The most meaningful thing I did this year was to be a volunteer field lead for Zohran Mamdani. I couldn’t be more proud of the work my comrades and I did to elect him as mayor of New York City. This victory makes me optimistic for the future and I am looking forward to see what happens next.
My Top Movies of 2025
8. Love Hurts
7. Bad Guys 2
6. Sorry Baby
5. Frankenstein
4. Wake Up Dead Man
3. Sketch
2. The Phoenician Scheme
1. Hamnet
My Top Books of 2025
5. Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer’s
by Charles Piller
4. Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert
3. Painting the Cosmos: How Art and Science Intersect to Reveal the Secrets of the Universe by Nia Imara
2. Black in Blues: How A Color Tells The Story of My People by Imani Perry
1. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
What I’m looking forward to –
A Resistance History of the United States by Tad Storemer
The fourth Lindsay Ellis Noumena book (whenever that may be!)
Reading and then watching Wuthering Heights
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
Three amazing podcasts started this year all from Cool Zone Media. I call them my Id, Ego and Superego but I can’t say which is which.
Better Offline hosted by Ed Zitron. Exposing corruption in the tech industry, this goes beyond the basics of “crypto is a scam” and gets into the heart of how un regulated capitalism and the quest for profit have destroyed so many good things about the internet. Righteous anger and delicious humor.
Sixteenth Minute of Fame by Jamie Loftus. I’ve listened to many of Loftus’ other podcasts and she’s always great. This show combines the experience of being extremely online with compassion for the people the internet (and by that usually just twitter) chews up and spits out on a daily basis. If you’ve ever what ever happened to a person after they went viral, this show is for you. What amazes me is not just how entertaining this is but how Jamie Loftus makes room for the humanity of her subjects and guests. Its a little sensational but ultimately very human.
Weird Little Guys by Molly Conger This is a true crime show about the alt right. It’s also about right wing terrorism in general in the United States. I was instantly on board with the premise, these stories need to be told. Its meticulously researched and presented in a way that will leave you on the edge of your seat. But you do have to be in the right headspace for it. Trigger warning for everything.
Colm Meaney: A Union Man I wanted to find a picture of Colm Meaney on the SAG AFTRA picket line and make a “more than a hero, a union man” meme but I guess I didn’t know he lives in Ireland. Anyway. This article is fascinating.
Of course the biggest stories of the year in the USA have been the overturning of Roe vs Wade and Elon Musk’s absolute disaster takeover of Twitter. Here’s some stories you might have missed:
Watch the Air
Adam’s essay about how we can do more to prevent respiratory viruses. We don’t have to accept either total lockdown or hundreds of deaths per week
This year I had the delight of watching the first season of Strange New Worlds on Paramount Plus which I believe had the best first season of any Star Trek show. It was near perfect if not perfect. The show combines the best parts of the TOS aesthetic with an updated sensibility and while you don’t have to have seen Star Trek before to enjoy it, if you are a Trekkie there are a million Easter eggs. The framing is brilliant and Pike is quickly becoming my favorite Captain (I said it!)
The Hulu original Welcome to Chippendales starring Kumail Nanjiani is just fantastic television. There was a lot more sleaze going on behind the scenes of the 80’s male revue than I ever knew. The 80’s fashion and decor is a fun, and the acting is superb. Ultimately the show is about the idea of “The American Dream” and how it succeeds and fails to live up to expectations. (Technically the series finale is next week but even not having seen it I still strongly recommend it.)
Movies
Of course I loved Glass Onion and join the rest of the internet in being smitten with Benoit Blanc. It’s the kind of fun popcorn movie I wish they’d make more of, and now that it’s a franchise I may get my wish.
I am still thinking about Don’t Worry Darling as an updated version of The Stepford Wives and the movie has a lot to say about feminism and misogyny, suburban capitalism, the façade of gender and online radicalization. I’m still chuckling over the fact that when asked about how he felt about being the inspiration for the movie’s villain/cult leader, Jordan Peterson was like “Well Chris Pine is hot so…” Adam wrote a review here.
The Lost City was a cute comedy and I will watch anything where Daniel Radcliffe chews the scenery (Including the Weird Al Movie) but together with Don’t Worry Darling I think there’s a trend of “non remake remakes.” As The Lost City is so much like Romancing The Stone without being a remake in name. It’s an interesting way to revisit the magic of a past story without all the fan pressure that comes with an announced remake.
I had to watch Clerks 3 and I would recommend it to anyone who was a Kevin Smith fan in their youth. The trilogy wraps in a touching story about facing mortality in midlife. There were a few laughs that came with the many references to previous movies (and the Clerks cartoon show!)
South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry
My UU congregation read this one and there was a lot to discuss. Perry looks at the American South and its various meanings and definitions. Race and history are intertwined with geography and culture.
Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor by Kim Kelly
I grew up in a union household and this subject is near and dear to my heart. Organizers and workers who were women, queer or people of color have been in the United States since its founding. Although sometimes these groups allowed themselves to be pitted against each other – there are also inspiring stories of solidarity and courage. This is the stuff they didn’t teach you in school and its easy to see why.
Ways of Being: Beyond Human Intelligence. Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for Planetary Intelligence by James Bridle
This book is trippy and I wouldn’t have picked it up if I’d never heard Contrapoints explain the gist of Ways of Seeing in order to understand the reference. And while I thought this was a scientific exploration of intelligence artificial and “natural” it’s more a book about philosophy and challenges the reader to think about these concepts in different ways. It reminds me a lot of How To Do Nothing and I will be rereading it again very soon to get more out of it.
Podcasts
Sold A Story This is a must listen to for parents and anyone who cares about children and education. About 20 years ago the way we started to teach reading in America changed for the worse. The deficits of the pandemic are nothing compared to the injustice we have done by ignoring everything we knew about reading.
Ghost Church I will listen to anything by Jamie Loftus and while I am not a believer in ghosts even after listing to this entire thing I think it’s worth a listen to understand the history of American spiritualism, a fascinating subject. If you only have time for one, listen to episode 8, which explains Ectoplasm. Trust me.
Videos
The Weird World of Tucker Carlson Originals by Jose
Lee Zeldin supporters on election night
Zeldin Supporters react, some cry as race is called by many TV stations for NY Governor Kathy Hochul as the winner.
Election event night for Zeldin at Cipriani in Midtown is still ongoing, while about half of people left, Zeldin has not yet spoken. pic.twitter.com/i7pOd7SbwF
CHAT GPT
Everyone is posting their experiments with the chatbot that will change the world. And I need you to see this. I was literally screaming as I watch it type this. I’m impressed.
Elizabeth and Karen interview History Professor Paul Renfro about his book “Stranger Danger: Family Values, Childhood, and the American Carceral State.”
This episode continues our discussion into the panic over child trafficking stirred up by QAnon and how it relates to the Satanic Panic of the 80’s.
Karen and Elizabeth interview Kiera Butler, Senior editor and public health reporter at Mother Jones magazine about how QAnon targets women, especially mothers of small children. Is this a repeat of Stranger Danger and 80’s style Satanic Panic?
Elizabeth and Karen read Jordan Peterson’s resignation latter from the University of Toronto and discuss his ideology, implicit bias, post modernism, and the philosophy of Vladamir Putin.
