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Fast Company introduces a new series of interviews, in which we ask CEOs and others to don the futurist's wizard hat and gaze into our crystal ball. Our first interview, on the future of music, is with Drew Larner, the CEO of Rdio. News is, rightly, about What Just Happened.

When it comes to debating the issues, the public has a hard time sifting through all the political theater, biases, and endless muckraking. Between boilerplate-spewing press secretaries, 30-second attack ads, and swiftboating, it's often difficult to figure out where candidates and elected officials stand on hot policy topics like health care and the economy without out-of-context buzzwords (Death panels! Socialism!)

The most formulaic of foreign film industries is being forced to innovate. For the first time, a Bollywood film is marketing exclusively via mobile and the web

The Fast Company reader's essential source for breaking news and innovation from around the web--updated all day. Watch Out Pandora Pandora is great--until it foists upon you some lame, unknown artist totally out of left field. MoonPlayer , a sleek, easy-to-use free-streaming service, aims to fix that frustration by playing only artists you select.

Whom do bold thinkers look to for inspiration?

A survey from PBS has revealed something pretty staggering for a $500-plus next-gen computing device: 70% of parents are happy to hand the iPad to their kids, and download child-friendly apps for the rugrats. A new PBS survey has 70% of parents reporting that they allow their kids to use their iPad

May is Small Business Month, and to celebrate we're honoring 31 inspiring stories of small business success. Here's a look at ten of them. Chris Zane is in the experience business

Ashton Kutcher's production company Katalyst has revealed its first output from new hothousing venture IdeaJam. Its partnered with Intel and 48 creative professionals for a narrative experiment that will yield "six, short, digital content units." Here's what that means. Ashton Kutcher's production unit Katalyst has revealed its first output

Apple has filed a number of stunningly promising patents this week--here's a peek at the sweet new features that'll make your current device look lame. Apple has filed a number of stunningly promising patents this week, and combined with news from manufacturing partners and some leaks, here's what may be coming up in future iDevices. iPod Nano with camera We've seen a few rumors that Apple is adding a camera to its tiny touchscreen Nano iPod--bringing back a facility it added to its last-gen Nano at the end of its lifecycle.

It's amazing how quickly technology changes.

Instead of finding ways for our track-tethered trains to go faster, we could just eliminate the track altogether. Friction--it's a real bother, especially for trains.

Google's Music Beta system sounds like a great idea from a user point of view--you get almost instant access to your tunes, no matter where you are or which computing platform you're using (the only downside being its gobbling of bandwidth).

"Win the Future," if you're not into the whole brevity thing. He registered it in '06. Then Obama stole it

States, fearing that more energy-efficient cars mean less money to maintain roads, begin testing a mileage-based tax. I was driving in Minneapolis several weeks ago when I heard on the local radio news that Minnesota would be conducting a study to research whether it made sense for the state to start charging drivers a mileage-based tax

The online retailer is pulling a Netflix, dangling the promise of a rich reward--not to mention some serious bragging rights--to the team that increases customer purchases. Overstock.com is about to pull a Netflix