Our Favorite Things, 2025

December 22, 2025·1 hr 15 min·5 clips

Wisconsin justices hallucinated a Moore v Harper quote in dissenting on the state's congressional map.

The cat ad comes first. A Smalls read brings childless-cat-lady warmth, a picky eater story, a sampler box, and the familiar offer setup. Then the panel gets personal. Jordan's Mavi jeans, moisturizer, Evanescence, and Third Eye Blind become fuel for a friendly roast about 90s-coded taste and old-soul energy. Melissa treats the fashion confession like a reveal, and the room lets the bit run without dragging it out. A cardigan gets its closeup too. The secret reputation cardigan, gifted by Melody, plays like a tiny pop culture relic before the show turns toward books. The recommendations move through Alison Espach, Julianne Long, Lisa Claypas, Sarah Maclean, V.E. Schwab, and Liz Moore with real reader heat. Independent bookstores get love. Bookshop.org and Book of the Month sit in the same cozy, mildly chaotic stack. Then the legal reflex snaps on. Fiction becomes a path to the conservative-slash-Republican justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, who are accused here of making things up. The whiplash is the joke and also the point. One minute it is book series and monthly picks; the next it is court-appointed panels and congressional maps. The host keeps the explanation brisk: the Wisconsin Supreme Court had appointed three judge panels to hear challenges to a court-adopted congressional map. Even the caveat has bite. The procedure sounds odd, the show admits it, then barrels on to the critique. The ending gets practical and a little fried. After a long recording, the panel trips through plane jokes, a bumped ring light, and live show plugs for San Francisco and LA. Tickets become holiday gifts. The mood is tired, amused, and bossy in the useful way: show up, buy the tickets, make it happen.

As heard by us

A chatty favorites episode with a sharp Wisconsin courts aside folded into the jokes.

Strict Scrutiny's 2025 favorites episode is a loose, talky entry: books, clothes, moisturizer, 90s music references, a Taylor Swift cardigan, tour dates, and a quick turn into Wisconsin court politics. The legal thread is brief but pointed.

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Why you'd press play

Book recs with a legal side-eye bonus.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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