down from the typical 90 to 110 in previous years. The minimum base salary for NFL rookies for 2025 is$840,000, typical for late-round picks. Many of these players can, according to some NFL executives, likely achieve that in NIL dollars if they return to school. So, more mid-to-late-round picks are betting on themselves and staying in school to improve their stock while earning NIL money.
This shift transforms the later rounds of the draft. Instead of raw underclassmen taking early swings based on potential, teams now find more experienced players who have exhausted their eligibility.
NFL teams are embracing this new reality. The NIL and transfer portal era delivers more polished prospects with real-world business experience from managing personal brands and finances. The transfer portal creates natural experiments demonstrating adaptability across different systems and competition levels. Though scouting becomes more complex with prospects bouncing between programs, teams gain invaluable insights into character development, seeing how players handle wealth and fame before investing millions in draft capital.
Beyond the NFL
While NIL reshapes football’s talent pipeline, its impact on basketballparticularly women’s basketballreveals how different sport economies create vastly different career decisions.
Consider Olivia Miles, who was projected as the No. 2 prospect in the 2025 WNBA draft. Instead of going pro, Miles entered the transfer portal to play one final college season, leaving Notre Dame for Texas Christian University, and taking her lucrative NIL deals with her.
If Miles were selected with the No. 2 pick in this years draft, she would have signed a four-year, $348,198 deal, an average annual value of $87,050. While her NIL valuation is undisclosed, the current top earner in womens college basketball (Louisiana State Universitys Flaujae Johnson) has $1.5 million in NIL deals, far exceeding what Miles would make in the WNBA in 2025.
Delaying her WNBA entry also helps Miles avoid a four-year fixed rookie contract while the league negotiates a new collective bargaining agreement. With the WNBA’s $2.2 billion media deal taking effect in 2026, players are seeking significant pay increases, and Miles is betting that rookies entering next year will receive substantially better compensation than those locked into legacy rookie contracts.
Even USCs JuJu Watkins, perhaps women’s basketball’s most talented player, has no financial reason to rush her ACL recovery and enter the WNBA draft early. Her NIL deals continue during rehab, providing security that previous generations of athletes never had.
Cooper Flagg is a special case
The case of Dukes Cooper Flagg illustrates the stark contrast between men’s and women’s basketball. Flagg, just 18, is expected to be the No. 1 NBA draft pick after just one college season and could earn roughly $13.8 million as a rookie, escalating to $19.2 million by year four. After his rookie contract, he would be eligible for a five-year max extension worth an estimated $328.3 million, and if he makes an All-NBA Team along the way, that max extension would approach $400 million.
If Flagg returns to Duke, experts estimate he could earn between $6 million and $8 million in NIL money. Given his earning potential in his rookie year and the possibility of delaying starting the clock toward a possible $400 million max extension, returning to school would be financially irrational, making Flagg an exception to what has otherwise become a popular rule among prospects.
The future is now
As the landscape continues to evolve and amateurism becomes more professionalized, the relationship between college athletics and pro leagues will follow suit.
The traditional talent pipeline has been reengineered, and it will be on full display at Thursdays NFL draft. Ward and Sanders aren’t just prospects. They’re prototypes of a new business model. Players now operate like startups, leveraging strategic pivots (transfers) and funding rounds (NIL deals) to maximize their valuation before acquisition (the draft). Ward’s journey from zero-star recruit to potential first-overall pick represents the ultimate minimum viable product transformation, while Sanderss $6.5 million NIL portfolio demonstrates the power of calculated patience and brand development.
The talent acquisition game in sports has changed forever. The only question remaining is which teams and players are creative enough to use that to their advantage.
The Trump administration is working to lift regulations on coal-fired power plants in the hopes of making its energy less expensive. But while cost is one important aspect, utilities have a lot more to consider when they choose their power sources.
Different technologies play different roles in the power system. Some sources, like nuclear energy, are reliable but inflexible. Other sources, like oil, are flexible but expensive and polluting.
How utilities choose which power source to invest in depends in large part on two key aspects: price and reliability.
Power prices
One way to compare power sources is by their levelized cost of electricity. This shows how much it costs to produce one unit of electricity on average over the life of the generator.
The asset management firm Lazard has produced levelized cost of electricity calculations for the major U.S. electricity sources annually for years, and it has tracked a sharp decline in solar power costs in particular.
Coal is one of the more expensive technologies for utilities today, making it less competitive compared with solar, wind and natural gas, by Lazards calculations. Only nuclear, offshore wind and peaker plants, which are used only during periods of high electricity demand, are more expensive.
Land-based wind and solar power have the lowest estimated costs, far below what consumers are paying for electricity today. The National Renewable Energy Lab has found similar levelized costs for renewable energy, though its estimates for nuclear are lower than Lazards.
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Upfront costs are also important and can make the difference for whether new power projects can be built, as the East Coast has seen lately.
Several offshore wind farms planned along the Northeast were canceled in recent years as costs rose due to inflation and supply chain problems during the pandemic. Construction costs for the two newest nuclear generators built in the U.S. also rose considerably as the projects, both in the Southeast, faced delays.
Reliability and flexibility matter
But cost isn’t the whole story. Utilities must balance a number of criteria when investing in power sources.
Most important is matching supply and demand at every moment of the day. Due to the technical characteristics of electricity and how it flows, if the supply of electricity is even a little bit lower than the demand, that can trigger a blackout. This means power companies and consumers need generation that can ramp down when demand is low and ramp up when demand is high.
Since wind and solar generation depend on the wind blowing and the sun shining, these sources must be combined with other types of generation or with storage, such as batteries, to ensure the power grid has exactly as much power as it needs at all times.
Nuclear and coal are predictable and run reliably, but they’re inflexiblethey take time to ramp up and down, and doing so is expensive. Steam turbines are simply not built for flexibility. The multiple days it took to shut down Japans Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant after an earthquake and tsunami damaged its backup power sources in 2011 illustrated the challenges and safety issues related to ramping down nuclear plants.
That means coal and nuclear arent as helpful on those hot summer days when utilities need a quick power increase to keep air conditioners running. These peaks may only happen a few days a year, but keeping the power on is crucial for human health and the economy.
In todays energy system, the most flexible generation sources are natural gas and hydro. They can quickly adjust to meet changing electricity demand without the safety and cost concerns of coal and nuclear. Hydro can ramp in minutes but can only be built where large dams are feasible. The most cost-effective natural gas technology can ramp up within hours.
The big picture, by power source
Over the past two decades, natural gas use has risen quickly to overtake coal as the most common fuel for generating electricity in the U.S. The boom was largely driven by the growing use of fracking technology, which allowed producers to extract gas from rock and lowered the price.
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Natural gass low price and high flexibility make it an attractive choice. Its rise is a large part of the reason coal use has plummeted.
But natural gas has its challenges. Natural gas requires pipelines to carry it across the country, leading to disruptive construction. As Texas saw during its February 2021 blackouts, natural gas equipment can also fail in extreme cold. And like coal, natural gas is a fossil fuel that releases greenhouse gases during combustion, so it is also helping to cause climate change and contributes to air pollution that can harm human health.
Nuclear power has been gaining interest recently since it does not contribute to climte change or local air pollution. It also provides a steady baseload of power, which is useful for computing centers as their demand does not fluctuate as much as households.
Of course, nuclear has ongoing challenges around the storage of radioactive waste and security concerns, and construction of large nuclear plants takes many years.
Coal is more flexible than nuclear, but far less so than natural gas or hydropower. Most concerning, coal is extremely dirty, emitting more climate-change-causing gases, and far more air pollution than natural gas.
Solar and wind have grown rapidly in recent years due to their falling costs and environmental benefits. According to Lazard, the cost of solar combined with batteries, which would be as flexible as hydropower, is well below the cost of coal with its limited flexibility.
However, wind and solar tend to take up a lot of space, which has led to challenges in local approvals for new sites and transmission lines. In addition, the sheer number of new projects is overwhelming power system operators ability to evaluate them, leading to increasing wait times for new generation to come online.
Whats ahead?
Utilities have another consideration: Federal, state, and local governments can also influence and sometimes limit utilities choices. Tariffs, for example, can increase the cost of critical components for new construction. Permitting and regulations can slow down development. Subsidies can artificially lower costs.
In our view, policies that are done right can help utilities move toward more reliable and cost-effective choices which are also cleaner. Done wrong, they can be costly to the economy and the environment.
Erin Baker is a distinguished professor of industrial engineering and faculty director of The Energy Transition Institute at UMass Amherst and Paola Pimentel Furlanetto is a Ph.D. candidate in power systems at UMass Amherst.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Not so long ago, a book deal and a live tour marked the outer limits of how far a hot podcast could hope to expand its horizons. These days, theyre only the beginning. Especially at Wondery, the fast-growing podcast network based in West Hollywood, California.
Wondery has more than 240 podcasts, and more than 55 of them have hit the No. 1 spot on Apple Podcasts. The first book adapted from the networks hit survival podcast Against the Odds is set for publication this June, but a better example of where things might be headed is the line of toys Wondery just launched for the family-friendly science show Wow in the World or the immersive cruise inspired by its Exhibit C true-crime vertical, which is in the works for 2026. As the network continues pushing audio-first intellectual property into uncharted new territory, its starting to look like Wondery can turn podcasts into just about anything.
Weve got this Hollywood-style approach to storytelling, says Nicole Blake, chief brand officer at Wondery, the network that perfected the podcast-to-streaming-series pipeline with scripted pods like Dying for Sex, Dirty John, and Dr. Death. So now, were trying to take a Hollywood-style approach to IP-building and apply it to podcasting.
[Photo: Courtesy Wondery]
The holy grail of branding
Some brands are practically inescapable. Whether youre flipping through channels, stuck in traffic, or taking a Pilates class, they stalk you like prey. Blake has a term for brands like that.
The holy grail is a 360-degree IPsomething the fans are seeing at many touch points, all the time, she says. Its not an on-and-off relationship, its an always-on relationship.
One brand that certainly qualifies is the Harry Potter movie franchise, whose development Blake steered during her tenure as a senior vice president at Warner Bros. in the 2010s. Beyond all the books, movies, and spinoffs, Harry Potters tentacles have extended to clothing lines, food items, Lego sets, video games, theatrical plays, and theme park rides. Though the phenomenon factor of Harry Potter may be singular, the brands breadth exemplifies the inventive approach to market saturation Blake is exploring for Wonderys podcasts.
So far, the show that seems furthest along the path to 360-degree IP is Wow in the World, the kid-focused science series with more than 100 million downloads. Designed in Pixar-fashion to appeal to parents listening along, it has steadily cultivated a devoted following, who call themselves Wowsers. The show has long since spawned the requisite live tours and book deals, along with an array of clothing and accessories that includes shirts, pillows, and backpacks. Where the shows extension breaks new ground, however, beyond a push into the classroom with a Next Generation Science Standards-aligned curriculum, is its new line of STEM kits like an Everlasting Volcano and Dino Dig & Diorama.
Though character-driven pods like Welcome to Night Vale and the D&D-based Critical Role have spun off plush toys and action figures, Wow in the Worlds offerings may be the first line of podcast-inspired toys in the STEM space. (I like firsts, Blake notes.) Wondery partnered with science publishers Thames and Kosmos to launch this first wave of toys last fall, and theyre coming this month to Walmart.
But its not just kids connecting with Wonderys podcasts at such a deep level.
[Photo: Courtesy Wondery]
Why podcasts are poised to become 360-degree IP
That podcasts can become as colossally popular and highly valued as more traditional media is old news. Since Joe Rogan made the first $100 million podcast deal with Spotify in 2020, for instance, several similar deals have followedincluding one last fall between Wondery and NFL star sibling podcasters Jason and Travis Kelce. However, eye-poppingly lucrative deals and astronomic numbers of downloads dont paint the full picture of what popularity means for these shows. The main reason podcasts appear poised to become 360-IP, according to Blake, is because of the unique connection they foster with fans.
Theres a certain intimacy inherent to the medium. It casts a spell on listeners, creating the illusion that theyre quietly participating in an ongoing conversation, rather than overhearing it. When someone falls in love with a podcast, they fall hardas Wondery recently demonstrated with a study on fandom conducted with Dentsu and Edison Research. According to its findings, 71% of podcast fans feel they are friends with the hosts of their favorite shows, while 46% claim they are more a fan of their favorite podcast than any other form of entertainment. The biggest podcasts dont just inspire affinity but loyalty. Their fans are willing to follow them anywhere.
What helps present more branding possibilities, though, according to Blake, is the fact that podcasts follow their listeners everywhere.
“Podcasts, unlike any other media, complement a persons day, she says. You can listen to a podcast while taking a walk, cooking, or doing arts and crafts. They can go with you on every step of your day; and as such, they provide plenty of opportunities for extensions into other areas such as apparel and consumer products.
Wondery spent years coordinating the rollout of a line of toys for the Wowsers to play with while listening to Wow in the World together after school. But the network does not apply the same long-lead approach to product development for each of its shows.
[Photo: Courtesy Wondery]
One size does not fit all
The first step to a successful brand extension for podcast IP, Blake says, is gathering research and insights to understand the DNA of the show and what people love about it. Beyond that, it can go any number of ways. Theres no one-size-fits-all approach to building a podcasts brand.
The weekly nature of some podcasts creates a lot of opportunities for rapid response. Blakes team always monitors how fans react to Wonderys podcasts, ready to pounce on, say, a popular segment or catchphrase that emerges from the Kelce brothers New Heights podcast; or create a special T-shirt immediately after Jason Kelces former team, the Philadelphia Eagles, won the Super Bowl back in February.
Similarly, the team also noticed that fans of MrBallen, a beloved mystery storyteller, were talking a lot on social media about Lungy, a frog character the host developed on the show. It seemed like they wanted more of Lungy, and more is what any aspiring 360-degree IP should have on tap at all times. Wonndery quickly turned around a Lungy the Frog pin, which sold out right away, paving the way for future frog-centric apparel.
Of course, some ideas need more time to incubate. In order to arrive at the planned Exhibit C cruise for 2026an immersive experience for fans of Wondery true-crime shows like Morbid and Scamfluencersthe team had to first experiment. In 2023, the network staged Exhibit C: A True Crime Experience Live at New Yorks Gotham Hall, a sort of podcastapalooza, bringing together an Avengers of in-house true-crime show hosts. The interactive event got such tremendous feedback from fans, it proved the demand existed for even more outlandish events like the upcoming mystery cruise.
Just how far can Wondery push its podcast IP beyond the high seas? According to Blake, anything is possible.
There is nowhere traditional media has been extended, she says, that you wont see a podcast go in the future.
Trying to get from point A to point B? If only it were that simple! With any manner of travel these days, youve got options: planes, trains, buses, ferries, and beyond. And finding the best path to embark on isn’t always easy.
Even finding all the available options can sometimes be a pain. But it doesn’t have to be.
For over a decade, Ive been using a tool that demystifies how to get from one location to another. Its a great way to see all the available travel options in a single spotcomplete with estimated prices and travel times.
Notably, theres absolutely no AI at play here. AI travel tools may be interesting for brainstorming ideas, but this tool will show you only real transportation options with up-to-date information.
Lets get moving.
Psst: If you love these types of tools as much as I do, check out my free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. You’ll be the first to find all sorts of simple tech treasures!
Google Maps who?
The next time you encounter a complicated web of route options, remember a site called Rome2Rio.
Rome2Rio shows every last possible travel option in a single streamlined place. It even finds routes Google Maps missesthats the main point.
To get started, head to the Rome2Rio website. You can also install the free app for your Android device or iPhone, if you’d rather. Whichever path you pick, you wont need to create an account or jump through any silly hoops to get going.
Just plug in the destination youre starting from, the destination youre headed toand thats it.
Youll instantly see all your options, with prices attached.
Rome2Rio has two boxes to fill out: where you’re starting and where you’re going.
The site will even provide options that string together multiple modes of travel. If the best method available for a given trip is to take a train, board an airplane, and then jump on a ferry, Rome2Rio will tell you.
You’ll see every travel option imaginableand how much it costsin a matter of moments with Rome2Rio.
You can actually book your travel through Rome2Rio, too, but Ive always just used it as a search engine and a starting point for my travel planning.
Ultimately, Rome2Rio is a huge, regularly updated database that does one thing and does it exceptionally well. It even beats most AI-powered travel tools in 2025, assuming you just want to know concrete ways to get from A to B.
Rome2Rio is available on the web, as an Android app, and as an iPhone app.
The service is completely free. (It makes money with ads and affiliate links, if you use it to book travel.)
Rome2Rios privacy policy says the service will never sell your personal information. And again, you dont even need an account to use it.
Navigate your way to even more productivity-boosting goodness with my free Cool Tools newsletter. You’ll get an instant introduction to an incredible audio app and a new off-the-beaten-path gem in your inbox every Wednesday!
