Barack Obama has pressed pause on his annual summer playlist.
The former president revealed Wednesday that he wouldn’t be releasing a list of his favorite tunes this summer, the first time he hasn’t done so since 2015.
Obama wrote on Instagram that “with everything going on right now, I didn’t have time to put a summer playlist together this year, but send me songs that I should listen to for my year-end playlist.”
Obama didn’t explicitly explain what that “everything” was.
But his list of summer reads, which he did share, contained multiple books featuring themes of immigration, democracy and government — obviously, all of which are hot topics amid President Donald Trump’s controversial second term.
Obama, in the same post, also announced his excitement that “we’ll have a new branch of the Chicago Public Library at the Obama Presidential Center when it opens next year.”
The books on his list included Madeleine Thien’s “The Book of Records,” which he described as “a beautiful fable about migration, memory, and the struggle to recognize our common humanity.”
Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s “Abundance,” he called “a must-read for progressives who want a blueprint for reforming government so it can deliver for working people.”
Michael Lewis’ “Government” is “a timely reminder of the quiet dedication and skill of the people who work every day to make this country work,” he wrote.
And Chris Hayes’ “The Sirens’ Call” is “a useful primer on how social media and the attention economy have warped our democracy and reshaped our lives,” Obama added.
Obama’s 2024 summer song playlist included Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Billie Eilish’s “Chihiro” and Jill Scott’s “Golden.”