Staff Picks 2025: Watch

This year, the staff at the Center for a New American Security dove into researching some of the most pressing and hard-hitting national security issues of the day. But we also take time to read, watch, and listen to some of the best media to come out of 2025 (and before!). Discover new, or just new to you, content to start your year out in 2026.

What we watched . . .

Katherine L. Kuzminski, Director of Studies

Top watch: National Geographic’s Wild Life, which follows conservationist Kris Tompkins on an epic, decades-spanning love story as wild as the landscapes she dedicated her life to protecting. After falling in love in midlife, Kris and outdoorsman and entrepreneur Doug Tompkins left behind the world of the massively successful outdoor brands they had helped pioneer—Patagonia, The North Face, and Esprit—and turned their attention to a visionary effort to create National Parks throughout Chile and Argentina. Wild Life chronicles the highs and lows of their journey to effect the largest private land donation in history.

Anna Pederson, Associate Director of Communications, Director NextGen Fellowship

Top watch: Train Dreams, directed by Clint Bentley. As a Pacific Northwest native, where logging shaped the culture and economy of my home, this movie captured the isolation and physical dangers of frontier life at the cusp of the 20th century. Against the encroaching shadow of modernity, we follow a solitary figure navigating the twin devastations of profound love and irrevocable loss. Train Dreams is a quiet reminder that it is a radical act to live with intention and connect deeply with others in an age of relentless acceleration.

Daniel Remler, Senior Fellow, Technology and National Security Program

Top watch (television): Season two of HBO’s The Rehearsal. Nathan Fielder allows ordinary people to prepare for life’s biggest moments by “rehearsing” them in carefully crafted simulations.

Top watch (film): Warfare, directed by Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza. A platoon of Navy SEALs embark on a dangerous mission in Ramadi, Iraq, with the chaos and brotherhood of war retold through their memories of the event.

Gibbs McKinley, Research Associate to the CEO

Top watch: PBS’s All Creatures Great and Small. James Herriot’s adventures as a veterinarian in the 1930s Yorkshire Dales get a glorious new adaptation in a TV series based on his internationally celebrated books. Nicholas Ralph stars as the iconic vet who became renowned for his inspiring humor, compassion for his animal patients, and love of life. With plenty of heart, a picturesque setting, and a cast that utterly charms, the show delivers drama both comforting and entertaining.

Ryan Claffey, Research Assistant, Indo-Pacific Security Program and Samantha Baxter, Operations and IT Assistant

Top watch: Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler. Set in 1930s Jim Crow Mississippi, Sinners discusses cultural identity, community, resistance, heritage, racism, colonization and so much more. It highlights that there is strength in community, and that the preservation of traditions and heritage is a form of resistance and worth fighting for. Sinners illustrates through vampirism that cultural appropriation is harmful, and the forced assimilation through colonization only serves to erase people and their cultures. It is a masterpiece in its critiques of society through the blending of horror and social commentary. Skillfully directed by Ryan Coogler, this movie is inspiring and thought-provoking in both form and content.

Molly Campbell, Research Assistant, Defense Program

Top watch (television): ABC’s Abbott Elementary. A group of dedicated, passionate teachers—and a slightly tone-deaf principal—find themselves thrown together in a Philadelphia public school where, despite the odds stacked against them, they are determined to help their students succeed in life. Though these incredible public servants may be outnumbered and underfunded, they love what they do—even if they don’t love the school district’s less-than-stellar attitude toward educating children.

Top watch (film): Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters. When K-pop superstars Rumi, Mira, and Zoey aren’t selling out stadiums, they’re using their secret powers to protect their fans from supernatural threats.

Emma Swislow, Senior Editor

Top watch (television): Bravo’s Vanderpump Rules. Vanderpump Rules follows the staff at SUR, a trendy West Hollywood restaurant owned by British restaurateur and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Lisa Vanderpump. The show captures the drama-filled lives of the servers, bartenders, and managers as they navigate their twenties and thirties while chasing dreams in Los Angeles—whether those dreams include acting, modeling, music, or simply making it in the restaurant industry.

Top watch (film): Paddington 3: Paddington in Peru directed by Dougal Wilson. Paddington returns to Peru to visit his beloved Aunt Lucy, who now resides at the Home for Retired Bears. With the Brown family in tow, a thrilling adventure ensues when a mystery plunges them into an unexpected journey.

Charles Horn, Communications Officer

Top watch: All the President’s Men, directed by Alan J. Pakula. The Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

Top watch: Hamnet, directed by Chloé Zhao. After losing their son Hamnet to plague, Agnes and William Shakespeare grapple with grief in 16th-century England. A healer, Agnes must find strength to care for her surviving children while processing her devastating loss.

Delaney Soliday, Research Assistant, Middle East Security Program

Top watch: Amazon Prime’s The Summer I Turned Pretty (season one). Belly Conklin is about to turn 16, and she’s headed to her favorite place in the world, Cousins Beach, to spend the summer with her family and the Fishers. Belly has grown up a lot over the past year, and she has a feeling that this summer is going to be different than all the summers before.

Gwendolyn Nowaczyk, Events and Communications Assistant and Kyle Rutter, Program Administrator, Energy, Economics, and Security Program

Top watch (television): MGM+’s Billy the Kid. An epic romantic adventure series based on the life of famous American outlaw Billy the Kid—from his humble Irish roots to his early days as a cowboy and gunslinger in the American frontier to his pivotal role in the Lincoln County War and beyond.

Kalena Blake, Intern, Defense Program

Top watch: One Battle After Another, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own.

Top watch: Bugonia, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.

Sevi Silvia, Intern, Communications

Top watch: Netflix’s The Diplomat. Amid an international crisis, a U.S. diplomat contends with her high-profile job as ambassador to the United Kingdom and her strained marriage to a political star.

Cameron Olbert, Intern, Transatlantic Security Program

Top watch: Disney+’s Andor. In an era filled with danger, deception, and intrigue, Cassian Andor embarks on a path that is destined to turn him into a rebel hero.