Over the previous few months, the CAPC workforce has compiled a listing of our favourite popular culture artifacts from the earlier yr. Not like most year-end lists, we don’t declare that these are the “finest.” Quite, these are the issues that introduced us essentially 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 have 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 grew to become public data: CEO Andy Byron and his Chief Individuals Officer, Kristin Cabot, each of whom have been married to different individuals. Byron and Cabot finally resigned from their respective positions.
This situation is a reminder that even in a post-Christian tradition, we’re nonetheless capable of acknowledge the worth of marital constancy even when it’s “solely” violated by an occasion of PDA. To a level not less than, our society acknowledges that our personal lives carry an ethical weight that has public ramifications.
Sadly, this situation can also be a reminder of the malicious mob-rule mentality inherent in web tradition: Cabot’s personal contact data was posted on-line, and she or he acquired tons of of calls a day for a number of weeks, together with dozens of loss of life 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 Could 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 finest: incorporating the brand new Pope Leo XIV into popular culture. A sandwich and a pizza have been named after him in his hometown of Chicago; his title appeared on merchandise for his beloved White Sox; “Da Pope” headlines and memorabilia have been all over the 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 sneakers again on, heathen,” one commenter imagined Leo telling a passenger as he stood cradling the bat within the aisle.) As guests maintain giving him sports activities jerseys from varied groups, “Jersey Pope” retains reappearing; a common 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.” However it 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 non secular 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 publish 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… effectively, 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 varieties, from its combination with Jamaican rasta tradition to its legacy within the goth, post-punk, and new wave actions.
Finet and Lamy work with plenty of completely different artists and illustrators for the e-book’s chapters, every one in every 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 folks most likely know much less about than they notice. And better of all, it’ll give readers a slew of recent 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 struggle idea, the goodness of God, and the character of struggling with common references to classical literature and thought. And it presents a relatively strong protection of God’s windfall amidst the uncertainties of life.
The collection has achieved outstanding recognition for an overtly Christian work throughout the normal market: the primary e-book boasts virtually 50,000 evaluations on Goodreads, has a “Better of #BookTok” badge from Amazon, and is commonly praised by Christian and secular BookTubers. Readers involved concerning the viability of Christian tales within the normal market would do effectively to look to the Solar Eater collection as a wonderful instance of what considerate Christian cultural creation can appear like.
—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 essentially 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 totally distinctive sci-fi novel a few high 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 once you may be tempted to query your individual grip on sanity. However it’s a testomony to Qntm’s talent as a author that There Is No Antimemetics Division is persistently intelligent and even surprisingly shifting at occasions, because the women and men of the Division do their finest to finish a mission that generally requires them to overlook every little thing they know concerning the mission they’re making an attempt 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 might depart the common particular person feeling powerless to do something concerning the state of the world round them. This sense was possible what many individuals have been anticipating when Jeff Bezos introduced his marriage to Lauren Sanchez, which was estimated to value between $40 and $50 million {dollars}. The distinction between an excessively extravagant occasion and the individuals round us combating day by day to have sufficient for meals, for hire, for youngsters’s garments felt demoralizing.
And but, as maybe has been a theme by way of a lot of this yr’s largest tales, we have been proven that true outrage and an actual ardour for justice and honest play can be heard. When it was introduced that the Bezos marriage ceremony can be held in Venice, Italy, town’s residents didn’t sit by and complain, content material to air their grievances as a multi-billionaire primarily “rented” out their residence 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 situation of over tourism, and the instant hazard of flooding in Venice because of local weather change—which might be made worse by the personal jets and yachts anticipated to reach carrying marriage ceremony company—the Venetians efficiently managed to get one of many marriage ceremony occasions moved additional away from town middle than initially deliberate. Whereas it might seem to be a small victory for the protesters, it stays a shiny spot within the each day doom scroll that reminds lots of the energy of talking out for what is true.
—Sophie Pell
