• Apple is constantly adding new tools to its iPhones with iOS releases.
• There are apps to automate tasks and other features that stave off overstimulation.
• Here are the coolest things I discovered my iPhone can do.

Apple took the world by storm with the iPhone in 2007, and its crown jewel is only getting more features that can be lifesavers — or just really cool.

I upgraded from the iPod Touch to an iPhone 5 as a 13-year-old in 2012, so I consider myself a bit of an expert. Yet years later, my iPhone 14 Pro Max seems to be outpacing me with innovations. I've grown used to the old ways of manual functions, typing queries into the Safari search bar, and having to rely on my memory.

As Apple introduces new features, I've picked up on the tools that I see every day — like sending voice notes over iMessage or searching for apps instead of looking for them in all of my folders. However, there are more obscure additions that I hadn't made use of.

These days, top-of-the-line iPhones cost over $1,000, and Apple analysts have said they could become much more expensive if President Donald Trump follows through with the steep tariffs he wants to impose on China, the main hub for iPhone manufacturing.

I decided it's time to get my money's worth out of my handset since I won't be getting an upgrade for a while.

Here are four ways I'll be putting Apple's software to good use.

Shortcut Automations

Apple launched the Shortcuts app as part of iOS 12 in 2018. It was marketed as a time-saving app that could perform actions according to custom commands.

I remember the "I'm Being Pulled Over" feature being a big deal in 2020. When activated it would begin recording your interaction with police during traffic stops, but that's the last I paid attention to Shortcuts.

I perused the app again and found a number of customizable features that could come in handy. What's more, they can be automated.

For a trial run, I made a command for my phone to automatically FaceTime my friend whenever he sent me the word "hey." It worked, though it's probably not a command he'd like me to keep on.

You can use Shortcuts for things like:

• Turning on "Do Not Disturb" when you open a certain app.
• Sending a message when you leave a location.
• Changing your wallpaper every day.

Voice Isolation

Voice Isolation is one of my favorite iPhone features of this decade. Since its release in 2021, I've been singing its praises to anyone I talk to on the phone.

In New York City, I find myself talking in a loud environment as soon as I step out of my door. Inside, my two dogs go wild with barking whenever someone gets too close to the windows. Voice Isolation, however, silences all of the fuss.

When my best friends and I fell into the habit of group FaceTime calls, we discovered that we could isolate our voices and silence non-vocal background noise. So, when a ambulance whizzes by with a loud siren, my friends can still hear me recapping my day.

You can enable it by pressing "Phone Controls" in the Control Center while you're on the phone.

Clean Up Safari Tabs Automatically

If you're an organized technology user, you probably don't need this. However, if you're like me, you're welcome.

I like to leave my Safari tabs open as a way to keep track of places I want to visit, things I want to buy, and any other helpful sites that I might need to refer to.

Naturally, many many tabs are never revisited again as I continue to add more. Eighty-nine tabs is modest compared to the 150+ that I've proven to be capable of. I'm hoping that will change now that I know I can set my tabs to automatically close after a period of time.

I think I'll start with monthly tab closings — just to ease myself into the concept.

Follow these steps to close all of your tabs:

Settings > Safari > Close Tabs.

Background Sounds

The most zen discovery of the group is also the coolest. I've played rain sounds and white noise before by looking them up on Apple Music, but I learned that they've been built into my iPhone.

Through the Settings app, you can turn on Background Sounds to hear calming sounds like the ocean, dark noise, or a crackling fire. The sounds will continue playing behind other media if you that setting toggled on.

Follow these steps to enable Background Sounds:

Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Background Sounds.

• Ritendra Datta worked as a software engineer for Google and Meta between 2010 and 2023.
• He compared the culture, promotion process, and workload, and said he burned out at both companies.
• Datta said, despite burnout, he felt a better influence, impact, and monetary gain at Meta.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ritendra Datta, a software engineer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I worked at Google from 2010 to 2019, then transitioned to Meta for just over four years.

If I look at it strictly from an engineering perspective, my first few years at Google were the best in my career. The company felt extremely mission-driven, and I was inspired as a builder.

At Meta, I worked more hours and experienced higher stress levels, but not necessarily in a bad way. In fact, working for Meta was a better experience overall than working at Google.

I loved Google, but I saw the company culture change

My early years at Google had a rare mix of being well-funded and feeling driven by a mission, not profit. Google was slow, steady, and careful with everything it rolled out. I knew the ins and outs of everything my team was working on.

I spent my first four years working out of the Google Pittsburgh office, where we had foosball tables, food options, and areas to hang out. No one cared if I spent an hour or two just jamming out with colleagues in the music room, and I loved it.

I think the company was betting that very inspired, well-intentioned engineers would build awesome things regardless of whether they worked 10 hours or four.

Google felt completely different when I transitioned to the Mountain View office

I switched to the Google Mountain View office because I was tired of East Coast winters and figured there'd be more opportunities. That location had amenities like lap pools and volleyball courts, but people seemed more heads down and focused on work. I think it was partially due to differences between the East Coast and Silicon Valley, and partially due to a cultural shift within the company toward beating out the competition.

After nearly a decade, I started to feel complacent. I was repeating the same tasks, collaborating with the same people, and no longer learning. I ultimately left Google and accepted an offer with Meta in 2019 because of a pay increase and the hopes of growing as an engineer.

I started working at Meta and immediately felt the difference

Meta's motto at the time of my hiring was "move fast and break things," and I felt it immediately. The second I felt like I understood something, they'd say, "Let's pivot, let's drop this, let's switch priorities." We failed often, but the amount we innovated outweighed it.

I felt good stress when we hustled to build a compelling product, and our motivation was clear. On the other hand, I felt bad stress when I didn't understand the motivation behind certain strategic shifts and would have to rally my team behind a strict timeline that I didn't even understand.

I think many people who come from Google don't ever really adjust to that change, but I think I adapted well.

I experienced burnout at both companies, in completely different ways

Somewhere around the middle of my career at Google, I started worrying I was falling behind. On the outside, it looked like I had an illustrious career, but what people don't see are the patches of very slow progress and extreme frustration. The pressure I felt to progress in my career burned me out.

The burnout I had at Meta was for moral reasons. In 2021, Meta was under scrutiny when a whistleblower presented scathing documents about the hate speech and misinformation that Meta allowed. This made me question whether I was fighting the right fight and building a better society.

I had a lot of doubts about my career and didn't even want to go to work despite having a big team to run.

Promotions worked differently at Google and Meta

The promotion process at Google felt fair, but it became more competitive, especially after I moved to the Mountain View office. I would create a promotion packet with my manager, and then a totally independent set of senior leadership would review it.

At Meta, the people who decided my promotion were either in or peripheral to my organization. Plus, it wasn't just important to do good work, but you also had to market your work.

We had an internal version of Facebook where people would post about their accomplishments, which caused a lot of competition. I became keenly aware of my team's visibility because marketing our work was just as important as doing it.

I developed a muscle of constantly thinking about visibility, and I don't think it was in a good way.

Meta shuts down jerky behavior more than Google

The feedback process was very strong at Meta. Everyone gave feedback on everyone, and if one person was a big jerk, their career would likely be affected by it.

Additionally, everyone's engineering levels were hidden except for some pivotal employees, like a director or VP, so there was no definitive hierarchy.

At Google, the emphasis was less on how well you collaborated and more on the technical work you did. People were very public about their level, meaning they might leverage their higher status to override decisions.

I preferred Meta over Google

My early years at Google were amazing. But when I consider influence, impact, and monetary gain, Meta was overall the best.

Despite this, I quit Meta in 2023 and accepted an offer for a role at a startup. I'm happy where I'm at now, but I truly believe both companies can be amazing places to work.

If you work in Big Tech and have a story you would like to share, please email the editor, Manseen Logan, at [email protected].

• Business Insider talked to US Army Secretary Driscoll during his visit to Alaska to see soldiers training for Arctic warfare.
• Driscoll told BI his focus is lethality, aligned with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
• That includes next-generation technologies, future warfare, and training.

Daniel Driscoll is only two months into his new job as the 26th Army secretary, but the 38-year-old former armor officer and Iraq War veteran knows what he wants: lethality.

Anything in the US Army that doesn't advance that goal could be out, he told Business Insider on a call this week. That could mean changes from training to force structure, even the tossing out of legacy systems, his staff said.

Lethality is a guiding light for the Department of Defense under Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. It was also a core objective — and talking point — in the earlier Trump and Biden administrations, though with different interpretations. The subjective measuring stick is what programs are being evaluated against.

"What has occurred is a hollowing out of a lot of the tools that we have given our soldiers," Driscoll, formerly an officer with the Army's 10th Mountain Division, told BI during his official visit to Alaska this week to observe the 11th Airborne Division.

Decision-makers in DC "have optimized for nearly everything other than the soldier in their decision-making," he said, arguing that the acquisition process for new capabilities and programs needs an overhaul and that the individual soldier's ability to effectively engage the enemy has to be at the forefront of every decision.

That push may force a reassessment of the US Army's older systems that may be vulnerable in a future fight.

Driscoll suggested cutting down training requirements for soldiers "to return to the core of things that they need to do to be good at their jobs," removing excess or unnecessary elements. "If it doesn't directly correlate with lethality, we're getting rid of it," he said.

From the military's perspective, lethality is essentially about the ability to engage an enemy and effectively put ordnance down range to deadly effect, but what is considered necessary to build a force capable of doing that varies.

What is lethality?

During President Donald Trump's first term in office, then-Defense Secretary James Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general, made building a more lethal fighting force a Pentagon priority. Lethality was also a common topic under the Biden administration, though the current administration has accused its predecessors of focusing too much on superfluous agendas.

Lethality is a go-to buzzword in the Pentagon lexicon and for longstanding Army programs. Project Manager Soldier Lethality, for instance, develops next-generation rifles and machine guns for soldiers. A cross-functional team of the same name designs systems to help soldiers close with and destroy the enemy. The term has also been the subject of numerous professional panels and research papers by soldiers.

For this administration, Trump, Hegseth, and other military leaders are all-in on tossing anything they see as nonessential for warfighter readiness. That has included diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, climate change initiatives, and other projects.

"Everything starts and ends with warriors in training and on the battlefield," Hegseth said this week at the Army War College. "We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind and refocusing on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards, and readiness."

Programs have been shut down. Billions of dollars in contracts have been cut. Still, many of the proposed plans are early concepts, and what exactly the significantly increased focus on lethality will mean for the future of the US military isn't clear yet, especially the nonlethal, non-combat roles that support other missions.

For the Army, Driscoll said, he wants to see improved combat readiness. Talking to BI, he highlighted the 11th Airborne Division's constant work on adjusting equipment, weapons, gear, and vehicles to the cold temperatures and harsh conditions of the Arctic.

"They were not focused on things like PowerPoint slides and how they could deliver better work products to the Pentagon," he said of the 11th Airborne Division. Instead, they are "out in the world figuring out what we need to do as an Army."

Lt. Col. Jeff Tolbert, Driscoll's public affairs advisor, told BI that the heightened emphasis on lethality could mean doing away with legacy gear and vehicles that aren't needed for future wars, such as older armored vehicles and command posts that are detectable and targetable with electronic warfare.

Instead, next-generation technologies — drones and other uncrewed systems, robotics, human-machine integration, improved night vision gear, and more maneuverable vehicles and formations — are a top interest for the Army. Communication integration that better informs commanders to make decisions is crucial, too.

The Army has been focused on these new emerging systems, learning much from the Ukraine war about the need for newer technologies, drones, the role of the tank on the battlefield, and mechanized warfare. Driscoll was recently in Europe, where he said many lessons are being learned from the war, now in its third year.

Artificial intelligence will also help with lethality in future warfare. Driscoll hypothesized that within 12 months, "you'll start to see generative AI showing up, maybe in some limited use cases, on the battlefield."

Driscoll served in the Army from 2007 to 2011, leaving the service as a lieutenant. In 2009, he deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. After leaving active duty, Driscoll attended Yale Law School, where he was a classmate of Vice President JD Vance. After receiving the Army secretary nomination in late January, he was confirmed as the service's top civilian official in late February.

In his first message to the force after confirmation, the Army secretary said: "You are a part of the most lethal land-based fighting force in the history of the world."

"But," Driscoll continued, "administrative burdens and unnecessary distractions have taken you away from what matters most. We will refocus, eliminating distractions and training you to fight and win in the most contested environments. Your country demands no less."

• The US Dollar Index has fallen more than 8% since the start of the year.
• Uncertainty around President Donald Trump's tariffs and recession fears have hurt the dollar.
• Experts warn of inflation, trade war risks, and potential shifts in global currency reliance.

The dollar is getting weaker. The US Dollar Index is down more than 8% since the start of the year, putting the currency at its lowest point in about three years.

Uncertainty around President Donald Trump's tariffs and fears of a looming recession have hurt the dollar.

Here's what smart people and institutions have to say about its depreciation.

Deutsche Bank

Analysts at Deutsche Bank in a note on Thursday said they foresee a "major dollar downtrend."

"The dollar bear market is finally here," they wrote.

"At the core of the dollar bear market are three assessments: a reduced desire by the rest of the world to fund growing twin deficits in the US; by extension, a peak and gradual unwind in elevated US asset holdings; and a greater willingness to deploy domestic fiscal space to support growth and consumption outside of the US."

Jan Hatzius, Goldman Sachs

"I believe that the recent dollar depreciation of 5 per cent on a broad trade-weighted basis has considerably further to go," Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, wrote in an op-ed.

He listed one of the consequences of dollar weakness as putting upward pressure on consumer prices, which tariffs have already hit.

"Dollar depreciation reinforces our view that the 'incidence' of higher US tariffs will fall predominantly on American consumers, not foreign producers," Hatzius said.

Ken Griffin, Citadel

Ken Griffin, Citadel's billionaire founder, told Semafor's World Economy Summit in Washington, DC, on Wednesday that Trump's trade war was putting the US's brand at risk.

He said when comparing the dollar to the euro, America "has become 20% poorer in four weeks" because of the dollar's slide against the single currency.

"All you're trying to do is tread water and not drown," he added.

Torsten Slok, Apollo

"By depreciating the dollar and starting a trade war about goods, which make up less than 10% of US GDP, the US is risking that the rest of the world will slow their imports of the 80% of the US economy that is services, such as iPhones, Windows, Facebook, and large language models," Torsten Slok, partner and chief economist at Apollo Global Management, wrote in a newsletter on Thursday.

"In addition, a depreciating dollar puts upward pressure on inflation and the term premium, which can create new macroeconomic challenges."

PIMCO

"The US has long enjoyed a privileged position, with the dollar serving as the global reserve currency and Treasuries as the go-to reserve asset," analysts at PIMCO wrote in a note, adding that this status was not guaranteed.

"If global capital flows into US assets dwindle, it could point toward a more multipolar world with a diminished reliance on a singular reserve currency."

UBS

Strategists at UBS wrote in a note that the dollar has "weakened significantly."

"Volatility in FX markets has moved up to levels last seen in 2022," they said.

Following the recent dollar sell-off, the bank wrote that it's refraining from dollar-based trades.

Adam Turnquist, LPL

Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial, said: "Building trade war tensions with China have intensified growth concerns and increased expectations for Fed rate cuts, weighing on dollar demand."

"Hedging costs to protect against downside in the dollar have surged to multi-year highs," he said.

"A breakdown from the dollar's consolidation range would not only be technically significant but could also stoke fear over the health of the US economy."

Bank of America

The dollar has entered a secular decline, said analysts at Bank of America led by Michael Hartnett.

They wrote that the currency is trading 4.6% below its 200-day moving average: "Weaker US dollar will play out either slowly with lower yields or quickly with higher yields, it's brutally flagged by soaring gold price."

Shannon Saccocia, Neuberger Berman

"The US dollar has continued to lose value even as US equity and bond markets have stabilised," Shannon Saccocia, managing director and chief investment officer of wealth at Neuberger Berman, said in a newsletter on Thursday.

"This is concerning for the longer term, as a simultaneous sell-off in both currency and bonds is associated with risky rather than haven countries and suggests structural damage to global demand for US dollar assets."

If the dollar continues to lose ground, short-term investors outside the US may decide that "the pain from the currency outweighs the gain from the yield," she said.

• Business Insider has spoken to dozens of financially independent real-estate investors.
• Many of them took a first step that didn't require any money or experience: attending a meetup.
• Real-estate networking events can help connect you with future lenders, agents, or business partners.

Caleb Hommel and Chuck Sotelo knew little to nothing about real estate before investing in their first property. They were only teenagers, after all.

"We had no experience," Sotelo told Business Insider. "We didn't have any credit, we didn't have any money, and we didn't really have any connections."

The friends, who met on the first day of high school when they sat next to each other in a pottery class, started discussing buying property during the pandemic. At the time, they were enrolled in two different junior colleges, but remote learning meant they were both taking classes at home, five doors down from each other.

Without money or experience, they started attending local real-estate investing meetups. At one of those events, someone referred them to a mentorship program called Multifamily Strategy, a paid program that they eventually enrolled in and that would help them build a 28-unit real estate portfolio using other people's money.

Avery Heilbron found himself in a similar predicament to Hommel and Sotelo after graduating from college in 2018. He wanted to own real estate, but didn't have the capital — or a strong enough credit score — to buy.

"I didn't even realize I needed credit," Heilbron, who got his first credit card a couple of months after finishing college, told BI. "So when I was first looking with my agent, I wasn't allowed to have a pre-approval yet because I had no credit score."

Like Hommel and Sotelo, he started with local real-estate networking events. It allowed him to learn the ins and outs of his market, Boston, and get a better understanding of the buying process, so that when he was financially prepared to buy, he'd have the tools to spot a deal and jump on it.

As it happens, it was an agent he'd met at one of the networking events who helped facilitate his first deal. The agent gave him a heads-up on a duplex about to go back on the market after a cash offer fell through, and asked Heilbron if he wanted it before he relisted it. Heilbron, who had strong credit and enough savings for a down payment by then, jumped on the offer.

That first deal would lead to a 14-unit portfolio and enough rental income to walk away from his corporate job.

The power of surrounding yourself with like-minded people — and how to do it

Denver-based couple Jeff White and Suleyka Bolaños, who retired in their 30s when the cash flow from their rentals surpassed their day job income, used Meetup.com to find real estate networking events in their area.

Being in a room with other investors was helpful for a few reasons. It was a space to discuss strategy, such as "house hacking" — living in one part of a property while renting out other units to cover the mortgage — which is how the couple has managed to live for free in their own home since 2017, and 1031 exchanges, a tax strategy they eventually used to exchange one investment property for two and sidestep capital gains tax along the way.

It was also helpful to connect with people who understood their goals and could relate to their challenges.

"You don't feel like this lone person out there just doing things all by yourself," said Bolaños. "That can be really stressful when you feel like you have to do everything yourself, but when you join these meetups, you get to know people, you network with them, you have some kind of an issue, you know who to reach out to. You just have more of a community that's there to help."

If your city or town doesn't have any convenient meetups, consider starting one yourself or look into online communities.

Ludomir Wanot, who built wealth doing wholesale deals in Seattle, joined a Facebook group called WA Real Estate Investing (WAREI) to meet local investors when he was first starting.

He also took advantage of local meetups. That's where he found mentors and asked established investors exactly how they got started and how they expanded.

"Surround yourself with people who know more than you, ask questions, and build relationships with all different kinds of people you meet because you never know when you can work with them down the road," said Wanot.

You could end up shaking hands with your future business partner, lender, or wholesaler — or, like Heilbron, your future real-estate agent holding the keys to your first deal.

There's something about hearing the voice of a woman long dead that might well give you shivers. It feels like a portal to the past. Especially when you hear her English trill say, clear as a bell despite being recorded on a scratchy phonograph in 1890: "When I am no longer a memory, just a name, I hope my voice may perpetuate the great work of my life." Then she announces her name, so that listeners of the then magical new technology would know who spoke: Florence Nightingale.

You don't have to be a student of history to feel awestruck by the audio, and feel like the famed nurse is in the room. In a very real sense, she is: Her voice is vibrating against your walls, through your eardrums, in a way that no handwritten document can replicate.

No wonder, at a time when the average smartphone user spends some seven hours a day on their screen, when talk has been subsumed by GIFs, emojis, and text-speak, that people are starting to yearn for something that makes them feel as strongly: voice communications. Just like the Slow Food movement of the late 1980s found fame worldwide among people tired of artificial fast food, audio is helping people to slow down the way they chat, and enjoy communication as a ritual, not a means to an end.

I'm ecstatically on board with this. I live in Singapore but maintain a long-running WhatsApp group chat with old college friends from the UK. A few months ago, one of them, Matt, suggested a challenge: We each send a voice note once a week. His highly British rationale: "It's both more personal and less hassle than writing a big-arse message." As soon as we started, we were all surprised by how meaningful the ritual became. Every time I (literally) hear from the gang, it feels like we're not 37, but 19 again, laughing in our Dickensian student flat. Fran's habit of breaking into song midsentence, Kat's low chuckle, the background clink of cutlery from an English pub — they all communicate far more than any emoji or even an essay-length text.

Things quickly got competitive as we tried to one-up our recording times. My initial four-minute piddler was quickly bested by missives doubling that length. But what I love most is how live they feel. "Just recording this on a train," one person will say, while another monologue might be interrupted by someone tripping over their cat, or peering into their fridge to decide what's for dinner. All mundane, slice-of-life filler — and yet the very essence of life — that we'd never even think to text. The fluff is the good stuff, the relationship glue that you want to hear about in a world urging us to always optimize. These voice memos have become more than communications; they're meditations, useful ways to get things off my chest.

Even so, just starting the habit felt odd, at a time when most of us are constantly on our phones but can't stand making phone calls. It felt like being asked to tap-dance in a waiting room. As someone who writes for a living, I value the keyboard as a canvas to blurt, then brutally edit, my words to within an inch of their life before I dare hit send. Faced with the "hold to record" button in my group chat, I white-knuckled my way through a short monologue. My words doubled back on themselves, I lost my train of thought, said "umm" twice every sentence — and therein lies the point, I soon realized. Its rawness made it real. My and my friends' speech had the rarest of qualities today: unfiltered.

Texting "prioritizes speed and convenience over depth and warmth," says Mary Chayko, a sociologist and professor at Rutgers University's School of Communication and Information. The retro appeal of "talk tech" can "help us connect to the source of the voice in a deeper, more personal way," she adds. "There are layers and levels to the human voice that simply cannot be found in text, no matter how elegantly constructed."

Even as we turn to the century-old balm of voices crackling through the airwaves, technology is changing our relationship with the human voice. In just a few clicks, you can now bring dead loved ones back to life, provided you have a snippet recording of them. "Prepare a recording of the dead person you want to clone in advance," says the eerily cheery four-step how-to for the app VidNoz AI. Within moments, the marketing copy touts, "you can hear the voices of your elders again, or your grieving children can hear their loved ones tell them stories."

Chayko is skeptical. She argues that even a near-perfect clone can never replicate the imperfect warmth of a real loved one's voice. It's like the difference between a real Van Gogh portrait and a perfect fake — the latter will always feel fraudulent to those who know it's a copy. "In fact, the closer the cloned voice may be to the original, the more unsatisfying and disturbing it will be," Chayko says. After all, the more an AI voice sounds like Grandma, the more we are reminded that Grandma will never be in the room with us again.

But for the most vulnerable demographics, even a machine-generated voice can offer surprising solace. All over the world, lonely older people turn to apps like Alexa, Google Home, or ElliQ for companionship. "If the voice makes us feel something, it can absolutely take on some of the qualities of a real relationship," says Chayko. Unreal as these voices may be, their parasocial or what Chayko calls "sociomental" effect is undeniable. "We know that we are not sharing a physical experience with them, but we can still come to care about them, even a great deal," she says.

Meanwhile, younger generations are combating loneliness with talk tech in even more immediate ways. At the height of pandemic lockdowns, Hinge introduced two simple remedies for dating at a distance. Voice Prompts allows you to send potential paramours a 30-second sample of your dulcet tones, based on a list of prompts like sharing "your best dad joke." And Voice Notes let matches flirt voice to voice, like the good old days. Hinge says both have been a resounding success. "We've found that voice features are a secret ingredient for sparking connections," a Hinge spokesperson tells me. "In 2024, conversations with Voice Notes were 40% more likely to lead to a date, and people who added a Voice Prompt to their profile were 32% more likely to go on a date." Other dating apps like Tinder and Bumble have also added voice features. Lesson learned: If you want to hook up, speak up.

Anna Davis, a British teacher at an international school in Singapore, tells me she's found the recordings from potential matches on dating apps a mixed bag. "Somebody was once singing 'Aladdin,' you know, 'I can show you the wooooorld' — a really cringe version," she tells me. Most users who make recordings are guys, she says. Since women are likely to get hit on anyway, it seems less necessary for them to record a flirty clip. But listening to a recording could be a useful acid test, to help judge whether a guy feels genuine before meeting IRL.

Different nationalities present themselves differently in front of the microphone too, Davis notes. "Americans are very in your face, and seem very put on, talking about how great they are," while "Brits are generally quite jokey," she says. "Singaporeans normally just talk about the things they like to do in their spare time."

Others are even less enamored with voice notes. Erica Wong, a founder of a content consultancy who has worked with tech brands such as Google and X, finds them too time-consuming and impractical. But ask her about another retro talk tool, and she lights up. "For me, dictation is my default way of composing written messages because I've become progressively impatient with typing," she says. Wong now "types" both work and personal messages and emails with her voice.

Voice notes may also be particularly attractive to certain cultures. Wong, who has Chinese heritage, notes that her mother's generation is a big fan, as a recording negates the fiddly need to type out Chinese characters on a small keyboard. And soon, Wong shares, her family will be starting a project with audio at its heart. "My family and I have just arranged to do a series of voice interviews with our 60- to 80-year-old aunts and uncles as a way to document their memories and stories, in case we ever want to write a book, or confirm something in our family history." Recorded by relatives around the world and stored on a shared drive, the clan audio will serve as a living archive.

This urge to document and preserve our voices is not one that will fade away anytime soon. There are countless online forums of people desperate to recover voicemails of relatives who have just died. And every year on the anniversary of 9/11, people across the world listen to the voicemail Brian Sweeney left his wife minutes before his plane flew into the South Tower. His final words offer a poignant reminder for us all to drop the texts, and do what has grown to feel so unnatural — connect through our voices: "Jules, this is Brian. Listen, I'm on an airplane that's been hijacked. If things don't go well, and it's not looking good, I just want you to know I absolutely love you. I want you to do good, go have good times. Same to my parents and everybody, and I just totally love you, and I'll see you when you get there. Bye, babe. I hope I call you."

I'd seen articles about Sweeney, but had never bothered to listen. Now that I've heard the crackle of the line and the calmness in his voice, I'm reminded again about Florence Nightingale. Will my and my family's voices be heard in the next century? Probably not — but I'm still going to suggest that we drop each other a recording now and then, especially when we're apart. There's nothing like feeling like your loved one is in the room with you.

Daniel Seifert is a freelance writer. He lives in Singapore.

Sharon Tagle thought her finances were in order when she retired seven years ago. However, she recently returned to work.

In December, the 68-year-old got a job at Home Depot as a cashier working 20 hours a week. She said her concerns about inflation and a failed home sale influenced her decision. She earns $15 hourly and expects to work for the next few months, longer if her financial conditions remain tight.

"I'm sorry that I left my job as soon as I did, but things were getting to me, and I just didn't want to work anymore," Tagle, who lives in Tampa, Florida, said. "I was not as frugal as I could have been. We're still having a good time, just not having it as much."

She retired from her role as a personal injury claims adjuster from an insurance company with about $250,000 in savings. She and her husband receive about $3,400 monthly in combined Social Security. The couple hoped to sell their home in Florida two years ago and move to a state with a lower cost of living, but they couldn't secure a buyer.

Tagle is one of dozens of older Americans who told Business Insider recently that they're either holding on to their jobs or unretiring because of economic uncertainty and pessimism about their financial futures. Those who are unretiring said they're nervous about the fate of Social Security, Medicaid, and other government benefits amid federal budget cuts. Others fear how their retirement savings and investments will fare as tariff policies continue to roil the stock market. This story is part of a series on older workers.

To be sure, returning to work is often out of the question for many older Americans. Geoffrey Sanzenbacher, a research fellow at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, said many older Americans couldn't return to work or had limited options because they worked physical jobs that they're no longer capable of doing. These workers often lacked employer-based retirement systems like 401(k)s, which hurt their retirement plans.

Uncertainty about Social Security and Medicaid has fueled some fears

Earlier in April, House Republicans voted to pass a GOP budget plan that included $880 billion in cuts for the House Energy and Commerce Committee over the next decade, whose main programs are Medicaid and Medicare. As part of reconciliation, GOP lawmakers are set to add details to the proposal, such as whether federal Medicaid funding would be reduced and by how much.

Trump has said that he will not cut Social Security benefits or touch Medicare. But the Social Security Administration has outlined plans to cut as many as 7,000 employees, which could increase wait times for recipients seeking assistance. Former SSA Commissioner Martin O'Malley, along with staff inside the agency, told BI that disruptions could lead to interrupted benefits.

While investors and economists have grown more concerned about a recession this year, they remain divided on whether it will happen. That hasn't eased some older Americans' fears, prompting some to reenter the workforce.

But for many older Americans, finding the perfect job may be out of the question. Amanda Clayman, a financial therapist, said many older job seekers have to deal with rejections from employers due to factors including ageism. She said people should be open to a wide variety of jobs, as any boost to their finances could be worthwhile.

"The goal may no longer be finding the right job or what the right job might be," Clayman said, adding older Americans should consider taking temporary or part-time positions even if they're not desirable.

Some are unretiring to start businesses

Diann Witherspoon, 72, said recent financial insecurities had pushed her to prepare to restart her fiber art and quilting business.

Witherspoon, who lives in Ohio, said she's always lived paycheck to paycheck, raising two special needs children and "working myself to death" to provide for them. She held accounting and property management jobs while sewing on the side. After back and knee surgeries, Witherspoon said there weren't many jobs she could do now.

She was laid off in 2017 the day she returned to her office after surgery, and her husband died of lung cancer a few years later. She shuttered her quilting company in December 2022 after a period of grief and had more back surgeries a year later.

She lives off half her husband's retirement income, which is $467 monthly, and $2,137 in monthly Social Security. It's enough to cover her $1,700 monthly house payment but not enough to have much left after other expenses. Her son, who lives with her, helps pay the bills.

Witherspoon said she's working to make new patterns to sell online and start teaching. She hopes to sell a few pieces a month and earn between $2,000 and $5,000, but she doesn't want to scale so large that she'll need employees.

"I just want to be able to sustain it myself so that we can survive, and I'd like to get something going so it just keeps producing income," Witherspoon said. "For the first time in 72 years living in this country, I am afraid."

Some retirees are struggling to find work

Moira MacLean, 69, retired as a social assistance case manager 2 ½ years ago, though she knew she would have to return to work at some point. The former lawyer, who lives in a community for older folks, left her position when she feared her company wouldn't let her work part time because she was fatigued.

MacLean, who lives in Washington, was getting by with savings and her $2,280 monthly Social Security payments, but with her money dwindling, she put herself back on the job market over the past few months in search of a similar role. She hasn't had luck yet, and she feels her age and time away from the office haven't helped her applications.

She also tried starting a third-party seller business for household products on Amazon, which put her into debt as the business didn't take off.

"There is zero room for investing anything differently than I already have," MacLean said of her long-term planning. "I live too close to the edge to do anything about that."

Pam Hovland, 70, is also struggling to find work and fears a recession would make it even more difficult.

"It scares me to death," Hovland said of the prospect of an economic downturn. "So I'd like to try to get a job before it all takes effect."

Hovland, who also lives in Washington, worked as a medical transcriber until around 2005 when a health issue put her in a coma for three months and forced her into retirement. She relied on disability income until around 2020, when her benefits converted to Social Security income — she said she gets a check for $1,099 monthly.

But by 2022, Hovland began struggling to pay the bills and, at times, afford birthday cards for her grandchildren. While she was able to reduce her rent through a Department of Housing and Urban Development program, she's still searching for customer service or fast food roles.

"I desperately need to get back to work," she said, "but because I didn't build up enough money when I became disabled, I'm very much scraping by."

• A flight from LA to Munich had to divert when someone's tablet became jammed in a business class seat.
• The Lufthansa Airbus A380 flight diverted to Boston over fears the lithium battery would overheat.
• The diversion meant a three-hour delay to the passengers' journey.

A Lufthansa flight carrying 461 passengers had to divert after someone's tablet became "jammed" in a business-class seat.

The Airbus A380 took off from Los Angeles on Wednesday, bound for Munich, and had been flying for around three hours when the pilots diverted to Boston Logan International Airport.

In a statement to Business Insider, an airline spokesperson said the tablet had become "jammed in a Business Class seat" and had "already shown visible signs of deformation due to the seat's movements" when the flight diverted. Simply Flying, which first reported the news, said the device was an iPad.

The decision to divert was taken "to eliminate any potential risk, particularly with regard to possible overheating," the spokesperson added, saying that it was the joint decision of the crew and air traffic control.

Lithium batteries pose a safety risk if damaged, punctured, or crushed, as they can lead to thermal runaway — a chain reaction that causes the battery to overheat, possibly catching fire or exploding.

"At Lufthansa, the safety of our passengers and crew is always our top priority. The diversion was a purely precautionary measure," the airline said.

After the flight landed in Boston, a Lufthansa Technik team then safely removed and inspected the damaged tablet, the airline said.

The flight continued and arrived in Munich on Thursday after a three-hour delay to what would have been an 11-hour transatlantic flight.

In a confined space like an aircraft cabin, a lithium battery fire poses a serious hazard to the passengers onboard.

Last year, a Breeze Airways flight from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh had to make an emergency landing in Albuquerque after a passenger's laptop caught fire.

• The typical starter home costs at least $1 million in 233 US cities, a Zillow study found.
• Just five years ago, only 85 cities had starter homes that cost at least $1 million.
• It's a telling sign of how pricey homes are, even in areas once considered relatively affordable.

The typical price of a starter home was $1 million or higher in 233 US cities last month, a new report from Zillow found.

To define starter home prices, Zillow looked at estimated home values toward the bottom of the market in each city, between the 5th and 35th percentiles for each area.

The real-estate listings site found that the typical price of starter homes in at least one city in half of all US states reached $1 million or higher.

The typical price for a starter home nationally stood at $192,514 — well under $1 million. However, the Zillow data shows just how expensive homes have become since 2020, including in states like Rhode Island and Minnesota that aren't historically known for ultra-pricey real estate. Five years ago, only 85 cities had typical starter homes costing $1 million and up.

California led Zillow's 2025 list of places with the most expensive starter homes, with 113 cities where the typical one is $1 million or higher. New York, with 32 cities, and New Jersey, with 20, followed.

In fact, eight California cities made the top 15 most expensive cities for starter homes, with the typical price exceeding $3 million. Four cities in Washington, all located in the Seattle metropolitan area, also made the top 15.

Jupiter Island, Florida, where celebrities like Bill Gates and Tiger Woods have owned waterfront mansions, took the top spot overall, with a staggering $5,850,442 typical price for a starter home in March 2025.

Two new states joined the list this year: Rhode Island and Minnesota. New Shoreham, Rhode Island, the main town on Block Island, a popular summer destination, and Minnetonka Beach, Minnesota, a lakeside suburb of Minneapolis, reached the $1 million starter-home milestone.

Relatively expensive homes put many homebuyers in tough spots

Homeownership can feel frustratingly out of reach for anyone, but first-time homebuyers are particularly squeezed.

In 2024, the National Association of Realtors found that the median age of a first-time homebuyer hit an all-time high of 38. At the same time, first-time homebuyers made up only 24% of all transactions, a record low.

The median sales price of a US home in the US has risen by 42.5% in the past five years, according to real-estate site Redfin, from $302,487 in March 2020 to $431,078 in March 2025.

Mortgage rates are also relatively high, which makes borrowing money more difficult. Rising homeowners' insurance rates nationwide and increasingly pricey homeowners' association, or HOA, fees are additional costs that make homebuying even more expensive.

Increasing costs can lead potential buyers, like Virginia resident Lawrence Talej, to delay homebuying plans. Talej was in contract for a $315,000 house in 2019, but pulled out when maintenance issues arose. Four years later, the median price for a home in his suburb of Richmond jumped more than $100,000, according to Zillow, causing him to put his plans on hold.

"We're royally screwed," he told BI at the time.

Some people even feel their six-figure incomes aren't enough to comfortably purchase a home.

Last year, tech worker Madelyn Driver and her husband set out with a $700,000 budget and remote-work flexibility, looking at houses from Colorado to Pennsylvania. They told BI that finding a home that fit their budget and broad location preferences felt impossible.

"We're finding that even in a vast country like the US, housing options that align with our desires for green spaces, a somewhat metropolitan vibe, and cultural vibrancy are surprisingly out of budget," Driver said. In June 2024, Driver said they would keep looking for another year and then re-evaluate their search.

Even for the lucky ones who do manage to buy a home, it's not always smooth sailing.

First-time homebuyer Elsa said she felt pressure to buy a home in 2022, before she was ready. She and her husband purchased a $975,000 home in a Washington, DC, suburb, taking on credit card debt to keep up with the mortgage and other costs that cropped up.

"We definitely didn't anticipate having as many repair expenses. The house we bought is older, so we have been overwhelmed with repairs like multiple water leaks," she told BI.

• 1st Lt. Gabrielle White is the first woman soldier ever to finish the Army's Best Ranger Competition.
• The competition tests soldiers' strength, skill, and endurance over nearly 3 days.
• "She had the skill and the physical ability to get it done," a former Ranger said.

The US Army's Best Ranger Competition has served as a crucible for soldiers to prove their strength, skill, and endurance in a gauntlet of challenges simulating real-world operations.

For the first time in the competition's 41-year history, a female Army Ranger was among the handful of competitors who crossed the finish line in one of the US military's toughest contests.

US Army 1st Lt. Gabrielle White, a West Point graduate, and her teammate endured nearly three days of rucking, rope-climbing and orienteering that eliminated most of their competitors.

First woman to compete for Best Ranger title

In mid-April, US Army 1st Lt. Gabrielle White and her teammate, Capt. Seth Deltenre, competed against more than 50 two-member teams to earn the Best Ranger title.

White graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2021. Upon completing Ranger School in April 2022, she earned her Ranger tab, an embroidered patch symbolizing the elite qualification.

The 25-year-old infantry officer was assigned to an Army leadership development program at the Maneuver Centre of Excellence, the Army's training hub for ground combat forces, at Fort Benning in Georgia, where the Best Ranger events are held.

Arduous competition

The Best Ranger Competition was created "not just to see who is the toughest or the most physically fit," but also to "see who is mentally the strongest, the most determined to finish," according to Lt. Gen. David E. Grange Jr., a commanding general of Fort Benning and namesake of the event.

For nearly 62 continuous hours, Ranger-qualified soldiers work in teams of two to demonstrate tactical skills, complete difficult obstacle courses, and traverse dozens of miles on both land and water.

The competition events mirror real-world Ranger missions, from helocasting and fast-roping to positioning mortars and cutting through steel-reinforced frames.

Finished in the top 20

Jeffrey Mellinger, a former sergeant major who served in the 75th Ranger Regiment, described the difficulty of the Best Ranger as the Ironman triathlon, the CrossFit Games, and several marathons — stacked back-to-back.

"There is not another competition anywhere in the world that comes close to the mental and physical exertion of this competition," he told The New York Times.

The Best Ranger Competition is so difficult that only a handful of competitors actually make it to the finish line.

White and Deltenre secured a 14th-place finish after 36 other duos were eliminated over the course of the competition.

Women Rangers

In 2015, the Army allowed women to participate in its 62-day Ranger School course. Nearly two dozen female candidates attempted to complete the course, and in August 2015, then-Capt. Kristen Griest and then-1st Lt. Shaye Haver became the first women to graduate from one of the service's most elite programs.

Four months later, the Pentagon opened all military positions to women, including over 200,000 direct combat roles that were previously barred to them. Women make up about 16% of the Army's active-duty troops, according to the Pentagon's 2023 demographics report.

As of January 2025, 154 women have graduated from Ranger School.

Reassessing military standards

White's groundbreaking finish in the Best Ranger Competition comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth orders a broader review of the requirements for combat roles.

In late March, Hegseth ordered a 60-day review of the military's physical fitness standards to distinguish combat roles from non-combat and implement higher requirements as needed.

"We need to have the same standard, male or female, in our combat roles," Hegseth, a former National Guard infantryman and Fox News host, said in a video posted to X. "Soon, we'll have nothing but the highest and equal standards for men and women in combat."

Hegseth had said during a podcast in November that he didn't believe women should be in combat roles at all, arguing that it "hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated."

However, ahead of his confirmation hearing, Hegseth appeared to soften his staunch opposition.

"If we have the right standard and women meet that standard, roger. Let's go," he said during a December interview on the "Megyn Kelly Show."

'Like every other soldier'

The Army is shifting to a new Army Fitness Test with gender-neutral scoring for troops in combat specialties.

Military occupations, like special operations and infantry, subject all candidates to higher physical, mental, and psychological standards, regardless of sex or age.

To become an Army Ranger specifically, the rigorous entry standards are identical, including the eligibility requirements and physical assessment.

Mellinger, who served on an advisory board that oversaw the opening of Ranger School to women, said no standards have been lowered to accommodate the integration. He said White still has to earn her Ranger tab "every day, like every other ranger, like every other soldier."

'A bun on the back of a head'

Kris Fuhr, a former Army captain who advocated for integrating women into Ranger School, described White competing for the Best Ranger title as "a three-day public display of what we've been saying for 10 years."

"This administration sometimes makes decisions based on misinformation and myths," she told The Times. "Military policy should not be based on either of those."

Mellinger, who attended this year's Best Ranger event, said, aside from "a bun on the back of a head," White was indistinguishable from the other male competitors until another spectator pointed her out.

"She had the skill and the physical ability to get it done," he said.

• Anthropic and Google DeepMind researchers are questioning whether AI models could one day be conscious.
• Just three years ago, a Google engineer was fired for claiming the company's AI was "sentient."
• Critics say it's hype — but some AI labs are preparing for the possibility anyway.

Three years ago, suggesting AI was "sentient" was one way to get fired in the tech world. Now, tech companies are more open to having that conversation.

This week, AI startup Anthropic launched a new research initiative to explore whether models might one day experience "consciousness," while a scientist at Google DeepMind described today's models as "exotic mind-like entities."

It's a sign of how much AI has advanced since 2022, when Blake Lemoine was fired from his job as a Google engineer after claiming the company's chatbot, LaMDA, had become sentient. Lemoine said the system feared being shut off and described itself as a person. Google called his claims "wholly unfounded," and the AI community moved quickly to shut the conversation down.

Neither Anthropic nor the Google scientist is going so far as Lemoine.

Anthropic, the startup behind Claude, said in a Thursday blog post that it plans to investigate whether models might one day have experiences, preferences, or even distress.

"Should we also be concerned about the potential consciousness and experiences of the models themselves? Should we be concerned about model welfare, too?" the company asked.

Kyle Fish, an alignment scientist at Anthropic who researches AI welfare, said in a video released Thursday that the lab isn't claiming Claude is conscious, but the point is that it's no longer responsible to assume the answer is definitely no.

He said as AI systems become more sophisticated, companies should "take seriously the possibility" that they "may end up with some form of consciousness along the way."

He added: "There are staggeringly complex technical and philosophical questions, and we're at the very early stages of trying to wrap our heads around them."

Fish said researchers at Anthropic estimate Claude 3.7 has between a 0.15% and 15% chance of being conscious. The lab is studying whether the model shows preferences or aversions, and testing opt-out mechanisms that could let it refuse certain tasks.

In March, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei floated the idea of giving future AI systems an "I quit this job" button — not because they're sentient, he said, but as a way to observe patterns of refusal that might signal discomfort or misalignment.

Meanwhile, at Google DeepMind, principal scientist Murray Shanahan has proposed that we might need to rethink the concept of consciousness altogether.

"Maybe we need to bend or break the vocabulary of consciousness to fit these new systems," Shanahan said on a Deepmind podcast, published Thursday. "You can't be in the world with them like you can with a dog or an octopus — but that doesn't mean there's nothing there."

Google appears to be taking the idea seriously. A recent job listing sought a "post-AGI" research scientist, with responsibilities that include studying machine consciousness.

'We might as well give rights to calculators'

Not everyone's convinced, and many researchers acknowledge that AI systems are excellent mimics that could be trained to act conscious even if they aren't.

"We can reward them for saying they have no feelings," said Jared Kaplan, Anthropic's chief science officer, in an interview with The New York Times this week.

Kaplan cautioned that testing AI systems for consciousness is inherently difficult, precisely because they're so good at imitation.

Gary Marcus, a cognitive scientist and longtime critic of hype in the AI industry, told Business Insider he believes the focus on AI consciousness is more about branding than science.

"What a company like Anthropic is really saying is 'look how smart our models are — they're so smart they deserve rights,'" he said. "We might as well give rights to calculators and spreadsheets — which (unlike language models) never make stuff up."

Still, Fish said the topic will only become more relevant as people interact with AI in more ways — at work, online, or even emotionally.

"It'll just become an increasingly salient question whether these models are having experiences of their own — and if so, what kinds," he said.

Anthropic and Google DeepMind did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Trump considers high tariffs a "total victory" if they remain in place next year.
• He believes tariffs will encourage US production and reduce trade deficits with other countries.
• Despite claims of trade talks, China denies ongoing negotiations with the US.

President Donald Trump said if the US still has high tariffs on foreign imports a year from now, he would consider it a "total victory."

Trump made the comment in an interview with "Time" magazine published Friday about the first 100 days of his term, which he will reach on April 30. The interview took place at the White House on Tuesday.

During the interview, which was conducted by senior political correspondent Eric Cortellessa and editor in chief Sam Jacobs, "Time" asked the president if he'd consider it a victory if "high tariffs, whether it's 20% or 30% or 50%," were still in place in a year.

"Total victory," Trump replied, adding, "Because the country will be making a fortune."

Trump said that having zero tariffs "would be easy" but that it would not incentivize companies to produce their goods in the US.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has said his sweeping tariff policy would encourage companies to build and invest in the US. The tariffs currently include a universal 10% tariff on most countries and a 145% tariff on China. Higher tariffs on other countries are currently under a 90-day pause that Trump announced earlier this month.

Trump's tariff announcement on April 2 tanked stock prices and financial markets around the world. Though there's been some recovery, markets have remained volatile as the uncertainty around tariffs continues.

Trump has said he wants to lower or eliminate US trade deficits with other countries and that he has been in talks with leaders around the world to strike deals on trade. He has also said Americans could feel "short-term" pain as a result of tariffs.

On Tuesday, the same day Trump gave the interview to Time, he told reporters at the White House that tariffs on China would "come down substantially," but not to zero.

Markets also reacted positively on Wednesday after The Wall Street Journal reported Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said there was an "opportunity" for a big trade deal with China.

But Chinese officials on Thursday denied Trump's claim that China and the US were in talks on a trade deal.

Trump also told "Time" he has made 200 trade deals, though as of Friday none had been announced.

He declined to elaborate on the deals when asked, but said they would be finished "over the next three to four weeks."

• Bryan Myers, the president and CEO of fitness company Solidcore, starts his days at 6 a.m.
• His days often involve eating a big breakfast, leading his team in workouts, and attending meetings.
• He values being more than just a CEO and leaves the office around 5 p.m. to spend time with his family.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Bryan Myers, the president and CEO of fitness company Solidcore, who lives in Washington, DC. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I always knew I had a passion for business. It was very present, even in my childhood. I tried to start businesses like door-to-door fruit sales and a babysitting agency — I had that entrepreneurial bug. I followed that passion and went to college for business, but when I graduated, I still couldn't answer the question of what I wanted to be when I grew up.

I decided to kick the can down the road and go into consulting, thinking it would be a great way to see a bunch of different functional areas within a business and help me decide. I had an amazing experience as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group for nearly five years.

But working with the largest companies in the world showed me what I was missing — the opportunity to help build a company. In 2014, I decided to leave my cushy job and join the leadership team at Sweetgreen as director of financial planning. During my time there, the team and I grew the brand and refined what the company would become.

I also discovered Solidcore. It was where I went when I was stressed at work and when I wanted to be reminded of home while traveling.

A few years later, when a former consulting colleague introduced me to the founder of Solidcore, I left my role as vice president of new store development at Sweetgreen to join Solidcore as COO. Now, seven years later, I'm the president and CEO.

Here's what a typical day in my life looks like.

I usually wake up around 6 a.m

The first thing I do is walk my dog for 20 to 30 minutes. It's a great way for both of us to get some movement in. While I walk, I catch up on two things — my Whoop stats and the business.

I like to check out my Whoop stats to see how I slept, my resting heart rate, and my heart rate variability (HRV). It gives me a baseline for the day and helps me determine how my body is feeling and what I need to do to make sure I'm showing up at my best.

Then, I look at Solidcore's real-time dashboards to see things like cash sales, studio visitation, and membership growth. It allows me to walk into the day knowing what our opportunities and challenges might be.

When I'm back from my walk, we're thrust into family get-ready time

I have a toddler, so my husband and I get him and ourselves ready. We're usually all out the door by about 7:15. My husband is an elementary school principal in northern Virginia, so he heads to school, and on the way, we split up drop-off duties with me usually taking our dog to and him taking our toddler to their respective daycares. I'm usually at the office between 7:45 and 8 a.m. to get the day started.

Even with the busy mornings, I'm a big breakfast eater. I eat in our office's communal kitchen — it's also a nice way for me to greet our team members as they arrive. My typical breakfast is a frozen bag of broccoli — the entire bag steamed — with four hard-boiled eggs and an English muffin. I believe it's the most important meal of the day and opt for something that gives me energy.

During the day, I do the typical things you'd expect a CEO to do — go to meetings and spend time with the team

Right now, we're growing a lot, and it's exciting to see the impact we're having as we enter more communities and see new people walk through our doors. When I joined the company, we had 25 locations, and now we're almost at 140 in 26 states.

When I first started at Solidcore as COO, a lot of my role was about 'doing.' I was negotiating deals with landlords or hiring. Now, my role is much more oriented toward vision. It's focused on questions like, "Where are we going to be in five years?" or "Who are the team members or functions we need to add to this company?"

I also spend a lot of my time on the road, seeing our teams and helping them feel connected to the mission and the vision of our company, as well as making sure they feel seen, appreciated, and inspired.

I'm also finding ways to continue the magic our founder created while creating my own legacy and strategy

After I became CEO, we made a big push to get people better pricing in exchange for their locking in and being a part of the community as members.

We've also thought about race, age, body type — everything that can make people feel excluded from a fitness experience. We want people to look at our coaching wall and see themselves in a coach.

We're also thinking about how we build products to help all people, whether they're super athletes or at the start of their fitness journeys. One of the ways we've done this is by introducing new class formats for those at different fitness levels, like our Starter50 and Advanced50.

I love working out with my team

One of the amazing things about working at a company like Solidcore is that we have a lot of flexibility; it's not uncommon for the folks who work at HQ to hop out and do a team sweat together. It might be at Solidcore — because, of course, we love Solidcore — but it might also be at another studio around our neighborhood. It breaks up the day and re-energizes us for what comes next.

I love working out with our teams and often coach multiple times a week when I travel. A lot of business leaders take their teams out to dinner or happy hour, but coaching a class is another way for me to connect in a way that feels authentically Solidcore.

Another way I connect with people is through my social media presence

I'm very intentional in showing people that I'm more than just the title of CEO — I'm a father, I like to travel, I lip sync to Beyoncé, and I enjoy hosting dinner parties with my friends. I think that helps people relate to me and realize that you don't have to be stuffy or robotic to be a CEO.

I also take time to get involved in organizations and philanthropic causes I care about

I'm a strategic advisory council member for the Health & Fitness Association (previously known as IHRSA) because I believe that industries don't advance without people doing the work to help advance them.

I also support The Ridley Scholarship Fund, which paid for my university experience and changed my trajectory by allowing me to be involved with extracurriculars and the student experience instead of thinking about work or having to pay off loans.

I usually head home from the office around 5 p.m., and then jump into family time

My husband and I make and eat dinner, catch up on the day, and play with our son. We really soak it all in before he goes to bed at 7 p.m.

Once he goes to bed, my routine includes a combination of a few different things. Our mantra at Solidcore is to be the strongest version of yourself, and one of the ways I do that is by being a continuous learner. Sometimes it's reading — I've been reading "Strength to Strength." Other times, it's taking a Spanish lesson, which I've been doing with a tutor for the last three years.

I also take time to catch up with friends through text, FaceTime, or Zoom. It's also a time to tap back into work and finish all the things I didn't get done before I left the office. I try to limit working in the evenings to no more than two hours so I can be ready to attack the next day.

I end my day between 10 and 10:30 p.m.

I wind down like a typical millennial — by scrolling through TikTok and catching up on funny trends as I decompress from the stress of running a growing business.

It takes a village for me to stay energized and excited about my work. My husband, our family, my executive coach, and my assistant all support me.

A lot of people look at successful people and think they do it all, but no one can do it all. The only way you can get to those levels of success is with an incredible community.

If you're a CEO and would like to share your daily routine, contact this editor, Jane Zhang, at [email protected].

• The US Navy appears to be using new "StormBreaker" glide bombs against the Houthis.
• What appeared to be one of these guided munitions was spotted in the sand in Yemen this week.
• Fully intact wreckage could be exploited by US adversaries, including Iran.

US fighter jets appear to be using advanced "StormBreaker" precision glide bombs in combat against the Houthis, part of the intense bombing campaign against the Iran-backed rebels.

An image of what looked like an unexploded, US-made bomb half-buried in the sand began circulating on social media Thursday. Open-source intelligence accounts geolocated the image to Yemen's southern Shabwah governorate.

Trevor Ball, a former US Army explosive ordnance disposal technician, identified the munition as the GBU-53/B StormBreaker, a relatively new munition in the American arsenal. He told Business Insider that the discovery of the bomb, seemingly fully intact, highlights a problem: it could fall into the wrong hands.

The GBU-53/B, known as the Small Diameter Bomb Increment II, is an air-launched standoff weapon with precision guidance and pop-out wings. The 200-pound bomb is made by US defense contractor Raytheon, now RTX, and can be released from carrier-based fighter aircraft like the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

The weapon can be used against moving and stationary targets and is capable of operating in inclement weather, according to Naval Air Systems Command. The bomb can also receive updated target coordinates mid-flight.

In October 2023, the Navy declared early operational capability for the StormBreaker and said its Super Hornets would be the first platforms to carry the bomb.

US Central Command, which oversees Middle East operations, published footage last month appearing to show the StormBreaker among other ordnance aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, which has been at the forefront of the Houthi conflict.

The War Zone, which first reported on Friday on the StormBreaker's discovery in Yemen, spotted evidence last month that the Navy had used the munition for the first time in combat.

The image of the apparent StormBreaker looks to be the clearest sign that the US is using this weapon against the Houthis. That the munition is fully intact suggests air defenses did not take it out. A defense official declined to answer BI's questions about the incident or provide further details.

Ball, a researcher at Armament Research Services, said the risk in this situation is that Iran, which has long supported the Houthis, could get its hands on the StormBreaker.

"The Iranians are notorious for reverse engineering weapons systems and creating their own versions," Ball said. "The quicker Iran can acquire weapons to exploit relative to the US fielding them, the more Iran can try to narrow gaps in their capabilities."

This could even go on to benefit Russia, which has enjoyed increasingly close defense ties with Iran since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ball explained that although the StormBreaker was reportedly found in an area of Yemen that the Houthis don't control, "it highlights the risk of unexploded munitions ending up in Iranian possession," especially given that there are likely highly classified components in the munition.

"The greater the scale of airstrikes and use, the more likely this becomes," Ball said, adding that the same risk applies to the AGM-158, which the US has been using against the Houthis.

The AGM-158, or Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), is a stealthy, long-range cruise missile developed by Lockheed Martin. The JASSM and StormBreaker are standoff weapons, meaning that aircraft can release them from a distance and avoid Houthi air defenses, unlike conventional gravity bombs dropped directly over a target.

The US also appears to be using the AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW), among other advanced munitions, against the Houthis.

The US has been bombing the Houthis for six weeks straight to get the rebels to stop their attacks on Red Sea shipping. The military has publicly disclosed very few details about the intense campaign since the early days, though it acknowledged striking a major Houthi-controlled oil terminal last week. Dozens of people were reportedly killed in the attack.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that the US has attacked hundreds of Houthi targets since the campaign began and decimated its leadership. However, analysts have cast doubt that the strikes will effectively eliminate the rebels' capabilities; previous stikres haven't. Just a few days ago, for instance, they fired missiles at Israel.

• Friday was a court date for Luigi Mangione, accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
• "Luigi Girls" lined up overnight for a seat in the lower Manhattan courtroom.
• "I've never heard his name mentioned once," a man hoping to scalp his spot on line said of Thompson.

It was well before sunset on Thursday when the first young woman took her place at the front of the line outside a federal courthouse in Manhattan.

"I would prefer not to talk to members of the press," she said Friday morning, giving an apologetic smile.

Luigi Mangione was in court Friday to enter a plea of not guilty in the ambush shooting murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The "Luigi Girls," a term used with fondness and sometimes derision by others in line, had waited upward of 12 hours to see Mangione in his jail khakis and ankle shackles.

As this macabre fandom kept their long vigil — eating takeout and grabbing naps on the pavement — the name Brian Thompson was never spoken, two frequent denizens of the line told Business Insider on Friday.

"It's all talk of 'Luigi,'" said John McIntosh, 43, of Manhattan, who said he waits in lines for money.

"I've never heard his name mentioned once," said McIntosh. He was referring to Thompson, the 50-year-old father of two from Minnesota who Mangione allegedly gunned down on a Midtown sidewalk in December.

This was McIntosh's third time waiting in line for a Mangione court date, he said Friday. The self-appointed line administrator kept a handwritten list of names and numbers for those in line. He himself was number 5, having staked his claim on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

"I'm hoping to sell my spot — I did very well with the Trump trial," he told Business Insider, referencing President Trump's hush money trial from last year.

Number one on the list had given her name as "C.M." Number two declined to give a name. Number three gave the name "R.J."

McIntosh wanted it to be clear that he is not one of them — he is no Luigi Girl. "I don't think the guy deserves any sympathy," he said of Mangione with a laugh.

"For the most part, people are more interested in caring about Luigi than about Brian," agreed Jarva Land, a sketch artist from Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood who made number 6 on the wait list.

Land said she had also waited in line — and then sketched — two of Mangione's prior appearances and had a good sense of "line culture."

Her sketches from the line document snippets of overheard conversations.

"I'm not doing any interviews today," she quoted one woman in line telling another in a sketch from the morning.

"Try dry shampoo," read another overheard snippet from Land's sketchbook. "Dry shampoo is my life saver."

At some point in the morning Land jotted down a conversation between the line waiters and a passing federal Marshall who asked, "How long you all been waiting here for?"

The line waiters jokingly responded, "Two days!" according to Land's sketch. "3 weeks! All our lives in a way!"

"Don't bust my chops in court," he joked back.

Land, too, is no Luigi Girl, she said. Though she admitted, "I love the Luigi Girls — even the mean ones."

She said there was more to them than people may think.

"I've heard there's this impression of these girls that are obsessed with Luigi and think he's just a heartthrob criminal or something," she said. "But that's the thinnest layer of it — I think the appeal is not that basic at all. It's ideas about this country and justice and systems of power."

As for herself, "I'm excited to be in the hearing and get to see Luigi — and sketch his eyebrows," she said. "Of course."

Most of the women at the front of the line obscured their faces with scarves or paper medical masks. By the time the courtroom opened, fewer than half of the 40 or so women in line would get inside.

Unlike on line, Thompson's name was mentioned multiple times in court, including when US District Court Margaret Garnett asked federal prosecutors if the healthcare executive's family members were being kept apprised of what is happening in the case.

They were, Assistant US Attorney Dominic Gentile assured the judge.

Mangione, 26, crisply responded "Not guilty" to the indictment charging him with stalking, murder, and the deadly use of a firearm.

His lead defense lawyer, Karen Agnifilo, told the judge that one of her private phone calls to Mangione, who remains jailed pending trial. had been inadvertently listened to by prosecutors. The judge asked prosecutors to inform her by next month of how that had happened.

The judge also reminded both sides of their obligation to limit their public statements on the case, so as not to "impede or affect Mr. Mangione's ability to get a fair trial and the court's ability to select a fair jury in this case."

The judge instructed prosecutors to pass that reminder on to Jay Clayton, the interim US Attorney for the Southern District of New York — which includes Manhattan — and to US Attorney General Pam Bondi "and any of her subordinates."

Mangione's next court date was scheduled for December 5, on which date a death-penalty trial date may be set.

• Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler, and Sev Ohanian launched Proximity Media in 2018.
• Proximity Media produces films, documentaries, and podcasts, like "Judas and the Black Messiah" and "Space Jam: A New Legacy."
• Proximity's "Sinners" had a record-breaking opening weekend.

There was a time when the only person who believed in Ryan Coogler was his wife, Zinzi.

Back in the early 2000s, when Coogler was playing football at Saint Mary's College of California, he began thinking about life beyond the gridiron and whether becoming a storyteller could possibly be his next passion. He was told that if he were serious, the first thing he had to do was get the software that all scribes in the business use to write their stories: Final Draft.

But barely surviving off the scholarship money he had, he couldn't afford it.

"She bought it for me," Coogler told Business Insider over a video chat while sitting next to Zinzi, who gave a shy smile in response.

Five movies and two Oscar nominations later, it turned out to be money well spent, as Coogler has become one of Hollywood's top visionary filmmakers.

But he's not stopping there.

Alongside Zinzi Coogler and producer Sev Ohanian, the trio launched the production company Proximity Media in 2018, which handles everything from feature films to documentaries and podcasts.

Their efforts helped bring the 2021 best picture Oscar nominee "Judas and the Black Messiah" to the screen. They also teamed with LeBron James for the remake of "Space Jam" in 2021 and launched the popular podcast "In Proximity."

The three formed a close bond in the 2010s when Ohanian was Ryan's classmate at USC (Zinzi and Ryan, who have known each other since they were teens, married in 2016). There was even a time when Ohanian was sleeping on the Cooglers' couch while they were making Coogler's debut feature, "Fruitvale Station," in 2013. Five years later, the three went into business for themselves, forming Proximity.

"We were young people trying to make it in this business before we started the company," Coogler said. "We are a company that was built on that feeling of not being taken seriously because of our age and constantly being told we're doing it wrong because we want to do right by people. That has been the common theme; it's a blue-collar aspect."

That blue-collar approach has become the company's guiding light. While many production companies led by Hollywood heavyweights are locked into first-look deals at a studio, Proximity has taken the less-traveled path and is a free agent in the business. This has led to them being busy all over town, working with Marvel Studios on the upcoming "Black Panther" spin-off series "Ironheart" and landing Coogler's latest directing effort, "Sinners," at Warner Bros. following a heated bidding war.

"When we know we're doing something right, it's often when we can approach things unconventionally and not necessarily industry standard," Ohanian said.

But Proximity isn't focused on just the moving image. Under the leadership of Oscar-winning composer and longtime Coogler collaborator Ludwig Göransson, the company was behind the soundtracks for "Creed III" and "Judas and the Black Messiah," the latter of which earned an Oscar nomination for best original song. The company will also be releasing the "Sinners" soundtrack. Meanwhile, Paola Mardo is heading its audio division, Proximity Audio, focused on continuing to grow the Webby Award-winning "In Proximity" podcast.

"We have had Jordan Peele and Michael B. Jordan sit across from Ryan, but the pie in the sky is to keep having those intimate and in depth conversations about how we do what we do, to just give perspective on the many different things it takes to put something on screen for audiences to enjoy," Zinzi Coogler said.

With a staff of around 25, the founders describe Proximity as a scrappy working environment fueled by the underdog mentality from which the company was born. They often hire people who, like them, once had little to no industry experience, just a drive to work in the business. This has led to Proximity's much-sought-after paid internship program.

"At any given time, there are brilliant young filmmakers and podcast makers that are in and out of our company getting college credit and getting paid to learn," Ryan Coogler said. "It has gotten to the point that some of these people have gone on to be assistants to major Hollywood players."

"Sinners" shows off the fruits of Proximity's labor. The genre-bending thriller, written and directed by Coogler and produced by the Cooglers and Ohanian, had the biggest opening weekend for an original movie since the pandemic, making $48 million domestically. In addition to handling the soundtrack, Proximity also used its podcast "In Proximity" to give a deeper insight into the movie and its themes, with its latest episode featuring a conversation between Coogler and Göransson.

"Our first goal was to make a film that would be very music-oriented if not a full-blown musical, and I think with 'Sinners' we've accomplished that," Ohanian said.

While "Sinners" is poised to continue its success at the box office, there's plenty more in the pipeline at Proximity. An adaptation of the New York Times bestselling novel "California Bear" and an adaptation of the graphic novel series "A Vicious Circle" are both in development. They're also in production on an as-yet-unannounced docuseries following the success of "Stephen Curry: Underrated," which was released by Apple TV+ in 2023.

I ask Zinzi if she ever imagined that buying Ryan Final Draft would lead to all this.

"Not at all," she said softly. "I mean, we grew up with parents who had very practical jobs. I had zero expectations. I just knew it was something that he was very interested in and curious about."

The secondhand clothing market is booming, and AI is helping resellers sort, price, and sell used clothes faster than ever. But with millions of garments still ending up in landfills and deserts, can new tech actually cut fashion waste?

• Now that Netflix's "You" has ended, many fans are searching for similar shows to enjoy.
• The thriller series has become popular because of its dark themes, antihero lead, and gory scenes.
• Fans of the series might enjoy shows such as "Dexter," "Bates Motel," "Mindhunter," and more.

The Lifetime-turned-Netflix series "You" has officially ended after five seasons.

Fortunately, there are many shows that fans of the dark, fast-paced thriller can watch next.

Here are a few series to check out if you enjoyed "You."

"Dexter" features a main character who is an oddly likable serial killer.

For fans of "You" who are intrigued by Penn Badgley's strangely likable performance as the murderer and stalker Joe Goldberg, "Dexter" is a must-watch series.

The Showtime series stars Michael C. Hall as the titular character, following Dexter's journey as a professional blood-spatter analyst by day and serial killer by night.

Somewhat like Joe, Dexter murders people he feels justified killing — mostly those who are guilty of terrible crimes or who might lead to him getting caught.

This psychological thriller has eight seasons, plus a few spinoff series out and in the works.

For another show with an antihero lead, try "Breaking Bad."

Like "You," AMC's "Breaking Bad" is a series that pushes boundaries with its lead character.

Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston, is a mild-mannered chemistry teacher who finds himself making meth in the Albuquerque drug scene to make money to support his family following his terminal cancer diagnosis.

Fans of "You" will see shades of Joe in Walter, who commits horrible acts (even toward those he cares about) to satisfy his internal need for validation.

Like Joe, Walter lives a double life — except Walt is keeping his identity as a drug kingpin hidden from his family, and Joe is hiding his life as a killer from most people.

The hit series has five seasons and a follow-up film.

"Killing Eve" is a woman-led series about another kind of killer.

The BBC series follows Jodie Comer as an unhinged assassin named Villanelle and Sandra Oh as Eve, an MI5 security officer who wishes to be a spy, in a wild game of cat and mouse.

Villanelle and Eve's obsessive love-hate relationship is reminiscent of Joe's relationships throughout "You," and fans will find themselves reeling after bingeing the thrilling series.

"Killing Eve" has four seasons.  

Season two of "Castle Rock" features a woman who has a penchant for murder.

Hulu's "Castle Rock," an anthology series based in the Stephen King multiverse, highlighted the story of the "Misery" character Annie Wilkes in its second season.

Played by Lizzy Caplan, Annie is a single mother with a mental illness who is on the run with her teenage daughter to escape the frightening acts of her past.

Although she desires to be a good person for her daughter, she finds herself committing more acts of violence to keep her secret identity safe.

The show contains dark themes, suspenseful moments, and shocking twists that will have "You" fans craving more.

Netflix's "The Haunting of Hill House" will also terrify you.

If suspense, creepiness, and Victoria Pedretti are what you most enjoyed about Netflix's "You," add "The Haunting of Hill House" to your watch list.

A television adaptation of the Shirley Jackson novel of the same name, "The Haunting of Hill House" is a gripping horror series that follows the Crain family as they face the (literal) ghosts of their past.

Like season two of "You," "The Haunting of Hill House" explores the complexities of family dynamics while keeping viewers on the edge of their seats.

Pedretti, who plays Love Quinn on "You," also stars as one of the Crain siblings.

Netflix's "The Haunting of Hill House" is one season.

NBC's "Hannibal" reinvents one of Hollywood's most infamous serial killers.

Fans of "You" who are intrigued by Joe's ability to fool everyone around him may enjoy NBC's "Hannibal," which reimagines the iconic cannibalistic serial killer from 1991's "The Silence of the Lambs."

In this series, a criminal profiler named Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) forms an unlikely partnership with the brilliant psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen).

Together, they track complex serial killers by thinking like them — but Hannibal has more in common with the killers than Will knows.

There are three seasons of "Hannibal."

Based on a true story, "Dirty John" explores what it's like to find out your husband is living a double life.

Starring Connie Britton and Eric Bana, Bravo's "Dirty John" is a drama series based on the true story of Debra Newell, an interior designer who gets swept up in a whirlwind romance with a man who turns out to be lying about his identity.

John Meehan, played by Bana, gives off serious Joe vibes. He is charming, attentive, and handsome, but turns out to be hiding some very dark secrets that ultimately become dangerous for Debra and her entire family.

The limited series has 16 episodes.

Fans of "You" will enjoy the dark themes, unsettling characters, and gripping suspense of "Mindhunter."

For those interested in how "You" delves into a serial killer's brain, Netflix's "Mindhunter" is a must-see.

The series starring Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany is set in the 1970s and 1980s. It follows two FBI agents who interview famous serial killers to get a deeper insight into their psyches.

Based on the true story of how serial-killer criminal profiling began in the FBI, the series features fictionalized depictions of notorious figures like Charles Manson and the Son of Sam.

"Mindhunter" ran for two seasons.

Freeform's "Pretty Little Liars" is a drama that will keep viewers guessing.

In the small town of Rosewood, a teenage mean girl named Alison DiLaurentis, played by Sasha Pieterse, has disappeared, and her friends soon find themselves tormented by a mysterious person who goes by "A."

Throughout the series, viewers will experience the suspense, twists, and hidden identities that fans love about "You."

"Pretty Little Liars" also stars Shay Mitchell, who was on season one of "You."

The series ran for seven seasons (and there are many spinoffs).

"The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story" documents the real-life obsession that serial killer Andrew Cunanan had for the famous designer.

If Joe's oddly intriguing obsession with his victims drew you to "You," then the second season of "American Crime Story" will certainly be worth watching.

Starring Édgar Ramírez, Darren Criss, Ricky Martin, and Penélope Cruz, the Ryan Murphy series portrays the events leading up to and following the murder of the fashion icon Gianni Versace.

The season has nine episodes.

"The Fall" features Jamie Dornan playing a family man with a secret identity as a stalker and murderer.

On the BBC Two show "The Fall," Dornan stars as a husband and father who moonlights as a serial killer.

Gillian Anderson plays Stella Gibson, a detective hired to hunt this mysterious killer who has stalked and murdered women throughout Belfast.

"You" fans will see many similar dark themes in "The Fall" and find that Dornan's Paul Spector is just as charming as Badgley's Joe Goldberg.

"The Fall" ran for three seasons.

"Bates Motel" depicts how early life experiences can sometimes play a role in forming serial killers.

Based on the iconic horror film "Psycho," A&E's "Bates Motel" is a dark look at how the formative years of a person's life can alter their path forever.

A meek boy named Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) recently moved with his mother, Norma (Vera Farmiga), to a small coastal town. The two have an oddly close relationship, which grows even stronger after the death of Norman's father.

Their life in their new home is not as peaceful as they'd hoped, and the mother-son pair are forced to do what it takes to survive.

Fans of "You" will see shades of Joe's relationship with his mother in Norman and Norma's connection — and may find that "Bates Motel" has similar psychological themes.

The series ran for five seasons.

"Only Murders in the Building" also has some dark comedy.

If you appreciate the dark humor found throughout parts of "You," you may enjoy this Hulu original starring Selena Gomez, Martin Short, and Steve Martin.

The show follows an unlikely trio as they investigate a murder and begin a true-crime podcast inspired by a mysterious death in their building. 

The comedy-drama series has four seasons (and has been renewed for a fifth).

This story was originally published on January 1, 2020, and most recently updated on April 25, 2025.

• The TV show "You" came to an end this week, while "Andor" returned for season two.
• Films like the erotic thriller "Babygirl" and the action movie "Havoc" are new to streaming.
• Tennis fans can check out Netflix's new three-part docuseries about superstar Carlos Alcaraz.

Goodbye, "You."

After five seasons of Netflix's hit psychological thriller series, the final chapter of Joe Goldberg's story has arrived. This week also marks the return of the "Star Wars" spin-off series "Andor."

If you're looking for something brand new, watch the drama series "Étoile" from "Gilmore Girls" creator Amy Sherman-Palladino or the action thriller "Havoc" starring Tom Hardy.

Here's a complete rundown of all the best movies, shows, and documentaries to stream this weekend, broken down by what kind of entertainment you're looking for.

Reality TV fans can tune into the return of "Vanderpump Villa" this week.

Lisa Vanderpump and her hospitality crew head to an Italian countryside castle, aka "Castello Rosato," in season two. All 10 episodes are now streaming on Hulu, with the reunion set for release on May 8.

Streaming on: Hulu

See how Joe Goldberg's story ends in the fifth and final season of "You."

Penn Badgley reprises his role as a serial killer one last time for season five, which is filled with twists, turns, and new characters. After binge-watching the 10-episode season, read Business Insider's spoiler-filled interview with co-showrunners Michael Foley and Justin W. Lo.

Streaming on: Netflix

The critically acclaimed "Star Wars" series "Andor" returned this week.

Diego Luna returned as Cassian Andor and Adria Arjona reprised her role as rebel fighter Bix Caleen in the second season of the "Star Wars" spin-off series, set five years before the events of the 2016 film, "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story."

Streaming on: Disney+

Fans of "Gilmore Girls" and "Bunheads" can check out the new series "Étoile."

The eight-episode series, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, follows two world-renowned ballet companies in New York and Paris as they swap their top talent in hopes of reviving their institutions.

Streaming on: Prime Video

Oscar winner "Conclave" is timelier than ever.

The political thriller "Conclave" is based on Robert Harris' 2016 novel of the same name. It centers on the assembly of the College of Cardinals and the election, known as the conclave, to decide who will become the new pope after the previous one dies of a heart attack.

The movie was nominated for eight awards at the 2025 Oscars and won best adapted screenplay.

Streaming on: Prime Video

Nicole Kidman plays a powerful CEO who has an affair with her much younger intern in "Babygirl."

In writer-director Halina Reijn's 2024 erotic thriller, Nicole Kidman plays Romy Mathis, a CEO, wife, and mom who risks her personal and professional life in pursuit of pleasure with an intern named Samuel (Harris Dickinson), who chooses her to be his mentor.

Streaming on: Max

For high-octane thrills, watch "Havoc."

The action movie stars Tom Hardy as Walker, a detective in the crosshairs of a criminal underworld who's tasked with rescuing a politician's estranged son from a drug heist.

Streaming on: Netflix

The Netflix docuseries "Carlos Alcaraz: My Way" takes fans behind the scenes of tennis prodigy Carlos Alcaraz's life.

The three-episode docuseries follows Carlos Alcaraz, who holds the record for being the youngest world No. 1 player in men's tennis history, during his eventful 2024 season.

Streaming on: Netflix

Comedian and "Ted Lasso" star Brett Goldstein has jokes aplenty in his comedy special, "Brett Goldstein: The Second Best Night of Your Life."

Brett Goldstein, known for playing the grumpy but lovable Roy Kent in the Apple TV+ series "Ted Lasso," stars in his first HBO Original comedy special, premiering on Saturday night. The British comedian cracks jokes about everything from sex and relationships to why he thinks "Sesame Street" character Cookie Monster is an addict.

Streaming on: Max

For more laughs, watch "Jessica Kirson: I'm the Man."

In her new stand-up special, comedian Jessica Kirson jokes about TikTok girls, Sephora makeovers, and having four daughters with two different women.

Streaming on: Hulu

Brush up on "The Accountant" starring Ben Affleck before checking out the sequel in theaters this weekend.

In the 2016 crime drama, Affleck plays Christian Wolff, an accountant with autism who operates within the criminal underworld. The movie turned out to be a surprise hit for Warner Bros., earning $155 million worldwide on a reported budget of $44 million.

Now, "The Accountant 2" is in theaters, and director Gavin O'Connor has expressed interest in a third installment.

Streaming on: Max, Prime Video

• The companies that sell you internet access — think Comcast or Charter — want to sell you phone service, too.
• And guess what the phone guys want to sell you? Yup: internet access.
• This is good for you because you get more choice. Is it good for the cable and phone guys?

Most of you get your broadband from one company — probably from what used to be called a cable company. And most of you get your mobile phone service from a different company — probably from what many of you still call a phone company.

Guess who would like to change that?

Time's up! The answer: The cable guys want to become your phone company. And the phone companies want to become your broadband companies.

This is good news for consumers, who traditionally haven't had much choice when it comes to wireless providers, and even less choice when it comes to broadband.

Is it good for the broadband and wireless companies? We don't know yet. But we do know they are beating each other up, quite a bit.

Background: For the past few years, broadband companies — think Charter or Comcast — have been trying to sell their customers mobile phone service as well. (Both Charter and Comcast are essentially selling rebranded access to Verizon's mobile networks.) And at the same time, the phone guys like T-Mobile and AT&T have been trying to sell their customers broadband service, through what's called "fixed wireless" — internet service that gets beamed into your house via a box you put in your window, instead of cables buried in the ground.

You can understand the logic behind both pushes: For starters, it offers both industries the possibility of new revenue streams as organic growth stalls. There's also the thought that customers who get both broadband and wireless from the same provider are less likely to churn out.

It's also happening as most of — but not all — the cable guys have become less interested in selling you what used to be called cable TV, because that business is eroding every day. Meanwhile, the telcos, which have taken stabs at becoming video/content companies — see AT&T's brief ownership of what's now called Warner Bros. Discovery, and Verizon's brief ownership of AOL and Yahoo — have decided they don't want to be in those businesses, either.

Meanwhile, both industries are growing at the expense of each other. Analysts at MoffettNathanson say the mobile industry has signed up 12.7 million fixed wireless subscribers as of the end of Q1 2025 — up from 11.8 million 3 months earlier. During the same time period, the cable companies have grown from 18.2 million phone subscribers to 19 million.

And if you want to see what that means for a particular company, check out Q1 earnings reports from Comcast and Charter — the two biggest cable/broadband companies in the country this week. Both reported declining numbers of broadband subscribers, and boosts in their wireless subs.