A Journey from Journalism to Design: Embracing Change

Wired Differently: A Conversation with Annika Madejska on AI, Neurodiversity, and Ethical Debt When we spoke with Annika Madejska for our podcast, it was one of those conversations that lingered long after we hit stop on the recording. Thoughtful, sharp, and honest—Annika shared stories and insights that connected the personal and the professional in a way that just made sense. Especially when it comes to living with ADHD, and how that overlaps with creativity, identity, and our evolving relationship with technology and AI. Neuro-spicy and Never Quite Fitting In Annika calls herself “neuro-spicy.” It’s her way of naming something many of us feel but don’t always know how to explain: the constant dance of fitting in and not fitting in. She’s been successful—really successful—but says she’s always felt like an outsider. A misfit who learned to mask her differences, play the game, and still quietly question the rules… well, maybe not so quietly. For Annika, growing up meant constantly sensing that something was “off”—not in a bad way, but in a way that made her feel slightly outside the group. She talks about being deeply insecure, a people pleaser, even while coming across as strong and fearless. It wasn’t until later in life that she was diagnosed with ADHD, and suddenly all those quirks, all those intensities and obsessions, started to make more sense. And maybe that’s the paradox. You can be thriving in a system and still not feel like you belong in it. You can be high-functioning, even exceptional, and still feel like you’re not doing things the “right” way. Wired for Justice One of the things that stood out in our talk was Annika’s deep sense of justice—a drive she now knows is common in people with ADHD. That strong inner compass, that feeling of “this isn’t right,” has shaped her entire career. From journalism to design to her current focus on AI ethics, Annika has always followed the impulse to fix, to understand, to make things better. Even when it wasn’t easy. Even when it got her into trouble. She’s the kind of person who raises her hand and says, “Sure, I’ll do it,” and then figures it out along the way. That mix of impulsiveness and hyper-focus, as she describes it, has helped her jump into the deep end again and again—especially in chaotic, high-stakes environments. Where most people panic, she’s calm. It’s not that she’s fearless. It’s that she’s used to navigating the unknown. The Ethical Debt of AI And that brings us to AI. Anika has spent the last few years knee-deep in conversations about ethics and technology. She coined the term “ethical debt,” and it’s brilliant. Just like technical debt in software—where shortcuts come back to bite you—ethical debt builds up when we ignore the long-term moral consequences of what we build. She points out that the data we use to train AI is full of bias, because history is full of bias. And when we build systems on top of that data, without thinking critically about what we’re amplifying, we’re creating technology that might work—technically—but could be harming people in real ways. And we don’t see it. That’s the problem. The harm is often invisible. It’s like climate change or depression: easy to ignore until it hits close to home. So… What Do We Do? Annika doesn’t claim to have all the answers, but she does have a wish. She wants us to teach people—especially the next generation—critical thinking. She wants us to stop taking convenience for granted. To understand the cost of the tech we use, not just in money or energy or data, but in values. In choices. In trade-offs. She reminds us that technology isn’t neutral. It’s always designed by someone, for someone, with certain outcomes in mind. So we have to ask: Who gets to decide? What are we optimizing for? And who benefits? The Bigger Picture What I appreciated most about our conversation is how personal it was. Annika isn’t talking about ethics in some abstract, academic way. She’s lived it. Her work is shaped by her experiences as someone who feels deeply, thinks fast, and questions everything. She’s someone who has learned to stop hiding parts of herself. To show up fully, neuro-spicy and all. And in doing so, she gives others permission to do the same. So yeah, this episode is about AI. It’s about bias, and regulation, and privacy, and the need to rethink our systems. But it’s also about being human in a world that often asks us to be machines. It’s about creativity, empathy, identity, and the power of asking better questions.