This year has been a whirlwind—but the holidays are a welcome chance to take a step back, reflect, and catch up on all the stuff you’ve missed. To help you find the best of the best, each December we ask The Logic’s newsroom for recommendations on what to read, listen to and watch. 

From the schoolyard brawls of CEOs to armour-clad pop icons, this year’s selections feature a host of characters, stories and ideas you won’t soon forget. Some of our picks relate to tech and business, and some don’t. All of our selections were published or aired this year. So sit back, relax, and get ready to dive into our staff picks of 2024.

Books

The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant
Tae Kim, WW Norton

I bought this the day it was released and can already see it becoming recommended reading for business school. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s story surprised me in many ways, from his weightlifting in order to win fights at a Kentucky reform school, to befriending janitors and spending eight years on his masters degree in night school while raising a family. Though recently thrust into the spotlight, he has quietly worked away at the company he founded since 1993, making him the longest-serving of any major tech CEO. Yet Huang rejects nostalgia, documenting most of his ideas on white boards—symbolic, Kim writes, of how the company views even its best ideas as destined to be replaced by better ones. – Anita

Private Equity
Carrie Sun, Penguin Random House

This is a razor-sharp memoir that dissects privilege, power, and the emotional costs of striving to belong in a world that wasn’t built for you. As a Chinese-American woman working as a personal assistant at a pseudonymous hedge fund (widely believed to be Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global, though never explicitly named), Sun plunges readers into the unforgiving world of high finance. She recounts her experience navigating Wall Street, with its cold transactions, cutthroat ambitions, and lavish perks. In a place like this, vulnerability feels taboo and existentially dangerous. Sun exposes the contradictions of an industry simultaneously rewarding and punishing ambition, especially for women of colour. It’s a riveting and often astonishing account that pulls back the curtain on a world driven by all kinds of capital—financial, social, and exclusionary. – Sharon

The Men Who Killed The News
Eric Beecher, Simon & Schuster Australia

If you loved the critically-acclaimed HBO show, Succession, or you’ve been paying attention to the Murdoch family courtroom drama in Nevada, then you’ll need to read this book. It’s a fun romp through the sordid history of media barons across the globe and the power they wield, from 20th century newspaper scions to 21st century tech titans. If you want to understand how the press became so mistrusted by the public, this is a good place to start. There are a surprising number of Canadian honorific cameos, including Lord Beaverbrook, Baron Black of Crossharbour, and Second Baron Thomson of Fleet. – David S.

Mechanic Shop Femme’s Guide to Car Ownership: Uncomplicating Cars for All of Us
Chaya M. Milchtein, Little, Brown And Company

For quite a while, YouTube has been the new owners’ manual for vehicle buyers. But as the volume of misinformation on the internet has increased, I find myself returning to books and the word of trusted experts in case of emergency. This is one of those books from one of those online creators. It’s a fitting gift for a new driver, as well as a potential glovebox essential for anyone who has ever felt strong-armed at the mechanic’s shop. While women now make up the majority of buyers for several automakers, they’re still far less likely to buy EVs, suggesting that authors like Milchtein could make a big difference. – Anita

All Fours
Miranda July, Riverhead Books

A woman tells her family that she’s going on a cross-country road trip. Instead, she stops in a small town 20 minutes from her home, redecorates a motel room and begins a teased-out affair with her decorator’s husband. It’s not so much a premise as a launching pad into further absurdity and deceit and near-surface sexuality. Honestly one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. – Martin 

Television

Silo
Graham Yost, Apple TV+

This big-budget Apple TV+ sci-fi drama just returned for its second season—and it’s well worth catching up. Based on the Silo trilogy of novels by Hugh Howey, the show has a simple premise: 10,000 people live in a society trapped inside a gigantic underground silo. The mystery of why they are there, and what lies outside, propels the show forward. It’s a smart mix of awe-inspirising set design and compelling mystery that’s both compelling viewing and eminently bingeable. – James

The Bear
Christopher Storer, FX

Do you call yourself a foodie? Or a perfectionist? While The Bear explores the harsh realities of leading a restaurant (or perhaps any small business), it’s also a TV show for anyone obsessed with peak performance or the costs of achieving excellence. How relentless do you have to be with details? How do you get the best out of your team—or in this case, kitchen staff? And how many relationships might be sacrificed before achieving the Michelin-star status in whatever has become your life’s work? The Bear follows a genius fine-dining chef, Carmy, (played by the magnetic Jeremy Allen White) who returns to Chicago to run his family’s sandwich shop after his brother’s tragic death. The third season of this FX comedy-drama doesn’t disappoint, going deeper into the back stories of each of his kitchen staff. – April

Disclaimer
Alfonso Cuarón, Apple TV+

Definitely not for kids, and many adults won’t want to stomach it, either. This mini-series starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline (extraordinary as a frail old Englishman consumed by bitterness) burns slowly, as the truth of a traumatic death in the characters’ pasts is revealed. Blanchett plays a crusading journalist who has her own destructive secret. Revenges are sought, marriages disintegrate, reputations are destroyed, psyches wounded. Extremely not-bingeable; you’ll want to alternate episodes with Hallmark movies. – David R.

Industry
Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, HBO

Industry is a show that routinely makes me scream at the characters to make better decisions, and they almost never listen. The series, set at an investment bank, is at its most entertaining and dramatic in season three, which came out in August, with a mix of hard-nosed negotiations, near-farcical plotting and go-for-broke performances (including Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington as a sweater-vest startup founder who, it turns out, is disguising his vast generational wealth). It’s best viewed as an over-the-top satire rather than a realistic portrayal—as many annoyed traders have pointed out—but it perfectly captures the vibes of modern corporate environments, and rips them apart with glee. – Sebastian

Music

Yummy
James, Virgin 

I began 2024 in what Spotify tells me was an “Alien Fluxwork Electronic” phase. Tim Booth and his bandmates in James saved me from that symphonic state. James’s 18th studio album isn’t their best, nor is it seminal. But it’s an example of mastery, that sweet spot where talent, practice, experimentation and experience come together to produce something sublime. The songs on Yummy are playful takes on climate change, loneliness, misinformation and digital overlords. Yes, playful. Rather than get bogged down in the misery of crisis, James reminds us that no one said life was supposed to be easy, and that if you are listening to music on your phone, things might not be altogether terrible. Near the end of the album, Booth suggests that all the universe needs is one song, “a Beatles one.” I think the universe would benefit from listening to my favourite song from Yummy on repeat: “Life’s a Fucking Miracle.” – Kevin

Good Luck, Babe!
2024 MTV Video Music Awards performance, Chappell Roan

Two decades ago, the closest thing we had to lesbian representation in mainstream music was the notorious Madonna-Britney-Christina three-way kiss at the MTV Video Music Awards. This year, at the same awards show, Chappell Roan—an out lesbian and one of the world’s biggest pop stars—donned a suit of armour, wielded a sword and performed her very gay Song of the Summer-nominated single “Good Luck, Babe!” to elaborate pyrotechnics. There’s a lot of darkness in the world right now, and I very much appreciated the reminder that some things do get better. – Claire

Two Star & The Dream Police
Mk.gee, R&R Digital

Pronounced “McGee,” the New Jersey-born multi-instrumentalist and producer has had a huge year, from an SNL debut and prestige TV soundtrack moment, to a spot on Charli XCX’s Spotify Wrapped. The beating heart of this success is his debut album, Two Star & The Dream Police, where Mk.gee comes into his own with a spacey, strange, ethereal and gritty guitar-driven sound. Standouts include “How many miles,” “Alesis” and “Rylee & I.” Great listening for a reflective trip on a train, plane or automobile—you’re not going to understand a word he’s saying, but you’re going to love it. – Emma 

Podcasts

The Rest is History
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, Goalhanger 

I discovered this long-running podcast in my quest for escapism during my morning commute. Two British historians delve into episodes of history with an odd couple dynamic that keeps even the darkest chapters of history light and digestible. This year they covered the reign of the Nazis, the history of chocolate, and even compared former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney to a prominent banker during the French Revolution. It’s amazing how much you can learn about the world’s current struggles by peering into the past. In particular, I’d recommend their series on how the furious competition of the Gilded Age contributed to the tragedy of the Titanic. – Laura 

The Herle Burly
David Herle, Air Quotes Media

As a four-time guest, maybe I’m biased, but those are the only four episodes of pollster David Herle’s politics-and-policy podcast I haven’t listened to since I discovered it a few years ago. Herle doesn’t hide his loyalties; he’s a Liberal who advised former prime minister Paul Martin and former Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne. But he’s also loyal to the idea that democracy is best served by competing interests engaging in conversation. Herle is an empathetic interviewer who eschews gotcha questions for genuine curiosity. This year, he pulled cabinet ministers such as Marc Miller and Seamus O’Reagan out from behind their media lines. There are good reasons to despair over the state of the public dialogue in Canada. The Herle Burly is a reason to hope it could get better. – Kevin

Lately: The masculinity industry that shaped the U.S. election
Vass Bednar & Katrina Onstad

This episode of the Globe’s new economy podcast, Lately, dives into the “manosphere” and the $5-trillion wellness industry selling masculinity. Hosts Bednar and Onstad are joined by Timothy Caulfield, professor and researcher of health misinformation and its ties to celebrity culture. The trio talk about everything from the junk science of drinking urine to how toxic masculine values can harm men’s health—and even how the manosphere helped Donald Trump win the 2024 U.S. election. – Armita

Autocracy in America
Anne Applebaum and Peter Pomerantsev, The Atlantic 

A short series of podcasts that might hit differently now from when it ran during the last U.S. presidential campaign. Applebaum is known for her books on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe; here, she and Soviet-born British journalist Peter Pomerantsev turn their eyes to the long-running current of authoritarianism in the U.S. and the techniques that guys like Huey Long and George Wallace have used to advance it. It’s plainly a warning about another Donald Trump presidency, but the history is good stuff regardless how you feel about him. – David R. 

Movies

The Wild Robot
Chris Sanders, DreamWorks

Based on the children’s book series of the same name, this heartwarming movie takes place in a vision of the future where a personalized robot designed to complete tasks for humans washes up a remote island inhabited only by wildlife. Rozz is adrift for purpose until she finds a young orphaned gosling who deems her to be his mother. I’m not a parent, but I kept seeing trailers and tearing up every time they played “Birds of Feather” by Billie Eilish, so I figured I should watch. This movie’s beauty is far from cloying, though—it has laughs, cute animals and reflections on the meaning of connection that are truly fun for the whole family. – Emma

Saturday Night
Jason Reitman, Sony Pictures

Saturday Night is better than it has any business being. It’s definitely NSFW—but minus all the vice, it captures perfectly the frenzy of being in a newsroom on a day filled with breaking news, or of closing a magazine issue, or really any major project on a deadline. – Murad 

Dune: Part Two
Denis Villeneuve, Warner Bros. 

Epic sci-fi. Canadian director. What else is there to say about this film? This star-studded sequel—recommended by several members of our team—pulls off the impossible by making a movie capturing the essence of a complicated (and often weird) book. We get to see geographical and cultural references to the Middle East on-screen in a way that’s special but familiar, and the sandworms are magnificent. – Sumaiya, David R., Emma

Robot Dreams
Pablo Berger, Neon

The Wild Robot was my son’s pick for all-ages animated films about robots, but I was more partial to this dialogue-less story about a lonely dog in 1980s New York City who mail orders a build-your-own robotic friend. The pair hit it off, but are soon separated against their will, and the film is a sometimes heart-wrenching account of the scars people can build up as they try to overcome unfortunate circumstances. I went in with an eyebrow raised about the problematic premise of relationships on-demand, but instead found a moving and thoughtful tale about the limits of carrying a torch for somebody, as well as the tragedy and possibility of what comes after. – Brendan