It’s hard to believe this is my fourth year writing this blog post. It feels like these last four years have flown by in the blink of an eye. In that time, I’ve lived in four different houses, flown on countless flights, and written nowhere near as many blog posts as I intended.
My monthly “Media Diet” blog posts make this one much easier to write. It’s simple enough to search through everything I reviewed this year and remind myself of the standouts, even those I watched or read at the start of the year.
In 2025, I plan to write more than just my “Media Diet” posts and this end-of-year review. We’ll see how that goes in practice, but it’s a new year and a chance to try again!
Film - Anora
I’ve loved every single film Sean Baker has directed, and Anora has continued that trend. His previous film, Red Rocket, was my pick in 2021.
It’s a wild and raucous ride from start to finish. In all the best ways, it feels like a much bigger film than Baker’s previous work. For the last decade, I’ve been watching his movies as they’ve been released, and I’ve loved seeing his work grow in complexity and scale. He’s always been a fantastic storyteller, and that continues with Anora.
I don’t think it will win the Best Picture Oscar this year, but it deserves to. It’s cinematically stunning, well-acted, and thoughtful, too. It’s a movie everyone should make time to watch.
Available on all major PPV platforms
Book - Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Sally Rooney’s Normal People had a significant impact on me. I mostly read science fiction and fantasy, with the occasional deviation, but there was something about Normal People when I first read it. It was honest and raw in a way that science fiction and fantasy never are.
I’ve continued to read Sally Rooney’s new books as they’ve been released. None of them has connected with me as strongly as Intermezzo. It is a successor to Normal People, and I hope it receives the faithful miniseries adaptation that Normal People received.
It’s an intimate depiction of a fractured brotherly relationship. Although it was sometimes painful to read, it evoked visceral feelings of what the characters were going through. Nevertheless, it is engaging throughout and very hard to put down.
Available everywhere books are sold
TV Show - Baby Reindeer
I went back and forth a lot over my TV pick this year. I try to limit myself to new shows rather than new seasons, making it an even tighter competition.
In the end, I am settling on Baby Reindeer. It was the show I talked the most about, reflected the most upon, and deserves to be watched and discussed the most. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has given me some of my favorite shows of the last decade, such as Fleabag and Flight of the Conchords. Baby Reindeer is added to that list of incredible crossovers from Fringe shows to unbelievable TV.
The discourse after its release adds another layer to the TV show. The real-life “Martha” is almost immediately outed and brought into the spotlight. How similar is the real-life person to the TV show? Did she treat Donny/Richard Gadd this way?
With a lawsuit underway, we may get more insights.
Available on Netflix
Podcast - Serial: Guantánamo
It’s hard to believe that the first season of Serial came out a decade ago. I still vividly remember being on vacation and burning through the entire series. I had been listening to podcasts since the late 2000s—having to sync them from my laptop to an iPod—but it wasn’t until this show that podcasts became mainstream.
I’ve listened to the following seasons of Serial and the spin-off shows, and they’ve been a mixed bag. Seasons two and three of Serial were underwhelming, while S-Town, The Retrievals, The Kids of Rutherford County, and The Good Whale were phenomenal.
Season four, Guantánamo, is a return to what makes my favorite podcasts. It digs deep and makes you think about Guantánamo, a place you’ve probably heard much about but don’t know much about. It introduces you to engaging characters that give you a deeper insight into its topics.
If you haven’t listened to Serial since its first season, I suggest you pick it back up again and listen to season four.
Available wherever you get your podcasts
Board Game - Moonrakers
Deck-builders have been one of my favorite board game types for the last few years, and Moonrakers perfects the format. It has some fantastic social interactions with your fellow players, forcing you to work together but also letting you screw someone over. It has a tremendous push-your-luck element, seeing how far you can go and what you can accomplish. Most important is the ability to assemble an incredibly satisfying engine.
I’ve had many fun evenings playing Moonrakers with friends this year and look forward to many more.
It’s been a few years since any game has had me as addicted as Balatro did this year. I picked it up on the Switch and played it endlessly for a month. Then it came out on mobile, and that cycle repeated itself. It’s now my favorite distraction when traveling. I’ve spent countless hours playing Balatro on my phone while I watch TV or a film on a flight.
It’s a roguelike deck-building game based on a poker theme. If you didn’t believe me about my love of deck-builders from Moonrakers above, this should solidify that. If you’ve ever played poker before, you’re able to pick it up in a few minutes, but it takes hours to master. It’s a game that lets you hop in and play for a few minutes or dive deep and spend a few hours trying to perfect a run.
Available on consoles, PC, Mac, and mobile
Activity - Beach Volleyball
For the last decade, I’ve played beach volleyball on and off. For most of that time, I’ve been a mediocre player, and my inconsistency in playing didn’t help that. However, this year, I felt I had made a big step forward in my playing abilities.
In Vancouver, I’m lucky enough to have an indoor beach available for playing during our rainy winters and actual beaches on the ocean where I can play during the summer.
Available at the beach
Album - Billie Eilish “Hit Me Hard and Soft”
I’ve never been a massive fan of Billie Eilish’s previous albums—but I have always loved her annual interview with Vanity Fair. Something about “Hit Me Hard and Soft” completely changed that for me.
I am not a good enough music critic to explain the change in detail. Something about Eilish’s sound changed, and I could connect to it in a way I had never done before.
I was sad to miss her 2024 concert in Vancouver; she’s definitely on my list to see the next time she’s on tour.
Available wherever you listen to music
App - Cursor
2024 was the year AI took the world by storm. This year, I’ve tried dozens of AI-powered applications, but only one has completely changed a part of my life: Cursor.
AI programming assistants have existed for a few years now, and I’ve used GitHub CoPilot since it was released, but none work as elegantly as Cursor. Building a new Flutter application from scratch and improving a complex Laravel application adds tremendous value.
If you’re a developer and haven’t tried out Cursor yet, I highly encourage it. It changed how I work and gave me abilities I never had before.
I travel a bit and spend a lot of time in new surroundings. In hotel rooms with slamming doors, near busy streets with lots of noise, etc. I was woken up often until my Ozlo Sleepbuds entered my life.
They are now an essential part of my travel gear and improve the quality of my sleep. They let me listen to a podcast while falling asleep and then switch to white noise. They’re even more critical for my partner when she’s dealing with my snoring!
I’ve been reading Casey Newton’s work throughout his career at both CNET and The Verge. When he started his newsletter, Platformer, I subscribed immediately. He has always been a writer who can provide deep insights into complex and convoluted issues.
I don’t work in social media, but as a very online person, it’s an industry that I care about a lot. Platformer has been critical for me in keeping up with everything happening in the last few years. His work will become even more essential as we head into another Trump presidency, a possible US TikTok ban, and significant changes happening at Meta.
Bonus? Every newsletter issue has some great memes at the bottom of it.
Things I Was Grateful For in 2024
