2025 may be over, but its cultural production lives on in our hearts. Nico and Jessa debate the best and worst movies, TV shows, books, and museum exhibits of the year, talk shit about your faves, and hope for better art in the future.

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A very special Christmas treat for our listeners. Joseph and Jessa discuss George Eliot's Felix Holt: The Radical, which asks the very important question: is the socialist's primary task to yell at people and tell them they are wrong about everything? Set in the 1830s after political reform has granted voting rights to new -- but still very limited -- populations, a small English market town deals with the tumult that follows. A powerfully rich heir returns to stand for public office as "a radical," a young man decides to devote himself to the bettering of the working classes by telling them they are all ignorant drunks, and a young woman must decide which one of these weirdos to marry.

But there is also a strange paternity case and a power struggle over an estate, a satirical storyline about the foolishness of patriarchal lineage, and a few good jokes about atheists.

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For the last five years, museums around the world have been struggling to answer the question of, who owns cultural heritage? Certain objects, from the Elgin Marbles to the Benin Bronzes, have been fought over as multiple entities, institutions, and nations claim true ownership. Now that the Benin Bronzes have started to return to Nigeria, only to be shoved in storage unseen by anyone except the one man who claims they belong only to him, Jessa and Nico discuss whether anything has been learned from the Decolonize movement.

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Jessa and Nico return from their visit to Ireland. All along the way, the subject of whether or not Ireland should be united kept coming up. But beyond the slogans and the bad ideas, there are very real issues at work, tedious and boring but also tremendously consequential. Nico reflects on the influence the Northern Ireland peace agreement had on Colombian politics, Jessa discusses how social media creates a false sense of consensus, and they both worry about our decreased ability to manage complexity in political issues.

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Our pop culture has become insipid. What is the difference between Tom Cruise and Glen Powell? Tom Cruise has darkness within him. Watching him is thrilling because you can see him struggling to contain it. Glen Powell looks at every moment like he's about to turn to the camera, wink, and try to sell you a protein powder so you can get as ripped as him. Jessa and Nico discuss the problems of Running Man (which are problems about a lack of real darkness), why Edgar Wright can never be Paul Verhoeven, and why our dark times deserve dark artists.

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A young man goes home to announce his exciting new political and philosophical ideas to his family, only for the family dinner to devolve into shouting, arguing, and eventually a duel? It's a very special Thanksgiving episode of Revolution and Ruin! Turgenev portrays a pre-revolutionary Russia, as nihilism and other ideas begin to circulate among the youth, causing friction and exasperation among their elders. Bazarov and Arkady try to test out their new ideological position, and learn whether or not one can be a young nihilist in love.

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Did women ruin the workplace? Is wokeness feminine? Is this credit card my friend? Is cancel culture Malthusian? etc etc. Yes, the political right will do anything it can to avoid talking about class, and their latest gambit is to blame women for destroying the institutions of our society with their..... feelings. And their gossip. Helen Andrews's THE GREAT FEMINIZATION essay is still making the rounds, so Jessa and Nico discuss which is worse: sexual assault or some young ladies making a TikTok in their workplace. Also whether Leah Libresco Sargeant's counter that wokeness isn't feminine so much as it is coming from a religious impulse holds up.

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PBS recently decided to schedule the documentary The Last 600 Yards, about American troops fighting in Fallujah, after having shelved it for over a decade for being too pro-military. Co-produced by Steve Bannon, its re-emergence, according to Semafor, is because Bannon wants to convince Trump and his cronies from invading Venezuela. But like all shows, films, and media that centers military or police experience, it ends up glorifying the boots on the ground. Jessa and Nico discuss the upcoming Call of Duty film, the one (white) man against the cartel action film, and just how bad the propaganda was during the War on Terror. (Rest under whatever conditions you created for millions in the Middle East, Dick Cheney.)

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