Once again, my contributions to a year-end roundup of what my colleagues and I most enjoyed reading, watching, and listening to this year. My colleagues had great contributions, too. 🙂

(Click the “recent inputs” tag on this post for more of these.)

Literature

Alan Noble’s On Getting Out of Bed was a gift to me, describing mental suffering in ways that were both resonant and instructive, and offering hopeful and inspiring reflections on the gift and loveliness of living.

Television

Andor. Back for its fast-paced, high-octane second season, it’s a gritty and intense, marvelously written (with an Emmy to prove it!) continuation of the story of the Rebellion. I complemented my viewing in the spring by hiking in Scotland early this fall to a notable Season 1 film location.

Film

Luther: Never Too Much. I love Luther Vandross, and this documentary only made me love him more.

Podcasts

I thought Ezra Klein’s September podcast episode with Ben Shapiro, entitled “We Are Going to Have to Live Here with One Another” and released the week after Charlie Kirk was murdered (though recorded before it), was both deeply helpful and challenging, and a model for the way each of us ought to approach conversations with people in our lives with whom we disagree, because we are in fact going to have to live here with one another, so it’s imperative that each of us—you and I!—do what we can to bridge divides and sow peace in our relationships, communities, and society, even when others won’t do it first.

Longform Journalism

“Using ChatGPT Isn’t Bad for the Environment,” Andy Masley (The Weird Turn Pro, Substack). I’m generally willing to read good-faith, well-researched/reasoned, contrarian takes in my evergreen effort to pursue truth, and Andy Masley’s research and writing on AI and the environment has convinced me that the environmental concerns surrounding AI are, generally speaking, considerably overblown or misleading, if not entirely false. That’s not to say there aren’t any concerns at all, or even any environmental concerns, but the oft-repeated talking points you’ve heard and maybe believe may in fact not stand up to scrutiny (in other words: read at your own risk!). If nothing else, Andy’s writing has reinvigorated my healthy skepticism of zeitgeist and my appreciation for deep, nuanced, longform research and writing.

Music

MATIN (Complete Edition), Jess Ray. In a year full of music, Jess Ray’s 2-year, 4-album project called MATIN (after the morning prayer service matins, for us liturgically less familiar) was my most played. Dubbed “friendly folk,” these albums have been a balm and a treasure to me for nearly two years now. I’d recommend starting with the video recordings.