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Courtesy of Mission Barns

Dawn, the Yorkshire pig, is quite tasty. But don’t worry. She’s doing perfectly fine, traipsing around a sanctuary in upstate New York. (Word is that she appreciates belly rubs and sunshine.)

Across the country in San Francisco, at an Italian joint just south of Golden Gate Park, diners are enjoying meatballs and bacon not made of meat in the traditional sense but of plants mixed with “cultivated” pork fat. Dawn, you see, donated a small sample of fat, which a company called Mission Barns got to proliferate in devices called bioreactors by providing nutrients like carbohydrates, amino acids, and vitamins — essentially replicating the conditions in her body. Because so much of the flavor of pork and other meats comes from the animal’s fat, Mission Barns can create products like sausages and salami with plants but make them taste darn near like sausages and salami.

It’s like diet meat. Just as Diet Coke is an approximation of the real thing, so too are cultivated meatballs. Some say they simply taste a bit less meaty, which is understandable, as the only animal product in this food is the bioreactor-grown fat.

This story from Grist examines the newest entrant in the effort to rethink meat: cultivated pork. For years, plant-based offerings have been mimicking burgers, chicken, and fish with evermore convincing blends of proteins and fats. Mission Barns is one of a handful of startups taking the next step: growing real animal fat outside the animal, then marrying it with plants to create hybrids that look, cook, and taste more like what consumers have always eaten, easing the environmental and ethical costs of industrial livestock. The company says it’s starting with pork because it’s a large market and products like bacon are fat-rich, but its technology is “cell-agnostic,” meaning it could create beef and chicken, too.

Matt Simon // Grist

Honestly, Mission Barns’ creations taste great, in part because they’re “unstructured,” in the parlance of the industry. A pork loin is a complicated tangle of fat, muscle cells, and connective tissues that is very difficult — and expensive — to replicate, but a meatball, salami, or sausage incorporates other ingredients. That allows Mission Barns to experiment with what plant to use as a base, to which they add spices to accentuate the flavors. It’s a technology that they can iterate, basically, crafting ever-better meats by toying with ingredients in different ratios.

The bacon tasted for the purpose of this story, for instance, had a nice applewood smoke to it. The meatballs had the springiness you’d expect. A later visit to Mission Barns’ headquarters across town revealed two prototypes of its salami as well — both were spic

LightField Studios // Shutterstock

Advancing your career used to mean working long hours, communicating formally, and following strict hierarchies. Baby boomers and Gen Xers placed a high value on loyalty, job stability, and climbing the corporate ladder. They followed clear and traditional career paths, prioritized titles, and often stayed with one company for many years. Overworking, sacrificing personal time, and pushing through burnout were just part of the hustle. The same has been true for many millennials.

Gen Z is changing the paradigm. By 2030, Gen Z will account for 30% of the workforce, and this new wave of workers is replacing the hustle culture with work-life balance, mental health, and flexibility.

Only 36% of Gen Z feel “very engaged” at work (13 points behind the rest of the U.S. workforce), and 91% have faced at least one mental health challenge or burnout. They now expect employers to step up and support them.

Upwork, an online marketplace for hiring skilled freelancers, explains anti-hustle culture and how Gen Z is reshaping the modern work ethic by rebelling against constant grind, avoiding burnout, and prioritizing their well-being.

What is the anti-hustle culture, and where did it come from?

The anti-hustle culture is a mindset that opposes the idea that success requires nonstop busyness and sacrifice, which can lead to burnout. This mindset promotes a more balanced approach to work by prioritizing mental health, self-care, wellness, work-life balance, and overall employee well-being over the constant hustle.

The anti-hustle culture didn’t come out of nowhere. For decades, older generations believed in doing whatever it took to move up, including staying loyal to one company (the antithesis of today’s side-hustle culture), working overtime, and putting career first. Now, younger workers, especially Gen Z, are challenging that model and redefining what success looks like.

Gen Z is looking for work that feels meaningful, offers flexibility, and supports their values and well-being. They’re working to live, not living to work, and for them, work-life balance often ranks as high as pay.

Social media trends

Recent trends like “Bare Minimum Monday” and “Lazy Girl Jobs” across podcasts and social media platforms like TikTok have helped fuel the anti-hustle culture.

Bare Minimum Monday encourages workers to start the week slowly by focusing only on essential tasks. The idea is to ease into Monday, reduce anxiety, and avoid burnout.

Lazy Girl Jobs, a term popularized by TikToker Gabrielle Judge, promotes low-stress, well-paying roles that offer flexibility, better work-life balance, and more job satisfaction, without g

ZikG // Shutterstock

Protein is suddenly everywhere: in ramen, ice cream, pizza, and even soda. Celebs are getting in on the niche protein action, too. Just this year, Khloe Kardashian launched Khloud popcorn, and Serena Williams signed on as health advisor for wellness brand Ritual.

They’re all part of a wave that’s upending the $56 billion protein market. While 70% of U.S. adults actively try to consume protein, according to a 2025 International Food Information Council survey, the forms they’re choosing look nothing like the chalky shakes and dense bars that dominated for years.

On Shopify stores alone, protein coffee sales exploded 507% in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, as traditional shakes plummeted 40%. Entrepreneurs are completely reinventing the protein category with fresh angles. But the brands thriving today aren’t the ones blindly chasing what’s hot. Instead, they’re those led by founders solving genuine problems.

The flavor-first philosophy: Ending chalky aftertaste

When other protein brands were focused on cramming as much protein as possible into their products, Aamir Malkani was obsessing over something else entirely: why everything tasted so terrible.

“Protein products have this reputation,” he says. “People buy them for what they do, not because they enjoy them.” This insight led him to create protein snacks people would actually crave, not merely tolerate.

Malkani launched Plant Up with a line of high-protein plant-based frozen appetizers, followed by healthy snack puffs. His approach flips the category on its head: flavor first, health benefits second.

Prepared protein foods are seeing a 194% year-over-year increase in sales among businesses using the Shopify platform, and Malkani’s products are riding that trend. But what if the protein mania is just a fad? “We talk about ourselves as a functional foods company, not just protein,” he says. “Protein is selling today, so we’re doubling down. Maybe next year it’s creatine or collagen.” (Collagen product sales are up 105% year over year. Maybe he’s onto something.)

Plant Up’s protein puffs eliminated the chalky aftertaste that plagued the category. Though they’re plant-based and protein-packed, the brand chose not to lead with labels that may alienate average consumers. The flavor-first approach has propelled the brand into over 1,600 Canadian stores in three years, with U.S. expansion set for early 2026.

The viral pivot: Turning family drama into brand gold

“93% of drink businesses fail. I pray for you.” It wasn’t the pep talk most founders hope for.

When Vy Cutting received this text from her mother about her protein soda startup, she did what any savvy entrepreneur would do: She posted it on TikTok. The family drama went viral, propelling Feisty Drinks into U.K. retailer Selfridges almost overnight.

Feisty’s viral mother-daughter exchange wasn’t an isolated moment. “My mom thought I was going through a life crisis and was not on board with this