Ten Tops

Here's mine, share yours!

Please share your Ten Tops nominations in the comments below!

1: TV Series:

2: Album:

3: Movie:

4: Podcast

5: Book:

6: Article:

7: Sporting moment:

8: Politician or Public Figure:

9: Tech Innovation:

10: Monday Memo:

1: TV Series

Not only the best TV series of the year, but I’d put forward an argument that my nomination is the best season of television ever created.

When you’re a famous comedian with a track record of hit TV shows - television networks will throw heaps of money at you to make a funny show. But what if you don’t want to be funny? What if you want to address the single largest contributor to aviation disasters?

That’s the premise of Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal, Season 2. It’s absurdist meta-programming of the best kind: a comedian making a TV show about a comedian making a TV show about aviation safety.

The comedy comes from the commitment to the bit, even when those bits become increasingly bizarre and obscure: like Nathan Fielder taking on the role of a baby, parented by giant wooden puppets.

But there’s also a real heart and a real message to it. It’s not really about planes, it’s about the blurred lines between reality and fiction in media, and the nature of celebrity vs character.

It also has a bonkers twist in the final episode, which I won’t spoil, but is worth watching for that alone.

2: Album

The entire music industry is optimised for TikTok. Within two years of TikTok’s launch, the average chart-topper was about 30 seconds shorter than it was pre-TikTok.

Producers and labels now insist their artists insert TikTok sounds and dances into songs. Artists like Taylor Swift and Lizzo now launch the TikTok dance for their lead single at the same time as the song itself. Doechii said the quiet part out loud in her song ‘Denial is a River’: “label want the TikToks, now I’m makin’ TikTok music, what thee fuck?” That song went on to chart in part thanks to a 5-second segment that went viral on TikTok.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but my favourite album this year is an antidote to TikTok-optimised music.

Lux, by the Spanish artist Rosalia, is a pretty extraordinary album. Recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and sung in 14 different languages, the album is a feat in itself for the scale of its ambition.

Listening to it is like a collision of Spanish and Latin American music, film score and traditional classical music - all blended up with pop and hip-hop and great vocals to boot.

But you are also quick to notice the omission of that all-too-common “TikTok-soundbite” that so many albums now contain.

A few artists have redefined or created genres (Kanye was one of them) - I think this is one such example.

3: Movie

I can honestly say I haven’t seen a movie this year worthy of this spot. Looking forward to hearing your suggestions.

4: Podcast

I always think it’s a shame that if you’re not often on long commutes, runs or drives, you’re likely missing out on some really good podcasts.

Alex O’Connor’s Within Reason gets my honourable mention: it’s a long-form interview series with philosophers and religious experts. Alex was formerly an ‘atheist-pwns-Christian’ debater but now explores all sorts of niche topics, and it makes for great listening.

But my nomination goes to a series that, whether you are a podcast listener or not, you should force yourself to listen to: the Wargame was produced by Sky News and Tortoise Media (now owners of the Observer newspaper) and presented by Deborah Haynes.

The podcast brings together leading British politicians to roleplay as members of the British government during a Russian attack on the UK. The Prime Minister, played by former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, is forced to make decisions on the basis of the UK’s real capabilities. Should we retaliate? What do we tell the public? When do we invoke the nuclear threat?

Not only is it thrilling listening, it also has a real message: we’re not ready for a war on our turf. Our defence strategy largely depends on nobody coming here, and it’s pretty extraordinary to see how that reality plays out in almost real time, with real politicians.

I was lucky enough to meet the team behind this podcast shortly after it came out, and it’s clear how much work and detail went into its production - of which we only hear a fraction in the finished product. My only gripe was that I could’ve listened to a lot more.

5: Book

The best book I read this year was probably One Minute to Midnight, on the Cuban Missile Crisis, but it was released nearly two decades ago so I don’t think I can count it.

So, my nomination has to go to The Age of Diagnosis. I wrote about it in detail last week, so I’ll move swiftly on.

6: Article

I am sure I’ve read lots of amazing articles this year, but unfortunately I didn’t keep track of them all - so I have to choose one that’s fresh in my mind.

So my nomination goes to Meet the bond market vigilantes by Will Dunn, in the New Statesman.

After becoming Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak jokingly thanked “my friends, my family and, of course, the UK bond markets.” It was, after all, this mysterious group of traders that were the ones who inflicted punishment on Liz Truss for her disastrous mini-budget by selling off their gilts and sterling.

To be crowned better than Kwarteng, Rachel Reeves has just one job: don’t crash the markets. It’s a good idea, then, not to show up to the Commons in tears - or to leak and then un-leak tax rises to the press. This is the sort of silliness that spooks the markets.

Will Dunn’s article introduces us to the people who press the buy and sell buttons on the trading floor, and gives a glimpse into these figures that have become unusually powerful in British politics.

7: Sporting moment

No prizes for guessing the sport or the team that’ll get my nomination - I don’t watch enough sports for it to be anything else: it’s going to be from the NFL, and it’s going to be an Eagles game.

It’s hard not to choose the Super Bowl win, though with a huge lead by half time and a seriously lacklustre performance from the Kansas City Chiefs it wasn’t the most edge-of-seat stuff.

So instead, I’m going to pick the final three seconds of the Eagles - Rams week 3 game this season: the blocked field goal.

With literally seconds to go in the game, the Los Angeles Rams had possession of the ball and three seconds to kick what should have been a straightforward field goal and take a victory.

Instead, Eagles defender Jordan Davis leapt into the sky to block the attempt (already a feat - field goals are only blocked about 2% of the time). He then sprinted 61 yards to score a touchdown and turn the game into a decisive Eagles victory. Davis is a huge guy, and clocked almost 20mph: the fastest speed a 300lb-plus player has ever recorded in the NFL.

It was a pretty extraordinary moment in a season that is turning increasingly meh for the reigning champs. Check it out:

8: Politician or Public Figure

There’s a lot of names I’m thinking of. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, might be a good answer - though it seems in the final moments of the year he’s been knocked off the Generative AI throne by Google.

Politically, I’m tempted to say someone like Wes Streeting: who is ending the year as the most likely candidate for the next Labour leader. Rishi Sunak, meanwhile, is enjoying a “told you so” tour that I have to admire, with a column in the Sunday Times and an Oxford fellowship that give him ample opportunity to remind everyone that he predicted every part of this.

Charlie Kirk would be a good answer - political violence is becoming a reality for Americans at a frightening pace, and his in particular seemed to trigger a further shift of the Overton Window in favour of Republicans.

Culturally, maybe Taylor Swift whose engagement somehow became one of the most talked about moments of the year.

But my nomination goes to María Corina Machado - would-be (should-be) Venezuelan President who has been forced into hiding by despot leader, Maduro. After the US seized a Venezuelan oil tanker last week, it became clear that Venezuela and particularly the tense relationship with Trump and Maduro could be a trigger of chaos in the New Year.

Machado’s fight for democracy, that she fears will land her in prison, is reminiscent of Navalny in Russia: hopefully this time the Democratic globe takes enough notice to help her turn the tide. There are promising signals - this month she won the Nobel Peace Prize.

9: Tech Innovation

Last year I predicted that 2025 would be the year of Agentic AI - I think broadly I was wrong (though I recently commissioned some research which found companies are quietly implementing AI Agents in the thousands…).

Instead, it has been the year of creative Generative AI. OpenAI’s Sora now generates totally convincing AI videos. You can even upload your own identity and allow yourself to be mixed into videos. Meanwhile Google’s Nano Banana Pro has solved most of the issues with traditional AI image generation - generating detailed, realistic pictures in seconds.

I’m tempted to say Blockchain, as I think next year we’ll see this technology finally take off (fuelled by the growth in prediction markets like Polymarket - which are glorified betting shops).

But I think my nomination has to go to vibecoding. The ability to code with natural language rather than coding language is a huge step in tech development (and integral to the development of my start-up Tough Minds!).

In 2024, I tried to use ChatGPT to code an app. It was a disaster, as the chat kept forgetting what we were building every 2 versions. Yet this year, any app can be created in seconds using a tool like Replit, Lovable or Google AI Studio.

My prediction, for what it’s worth, is that natural language will replace coding language altogether - removing the need for the ‘translation’ that happens currently.

10: Monday Memo

How do I pick a favourite, they’re all so good! But I think Benefits Britain, on the ever-rising British welfare bill, hit on something that only began to reach the mainstream media several months later and for that reason gets my nomination.

And the author is incredibly humble, I’m told.

Epilogue

I ran this article through Google Gemini to check for any errors or unfinished sentences. For some reason, it decided to only use its knowledge up to 2024 - and its response revealed just how bizarre a year it has been - highlights below:

• “You are implying Charlie Kirk was assassinated. He is alive. Unless this is dark fan-fiction, you cannot publish this.”

• On Nano Banana Pro - “This sounds like an AI hallucination. Google has “Gemini Nano.” “Nano Banana Pro” sounds like a parody.”

• “The Rehearsal Season 2 plot description you have here (aviation disasters, playing a baby raised by puppets) is completely made up. This has nothing to do with Nathan Fielder’s comedy style. It feels like the text has confused The Rehearsal with an episode of Air Crash Investigation.”

• “The specific details of Jordan Davis (a 340lb defensive tackle) running 61 yards for a touchdown at 20mph are physically improbable and likely didn’t happen in a Week 3 game against the Rams.”

• “Do not publish this as factual. It contains a false report of a political assassination, reviews of an album and a TV season that don’t exist, and unlikely, imagined events.”