The Best of 2025

My favorite discoveries from 2025. Previous best-of posts are available here.

Books

  • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
    • LeCarre’s spy masterpiece. This year I read the entire Karla Trilogy, of which this is the first and my favorite part. I enjoyed it so much I read it twice. Absurdly clever, ridiculously British, with prose so good you almost (almost) feel like it’s wasted on a spy novel. Proof that great art can occur in basically any medium. H/t Erik J.
  • After
    • The history of events that led to the recognition of near death experiences as a medical phenomenon, as told by a psychiatrist that was one of the lead investigators. There were some really mind-bending stories in here. I was particularly impressed by the objectivity of the author in his research.
  • The No Book
    • This technically hasn’t been released yet. But you can read the introduction and chapters 1, 2, and 3 online. It’s just a book about saying no to people. Since reading (and rereading and rereading) Four Thousand Weeks, I keep coming back to the conclusion that the problem of time management is just that there are too many (often perfectly good) things to do. They cannot all be done – no matter how efficient you get. You have to choose to say no to some of them, or the universe will choose for you.
  • Believe
    • I’ve read a lot of philosophy of religion. And if you’d asked, I would have told you there was basically nothing left to be said. I was wrong. I found Douthat’s arguments surprisingly forceful, creative, and interesting. H/t Rob D.

Products/Purchases

  • Cat
    • We got the kids a kitten (3 months old) from a shelter. It cost ~$60 total, which was the cost of her shots. The kids love her, she loves them. My brother joked that the cat gets carried more than she walks. She’s brought real joy to everyone on a daily basis.
  • Walking pad
    • I’ve been walking on a treadmill during work for nearly 10 years. At the start of last year we moved the treadmill into the basement so we could run in the winter and I didn’t realize how much I missed walking on it during work until I got this. It makes every day better. h/t wife
  • Soundcore A40 headphones
    • My fifth and favorite pair of earbuds. So cheap, so much better than the Wirecutter budget recommendation, batteries last forever (1 charge per month with daily use), they connect to multiple devices. My only complaint is that they don’t have many controls. I will be buying these again and again.
  • Preventative Cardiologist
    • Did you know that they made these? Cardiologists that try to prevent cardiovascular disease before it gets going. I had to wait 4-5mo to get an appointment, but it was well worth it!
  • Olive oil sprayer
    • I basically hate everything about canned spray oils: the cost, the waste of a can, the crappy oil inside, the dimethyl silicone they all contain, etc. But I’ve always thought there was no other option. This sprayer completely eliminates the need for the cans. It lets me use high quality olive oil with no gross additives. I use this every single day.

Podcasts

  • The most incredible survival story I have ever heard
    • A guy in the remote wilderness stumbles across a grizzly and its cub, is repeatedly attacked by the mother grizzly, fights her off with his bare hands, tries and fails to kill himself, lays down to die, finds the will to keep going because of “Baby Shark”, crawls 5+ mi through the woods to his truck, reattaches parts of his face with a roll of toilet paper, drives 20 km almost blind to a resort to be rescued, then overcomes crippling PTSD with repeated sessions of accelerated resolution therapy. My jaw was on the floor from start to stop. This was a really great reality check: most of our problems seem comical in comparison to what this guy went through, and the things human beings are capable of when pushed to their limit are unimaginable. H/t wife
  • Interview with the founder of Orchid, a company that does genetic embryo testing
    • What are the consequences for society if most babies end up being born through IVF and are selected for particular traits? A rare example of strong, respectful, yet fundamental disagreement. Both sides scored points. H/t Meghan D.
  • Acquired on Novo Nordisk
    • Fascinating on many levels: as pure history of science (how was insulin discovered, purified, etc), as a story of perseverance and commitment finally paying off (we knew about GLP1 for decades before a successful GLP1 drug hit markets), as a deep dive into the incentives in US health care (e.g. insurance companies largely don’t cover preventative services because average employment time is ~4 years, they wouldn’t benefit from lower costs down the road for any prevention done today). H/t Sarah V.
  • Rhonda Patrick interviewing Andy Galpin
    • Hands down the most reasonable, well-balanced advice on athletic and health performance optimization I’ve heard in a long time. Very detailed. Super practical, tons of interesting topics covered

Movies

  • Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
    • Endearing bromance, quite funny, Pedro Pascal steals every scene he’s in, amazing that Nick Cage took the role given that he’s basically making fun of himself the entire time. H/t Rob D.
  • Extraction
    • Really enjoyed the action, cared about the characters, fun sad dad movie
  • Meru
    • Documentary about the first ascent of Mt. Meru. A guy has a stroke on the side of a mountain and (spoilers) still gets to the top. h/t Shaun P
  • Gattaca
    • Super clever plot/writing, way ahead of its time, great brother movie, great acting, twist of an ending, h/t/ Matt D.
  • Conclave
    • Great drama, acting, music. Beautifully shot. There are a million ways this could have been done wrong, but it wasn’t. I was really pleasantly surprised.
  • Hotel Rwanda
    • Great acting, excellent portrayal of a marriage, true story, sad dad movie
  • Hostiles
    • Incredible score, great story of forgiveness, sad mom of the year award. Warning: it’s a hard watch, brutal and extremely violent.
  • Thunderbolts
    • Hilarious, and a surprisingly affecting exploration of mental illness
  • Frankenstein
    • I really, really enjoyed this. Beautiful cinematography, phenomenal score (I’m a sucker for solo violin). It turned out to be a really interesting exploration of the story of creation and (ultimately) the Nietzschean death of God. Warning: there was a ridiculous amount of gore
  • Wake Up Dead Man
    • A worthy successor to Knives Out. Very clever. I did not see any of the twists coming. As with the other movies on this list: gorgeous cinematography and score. Josh Brolin is (as ever) a great bad guy, and Josh O’Connor’s performance was spot on. More Fundamentalist than it was Catholic, but still excellent.

TV

  • Drive to Survive: Season 7, Le Curse of LeClerc (Netflix)
    • This is about Sean LeClerc (an F1 driver) and his quest to win the crown jewel of F1 racing: the Monaco grand prix, which also happens to take place in his childhood home town. I really appreciated this for its look at the psychological side of the sport. The pressure on LeClerc to win this race each year and the fortitude it must take him to perform at a high level in this environment year after year is just unreal.
  • American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden (Netflix)
    • I thought I already knew the story of Osama bin Laden’s capture pretty well. But I still found this impossible to put down. They had incredible access, interviewing the analyst that focused on the courier, multiple CIA directors, the CIA liaison with GW Bush, people in the room when Obama made the call to raid the compound, and the SEAL who pulled the trigger. There were lots of details I didn’t know. Also the whole thing was scored like a Nolan movie, which was equal parts hilarious and awesome.
  • The Paper (PeacockTV)
    • This is the sequel to The Office and nearly as good. Episode 6 (“Churnalism”) had me nearly peeing myself with laughter.
  • Slow Horses, Season 5 (Apple TV)
    • Bumbling, idiot spies banished from MI5 save the country from conspiracies. This continues to be my favorite show, year after year. Equal parts exciting and laugh-out-loud funny.

Articles/Essays/Papers

Health/Fitness/Running