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Elise Hu
This episode is brought to you by Car Gurus. You know, sometimes I think about how good design solves real problems. And car shopping? That's a problem that desperately needs better design. The uncertainty of buying a car can be exhausting. Is this price fair? Is there a better deal two clicks away? You shouldn't need a detective's intuition to feel confident about a major purchase. That's where Cargurus comes in. They've redesigned the entire experience, ensuring a transparent and hassle free buying process. With more car listings than any other major online automotive marketplace in the US you can actually compare and find the best deal. Real data driven ratings, price drop alerts, verified dealers. It removes the confusion from the equation. It's no wonder similar web estimated traffic data shows Cargurus is the number one most visited car shopping site. Buy or sell your next car today. With CarGurus@CarGurus.com Go to CarGurus.com to make sure your big deal is the best deal. That's C A r G u r u s.com cargurus.com. You're listening to TED Talks Daily where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. What do foot massage parties, otters and AI robot tutors have in common? It all sounds a bit ridiculous, but I promise there's a through line in this first of its kind episode of TED Talks Daily. I am excited to share with you a special conversation I got to host with hosts of some of ted's other podcasts in the collective. Manouch Zomorodi of TED Radio Hour, Madupe Akinola of TED Business and Shirelle Dorsey of TED Tech. So the four of us got to sit down together to reflect on the year that was and look ahead to 2026. From pushing back against AI advances to sharing the TED talks that inspired us. We discussed what we thought were some of the biggest news stories and ideas of the year, and the lesser known insights that we wished got more attention. I'm so excited to share this one with you. Hope you enjoy. Hey everyone, welcome. I'm Elise Hu. I'm a journalist, author and the host of TED Talks Daily and I'm here with the most incredible group of people and friends. I am with the hosts of some of ted's flagship podcasts. If each of you could say who you are and talk a little bit about your show.
Madupe Akinola
Madupe I am Madupe Akinola. I am the host of the TED Business Podcast where we talk about exciting ideas in business and share a TED Talk with you.
Shirelle Dorsey
Sherrelle I'm Sherrell Dorsey. I am a journalist and author and the host of the TED Tech Podcast. We talk about everything that you know sits at the intersection of both technology and humanity while also introducing talks that you may or may not have heard from the TED stage.
Elise Hu
I'm Anoosh.
Manoush Zomorodi
I'm Anoosh zomorodi. I host NPR's Ted Radio Hour and every week we take a number of talks and go behind the scenes to speak to people about the research that they're doing, how they've done, the work that they've done, and what they're thinking about in the future and hopefully make you think more expansively about the world.
Elise Hu
Hello everyone.
Manoush Zomorodi
Yeah, it's so nice to be with you all.
Shoshana
I know.
Shirelle Dorsey
Finally.
Elise Hu
I'm so excited to get to moderate this conversation because this is the first time we're all Coming together like this. And we're getting together towards the end of 2025. What a year it's been. And so we're reflecting on the year that was and to offer some thoughts and projections on what might be coming up. But before we get there, I thought we'd do a little icebreaker.
Manoush Zomorodi
Okay.
Elise Hu
If you had $1,000 to spend on a party, what would you do?
Manoush Zomorodi
I'll go first. It's Minouche. I think foot massages are really underrated. But part of the thing is if you ask someone you love to give you a foot massage, you like, feel bad, there's guilt. So pay, pay for foot massages and delicious snacks and just a total relaxation party. That's what I'm doing after 2025, at least I need it.
Elise Hu
Yeah, yeah, I love that. It's, it's self care, but everyone else care too. Just have everyone else and we don't have to talk.
Manoush Zomorodi
As the introvert, we don't have to talk.
Madupe Akinola
I love it.
Shirelle Dorsey
That's so good. That's so good. Okay, so for the last couple of years I focused my birthday parties like not on big grand dinners and fancy outfits. It's been about play and like getting 30 and 40 year old people like to play. And so if I had a thousand dollars to spend on a party, I would do another Beat the Bomb party.
Elise Hu
What's that?
Shirelle Dorsey
And so you, so you, first of all, you have to get dressed up in these hazmat suits and you split up into teams of two and you go into these dark rooms where you have to solve a puzzle in a certain amount of time and you gotta work together to solve the puzzle. They're very tricky. And you get a certain allotment of time for each room. If you solve the puzzle early, then you go into the next room, then.
Manoush Zomorodi
You come to get. To come to my foot massage party.
Shirelle Dorsey
Exactly. Because. Yes, because you've been working your, you've been working your brain in your body. You gotta go in and under lasers like mission impossible. And then at the end we, when you have finished all the puzzles, you go into the last room, which is getting a robot through a maze and you have to work together. Now you have all of your time that you allocated throughout your puzzle solving. And that is the only, that is the amount of time that you have to solve this last puzzle. If you do not solve it before the robot gets to its destination, then the bomb goes off and you are splattered with spray paint and it is the coolest thing on the planet.
Elise Hu
I had never heard of this before, but it's like bringing an escape room to your house or a series of escape rooms.
Shirelle Dorsey
Exactly, exactly. So, yeah, that's what I would spend a thousand dollars on that.
Madupe Akinola
All right. I'm not sure how I follow that, but I would say I'm a big believer in silence and slowing the mind down. So I would spend it on just doing a sound bath or something like that and folks getting together and just talking through the real stuff that's on their minds. So that's, I think, what I would spend. But in my mind, I actually thought you said $100,000. And I would also have people fly everyone into some neat place and just have an artist that we love just perform.
Elise Hu
That was my like a succession kind of party. Yes, like the parties you see on stage.
Madupe Akinola
That's the vision.
Elise Hu
That's the vision. I recently found out through a friend who had a birthday party this way that you can have a hibachi chef come to your house with the whole like hibachi grill, you know, like Benihana or. But at your house in your yard or something. And they'll like, they'll do all the tricks, you know, and crack the egg and stuff with the side of the turner and then spray the sake from a water gun into your mouth and all those things. And that's about $1,000, I think.
Shirelle Dorsey
So that's interesting. Okay. The more, you know, it's a fun crew, it's possible, lots of fun ideas. We'll just have to rotate at each other's place.
Madupe Akinola
Right. I better be invited. Hello. We can't conceptualize these things and then not each them.
Elise Hu
Exactly, exactly. Okay, well, we have working at TED in common and the motto of course is ideas change everything. So let's start our conversation with an idea that you heard this year that you think about a lot and you think could change everything in the respective fields that your show covers. Shirelle, why don't we have you go first?
Shirelle Dorsey
Yeah. You know what, I will say it wasn't just like one particular person, but I think the recurring theme was about like infrastructure level technologies that are actually shaping the future of sustainability. You know, innovation not just for innovation's sake, but to kind of apply these principles towards getting to green energy faster. Right. Semiconductors faster. Like churning out this idea of nuclear really being an option and being able to do it at a smaller scale versus these like 10 and 20 year projects. And so there was more of like, how do we rethink the infrastructure that we already have? And Use the tools that we already have and now use these technologies as a route to advancing this work quicker, faster, more efficiently, and definitely cheaper.
Madupe Akinola
What I was going to say actually builds on that. I think that the notion that growth is good and that all growth is good is something that we need to really step back and think more about. And, you know, we operate in this boom and bust cycle and it feels like we never learn from it. And so there's some type of reckoning where we need to recognize like it's okay to grow slow. And I want us to think more about that.
Elise Hu
Yeah. And I actually thought the pandemic when we were all locked down and had to take a beat and all of the wheels of capitalism had to take a beat was a moment for that record.
Madupe Akinola
Yes.
Elise Hu
Only.
Manoush Zomorodi
Only not.
Elise Hu
We all just went back to work, exactly the same model.
Madupe Akinola
So how do we slow down in some ways?
Manoush Zomorodi
Yeah. I mean, there was actually a very specific moment that I think a lot about. I got to interview Ray Kurzweil, the AI pioneer who came up with the term the singularity, the idea that humans and machines will merge into one. And he's in his late 70s now and says, you know, he doesn't plan on dying, which. Okay. And he told me this crazy story about how he went out to lunch with the Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel Kahneman and thinking fast and slow guy. Exactly. And Kahneman was, you know, said, I have a plan. I'm gonna take my life when I turn 90, I'm gonna go to Switzerland. And Kurzweil said, you know, why would you do that? The tech is moving. So this is. Don't do it. And he did. And Ray Kurzweil, you know, is really. I think he's still puzzled by that. And flummox that people don't understand or don't believe that there's going to be such an acceleration in terms of finding medical treatments and different ways of extending our lives. And whether he's right or not, I don't know. But this idea of the two of them coming together and having this conversation over lunch and how upset Ray was, like, it just really struck me. It's two humans trying to figure out what do we do with our lifespan and with completely two different perspectives on it. And I just was really touched by the conversation.
Elise Hu
They say there are no bad ideas in brainstorming, but what is an idea that y' all heard that you really want to challenge and push back on or want to reframe, maybe that you saw on the TED stage? Or in your conversations.
Shirelle Dorsey
Yeah, so I'll. This one, this one I found really problematic. There's an episode around like seniors and robots and essentially like having robots be physical assistance, like a robot suit be a physical assistant to an elder. And the thinking was just because you get older doesn't mean that you have to stop participating in society. Like from a productivity standpoint that, hey, like, you know, even if you can't lift a box, like wearing this robot suit will help you to like lift boxes. How far is too far? Like, are we only innovating around this idea that the future of work is continuous work versus I think what the promises of artificial intelligence is supposed to be cut back on work. Right. So that we can do things that are much more human esque, whatever that looks like these days. And I think we get a lot of that on the TED stage of like, here's this cool new innovative idea. But always like we never really take a chance to sit back and say is this necessary? Just because we can't do it?
Elise Hu
Yeah, Madhupe, I see you nodding.
Madupe Akinola
Yeah, I mean I'm, I would say that I'm sure we're going to touch on AI a ton, so I'm not going to even talk about that in this conversation right here. But, but there was this New York Times article that came out towards the end of last year, beginning of this year, about how CEOs are tripping. And by that they meant they're using psychedelics more to help them in terms of ego depletion and come up with new creative ideas and help them get unstuck. And I kind of felt like there are other ways than going on expensive retreats to figure out how to address some of the big challenges that we're dealing with in society. And I'm actually very open to all types and forms of self knowledge and whatever it takes I'm okay with. But I do feel like we always go externally to kind of get clarity, but there's so much internally where we can go. And so there was something about that that I just felt we needed more of.
Manoush Zomorodi
Wait, so you're saying they were dropping acid? Is that what you're talking about?
Elise Hu
Or ketamine.
Manoush Zomorodi
Or ketamine or whatever else. Isn't that a, isn't that an attempt to go more internally though?
Madupe Akinola
So yes, I do think it's an attempt to go more internally, but I just feel like that as the panacea is not, it's not sustainable and it's not accessible to everybody. So I'm not saying that it's a terrible idea. I'm just saying that, you know, I pushed back a little bit on it. And sometimes I think we forget about ways that are really around us and leveraging the people around us to go internally more. Your employees, your colleagues, and all that. And I also think that, you know, our leaders are people that we look up to and respect and admire. And if there are also more accessible forms of going internally, then I want role models of that, too.
Manoush Zomorodi
Interesting.
Elise Hu
Minouche, what did you want to push back on this year? Well, what made you raise an eyebrow?
Manoush Zomorodi
Well, you know, so many things. Gosh. But I would say for me, I had this really great conversation with Victor Ripparbelli. He owns an AI avatar company where you can create a video with an extremely lifelike looking avatar who will, you know, give instructions to your entire employees about, you know, how to use a piece of equipment. But he posited that in the future, every kid will have their own personal AI tutor. Avatar tutor. Yeah. Maybe you remember him. And, you know, he was trying to push our buttons, right? So part of it was like, reading and writing won't be necessary. It'll just be conversations with these avatars. And, I mean, no one I talk to actually thinks that's a great idea. And when I said that to him, he's like, I actually don't think that's a great idea either. He's like, I'm just trying to provoke people to really understand how much this AI video thing is coming. And, like, this kind of conversation was, you know, earlier in the year, in 2025, and here we are, and look how fast things have moved. Every time somebody is like, that's not going to happen. I feel like it does next week.
Elise Hu
Yes.
Manoush Zomorodi
So, like, I feel like ditto. I don't want us to keep not pushing back or thinking things are bad ideas because they are inevitable. That's the weird sort of tension that I keep. Like, remember why you thought this was a bad idea. It isn't inevitable how we. We use it. And maybe they're tripping that much that. That' they're coming up with these ideas. Mandupe. I don't know. But, like. And maybe all these things go hand in hand, actually. So, yeah, that was mine.
Elise Hu
All right, what about surprises, y'?
Madupe Akinola
All?
Elise Hu
Anything that you were particularly surprised about or changed your perspective that stands out now that we're looking back. Minouche, you want to take it first? Yeah.
Manoush Zomorodi
I'm thinking about otters. Not AI, but otters.
Elise Hu
I had the most the otters.
Manoush Zomorodi
Sea and brackish otters. Yes.
Elise Hu
Okay.
Manoush Zomorodi
So the reason why I'm thinking about them is I had this wonderful conversation with a researcher in Singapore who studies ways that, you know, the otter population, I had no idea, is actually quite large in Singapore. And otters get super territorial, so it's kind of like gang warfare in certain places. And they're. Yeah, it gets dangerous. There's a lot of fighting. This is my section of the river, et cetera. And however, his whole thing was like, this is the future. If there's going to be so many humans, we have to make space for our wildlife. We need to create cities where you can have this sort of integration of animal, human animals and other wildlife animals. And we need to be respectful of them. And to him, there was a way that this actually was a great maybe example of living in harmony that we could all take a note out of. And, you know, I live in New York, so it's rat city essentially every single day. But I just, I love this idea of people, like, enjoying them, you know, really observing the otters in their own habitat, which was also their habitat, you know, it was kind of cool.
Elise Hu
Yeah, I. I never really think that much about otters.
Manoush Zomorodi
I know, it's a fun one.
Elise Hu
What a lesson that they teach us.
Shirelle Dorsey
I love otters. They're like one of my favorite animals. So this is really fascinating. I'm gonna have to do a deep dive there.
Manoush Zomorodi
Yeah.
Shirelle Dorsey
Cause, you know, like, when they sleep.
Madupe Akinola
Yeah.
Shirelle Dorsey
Well, so like, when they go to sleep, they, like, with their friend, they, like, lay on their backs and they hold each other so they don't drift away from each other. And so in high school, my best friend. This is totally irrelevant, but in high school, my best friend and I, we used to send photos of otters together because we, like, just loved each other so much because it was like our favorite animal, like, this is us. We're like, never gonna leave. That's so cute. Anyway, okay, so interesting things that I feel like, really surprised me this year is there's such a tremendous emphasis on sustainable cement. And I don't know how often you all think about cement, but I never think about cement. But it's. It truly is like a high emitting, like, toxic contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. And there's, like, major companies that are reworking the material development of cement to make it much more sustainable and then also a lot cheaper. And considering it's like one of the most consumed materials on Earth and they're. They contribute so much to carbon pollution at whole innovation in this space can drastically, like, cut down on global emissions if we do this in a sustainable way. So that was super surprising, I think, to. To be able to kind of listen into this talk and then to also have external conversations with companies that are, like, the world's largest in terms of supplying commercial industries with this material that no one thinks about, especially if you're not in that industry at all.
Elise Hu
Yeah. Madhupe, what about you?
Madupe Akinola
So there was a speaker, Satoyo Lopokoyet, who founded M Pesa, which is a fintech company in Africa. It started in Kenya, and I teach a course on new business opportunities in East Africa and in Rwanda. And I just loved how his idea of starting this company just came out of him saying, okay, what can I do differently? What is a problem that we're trying to solve? Who is really not getting access to certain opportunities or to certain markets? And it was founded that way. And, you know, you can pause and say, well, is that really surprising? But to me, anything and any idea that starts with a who can I help and what can I fix? Is really surprising because it didn't exist before. And so that one really brought me joy, especially seeing farmers using it in Rwanda or people who, again, had little access to financial institutions just being all about this new technology.
Elise Hu
Yeah, that was a great conversation on stage in April at the TED conference in Vancouver. I keep thinking back to the TikTok guy who makes chocolate, like, really intricate chocolate creations.
Shirelle Dorsey
The chocolate guy?
Elise Hu
Yeah, the chocolate guy is one that really surprised me. I just think there's something so relentlessly human about doing these sorts of things. Right. Like, we've been trying to get rid of things on Facebook, Marketplace, and my partner is writing these, like, hilarious captions to sell the items. And it's like, AI would never do that. You know, it's just like, I'm having fun for the sake of not commerce, but just because I like creating.
Manoush Zomorodi
Is it working?
Elise Hu
Yeah. Some people have written just to say, hey, I'm not buying this, but I really love the copyrightings.
Madupe Akinola
That's great.
Manoush Zomorodi
I love it.
Shirelle Dorsey
I'm gonna have to try that.
Madupe Akinola
It speaks to Cherelle talking about playing. We need to play more and have fun more. And if it's chocolate clocks that does it for you, then make chocolate clocks, you know?
Elise Hu
Right. I think we have to kind of insist on being human as so much is being digitized or taken over.
Shirelle Dorsey
Yeah, I love that.
Elise Hu
All right, what's an important idea that you heard from your industry or just on the stage in your Conversations that you wish would have received more attention. So something that's sort of under reported or under talked about.
Manoush Zomorodi
I can go with that one. I've been thinking about this a lot and I'm. I. I feel like AI. AI shmaei. Right. But I'm gonna say it anyway because I went to a talk where the. The audience was very upset about AI because of the carbon footprint that it has. Sure, True, sure. However, I think we haven't done a very good job in explaining that AI encompasses many, many, many different things, not just ChatGPT or Claude or large language models. And one of the conversations I just had was with Sarah Beery. She's an MIT conservationist and environmental AI researcher. Is. Yeah, but we don't have to use those massive AI models that take up all that energy. There are ways of using very small, discrete data sets that give you a ton of information. So, for example, Inaturalist, the app where people upload, you know, photos. There are scientists who are using that and discovering all kinds of crazy things that are like you wouldn't be looking for in your picture of a blue jay, but behind the blue jay is a leaf. And that explains a lot about what time of year it is and why that blue jay has that kind of plumage at that point.
Shoshana
Point.
Manoush Zomorodi
And her point was, I don't need a huge AI to do that. I can take these smaller sets. They don't use as much power, they have oversized benefits. And when we say AI, that doesn't mean everything. So that's where I feel like we need to be more specific.
Shirelle Dorsey
I'll jump in here. Yes. Yes to all those things. I really enjoyed that talk as well, and it's got me thinking very differently. So one of the things that I will say both worries me and I feel like we need to have stronger conversations is the actual relationships to AI and like, how do we handle grief and create these tools for ourselves to emote with that are now serving as a therapist or, like us, almost a partner. Right. There's this kind of blurred line between how we are sharing so much of ourselves with these particular either devices or apps.
Manoush Zomorodi
Right.
Shirelle Dorsey
And, like, we're way too intimate. We're having way too many intimate relationships when we need to, like, really be teetering back towards relationships with other human beings. And so I feel like we could have had more exploration there. And maybe that's something we look at next year of, like, how are we engaging? And then also, what are some of the regulations and ethics around, you know, well, what happens if someone is looking to harm themselves. What happens if some kind of nefarious information is put into some of these tools? And how do we mitigate that? Or how do we at least route people towards human in person interaction? And then how do we also redefine our relationship with relying heavily on these tools to solve truly what requires human connection? And so, yeah, that to me, I think, is a large conversation that we need to have more of.
Madupe Akinola
I mean, to that point of what tools or what requires human connection. You made me think about how we think about hiring and recruiting people. One thing that has been really disappointing that I've heard from folks who are like, looking for jobs or looking to transfer within their organizations is the sheer number of interviews that they're having. There are people who are having 10 to 20 interviews because now we can do it online and then still not even getting the job, and then not even getting information saying that they didn't get the job. They just have to assume, right?
Elise Hu
You get ghosted.
Madupe Akinola
You get ghosted. This is insane. This is insane. And it's problematic because I do think it also introduces more bias because the more people you see, the more certain biases might be augmented depending on your background, depending on so many different features or factors. I mean, I think that the point is for our digital systems to become efficient enough that they're not weeding out in a way that replicates inequality, right? Or they're able to really understand and attend to who would be a good fit and why and whatever. So I think we need to pay more attention to that and how we still haven't figured out how to be equitable in our ways of recruiting and retaining people. On the flip side of that, I was talking, talking to a friend who works at a consulting company and he said that they've been really good about how they do their interviews. Usually they used to just, you know, see a bunch of people and then each interviewer would like rank order the person and then, you know, make a decision, but they don't rank order anymore. They kind of put people in buckets of A, B, C and D type of thing. So whereas before you might have been a 1, 2, or 3, if you're in the A bucket, it kind of makes it easier for people not to be biased because they're not saying, is it right for me to select a 3 over a 2? But instead of saying, no, these are all A's and we can pick out of these A's. And when you do it that way, it actually leads to less bias in the decision making process. So I wish some of the tools that companies are using to ensure that they are promoting equity and get more attention. I think in certain domains that's where we need to use our AI and our humans. If the AI isn't doing it right, then we need to work with humans to perfect what the AI is missing.
Elise Hu
Well, we're going to take a quick break and we'll look ahead to next year and some of the questions or open questions that you have and that y' all are thinking about. We'll be right back.
Shoshana
Hey there. This is Shoshana, host of the TED Health Podcast. This episode is brought to you by Masterclass. The holidays can get a little overwhelming. The gift lists, the scrolling, the feeling of trying to do a hundred things at once. I needed something that actually felt grounding. So I spent some time on Masterclass and honestly, it's been such a gift. I've been taking a class on generative AI, learning how to use these tools as a creative partner instead of something to be intimidated by. It's completely changed how I think about my work and even sparked ideas I probably never would have come up with on my own. With Masterclass you get unlimited access to over 200 classes from world class instructors. Whether it's exploring AI, strengthening your relationships with Esther Perel, or building better habits with James Clear, there's something for everyone across 13 categories. Perfect for holiday travel. You can download classes to watch offline. Plus every membership comes with a 30 day money back guarantee. Masterclass always has great offers during the holidays, sometimes up to as much as 50% off. Head over to MasterClass.com TedTalksDaily for the current offer that's up to 50% off at MasterClass.com TedTalksdaily MasterClass.com TedTalks Daily.
Elise Hu
This episode is brought to you by Cargurus. You know, sometimes I think about how good design solves real problems. And car shopping? That's a problem that desperately needs better design. The uncertainty of buying a car can be exhausting. Is this price fair? Is there a better deal two clicks away? You shouldn't need a detective's intuition to feel confident about a major purchase. That's where Cargurus comes in. They've redesigned the entire experience, ensuring a transparent and hassle free buying process. With more car listings than any other major online automotive marketplace in the US you can actually compare and find the best deal. Real data driven ratings, price drop alerts, verified dealers. It removes the confusion from the equation. It's no wonder similar Web estimated traffic data shows Cargurus is the number one most visited car shopping site. Buy or sell your next car today with CarGurus@CarGurus.com Go to CarGurus.com to make sure your big deal is the best deal. That's C-A R G U R U S.com CarGurus.com. Let's jump in to 2026. What are some of the questions and hopes that you have for the coming year? Sherelle, do you want to go first?
Shirelle Dorsey
Yeah, I'm, I think it's going to be a really big year for, and I, I know I keep going back to this conversation on sustainability. I just find that we have so many advanced tools and I'm really hopeful for, I think everyone who's taken the TED stage in this space to talk about precision sustainability. And so this idea that like we're going to increasingly use tools like AI to really target and optimize our environmental interventions. It kind of takes me back to one conversation around like lowering the earth's temperature. And I believe that was Daniel Zavola who talked about that. Like, we kind of have the tools to be able to reduce methane and like in it doesn't actually have to take years for us to do so. I'm also like, I think the bigger questions I have for next year is really around some of the, like, ethical undercurrent components of this as AI continues to get woven into our infrastructure as a whole. I think data ownership is a big conversation that has been a key topic and I think we've had lots of AI data ethicists on the stage. But I think we're going to have to really, really make some definitive decisions around like who owns the data, who's going to benefit from the efficiencies, how do we ensure that these technologies are actually going to serve communities, not just corporations. Right. And so I think that like, maybe 2026 can be this year where we start to balance more of the innovation side with integrity. But also like when these companies have so much fricking money and all these companies are emerging and there's like these, these global superpowers, how do we create those checks and balances?
Elise Hu
Yeah, because previously that would be the role of governments. And while there are still governments that are looking out for that more and more, we're seeing in different parts of the world and in the west, you know, corporations, big business, industry and governments going hand in hand.
Manoush Zomorodi
Right.
Elise Hu
Like one not policing the other.
Manoush Zomorodi
Mine is a little bit of a follow up on that. So we just did an episode about this idea of restoring trust in government by being really boring and making things just work, like being able to renew your driver's license or I don't know, if you've had to renew your passport recently. It's dreamy. It's the weirdest thing. Yes. So this can happen. So I just had a great conversation with Jen Palka. She was the. The founder of Code for America. And her whole thing is, you know, yes, there's government dysfunction and shutdowns are in the news and layoffs, federal layoffs. But in the United States, there's a movement back to the States where AI actually is like, this is the best use case example possible. The boring grunt work that we don't have enough people to do, that nobody wants to do is like filling out forms. Let's actually get people their benefits instead of making them fill out 10 different, 20 different forms. So my hope, I'm staying optimistic on this one is that AI gets applied efficiently and cuts down on red tape and that the states take back some of the power of just making our lives run more smoothly.
Shirelle Dorsey
Yeah, I like that you're here to that.
Madupe Akinola
Look at those lofty goals. I love it.
Manoush Zomorodi
I love it.
Madupe Akinola
You know, from my vantage point, we have so much more, but people are so unhappy. So unhappy. In every industry, people are unhappy. And so my hope is that organizations will work harder on trying to have those types of leaders that inspire you and think about the whole person and how to really help people operate in their purpose in a way that will make people feel like they're making a difference and that their work matters and that they're cared for and cared about. And so, yeah, I mean, it's contingent on humans to be able to relate to others in a way that makes them feel all the joy that there is to experience in this beautiful life. And instead, we're not having that. And so I just, I feel like, what's the point of leadership if you're not able to help somebody feel better about themselves, feel better about their work, feel better about the difference they're making in the world? So that's my hope.
Manoush Zomorodi
Are you talking to people on, like, CEOs and telling them, like, come on, get it together?
Madupe Akinola
To the extent that I can. That's one of. One of the things I do. But I don't also want to just wait on the CEOs. Leadership can come from anywhere. And so I'm trying to instill my students with that knowledge so that they can also help Those ahead of them who are more senior to them embody some of that philosophy because the young folks are getting it. They get it so much more right now. They're like, I'm not happy, I'm leaving. I'm not happy. I'm going to do self care. So we need to learn from them and listen to them a lot more because I think that's where some of the challenges will be solved.
Manoush Zomorodi
Yeah.
Elise Hu
Okay, next question. What would you like to see people thinking about or solving? Are there problems that you think, well, are there problems? Yes. Let me just answer that for you. Yeah. Yes. But which problems do you think really need solving and that our TED community or the wider scientific and innovative community should be looking closer at?
Madupe Akinola
I will just talk about some of the big ones. Oh yeah, the wealth gap, income inequality, people are still homeless. There are still people who are food insecure. And I was so inspired by so many different talks. For instance, I think it was was Slutty Vegan and how Pinky created Slutty Vegan because she actually really wanted to give opportunities for people to get access to food or something like that. So we need creative, innovative solutions that help us with reducing the wealth gap with, you know, educating kids at a young age. There's a nonprofit, for instance, that gives seniors $1,000 to learn how to invest that money. And then once they're in college, they get that money and they see how it's appreciated in value. We can't change the wealth gap if we don't educate people on what wealth is and what it isn't and how to accumulate it. And so I'm hoping that many of these organizations that have a lot of wealth will use some of it towards educating others around wealth and helping them to be more financially viable humans.
Shirelle Dorsey
I love this because it kind of touches on this idea of the future of work and opportunity and how we solve problems and particularly around infrastructure on a global scale, not just here in the States, we need building, but also I think, an upgrade. Right. And so one of the shows that I got a chance to do this past year covered Jason Huang's talk where he talked about unlocking clean energy and just that we're still using, you know, a century year old technology in terms of our grid. And so we're not even delivering the energy that we currently have as efficiently as we could. Right. And so we could be advancing these tools to deliver energy and power much more efficiently, especially as we're looking at now, like energy costs have gone through the roof for millions of Americans, I think what was the latest data was like 30% higher, particularly as a result of these new data centers and what have you. I even talked about in an episode, I have a home in Atlanta, and for, like, months, the power would go out for, like a few hours every single day. It was the most annoying thing, but it was like, in the entire neighborhood. And part of that was there was just an influx of people moving into the city, moving into the neighborhood. And the power grid was not set up for the amount of people coming into the city. Right. And the reality is, like, the current infrastructure is just not set up. And so I think that we have the opportunity here to solve for many different challenges. Putting people back to work, getting people skilled and upskilled, you know, reducing people's energy bills, and then also creating a true 21st century model of power and energy as well as storage. Right. For those pieces that we could potentially get from renewables, then I think that we can really see tremendous challenges solved, at least in urban environments.
Manoush Zomorodi
I'm going in a different direction. I'm going with, I think, taking a page out of Marc Maron's book. So our fellow podcaster, host of WTF, I think his show was on for 16 years. Was it 16? And he just was like, I think I'm done. And I think as a Gen Xer, I think people are craving things to be done. Like, let's end things. That's not in an existential way. I don't mean it that way. But what I mean is, like, you know, chapters end, new ones start, and that's okay. Like, I think there's this sense of constant churn, churn, churn to, you know, as you were saying, medupe, a lot of people aren't happy because they want to get off and they don't see how to.
Elise Hu
And I just want to build on that because I don't think we solve enough or think about enough this demographic destiny that we're headed for all over the world. In Japan, obviously, we have depopulation. China is going to depopulate eventually one day. But they have a demographic problem in terms of their workforce because people are getting older in America. Like, boomers still run everything, even though they're in their late 70s and 80s. And I think a. There's two worries. One is that we have a caregiving crisis, just a care crisis. Right. For the very young and the very old. It's very expensive to take care of our aging parents or U.S. senators.
Manoush Zomorodi
Yes.
Elise Hu
And then on the flip side, we have a Lot of conversations about kids and screen time and monitoring kids screen time or putting limits on kids screen time, but not enough conversations about old people and screen time.
Manoush Zomorodi
So true.
Elise Hu
Like, my dad is starting to send me some AI slop and I'm very concerned about it because it's sort of reminiscent of US President Donald Trump and the AI slop that he puts out to the world via his social platforms. And so this is really happening to a lot of senior citizens. But is anybody doing anything about it? Because all the books are about kids and screen time.
Manoush Zomorodi
Okay, so I'm gonna put in a plug here, Elise. My book's coming out next year and I have an entire chapter about older adults and their relationship with their technology. But the interesting thing is there is burgeoning research into some technology. Depending on what they're doing. You know, sharing AI slop with their busy daughters doesn't count. But if they're learning to use new tools, digital tools, there actually is some evidence linking that diminished dementia. So I think with all of our conversation, it's like tech is like, you know, it's not good, it's not bad, it's a tool. It's like it's good and bad. Morally neutral. Exactly. And. Well, is it morally neutral? I'm not sure about that anymore with AI, However, I think you make such a good point, and I think so many older adults are lonely and technology is their way of staying connected to family, to the world. And so how do we help them use it in ways that, you know, are supportive of their mental acuity as opposed to draining of it.
Elise Hu
I love that. Can you give us a preview of the chapter?
Manoush Zomorodi
Well, I can actually. Well, this won't come as a surprise. Sitting in front of the TV passively for 12 hours a day. Bad. Like really, really bad. But if you are learning new skills and connecting in different ways, and maybe, you know, the fact that your dad is on the cutting edge, lis might actually be a good sign. But I would say the number one thing is movement. I mean, what we see is rates of, of sedentary screen time that the average 19 year old moves as much as the average 60 year old now, which is not a lot. So taking breaks, moving your body, getting oxygenation into your brain, all those things matter a lot.
Madupe Akinola
I am seeing my parents tonight and I will emphasize that even more. Or maybe I'll just make sure that they listen to this because it's so hard for them to listen to their kids. Kids and abide by the things we tell them. So right thank you for that reminder. They will be yelled at in love.
Manoush Zomorodi
With love. Yes, with love. Or maybe a walk with them.
Elise Hu
I'm so glad this came up. I've been really kind of worried about it in a personal sense, but I think it is a wider conversation that we should all be having. All right, it is time for another break. After we come back, we're going to hear our distinguished panel make some predictions for next year. We'll be right back. This episode is brought to you by Car Gurus. You know, sometimes I think about how good design solves real problems. And car shopping. That's a problem that desperately needs better design. The uncertainty of buying a car can be exhausting. Is this price fair? Is there a better deal two clicks away? You shouldn't need a detective's intuition to feel confident about a major purchase. That's where Cargurus comes in. They've redesigned the entire experience, ensuring a transparent and hassle free buying process. With more car listings than any other major online automotive marketplace in the US you can actually compare and find the best deal. Real data driven ratings, price drop alerts, verified dealers. It removes the confusion from the equation. It's no wonder similar web estimated traffic data shows Cargurus is the number one most visited car shopping center. Buy or sell your next car today with CarGurus@CarGurus.com Go to CarGurus.com to make sure your big deal is the best deal. That's C-A-R-G-U R U S.com CarGurus.com.
Madupe Akinola
This.
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Elise Hu
I am about to ask everybody to kind of predict the future. And a lot of you work in kind of the business of the future anyway. And so who wants to go first? What are your predictions for next year? Which ideas do you think are gonna really take flight and which trends will go away?
Manoush Zomorodi
I'm gonna. This is not really going out on a limb. There was like super exciting news in 2025 that the first infant was treated with personalized CRISPR gene editing therapy for a rare genetic disorder. I think we're gonna be seeing more of that. I think crispr, which sounded so weird and strange cutting out genetic genes and changing our DNA, is now actually going to start to be utilized. It's getting so much cheaper to use it. And Jennifer Doudna recently gave another TED talk, actually one of the inventors of crispr, specifically about gut biome related to asthma and that connection there and whether CRISPR could be a treatment for that, that they were doing trials in that. So not a huge surprise, but. But kind of cool, I think.
Elise Hu
Yeah. Well, I mean, our Gattaca future is closer than ever before. Yes, I'm referring to the movie Gattaca.
Manoush Zomorodi
Good point. And to that point, there needs to be ethical guidelines around the use of CRISPR and gene editing. We'll see where that goes as well. I'm trying to be more optimistic in terms of the treatment of it, but that is one thing to look out for.
Elise Hu
All right, Madupe, do you want to jump in with your predictions?
Madupe Akinola
Well, my predictions actually linked to something that Sherelle mentioned earlier around AI. And I do really believe, and I think, I hope maybe it's hope that people will fully understand and act on the climate implications of all of this new technology and that they will see that it's real, they will feel it from their lips. Lived experience. Because, you know, social psychological research says that when you make something vivid when the grid goes out in Atlanta, you know, there is something bigger happening here. And then maybe we'll be a little bit more sustainable in terms of all of the technology that we're experiencing. And then, you know, as a person who's also in the education space, you know, yes, there are so many AI new classes that have been introduced at the business school and elsewhere and in executive education, but I hope the number of climate classes will be equally as high so that we are seeing Both sides of things. So that's my hopeful prediction in terms of what's gonna happen in the year to come.
Shirelle Dorsey
All right, I just got chills. You're speaking my language. So one of the things that I've kind of been chatting with the TED team about is, like, this idea of femtech and much more attention on the tools for women's health. This conversation is starting to be much more open and discussed, and we're learning so much more about women's health. I mean, down to, oh, women's eggs. We were told that you're ancient and dusty by a certain age. And now we've come to figure out that research actually says, no, it is, you know, it is a man's sperm that actually decreases. But there's. There's so much more. I think, that's emerging. And so I think my prediction is that. That we'll see many more tools and technology and innovation in this space, whether it's through apps or medicine. And then I think the other side of this when it relates to climate, is what happens when you are pregnant and a natural disaster strikes your region, strikes your neighborhood. Right. What does maternal health look like when there's no power and there are no hospitals? Right. And you are either about to give birth or will give birth or what have you. And how do we start to leverage technology as a route towards support systems in these very dire and very vulnerable situations?
Elise Hu
Yeah. Yeah, I like that. Is there anything that there was a lot of conversation or discourse around in 2025 that you're ready to just hear less of? Like, what was overhyped?
Manoush Zomorodi
I mean, do we have to say it? I feel like I did it this whole hour. AI, AI. So much AI. I. I'm just ready for it to go to being, like, normal. Do you know what I mean? Less of savior complex. Yes. Masters of the universe coming.
Madupe Akinola
Yeah.
Manoush Zomorodi
Let's either pop this bubble or not. Like, let's just get on to whatever this next phase of AI is.
Shoshana
Right.
Elise Hu
I think that the industry, though, has a lot invested in just getting more investment dollars. So the discourse is so important, right. To hold up the companies and valuations. And so the. This is part of our larger economic structure.
Madupe Akinola
I'll add one other topic that this is gonna sound funny to say that it was overhyped. And I don't mean it in that. Look at me prefacing so much. Look, we've talked a lot in this past year about the epidemic of loneliness and how that's leading to just so many negative things. And how that's partially created by all the technology at kids, fingertips at adults, fingertips at comparisons and all that. But I do think we need to get better and I hope in the coming year at differentiating between being alone and being lonely. And we don't cherish enough the value of being alone and how that's an okay thing. I mean, Manouch, you started this out talking about something you said, something about an introvert, Right. Like this idea that you need space to regenerate and that alone time is an okay. Is something that I think we've conflated with loneliness. And so I want to get back to a healthy dialogue about what that really looks like in a day and age where you feel like everyone else is together and you are out of the group for some reason or another.
Manoush Zomorodi
I love that.
Elise Hu
Let me just pitch a TED Talk that was recently on the TED Talks daily feed about this very topic.
Manoush Zomorodi
Really?
Elise Hu
From Jonny Sun.
Manoush Zomorodi
Yeah, I love John, Johnny's son.
Elise Hu
It's an archive talk from 2019 called you are not alone in your loneliness.
Manoush Zomorodi
Yes.
Madupe Akinola
Yes, it's great. Good.
Manoush Zomorodi
And Manish, you remember it? I think so.
Elise Hu
I remember it a lot.
Manoush Zomorodi
But I love this idea Madupe of like, not confusing loneliness with being alone. And I think, you know, I talk to a lot of kids who think that if you're not with someone, that means therefore you are lonely. And getting used to being with yourself, I think is a crucial life skill. You know, you're gonna be with you for the rest of your life. We know that for sure. So get to know yourself. Enjoy yourself. Go for a long, boring walk with yourself.
Madupe Akinola
Yes, talk to yourself.
Manoush Zomorodi
Exactly.
Elise Hu
Shirelle, any last word on any tired, overhyped things from 2025 that you're ready to move on from?
Shirelle Dorsey
Honestly, I. I think I. I definitely agree with Minouche on the AI front and just the overhypeness. And if we could just like, bring it down a notch, then, you know, we can actually focus on what's significant. What I do think is pretty tired, though, is. And I'm. I'm not a musician by any means, but I think the AI infiltration of the music industry is. Is both very scary and I think something that wasn't deeply considered before all of these tools started to, like, replicate artists voices. I accidentally. Actually, this happened to me just a couple weeks ago. I accidentally listened to an AI album from an AI artist. And it was really interesting because I was like, I've never heard of this artist before. And I started doing some digging. I'm like, oh, this is, like, not a person. This is a series of buttons and clicks. Right? And it just like, it. I instantly was, like, like, upset because I'm like, there's just so much ingenuity that happens with humans that make music and artists that produce actual art. And I think there were also a couple of celebrities with record companies that have been signing AI artists. And there's been, like, this whole uproar and backlash on that end. And so I would like to see us wrap it up with this whole, like, AI taking over artists, because AI is supposed to leave us to do the art. And so I think that there's gonna be enough noise that we start to kind of silence. You know, we silence some of this idea that, like, we're gonna offload all of our art and then also follow these pretend systems that will replace our connection to artists and art itself.
Madupe Akinola
Why'd I just get a flashback to Milli Vanilli? Sorry. I mean, I just had to go there. Right. But are we gonna have. I love you. Are we going to have the right detection techniques to be able to really differentiate? I hope so.
Elise Hu
I just think an overall theme. I talk about this with respect to our bodies and our faces a lot. The idea that you don't have to optimize everything, but that can be applied to your workday. That can be applied to hiring. It can be applied to dating. Like, not everything needs to be optimized, you know, And I think that that tech mindset about optimization extending to so many aspects and areas of our daily lives and our systems has actually been, you know, problematic in a lot of ways at best. So. All right, before we wrap up, love to get some recommendations from y'.
Madupe Akinola
All.
Elise Hu
What's keeping you going? It can be culture. It can be a mantra. It can be a book. It can be anything.
Manoush Zomorodi
I'll go first. I was late to the party. The Borgen party. I don't know if you guys are into Borgen. It's a Netflix drama that takes place in the Danish capital of Copenhagen. It is about the prime minister, a woman who's trying to, you know, figure it out. It's, as a friend of mine put it, it's work porn. Competent people doing. Ooh, competent people doing work. Yes.
Madupe Akinola
Wow.
Manoush Zomorodi
I know in a country that pretty much functions, like, the things that they're debating are small, and it's very relaxing because of that. Like, and they go home and it looks like, you know, just beautiful scandi sort of architecture. And, yeah, everyone's very attractive and they're generally pretty civil to each other. It's kind of of great. So I'm going with calm, competent Danish political dramas. Borgin.
Shirelle Dorsey
This is wonderful.
Elise Hu
That's so good. I haven't heard of this. I guess I'm going to be even later to Borgen.
Manoush Zomorodi
Welcome, welcome, friends. Right?
Shirelle Dorsey
Same.
Madupe Akinola
I mean, I'm a temptation bundler, I. E. I only allow myself to watch stuff while I'm on the treadmill. I'm a documentary junkie in general and I'm a music junkie, too, so Wu Tang Clan. I love them. I went to the Wu Tang Forever concert this summer.
Shirelle Dorsey
I love that.
Madupe Akinola
And Cheers. Just got addicted to their documentary.
Manoush Zomorodi
Is it good? I've been wanting to see it.
Madupe Akinola
The documentary's good. And then there's also a miniseries that is incredible that got me through miles and miles of running on the treadmill. So check that out. And also, you know, the Olympics are coming up in a couple of years and they just put out a documentary called the Games in Black and White, which was about Atlanta securing the 1996 Olympics and what it took for them to secure it and all that. So check that documentary out, too.
Elise Hu
Wow, these are great wrecks. And mine is actually building on yours or in conversation with yours. Madupe. Because over the last couple of years, what's really been getting me through and keeps me from watching the news or doom scrolling is getting into, like, the ins and outs of the ATP and WTA tennis tours.
Madupe Akinola
Oh, my gosh, me too. Yeah.
Elise Hu
So, like, I'm following all of. Basically, they play tennis all year. There's no offseason. They start at the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, and they play all the way through, around, like Thanksgiving, not after. And so there's lots of weekly tennis podcasts. Like there's one served from Andy Roddick that's devoted to this. There's another one called Nothing Major, which is hosted by American tennis players who have never won a major.
Manoush Zomorodi
I love that.
Elise Hu
It's a cute name. Yeah. And so when I can't listen to news headlines, I'm like, oh, time to listen to a tennis podcast or watch tennis. And it motivates me to go out and play, too.
Madupe Akinola
Too.
Elise Hu
Sherrelle, what about you?
Manoush Zomorodi
All right.
Shirelle Dorsey
I have no. Yeah, I have no, like, sophisticated series to offer you guys. However, I embarked on a digital nomad journey this summer. So I, I, like, didn't renew my lease at my apartment. I moved everything into storage and just was like, I'm going to explore the world. And I also want to connect with people in the climate space outside of the US So I did a couple of weeks in Mexico City, I did a couple weeks in Panama. I'm headed to Italy next. One of the really amazing aspects of this is like meeting incredible chef In Mexico City. I met a chef who has a vinyl sound bar and serves amazing food and is, and is expanding to Barcelona and is like opening up like a taco shop because, like, apparently there's no taco shops in Barcelona. So it's like a whole thing. And then in Panama, there's an Afro Panamanian restaurant called La Tapa del Coco. And I got a chance to meet the chef, Isaac Villaverde, who is forming the food scene in Panama. And all of the shop chefs, they're in community with one another and like supporting each other. And so it's been a lot of amazing food and community and hanging out with like the top chefs in their field who've, you know, trained all over the world and are coming back to their origins and like building and bringing new and interesting cuisines and blending like community and family recipes into these beautiful dining experiences. So, yeah, so my goal or what I'm kind of doing for just like that kind of touch grass, get out of the world of tech is just interesting culinary experiences through travel and like just sitting and breaking bread with folks.
Elise Hu
Well, speaking of community and hanging out, it's just been such a delight getting to spend a quality hour of conversation with all three of you. All of us are part of the TED Audio Collective. You can find our shows wherever you listen. And you can find more about the TED audio collective@audiocollective.ted.com thank you ladies so much for joining me in this conversation.
Manoush Zomorodi
Thank you.
Shirelle Dorsey
Thank you. This was fun.
Madupe Akinola
Such a pleasure.
Shirelle Dorsey
Gotta do more of these. Thanks so much, Elise.
Elise Hu
That was a conversation between Madupe Akinola, Cherelle Dorsey, Manoush Zomorodi, and myself, Elise Hu, recorded in late 2025. If you want to dive deeper into what we discussed today, check out our episode description for some of our TED Talk suggestions to round out your 2025. And that's it for today. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced by Lucy Little and edited by Alejandra Salazar. The TED Talks Daily team includes Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Greene and Tansi K. Additional support from Emma Tobner and Daniela Balarezzo. I'm Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening. This episode is sponsored by the New All Electric Toyota Beezy A common myth is that switching to an electric vehicle means sacrificing capability or performance. Performance, the Toyota BZ proves otherwise. With available all wheel drive, you can get 338 horsepower and near instant torque for a powerful responsive drive going 0-60 mph in just 4.9 seconds. And with an EPA estimated range of up to 314 miles on front wheel drive models, you can go farther between charges and make the most of every drive. Learn more@toyota.com Beezy that's T O Y-O-T A.com BZ the new all electric BZ Toyota let's go places, take control of the numbers and supercharge your small business with Xero that's X E R O. With our easy to use accounting software with automation and reporting features, you'll spend less time on manual tasks and more time understanding how your business is is doing. 87% of surveyed U.S. customers agree. Xero helps improve financial visibility. Search Xero with an x or visit xero.comacast to start your 30 day free trial.
Madupe Akinola
Conditions apply.
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Date: December 21, 2025
Host: Elise Hu
Guests: Manoush Zomorodi (TED Radio Hour/NPR), Madupe Akinola (TED Business), Shirelle Dorsey (TED Tech)
Main Theme:
A lively and thoughtful roundtable among TED podcast hosts, reflecting on key ideas, surprises, and challenges of 2025 while casting an eye on hopes, open questions, and predictions for 2026. The conversation weaves together tech, business, sustainability, AI, and the enduring value of human connection.
This special TED Talks Daily episode brings together a powerhouse panel—hosts from across TED's flagship podcasts—to reflect on big 2025 trends and ideas, challenge received wisdom, share personal surprises, and look to what matters in 2026. Expect candid dialogue and a hopeful but nuanced take on technology, sustainability, and the future of work and community.
A warm, funny exchange opens the episode and reveals the panelists' personalities:
"Ideas change everything." What ideas shaped the year?
Prompt: “What idea do you want to push back on?”
This roundtable exudes warmth, relatability, and curiosity. The hosts are candid, self-reflective, and not afraid to poke fun at themselves or the cultural zeitgeist. They balance optimism about tech and progress with calls for more human-centered innovation and deeper community connection.
If you haven’t listened: This episode offers a behind-the-scenes TED brain trust. Get the pulse on where tech, business, and sustainability are heading, hear sharp critiques of AI hype, and bask in a reminder that—despite rapid change—questions of meaning, connection, and humanity are more relevant than ever.