Over the previous few months, the CAPC staff has compiled an inventory of our favourite popular culture artifacts from the earlier yr. Not like most year-end lists, we don’t declare that these are the “greatest.” Quite, these are the issues that introduced us probably the most pleasure and satisfaction all through the final 12 months.
For 2025, our favourite books and memes included an affair on the Jumbotron, papal memes, a historical past of punk rock, Venetian protests, and extra.
Dishonest CEO Scandal
On July 15, a kiss cam captured a pair embracing throughout a Coldplay live performance. When the person and lady realized they had been on the stadium Jumbotron, they shortly separated. A clip of the incident quickly made its method on-line and went viral virtually instantly. Inside days, the identities of each people turned public data: CEO Andy Byron and his Chief Individuals Officer, Kristin Cabot, each of whom had been married to different individuals. Byron and Cabot finally resigned from their respective positions.
This state of affairs is a reminder that even in a post-Christian tradition, we’re nonetheless in a position to acknowledge the worth of marital constancy even when it’s “solely” violated by an occasion of PDA. To a level at the least, our society acknowledges that our personal lives carry an ethical weight that has public ramifications.
Sadly, this state of affairs can also be a reminder of the malicious mob-rule mentality inherent in web tradition: Cabot’s personal contact info was posted on-line, and he or she acquired a whole bunch of calls a day for a number of weeks, together with dozens of dying threats. As a substitute of encouraging true repentance, our society turns the disgrace of others into a possibility for prideful panning and merciless criticism.
—Cap Stewart
Pope Leo XIV Memes
On Might 8, 2025, the primary U.S.-born pope, Robert Francis Prevost, was elected. As quickly because the information broke, his fellow Individuals started doing what we do greatest: incorporating the brand new Pope Leo XIV into popular culture. A sandwich and a pizza had been named after him in his hometown of Chicago; his title appeared on merchandise for his beloved White Sox; “Da Pope” headlines and memorabilia had been in every single place. Leo himself was amenable to the hassle, turning out to be the form of pope who drops favourite film lists and exchanges taunts with Cubs followers from the popemobile.
After which there have been the memes. When a 1982 picture turned up of younger Father Prevost dressed as a beloved film character, “Blues Brothers Pope” was hailed with widespread delight. When a journalist on Leo’s flight to Turkey gifted him a particular heirloom baseball bat (“How did they allow you to on board with that?” the stunned pontiff requested), “Baseball Bat Pope” went viral. (“I mentioned put your footwear again on, heathen,” one commenter imagined Leo telling a passenger as he stood cradling the bat within the aisle.) As guests hold giving him sports activities jerseys from varied groups, “Jersey Pope” retains reappearing; a fashionable favourite model was Leo carrying a pained expression because the patriarch of the Assyrian Church, a fellow Chicago native, trolled him with a Cubs jersey. A candid shot of the pope clutching a microphone with eyes half-shut, wanting like he was belting out a tune, gave rise to “Karaoke Pope.” But it surely was “Rave Pope”—Leo showing on video to bless a rave for an archbishop’s birthday outdoors a Slovakian cathedral—that left individuals gobsmacked. “Who had this as a late entry on their 2025 bingo card?” requested one wag on TikTok.
It’s all in good enjoyable, however I believe one thing deeper lies beneath the pattern: a starvation for religious connection, stirred by a determine who each takes the divine very critically and stays right down to earth. Not like some leaders, the pope doesn’t submit elaborate AI memes glorifying himself; he simply will get caught on digital camera whereas finishing up his papal duties, humbly and good-naturedly. And there’s one thing disarming about that, to make use of a favourite phrase of Leo’s. If it takes an American pope wielding a baseball bat to assist some start to know the enchantment of religion… nicely, the Lord strikes in mysterious methods.
—Gina Dalfonzo
Punk Rock in Comics by Nicolas Finet and Thierry Lamy
Point out “punk rock” and sure artists instantly come to thoughts. The Intercourse Pistols. The Ramones, The Conflict. However as Nicolas Finet and Thierry Lamy reveal in Punk Rock in Comics, the punk motion of the late ’70s took one many shapes and types, from its combination with Jamaican rasta tradition to its legacy within the goth, post-punk, and new wave actions.
Finet and Lamy work with quite a lot of completely different artists and illustrators for the ebook’s chapters, every considered one of which delves into a novel subculture or expression of the punk ethos. The result’s an interesting and insightful—and academic—exploration of a style that individuals most likely know much less about than they notice. And better of all, it’ll give readers a slew of latest artists and albums to take a look at.
—Jason Morehead
Shadows Upon Time by Christopher Ruocchio
Shadows Upon Time closed out the Catholic author’s bold seven-book sci-fi epic that tells a sweeping story of a person chosen by God to eradicate an alien race possessed by demons. The collection tackles deep themes like transhumanism, simply warfare concept, the goodness of God, and the character of struggling with common references to classical literature and thought. And it presents a reasonably strong protection of God’s windfall amidst the uncertainties of life.
The collection has achieved exceptional recognition for an overtly Christian work throughout the basic market: the primary ebook boasts virtually 50,000 opinions on Goodreads, has a “Better of #BookTok” badge from Amazon, and is recurrently praised by Christian and secular BookTubers. Readers involved concerning the viability of Christian tales within the basic market would do nicely to look to the Solar Eater collection as a wonderful instance of what considerate Christian cultural creation can appear to be.
—Josiah DeGraaf
There Is No Antimemetics Division by Qntm
When you’re unfamiliar with the SCP Basis, it’s a collaborative writing wiki the place individuals can contribute tales a few mysterious company tasked with defending humanity from probably the most weird phenomena. (Assume The X-Recordsdata and Warehouse 13 with a wholesome dose of Lovecraft-ian wierdness.) Qntm—the pen title of programmer Sam Hughes—makes use of the Basis because the inspiration for this completely distinctive sci-fi novel a few prime secret division dedicated to the examine and containment of antimemes, concepts and entities that defy logic and can do something and every little thing to withstand being remembered, even wiping out existence as we all know it.
It’s a fairly excessive idea novel, stuffed to the brim with references to esoteric math and philosophy, obscure applied sciences, mind-altering prescribed drugs, and non-linear narratives. Certainly, there are occasions whenever you may be tempted to query your individual grip on sanity. But it surely’s a testomony to Qntm’s ability as a author that There Is No Antimemetics Division is persistently intelligent and even surprisingly transferring at occasions, because the women and men of the Division do their greatest to finish a mission that generally requires them to overlook every little thing they know concerning the mission they’re attempting to finish.
—Jason Morehead
Venetians Protest Bezos Wedding ceremony
This yr has seen a plethora of controversial, regarding, and downright terrifying headlines, a lot of which may depart the common individual feeling powerless to do something concerning the state of the world round them. This sense was probably what many individuals had been anticipating when Jeff Bezos introduced his marriage to Lauren Sanchez, which was estimated to price between $40 and $50 million {dollars}. The distinction between an excessively extravagant occasion and the individuals round us preventing each day to have sufficient for meals, for lease, for kids’s garments felt demoralizing.
And but, as maybe has been a theme by means of a lot of this yr’s greatest tales, we had been proven that true outrage and an actual ardour for justice and truthful play can be heard. When it was introduced that the Bezos wedding ceremony could be held in Venice, Italy, the town’s residents didn’t sit by and complain, content material to air their grievances as a multi-billionaire basically “rented” out their house for his personal functions. They got here out. They protested. And it made a distinction.
With indicators that talked about the businessman’s lack of taxpaying, the nation’s ongoing challenge of over tourism, and the fast hazard of flooding in Venice attributable to local weather change—which might be made worse by the personal jets and yachts anticipated to reach carrying wedding ceremony friends—the Venetians efficiently managed to get one of many wedding ceremony occasions moved additional away from the town heart than initially deliberate. Whereas it could seem to be a small victory for the protesters, it stays a vivid spot within the day by day doom scroll that reminds lots of the energy of talking out for what is true.
—Sophie Pell
