TED Talks Daily — "What 2025 Taught Us—And Where 2026 Is Taking Us"

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.

1. Episode Overview

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.

2. Meet the Panel (04:10–05:02)

• Elise Hu (TED Talks Daily): Journalist, author, host, and today's moderator.
• Madupe Akinola (TED Business, 04:14): "We talk about exciting ideas in business and share a TED Talk with you."
• Shirelle Dorsey (TED Tech, 04:25): Focus on "the intersection of technology and humanity," spotlighting new and lesser-heard TED talks.
• Manoush Zomorodi (TED Radio Hour/NPR, 04:43): Guides listeners behind the scenes of TED Talks to help them "think more expansively about the world."

3. Icebreaker: If You Had $1,000 for a Party... (05:33–09:04)

A warm, funny exchange opens the episode and reveals the panelists' personalities:

• Manoush: “Foot massages and delicious snacks…just a total relaxation party. That’s what I’m doing after 2025, at least—I need it.” (05:39)
• Shirelle: Would throw a Beat the Bomb puzzle party—teams, hazmat suits, room-escape puzzles, and ending in a robot maze ("If you don't make it, the bomb goes off and you're splattered with spray paint—it is the coolest thing," 06:56).
• Madupe: A sound bath and real talk, or "if I had $100,000," a destination party with artists ("I'm a big believer in silence and slowing the mind down." 07:44).
• Elise: Discovered hiring a hibachi chef for at-home celebrations (08:22).

4. 2025's Transformative Ideas (09:04–12:23)

"Ideas change everything." What ideas shaped the year?

• Shirelle: Rise of infrastructure-level technologies for sustainability—green energy, small/efficient nuclear projects, and leveraging existing infrastructure for impactful change (09:27).
• Madupe: Challenging the notion that all growth is good: "We need to recognize it's okay to grow slow.” (10:11)
• Manoush: Memorable interview with Ray Kurzweil on immortality and technology versus Daniel Kahneman's pragmatic view about end-of-life. “Two humans trying to figure out what do we do with our lifespan and with completely two different perspectives on it.” (11:23)

5. Ideas Worth Challenging or Reframing (12:23–17:34)

Prompt: “What idea do you want to push back on?”

• Shirelle: Critiquing the belief "every innovation must extend work" (re: robot suits to keep seniors working). "How far is too far? Are we only innovating around this idea that the future of work is continuous work?" (13:05)
• Madupe: Skepticism toward execs' use of psychedelics to boost leadership and creativity. "We always go externally to get clarity, but there’s so much internally." (14:44)
• Manoush: On AI avatars as AI tutors. “Every time somebody is like, that’s not going to happen, I feel like it does next week… It isn’t inevitable how we use it.” (17:05)

6. Surprising Perspectives and Learning Moments (17:34–22:53)

• Manoush: Otter gangs in Singapore as a lesson for urban coexistence between humans and animals. “We need to create cities where you can have this sort of integration… there was a way that this…was a great example of living in harmony." (18:00)
• Shirelle: Sustainable cement innovation—huge but overlooked carbon emitter. “It truly is a high-emitting, toxic contributor to greenhouse gas emissions…major companies are making it much more sustainable and cheaper." (19:18)
• Madupe: Origin story of M-Pesa's founder, Satoyo Lopokoyet, centering on “Who can I help and what can I fix?” as the spark for transformative business (20:45).
• Elise: The inherent humanity of playful, creative acts—like the TikTok chocolate artist or writing witty Marketplace ads. “AI would never do that…I’m having fun for the sake of not commerce, but just because I like creating.” (22:02)

7. Underrated or Under-reported Ideas (23:02–29:00)

• Manoush: Nuanced approaches to AI and energy—miniature models with “oversized benefits.” “When we say AI, that doesn’t mean everything...” (24:31)
• Shirelle: Our emotional relationships with AI and importance of human, not algorithmic, connection. “We’re having way too many intimate relationships…with these tools.” (25:30)
• Madupe: Job search bias and AI’s role in recruitment—highlighted best practices in bucketing applicants to reduce bias. “We still haven’t figured out how to be equitable in recruiting and retaining people.” (26:22)

8. Looking Forward: Hopes, Questions & Challenges for 2026 (31:46–43:26)

• Shirelle: Precision sustainability—using AI to target eco-interventions; also, ethics around data ownership and who benefits from tech advances: “Maybe 2026 can be this year where we start to balance more of the innovation side with integrity.” (31:46)
• Manoush: Hopes that AI will make trust in government a reality through “boring” but effective applications like paperwork and benefits access: “My hope…is that AI gets applied efficiently and cuts down on red tape.” (34:48)
• Madupe: Focusing on inspiring, caring leadership: “We have so much more, but people are so unhappy…What’s the point of leadership if you’re not able to help somebody feel better about themselves…?” (35:03)
• All: Urgent issues—wealth gap, energy infrastructure, caregiving crisis, loneliness vs. alone-ness.
  • Elise: “We have a caregiving crisis—for the very young and the very old.”
  • Manoush: AI for good or ill isn’t morally neutral anymore; need research into healthy tech use for seniors ("If they're learning to use new tools…there's evidence linking that to diminished dementia." 42:26)

9. 2026 Predictions and Overhyped Trends (47:15–56:24)

What’s Next?

• Manoush:
  • CRISPR and Personalized Medicine: “I think we’re going to be seeing more of that…Now it’s actually going to start to be utilized.” (47:35)
  • Needs "ethical guidelines" as the tech enters new frontiers. (48:33)
• Madupe: Hopes for greater recognition of climate impacts of technology, more climate-focused education. "Maybe we'll be a little bit more sustainable in all the technology we're experiencing." (48:51)
• Shirelle: Rise of femtech and women's health tools, focus on pregnancy in disaster scenarios: “What does maternal health look like when there’s no power and there are no hospitals?” (50:00)

Overhyped/Ready to Move On?

• Consensus: AI hype dominance. “Do we have to say it?...I’m just ready for [AI] to go to being normal.” — Manoush (51:28)
• Madupe: Loneliness vs. being alone: “We need to get better at differentiating between being alone and being lonely…not confusing loneliness with being alone.” (52:07, 53:46)
• Shirelle: AI-generated music as a “tired” trend, wants “AI to leave us to do the art.” (54:27)
• Elise: Critiques tech’s obsession with optimizing everything. “Not everything needs to be optimized…that mindset has been problematic in a lot of ways at best.” (56:24)

10. Recommendations & What Keeps Them Going (57:09–61:40)

• Manoush: Borgen (Netflix), “calm, competent Danish political dramas,” for soothing watch. (57:16)
• Madupe: Combines treadmill with music and documentaries, e.g., Wu Tang Clan, “Games in Black and White” (Olympics doc) (58:17)
• Elise: Immerses in the pro tennis tour as a counter to news doomscrolling; recommends tennis podcasts. (59:04)
• Shirelle: Embarked on digital nomad adventure, savoring “culinary experiences through travel and breaking bread with folks.” (60:03)

11. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It's self care, but everyone else care too. Just have everyone else and we don't have to talk.” — Elise Hu (06:00)
• “We still haven't figured out how to be equitable in recruiting and retaining people.”—Madupe Akinola (26:22)
• “The way that this actually was a great...example of living in harmony…” — Manoush Zomorodi on otters and urban wildlife (18:00)
• “Are we only innovating around this idea that the future of work is continuous work?” — Shirelle Dorsey (13:05)
• “Not everything needs to be optimized, you know, and I think that tech mindset…has actually been problematic…” — Elise Hu (56:24)
• “I want to get back to a healthy dialogue about what that (being alone) really looks like…” — Madupe Akinola (52:07)

12. Timestamps of Key Segments

• 04:10–05:02 — Host/Podcast Intros
• 05:33–09:04 — Icebreaker: $1,000 party
• 09:04–12:23 — Most impactful ideas of 2025
• 12:23–17:34 — Ideas to challenge
• 17:34–22:53 — Surprising moments
• 23:02–29:00 — Under-discussed/under-reported ideas
• 31:46–43:26 — 2026: Hopes, questions, open challenges
• 47:15–56:24 — Predictions & “overhyped” trends of 2025
• 57:09–61:40 — What’s keeping them going: Recommendations

13. Podcast Language & Tone

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.

Summary Takeaway

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.