This is a list of things I like. Don’t look too deeply into what is/isn’t included here, it’s just a list of things I like and think are cool, with a slight bias toward things I think should be more popular than they are. Presented in no particular order.
Guides/Educational - Blogs - Video Content - Podcasts - Web Apps/Services - Software - Books/Authors
Guides/Educational 🔗
Privacy Guides: Probably the best overall guide to digital privacy. Includes an excellent list of recommendations for privacy-friendly software and services.
The New Oil: Nice additional digital privacy resource. Includes lots of good guides, a blog, and video content as well. Strikes a nice balance between technicality and accessibility.
Hacks.guide: The definitive guides for installing custom firmware on your Nintendo 3DS, Switch, Wii U and some other systems too.
Blogs 🔗
Astral Codex 10: Thoughtful and well-written blog posts on a wide array of subjects. Posts are always well researched and well thought out. I often come away with new perspectives after reading.
Krebs on Security: Mostly a news blog highlighting current cybersecurity happenings. Also has some more in-depth reporting as well as some good guides and advice.
The Privacy Dad A digital privacy blog from the perspective of a parent. Not the most definitive source for privacy content, but offers a different and often very relatable perspective.
Video Content 🔗
Techlore: Probably the best YouTube channel focusing on digital privacy. Entertaining videos and solid information.
Side of Burritos: Josh’s videos aren’t very flashy, but they’re well-researched and interesting. Focus is generally on digital security, often GrapheneOS and Android specifically.
Defunctland: Defunctland focuses on the history of defunct theme park attractions and TV shows. All of his videos are good, but his Fastpass documentary in particular is nothing short of incredible.
Scott the Woz: If you’re even vaguely into video games, especially Nintendo, you probably don’t need to be told to watch Scott the Woz. But just in case: Watch Scott the Woz. Watch his secondary channel too.
Jenny Nicholson: Jenny makes videos on various fandom-related topics, often with hours-long deep dives. Her videos always funny or fascinating, and usually both.
Team APS A fun channels for some casual Yu-Gi-Oh! content, both duels and video essays.
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series A parody series of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. First episode released over 20 years ago (!) and new episodes are still releasing. Makes me laugh out loud pretty reliably.
Daryl Talks Games: Daryl makes really great video essays about video games, psychology, or (usually) both. His videos are interesting, but often have an emotional punch to them as well.
Captain Midnight: Short thoughtful video essays on film and television. Releases new videos very regularly.
Podcasts 🔗
Surveillance Report: Great weekly roundup of cybersecurity and digital privacy news from Henry of Techlore and Nathan of The New Oil.
Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: Switches off between cybersecurity news and interviews. Can be a bit lengthy, but lots of really great content.
Darknet Diaries: “True stories from the dark side of the internet.” It’s good, give it a listen.
Wolf 359: Excellent serialized sci-fi fiction podcast that concluded a little while back. It has amazing writing and an excellent cast.
Web Apps/Services 🔗
Pretty much all of the below are FOSS and self-hostable.
Vikunja: Excellent task management and productivity tool.
Mastodon: Federated microblogging social media service. I wrote a whole post about Mastodon and the Fediverse as a whole and why it’s all so great.
Jellyfin: A way to host your own streaming media server. Definitely some room for improvement, but a really impressive and useful piece of software.
Bitwarden: I’m not sure how people get by in the modern world without a password manager. While not perfect, Bitwarden is one of the best and has a very generous free plan.
Addy.io: Email aliasing/forwarding service. SimpleLogin is also quite good, but Addy.io has a much better pricing structure.
Notesnook: End-to-end encrypted note-taking app. Has a lot of fancy features in their premium plans, but the free plan works fine as a basic note-taking app.
NanoGPT (Non-Referral Link): Using AI privately is difficult and I’ve found that NanoGPT is the best option. Access to tons of different models, virtually no personal info required, integrates with an OpenAI AI-compatible tool.
Software 🔗
Atmosphere: Custom firmware for the Nintendo Switch. The developer’s knowledge of reverse-engineering video game console firmware is very impressive and Atmosphere is a very cool piece of software.
Luma3DS: Custom firmware for the Nintendo 3DS. Not quite as seamless as Atmosphere, but still very cool and impressive.
GrapheneOS: Custom Android OS for Google Pixel phones. It improves security and privacy substantially over stock Android, with Google Play services being entirely optional. I write more in-depth about it in this post.
Aegis: TOTP 2FA app for Android. Nothing fancy, but works very well.
Signal: End-to-end encrypted messenger. Probably strikes the best balance between security, privacy, features, and polish of any secure messenger.
Syncthing: A simple and elegant solution to a ubiquitous problem: how to easily and securely sync data between devices. No server required.
Zed: An AI-focused IDE written in Rust. It’s FOSS but easily rivals its proprietary counterparts. Works with any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, including NanoGPT (see above).
Books/Authors 🔗
Brandon Sanderson: Probably the best fantasy author writing today. If you at all enjoy fantasy novels, you owe it to yourself to read his books.
Robin Hobb: One of the all-time fantasy greats. I am still working my way through her Realm of the Elderings saga, but every entry so far has been excellent. The Soldier’s Son trilogy is great as well.
The Checklist Manifesto: Excellent overview of a simple, yet powerful tool: the checklist. Possibly the most interesting book I’ve ever read if measured against how boring the book’s title sounded.
Superintelligence: A very persuasive argument on the dangers of superintelligent AI. (Update: This was more of a niche interest when I first added it here, I promise.)
The Emperor of All Maladies: A fascinating and somewhat terrifying look at the history of cancer.
Worm: A very long online serialized work of fiction. Excellent world building and was one of the earlier “dark” superhero narratives. No official e-book is available, but there is a fan-made ebook scraper tool you can use.
The Expanse: My favorite contemporary science fiction series. Excellent plot, deep characters, and a novel take on humanity reaching beyond Earth.
Movies/TV 🔗
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Best TV show of all time? Probably. If you haven’t seen this one, go watch it now.
Severance: Excellent series that perfectly captures the office dystopia vibe. Worth the Apple TV+ subscription. First season is better than the second, but both are worth watching.
Steins;Gate: My favorite anime series of all-time. Starts slow, but once the plot picks up it’s an absolute roller coaster to the very end.
Digimon Tamers: The first two seasons of Digimon were good, but Tamers really gives the series some depth. This season shares the head writer of Serial Experiments Lain and you can tell.
Azumanga Daioh: The pinnacle of anime slice of life comfort food. I’ve watched the series through at least three times and it’s always just as good.
A Silent Voice: This movie made me feel things. An excellent reflection on deafness, bullying, reconciliation, and finding your way back from the brink.
Parks and Recreation: Funny? Check. Heartwarming? Also check. You’ll need to push your way through (or skip) the mediocre first season, but by season 2 the series is cooking.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: A really fun film that does an excellent job of capturing the aesthetics of video games in live action. Includes a surprisingly star-studded cast.