A Few of Our Favorite Things from 2023
Issue 97: Revisiting some of our favorite books, podcasts, essays, and bits of pop culture from the past year
As the year rolls to an end, we (Jay, Dom, and our editor,
) will share some of our favorite books, podcasts, essays, and bits of pop culture from 2023. These are some of the things we most enjoyed — many of which are, in one way or another, linked to our interests in groups and identity.Before we do, we wanted to thank YOU. This year, we had over 110,000 people read our newsletters and now have nearly 3,300 subscribers!
Our newsletter is read across all 50 U.S. States and 105 countries worldwide! Thanks for being part of this growing community and helping us spread the word.
And here are some of the things we most enjoyed in 2023!
Jay’s Favorites
Show: My favorite TV show this year was Succession. The HBO series centers on the Roy family, who are constantly jockeying for the right to take over a billion dollar media company. Logan Roy, the family patriarch, is a stand in for Rupert Murdoch and the show traces the extreme dysfunction of his kids and his brutal and demoralizing leadership style. I can’t think of a better examination of power and how it corrupts. My other favorites were Beef (a show about a bitter feud between two strangers) and White Lotus (a sharp social satire of rich tourists). And my favorite movie was Oppenheimer — I couldn’t get it out of my mind for days. Mine are pretty dark, I guess.
Book: In keeping with my dark mood, my favorite book was The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher. The book is a gripping and galling story about how social media giants — Facebook, Twitter, YouTube — created algorithms and preyed on psychological weaknesses to monetize our attention. In turn, they spread extreme content and trigger violence and exploitation around the globe. I have been trying to understand the impact of social media on individuals and society and this is the most damning piece of journalism I’ve read on the topic. As a bonus, I was surprised to see several of my studies cited in the book. But I’m genuinely terrified about the parallels between the Manhattan Project and the development of social media and AI.
Podcast: I have been listening less to podcasts this year, but my all time Favorite is still NPR’s Hidden Brain. They interview the world’s leading psychologists, cognitive scientists, and behavioral economists and never fail to make it interesting. The host, Shankar Vedantam, is absolutely lovely and I’ve been on the show twice to discuss moral outrage and The Power of Us. But the most popular Hidden Brain episode of all time was when my wife threw me under the bus. I nearly had a heart attack listening to that one.
Music: An album that is stuck in my mind recently is Remind me Tomorrow by Sharon Van Etten—especially her song Seventeen. It’s about how nothing changes, and everything changes at the same time. I’ve been trying to understand how our brains represent the passage of time. I’ve told you everything I hate about technology and social media, but one corner of the internet I love is reading the YouTube comments section on great songs. You can read the most beautiful, authentic, heart wrenching stories that people connect to music—about how someone first fell in love, lost a parent, or struggled with illness. The song takes them back exactly to that moment.
Essay: Here is an essay Dominic shared with me this week. It’s about how university presidents try to navigate all the complex constituencies on a campus—from the activist students and fussy professors to demanding alumni and board of trustees. We have been privately discussing how universities are suffering from an identity crisis as they fail to juggle the demands of these constituencies and uphold core principles on campus (e.g., juggling free speech with inclusion). This eventually came to a head with the U.S. congressional hearings and the firing of Penn’s President last week. My view is that universities need to develop a coherent vision they can confidently communicate to all members of their community and then reinforce it with the right incentive structures and social norms. Otherwise, trust in these institutions is going to continue to plummet.
Dom’s Favorites
Show: My favorite show this year, which I watched with my kids, is called Taskmaster. The Taskmaster is British comedian Greg Davis, who every season sets a group of five more comedians a series of ridiculous challenges. I don’t have a good intellectual reason for enjoying it so much, other than that Davis is a delightfully capricious judge and that it is frequently hilarious. It’s all available on YouTube — and here is the bit that hooked me: Make an Exotic Sandwich.
Book: My favorite work of fiction this year was Trust by Hernan Diaz. But in the nonfiction category, I heartily recommend Hack Your Bureaucracy by Marina Nitze and Nick Sinai. Nitze and Sinai served in the Obama administration in positions with little-to-no budget and no direct authority, yet learned how to get important things done. Having started a new position myself this year as Associate Vice Provost for Research, similarly without resources or authority, I have found their practical advice for navigating complex organizations to be incredibly useful.
Podcast: This interview with Bradley Onishi on the Lawfare Podcast is both enlightening and terrifying. Onishi talks about his new book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism and What Comes Next. As a former evangelical, Onishi asks himself whether he would have been among the rioters on January 6 if he had not left the church — and explains how the interests of power have overcome theology and righteousness among some very influential religious communities.
Yvonne’s favorites
Essay: “I love surprises”, a personal essay written by Steven Gong on his substack,
. A short and (bitter)sweet essay written by a good friend of mine. In his piece, Steven reflects on optimization, exploring different creative avenues, learning new things, and savoring unexpected moments. I discovered Steven’s work earlier this year thanks to my TikTok algorithm and we subsequently met at a film festival. We became friends through our shared love for film, writing, and psychology; and we were eventually on set of a feature film together (for an Asian-American director we both admire!!!).
I’m known among my friends and family for “doing too much”… having “too many creative pursuits” and little side hustles (like contributing to this newsletter) but this essay kind of sums up why I do what I do. Cheers to all the ravenously curious, novelty-seeking people reading this!
Music: May Erlewine - The Real Thing. I discovered May’s music this spring as she opened for Theo Katzman (of Vulfpeck) on tour. After hearing her sing a few songs live, I took a deep dive into her singer-songwriter discography and her latest record, The Real Thing was one of my top albums this year. The entire album is recorded live, with the unmodified sounds of the people and instruments who were in the room at the time of recording. I find her (and Theo’s) musical philosophy to be super fresh and I feel the magic when I listen to her songs.
Some of her music really breaks me open, and one of her most popular songs, “Never One Thing” is about containing multitudes and embracing our identities.
“It’s about personal revolution and accepting and caring for all parts of ourselves. It is both a triumphant burst from the confines of society and a plea to be released from the captivity of labels and generalizations.", said May.
Here is a video from when I attended one of her solo shows a couple weeks ago! This song, Meet Me is my favorite from the record. About letting go even when it’s hard, and how each day is a another chance.
Video Essay: I eat meals alone sometimes, and when I do, I like to watch video essays about pop culture, fashion, and film on YouTube. My favorites this year are “WHY IS EVERYTHING SO UGLY: The Curse of Modernism” from Mina Le, about why interior design trends and overall aesthetics of life are becoming less colorful and “The Cult of Sororities and BamaRush” from Jordan Theresa, a deep dive into the history of Greek Life in America and sororities at the University of Alabama.
Movie: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse!!! This movie is a masterpiece. I can’t get over how dynamic and beautiful the animated scenes are, and their harmony with the sound design amplifies the excitement in this movie, a delight to watch. Interestingly, Spider-verse also breaks some animation rules, and has different characters animated on different “beats”, that make sense for their character.
The movie contains humor and heartfelt moments as well, which is on-brand for Spiderman movies but I feel like Miles Morales’ story has more layers compared to past Spiderman movies. As a film maker, I really savored the details!
Catch up on the last one…
Negativity is more likely to go viral than positive content, even when we’d rather center the positive than the negative. Read last week’s newsletter to learn why we click on things we know we won’t like.
