I read 80 articles in June, these were my favorites

Source: https://readpondercom.substack.com/p/i-read-80-articles-in-june-these

July 1, 2026

**Published July 2020**

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Helen Macdonald · The New York Times

Swifts spend all their time in the sky. What can their journeys tell us about the future?

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_**The Mysterious Life of Birds Who Never Come Down**_ is my favorite article that I’ve ever found. As I have been working on this website, I have been sitting on my porch and listening to the calls of the chimney swifts swooping and soaring above my apartment. Did you know that they almost never land? My girlfriend said it best:

“An article that inspires readers to view Common Swifts as more than just specks in the sky, but as complex, beautiful creatures that we can learn from. This seemingly nature essay is imperceptibly braided with personal memoir as Macdonald brings you into her mind as a child before going to sleep. I’m transported back in time to a house full of warmth, from both the heat of the stove from dinner and the humans that reside within it. Macdonald shares fascinating details about the lives of Common Swifts, including research showing that on their nightly ‘vesper flights,’ these birds climb high above the clouds to read the weather and confer with one another before deciding where to fly next, finding in this small, strange ritual a perfect relation to our human lives. I believe we could live fuller lives if we, too, climbed high enough every so often to see the storms coming, and called out to each other before it’s too late.” - Hannah

**Published March 2026**

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ゆ前 · The Pilgrim Age

On a friend who asked how to control his mind, the boy with the bucket, and the long road back to wonder.

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_**The Way Home is a Circle**_ is one of many beautiful pieces written by ゆ前. This one feels like a conversation with a good friend, one that cares about you and has the right advice when you need it.

“You go out, and you come home. that is the entire feeling.“

**Published April 2025**

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Sam Kriss · Numb at the Lodge

You have gone nowhere. There is nowhere for you to go.

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_**Born in the Wrong Generation**_ reminds me of the dystopian novels we were all assigned in middle school. Stories that ended up being praised for their unsettling accuracy decades later. I just hope we won’t be saying the same about this one.

Hello!

I have been reading a lot of articles. Why? Because I love it! (Anddd I’m working on putting all of the great ones into a website database.)

I love to dive into a topic or a story and read all about it in one sitting.

I read 80 articles in June and I gave 9 of them a 10/10. Here are the other 6:

1. Notes of a Native Son - James Baldwin

2. Angels & Demons - Thomas French

3. Fatal Distraction: Forgetting a Child in the Backseat of a Car Is a Horrifying Mistake. Is It a Crime? - Gene Weingarten

4. If you let AI do your writing, I will come to your house and kill you - Sam Kriss

5. Kill Chain - Kevin Baker

6. Dispatch from Flyover Country - Meghan O’Gieblyn

Curated by Ponder