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

Episode Date: December 21, 2025

What do foot massage parties, otters, and AI robot tutors have in common? To find out, tune into our special end-of-year conversation featuring the hosts from TED Talks Daily, TED Radio Hour, TED Business, and TED Tech! Elise Hu, Manoush Zomorodi, Modupe Akinola and Sherrell Dorsey got together to share the biggest ideas dominating their industry and the lesser-known insights they wished garnered more attention. From pushing back against AI advances to sharing the TED Talks that inspired them, Elise, Manoush, Modupe, and Sherrell reflect on 2025 and look ahead to 2026.Conversations MentionedTED Radio HourRay Kurzweil, "Could AI extend your life indefinitely? Futurist Ray Kurzweil thinks so" Victor Riparbelli, “Will AI avatars eventually teach our kids?” Philip Johns, “Singapore's otters are butting heads with their human neighbors. Can they coexist?” Restoring trust in government, "Move fast...and fix democracy?" TED TalksSitoyo Lopokoiyit in conversation with Jacqueline Novogratz "A story of moral imagination and bold entrepreneurship" Sarah Beery, "How AI is unearthing hidden scientific knowledge" Scott Loarie (of iNaturalist), "The surprising power of your nature photos" Daniel Zavala-Araiza, "The best way to lower Earth’s temperature — fast" Jennifer Pahlka, "Coding a better government" Pinky Cole (Slutty Vegan), "How I make vegan food sexy" Jason Huang, "The high-wire act of unlocking clean energy" Jennifer Doudna, "CRISPR's next advance is bigger than you think"Jonny Sun, "You are not alone in your loneliness"  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. 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, to share with you a special conversation I got to host with hosts of some of Ted's other podcasts in the collective, Manusse Omarodi of Ted Radio Hour, Madoupe Akanola of Ted Business, and Sherell 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 wish got more attention. I'm so excited to share this one with you. Hope you enjoy. Hey, everyone. Welcome. I'm Elise Hugh. 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, Madoupe? I am Maddupe 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. Shirel?

I'm Shirel Dorsey. I am a journalist and author and the host of the TED Tech podcast. We talk about everything that 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. And Manish. I'm Manozyz Amaroi. 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. Hello, everyone. Yeah, it's so nice to be with you all. I know. Yes, yes, finally. I'm so excited to get to moderate this conversation because this is the first. 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. Okay. If you had $1,000 to spend on a party, what would you do? I'll go first. It's minutiae. 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. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. It's self-care, but everyone else care too. Just have everyone else. And we don't have to talk as the introvert. We don't have to talk. I love it. 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 $1,000 to spend on a party, I would do another beat the bomb party. What's that? And 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 got to 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. And then you get to come to my foot massage party.

Exactly because, yes, because you've been working your brain in your body, you've got to go in and under lasers like Mission Impossible. And then at the end 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 your time that you allocated throughout your puzzle solving, and 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. It is the coolest thing on the planet. I had never heard of this before, but it's like bringing an escape room to your house or a series of escape. escape rooms to your house. Exactly. Exactly. So, yeah, that's what I would spend a thousand dollars on. I don't know. 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 having an artist that we love just perform. That was my also thing. Like a succession kind of parties. Yes, exactly. Like the parties you see on some love session. That's the vision. 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, 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. That's interesting. Okay. The more you know, it's possible. Lots of fun ideas. We just have to rotate at each other's. Right. I better be invited. Hello. We can't conceptualize these things and then not each experienced them. 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.

Sherell, why don't we have you go first? 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 turning 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. 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. 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. Yes, yes. Only not. We all just went back to work. Exactly. The same model. So how do we slow down in some ways? 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, this 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 slogan. Exactly. And Kahneman was, you know, said, I have a plan. I'm going to take my life when I turn 90. I'm going to go to Switzerland. And Kurzweil said, you know, why would you do that? The tech is moving so fast. 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. It just really struck me. It's two humans trying to figure out, you know, what do we do with our lifespan and with completely two different perspectives on it? And I just was really touched by the conversation. 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. Yeah, so I'll, this one, this one I found really problematic. There was an episode around like seniors and robots and essentially like having robots be physical assistants, 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 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 do it. Yeah. Madoupe, I see you nodding. 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 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.

Wait, so you're saying they were dropping acid. Is that what you're talking about? Or ketamine or LSD or ketamine or whatever else. Isn't that an attempt to go more internally, though? 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, the community, 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. Interesting. Manus, what did you want to push back on this year? Well, what made you raise an eyebrow? Well, you know, so many things. Gosh, but I would say for me, I had this really great conversation with Victor Rip Our Belly. 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 talked 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 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. Yes. So, like, I feel like 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 use it. And maybe they're tripping that much. that's how they're coming up with these ideas, Madoop. I don't know. But like, maybe all these things go hand in hand, actually.

So, yeah, that was mine. All right. What about surprises, y'all? Anything that you were particularly surprised about or changed your perspective that stands out now that we're looking back? Manus, you want to take it first? Yeah, I'm thinking about otters. Not AI, but otters. I had the most.

Sea otters? Sea and brackish otters, yes. Oh, okay. 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 there, yeah, it gets dangerous. There's a lot of fighting.

This is my section of the river, et cetera. 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 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.

Yeah. I never really think that much about otters. I know. It's a fun one. What a lesson that they teach us. I love otters. They're like one of my favorite animals, so this is really fascinating. I'm going to have to do a deep dive there.

Yeah. Yeah, because, you know, like, when they sleep, yeah, well, so, like, when they go to sleep, 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 going to 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 there 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 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. Yeah. Madoupe, what about you?

So there was a speaker, Sittoyo Lopo Koyet, who founded Mpesa, which is a fintech company in Africa that started in Kenya. And I teach a course on, you know, 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. 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. The chocolate guy, yes. 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. Is it working? Some people have written just to say, hey, I'm not buying this, but I really love the copywriting. I love it. I'm going to have to try that. It speaks to Cheryl 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? Right. I think we have to kind of insist on being human as so much is being digitized or sticking over. Yeah. I love that. 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 underreported or under-talked about. I can go with that one. I've been thinking about this a lot. And I feel like AI, AI, AI, shmai, right? But I'm going to say it anyway because I went to a talk

where the audience was very upset about AI because of the carbon footprint that it has. Sure. True. However, I think we haven't done a very good job in explaining that AI encompasses many, many, many different things, not just chat GPT or a cloud 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. And her point 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, I naturalist, 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.

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. 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 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, right?

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. beings. And so I feel like we could have had more exploration there. 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 read? define 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. 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 that if you get ghosted, 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, you know, 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 leading 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 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 one, two, or three, 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 three

over a two? 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, get more attention. And 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. 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.

Let's jump in to 2026. What are some of the questions and hopes that you have for the coming year? Sherell, do you want to go first? Yeah, I think it's going to be a really big year for, and I know I keep going back to this conversation on sustainability. I just find that we have. We have, so many advanced tools. And I'm really hopeful for, I think, everyone who's taking 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 Zavala, who talked about that. Like, we kind of have the tools

to be able to reduce methane, and, like, it doesn't actually have to take years for us to do so. Yeah. 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 freaking money and all these companies are emerging and there's like these global superpowers, how do we create those checks and balances? 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, right? Like one not policing the other. 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 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. Yeah, I like that. You're here to that. Look at those lofty goals. I love it. I love it.

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.

Are you talking to people on like CEOs and telling them like, come on, get it together? To the extent that I can. That's 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. Yeah. 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.

Yes. But which problems do you think really need solving and that our TED community or the wider, you know, scientific and innovative community should be looking closer at? You know, I will just talk about some of the big ones. Oh, yeah, the wealth gap, income inequality. People were 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 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 a thousand dollars 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 and 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. 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 stat. It 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 of the most. annoying thing. 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,

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. I'm going in a different direction. I'm going with, I think, taking a page out of Mark Maren's book. So our fellow podcaster, host of WTF, I think his show was on for 16 years. Is that right? 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, turn, churn.

To, you know, as you were saying, Medupia, a lot of people aren't happy because they want to get off and they don't see how to. 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. It's 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. 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. So true. 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 U.S. 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. Okay, so I'm going to put in a plug here, at least. 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 to 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. It's all the things. Exactly. And, well, is it morally neutral? I'm not sure about that anymore with the guy. However, I think you make us 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?

I love that. Can you give us a preview of the chapter? 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, Elise, might actually be a good sign. But I would say the number one thing is movement. I mean, what we see is rates 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. 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, you know, it's so hard for them to listen to their kids and abide by the things we tell them. So thank you for that reminder. They will be yelled at in love. With love, yes, with love. or maybe you'll walk with them. 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. 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 going to really take flight and which trends will go away? I'm going to, 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 going to be seeing more of that. I think CRISPR, which sounded so weird and strange, cutting out 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. whether CRISPR could be a treatment for that that they were doing trials in that. So not a huge surprise, but kind of cool, I think. Yeah. Well, I mean, our Gattaca future is closer than ever before. Yes. I'm referring to the movie Gattaca. 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. thing to look at for. All right. Madoupe, do you want to jump in with your predictions? Well, my predictions actually linked to something that Cheryl 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 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 were experiences. 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 an 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 going to happen in the year to come. 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, you know, this idea of fem tech 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 so much more, I think, that's emerging. And so I think my prediction is 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, structure 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? 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? I mean, do we have to say it? I feel like I did it this whole hour. AI, AI, so much AI. I'm just ready for it. to go to being like normal. Do you know what I mean? Less of... Save your complex.

Yes. Masters of the universe coming. Yeah. Let's either pop this bubble or not. Like, let's just get on to whatever this next phase of AI is. Right. 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 this is part of our larger economic structure. I'll add. one other topic that this is going to 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 adult's fingertips, at comparisons and all that. But I do think we need to get better. And I hope that, in the coming year at differentiating between being a loan and being lonely. And we don't cherish

enough the value of being alone and how that's an okay thing. I mean, Manušu 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 thing 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. I love that.

Let me just pitch a TED Talk that was recently on the TED Talks Daily Feed about this very topic from Johnny's son. Oh, I love Johnny's son. It's an archive talk from 2019. called you are not alone in your loneliness. Yes, yes. It's great. Good, good, good.

You remember it. I do. I remember it a lot, but I love this idea, Madoupe, 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 going to be with you for the rest of your life.

We know that for sure. Sure. So get to know yourself. Enjoy yourself. Go for a long boring walk with yourself. Yes. Talk to yourself. Exactly. Sherell, any last word on any tired, overhyped things from 2025 that you're ready to move on? Yeah. Honestly, I think I definitely agree with Mnuch on the AI front and just the overhypness. 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 not a musician by any means, but I think the AI infiltration of the music industry is both very scary. And I think something that wasn't deeply considered before all of these tools started to, like, replicate artist's 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, I instantly was 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 art because AI is supposed to leave us to do the art. And so I think that there's going to be enough noise that we start to kind of silence. You know, we silence so this idea that like we're going to offload all of our art and then also follow these pretend systems that will represent systems that will replace our connection to artists and art itself.

Why did I just get a flashback to Millie Vanilly? Sorry. I mean, I just had to go there. Are we going to have, I love you, are we going to have the right detection techniques to be able to really differentiate? I hope so. 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 you all. What's keeping you going? It can be culture. It can be a mantra.

It can be a book. It can be anything. I'll go first. I was late to the party, the Borgon party. I don't know if you guys are into Borgon. It's a Netflix drama that takes place in the Danish capital of Copenhagen. It is about the prime minister. 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, competent people doing work. Yes. Wow. 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, scandy sort of architecture. And everyone's very attractive and they're generally pretty civil to each other. It's kind of great. So I'm going with calm, competent Danish political dramas. Borgon. That's so good. I haven't heard of this. I guess I'm going to be even later to Borgon. Welcome. Welcome, Trent. Right. Same. 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 Wutan Klan, I love

them. I went to the Wu-Tang Forever Concert this summer and just got addicted to their documentary. Is it good? I've been wanting to see it. The documentary is good. And then there's also a mini-series 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. Wow, these are great wrecks. And mine is actually building on yours or in conversation with yours, Madoupe, 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. Oh my gosh, me too. Yeah. 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, it's 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. I love that. It's a cute name. I need to listen. And so when I can't listen to news headlines, I'm like, oh, top. to listen to a tennis podcast or watch tennis. And it motivates me to go out and play, too. Sherell, what about you? All right. 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, like, didn't renew

my lease at my apartment. I moved everything in the 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 U.S. 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 chefs. In Mexico City, I met a chef who has a vinyl sound bar and serves amazing food and is expanding to Barcelona and is like opening up like a taco shop because 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 Tava del Coco, and I got a chance to meet the chef Isaac Vila Verde. who is forming the food scene in Panama and all of the 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 cuisine 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. 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 at audiocollective.com. Thank you, ladies, so much for joining me in this conversation.

Thank you, Elise. That's a pleasure. You've got to do more of these. Thanks for much, Elise. That was a conversation between Madoupe Akanola, Shirel Dorsey, Manus Shomerode, and myself, Elise Hugh, 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 Green, and Tanzika Sangmarivang. Additional support from Emma Tobner and Daniela Bala so I'm Elise Hugh. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening.