We’re not going to lie: Our personal perception of Barack Obama’s tradition of releasing regular lists of his favorite books, films, and songs has shifted a bit in recent years, going from “Ah, here’s what our hip young President is into!” into something more like “Best to keep tabs on what aging Democrats think is cool, just in case.” Earlier this year, we reported that Obama had, in fact, gotten in on the BRAT summer phenomenon; now, his new list of recommendations has just dropped, and if you had Obama pegged for a Dune: Part Two and Anora fan, please consider your barometer of former Presidential tastes properly calibrated.
In books, Obama charted the usual path between left-leaning non-fiction and modern literary novels, including Sally Rooney’s IntermezzoRussian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s memoir Patriotand Daniel Susskind’s non-fiction book about the history of economic growth, uh, Growth. (Just for funsies, we’re tracking Obama’s list versus our own best-ofs, looking for overlap: We’re O for ten on books.)
In film, Obama propped up movies like Iranian political thriller The Seed Of The Sacred Figpapal slap fight Conclaveand upcoming Bob Dylan movie A Complete Unknown. (This was a big year for Obama and Timothée Chalamet, in fact, with the former Pres also giving the nod to Dune; he did not follow Zendaya over to Challengerswhich surprised us a bit, but maybe the tennis was just too sexy for a 63-year-old dude.) We had two overlaps with Obama on this one, with him giving points to both Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light and Sean Baker’s Anora. (Happily, Obama’s Higher Ground production slate didn’t have any movies out this year, so we were spared the mild embarrassment of seeing him stump for his own films amidst his other recommendations.)
Music, meanwhile, is the one realm where Obama can usually get an “Alright, fair play” out of us with his regular playlists: He topped this year’s list of his favorite songs with Kendrick Lamar’s “Squabble Up,” off of the just-released GNXand, alright, fair play. He also popped in the requisite Beyoncé plug (for “Texas Hold ‘Em,” off February’s Cowboy Carter), and tapped Billie Eilish, Shaboozey, Jack White for acknowledgement. As ever, you can kind of tell that this is where Obama’s passion tends to run more fully: The list acknowledges 25 songs, also giving credit to Rema, Myles Smith, Hosier, and several other artists.
