My Media 2025

Published

It's that time of the year. A time to look back and take stock before rushing headlong into whatever's next. It's fascinating to look back over the previous two years as well. Here's 2024, 2023 and 2022 as well.

2025 has been a year full of surprises. High points have been visiting the Lake District for the first time and a family holiday to Disney (thanks mum) and there have been lows like my brother nearly dying of sepsis(!) and Amy needing emergency surgery and Zac almost permanently disfiguring himself with an experiment he saw on Tic Toc(!) - scary times them. We lost a lifelong family friend this year but also celebrated my brother's wedding. Life's somewhat topsy turvy like that. Joy, fear, sadness and wonder exist alongside one another without warning. 

It's also been a year with the usual reading, watching and listening fun, of following my curiosity into new worlds and new ways of thinking. 

I didn't get through as many books this year but started quite a few I never finished and read a couple of big books instead. I also got bogged down in a couple of slow reads that didn't grip me; I find it hard to quit on a book once I'm in. Instead I got through more audio books this year (that's still reading right?). 

Anyway, here's some of my highlights...

Top five

1. Ghosted, An American Story - Nancy French


I can't speak highly enough about Ghosted, and it's author Nancy French. She is a courageous, articulate, inspiring woman and appears to have packed several lifetimes into one. How so much can happen to one person is baffling. 

I listened to this book read by the author which had the effect on me that I felt I came to know her personally. I must remember that I don't in fact know her at all before I continue offering for her family to stay in my house if ever they visit the UK (true, I did that). 

It's a story of loss, of surviving abuse, of adoption, of miracles, of traditional conservatism, of political isolation, of fighting corruption and of exposing some of the rottenness in the American evangelical church. Truly worth your time.

2. Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett

I read two Ken Follet books this year both of them around a thousand pages long and I've got three more on my shelf for next year, turns out he doesn't write short stories! 

Masters of a craft make reading effortless and this book about the construction of a Cathedral in medieval England was a glorious bit of summer escapism.


3. Defying Jihad - Esther Ahmad

Another audio book, this time telling the true story of one woman's journey from fundamentalist Islam to Christianity was remarkable. As a young, passionate muslim growing up in Pakistan she was radicalised at a young age and signed herself up to fight as a jihadist. Then she realised the truthfulness of Christianity, met Jesus and had to try and survive extraditing herself from her old life.

Esther's strength, bravery and commitment to the truth was really inspiring. She experienced several dramatic miracles, saw many in her family come to Christ and managed to hold her own in 30 days of intimidation in which she had to debate Muslim scholars and imams. She held her own and proved the truthfulness of the gospel against the deception and lies of Islam. 


4. Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God - Andy Bannister

Around a similar time to reading Defying Jihad I read this accessible (and surprisingly humorous) dive into the similarities and differences between Christianity and Islam. 

At a time when many in our nation are raising their concerns about the rising tide of Islam's influence this felt like a timely read. Quoting from the Qur'an, Muslim scholars and accepted writings within Islam Andy sets the competing claims of Christianity and Islam alongside each other to highlight their differences. 

The answer to the question Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God is a simple: 'nope, no they don't, not even close.' For a summary of the book you can listen to the conversation I recorded with Andy here.

5. The Intimacy Deficit - Ed Shaw

I really enjoyed this book and resonated with the importance of its main thesis. 

Ed makes the point that as people we're made to enjoy close connection and that in order to be healthy we need to enjoy intimacy with God, ourselves, others and the creation. One leads naturally onto another and acts as a virtuous circle. We preached through it as a church in September and I wrote a review of the book here. 

It's a quick read, but it leaves a mark and will live in your head for some time. 


Most Influential Idea

The mark of a good book isn't always in how readable and engaging it is but in how long it influences you after you're done reading it.  



This year the stand out book in that respect is Chris Van Tulleken's book 'Ultra Processed People'. It's a book that opens your eyes to the root cause of many of our diet and health related problems. 

Van Tulleken exposes the impact on our health, weight, appetites and mindset that eating ultra processed, chemically modified food has had on us. Much of what we're putting in our bodies each day isn't in fact food. It may be edible but that doesn't mean we should be eating it!

Put this book on your list for 2026 or if you don't fancy that, just watch this hour long documentary. 

The Full list

Audio books

  1. Ghosted - Nancy French
  2. Supercommunicators - Charles Duhigg
  3. How to Know a Person - David Brooks
  4. Ultra Processed People - Ultra Processed People
  5. A Crisis of Confidence - Carl Truman
  6. Boy at back of class - Onjali Q. Rauf
  7. Letters to Malcolm - C.S. Lewis
  8. Zeal Without Burnout - Christopher Ash
  9. Single Ever After - Danielle Treweek
  10. Defying Jihad - Esther Ahmed
  11. The Critical Journey - Janet Hagberg
  12. The Salt Path - Raynor Winn
  13. The Psychology of Money - Morgan Housel


Fiction

  1. Never - Ken follett
  2. The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkein
  3. Dragon Riders of Roar - Jenny McLachlan
  4. Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
  5. Between Shades of Grey - Ruta Sepetys
  6. The Explorer - Katherine Rundell
  7. Mr Mercedes - Stephen King
Books read with Toby this year...

Non-Fiction

  1. What It Means to Be Protestant - Gavin Ortlund
  2. Hannah's Child - Stanley Hauerwas
  3. Adopted By God - Matthieu Lambert
  4. Psalms for a Saturated Soul - Alan Frow
  5. The Intimacy Deficit - Ed Shaw
  6. Do Christian and Muslims Worship the Same God? - Andy Bannister
  7. The Heart of Jesus - Dane Ortlund (we now give this as a baptism gift to all new Christians)
  8. Disentangled - Jo Johnson
  9. 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World - Jean Twenge
  10. Becoming Mamma - Yvrose Telfort-Ismael (see my interview with this remarkable woman here)
  11. How to See The World - Nicholas Mirzoef
  12. Mansions of the Heart - Thomas Ashbrook (my podcast here)
  13. How to Read a Tree - Tristan Gooley

___

Bible Commentaries

  1. Paul's Letter to the Colossians and Philemon - Douglas Moo
  2. The Book of Revelation - Ian Paul


TV Shows


This year the main bit of TV we discovered was an olden but a gooden. Friday Night Dinner (2011-2020) and binged the entire show. 

Toward the end of watching them Riley and Zac joined in and now it's a nightly ritual to wind down to as a family. Great fun.

Also, do you also remember those few weeks where everyone was talking about Adolescence? So much so that Kemi Badenoch was chastised on BBC Breakfast for not watching it! Incredible art and really quite harrowing.



Substacks

I'm loving Substack this year. So many superb articles and writers sharing their take on things. Three standouts from the year you should read:



If you have a daughter you should read this. There's a line somewhere between taking pride in one's appearance, enjoying looking fabulous and needing to permanently disfigure oneself to be happy. It's a line we're starting to lose sight of but really need to grapple with.  

2. The Pathologising of Personality or 'Nobody Has a Personality Anymore' by Freya India. 


This excellent and insightful read is worth thinking about. It's perhaps a little overstated but Freya is onto something. I'm a fan on her work and looking forward to her new book coming out in 2026.



Admittedly this is a late entry but I thought the insight about the church's overemphasis on winsomeness is bang on! It's really got me thinking. 


Movies

I don't watch as many movies as I'd like to but here's a handful I really enjoyed this year.


Free Solo - intense true story about a rock climber scaling El Capitan, a 900m vertical rock face in Yosemite national park. 


Southpaw - Rachel McAdams and Jake Gyllenhaal 

A gritty Rocky movie for a modern audience who want their Cinderellas flawed and relatable.


Her - Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson are brilliant in this prescient imagining of a future already in the making. A great story about AI and our need for intimacy.

Eden - Sydney Sweeney and Jude Law star in this true(ish) telling about this idealistic settlement on the Gallipogos islands. Dramatic, tense and beautifully filmed. A reminder that the soil of our worldviews do in fact matter. When life gets hard our core values will either steer us to safety or destroy us.


Dive - A based on true events film about the Mexican olympic diving team and abuse. Uncomfortable but brilliantly acted and courageous.


Documentary


If you'd like to spend some time worrying about something other than AI, check out this superb but alarming snapshot of an impending global crisis that no one seems to be able to resolve. No society has ever been able to reverse a trend toward childlessness once one sets in, and that trend is no firmly in place in more than 50% of countries globally. Watch this to find out more...  


Youtube

We loved watching Ed Pratt's journey from the source to the sea down the River Thames. Great fun, and such a lovely man.




The stand out youtube event of the year for me was still Joe Rogan's interview of Wes Huff in which Wes superbly articulated the historical reliability of the Bible. Attitudes toward Christianity have certainly shifted in recent years. 


Podcasts



1. Tunnel 29. This dramatic re-telling of an extraordinary rescue effort in an underground tunnel between East & West Germany is remarkable. Very inspiring and incredibly moving.








2. Mentora Money. I loved this podcast from Simon & Anna Brading offering practical money advice for people (like me) who didn't receive much of an education around finance. Really good and I'm so thrilled by seeing on social media how Anna's influence is increasing. Fantastic couple.


3 Triggernometry. I've enjoyed this podcast over the years but this year it's become my go-to for long form conversations. Free speech isn't dead and neither is honest and rigorous enquiry.




Memes


Tragically true this made me smile (and wince)



This feels important to share


This, along with Phil's blog summary of it is fascinating

I enjoyed this from a book I got last year



Talks


Finally, three talks that are great and worth watching/listening to.



1. From last year's ARC conference, this was superb from David Brooks (14m) How the Elite Rigged Society



2. I got so much out of this from Bishop Oscar of Nairobi Chapel. The whole sermon series is great but particularly this one: Stages of Christian Growth




3. Tony Reinke's books and thinking on AI and the impact of smartphones is fantastic. Check out this lecture on AI and ministry