The Opinions - See Ya, 2024. Here’s What We Loved.

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

As the year comes to an end, Times Opinion staff members — and our listeners — shared the things from 2024 they wanted to take with them into the new year. They range from impromptu hangs to weird A.I. TikToks. Take a listen.Thoughts? Email us at [e-mail]. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is The Opinions, a show that brings you a mix of voices from New York Times Opinion. You've heard the news. Here's what to make of it. My name is Mejah Ahmed, and I'm an editor for The Times Opinion. This is the second year that we're doing a story that we like to call Keepers. And what it is is it's a list of things that our staff did in their year that they would like to keep and take with them into the new year. And so that could be a hobby, a habit, an activity, a movie, a movie, a book, a recommendation, just anything that they really enjoyed and found solace in their year that they're going to take with them as we turn the page into the new year. One of the things I ended up stumbling into this year

was a website called Fragrantica. It's an online messaging board for people to review fragrances and sense. I was just doing research for my next perfume purchase, but I kind of discovered this community of fragrance heads talking to each other and describing perfumes and scents in kind of outlandish and hilarious ways. And the longer I spent on it, the more I realized that I was really not thinking about anything else and had kind of managed to shut my brain off in a way that I haven't really figured out how to otherwise. So we've compiled some responses from our staff, as well as a few of our listeners, about what they'll be bringing with them from 24 into the new year. I hope you enjoy listening to some of these responses. They bring a little bit of

light and levity into the end of what, for many, was a very, very difficult year. I'm Roland. I'm a producer on the Ezra Klein Show. Something I enjoyed from this year has been watching these AI karaoke versions of former president singing. The most common one that I've seen is kind of like a still AI-generated illustration of Trump or Biden or Obama, and then you have just lyrics to some karaoke song that the AI has them singing. My favorite one is Trump and Biden doing a duet of love. V is very, very extraordinary.

He is even more than anyone that you adore can love. It's just a classic. In my day job, I have to follow a lot of politics. I listen to a lot of political speeches and, you know, like politicians like this past year, Biden wasn't a great speaker, Trump wasn't, it was kind of incoherent. But, you know, listening to them sing these songs, it was pretty refreshing to actually hear something coherent come out of their mouths. This is Lori Sims from Brunswick, Maine.

My greatest joy in 2024 was watching the eclipse with my sister. Religion has kept us apart for almost 40 years, but lately we have found we have so much more in common than we have differences. I'm Michelle Cottle, and I cover national politics for opinion. So one of our happy places during what has been a really, really unpleasant year politically is my oldest friend in the world, not infrequently, bullies me into watching a TV show that she's watching so that we. can text each other, call each other, obsess about this together. And one of the things she has to be watching is the television show Shrinking. And it is about a therapist whose wife dies and he's grieving and he gets really involved with his patient's life. And it stars Jason Siegel, but it also stars an old Harrison Ford. What kind of a person hugs?

and tells. So being a child of the 80s, I am all about loving me some old Erison Ford. But what makes this fun is that we try to watch it together. We try to either synchronized watch it or if one of us is ahead of the other, then we text each other while we're watching it. Whoever watches it first is not allowed to send spoilers.

And it's a great combination of watching a fun television show. But also just, you know, we've been friends. since we were in seventh grade, and we kind of share a brain on some of these things, and so it's fantastic to just have something that we can obsess over together, even though we live several states apart. My name is Victor Lopez. I speak from São Paulo, Brazil, and what really brought me joy this year was gardening. I live on the 22nd floor of an apartment building in the heart of the city.

I grow fresh herbs to cook with, and I replant the seeds of everything I eat. I have little mango trees growing, papaya trees, cocoa trees, all in my balcony. And after it gets too big, I replant it somewhere in the city, helping to make it greener. I think gardening is such a powerful way to connect with the world living and with ourselves. So my message is that next year, everyone should give it a try, even if your space is limited. My name is Cornelia Channing, and I am an editorial assistant in the opinion section. One of the habits that I developed in 2024 that I want to take with me into the new year is basically that I don't listen to the news in the morning anymore. I used to

wake up and listen to podcasts and dive in immediately into the day's news. It was kind of a harsh way to start the day, particularly with the news cycles that we've had this year. So I found that taking 20 or 30 minutes in the morning, and instead of listening to the news, putting on WQXR, which is a classical radio station, and sort of starting my day with music was a much nicer way to enter the day. I was listening to Chopin's etudes. They're just gorgeous piano pieces. I find that there's sort of a drama to listening to them in a row. And it sort of helps me start the day with a little bit more of a sense of inspiration and awe rather than maybe dread. My name is Sophie. I'm from New Hampshire. And something that brought me joy in 2024 that I'm definitely bringing into the new year is

my love of cooking. I recently hosted my first Friendsgiving and I made these awesome apple tarts. and they were definitely a hit. So I just love experimenting in the kitchen and having my friends over to bake. I'm Jessica Gross and I am an opinion writer at the New York Times. What I would like to take from 2024 into 2025 is impromptu hangouts with my friends.

I am a working mom of two kids and whenever I need to or want to hang out with my friends, it takes so much work. We have to look at our schedules. We have to say like, oh, is my part? here to do the child care. Does somebody have a volleyball game? And we end up planning something three months in advance that someone inevitably has to drop out of because something comes up.

A kid is sick or, you know, they have a deadline that they can't miss. And so what I have found is it is much easier to just call up a friend on a random Saturday at 2 p.m. and say, can you hang out right now? What I really love about impromptu hangs is sometimes you're going through a hard day and you really need that connection in the moment not three weeks from now. And when someone is actually available to connect in that moment, it is so warm and so wonderful and really cements your friendship. If you like this show, follow it on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. This show is produced by Derek Arthur, Sophia Alvarez Boyd.

Bishaka Durba, Phoebe Lett, Christina Samuelski, and Jillian Weinberger. It's edited by Kari Pitkin, Alison Bruzek, and Annie Rose Strasser. Engineering, mixing, and original music by Isaac Jones, Sonia Herrero, Pat McCusker, Carol Saburo, and Afim Shapiro. Additional music by Amin Sahota. The fact check team is Kate Sinclair, Mary Marge Locker, and Michelle Harris. Audience Strategy by Shannon Busta, Christina Samuelski, and Adrian Rivera. The executive producer of Times Opinion Audio is Annie Rose Dresser.