Maria Popova ✓

@themarginalian · Brooklyn, NY · joined 02 Oct 2007

Reader. Writer. Creator of The Marginalian (long ago named Brain Pickings). Author of #Figuring. Lover of trees. Petter of moss. Rider of a cobalt blue bicycle.

839 304Followers

355Following

156 499Posts total

159.6KViews on collected posts

Against accounts of the same size

12 posts from the last 90 days, next to the 100K–1M follower range. below its peers on both reach and engagement.

Median views6 011this account4 256median for 100K–1M

Reach, %0.72%this account1.64%median for 100K–1M

Engagement, %0.67%this account1.36%median for 100K–1M

Metric	This account	Median for 100K–1M	Ratio
Median views per post	6 011	4 256	1.41×
Reach (views ÷ followers)	0.72%	1.64%	0.44×
Engagement rate	0.67%	1.36%	0.50×

Others in this range → Compare with another account → How these benchmarks are built →

Growth & engagement

How the posts we collected actually performed: views and reaction rate post by post, what the audience did with them, and where the follower count goes.

Views per post

1958 Jan

17528 Jan

7.8K4 Sep

5.1K

1.4K

9.5K5 Sep

9.5K

6.9K6 Sep

4.9K

3.9K

1.2K7 Sep

Last 14 collected posts, oldest on the left. The scale is logarithmic: one post can outrun the rest a hundred times over.

Engagement rate per post

1.54%8 Jan

1.14%28 Jan

0.54%4 Sep

0.81%

0.74%

0.49%

0.68%5 Sep

0.37%

0.69%

0.25%

0.67%6 Sep

0.74%

0.51%

1.29%7 Sep

Reactions — likes, reposts, replies and quotes — divided by views. Median for 100K–1M accounts is 1.36%.

What the audience does

Likes50.0%723 in total

Reposts23.5%340 in total

Replies2.2%32 in total

Quotes0.8%11 in total

Bookmarks23.5%340 in total

Share of every reaction we collected for this account. Replies mean argument, reposts mean endorsement, bookmarks mean the post was worth keeping.

Followers by day

4 Sep7 Sep

Daily snapshots since 04 Sep 2026; the dashed line is the starting count.

Latest posts

The Peace of Wild Things – Wendell Berry's poetic antidote to despair, animated https://t.co/5cX9aQ1g1h 1.2K views · 10 likes · 5 reposts · 0 replies 07 Sep 2026 · Open on X →

The true purpose of tarot https://t.co/z58D9iod9m 3.9K views · 16 likes · 3 reposts · 1 replies 06 Sep 2026 · Open on X →

Don't waste your wildness https://t.co/0WvegFkkzo 4.9K views · 28 likes · 5 reposts · 2 replies 06 Sep 2026 · Open on X →

Kurt Vonnegut on the simplest, hardest secret of happiness https://t.co/NyUHWEShgs 6.9K views · 37 likes · 7 reposts · 2 replies 06 Sep 2026 · Open on X →

How to relate to your mistakes – the life-shaping difference between regret and remorse https://t.co/Y0fQvIW8H1 4K views · 7 likes · 2 reposts · 1 replies 05 Sep 2026 · Open on X →

The irreplaceable Wendell Berry on solitude and the two great enemies of creative work https://t.co/rqQAAvyz8B 7K views · 41 likes · 6 reposts · 1 replies 05 Sep 2026 · Open on X →

Kahlil Gibran on how to weather the uncertainties of love https://t.co/fZKvRSLPoi 9.5K views · 33 likes · 2 reposts · 0 replies 05 Sep 2026 · Open on X →

The four desires driving all human behavior — Bertrand Russell's magnificent Nobel Prize acceptance speech https://t.co/VQVUlNwYA8 9.5K views · 55 likes · 9 reposts · 0 replies 05 Sep 2026 · Open on X →

How to move through heartbreak like Frida Kahlo, with a dignity free from pride https://t.co/dS5lz1I8J0 1.4K views · 5 likes · 2 reposts · 0 replies 04 Sep 2026 · Open on X →

Walt Whitman's field guide to being yourself – the trial and triumph of Leaves of Grass https://t.co/onkPp36yE5 5.1K views · 31 likes · 7 reposts · 0 replies 04 Sep 2026 · Open on X →

The art of choosing love over not-love – Rumi's antidote to our human tragedy: https://t.co/yXGVYxGBdE 7K views · 48 likes · 8 reposts · 0 replies 04 Sep 2026 · Open on X →

The power of being a threshold person – liminality, communitas, and the anti-structure of possibility https://t.co/RaQ48ohYzV 7.8K views · 37 likes · 4 reposts · 0 replies 04 Sep 2026 · Open on X →

@themarginalian Reading this gives the sense that existence itself is an act of love. 175 views · 2 likes · 0 reposts · 0 replies 28 Jan 2026 · Open on X →

@themarginalian As a physician and writer working in medical humanities, I read this as a reminder that the deepest questions of life and death are not solved by data alone. What Maria Popova calls “love” is not sentimentality, but moral orientation: the force that keeps knowledg 195 views · 2 likes · 0 reposts · 1 replies 08 Jan 2026 · Open on X →

@themarginalian I believe the essence of love is, ultimately, 'Connection.' When we prove each other's existence and share energy through deep connection, there is simply no space left for power or domination to squeeze in. The most powerful force to neutralize power is, parado 477 views · 6 likes · 0 reposts · 0 replies 06 Jan 2026 · Open on X →

Across the abyss between one consciousness and another, between one frame of reference and another, we go on searching for an organizing principle to fathom the ultimate questions: What is life? What is death? What makes a body a person? What makes a planet a world? Over and 82.8K views · 336 likes · 275 reposts · 24 replies 06 Jan 2026 · Open on X →

Right after giving us the lexicon for naming the living world, Carl Linnaeus decided to create a flower clock to tell the time of day by the bloom of different flowers https://t.co/FwFFP2k2bN 7.6K views · 29 likes · 5 reposts · 0 replies 07 Dec 2025 · Open on X →