The Authority File Wrap-Up 2025: Staff Picks

The TAF team highlights 10 of our favorite episodes of the year

Posted on December 12, 2025 in Blog

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With 40 episodes and 24 guests, 2025 was another great year for The Authority File. In the list below, we highlight 10 of our favorite episodes of the year, whether for their applications to the field, dynamic guests, or great conversation—or all of the above. Make sure to check out the list of our most popular episodes of the year based on our listeners! As always, thank you to our sponsors, guests, and listeners for supporting the podcast. See you next year!

Picks by Bill, TAF Host

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Episode 450’s title says it all: “Why We Need Information Curators to Build Public Trust in Science”. The episode kicks off a series that foregrounds the need for “public-good curators”—journalists, researchers, and, of course, librarians—to help restore public trust in science and scientific evidence. 

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Episode 423 features Dr. Cheryl Thompson, author of Canada and the Blackface Atlantic: Performing Slavery, Conflict, and Freedom, 1812-1897, published by Wilfred Laurier University Press. The title investigates the origins of blackface in Canada, tracing the rise of minstrel shows in the 19th century and how they converged with growing infrastructures in the railway, theater, and entertainment industries. But it’s this final episode of this series that I personally enjoyed most. In it, Thompson shares her often-frustrating experiences in the archives while researching her book, which lead her to create the Mapping Ontario’s Black Archives (MOBA) project—a digital inventory of public archives on Black history and culture.

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Librarianship is an ever-evolving profession and Episode 448, which interviews the co-editors of Text and Data Mining Literacy for Librarians, reminds us of that. Published by our colleagues at ACRL, the title details the ways that academic libraries are supporting TDM literacy through services, workflows, and professional development.

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One of the episodes in our four-part series on using documentaries in the classroom is among our most listened to of 2025, but I’d like to call attention to Episode 427: “The Sustainability of Documentaries in Today’s Political Climate.” It’s a passionate closing to the series, advocating for ongoing support of the medium and its vital role in education and society.

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Episode 436, the opener to our series on proving the library’s value to campus administration, was also one of our most listened to. I think the whole series is one of my favorites, so I’ll just offer up the final episode, 439: “Proving the Library’s Value in Today’s Higher Education Landscape”. As the title suggests, our guests situate the library’s value proposition in today’s political, economic, and social context—adding even more urgency to this issue.

Picks by Sabrina, TAF Editor and Producer

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For my first pick, I want to highlight an episode from back in March. Our final episode in a series on open monograph publishing, Episode 419 surfaces the unanticipated benefits of open publishing, opening (ha!) the door to new possibilities for publishers and researchers. Our guests talk positives like lowering access barriers for students, driving interest in a title before publication, and reaching readers outside of academia.

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Another final episode in a series, Episode 435 looks at the future of refugee comics. Throughout the series our guests noted how they drew from many disciplines in the writing of their book, Graphic Refuge, so this episode brought those ideas together in Candida and Dominic’s vision for the subject area. Our guests also discussed artists documenting life in Palestine and the proliferation and power of posting comics online, demonstrating the global, real-time impacts of art.

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Episode 431 investigated the intersection of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), libraries, and AI. While the series focused HSS applications on artificial intelligence technology, this episode brought the library perspective to the forefront, sharing how librarians can champion responsible and ethical AI use. Out of our (many) episodes on AI this year, this episode zeroed in on the library with an HSS perspective, which in turn showcased mission alignment between HSS and academic libraries.

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Staying on the theme of HSS, my next pick explores Black Canadian poetry and music. Episode 445 features Paul db Watkins, author of Soundin’ Canaan: Black Canadian Poetry, Music, and Citizenship, who walks through the DJ Methodology he applied to his book, the types of materials included, and several poems in the text. The episode also zooms out from the title as Paul reflects on white scholars writing about Black literature and art, underscoring his role in amplifying Black literature as an instructor.

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To close out my picks, I’m spotlighting our most recent episode, 451. Part of a series on building public trust in science, this episode features key takeaways from Sage and Sense about Science’s guide The People’s Case for Curators. Crucially, the guests emphasize that everyone can contribute to strengthening public trust in research, allowing listeners to champion information curators no matter their ties to science or academia.

You can find more Authority File episodes on our website, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube Music.

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Check out our list of the most listened to episodes of 2025!

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