What to Read and Watch This Winter from Stanford PACS Faculty Affiliates

As we wrap up the year, I have been reflecting on the joy of seeing our community through the lens of the books, music, films, and podcasts that they turn to during the holiday season. This year’s selections come from our new Faculty Affiliates and capture everything from music that your teenager might enjoy to podcasts that grapple with the meaning of life, classic holiday movies and the best of contemporary literature. I am delighted to share our holiday media picks with you and hope they spark your own moments of joy and reflection this season.

Faculty Affiliates Media Recs:

• Jennifer Aaker: Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning and David Bowie 
• Rania Awaad: Maristāns and Islāmic Psychology: A Historical Model for Modern Implementation
• Tomás Jiménez: Paleo media: get outside!
• Nita Singh Kaushal: Recent book favorites: All the Colors of the Dark, The God of the Woods
• Ari Kelman: The 27 CD Bob Dylan and the Band tour box set (now if only I could find a CD player…)
• Neil Malhotra: Plur1bus
• Bruce McCandliss: My 13-year-old daughter got me into Eyedress… great new music
• Denise Pope: TV shows to mindlessly binge: Slow Horses, The Diplomat, Shrinking. Books: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (oldie but goodie), James by Percival Everett
• Hayagreeva Rao: Ishmael: A Novel by David Quinn
• Katharine Sadowski: If you’re looking for a Christmas movie, look no further than the Hallmark Channel, home to the most consistent generative model in television history. Input: “big-city career woman.” Output: “love, snow, and a guy named Andy who owns a tree farm.”
• Beth Schueler: It’s a Wonderful Life—a (cheesy but excellent) film about the ultimate existential counterfactual 🙂
• Rebecca Tarlau: Family movie: I just rewatched E.T. for the first time in thirty years with my kids over Halloween, it is such a classic!
• Madalina Vlasceanu: Book: Human Nature by Kate Marvel; Podcast: The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos