Media that Helped Me Explain 2025
With 2025 just behind us I wanted to create a quick collection of the best media I saw or read that helped me understand the state of the world in 2025.
Top Videos for Understanding Politics 2025
You Can Write Better than AI — josh (with parentheses)
A great video essay that gets to the root of why LLM generated writing is fundementally bad and uninteresting.
For-Profit (Creative) Software — End Vertex
One of my personal favorites from this year as it speaks to the way for-profit software restricts and hurts creatives in many ways. In many ways these are the costs the Free Software movement tried to warn us about.
Fantasies of Nuremberg — Jacob Geller
An in-depth discussion of what the Nuremberg trials actually were, what happened there, and a discussion of what justice is.
The Tech Billionaire to Fascist Pipeline — Alexander Avila
Alexander Avila continues to publish some of the best video essays online. This video really helps explain the heel-turn that it feels like every tech billionaire has made in 2025.
Greed is Destroying the World — Drew Gooden
An excellent video summarizing why everything seems to suck right now. This video is a great introduction to how our current era of capitalism has gone wrong.
There Are No Normal Guys — Jack Saint
Jack Saint does a great job explaining the far-right's attempt to normalize far-right views.
New Creators I Liked
Sarah Davis Baker Video Essays
Thoughtful video essays on art, media, video games, AI etc. Reminiscent of Jacob Geller's style.
Esoteric Meme Breakdown by Peter Bjorndal
Fun short-form videos explaining weirdly specific memes about science, art, history, etc.
Other Notable Content
A Post-American, Enshittification-Resistant Internet (39C3) — Cory Doctorw
Cory Doctorw continues to do important advocacy against the enshittification of the internet. We must move past the American tech-monopolies. I'd recommend reading/watching some of his interviews or talks.
Podcasts
The Panic World Podcast has been easily my favorite podcast for 2025. The podcast has done a great job summarizing how internet culture has gotten us where we are and how it is still shaping culture in interesting ways.
Books
On Freedom by Timothy Snyder
In this book Snyder does an excellent job explaining where American's go wrong with our interpretation of freedom. How Europe and Canada has managed to maintain freedom with an inclusive social-safety net, and how true freedom requires solidarity.
Wild Faith by Talia Lavin
Provides a good introduction to some of the extreme people and groups that have shaped the American Christian far-right. As well as highlights why these ideas are so extreme and can cause immediate harm to children.
The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory by Tim Alberta
A more sympathetic overview of the shift of Christian culture to the far-right. Providing insight into the difficulties of pastors trying to preaching basic pro-social teachings views of Jesus Christ.
Other Books
The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler by William L. Shirer
Turns out Hilter was a bad guy, but more interesting he was a real person who existed. He also showed himself early on as someone who ignored laws and attempted to seize power through force. Perhaps a good case study for how some individuals should be barred from politics through a reasonable justice system.
The Conditions of the Working-Class in England in 1844 by Frederick Engels
Very interesting insight into the actual conditions of the working class during early industrialization. I was surprised to learn much of the danger and poor conditions was actually based on bad policies by capital holders rather than ignorance. For example workers were often injured in machines because their bosses would not pay them when the machines were not running. Meaning maintenance and cleaning was unpaid unless the machines were operating.
Conclusion
In 2026 I want to write more.
- I’m begging you to write essays — Odysseas
- Writing to refine my ideas and discover new ones — Protesilaos Stavrou