Something New Is Coming

A cryptic announcement, and my list of the best films, shows and books of 2024

Looking for a last minute Christmas gift for that special person in your life who thinks too much, or not enough, about what’s going on in the world? Look no further! Gift them a subscription to ‘The Bigger Picture’ and you won’t have to go out shopping, or venture into the techno-feudal hellscape of Amazon.

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Whether you’re reading this in the first days after the solstice, or in the blazing summer sun, I hope you’re moving into a restful break. Thank you for your attention and support over the last year; it’s a constant source of motivation and I’m deeply grateful.

In this piece I’m sharing my favourite books, podcasts, shows and music of the year. Before that, a personal message and a glimpse of what’s coming in 2025.

It’s been a year of intense inquiry and soul-searching for me. 2024 marked one year since my book was published, and two years since we ended Rebel Wisdom. The anniversaries brought up a lot of uncertainty for me, and I spent most of the year wrestling with the question of ‘what next?’

In a time of upheaval and crisis, where is my time and energy going to have the most meaningful impact? An initial insight came from the somatic inquiry I shared in my piece The Novelty Famine. It helped me realise that underlying a lot of my searching was a feeling that true, transformative novelty is increasingly absent from culture. The idea stuck with me, and a new question, ‘what is truly new?’, gave more direction to my thinking.

Another moment came while reading Byung-Chul Han’s The Spirit of Hope (one of the books on the list below). For months I’d been wrestling with a feeling that, despite appearances, we are living in a time of renewed hope. The book showed me I was touching on something that others were also noticing, and helped me disentangle my thinking. Specifically, by separating hope from optimism. Han sees optimism (and pessimism) as fixed and stagnant: both contain a rigid idea of the future and are based in a kind of fantasising. But hope is different. It is rooted in reality, and grows out of despair and difficulty. It directs us to a future we can’t yet see, drawing us toward unexplored potential.

Novelty, hope and impact. It struck me that a combination of these forces is essential in helping us traverse the metacrisis and craft beautiful futures. Unifying them can help us find the agency and imagination we need to create a new counter-culture. Not by hiding from reality, but by fearlessly embracing it. They draw us forward, turning our heads to a future we can’t yet touch, but know in our bones is possible.

From there, a project began to take shape. A lot more happened that I won’t go into, and these were just two strands in a weird, wonderful and often agonising act of weaving. But all creative endeavours worth their salt are hard, and that weaving has formed a new project that I’ll be announcing in January.

In fact, this will be the last piece you read while this Substack is called The Bigger Picture. Part of me is bursting to announce it today, because it feels so alive and full of potential. But that would be premature, and everything has its right moment. That said, it felt important to name it before the year ends, so I’m sharing the logo:

All will be revealed in the new year, when I’ll share exactly what Kainos is, what we’re creating, and why we want you involved. In the meantime, have a wonderful holiday wherever you are. For paid subscribers, below is my list of the best books, shows, podcasts and movies of 2024.