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• I visited Seattle for the first time in May 2025 after years of dreaming about it.
• The city in the Pacific Northwest surprised me as a New Yorker.
• I found a strange tourist attraction, a free banana stand, and a tech neighborhood full of nature.

When my train arrived at Seattle’s King Street Station on a sunny morning, I didn’t expect the 1-mile walk to my downtown hotel to feel like a hike.

I didn’t think I’d find a chewing-gum-speckled wall in an alley later that afternoon. And when I felt my stomach growl while strolling the bustling streets the next day, the last thing I thought I’d see was a free snack cart.

It was my first time in the Washington city, one I’ve wanted to visit since I was a kid. As I developed a taste for travel in college, I found myself taking road trips from California up the coast to Portland, Oregon, to see more of the Pacific Northwest.

Still, Seattle was always too far north to include in my itinerary. In fact, I’d never had a chance to visit the state of Washington — until recently.

During a weeklong trip from my home in New York City to the West Coast of North America in May 2025, I spent three days in Seattle. As a first-time visitor, I found the city to be full of surprises.

I traveled to Seattle from Vancouver, and I was surprised to find that a train ticket was less than half the price of airfare.

I’ve spent more than 150 hours on Amtrak trains from the Northeast to the Southwest. In my experience, traveling by train in the US is typically more expensive than flying, though it depends on the route.

So when I was booking my travel from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Seattle, I was shocked that a coach train ticket cost $50 compared with the $150 basic economy airfare on the same day.

I certainly paid more in hours — the train ride took four compared with the roughly one-hour flight. Still, I was excited to travel slowly and watch landscapes transform from one country to another.

I was also shocked at how much more comfortable it was to travel in economy compared with planes.

I’d traveled in first and business class on Amtrak trains before, but this was my first trip in coach since I was a kid. So I wasn’t sure how it would compare to my countless experiences flying in basic economy.

Since the ticket was less than half the price, I didn’t expect the train seat to be so much cozier than the stiff, flimsy plane seats I’m used to. I even avoided the neck and back pain I usually get when flying.

On the train, the seats felt wider with more legroom than on a typical economy flight.

Walking a mile in Seattle feels more strenuous than it does in New York.

I stepped off the Amtrak train in Seattle at about noon. It was my first time stretching my legs since I’d boarded in Vancouver four hours earlier. With an indie-rock soundtrack in my earbuds and the sun shining above me, I was excited to lug my suitcase on foot to my hotel a mile away.

But I quickly learned that a mile in Seattle doesn’t feel like a mile in New York. The route was almost entirely uphill. When I stopped to catch my breath at an intersection, I noticed the street to my right climbed up even taller for as far as I could see.

In my city, I walk a lot, but most of the roads are relatively flat. So I wasn’t expecting to feel so exhausted after just one mile.

I was excited to visit the iconic Pike Place Market but surprised to learn it hasn’t always been a car-free space.

Situated next to the coast in Downtown Seattle, Pike Place Market is an iconic outdoor market with more than 200 stores and restaurants. I’ve been hearing about it for decades, so I spent my first afternoon in Seattle perusing the 9-acre shopping hub.

On a sunny Thursday afternoon, the market was crowded with locals and tourists alike. I shuffled my way through what felt like a line to get a peek at the fresh seafood. When I needed a break from the mob, I found refuge inside a used bookstore.

Every so often, a delivery truck would drive through, dividing the crowd into two tightly packed globs, but most cars weren’t allowed to drive through Pike Place Market. This made sense to me, since each passing vehicle halted the pedestrian flow.

But I was surprised to learn that the open-air market’s cobblestone streets are normally open to all cars — the city is testing a ban on cars aside from vendors, delivery drivers, and those with disabilities, The Seattle Times reported in August 2025. The temporary ban began in April 2025 and is set to continue through spring 2026.

I was lucky enough to inadvertently schedule my trip during the ban. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like if cars could freely move through the already crowded market.

I stumbled upon the popular tourist attraction, The Gum Wall, in Seattle.

While wandering the narrow alleyways around Pike Place Market, I was slowed down by groups of tourists stopping to take selfies in front of a vibrant brick wall. The wall was spackled with an array of hues from peach to periwinkle.

At first, I thought the specks of color were dried-up chunks of paint. But when I saw a pedestrian pull a gooey wad out of their mouth and stick it on the brick wall, I realized the wall was a gum canvas.

I was shocked and a little grossed out upon my realization, but when I focused on how the wall actually looked rather than the germ-infested materials, I thought it was a playful work of art.

Before you ask, no, I didn’t add my own contribution to the Seattle gum wall.

I was surprised to find a three-story target downtown.

I lost my charging port somewhere between Vancouver and Seattle, so I headed to a Target near my downtown hotel. Back home in NYC, the Targets I frequent are small and offer little more than a drugstore.

So, I was shocked to learn that this location was a 96,000-square-foot, three-story establishment. While still smaller than Targets you’ll find outside cities, The Seattle Times reported, the store had a wide variety of groceries, toiletries, and tech products.

There were so many aisles of home goods that I thought I could decorate my entire apartment with its offerings.

I wasn’t expecting the tech neighborhood to be so full of nature.

Seattle has long been known as a tech hub where software engineers move in droves to work at big companies such as Amazon and Google.

Locals told me I could find the booming scene in the South Lake Union neighborhood, home of the original Amazon headquarters. The company’s presence in more than 30 office buildings led to the neighborhood’s nickname, “Amazonia.”

Before visiting, I expected to find nothing but business-centric streets lined with glass skyscrapers in a tech-fueled neighborhood. So I was surprised by the large presence of nature in South Lake Union.

The neighborhood borders Lake Union, where I explored a waterfront park filled with runners, bicyclists, picnickers, and geese. Locals said the park is dead on the weekends, but tech workers frequent it during the week. Nearby, the Google building had a whole forest of trees on the rooftop.

I’d never seen a free banana stand before.

The pop of color caught my eye while strolling through “Amazonia.” In an outdoor space between Amazon buildings in South Lake Union, the bright yellow trailer is hard to miss.

I got a closer look and saw boxes full of bananas beneath the awning, and a sign that read, “Take one — not just for Amazonians but for anyone in the community.”

I didn’t expect to find a free snack stand in the middle of a city. Amazon previously told Business Insider that founder Jeff Bezos came up with the idea to provide a complimentary healthy snack with no wrapper. The stand first opened in 2015.

I wasn’t expecting to see an active volcano so close to a major city.

From a hotel rooftop deck, a local pointed to a distant mountain and told me it was an active volcano.

I could hardly see the volcano through the haze, but they told me Mount Rainier, which last erupted in 1894, was more visible on clear days.

I was shocked to learn that this city, home to nearly 800,000 people, is so close to what could be a natural disaster. According to the Seattle Office of Emergency Management, the city is a safe distance away from a blast’s flow, but water and power resources could be affected.

My trip to Seattle was everything I hoped it would be and more.

Seattle’s mix of natural and urban lifestyles reminded me of my previous trips to Pacific Northwest cities, which comforted me.

But I was surprised by Seattle’s unique attributes, including Pike Place Market and the oddly alluring gum wall.

And since it was so different from NYC, I definitely plan to return to Seattle to get another break from the Big Apple.

• Daniel Moreno-Gama is facing federal charges in connection with the Molotov attack on Sam Altman’s home.
• The FBI said the suspect mentioned other AI CEOs in an “anti-AI” document found on him.
• The suspect has also been accused of threatening to burn down OpenAI’s headquarters.

The man accused of tossing a Molotov cocktail at the San Francisco home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was found with an “anti-AI” document that listed off the names and addresses of other AI CEOs and investors, according to the feds.

Daniel Moreno-Gama, who was booked on multiple state charges, including attempted murder, is now facing federal charges in connection with Friday’s attack. A criminal complaint viewed by Business Insider charged him with possession of an unregistered firearm and attempted damage and destruction of property by means of explosives.

It was not immediately clear whether Moreno-Gama has retained an attorney.

According to an affidavit by an FBI agent, authorities said the 20-year-old traveled from Texas to California and, in the early morning hours, threw a Molotov cocktail at two neighboring homes owned by Altman. The device caused a fire at the top of the driveway gate, and the suspect fled the scene, the affidavit says.

About an hour and a half later, the feds say the suspect arrived at OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters, took a chair and used it to strike the glass doors.

On-site security personnel reported that the suspect said he came to “burn it down and kill anyone inside,” the affidavit says.

Officers with the San Francisco Police Department ultimately arrested Moreno-Gama and recovered “incendiary devices,” a jug of kerosene, a blue lighter, and the anti-AI document, the court papers say.

The affidavit says the document was a three-part series that “identified views opposed to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the executives of various AI companies, including Victim-1.” Victim-1 refers to Altman, who confirmed the attack on his blog.

The first part of the document was titled “Your Last Warning” followed by the suspect’s name, and in that part of the missive, it was it said that the suspect “killed/attempted to kill” Victim-1,” according to the affidavit.

“Also if I am going to advocate for others to kill and commit crimes, then I must lead by example and show that I am fully sincere in my message,” the document read, the affidavit says.

The document then listed the names of apparent board members, AI company CEOs, and investors, the court papers say.

The second part of the document was titled, “Some more words on the matter of our impending extinction,” and detailed the “purported risk AI poses to humanity,” the feds said.

The third part was a letter addressed to Altman that began with “if you make it,” according to the court papers. “If by some miracle you live, then I would take this as a sign from the divine to redeem yourself,” the letter said, according to the affidavit.

• LinkedIn is paying up to $150 an hour for people to train AI on coding, nursing, finance, and more.
• It’s conducting early tests to launch an “AI labor marketplace,” LinkedIn confirmed.
• The move would put LinkedIn in direct competition with startups like Mercor and Scale AI.

AI training is booming — and LinkedIn wants a piece of the pie.

The careers networking site is in the early stages of launching an “AI labor marketplace” where people can make up to $150 an hour training AI chatbots to get better at everything from coding to nursing to finance, LinkedIn confirmed to Business Insider.

A spokesperson for LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, said AI training is one of the fastest-growing jobs in the US right now and that it’s doing early testing.

AI trainers are humans who help improve chatbots by rating their answers and testing their limits. It’s a new type of gig work spurred by the AI boom and has led to the creation of several rapidly-growing AI training startups that serve clients like Anthropic.

LinkedIn has over a dozen public listings asking for AI trainers.

Someone with expertise in Excel and finance can make up to $100 an hour, while a nurse can make similar rates. The highest-paid position, for a senior software engineer AI trainer, pays up to $150 an hour. Other roles include a Germanic and Nordic Linguists trainer, which pays up to $100, and someone who “red teams” — or tests — AI systems for $40-$50 an hour.

LinkedIn has also rolled out a feature that lets people receive notifications whenever an AI training opportunity pops up.

The move puts LinkedIn in direct competition with a host of fast-growing AI training startups that match frontier AI labs like OpenAI with human talent to improve their models.

Mercor quintupled its valuation in less than a year to $10 billion. Another AI training startup, Surge AI, which owns the human-expert marketplace Data Annotation, is valued at $24 billion, Forbes reported.

The sector’s breakneck growth — and vast armies of contributors — have also contributed to serious cybersecurity issues.

Scale AI, for example, left confidential contractor and client information wide open across hundreds of Google Docs last year, locking them down after Business Insider revealed the practice. Mercor was recently hit by a serious data breach that compromised its contractors’ data and led to five class-action lawsuits in a single week.

• Justin Bieber headlined Coachella on Saturday for his first major performance in years.
• Bieber was reportedly paid $10 million for the two-weekend gig, more than past headliners.
• He opted for a laid-back set that rejected pop-star spectacle and paid tribute to his roots.

On Saturday, Justin Bieber arrived on the main stage in Indio, California, as one of Coachella’s highest-paid headliners ever, with a reported $10 million payday for the two-weekend gig.

Given his track record of canceling his tours, the crowd was lucky he even showed up.

The festival marked Bieber’s first headline performance since his 2022 Justice World Tour, which was canceled about halfway through its scheduled run. His previous outing, the 2016-2017 Purpose World Tour, was also canceled early with little explanation.

Over the past few years, Bieber has confined his bookings to a few minutes apiece. He’s performed at a handful of award shows — including the 2026 Grammys, where he sang a stripped-down rendition of “Yukon” (literally) in just his socks and underpants — and popped up as a surprise guest in other artists’ festival sets.

When he was announced as a Coachella headliner this year, speculation swirled as to how much effort he’d dedicate to the ever-hyped and expensive event. Would he honor his commitment? Would he only do the bare minimum? Would he make it worthwhile for the loyal fans trekking to the desert, those who’ve been around since “Baby” and the height of Bieber Fever?

The answers to those questions turned out to be yes, yes, and, surprisingly, also yes.

Bieber delivered a performance as low-energy and low-effort as any Coachella headliner could get away with. Wearing a simple, baggy uniform, Bieber loafed around the stage, mostly alone. His set list leaned heavily on tracks from his 2025 sister albums, “Swag” and “Swag 2,” several of which he delivered acoustically. He rarely interacted with the crowd; instead, he often retreated to an open laptop onstage, where feedback and song requests poured in from the livestream. For roughly one-third of his 90-minute performance, Bieber sat onstage and doomscrolled on YouTube — searching for old memes, reenacting his own viral moments (“It’s not clocking to you that I’m standing on business”), and singing karaoke-style versions of his older hits.

The performance ran counter to the pomp and spectacle of Coachella, which is a haven for brand activations and an aspirational photo backdrop as much as a music festival. Bieber’s fellow headliners, Friday’s Sabrina Carpenter and Sunday’s Karol G, rose to the occasion with dazzling costumes, high-energy dance numbers, and ambitious stage designs. With Bieber sandwiched between them, the contrast was striking.

As a result, Bieber’s performance has been criticized as lazy and underwhelming. But it’s not as if he’s incapable of pulling off those pop-star feats. If anything, the YouTube segment was a stark reminder of Bieber’s beginnings in the music industry, when Scooter Braun plucked him from pre-pubescent obscurity after seeing him perform an acoustic cover of “So Sick” by Ne-Yo on YouTube.

When Bieber broadcast that video at Coachella nearly two decades later, duetting with his younger self for a crowd of millions, what could have been pure nostalgia bait felt more like a practice in reflection and self-respect — especially for an artist who’s publicly struggled with superstardom. It was an homage to how far he’s come, and how much he can do with just his voice and a microphone.

• Despite doing frequent workout classes for over 20 years, I felt weak at 37 years old.
• I started weightlifting at my local gym and gained strength surprisingly quickly.
• Eight months into my regimen, I feel better in my body and have a healthier perspective on fitness.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a workout-class enthusiast.

When I was 17, I followed my mom to Jazzercise classes, and at 30, I was in boot-camp classes trying to figure out how anyone “bounces back” after pregnancy.

I was still loyal to group fitness in my late 30s, but at 37, I felt weaker than I’d like to. I wondered: For someone doing so many classes, shouldn’t I be — or at least feel — a lot stronger?

I’d been lifting the same 10-pound weights for decades, never progressing to a heavier set. And when one of my five kids asked for a piggyback ride up the stairs, my husband was always the one to oblige (partially due to my pesky back condition).

Eventually, I took a more critical look at my workouts, examining their frequency and the actual movements I was doing. I thought about the strong, fit people I knew my age and realized they lifted weights.

So, I researched the closest gym and chose one purely based on proximity to my house, ready to try something new.

I walked into the gym as a complete beginner

On my first day at the gym, the owner convinced me that I was exactly where I should be, walking me through a slow and steady onboarding program.

I tried not to compare myself to the extremely fit people, who looked like they came straight out of a Navy SEALs brochure, and did my best to ignore the clank of the heavy weights hitting the ground.

The staff logged my baseline abilities as I bench pressed, squatted, and performed other strength-training moves.

Although I had done countless leg lifts, crunches, and planks, I’d rarely done traditional weightlifting. Knowledge came with time.

Soon, I learned about one-rep maxes (the maximum amount of weight a person can lift for a single exercise), bought proper lifting shoes from Puma, and started studying form tips on Instagram after class.

The muscle soreness I felt after each gym session reaffirmed that I was working my body in ways that I hadn’t during my group fitness classes.

Although I had plenty of moments when I questioned whether I was in the right place, I told myself that being the least experienced person in the room was a good thing. As I’d learned in the business world, this can be the best place to learn.

Shortly after I started lifting regularly, I felt better in my body

I began taking weightlifting seriously last summer and noticed results fairly quickly.

I didn’t lose weight or have a dramatic visual transformation, but my body felt different; I had a structure that supported my frame rather than just a weak core that felt like it went somewhat dormant between pregnancies.

I considered my weight less important than my ability to pick up heavy things without feeling pain. Another benefit I didn’t expect? I left the gym each day with a weightlifting high that lasted at least 24 hours.

Lifting weights changed my definition of what it means to be fit

The biggest surprise of joining a weightlifting gym was seeing who I was exercising next to.

Although some of the mega-fit athletes initially intimidated me, I came to understand that my gym was for everyone. I’ve lifted with retired women over 70, teenagers, moms, and people fighting off medical conditions.

As I watched all of them lift heavier weights than I thought possible, I realized that a fit, strong body comes in many different shapes.

I also learned that weightlifting is about doing big, powerful moves along with exercises that work smaller muscles to fortify my joints.

By following a consistent program and surrounding myself with people who held me accountable, I gradually built strength, going from bench pressing 80 pounds to 115 pounds.

Eight months into my regimen, I no longer feel out of place at the gym. My knees don’t hurt and creak on stairs. Most importantly, when my preschooler asks for a piggyback ride up the stairs, I no longer have to say, “Go ask Dad.”

• Gas prices are climbing rapidly, unsettling Americans’ economic perceptions.
• The Consumer Sentiment Index, which gauges how people feel about the economy, hit a new low in March.
• Geopolitical tensions and inflationary pressures are heightening Americans’ concerns over gas prices.

Americans are feeling despondent about gas.

It’s a dour time for consumers — in April, the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index, which surveys consumers on how they feel about current and future economic conditions, hit an all-time low.

It turns out that one small (or not-so-small) number has a lot of sway over how Americans feel about the economy: Gas prices. In recent years, there’s been a pretty solid relationship between gas prices and consumer sentiment: When it’s more expensive to fill up the tank, Americans tend to report more dire feelings about economic conditions and where they’re going. A Business Insider analysis of retail gas prices from the Energy Information Administration and consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan showed a moderate negative correlation between the two.

Gas prices are a hyper-visible economic marker for many Americans, who might experience immediate sticker shock every time they drive past their local gas station or stop to refill on the way to work. After all, only a small share — under 4% — of Americans use public transportation to get to work, according to Census Bureau data on commuting. A touch over 69% of workers drove alone to work in 2024, meaning that gas prices are likely omnipresent in calculating their commutes and daily expenses.

“Prices at the pump hold a very uniquely salient point in people’s minds,” Matt Colyar, an economist at Moody’s Analytics, told Business Insider. “Maybe it’s the big signs with the big luminescent numbers that everyone drives by constantly. They’re very aware of these prices.”

The last time sentiment was close to being this low was in June 2022. That might seem counterintuitive; it would stand to reason that the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic or the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath might trump the current fluctuations. But June 2022 marked record-high gas prices amid soaring inflation and the fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Now, as sentiment hits that record low, gas prices are rising at the fastest pace on record, with last week’s consumer price index report showing a 21% month-over-month increase. As of the week ending April 6, the most recent date for which the Energy Information Administration has data, gas prices hit $4.12 a gallon; as of April 13, they were hovering around the same level, and up 50 cents over the month, per AAA.

The bad vibes might only continue, especially as President Donald Trump signaled that prices might remain high through the November 2026 midterms and tensions between the US and Iran remain high over the Strait of Hormuz and the roughly 20% of global oil production that passes through it.

“Gas prices are highly visible, highly salient prices that consumers use to gauge their feelings about the economy,” said Alex Jacquez, the chief of policy and advocacy at the left-leaning think tank Groundwork Collaborative. “People have to fill up weekly; they often don’t have much of a choice whether they pay or not.”

Indeed, pump prices are top of mind for Americans as the Iran conflict drags on: 69% of 3,507 Americans surveyed by the Pew Research Center at the end of March said they were very or extremely concerned about higher gas or fuel prices when thinking about US military action in Iran.

That’s already led to changes in how American workers are navigating daily life — rideshare drivers, for instance, are prioritizing the most profitable trips to make their gas expenditures worthwhile. EV owners have taken a victory lap as they plug in. One Business Insider reporter strategically switched to the Costco credit card for gas savings.

Of course, there are plenty of factors that weigh on how Americans view the overall economy, and gas prices alone don’t determine sentiment. For example, the job market has been locked in a low-hire, low-fire “great freeze” for over a year, and the difficult prospects for job seekers are likely weighing on economic opinion as well.

Gas is still likely a looming factor, though. Jacquez said research has shown that “gas prices, consumer sentiment, and political approval all tend to move together, so it’s not surprising to see a sudden rise in gas prices coincide with a crash in consumer sentiment.”

Do you have a story to share about how rising prices and volatility are affecting your economic outlook? Contact these reporters at jkaplan@businessinsider.com and mhoff@businessinsider.com.