It happened on Medium: July 2024 roundup
A big announcement, most-shared stories, and commentary on current events
Our mission statement is pretty meaningful to me. We want to deepen readers’ understanding of the world and empower writers to share their best work and biggest ideas. A few days ago, we took a huge step in making that a little more real: we opened up our Partner Program to 77 additional countries.
This means that writers from 119 countries will now be able to earn for sharing their deepest, most meaningful stories with our readers. I don’t have the full answer for what it means to deepen understanding, but I know that can only happen when our platform is open to as many people, from as many varied backgrounds, telling as many different kinds of stories, as possible.
Technically, this didn’t happen on Medium in July, but it’s been in the works for the past year and I’m thrilled to share this news with our readers, writers, and editors today. I can’t wait to see what new stories we’ll get the chance to read and share!
Medium by the numbers…
In July 2024…
- You spent 3,255,768 hours working on story and comment drafts (AKA 371 years!)
- You wrote 871,095 comments
- You viewed 8+ million stories from your Daily Digest emails
July’s most highlighted passages
“Joe Biden has been one of America’s most consequential presidents, as well as a dear friend and partner to me. Today, we’ve also been reminded — again — that he’s a patriot of the highest order.” — Former President Barack Obama’s reflection on President Joe Biden’s decision to step down as the Democratic nominee, in “My Statement on President Biden’s Announcement”
“We throw our children to the wolves by pretending they will not drink or have sex, which means they have to figure it all out for themselves.” — Michelle Teheux, former newspaper editor, in her piece, “We Could Learn a Lot About Sex From the Dutch”
“I believe our continued freedom requires us to be just, merciful, and humble enough to realize we aren’t entitled to freedom. We earn and maintain freedom through the unity of shared values, common decency, and the strength to resist forces that would disrupt and destroy us.” — Bebe Nicholson, writer and editor, in her piece, “I Am Grieving For My Country, and Maybe You Are Too”
“My field has not lost relevance or interest. It’s just that no one wants to pay for it.” — Brian S. Hook, Classics professor, in his piece, “How I Lost My Job As a Tenured Professor”
10 most-read stories on Medium
- “My Statement on President Biden’s Announcement,” by former President Barack Obama
- “Failures of Technique: The crash of Air New Zealand DC-8 ZK-NZB,” by Admiral Cloudberg, veteran plane crash analyst
- “i peeled my own orange today,” by letters from rosie, writer
- “Over 65? Time to Dramatically Change Your Food Intake and Physical Activity,” by Stephen Schimpff MD, MACP, physician, academic medical center CEO, in Wise & Well
- “The Emergence of Calculus: A Mathematical Journey of Human Thought,” by Ali, math teacher
- “No, Data Engineers Don’t NEED dbt.” by Leo Godin, lead data engineer at New Relic, in Data Engineer Things
- “I Never Expected This in Retirement,” by Kathleen Murphy, health writer, in Crow’s Feet
- “Forget Statistical Tests: A/B Testing Is All About Simulations,” by Samuele Mazzanti, applied scientist at Yelp, in Towards Data Science
- “A Horrible Way To Die,” by christina hughes babb, award-winning journalist and essayist, in The Wind Phone
- “The UX Reflex theory: lessons from Apple’s search bar experiment,” by Barsha Maharjan, product designer, in UX Collective
Most shared stories in July
Here are some of the stories with the broadest off-platform impact. Readers shared these stories on X, LinkedIn, TikTok, email, and other platforms.
“How much pain did we choose to hide until we’re fully submerged in it?” by eri🍒
“CrowdStrike Exposes The True Cause Of The Worldwide IT Meltdown” by Attila Vágó in Level Up Coding
“Stop Working — You’re a Manager Now” by Avi Siegel in Management Matters
Boosted stories by new writers
The Boost, in a single sentence, is how we (read: humans, not an algorithm) find and recommend the best stories across Medium to our readers. (For more context about the Boost, check out this list of stories from Medium staff about what it is, how it works, and how you can get Boosted.)
The best part is that writers don’t need a pre-existing audience to be Boosted. Here are some of my favorite stories from writers who received their first Boost this past month.
“Why I Chose an Arranged Marriage at 20” — Zhafira Aqyla, writer and aspiring academic
“The LLM Triangle Principles to Architect Reliable AI Apps” — Almog Baku, tech entrepreneur, leader, and developer, in Towards Data Science
“Woke up and chose peace…” — Halleemah Nash, intersectional inclusion specialist and workforce futurist
“I Was Arrested for Murder After a Miscarriage” — Gina Dobson, writer and actor, in The Virago
Big topics: The Olympics and a new Democratic nominee
July was an eventful month, and experts and first-person observers alike came to Medium to share their thoughts on world-changing events.
When President Joe Biden stepped down as the Democratic nominee for this year’s election, former President Barack Obama first shared his thoughts on his former VP’s decision, and later his endorsement of VP Kamala Harris as the new Democratic nominee. Lawyer and political writer John Polonis ("Johnny P") explains how Harris could become the official Democratic Presidential nominee despite not winning a single primary. Author and speaker Julia Serano writes from a queer perspective about why that “weird” messaging seems so effective against the Republicans. “[Republicans] are heavily invested in the notion that their perspective and lifestyle is the one true and righteous way that all others must follow. Calling them ‘weird’ upends this worldview,” she writes. For more stories about the election, check out the Election 2024 tag page.
On to lighter news: the 2024 Paris Olympics. Did you know that until 1952, the Olympics included fine arts events? Head of Marketing at the Minneapolis Art Institute Robert Bedeaux explains what happened to art events, and how the tradition lives on in today’s Olympics. On the opposite end of the spectrum, physics faculty member and science blogger Rhett Allain calculates the optimal shot put launch angle, which he determines to be exactly 37.1 degrees. Read more about the Olympics, past and present, in the Olympics tag page.
Many other notable things happened in July 2024 that we haven’t got space for in this newsletter, so I’ll bring these roundups to your attention instead:
- CrowdStrike: a root cause analysis. Why did this happen? Why did the update fail? How did that mismatch happen? And perhaps most importantly: How can we avoid another incident like this?
- A security expert breaks down the Trump assassination attempt. Veteran security guard John Wight says deterrence is the most important security principle, and how that principle wasn’t followed.
- A single footnote and a masterclass in constitutional law. When the Supreme Court decided to grant the former U.S. president and future presidents immunity from prosecution for criminal acts committed as part of the job, but what does that actually mean? Lessig, a Harvard law professor, explains.
New publications on Medium
Here on Medium, readers love to see the deep, the unique, the niche, and the curious. Here are some of my favorite new publications that exemplify those traits.
- Modern Mothers, a publication dedicated to exploring motherhood through articles, personal essays, and a bit of fiction. Submission guidelines here.
- Bobaify, a place for boba-related stories. Submission guidelines here.
- What If God, a community journal for believers to share their stories of how God has shown up in their lives. Submission guidelines here.
For more great stories from Medium’s writers and publications, check out our Staff Picks. To learn something new from Medium writers every weekday, subscribe to our latest newsletter, the Medium Newsletter.
