• My husband and I put everything in a shared Google Calendar.
• We are equally responsible for managing it.
• It's been a major factor in easing my mental load.

I was having dinner with some relative strangers, discussing managing our overscheduled lives, when I casually said, "I'm still married because of Google Calendar." The woman next to me erupted in peals of laughter. I was not joking.

My husband and I have been married for over 18 years. For many of them, the fight behind every fight was over the division of labor or mental load. Then, over time, those fights happened less frequently. Yes, this was in part due to therapy and increased self-awareness. We also capitalized on technology to help offload giant swathes of cognitive labor.

'Mental load' is the biggest thing you cannot see

A literature review from 2023 of 31 peer-reviewed articles acknowledged that "there is still no uniformly accepted definition of mental labor in the context of unpaid work," and proposed the following definition: "Mental labor related to unpaid work in the household and childcare is cognitive work that consists of managerial activities aimed at achieving communal goals (e.g., goals related not only to the individual, but also to the family, partner, children), which are directed toward a future outcome and goes undetected and unseen as a component of unpaid work."

When the term mental load entered the zeitgeist, I immediately recognized it. I also struggled to define the concept for my husband, so I appreciated content like this reel from relationship educator Jimmy Knowles, or musician and comedian Farideh's satirical song "Make a List."

A joint calendar cannot mitigate the enduring aspect of mental load, but it helps create some visibility and structure around medical appointments, extracurriculars, and holiday plans with the in-laws.

We happened upon this solution by accident

I would love to say sharing a calendar was a stroke of intentional genius, but the truth is it was a knee-jerk reaction born of desperation and frustration. I was acting as the de facto project manager for our household, and I was over it.

Our joint calendar emerged in January 2016. Over the course of the past nine years, it eventually became something my husband relied on as much as me.

"It just made sense, and it worked. I'd say it evolved, but I'd say it evolved fairly quickly," my husband told me when I asked how we managed to take this from a me-task to an us-task.

Now Google Calendar is sacrosanct. If it goes in there, it is happening, and we are each responsible for managing our own awareness of it.

We take equal responsibility for tasks, now

Often unpaid labor, both physical and cognitive, gets lumped together, and I think offloading some of the physical labor helped create better habits around mental labor. My husband does the dishes, same goes for kids' school paperwork. As he took on more, and I let go more, it became easier for us to continue along this new path.

Since my husband and I both take ownership of our shared calendar, I am no longer solely responsible for foreseeing and managing scheduling conflicts, school calendars, or scheduling childcare. Our calendar has become a shared brain space, mitigating the need for me to delegate what needs to be done. Adulthood feels a little less unrelenting because a handful of common tasks no longer live rent-free in my mind.

I realized how successful it was, ironically, when I forgot to add something to it

"It wasn't in the calendar!" my husband balked one night when I mentioned an imminent meeting I was headed out to attend. It was then that I realized how successful this little app had been for us. Not only were we both responsible, but I was so liberated from the mental load that I found the freedom to drop the ball.

Now, if we could just find a way to also manage communication from the dozens of newsletters, emails, and group chats from our kids' schools and activities.

• Inflation, growing demand, and TikTok have fuelled a rise in people buying cheaper "dupes" of expensive items.
• They range from deliberate imitations of designer clothing to cheaper versions of famous tech items.
• BI asked industry observers what to avoid when buying "dupes."

Inflation, growing demand, and the boosting power of TikTok have all fuelled the rise of "dupe" culture — taking pride in purchasing cheaper alternatives to high-end products.

But buying "dupes" comes with risk. A 2023 survey by Trustpilot of 1,000 American Gen Z and Millenial adults found that 49% had been scammed while trying to buy a dupe.

In most cases, respondents said the item was either poor quality, damaged, or didn't even arrive. In some cases, respondents said they'd needed medical treatment as a result of using what they'd bought.

Business Insider spoke with those experienced with dupes about what types of products to be cautious about or avoid altogether when looking for a bargain imitation.

"Within the past 50,000 years most of the variation that is seen among human populations evolved," said researcher Jason Hodgson.

The past few days have seen fierce rows within Trump's MAGA movement over H-1B migrant worker visas.

• Ahead of its shift to an all-EV future, Jaguar unveiled a new brand identity this year.
• The rebrand was roasted by many online. But some advertising vets have said it was a smart strategy.
• Jaguar's first new EV model is expected in 2025 — and industry watchers said it has to deliver.

Jaguar gambled big this year on a total brand transformation. And in 2025, the British luxury carmaker will need to prove all the fuss was worth it.

It's set next year to debut the first EV in its new all-electric lineup: After setting up global audiences to expect something big — this year's Jaguar advertising controversy was the talk of the industry and beyond — now it's got to deliver something that matches the moment its rebrand has created, industry watchers said.

A space-age concept car — presented in pink and blue — with swooping lines and curious interior features stoked some excitement for the brand, whose leaders have said it intends to go much more upmarket.

Sometime next year, if the company stays on its own timeline, we'll see the result.

"I think the biggest risk for them now is making sure the production model lives up to the promise and doesn't suffer death by a thousand cuts," Greg Andersen, the CEO of the Omaha, Nebraska, creative agency Bailey Lauerman, told BI recently. "Rolling out an unapologetic, future-facing brand along with a marginally better car might not go so well."

Here's how Jaguar — a favored vehicle of the British royal family, UK prime ministers, and James Bond villains — got to this point:

Jaguar's slumping sales call for a reset

Jag's sales had been slumping globally for years. In 2021, Jaguar first announced that it would ditch internal combustion engines and go all-in on EVs.

And in 2024, the nearly century-old Jaguar made major moves to ramp up that transition. Jaguar Land Rover, owned by India-based Tata Motors, said it would phase out production of all its current models by the end of this year.

In their place will come the new fully electric models, the first of which the company said would be unveiled in 2025 — and are expected to go on sale to the public in 2026.

A new Jaguar is born

In November of this year, soon after stopping new vehicle sales in the UK, Jaguar released the controversial new vision and brand identity.

The public reaction to the debut of Jaguar's new rebranding campaign wasn't quite as positive as the company may have hoped.

In particular, a promotional video Jag unveiled as part of the campaign — which also included an updated typeface for Jaguar's iconic logo, a redesigned leaping-jaguar mark, and a new creative philosophy to "copy nothing" — raised some eyebrows.

The video shows models clad in colorful, ultra-modern outfits doing things like exiting an elevator, painting a wall, and swinging a sledgehammer before they all sit down on a rock in a pink desert landscape.

Phrases like "create exuberant," "live vivid," and "delete ordinary," flashed across the screen. And notably, for a car company, there were no cars in the ad.

Social media users, late-night TV hosts, and some in the media roasted Jaguar over its decision not to include cars in the video, which was a viral sensation.

Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk weighed in, posting on X: "Do you sell cars?"

"The Late Show's" Stephen Colbert said on his program: "Where are the cars? Does Jaguar sell ketamine now?"

It wasn't just the lack of cars in the initial video that got people talking. A rash of criticism cropped up online and elsewhere, with some right-leaning personalities accusing the company of abandoning its traditional history and pushing into "woke" politics.

In response to the backlash, Jaguar's managing director Rawdon Glover told the Financial Times he was disappointed by "the level of vile hatred and intolerance" that he said the video garnered online, particularly against the models it featured. But he also said the campaign had drummed up positive buzz.

Marketing and rebranding professionals gave mixed reviews to Business Insider at the time — one called the campaign "bonkers," and another said it was a relatively successful rollout.

The ad industry vets all agreed that, at the very least, the rebrand sparked conversation.

Jaguar released a concept car to match its new image

A few weeks after its rebrand launch, at the beginning of December, Jaguar unveiled a design concept for its next generation of electric vehicles — finally pairing an image of a car with its "exuberant modernism" rebranding campaign.

The pastel-colored concept car — dubbed "Type 00" for zero tailpipe emissions and its status as car zero in the brand's new lineage — featured several novel design elements, like a glassless rear tailgate, a brass divider running through the middle of the cabin, and pedestals of travertine stone to support the floating seats.

When the concept car was released, several advertising veterans applauded it for continuing Jag's rebrand strategy.

"This is a master class in what rebranding can accomplish for a company — a new forward-facing product and brand, clearly designed for its new customer persona, that everyone is talking about," Jim Heininger, the founder and principal of the Chicago firm The Rebranding Experts, previously told Business Insider.

Others were less convinced.

Christos Joannides, the founder and creative director of the luxury branding agency Flat 6 Concepts in Los Angeles, said the concept car didn't do enough to ground Jaguar's new ethos in reality.

"By showcasing a production model with more realistic features, Jaguar could have conveyed its vision more effectively and provided tangible evidence of its direction," Joannides said. "As it stands, the concept car feels superficial and gimmicky, like a desperate attempt to be different without any real substance or coherent strategy."

Jaguar needs to deliver in 2025

For better or worse, Jaguar had a big year. And even bigger is the company's need to follow through next year.

The first model of Jaguar's new lineup — the electric four-door GT — will be unveiled in late 2025, the company has said.

It said the model would use dedicated Jaguar Electric Architecture, have a projected driving range of up to 430 miles on a single charge, and be able to add up to 200 miles of range after 15 minutes of rapid charging.

But with a price tag that could near $200,000, Jaguar's new models will really need to be incredible, EV news outlet Electrek argued.

With so much competition, it could still be a tough sell.

"Unless Jaguar's expectations for its upcoming line of EVs is tempered with a dose of reality, the company will be planning to produce far more vehicles than there will be buyers willing to take them home," analyst Sam Fiorani, vice president of global forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions, told Car and Driver.

Jaguar has said updating its brand for the future is the right move.

"We have forged a fearlessly creative new character for Jaguar that is true to the DNA of the brand but future-facing, relevant, and one that really stands out," managing director Glover said at the time the concept car was revealed.

We'll see next year whether it was right.

• Gig work apps like Uber and Instacart continued to attract millions of workers in 2024.
• The job can still be lucrative, though many workers pointed to challenges.
• From hackers stealing accounts to tip baiting, here's what being a gig worker was like in 2024.

Being a gig worker for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Walmart Spark, and other apps came with opportunities and lots of challenges in 2024.

Millions of workers made grocery deliveries, dropped off takeout at doorsteps, and drove people to the airport through the apps. Workers involved in the gig economy told Business Insider that it's still a tempting way to make money.

At the same time, many told BI that they faced challenges working for the apps.

Here are some of the biggest factors that affected gig workers in 2024:

Gig workers said they made less money on apps like Uber Ears and DoorDash than in previous years

Workers' gross earnings on several gig delivery apps, including DoorDash and Uber Eats, fell in 2023, a study from Gridwise found in February. Uber Eats drivers, for instance, saw their earnings fall 15.4% on average — the largest drop of any service. Spokespeople for DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Instacart told BI that the study used incomplete data.

Many gig workers don't even earn the equivalent of their local minimum wage after accounting for expenses such as gas, researchers at the UC Berkeley Labor Center and the Center for Wage and Employment Dynamics found in May.

In some cases, good tips have also gotten harder to come by. Workers for some services, such as Walmart's Spark, told BI that customers continued to "tip bait" them, or offer a good tip when the workers accept a delivery only to take it back afterward.

Some gig delivery services struggled with hackers

Hackers have targeted roughly one-fifth of accounts on food delivery apps, online fraud tracker Sift found in May. That total includes both customer accounts, which hackers can mine for reward points, and the delivery workers' accounts.

Some delivery workers for Walmart's Spark service told BI that they saw signs that someone else was using their account. One said that Spark told her that she was logged into more than one device and her activity history on the app included orders that she had never delivered.

Some legitimate, policy-abiding workers struggled with having their gig work accounts deactivated, often with little explanation or recourse, meanwhile. One facial recognition ID tool used by Walmart's Spark to prevent the improper use of driver accounts even kicked some actual workers off of the app. Walmart said at the time that the facial recognition feature was working as intended and that users who thought that they were incorrectly deactivated could appeal the decision.

Gig workers started their own businesses

Instead of continuing to earn money through apps like Uber or DoorDash, some gig workers started their own businesses to cut out the middleman.

Uber and Lyft drivers with their own black-car services, for instance, told BI that they have been able to make more money by building relationships with clients directly, including many whom they met through rides via the rideshare apps. It's also allowed them to work on their own schedules — something that the rideshare apps have long promoted as a benefit of working for them.

Tony Illes, a delivery driver in Seattle, used a similar approach to start his own food delivery service. Illes told BI that he promotes his service through posters around downtown Seattle and provides estimated wait times to his customers through voice notes.

Cities implemented new pay laws for gig workers

Cities such as New York City and Seattle implemented new laws about gig work, especially pay, at the start of 2024.

In New York, gig workers delivering restaurant food now earn $19.56 an hour at minimum, a rate that will be adjusted for inflation each year. Seattle implemented a law — part of a package called "Pay Up" — that required Instacart and other delivery services to pay workers the equivalent of $19.97 an hour.

The companies fought back. In New York City, for example, DoorDash added a $1.99 fee that it said offset that city's pay law.

And in Seattle, Instacart shoppers in the city's suburbs said that the app was sending them on longer routes to avoid taking them within city limits — and paying them more.

Gig work has expanded beyond rideshare and delivery

Using apps to find work as an independent contractor isn't unique to rideshare and food delivery.

One report summary released earlier this month by the Roosevelt Institute investigated the expansion of such gig apps to nursing jobs at hospitals, care homes, and other medical facilities.

Like rideshare and delivery workers, many nurses and nursing assistants told the researchers behind the report that they appreciate the flexibility that working for the apps gives them. Many also dealt with problems similar to other gig workers, from being kicked off the platforms without explanation to navigating a workplace without an in-person boss or clear coworkers.

One IT worker who found work as an independent contractor in that field told BI in February that he enjoyed the freedom but had a hard time finding a full-time job again.

Do you work in the gig economy and have a story idea? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

• Korean Air is expected to stop flying the longest Boeing 747 passenger flight in March 2025.
• Airlines globally have been phasing out the massive jet in favor of less costly widebodies.
• Only four airlines are scheduled to operate the jumbo in 2025, representing 75% fewer 747 flights than in 2019.

Korean Air is among the last airlines still flying the iconic Boeing 747, but it's scheduled to pull the jet from a particularly long US route in 2025.

Route scheduling data from the aviation analytics company Cirium shows Korean Air plans to stop flying the 747 on its 7,153-mile route from Seoul to Atlanta — the longest 747 passenger flight by distance — in March. It will replace the 747 with the smaller Boeing 777-300ER, which has fewer seats on board.

Korean's 777 carries up to 291 passengers, depending on the configuration, compared to the 368 seats on the double-decker 747. Korean did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Korean may sell more upgraded seats on the 777 to make up for fewer total tickets sold per flight. Most of Korean's scheduled 777 flights to Atlanta are equipped with more high-dollar first and business-class seats than the 747.

The carrier is expected to fly the 747 to New York, Los Angeles, and Singapore next year but plans to retire the fleet fully by 2031. Reuters reported that Korean sold five Boeing 747s in May for $674 million as part of its phase-out plan.

Airlines globally have been phasing out the famous "Queen of the Skies" for years. Boeing ended production of the jet in December 2022 after 54 years and 1,574 units built.

While the 747 was already leaving fleets before 2020 — with no US carrier flying it by the end of 2017 — airlines accelerated retirements when the pandemic uprooted travel.

British Airways, Dutch flag carrier KLM, and Australia's Qantas all ditched the plane during Covid to help weather losses and better shape their future fleets.

The gas-guzzling four-engine 747 is costly and inefficient compared to newer twin-engine widebodies, like Boeing's 777 and 787 and Airbus' A330neo and A350, that airlines now more readily rely on.

The 747 also proved too big for airlines' needs, especially as point-to-point flying using smaller widebodies became more lucrative than the traditional hub-and-spoke model that warranted greater capacity.

Even narrow-body planes are starting to become more common on long-haul flights.

Airbus' family of extra-ranged A321neos is particularly revolutionizing this trend because they can target smaller markets with lower demand while still earning profits — and airlines favor that flexibility.

Only 4 airlines will fly the 747 in 2025

Compounding industry changes have dampened the need for jumbo-sized planes like the 747, and only four passenger airlines will still fly it in 2025.

Cirium data through November shows Air China, Korean Air, Lufthansa, and Russian carrier Rossiya Airlines have about 19,0000 collective 747 flights scheduled next year. They'll cover 35 routes.

That's a 75% decrease from the nearly 76,000 scheduled 747 flights across 25 global carriers in 2019.

In 2024, about 19,600 of the double-decker flights were scheduled.

South Korea's Asiana Airlines and Middle Eastern carrier Saudia contributed to this year's total but ceased 747 passenger flights in March and September, respectively. Asiana Airlines merged with Korean Air in December.

Lufthansa's more than two dozen 747 jets are expected to cover 21 routes from Frankfurt in 2025, totaling about 12,000 flights, per Cirium. That's about 63% of next year's total scheduled 747 flights.

The airline is retrofitting the aircraft with new seats, an investment that signals a future need for the fleet.

By comparison, Air China's roughly 4,450 scheduled flights would cover four routes from Beijing, Korean's 1,900 scheduled flights would cover four routes from Seoul, and Rossiya's about 750 scheduled flights would cover six routes from Moscow.

A dozen 747 routes are scheduled to serve North America in 2025, including New York City, Newark, New Jersey, Boston, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Mexico City, and in Canada, Vancouver and Toronto.

The 747s are also expected to touch Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Argentina, Germany, South Korea, South Africa, and Singapore. Rossiya's 747 operations are expected to be limited to Russia.

The Russian airline is a subsidiary of flag carrier Aeroflot and restarted 747 operations in 2024, likely to take advantage of the 522-seat capacity as Western sanctions limit Russia's available planes.

Cirium data shows a majority of Rossiya's 2025 routes are set to fly to the country's Far East — suggesting the massive 747s are useful not just for tourists but also for cargo needed in the remote Russian region.

A new world's longest 747 passenger flight

When Korean stops flying its 747 to Atlanta in March, Lufthansa's 7,133-mile trek between Frankfurt and Buenos Aires would become the new longest passenger 747 flight by distance.

Korean's 747 flight between Seoul and New York would be the second-longest at 6,906 miles, followed by Air China's route between Beijing and New York at 6,838 miles.

Although not the longest by distance, Air China's New York service is the longest passenger 747 trek by flight time at about 17 hours. The longer-ranged Lufthansa and Korean routes reach about 14 hours and 16 hours, respectively.

Air China would run the shortest 747 flight in 2025, flying just two hours across 667 miles between Beijing and Shanghai. According to data from OAG, the route's nearly 7.8 million available seats ranked it among the world's top 10 busiest domestic flights in 2024.

The airline's other intra-China flights to Guangzhou and Shenzhen — and the only other 747 flights it operates besides Shanghai and New York — are about 1,200 miles, or roughly three and a half hours.

Rossiya is scheduled to fly a 747 route under 1,000 miles that hops between Moscow and Sochi, a popular beach town in southwest Russia along the Black Sea.

• Maya Ramirez, 31, has been attending diabetes camp all her life.
• In 2023, she attended a diabetes camp for adults for the first time.
• Adult diabetes camp gave her community and helped her process the grief of losing her mom.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Maya Ramirez. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I was born with a condition called congenital hyperinsulinism, which essentially means your pancreas releases insulin to an excessive level. The condition led to the removal of my pancreas at eight months old, resulting in me developing pancreatogenic, or type 3c, diabetes, which is a type of diabetes that happens after your pancreas is compromised or removed.

Diabetes camp as a kid helped me find community

My oldest brother has type 2 diabetes now, but growing up, I didn't have any friends or family with the condition. I didn't have a community and wanted to know other kids who could relate to what I was going through. Things changed for the better at 10 years old when I received my first insulin pump.

The medical device made me feel confident enough to go to sleep-away diabetes camp because it allowed me to better manage my diabetes without my parents' help. Diabetes camp is just like a traditional summer camp for children, but with a medical staff and camp attendees who are living with diabetes — often type 1.

I met several kids my age who were also living with diabetes and built friendships. From that point on, I went to diabetes camp every summer, and sometimes, if my parents would allow it, I would attend multiple camps each summer. One July, I hopped off one bus, went home to do laundry, and then hopped on another bus to attend another camp.

Eventually, I went from camp attendee to counselor. When I was around 16, I became a camp counselor in training, and then at 18, I became a counselor. I took two years off from working at diabetes camps in college, but now I'm working in an administrative role for a nonprofit based in California that supports families impacted by type 1 diabetes with community-building events and camps.

I went to an adult diabetes camp for the first time last year

Even though I'd been to many camps growing up, I attended an adult diabetes camp for the first time at the age of 30 in August 2023 through the nonprofit I work for. When we arrived, they gave us a schedule of activities to choose from. There were educational sessions led by medical staff, nurses, and even therapists.

One of the educational sessions focused on navigating pregnancy with diabetes. We learned about blood sugar management when pregnant, what type of doctor visits we should have, and where to find a support group. I'm at the stage where I may have kids soon, so the session was very informative.

People of all ages were in attendance. You have to be at least 18, but I saw a woman in her 70s when I went. The camp is way up in the mountains in California, and there's no cell service. But we had all the activities you think of when you think of camp — pool time, archery, arts and crafts, and hiking. One night, we had a traditional campfire with skits, songs, and s'mores, which was one of my highlights.

We all slept on giant outside decks. Each deck had a cot with a mattress, and we could sleep under the stars. August in California is typically super hot, so we were pretty toasty. There's something so peaceful and tranquil about sleeping under the stars with the sound of nature in the background. Even though we were in the woods, we had fully functioning restrooms and showers.

A lot of people living with diabetes sometimes feel restricted in what they can eat because some doctors and society, in general, have created a bad stigma about the relationship between diabetics and food. The message is, "Oh, you can't eat this because you have diabetes." At camp, it was instilled in us that we can still eat what we enjoy. We just have to figure out the carb count and administer a proper amount of insulin based on what our body needs. Luckily, the kitchen staff at the camp had a full carb breakdown on all the foods and measurements, so we didn't have to guess.

I processed my mom's death during camp

I lost my mom back in 2018, and when I think about my diabetes journey, I think about my mom. From day one, my mom pushed me to be independent and said, "Hey, it's just something you'll live with. You're not different; you're not weird." She didn't want diabetes to stop me from doing anything I wanted. When she died, I felt lost in life. She was my person.

During one of our adult camp discussion sessions facilitated by a therapist, I opened up about how her death impacted me and the worries I had about navigating diabetes without the person I had talked to most about the condition for my entire life.

The camp discussion finally allowed me to let out all of the feelings I had been navigating for years after losing my mom but hadn't processed out loud. Because of camp, I was able to process my grief around people who not only understood navigating a serious medical condition, but some also understood navigating a serious medical condition while simultaneously grieving a parent.

• An breakup text on my birthday was a shock I didn't see coming.
• It came while I was on a trip with my dad and brother, making stops in Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia.
• Instead of meeting up with my now-ex at the end of the journey, I was able to extend the family trip.

Perhaps the worst birthday present in the world? A text from your situationship breaking things off.

I had just landed in Serbia with my dad, brother, and uncle. We were about to take a two-week trip to visit family and explore a few countries. Our plan was to start in Serbia where my dad was born, then move through Bosnia and Croatia with a final layover in London. There, I'd meet up with my label-less friend during my 24-hour layover. It was the perfect plan until I opened WhatsApp the morning of my birthday to a message saying it wasn't perfect after all.

I was initially devastated. My family had no clue what happened — I wasn't ready to explain my grief just yet — but my dad, brother, aunt, and cousin treated me to a tour of Belgrade, a traditional lunch, and a delicious glass of wine. At the end of the day, I resolved to make the best of the next two weeks. I refused to let anyone ruin my adventure, especially one as special as this. Little did I know that with some quick thinking and a bit of recklessness, the next two weeks of adventures would heal me in ways I never expected.

Reconnecting with my family was priceless

The main reason my father, brother, and I were in Serbia was to visit extended family. My dad was born in an area just outside the capital city of Belgrade. He and my grandparents immigrated to the United States when he was quite young, and besides a few visits at age 10, he hadn't returned in decades.

We explored Belgrade by foot, taxi, bus, and train. We celebrated Easter with my great-aunt, drank beers on the coast of the Danube, took shots of rakia in a lively kafana, and ate our weight in smoked meats. And even though half of us didn't speak the same language, we made memories to last a lifetime.

Exploring new places provided a fresh perspective

After our week in Serbia, my dad, brother, and I said goodbye to my uncle, rented a car and began our next adventure: driving to the small Bosnian village where my grandparents were born. On our way, we stopped in Sarajevo to explore the rich blend of cultures in the "Jerusalem of Europe." It was incredible to hear the imams calling everyone to prayer as we wandered the Old City.

Later as we continued through the countryside, I found myself lost in thought picturing alternate lifetimes. From the busy city to beautiful lakes to the near-deserted village of Cerni Lug, immersing myself in new spaces was the perfect opportunity to recenter and reflect on the values and practices I wanted the next chapter of my life to include.

Plans are nice, but spontaneity can heal all

I've had the privilege of traveling abroad before. My ideal travel style involves knowing where I'm going, how long I'll be there, and where I'll lay my head. My brother is the polar opposite, needing no plans at all. While these differences caused the typical sibling bickering, embracing the unknown was part of this trip's appeal. With our backpacks and our rental car, the three of us drove through the Croatian mountainside, stopping for gas, scenic views, and the occasional fresh roadside fruit.

At the start of the trip, I thought we'd end there — I would fly to London, spend my layover with my situationship, and then head home to Chicago. But as the days ticked by, I grew more adventurous and wanted nothing to do with the British Isles. I rearranged the entire return trip, booking a €50 (about $52 USD) Ryanair flight and securing last minute tickets to the Emilia Romagna Formula 1 Grand Prix. Sharing this unexpected experience with my dad was the perfect ending that I never expected.

Traveling with family can be a blessing and a curse. Typical stresses and family dynamics tend to compound, but you're left with a once-in-a-lifetime experience to explore the world with those you love most. Do I want to get dumped on my birthday again? No. But would I plan another European road trip? Absolutely.

• Wall Street banks are proving that generative AI is here to stay and the tech is not just a fad.
• Business Insider has reported on how some of finance's biggest banks are approaching generative AI.
• See how giants like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are weaving the tech into the fabric of their firms.

Wall Street bank leaders say generative AI is here to stay, and they're weaving the technology throughout the fabric of their banks to make sure.

From trading to payments to marketing, it's hard to find a corner of the banking industry that isn't claiming to use AI.

In fact, the technology's impact, made mainstream by OpenAI's ChatGPT in late-2022, is becoming cultural. Generative AI is changing what it takes to be a software developer and how to stand out as a junior banker, especially as banks begin dispatching autonomous AI agents. The technology is even changing roles in the c-suite.

From supercharging productivity via AI-powered search engines to figuring out the best way banks can realize a return on their AI investments, here's what we know about how Wall Street banks are embracing AI.

• American Kathleen O'Donnell said she felt at home the first time she visited Greece.
• She moved away from the US in 2019 before settling full-time in Greece in 2022.
• She likes Greece's food quality but doesn't like how car-centric the country can be.

Kathleen O'Donnell, 39, doesn't think she will ever move back to the US.

O'Donnell said she felt right at home when she visited Greece during an almost yearlong trip to Europe, Southeast Asia, and Australia in 2018 and 2019. After moving away from the US later on in 2019, she decided to be in Greece as much as she possibly could. She's been living in the country full time since applying for a digital nomad residence permit in May 2022.

"The longer that I live here, the happier I am, the more I love it, the more that I feel at home, and the more that I feel really sure that I found the perfect place for me to live right now," O'Donnell said.

She still loves visiting the US. Even though she's unsure if she will live in Greece for the rest of her life, she said it's unlikely she'll return permanently to the States.

"I just don't think that it has the quality of life that I could find in most other places these days," O'Donnell, who has been to around 30 countries, said. "The lack of sense of community is really what gets me. It's a very isolated society."

O'Donnell said she thinks it's an exciting time for people interested in moving to a different country because many places, like Brazil, Italy, and Thailand, offer digital nomad visas.

What O'Donnell likes and dislikes about Greece

O'Donnell said she likes the quality and affordability of food in Greece, including the produce at her local farmers market. She said the market can be noisy, but she enjoys getting the chance to become familiar with the people there.

"That sense of community is another pro," O'Donnell said. "Even in Athens, which is a very large city, it feels like a series of small villages. You really get to know people around you."

She said she had become friends with many of her neighbors since moving to her apartment earlier this year.

O'Donnell also thinks it's easy to travel elsewhere, given Athens International Airport, and enjoys the country's weather.

Meanwhile, she finds getting a residence permit takes a long time. She said it took around half a year for a two-year permit to be approved and another month to get it.

"The date of that permit starts when you apply, not when you get it," she said, adding. "and you can't go anywhere but your home country in that time and you can't even travel through most of Europe."

She's waiting for her renewal, which she thinks could take at least a year. "In the meantime, you're just very restricted about what you can do, and that's pretty frustrating," she said.

O'Donnell also plans to buy an apartment and has found that this is taking a while.

"It's just a simple one-bedroom apartment, and it will probably take a full two years to complete this very typical purchase, which is just wild," she said. "I've been trying to buy a place since December 2021."

She also thinks that while Athens is vibrant and lively, it's car-centric, and the sidewalks could be improved. She thinks getting around is tough because she doesn't have a vehicle and likes walking.

Despite the cons, she said she still loves Athens and Greece overall.

"I am so happy here," she said. "I just have such a great quality of life. It's very different from the US."

What has your moving or travel experience been like? Share with this reporter at [email protected].

• I've had the chance to drive more than 30 cars since my return to Business Insider in May.
• Here's a collection of favorites from the cars I drove in 2024.
• They range from luxury cars from Mercedes and Porsche to mainstream models from Toyota and Hyundai.

After a five-year hiatus, I returned to Business Insider's transportation team this summer. I was fortunate enough to pick up where I left off, driving and reviewing the latest and greatest from the world's automotive giants.

Over the past six months, I've had the chance to drive more than 30 vehicles, ranging from sports cars and EVs to family SUVs and economy cars.

Here is a collection of my favorite test cars and SUVs from 2024.

• In 2024, the rich largely got richer as tech stocks flew and markets experienced a postelection bump.
• However, some luxury titans shed billions amid an industry downturn.
• Here are the biggest billionaire winners and losers of the year, according to their net worth.

2024 was a good year to be a billionaire.

The S&P 500 gained 25% this year, while the Nasdaq grew 33%. The uberwealthy, many of whom are invested in companies on each index, benefited greatly.

The five billionaires who gained the most wealth in 2024 saw their net worths climb a collective $542 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of December 27.

These billionaires all come from the tech sector, where AI fever and a postelection rally pushed many stocks to all-time highs.

There were, though, those whose fortunes took a hit. Some billionaires whose money comes from luxury retail, which struggled this year, lost double-digit billions.

Here are the billionaires who gained and lost the most this year — and just how much their fortunes changed as of December 27.

• The personal finance website WalletHub has ranked the best places to celebrate New Year's Eve this year.
• The site compared 100 of the biggest US cities on entertainment, food, costs, safety, and accessibility.
• Check out the top five cities to count down to 2025 here.

For those looking to ring in the New Year in style, you may be wondering where to find the best festive bang for your buck.

The personal finance website WalletHub has ranked the best places to celebrate New Year's Eve this year, using 26 metrics to evaluate three key areas for prospective partiers — entertainment and food, costs, and safety and accessibility.

The study looked at factors such as the legality of fireworks, nightlife options, alcohol and taxi prices, and neighborhood security.

Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale (100 representing the best conditions for budding NYE revelers). WalletHub then gave each city an overall score by determining their weighted averages across all metrics.

Here are WalletHub's top five cities to count down to 2025.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said North Korean units had been carrying out "human wave" attacks against Ukrainian positions.

With the opening of new Manufaktur and Maybach facilities, the German automaker is focused on its highest-end clients.

The largest lake in North America has felt the effects of widespread drought this year, with levels hitting their lowest in a decade.

With vehicles now controlled by software, many important systems are vulnerable to hackers.

Newsweek asked personal finance experts what they wanted to see less of in the new year. This is what they said.

Researchers are building an AI system that they hope will, one day, allow humans to understand the many languages that animals use to communicate with one another.

Why it matters: Understanding what animals are saying could not only aid human knowledge of our world, but advocates say might provide a compelling case for giving them broader legal rights.

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Driving the news: NatureLM, detailed earlier this year, is an AI language model that can already identify the species of animal speaking, as well as other information including the approximate age of the animal and whether it is indicating distress or play.

• Created by Earth Species Project, NatureLM has even shown potential in identifying the dialogue of species the system has never encountered before.
• NatureLM is trained on a mix of human language, environmental sounds and other data.
• The non-profit recently secured $17 million in grants to continue its work.

What they're saying: "We are facing a biodiversity crisis," Earth Species Project CEO Katie Zacarian said during a demo of NatureLM at the recent Axios AI+ Summit in San Francisco.

• "The situation we are in today is driven from a disconnection with the rest of nature," she said. "We believe that AI is leading us to this inevitability that we will decode animal communication and come back into connection."

Between the lines: Translation, in the broadest sense, is something that generative AI has proven to be quite good at. Sometimes that's translating from one human language to another, but the technology is also adept at transforming text from one genre to another.

Yes, but: An added wrinkle with translating animal languages is that instead of moving between two known languages, we have only limited understanding of how animals communicate and what they are capable of conveying through speech.

• Researchers know, for example, that birds make different sounds when they are singing songs as compared to sounding a warning call.
• They also have determined that many species have individual names for one another and some, like prairie dogs, have a system of nouns and adjectives to describe predators.

The big picture: Earth Species Project is one of many endeavors looking to tap AI to address planetary concerns.

• Microsoft last week detailed SPARROW, an AI system designed to measure biodiversity in some of the earth's most remote reaches.
• Developed by Microsoft's AI for Good lab, the effort uses solar-powered systems to collect data from cameras, acoustic monitors and other sensors.
• With human progress on combatting climate change seen likely to fall short of needed targets, many are looking to AI to provide alternative approaches.

While AI is showing promise in helping better understand nature, its massive energy demand is straining electrical systems and pushing tech companies to defer or alter plans to operate in a carbon neutral manner.

• "It is something the entire field needs to wrestle with, among the many other ethical challenges around responsible use and safety," Zacarian said.

Go deeper: Watch Zacarian's presentation at AI+ Summit