Here’s What’s Trending on Medium This Week: July 16–22
Your window into the stories resonating with readers right now
It’s Friday, and we’re back with another list of what’s trending across Medium. This week: an infectious diseases researcher contracts monkeypox (and chronicles his recovery); a musician pens an ode to guitar pedals; and a veteran blogger reflects on a simpler time in internet publishing.
Curious what else readers are engaging with? Browse the “trending” tab on any tag page — for example, medium.com/tag/design — to find more top stories.
1. “Sex for Fun” by Elizabeth Spiers
I live in super-liberal supposedly open-minded Brooklyn, and the idea of women enjoying sexual pleasure for its own sake often terrifies people here, too. Even among people who should know better, female desire is treated as aberrant while male desire is simply the norm.
2. “Logistics Collapse” by Nadin Brzezinski
Ukraine is likely going to end in very Russian way. It’s starting to look like the armies of Vladimir Putin will go home on foot, leaving a lot of equipment behind. Why? They are facing a logistics collapse like that seen by the armies of the Tzar in 1917, after the Summer offensive.
3. “Poison Pill” by T*A Team
In the early hours of September 29, 1982, two Kane County sheriff’s deputies, Joseph Chavez and Alan Swanson, were on a routine patrol of the Chicago suburb of Elgin, IL. Sometime around 2:30 a.m., they stopped at a 24-hour Howard Johnson’s restaurant where they noticed something odd in the parking lot. Strewn about were two boxes and hundreds of empty capsules. Both the boxes and the capsules were labeled Extra Strength Tylenol. Between them was a sizable pile of white powder…
4. “the monkeypox chronicles” by Kyle Planck
i am literally an infectious diseases researcher. i had been informing myself about monkeypox for months. i work at an academic institution that gives me access to some of the best doctors in the country — some of whom i rub shoulders with on a daily basis. and i’m a gay man who is very online and keeps up with what’s happening in nyc queer social networks. all of those factors uniquely positioned me to be like “hmmmmmmmmmmmmaybe this is monkeypox” and to have the ability to clearly communicate why i thought that was the case.
5. “Dark Days in Ukraine: A Cameraman’s War Journal” by Hugh Bohane
Nothing can prepare you for an active war, especially the constant threat of missile airstrikes. Even the most seasoned war reporters will tell you this much. This was my third time going into an active conflict. The first was in Sri Lanka back in 2001, then 20 years later in Armenia during the border clashes in 2021 and then this year in Ukraine.
6. “So You’ve Decided to Unfollow Me” by Cory Doctorow
Once upon a time, it seemed like our web would be one where we explicitly assembled our reading based on our interests, rather than letting the algorithms do it for us.
7. “Every Type of Zoom Call Participant, Illustrated by Dogs” by Jack Shepherd
Why is Pumpkin always in the car for meetings? Where is she going? Shouldn’t she be looking at the road? These are all questions she’d be able to answer for you if you could hear her over the highway noise.
8. “Design Lessons From Guitar Pedals” by Clive Thompson
There’s something existentially thrilling about using a piece of electronics that you’re not worried about breaking. In a world where our digital gear has become increasingly delicate and thin — and increasingly crafted from glass, for god’s sake — a guitar pedal’s ruggedness makes you bold. You want to use it, enthusiastically and aggressively and often.
9. “Apple Is Already Dying, And This Process Has a Name” by Alan Trapulionis
Apple is looking more and more like a museum for Steve-era inventions and not a real company with a solid roadmap into the future.
10. “Written in Metal: The Story of Delta Airlines Flight 1288” by Admiral Cloudberg
How was it that an engine could fail so catastrophically as to cause multiple fatalities aboard a flight which didn’t even crash? That question would fall to the National Transportation Safety Board, whose investigators dived deep into the history of the failed engine, gathering together pieces which had scattered themselves across the airport in order to tell the story of a tiny flaw that escalated to the point of failure.
Want to write a story that resonates? Follow Creators Hub for tips, tricks, and perspectives on developing your craft, finding your audience, and building your writing career. If you’re just starting out, here are some useful resources.
