curation against consumption .16

aka rebecca's consumption wrapped 2025 edition

Dec 15, 2025

we’re wrapping up yet another year and instead of telling you what’s been hitting hardest for me these past couple of months and why like i normally do, i decided to change format a little bit and give y’all a holiday gift. i even made you some graphics, hello!

format partially inspired by my friend Victoria Montecillo in her perfect substack countertop butter. if you like this newsletter, you’ll adore hers.

so behold: my top books, podcasts, youtubers, albums, and substacks of 2025. i gave you a top 8 for everything, if not a top 12 in some cases. clearly i am indecisive, but also there were so many good pieces and projects to choose from! life is rich and plentiful, abundant in both art and pain. funny how that works.

here it is then, the most bloated recommendation list i could ever provide. i hope you cherish it.

.01 - my top 8 books in 2025 (aka the year i popped OFF)

Last year, in 2024, I decided to get back int reading and set myself a goal of 30 books. I achieved this! Well done, 2024 Rebecca.

So this year I decided to be a little more ambitious and set myself a goal of 35 books. Pretty reasonable, right?

I have now read 49 books this year. Oops.

So here’s my top 8:

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer
Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
Passing by Nella Larsen
How to Blow Up a Pipeline by Andreas Malm
The Will to Change by bell hooks
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Special mentions for Babel, Yellowface, Ministry of Time, Doughnut Economics, Say Nothing, Parable of the Sower, and Matrescence.

Quite happy with this year’s list! The top 8 is evenly split fiction and non-fiction, features primarily women authors, and has only one re-read (Maggie Nelson is somehow better today than she was in 2015).

Overall my reading was very women-focused this year! Only 10 (and a half, technically, co-authored) books written by men overall.

I have quite a TBR already set up, but please let me know if you have any recommendations based on the above list. AND if you are interested in having me personally recommend you a book, please go ahead and fill out this form here.

.02 - my top podcasts (aka my morning routine soundtrack)

I switched from Spotify to Pocket Casts this year so I have lost my stats in terms of how many hours of podcasts have been listened to in 2025, but I can tell you right now for sure that it’s in the hundreds. potentially thousands, given how little I’ve slept in 2025.

I’d say my biggest find this year has been Books Unbound, which is the sweetest podcast where two adorable friends discuss books they have bought and are reading. It makes me deeply happy. It’s also the only podcast on this list that is purely cultural/friendly, all others are either political or educational in some way.

My top 8 podcasts of 2025:

If I had to give a honorable mentions it would probably be to Upstream and Threadings.

If you give any a try, I feel like If Books Could Kill is the most accessible, the others require some, uh, shall we say, special interests. But all are excellent experiences led by some really thoughtful people.

Unfortunately my podcast rotation is, I realize in reviewing this list, very white! Only Books Unbound, 5-4, and If Books Could Kill have non-white hosts (according to a cursory amount of research by me). This must be solved! So please recommend your favorite podcasts to me and let’s see if we can shake things up a little for next year.

.03 - my top 2025 youtubers (aka Rebecca’s parasocial besties for doing dishes)

When I was assembling this list I didn’t necessarily go by which youtubers I watch the most hours of (although the top ones are definitely here). I didn’t even necessarily go for the ones that I learn the most from, or the ones I replay the most.

I went for the ones where if I see a new video, I click. Zero thoughts in head, no “saving for later when I’m in the right mood” no “I’ll get to that one eventually”. I see, I smile, I click.

They’re perfect for any time of day, any mood, any stage of life. I may learn something about interior design or crafting or cooking, I may just enjoy the way they talk, or how creative they are, or the way their video makes me feel. They’re perfect in the background or giving full undivided attention. They just get me, ya know?

My top comfort youtubers of 2025:

I’ve also spent a fair amount of time with PhilosophyTube, Shanspeare, Matt Baume, Princesse Weekes, Liz Drayna, and Mic the Snare, and of course re-rewatching Contrapoints’ one video she puts out a year.

.04 - my top albums to dissociate to on the RER A

I’ve spent way too much time in the RER this year due to my school being what is commonly scientifically referred to as a really fucking long way away. So I’ve spent a lot of that time reading, podcasting, but also dissociating when it’s 7:45am and the (usually stinky) man next to me is chewing something at a decibel that is frankly superhuman. These albums have been good for that last very specific situation.

My best RER A atmosphere albums this year for me:

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory by Sharon Van Etten (I’m definitely going to write more about this album in an upcoming edition because I am addicted to the bass lines on it)
SAYA by Saya Gray
Virgin by Lorde
Mayhem by Lady Gaga
Humanhood by The Weather Station
Reading Writing and Arithmetic by The Sundays
EUSEXUA by FKA twigs
TELL DEM IT’S SUNNY by Greentea Peng

Once again, not many men…shocking. I guess I did listen to a fair bit of Radiohead this year, which is what inspired the creation of this playlist I have listened to most days this winter: lesbian radiohead.

I also listened to a fair bit of NTS, and it’s all been good and I can’t pinpoint which show specifically are the best, except Sofia Kourtesis came out with a mix the other month that is simply too good not to share widely.

Overall I didn’t branch out much though when it came to music, I tended to stay in my indie-pop-sad-girl-shoegaze-electronica-and-neosoul lane. So if you have any recommendations, please!

And before you cancel me, please know I will get to Mother Ethel and Rosalia’s new albums soon, I promise. Also yes I did love DTMF but it’s not on the list because I only listened like twice I’m sorry please don’t kill me.

.05 - my top substacks to let pile up in my inbox and never actually read oops

This winter I’ve been more focused on my book-reading goals than my substack-reading habits. So I would be remiss to say that I am fully up to date on these incredible publications. But they remain high quality, I did read quite a lot of them in 2025, and I will continue to evangelize about them.

Top substacks that I really do read on a regular basis I promise:

And finally, because I really really like talking about how cool my friends are, you should know I happen to be friends (or acquaintances, idk man) with a bunch of really talented, brave, and smart people who write good words. Check them out below, it’s a wild ride every time.

top friend substacks:

so there it is! the year’s top consumption all rounded up into neat little lists. i hope at least one of these is interesting to you, and i will very likely be talking more about certain people/projects more in the new year.

how do y’all feel about this format? better, worse, missing detail on WHY something is so good? keep the graphics?

i love you as always and wish for you a bright and happy 2026. may we all consume less and create more this year.

all consuming

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