#524: The Best Articles of 2025
Solar bros, the end of reading, falling out of touch, and the rise of artificial intelligence
Dear Loyal Readers,
Thank you for another great year. I’m grateful for your readership.
It’s time — for the 11th time! — to reveal my favorite articles of the year. In case you’re interested in how I chose them, the process was as follows:
I looked back through every article over the past 49 issues
I made a semifinalist list (see below), then re-read each article
Then some magic happened where I chose my favorites
I think you’ll appreciate my three top selections. The first one is about the American dream and the state of American men. The second one is about the decline of reading among young people and what educators are doing about it. The third one is about the prevalence of isolation and the power of friendship.
In addition to my favorite three articles, this week you’re also getting my favorite author interview of the year, as well as my favorite pet. Commence the controversy! 🐶
Hope you enjoy today’s issue. If you do, let me know by writing a short note in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!
Thank you everyone for reading and supporting Article Club,
Mark
1️⃣ Solar Bros
My favorite article of the year is about an 18-year-old man named Aaron Colvin, who lives in New York and attends college at Niagara University. But like many young men right now, Aaron is unsure that college is for him. He feels incomplete, lost somehow — and he’s yearning for a way to make it big. Then one day, while at the gym, Aaron meets a bodybuilder, an enormous man who says he’s made “crazy money” selling solar panels down in Florida. You should check it out, he says. After thinking about it, Aaron takes the plunge, leaving college to join a door-to-door solar panel sales crew named Seal Team Six. He spends his days “blitzing” neighborhoods with his colleagues — also young men wanting to strike it rich. In the evenings, Aaron records content for his fledgling YouTube channel and downs burritos with the bros, all the while seeking personal enlightenment (and paying for his lodging, and making very little money, and not receiving benefits).
And that’s just the basic run-down of this thought-provoking article. For me, it’s the perfect Article Club selection. It ticks off all the boxes, exploring issues of masculinity, race, capitalism, corporate manipulation, higher education, spirituality, and the American dream. I know you’ll appreciate it. I hope you read it.
Most of all, I am certain you’ll find Aaron endearing. He’s a reflective, well-meaning young man trying to find his way in life. While reading the article, I found myself rooting for him, thanks to Mr. Koerner’s generous portrayal and thoughtful writing.
By Brendan I. Koerner • Wired • 21 min • My Annotations • Gift Link
➕ Here’s my interview with Mr. Koerner, which we recorded in May.
2️⃣ Is This The End Of Reading?
Some of this, we’ve heard before: Young people aren’t reading as much, and they’re not as skilled in reading, so they’re coming to class unprepared to read complex texts. Whether or not this is true, or a new phenomenon, it certainly doesn’t help to bemoan the state of reading without trying to do something about it.
That’s why I appreciated this article so much. Reporter Beth McMurtrie follows college professors as they grapple with how to teach their students in a post-print world. After all, as one professor says, “If you design a class based on the assumption that students will do the reading, you’ll get nowhere.”
After listing a litany of causes that explain the decline of reading — here we go: smartphones, the pandemic, poor reading instruction, testing culture, less homework in schools, less writing in schools, grade inflation, anxiety, isolation, that school is boring, that parents don’t read to their children, and more — Ms. McMurtrie focuses on the successes and failures of real teachers doing the real work. It’s not all happy and triumphant. “We all kind of feel lost these days,” one professor says.
➡️ In case you’re interested, here’s my hand-written annotated version.
By Beth McMurtrie • The Chronicle of Higher Education • 18 min • Gift Link
➕ Here’s my interview with Ms. McMurtrie, which we recorded in February.
3️⃣ I’ve Been Meaning To Call
There’s something lovely about this essay. Paul Crenshaw writes to an unnamed friend, sharing his regret for not being in contact. “It’s been so long now you must think I’m avoiding you,” he writes. “I am not avoiding you. I think about you often. I do.”
Lately, I’ve been thinking about my friends, too. It seems like we’re more out of touch than usual. It’s easy to say we’re busy (true), or that modern life makes things hard (sure), or if you really want to know the truth, it’s the soul-crushing impact of late-stage capitalism and “these dark times” (no argument here).
But sometimes I think it’s easier to read articles and ruminate (and wish my friends would reach out first) than it is simply to pick up the phone and call or text.
Why is that?
Mr. Crenshaw’s poignant essay offered me a fresh perspective. There are reasons that distance develops, that time slips by, that isolation deepens. Sometimes, these reasons are sound. But even when distance makes sense, the loss of connection is profound. Ultimately, how many true friends will we be lucky to have in our lifetimes?
I also appreciated the pace of this piece. It’s short but takes its time. I could feel Mr. Crenshaw’s reflection — and his regret. I hope you read it.
By Paul Crenshaw • Melt With Me • 4 min • Gift Link
4️⃣ Best Interview: Piers Gelly, Camille Villalobos, and Max Goldberg on AI in the college classroom
Back in September, I loved reading “What Happened When I Tried to Replace Myself with ChatGPT in My English Classroom.” So when I reached out to its author, Piers Gelly, I was very happy that he generously agreed to do an interview.
The conversation was triply great because Prof. Gelly, who teaches at the University of Virginia, invited two of his students featured in the essay — Camille Villalobos and Max Goldberg — to join us.
The result is a thought-provoking discussion about college students’ perspectives on artificial intelligence, particularly when a curious professor engages them genuinely (rather than complaining, banning the use of AI, sticking their head in the sand, and secretly wishing we could turn back time to the Golden Age of Bluebooks).
Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀
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