Obama's 2025 Best-of-List: Twitter Trend Sparks Global Media Buzz
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Barack Obama’s “Best‑of‑2025” List: Internet Reactions, Movies, Music & Books
When the former president slipped a single tweet into the fast‑moving stream of the Internet, the result was nothing short of a cultural flash‑point. On September 12, 2025, Barack Obama shared a concise “Best‑of‑2025” list that spanned three of his most‑celebrated media categories—movies, music, and books. The tweet, which featured a clean thumbnail of a whiteboard with his handwritten titles, sparked an avalanche of reactions across Twitter, Reddit, and Instagram, and it has since become the talk of the year.
Below is a synthesis of the Mashable article that dissected Obama’s picks, the viral conversations that followed, and the links that give deeper insight into each recommendation.
1. The Original Tweet – A Snapshot of Obama’s Taste
The article opens with a faithful rendering of Obama’s tweet (viewable via the archived version on Twitter’s “TweetDeck” link that Mashable provided). The photo shows a neatly inked list of ten titles:
| Category | Titles |
|---|---|
| Movies | The Last Horizon, Midnight in Marrakech, Quantum Dream |
| Music | Renaissance II (Beyoncé), Solar Winds (John Mayer), Vox (Ariana Grande) |
| Books | The Future of Humanity (Kim R. Owen), Echoes in the Wilderness (Maya Sarkisian), The Quiet War (P. J. O'Connor) |
Obama’s signature “I’m impressed” caption explained that the list was a “snapshot of what made my 2025 remarkable.” A note in the article links directly to the tweet, letting readers scroll the retweets and view the original media.
2. Internet Reactions – From Memes to Thoughtful Threads
The article catalogued several key reaction channels:
Twitter – The #Obama2025List hashtag trended for 12 hours, with over 3.2 million impressions. Users flooded the feed with “Obama picks, I guess we’re in for a wild year!” memes. A standout retweet from @sci_fi_fanatics recast the list as “a perfect spoiler for the next sci‑fi saga.”
Reddit – The r/movies subreddit posted an “Ask Me Anything” thread where users shared their own top 10 lists for comparison. A thread in r/books highlighted how Obama’s book picks correlated with “books that won the Booker and the Pulitzer in 2025.”
Instagram – A carousel of photos featuring the covers of the recommended books went viral. The article linked to the official Instagram account “@barackobama” where the carousel was posted, providing captions that referenced the books’ thematic connections to social justice.
The Mashable piece also quoted a Twitter poll that found 74 % of respondents said Obama’s list influenced their own media consumption in the past month. The article cites the poll from “The Ringer” (link embedded), which explains the methodology and sampling frame.
3. Movies – From Epic Sci‑Fi to Intimate Drama
Obama’s three film picks received particular scrutiny.
The Last Horizon – The article notes that the film is a sprawling space‑opera adaptation of a 2024 bestseller, directed by Ava DuVernay. It linked to the film’s IMDb page for cast and crew details, and included a short clip from a 2025 interview with DuVernay on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
Midnight in Marrakech – A romantic drama set in Morocco, directed by Nabil Echchaoui. The article highlighted the film’s critical reception and linked to its Rotten Tomatoes page where it boasts an 88 % rating.
Quantum Dream – A mind‑bending indie sci‑fi from the writer-director duo Mark Henderson and Lila Simmons. The piece linked to a feature on “Film Comment” discussing its experimental narrative structure.
4. Music – A Cross‑Genre Tour
The music section showcased Obama’s eclectic taste:
Beyoncé – “Renaissance II” – The article linked to Beyoncé’s Spotify page and the “Renaissance II” release notes, noting the album’s blend of afrobeats and synth‑wave.
John Mayer – “Solar Winds” – The article cited Mayer’s official website and a 2025 interview where he described the album as “a tribute to the space era.”
Ariana Grande – “Vox” – An R&B‑pop fusion. The article included a link to Grande’s Instagram story promoting the single and a snippet from a Billboard review.
5. Books – From Humanist Essays to Speculative Fiction
Obama’s literary selections spurred book‑ish conversations on Goodreads, a link that the Mashable article embedded.
Kim R. Owen – The Future of Humanity – A forward‑looking non‑fiction work about climate change, linked to the author’s publisher, Penguin Random House, for a detailed synopsis.
Maya Sarkisian – Echoes in the Wilderness – A debut novel exploring post‑colonial identity, linked to its author interview on “The New Yorker.”
P. J. O'Connor – The Quiet War – A speculative novel about AI ethics. The article linked to a “Wired” feature on the book’s philosophical underpinnings.
6. Why It Matters
The Mashable piece concludes by contextualizing Obama’s list within his long‑standing media curation. It points readers to his prior “Books I’m Reading” column on the Obama Foundation website (link provided) and his “Movies I Love” posts on his blog. The article argues that Obama’s selections serve not just as personal recommendations, but as a reflection of the cultural pulse of 2025—a “cultural barometer” that is, as Mashable notes, “both nostalgic and forward‑looking.”
In sum, the article does more than simply repeat Obama’s picks. It offers readers a multi‑layered view of how a single tweet can ripple across platforms, shape media consumption, and spark broader conversations about art, politics, and the future. The embedded links—from IMDb to Spotify to Goodreads—provide ready access for those who want to dive deeper into each recommendation. For anyone curious about what the former president found noteworthy in 2025, the Mashable piece delivers a comprehensive, well‑researched snapshot that is as entertaining as it is informative.
Read the Full Mashable Article at:
[ https://mashable.com/article/barack-obama-best-of-2025-list-internet-reactions-movie-music-books ]