Most popular stories on and off Medium, great highlights, stats, and new writer spotlights. Medium Staff 5 min read · 1 day ago 1 day ago -- 15 Listen Share
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One of the things I most love about Medium is that we’re a home for writers like the folks behind the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District Tom Holland’s historic lip-sync showcase in relation to stormwater management.
People from all walks of life come to Medium every day to share their story, or their version of a story you think you’ve seen before, or their deeper take on a headline you’ve glanced at. Not just that, but these stories find an audience of readers who genuinely appreciate these stories.
For example, food editor and cook Dim Nikov weighs in on the truth behind nonstick pan hype. (Come for “the nonstick truth bombs and [stay] for the fluorine snake metaphor,” as commenter Brian Rosta put it.)
When Nottoway, the US’s largest remaining antebellum plantation, burned down, Black womanist scholar Dr. Allison Wiltz why so many celebrated its destruction. (“I was planning to do some research on this plantation to consider writing a story. After reading yours, I’m happy to note it’s been well covered with the details one comes to expect from your pieces. Thank you. I’m wondering if cackling fire works as a sleep aid?” asked William Spivey
Nurse of 20+ years Andrea Romeo RN, BN wrote about how errors from medical staff can cause harm to patients — and what patients can do to help themselves. (Fellow medical professional Gloria Lesher, MA weighed in: “It’s courageous of you to admit to healthcare errors, but I’ve worked in a hospital and I saw firsthand how errors can occur. Everyone is doing their best, but we are all human.”)
What’s your story? What’s an angle only you can provide? Come to Medium to share it — our readers are waiting to read it.
– Zulie @ Medium
By the numbers…
500,000+ new users signed up for Medium
Readers followed publications 400,000+ times
Readers checked out topic pages 650,000+ times (these readers head to a topic page like Medium.com/tag/cooking to browse for stories)
Readers are choosing to subscribe to notifications when writers publish new stories 30x more than before, after a small design tweak.
May’s most highlighted passages
“I close my eyes, and this time I listen. To the music of life.” — by Debdutta Pal “Urban Soundtrack,” published in Microcosm. This flash fiction story was inspired by Microcosm’s May prompt: Sound.
“You get promoted because people believe you can lead the future — not just maintain the present.” — by Anil Jangra, MBA You Will Stay a Mid-Level Manager Forever — Unless You Do This One Thing,” published in Agile Insider.
“In 1940, Anaïs Nin wrote, ‘America is in even greater danger because of its cult of toughness, its hatred of sensitivity, and someday it may have to pay a price for this, because atrophy of feeling creates criminals.’” — by embodiment coach Christina Lane Sexual Repression and the American Dating Collapse: You Need An Intervention If You Think My Work Is Extreme”
Most-read stories on Medium in May 2025
“Postman is logging all your secrets and environment variables” by a data scientist
“Pitching: Evolution and Revolution” by John Thorn Our Game. (Note: this story was first published in 2014, but experienced a surge of external traffic in May 2025.)
“Skipping Figma, human after all, Figma grid, accessibility as an afterthought,” a UX Collective newsletter by Partner, Design @ Work & Co Fabricio Teixeira
“The Greatest Saunter. 32 Miles Around Manhattan.” by Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine The Coach Life
“The life theory Carl Jung believed we ignore at our peril,” a Personal Growth newsletter by psychology and philosophy essayist Thomas Oppong
“Announcing Angular v20” by Minko Gechev Angular Blog
“What Happens If You Live the Next Day After a Suicide Attempt?” by artist-scholar and activist, Benj Gabun Sumabat
“A Step-by-Step Guide to Docker Image Optimisation: Reduce Size by Over 95%” by Prateek Jain
“Why You Should Build an MCP Server This Weekend” by Code Pulse Coding Nexus
“Please Stop Wasting Your 1:1s” by Founder and Certified Executive & Leadership Coach Maryam Taheri
It happened off Medium
These stories were discovered from readers off Medium — through search engines like Google, social media platforms like Reddit and Pinterest, or just through plain old DMs.
“The math and logic behind ChatGPT. This paper is all you need.” Joshua Anang
“How to create a compelling design portfolio companies will notice,” by Sr. Product Designer at Netflix Aaron James Design Bootcamp. This old-but-gold story received thousands of reads through LinkedIn this month, despite being published almost four years ago.
“All four major web browsers are about to lose 80% of their funding,” by co-founder of Choice of Games Dan Fabulich
“copyright rules, ai drools, and plagiarism is for suckers who have no soul,” by game design consultant Doc Burford
Stories from new writers
New writers arrive on Medium every day, with new stories to tell. Here are some of our top picks from new writers in May 2025.
“Let’s talk about Jack” — JenVanWieren
“I am drawing again after years! — and here’s why it terrifies me” — Shraddha
“When the victim becomes the victor.” Travel writer Katie Jackson
“What It Means to Be an Architect” –Software engineer and tech leader Aniruddha Raje
“The Betrayal of Nick Blaine: How The Handmaid’s Tale Undermined Its Own Storytelling” — University professor Dr. Lit. Crit.
Dispatches from Medium
Hot off the engineering desks: Readers can now find the Medium Digest in the Medium app. The Digest is a daily or weekly email millions of Medium readers receive with story recommendations. Those readers also get notified in the app when their daily or weekly Digest is ready for perusal.
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 the Medium Newsletter.