Favorite Content of 2021

Yes, I love lists (making them, organizing them, sharing them, intaking them from others) and I'm glad the trend of making year-end lists exists. Creating this particular type of favorites list was strongly inspired by Brett McCracken, whose end of the year list of favorites is something I look forward to every year.

My intake on most everything, except for books, has decreased a good bit. The drop-off has been particularly steep for movies. Since having kids, it's been hard to find many 2 - 2.5 hour windows of time. And when I do and want to see a movie, I'm generally still catching up from the best of previous years (e.g., watching Sound of Metal this year, discovering it was DEFINITELY my favorite movie of 2020). However, I was glad I went to the theater (by myself) to see Dune a few weeks ago. It was incredible.

With music, I've thoroughly enjoyed 7 by JUDAH all year. It took me a few listens before The Million Masks of God grew on me, but once it did, and after seeing Manchester in concert several weeks ago with my friend Robert (so good!), I've grown to really love that album. 

With podcasts, I've enjoyed my weekly rhythm of Bill Simmons, Relevant, This American Life, Holy Post (new this year), and Gospel in Life, but once The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill started dropping in June, I was hooked to the end. I think I found it particularly interesting because I was in Dricoll's orbit, listening to and watching him from afar during the late 2000s and early 2010s. I also went through a church blow-up situation with some parallels (minus the fame and tens of thousands of people) to Mars Hill. 

I think Mike Cosper did an incredible job crafting and telling this tragic story. I hope it helps those who were part of this particular mess and others like it process their pain and experience healing. And I hope everyone else can learn to not empower or become a toxic leader, where charisma is outpacing character. I'd rather follow and be like Eugene Peterson, whose life, as Andy Crouch says in my favorite episode (which inspired one of my only blog posts during the year), "mattered long before The Message."

Speaking of Eugene Peterson, he shows up a number of times in my list of favorite books I read this year. And I have a feeling he'll be showing up again quite a bit in future years. I reviewed my top 10 books here recently, but wanted to share several more as the excellence factor was very high this year.

Here are my favorite pieces of content (music, movies, TV, podcasts, books) this year:

Favorite Albums

1. The Million Masks of God by Manchester Orchestra
2. 7 by JUDAH
3. I Don't Live Here Anymore by The War on Drugs
4. Star-crossed by Kacey Musgraves
5. Milk & Honey by Crowder
6. Justice by Justin Bieber
7. Never Land II by Andy Mineo
8. 24 by Swoope
9. The Ballad of Dood and Juanita by Sturgill Simpson
10. in defense of my own happiness by Joy Oladokun

Favorite Things on the Screen (Movies and TV combined since I watched little of each this year)

1. Dune
2. Pig*
3. Get Back
4. The Chosen Season 2
5. Mare of Easttown
6. Encanto

Favorite Podcasts series/episodes

1. The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill (16 episodes, June - December 2021)
2. Life and Books and Everything: Tim Keller on Reformed Resurgence (2/1/21)
3. Language of God: 70. Amy & Andy Crouch / Finding the Off Switch (3/11/21)
4. The Holy Post: Episode 478: Foreign Policy, Adoption, & Race with Esau McCaulley & Jamie Ivey (10/13/21)
5. The Tim Ferriss Show: #502: Jordan Peterson on Rules for Life, Psychedelics, The Bible, and Much More (3/2/21)

Favorite Books I Read This Year

1. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom (1971)
2. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (1985)
3. The Pastor: A Memoir by Eugene Peterson (2011)
4. Live No Lies by John Mark Comer (2021)
5. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (1997)
6. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson (1980)
7. Rocket Men by Robert Kurson (2018)
8. Walden by Henry David Thoreau (1854)
9. The Wisdom Pyramid by Brett McCracken (2021) 
10. The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self by Carl Trueman (2020)
11. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (1996)
12. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (2021)
13. Every Good Endeavor by Tim Keller (2012)
14. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (2016)
15. Dreamland by Sam Quinones (2015)
16. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight (2016)
17. Strong and Weak by Andy Crouch (2016)
18. Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin (2018)
19. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)
20. Traveling Light by Eugene Peterson (1982)

Here are my favorite things from 2020.

*edited 1/2/21