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Welcome back to our Sunday edition, where we round up some of our top stories and take you inside our newsroom. The devastation from fires this week in Los Angeles worsened the state's insurance crisis. Business Insider's Dan Latu spoke to experts about how premiums will continue to rise and why securing a loan may even get harder.

On the agenda today:

• Donald Trump won. Now Mark Zuckerberg is reshaping Meta.
• A leaked AWS org chart shows the 11 executives reporting to CEO Matt Garman.
• From building wealth to suburban homes, millennials are starting to look a lot like their boomer parents.
• The tough-love advice Morgan Stanley CIO Mike Wilson gives his new hires to prepare for a career in banking.

But first: Back to the office.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Download Business Insider's app here.

Five years

It's been nearly five years since corporate America sent its white-collar workforce home amid the onset of the pandemic.

Five years later, RTO v. WFH, a.k.a. working in an office vs. at a kitchen table, remains hotly debated. Business Insider keeps delivering the scoops.

Dominick Reuter and Tim Paradis recently broke the story that AT&T would follow Amazon with a 5-day mandate.

Meanwhile, JPMorgan officially told employees on Friday it expects most workers back in the office five days a week starting in March. Read the full memo here.

It's one thing to set a mandate, and it's another to make it work for workers.

Ashley Stewart broke the news in December that Amazon would delay its policy in select locations due to workplace shortages. This past week, Ashley exclusively reported a list of some 40 locations where the Amazon rollout was delayed, from Santa Clara, Calif. and Austin to hubs in China and India.

Meanwhile, Dominick came back with an exclusive about bumps in AT&T's rollout for workers, such as waits for elevators and jockeying for parking spots. (I put his article on my Linkedin and got some spicy comments.)

Tim wrote about why companies can't seem to stick the landing once they make the decision to return five days.

And Aki Ito jumped in to write that despite the headlines, corporate America is far from a full return to the office.

We'll stay on this story in the weeks and months to come.

Please let me know your thoughts on our coverage, on this or any other subject!

Meta's Trump era

Content moderation has gotten Meta into plenty of hot water before. But the abrupt ending of its third-party fact-checking program was done specifically for Donald Trump, BI's Peter Kafka writes.

The new policy includes adopting "Community Notes," which would have users police one another à la Elon Musk's X. It's the latest in a series of moves Mark Zuckerberg has made to curry favor with the president-elect and his conservative allies.

Zuckerberg in Trumpland.

Also read:

• Meta employees react after the rollback of DEI programs — both for and against

Leaked AWS org chart

Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman has made a few changes to the cloud business since stepping into the role last June.

One of his biggest changes has been hiring Julia White as chief marketing officer. A leaked organization chart shows the 11 executives under Garman who are helping him lead the unit through an intense competition period of cloud computing and AI.

Meet the 11 executives.

Behold, the millennial boomers

Millennials have long had a "forever young" air to them. They're a generation marked by a sense of arrested development.

But in reality, millennials are starting to mirror their boomer parents in terms of wealth and earnings. They're buying homes and settling down in the suburbs. And in some areas, they're actually doing better than their parents.

Becoming mom and dad.

Also read:

• Millennials were celebrated for their minimalism. Turns out it was all a lie.

Mike Wilson's tough-love advice

Sometimes you have to flop before you fly. That much is true, even on Wall Street.

Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson says the key to success is learning to accept failures. He wants newly minted Wall Streeters to know the road ahead is only going to get harder — and how to prepare themselves for it.

Words to the wise.

This week's quote:

"We have a captured industry where the middlemen get to kind of do whatever they want."

— Josh Tucker, an appraisal manager and cofounder of the Appraisal Regulation Compliance Council, on homebuying's giant hidden cost.

More of this week's top reads:

• The Getty Villa survived LA's firestorms while everything around it burned, revealing a key lesson for homeowners.
• Internal Microsoft document shows one way managers decide which employees they can't afford to lose — and it's all about AI.
• Fed up with HR, people are reporting their horrible bosses on social media.
• Exclusive: Microsoft is planning job cuts and focusing more on underperforming employees.
• Polymarket is taking bets on the Palisades fire in California.
• The wildfires have a Hollywood producer wondering: Should I even stay in LA?
• Vox Media shakes up leadership and lays off staff for the 2nd time in about a month.
• The gambling industry's sly new way to suck money from desperate Americans.
• I've interviewed dozens of self-made millionaires, early retirees, and 'super savers' and plan to use one of their top wealth-building strategies in 2025.

• Silicon Valley is licking their chops at the promise of AI 'agents.' These are the startups to watch.

  ---

  The BI Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York.

• Doug McMillon, the CEO of Walmart, shared some insight into his reading habits.
• His book list covers a wide range of interests — from managerial strategies to developments in tech.
• Here are 10 books that McMillon read in the last year, and the one he said impacted him the most.

While their calendars are often chock-full of meetings, some CEOs still find the time to read for pleasure — or to dive deep into a particular topic. Business leaders have long shared their picks for books that helped inform their strategies, both personally and professionally.

Doug McMillon, Walmart's CEO, posted his usual end-of-year roundup, listing 10 of the books that shaped his 2024.

"It was most impactful reading Sam's book again," he said. "Every time I read it, I pick up new ideas and am reminded of why our culture is so successful."

This time, a few more titles on AI made the cut, with three recent books on the subject included in the list.

Here are the authors McMillon has been reading, with a brief summary of what each book has to offer.

"How to Know a Person" by David Brooks

David Brooks' 2023 "How to Know a Person" draws from the world of psychology to help readers better understand how to connect with those around them.

"Just the Good Stuff" by Jim VandeHei

This book, published last year, looks to offer a practical guide to achieving success in life and career by pulling from Axios and Politico cofounder Jim VandeHei's own experiences with journalism and entrepreneurship.

"Financial Literacy For All" by John Hope Bryant

Bryant, who served on the President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, aims to provide anyone looking to build strong financial foundations with an accessible guide to reaching their goals.

"Genesis" by Henry Kissinger, Craig Mundie, and Eric Schmidt

"Genesis," co-written by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, explores the potential benefits and repercussions that could result from the evolution of AI and debates how the technology could interact with humanity in the long-run.

"Co-Intelligence" by Ethan Mollick

"Co-Intelligence," authored by Wharton associate professor and co-director of AI labs, Ethan Mollick, encourages readers to engage with AI in a productive way — not by replacing human skill, but augmenting it. The book examines how people might be able to benefit from AI and learn to use it to their advantage.

"Competing in the Age of AI" by Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani

In their artificial intelligence-focused book, Iansiti and Lakhani provide a framework for competing in the evolving age of AI by examining the structures of what they call "AI-centric organizations."

"How Stella Saved the Farm" by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble

This book, published in 2010, is about a troubled farm threatened by bankruptcy and competition and serves as a parable to deliver a lesson on innovation.

"Collaborative Disruption" by Tom Muccio

"Collaborative Disruption: The Walmart and P&G Partnership That Changed Retail Forever" explores, from an insider's perspective, how the relationship between Walmart and Procter & Gamble profoundly affected the retail industry.

"The Wisdom of the Bullfrog" by Adm. William McRaven

"The Wisdom of the Bullfrog" draws from Adm. McRaven's extensive military career to impart the reader with fundamental lessons in leadership.

"Made in America" by Sam Walton with John Huey

Written by Walmart's founder, Sam Walton, "Made in America" was McMillon's most "impactful" read of the year, the CEO said.

Walton's autobiography, published in 1992, tells the story of Walmart's rise to become a retail giant.

McMillon said he gleans "new ideas" from every read.

• A US passport is not as powerful as it once was, according to the annual Henley & Partners Passport Index.
• The index ranks passports by visa-free access to 227 destinations, and the US is only ninth.
• Singapore holds the top spot, with access to 195 destinations visa-free.

A US passport is not as desirable as it used to be, according to the 2025 Henley Passport Index, which was first published 19 years ago.

The index, which ranks 199 passports based on how many out of 227 destinations they offer visa-free access to, has placed the US passport in ninth place, slipping from the top spot in 2014. This year, it allows American travelers to enter 186 countries and territories without a visa, not including Nigeria, India, and Russia.

Stemming from data provided by the International Air Transport Authority and updated using internal research and open-source online data, UK-based consulting firm Henley & Partners listed Singapore as the world's most powerful passport for the second year in a row. It has access to a total of 195 destinations.

Ranked in second place is the Japanese passport, with a visa-free score of 193. The third space is shared by six countries: Finland, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea, and Spain. The United Arab Emirates is the only Middle Eastern country to make it into the top ten. It has risen 55 places overall in the index since 2010.

A strong passport provides more freedom to travel without needing to apply for a visa.

Nepal, Somalia, Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan are ranked in the bottom five spaces. Compared to Singapore, which allows visa-free access to 195 countries and territories, holding an Afghan passport only allows visa-free access to 26 countries.

When Taylor Kitsch finally shows up onscreen in his new Netflix show "American Primeval" about 10 minutes into its premiere, one of the first things the audience sees is his bare butt.

Those who know Kitsch from his breakout role as Tim Riggins in the mid-2000s NBC series "Friday Night Lights" would be forgiven for assuming this shot is playing into Kitsch's former teen heartthrob status. But in "American Primeval," Kitsch is far more interested in nakedly depicting the roughness of life in the 19th century American West than in providing eye candy to nostalgic millennials.

The streamer's gritty miniseries is blood, dirt, and warfare on an epic (and expensive) scale, chronicling the brutal 1857 clashes between the US Army, Native Americans, Mormons, and settlers in Utah Territory, with a cinematic yet deliberately unsentimental eye ("Yellowstone," this is not.)

As the troubled Isaac Reed, a white man raised by the Shoshone tribe who begrudgingly agrees to guide Sara Rowell (Betty Gilpin) and her son across treacherous territory, Kitsch is all lumbering physicality and intense stares. So much so that when he's first introduced to Sara while climbing out of a river, he hardly notices or cares about the impropriety of his nude body being exposed to a stranger.

With a wardrobe comprised mostly of tattered rags and a scraggly beard obscuring the clean-cut good looks that once landed him in a 2000s-era Abercombie ad, this is not a role one might expect from Taylor Kitsch. That's exactly the way he likes it.

"I take a lot of pride in taking very, very different roles," Kitsch, 43, told Business Insider, adding that being uncomfortable helps him do his best work.

"I try and chase fear and things where when you first read it, you're like, 'Oh, fuck. How am I even going to do this?'"

'American Primeval' re-teams Kitsch with the man who helped make his career

Kitsch was a struggling model-turned-actor who'd endured periods of homelessness when he first met "American Primeval" director and executive producer Peter Berg while screen-testing for "Friday Night Lights" in 2006.

Berg, who developed the football series based on his hit film of the same name, said he knew Kitsch had to be Riggins from the moment he saw him step out of his manager's car on the NBC lot. Though the studio had already shortlisted several hot young stars to play the Panthers' troubled running back, Berg managed to sell the unknown Canadian actor to the show's producers, and the rest is history.

The series would mark the start of Kitsch and Berg's fruitful creative partnership, which has endured for almost two decades, as the two have gone on to work together on movies like "Lone Survivor" and "Battleship" and other television shows like "American Primeval" and the 2023 Netflix series "Painkiller."

Kitsch said his symbiotic relationship with Berg has allowed him to grow exponentially as an actor.

"I hope I challenge him as much as he challenges me for authenticity, to keep each other on our toes," Kitsch said. "I think that's why he comes and brings me along these rides. I think he knows that I will try and make him look incredible and make him look right every time he casts me."

Berg's buy-in kickstarted Kitsch's career. But six years and five seasons on the "Friday Night Lights" set ironically left him unprepared for the very thing he was expected to chase after next: movie stardom.

"'Friday Night Lights' was no marks, no rehearsal, natural light, a lot of improv, which I love," said Kitsch, who was known for sometimes scrapping Riggins' lines entirely and replacing them with just a look. "[Berg] wants you to take risks, because that's where you're going to uncover something. And I love that."

While Kitsch was able to "learn and fail" many times on "FNL," he encountered far more rigidity on the set of his first big-budget blockbuster, 2009's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."

"My first fucking day on 'X-Men' was like, 'Hit the mark, find the light, say your line, and don't say it like that,'" Kitsch recalled. "I've never been told this, and then it's like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa. You guys are actually using lights and marks and this and that?' So it was a huge switch for me."

Kitsch was on the brink of movie stardom after 'Friday Night Lights,' but it all fell apart

It was the first of many obstacles in Kitsch's ill-fated pursuit of a career as a blockbuster leading man.

Much has been made of the infamous critical and commercial flop that was "John Carter," the 2012 Disney movie about an American Civil War veteran transported to Mars. But at the time, the decision to star in a movie based on a seminal sci-fi book series with major franchise potential seemed like a no-brainer.

Kitsch still stands by his choice: "When Andrew Stanton, who just won a couple Oscars, knocks at your door and he blows your mind in prep…"

He noted that at the time, the title character was a coveted role. "No one knows the people I beat out, but I can't believe at the time I beat them out."

"John Carter," along with "Battleship," a 2012 military sci-fi action flick based on the board game and directed by Berg, became the proving ground for Kitsch's post-"FNL" career. Expectations for both were high: Kitsch's contracts reportedly would have locked him into franchises for both if they performed well at the box office. Magazine profiles of Kitsch at the time anointed him the next big action hero, predicting he was poised to take over Hollywood's new A-list alongside the likes of Ryan Reynolds and Chris Pine.

He was on the brink of something major — or at least, that's what he was told.

'John Carter' was a flop, freeing Kitsch up for more interesting work

Ultimately, it didn't pan out that way. Both movies underperformed at the box office and garnered largely negative reviews. It changed the course of Kitsch's career, though it may have been kismet.

In reality, becoming the next blockbuster action star was never actually what Kitsch wanted for himself; he simply thought it would open doors.

"It's the cliché: one for them, one for you," he recalled. "You're told, 'You do this, you'll be able to do anything you want.'"

In an alternate universe where "John Carter" was a box-office smash that led to that slew of sequels, Kitsch may not have had the time to explore the character-driven stories he finds the most fulfilling, like "True Detective" season two, or the biggest challenge of his career: playing cult leader David Koresh in the 2018 limited series "Waco." Kitsch credits the latter with helping him define the kind of actor he wants to be.

"'Waco' scared the shit out of me," said Kitsch. "I had no idea how I was going to do that." He spent six months intensively preparing to inhabit the role, losing 30 pounds, learning to play guitar, and watching every clip and sermon of Koresh's he could find.

He brought a similar ethos to "American Primeval," losing 20 pounds, learning some Shoshone, and working with a medicine man to prepare to play Isaac. Doing the most is a nonnegotiable for Kitsch, who previously told The New York Times that this kind of prep is "the only thing that eliminates self-doubt."

While he had to start from scratch to build out both the charismatic cult leader and the rugged frontiersman, Kitsch already had a personal connection to Glen Kryger, the opioid-addicted car mechanic he played in "Painkiller."

"That one was so fucking important to me," Kitsch said. The subject matter hit close to home; his sister has struggled with opioid addiction.

"She's eight years clean now," he said. "She was my advisor on the show, so it doesn't get more full circle than that, to have her with me, and me ironically playing the addict and her telling me how."

Despite the rabid fandom Kitsch inspired on "Friday Night Lights," he said more people have reached out to say they were touched by his performance in "Painkiller" than about any other job he's done.

"To humanize and hopefully bring up a conversation of that and to normalize it, not put shame towards that, meant the world to me," Kitsch said.

Kitsch wants to keep telling stories he cares about

Up next for Kitsch is a return to one of his most popular roles (no, not that one). He'll be reprising his role as former Navy SEAL Ben Edwards on Amazon's "The Terminal List" prequel "Dark Wolf" opposite Chris Pratt, who plays the lead character in the flagship series.

He also wants to prioritize getting his own project off the ground: telling his sister's story.

"Her story is just, it's insane and very empowering and inspiring," Kitsch said. "I'd love to direct that and keep it at a crazy low budget so I have creative control."

Not on the agenda? Stressing over things like viewership numbers or ticket sales.

"Here's a good story," Kitsch recalled. "I was living in Austin doing 'Friday Night Lights,' and it had just been the opening weekend of 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine.' And it was Monday and I was going to a different movie, and all of a sudden, all these texts came in like, 'Oh, congratulations. Oh my God, the box office. BO is at $70-something million!' and all this," he said.

"I was with my girlfriend at the time and I was like, 'I have no idea what this means,'" he continued. "All these congrats were coming in. And I'm like, 'What are we celebrating?'"

Years later, Kitsch has held onto that desire to ignore outside expectations. He's keeping that in mind when it comes to how his new projects, like "American Primeval," are received.

Still, he's hopeful the show will lead to more opportunities to immerse himself so fully in a character that he disappears — the work he loves best.

"We'll see what happens," he said. "I'll just keep swinging regardless."

• My twins are both in college, and they just so happened to go to the same school.
• Their dorm rooms show just how different their personalities really are.
• My daughter's dorm is decorated with her favorite things, while my son took a minimalist approach.

My twins both attend Fordham University in New York, but that's where their similarities stop.

Over the summer before their freshman year, my daughter asked me several times, "When can we go shopping for my college dorm room?"

Once we picked a day, we asked her twin brother if he wanted to join, and his answer was, "Nope."

Meanwhile, their younger sister was excited not only to join us but also offered to help pick out items like a comforter for her brother.

Although they're twins, this difference reflects their differing personalities. My daughter is a planner and an artist who loves colors and design. She likes to know what to expect. She also had a clear vision of how she wanted her dorm room to look. Her plans weren't extravagant; she didn't hire interior designers like some students.

My son, on the other hand, is laid back and more of a "go with the flow" type. So it wasn't surprising that he was only interested in purchasing the essentials — with no preference for colors or materials. We bought him a plain gray comforter and basic items like sheets and towels.

The process of decorating the dorms showed their personalities

When we arrived at their college, it took about twice as long to move my daughter in compared to her twin brother. He's a minimalist, so he didn't have a lot of clothes or extra furniture like his sister did. She brought a rug, chair, rolling cart with shelves, and all her art supplies.

Once they were moved in, the process of decorating began. As you can imagine, it didn't take my son too long to make his bed and unpack his clothes. Whereas his sister spent several hours lining up her posters and artwork, organizing drawers, and arranging string lights.

She brought a plant because she loves the outdoors. Over the summer, she worked at a garden center, and she frequently went on hikes or outdoor runs.

The following year showed some changes but also stayed the same

For their sophomore year, they used most of the same décor from their freshman year — with a few additions.

My daughter's plant didn't survive her freshman year, so she decided to purchase a new one from the New York Botanical Garden. As a Fordham student, she receives free admission to the gardens and goes on weekly runs along the trails. By buying a plant there, she hoped to bring her love for the outdoors into her dorm. She also bought a plant poster from the gift shop that identifies different plant varieties and added some of her own newly created artwork to the walls.

My son still has his basic gray comforter, but he added a rug and some posters. He loves music, so most of the posters reflect his musical tastes. He doesn't watch much television, but over the summer, he watched "Breaking Bad" with his friends, so he decided to get a poster from the show. Since his dorm is dimly lit in the basement, he added some LED strip lights that change colors. His personality is slowly coming through in his dorm room.

Still, their shared college has brought them together

Despite their different personalities and interests, attending the same college has brought them closer.

My daughter even helped her brother pick out the rug for his dorm this year. They've also decided to meet for dinner once a week to explore the city's restaurants.

Who knows — maybe while they dine, they will swap décor tips and start a quirky twin design business.

• I've always loved my mother, but our relationship has always been complicated.
• When she started texting me in her 80s, our communication started to feel lighter.
• I'm so glad that I have our texts to look back on now.

Mother-daughter relationships can be challenging, and my relationship with my mother was no exception. But one thing my mother and I could always do was talk — whether in person or on the phone — though our chats often ended in some sort of argument. If we could figure out how to have shorter conversations, we would have been just fine.

An intellectual and a therapist, my mother had a penchant for delving deep, and sometimes I just wanted the short catch-ups my friends had with their mothers, but this wasn't how we did things. I needed to find my own way, so I moved away from home to explore.

Then, after years of living in different cities, I was ready to come home. And with this return to my old ZIP code, I inherited endless family obligations and outings. This also meant more phone calls with my mom to make plans.

When we started texting, our relationship changed

When the pandemic hit, it was the first time I had not seen her regularly since I moved back. I began to miss her and her constant questions. There were no more Sunday dinners, sushi, or long talks in her living room. Instead, we started to do something we've rarely done. We began to text. And then, something magical began to happen.

It started off simple.

Our texts were the short check-ins I'd always wanted, as one or the other of us would send a simple, "Doing OK?"

In lieu of children, I sent her pictures of my foster kittens. To my surprise, on the days when I didn't, she requested more.

"Where are the grandkits?" she wrote.

And I would blow up her phone with photos of adorable felines.

Over time, our text conversations got longer, but the tone was still light and easy. When I sent her pictures of sweet donut peaches from a farm upstate, she thanked me and sent a peach icon. She took to technology right away.

These are the cutesy conversations I would never have imagined from my mother. Yet they were as sweet as the fruit I bring to her. I finally got my own version of "normal."

As we started texting each other more, we had fewer intense conversations and, as a result, less tension. Instead, I began to send short messages almost daily, and started to feel closer to her. Before texting, it had felt stressful to get a call from my analytical mother; texting brought levity, and I started to look forward to hearing from her. It brought a balance to our relationship and allowed me to appreciate our longer in-person conversations, too. In some ways, I think it saved our relationship.

I'm grateful I have our texts to look back on

After a while, I wanted to spend more time in person with her, talking and belly laughing. Somehow, about a year after introducing texting into our relationship, the friction had dissipated. But soon, my mother fell ill. She didn't have a diagnosis yet, but her energy started to wane, and it was clear something was wrong. Now I was the one calling her to check in, and she was the one who needed to get off the phone.

I visited my parents in Upstate New York for Father's Day weekend in 2022, and even brought the kittens with me. We made a Sunday night dinner together, the first in a long time. We talked about film, life, and politics, and then my mother rested. This was unusual; she typically loved to sit and talk for hours. To comfort her, I went to Home Goods and picked up cough drops, scented soaps, and the brightest coral towels I could find to brighten her mood.

The day after I left, I texted my mother, worried she was more tired than usual.

I sent a lovely picture of the two kittens perched on my ottoman and wrote, "Same as it ever was…"

She wrote back a few minutes later. The text read, "Delicious as always."

That was our last text. She died a week later.

The first thing I did was look back at our correspondence. I am gifted with these modern-day notes — digital proof of just how much my mother truly loved me. How fortuitous, I thought, to spend her last weekend together. What a gift to have made our peace before it was too late. How wonderful to have all these texts of our relationship 2.0.

• Chili's is hitting it off with young people.
• Its social media strategy and value deals have aided its growth in recent quarters, an analyst says.
• Offers like the 3 For Me deal and Triple Dipper have gone viral online.

Chili's is capturing the attention, tastebuds, and money of young customers.

The casual dining chain has become a hit with Gen Z, and Chili's says it's due, in part, to a push to attract a younger generation on social media.

"Given how heavily younger audiences consume social media, standing out on their feeds means being one of the first to jump on current trends," Jack Hailey, the 25-year-old social media manager for Chili's, said.

Chili's CMO George Felix credits Hailey as the mind behind the restaurant's popular X account. Hailey said marketing execs had given the social media team the freedom to take risks online and maintain a "cheeky, quick, and confident" presence.

The other attraction: deals. While snappy posts might attract Gen Zers to Chili's, Hailey said its food deals resonate with his generation, who "grew up ordering from value menus."

Restaurants and customers have been struggling recently as inflation soars. Many food joints have taken a hit to sales, leading them to lean into special offers to lure people back. Chili's, for example, has started offering an appetizer sampler called the Triple Dipper for under $20.

Restaurants like McDonald's and Wendy's unveiled new offers aimed at drawing customers in last year. But many people are expecting more than just a low price, said R.J. Hottovy, the head of analytical research at the location-data provider Placer.ai, who follows the restaurant industry.

"Value was certainly important, but it had to be value with either menu innovation or something else" such as a sit-down dining experience, he said.

TikTok and other social media have helped Chili's, Hottovy said.

"You have your marketing department, but then you also have thousands of potential marketers in terms of influencers and TikTokers that can really help to change the image of a brand overnight," he said.

Many Gen Zers have reciprocated Chili's social media manager Hailey's energy with their own Chili's-themed videos on TikTok. Creators have garnered millions of views for taste-testing the Triple Dipper, which includes three portions of menu items, like fried mozzarella, chicken tenders, egg rolls, and more for under $20. They can pair it with a margarita for less than $10.

Chili's 3 For Me deal, which includes a main dish, an appetizer, and a drink for $10.99, has also offered an affordable eat-in option, Hottovy said. "I could pay a [fast-food] price, or I could pay or get effectively an even cheaper deal at Chili's and get a nice sit-down meal," he said.

Chili's parent company, Brinker International, reported a 7.4% increase in same-store sales at Chili's in 2024; sales jumped 14% on the same basis in the first quarter of fiscal 2025.

In April, Chili's added a burger to the entrée options for 3 For Me. In May, visits to the restaurant chain jumped nearly 20% year-over-year and grew by similar percentages through the end of 2024, according to data from Placer.ai.

The deal was successful enough that some of Chili's rivals followed suit, Hottovy said. In November, Applebee's started offering a $9.99 deal with a choice between a chicken sandwich and a bacon cheeseburger plus fries and a beverage. Red Robin offered a burger plus a bottomless side for $9.99 for a few days in September for National Cheeseburger Day.

But "sometimes, you need to have a margarita and Triple Dipper in sweatpants with your friends," Hailey said.

Do you work at Chili's or another restaurant and have a story idea to share? Reach out to these reporters at [email protected] and [email protected].

• The author is a California native who grew up witnessing reoccurring wildfires.
• She moved to Indiana due to rampant West Coast wildfires and climate change concerns.
• She's urged her friends and family to leave California as well and doesn't plan on returning.

When I graduated from high school in 2004, there were over 8,000 wildfires across California.

I was born and raised in Southern California, and I've experienced more than my fair share of wildfires. In fact, it's one of the major reasons I left and continue to call Indiana home. I've toyed with the idea of returning someday, but the constant fires — and larger climate change and land mismanagement problems — keep me from buying property there.

I've urged my family and friends from high school to leave, but California can be a bubble. When life is good, no one sees the problems: the increase in homelessness, traffic, etc.

California wildfires have always been a part of my adult life

In 2009, when I graduated from UCLA, over 9,000 wildfires burned across the region from February through November, well beyond the typical fire season. It was worsened by years of drought.

That summer, I watched billows of smoke rise above the skyscrapers in the deadliest fire of the season, the Station Fire, north of LA, before we were all urged to hop into gridlock to evacuate. It was hellish: choking smoke and nowhere to go on the 110 freeway.

In 2018, wildfires struck again. This time my family had moved to Irvine, California, and I was on a date at a Barnes and Noble in Aliso Viejo. My date and I were suddenly urged to drop everything. Fleeing the parking lot, I snapped a quick picture of smoke in the distance, burning dangerously close to Soka University, where I used to teach.

That evening, lying in bed, I felt like I couldn't breathe. My family members felt the same, and later, we installed the highest-quality HEPA filters we could find and portable ones we could move throughout the house.

I left California and moved to Indiana

I moved to Southern Indiana a year prior, in 2017, and still live here now. As a freelance writer of home tours, I encounter many ex-Californians living here and in the Midwest more generally. Concerns about climate change and the fires that result from it are at the top of our list for moving away.

Californians seem to be moving to Indiana and Michigan for access to clean water at the Great Lakes — but that's just my pet theory.

The cost of living is much lower here than in California, and I really feel like I'm a part of a community. People tend to know their neighbors, and there's much less sprawl, so there are plenty of green spaces and state forests to wander in.

Still, Indiana is a more rural state, so everyday conveniences can be difficult to find outside the major cities like Indianapolis and Fort Wayne — there's no Starbucks on every corner.

I love visiting California, but I'd never buy property there

This year, the Palisades fire was projected to be the costliest in California's history. I'm frustrated with the state's wildfire strategy, which has prioritized fire suppression over prevention for years.

Though millions of dollars are spent on California fire prevention, efforts like removing dead and felled trees aren't enough in the face of climate change, which has lengthened the state's dry season.

What's more, places like LA are experiencing budget cuts that impact emergency responses to natural disasters, and it's unclear if fire insurance requirements will hold in urban areas that have been densified to meet housing demands.

Based on my experiences, I believe California's fire season will only grow and worsen

I'm not surprised to hear about the fire hydrants running dry in Los Angeles. SoCal gets much of its water from the Colorado River — which has been drying up of late. Every year SoCal experiences more water cuts.

In the early 2000s, we were asked not to water our lawns, and starting in 2022, businesses were forbidden from watering decorative grasses. The lack of fresh water is a real problem making the fire season worse.

I miss seeing my family, but for all these reasons and more, I'm hesitant to move back to California.

If you moved away from your hometown and would like to share your story, please email Manseen Logan at [email protected].

• Karen Windsor, 37, struggled with burnout as a new mom.
• Counseling sessions and a couple's retreat helped her reassess her priorities.
• She recently quit her corporate job to focus on her relationship with her husband and daughter.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Karen Windsor, 37, from Perth, Australia. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I've always been high-achieving and a hard worker. I expected that I would approach motherhood like every other challenge.

As many new parents will tell you, it was anything but easy. That came as a shock.

In 2018, just after I had her, my baby daughter wouldn't let me put her down. My husband had to go away to work in the mines for weeks before she was a month old — he was a "fly in, fly out" miner. When he returned, she wouldn't even go to him.

It was heartbreaking and exhausting. She was a terrible sleeper, and I was desperate for a break. I asked him to stop working away from home, so he switched roles to a similar job closer to home.

Yet I still really struggled. I'd excelled at every other job, but I felt I was failing at this one.

I went back to work and quickly felt burnout

Returning to work when my daughter was 8 months old felt easier than the uncertainty of being a new mom. I loved having adult conversations and an actual lunch in peace — "me time."

I also knew if I was given a task in my corporate role as a personal assistant, I'd have clearly measured deliverables and positive feedback for doing a good job. But things were still extremely difficult. As we were approaching my daughter's second birthday, I broke down to my mom. I remember saying, "It's all just too hard."

I was scared that the next two years would be like the last two and that I would feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and inadequate. It was then that I realized something was very wrong; it wasn't OK to feel like this. I saw my doctor and booked free counseling via my workplace's employer assistance program.

Counseling sessions helped me put things in perspective

From my first session, everything fell into perspective. The counselor said, "You've set exhaustingly high expectations for yourself." I realized that while working long hours in my corporate job, my family got the worst of me and I wasn't taking care of myself, either. By the evenings and weekends, I had no energy left to truly connect. I'd feel resentful if my daughter didn't sleep and get grumpy with her because it meant I was too tired to bring my A-game to work.

Whenever I sat down to play with her, I had too little energy to be present or enjoy it. Life admin overwhelmed me. I wasn't emotionally available or patient enough to have deep conversations with my husband or even ask him how his week had been.

Counseling made me realize I was showing signs of burnout. I initially reduced my long hours in my corporate job, and my fantastic boss agreed to let me work five fewer hours each week.

During that time, I'd prioritize things like acupuncture or taking the dog for a walk with my husband. But we still needed to rekindle the spark we had previously had in our relationship; we still felt slightly out of sync.

A couple's retreat that helped me reconnect with my husband

I saw a relationship coach advertise a nearby couple's retreat, and it felt perfect. It was less of a long-term commitment than couple's counseling and still an opportunity to reconnect.

On the retreat, we did a breathwork session to release tension and wrote goals and a vision for our relationship. We had to look into each other's eyes for five minutes, then hug for five minutes. I couldn't remember the last time we'd done that; I felt oxytocin travel through my body. We also had an ice bath together, holding hands through it, to symbolize how we'd face upcoming challenges. By the end, we felt invincible.

As I started implementing some things from the retreat — turning off the TV and chatting instead, having more date nights with my husband, and setting my phone to "do not disturb" earlier in the evening — I realized how much I'd been missing out on, and I dropped down to three working days a week.

After a comment from my daughter, I decided to leave the corporate world

The crunch point came when my then-5-year-old daughter asked me if I could stay off my phone during her swimming lesson and watch her instead. That hit me hard. I'd been using the time to pay household bills, and I realized how much my focus on work and getting life admin jobs done had impacted my relationships. I felt like I should always be doing something to be productive; the curse of a working mom.

For the past year, I've taken advantage of my part-time schedule and have started building a flexible business as a freelance PR agent. Initially, it was actually more work while I kept the two jobs going. But I kept my eye on the long game: having the flexibility and independence to step back and work for myself.

This month, I permanently quit my corporate job and I now work for myself with flexible hours.

I'll finally be able to prioritize self-care, which has been a low priority for years. I hope my new schedule will make me a more relaxed and present mom and wife. In the afternoon, I'll bake cookies and play in the park. No more picking my daughter up late from after-school care and racing home at 5 p.m. just in time for the rush of dinner, bath, and bed.

I can't get the past six years back, but I'm committed to making the next six years and beyond better for my daughter, husband, and family.

I've learned that you can have it all, just not all at once.

• Bill Gates is the co-founder of Microsoft and one of the wealthiest men in the world.
• Gates was a software genius who dropped out of Harvard to launch a wildly successful career in tech.
• He now spends much of his time on philanthropy through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Bill Gates is perhaps best known as one of the wealthiest people in the world, becoming the first-ever centibillionaire in 1999 at the height of his Microsoft career.

But wealth is hardly all that defines this complex, accomplished, and immensely influential man, whose other titles rightly include philanthropist, entrepreneur, software developer, father, and occasional lightning rod for controversy.

Understanding Bill Gates as a whole requires looking at the varied aspects of his life more closely, and then stitching together a portrait of the legendary Microsoft CEO, co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and generally peerless man whose efforts have shaped much of the latter decades of the 20^th century and the early decades of the 21^st.

Gates' childhood and early years

Gates, 69, was born in the autumn of 1955 in Seattle, Washington. He was the only son in the family, with a sister named Kristianne who is one year older, and another sister, Libby, who is nine years younger.

Gates' childhood fostered his love of technology. He largely eschewed sports and more typical childhood activities, instead taking an early interest in technology. He wrote his first lines of code while still a young teen; it was a software program that allowed a human to face off against a computer playing tic-tac-toe.

By the time Bill Gates was in high school at Lakeside Prep School, he was writing code for the school itself and was soon working with the Computer Center Corporation, a local business in Seattle that offered users time on their computers, personal computers still being a thing of the future. (Gates was briefly banned from the CCC for sneaking in lines of code that granted him extended free time using the machines.)

Bill Gates would go on to matriculate at Harvard University in the fall of 1973, but he would not finish his college degree.

The foundation and growth of Microsoft

In January of 1975, Gates and fellow software genius and childhood friend Paul Allen moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to work for the company Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, Inc. (MITS), a company that was just beginning to create PCs (personal computers). Gates managed to convince the executives he and Allen could create software for their new hardware.

That role did not last long. Later that same year, Gates and Allen founded their own company, named for "microcomputer" and "software," known today as Microsoft.

Microsoft relocated to Bellevue, Washington, in 1979, and in 1980, the company made a deal with tech juggernaut IBM to develop an operating system for the company's first consumer-ready PC. The MS-DOS 1.0 OS was released in the summer of the following year.

Then, just four years later, in 1985, Microsoft released the first version of its now vaunted Windows OS. New versions of Windows would come out every few years from that point on, and it has grown so dominant that nearly three-quarters of the world's computers run Windows.

Allen departed from Microsoft for medical reasons in 1983 (though he would live another quarter of a century), while Gates would remain the CEO until the summer of 2008, when he voluntarily stepped down from the leading role of the company he had grown into a company that would enjoy revenues of more than $60 billion that same year.

Gates' post-Microsoft career and philanthropy

When Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft, he stepped up as the co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the charitable organization he and his then wife Melinda Gates had founded in the year 2000. (The foundation was a revamp of the organization Gates had established in 1994 under the name the William H. Gates Foundation.)

The BMFG is a nonprofit with global reach that happens to make a tidy profit, thanks in no small part to its massive holdings of Microsoft stock. The foundation has offices around the world and is, in words from its own site: "Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives."

The BMGF funds research into the fight against malnutrition, malaria, gender inequality, to name a few, and in support of causes such as agricultural development, clean water programs, and much more.

The foundation has an endowment of more than $75 billion and planned to spend a staggering $8.6 billion on philanthropic work in the year 2024. Bill Gates has donated an estimated $36 billion-plus of his own fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gates' relationships and friendships

Bill Gates married Melinda French Gates, whose maiden name was Melinda Ann French, on New Year's Day in 1994 on the Hawaiian island of Lanai. The couple met at work, Melinda being a Microsoft employee, though she departed the company in 1996 to focus on family and, soon, on charitable work.

The Gates have three children together and would remain married until their divorce on August 2, 2021, after a span of 27 years. The reasons for the divorce were several, one reportedly being that Gates spent one weekend each year vacationing with (and possibly physically involved with, though this was always denied) an ex-girlfriend, Ann Winblad. This was an arrangement Melinda Gates tacitly approved, though with displeasure.

The largest issue, and indeed the thing that finally compelled Melinda French Gates to end the union, was Bill Gates' regular association with Jeffrey Epstein the financier, convicted sex offender, and accused trafficker who died by suicide in his New York City jail cell in 2019.

Gates is currently in a relationship with Paula Hurd, who was born in 1962 and is seven years his junior. Hurd, formerly married to the late Co-CEO of Oracle Corporation Mark Hurd, has two adult daughters and works primarily coordinating and planning large-scale philanthropic events.

Gates and Hurd had been known to be in a relationship since early 2023, but were not to appear together at a major public event until April of the following year, when they accompanied one another to a major red carpet event.

Melinda French Gates, for her part, was reportedly briefly in a relationship with a Fox News correspondent named Jon Du Pre, but the pair are no longer together.

Another contentious relationship — one that likewise soured after many years — is Gates' friendship with billionaire Warren Buffett. The two men were on close terms for decades, with their relationship going beyond mere affinity. Gates joined the board of Buffett's investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway, in 2004 and would remain on it until 2020.

Buffett, for his party, was a trustee on the board of the BMGF from 2006 until 2021. He stepped away and also went cold on Gates for reasons rather in line with his divorce: Buffett was deeply troubled by the association of Gates with Epstein. He had also come to dislike the growing bureaucracy of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and was off-put by how rude Gates could often be to others.

There are also some wild conspiracy theories about Bill Gates, such as that he was behind a scheme to place microchips into COVID-19 vaccines, that Gates wanted to do away with the American cattle industry and instead compel people to eat insects, and that a fund backed by Gates that was developing a new way to produce baby formula has led to a nationwide baby formula shortage.

There is, of course, no evidence to support any of these plots and plenty of common sense to debunk them, but these wild theories and others abound nonetheless

Bill Gates' net worth and land

Bill Gates' net worth can change by the millions in any given day as markets rise and fall, but it is usually near $160 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That places him in the bottom half of the top 10 richest people in the world. As noted, he achieved the top title in 1995 and maintained it most years up until 2017.

Gates has less wealth today largely because he has given so much of it away in the name of philanthropy.

Today, Bill Gates' primary property is a 66,000 square foot mansion in Medina, Washington, which is just east of Seattle, across Lake Washington. Construction took seven years and involved a team of 300 workers. There are six kitchens and 24 bathrooms.

Gates also owns vast swathes of farmland, totaling approximately 275,000 acres. For comparison, all five boroughs of New York City cover just 193,700 acres. During a Reddit Q&A session (called an "AMA" for "ask me anything"), Gates explained the massive holdings, saying: "I own less than 1/4000 of the farmland in the US. I have invested in these farms to make them more productive and create more jobs. There isn't some grand scheme involved - in fact all these decisions are made by a professional investment team."

Gates' lifestyle, hobbies, and beliefs

Gates, who has a 2,500-square-foot gym in his mansion, is a firm believer in the benefits of exercise. He reportedly works out for at least an hour every day, whether running, swimming, playing tennis, or doing strength training. He is also reportedly a fan of pickleball.

While he grew up attending a Protestant Reformed church, Gates seemed drawn to the Catholic church in the 2010s, largely because of Melinda. These days, he seems to skew agnostic, with religion not playing much of a role in his life.

Books, however, play a huge role. Gates has claimed he reads up to 50 books a year. And he also collects rare books, such as a manuscript created by Leonardo da Vinci for which he paid well over $30 million.

Like many other billionaires and tech moguls, Gates collects cars, and has a 23-car garage at his Washington home. His collection is filled with high-end sports cars and luxury vehicles alike. And, apparently, a blue Ford Focus.

• Gen Z and millennials keep buying plushies, or stuffed animals in a boost for the toy market.
• A Mintel analyst said plushies are "kind of hot right now."
• Adults spent more than $1.5 billion on toys for themselves in the fourth quarter of 2024, Circana found.

Gen Z and millennials' love of plushies is bringing some cheer to the toy industry.

Young adults adore their stuffed animals, whether they're hanging onto the battered old ones from their childhood, buying a viral 5ft goose on TikTok shop, or spending a premium to add to their collections of Squishmallows.

A recent Jellycat pop-up in the London department store Selfridges was filled with patrons buying fuzzy $25 or more versions of cod and fries, mimicking a British fish and chip shop, The Economist reported. In Asia, a furry, spikey-toothed rabbit creature called Labubu has a hold over people well into their 30s.

This comes amid struggles for the toy sector.

A report by the market research company Circana found that toy sales across the G12 nations declined by 1% in the first half of 2024. That was an improvement on the 8% decrease in 2023, which Circana credited to purchases being made by adults — for themselves.

The report found that people aged 18 and over accounted for sales worth more than $1.5 billion in the last three months of 2024, putting them ahead of purchases made for toddlers aged 3 to 5 as the industry's most important age group.

Juli Lennett, Circana's vice president and toy industry advisor, said in a statement that "while the toy industry is feeling the heat, it is ripe with opportunity."

Mintel's Traditional Toys and Games report, published in October 2024, found that plushies were particularly in demand. The report found that stuffed toy sales have been growing, and just over a third of all toys and games purchased in the US in the past year were building sets and plush toys.

Brian Benway, the senior tech and gaming analyst who worked on the report, told Business Insider plushies are "kind of hot right now."

He said plushies are "tracking right along with Lego and building-set type of toys and games. Lego, of course, is a huge brand in the toys and games industry, so to see plushies up there with Lego is very positive for them."

Spark nostaglia

Melissa Symonds, executive director of UK toys at Circana, told BBC News that adults buy toys for the "positive mental health benefits, as they spark nostalgia and bring escapism from global turmoil."

A more cynical outlook is that some millennials and Gen Zers are slow to grow up, partly because they faced delays in reaching pivotal life moments such as getting a job, moving out of their parents' homes, and buying a house. For them, plushie collecting is merely a coping mechanism.

Carter Kench, a content creator and avid Squishmallows collector, told The Washington Post in 2023 that he owned more than 400 of the round stuffed animals made by Jazwares. The company was bought by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in 2022.

Kench said the experience of searching for a specific plushie was "something special — I feel like Indiana Jones every time I'm on the hunt."

Data from Mintel showed that 52% of all people buying games last year were adults buying for themselves.

'Little bit of happiness'

"It's becoming more acceptable," Benway said, with communities on social media being more open about sharing their interests.

"A lot of people are taking the approach that, well, I don't care if other people think this is dumb, this brings me a little bit of happiness, a little bit of joy, so I'm going to keep doing it."

Benway added: "Lady Gaga posted a picture of her bed just absolutely covered in Squishmallows on Instagram. So if Lady Gaga can do that, anybody can."

A report by Grand View Research found the global market for stuffed animals and plush toys is expected to grow 8.2% annually until 2030. Sales of cartoon toys catering to fandoms are predicted to rise even more, with a 9.8% annual increase.

• Wildfires are ravaging the Los Angeles area, spreading rapidly due to dry and windy conditions.
• The fires have burned through more than 39,000 acres. Officials report that at least 16 people have died.
• Analysts estimate damages caused by the fires may top $50 billion — breaking previous state records.

Across Los Angeles, a series of wildfires fanned by the powerful Santa Ana winds have been leveling homes in the area for nearly a week, leaving a path of record-breaking destruction in their wake.

The largest of the fires, ripping through the wealthy enclave of the Pacific Palisades, is just 11% contained as of early Sunday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). It is moving toward the densely populated neighborhood of Encino in the San Fernando Valley. About 30 miles northeast, the Eaton Fire, which is 15% contained, is threatening the city of Altadena.

Nearly 40,000 acres have burned in four separate blazes, and the LA County Medical Examiner has reported 16 deaths related to the fires so far.

At least 153,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate the area and another 166,000 have been warned to be ready to evacuate, Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna said during a Saturday morning press conference.

"Critical fire weather conditions are predicted to continue through Wednesday," Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said during the Saturday morning conference. "Moderate to locally strong Santa Ana winds will affect Los Angeles County today, tomorrow, and then again on Monday through Wednesday."

The winds, combined with dry air and dry vegetation, will keep the fire threat in Los Angeles County high through at least the middle of next week, Marrone added.

A representative for the electric services company Southern California Edison said on Saturday afternoon that more than 50,000 residences were without power.

Local water districts have also issued numerous water advisories, warning residents not to drink or use the water, which may be contaminated with debris from the fire. Air pollution levels have also remained high in many parts of the city.

Amid the chaos, residents have also been contending with opportunistic looters burglarizing empty properties, inaccurate evacuation orders sent out in error through the county's emergency alert system, and rapidly spreading misinformation online regarding the causes of the fire and current evacuation zones.

Analysts from JPMorgan have estimated that the blazes tearing through the region may lead to about $50 billion in total economic losses — including over $20 billion in insured losses, Business Insider previously reported. If the estimates prove to be accurate, the damage caused by the current fires would be significantly more severe than the 2018 Camp Fires, which racked up $10 billion in insured losses.

The state has, in recent years, been subject to a mass exodus of major insurers including State Farm. The company announced in 2023 that it would stop accepting new home insurance policies in California, citing risks from catastrophes.

Palisades Fire

The Palisades fire in the Pacific Palisades area north of Santa Monica has burned through more than 23,000 acres and is 11% contained as of Sunday morning, according to Cal Fire.

The cause of the fire, which started on Tuesday morning, is still under investigation.

Over 5,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed, with 426 homes in Malibu and the Pacific Palisades area confirmed destroyed.

The wealthy enclave houses many celebrities who have lost their homes, including Paris Hilton, Billy Crystal, and Milo Ventimiglia, BI previously reported.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office has reported five deaths related to the Palisades fire so far.

Eaton Fire

The Eaton Fire, which has impacted the Pasadena-Altadena since it began on Tuesday, has now swept through more than 14,000 acres, per Cal Fire. The blaze is 15% contained.

The fire's cause is still under investigation, but the flames have damaged more than 160 structures and destroyed over 1,200 more, per Cal Fire.

Eleven deaths have so far been attributed to the Eaton Fire, per a Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office report.

Other fires

While the Palisades and Eaton fires have grown to be the largest in size, additional smaller fires have been reported throughout the region.

The Hurst Fire, impacting the northern part of the San Fernando Valley, started late Tuesday night and has spread to around 800 acres. According to Cal Fire, it is 76% contained. The evacuation order for the area was lifted on Thursday afternoon, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said on Thursday.

The Kenneth Fire, now 90% contained, has covered just over 1,050 acres across Los Angeles and Ventura counties after starting on Thursday, per Cal Fire. The evacuation orders related to the blaze have been lifted.

Further North, the Lidia Fire broke out Wednesday in the Angeles National Forest and burned 395 acres in three days before being 100% contained, per Cal Fire.