“Everybody likes nature, even though we’re watching it slowly degrade away. And that’s the big challenge of our time,” says linguist software engineer Jeffrey T. Reed, a research affiliate with the Cry Wolf Project. Following his talk at TED2025, Reed sits down for a conversation with host Sherrell Dorsey on how listening to sounds like bird chirps and a wolf’s howl connects us with the world around us — and how AI technology can help us further understand these natural phenomena.

To watch Jeffrey's 2025 TED Talk, click here!

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Industrial manufacturers spend a huge amount of energy generating heat to make everyday materials and objects, like cement, steel, and paper. And since most companies use fossil fuels to reach these high temperatures, industrial heat accounts for 20% of our annual global carbon pollution. Thankfully, this is where a century-old technology comes in. Rachel Yang explores how heat batteries work. [Directed by Sofia Pashaei, narrated by Pen-Pen Chen, music by Cem Misirlioglu, WORKPLAYWORK].

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Generative AI is built on three key resources: people, compute and data. While companies invest heavily in the first two, they often use unlicensed creative work as training data without permission or payment — a practice that pits AI against the very creators it relies on. AI expert Ed Newton-Rex has a solution: licensing. He unpacks the dark side of today's AI models and outlines a plan to ensure that both AI companies and creators can thrive together. After the talk, Sherrell reflects on the issue of copyright and how to ensure creators are fairly compensated.

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“The whole Substack ecosystem is about more power because it’s based on those relationships between the publisher and their subscribers, or the video maker and their viewers,” says journalist and Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie. Following his talk at TED2025, McKenzie is in conversation with Sherrell Dorsey to discuss how the media landscape has changed, and how new platforms like Substack allows independent creators to challenge traditional broadcast media – and build trust with their following.

To listen to McKenzie's TED2025 talk, click here: Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, Castbox.

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This episode is part of a feed swap with our friend podcast There Are No Girls On The Internet, hosted by Bridget Todd. She is an expert on tech culture, and on her show she has fun, thought provoking conversations about the ways technology shapes our lives. If you enjoy this episode, you can listen to There Are No Girls On The Internet wherever you get your podcasts. A hologram of the late Whitney Houston is doing a residency in Las Vegas. Host Bridget Todd talks with spirituality writer Brooke Obie asks what this means about celebrity, grief, and technology.

Read Brooke's piece The Zombification of Whitney Houston: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2021/11/10725817/whitney-houston-hologram-tour

Read The Face's Deepfakes, dead relatives and digital resurrection: https://theface.com/society/deepfakes-dead-relatives-deep-nostalgia-ai-digital-resurrection-kim-kardashian-rob-kardashian-grief-privacy

See Al Sharpton's boycott flyer: https://preview.redd.it/a8fqafdn1yw31.jpg?auto=webp&s=372160136dda8598d3d621dbee936e5b3d31602c

Drop Bridget and team a line at [email protected]

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Could the key to a sustainable food system already be growing in the world’s farms? Plant scientist Giles E.D. Oldroyd explores how a special quirk of soybean plants allows them to naturally partner with networks of fungi and bacteria to access essential nutrients in the air and soil — eliminating the need for synthetic fertilizers. He shows how harnessing these microscopic powerhouses could help scientists rewire crops to make their own fertilizer, reducing pollution, increasing yields and improving livelihoods for smallholder farmers. After the talk, Sherrell discuss the ways three companies are developing alternatives to synthetic fertilizers and how their efforts contribute to sustainable agriculture.

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As AI chatbots become more personal and proactive, the line between tool and companion is beginning to blur, with some users even professing love for their digital aides, says business consultant Amaryllis Liampoti. She presents three foundational principles for how brands can harness AI to build deeper emotional connections with consumers while prioritizing well-being, transparency and autonomy — ensuring AI enhances lives without undermining human agency.

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Technology is changing our world — and how we communicate — at an astonishing rate. So much so that entrepreneur Victor Riparbelli predicts that artificial intelligence will drive audio and video to replace text as our primary form of communication by the end of this decade. He imagines a world where anyone can create a Hollywood film, receive personalized education or communicate via hyper-realistic avatars — all in the time it takes to read a book.

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“The AI revolution is here. Can we build a Good Robot?” asks Vox’s newest miniseries, Good Robot. Join host Julia Longoria in conversation with Sherrell to discuss the ideological divide within the AI community. Sherrell and Julia talk about how Julia leverages her background as a Supreme Court reporter to condense complex topics into accessible and exciting explainers, AI’s encroachment on the media industry by “pilfering” works of authors and journalists, and why algorithms could be implemented to ensure ethical consumption – and higher quality information.

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This episode is part of a feed swap from our friend at Vox’s Unexplainable podcast. Good Robot is a miniseries hosted by Julia Longoria.

Today’s episode, “The magic intelligence in the sky” examines how before AI became a mainstream obsession, one thinker sounded the alarm about its catastrophic potential. So why are so many billionaires and tech leaders worried about… paper clips?


Good Robot was made in partnership with Vox’s Unexplainable team. Episodes will be released on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

For more, go to vox.com/goodrobot

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