EPICO’s 2025 Summer list recommendations: books, tv shows, movies and podcasts we love!

With the summer season finally upon us, it is time to unwind and take a break from the daily habits and policy updates.

While continuing to be on the lookout for any new development in energy and climate, the EPICO team has compiled a list of favourites to inspire your choice of entertainment in these warmer months. From food and fiction to tech and trade, our summer picks explore the forces shaping who we are, and the societies we live in. Whether it’s a novel that captures resilience, a documentary that warns against industrial decline, or a memoir that challenges our understanding of growth, we hope you’ll find these reads and watches as insightful and fun as we did.

And if you’re looking for even more inspiration, you can check out last year’s list!

Holly Attwell
Energy Policy Specialist

Book: Trading Game by Gary Stevenson
The Trading Game is a memoir by former Citibank trader Gary Stevenson. It tells the story of his rise from a working-class background in East London, through his academic career at the LSE, to becoming one of the bank's most successful traders during the financial crisis. Stevenson exposes the high-stakes world of investment banking, shedding light on the personal and societal costs of chasing wealth and success in a system rigged in favour of the financial elite. As well as a great read, the book was also a good insight into the political advocacy work Stevenson now does to promote financial education and wealth equality in the UK.

Image: Jens Schicke

Parul Kumar
Deputy Executive Director

Book: Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
The fastest I have read 736 pages in recent memory is when I read The Covenant of Water on a beach holiday last year. This evocative and immersive page-turner tells the story of three generations of a family living in the coastal southern Indian state of Kerala, spanning the period between 1900 and 1977. The family has a curse: someone dies by drowning in every generation. Read this book to find out how family ties, religion, class divisions, and colonialism shape the fate of this Malayali family.

Book: The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger
The summer is when my little balcony garden comes alive with flowers, bees, and vegetables. I started this summer by reading this eye-opening book on the fascinating but not uncontroversial world of plant intelligence. This book will make you rethink consciousness to go beyond our usual anthropocentric conception, and perhaps even look at your house plants with new admiration. I am grateful to Schlanger for researching this complex topic and breaking it down in an engaging writing style to help me understand the photosynthetic beings in my apartment and balcony a little better.

Music: Random Access Memories by Daft Punk
This is one of those album experiences that I have come to miss in recent years, where every track is so incredible, that you always want to listen to the entire album as a composite artistic work. I fell in love with this album when it was first released in 2013, and this summer I am enjoying rediscovering it. I can attest from personal experience that it does seem to have a calming effect when you listen to it while travelling on heavily delayed trains, so perhaps this is a good companion for your Deutschland Ticket journeys this summer! 😉 Hardcore fans may also like to check out the tenth anniversary drum-less edition of the album released in 2023.

TV Show: Succession
I rarely watch TV shows, but I must confess to having binge-watched all four seasons of Succession in the winter break last year. Based loosely on the Murdoch family, this is a drama about the power play in a large family-owned business. The acting is top-class, the dialogue is as sharp and acerbic, and the soundtrack is so outstanding that I never once skipped the title track. Approach with caution: if you get sucked into the Succession binge-watching vortex, it may severely jeopardise the time you should be spending outdoors in the sun this summer. 😉

Image: Jens Schicke

Julian Parodi
EU Policy Specialist Industrial Decarbonisation

Film: L’acier a coulé dans nos veines
“L'acier a coulé dans nos veines" is a powerful and emotionally charged documentary that encapsulates the human consequences of industrial decline. By showcasing the dramatic collapse of the Walloon steel industry, Thierry Michel documents what happens in the absence of an industrial strategy. From Chronique des saisons d’acier to Hiver 60, he has consistently documented the struggles, dignity, and resilience of Walloon workers. He offers a requiem not only for the Liège steel industry but for an entire model of industrial society. Filmed over more than ten years, the documentary follows the dismantling of the blast furnaces in Seraing with impressive visuals. But beyond the machines, it's the emotional state of the workers that leaves the strongest impression: the sense of betrayal, the deep attachment to a place that demanded everything, the strange mix of hatred and fascination for the mills that shaped their paycheck, their families, and bodies. Through the story of Liège, Michel speaks to a broader European loss – of sovereignty, of innovative control, and of solidarity.

Image: Jens Schicke