Six great reads – best of 2025: Netflix’s algorithm; bonding over the Beatles and the ascent of MrBeast

8 hours ago 8

1. ‘He nails it on the first take’: how the Beatles helped my autistic son find his voice
John and James Harris. Photograph: Pal Hansen/The Guardian
The year ended with another bout of Beatlemania with the re-release of the Anthology series, but back in March, John Harris wrote a beautiful article about how the band helped to cement his bond with his son James, who is autistic. The two of them also got to dress up as Peppers for a lovely accompanying photoshoot by Pal Hansen.
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2. Meet the woman who lives without money: ‘I feel more secure than when I was earning’
Jo Nemeth. Photograph: Natalie Grono/The Guardian
In 2015, Australian Jo Nemeth made the decision to close her bank account and live without any money at all. Nearly a decade on she told Louise Southerden why she’d never felt so secure.
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3. ‘I forgive the girl and boy for what they’ve done. If I didn’t, the hate would eat away at me’: Esther Ghey on life after the murder of her daughter Brianna
Esther Ghey. Photograph: Fabio De Paola
Esther Ghey’s transgender daughter Brianna was fatally attacked in a local park in 2023 – but her mother has said she forgives the teenage murderers, and has even befriended one of their mothers. She spoke to Simon Hattenstone for this astonishing interview.
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4. ‘The Mozart of the attention economy’: why MrBeast is the world’s biggest YouTube star
An illustration of YouTuber MrBeast.
Jimmy Donaldson, the 27-year-old online content creator and entrepreneur known as MrBeast, is by any reasonable metric one of the most popular entertainers on the planet. His YouTube channel has 400 million subscribers. In this profile Mark O’Connell tried to grasp the scale of Donaldson’s role in modern popular culture.
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5. Bland, easy to follow, for fans of everything: what has the Netflix algorithm done to our films?
How did Netflix end up churning out cookie-cutter generic products designed to be watched as you also scroll your phone? In a fascinating long read, Phil Hoad investigated the rise of the algorithm movie.
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6. An English gentleman, a crooked lawyer: the secrets of Stephen David Jones
Illustration: Katherine Lam/The Guardian
With his brilliant mind and impeccable credentials, it’s little wonder that wealthy clients trusted him with their fortunes. Then they started to get suspicious. This brilliant long read by Hettie O’Brien follows an extraordinary story of trust and financial crime that left a handful of clients millions of pounds out of pocket.
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