Manipulation doesn’t always look dramatic or explosive. It could be a loaded comment in a meeting, a subtle guilt trip in an email, or a casual remark that leaves you questioning yourself long after the conversation ends.

What makes manipulators effective is their ability to influence how you feel. Research on social influence and coercive control shows that manipulators aim for emotional impact: the drop in your confidence, the spike in your anxiety, the moment you start defending instead of deciding.

In my decade advising Fortune 500 companies as a behavioral researcher, I’ve seen this pattern at every level: the person who controls the emotional tone often controls the direction of the interaction.

The most powerful response to a manipulator isn’t to confront them. This often backfires, triggering gaslighting, denial, or escalation. Here’s a simple strategy I teach to help you “CUT” through manipulation.

When your nervous system spikes, your thinking narrows and your behavior becomes easier to steer. Studies on emotional regulation show that staying physiologically calm preserves decision quality under pressure. Slow your breath. Lower your voice. Buy yourself a few seconds before responding.

Instead of reacting with:

• Snapping or raising your voice: “Why are you saying that? That’s not true!”
• Over-explaining or defending yourself: “Actually, I did do [X], and here’s why…”
• Appeasing or over-committing when it’s unreasonable: “Okay, I’ll handle it.”
• Getting defensive or anxious: internal panic, self-doubt, or visible agitation.

Try responding with:

• Neutral acknowledgment: “Noted.”
• Redirect to facts or agenda: “Let’s focus on the next step.”
• Brief, calm clarification if necessary: “I understood it differently; here’s what I did.”
• Pause and buy time: a slow breath, or a moment to compose your response before engaging.

By staying neutral in your responses, you remove the emotional fuel that manipulators rely on and shift the interaction back into your control.

Even when your heart is racing, how you show up matters. A relaxed posture, relaxed facial expression, and steady verbal pace signal that there’s nothing to hook into.

Research on status dynamics and dominance signaling shows that the least reactive person is often seen as the most powerful. Staying unfazed tells the manipulator: Your tactics aren’t working on me.

This is where most people slip. They explain, defend, justify, and try to be understood. But feeding the emotional layer is exactly what keeps manipulation alive. Instead, refocus on facts, boundaries, or the task at hand. Pay attention only to what you can control.

Together, these three moves cut off the oxygen from the interaction. You’re no longer a lever that can be pulled. Over time, that shifts the power in your favor.

The most powerful response is far more destabilizing to the manipulator’s strategy: emotional non-cooperation. Calmly, neutrally, and consistently refusing to feed the emotional leverage, you take away the fuel that sustains their behavior. When emotional leverage disappears, the manipulation often stops.

Shadé Zahrai is an award-winning peak performance educator, behavioral researcher, leadership strategist, and author of “Big Trust: Rewire Self-Doubt, Find Your Confidence, and Fuel Success.” Recognized as one of LinkedIn’s Top 50 Most Impactful People, she supports leaders at some of the world’s biggest brands, including Microsoft, Deloitte, Procter & Gamble, and JPMorgan.

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Home prices are expected to rise by about 2.2% nationally in 2026, but some large U.S. cities — mostly in the Midwest and Northeast — could see prices climb much faster.

That’s according to a recent Realtor.com forecast, which projects “a more balanced” housing market as higher inventory slows overall price growth. Even so, the moderation isn’t expected to be evenly felt.

“The Midwest and Northeast have maintained strong demand despite the broader slowdown, largely due to persistent inventory scarcity,” Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com, tells CNBC Make It.

While many markets in the South and West are seeing price growth flatten or turn negative as new construction adds supply, cities in the Midwest and Northeast have added fewer homes in recent years, which has helped kept prices moving higher, according to Realtor.com.

Here are the 11 large U.S. cities expected to see the biggest home-price increases in 2026:

1. Toledo, Ohio

• Expected 2026 price growth: 13.1%
• Median home price: $199,900

2. Syracuse, New York

• Expected 2026 price growth: 12.4%
• Median home price: $298,950

3. Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton, Pennsylvania

• Expected 2026 price growth: 10.9%
• Median home price: $260,000

4. Rochester, New York

• Expected 2026 price growth: 10.3%
• Median home price: $256,900

5. Hartford–West Hartford–East Hartford, Connecticut

• Expected 2026 price growth: 9.5%
• Median home price: $429,000

6. Baltimore–Columbia–Towson, Maryland

• Expected 2026 price growth: 8.3%
• Median home price: $375,000

7. New Haven–Milford, Connecticut

• Expected 2026 price growth: 7.7%
• Median home price: $439,000

8. Winston-Salem, North Carolina

• Expected 2026 price growth: 7.7%
• Median home price: $342,899

9. Albany–Schenectady–Troy, New York

• Expected 2026 price growth: 7.5%
• Median home price: $419,900

10. Columbia, South Carolina

• Expected 2026 price growth: 7.2%
• Median home price: $303,300

11. Milwaukee–Waukesha–West Allis, Wisconsin

• Expected 2026 price growth: 7%
• Median home price: $379,000

Realtor.com’s metro-level forecasts are based on its own listings data, along with local inventory levels, new construction activity, employment and income trends, and mortgage rate expectations.

What those projections show is that in markets where very little housing has been added, even modest demand is enough to keep prices rising — especially in smaller Midwest and Northeast cities. By contrast, in markets where construction has been heavier, home prices in some areas are expected to fall by as much as 10% in 2026.

The metros with the highest expected gains “have seen very limited new housing development, keeping supply tight,” says Jones. At the same time, most of these cities have home prices “well below national averages,” she says.

Overall, only three of the 11 cities on the list have median listing prices above the U.S. median of about $415,000 as of late 2025.

Toledo stands out in particular for its relative affordability. The city’s median home price of about $199,900 is well below Ohio’s statewide median of roughly $275,000, per Realtor’s data.

Another factor is proximity to larger urban hubs.

“In the Northeast, demand has remained elevated as buyers seek more affordable, commutable alternatives to large, high-cost metros, such as New York and Boston,” says Jones. “Because new construction has lagged in many of these older, built-out Northeastern markets, supply constraints remain acute, amplifying the price impact of even modest demand growth.”

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In 2020, Tyler and Lindsey Dobson started upcycling furniture they found on the street to furnish their home in St. Petersburg, Florida. But their hobby would soon turn into a lucrative side hustle and eventually transform their lives as they leveled up to flipping entire homes.

“As we accumulated more and more [furniture], we didn’t have space in our house,” Tyler tells CNBC Make It. “So we decided that we could make a run at doing this for a nice side hustle, and it just kind of rolled from there.”

At first, the couple flipped about one to two pieces of furniture a week, earning about $500 a month in profit by taking discarded items like dressers and chairs and refinishing them. They say that grew to around $1,000 a month as they dedicated more time to upcycling.

They also started pulling in extra money from brand deals and social media payouts as they grew a following sharing videos of their furniture flips — and later, home renovations — on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.

Flipping homes was a “natural progression,” Lindsey says. In addition to filling it with upcycled furniture, the couple began making renovations and additions to their own home. When they moved in 2021, they were able to sell it for $352,500 — more than double what Tyler had paid for it in 2018.

The Dobsons bought and moved into another St. Petersburg home in 2021, selling it in 2025 after completing another live-in renovation. The two homes brought in a combined profit of $559,702. 

Between 2020 and 2024, they renovated and sold four other Florida homes for a total profit of $577,000, minus capital gains taxes they paid on the sales. In total, they’ve earned over $1.1 million from flipping homes since 2020, before taxes.

“We’re crazy,” Lindsey says. “Every time we finish a house, especially one we live in, I don’t know what’s wrong with us … once there’s no projects left, we just get the itch to do it again.”

It’s worked out so far. Lindsey left her marketing job in July 2021 and Tyler followed soon after, leaving his finance job in 2022. They hadn’t fully replaced their annual 9-to-5 incomes yet, but they felt confident taking the “leap of faith” to rely on their social media income and the profits they would bring in from flipping homes, Lindsey says.

Still, the Dobsons say they don’t consider themselves full-time house flippers. For them, it’s more of a lifestyle choice; while they do renovate homes and sell them for a profit, they typically live in the homes they’re working on.

This strategy also allows them to keep more of what they earn because married taxpayers can exclude up to $500,000 in capital gains when they sell their primary residence, if they meet certain eligibility rules. That includes living in the home for at least two of the five years prior to the sale date and not taking the exclusion within the prior two years before a sale.

“Renovating homes has simply become a way to design a life with more flexibility, creativity and freedom from conventional full-time jobs,” Lindsey says.

They aren’t interested in scaling up into a full-fledged flipping business. While the flips they don’t live in have helped support their vision for a lifestyle free from 9-to-5 work, the homes the Dobsons live in while renovating are their main focus.

“Fixing them up, living in them, furnishing them with all of our free and secondhand pieces and then eventually moving on have been our most financially rewarding, as well as personally meaningful, projects,” Lindsey says.

The combined income from their home sales and social media lets the Dobsons live comfortably and mortgage-free. They bought their current residence, a 1930s craftsman-style home in Springfield, Missouri, in March 2025. While they may sell it in the future, they’re not in a rush. They’re taking their time with renovations and expect to take a few years to fully complete their vision.

The Dobsons earn anywhere from a couple thousand dollars to $8,000 a month from social media, they say. It varies based on how well their videos perform and whether they have a brand deal.

“We primarily are just working on our own home and renovating it and filming our projects on social media to fund it,” Lindsey says. “We’re luckily able to still live on all of our reserves from the proceeds of our [previous] home sale.”

The couple still owns a home in Florida they rent out for $2,500 a month, and they continue to search for other investment properties. In October 2025, they bought another home in Springfield, which they plan to renovate and sell for a profit.

The couple’s income totaled around $95,000 in 2024, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. That includes earnings from their social media content, brand deals and profits from a home sale.

The Dobsons are able to continue living and supporting their flipping lifestyle without full-time jobs in part because they keep their expenses fairly low.

They bought their current residence and recent investment property in cash, so they don’t have monthly mortgage payments. And moving to Missouri has nearly halved their property taxes and home insurance costs, Lindsey says, so they are able to invest more of their money back into their projects.

“We’re both very frugal, so I think any way we can try to stick to a budget, we do that,” she says. “We definitely do our due diligence before purchasing a property and make sure that it’s going to be a safe investment for our family.”

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Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos doesn’t have management books stashed in his work bag, on his desk or piled on his nightstand.

Sarandos doesn’t really read management books at all, he said in an interview for an episode of CNBC’s “Leaders Playbook,” a series set to premiere on Wednesday. Instead, he reads fiction novels to learn about leadership, he said. His favorite management book: “Typhoon,” a 1902 novella by Joseph Conrad about a steamship captain and crew navigating a severe storm while at sea.

“It doesn’t sound like a management story on the surface, but I think it’s the most powerful leadership story I’ve ever read,” said Sarandos, 61. “I read it over and over again because I find … I get something different in the book every time I read it.”

When Sarandos first read the book roughly 20 years ago, he thought the captain was a reckless “hot dog” who put himself and his family in jeopardy, he said. On more recent reads, he’s come away with a more salient lesson about leading in the face of conflict and uncertainty.

“Now, what I see is that when you go through life and you go through business, you make a lot of decisions that don’t turn out the way you thought they would,” said Sarandos. “The real leadership test is: How do you manage through that?”

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Sarandos joined Netflix as its head of content operations in 2000, and further learned how to embrace uncertainty while working for Netflix co-founder and former CEO Reed Hastings, he said. “I think the lesson that he’s left for me is that you pick the best people, give them the tools to do the best work of their life, and get out of their way,” said Sarandos.

He recalled a specific instance in which he acted with a lot of autonomy, taking “a big financial swing” with no guaranteed payoff. About a decade into his tenure at the streaming company, Sarandos spent $100 million of Netflix’s money to create the company’s first original television series, “House of Cards” and greenlight it for two seasons — without asking Hastings for permission, he said.

“When he asked me, ‘Why would you do that?’ I said, ‘Reed, it’s a simple risk-reward for me. If this show fails, we will have dramatically overpaid for a show. We do that all the time, but if it succeeds, we could completely transform the business as we know it,’” said Sarandos.

Sarandos isn’t the only prominent businessperson who draws inspiration from fictional stories.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ leadership style has been partially shaped by Kazuo Ishiguro’s “The Remains of the Day,” according to author Brad Stone’s biography “The Everything Store.” Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates frequently touts the value of reading fiction, noting in a Nov. 25 blog post that some novels can ”[pull] back the curtain on how something important really works.”

Anyone can glean real-life takeaways from novels if they practice summarizing the plot, analyzing the motivations of the characters and spend time drawing parallels between the conflict in the book and issues they may face at work, Northwestern University leadership professor Brooke Vuckovic told CNBC Make It in January 2023.

“Our best leaders are looking for ways to develop themselves, and fiction represents an often underused and incredibly powerful, low cost, ongoing, pleasurable way to develop ourselves — if read correctly,” said Vuckovic.

Watch Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos on CNBC’s “Leaders Playbook” premiering Wednesday, Jan. 7 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT. All new episodes Wednesdays.

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If you want to live longer and feel better, stop chasing food fads.

Every few months, a new “miracle” plan — keto, intermittent fasting, carnivore, raw — promises to fix everything. Most don’t. Even those that show modest benefits rarely deliver results worth the time, effort, and mental energy they demand.

As an Harvard-trained oncologist and world leader in health policy, I’ve spent decades researching what actually improves health outcomes. The answer to a longer life is so simple: Good nutrition is about building about habits you can sustain for years, not weeks.

While you should consult your physician before changing your diet, as individual needs vary, here are six nutrition myths I wish more people would let go of.

The average adult consumes nearly 500 calories a day from snacks, much of it from ultra-processed foods like chips, cookies and packaged desserts. These foods are engineered to encourage overeating.

In one study, participants eating ultra-processed foods consumed more calories and gained two pounds in just two weeks compared with those eating whole foods, even when calories were matched. These foods are also linked to higher all-cause mortality.

Not all snacks are harmful. Research shows that healthy snacks can improve overall diet quality. Nuts, fruit, yogurt, hummus and vegetables provide fiber, protein and healthy fats that promote fullness without blood sugar spikes.

Most Americans already consume enough protein. Recommended intake is roughly 0.75 to 1.0 grams per kilogram of body weight per day (about 45 to 70 grams for most women and 55 to 90 grams for most men).

Protein powders aren’t a solution either. In one analysis, two-thirds of tested protein powders contained unsafe levels of lead. There are exceptions:

• Adults over 60, who lose muscle mass with age, may benefit from about 1.2 g/kg
• Athletes or people recovering from illness may need up to 1.5 g/kg

For everyone else, whole-food sources (beans, lentils, yogurt, fish) are safer and more beneficial than supplements or excessive red meat.

Only about 7% of American adults meet recommended fiber intake, and that’s a serious problem.

High-fiber diets are linked to lower risk of colorectal cancer, reduced rates of Type 2 diabetes, and a 31% lower risk of death from coronary heart disease.

But fiber supplements aren’t a perfect shortcut. Most contain just one type of fiber and don’t replicate the complex, diverse fibers found in whole foods. Only a small fraction show meaningful clinical benefits.

Fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains remain the most effective way to support gut health.

Dairy consumption is associated with lower risk of Type 2 diabetes and improved growth in children — regardless of fat content.

The idea that higher-fat dairy causes weight gain isn’t supported by evidence. In fact, studies show children who consume whole-fat dairy have lower odds of overweight and obesity than those consuming low-fat versions. Adults show similar trends.

Fat content alone doesn’t determine health. Whole-fat dairy can fit into a balanced diet, especially when it replaces ultra-processed “low-fat” alternatives.

Choose the version you enjoy and can sustain.

For decades, Americans were told fat makes you fat. This has been proven wrong. Yet as dietary fat intake declined, obesity and diabetes rates surged.

Healthy fats are essential. Many calorie-dense foods — nuts, olive oil, full-fat dairy, even dark chocolate — are associated with less weight gain than processed grains and sugary snacks.

Liquid plant oils, especially extra-virgin olive oil, have strong evidence behind them. Even half a tablespoon per day has been associated with a 19% lower risk of death over nearly 30 years.

Fat isn’t the enemy. It’s the ultra-processed, low-fiber, high-sugar foods that drive weight gain and metabolic disease.

Many people believe an extra workout can cancel out unhealthy eating. Unfortunately, you can’t. There’s more than a grain of truth to the saying, “you are what you eat.”

A recent study found that humans burn roughly the same number of calories per day regardless of activity level. Exercise improves health, but it doesn’t provide the calorie “bonus” people expect. What and how much you eat is what moves the needle on weight.

That said, exercise is still essential. It improves sleep, mood, cognition, bone density and social connection. Walking, especially with other people, is one of the most effective and accessible forms.

Good nutrition is simply about designing a life where healthy choices are ones that are easy and that you stick to for years: whole foods like fruits, nuts, and vegetables, modest portions and meals shared with people you like.

Skip the detoxes. Keep the olive oil. And yes, sometimes eat your ice cream. 

Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel is an oncologist, Vice Provost and Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, and author of “Eat Your Ice Cream: 6 Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life.” Previously, he was chair of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Emanuel received his MD from Harvard Medical School.

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