Over the last few months, the CAPC team has compiled a list of our favorite pop culture artifacts from the previous year. Unlike most year-end lists, we don’t claim that these are the “best.” Rather, these are the things that brought us the most joy and satisfaction throughout the last 12 months.
For 2025, our favorite books and memes included an affair on the Jumbotron, papal memes, a history of punk rock, Venetian protests, and more.
Cheating CEO Scandal
On July 15, a kiss cam captured a couple embracing during a Coldplay concert. When the man and woman realized they were on the stadium Jumbotron, they quickly separated. A clip of the incident soon made its way online and went viral almost immediately. Within days, the identities of both individuals became public knowledge: CEO Andy Byron and his Chief People Officer, Kristin Cabot, both of whom were married to other people. Byron and Cabot eventually resigned from their respective positions.
This scenario is a reminder that even in a post-Christian culture, we’re still able to acknowledge the value of marital fidelity even if it’s “only” violated by an instance of PDA. To a degree at least, our society recognizes that our private lives carry a moral weight that has public ramifications.
Unfortunately, this scenario is also a reminder of the malicious mob-rule mentality inherent in internet culture: Cabot’s private contact information was posted online, and she received hundreds of calls a day for several weeks, including dozens of death threats. Instead of encouraging true repentance, our society turns the shame of others into an opportunity for prideful panning and cruel criticism.
—Cap Stewart
Pope Leo XIV Memes
On May 8, 2025, the first U.S.-born pope, Robert Francis Prevost, was elected. As soon as the news broke, his fellow Americans began doing what we do best: incorporating the new Pope Leo XIV into pop culture. A sandwich and a pizza were named after him in his hometown of Chicago; his name appeared on merchandise for his beloved White Sox; “Da Pope” headlines and memorabilia were everywhere. Leo himself was amenable to the effort, turning out to be the kind of pope who drops favorite movie lists and exchanges taunts with Cubs fans from the popemobile.
And then there were the memes. When a 1982 photo turned up of young Father Prevost dressed as a beloved movie character, “Blues Brothers Pope” was hailed with widespread delight. When a journalist on Leo’s flight to Turkey gifted him a special heirloom baseball bat (“How did they let you on board with that?” the surprised pontiff asked), “Baseball Bat Pope” went viral. (“I said put your shoes back on, heathen,” one commenter imagined Leo telling a passenger as he stood cradling the bat in the aisle.) As visitors keep giving him sports jerseys from various teams, “Jersey Pope” keeps reappearing; a popular favorite version was Leo wearing a pained expression as 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, looking like he was belting out a tune, gave rise to “Karaoke Pope.” But it was “Rave Pope”—Leo appearing on video to bless a rave for an archbishop’s birthday outside a Slovakian cathedral—that left people gobsmacked. “Who had this as a late entry on their 2025 bingo card?” asked one wag on TikTok.
It’s all in good fun, but I suspect something deeper lies beneath the trend: a hunger for spiritual connection, stirred by a figure who both takes the divine very seriously and remains down to earth. Unlike some leaders, the pope doesn’t post elaborate AI memes glorifying himself; he just gets caught on camera while carrying out his papal duties, humbly and good-naturedly. And there’s something disarming about that, to use a favorite word of Leo’s. If it takes an American pope wielding a baseball bat to help some begin to understand the appeal of faith… well, the Lord moves in mysterious ways.
—Gina Dalfonzo
Punk Rock in Comics by Nicolas Finet and Thierry Lamy
Mention “punk rock” and certain artists immediately come to mind. The Sex Pistols. The Ramones, The Clash. But as Nicolas Finet and Thierry Lamy reveal in Punk Rock in Comics, the punk movement of the late ’70s took one many shapes and forms, from its mixture with Jamaican rasta culture to its legacy in the goth, post-punk, and new wave movements.
Finet and Lamy work with a number of different artists and illustrators for the book’s chapters, each one of which delves into a unique subculture or expression of the punk ethos. The result is a fascinating and insightful—and educational—exploration of a genre that people probably know less about than they realize. And best of all, it’ll give readers a slew of new artists and albums to check out.
—Jason Morehead
Shadows Upon Time by Christopher Ruocchio
Shadows Upon Time closed out the Catholic writer’s ambitious seven-book sci-fi epic that tells a sweeping story of a man chosen by God to eradicate an alien race possessed by demons. The series tackles deep themes like transhumanism, just war theory, the goodness of God, and the nature of suffering with regular references to classical literature and thought. And it presents a rather robust defense of God’s providence amidst the uncertainties of life.
The series has achieved remarkable popularity for an overtly Christian work within the general market: the first book boasts almost 50,000 reviews on Goodreads, has a “Best of #BookTok” badge from Amazon, and is regularly praised by Christian and secular BookTubers. Readers concerned about the viability of Christian stories in the general market would do well to look to the Sun Eater series as an excellent example of what thoughtful Christian cultural creation can look like.
—Josiah DeGraaf
There Is No Antimemetics Division by Qntm
If you’re unfamiliar with the SCP Foundation, it’s a collaborative writing wiki where people can contribute stories about a mysterious agency tasked with protecting humanity from the most bizarre phenomena. (Think The X-Files and Warehouse 13 with a healthy dose of Lovecraft-ian wierdness.) Qntm—the pen name of programmer Sam Hughes—uses the Foundation as the inspiration for this utterly unique sci-fi novel about a top secret division devoted to the study and containment of antimemes, ideas and entities that defy logic and will do anything and everything to resist being remembered, even wiping out existence as we know it.
It’s a pretty high concept novel, filled to the brim with references to esoteric math and philosophy, obscure technologies, mind-altering pharmaceuticals, and non-linear narratives. Indeed, there are times when you might be tempted to question your own grip on sanity. But it’s a testament to Qntm’s skill as a writer that There Is No Antimemetics Division is consistently clever and even strangely moving at times, as the men and women of the Division do their best to complete a mission that sometimes requires them to forget everything they know about the mission they’re trying to complete.
—Jason Morehead
Venetians Protest Bezos Wedding
This year has seen a plethora of controversial, concerning, and downright terrifying headlines, many of which can leave the average person feeling powerless to do anything about the state of the world around them. This feeling was likely what many people were expecting when Jeff Bezos announced his marriage to Lauren Sanchez, which was estimated to cost between $40 and $50 million dollars. The contrast between an overly extravagant event and the people around us fighting every day to have enough for food, for rent, for children’s clothes felt demoralizing.
And yet, as perhaps has been a theme through many of this year’s biggest stories, we were shown that true outrage and a real passion for justice and fair play can be heard. When it was announced that the Bezos wedding would be held in Venice, Italy, the city’s residents didn’t sit by and complain, content to air their grievances as a multi-billionaire essentially “rented” out their home for his own purposes. They came out. They protested. And it made a difference.
With signs that mentioned the businessman’s lack of taxpaying, the country’s ongoing issue of over tourism, and the immediate danger of flooding in Venice due to climate change—which would be made worse by the private jets and yachts expected to arrive carrying wedding guests—the Venetians successfully managed to get one of the wedding events moved further away from the city center than originally planned. While it may seem like a small victory for the protesters, it remains a bright spot in the daily doom scroll that reminds many of the power of speaking out for what is right.
—Sophie Pell
