Things I Enjoyed In 2025 and Looking Ahead to 2026

Thanks for reading!

Reflecting on 2025, one theme resonated: being more present and going offline. In that, I haven’t consumed as much feeds and media as previous years. That being said, here’s a brief list of things I enjoyed the most in 2025 alongside a general newsletter retro and peak into 2026.

In no particular order:

Andor S2

In many ways, Andor feels like a TV series that should and shouldn’t exist. For an IP called “Star Wars”, one would’ve expected a continuation of its namesake. The prequels were that: talks of trade blockades alongside a sinister emperor rising to power, re-organising a republic into a fascist empire for “security” reasons. “So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause,” the Senator of Naboo said in the prequels. But after Disney bought the IP they played it safer. eg: Mandalorian is about a cute alien and a loner. Bad Batch is about brotherhood and finding identity. Ahsoka is about myth and *another* galaxy far, far away. The Acolyte was about sisterhood and how the force can manifest in unexpected ways.

But, Andor is the lens we needed on our current times. As Mon Mothma speaks:

“I believe we are in crisis. The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest.”

I’m glad this got made. I’m glad that we have mega-IP media that captures the nihilism and hope of politics and what it costs to bend justice to hope and freedom. While I thought S1 was better than S2 (mostly because of the impeccable wonder of the Eye of Aldhani arc), it thoroughly landed the entire story of Cassian and the start of the rebellion. It’s going to age very well.

Night Tapes - portals//polarities

The way I listen to music these days is, admittedly, not as directed as it once was. I blame the easy of Spotify’s discovery. 90% of new music comes through its recommendations. From there, if an artist continues to find its way into my playlists, it’s then that I delve deeper into their discography. The best is when I discover that they’re new and still releasing new music. Night Tapes’ debut is full of the wonderful dreampop and electronic ambient grooves I’ve come to love about them.

A big highlight of my year which included going to see them live! :)

Casino Versus Japan - it’s very sunny

Sometimes, every few years, a song comes along that I can't stop playing. This was my most listened to song in 2024 and 2025. Still madly in love with the layered ethereal beat. It feels like if one could fly over an island in the ocean.

The Rehearsal S2

Nathan Fielder remains one of my favourite modern TV showrunners. His work is challenging to watch sometimes because of his willingness to tread over ethical and moral boundaries (he often uses people who doesn’t quite understand the deeper intent of the shows). Despite that, it remains often hilarious while offering a very unique slice into modern society that can veer into deep sincerity. In The Rehearsal S2, he continues testing the boundaries of performance and loops the viewer into it by emphasising to them, that they too are complicit in being the audience. What is a performance and what is sincere? And when does this line between performance and sincerity impact our daily lives? In The Rehearsal S2, he looks at pilots and the expectations they carry for millions of passengers.

Common Side Effects

This series caught my eye because I loved Scavenger’s Reign and it was done by the same studio. I was hoping for another psychedelic adventure, but initially got the perception that it was in the same realm as other “stoner” adult animation (like Rick and Morty). Not the biggest fan of adult animation like that, but gave it a go because of the studio, and I was massively surprised at how rich the show felt. The characters were compelling, the world was littered with detail, and the plot was engaging. The animation, as with Scavenger’s Reign, was equally fantastical. Looking forward to more of this. (+1 for using Nils Frahm in the trailer).

NYC Congestion Pricing

On the urbanism front, besides California passing SB 79 (allowing for higher density housing near transit stops), NYC implementing congestion pricing is my favourite. It’s been a big success.

In the first six months of the program, traffic in the congestion zone dropped by 11 percent, accidents by 14 percent, and complaints of excessive honking or other noise by 45 percent, officials said.

Pollution is also down.

“This tells us that congestion pricing didn’t simply relocate air pollution to the suburbs by rerouting traffic. Instead, folks are likely choosing cleaner transportation options altogether, like riding public transportation or scheduling deliveries at night. This thins traffic and limits how smog compounds when many cars are on the road.”

As I wrote on it earlier this year:

So, this local trap stops us from imagining the second order effects of slapping on a price at one part of a complex system and seeing it change wholesale the system we’re embedded in. It sucks to have entrenched systems where people can’t imagine a better one past the personal impact to themselves. Congestion pricing schemes are windows into collective action where we make sane trade-offs for collective benefit. That’s great. We need more of it. Far more of it. Even if it’s just experiments that are then posed to the society as referendums (like they did in Stockholm).

Walking The Camino

On a personal front, a lot of the first six months of the year, I dealt with the grief and end of a 6.5 year relationship (and short marriage). As Winston Churchill said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste”, I went to therapy, changed a few personal habits of my life, grew closer to friends and family, met a lot of people and built new communities, and decided to do something I’ve always wanted to do: a long walking trip. I wrote about it practical and emotional aspects of that journey.

With all this work + growth in personal fitness + daily meditation + going offline more, I’m feeling the best I’ve felt in my life. This year was full of life (it’s lows and highs) and for that I’m grateful.

Writing Novel #2

I’m not where I wanted to be with my second book. It’s pre-occupied the majority of my productive time in the past 2.5 years and I’m about 70% through a new revision. Early feedback has also not been very strong. It’s been good, but hoped for a stronger “hell yes”. Evidently, after sending it to 8 initial agents, I received rejection from all of them. But, I still believe there’s a good story here and I’ll continue to chip away at it. I have to work on some art projects in first half of 2026 and so I might put the book a bit on the back burner. Regardless, I want to keep going through the “gauntlet” and get it traditionally published. At the end of the day, even though I haven’t much to show for 2.5 years of work (yet), it’s still been an immensely valuable project. I’m sure my skills as storyteller will one day point back to these 2.5 years of work on this.

Hades 2

I haven’t gamed as much this year. But, I did (and still am), enjoying Hades 2. The highlight of the year for me.

That being said, I’m very actively trying to ignore that Factorio released Switch 2 updates, including the Space Age update. 😅

Book Sculptures by Ana Maria Caballero

One of my favourite mixed-medium artworks of the year is Ana Maria Caballero’s Book Sculptures.

Caballero’s Book Sculptures are an eight-part series that questions how society values poetry. This series proposes the book as a sculptural object, and will see Caballero print eight different books, each as an edition of one, with a unique ISBN and the anatomy and structure of a traditional book.

The books in this series contain only one poem, printed 197 times in their pages. When taken as integers, the digits in 197 add up eventually to 8, a number that represents abundance.

What I love about it, is that plays with how we perceive a piece of work through changing its medium. Books aren’t usually seen as a 1-of-1 like a sculpture is. Nevermind, printing one poem, continuously in the book. Does restricting the poem to a format like this, elevate it? Do all poems *need* maximum distribution? Do any piece of art or creative work need to be easily available? And what does it mean in terms of how the creative work is experienced? Creating context is important and sometimes the trade-off of maximal distribution actually dilutes the message.

I love these questions that Book Sculptures provokes.

The Studio

A metric for how much I like something, is that if I grow fonder of the memories of it, the longer I’m away from having consumed it, the better it is. Games like Disco Elysium, comes to mind, still haunting my memories of it 3 years later. The Studio, a fast-paced, sometimes slapstick, and hilarious inside look into a film studio in LA, is one of those. Great satire while still making the world of entertainment production look exciting.

Intimate Systems & Rifts by Hashrunner

I’m still paying attention to onchain art projects and continue to enjoy collecting these!

Two of my favourites this year was the Intimate Systems exhibition (which I wrote about last week), and Rifts by Hashrunner.

With the recent news that MoMA collected Cryptopunks and other blockchain art, I’m feeling vindicated in my belief, that in time, truly onchain and dynamic protocol art will too be recognized by larger institutions.

Wake up Dead Man & Conclave

I’m putting these two together, because I didn’t quite expect that films containing Catholicism would be some of my favourites of the year. Both deal with doubt, belief, and uncertainty. And both mark it necessary even if you aren’t faithful.

As preference, while I maintain strong beliefs about life, politics, and religion, I’m rarely certain. Not because I have doubts, but because I enjoy learning. I always look to people, words, and the many worlds one might inhabit and look inside to see if I have it all wrong. I treat my own beliefs gently and look to see how others can teach me. Ironically, I’ve sometimes wondered whether this approach in itself, is wrong. That perhaps, I should lead with more certainty and advocate more strongly for my beliefs in the same way that I hope to be taught by others and their willingness to proselytize their own. But, I felt vindicated in Ralph Fiennes impeccable speech in Conclave.

Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. Even Christ was not certain at the end. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" he cried out in his agony at the ninth hour on the cross. Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand-in-hand with doubt. If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery. And therefore, no need for faith. Let us pray that God will grant us a Pope who doubts. And let him grant us a Pope who sins and asks for forgiveness and who carries on.

Certainty can be fragile. For now, I prefer to be a rope. Strong, but bendable. Great films.

On Consumption

I definitely feel like I missed out this year on great art, books, movies, TV shows, games, etc. In general, over the past few years, I’m entertained by going broad instead of deep. I didn’t read any niche books, or play many niche indie games, or watched some niche art films. And so, I do sometimes feel like I’m missing out on deeper conversations. The most niche consumption at the moment for me is simply enjoying paying attention to all the onchain art projects. The rest is more known. A solution is to pick a field and go deep, but I’m quite happy right now in hopping between mediums, even if it might stay relatively shallow.

Newsletter Retrospective & Looking Into 2026

Here’s the most popular newsletters I wrote this year:

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Newsletter growth was fairly flat for the entire year. I ascribe most of that due to not posting on Twitter/X. Most of the new traffic came from Substack itself.

Into 2026

I’ve enjoyed writing this newsletter this year. I tried different formats and, for now, seem fine with continuing as-is. I’m still in two minds whether it’s meaningful for me to continue at the pace of once-a-week. I don’t always want to spend weekends writing anymore. And, I believe that if I took the time I spent writing this newsletter into my novel, it would’ve been much further along. As you might have noticed, *most* of the content of this year has been about going outside, touching grass, and logging off. I don’t always want to stay this much online anymore. I’m happier for it. And so I want to continue being smarter about what I consume and how I produce and share my thoughts. I might lean into the idea again of publishing a monthly newsletter instead of a weekly one in order to find a better middle-ground. I aim usually for 3 links a week and so for a month, if I share 10 new things, it seems manageable and easier and the writing for it won’t always fall on a weekend. It gives me space.

With that, I’m going to take a 2 week break and will hopefully have some downtime to read, spend time with family and friends, and enjoy more of the South African summer sunshine before heading back to the US.

May the final sunsets of 2025 be wonderful and beautiful.

Thank you for reading. 🫶

Looking forward to seeing all of you in 2026.

Simon