Five Favorite Things for 2026
In a year of global expansion and frequent travel, here's what I relied on and raved about.
This is a special edition of The New New. In the new year, I’ll be back with my typical featured posts and roundups packed with intrigue and irrelevance.
Last year, I shared my Five Favorite Things for 2025.
It became one of my most popular posts ever—and I’m still using and raving about every single thing on that list.
And, yes, I know there’s irony in another list of recommendations. Earlier this year, I wrote about how we’re living in a time of peak product reviews. Lists are everywhere. AI is helping us shop. But in this moment of algorithmic overwhelm, I still find joy in reading a truly human-curated list of things someone actually loves—and it looks like many of you do as well. So I’m bringing it back.
Here’s what drove this year’s list:
My world became more global in terms of work, clients, and travel.
My agency expanded into Australia and Singapore. My teams in EMEA grew nearly 100%. I delivered programs with clients across six continents.
And these five things below reflect all of that.
They’re what made navigating that expanded world easier, smoother, and, truly, a lot more delightful.
Let’s dig in.
Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life
I’ve owned a printed copy of this brilliant book for over five years, but I resurfaced it this year — this time on audiobook (it’s great listening while traveling). Hearing Rory Sutherland read his own work brings the stories (and the awesome humor throughout this book) to life in great ways. (And yes, with almost 25 years since the first Harry Potter movie, anytime someone with an awesome English accent talks about magic, I’m conditioned to love it.)
The premise: humans are irrational. We don’t make decisions based on careful investigation or deductive logic. We rely on emotion, intuition, and unconscious signals.
Why is Red Bull so popular when everyone hates the taste? Why do we prefer stripy toothpaste? Why do countdown boards on train platforms make delays feel less painful?
Because logic doesn’t drive behavior—alchemy does.
The book was first released in pre-GPT times (2019) — a time of celebration for algorithms and machine learning, but not yet in our post-GPT world of AI being sprinkled everywhere. Today, Rory’s book may be even more inspirational and important than when it was first published.
In an era when AI is making everything increasingly algorithmic, rational, and linear, Alchemy reminds us of the irrelevance and irrationality that still matter most.
“To be brilliant, you have to be irrational.”
That line is both awesome and aspirational… and so is this book!
(Amazon)
AI Voice Interfaces
Earlier this year, I had a big client workshop coming up. The client sent me a pile of documents, and I spent an evening prepping the old-meets-new school way: reading, taking notes, uploading everything into Gemini, and working through the information in a standard text-based chat interface.
The next day, I had an hour-long drive to the meeting during Boston morning rush hour. I had a question I wanted to explore, and instead of trying to type it out at a stoplight, I switched Gemini to voice mode. And we just started riffing.
What did the clients say about X topic in their document? What was the data in this other one? If I bring up this point, is that accurate? Is this a gap I should explore? Where should I start when I dig into this?
It was fast and collaborative. It was something Siri has never been able to do with me in the car.
Voice mode now does everything you can do in a chat interface, just faster. You can talk through chains of thought, build context, and co-create in real-time. Super. Fast.
It is so much faster to talk than to type.
You can do it on the road. You can do it at your desk. Voice opens up an incredible new style of flow across all your devices.
This voice-first approach is also the future of interfaces. Microsoft is betting the future of the operating system will be voice-first (watch their 2030 vision here).
Voice is rising fast, and it’s time to push the button.
If you have not tried it already, give it a go with the Gemini app on your phone. Talk through data with ChatGPT. Write emails by voice with Copilot. Or riff with Claude on an idea for a future blog post.
Start talking, start having a conversation, and, immediately, you’ll be working faster, smoother, and, truly, a lot more delightfully.
Portable Second Screen Monitor
At an event last year, I saw one of my colleagues using a thin, portable second screen. She was working on her laptop with a document open on the second screen—simple, clean, efficient. I’d never seen one before. I immediately wanted one.
The one I got is lightweight, fits in a padded sleeve in my backpack, and plugs in via USB-C. It features physical buttons for brightness, an adjustable stand that supports both portrait and landscape modes, and a crisp resolution.
I travel with a 15-inch MacBook Pro, and even that’s not enough real estate sometimes. This second monitor gives me the same joyful efficiency I have at home with two screens—presentation on one, notes on the other; email and calendar on one, documents on the other—but now I can do it anywhere: airport lounges, client offices, coffee shops, hotel desks, meeting rooms, mother’s dining room table, and on and on.
I purchased a higher-end model for around $100 because I use it frequently and wanted better image quality. I also got my wife a mid-tier version for around $75. Both work beautifully.
(Amazon — my model + mid-tier model)
The Perfect Travel Pillow
I first wrote about the Coop’s AirJustable travel pillow in February for Issue 40 of The New New.
Since then, it’s been all over the world with me and helped me get good shut-eye on many red-eyes. It’s been jammed in bags and put to use in tight economy seats (and a few nicer premium seats). Still, there are no leaks, no visible wear, and it still inflates in seconds. It’s also very clean, because it’s super easy to toss in the wash.
Here’s why it’s still my Goldilocks option and is back on this list:
The shape allows me to sleep in different positions. The inflatable design lets me customize the stability and support I need, which changes depending on the seat I’m in. The memory foam keeps it soft and comfortable. And because it’s inflatable, it packs down small and fits perfectly in my favorite travel bag.
Even if you only do one red-eye a year and don’t have the collection of past pillows I reference in the original piece, this pillow is life-changing for long flights and absolutely worth it.
Oh, and a few of my colleagues (and a few readers of The New New) now have them too—and they also love this pillow.
(Amazon)
A Better Way to Navigate Time Zones
I wrote about this tool in Issue #45, and it’s become even more essential this year.
With team members and clients across six continents, spanning multiple time zones, I’ve been scheduling meetings in more regions than ever. The friction from clunky time zone tools was making me bonkers.
Time zone tools are usually cluttered—too many ads, too many clicks, too slow, too annoying to use.
So I built one that’s the opposite: elegantly fast and simple.
It’s designed to make scheduling global meetings and calls feel less like a puzzle. And if you’ve ever had to worry about how daylight savings shifts happen on different days all over the world—or navigate the joy of 0.5-hour time zone differences like those in India—you’ll absolutely appreciate how easy and elegant it is to change the date and scroll through times in different locations.
(You can read about how I built it—with help from AI—in the original piece.)
The New New’s mission is to fuel foresight. Every issue delivers a curated view into the discoveries, launches, trends, and movements shaping tomorrow—all explored through broad landscapes, from labs and studios to businesses and culture.
Each month(ish), this is pulled together by me, Brent Turner, and published on LinkedIn, Substack, and my site.
Okay, I’m off to listen to Rory talk about irrationality and see what time it is in Sydney.
- B
⌘
Brent — Thanks for keeping my brain entertained and inspired. You’ve turned random thoughts, musings, and borrowed time into an art form. If there's a Substack award season, start drafting your speech. JGS.