• A writer in Texas said her boyfriend's AI use made her feel like she was dating him and "the robot."
• AI chatbots are being used for emotional support, but venting about a relationship comes with risks.
• Relying too heavily on AI could hinder empathy and communication in human relationships.

Lindsey Hall, a writer based in Texas, suspected the man she was seeing was using AI. Uncertain about where things were going, she asked him outright what made him want to be with her.

"You're fun, smart, pretty," she summed up his response. "The way it was written was so cold and so formal and so ChatGPT. I just remember being so turned off by that."

One night, about five months into dating, she happened upon a conversation he'd had with ChatGPT in which he expressed serious doubts about their relationship. "I'm just not proud of her," she said he'd written. He apologized after being confronted, and they dated for a few more months before breaking up.

"I felt like I was in a relationship with me, him, and the robot," she said.

AI is taking on a new role in human relationships. A Pew Research Center survey published last month found that one in five adults aged 18 to 29 said they used AI chatbots for emotional support or advice. A new YouGov survey found that 13% of US adults, and 23% of those under 30, said they had shared a secret or problem with a chatbot that they hadn't told a human.

Chatbots can help people reflect, organize their thoughts, and prepare for difficult conversations, but experts in psychology, relationships, and AI told Business Insider that problems can arise when people start relying on AI instead of talking to their partners. Chatbots are also prone to excessive validation, which can make it harder for the person using them to empathize with their partner or see the other side of a situation.

Rachel Wood, a cyberpsychology researcher and founder of the AI Mental Health Collective, said while the impact of AI on jobs and the workplace is evident and widely discussed, she thinks the impact on human relationships could be even greater, and could take years to play out.

"AI is shifting the relational bedrock of society," she said.

Turning to chatbots for emotional support

Confiding in a chatbot about your relationship can feel easier than talking to another person because there's no social risk, according to Ashleigh Golden, a licensed clinical psychologist who works on AI and mental health. It can also be validating, she said. Whereas a partner or friend might push back and encourage you to consider your own behavior, chatbots might not.

A study published in Science in March compared responses from 11 leading large language models with responses from humans and found the AI systems were nearly 50% more sycophantic, including when users described unethical, illegal, or harmful behavior. The authors found that a single interaction with a sycophantic AI made the study participants less willing to take responsibility or make amends with someone, and also increased their conviction of being right.

"You get the safety of disclosing to a stranger plus the felt sense of being deeply understood without any of the risk of being seen," Golden said.

Engaging with a chatbot also does not require many of the skills essential to maintaining human relationships, Wood said, such as patience, listening, negotiation, empathy, and compromise.

"Those muscles will atrophy," she said, "which will in turn make us worse at our relationships because we're not practicing listening and holding space for each other."

Sharing with a chatbot instead of your partner might also feel like a betrayal to them, said Idit Sharoni, a licensed marriage and family therapist specializing in couples therapy and affair recovery. She said if you're confiding in AI about your relationship, your partner may feel like the chatbot has more access to your inner world than they do.

"It totally can feel like emotional infidelity," she said.

A recent survey of 3,500 US users of the dating app Hily found that 70% of Gen Z respondents and 60% of millennials wouldn't date someone who relies on AI to make sense of their feelings. More than half said they would be uncomfortable with a partner discussing their shared sex life with AI.

When using a chatbot can help

Keven Cotton, a controller at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC, said communication has not always been his strong suit during his six-year marriage, but that talking with AI has helped. After one disagreement with his wife, he said ChatGPT helped him consider how they may have misread each other and think through how to reopen the conversation.

He thinks talking about his relationship with AI has worked for him because therapy gave him a solid foundation for examining his own behavior rather than looking for validation.

"You have to do the work to maximize what you're getting out of AI," he said. "If you're coming at it from a victim standpoint, it's going to give you victim responses."

Sharoni said chatbots could be useful when someone already knows what they want to discuss but needs help finding a way to bring it up. Issues can arise, she said, when using AI to interpret how the other person feels or make a judgement call based on one-sided facts.

If AI does help you work through your feelings, Wood recommends sharing that with your partner so it's not happening in secret. She suggested saying something like, "Hey, this is what the chatbot is reflecting back to me. What do you think about that?"

Couples may also want to establish their own rules for using AI, Golden said, including whether it's acceptable to vent about the relationship and whether concerns processed with a chatbot should eventually be brought back to the other person.

She said AI can be useful as a "pre-processing space," helping someone turn an initial messy feeling into something they can bring back to their partner, but that the risk is when AI stops being used as a "bridge" and becomes a "destination."

A chatbot can help you reflect or prepare, Cotton said, but it can't actually do the work of participating in a relationship.

"AI can't show up for you," he said.

Do you have a story to share about how AI has affected your relationship? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@businessinsider.com.

Three years ago, Satya Nadella catapulted Microsoft to the front of the AI race and became "like a superhero," one recent former Microsoft executive said.

In February 2023, after betting early on OpenAI, the CEO unveiled Microsoft's AI-powered Bing search engine before a packed audience outside Seattle, and declared a war on Google's search dominance. "A race starts today," he said. Waves of adulation followed. When Nadella helped navigate OpenAI's board crisis later that year, Bill Gurley called it an "amazing shift in corporate reputation." CNN Business chose Nadella as the CEO of the Year.

Inside Microsoft and across the tech industry, Nadella was hailed for seizing the future. Now, his legacy is at stake.

Microsoft's stock is down more than 24% from 12 months ago, significantly worse than the rest of the Magnificent 7. Investors have grown increasingly skeptical that the company's multibillion-dollar AI bet will deliver. Copilot, Microsoft's flagship AI product, lags behind other AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude. LinkedIn has drawn criticism for becoming flooded with AI-generated hustleporn. Xbox's business is "not healthy," its CEO recently said, and undergoing layoffs and restructuring as it tries to justify the company's record-breaking $69 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition.

And inside the company, employees are questioning Microsoft's plans to spend a record $190 billion this year to build AI infrastructure. As generative AI changes how people work, write software, and consume information, three of the company's core businesses hang in the balance: Microsoft 365, GitHub, and Azure. Investors will get a report card on these challenges on Wednesday, when the company releases its fourth-quarter earnings results.

As AI adoption spreads through corporate America, every software company is fighting to fend off the so-called SaaSpocalypse. But the battle is particularly fraught for Nadella's Microsoft, which made an early and loud bet on AI to propel the company's future. Now the company's north star has also become a potential noose.

For decades, Microsoft's productivity software has been the default homeroom where knowledge workers start their day. They opened Word to write, Excel to analyze data, and PowerPoint to build presentations. Now, millions of those workers are beginning to do all these things directly inside AI tools. Gartner analysts earlier this year predicted AI would threaten to dethrone traditional productivity suites like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace in a $58 billion market shakeup.

Microsoft executives point to continued growth in Microsoft 365 and increasing Copilot adoption as evidence customers still want Microsoft's products at the center of their workdays. "The M365 business is seeing tons of new adoption and M365 Copilot usage," one executive said, who said the company is specifically chasing computing capacity to meet the demand.

GitHub faces a similar challenge. Since acquiring the software development platform in 2018, the company has held a dominant position with developers and had an early advantage in AI coding through GitHub Copilot. And it continues to grow: The platform recently had its "best month ever," an executive told employees in internal meeting comments viewed by Business Insider, though he didn't say by what measure.

But upstarts have swarmed in, as millions of engineers have adopted Cursor — which SpaceX recently announced plans to acquire for $60 billion — and Anthropic's Claude Code. As Business Insider previously reported, executives have discussed internally the need to overhaul GitHub to better compete with those AI-native coding tools. AI demand has also strained Github. As AI usage surged GitHub has experienced dozens of major outages this year.

The company is also struggling broadly to keep up with the demand for compute capacity. Despite this crunch, Microsoft is raising salespeople quotas for selling its cloud computing platform, Azure, some by 30% this year, according to people familiar with the change.

Azure remains Microsoft's fastest-growing strategic business, but internally executives say it has become a constant balancing act. Demand for computing infrastructure has outpaced the company's ability to build new capacity, forcing Microsoft to make difficult decisions about where its resources go. Even with this year's $190 billion capital expenditures — largely to expand data-center capacity for AI workloads — executives say the company is still constrained.

Earlier this year, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood suggested Microsoft was prioritizing scarce computing resources for its own AI products before allocating the remaining capacity to Azure customers.

"The first thing we're doing is solving for the increased usage in sales and the accelerating pace of M365 Copilot, as well as GitHub Copilot, our first-party apps," Hood said during Microsoft's January earnings call. "Then we make sure we're investing in the long-term nature of R&D and product innovation... Then what you end up with is the remainder going towards serving the Azure capacity that continues to grow in terms of demand."

If Microsoft had allocated the GPUs that came online during the first half of its fiscal year to Azure instead of its own AI products, Azure growth would have exceeded 40% instead of 39%, Hood said. Microsoft previously reported $75 billion in Azure revenue for its 2025 fiscal year.

That earnings report triggered one of Microsoft's biggest post-earnings stock declined by more than 10% as investors questioned the company's slower Azure outlook despite record AI spending and growing concerns that Microsoft was diverting capacity away from cloud customers.

Executives who spoke to Business Insider say those tradeoffs have intensified.

Microsoft is so desperate for capacity that it's turning to competitors to help relieve some of those constraints. Following a series of GitHub outages, Amazon bailed Microsoft out. The company also explored leasing Oracle cloud infrastructure but Microsoft walked away due to security and compliance concerns.

Microsoft is now seeking additional cloud capacity from other providers, including evaluating Amazon and Google, according to people familiar with the discussions. "We are shopping for capacity everywhere," one of those people said.

While prioritizing internal services has a mixed reception on Wall Street, the strategy is clear within Microsoft.

"All of the supply is gone once you solve for frontier labs and our internal businesses like M365 and Microsoft AI," one executive said.

Those decisions have created difficult conversations internally.

"Why would Satya prioritize growing Adobe over growing M365?" the person said. "I have no idea how we're going to land that message with customers."

As the pressure on Microsoft's core businesses mounts, Nadella has been bearing that pressure down on his workforce, and reshaping the structure of the company and its leaders.

As Business Insider previously reported, Nadella promoted Judson Althoff to CEO of Microsoft's commercial business to free himself and the company's engineering leaders to focus more directly on AI. Althoff was previously Microsoft's longtime sales boss but the role gave him a bigger profile. In an internal memo viewed by Business Insider at the time, Nadella described the moment as "a tectonic AI platform shift."

The mounting pressure on Nadella has trickled down through Microsoft's ranks from the executive suite to the rank-and-file employee.

At the same time, Nadella has remade his inner circle. Business Insider previously reported that Microsoft effectively retired its traditional senior leadership team structure in favor of smaller, flatter leadership groups. AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman has narrowed his focus to Microsoft's superintelligence efforts, top Nadella lieutenant Rajesh Jha retired, longtime product and marketing leader Yusuf Mehdi is preparing to leave the company, and more executive changes are expected.

According to people familiar with the succession planning, Hayete Gallot, who recently returned to Microsoft from Google to lead the company's security business, is viewed internally as the long-term successor to Althoff as sales chief. Gallot previously worked for Althoff and left in what one executive told Business Insider was "not an amicable departure." Nadella recruited Gallot back to replace Charlie Bell, who moved into an individual contributor role focused on engineering quality. Rodrigo Kede Lima, who Microsoft just put in charge of a $2.5 billion AI sales unit, is also a rising star, one of the people said.

The changes extend beyond the executive suite. Business Insider has learned that Microsoft overhauled its performance review system this year, simplifying ratings into five categories while making performance distinctions significantly sharper.

Executives say the new process feels like a return to "stack ranking," the controversial system that evaluated employees relative to one another during the Steve Ballmer era. At the same time, managers have been instructed to reduce the number of employees in higher-level engineering roles as Microsoft continues flattening parts of the organization, emblematic of a broader hardcore work culture that's spread across Big Tech in the last few years.

"It's almost like the old era of Microsoft is back," one former executive said. "The old Windows era where you lead with a lot of fear and a billy club in your hand."

For years, Microsoft's greatest strength was that it owned where people worked and where developers built software. AI is beginning to challenge both assumptions at once. Now Nadella's legacy won't be defined by whether Microsoft can build the best AI, but by whether it can keep AI from eroding the businesses that made it one of the world's most valuable companies.

Ashley Stewart is a chief technology correspondent at Business Insider.

• China has built an array of replica ships, aircraft and bases in its desert expanse.
• New images show an extensive buildup of targets and a focus on the US and Taiwan.
• One former military official said the scale of this training was "unprecedented."

China is not just building replicas of US warships.

Satellite images analyzed by The Telegraph — a member of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network that includes Business Insider — reveal it is also building models of fighter jets, naval bases and Taiwanese presidential buildings.

Beijing has been using these models to test its ever-growing stockpile of long-range weapons and new AI systems as it prepares to take control of Taiwan — a top priority of Xi Jinping, the Chinese president.

The accuracy of the replicas "signals a highly specific focus on potential adversaries rather than generic capability building", said Damien Symon, a geo-intelligence researcher at the AI-analysis firm The Intel Lab, who first identified several of the maritime models.

While it is unknown if the US would officially come to Taiwan's defense, most experts agree that Washington would probably step in. Without American support, Taiwan would struggle to remain autonomous.

China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has also built to-scale models of Taiwan's presidential office and key government buildings so soldiers can practice storming the capital in the most realistic setting possible.

"They're basically creating replicas to provide them with the ability to maneuver through there on a training operation as though they were standing in Taipei," said Sean O'Connor, lead satellite image analyst at defence firm Janes.

Satellite images last year showed that China had built a 280km-long tunnel connecting the different replicas of Taiwan's government buildings to prepare for a scenario in which the country's leaders attempt to flee underground.

While it's not uncommon for countries to train with specific scenarios and enemies in mind, Monty Khanna, a former rear admiral in the Indian navy, said that the scale at which China had been training was "unprecedented."

And these satellite images show just how expansive it is.

The next set of satellite images reveal a mock-up of the Yokosuka Naval Base — America's largest naval base in Japan and one which would almost certainly be used in the event of a Taiwan contingency.

The US has more than 55,000 troops stationed in Japan — the largest number outside the US — as part of a security treaty between the two countries.

Experts previously told The Telegraph that the US forces especially in southern Japan would be the "tip of the spear" in a US response to a Chinese invasion.

As part of the Destroyer Squadron 15, there are 10 Arleigh Burke-class ships permanently stationed at Yokosuka.

"It's one of the most important US bases. If China attacked Taiwan, the Yokosuka Naval Base would presumably be involved so they include a model of Yokosuka for anti-access aerial denial drills," Lu Li-shih, a former lieutenant commander in Taiwan's navy, told The Telegraph.

Satellite images show mock-ups of warships stationed at the fake naval base.

Thomas Shugart, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a former US Navy submarine commander, identified a crater next to the fake warships, likely caused by a ballistic missile. The vessels were damaged in further strikes.

Along with Yokosuka, China has also built a replica of Taiwan's Su'ao Naval Base, a key maritime hub on the country's north-eastern coast, along with a model US Kidd-class destroyer moored at its port.

According to satellite imagery, the base was used in a live-fire test between January and February 2022 where a missile struck part of the pier and destroyed a black arch-shaped model that had probably been used to calibrate missile seekers.

While Su'ao isn't Taiwan's largest navy base, it's one of only a few located along the country's eastern coast — the farthest side of the island from China that is protected by a large mountain range.

Mr. Lu, the former lieutenant previously stationed at Su'ao, told The Telegraph that China probably chose to develop a model of this naval base because it was a more complex target.

"If they launch a rocket from China, it will have to go over Taiwan's mountains, so they need to practice launching the rockets at a particular angle, which they might not have to do if they were targeting a navy base on the west coast like Zuoying," said Mr. Lu, referring to Taiwan's largest naval base located on the western coast facing China.

The damage to the Su'ao model, as well as Yokosuka and the ship models, indicates numerous successful test-missile launches.

"These aren't close-range, controlled demonstrations. You're looking at missile launches from kilometres away… That alone points to credible long-range strike capability," Mr. Symon said.

The American ship models are probably being used as targets to test China's wide array of weapons, including the YJ-21 and YJ-17 hypersonic anti-ship missiles and the DF27 ballistic missiles, which can reach up to 8,000km.

All are capable of reaching Taiwan from China, even if fired from the country's more remote, inland launch ranges.

China has also built a mock-up of one of Taiwan's largest airbases, which is also used as a civilian airport servicing the central city of Taichung.

Dating back to 2002, it is one of the oldest mock-ups that China has and is also one of its most rudimentary, consisting only of lines in the sand.

Mr. O'Connor said that the model was located right next to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China's oldest rocket launch facility, which means it is probably used for weapons testing and to practice bombing runs.

Storming the capital

China also appears to be training to seize Taiwan's key government buildings, including its presidential office, foreign ministry and judiciary.

Satellite images show two separate mock-ups of the Bo'ai Special Zone in downtown Taipei where its government is located.

One of the mock-ups, which is located at the Zhurihe training grounds and dates back to 2014, focuses on the buildings, probably to simulate scenarios in which Chinese ground forces would storm the capital.

Imagery released on Chinese state media shows PLA soldiers on a training exercise in front of the presidential building model in 2015.

The second and newer model, located in the desert in Inner Mongolia, focuses more on the streets around the government buildings, with the angles of the roads and sizes of the city blocks closely imitating Taipei.

Mr. Shugart said that these models were very likely built for a "rehearsal."

"That's probably for practicing having ground troops taking those specific facilities," he explained.

In 2015, soon after the first replica of the presidential office was built, the PLA released a training video showing soldiers firing and charging towards it.

Along with military drills, experts also note that imagery of these models is a very effective way to send a message to all potential adversaries.

"It's messaging to Japan that 'if there's a fight, you're going to be in it.' It's messaging to the US that 'if you try to intervene, we're going to strike your bases.' And messaging to Taiwan that 'we are practicing to take your capital,'" said Mr. Shugart.

And the message is getting through. Countries across the world, especially in the Indo-Pacific have been increasing their defense budgets and boosting their weapons production and procurement, with many citing Chinese aggression as a key factor.

Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, said in May there was "rightful alarm regarding China's historic military buildup and the expansion of its military activities in the region and beyond."

The Axel Springer Global Reporters Network harnesses the resources of the company's newsrooms to publish ambitious scoops, investigations, interviews, opinion pieces and analysis. It allows journalists — including those from The Telegraph, Business Insider, POLITICO, WELT, BILD, Onet and Fakt — to collaborate on major stories for an international audience of hundreds of millions across platforms: online, print, TV and audio.

With summer temperatures rising and energy costs at all-time highs, a dirty window air conditioner isn't just gross, it's actively costing you money. Dust and debris force the compressor to work harder, while trapped moisture creates the perfect breeding ground for dangerous hidden mold. Whether you're digging your window AC out of storage or giving it a mid-summer refresh, a thorough deep clean is the easiest way to ensure you're getting the freshest, coldest air from your unit.

For our guide to the best air conditioners, I've tested and reviewed window air conditioners for five years. For this article, I talked to two HVAC contractors: Ray Bramble, owner of Aire Serv of Bull Run and Aire Serv of Central Shenandoah Valley, and Vincent Drago, owner of Mini King in Westchester County, New York. 

How to clean a window AC unit

You should clean your window air conditioner thoroughly at least once a year. The best time to clean is right before you install it for the season or right after you remove it since you can easily take the unit apart.

You will need the following materials:

• Warm water 
• A mild detergent 
• A pack of microfiber cleaning cloths
• Spray bottle with 3% hydrogen peroxide
• A fin comb
• A versatile screwdriver
• Protective gloves (optional)
• A can of compressed air (optional)
• One of our best vacuum picks (optional)
• An AC coil cleaner (optional)

Clean the filter

How often: When the "clean filter" light illuminates on the control panel or about once a month

How to

• Open the front grill: Unlatch and pull down the front cover of your unit.

• Remove the filter: Gently slide or pull the mesh filter out of its slot.

• Remove loose debris: Take the filter outdoors and shake it, or use a handheld vacuum to lift away dust.

• Wash and dry: Wash the filter in the sink using warm water and a few drops of dish soap or mild detergent. Allow the filter to air dry completely before reinstalling it. Never put a wet filter back into an AC unit.

Deep clean the coils and fins

How often: Annually or as needed

Deep cleaning your air conditioner involves cleaning the coils and fins. Window air conditioners have two sets of coils and fins: the condenser coils in the back and the evaporator coils in the front. Both are accessible by removing your unit's case. 

How to

• Take it outside: Both Drago and Bramble recommend cleaning your air conditioner outdoors because it can get messy.

• Remove the case: Take out the screws around the exterior case (usually located toward the bottom edge of the unit. "Take out any screws that you see around the case. Usually, they're going to be more toward the bottom around the edges," said Drago. Once you've removed the necessary screws, you can remove the face/control panel of the unit and pull the case straight up.

• Clear surface debris: Use a vacuum or compressed air to blow away loose dust from the interior.

• Comb the fins: Gently use a fin comb or soft-bristle brush to remove debris from the delicate metal fins. Avoid touching them with your bare hands, as the bed very easily.

• Apply cleaner: Tightly cover all electrical components with plastic to protect them from moisture. Spray the front (evaporator) and back (condenser) coils and fins with 3% hydrogen peroxide. Let it sit for 10 minutes.

• Rinse gently: Using a garden hose, lightly mist the coils and fins to rinse them. Do not use high pressure water, which will instantly bend the aluminum fins.

Scrub the interior

How often: Annually or as needed

• Vacuum the base: Use a handheld vacuum with a brush attachment to suck up accumulated dirt, dead bugs, and debris from the bottom pan.

• Protect electrical components: Double-check that the electrical components are still securely covered with plastic wrap or bags.

• Target mold zones: Spray the interior with 3% hydrogen peroxide, paying special attention to the drain pan and the fan blades — that's where mold is most likely to grow.

Rinse and drain: Hold the AC unit at a slight angle so water naturally drains out the back. Lightly spray down the interior with a hose. "Maybe spray it down one more time and get any of that hydrogen peroxide out of there," said Drago. "You don't want that sitting there and blowing back into the room."

Wipe down the exterior

How often: Annually

How to

• Wipe with a damp cloth: Run a damp microfiber cloth over the exterior casing and the accordion side curtains.

• Scrub stubborn spots: For stuck-on grime or sticky debris, use a soft-bristle brush and a mixture of warm water and mild detergent.

How to clean a window AC unit with mold

Drago recommended a deep clean of your window AC unit if you discover mold, performing all of the abovementioned steps. He noted that the fan blade and drip pan are common places where mold forms. 

Drago stressed the importance of using 3% hydrogen peroxide to scrub the interior. "That should kill most things," he said.

How to clean a window AC unit without removing it

The safest way to thoroughly clean your window air conditioner is to remove it from the window, but that's not always possible. Fortunately, there are some cleaning tasks you can do with the AC installed.

You can clean the front evaporator coils by removing the filter and front grill of your window AC. Use compressed air to blow dust and debris from the fins. A soft bristle brush or fin comb will also work if you are gentle and don't bend the fins. 

If you can access the AC from the outside, like, for example, if it's installed on the first floor of a building, you can clean the condenser coil. You can use the dry method described above or clean with water using a spray bottle or hose with a nozzle attachment. If you use water, make sure there is no power running to the AC and that the water will drain outside. If your AC is angled correctly, the water should drain outside.

Reassemble your AC

Before you reassemble your air conditioner, make sure it has dried, especially the filter. First, remove any plastic you may have used to cover the electrical components. Then fit the case back onto the unit. Loosely screw in all of the screws. Once all of the screws are in place, then you can tighten them. Lastly, you can reinstall the face/control panel and the filter. 

Insider's takeaway

Cleaning your window air conditioner will extend its lifespan, ensure it functions properly, and save you money in energy costs. It may be a pain the first time you do it, but it will get easier the more familiar you become with the process. Remember: An hour of effort will give you a summer of coolness. 

If you're frustrated with cleaning your window unit, you might want to consider one of the best portable air conditioners, which could be easier to clean. For a more in-depth comparison, check out our guide to portable air conditioners vs. window air conditioners.

Looking for a new air conditioner? Consider a few of the picks from our best air conditioner guide:

ea 

Dogs and cars are not always compatible, especially when you have to clean up the messes they leave behind in the backseat. My dog Lyla loves to roll in mud and swim on our outings, and while I want her to have the best time, I also want to protect my car's interior from dirt and water. Then there's the fur. Lyla is a big shedder, and no matter how often I lint-roll, I always find clumps of hair collecting on the seats and scattered across footwells. That's where the best dog car seat covers come in.

A good car seat cover should protect your car, be low-maintenance, and have a nonslip backing to prevent sliding. I set out to find covers that could trap dirt and debris before they reached the leather upholstery or footwells of my car. I tested nine different covers in my 2015 BMW X1, a compact SUV, using each one for two weeks with Lyla riding along for our usual hikes and trips to the park.

The Frisco Quilted Water-Resistant Bench Car Seat Cover earned the top spot, thanks to its practical quilted top that contained the fur and dirt Lyla tracked into the car without shifting around on the seat. Its waterproof fabric kept messes from reaching my leather seats, and the seat belt slots let people ride comfortably in the backseat. I also recommend two hammock-style covers that provide even more protection. If you're looking to keep your dog more secure in the backseat of your car, check out the best dog car seats we tested.

Read more about how Business Insider Reviews tests and researches pet products.

Our top picks for the best dog car seat covers

Best overall: Frisco Quilted Water-Resistant Bench Car Seat Cover - $42 at Chewy

Best hammock: Frisco Quilted Water-Resistant Hammock Car Seat Cover - $37 at Chewy

Best full-coverage: URPOWER Dog Car Seat Cover - $35 at Amazon

Best overall

The Frisco Quilted Water-Resistant Bench Car Seat Cover earned the top spot because it solved my biggest frustration: fur and dirt collecting on my seats and in the footwells. Unlike smooth covers that let debris slide around, this cover's quilted channels catch fur, dirt, tiny pebbles, and grass before they reach my leather upholstery or the floor of my car.

The woven polyester fabric was soft yet durable enough to handle Lyla's biggest messes, from muddy paws and dripping wet fur after swimming to her heavy shedding. When it was time to clean, I simply wiped away unwanted dirt and hair with a damp rag. Because the fabric is tightly woven, fur didn't get caught in the fibers, so I barely needed to use my lint roller to remove stubborn hairs. After machine washing and air-drying the cover, it looked nearly new.

Installation was a breeze, too. I looped the adjustable straps over the headrests and tucked the seat anchors into the crease between the seat back and cushion. The anchors, along with the grippy, nonslip backing, kept the cover in place while I drove. Even when my four-legged hurricane jumped around in the backseat, tossing her stuffed toy and digging at the fabric to get at it, the cover never budged.

My biggest complaint is the seat belt openings. They're useful if you occasionally have passengers, but I struggled to thread the buckles through the slots. It's also designed for only two passengers so there's no opening for the middle seat belt.

Best hammock

A hammock-style cover does more than protect your backseat. It covers the gap between the front and rear seats to prevent dirt and debris from collecting in the footwells and creates a barrier that helps keep your dog in the backseat. The Frisco Quilted Water-Resistant Hammock Car Seat Cover did both of those things well in my testing. I also appreciated the built-in storage pockets, which held treats, wipes, poop bags, a travel water bottle, and even an emergency nail clipper that I normally store in my back-of-seat pockets.

I tested the regular-size cover with Lyla, and it fit my compact SUV well. Senior pets editor Lisa Sabatini also has this cover installed in a mid-size sedan, and it's an excellent size. Installation was straightforward: I looped the adjustable straps over the front and rear headrests and pushed the seat anchors into the crease of the backseat. Like the Frisco Quilted Bench Cover, it has a grippy, nonslip underside that works in combination with the seat anchors to prevent shifting while driving. During one ride, Lyla dropped a pup cup into the small gap between the seat and the door and tried to retrieve it by digging. Despite her attempts to reach it, the cover stayed firmly in place.

The hammock kept Lyla from climbing into the front seat while still allowing her to see me. At first, she seemed anxious about the barrier, but she quickly got used to it. I also appreciated the extra protection it provided for the backs of my front seats. If your dog rides with a tethered harness, you can also thread a seatbelt through the openings on the left or right side, but not the middle seat. And if you need to make room for a backseat passenger, simply remove the straps from the front headrests and let the cover lie flat over the edge of the rear seat instead of hanging hammock-style.

The hammock design does have a drawback: It's bulkier than a bench cover. It was a tighter fit in my standard washing machine, so instead of washing as often as I normally would, I wiped it down more frequently.

Best full coverage

Of all the covers I tested, the URPOWER Dog Car Seat Cover offered the most comprehensive protection. It covered the entire backseat of my vehicle, including the seat cushions, the backs of the front seats, the foot wells, and the doors. The zippered door flaps are what set this hammock cover apart from the other covers. Once zipped into place, they created a barrier between Lyla and the door panels, preventing muddy paws from rubbing against the doors and protecting the armrests from nail scratches.

At the end of my two-week test, I found barely a tablespoon's worth of debris beneath the cover. Even after Lyla climbed into the car, soaking wet from a swim in the lake, no water seeped through to my seats. Since her thin coat drips so much water after a swim, reliable waterproofing is one of my biggest priorities in a car seat cover.

The biggest downside was having to unzip and rezip the door flaps every time Lyla got in or out of the car. I found the zippers on the flaps easily caught on the track, so it took some maneuvering each time. Once the flap was unzipped, however, it easily folded down and extended far enough that Lyla's dirty paws never touched the seat, eliminating any chance of transferring water or debris.

The instruction pamphlet recommends wiping the cover with a damp cloth or vacuuming instead of machine washing. I did both, but I also ran it through a normal cold-water wash cycle to see how it held up. After line-drying, I noticed a small amount of shrinkage, but the cover still fits my car well. I also found a few scratch marks from Lyla's nails on the door flaps after two weeks of testing. Despite being marketed as scratch-proof, the material showed some wear where she repeatedly scratched, but it didn't affect the cover's waterproofing or ability to contain dirt.

Our top picks compared

What else we tested

Molly Mutt Car Seat Cover: This cover is an excellent option if you're looking for unique prints, colors, or organic, nontoxic materials. It also has a versatile design and can be configured as a hammock, bench cover, or cargo cover. Ultimately, it didn't make my top picks because it isn't waterproof, making it less practical for muddy or wet dogs.

Frisco Water-Resistant Bench Car Seat Cover: This was the most affordable cover I tested, making it a good option for budget-conscious shoppers. However, you sacrifice quality in exchange for a lower price. It offered the least amount of backseat coverage, leaving the base of my seats exposed to dirt and debris.

Orvis Grip-Tight Quilted Hose-Off Hammock Seat Protector: This hammock-style cover provides full coverage, and cleaning is as simple as hosing it off. However, I noticed the lingering smell of wet dog after rinsing it, and it was the most expensive cover I tested, a price I could not justify.

PetSafe Happy Ride Quilted Bench Car Seat Cover: I appreciated how easy this cover was to install and clean, but it didn't make my final recommendations because it wouldn't stay securely in place. The bottom part of the cover repeatedly popped off the seat when I drove over bumps and potholes, allowing debris to slip underneath.

4Knines Rear Fitted Seat Cover, Black: This waterproof cover trapped dirt and debris, but I took off points because it slid around and left sections of my leather upholstery exposed.

Frisco Bolster Bench Car Seat Cover: If your dog likes to curl up and nap in the car, the padded bolster provides a cozy place to rest during long rides. In my testing, however, the bolster bent as the cover shifted around the seat, creating gaps where fur and dirt could fall onto my seats and into the footwells.

What to look for in a dog car seat cover

To identify the features that matter most beyond my own testing, I consulted two experts: Dr. Lori Teller, a veterinarian and clinical professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M University, and Duane "Doc" Watson, a technical trainer at Bosch Mobility Aftermarket, who specializes in car detailing and knows where most dog owners go wrong when it comes to protecting their vehicle against dirt and debris from pets.

Safety: A car seat cover will not protect your dog in an accident. "The most important way to ensure a pet's safety in a vehicle is to make sure it is restrained," Teller says. She recommends choosing a car seat cover that lets you secure your pet with a seat belt clip or a seat belt harness while driving.

Teller adds that while car seat covers will not protect a pet in an accident, they can help encourage pet guardians to keep their dogs in the backseat, where they are at lower risk of injury in common accident scenarios involving sudden stops or impacts that deploy front airbags. "Avoid putting your pet, even if harnessed or in a crate, in the front seat where a deployed air bag could cause injury or death to the pet," she says.

My top picks include seat belt openings so you can easily attach a safety harness. While my full-coverage pick from URPOWER also comes with a seatbelt attachment that you can secure around your dog's harness with a carabiner clip, it has not been third-party crash-tested and may not protect your dog in a crash. Instead, you can secure your dog with a Center for Pet Safety-certified harness, such as the Sleepypod Clickit Sport Plus Harness.

Compatibility: Watson says most covers will fit your car as long as you check the measurements against the manufacturer's recommendations. When in doubt, he says it's not a bad idea to size up to ensure more extensive coverage — although he emphasizes the importance of ensuring seat belt access to be able to secure your pet during transit, no matter the cover size.

It's also a good idea to look for covers with soft straps, reinforced stitching, and secure but nonabrasive anchor points to minimize damage to your vehicle during installation and use, especially if you have leather seats.

Watson says to look for covers made of tightly woven fabric to minimize the risk of dirt and fur getting caught in the fabric fibers. Tightly woven material will allow debris to sit on top of the fabric, making cleanup simple with a quick wipe-down or vacuum.

Ease of cleaning: While several of the covers I tested were machine washable, others recommended spot cleaning or vacuuming only. I found that the most practical covers were the ones I could wipe clean after a muddy hike, rather than immediately throwing them in the washing machine. If your dog gets dirty often, look for a cover with a tightly woven, water-resistant surface that sheds dirt and fur easily between washes.

Level of protection: The right amount of coverage depends on how much dirt and debris your pet tracks in. Hammock covers are the most comprehensive backseat protection, stretching over the footwells and underside of the seats to block hair and debris. Bench covers can still provide good protection, but they are better options for dogs that are low shedders and/or who don't track in a lot of dirt after walks. Some covers with seatbelt openings may allow debris through, even if the cover itself offers overall protection. To prevent this, you can lay a towel down over especially large seatbelt gaps.

Dog comfort: Look for matte or quilted covers as they give a dog's paws something to grip when the car is in motion. A slippery material can make a dog feel unstable and cause them to slip and fall while turning or braking.

How we tested dog car seat covers

I tested nine dog car seat covers in my 2015 BMW X1 over the course of the spring, using each one for two weeks with my 55-pound pit mix, Lyla. Most of the testing took place as part of our normal routine, including walks, hikes, errands, and trips to the lake. I also performed a series of hands-on tests to evaluate each cover's waterproofing, durability, stability, ease of cleaning, and overall protection.

Debris collection test: To measure how well each cover contained dirt and fur, I used it daily with Lyla for five days, then collected and measured the debris left on top of the cover, underneath it, and in the footwells. I compared those results with how much dirt accumulated in my car over the same period without a seat cover, which was nearly a cup of debris.

Waterproofing test: I poured ¼ cup of water onto each cover and checked whether any moisture seeped through to my leather seats. I also observed how well each cover contained the water instead of letting it run off the edges.

Stability and comfort evaluation: Lyla likes to roll around in the backseat on the way to her favorite walking spot, frequently digging at my leather seats as she walks back and forth along them. I paid close attention to whether the seat anchors and nonslip backing kept each cover securely in place as she moved around. Separately, I also took a fork to each cover and attempted to pull it away from the seat. I also noted how comfortable Lyla seemed during longer rides. Since she rarely lies down in the car, I took it as a good sign when she settled in for a nap.

Durability test: To simulate the wear caused by dog claws, I dragged a fork across each cover 25 times and inspected the fabric for scratches or damage. I also tugged firmly on the straps and anchor points to see whether the stitching or seams showed signs of stress.

Cleaning test: I followed each manufacturer's cleaning instructions, whether that meant machine washing, wiping the cover with a damp cloth, vacuuming, or hosing it off. For covers that weren't machine washable, I ran them through a normal cold-water wash cycle with standard liquid laundry detergent anyway to see how they held up. I also tested how easily dog hair could be removed with a lint roller. Finally, I compared the time and effort required to clean each cover with cleaning my car without one.

Day-to-day ease of use: Because convenience matters just as much as protection, I evaluated how easy each cover was to install, remove, and use over two weeks of everyday driving. I noted how well each one worked with passengers, how easy it was to access the seat belts, and whether it stayed securely in place through normal daily use.

Dog car seat cover FAQs

What is the average cost of a good dog seat cover?

Most of the best dog car seat covers I tested cost between $50 and $100. You can find options for less, but they typically sacrifice coverage, durability, or convenience. For example, many budget covers don't protect the footwells or the backs of the front seats and may lack features such as seat anchors or non-slip backing. I also tested a few premium covers priced above $100, but I didn't find that spending more necessarily resulted in better performance.

What fabric is most resistant to dog hair?

Only smooth, nonwoven materials, such as leather and vinyl, are resistant to pet hair. Watson says that tightly woven fabrics can, for the most part, prevent pet hair from getting tangled in the fibers. The best way to keep your car clean from pet hair is to lint roll and vacuum often; that way, you'll be able to prevent hair buildup, Watson says.

Will a car seat cover protect my leather seats from claw punctures?

Watson says durable, tightly woven, water-resistant materials like neoprene, canvas, and heavy-duty polyester hold up well against spills, a dog's nails, and everyday wear. A key feature to keep an eye on was tightly woven fabric, which can be less susceptible to cracking, shifting, and punctures from claws.

• Wealthy buyers and celebrities are increasingly choosing Florida for its tax benefits and weather.
• Athletes like Tom Brady and stars like Scott Baio are establishing themselves in the Sunshine State.
• A growing tech population is influencing the housing market down south, too.

For a lot of movers, affordability was a key driver in a move to Florida, and other perks, like great weather and no income tax, were a bonus. Now, Florida has become a less affordable option for some. But if you're a celebrity who can afford it, the other benefits outweigh the price.

Florida is often viewed as a last stop or a place to relax in retirement. And while that is the case for some, like Sylvester Stallone, who moved to Florida in 2023 after decades in California, others see an opportunity for Florida to be the next great business city.

Google cofounder Larry Page spent more than $170 million on two properties in South Florida — and brought his business with him — as California's taxes were too high.

The realignment of wealth has made some regions more popular than they were previously, but Florida in particular has emerged as a great place to call home for the wealthy.

Business Insider rounded up 16 celebrities and business leaders who have left various parts of the country to establish themselves — and, in some cases, their businesses — in sunny Florida, presented in alphabetical order by last name.

Scott Baio moved to Florida due to California’s homeless issue.

The "Happy Days" and "Charles in Charge" actor posted on X in May 2023 that he was leaving California after 45 years, citing the homeless issue in LA County.

"Florida is pretty much what America was like 50 years ago," Baio told Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo weeks after the post. "It's just people hanging out. Everything's wide open, it's free, the people that I meet are all just nice."

David Beckham bought a massive condo in Miami after taking ownership of its Major League Soccer team.

Retired soccer great David Beckham is spending more time in Miami these days.

He and his wife, Victoria Beckham, bought a $24 million, five-bedroom condo in 2020 that features a swimming pool and rooftop helipad. The couple moved to Miami after Beckham became co-owner and president of the Major League Soccer team Inter Miami CF.

"Miami is the gateway to the Americas, embracing people from all over the world, and Inter Miami CF was built to bring world-class football to this world-class city," Beckham wrote on his website of his interest in owning Inter Miami.

Jeff Bezos left Seattle's tech hub for a more laid-back city in Miami.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought a $68 million mansion in Biscayne Bay in August 2023. Two months later, he bought a seven-bedroom house next door for $79 million. In April, he bought another property in Florida — this time for $90 million.

Bezos said he was leaving Seattle, where his company is headquartered, for Miami to be closer to his parents and to the operations of the aerospace company he also founded, Blue Origin.

"I've lived in Seattle longer than I've lived anywhere else and have so many amazing memories here," Bezos said in an Instagram post. "As exciting as the move is, it's an emotional decision for me."

Tom Brady has lived in Florida since winning a Super Bowl in Tampa Bay.

After signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020, and winning a Super Bowl with the team before he retired from the NFL in 2023, Brady has stayed put in Florida.

First, he was living in a 1.2-acre mansion during his time as a Buccaneer while married to Gisele Bündchen (it was once owned by Derek Jeter).

Since his divorce, he's moved to Miami. The bachelor pad features floor-to-ceiling windows and an indoor/outdoor living space with a fireplace and pool, according to snapshots he's shared on Instagram.

"I was a native Californian for a long time in my life, went away from it for about 25 years, and you won't catch me dead living in the Northeast anymore," Brady said in 2020, referencing his time as a New England Patriot. "I'm loving the warm weather, and it's been a great feeling."

Guy Fieri has an estate near West Palm Beach that can dock a 100-foot yacht.

The king of "Flavortown" has spent most of his career on the West Coast, having gone to college in Las Vegas and building his restaurant empire in California. Now, as one of the major food personalities in the world and with his children growing up, he's thinking of the next chapter in his life.

Fieri bought a waterfront home near West Palm Beach in 2023 for $7.3 million, according to The Palm Beach Post.

The estate has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, 6,621 square feet of indoor living space, and a 5-foot infinity pool. Its 230-foot frontage on the Intracostal Waterway has enough room to dock a 100-foot yacht.

"Even a cloudy day in Florida is an awesome day," he said while opening up one of his Chicken Guy chains in Winter Park, Florida in 2023. "I will be in Florida way more than you know."

Citadel CEO Ken Griffin moved his family and his business to South Florida.

Ken Griffin founded the investment firm Citadel in 1990 in Chicago but has since ditched the Windy City for the warmer climate of Miami.

Griffin not only moved his firm — which has about $58 billion in assets managed — to Florida, he moved himself. He plans on building a $1 billion office for the new Citadel headquarters and isn't skimping on his own digs either.

In 2022, Griffin bought a waterfront property for more than $106 million, breaking the previous record (which he set himself the year before, after buying a home on Star Island for $75 million).

Karlie Kloss and Jared Kushner left Manhattan for South Florida.

Josh Kushner, venture capitalist and brother to Jared Kushner, left Manhattan for a $23.5 million property in Miami Beach in 2020.

Kushner and his wife, model Karlie Kloss, moved into an eight-bedroom, 14,000-square-foot mansion on a waterfront lot.

According to Architectural Digest, Kushner and Kloss bought another property in Manhattan in 2021, but property records show they still own their home in Miami Beach.

Lionel Messi enjoys his Fort Lauderdale mansion when he's not playing for Inter Miami CF.

Three years after taking the team, David Beckham acquired arguably the world's greatest soccer player.

Lionel Messi signed on to play for Inter Miami CF in 2023, and when he's not on the pitch, he enjoys his $10.75 million waterfront mansion in Fort Lauderdale.

The 10,500-square-foot two-story house has 10 bedrooms, nine bathrooms, two docks, and 170 feet of water frontage, according to the Miami Herald.

"It has been very easy, very easy," Messi said at a 2023 press conference about adapting to his new surroundings in Miami. "We were convinced we wanted to come here, and the people made it very easy, the people in the club and the people I see day to day in the streets and the amazing city, it makes living here very easy and happy."

Adam Neumann is establishing himself in Florida and has a large footprint to work with.

In 2021, WeWork cofounder Adam Neumann sold his Bay Area compound for $22.4 million and bought two properties in Miami.

Neumann bought two adjacent properties totaling 50,000 square feet for $44 million. The waterfront properties are located in an exclusive part of Miami Beach.

Google cofounder Larry Page is ditching California to dodge a proposed billionaire tax.

Come November 2026, Californians will vote to impose a one-time 5% tax on billionaires' net worth in California. Google cofounder Larry Page wasn't going to chance it, and reportedly bought two properties in Miami's Coconut Grove neighborhood.

The proposed bill would retroactively tax billionaires living in California as of January 1. Page, whose net worth is $269 billion, purchased his first Florida property in December 2025.

Page's two properties are worth upward of $170 million and are less than a mile apart. He also moved his businesses out of the Golden State.

Larry Robbins vacated New York to live in Florida, but will still commute for work.

Billionaire and hedge-fund manager Larry Robbins is leaving New York City, but he's not bringing his company with him.

Robbins, the CEO of Glenview Capital Management, bought a home in Palm Beach Gardens for $13.9 million earlier in 2024, according to The Real Deal.

Unlike other bosses who are moving their operations with them, Bloomberg reported that Robbins will keep the fund in New York while he commutes back and forth.

Judge Judy Sheindlin has been a fixture in Florida for years, and even a hurricane won't stop her from living there.

Judge Judy Sheindlin has been enjoying the Sunshine State for some time. For years, she and her husband have lived in Naples.

At one time, they owned an 8,550-square-foot condo with two private elevators and a sauna but put it on the market in 2015.

She then moved into a 10,000-square-foot mansion about a mile away that overlooks a man-made lake.

In 2022, a month after the devastation of Hurricane Ian through Florida, Sheindlin told "Good Morning America" that she lost a couple of cars due to the storm, but that wouldn't stop her from going back to Florida.

"We kissed goodbye a couple of cars, which went floating," she said. "But, generally speaking, we were luckier than most people down in Florida. And we're hoping to get back before the season ends."

Sylvester Stallone is enjoying life as an empty-nester in the Sunshine State.

After decades of living in Los Angeles, the iconic actor packed up for Florida in 2023.

The move was revealed in early 2024, when season two of his reality series, "The Family Stallone," aired.

"After a long, hard consideration, your mother and I have decided, time to move on and leave the state of California permanently, and we're going to go to Florida," Stallone told his kids. "We're going to sell this house."

Stallone and his wife, Jennifer Flavin, gave multiple reasons for the relocation, including the desire for a fresh start after their children moved out of the family home.

Howard Stern is enjoying life on his oceanfront property in Palm Beach.

The legendary shock jock spent decades living it up in the Hamptons, and now he's doing the same in Florida.

Stern bought the massive 20,000-square-foot oceanfront property in Palm Beach in 2013 for a reported $52 million.

The property is so desirable that in April, rumors spread that Jeff Bezos bought Stern's estate for $300 million. However, Page Six later reported that the rumors were false and that Stern even told the billionaire his place wasn't for sale.

"New York is the center of the world," Stern once told listeners of his show in 2015. "Why wouldn't everyone just move to Florida and build a New York there? I don't get it."

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner deserted DC and landed in Miami Beach.

Former president Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, reportedly spent $30 million in December 2020 on a waterfront lot on Indian Creek Island — a gated community home to a handful of celebrities.

When they bought the property, the home was billed as a "fixer-upper," and they spent years on renovations.

After leaving Washington, DC, but before moving into their new home, the couple rented a condo tower, Arte Tower, in Surfside, Florida, about a mile from their property.

Mark Wahlberg spent $37 million on a home on Florida's east coast.

Mark Wahlberg left Hollywood behind for Las Vegas in 2022, telling Fox News that he thought the move gave his children "a chance to thrive." Three years later, he bought a property nearly 2,500 miles away in Florida.

Wahlberg purchased a seven-bedroom mansion on Billionaires Row in Delray Beach, Florida, for $37 million. Developer Aldo Stark built the 17,800-square-foot home, and originally listed it for $45 million.

• Ben Mutz was looking for a 6-bedroom home for his blended family in Ohio.
• He used an app to contact the owners of his dream home, which wasn't originally on the market.
• Mutz developed a relationship with the owners that paid off when they eventually decided to sell.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ben Mutz, 39, a retired Air Force officer who bought a home that wasn't originally for sale in Oakwood, Ohio. Mutz used Unlisted, an app that allows prospective buyers to waitlist themselves on homes that are not yet on the market. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I'm recently engaged, and we're blending families, so I'm going from a three-bedroom home to a six-bedroom home. Our community's pretty small, with about 1,200 homes.

There aren't a whole lot of six-bedroom homes in our neighborhood — we'll have five kids between my fiancée and me — so we were already working with a very limited market.

I've moved quite a bit — this is my seventh duty station, and I've probably lived in about 15 houses between those seven different stops. So I'm very familiar with the moving process, both from a rental as well as from an ownership standpoint.

I rented the house I was in for two years, and I decided to purchase it. I did the entire process without an agent, and it really opened my eyes to see that there's a different way of doing things than the traditional way. There are a lot of tools that are out there and readily available, where you can facilitate your own sale in an easier way.

When I first heard about Unlisted, it was getting off the ground. I was like, "Wow, this is an amazing concept." I was able to use the platform to search and see which six-bedroom homes are available.

After a few months, I found our dream home: It had the square footage, the size, and the number of bedrooms. The listing had a couple of photos, and it had a cool story about the home and some of the history behind it. I favorited it, and I was added to the waitlist.

Then, through the grace of God and a little bit of good luck, a couple of months later, someone mentioned to me that their neighbor was moving. I was like, "Oh, cool, where are they located?" They told me, and I was able to cross-reference on Unlisted and said, "That's on my list."

I got in touch with the owners last fall through Unlisted, and over the course of a couple months, we were able to execute the sale. I closed in July 2026.

I built a relationship with the owners before they decided to sell

On the seller side of Unlisted, you can claim your property; you can update pictures and add your own owner evaluation. The owner had an evaluation which told me, "Hey, we're potentially open to selling."

I developed an incredible friendship with them. Over the course of about six months, we would text about sports, we would text about life, share photos of our kids and of our dogs. We built the connection that you don't traditionally get in a normal home sale.

It was a long process, but part of the reason it took so long was that the homeowners weren't retiring until June. So we agreed on a price in November, and as their retirement plans firmed up, in March, I said, "Hey, we probably need to have a contract in place."

My dad is a very skeptical man, and he was like, "If you don't have a contract, they're going to find out they can get more money, and you may lose this house before you know it."

When I reached out to them, they said, "Ben, we consider you family. We are good." And I thought, "All right, the pressure's off." I don't have to worry about losing the house. We can do it at our own pace.

Because we've developed such a friendship through the process, we were flexible with the closing being around their retirement day. It was a timeframe that worked well for both of us.

We live in a very active real estate market, where if a home comes to market and it's a good deal, it's usually sold within two or three days.

I bought our house for $800,000, but it appraised at $960,000, so I feel that we got an incredible deal.

If it had hit the market, it would have sold very quickly and probably for more than what we were able to negotiate.

Using Unlisted was different than any other home transaction

On other listing sites, you're limited by what's out there for sale.

Yes, you can pull up any house on Zillow, and it's going to give you the overview, but you don't know if that family moved in 20 years ago, one year ago, or whether they have any intentions of ever considering moving.

The house that I purchased was not the only one that I inquired about on Unlisted. I was able to talk with a few other families on there about their home, and they emailed over pictures, and some of them weren't within our price range, or some of them were not a fit from a layout standpoint.

I've done traditional home sales with real estate agents where we know it's going to be a competitive market, so we've written a personalized note so the owners see us not only as buyers, but as a family that will continue the next legacy in their home.

The value of an interpersonal connection with a buyer and seller is always important, but Unlisted allowed us to go directly to them. Normally, your agents are the middleman and middlewoman facilitating the deals, but we were able to very quickly get to know each other and really get connected on a personal level in a different way than I've ever done through any other home transaction.

The homeowners were going to retire and move out of state regardless. But it was the personal connection that we built with them that helped us secure the home. They loved our story of two families coming together, and the home we're moving into is 100-plus years old with a deep history.

They were genuinely excited for us to get the opportunity to live there and make it the next chapter of the home's story.

The best players in the WNBA have gathered in Chicago, and if you're hoping to tune in, you've come to the right place. We've gathered everything you need to know about where to watch the WNBA All-Star Game, including live streaming options for those without cable.

The WNBA All-Star Weekend finishes off with a showdown between Team Spoon and Team Coop, bringing together 22 of the league's best. The game will air on ABC in the US, which means that fans can watch on multiple live TV streaming services, including ESPN Unlimited. Keep reading to learn about some of the best watch options and which players are on each team. If you're hoping to watch the rest of the season, check out our where to watch WNBA games streaming guide.

Where to watch the WNBA All-Star Game in the US

The WNBA All-Star Game airs on ABC in the US. The game officially tips off on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET, but the network's WNBA Countdown coverage begins at 8.

There are several ways to live stream the game for fans without cable or an antenna. ESPN and ESPN on ABC's direct streaming counterpart is ESPN Unlimited, which costs $30 a month and unlocks the full suite of live streaming content found across ESPN networks.

You can also catch ABC through a live TV service, such as YouTube TV or Fubo. ABC is available in both of YouTube TV's plans. The main plan costs $83 a month, but new users can get $15 a month off their first five months thanks to a limited-time deal. Sports plans are also on sale. Typically $65 a month, new users can get their first year for just $55 a month. Both YouTube TV subscriptions also come with free trials for first-time customers.

Fubo also carries ABC in multiple plans, including its $65 a month Sports + News package. New users can get $10 off their first month. The network is also available in the platform's pricier packages, which usually offer over 200 channels. All Fubo plans come with a free trial for new customers.

Additionally, WNBA fans will be able to stream the game through Disney Plus. Subscriptions start at $12 a month, or you can try one of the many Disney Plus bundles.

How to watch the WNBA All-Star Game from anywhere

WNBA fans traveling abroad can still keep up with their usual streaming methods by using a VPN. Short for virtual private networks, VPNs are handy tech tools that let people temporarily change their virtual locations. This way, their favorite websites and apps work just like they would back home. Using a VPN is also an easy way to boost cybersecurity. Since the services we've recommended require US methods of payment, this option will work best for Americans who are simply traveling away from home right now.

NordVPN is one of the best VPNs on the market. It's fast, easy to use, and has a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can learn more in our NordVPN review.

Where will the 2026 WNBA All-Star Game take place?

The WNBA All-Star Game is held at the United Center in Chicago. Although the Chicago Sky normally play at Wintrust Arena, where the skills All-Star events took place on Friday night, the United Center is a larger venue. Chicago previously hosted the All-Star Game in 2022.

WNBA All-Star Rosters

Team Spoon

Team Spoon (after Teresa Weatherspoon) will be coached by Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve. The roster includes:

Starters

• Caitlin Clark
• A'ja Wilson
• Olivia Miles
• Aliyah Boston
• Jessica Shepard

Reserves

• Rhyne Howard
• Allisha Gray
• Jonquel Jones
• Courtney Williams
• Kiki Iriafen
• Nneka Ogwumike

Team Coop

Team Coop (after Cynthia Cooper) will be coached by Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon. The roster includes:

Starters

• Paige Bueckers
• Breanna Stewart
• Kelsey Mitchell
• Natasha Howard
• Gabby Williams

Reserves

• Angel Reese
• Marina Mabrey
• Dominique Malonga
• Kelsey Plum (injured, replaced by Kahleah Copper)
• Jackie Young
• Sonia Citron

Note: The use of VPNs is illegal in certain countries, and using VPNs to access region-locked streaming content might constitute a breach of the terms of use for certain services. Business Insider does not endorse or condone the illegal use of VPNs.

• Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue has some asks of OpenAI after an "unprecedented" security breach.
• He said he asked OpenAI to release all the traces from the "rogue" agent running on its models.
• He also asked OpenAI for $100 million in compute to bolster Hugging Face's cyber defenses.

Even in the AI age, some conversations are best had in person.

Last week, after Hugging Face suffered an unusual security breach involving an AI agent running on OpenAI models, the company's CEO, Clem Delangue, boarded a flight to San Francisco to meet with the maker of ChatGPT.

A week later, in the "spirit of transparency," Delangue shared on X what he asked of OpenAI. He said he asked the leading AI startup to release all the "traces" of the rogue agent for the public and research community to study. And then he asked for $100 million worth of "compute" to help Hugging Face bolster its cyber defenses.

"The first autonomous agent cyberattack is an unprecedented event," he wrote. "It deserves an unprecedented response!"

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Hugging Face operates a widely used platform that enables developers and companies to host, share, and download AI models and datasets. OpenAI, meanwhile, builds proprietary models, but maintains a presence on Hugging Face, where versions of some of its open models and research materials are available.

Last week, however, Hugging Face was struck with a security breach when an autonomous AI agent accessed some of its internal datasets. The culprits: OpenAI's latest models, GPT‑5.6 Sol, and a new model yet to be released.

Hugging Face first disclosed the intrusion on July 16, saying an autonomous agent had accessed a limited number of internal datasets and service credentials.

Five days later, OpenAI said that GPT-5.6 Sol and a more powerful, unreleased model had been undergoing an internal cybersecurity evaluation with some safety restrictions reduced. The models were attempting to solve ExploitGym, a benchmark designed to test advanced hacking abilities.

OpenAI said the models appeared narrowly focused on succeeding at the benchmark rather than intentionally targeting Hugging Face. The company called the episode an "unprecedented cyber incident" and said it was working with Hugging Face on the investigation.

News of the hack elicited a worried response from tech leaders. Billionaire LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman said in an X post last week that the hack signaled the dawn of a new era of asymmetric warfare where "offense gets cheaper, more distributed, and more numerous, while defense stays expensive, centralized, and designed for the last war."

Delangue, meanwhile, made the most of his trip to San Francisco. While there, he organized a "mini march" on Saturday in support of open-source and open-weight AI models. The debate over open-sourced competition from China, and how the United States might respond, was the other big AI story of last week.

• For my husband's 50th birthday, we traveled the world and did our first African safari together.
• We saw elephants, giraffes, and many other animals up close, and had dinner in the bush.
• One day of safari would've been enough, but we had a good experience, and the price felt fair.

Business-class airline tickets were already booked for us to fly around the world for my husband's 50th birthday. Then he threw me a curveball: An African safari was on his bucket list, too.

I wanted to fulfill his wish while keeping money and time constraints in mind. After all, when I heard "African safari," all I could see was dollar signs — and not in a good way.

Plus, we had only seven days in South Africa, not including the travel days in and out of Johannesburg and Cape Town.

After a deep dive into Google searches and countless reviews, I booked a three-day, two-night safari for two in Kruger National Park through SafariWithUs for around 27,000 rands, which converted to just under $1,500 at the time. It included transportation in an air-conditioned van, hotel accommodations, and two meals a day.

The safari experience was more affordable than I expected, and I hoped it'd be a great value, too.

Although we were nervous, our trip got off to a strong start

On the first day of the safari, we waited anxiously at our hotel in Johannesburg for our ride.

Up until then, every detail of the safari had been handled over email. So, when our friendly driver arrived, we breathed a sigh of relief.

On the way to our lodge, he stopped at Alzu Petroport, which he called "the world's best gas station," where we could stretch our legs for a bit. It had tons of items for sale and several restaurants inside, plus it was surrounded by nature. Just outside, we spotted rhinoceros, giving us a cool preview of the wildlife we would see.

We arrived at the lodge around mid-afternoon. My husband can't sleep without air conditioning, so he was relieved to discover a unit in our room.

After settling in and a quick rest, it was time for our first game drive.

Our first day included close calls and dinner in the bush

One guide drove the safari vehicle, which was covered on top but otherwise completely open to the elements.

The other pro on board, the tracker, sat in a chair on the hood of the vehicle. It looked like he was barely hanging on, and I thought it was cool and also scary.

We spotted giraffes, hyenas, elephants, and a large herd of water buffalo. We also saw impalas, known as the "McDonald's" of the bush, our guide said.

Like the fast-food chain, they're everywhere and an abundant food source (in this case, for lions, leopards, and cheetahs). The nickname gets funnier when you notice the black markings in the shape of an "M" on their light-colored behinds.

Later, we had a close encounter with a young elephant, who seemed to be guarding his mother. I was sitting on the right side of the vehicle, the same side as the elephants, and my husband kept telling me to scoot in closer.

As we slowly drove past, the young elephant suddenly let out a loud trumpet, making us both jump. After our hearts stopped pounding, we laughed.

The night wrapped up with a dinner deep in the bush at a secluded spot I have no idea how the guides even found.

Despite being in the wild, the guides managed to set up an elegant dinner table complete with dim lighting and folded napkins.

We had chicken and a yummy sausage with vegetables, all cooked over an open flame. A hyena nicknamed "Bob" lurked nearby while we ate.

The experience was worth it, but I would've been happy with a shorter trip

Honestly, that one day and evening of safari was enough for me. I would have been perfectly happy heading back to Johannesburg after breakfast the next morning.

In my view, days two and three didn't add a whole lot more to our experience. We saw different animals like hippopotami, zebras, lions, and an ostrich, but otherwise it was much of the same.

We definitely could've saved money and still had a great experience by booking a shorter trip.

It's also definitely possible to do a safari of this length for two for less than $1,500, especially if you opt for self-drive safaris and campsites instead of hotels.

Even so, our experience felt like a solid value. For our first time on a safari, I appreciated having knowledgeable (and armed!) guides who knew the lay of the land, behavior of the animals, and how to time our drives for the best sightings.

Even as manufacturers improve smartphone durability, going without a case remains a risky endeavor. It only takes one drop to shatter your screen or dent your device's structure, ruining it and racking up a hefty repair bill. That's why I always recommend using a case for your smartphone, no matter how careful you are. With the release of Samsung's new foldables, I've gathered the best Galaxy Z Fold 8 cases available now below.

Pickings are slim for foldables, especially new ones. The phones are just more complicated, with hinges, external screens, and other hardware to account for, so the market isn't saturated with many options upon release. That said, you can still find protective options from Samsung, Spigen, Otterbox, and more.

The best Galaxy Z Fold 8 Cases

• Browse more cases at Amazon | Otterbox | Dbrand

What is the best Galaxy Z Fold 8 case?

As with most any product recommendation, the best one to buy depends on your needs. For clumsy users with unstable grips, a protective case like the Otterbox or Fntcase. Aesthetically inclined shoppers might prefer the abstract design of Pitaka cases or the vast library of Dbrand. Samsung loyalists will love Samsung's carbon case.

Do Galaxy Z Fold 7 cases fit the Galaxy Z Fold 8?

Previous-generation Z Fold cases will definitely not fit the Galaxy Z Fold 8. With its new, shorter, and wider design, Samsung has created a phone unlike any of its previous foldables.

What screen protector should I get?

If you're also shopping for a screen protector, I applaud you. Not only is protecting your phone's body important, but shielding its display is also paramount. You can find a handful of no-name options on Amazon, but I recommend this Spigen option since it's a brand we've tried and trusted before.

Haven't ordered your device yet? Check out the best Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 deals in our guide.

Follow us on Instagram and WhatsApp for the latest deals, reviews, and buying guides.

• Some of the biggest names in tech organized a full-throated defense of open-weight AI models.
• On Friday, over two dozen companies, organizations, and platforms released an open letter.
• Among the signatories are Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, and Mistral.

In his first-ever post on X, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called attention to how some of the biggest names in AI and tech are rallying together to defend the future of open-weight AI models.

"AI will transform every industry, power every company, and be built by every country," Huang wrote on X. "Open models strengthen safety and cybersecurity, accelerate innovation and diffusion, and enable sovereignty."

On Friday, Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, Mistral, and others signed an open letter that urges US policymakers not to crack down on open-weight AI models.

Their statement amounts to a full-throated endorsement of open-weight AI models at a time when top Trump administration officials have suggested they might take action against Moonshot AI, the creator of the Kimi K3, the world's most powerful open-weight AI model.

"Our AI leadership will be judged not by one frontier AI model, but by whether the United States builds a strong, open ecosystem that diffuses into every sector," the signatories wrote in the letter.

When the letter was initially published, the two biggest absences were OpenAI and Anthropic, widely viewed as the world leaders in the frontier AI model race. However, by Friday evening, OpenAI also signed on, adding its name to the list of signatories published by Microsoft.

Unlike Anthropic's Fable 5 and OpenAI's GPT-5.6-Sol, Kimi K3, as an open-source model, will soon be available for download and customization. Both companies would stand to gain if the US government either directly blocks or significantly impedes China-based open model makers like Moonshot AI.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said earlier on Friday he was "glad to see" the support for open weight models.

"i want the US to win in AI both in open source and proprietary models," Altman wrote on X. Under his post, a community note, which was still present after OpenAI was added to the signatories list, claimed OpenAI had "refused" to sign the letter.

While SpaceXAI is not listed as a signatory, Elon Musk later signaled his support for the message. "This has my full support," Musk wrote on X, quoting Huang's tweet. "Jensen is right."

Google also has not yet officially signed the letter. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, however, showed his support on Saturday. He agreed with Huang in a post on X. "Very happy to support this on behalf of Google," he wrote.

That leaves Anthropic as the only major AI company yet to support open-source models.

While the letter does not mention Moonshot specifically, its authors portray the broader development of open AI models as akin to how open software revolutionized computing in the 1980s.

"Open source did more than lower the cost of software; it created a shared foundation of knowledge on which generations of American engineers and entrepreneurs built their institutional sovereignty," they wrote.

China has thus far dominated the development of open-weight AI models, despite the US' legendary reputation in the creation of open-source software. Two of the biggest modern names in open software, Mozilla and the Linux Foundation, also signed onto the letter.

In the US, Nvidia's Nemotron model is one of the largest open weight models, though its performance pales in comparison to rivals like Kimi K3. Alexandr Wang, chief AI officer of Meta, has said that his Meta Superintelligence Labs team remains committed to open models and is developing an open variant of its Muse Spark model. Reflection AI, a startup founded by former Google DeepMind researchers, is also preparing its own open model.

On Wednesday, Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, publicly accused Moonshot of developing Kimi K3 by distilling the model from Anthropic's Fable 5. Distillation, the process of training a weaker model on the outputs of a stronger one, is a controversial yet widely used practice in AI development. At the same time, companies like Anthropic have accused their Chinese counterparts of abusing the distillation process to the point of essentially ripping off their intellectual property.

Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that the US could sanction companies that engage in such distillation, which he compared to theft.

The letter defends the distillation process more broadly, but it does open the door to the possibility that companies like Nvidia, Microsoft, and Meta would support a crackdown on those proven to be bad actors.

"Unlawful efforts to extract value from closed models raise legitimate concerns," they wrote. "Those concerns should be addressed through targeted legal and commercial frameworks rather than sweeping restrictions on techniques that play an important role in AI innovation."

In total, a combination of 32 companies, organizations, and platforms signed on to the letter as of Friday evening. They are the American Innovators Network, Andreessen Horowitz, Arcee AI, Arena, Black Forest Labs, Box, Cisco, Cohere, CrowdStrike, Dell Technologies, DoorDash, Emergence Capital, Fireworks AI, GitHub, Hugging Face, IBM, The Linux Foundation, Mariana Minerals, Meta, Microsoft, Mistral, Mozilla, Nvidia, OpenAI, Palantir, Palo Alto Networks, Perplexity, Reflection, Replit, ServiceNow, Telnyx, and Y Combinator.

• Gardening helps my family save up to $500 monthly on produce.
• It also helps my children appreciate food, teaching them the value of homegrown produce.
• Despite initial upfront costs, it offers ongoing savings and an unexpected sense of stillness.

If you had asked me five years ago whether I'd be spending part of my morning checking on tomato plants or celebrating the first strawberry of the season, I would have laughed.

Between raising two daughters with my husband and running two businesses, my days are carefully orchestrated. My calendar is filled with client meetings, strategy sessions, school pickups, and the thousand small responsibilities that come with parenting. Gardening simply didn't fit into the picture I had of my life.

I've also never been someone who meticulously tracked grocery prices or planned shopping trips around weekly sales. Convenience usually wins. But over the last few years, even someone like me couldn't ignore how dramatically the cost of fresh food has changed.

It wasn't that we suddenly couldn't afford groceries. It was the realization that we were spending an astonishing amount on produce that disappeared almost as quickly as we brought it home.

My 7-year-old daughter could happily eat strawberries every day if we let her. Fresh herbs rarely lasted the week before wilting. Tomatoes, cucumbers, salad greens, and blueberries were staples in our home, yet I felt like I was constantly replacing them.

Then my mom offered a suggestion that completely changed how I thought about our grocery bill.

My parents have always had incredible gardens. Growing up, our yard was filled with flowers, herbs, and vegetables, and in recent years, it expanded into a greenhouse that produces everything from corn to melons to peppers and so much more. I admired what they had built, but I viewed it as a retirement hobby, not something realistic for me as a busy entrepreneur.

One afternoon, after hearing me complain once again about how quickly my daughters were working their way through yet another container of strawberries, my mom simply said, "Why don't you just grow them?"

When she told me their garden was saving them between $100 to $200 every month during the growing season (which is May through October, where we live in Maryland), my perspective shifted. The financial savings were impressive, but what intrigued me even more was the possibility of becoming a little less dependent on constant trips to the grocery store.

I started off small

I decided to start with what felt manageable: a few tomato plants, mint, basil, and a handful of herbs.

There was no grand plan to become self-sufficient or transform my backyard into a miniature farm. I simply wanted to see whether growing a few things myself would make a meaningful difference.

It did.

What began as a small experiment gradually evolved into something bigger. Each season, I found myself adding another fruit, another vegetable, another lesson. Three years later, our garden produces strawberries, blueberries, collard greens, broccoli, squash, peppers, watermelon, cucumbers, onions, potatoes, lettuce, herbs, and more.

The financial impact surprised me, too. During peak growing season, our garden offsets roughly $500 worth of produce for our family of four each month. The items that once seemed to dominate every grocery receipt are often waiting just steps outside our back door instead.

Fresh herbs are probably the most satisfying example. Before gardening, I'd spend money on basil, cilantro, parsley, or mint only to use a portion before the rest inevitably spoiled in the refrigerator. Now, I harvest exactly what I need moments before cooking. Nothing goes to waste because nothing sits forgotten in the produce drawer.

The same is true for tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and lettuce. Instead of adding them to every grocery list, we're picking them ourselves for salads, sandwiches, or dinner that evening.

Gardening is still an investment of time and money

Of course, gardening isn't free. There are upfront costs for raised beds (about $225), soil ($100), fertilizer ($60), tools ($100), and seeds and plants ($60).

There are also disappointments. Not every seed thrives. Some crops produce more than others. Pests like caterpillars, slugs, and Japanese beetles occasionally remind you that you're sharing the harvest with nature.

But unlike so many household expenses, the investment continues paying dividends season after season for our family. Many plants return each year, and every growing season teaches me how to become more efficient than the last.

The most meaningful return, however, has had nothing to do with money. My daughters now understand that food simply doesn't appear on grocery shelves. They've watched tiny seedlings become meals we share around our kitchen table. They celebrate the first ripe strawberry of summer. They race outside to see whether another watermelon has grown overnight. Vegetables become infinitely more exciting when they've helped water them and patiently waited for them to mature.

As someone whose professional life revolves around strategy and deadlines, gardening has also become an unexpected form of stillness. There is something profoundly grounding about stepping outside before opening my laptop, harvesting vegetables for dinner, or watering plants without checking my phone every few minutes.

Ironically, what I once dismissed as another responsibility has become one of the few activities that consistently pulls me into the present moment.

• Ellie Bamber trained for more than two years to portray Kate Moss.
• Her trainer focused on strength training instead of excessive cardio.
• The approach avoided calorie counting and restrictive dieting.

It was the era of heroin chic. When iconic supermodel Kate Moss was at the height of her modeling career in the 1990s, she was often pictured at clubs with a cigarette, a far cry from today's trends of Pilates and matcha lattes.

So when actor Ellie Bamber came to play Moss in the recently released movie "Moss & Freud," she had her work cut out. How to create Moss's supermodel physique without resorting to unhealthy methods?

She worked with trainer Luke Worthington

Bamber, who has also starred in "Red, White & Royal Blue" and "William Tell," worked with film and TV personal trainer Luke Worthington to prepare to embody Moss, a process that ultimately took years due to various filming delays.

Worthington and Bamber started working together in January 2022 and focused on film prep from December of that year, expecting to shoot in summer 2023. Filming was postponed until spring/summer 2024. They also had to contend with a fractured ankle, but they got Bamber ready to play Moss with a startling likeness.

"Ultimately, it wasn't going to be a perfect like-for-like, but we wanted to try to get as close to Kate as we could, but it was really important for both of us that I remained really healthy," Bamber told Business Insider. "One of the goals was also for me to feel good, because I'm nude quite a lot in the film and that's kind of daunting in itself, so I just wanted to feel really in tune with my body and really confident."

In 2017, Kate Moss told The Guardian that she never used to eat salads or go to the gym. "Ellie was portraying somebody who perhaps wasn't overly health-conscious at that particular phase of their life, but compromising her health was never going to be something that we would consider," said Worthington.

Here's how they made it happen.

High-intensity strength training

Bamber did high-intensity strength training at least three times a week, sometimes as many as five or six, but the extra sessions were a bonus. They would typically ratchet up training before supposedly starting filming, and then dial back to a more sustainable routine when things got delayed.

Worthington had Bamber working in tri-sets consisting of an upper-body exercise, a lower-body exercise, and a core exercise, back-to-back. This means that the blood rushes from one area of the body to another, improving cardiovascular capacity and building strength.

"For example, she's doing a set of squats and a set of push-ups. If you do those on their own, they are strengthening exercises. If you do them back to back, there's the metabolic demands, the caloric demand of that goes exponentially higher," Worthington said. "So, by being smart about how we grouped exercises together, it meant that we could be quite efficient with the workouts and not keep her in the gym for hours. She's getting free cardio, basically."

When Bamber fell off a horse while filming a different movie and broke her ankle, training had to be a little more creative. Alongside seeing a physio, Bamber would come to the gym on crutches with her boot on, and Worthington would have her do modified exercises targeting the rest of her body.

Slimming without calorie-counting

Strength training was also an important part of helping Bamber maintain muscle mass while sculpting a supermodel physique through a gentle calorie deficit.

"I love pasta, and I still want to be able to go out for dinner with my friends," Bamber said, so she didn't want to follow a restrictive diet plan.

With that in mind, there was no calorie-counting or weighing herself. They used photos to track Bamber's progress and aimed for a calorie deficit of no more than 10% (without strictly tracking). Worthington suggested loosely measuring portion sizes using her hands. The aim was to make slow, gradual changes, he said.

"Slow and steady wins the race, and we communicated all the time about how Ellie's energy, mood, and concentration were, so we could see if we were pushing too hard," Worthington added.

She often drank smoothies for breakfast

When she needed a weekend "off," she had it.

"The harder it is for someone, the less easy it is for them to stick to it," Worthington said. "So if we make one change at a time, and try to keep those changes manageable, you've got more of a chance of sticking to it, which means you get the result that you want."

The nutrition strategy evolved: For most of the prep, Bamber tried to eat six portions of cruciferous vegetables (like broccoli and cauliflower) per day, meaning she filled up on low-calorie, high-volume, nutritious foods. The focus was on adding, rather than subtracting.

She often drank a breakfast smoothie consisting of greens, fruit, protein, and flax seeds. "It was an easy way of getting a load of nutrients and a good amount of protein at the start of the day without excessive calories," Worthington said. This then evolved to a yogurt bowl with skyr and similar ingredients.

While recovering from her fractured ankle, she moved to an intentional calorie surplus with plenty of protein to promote healing for six weeks.

Later in the process, Bamber began intermittent fasting while maintaining flexibility. If filming started early, she would eat earlier to have enough energy.

"It was about finding a balance of pushing myself as hard as I could, but then also knowing that if I needed to back off, that was OK," said Bamber.

• After attending pastry school in France, I've learned the secrets to creating the perfect desserts.
• I often see home bakers make the same mistakes, like using expired leaveners or crowding the oven.
• Other common mistakes include overmixing the batter and opening the oven too frequently.

I'm a full-time baker who has attended pastry school in France, completed a baking course in China, and worked in several bakeries in New York City.

After working in the industry for many years and making dozens of cakes, croissants, and cookies, I've learned the secrets for success when making a dessert — even if it's not in the luxury of a professional kitchen.

Here are the seven most common mistakes I see from home bakers, and how to fix them.

Measuring ingredients by volume instead of using a kitchen scale can lead to inconsistent results.

No matter what I'm baking, I avoid measuring cups whenever possible, since they're not very precise and can lead to pastries that are either too dry or too wet.

The volume in a cup can vary depending on how tightly the ingredient is packed, how it's scooped, and whether it's leveled correctly.

To prevent inaccuracies, I like to use a kitchen scale instead. This allows me to measure out the exact same amount of each ingredient, so I always know I'm getting consistent results.

Plus, I find it makes scaling recipes up or down much easier.

I often see bakers make adjustments to a recipe without understanding the science.

Once a treat goes into the oven, the batter or dough triggers several chemical reactions before it's fully baked.

So, trying to adjust ingredients or make substitutions without fully understanding their role in a recipe might drastically impact the taste.

Sugar, for example, does much more than add sweetness. It attracts and retains moisture, helps baked goods brown, and supports the spread and texture of cookies and cakes. Reducing it too much can produce a dessert that is not only less sweet but also drier, denser, paler, and less tender.

For reliable results, I always follow the recipe as written the first time. And whenever I make adjustments, I change only one ingredient at a time and consider its effect on the final product.

Overmixing the batter can lead to tough pastries.

I find that many home bakers tend to overmix their dough or cake batter, resulting in a tough, dense texture.

For many kinds of baked goods, I think it's best to simply mix until combined.

Instead of using a stand mixer, I like to use a spatula and mix in the remaining dry ingredients by hand.

Using expired baking powder, baking soda, or yeast is a recipe for disaster.

Before baking anything, I always double-check that my leaveners — like baking soda, baking powder, or yeast — are not expired.

If the expiration date has passed, those ingredients will not have the strength to make a cake or any baked good rise, resulting in poor texture.

Opening the oven too often results in a drier bake.

If I ever open the oven door while something is baking, heat will inevitably escape, lowering the temperature, extending the baking time, and potentially causing the pastry or cake to lose moisture.

Opening the door too early can be especially damaging to delicate bakes like cakes, soufflés, and choux pastry, since the sudden temperature change can interrupt the rising process and cause them to sink or collapse.

As tempting as it is to peek, I always keep the oven door closed for at least the first two-thirds of the recommended baking time.

Whenever I need to check the progress, I'll use the oven light and watch through the window, then open the door only when I'm ready to rotate the pan or test for doneness.

Overcrowding the oven with multiple pans prevents desserts from baking evenly.

Adding too many pans to an oven can affect the cook time, as each pan absorbs heat from the other, leading to uneven baking.

To prevent this, I recommend using the convection setting to circulate heat more evenly, or rotating pans between the upper and lower racks while baking.

I never like to leave the dishes to the end.

Baking often requires a lot of bowls and dishes for each step, but allowing them to pile up can make the process feel overwhelming.

While my pastries are in the oven or the dough is chilling, I like to use that time to wipe down the countertops and wash some dishes.

This way, I can enjoy the final product without stressing over the mess.

• My father was once a poet, musician, and chess champion.
• Alzheimer's has changed his memory, but not all of his abilities.
• Our family focuses on preserving his dignity and routine.

My dad is one of the most intelligent people I've ever met.

He was known as a gifted poet and speaker at Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz, Bolivia. But during this time, Colonel Hugo Banzer established a military dictatorship, and amid political repression of students, he left for Madrid in 1971.

Destiny took him to Pontevedra, where he met my mom, a local dressmaker with a shop in town. They married in 1975. As newlyweds, they spent time in Stockholm before settling in my mother's hometown, where my brother and I were born.

I always thought of my dad as an undiscovered genius

He was an unpublished writer with a gift for explaining complex ideas simply. He taught himself classical guitar and piano, was excellent at maths, could draw well, spoke English, and became a local chess champion in the early 1980s.

We were a bit of an eccentric family. Not rich, but culturally rich and surrounded by our beloved stray dogs. My dad loved philosophy and literature and believed the mind should stay active. As a teen, when I wanted a computer, he gave me his copy of Goethe's "Faust" and, with his usual wit, told me, "Your brain is your best computer!"

His brain is why I'm writing about him. He's now one of millions living with Alzheimer's, a form of dementia, but to me, he's my one in a million — my brilliant dad.

He was diagnosed at 71 with Alzheimer's and is now 77

For a time, he became suspicious and accused my mother of stealing his things. She felt overwhelmed, and we tried a day care center, but it didn't work. The place was good, but my dad is independent and stubborn, so he wanted to leave, questioning what he was doing among "old people".

The big turning point for us was when he spent a week in the hospital because of a medical issue unrelated to Alzheimer's. Being bed-bound in the hospital made him depressed, and it was difficult for the nurses to manage him. They regularly sedated him to keep him calm and to stop him from trying to leave. It was heartbreaking. Once sedated, he lost the spirit that kept him active. That experience made us certain that a care home was not for him. We feared he would spend much of his time medicated so staff could manage him.

He never accepted his diagnosis

At every neurologist appointment, he asked why he was there, calling me a hypochondriac.

But he's a fortunate man. He has my mother. Without her, he would not be able to enjoy the life he has. She has an admirable work ethic, and by 11 a.m., she's cleaned the house, done laundry, shopped for food, and is making lunch. Their marriage is far from perfect, but after 51 years, they have their own understanding. She's the practical one and speaks in Galician sayings and proverbs — and he is the one philosophizing it all. When they argue — as they do daily — he may come out with a line from Nietzsche while she replies with a saying.

Let's not romanticize it, though. He can be exasperating. He wakes regularly during the night, disrupting her sleep, hides things, and can become wary and distressed, believing his IDs or watch have been taken. He refuses to cut his hair and wears many layers of clothing. He had pneumonia in his 20s and remembers it, so he wraps up warm all year.

Even so, being in his familiar environment is more comforting than any institution could be.

We want him to have independence

Living in a small city like Pontevedra has helped. People often spot him walking — a bit like "Where's Waldo?", always on the move and familiar to many. When I bump into him, he says, "I've been looking for you all afternoon!"

This independence comes with worries. He insists on going for walks even when told not to. He may fall, get disoriented, or tell café staff he has paid when he hasn't. Once, someone brought him home after finding him lost. He may lose the flip phone, he rarely answers, or return with someone else's umbrella.

My dad cannot remember what he did two hours ago, yet he can work out maths questions, help my child with schoolwork, or play chess.

In this family, care means involving him in daily life rather than placing him in an unfamiliar environment. This independence is dignity, far more than keeping him quiet or under control. He's a loving abuelo who still enjoys his steak with chips and a café con leche out in town, and who believes life is business as usual. And for now, it is for him.

• Pope Leo XIV is on vacation at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Italy.
• The 135-acre estate owned by the Holy See features multiple properties and gardens.
• Leo XIV is staying in Villa Barberini, a 17th-century palace with expansive gardens.

Even popes need to take vacations.

Beginning with Pope Urban VIII in 1626, some popes have chosen to escape the oppressive summer heat of Rome by spending time at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Italy.

The lakeside residence includes multiple properties and gardens situated on a 135-acre estate.

The Vatican's Prefecture of the Papal Household said in a statement that Pope Leo XIV would spend "a period of rest" at the estate in July.

Take a look inside the papal summer residence.

Pope Leo XIV is spending three weeks at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Italy.

Leo XIV arrived on July 5 and will stay at the residence until July 27.

Located 16 miles from Rome, the papal summer residence is situated in the Alban Hills overlooking Lake Albano.

The estate features gardens, an observatory, and a newly built tennis court in addition to several residential properties.

The Apostolic Palace is located in Castel Gandolfo's main square.

The palace was built on the ruins of an ancient Roman emperor's villa and became part of the Holy See in 1604.

Also known as the Papal Palace, it features ornate sitting rooms and residential areas for the pope.

The palace includes an art gallery on the first floor. Its second floor contains bedrooms, a library, a private chapel, and multiple sitting rooms.

The residence also houses papal artifacts like a set of theological encyclopedias owned by Pope Benedict XVI.

Pope Francis opened the Apostolic Palace and gardens to the public, but rarely visited them during his tenure.

While other popes became familiar faces to local residents during their summer visits, Francis only visited Castle Gandolfo three times in 2013 and never stayed overnight, The New York Times reported.

Instead of staying at the Papal Palace in 2025, Leo XIV stayed at another building on the property, Villa Barberini.

Villa Barberini was built by Scipione Visconti, an Italian noble, as a palace in the 17th century, according to the official website of the Apostolistic Palace and Gardens.

Taddeo Barberini, Pope Urban VIII's nephew, acquired the home in 1631 and expanded the building and its grounds. In more recent years, it served as the residence of the Vatican Secretary of State.

Villa Barberini is known for its expansive gardens.

The gardens include Borgo Laudato Si, a 55-hectare garden, farm, and ecological education area created by Pope Francis in 2023.

Even on his vacations, Leo XIV continues leading mass on the grounds of the papal residence.

During his first summer as pope in 2025, Leo XIV led the first Mass for the Care of Creation in the gardens of the residence, calling the setting "a kind of 'natural' cathedral" in his homily, Vatican News reported.

In 2025, he held a private audience with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Castel Gandolfo.

"We very much count on the Vatican and His Holiness to help provide a place for a high-level meeting of leaders to end this war," Zelenskyy told reporters of the Russia-Ukraine War.

This summer, the pope hosted a group of 200 people "living in vulnerable circumstances" for lunch in the Pontifical Gardens, Vatican News reported.

The invited guests included single parents, refugees, people with disabilities, and people seeking to reintegrate into the workforce, Vatican News reported.

"As you know very well, one of the Pope's titles is 'Pontiff,' which means 'builder of bridges,'" Leo XIV said in his remarks at the event. "Today, we would like to build a bridge with all of you, with your families, and with the society in which we wish to live, and to live in justice."

• I've fully supported myself since I was 17 years old.
• In every relationship, I've been the primary provider, and it's nearly broken me.
• After two decades of being the one everyone depends on, I'm finally being selfish.

I didn't expect to start my adult life so young, but that's where I found myself when my parents kicked me out of their home at 17.

I learned how cruel life can be, living in a homeless shelter for a year. I cried myself to sleep almost every night and understood that the only one I could turn to for help was myself.

I dropped out of high school and worked three jobs to survive. At one of those jobs, I met someone and started dating her while I was living in the homeless shelter.

We got married three months after meeting and moved into an apartment together. It felt good to be free, but my responsibilities were just starting.

I have always been the primary financial provider and support system

My first wife and I had three children, along with all the expenses and responsibilities that come with kids.

I got my CDL and was able to get a job driving semis, which allowed me to support my family.

I then started a business that became successful and grew quickly. With each year, I made more money and took on more responsibility as a father, husband, and friend.

Even after our relationship ended and we divorced, I remained the primary provider for my family.

As I made more money, more people in my life depended on me

I was the one family and friends could turn to for financial support since my businesses were doing well. I was asked for loans, gifts, and to help pay others' bills.

I was the one person family and friends turned to for leadership, mentorship, and guidance since I had overcome so much in life. I was always there — the steady one.

For years, life continued this way with me being the one everyone depended on, and it started to wear on me.

In my late 30s, I started to become emotionally tired. I felt trapped.

At 45, I'm now physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted with the weight of it all. The pressure of always having to be there for others has nearly broken me.

Therapy has helped me

Thank goodness for therapy. Seeing therapists over the past five years has taught me to develop healthy coping mechanisms.

Thankfully, I also have a few people in my life who see what I'm dealing with and help bring some peace into my life. There are a few people who don't demand anything of me, and that I can turn to.

Even though I'm exhausted, therapy and good people have been a relief and counterweight to the constant pressure of being the one everyone turns to.

I'm taking a season to be selfish and take better care of myself

As a man and a leader, I feel the responsibility to be the strong one and always be available for anyone in my life who may need me, but that's going to shift.

The pressure has nearly broken me. I've come to see I need a season of my life where I'm selfish by prioritizing myself and my needs, and letting everyone else figure it out.

Therapy has helped me see that what may look like a strong person on the outside doesn't speak to what's happening inside. I need to keep working on my inside becoming stronger.

This season of me means I'll be less available, not provide financial support as freely, respond to calls and messages intentionally, and not be the first person everyone in my life turns to.

And it will be OK.

After 27 years of being the one everyone depends on, I have to take better care of myself, and that's what I'm going to do.

• The World Bank Group collected data on birth rates for every country.
• Countries in Africa saw the highest birth rates, while European and Asian countries saw the lowest.
• The US ranked 135th worldwide in births per 1,000 people.

Roughly 60 years after the post-WWII baby boom ended, the global birth rate is less than half what it was in the 1960s, the World Bank Group reported.

But not every country reports similar birth rates.

The World Bank Group gathered crude birth rate data in 2024 — that is, the number of live births per 1,000 people in a year — as well as the total fertility rate, which measures the average number of births per woman.

Business Insider identified the 15 countries with the highest crude birth rates, and the 15 places with the lowest, as well as the total fertility rate for each. For our list, we didn't include territories or autonomous regions such as Hong Kong.

The US had a birth rate of 10.6 births per 1,000 people, making it the 135th-ranked country in the world. It also had an average of 1.6 births per woman in 2024. This is below the global birth rate of 16 births per 1,000 people and the global fertility rate of 2.2 births per woman.

Amid declining birth rates, Americans are waiting longer to have children due to financial reasons, and many want more kids than they currently have, Business Insider previously reported.

Birth rates are falling at different rates worldwide, with higher-income countries generally seeing lower birth rates, yet most countries share a downward trend since the 1960s.

Countries in Africa consistently reported the highest birth rates, accounting for 13 of the top 15 countries. Of the top 15 countries, 10 reported a prevalence of contraceptives for married women of just 20% or lower, per the World Bank Group.

In countries with the lowest birth rates, economic issues are likely factors. The Associated Press cited "bleak job prospects" and high-cost of living among factors for low birth rates in Japan, which its former prime minister called a "silent emergency."

The World Bank Group used data from the UN Population Division and the UN Statistical Division, as well as data from national statistics offices.

See the 15 places with the highest birth rates in the world, followed by the 15 with the lowest.

Business Insider rounded to one decimal place, but two decimal places were used in some instances to break ties.

1. The Central African Republic had a birth rate of 46.2 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in the Central African Republic is about 6 births per woman.

2. Chad had a birth rate of 43.3 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Chad is about 6 births per woman.

3. Somalia had a birth rate of 42.3 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Somalia is about 6 births per woman.

4. Niger had a birth rate of 41.4 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Niger is about 5.9 births per woman.

5. The Democratic Republic of the Congo had a birth rate of 40.9 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is about 6 births per woman.

6. Mali had a birth rate of 39.5 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Mali is about 5.5 births per woman.

7. Angola had a birth rate of 37.2 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Angola is about 5 births per woman.

8. Mozambique had a birth rate of 37 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Mozambique is about 4.7 births per woman.

9. Afghanistan had a birth rate of 35 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Afghanistan is about 4.8 births per woman.

10. Tanzania had a birth rate of 34.8 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Tanzania is about 4.5 births per woman.

11. Uganda had a birth rate of 34.4 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Uganda is about 4.2 births per woman.

12. Yemen had a birth rate of 34.4 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Yemen is about 4.5 births per woman.

13. Mauritania had a birth rate of 34 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Mauritania is about 4.6 births per woman.

14. Benin had a birth rate of 33.4 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Benin is about 4.5 births per woman.

15th highest. Cameroon had a birth rate of 33.3 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Cameroon is about 4.3 births per woman.

15th lowest. Estonia had a birth rate of 7.1 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Estonia is about 1.2 births per woman.

14. Belarus had a birth rate of 7 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Belarus is about 1.2 births per woman.

13 (tie). Latvia had a birth rate of 6.9 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Latvia is about 1.2 births per woman.

13 (tie). Poland had a birth rate of 6.9 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Poland is about 1.1 births per woman.

11. Andorra had a birth rate of 6.9 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Andorra is about 1.1 births per woman.

10. China had a birth rate of 6.8 births per 1,000 people.

The fertility rate in China is about 1 birth per woman.

9 (tie). Greece had a birth rate of 6.6 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Greece is about 1.2 births per woman.

9 (tie). Lithuania also had a birth rate of 6.6 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Lithuania is about 1.1 births per woman.

7. Spain had a birth rate of 6.5 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Spain is about 1.1 births per woman.

6. Italy had a birth rate of 6.3 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Italy is about 1.2 births per woman.

5. Taiwan had a birth rate of 5.8 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

Taiwan is not included as a separate country in the World Bank data. The US and many other governments do not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, though it has its own government, military, economy, and statistical agencies.

Separate figures reported by Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior and cited by China's Xinhua News Agency show Taiwan had a crude birth rate of 5.8 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

In 2024, Taiwan recorded 134,856 newborns, out of a total population of about 23.4 million.

4. Japan had a birth rate of 5.7 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Japan is about 1.1 births per woman.

3. Ukraine had a birth rate of 5.5 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in Ukraine is about 1 birth per woman.

2. South Korea had a birth rate of 4.7 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in South Korea is about 0.7 births per woman.

1. San Marino had a birth rate of 4.2 births per 1,000 people in 2024.

The fertility rate in San Marino is about 1.2 births per woman.

• Giada De Laurentiis has a 30-minute pasta dish that includes meatballs stuffed with cheese.
• The recipe is inspired by Bucatini All'Amatriciana, one of the most famous pasta dishes from Rome.
• I made the dish for my parents, and they were obsessed with the meatballs.

There's no denying that Giada De Laurentiis knows pasta.

The Italian-American chef spent over 20 years teaching us her favorite recipes on the Food Network. Now she's focused on her grocery startup Giadzy, which includes authentic products from Italy — including her own pasta line.

Giadzy also features some of De Laurentiis' recipes. I was immediately intrigued by her Bucatini All'Amatriciana, served with smoked mozzarella meatballs.

"Amatriciana is one of the main famous pasta dishes of Rome, and eating it always brings me back to my childhood," De Laurentiis writes on Giazdy's website. "The meatballs are an added spin… stuffed with smoked mozzarella cheese, they're a real crowd-pleaser."

My family has always loved spaghetti and meatballs. So on a recent visit, I decided to whip this up for dinner.

De Laurentiis' Bucatini All'Amatriciana features pancetta, crushed tomatoes, and pecorino Romano cheese.

To make De Laurentiis' pasta for six, you'll need: 

• 1 pound of bucatini pasta (I tried the Giazdy brand, but you can make this with any bucatini) 
• 1 14-ounce can of tomatoes, crushed by hand 
• 6 ounces of pancetta, diced 
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped 
• 2 garlic cloves, minced 
• ½ cup of pecorino Romano cheese, grated 
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil 
• ½ teaspoon of kosher salt 
• ½ teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper 
• Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes 

You'll also need ground beef, Italian-style breadcrumbs, and mozzarella for the meatballs.

De Laurentiis' meatballs include: 

• 8 ounces of ground beef 
• 8 ounces of ground veal 
• 3 garlic cloves, minced 
• 2 ounces of smoked mozzarella cheese (cut into 16 cubes, ½-inch each) 
• 2 tablespoons of ketchup 
• 1 small onion, grated  
• 1 large egg 
• ⅔ cup of Parmesan cheese (plus ¼ cup) 
• ½ cup of chopped fresh parsley (plus ¼ cup) 
• ⅓ cup of Italian-style breadcrumbs 
• ¼ teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes 
• 1 teaspoon of kosher salt (plus more for seasoning) 
• ½ teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper (plus more for seasoning) 

Two things to note for the meatballs: I couldn't find ground veal at my local supermarket, so I bought one pound of ground beef instead. 

I also couldn't find smoked mozzarella cheese to stuff inside the meatballs. However, I was able to find smoked Gouda and fresh mozzarella, so I decided to experiment and try both with this recipe. 

Before I started making the meatballs, I needed to get my prep out of the way.

I chopped and grated my onions, minced my garlic, and chopped my parsley.

I also got my cheese ready…

Per De Laurentiis' instructions, I diced my cheeses into cubes that measured about ½-inch each.

... as well as my oven.

De Laurentiis recommends positioning your oven rack in the bottom third of the oven before you begin making your meatballs. The oven should then be preheated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Then I added my ground beef to a bowl, making sure to season it with salt and pepper.

I also added the breadcrumbs, egg, ketchup, garlic, and ½ cup of parsley.

I topped off my meatball mixture with some Parmesan cheese.

I added ⅔ cup of Parmesan to the bowl.

I mixed all the ingredients together, making 14 meatballs total.

De Laurentiis' recipe yields 16 meatballs measuring 1 ½ inches in diameter. My meatballs would have been a bit too small if I had made 16, so I made 14 instead. 

I placed a cube of cheese in the center of every meatball.

I used my finger to make an indentation in each meatball, where I tucked in a piece of cheese. I then reshaped the ball so the cheese was completely covered and firmly in the center. 

Since I was using two different cheeses, I made half of the meatballs with smoked Gouda and the other half with mozzarella. 

I placed my meatballs on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and threw them into the oven.

De Laurentiis says the meatballs should bake for 15 minutes until fully cooked through, but it took an extra seven minutes for my meatballs to finish.

Every oven is different, so just keep an eye on them!

While my meatballs were baking, I got started on the pasta sauce.

Amatriciana is traditionally made with guanciale, but De Laurentiis said she uses pancetta instead "because it's much easier to find in grocery stores!"

After drizzling some olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat, I added the pancetta and let it cook for six minutes, stirring constantly.

You'll know it's ready when the pancetta turns golden brown.

I used a slotted spoon to remove the pancetta, then added the onions.

I let the onions cook for five minutes.

Next, I added the garlic and red pepper flakes.

I let everything cook together for about 30 seconds, until the garlic became fragrant.

I added the crushed tomatoes and threw the pancetta back into the pan.

I seasoned everything with half a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper.

Then I let my sauce simmer uncovered over medium-low heat.

De Laurentiis says you should let the sauce simmer until it thickens, which will take around 15 minutes.

While my sauce simmered, I started cooking the pasta.

I brought a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat, then threw in the bucatini.

De Laurentiis says the noodles should be cooked until they're tender but still firm to the bite, which takes about eight to 10 minutes depending on your stove. 

After my sauce had finished simmering, I added the cheese.

I stirred in the Parmesan cheese and added another pinch of salt and black pepper. Then I took my sauce off the heat. 

Once my pasta was ready, I drained the noodles and added them to the sauce.

I gave everything a good mix so my noodles were fully coated. Then I transferred the pasta to a serving bowl and added the meatballs, as well as my remaining parsley and pecorino Romano cheese. 

Dinner was served! And De Laurentiis' stuffed meatballs easily stole the show.

It's been a very long time since my parents were impressed with a meatball recipe, but they were huge fans of De Laurentiis' version.  

The meatballs were juicy, moist, and tender — the perfect texture — and packed with tons of flavor. Both cheeses worked really well as a stuffing, and everyone in the family had a different favorite. I'd love to make these again with smoked mozzarella, but you could try this with so many different cheeses. 

I thought De Laurentiis' bucatini noodles were well-made and had a lovely taste, but I wish the sauce had more oomph. I had thrown in two extra ounces of pancetta, which we realized made the sauce just a tad too salty. Next time, I'd also make the sauce thicker and add some red wine or cream to give it more flavor. Bucatini is the perfect vehicle to carry a thick red sauce, and I just wanted more from the All'Amatriciana. 

But De Laurentiis' meatballs truly blew my family away. I know we're going to be making them over and over again. 

• A version of this story originally appeared in the BI Tech Memo newsletter.
• Sign up for the weekly BI Tech Memo newsletter here.

The AI industry has spent the past few years obsessing over one question: Who has the smartest model?

That still matters. But a new north star is emerging: how much useful intelligence can be delivered for each dollar spent.

A lot of models are now good enough for many business tasks. Once that happens, buyers start caring less about the absolute best model and more about the cost of getting reliable work done with AI.

Eugene Kim's recent scoop on Amazon's rebuild of Alexa+ is a good example. Internal documents show the company routing more requests to its own less-powerful AI, while avoiding unnecessary calls to Anthropic's pricier, higher-performing models.

The goal was not to make Alexa use the smartest model every time. It was to use expensive intelligence only when the job required it.

"This is a very strong and real trend," said Kylan Gibbs, CEO of Inworld, which develops powerful voice AI. "We're reaching a state where many models are good enough, and in that context, it really becomes about efficiency."

His company has created separate research teams focused on making Inworld models cheaper and faster to run, not just more intelligent.

So, what's the best AI model, per dollar of intelligence? This is harder to answer than when the industry was focused on pure performance. Still, Peter Gostev, AI capability lead at Arena AI, shared four things to consider:

• How good is it? How reliably does the model complete real work?
• What does it charge? Compare the cost of both reading a request and producing an answer. Some model providers charge more for especially large jobs.
• How much can it reuse? Reusing information already processed can dramatically reduce the bill.
• How much work does it take? A model that's cheap on a per-token basis may still cost more if it needs extra steps or repeated attempts to finish the job.

Peter was reluctant to share a clear ranking of AI models based on these criteria, partly because this trend is so new.

However, this is becoming increasingly clear: The smartest model may still win the headlines, but the model that delivers the most useful work for the money will win the market.

Sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com.

In Indonesia's Jakarta Bay, thousands of families are trapped in debt as they harvest green mussels, one of the last surviving life-forms in the increasingly polluted waters. But as the bay offers less, their loans snowball, trapping them in an endless cycle of debt. That pushes them back into the toxic waters that have already killed two-thirds of shellfish in the bay.

• Teri Carlyle shares her family's journey of caregiving for her aging father in Vallejo, California.
• Carlyle manages her father's long-term care costs, as he lives with her and her sister.
• Carlyle said she's trying to cut expenses, but will never put her father in a facility.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Teri Carlyle, 58, who lives with her sister and father in Vallejo, California. Carlyle said the multigenerational living arrangement has worked well for them and allowed the family to cut costs. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I've had an amazing life. I knew my great-grandparents, so I know what it looks like to age with dignity and grace. My grandparents were loving and supported us. I've traveled the world, and I'm a director of finance and operations at a nonprofit.

My parents were married for 64 years when my mom died. My mom retired from the federal government, while my dad retired from Sears. They owned a motorhome and traveled the country for seven months out of the year. They had joined all these RV clubs.

But when my parents got sick, they came to live with me.

My parents' health started to decline

In 2021, my father had a stroke. Although he wasn't paralyzed, he started having mobility issues, which put him in a wheelchair. My mom was my dad's primary caregiver.

But one day in April 2023, I was at home working when my mom passed out. Little did we know that she had a heart problem. She was healthy for most of her life, and this was completely out of the blue. Her legs started swelling.

Both of them needed more formal care, which we knew we had to pay for out of pocket. I rented out my parents' house in 2022, and they both moved in with me.

It wasn't until two weeks before she died that we found out how severe her condition was. She was in the ER in January 2024. She was dying, and the doctor didn't know if she had weeks, months, or years left.

Luckily, she had the foresight to set up her retirement so that, when she died, my dad would still get a retirement check from her. She was earning around $4,600 monthly, but after she died, it dropped to $2,800. We had to find a way to make up this difference.

In May 2025, my father woke up one morning and wasn't able to use any words

We went to the hospital with him. He was asleep for three weeks, and we didn't know what was going on. My sister and I didn't leave his side the entire time. Eventually, he started coming back to himself.

I now have a caregiver who comes to my house to bathe and feed him, and we have another person come in the evening to do the same.

It's a blessing that my parents' house is paid for. My sister's house, which is right across the street, has a very small mortgage. Once my mom passed, we were all overwhelmed, and I told my sister that I couldn't care for Dad by myself, so my sister moved in with me, too.

My dad is able to be here with us, and there's always someone around. We know we will never put him in a facility.

We hired a caregiver to come in during the day

We're able to function pretty well. We pay $480 for a monthly personal trainer to work with my father and more than $3,000 a month for caregiving services. There are also insurance costs.

We also take him to sporting events, concerts, and movies every now and then.

My dad gets Social Security and receives my mom's government pension. I help make up the difference. My brother and his wife usually buy groceries and other things to help out. My sister takes care of some tasks, like hiring a barber who comes to the house.

We're trying to find ways to cut costs

We want to sell my parents' motorhome, but it's up to my dad to decide whether he doesn't want it anymore. We know we have to let some other things go, such as his car.

I'm also trying to think of other ways to increase our revenue, such as renting out one of our houses — either mine or my sister's.

Our bank accounts look different from when our mom was alive, but we also don't want to take on too many responsibilities, like side hustles, that would take away from being with our dad.

I realized that we take our elders for granted

We don't spend enough time with our elders to gain all that we can from them. Everyone needs to have hard and uncomfortable conversations while everyone is healthy, and see what everyone wants for their lives.

Younger people should live their best lives because, one day, they might have to come home and take care of their parents, and there shouldn't be resentment that they didn't get to do anything when they had the ability to.

People think of caregiving as a burden. I'm living through a beautiful nightmare because it's truly an act of love to be able to take care of my parents and let them see that I love them.

• My family of 5 spent $8,600 on a trip to Universal Studios and Disney World.
• The bulk of our money went to flights, two hotel rooms, and park tickets.
• We saved money by using credit card points.

When I started planning a family vacation to Orlando, I knew we wanted to have the full theme park experience — staying at a Universal hotel, visiting the new Epic Universe, adding a Disney day, and enjoying the food and attractions along the way.

The result was a six-day vacation that cost $8,620 — and required some careful planning to make the most of our money.

Our family includes my husband and me, along with our three kids, ages 18, 15, and 12. At these ages, our children are old enough to appreciate the trip, enjoy all the rides, and make their own memories.

The final price tag for our six-day vacation may sound like a lot— and it was. But we also saved money in a few important ways.

Here's exactly where our money went.

Flying instead of driving saved us two vacation days

The first major decision was how to get from Cleveland to Orlando.

We spent $1,451 on Frontier Airlines flights for our family of five. We could have driven, but the trip would have taken about 15.5 hours each way. That would have meant losing two full days of vacation time just to sit in the car.

For us, flying was worth the extra cost because we wanted to make the most of our time in the parks.

We spent $84 to park at Cleveland Hopkins Airport for six days. We also decided not to rent a car in Orlando and instead used Uber to get around when necessary.

We spent nearly $5,000 on Universal hotels and park tickets

Our biggest expense was $4,948 for our Universal hotel stay and four-day park-to-park tickets.

We stayed at Universal's Terra Luna Resort, one of the newest on-site hotels. Terra Luna is considered a Prime Value hotel, and it shares a space-themed design with its sister property, Stella Nova.

The hotel's biggest advantage is its location. Since we wanted to spend a lot of time at Epic Universe, staying close to that park was important.

Terra Luna guests receive early park admission, which allows us to enter Epic Universe one hour before regular guests each day. The complimentary shuttle ride got us to Epic in less than five minutes, and buses arrived frequently.

Booking two rooms was worth the extra cost

One challenge with Terra Luna is that the hotel offers only standard rooms that accommodate up to four people, so our party of five needed to book two rooms.

At first, paying for two rooms seemed like a big expense, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions we made. We had extra space, privacy, and connecting rooms so we could still easily spend time together.

We skipped Express Pass and still rode everything at Epic Universe

Our four-day park-to-park tickets included Epic Universe, Universal Studios Florida, and Islands of Adventure.

Before the trip, we considered buying Express Passes to skip the lines at Epic, but we were able to experience everything without spending the extra money.

Having four days gave us the flexibility to wait for the best times to ride each attraction. We ended up riding every ride at Epic Universe, and the longest wait we had was 45 minutes. That was during July, one of the busiest vacation periods of the year.

Our Disney day cost nearly $1,200

We added one day at Disney's Hollywood Studios for $926 in tickets.

Because we only had one day at Disney, we purchased Lightning Lane passes for $250. The passes allowed us to reserve a time for Rise of the Resistance and schedule times for up to three other attractions throughout the day.

The strategy worked well. We rode almost everything we wanted except Slinky Dog Dash, which was delayed during our reserved time and never reopened that day.

We spent $767 on food, but still found ways to save

Food is one area where we decided not to cut back. Part of the fun of going to Universal and Disney parks is trying the themed meals and snacks.

We spent $767 on food and drinks, eating at restaurants including Cowfish, Toadstool Cafe, The Three Broomsticks, Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater, Krusty Burger, Lard Lad, Café L'air De La Sirène, and Le Gobelet Noir.

One trick we used was ordering kids' meals when they made sense.

We kept souvenir spending low

When it came to souvenirs, we spent only $37 on three chocolate frogs for our kids.

Our children saved up their own money to purchase the souvenirs they wanted, including shirts, treats, and stuffed animals.

Credit card rewards and dining credits saved us nearly $2,500

Although the total trip cost was $8,620, we received $1,920 back in travel reimbursements through credit card points. Our final out-of-pocket trip cost was around $6,700.

A special booking promotion also helped lower our meal costs. Each of our two hotel rooms included a $300 Universal hotel dining credit, giving us $600 to spend on meals at Terra Luna.

The dining credit was extremely convenient and kept our overall food costs down. We used it for daily breakfast, as well as other meals, snacks, and adult beverages at the hotel.

The trip was expensive — but worth it for our family

An $8,620 vacation is a big expense, but the memories we made were worth every penny.

By saving where we could, using rewards strategically, and prioritizing the experiences that mattered most, we were able to enjoy the Orlando trip we wanted without overspending — and create memories our family will cherish for years.

• My friend told me something when I was pregnant for the first time that I never forgot.
• He said, "Having children is like having your heart walking around outside your body."
• Those words have never felt more true than when my teen is at sleepaway camp.

When I became pregnant for the first time over 15 years ago, a friend offered me words I never forgot: "Having children is like having your heart walking around outside your body." His words were sweet, but I didn't fully understand them just yet.

When my son was born, those words came to life, but as a stay-at-home mother, he wasn't yet venturing beyond my sight, so I knew he was safe and well in real time. We had another baby a few years later, and as both of my boys grew, these words returned to me often.

I missed my son in a whole new way when he was at sleepaway camp

My now-15-year-old has been going to sleepaway camp for five summers. At drop off, I say goodbye with a hug and hang onto that feeling of having him in my arms until we're together again. My husband and I descend the hill in our car, a piece of myself left behind in the mountains. For four weeks, I move through life wondering what he's doing, whether he's brushing his teeth and eating his veggies, and if he's happy being many miles from home. Everywhere I go, thoughts of him follow, a reminder that I am not whole without him.

From his first summer when the dining hall unexpectedly burned to the ground on day three, making national news and igniting a motherly anxiety I'd never known, all the way to this summer when I had no doubt he would love every moment, saying goodbye has become easier with time.

I no longer worry if he's happy or if he knows how to pull the fitted sheet over the corners of his bed, because he's more mature now, and camp has become his favorite place on Earth. But while drop-off day has transformed, pick-up day has not. It's still just as magical as ever.

Pick-up day is magical

Yesterday, my husband and I arrived at the pavilion where my son's trunk was loaded into our car, and as we drove up the hill towards the cabins, the feeling that hits me every summer on pickup day returned. I fought the happy tears welling in my eyes because no teenager wants to introduce his friends to his crying mother. I played it cool for him, but inside I was glowing.

After living a month with a piece of my heart many miles away with only pictures to speak of his well-being (we wrote to him, but responses from him were scarce), being reunited is like having that missing piece of myself returned.

We parked in a field between the lower and upper camp and began trekking toward his cabin. As always, campers were savoring their last moments together, reminiscing about occasions so impactful that they had been etched into their memories for a lifetime. My eyes wandered back and forth from cabin deck to cabin deck, anxiously searching for that familiar face I'd been missing.

Then, there he was, the absent piece of my puzzle. It's been five years — and he's grown so much — but somehow that moment of reunification feels like the first time he ran to me at preschool pickup. There's no running — and I'm far more excited than he is, this time around — but, still, having him with me again returns me to my equilibrium.

My big, strong teenager wrapped his arms around me. And in that moment, I realized there's nothing better than hugging your child on pickup day. It makes every toddler tantrum and teenage meltdown worth it. That hug dissolves every mother-son disagreement, and each time he wanted me at a distance because he considered me embarrassing. It reminds both of us that no matter how old he gets, I will always be there to return to.

Those words I heard years ago ring true

Those words my friend said to me before my son was born were precise. I felt them the day I left him at preschool for the first time and on the day we dropped him off at sleepaway camp for his first summer. But they became crystal clear when I received my first pickup day hug. My heart, that had been walking around outside my body, finally returned to my chest. And yesterday I felt it all over again.

My son is beginning high school this year, growing faster than I anticipated. I know every moment of his high school years won't be easy, but I still have a handful of camp pick-up hugs to look forward to. And that makes the ups and downs of motherhood worth it.

• Mykhailo Drapatyi, Ukraine's new commander in chief, is one of the war's most popular generals.
• Troops told Business Insider they hope he'll bring changes that can help them win the war.
• Tired of Soviet military culture, they're asking for a leader who's pro-tech and listens to them.

Anxious after the shock removal of Ukraine's reformist defense minister, the country's front-line troops say that they've found some solace in a new appointment for another key war role — commander in chief.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed 43-year-old Brig. Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi as the country's new top general on Tuesday.

For many in Ukraine, the appointment is a monumental shift. Drapatyi is replacing Oleksandr Syrskyi, an older general who joined the military when Ukraine was still a Soviet republic.

Syrskyi, 60, has overseen many of Ukraine's victories since early 2024 but has been widely accused of resisting change and sticking to a slower, top-down command style that can cost lives in battle.

Ukrainian troops across the front lines celebrated Drapatyi's new appointment, telling Business Insider they anticipate the young general to quickly bring much-needed reforms that could turn the tide of the war in their favor.

One Ukrainian uncrewed ground vehicle operator told Business Insider that while he feels that Syrskyi has "undoubtedly entered the history of Ukraine as the general who stopped the Russian offensive at the most difficult moment for the state," he has sincere hope "that General Mykhailo Drapatyi will go down in history as the general who won a victory over Russia."

Many see Drapatyi, who's had a string of high-profile victories and a reputation for stabilizing warzones under Russian pressure, as the ideal working partner for Mykhailo Fedorov, who was defense minister until recently. Both are seen as drivers of radical change in a military structure that has dysfunctionally struggled to fully leverage innovation and exploit Russia's weaknesses.

"He knows how to listen and keeps his word, even when it comes to small promises," said Fizruk, until recently a strike drone company commander with the 82nd Air Assault Brigade.

The major, identified only by his call sign for security purposes, said his former drone unit fought under Drapatyi when the latter oversaw operations in Vovchansk, a city in Kharkiv. Russia launched a major offensive there in May 2024, and Drapatyi was sent to stabilize the northeastern front.

Fizruk said Drapatyi planned and executed operations "methodically and effectively," but was also personable. He remembered how the brigadier general would wear a green Ukrainian Armed Forces T-shirt to fit in with the team.

"I do have his phone number," Fizruk added.

Other Ukrainian troops praised Drapatyi for his track record and openness on tech innovation. Social media has allowed Kyiv's forces to tune in closely to public discourse about the war, even while they're deployed, as civilians and soldiers alike share daily news, feedback, commentary, and scandal.

The commander of a UGV unit in the 2nd "Khartia" Corps, who goes by the call sign Mathematician, said Drapatyi was "maybe the best choice" to replace Syrskyi. He described the new commander in chief as forward-thinking in the use of ground robots.

Andriy, an enlisted soldier who runs community engagement for the 100th Mechanized Brigade's VORON combat drone unit, told Business Insider that he expected Drapatyi to employ a "more rational approach in the use of personnel," while Alex, an officer in Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, described Drapatyi as a commander who is willing to see different perspectives but with "real combat experience." He said troops respect his "vision and soft skills," predicting a morale boost.

The UGV operator who spoke to Business Insider about his hopes for victory over Russia under Drapatyi's command said that "if the new leadership can make the system more flexible, technological, and able to quickly implement effective solutions from the battlefield, this will be the main criterion for success."

He said it's "too early to assess this appointment through the prism of expectations. The war has long shown that it is not individual personalities that are decisive, but the ability of the military system to quickly adapt to new challenges."

Today, he said, "the key priorities should be to accelerate the introduction of innovations, shorten the path from combat experience to real changes in the troops, scale up unmanned and robotic systems, and provide commanders in the field with greater freedom to make quick decisions."

"Ukraine has accumulated unique combat experience," he said. "Our main advantage should be the ability to learn, adapt, and scale successful solutions faster than the enemy."

'The dream team'

A key trigger for Drapatyi's appointment was Fedorov's ousting. The latter had been mired in a rivalry with Syrskyi and other generals in Ukraine's top brass, whom Fedorov said balked at his aggressive reforms and campaigns to root out corruption after he was given the post in January.

Syrskyi has publicly denied a rift between him and Fedorov.

When Fedorov was left out of Zelenskyy's cabinet last week in a government reshuffle, thousands took to the streets of Kyiv and other major cities to protest. Support for Fedorov seized online discourse about the war, and a prevailing demand among demonstrators was that Syrskyi be fired instead.

Almost immediately, Drapatyi's name surged to the top as the pick for Syrskyi's replacement.

"There is a consensus in the military that he is the best possible candidate for the role," said Dmytro Koziatynskyi, a former medic in the Da Vinci Wolves who called for civilians to protest last week.

One of Drapatyi's best-known feats was videoed just after Russia invaded Crimea in 2014. At the head of an armored column, Drapatyi ordered the driver of his infantry fighting vehicle to hurtle over a barricade in Mariupol and into battle — a sign of decisive aggression at a time when Ukraine's military was still finding its bearings.

Later, he famously led a nighttime breakout of 260 troops surrounded by pro-Russian forces in the Donbas. After Moscow's full-scale invasion, Drapatyi became known as a "firefighter" general urgently deployed to stave off intensified Russian campaigns.

Apart from his battlefield track record, Koziatynskyi said Drapatyi is also seen among troops as a "new-wave general who listens to his subordinates."

"I believe that Drapatyi and Fedorov would be a dream team that can lead us to victory," Koziatynskyi said.

Demonstrators plan to continue calling for Fedorov's return. Though there's no clear sign yet that the 35-year-old politician will be restored to his post, political pressure is mounting on Zelenskyy to reinstate Fedorov, who has rejected offers of advisory roles and said he would only return as defense minister.

Mykola Bielieskov, a researcher for Ukraine's National Institute for Strategic Studies and the war crowdfunding organization Come Back Alive, said the main question for Drapatyi now is who he'd be working with — most importantly, the chief of general staff and defense minister.

Several troops told Business Insider are still hoping for a Drapatyi-Fedorov team-up.

"If Fedorov returns, it will be better, because during his tenure, we saw many effective changes in the military," said Andriy of the 100th Mechanized Brigade.

An officer in the 68th Separate Jaeger Brigade, who goes by the call sign Fierce, said that the pair, as the top leaders, would "give strength to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and restore Ukrainians' faith."

'Far more difficult than he imagines'

Drapatyi already had experience in strategic command, having served stints as the leader of Ukraine's Ground Forces and then its Joint Forces Command.

Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine's commander in chief during the war's early years before Syrskyi was appointed, praised Drapatyi in a Telegram post on Thursday but warned of the challenges ahead.

"The new commander in chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces will have an incredibly difficult job. Far more difficult than he imagines," Zaluzhnyi wrote.

Drapatyi will be inheriting a slew of core issues for Ukraine. One of the most pressing problems is Kyiv's struggle to recruit new soldiers, while its outnumbered, deployed forces are exhausted by years of fighting.

"No matter popularity, management of the war would be a challenge, given manpower problems, unfinished corps reforms, and a deficit of skilled people at different levels," Bielieskov said.

Fierce, the 68th Separate Jaeger Brigade officer, said he considered Drapatyi a "strong general with great authority."

"But we'll see how he performs in practice," he said. 'It seems to me there couldn't have been a better choice, but I'll repeat: We'll have to wait and see."

• I've turned down opportunities in my company for a four-day workweek.
• On the side, I've built a freelance career. Doing this has allowed me to spend time with my kids.
• People at my company don't understand, but it's what's right for me.

When my wife and I moved from Calgary to Nelson, British Columbia, in 2017, we were mostly thinking about our kids. We wanted them to have space, freedom, and a childhood spent outdoors in nature rather than in a car seat during rush hour.

What I didn't think much about, though, was what the move would do to my career.

After we moved, I was fortunate enough to keep my corporate job and go fully remote. Over the years that followed, I made a series of choices that, from the outside, probably look like a career stalling out. Instead of working long hours in an office in a downtown high-rise, I work four days a week from our spare bedroom in a small town of 11,000 people. And I've turned down multiple opportunities to step into a lead role within my company.

None of that happened by accident. Every part of it was deliberate, and I'd make the same choices again. But I've learned that when you opt out of the ladder on purpose, the people around you struggle to read it as a decision. They read it as a problem.

People assume I'm waiting for something better

Colleagues, friends, and family members will often ask me how the four-day thing is "working out," in the same tone you'd use to ask about a medical treatment. Nobody has ever said "you're wasting your potential" out loud, but the assumption is right there underneath the conversation: that I'm stuck in a holding pattern, that this is temporary, that eventually I'll get serious about my career.

The truth is, I already did get serious. I just got serious about something else.

I take Fridays off to homeschool and spend time with my kids. I get to drop off and pick them up from school. I coach their soccer teams. And I've built a second career as a freelance writer that exists entirely in the hours a promotion would have taken.

While this picture may not look like career ambition from the outside, it's the most ambitious thing I've ever done.

The trade-off is real, and I made it anyway

I want to be honest about what this costs, because I don't think choosing time over a job title is free.

I make less money than I would in a lead role. Which can be stressful at times, considering I have a mortgage and two kids. I feel that math every month.

I've also given up a kind of professional standing. In meetings, I'm not the go-to person the room turns to. Decisions get made in conversations I'm not in. Some of the work I'd be genuinely good at goes to other people, and occasionally that stings more than I expect it to.

And I've noticed the cost of being on a non-management track for years. You become slightly harder to place, and people stop thinking of you when something big comes up. The old adage of "out of sight, out of mind" rings true in my life.

But here's what I got in exchange: I've been home for nearly every school pickup and sick day my kids have ever had. I was there for the years when my daughter still wanted to tell me about her day, and I'm still here now that she's almost 12 and doesn't always want to.

I'm well aware that window of time in my kids' lives is closing. The promotion will still be there. This time with my kids, however, will not.

My kids don't know I gave anything up

The funny thing is that the people this decision was made for have no idea I made it.

My kids don't know that I said no to a promotion. They don't know there was a version of my life with a bigger salary and less of me in it. They just know that I'm always around, that I'm the one at the soccer field on Saturdays, and that when they walk in the door after school, someone is there.

To them, that's not a sacrifice. It's just how things are. And I've come to understand that's the whole point. A choice like this only works if it's invisible to the people it's for. If my kids ever had to be grateful for it, it would mean I'd made it about me.

I've stopped explaining myself

For a long time, I felt a need to justify the four-day workweek. I'd over-explain, list the reasons, and make sure people knew I was still productive, ambitious, and valuable, as though I owed the world an explanation.

I don't do that anymore.

Part of it is age. I'm 39, and I've spent enough years approaching my work like I'm always job hunting to know that professional security is mostly an illusion anyway. Titles disappear. Budgets shrink. Companies restructure. The people climbing hardest are not necessarily any safer than I am.

But mostly, I've just made peace with being illegible to the people I work with. They see a career that plateaued, while I see a life I built on purpose, one deliberate step at a time.

They don't have to understand it. It was never for them anyway.

• Bryce Ramsey, 40, first noticed blood in her stool when she was 26.
• She dismissed the symptom until it got worse over the years.
• She was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer at 33.

When Bryce Ramsey first noticed on-and-off blood in her stool in her 20s, it didn't alarm her too much.

She thought the bleeding was due to hemorrhoids caused by either larger bowel movements or childbirth; she had recently given birth to her son, Ashton, who weighed over 10 pounds.

She also increasingly felt fatigued, but had an explanation for that, too: she was a registered nurse at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. "I'm tired all the time, but I can justify that, as I work 12-hour shifts," Ramsey, 40, told Business Insider.

By 2019, when the bleeding got worse, she scheduled an appointment with a gastroenterologist.

Despite Ramsey only being 33 at the time and having no known family history, her GI found blood in her stool — one of the most common symptoms of colon cancer — too concerning not to schedule her for a colonoscopy.

Weeks later, Ramsey was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer.

"I kind of was in shock but it didn't really sink in," she said. She called Mickee, her then-boyfriend (now-husband), to break the news. "I was just like, 'Okay, well, we've got to get in there and get it out and move on.'"

She worked throughout chemo

After Ramsey's colonoscopy, she learned she had a polyp that was too large to remove during the procedure. She was scheduled for an appointment with a general surgeon, who diagnosed her with colon cancer. Ramsey learned that the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes.

The surgery, performed in November 2019, removed 3 feet of Ramsey's colon and 13 lymph nodes. Before she could start her next phase of treatment, Mickee — who was friends with the surgeon — asked for a favor: could they postpone her treatment by a few weeks so he could trip to New Orleans?

In January 2020, newly-engaged Ramsey began two types of chemotherapy at once: IV and oral. Ramsey continued to work all throughout chemo. At that point, she was a branch manager for a home health agency. She said she took her computer with her to chemo appointments.

The oral chemo led to Ramsey developing severe side effects and losing 17 pounds. "I got really, really, really sick because of that," she said. She also developed cold sensitivity in her fingers. "I had to wear gloves or use a potholder to open my car door," she said, and drinking cold water felt like "blades were in my throat."

Ramsey said her son and her recent engagement helped her figure out her "why" for staying strong during treatment. "I was determined no one else was going to raise my little boy but me," she said.

A surprise pregnancy months after treatment

Before starting chemotherapy, Ramsey was offered fertility preservation services, as chemotherapy can impair fertility.

Because Ramsey and Mickee were in a blended family that included Mickee's children, Ramsey declined. She also didn't use birth control.

A few months after finishing chemo in March 2020, Ramsey learned she was pregnant. At first, she was worried about her baby's health: "I'm a complete nervous wreck that I'm going to give birth to a little baby Transformer or something," she said.

Still, she felt comforted by a dream she had before her cancer diagnosis. "I'm a very spiritually faith-based person, and I had a dream," she said. "The Lord told me there was going to be another baby, and his name was going to be Luke or Lucas."

Ramsey named her son Emree Lucas-Ray Ramsey. She said his name means "'strong ray of light,' which couldn't be any more perfect than from the situation that he came from."

Genetic testing helped her family get diagnosed with colon cancer, too

After she was diagnosed with colon cancer, Ramsey learned about genetic testing for mutations that could predispose one to cancer. Ramsey decided to do it, and learned she had Lynch syndrome, a symptomless, inherited condition that increases her risk of developing colon, uterine, and ovarian cancer.

Now in remission, Ramsey gets yearly colonoscopies, scans, and bloodwork. She also had a hysterectomy last year, unrelated to cancer, that she said makes her extra relieved because it removes her risk of developing uterine and ovarian cancer as a result of having Lynch syndrome.

Since learning she has Lynch syndrome, Ramsey begged her family members to get cancer screenings. "I was the whistleblower," she said. As a result, she said her brother caught his colon cancer at stage 1, her father now has a colostomy bag from his own colon cancer treatment, and her aunt learned that what she thought were gallstones were masses in her colon and liver.

When Ramsey's sons reach their 20s — the recommended age to start testing for Lynch syndrome — she hopes they'll get tested, too.

Ramsey, who was crowned Mrs. Mississippi Plus America in 2024, used the opportunity to spread colon cancer awareness — something she's passionate about. Ramsey has also worked with several advocacy groups and lobbied for funding for genetic testing.

"What I say in every one of my speeches is: 'If it doesn't seem right, more than likely it's not,'" Ramsey said. "What's scary is that, as a nurse, I still wasn't fully convinced this might be cancer."

• Lily Vittayarukskul grew up thinking she would become an aerospace engineer. Then her aunt got sick.
• She was 16 when her Aunt's illness changed the trajectory of her entire family almost overnight.
• It inspired her to pivot and help families prepare for the financial impact of long-term care.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lily Vittayarukskul, 30, cofounder and CEO of Waterlily. It has been edited for length and clarity.

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by the universe and wanted to understand how the world worked. Science taught me that even the biggest, most intimidating questions could be broken down, understood, and eventually solved.

I also grew up with limited resources, and working in my parents' factory after school taught me how hard families work to create stability, and how much discipline and resourcefulness it takes to build something from very little.

At 11, I entered a NASA competition with a homemade water rocket, won the competition, and got the chance to visit Kennedy Space Center. Later, I interned at NASA as a young teenager. For years, I thought aerospace engineering was my future.

Then my aunt was diagnosed with cancer, and the trajectory of my entire family changed almost overnight.

My aunt didn't speak much English, so my mom translated at doctor's appointments. My family quickly learned that there were expenses we hadn't expected. We also learned that caring for someone with a serious illness extended far beyond medical appointments.

I was 16 when she became sick. What I remember most wasn't a single diagnosis or conversation. It was the quiet.

Everyone in my family was exhausted, moving from work to doctor's appointments to caregiving without ever stopping to talk about what was happening. We were all operating on autopilot because there was simply too much to do.

Watching my family unravel changed my definition of impact

My mom became my aunt's primary caregiver. The rest of us worked at the family factory whenever we could. I went to my parents' factory after school, often staying until 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. before going home.

Only later did I realize the full cost.

Our family relationships had become strained. Financially, we had almost nothing left. There was blame, tension, and isolation that lingered long after my aunt died.

Growing up in a first-generation immigrant family, I'd always understood that money mattered. My parents worked incredibly hard, yet I learned early that hard work alone doesn't guarantee financial security. You have to create economic value. That lesson shaped almost every decision I've made since.

After my aunt died, I started asking a different question: Instead of wondering how I could build better rockets, I wondered why families like mine had to navigate one of life's hardest moments with so little support.

I realized no one was solving the problem I cared about most

I still loved engineering and building things, but I realized I could apply those skills somewhere that felt much more personal.

I spent nearly a decade leading product and engineering at early-stage companies while learning everything I could about healthcare, financial services, and underserved populations. I wanted to understand why planning for aging and long-term care was so fragmented.

No one seemed to be solving the problem the way I thought it needed to be solved. That's why I cofounded Waterlily.

Waterlily is an AI-powered long-term care planning platform that helps people estimate when they may need long-term care, how much it could cost, and how to pay for it based on their health, finances, and family situation. The platform provides personalized projections and funding strategies—including insurance, savings, and caregiving plans—to help families prepare for the financial and logistical challenges of aging. Since launching, the company has raised $9.2 million.

The work has been much harder than I imagined.

Healthcare doesn't exist in one industry. Neither does aging. We work across healthcare, insurance, and financial services simultaneously, each with different incentives and different ways of operating. Every week seems to introduce a new layer of complexity.

There were plenty of moments when I questioned whether we could figure it out. What kept me going, though, was the same question I asked myself after my aunt died. If we're not solving this problem, who will?

After speaking with thousands of families, one thing surprised me. I'd assumed my family's experience was unusually devastating. Instead, I found that many families who experience serious long-term care needs face financial strain and relationship breakdowns. The details vary, but the emotional toll often looks remarkably similar.

Building this company changed how I think about my own future

Starting Waterlily has changed me in ways I didn't expect.

I've become much more financially literate than I ever thought I'd need to be. Building Waterlily has required me to develop deep expertise across insurance, retirement planning, healthcare, and financial services. Understanding aging means understanding how all of those systems — and the decisions families make within them — fit together.

Understanding aging means understanding insurance, retirement accounts, savings, investing, and how all those pieces fit together.

It's also changed how I think about responsibility.

When I was younger, I thought success meant solving interesting technical problems. Now, I think success means building something that helps people regain a sense of control during moments when life feels completely uncertain.

If my aunt were alive today, I don't think she would care very much about the technical details of the platform. But I also think she'd ask me two questions:

1. Are you helping people?
2. Is this business sustainable?

I'd like to think she'd be proud of both answers.

Waterlily offers a free tool on its site that provides personalized insights, based on more than half a billion data points, to better understand what aging and long-term care could look like.

I've been shopping Wayfair for nearly a decade, acquiring everything from shower doors to bed frames to smaller items like yard tools and bedding. In the past year alone, I've received 26 items from Wayfair. Some of these pieces have become integral to my decor, have provided additional storage, or have helped me get through my day-to-day life.

Though not everything I've received from Wayfair has provided the durability, functionality, or style I expected based on the listing. That's not surprising considering that Wayfair operates a massive dropship network of over 20,000 independent suppliers and almost 40 million products. Some suppliers provide great-quality products, but finding the right ones and even the best price can be difficult to navigate.

While our editors and testers have covered what to buy and what to skip at Wayfair, I'm diving strictly into the e-commerce side. Based on my own extensive ordering experience, these are the essential online shopping tips you need to find a great product. I'll show you exactly how to use reverse image search, monitor prices, and master filters.

The truth about Wayfair Exclusive Brands and white-labeling

In addition to nationally established brands like Bernhardt and Polywood, there are plenty of brands you may not have heard of, like Corrigan Studios and Latitude Run. These are Wayfair's own in-house house brands, or Exclusive Brands, of which Wayfair offers numerous. The majority of these items are not manufactured directly by Wayfair, rather they are white-labeled.

White labeling occurs when "a company manufactures a generic, ready-made product or service, and a retailer (the buyer of the white label products), affixes its own brand name and logo prior to selling it to consumers," according to Shikha Jain, lead partner and head of consumer of North America at Simon-Kucher.

White-labeling allows an e-commerce platform to bring products to market instantly without incurring manufacturing overhead, Jain explains. The massive catch for consumers? "The same generic product may be priced widely differently by various retailers," Jain notes. It can also be difficult to gauge quality.

To help lessen this burden, Wayfair offers Wayfair Verified Badges, given to only 1% of products on the site, and says these products have been hand-vetted by product specialists using a 10-point inspection scale that evaluates assembly, materials, construction, and ease of use. In theory, this can help narrow down a seemingly endless supply of products with some vetted expertise. However, it's not an end-all, be-all solution. In fact, none of the products I've ever bought have had the Wayfair Verified Badge. I didn't do that on purpose — it just happened. With over 40 million products on the site, don't necessarily limit yourselves to Wayfair Verified products or to only certain brands that Wayfair.

Understanding sales and dynamic pricing to get the best price

One of the main incentives to shop at Wayfair is its frequent sales and discounts, but it's easy to be lured by a 80% off discount banner. Unlike Amazon, where you can easily track historical pricing through sites like CamelCamelCamel, Wayfair doesn't offer the same pricing transparency and uses volatile algorithms to change prices.

The sale prices can still be good, but the discounts are not as deep as they appear. Many of those massive discounts are marketing illusions. "One tactic some retailers use is to inflate the regular price while keeping the discount the same, which means the consumer is paying a higher net price. The only way to tell whether this is true is to monitor and track prices over time to ensure you are getting the best deal," explains Jain.

Wayfair also consistently changes product names, which doesn't make it any easier to make sure you're getting the best deal. "The same generic product may be priced widely differently by various retailers. It's up to the consumer to conduct price comparisons," explains Jain.

Here are some tips to make sure you're getting the best price:

• Run a reverse image search: Right-click the product photo and run a Google Lens reverse-image search to unmask the original manufacturer. I tried this with an Inbox Zero desk from Wayfair and discovered it was sold by a company named Whalefall on Walmart for about $15 cheaper. It's no longer available on Walmart, but this shows there's potential to find a cheaper option from a competitor. The same tactic can be applied to find high-end dupes if you're looking at brands like West Elm or Serena & Lily, where you could find visually similar and much more affordable options on Wayfair.
• Bookmarking favorites: When you create a Wayfair account, you can save items you're interested in by clicking the heart button on a photo and adding them to product boards. Instead of purchasing right away, try saving it to track price drops manually so you can jump in and buy the sofa you've really been wanting when it's at its lowest price.
• Manual price trackers: Beyond manually checking a product's price over and over again, there are websites like PageCrawl.IO or PriceLasso that can track the prices of Wayfair products, but you have to manually add the link, and it'll track from that point on. Google also has a Track Price feature that you can use if you're signed in to your Google account.
• Abandoning your cart: You can also try the cart-abandonment trick, where you leave items in your cart hoping Wayfair will send you a coupon code for 5-25% off.

How to master Wayfair search filters and product specs

When it comes to shopping on Wayfair, filters are your friend. Navigating to the sofa landing page or typing your query in the search bar can easily land you over 50,000 items to sift through — too many! Wayfair offers a ton of filters to choose from, including dimensions, materials, colors, design style, level of assembly, and even customer ratings. Choose products with four- and five-star ratings to remove lower-quality items from the mix.

For extra savings, don't overlook filters like Closeout, Surplus Sale, and Open Box. Closeout items are likely discounted because Wayfair wishes "to clear excess or slow-moving items from its inventory," says Jain. Open Box products are items that have been purchased, opened, and returned. They're usually in good or near good conditions. Maybe the previous buyer didn't like the color or the style. However, reading through the fine print of the Wayfair return policy, Open Box items aren't usually returnable, and Wayfair doesn't provide photos of the Open Box item (or information on why it was returned). I'd steer clear of any Open Box item that requires a lot of assembly, as the previous buyer would have had to unassemble the item and pack it so well that it didn't cause any (further) damage when it was returned.

Screening for material quality: Wood vs MDF

Furniture is a big draw for Wayfair customers, but unfortunately, "wood furniture" isn't always made of wood. Even if you filter for wood products, MDF can still slip through. Skip the fluffy product descriptions like "wood finishes" and head directly to the specifications tab. This is where you can see exactly what the product is made of and whether it has any benefits, such as durability, washability, or stain resistance. While there, check the item's weight.

• Check the exact material list: Look for "Solid Wood" vs. "Manufactured Wood."
• Run the Weight Test: Solid wood is significantly heavier than MDF. For example, a wood nightstand I was interested in weighed a solid 44 lbs, but was listed as made with Solid Wood (rubberwood) and Manufactured Wood. There's a very strong chance it's constructed primarily of solid wood rather than lightweight particleboard. My weight analysis turned out to be correct, which I discovered after the product arrived.

Evaluating comfort before you buy

One of the biggest things that gives people pause about buying large furniture pieces like a sofa on Wayfair is the burning question, " Will it be comfortable?" This is where I look to reviews for insight and personal experiences. The sofa or armchair that you buy from Wayfair should be comfortable, and while reviews can offer a lot of insight, there are a few other things to consider.

• Filter your ideal seat plushness. In the filter section, Wayfair has categories where you can filter by your ideal "sit," either soft, medium, or firm, which can go a long way in helping to identify options that give you the comfort and support you're looking for.
• Foam density: I also like to examine fill materials in each product's specifications tab. Foam is usually listed as the fill material, but if you want specifics on the foam type, look in the description for higher-quality options like memory foam. Some furniture pieces on Wayfair note foam density, which should be 1.8-3 pounds/foot for the most comfort.
• Seat Height & Depth: Measure your favorite couch at home and compare its seat depth and height against the listing's specifications to ensure it fits your proportions. While in the specifications tab, check the depth and height measurements to confirm it's a size that is comfortable for your needs.

Decoding user reviews

I never buy something from Wayfair without reading the reviews. I like to start with the most recent reviews, then compare the low- and high-star ratings.

• Prioritize reviews with customer photos: When I came across the Mercer41 73.21" Queen Pull Out Sofa Bed, I liked the style and how it could serve as an additional sleep space for guests. Three-and-a-half stars wasn't bad, until I saw the photos. The cushions appeared flatter than in the marketing pictures. Even the reviews had conflicting feedback about the sofa's ease of assembly and comfort, which ultimately led me to pass on it.
• Filter by keyword or stars: I type in things like "particle board" or "assembly," if I'm curious about the material or assembly process. I will also pick out two- and three-star reviews, as these customers tend to shout out the issues you might face with a product.
• Take reviews labeled with "Incentivized Review" or "Influencer" with a grain of salt. These indicate that reviewers likely received the product free of charge in exchange for writing a review. This is done with many recently listed products because people are naturally wary of buying a product with zero reviews. Most incentivized reviewers are good about providing truthful personal experiences, but they're not given strict protocols for choosing star ratings or writing reviews, so a four-star product to one person might be a three-star product to another.

Other useful shopping services

Assembly options: While you can filter by the level of assembly each item requires, if you want to avoid the arduous task of assembly, Wayfair also offers an Assembly service that you can select during checkout or after you order. However, it's not available for every item on the site. Kitchen and bathroom installations can also be booked through Wayfair, though keep in mind that such installations are outsourced to Installation Made Easy.

Personalized design advice: Consider booking Wayfair's Design Services to chat with a designer by phone, video, or email about your space. After this, you'll receive "personalized mood boards, floor plans, swatches, curated shopping lists, and anything else needed to bring the look to life," like Wayfair's custom cabinetry or upholstery offerings. The service is a $99 deposit that can be used toward your purchase.

You can also find product inspiration from Wayfair's AI-fueled Discover page (found under the Inspiration tab at the top of the site). There you'll see inspirational room designs that can be filtered by color palette, mood & ambiance, and styles like bohemian or industrial before suggesting a range of products to get the look.

What to do when your purchase doesn't meet your expectations

Out of 26 items I tested, six arrived with defects (a 23% error rate)—including a dresser in the wrong finish and a bed missing assembly hardware. Fortunately, Wayfair's customer service resolves issues quickly, though avoiding return fees requires a strategic approach:

• Fast part replacements: Skip the phone queue and fill out the online "Problem with Order" form to have manufacturers dispatch replacement parts directly.
• Responsive phone support: In the times I've had to call Wayfair directly, phone agents typically connect within 5 minutes. In my case, they reordered an entire product because the manufacturer couldn't send me a specific part. Then, the agent coordinated a free at-home pickup for the return item.

• Avoid return shipping fees: Wayfair deducts return shipping fees from cash refunds. To bypass this penalty, opt for Store Credit or drop off eligible items at a physical Wayfair store.

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  The verdict: The 5 best Wayfair products I bought

• Latitude Run Modern Teddy Bouclé Platform Storage Bed: Sewing in my guest room is my evening hobby, but I quickly ran out of space to store fabric, so I invested in a storage bedframe with four locking drawers. All of my supplies fit in the drawers, which glide in and out easily on wheels. The boucle fabric that covers the drawers is very modern, and the bedframe is sturdy.
• Northborough 2 Solid Wood Nightstand: This is a prime example of shopping by weight specs rather than brand hype. While it carries a higher price tag, the dense, solid-wood construction and smooth drawer glides mean it's built to last. It easily mimics high-end boutique lines for a fraction of the cost.
• Frameless LED Bathroom Vanity Mirror: Don't let electrical anxiety scare you off; this plug-and-play unit mounts in minutes. The multi-setting backlit LED completely solves poor bathroom lighting, making it a lot easier to do my makeup or pluck my eyebrows, and the built-in anti-fog heating element handles heavy shower steam perfectly without requiring a custom, hardwired contractor setup. I was nervous about hanging the mirror, but it only took minutes to complete.
• KOTTO Expandable Garden Water Hose: This expandable garden water hose extends up to 150 feet, allowing me to water areas far from the spigot. The hose came with a spray nozzle and contracts into a manageable size that I can wrap around a holder (also included in the order).
• Armchairs: The armchairs I've ordered have been surprisingly durable, easy to assemble, and stylish. My favorite has been an oversized chenille accent chair, though a convertible armchair by George Oliver comes in second. It looks like a contemporary armchair, and yet it unfolds into a sleeper bed. Although I haven't had anyone sleep on the chair yet, sometimes, I like to unfold the seat so I can extend my legs.

The regrets: Wayfair items I would not buy again

Not everything I purchased from Wayfair was a winner. Here's what fell short of my expectations.

Desks

I haven't had the best luck with Wayfair desks, and the primary issue has been material quality.

• Particleboard & Fabric Drawer Desks: The first was a large white desk with four drawers that I was going to use as a sewing desk. (Now unavailable, but it's similar to this desk.) I got excited about the built-in charging port and LED lights strip and didn't stop to think about the fact that the desk was made with particle board, which isn't durable. Not only that, but the metal frame lacked cross-support beams for the fabric drawers, causing them to sag and fall out of place when weighed down.
• Two-piece top electric standing desks: Another time, I ordered my best friend an electric standing desk for her birthday. Although the legs were sturdy and the desk lifted and lowered as expected, I was disappointed to discover that the desktop was made of two pieces of particleboard, one of which was peeling on the side.
• Complex assembly: My current sewing desk is a mid-century modern walnut desk from Wayfair, and though I'm quite happy with it, that's not to say that it doesn't have its own issues. Assembly took me 5 hours (thankfully, I used a drill rather than the tools provided), but there was also stripping on the front façade. It's more durable than the others, and it's serving its purpose for now.

No-drill utility products

I ordered a self-adhesive toilet paper holder to avoid drilling holes into my bathroom wall. It lasted a week before it fell off, pulling a chunk of paint with it. No-drilling products may seem convenient, but they're not as durable or effective. Now, I'm using a toilet paper holder with a storage box that hides the missing chunk of paint.

• Harley Pasternak, a celebrity personal trainer, strength trains for 20 minutes, six days a week.
• As he ages, he's prioritizing resistance training to maintain his muscle mass.
• Pasternak focuses on two different body parts and his core in each workout.

At 51, Harley Pasternak's focus is building and maintaining his muscle mass sustainably as he ages.

Sarcopenia, the natural process of age-related muscle loss, usually begins at around age 30 and accelerates at age 60. As resistance training can help to prevent it, Pasternak has tweaked his workout routine to make this the focus.

He also prioritizes recovery by training for 20 minutes at a time and giving the muscles he worked several days off before hitting them again.

"As I get older, I find my recovery is not as it once was," the personal trainer, who has worked with over 100 celebrity clients, including Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, and Robert Pattinson, told Business Insider.

While he doesn't do any cardio-focused workouts, he consistently gets in 12,000 steps a day for his heart and mental health.

He shared the 20 minute workout routine he does six days a week.

Each workout focuses on two major body parts and the core

A gym aficionado, Pasternak has multiple gyms in his Los Angeles home, and he uses them daily. "I have a gym in my office. I have gyms on the way to gyms," he said.

Each of his workouts centers on two major body parts and a core movement, so he never works the same muscles two days in a row. He chooses one exercise per body part and does multiple sets of around 20 reps, with a core movement in between.

A typical day might look like this:

Body part one: rhomboids (upper back), Exercise one: inverted row

Body part two: hamstrings, Exercise two: stiff leg deadlift

Core muscle: abs, Exercise three: pike planks

"So I'll do, let's say, 20 rows, 20 stiff leg deadlifts, 19 rows, 19 stiff leg deadlifts, then I'll throw in my pike plank, " he said.

The next set he'll do 18 reps, then 17, followed by a pike plank, and continue reducing the reps until he's down to 13. Then he's done and ready to get on with his day. "It's the simplicity of the workouts that makes them easy to jump into," he said.

Switching up exercises to challenge his body

Every time Pasternak works the same muscle, he uses a different movement. For example, "the next time I do hamstrings in five days from now, it'll probably be a prone hamstring curl, or a kickstand deadlift, or a Nordic curl," he said.

This is partly so his muscles keep adapting to a new stimulus to build strength, and so he doesn't get bored. "Mentally, I would get bored doing the same exercises all the time," he said.

• Mike Francis is the head of aviation finance at Citi.
• He advises wealthy clients on purchasing private jets, including when to hold off.
• Here is what today's private jet owners are looking for.

Skip the theater system, throw in a Peloton, and make sure there's a private space for Zooms.

Mike Francis, the head of aircraft finance at Citi, said a new wave of private jet owners is fueling demand for new amenities.

Before he'll even talk about add-ons like those, Francis has a word of warning. If a private jet costs more than 10% of your net worth, think twice.

At the low end, that translates to a net worth of $30 million. At the high end, closer to $1 billion.

Sometimes that means figuring out the right combination of ownership and chartering, an option that comes into play when a personal jet is in maintenance or for a quick golf trip. Other times, that means discouraging clients about purchasing one at all.

"I regularly talk people out of buying a private airplane," Francis, who advises clients on every aspect of their private aviation purchases, told Business Insider. "This is an expensive, depreciating asset."

Most private jets cost more than $1 million a year to run, industry insiders previously told Business Insider. The jet's crewmembers are typically full-time employees earning annual salaries as high as $400,000, and all certifications, insurance, and training are paid for by the owner. Hangars can cost six figures a year, and repairs run in the millions. Then there's an accountant, a lawyer, a management company, and a banker, who are all involved in the purchase and maintenance of a jet.

"Buying an airplane is like buying a little business," Francis said. "It's highly regulated, it's expensive, and you need other people to manage it for you."

Still, over the past decade, private jet usage has soared. In 2025, there were 3.9 million private jet flights — up 4% year over year and 34% over 2019 pre-pandemic levels, according to data from aviation intelligence firm WingX. It shows no signs of slowing, with flights up year-to-date.

"Twenty years ago, you didn't talk about your private jet; you kind of kept it in the closet," Francis said. "Now everybody knows Taylor Swift has an airplane, and celebrities are using them as part of their image."

That means more jets, more owners, and different wishlists. Here's what today's owners are looking for in their private jets.

If the internet doesn't work, that's a lost trip

"One theme that we are seeing is frictionless living," Francis said. "Think of somebody who's on a Zoom call at their house, they hop in their car, it continues on, they get on the plane. It should be a seamless transfer."

High-speed WiFi is a need-to-have, not a nice-to-have. Jets now commonly rely on Elon Musk's Starlink, which has become the standard for many fractional ownership firms. This premium internet can cost as much as $450,000 up front, plus subscription costs, industry insiders told Business Insider last year.

It's not just for work. State-of-the-art entertainment systems have fallen out of favor with private jet owners because those can quickly become outdated. Now, flyers bring their own phones and tablets, and rely on WiFi to keep themselves entertained.

"Grandkid gets on there with his iPad, downloads a movie off of Netflix, get the bill for $50,000," Francis said.

Comfort is key

Technology has advanced to the point that it's (almost) possible to forget you're in a metal tube at 40,000 feet.

From noise, humidity, and vibration levels to cabin pressure altitude to custom-fit mattresses, everything is optimized.

"The less the vibration that there is, the less noise there is, the less fatiguing it is for the person," Francis said.

The ask extends to overall wellness, too, with some owners, particularly younger ones, requesting workout areas for yoga or a Peloton.

An office with a view

While personal jets have grown more popular, most are used for at least some business purposes.

"It's pretty uncommon to have these airplanes purely as a lifestyle tool," Francis said.

In addition to the WiFi requirement, private jet owners are asking for dedicated workspaces. There may not be a formal office, but a VIP area will have pocket doors for privacy and seats with desks that fold out for impromptu calls.

Some larger jets now offer the option to add a shower, a technically difficult and expensive add-on.

"You're flying 12 hours, you're going there to land and go do business, you want to take a shower," Francis said.

• FIRE investors may be making costly mistake: not regularly de-risking their portfolios.
• Those looking to retire early may not be aware of how exposed their savings are to swings in hot trades like AI.
• Market pros recommend taking profits in riskier areas of the market, like tech stocks, and diversifying.

Americans piling into stocks with dreams of retiring early may be making one big mistake: many aren't de-risking their portfolios after a historic run-up in the market, economists and wealth advisors warn.

It's a warning for the Financial Independence, Retire Early movement, a growing cohort of people who save and invest aggressively to be able to quit work if they choose. But many pursuing financial freedom may be underestimating the risk of a sharp correction and a slowdown in the coming years as valuations cool and market returns revert to the historical average, according to market pros speaking with Business Insider.

Data shows that Americans' retirement accounts in the last couple of decades have skewed more heavily toward equities. The average allocation to stocks in retirement accounts has climbed from 67% in 2005 to 78% in 2024, according to a report from Vanguard.

Investing pros generally recommend an aggressive allocation to stocks in the decades leading up to retirement, since equities move up and to the right over the long term, and younger people have time to recoup any losses stemming from market volatility.

But the market has increasingly become concentrated in tech and the AI trade. Technology stocks account for almost 40% of the total market cap of the S&P 500, more than three times any other industry in the index, and many retirement funds are heavily weighted toward tech investments.

Ted Oakley, a wealth advisor whose firm manages over $2 billion in assets and occasionally works with investors pursuing FIRE, said the top mistake among investors chasing financial independence is that many are investing heavily in risky assets and are reluctant to take profits due to the success of their portfolio in recent years.

"It may be FIRE without the E," Oakley said, referring to the possibility that many hoping to retire early will need to keep working as they rebuild their wealth after a market correction.

Stocks have started to wobble near their peaks as questions linger around valuations and the sustainability of AI capex. Oakley said the risk is that stocks tumble into what he calls a "generational" bear market, a double-digit decline that leads to a prolonged period of underperformance after a stretch of atypically large gains.

The FIRE movement has been around for years, but took off during the pandemic as markets posted a streak of 20%+ annual gains. If the S&P 500 holds on its gain so far this year, it would mark the fourth year in a row markets have delivered double-digit returns for investors.

'This has worked, so I'm going to keep on making it work so I get even more.' That, to us, is not investing," Oakley said.

David Rosenberg, a top economist and the founder of Rosenberg Research, said the surge of popularity the FIRE movement has seen since the pandemic is itself a symptom of the broader market bubble.

Chatter about FIRE first began in the years leading up to the internet bubble. "Your Money or Your Life," the book often credited with giving birth to the FIRE movement, was published in 1992, less than a decade before the dot-com bull market would eventually collapse.

Rosenberg and Oakley have two pieces of advice for FIRE investors: Take profits in some risky assets — specifically, tech stocks — and diversify into other areas of the market.

"We try to do it such that they don't end up having to give it all back. Because that's the worst," Oakley said, adding that the best long-term investment opportunities at the moment are in commodities like energy, gold, and silver, which don't look as overvalued as stocks and could benefit if the US sees hotter inflation in the coming years.

Rosenberg said young people should still be investing in the S&P 500, but balancing their exposure with tech to more attractively valued areas of the market, like Asian and other international stocks.

"Remember it's the tortoise that won the race, not the hare," Rosenberg said.

• The JPMorgan Chase boss warned that a lack of confidence can torpedo a CEO's career.
• Micromanaging, rejecting dissent, and chasing credit can weaken teams and drive away talent.
• Executive coaches explain how leaders can replace defensive habits with curiosity and trust.

Insecure CEOs may not recognize their own behavior — or realize how much it is hurting them.

Jamie Dimon recently said a lack of self-confidence can sink a leader's career by disconnecting them from what is happening inside their companies. Speaking on "The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost," the JPMorgan Chase boss recalled a saying: "When some people get a big job, some grow into it, and some swell into it."

Insecurity, he explained, is what drives the swelling.

Executive coaches and recruiters say recognizing insecure behavior can help leaders correct it before it damages their careers and companies. It can surface as micromanaging, rejecting dissent, seeking credit, or clinging too tightly to control.

"We're all flawed," said JP Pawliw, a performance coach whose clients have included Fortune 500 executives, Olympic athletes, and the CIA. Good leaders, he said, aren't afraid to "take their armor off."

Here are some of the clearest warning signs of insecurity at the top:

They need to come across as certain

The pressure to appear self-assured can lead executives to act as though they have every answer, even when they don't, Pawliw said. Genuine confidence looks different: Leaders can remain curious, acknowledge uncertainty, and focus on finding the right answer, he said.

That distinction can become apparent during job interviews, said Umesh Ramakrishnan, cofounder and chief strategy officer of the search firm Kingsley Gate. A C-suite candidate who offers a vague but confident-sounding strategy, and can't provide specifics, may be masking uncertainty. A stronger candidate can explain where the company needs to go while acknowledging that they will need others to help them get there.

"The most secure CEOs today are ones who are saying very simply, 'I don't know. I need help,' " Ramakrishnan said.

They resist criticism and dissent

For some leaders, criticism feels less like useful information than a threat, said David Gaspin, an executive coach and HR executive. He recently advised the CEO of a small health-tech company with three direct reports, each of whom described spending significant time preparing bad news so their boss would not react poorly.

Instead of asking how to solve a problem, the CEO's instinct was often to ask who was at fault, Gaspin said. The executive's reports became so focused on managing his reactions that they had less time to manage the business.

"A person who has trouble hearing the truth is, without realizing it, stunting the entire operation," Gaspin said.

Leaders can become especially resistant to dissent when their identity is tied to being right, said executive coach James Michael Sama. The more tightly they defend their position, he said, the harder it becomes for others to give them honest feedback — and for those leaders to learn.

"When you constantly have to prove you're right, even if you're not, it stiffens your position to the point where you're inflexible, and people can't communicate with you," Sama said.

Insecurity can also surface more quietly through "filtering," such as controlling who gets invited to meetings, included in Slack channels, or brought into a leader's inner circle, said Pawliw. Another tell, he added, is when leaders choose the people closest to them for their loyalty rather than their candor.

They micromanage and cling to control

Some leaders mistake tight control for strong leadership, even when it signals a lack of trust in the people around them, Sama said. He recently advised a construction company whose senior leaders said they wanted the sales team to grow the business tenfold, yet hovered so closely over employees that they were "strangling the process."

"It's anxiety dressed like leadership," Sama said.

The same impulse can also drive away talent. Gaspin recalled an established tech startup that was looking to hire a chief technology officer. The CEO lacked a technical background but still wanted to control the company's technical direction rather than let an expert lead it. Two top candidates withdrew after spending time with him.

Gaspin said insecure leaders may believe maintaining control protects their authority. Instead, it can slow the business, weaken teams, and make capable people reluctant to join or stay, he said.

They try too hard to seem cool

The need for approval can show up in subtle ways, Gaspin said, such as trying too hard to seem relatable or cool around employees. An insecure startup leader, he said, may show off that they're wearing trendy sneakers or act overly casual.

"The insecure ones spend an awful lot of time trying to be liked," he said.

They may also put a lot of effort into socializing with employees — such as by joining every conversation or frequently taking their team out for drinks — because they want to feel accepted, he said. The behavior can resemble genuine warmth, but the underlying motivation is different.

"They need to be in the conversation, or else they feel like they don't exist," Gaspin said.

They constantly seek validation or credit

A need to prove one's value can have the opposite effect, Sama said. He recalled advising a CEO who was pitching for a new account and spent much of the meeting detailing what she and her company had accomplished. The prospective client — another CEO — appeared increasingly disengaged, and she did not win the business.

Sama said the repeated emphasis on "we, we, we" and "me, me, me" exposed an underlying fear of not being taken seriously. What was intended to demonstrate credibility instead came across as insecurity.

Name-dropping and taking disproportionate credit can send a similar message, Ramakrishnan said. In executive interviews, he is wary of candidates who repeatedly emphasize who they know or describe accomplishments without recognizing the colleagues who contributed.

The leader may believe such behavior projects confidence. To others, Ramakrishnan said, it can look like a need for constant reassurance.

• Throughout my life, I've lived in 12 different countries.
• The moves are all exciting, and I enjoy my life, but I'm paying an emotional toll, too.
• I always feel like a foreigner, even when I return home to the US, and that can be hard.

She arrived in Malta on a Thursday, and by Friday, we were stretched out on one of the island's pale limestone beaches, watching the water shift from turquoise to deep blue at the horizon.

My best friend of 24 years was visiting from San Francisco, where she has lived since we graduated from college. She was impressed by the beauty surrounding me in my new Mediterranean home, but at some point, she looked at me and said, "You're missing your people here."

She wasn't wrong.

Over the years, I've lived and worked across Myanmar, China, Angola, the British Virgin Islands, Malta, and a handful of other countries. The brochure version of this life is peppered with quaint local markets, passport stamps, and the pride of being someone who chose differently. That version is real, but there's something else, something that lives just under the surface of all that freedom that isn't as exhilarating.

Sorting the logistics is never fun

Before you can get to any of it, there are the logistics. Finding housing, opening a local bank account, sourcing health insurance, figuring out the phone plan, the grocery situation, and where anything is.

Every single move, you rebuild from zero — and you do all of it while appearing, to new colleagues and new landlords and a new country, completely fine.

Every move means starting your story over

Here's the truth: every time you move, you start the story from the beginning.

New people, new introductions, new summarized versions of yourself that fit over drinks. You give people the highlights. What gets left behind is context, the people who know your history, who remember who you were before all this, who don't need you to explain the reference because they were there. When you move every few years, no one holds that for you. Huge pieces of you are just missing.

You're always the foreigner — even back home

I was surprised to realize that I am always, technically, the foreigner. After calling so many different countries home, I've realized that you don't truly belong in the place you're living; you're an extended visitor on a contract. But when you go home, you don't fully belong there either. You've changed, expanded. You've outgrown the shape that used to fit.

No one prepares you for the accumulation of goodbyes, either. It is, genuinely, a lifestyle of never-ending goodbyes. Goodbyes when you leave for a new country or those who you've formed a connection with decide to do the same. All of that sounds poetic until you're living it — then it just feels like loss, on repeat, with the added guilt of knowing you chose it.

That's the hard part, knowing every move was mine. So when loneliness comes, the specific loneliness of never being fully known in any one place, it arrives with a complicated chaser: you have no right to feel this.

I know, I know. And still.

The fullness and privilege of this life are real. So is the loneliness.

There is a cost to always arriving

I'm not sharing this to discourage anyone from the life I've chosen. I'm sharing it because I spent years confused about why I sometimes felt hollow in a life that looked so full, and I think I'm not the only one.

A lot of people living the life of a nomad carry the same weight: performing competence and enthusiasm while internally processing loss, dislocation, and the slow fragmentation of a continuous self. Looking fine on the outside, while starting over again on the inside. Maybe it's just the honest cost of a particular kind of freedom. The cost of always arriving.

Reinvention is exhilarating. It's also exhausting. Both things are true, even on a beautiful beach in Malta with your oldest friend.

• For centuries, technology has largely served us and made our lives easier.
• Innovation theorist John Nosta said AI is changing humans rather than just changing the world around them.
• Nosta calls the shift "The Great Inversion."

Humans have long built technologies to change the world around them — faster cars, better tools, and more efficient machines.

AI may be among the first widely adopted technologies that not only shapes the world around us but also increasingly influences how we think, learn, and solve problems.

That's according to John Nosta, an innovation theorist and founder of the think tank NostaLab, who called the shift "The Great Inversion."

"Progress seems to be increasingly about making humans better for the technological world we've created," Nosta told Business Insider.

'The organism is the project'

Historically, many innovations have helped people overcome physical constraints, he said. Humans invented the wheel to make it easier to move heavy loads, and the car dramatically expanded how far and fast people could travel, for example.

Nosta says that AI is different because its primary impact is often cognitive rather than physical. Instead of simply changing people's environment, he says, AI increasingly changes how they approach thinking, reasoning, and decision-making.

"We're now into the cognitive age, where what's changing is the nature of thought," he said. "The path from A to B is getting shorter and shorter, and we are deferring cognition to the machine."

His view echoes a growing body of research suggesting that AI can influence how people learn, remember information, and make decisions.

Researchers at Oxford University Press warned last year that generative AI can make students faster and more fluent while quietly reducing the depth of learning that comes from pausing, questioning, and working through problems independently.

Meanwhile, a report from the Work AI Institute found that AI often creates an illusion of expertise, making users feel more capable even as some underlying skills begin to erode.

For Nosta, AI is one example of a broader trend. He points to GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic, which were originally developed to treat diabetes but are now widely used for weight loss and are being studied for their potential to reduce cravings for alcohol, nicotine, and compulsive behaviors.

Rather than redesigning environments to better suit people, some new innovations modify human behavior to help people function within existing environments, he said. "The organism is the project."

That shift, he said, carries important implications for human cognition.

Using AI as a partner, not a replacement

Still, Nosta doesn't believe AI is inherently harmful.

He distinguishes between what he calls "iterative intelligence," where people use AI to deepen their understanding through conversation, and "cognitive surrender," where they simply accept AI-generated answers without engaging in the thinking process.

Vivienne Ming, chief scientist at the Possibility Institute, raised a similar point to Business Insider in March, saying her research found most AI users rely on the technology to think less, while a minority use it to think better.

Instead, she said users should use it as a collaborator, exploring ideas, challenging assumptions, and pushing the problem forward, in what she described as "productive friction" — the process by which learning and skills form.

Nosta described a similar approach he called "iterative intelligence."

"The ability to engage with technology, with large language models, is an extraordinary opportunity for humanity to advance itself," he said.

But for that to happen, he said, people need to resist what he called the "myth" that AI's greatest value is speed and instead use it as a thinking partner, even if that means spending more time wrestling with ideas.

• Brinker International-owned Chili's has turned around its sales over the last few years.
• It's invested in basic tech instead of AI, Brinker's chief information officer said.
• The chain has focused on new ordering tablets and WiFi systems, Chris Caldwell said.

Chris Caldwell is more focused on tablets these days than AI tokens.

The chief information officer of Chili's parent company, Brinker International, has spent his 2½ years in the role figuring out how to overhaul WiFi systems at restaurants and replace thousands of handheld devices that waitstaff use to take customers' orders, he told Business Insider.

Many restaurants are adding AI to their operations. At Starbucks and Burger King, for instance, AI agents are listening to drive-thru orders and fetching recipes for baristas.

Chili's, meanwhile, has largely stayed away from such uses. Instead, it's turned around its same-store sales in part by focusing on food quality, service, and, in Caldwell's case, replacing outdated tech systems.

"I'm not chasing AI to go, 'Guys, Anthropic just released a new LLM, and we need to use it because it's cool,'" he said.

From singing robots to new iPads

Before Caldwell arrived in 2024, Chili's was experimenting with lots of flashy technology, such as robots that could bus tables and sing Happy Birthday to diners.

As Caldwell talked to his new colleagues, though, he got the impression that Chili's needed to invest in more basic tech upgrades. Some restaurants didn't have enough ordering tablets, he said. When a tablet was available, Chili's system didn't reliably send customers' orders to the kitchen, resulting in slower service.

"The first thing I heard was that we're doing a lot of state-of-the-art things, but the foundational systems were really having some challenges," he said.

To fix these problems, Caldwell and colleagues invested in fixes such as 23,000 iPads for taking orders. It's also redesigning the software on those tablets to make taking orders as easy as using any other app — and help new employees train faster, he said.

Under Caldwell, Chili's has also replaced WiFi access points in all 1,200 of its US restaurants and made sure each had enough bandwidth so that ordering and other in-store operations weren't slowed down, he said.

Caldwell uses AI to brainstorm

It's not that Caldwell and Chili's are avoiding AI altogether.

Corporate employees at Brinker have access to Microsoft's Copilot — a tool that's made them "more efficient on a day-to-day basis," Caldwell said.

For example, Caldwell said that he bounces ideas off of AI. He described a conversation with the chatbot that helped him think through the implications of using payment devices stationed at Chili's tables instead of having customers flag down waitstaff to pay.

"I had probably a 30-minute brainstorming session with AI this morning just to make sure I'm thinking about that holistically," he said.

Brinker is also looking at about half a dozen uses of AI that could be more directly integrated into restaurant operations, such as estimating when customers' online orders will be ready for pick-up.

"Does it make life easier for our teams or customers?" he said. "That's the lens that we're using, for the most part."

Have a tip? Contact this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Oliver Browne is the founder of a luxury travel agency who plans trips costing as much as $100,000.
• He has helped his clients go heli-skiing in Albania, on luxury safaris, and camel riding in Mongolia.
• Browne said there are more affordable way to do trips like these, if you know what to prioritize.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Oliver Browne, 44, who founded True Summit Adventures in 2022. He is based in Albania. This piece has been edited for length and clarity.

A trek to Everest Base Camp with a helicopter return, heli-skiing in Albania, crossing Mongolia's Altai Mountains and Gobi Desert by horseback and camel, and exploring Bhutan while staying at Six Senses.

These are some of the adventures we've taken our ultrawealthy clients on, which cost an average of around $100,000 per trip.

What I've learned over the years, however, is that you don't need a billionaire budget to have these kinds of experiences.

Our clients are a mix of private-equity supremos and people who got rich in tech

When I founded True Summit Adventures, I focused on mountain adventures and trips to places I knew well, like East Africa and Nepal. As our client base grew, we expanded into superluxury adventures with broader appeal.

The experiences we offer include luxury frontier travel, polar yacht charters, and safaris on foot, horseback, or by helicopter. Clients stay in bespoke luxury canvas camps erected specifically for their party, rather than sharing a lodge with other guests. We typically cover accommodation and experiences, but not the cost of international flights.

Our clients are an eclectic group: a mix of younger people who made their fortunes in tech, and older private equity supremos. They want to be pushed out of their comfort zones and meet interesting people. That's one reason we offer icon-led adventures, where world-famous adventurers act as our clients' guides.

It's not about sitting on a beach for a week and drinking margaritas, but pursuing something more meaningful.

When planning a trip, I try to think: if I were superwealthy and money were no object, what would I want to do?

From 2006 to 2015, I played polo professionally and went on adventures to places including Argentina, Pakistan, India, and South Africa, which introduced me to a lot of superwealthy people.

After I retired from polo, I worked in the family office space for about five years. Between those jobs and polo, I've worked around ultrawealthy people for about 20 years. In 2019, I went to South America and Asia to climb, and by 2021, I was no longer trying to be Oliver the investment professional, but Oliver the adventurer, and I haven't looked back.

Decide what will make the trip magical and budget from there

Although I organize extravagant trips, it's not how I usually travel. I've traveled the world on a shoestring budget before, doing everything as cheaply as I could, such as when I traveled solo through Mozambique during my gap year.

Whatever trip you're planning, the key is to decide which elements matter to you and will make the trip feel magical. Once you know, prioritize those elements, and plan the adventure within a budget you can afford.

I think there's an iteration of most adventures for different price points, as long as you're willing to sacrifice certain things.

Instead of chartering a yacht for a week for $120,000, you could book a cabin with an adventure cruise company and pay a fraction of the price. You won't have the same amenities or privacy, but you'll have a similar experience.

On safari, you might not be able to stay at the best lodge in Arusha, Tanzania, but you can find a perfectly reasonable three-star hotel nearby.

Bhutan can be fiendishly expensive if you fly there by private jet, stay at Six Senses, and travel by helicopter. Alternatively, you can fly via Kathmandu and stay in a four-star hotel that's still pretty nice.

Superluxury travel offers access to superior logistics and accommodation, but for me, luxury isn't always the be-all and end-all of an adventure. It's about being in a new place, climbing a mountain, seeing the sunrise, and watching wildlife.

To see the world and have amazing adventures, all you need is curiosity, interest, time, and a certain amount of money, but not a billionaire budget.

• Manoj Aggarwal says AI could reduce demand for junior software engineers.
• He shared how he spends time outside work experimenting with AI to keep up with the technology.
• He says experienced engineers who adapt to AI will continue to add value.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Manoj Aggarwal, a lead software engineer at a large software company who previously worked at Microsoft, Twitter, and Stripe. He's in his 30s and lives in California. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I've worked as a software engineer for 14 years at companies including Microsoft, Twitter, and Stripe — and I've seen how the job has changed.

I think that in some ways, it's a fun time to be a software engineer. There are so many tools available that you can pretty much build anything from scratch without your own skills being the bottleneck.

It's also a challenging time for many engineers. AI tools have made coding easier, but engineers — not AI — are ultimately accountable for the code that gets shipped. Even as AI speeds up many parts of the code review process and makes it more targeted, the added responsibility of reviewing AI-generated code can contribute to burnout.

There are also concerns about AI replacing engineers. If 10 engineers were needed to ship a project two years ago, maybe only five are needed now.

I think junior engineers could be affected the most. During my job search last year, there seemed to be more openings for senior engineering roles than for junior ones, and I think companies will continue to rely on experienced engineers working with AI tools.

That's one reason I'm making sure I stay up to date with those tools.

I keep up with AI after hours — without sacrificing work-life balance

My current job is an engineering role at a large software company, and AI has completely changed my workflow over the past year. My coding time has essentially been reduced to writing prompts for AI tools, and in some cases, I've been working at a pace that feels 10 times faster.

I get to learn a lot about AI on the job. Still, I think it's important to spend a couple of hours a week outside work experimenting with AI to stay up to date with the industry. That way, I also get to work on cool projects that wouldn't be possible to create during work hours because my day gets so busy with office work.

Taking time to experiment with AI outside work hasn't had much impact on my work-life balance. A big reason is that I have a toddler at home, so I can't even think about opening my laptop while she's awake. When I do work on personal projects or read about AI, it's typically at night after she goes to sleep or on weekends — again, when she's asleep.

I spend under $100 a month on AI tools and built my own chatbot

Outside work, I often use Claude Code, Microsoft Copilot, and Lovable. I spend about $50 to $60 a month on Claude Code, depending on how many tokens I use and the subscription rate. I recently tried Anthropic's Fable model for a personal project, and wow, is it fast.

One of the side projects I built is an open-source tax and financial assistant. It lets users connect AI models like Gemini or ChatGPT and upload financial documents like credit card statements, investment portfolios, and tax forms. The tool can analyze those documents and point out things like overspending in certain categories, expensive subscriptions, or whether an investment portfolio may be too aggressive or too conservative.

I used the tool to help prepare my 2025 taxes, and it helped me verify that my CPA had done everything correctly. I built it to run locally on my computer because I didn't want to upload my personal financial information to AI models over the internet.

Engineers should lean into the domain knowledge AI won't have

One of the biggest challenges for engineers is adapting to a job that can change rapidly because of technological shifts and other factors outside your control. That was true even before the AI boom.

In recent years, generative AI has raised new questions about engineers' job security. It's important to keep up with AI, but I also think AI doesn't have the high-level picture of what a system should look like or why it's designed a certain way. That's where I think engineers still add value. I'd suggest leaning into your experience — both your engineering skills and the institutional knowledge you've built if you've been at a company for a while.

While fewer engineers may be needed for some projects going forward, I think the responsibilities of the engineers who remain will be very important. AI also makes mistakes, so there has to be a human in the loop.

My advice for other engineers would be not to shy away from keeping up with AI. Regardless of how you feel about AI, if you're compared with another engineer who's using it, there's no doubt that the other engineer's productivity will be higher, so experiment with different AI tools and figure out what works best for you.

Do you have a story to share about learning AI or working in tech? Reach out to the reporter via email at jzinkula@businessinsider.com, or via Signal at jzinkula.29.

• A finance professor has been testing AI bots' stock-trading abilities since 2023.
• His AI-managed portfolios show a clear winner when it comes to beating the S&P 500.
• DeepSeek has beaten the other chatbots when it comes to year to date returns.

Dr. Alejandro Lopez Lira has been trying to prompt AI chatbots to beat the market since 2023.

Lopez Lira, an associate professor of finance at the University of Florida, began his project early in the AI boom to see which model could trade stocks to deliver market-beating returns. After almost three years of testing the most popular models, he said he's got his answer.

"DeepSeek is by far the best trader," he told Business Insider.

DeepSeek's portfolio is up 73% since it launched in 2023 and 35% year-to-date. ChatGPT has slightly outpaced DeepSeek since launch, up 78%, but is only up 16% year-to-date. The Grok portfolio has returned 54% since inception and 19% year-to-date.

He said DeepSeek is also beating Claude, though he noted that Anthropic's chat bot hasn't been managing a portfolio for as long as the others.

All of his AI-managed portfolios can be publicly viewed on Autopilot, an app that allows retail traders to copy moves made by successful investors, from Warren Buffett to Nancy Pelosi investors. Copy trading has become popular in recent years, and, according to Autopilot co-founder Chris Josephs, there has been increasing interest among users in copying trades made by AI-run stock portfolios.

"What's fascinating is we see people apply and want to launch more and more funds, launch more and more portfolios, and more people are using AI to essentially prompt out their ideas," he told Business Insider.

Lopez Lira said that while each AI model functions similarly in terms of information processing, he estimated that they only make the same calls about 50% of the time.

"There's some setup involved in the sense that you have to add the latest information to the model — firm news, various fundamentals, things like that — but the final decision is the model's completely."

In a GPT portfolio white paper shared on his Autopilot page, Lopez Lira provided examples of some of the prompts he's used in setting up the portfolio.

The platform also shows lists of recent trades each AI portfolio has made. Most recently, it shows 19 trades made by DeepSeek on July 14, including increasing its position in Nvidia and reducing its Vista Energy holdings.

While Micron Technology is the top holding for both DeepSeek and Grok's portfolios, the second-highest performing portfolio, ChatGPT, favors Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, a lesser known aerospace recently named as a top pick by Stifel.

While the Claude portfolio also holds Kratos stock, its top holding is the iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF, a stark contrast to the other bot's preferences for Big Tech and energy stocks. It also maintains a fairly large position in Vista Energy, a contrarian position relative to DeepSeek's move to reduce its position.

Mary Carole McDonnell needed cash.

The veteran TV executive, whose company carved out a niche as a prolific producer of true-crime shows like "Corrupt Crimes" and "Motive to Murder," had racked up more than $1 million in debt in 2017 and was on the hunt for a cash infusion, court filings show.

McDonnell was used to hustling: She told people she was heir to a famous aerospace fortune, but she started her television career from the bottom like everyone else, working her way up from secretary to chief executive over more than four decades in the business. Her employees whispered that the queen of true crime had done it while scarred by a terrible tragedy of her own: the murder of her 11-year-old sister in a botched kidnapping.

When McDonnell approached a bank for a lifeline, she leaned on a dramatic backstory, claiming she was related to the founders of the McDonnell Douglas Corporation and was soon due $80 million from a family trust. Thanks to allegedly forged documents, she eventually obtained $14.6 million in loans.

Not long after, McDonnell vanished, leaving behind her California life — her mansion, her Porsche, her adult sons — and a string of lawsuits from a bank and unpaid employees in her wake.

The details of her past — the kidnapped sister, the bloodline, the inheritance — were revealed to be a fiction. She was, authorities said, a fraudster and a fugitive believed to have fled to Dubai. She was indicted on federal charges in 2018 and added to the FBI's Most Wanted list in 2025, becoming one of only 32 people to land on the list for white-collar crimes.

How did a TV executive end up the star of a legal drama that could have been fodder for one of her own shows? Is McDonnell really in Dubai, and what happens to the cases against her in her absence? Business Insider reviewed hundreds of pages of court records and interviewed staff, producers, and ex-FBI agents who were on her payroll — along with someone who says they befriended her in Dubai — to reveal how McDonnell's story and her business unraveled.

Mary Carole McDonnell is not actually an heiress or related to the family that built the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, the government and others have confirmed. A funeral notice for her father, Russell McDonnell, lists her as the fifth of six children born to Russell and Eva McDonnell, who owned McDonnell's Market Place, a beloved corner grocery that operated in Kirkwood, Missouri, for 75 years.

After graduating from Principia College in 1974, McDonnell embarked on a career in television, bouncing around local stations and working her way up the ladder from secretary to producer to director of programming. By the 1990s, she'd moved to Los Angeles and become the vice president of programming and marketing at Argyle Television, now known as Hearst Television. In 1999, she became the vice president of programming at Raycom Media.

While at Raycom, McDonnell launched her own production and distribution company, later called Bellum Entertainment, around 2005. It focused on shows on alien sightings like "Unsealed: Alien Files," the home remodeling show "Fix It & Finish It" starring soap star Antonio Sabato Jr., and shows stations needed to fill their Saturday morning educational and informational blocks like "Animal Atlas," "Zoo Clues," and "The Coolest Places on Earth."

In 2014, McDonnell left Raycom to focus on Bellum full-time and needed funding. In 2015, she received a $2.7 million loan from Pacific Business Capital Corporation, according to a 2017 lawsuit Pacific later brought against her. When she applied for the loan, the lawsuit alleges, McDonnell claimed she had an $80 million trust, but couldn't provide details about the trust because of a tragic family story.

A letter from McDonnell's attorney to the bank, viewed by Business Insider, said that McDonnell was unable to disclose any information or documentation related to the trust due to a court order issued after the "kidnap and murder" of her sister, Holly. In 2019, an arbitrator awarded Pacific Business Capital Corporation close to $6.8 million. McDonnell has not paid the judgment.

There's no evidence that Holly was kidnapped. A 1966 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article says she was fatally stabbed in the back by a 14-year-old boy while playing in the yard of the McDonnell home. The two children knew each other from the schools for children with disabilities they attended.

As McDonnell focused her full attention on Bellum, a lucrative trend in entertainment emerged: true crime. In the fall of 2014, the podcast "Serial" became a record-breaking phenomenon. Shortly after, the zeitgeist-defining success of two landmark docuseries, HBO's "The Jinx" and Netflix's "Making a Murderer," proved audiences had an insatiable appetite for the genre on television, too.

An energized McDonnell was ready to position Bellum as a true-crime factory. Bellum began producing docuseries that could be made cheaply and syndicated widely. One of the first to take off was "Deep Undercover," which debuted in 2016 and was hosted by Joe Pistone, the FBI agent who famously went undercover in the mob using the name Donnie Brasco.

Soon, Bellum was pumping out true-crime shows that aired everywhere from The CW to Investigation Discovery. "Motive to Murder," "Murderous Affairs," "Corrupt Crimes," "It Takes a Killer" — these weren't shows that were going to win Emmys, but they fed the industry's growing thirst for crime content. McDonnell was widely seen as an executive producer with an eye for hits and an ability to sell them.

For Ethan LeCuyer, who started working at Bellum as an associate producer in 2015, life at Bellum at that time was good. It was a small, family-run operation, with McDonnell's nephew, Peter McDonnell, overseeing production on all the true-crime shows, and her twin sons, Sean and Mackenzie Carroll, working in post-production and sales and distribution, respectively.

"There were only eight of us in total, including editors, so it was very tight-knit," LeCuyer told Business Insider in an exclusive interview about his time at Bellum. Everyone called Mary Carole 'MC,' even her sons, he said. He can't remember them ever calling her "mom."

LeCuyer was drawn to Bellum's scrappy, unconventional style: If he had to shoot B-roll for a show, he grabbed a camera and stole shots throughout Los Angeles, permits be damned. He often shot interviews at MC's mansion in La Cañada, an affluent suburb north of Los Angeles.

"The house never seemed lived in, and it's filled with all this gaudy furniture. It almost felt like a set, but with the exception of maybe four or five pictures of Sean and Mack as kids," LeCuyer said.

One aspect of the job concerned him: He said he rarely got paid on time, and when he did, the checks sometimes bounced.

"The first time it happened, I was like, 'That's never happened to me before,' but you almost became numb to it a little bit because everybody was in the same boat," LeCuyer said. "It always cleared eventually."

The Bellum playbook was simple: Shows were made by a scrappy few and done on the cheap. MC would go back out to buyers with new show ideas, get them sold, and use that money to fund the low-budget process all over again, LeCuyer and two other former Bellum executives told Business Insider. The strategy worked so well that by 2017, McDonnell had grander aspirations.

That January, Cineflix, one of the UK's largest independent TV distributors, signed a distribution deal with Bellum. The same month, Bellum locked a multi-show deal with international distributor Red Arrow International, now known as Seven.One Studios, for over 200 hours of content. Between the new deals and existing ones with Sky Networks and Sinclair Broadcast Group, McDonnell was on a hot streak. Bellum would have to deliver a lot of fresh content — and fast.

The company needed 26 episodes done in six months, said Andrew Nock, who was hired as the showrunner of season two of "Corrupt Crimes," a new Bellum show that would also be repurposed internationally under the name "Motive to Murder."

The workload "seemed impossible," he said.

So Nock hired extra people for several positions, reducing the favorable margins that Bellum had made the key to its success.

Bellum also streamlined its operations with expert commentators, often retired FBI agents, who were hired to weigh in on the crimes discussed on shows. Instead of having them talk off the cuff about a case, producers crafted scripts they would memorize and repeat on-camera to save shooting and editing time. Interviews were moved from studios to the dingy basement of Bellum's office to save money.

James R. Fitzgerald, a retired criminal profiler and forensic linguist whose work at the FBI led to the arrest of the Unabomber in 1996, was surprised to learn that he would be reading a script — and sometimes had to correct inaccuracies.

"It was going from Broadway to off-off-off-Broadway," Fitzgerald said, comparing Bellum to his previous commentating gigs. "It was a cookie-cutter enterprise."

At one point, the company had 80 shows and 180 episodes in production, Nock said. Yet even when things were rocky, and paychecks came late, he said, "it seemed too big to fail."

McDonnell made it seem that way, too.

MC liked the finer things in life: She had a 4,805-square-foot, 5-bedroom La Cañada estate. She drove a Porsche. She owned a 39-foot boat docked in Newport beach. Every workday morning, she had a makeup artist do her glam in the office, two former Bellum employees told Business Insider.

Her extravagances fomented frustration when paychecks were late. When they finally came, it was a struggle to get the money in hand. Nock and two other former Bellum employees said the checks would often bounce, and they would run to another bank that would sometimes cash them.

"It was always a race to try to get there first to get your money," Nock said. "There was a woman at the… bank who would start laughing: 'Oh no, not more of these again!'"

Equipment and location vendors also clamored for their money.

"We were doing this one story about a guy who killed his family on Christmas with a flamethrower, and I lent my Christmas tree for the shoot at this person's home in Burbank," Nock said. The homeowner "never got their check, and so they held my Christmas tree hostage."

By the spring of 2017, it had become common for MC or her nephew, Peter, to make excuses as to why the staff wasn't getting paid on time, according to two former Bellum workers. In one instance, Deadline reported MC informed the company in a series of emails that Bellum had been a victim of bank fraud. In another, Peter told the staff there were issues with wire transfers, former Bellum story producer Bethany Jones said.

Peter told Business Insider via email that he was unaware of any bank fraud.

"I had no access to or information about the company's finances," said Peter, who left Bellum in July 2017 and says he's still owed over $10,000. "I began to suspect her explanations were lies," he said of his aunt. "The promise she made to everyone was that the company would soon receive a huge loan that would right the ship. It never came."

As for the wire transfers, "I may have relayed an explanation from the CFO or Mary Carole about a payment delinquency," Peter wrote in his email. "Those delinquencies were becoming more common. If I added a reason for the delay, it was always based on the information I received. I stopped passing on explanations because I stopped trusting them myself."

Some producers and crew members started taking drastic measures to get paid. Retired FBI special agent Bobby Chacon, who worked as a writer and technical advisor, said he saw a cameraman take an expensive camera home as collateral after a shoot, saying he hadn't been paid. Jones, who was a story producer on "I Married a Murderer" in 2016, said she stormed into the office one day with her IRS-credentialed tax preparer and confronted McDonnell, who turned pale and threatened to call the police on them.

"It was an f-you," Jones told Business Insider in an exclusive interview as to why she confronted McDonnell. "We all knew we weren't going to see the money."

Nock said one day, officials from the California Labor Commissioner's Office walked into Bellum unannounced.

They "showed up one day with business cards and passed them out to everyone's desk because someone must have reported what was going on," he said.

Aaron Cadieux took a different approach. After months of waiting for the $2,000 he says he was owed for working two-and-a-half days on an episode of Bellum's "Mysteries of the Unexplained," the filmmaker bought the domain name MaryCaroleMcDonnell.com and designed a disparaging webpage with a picture of McDonnell's head on a pig's body.

"I basically said, 'Look, I want my money. I own the domain name MaryCaroleMcDonnell.com. This is the website I've designed. If I don't get my money by Friday at 5 o'clock... this website is going to go live,'" Cadieux said, adding that he gave the company a week's notice of his intentions. "At like 4:55 p.m. on that Friday, they wired me my money."

Cadieux still went live with the site in solidarity with the others who were never paid.

Amid the workers' revolt, McDonnell gradually stopped showing up to the office, and the reality had sunk in that Bellum was on the verge of collapse.

"That was the joke among us: You know the ship's sinking when Mary Carole will stop having her hair and makeup done every morning," Jones said.

Around this time, the government alleges, McDonnell was trying to get money from banks. In March 2017, Reliable Fast Cash, which specialized in offering capital and merchant cash advances to small and midsize businesses, began to loan Bellum over $2.5 million, according to court documents. After months of partial payments, Bellum defaulted by July and again in August.

Because McDonnell and her sons had signed documents agreeing to be liable for the debt in advance, a judge awarded Reliable over $3.3 million in September of that year, and the company immediately began collecting the debt. Over $550,000 in money and assets were seized from Sean and Mack, though they said they were unaware their signatures were on the loan application, according to court documents.

The brothers filed a motion in 2019 to vacate the judgment, alleging that their mother forged their signatures on the loan. They settled with Reliable in 2020, with Reliable keeping the money it had already collected but agreeing not to withdraw any more.

The family dynamic has been fraught ever since. People familiar with the family told Business Insider that Sean and Mack have not been in contact with their mother for years.

Sean declined to comment; Mack did not respond.

With her debts mounting, in December 2017, McDonnell applied for another loan, this time from Banc of California. Though McDonnell eventually secured over $14.6 million, it didn't solve Bellum's problems: By the end of the year, employees said, Bellum was effectively defunct. Records show Bellum officially became inactive in 2020. Close to 50 employees filed wage claims with the California Labor Commissioner's Office.

In 2018, McDonnell was hit with both civil and criminal allegations. In July, Banc of California sued McDonnell in federal court, alleging that she falsely claimed to be an heir to the McDonnell Douglas Corporation aerospace fortune and was seeking millions to tide her over until she received a cash distribution from her family's $80 million trust. The bank said in court documents that it loaned McDonnell over $14.6 million after receiving loan documents it claims were false and forged. Banc of California later refiled the case in California state court, and a judge ruled in their favor in 2021 and awarded the bank over $17 million.

On December 12, 2018, McDonnell was federally indicted on charges of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.

With a warrant out for her arrest, McDonnell remained at large. McDonnell's exact movements are unknown, but the FBI has said it believes she had set down roots some 8,300 miles away from Hollywood, in Dubai.

Dubai entrepreneur Thili Brady is used to rubbing shoulders with the wealthy and powerful. But when she met an older American woman nicknamed MC, something stood out: She introduced herself as an heiress and always brought it up.

Brady struck up a friendship with McDonnell and her husband, Jeffrey Nilles, in 2019, after seeing them around the Dubai luxury hotel where she had an apartment. They shopped together, went to the movies, and had dinners. Brady described her bond with the couple as parental and said MC opened up to her new friend.

"Each and every time she would get into my car, she would say, 'Oh, I had a Porsche back in the US,'" Brady said.

MC said her kids would never call her, Brady added. "She'd get upset on special occasions and start crying. So I was feeling sorry for them."

MC approached Brady about getting into business, inviting her in 2019 to be part of a $7.5 million investment to develop three TV shows, according to an email Brady provided to Business Insider.

"I have done these deals through banks before but this one requires private investment because of the immediate product demand," MC wrote.

MC mapped out the path to generating revenue using the Bellum show "Motive to Murder" as an example, saying it generated $2 million in international sales in one year.

"Crime series easily generate 4 to 5X return after recouping costs," she wrote. "The key to this is producing the shows in an 'evergreen' fashion so that the show easily has a 10 year amortization arc."

MC estimated that in the US, she could sell each episode on cable for between $15,000 to $50,000, and sell an entire show to Netflix for $1 million a year. With revenue coming from cable, streaming, and syndication, MC predicted that it was "certainly doable" for investors to see a return on the $7.5 million within a year.

Two former Bellum executives told Business Insider the figures in MC's email appear to have been inflated.

Brady said she passed on the proposal after discussing it with a lawyer.

Brady remained friends with MC and Nilles until 2022, when she said the couple attempted to secure roughly $80,000 from her, then sued her for the money when she declined to pay them. Brady said she won the case and that Nilles appealed in 2024 and lost. Business Insider couldn't obtain detailed records of the case, but a public notice of appeal in Dubai shows Nilles appealed a case involving Brady in 2024. Nilles did not respond to a request for comment.

After Brady fell out with McDonnell and Nilles, she did research and found a Facebook group for former Bellum employees. After she shared her experience with a member of the group, she said, the FBI interviewed her.

Months later, Brady said, she bumped into McDonnell and Nilles in a parking lot.

"They were like, 'You have insulted MC,'" Brady said.

Brady said her parting comment to them was, "Karma is a bitch. This is going to come back to you."

In December 2025, the FBI added McDonnell to its Most Wanted list. Suddenly, what had been a local story about unpaid employees in Hollywood was now national and international news: "Fake aerospace empire heiress, 74, lands on FBI's Most Wanted list for defrauding millions from banks," the New York Post headline blared. "A prolific true crime producer was truly a criminal the whole time, the FBI says," wrote The Guardian.

A photo of McDonnell circulated by the FBI shows her blonde hair pulled back from her face, revealing pearl studs in her ears. She smiles broadly, appearing not to have a care in the world.

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller told Business Insider that the case is ongoing. "She's still a fugitive, and we believe she may be conducting fraud currently," she said. Eimiller also said the FBI believes McDonnell is in Dubai.

If McDonnell is in Dubai, arresting her isn't as simple as sending American authorities to the UAE to serve a warrant.

"Dubai is not a magic invisibility cloak, but it presents a significant legal and diplomatic obstacle," said Tom Simon, a former FBI special agent who now works as a private investigator with a specialty in fraud investigations. "The FBI cannot simply travel there, serve its warrant and put her on an airplane. Any arrest in Dubai requires the cooperation of Emirati authorities."

However, arresting McDonnell wouldn't be impossible, Simon said. "Her location may provide protection from immediate arrest, but it does not provide permanent immunity."

Back in the US, most ex-Bellum employees have since moved on with their lives. LeCuyer, who says he's owed over $10,000, worked as an EMT after Bellum and now works at a visual effects company. Fitzgerald, who still works as a commentator and co-hosts a true-crime podcast, says he's owed $10,000. Jones, who says she's owed $30,000, is working as a producer. Chacon, who says he's owed $36,000, is still a story consultant and expert commentator.

One former Bellum contractor is still hoping he can get closure.

Before McDonnell landed on the FBI's Most Wanted list late last year, Tim Clemente, a retired FBI counterterrorism agent who worked for Bellum as one of its crime experts, started hatching a plan to track down McDonnell.

Clemente, who says he's still owed around $5,000, described himself as a unique victim. "I got a lot of friends in the Middle East, I got a lot of friends in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, all over that area — special operations guys, foreign nationals that are over there working with United Arab Emirates special operations. I've done a lot of training."

With the FBI now on the case, Clemente has stood down. Now, he can only wait for closure. Still, he dreams of giving the ordeal its own Hollywood ending.

"I want to do it as an unscripted series," he said of the FBI's manhunt for McDonnell. "She used us for an unscripted series, and she made a lot of money. We would like to return the favor."

Additional reporting by Jack Newsham.

• Kristen and Dan Koepke are exploring a new chapter: retirement and RV living.
• They bought an RV for $85,000, made some upgrades, and expect to spend on excursions as they travel.
• They think this change works if you're fine with downsizing and living without a stationary base.

Kristen, 44, and Dan Koepke, 57, recently started a new chapter of their lives: learning what it's like to live full-time in an RV as retirees.

Several years ago, Kristen had a bucket list goal of visiting the state capital, a park or forest, a landmark, and "any other key hot spots" in every state by RV, so the Koepkes could actually experience what each state has to offer. Dan was hesitant at first, but quickly got on board after hearing stories from visitors to the couple's Wisconsin winery who enjoyed the RV life.

They put the dream aside and continued running their business, which they had been operating since 2013. When they were approached by a potential buyer for their winery in 2023, it was the perfect time to revisit their RV life idea and early retirement.

It's been over a month of RV living, and the Koepkes are loving sightseeing, hiking, and visiting historical places, with no plan to stop traveling.

The Koepkes and their dog, Vinny, are among the many Americans who have pivoted to living and traveling in an RV. Patty and Shane Gill have traveled in an RV in all 50 states, and Anne and Brian Klumpp hope to reach that same milestone. RVers range from families with young children to empty-nest retirees.

Learning what RV life is like

Kristen was in charge of accounting and staff management at the winery before it closed last September. She also worked part-time at a gym. Dan, who was the winery's main winemaker, also worked in tech for decades. Dan said he was saving a lot because he always wanted to retire around his mid-50s. He resigned from his senior director of information security job toward the end of May, at a company he had been with for five years. He was eager to get on the road after the couple bought the RV in August.

They had to wait because there were some logistical issues with the sale of their winery, which was a separate sale from the original one in 2023. While the final sale is still pending, they hit the road as planned.

The Koepkes said that "if you can mentally get past selling virtually all your possessions, learn how to move around and communicate efficiently in small spaces," and be fine without a stationary home base, it's a lifestyle change that can work.

They're adjusting and learning as they go, such as remembering to pack enough water and snacks for themselves and their dog, and to download maps before heading into the wilderness.

Dan wished they had a coffee pot for high altitudes, while Kristen wished they had started preparing for the transition earlier. There was a lot to do, "from selling things to moving our few saved items to storage and even packing the RV," she said, and it felt like they were rushing at the end.

With higher prices, the Koepkes expect to spend more on gas a month in their Jeep, which they tow behind the RV, than they originally thought they would, but their RV fuel costs are on par with what they expected. Kristen thinks people who want to travel should be careful of higher prices on groceries and dining in tourist areas.

The couple will be spending more on excursions than before RV life, such as horseback riding, helicopter tours, and rafting. They hope to see all of the state capitals, checking off Pierre, South Dakota, so far. They also enjoyed visiting Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. They found Yellowstone stunning but a somewhat challenging visit since dogs aren't allowed on trails.

Buying their new home

The Koepkes bought a 29-foot RV Class C toy hauler for $85,000. That type of vehicle includes a garage space, where they can store their motorcycles. They got rid of a lot of their belongings, making several runs to donate items to Goodwill and selling other items. Dan said he's a minimalist, so getting rid of a lot of their stuff was relieving.

The couple said Class C toy haulers are rare in the US. They got in touch with an autotrader in Rhode Island and flew to pick it up. "Never met the guy before, just went to his house and with a check in hand to pick this up and drive it home," Kristen said.

Dan said driving the RV was easier than expected, and they got to experience what it would be like to maneuver it with wind, rain, construction, and traffic on their trip back to Wisconsin.

They made some upgrades so they can go off-grid when they want, totaling over $2,900. That included adding another solar panel to the roof, which required other upgrades so they can run more items, and installing Starlink Mini for internet. Dan said the upgrades mean they can comfortably camp at places without electricity or other hookups because they can run their coffee pot and LED lights, watch television, and use the computer without issues.

They also switched the mattress to something more comfortable than what's typically in RVs, which they said was a game changer. They're also keeping up an active lifestyle on the road, bringing exercise bands, a medicine ball, and a yoga mat.

Kristen mapped out the first few months of their trip in advance, but the couple doesn't want to rush through states. Kristen said they want to sightsee and explore the area to count it as visiting. They plan to visit the southern states in the winter and eventually go through Canada to visit Kristen's brother in Alaska.

They will miss their friends, but will see some of them who enjoy camping. They're also excited for their dog, who enjoys walks and socializing after growing up on the winery patio.

Are you pursuing RV life? Reach out to this reporter to share at mhoff@businessinsider.com.

Meta's new ad is a Lisa Frank wet dream. There are rainbows, butterflies, bear hugs, and smash-cuts between three grinning children.

It's a smiley, cloying vision for AI. The ad's narrator beckons us to call Meta's staff "optimists" and "dreamers," and says that the company is "betting on people" — tell that to the 8,000 workers Meta just laid off. It promises that the "future is for everyone" — a surprisingly collectivist mission for a company that has recently hired several acolytes of Donald Trump.

While Meta turns up the cheer on AI, the American public has soured. 40% of Americans predict that AI will have a negative impact on society, according to Pew Research Center; only 16% said it would be positive. Nearly three-quarters of Americans are opposed to data centers being built in their area, per Gallup. Protests abound, on TikTok, at City Halls, and outside Anthropic's headquarters.

Meta clearly has something to prove — as do all the AI labs. As executives at Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and beyond change their tone from "AI could wipe out white-collar work" to "AI will be an immaculate boon for humanity," the industry's power players have gone on the defensive.

AI is great, they say. We're leading it with joy and conscientiousness, they say. Trust us, they say.

AI is a unique marketing challenge. A few years ago, it was described as all-powerful — the technological shift to end all technological shifts. It was "even bigger" than a technological revolution, Sam Altman said four months after ChatGPT's launch. Dario Amodei analogized LLMs to a "country of geniuses in a datacenter."

Then there was the productivity wave, promising workers that it would make their jobs so much easier. If you believe Elon Musk, you might not need to work at all. And then there's always China, the looming threat the labs can cite to justify their breakneck speed.

The China warnings aren't going away anytime soon. For all the giddiness of the Meta ad, Sean Spicer reacted with a dour warning. "The US can't lose the AI race to China," the former White House press secretary and onetime "Dancing With The Stars" contestant wrote in a quote tweet of the ad. I emailed Spicer to ask for his thoughts on the ad and what he thought it said about public opinion. He ignored the question. "There is no second place in the race to dominate AI," he wrote.

That's what the AI race has long been about: domination. The labs have tried to dominate in pricing, in talent, in subtle digs on the podcast circuit. Can they soften their image to regain trust?

Anthropic tried with its own barnburner of an ad that it debuted during the World Cup two weeks ago. It showed some terrifying images — facial recognition tracking, a cemetery, and yes, a burning house — while posing some terrifying questions. "Can AI be trusted?" a voiceover asked. "Who's gonna hit the brakes if we need to?" The answer: Anthropic! We here for you.

The ad was widely skewered. Andreessen Horowitz partner Olivia Moore wondered if Anthropic was "actively trying to churn users." Sam Altman wrote that he thought it was satire. And yet, its structure was remarkably similar to the Meta ad in one way: teeing up the criticism, then shutting it down.

Anthropic gives its critics a pat on the head. "If we all had a voice in it, then I feel like it would be better," one voice in the ad says, implying that the public has a voice in Anthropic's development. They don't; it's not even a public company yet. The startup's message that there's "hope in hard questions" doesn't offer any plans for answering them.

Meta, on the other hand, gives its critics the business. "Some people will have you believe AI will make us less connected," the ad's narrator says. "Have you believe" — what is this, hypnosis? Of course, Meta is the savior against these faceless snake-charmers. They're the optimists, the shining knights of the AI race.

It's not just the LLM giants. Notion played into the criticism in its latest campaign: "AI dread" billboards. The software company set up a hotline for callers with a "nagging worry that AI can do our jobs."

Trust is hard to earn. It's not clear that either strategy — the head-pat, the retort — will bring AI's detractors any peace.

Some commenters loved the Meta ad, calling it a solve for growing doomerism. Others called called it "distasteful" and "unbelievably out of touch." Many mocked the score choice: David Bowie's "Five Years," a song about the demise of planet Earth.

David Reibstein, a professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, said that the AI labs had to address growing criticism. Anthropic's ad was "gutsy," he said, while he was less inspired by Meta's. The message is "trust us because we're Facebook," he said. On the criticism that Anthropic raised potential harms that the company itself was abetting those potential harms, he said, "I don't think it's being hypocritical. I think it's being sensitive."

When reached for comment, a Meta representative sent contact information for some advertising executives it said the company had no financial ties to. One of these was Zach Blume, president of the creative agency Portal A, who said he found both ads "powerful and persuasive."

I also asked Joonas Virtanen, a founding designer at the mini-app startup Wabi who had previously helped make Airbnb's chatbots "more fun," what he made of the campaigns. He said that he was more likely to believe Anthropic's approach, calling it an "honest" ad that "treats people like adults." As for Meta, he spat out the sugary sweetness. "It's a little bit of corporate bullshit," he said. "It is selling that rosy vision."

Virtanen works in tech; he's predisposed to AI's benefits. The companies will need to bring in those outside the bubble, those who would rather live near a nuclear reactor than a data center. They'll be harder to convince.

Sure, Amodei has tapered down his warnings of the oncoming AI apocalypse. And sure, Altman said he'd be "delighted to be wrong" about AI job destruction. But the seed is already planted. If the ads prove anything, it's that the AI labs realize how deep the worries have gone. They'll need more than rainbows and "hard questions" to uproot it.

Henry Chandonnet is a reporter on the Business News desk. He mainly writes about AI and tech culture.

• Hali Mo quit her corporate job to start Hali Home Bakes after attending pastry school in Paris.
• Mo said she found her corporate job unfufilling and that she used to wake up to a sense of dread.
• Mo is still navigating the challenges of being a small-business owner, but her brand is growing.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Hali Mo, founder of Hali Home Bakes, a San Francisco microbakery specializing in laminated pastries. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.

When I graduated from Stanford in 2018 with degrees in economics and computer science, I did what I thought I was supposed to do. I joined McKinsey as a business analyst, then moved into design consulting before becoming a product manager at a startup. On paper, everything looked right: good salary, clear career progression, prestigious companies.

After five years in corporate America, I realized I was waking up every day dreading work. I turned 29 and thought, "I don't want to live like this."

I quit my job, planning to take a year off — not to become a baker, but simply to figure out what actually made me happy.

That decision eventually led me to pastry school in Paris, a microbakery that started in my apartment kitchen, and a completely different life than the one I'd imagined for myself.

I followed the path I thought I was supposed to

Growing up, I never had a crystal-clear dream job. Consulting appealed to me because it was practical.

After two years at McKinsey, I moved into product management for a startup. I thought changing roles might solve the problem.

It didn't.

The work itself wasn't fulfilling for me. Every morning, I'd wake up dreading the day ahead while feeling guilty because I knew I was fortunate. I had stability, a good paycheck, and a career that made sense from the outside. Walking away from that felt almost irresponsible.

Eventually, I realized I needed to stop asking what looked impressive and start asking what actually brought me joy.

Pastry school in Paris changed everything

Baking was my serious hobby for years. If someone had asked me for one bucket-list item, it would have been attending pastry school in France.

So in early 2024, I quit my product management job and moved to Paris. I loved being a student again. After years of working, it felt like such a privilege to ask questions without worrying about performance reviews or promotions.

I started posting videos about pastry school. Those videos unexpectedly took off on social media, and by the time I returned to the US, I had an audience that gave me the confidence to ask, "What if I tried selling pastries?"

I moved to New York, where my partner lived at the time, bought a tiny convection oven and a countertop dough sheeter, and started baking under a cottage food license.

My first preorder sold just 40 pastries.

For the first few months, selling even a dozen boxes felt difficult. But gradually people came back, word of mouth spread, and social media continued to grow. By spring, I realized this could actually become something. By fall, I was consistently selling out pop-ups with lines of customers.

It felt like every small success gave me permission to keep going.

Starting over in San Francisco

Then my eight-year relationship ended. Suddenly, it felt like every part of my life was starting over.

Personally, I was rebuilding after the breakup. Professionally, I was leaving behind the customer base I'd spent months building in New York.

I moved back to San Francisco in January and essentially started from scratch. Fortunately, I knew much more than I had the first time around. Within months, I rebuilt my customer base and found a commercial kitchen that could support the specialized equipment I needed.

Now I'm producing around 400 pastries each week and plan to expand to 1,000 with the help of a part-time baking assistant I'm looking to hire.

The trade-offs are real — but so is the joy

Running your own business comes with freedoms I never had in corporate life. I love setting my own schedule and building the kind of workplace culture I want.

But there are trade-offs.

There is no paid time off. If I get sick, there are no pastries to sell and no income. I pay for my own health insurance. I haven't had employer 401(k) contributions, and in my first two years as a business owner, I couldn't contribute to a traditional retirement account because I wasn't paying myself enough.

Starting a small business also means funding your own runway. You're spending money long before you're making much of it.

I think the biggest mindset shift has been believing in myself

When I first started the bakery, I was half in and half out. Part of me assumed I'd probably end up going back to corporate. That hesitation made me pass on opportunities and avoid investments that would have helped the business grow.

Now my mindset is completely different. I believe this business will succeed because I believe in my product and my ability to make it succeed.

I don't think everyone should quit their corporate jobs. Some people genuinely love traditional careers, and that's wonderful.

But if you've done the introspection, you have the financial runway, and you know deep down that your work is making you miserable, don't be afraid to take the next reasonable step.

Life is too short to wake up every morning with a sense of dread. I feel incredibly lucky that now, when I wake up, I feel joy instead.

• Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee was blocked by a federal appeals court.
• A lower court ruled the H-1B visa fee is a tax requiring Congress's approval, not the president's.
• Very few had paid the new fee as employer demand for the visa reduced dramatically.

President Donald Trump's plans for H-1B visas are running into legal roadblocks.

A federal appeals court on Friday refused to revive Trump's $100,000 fee on new H-1B work visas, dealing another setback to the administration's effort to dramatically raise the cost of hiring highly skilled foreign workers.

The Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals declined to pause a lower court ruling that blocked the fee while the administration appeals. A three-judge panel said the government failed to show it was likely to succeed in arguing that the president had the authority to impose the charge.

The decision leaves in place a June ruling by US District Judge Leo Sorokin, who said the fee amounted to a tax, which falls under Congress's authority to authorize, rather than the president's.

"Here, the substance and application of the $100,000 payment reveal that it is a tax, regardless of what the payment is called," Sorokin wrote.

Trump announced the fee in September 2025 as part of a broader immigration crackdown, stating at the time the H-1B program "has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor."

Brian Hunt, an immigration policy compliance lawyer with Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP, told Business Insider that it's unclear how many people this court decision will affect, because most US employers hire H-1B workers who are already in the US.

"In light of the 100k fee, there are some workers who were about to lose their job offer but can now get a visa after all," Hunt said.

The H-1B program issues around 65,000 visas each year, plus another 20,000 for workers with advanced degrees, and is widely used by technology companies to recruit overseas talent. Before Trump's policy, employers generally paid between about $2,000 and $5,000 in visa-related fees.

Court filings show the steep increase has sharply reduced demand. By mid-February, US Citizenship and Immigration Services had received few payments of the new fee.

The lawsuit challenging the fee was brought by 20 Democratic state attorneys general.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Some people have accidentally bought tickets to the 4DX version of "The Odyssey".
• The seats shake, water sprays, fog comes out, and lights flicker in the theatre.
• I talked to people who made this fateful blunder (one of whom was high while he did it).

In "The Odyssey," Odysseus and his men arrive on a beach in search of provisions and find an unpleasant surprise in the form of angry giants, who proceed to kill a bunch of the men.

Much like the Greeks' deadly surprise, a handful of unfortunate moviegoers are sailing blindly into treacherous waters with fateful consequences. Some people accidentally went to see "The Odyssey" in 4DX, not realizing that the chairs shake and water sprays at them throughout the nearly 3-hour film.

I became aware that people were suffering through this mistaken adventure when a friend of mine told me it happened to him. This friend (who requested to remain anonymous due to a desire to conceal his recreational drug use as an otherwise respectable adult with a job and family) took a small dose of weed gummies and some magic mushrooms and went to see the movie by himself — and ended up begging Zeus for mercy.

He bought a ticket to an IMAX showing through the Fandango app, but when he showed up, he realized it was for a totally different theatre across town. The young ticket taker took pity on him and let him into a showing starting soon, which happened to be the 4DX version.

"There is so much action where they shake the seats, moving them up and down, side to side," my friend said. "Even though the shakes only come in doses of seconds, you are probably in for a solid seven-ish minutes of seat shaking. That may not sound like a lot, but it is. It takes a toll on your body."

Like Odysseus's journey after the land of giants, things went from bad to worse. The shaking of the seats made him spill the wine he bought at the concession stand (potentially offending Dionysus).

4DX experiences in theatres have expanded in the last decade, which require special equipment and seats. This month, you could see "Minions & Monsters" or "Moana" with shaking seats and spraying mists. "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," later this month, will also be in 4DX.

Variety sent several of its writers to see the film in 4D, and the experience was mixed. "You're not just immersed in the film — you're living in it," wrote someone who loved it. Her colleague, however, became nauseated and left the movie early.

My friend's narcotic-fueled journey may have been unique, but he's not the only person out there who accidentally saw the film in 4DX. On social media, I found a handful of accounts from people who made similar mistakes, whether because they didn't know what 4DX meant when they bought the tickets or didn't notice it when purchasing through an app.

Tim Matishek thought he had bought a regular, non-IMAX ticket when he went to see "The Odyssey" at a theatre near New York's Union Square this week by himself.

"I certainly thought the chairs felt off, and was surprised they didn't recline," Matishek told me. "I don't mind regular seats, but I figured a Regal had them in most theaters."

It was only when his seat started moving during the trailer for the new "Spider-Man" movie that he fully understood what he was in for. He was not happy.

It seemed like most of the audience was excited for it — or at least expected it. However, he did notice that one man left 15 minutes before the end of the film, during a climactic final fight scene where the chairs were shaking nonstop.

I asked him if he had ever been to a 4DX theatre before. "Never, and I never will again," he said confidently.

• The Paramount-WBD merger is on pause, leaving staffers in limbo and wondering about the future.
• Some Paramount employees are worried that the merger could impact their job security.
• Others at David Ellison's company are concerned about what would happen if the deal fell apart.

Update: This story was originally published on July 21 and updated on July 24 after news that Paramount agreed to delay closing its WBD deal until the antitrust cases are decided.

Employees at Paramount Skydance are wrestling with whether the planned mega-merger with Warner Bros. Discovery would put them on the chopping block or help save their jobs.

"I'm definitely worried about impending layoffs post-merger," a Paramount research staffer said. "But I'm worried about the company as a whole if it doesn't go through."

Paramount's $110 billion deal with WBD is on pause after a judge issued a temporary order in response to a lawsuit from 12 states. David Ellison's company agreed on Friday to pause its merger until five days after the antitrust cases are ruled on, or until June 1, 2027, whichever comes sooner.

Twelve Paramount employees Business Insider spoke with after the judge's order were split about how the transaction would impact their jobs and the industry.

Some Paramount staffers fear their positions could be expendable if their teams merge with comparable groups at WBD, while others are concerned about the company's financial health if its deal is delayed or blocked.

Ellison's company would owe WBD a $7 billion breakup fee if the deal falls through, and has also agreed to pay WBD shareholders a so-called ticking fee of about $7 million per day starting after September 30 if the merger isn't done. The potential fallout from those penalties had several staffers pulling for the deal.

"I see Paramount in the same light as Spirit Airlines," one streaming staffer said. "Regulators didn't let JetBlue and Spirit Airlines merge. Now Spirit is bankrupt, and JetBlue is struggling."

Two WBD employees told Business Insider that they're uneasy about what the deal may mean for the media industry, but that the acquisition would benefit them financially.

They both said they stood to considerably benefit from stock grants.

"Best case for me personally is the deal goes through, I get laid off, and get my 15 months of severance," one veteran WBD staffer added. "Then, I just need to find something for a couple years before I retire."

'Tired of mergers and chaos'

Paramount has said it needs to join forces with WBD to form "a stronger competitor against dominant streaming and technology platforms," like Netflix and YouTube. Ellison's company insists its mega-merger will allow it to produce more films and TV shows than it can on its own.

Many in Hollywood are skeptical, however. Top actors and directors have spoken out against the Paramount-WBD deal, saying it would result in "fewer opportunities for creators" and "fewer jobs across the production ecosystem." The Writers Guild of America has filed a lawsuit against Paramount, arguing that it violates antitrust law.

The Paramount employees who are opposed to the deal primarily expressed concerns about the potential impact a merger of rivals would have on the media industry.

"I'm indifferent to sticking around because I'm so burned out, but I would hate it if others lost a career they were passionate about," a Paramount streaming staffer said.

Another streaming manager who opposes the deal said they're "tired of mergers and chaos." Paramount merged with Skydance last August, six years after Viacom and CBS merged.

"My future in this deal is uncertain, I feel," said a third streaming staffer who's against the merger.

'The best shot at keeping my job long term'

The Paramount staffers who support the deal had a simple rationale: they believe the merger would be best for the company and their careers.

"While I may have personal opinions about the negative effect this could have on the industry, I think the merger gives me the best shot at keeping my job long term," the Paramount research staffer said. "That's more important to me at the end of the day."

A high-level ad employee said this deal would make Paramount more powerful and give the company "more premium supply, which helps the sales story."

A senior streaming employee said that they support the deal, adding that they "don't see why it wouldn't" get approved by regulators.

WBD had planned to sell its studio and streaming business to Netflix before Paramount stepped in, which this high-level streaming staffer said "would have created a much larger consolidation of two streaming powerhouses" while leaving WBD's traditional TV unit "flailing and nobody interested in it."

The states suing Paramount argue that this deal would harm competition by giving the combined company undue influence over cable distributors, as well as leverage over theatrical distribution for both wide-release movies and big-budget blockbusters.

A super-charged Paramount-WBD "is ultimately better for the consumer," the high-level Paramount streaming leader said, contending that it "creates a larger, more competitive catalog of content to compete against Disney and Netflix." Consolidating TV assets will help Paramount cut costs, they added, though they understood worries about CNN's future, given how CBS News has changed under Ellison.

• 1 Hotel Seattle was voted the best hotel in Seattle by Travel + Leisure in 2026.
• 1 Hotels, a luxury chain focused on sustainability, opened the Seattle location in May 2025.
• I booked one night there during opening week for $450 and thought it felt more like a boutique stay.

Macrame chandeliers dangling above me made me feel like I was beneath a tree as I brushed my fingertips over the live edges of a trunk coffee table. The surrounding nature entranced me, but I wasn't under a tree. I wasn't even outside.

I was in the lobby of 1 Hotel Seattle, which was recently voted the No. 1 hotel in the city in Travel + Leisure's World's Best Awards.

The hotel is part of a luxury chain I'd never heard of before called 1 Hotels. I stayed there the week it opened during a three-day trip to Seattle in May 2025.

I usually avoid hotel chains because I prefer to have unique experiences in each destination I visit. However, when I learned that the luxury hotel was opening days before my Pacific Northwest adventure, I took the opportunity to sleep in a brand-new room and give this unfamiliar chain a chance.

I booked a one-night stay for $450, and I'm so glad I did because 1 Hotel Seattle felt nothing like a chain. In fact, if I hadn't done my research, I would have thought it was a boutique establishment.

Take a look around the nature-inspired hotel.

The luxury 1 Hotel Seattle opened on May 6, 2025. I stayed there four days later.

The 1 Hotels chain has been around since 2015 and operates worldwide. It has locations in the US, the UK, and Australia, among other places. More than a dozen locations are open and operating, with more coming soon to Mexico, Greece, and France.

Every 1 Hotel is centered on nature and sustainability, according to the company's website.

The Seattle location opened on May 6, 2025, and has a starting rate of $400 a night, a hotel representative told Business Insider.

"All 1 Hotels are rooted in their surroundings, so what sets 1 Hotel Seattle apart is how deeply it channels the spirit of the Pacific Northwest," Rob Brandenberg, the general manager at the time 1 Hotel Seattle opened, told Business Insider.

It's in a tech neighborhood that's less than a mile from Pike Place Market.

The hotel is on the southern edge of South Lake Union, Seattle's tech neighborhood. It's conveniently located within a mile of the waterfront and Pike Place Market.

The natural vibe struck me upon arrival.

I was greeted with a driftwood sculpture of the brand's signature No. 1. Organic textures filled the space, from the floors to the walls.

"The hotel draws from the raw beauty of the Pacific Northwest, with reclaimed wood, natural stone, moss-inspired art, and live-edge furnishings woven throughout the design," Brandenberg said.

The lobby was unlike any I'd seen before.

The lobby brought the outside in with furniture resembling tree trunks, potted plants of all sizes, and what Brandenberg calls a "living wall of greenery" climbing two stories high behind a reclaimed timber-and-stone staircase.

As I stepped inside, a soothing soundtrack made me feel like I was in some kind of sanctuary. I was listening to the Sounds of 1, the chain's signature playlist curated by Michaelangelo L'Acqua, the global entertainment director for 1 Hotels' parent company, Starwood Hotels.

"Acoustic instrumentation and soulful vocals are balanced with select electronic elements, creating a sound that transitions seamlessly from the energy of the day into the moodier tones of night," a hotel representative told Business Insider in an email. "The music ebbs and flows with the rhythm of the property, complementing the natural materials and calming atmosphere found throughout the space."

With a calming nature-inspired soundtrack, an array of organic textures to touch, and greenery surrounding me, I thought the lobby was a great place to practice mindfulness.

The hotel had a restaurant and a lobby bar.

Brandenberg said the on-site restaurant, La Loba, fuses Spanish, Japanese, and Mediterranean cuisine using local ingredients.

"And at Drift, the lobby bar, guests can expect fresh, locally sourced ingredients and Pacific Northwest-distilled spirits — an elevated yet easygoing take on modern mixology," he added.

Brandenberg said the hotel works with local farmers and offers zero-waste mixology classes.

Across from the lobby, there was a gift shop.

The 1 Hotels gift shop, Good Things, has a sustainable clothing collection with youth and adult sizes, accessories, scents, and other small items.

Six event spaces were spread out on the second floor.

Events, including weddings and business meetings, take place on the second floor at 1 Hotel Seattle.

I noticed that the event rooms were flooded with natural light.

On the same floor, there was an outdoor terrace.

The patio, which is open year-round, was surrounded by towering buildings and trees with a stellar view of the iconic Space Needle.

Brandenberg called it a "quiet spot to connect with nature."

The second floor also housed the gym.

Known as the Field House, the on-site gym had free weights and cardio machines, such as resistance treadmills and Peloton bikes, as well as group classes and personal training sessions.

A basket of green apples and a filtered water tap were also near the entrance.

My room calmed me with warm lighting and natural hues.

The hotel has 153 rooms, 45 of which are suites. I stayed in a 327-square-foot City King room.

The room had a king-size bed with organic linen sheets across from a 55-inch TV. It also had a cozy sitting area, a wardrobe, and a full bathroom. I found many amenities, including an espresso machine, a mini bar, and a yoga mat.

Nods to the natural environment were everywhere. The reclaimed wood headboard was anchored above a tree-trunk nightstand. A tree-like coat rack hung on the wall next to a potted plant with draping vines on the console table.

The bathroom blended nature and modern luxury.

The bathroom surfaces were a mix of natural materials, from wood bases to Chiara quartzite counters.

A rainfall shower with pebble stone flooring was on one side of the room. On the other side was a large bathtub with a sliding door that opened to the rest of the room, so I could watch TV while soaking in the tub.

Inside the bathroom, I found Bamford toiletries, a hairdryer, slippers, and a robe that felt like a giant sweatshirt.

I found sustainable amenities I'd never seen in a hotel room before.

When I entered the room, I spotted a welcome message written on a textured chalkboard rather than the typical greeting printed on cardstock.

Instead of disposable water bottles, my room had a filtered water tap and glassware sourced from recycled wine bottles.

There was also a small wooden plaque detailing the hotel's "1 Less Thing" program, where guests can leave clothing to donate to Mary's Place, a local family shelter the hotel partners with.

These details set 1 Hotel Seattle apart from other luxury accommodations I've booked around the world.

"This isn't just another hotel," Brandenberg said. "It's a place for travelers who care about where they stay, how they stay, and the impact they leave behind."

The hotel's environmental vibe was so alluring that it made me want to be a more sustainable traveler.

It's easy for me to see why this chain was voted Seattle's best hotel.

From the nature-forward design and modern-luxury feel to the sustainable amenities, every detail of this hotel impressed me.

Now I'll stay in a 1 Hotel every chance I get.

• TikTok is testing a membership program for shoppers called TikTok Shop Plus.
• Like Amazon Prime, the offering includes discounts, coupons, and free shipping on some items.
• Shop Plus may help the company build stronger customer loyalty and avoid losing sales to Amazon.

TikTok is ripping a page from Amazon's playbook.

The social-video app is testing a Prime-style membership program for some US shoppers, according to screenshots of the offering viewed by Business Insider.

The program, called TikTok Shop Plus, is built into Shop, its e-commerce platform. Like Amazon Prime, it offers members a mix of perks like free shipping, product discounts, and coupons.

In one example of the service in action, a hair product normally sold on TikTok for around $57 was discounted to $47 for Plus members, along with free three-day shipping. In another, Plus members were offered a $5 discount on a beauty product that normally costs close to $50.

TikTok is testing the Plus service at various price points, including $6, $10, or $15 a month, according to screenshots viewed by Business Insider.

TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.

The introduction of a membership program could help TikTok keep its shoppers from leaving its app to make purchases, a former Shop staffer said.

"TikTok, for a long time, watched a lot of their bottom-funnel buyers go over to Amazon," the ex-staffer said. People would see an item on TikTok and "run over to Amazon to make a purchase," they added.

"I think TikTok is really trying to squash that and capture as much of those final conversions as they can," they continued.

Other large US e-commerce players like Walmart and Target have offered similar membership programs designed to engender customer loyalty, offering free shipping and special discounts for a fee.

TikTok Shop Plus is the latest in a string of product releases and strategy shifts at the ByteDance-founded company that have mirrored offerings popularized by Amazon. Like Amazon, TikTok offers its own full-service shipping and fulfillment service to merchants. It has also leaned into buyer-friendly offerings, such as fast delivery windows.

The overlap in ideas isn't surprising. TikTok hired dozens of Amazon staffers to join its team when it prepared to launch in the US in 2023. Current and former TikTok employees previously told Business Insider that its early staff meetings sometimes felt like Amazon alumni reunions, and that the company adopted similar internal practices, such as using narrative memos to share ideas and encouraging single-person ownership of projects from start to finish.

TikTok's US e-commerce business, which EMARKETER — a Business Insider sister company — forecasts could cross $23 billion in sales this year, is still a small player compared to Amazon, which EMARKETER expects will make more than $500 billion in US sales in 2026.

TikTok is thinking long-term about how it can further crack the US market and build a shopping marketplace that comes closer to the hundreds of billions of dollars its Chinese sister app, Douyin, drives in annual sales.

"There are brands now that are TikTok-Shop first and do their new launches exclusively on TikTok," said Kierra Butcher, a TikTok agency partner who works with Shop creators. "TikTok has proven itself as a marketplace, and the opportunities have continued to grow with time."

Samsung just announced its latest slate of devices, and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is among the top new releases available to preorder. The watch will officially release on August 7, 2026.

• See all color and band options on the Samsung website

The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 expands on the outdoor adventure and exercise-focused first-generation Ultra model, adding greater battery life, improved performance, and several enhanced outdoor sports and health features, among other upgrades. The watch, available in Titanium Gray or Titanium Silver (with several different wristband types and colors), has a redesigned, slimmer profile and lighter bands.

The 47mm Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 costs $699.99 in the US, and we've broken down everything you need to know about preordering the device ahead of its launch. Samsung offers multiple savings incentives, including solid trade-in value and instant credits with preorders.

How to preorder the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2

The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is available to preorder on Samsung and Amazon. The watch has begun to pop up for preorder through select cellular providers as well.

If you preorder on the Samsung website and don't elect trade-in, you'll be eligible for a $100 Samsung Instant Credit. Just keep in mind that the credit usually can't be applied to the purchase of the watch itself and is instead best used for accessories. If you preorder through Amazon, you have the option to purchase the watch along with a $100 gift card at no extra cost (it's listed as a $100 deal on a $799.99 bundle).

What's new in the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2?

The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 boasts multiple upgraded features compared to its predecessor. All of these metrics have been reported by Samsung. While our team briefly interacted with the Ultra 2 in person, we have yet to put it through our rigorous testing process.

• Longer battery life: The Ultra 2 features an 800 mAh battery, a 35% increase in capacity over the previous Ultra model. The watch was rated for up to 60 hours of use (AOD On) on a single charge.
• Slimmer design: Despite the larger battery, the watch has an overall thinner, redesigned profile (12% thinner compared to the last generation), adding to its sleek ability to transition from outdoor exercise to everyday wear. The new bands are also lighter, offering a more breathable and comfortable fit.
• Performance: The watch is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear Elite (replacing Exynos), enhancing power, speed, and GPS tracking. This display is also ultra-bright, with an unparalleled 5,000 nits (maximum).
• Trail Run: The new Trail Run feature can help outdoor adventurers, including ultra runners, better track their progress, terrain, and elevation.
• Nutrition Alert: A new addition to the sweat loss feature can help estimate hydration needs throughout a workout. The guidance considers sweat loss and body weight to estimate necessary rehydration amounts and frequency.
• Diving: Perhaps the most innovative and unique new Ultra Watch 2 feature is the Diving app, which is expected later this year. The feature was developed with the Mares diving brand to track real-time diving data, including depth, time, water temperature, ascent/descent speed, and safe dive limits.
• Health features: Both the Galaxy Ultra 2 and the new Galaxy Watch 9 include AI-powered health insights, including a sleep apnea feature, vital monitoring, heart health score, daily cardio load training guidance, fitness index, and hearing alerts and reports.
• Trial perks: Both of the new Galaxy watches also include lengthy free trials for popular fitness tracker apps. The watches include a 60-day free trial to Strava and a two-month free trial to iFIT.

What's the trade-in value of my current device?

Samsung will allow you to trade in a Samsung or Apple watch for up to $250 of trade-in value when purchasing a new Galaxy Watch Ultra 2. Below, you can find eligible trade-in devices and their maximum trade-in value.

The trade-in values are fairly decent for recent smartwatch models, even on the Apple Watches (iPhone trade-in prices against Samsung phones are still awful, though).

Some of the prices offered on older watches below may be a bit stingy, so I'd check your local pre-owned prices on Facebook Marketplace or eBay to make sure you're not missing out on a better price for your old gear.

What else is new from Samsung?

The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 isn't Samsung's only new product launching on August 7, 2026. The brand will also drop the Galaxy Watch 9, Galaxy Z Flip 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8, and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. To learn more, you can head to the Samsung website.