Relief comes in the warmth of an early afternoon — Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, my back hurts, right here, see? Where my hand is. I get up anyway, go downstairs and let Lilly the dog out, waiting just inside the door for her and absent-mindedly pressing where it hurts. After she comes back in, I take…

An easy way to help ensure our children can continue to read our great literature — Do you live in one of the following states, where books are being banned? Texas: 801 books banned Florida: 566 books banned Pennsylvania: 457 books banned Tennessee: 349 books banned Oklahoma: 43 books banned Michigan: 41 books banned Kansas: 30 books banned Wisconsin: 29 books banned Missouri: 27 books banned …

How to find top Medium publications actively seeking stories on subjects you write about — Say you’ve just written a story about leadership, literature, life lessons, lasagne, or…. Yes, lasagne. Your mother’s lasagne. Served to her family in a baking pan half the size of her kitchen table. Smelled like sustenance. Tasted like TLC. Say you’ve just written a story about your mother’s lasagne. As…

How to search for the most active publications posting stories like yours — Say you’ve written a story about technology, or the environment, or mental health, or creativity, or food …. Food, yes. Say you’ve written a story about your mother’s mac-n-cheese and included her recipe, which adds half a tub of cottage cheese to the usual sharp cheddar. You’re ready to publish…

A “demonstrative massacre” has been ordered — Putin has ordered mass executions of people protesting his war against Ukraine. Protestors in the Dagestani region of Russia will be the first targets because they have been particularly vocal against the forced mobilization of their people to fight a war they are opposed to. Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of…

For two minutes, let’s all get as infantile as you-know-who — Donald Trump’s mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was Scottish. She had a brother and a grandfather named Donald, so it must have seemed sensible to name her bairn Donald — in Scottish, Donald is Domhanll, which means “world ruler.” To further increase Donald’s chances of strutting about on red carpets, she…

I am white…. — If I take a long hard look at a Black man coming near me on my daily walk, does my fear that he will do me harm give someone the right to call me a racist? …

TOP READERS is a tool pub owners can use to acknowledge readers and increase readership — TOP READERS is a tool brought to you by The Publication Creators Hub in partnership with Nishu Jain, a Medium member and software engineer extraordinaire. Medium identifies top writers, which is an advantage to all those so identified. There are also advantages to acknowledging top readers — those people who…

ACTIVE PUBLICATIONS is a tool pub owners can use to search for publications similar to theirs — You may have a publication on Medium that posts stories about politics, coding, mental health, gardening, sex.… You want to know something about similar publications. Or you may want to check out the competition before you start a publication. You may be asking yourself: Who else on Medium is publishing…