---> www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/o...

now that we’re halfway through the decade, i do think the lesson of the 2020s is that some friction is both good and necessary. relentless optimization has clearly made a lot of things about society much worse. my wish for the back half of the ‘20s is that we put that friction back where it belongs

So it begins. Sign up for America250 Watch here -- we've got a special episode coming for subscribers tomorrow... thisdaypod.substack.com

It's been very fun to host this countdown of top moments. If you're not already regularly listening to awesome podcast clips on Hark, 2026 can be the year!

The final Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in papers 30 years ago today.

I'm generally hopeful; I think 2026 will be different from 2025; I think things are turning around; I believe that we will win. But man, going into next year with a huge attack on child-care providers is pretty dispiriting, not gonna lie.

Including Radiotopia! www.radiotopia.fm/donate

everyone thinks they’re a bayesian until they have to update their priors

It is Happening

Hate freeloaders who join in the New Year's Eve countdown for the last 10 seconds. I've been doing this all year. Where were you back in May

Hell yes. Put this quote in the rafters.

Simply one of my favorite stories ever. RIP to one of the great artists of our age www.euronews.com/culture/2025...

I wrote a bit about what I got up to in 2025, from new projects to my attemps to wrangle the news algorithm into submission. open.substack.com/pub/jodyavir...

The last few days did not move the main story forward AT ALL. It's just a guy eating little treats and doing nothing. And so many plot holes. He says, "no more little treats," and then he's eating another little treat in literally the next scene.

Not sure I've seen the NYC weather conspire for slush quite like this. Get ready.

One of the many things that makes Nina Simone the absolute greatest is that she inspires so many amazing remixes and samples and re-imaginings. In my opinion, that kind of stuff usually sucks, but this playlist is so good music.apple.com/us/playlist/...

Our photographer Alex Kormann captured the exact moment the presses stopped for the last time in Minneapolis, ending a 158 history of locally printed newspapers.

Now down to only three people named in Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire" who are still alive. Bob Dylan, Chubby Checker, and Bernie Goetz.

Buttons are back. Knobs are back. Dumb devices are back. Own-it-forever software is back. Print is back. Personal websites and chronological feeds are back. Touching grass is back. People keep saying 2015, but it’s not far enough. The entire 2010s were a mistake. We must retvrn to… 2009.

I see the discourse has turned to video podcasts. Generally speaking, for many shows, I'm actually fine with the rise of the video pod. But my main hobbyhorse is this: YouTube hasn't taken off because audiences want to watch podcasts, it's taken off because that's where audiences already are.

Yes, this, exactly. www.vulture.com/article/i-do...

I didn't grow up religious, but I did attend a Sunday service at Southside Presbyterian in Tucson in the early 90s. I was as moved as I have ever been in a house of worship. The world needs more Rev. John Fifes --living your beliefs, no matter the cost, as an example to us all.

Excellent piece. FWIW, we just reran our @thisdaypod.com episode about the sanctuary church movement of the 1980s podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

cigarette company

I remember the phrase "they can't be allowed to melt back into society" re: the de-Baathification of Iraq after the war there. Like everything about that experience, the attempt was cynical, stupid, and botched. But there really should be a plan about what we do with guys like these in the future.

It really is about the notes you don’t play

Marty Supreme did not do it for me at all. The world it was trying to build just never came together. Bummer!

Incidentally this makes This American Life even more impressive — ‘cause that shit is on tape.

This really is stunning to see compressed into a short narrative. It was truly four years of cronies whose only limit to how much taxpayer money they could steal was how amoral they could be.

Another dynamic: we are headed to a year of America250. Some very tough and much needed conversations about where are and how we got here on the horizon.

But we put our trash in bins now. www.thecity.nyc/2025/12/24/e...

"this could have been slop, but it's not" is rapidly becoming a surefire signifier of premium-ness

Clearly there was a lot of outright lying about what DOGE was up to, but I continue to think that a big part of the story is that this effort was largely driven by AI -- sloppy, random, hallucinated, and reckless.

Well this is cool and unexpected - Summer Album / Winter Album is on The Atlantic's list of 20 Best Podcasts Of 2025. Some great company. Craig and I have been recording all month, new batch on the way in early 2026! www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025...

I absolutely believe this. I was a religious watcher of the show, and every year since then, I see a sketch that I 100% have never seen before.

Every single time I go on youtube, I'm recommended a brilliant Key & Peele sketch I've never seen before. Can we start the conspiracy theory that they are still getting together to film new sketches and secretly uploading them, backdated, onto youtube?

Yes I like vacations, but I also absolutely LOVE working on these couple days before/after Xmas, New Years, and Thanksgiving. Every week should be this calm and productive. A real "they should build the whole plane out of the black box" situation.

Worth noting, I guess, that inside of a year we've gone from administration officials taking selfies of themselves at CECOT and bragging about how it's hell on earth to now getting their horrible little media worms to kill stories about it

Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.

Every single time I go on youtube, I'm recommended a brilliant Key & Peele sketch I've never seen before. Can we start the conspiracy theory that they are still getting together to film new sketches and secretly uploading them, backdated, onto youtube?

I've had football on in the background all afternoon while doing work and like literally every time I look over someone just got injured.

When presented with something airing on TNT and truTV and TBS East and TBS West, what do you go with? I may get a little crazy and watch one quarter of the game on each.

Will always repost this one

The Most ████ Administration Ever

New @thisdaypod.com newsletter to help you get your head around Freedom 250 vs America 250 and all sorts of other news about our big birthday. America250 Watch is your home for all the tidbits and analysis each and every week, subscribe now! thisdaypod.substack.com/p/america-25...

Here's the latest edition of "Can Jody Guess The New Yorker Cover Title?" youtube.com/shorts/1depq...

The exchange between Stephen Miller and Vanity Fair photographer Christopher Anderson, via @washingtonpost.com

Our holiday gift to you -- a six part exploration of THE DOORS. Really! Just wrapped today. Super fun project to work on. I went in a little Doors-skeptical, and emerged totally charmed by Jim. Plus, the band can absolutely rip. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r...

This is lovely. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/o...