Yes, I've noticed that, too. If you look at the Staff Picks, for example, Medium sometimes seems to be turning into a trauma report.

Given how that approach has backfired in book publishing, I wonder if Medium hasn't hitched its wagon to the wrong horse, or one falling behind in the race. And the pattern you describe may help to explain why so many longtime Medium writers have decamped to Substack: There's more room there for great stories that aren't about trauma or heartbreak.

That's partly why I've started writing for Substack in addition to Medium. If Medium keeps doubling down on the traumatic-personal-stories theme, there will be fewer and fewer topics any of us can write about with any hope of finding a readership beyond our own followers.