Thomas Unise
In the final episode of WIRED’s Uncanny Valley podcast under its current format, hosts Michael Calore and Lauren Goode announced that the show will continue with new hosts in the coming year. While relaxing poolside, they reflected on tech trends and shared their WIRED and TIRED picks for the industry’s future direction.
Key Announcements and Changes
The podcast will continue in 2026 with a new hosting team consisting of Brian Barrett, Zoë Schiffer, and Leah Feiger, all current WIRED editors and reporters. The show will maintain its focus on Silicon Valley’s people, power, and influence while continuing to deliver WIRED’s reporting and analysis.
Tech Trends Discussion
During their poolside chat, the hosts shared several WIRED and TIRED predictions:
Michael identified voice-activated AI assistants as TIRED, suggesting silent, ambient AI assistance is the WIRED future trend. He predicted new hardware developments from companies like OpenAI (collaborating with Jony Ive) and Meta would move toward ambient computing that works without voice commands or physical interaction.
Lauren highlighted IPOs as WIRED for 2026, mentioning potential public offerings from companies like Stripe, OpenAI, Anthropic, Notion, Databricks, and SpaceX. She noted these events could create numerous new tech millionaires and provide journalists greater visibility into these companies’ financials.
Lauren also identified tech CEOs as moral leaders as TIRED, emphasizing that journalists should report on the industry as it is rather than idealizing its leaders.
Meet the New Hosts
The episode introduced two of the three incoming hosts: Zoë Schiffer, WIRED’s director of business and industry and author of
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