Dom's top books of 2025

Top Podcast Episode

Dec 7, 2025:

When differences of opinion present a potential minefield of hurt feelings, emotional outbursts, and severed relationships, some conversation leaders avoid certain topics in our learning spaces. In episode #265 of the The Cult of Peagogy Podcast, Jennifer Gonzalez talks with SEGL founder Noah Bopp about how the growth discourse framework used by the School of Ethics and Global Leadership (SEGL) offers a way to re-engage in these conversations. PS: Grammar Gap Fillers.

Top book recommendations

1. The End of Reality: How Four Billionaires are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto
2. Shantaram
3. Unrig the Game: What Women of Color Can Teach Everyone About Winning
4. Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code
5. Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir

Best Fictional Sci-Fi Series: The Murderbot Diaries

I listened to the Kevin R Free audiobooks for all of The Murderbot Diaries books, free on Hoopla through my local library. I really enjoyed the hacking and security-focused narration by the human/computer hybrid (known in Wells’ world as a Construct). The futuristic non-corporate utopia also reminded me of the controvertial last season of Sex Education.

All books

Here’s the full list on Goodreads.

1. Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries, #6) (Wells, Martha)
2. Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5) (Wells, Martha)
3. Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4) (Wells, Martha)
4. Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3) (Wells, Martha)
5. Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2) (Wells, Martha)
6. All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1) (Wells, Martha)
7. The Arab of the Future 3: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1985-1987 (Sattouf, Riad)
8. The Arab of the Future 2: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984 (Sattouf, Riad)
9. The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984 (Sattouf, Riad)
10. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (Roger Fisher, William Ury, Bruce Patton)
11. A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1) (Chambers, Becky)
12. A Long Petal of the Sea (Allende, Isabel)
13. The End of Reality: How Four Billionaires are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto (Taplin, Jonathan)
14. The Glass Castle (Walls, Jeannette)
15. Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code (Benjamin, Ruha)
16. Unrig the Game: What Women of Color Can Teach Everyone About Winning (Daniel, Vanessa Priya)
17. Shantaram (Roberts, Gregory David)
18. Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools (Morris, Monique W.)
19. Raising Human Beings: Creating a Collaborative Partnership with Your Child (Greene, Ross W.)
20. Salvage the Bones (Ward, Jesmyn)
21. The Good News About Bad Behavior: Why Kids Are Less Disciplined Than Ever – And What to Do About It (Lewis, Katherine Reynolds)
22. Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things (Grant, Adam M.)
23. High Output Management (Grove, Andrew S.)
24. Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir (Monette, Paul)
25. My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1) (Ferrante, Elena)
26. The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart (Garza, Alicia)
27. Gods of Jade and Shadow (Moreno-Garcia, Silvia)
28. The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2) (Liu, Cixin)
29. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Jacobs, Harriet Ann)
30. How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective (Taylor, Keeanga)