What 2025 Taught Us—And Where 2026 Is Taking Us
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 11.9K Ratings
🗓️ 21 December 2025
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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 Mentioned
TED Radio Hour
- Ray 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 Talks
- Sitoyo 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"
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity |
| 0:11.5 | every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. What do foot massage parties, otters, and AI robot tutors |
| 0:19.9 | have in common? It all sounds a bit ridiculous, but I promise |
| 0:24.5 | there's a through line. In this first of its kind episode of TED Talks Daily, I am excited to share |
| 0:30.3 | with you a special conversation I got to host with hosts of some of TEDs's other podcasts in the |
| 0:36.9 | collective, Manus Zomeroodi of TED Radio Hour, Madupe Akanola of Ted's other podcasts in the collective. |
| 0:39.8 | Manus Zomeroody of TED Radio Hour, |
| 0:41.8 | Madoupe Akanola of Ted Business, |
| 0:44.0 | and Sherell Dorsey of Ted Tech. |
| 0:46.6 | So the four of us got to sit down together to reflect on the year that was |
| 0:48.5 | and look ahead to 26. |
| 0:50.7 | From pushing back against AI advances |
| 0:53.0 | 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. |
| 1:03.3 | I'm so excited to share this one with you. Hope you enjoy. |
| 1:30.8 | 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. |
| 1:33.1 | I am Madupa Akinola. |
| 1:39.8 | I am the host of the TED Business Podcast, where we talk about exciting ideas in business and share a TED Talk with you. |
| 1:42.0 | Shirel? |
| 1:42.7 | I'm Shirel Dorsey. |
| 1:43.8 | 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. |
| 1:59.0 | And Manish. I'm Manozoz Amaroi. |
| 2:01.0 | I host NPR's TED Radio Hour. |
... |
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