In Case You Missed It: July 2016
Some of the best stuff on Medium, month by month
Drawing party lines
Medium sparked, fueled, and nurtured a host of political conversations this month — especially, of course, around the conventions. Both the GOP Convention and the DemConvention created publications for the events, housing speeches by America Ferrera and Lena Dunham, Peter Thiel, and Mike Bloomberg (among many others). Republican Platform Committee member Rachel Hoff wrote about why she chose to be the first openly gay person to serve on the committee.
Presidential candidates took advantage of convention timing to share crucial perspectives. Hillary Clinton announced Senator Tim Kaine as her vice-presidential pick, and Kaine responded with his first words to the world as her running mate. Bernie Sanders wrote to endorse Hillary and assure his supporters of his continued dedication to their “revolution.” And Libertarian presidential candidate Gov. Gary Johnson wrote here for the first time on Bernie Sanders, Wikileaks, and disruption.
Outside of the conventions, Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse held a You Tell Me conversation about the value and meaning of a vote in this year’s election, and Washington Senator Patty Murray and New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen shared an important exchange about their efforts to pass bipartisan legislation addressing the nation’s opioid epidemic.
Visit The Roundup for even more coverage of politics on Medium.
Dispatches and disruptions from media, business, and tech
The Backchannel Team set up shop at their new home, Condé Nast, a move that founder Steven Levy announced in June. Since then, they’ve continued to publish vital stories about technology — including a piece by new editorial director Jessi Hempel on Airbnb’s second-in-command, Belinda Johnson.
Two leaders in tech published powerful open letters: BuzzFeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti posted a rebuttal to Akilah Hughes’s claim that the BuzzFeed video team was stealing material from YouTubers, and former Twitter staffer Katie Jacobs Stanton published the signatures of dozens of prominent contemporaries avowing opposition to Donald Trump. Wharton’s student, faculty, and alumni community posted an anti-Trump letter of their own, garnering over 3,000 signatures.
The tech community — and the rest of the country, for that matter — was abuzz with opinions about the rapid rise of Pokémon Go. Former Spotify design lead Tobias van Schneider and Periscope head of Android engineering Sara Haider wrote two of our most popular posts on the topic. For more on the Go, visit our collection of top staff-picked Pokéstories.
In the business media community, new homes were found on Medium this month: Fortune moved its contributors network, Fortune Insiders, to Medium, and economics professor and New York Times columnist Tyler Cowen published a book-length essay, “Stubborn Attachments,” on social philosophy. Elizabeth Spiers, founder of Gawker and the new consumer research agency The Insurrection, launched There Is Only R, a publication about the future of virtual reality technology and the VR community at large.
Other notable media debuts include Al Roker, who wrote dispatches from the political conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia, and Lizzie O’Leary, host of NPR’s Marketplace Weekend, who posted for the first time with her observations of post-Brexit Europe.
Behind the fourth wall
The entertainment world was abuzz on Medium last month. Hollywood legend Norman Lear wrote for the first time, about how laughter has played a role in his life and in his work. Black-ish creator and longtime Norman Lear fan (and friend) kenya barris penned his first post, too — a heartfelt response to the piece, in which he credits Lear for empowering and inspiring writers to find humorous voices to help work through contentious subject matter.
Medium gave readers, writers, and television fans alike ample material to chew on: Steven Caple Jr. published his first story on writing and directing indie film The Land, and HBO’s newest must-see series, The Night Of, started a publication that unpacks a scene from each episode and interviews actors from the show.
In the fashion world, Dazed publisher Jefferson Hack made his Medium debut with a pair of powerful posts: one an excerpt of a conversation about collaboration and creative connection with Tilda Swinton, and another a moving look inside Syria’s civilian defense organization, the White Helmets.
First downs
Two professional sports organizations launched dedicated publications on Medium this month: The New England Patriots, whose publication kicked off with a welcome note and a moving story about a superfan, and AS Roma, whose Forza Roma publication offers content in English, Arabic, and Italian. Talk about a hat trick.
In other firsts, the LA Clippers posted about the arrival of veteran guard Raymond Felton, and Dr. Jen Welter wrote about her path to becoming the first woman in history to coach an NFL team.
Global citizens
Two humanitarians who have recently passed were remembered by their friends and collaborators on Medium: Elie Wiesel, by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power, and photojournalist David Gilkey, by NPR All Things Considered producer — and close friend — Graham Smith.
In new beginnings, Chelsea Manning reflected on her identity in the wake of the events in Orlando, and the Malala Fund migrated their publication to Medium, kicking off the new venture with a post from Malala Yousafzai herself on her 19th birthday.
Thought leaders took to Medium this month to declare their perspectives on the Dallas attacks, the Black Lives Matter movement, and recent conversations around police violence. Civil rights advocate and bestselling author Michelle Alexander wrote her first post on where we stand as citizens in relation to ingrained racism as a nation and as a government. Barack Obama published his statement on Dallas in The White House’s publication, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott published the three speeches he delivered on the Senate floor sharing his experiences with law enforcement as an African-American man.
Lastly, Christy Turlington returned to Medium to write about her travels to Guatemala and experience with motherhood with the Every Mother Counts organization.
