People and resources added to my reading list in 2025

Welcome to the thirteenth instalment of my annual overview of my most interesting discoveries made during the previous year. A few months ago, a friend of mine remarked that the title of this series of posts should be updated, because instalment after instalment, my list of things to actually read has become shorter, and the list of resources to watch has become longer. Maybe you should just say, “People and resources added to my watch list”, they suggested. But ‘watch list’ gives me bad surveillance vibes, and discovering and suggesting new blogs always has priority for me, so ‘reading list’ it is. Or perhaps I should go back to the wording of the first post of the series, published in early 2013 — Some interesting resources I discovered in [year]. We’ll see.

Apologies for the slightly navel-gazing introduction. 2025 was another ‘difficult’ year if you hadn’t guessed from articles like My 2025 in review, and Not fatigue, but disconnection; a year where I began to revisit older habits that used to stimulate me more and kept me from looking at screens all the time. Among these, reading physical books and engaging in more active music listening by actually sitting in my other studio (where I keep the bulk of my library and my hi-fi stereo), and listening to whole albums while keeping a notebook handy in case this activity triggered some new ideas or inspiration for my creative writing.

This and the promise I made to myself to be more selective in what I actually decide to add to my repository of resources-worth-keeping, resulted in yet another short overview.

Blogs

The website of V.H. Belvadi. I discovered Mr Belvadi after an acquaintance passed me a link to this piece, The death of an argument — Why analogies are best used sparingly. I enjoyed it and liked his analysis, so after reading I started exploring his site. As you may recall (or not), in last year’s instalment I wrote, You know what happens when you get even more selective? That maybe you follow a link to a blog article, and you like the article, but then you explore that blog further and you realise that such article — and perhaps a couple more — is the only highlight of that blog, and you start wondering, “Is this website worth adding to my RSS feeds, or should I just share the link to that specific article and let others decide?” In most cases, I’ve ended up bookmarking & sharing articles instead of adding blogs to my reading list. This was definitely not the case with V.H. Belvadi. He writes consistently well, and consistently interestingly about a varied range of topics. I encourage you to check out his website and add him to your RSS feeds.

The website of Jason Velazquez. It all began with someone I follow on Mastodon, who boosted a post by Jason I enthusiastically agreed with. I’m a curious person, so first I checked Jason’s profile to have a general feel of the kind of things he posts about. I kept liking what I saw, so the next step was to visit his website, read the article referenced in one of his most recent Mastodon posts (Hank Green And The Fantastical Tales of God AIs), and continue to read other pieces by Jason. I invite you to read that article and then explore Jason’s website, which is a delight to navigate. Jason’s writing is meaty, evocative, pragmatic, and I know these adjectives may feel a bit contradictory — I’ll let you visit his site and see for yourselves.

What these two websites have in common is that they’re designed to look, feel, and be navigated like books. I’m a bit jealous of such designs, because that’s how I always viewed my own website, but my limited coding knowledge has always prevented me from reaching these lovely results. (Suggestions of using ‘AI’ tools for this purpose will lead to excommunication; you’ve been warned).

YouTube channels

After last year’s intervention, the situation with my excessive number of YouTube channel subscriptions has normalised and returned to healthier numbers. As you’ll see below, I did indeed add a dozen new subscriptions, but a lot of the following channels have a somewhat relaxed publishing schedule, so things rarely get overwhelming.

Gaming-related

Riloe and Ratat are two creators whose channels focus mostly on gaming essays. Riloe’s essays are more about tactical and extraction shooters, while Ratat talks more about horror games, and I find his analyses of Supermassive Games’ Dark Picture Anthology games to be well worth a watch.

Euro Brady — Brady is a therapist, and provides a very interesting perspective and a fresh angle to the usual ‘let’s play’ style of gaming videos. Unlike so many other letsplayers, Brady doesn’t rush through game levels, lore, etc. but instead frequently stops and analyses the personality and psychology of the various game characters. What’s really great, in my opinion, is that talking about the character’s psychology or struggle before a certain situation in the game isn’t an end in itself, but a starting point to talk about mental health in general. Brady’s digressions have often helped me understand certain behaviours in real life, certain interpersonal dynamics and interactions we may find ourselves in. Follow him if you appreciate this kind of insights, more than watching someone reach the end of a game. The game is not really the point here.

nocaps — Indie games reviews and overviews. I really like her calm and pleasant personality.

itsTedBrooks — Ted has a small channel that started with filmmaking-related content and turned its focus to gaming essays over the past year. His videos are on the short side, well scripted, edited, and shot. I discovered him thanks to YouTube’s algorithm, which one day suggested I watch We don’t play games anymore… We just argue about them. I turn that suggestion to you. If you like it, then watch Ted’s video about the game CONTROL, and then subscribe!

Tech-related

Two very different approaches to technology here:

Janus Cycle — The best thing to introduce you to this channel is its very own description: Exploring retro devices from the pockets of history. Janus Cycle is an eclectic journey into technological wonders of the ages. Follow along with detailed looks into a wide range of intriguing devices, while appreciating the marvels of technological miniaturization. Going deep into the technological aspects that makes each device unique. Following their stories into inventive and sometimes esoteric ways they function or affected our lives. Old mobile phones, PDAs, computers, assorted devices… This is a channel for the tinkerer and the person interested in discovering more about the technology behind many devices from the past 2–3 decades. A real gem, in my opinion.

Our Own Devices — From the channel description: Our Own Devices is a channel dedicated to the fascinating world of vintage technology, and the many elegant and ingenious ways our ancestors solved even the most complex technical problems. [Update: YouTube has just removed this channel because “it violated our Community Guidelines”. I wonder how, given that the channel was a fascinating exploration into the workings of devices such as mimeographs, portable record-players, radios, and many many other items from the 20th century. Update 2: The channel has been reinstated. It turns out it had been hacked.]

Other

Voynich Talk — I’m obsessed with the Voynich Manuscript. This is probably one of the best YouTube channels about it.

The Late Late Horror Show — Mainly movie reviews and nightly streams of old time radio shows.

Quarantine Collective — From the channel description: The Quarantine Collective is the home for a new kind of philosophical pedagogy. Instead of experts telling you how things work, we encourage discussion, transversality, and rely on the participation of every skill level. Join a live stream as we make our way through texts collectively, with the support of experts, academics, and hobbyists alike. The main force behind the channel is Brooks Brown, and the channel isn’t exclusively focused on philosophy. Many of the Quarantine Collective’s ‘After Hours’ streams are more free-form, with the host reacting to other YouTube videos and bringing his wealth of knowledge and common sense to the table. He has also made one of my favourite video essays on LLMs and ‘artificial intelligence’: No, AI is not Sentient (It’s just more Capitalism)

Anna Bocca — Anna’s video essays are mainly focused on economy and society. She is a great communicator and I really like how she edits her videos, patiently crafting the visuals and infographics. Me and economics are like water and oil, and she managed to make me understand a few things that normally would have flown over my head…

baby.murcielaga — Fantastic music compilations, mainly ambient and vaporwave, but not limited to that. I have no particular favourite to recommend, just dive in and explore.

Chris and Jack — They are an amazing duo making comedy sketches that feel more like short films. Great humour, great scripts, and very well produced material. My first exposure to them was this: Sci-Fi Movies never pick the right year. You’re welcome.

Podcasts

Another year, another round of copying-and-pasting the same quote from a few years ago:

In 2019 I unsubscribed from all the podcasts I was following, and I haven’t looked back. I know and respect many people who use podcasts as their main medium for expression. My moving away from podcasts is simply a pragmatic decision — I just don’t have the time for everything. I still listen to the odd episode, especially if it comes recommended by people I trust. You can find a more articulate observation on podcasts in my People and resources added to my reading list in 2019.

If you’re wondering why I keep the Podcast section in these overviews when I clearly have nothing to talk about, it’s because to this day I receive emails from people un-ironically asking me for podcast recommendations.

Useful Web tools

PiliApp — A collection of fun and cool Web tools.

ColorPalette Pro — Load it in your browser. Play around. Yes, it’s about colour palettes.

My RSS management

Yet again, nothing new to report on this front. I’m still using the same apps I’ve been using on all my devices for the past several years, and I haven’t found better RSS management tools / apps / services worth switching to. In my previous overviews, I used to list here all the apps I typically use to read feeds on my numerous devices, but ever since I broke my habit of obsessively reading feeds everywhere on whatever device, I’ll only list the apps on the devices I’ve used over the past year or so. If you’re curious to read the complete rundown, check past entries (see links at the bottom of this article):

On my M2 Pro Mac mini running Mac OS 13 Ventura: NetNewsWire.

On my 17-inch MacBook Pro running Mac OS 10.14 Mojave, and on my 13-inch retina MacBook Pro running Mac OS 11 Big Sur: NetNewsWire 5.0.4 — A slightly older version of this great RSS reader.

On my other Intel Macs running Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra: Reeder and ReadKit.

On my iPad 8: Unread, Reeder, NetNewsWire for iOS, and ReadKit.

On my Android phones — Nothing Phone 2a and Microsoft Surface Duo: the Feedly app.

On my iPhone SE 3, iPhone 8, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5, iPad 3: Unread. (Though on the iPad 3 Reeder seems to be more stable and less resource-hungry).

Past articles

In reverse chronological order:

People and resources added to my reading list in 2024

People and resources added to my reading list in 2023

People and resources added to my reading list in 2022

People and resources added to my reading list in 2021

People and resources added to my reading list in 2020

People and resources added to my reading list in 2019

People and resources added to my reading list in 2018

People and resources added to my reading list in 2017

People and resources added to my reading list in 2016

People and resources added to my reading list in 2015

People and resources added to my reading list in 2014

People I added to my reading list in 2013

Some interesting resources I discovered in 2012

I hope this series and my observations can be useful to you. Also, keep in mind that some links in these past articles may now be broken. And as always, if you think I’m missing out on some good writing or other kind of resource you believe might be of interest to me, let me know via email, Mastodon, or Bluesky. Thanks for reading!