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This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

Defector

Alex Sujong Laughlin

Women sit under hair dryers in a Paris beauty shop, smoking and reading magazines while their hair dries.

Life Lessons

You Should Cut Your Own Hair

Kelsey McKinney


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Sabrina Imbler

A young woman in a swimsuit and sun hat poses with a drink at the edge of a pool

Announcements

The Normal Gossip Summer Guide To Eavesdropping

South African singer and songwriter Tyla arrives for the 2024 Met Gala in a Balmain gown meant to evoke sand in an hourglass. She is being helped by a procession of men in tuxedos who are holding the train of her gown in order for her to walk.

Arts And Culture

How Do You Compartmentalize The Spectacle?

Singer JoJo Siwa on the red carpet entering the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards in Hollywood, wearing a black and silver sequins outfit reminiscent of Gene Simmons from the band Kiss.

When You Eat Poison Long Enough, It Starts To Taste Good

AMMAN, JORDAN - 1990: Following Iraq's occupation of Kuwait in August 1990, journalists from CNN waiting for an attack on Iraq by United Nations authorized military coalition force, at the Intercontinental Hotel in Amman, Jordan, on December 15, 1990. Although there were 34 member states of the coalition, the overwhelming majority of the military forces participating were from the United States and the United Kingdom. On January 17, 1991 the coalition launched a massive air campaign which began the general offensive codenamed Operation Desert Storm with more than 1,000 sorties launching per day. The Persian Gulf War ended on February 28, 1991. (Photo by Dario Mitidieri/Getty Images)

Journalismism

You Never Get The Full Story

A black Coach purse alongside purse restoration tools on a table.

A Purse For Whatever Woman You Want To Be

Patrick Redford

Maitreyi Anantharaman

Giri Nathan

The cover of Esther Yi's novel Y/N, featuring a woman dancing near a mirror.

Defector Reads A Book

Uncoil Your Neck, Turn Down The Cicadas, And Come Chat About ‘Y/N’ With Us

OZY Media founder Carlos Watson sitting onstage during a conversation at Carnegie Hall for an event by History Channel February 29, 2020 in New York City.

Who Is Giving Carlos Watson Money Now?

Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Tim Scott standing onstage, all very normally, at a GOP primary debate in Miami.

Politics

These Debates Don’t Matter

Luis Paez-Pumar

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<div>Abigail Segel is a contributing writer at Defector. She is also an editor for The IX Soccer and the Equalizer. Her work has been published in the Guardian and the Montreal Gazette.</div>
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Abigail Segel

Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs onstage during Taylor Swift The 1989 World Tour Live In Los Angeles at Staples Center on August 22, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.

Music

Meet Us At Midnight For ‘1989’ (Defector’s Version)

The Golden Bachelor contestant looks out over a balcony

‘The Golden Bachelor’ Turns Grief Into Joy

The author holding a chestnut she found on the street

Chefector

That’s What I Get For Trying To Honor My Ancestors With Chestnuts I Found On The Street

The Only Depressed Adult At The World’s Largest Indoor Ropes Course

Alex Sujong Laughlin and Kelsey McKinney standing beside Flat Margaret.

Podcasts

Kelsey And Alex’s Big Adventure: Notes From Normal Gossip On The Road

WASHINGTON, DC - April 7: The fossilized 36 million-year-old skeleton of a tree squirrel known as Douglassciurus jeffersoni is on display as part of the "Objects of Wonder" exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Paleontologist Gene Hunt, pictured, said it's one of the most complete prehistoric squirrel skeletons ever discovered. (By John Kelly/The Washington Post)

Funbag

Where Are All The Squirrel Skeletons?

Taylor Swift performing, with some help from a video projection of herself and some other smaller video versions of herself, during her show in Kansas City.

What Does Taylor’s Version Of The Past Look Like?

Gimlet Media co-founder Alex Blumberg speaks at the Ignition: Future of Media conference in New York City, in 2017.

Capital

Gimlet Media’s Story Was Always Going To End Like This

Writers Guild of America members walk the picket line on the first day of their strike in front of Amazon studios on Tuesday, May 2, 2023.

Reality TV Won’t Fix What’s Broken About Hollywood Economics

Let’s All Confess What We Thought Of ‘The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter’

circa 1960: Child actor Johnny Crawford looks forward to eating a pile of pancakes in an International House of Pancakes, a chain of eateries in the USA started in 1958 by Californian brothers Al and Jerome Lapin. (Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images)

I Don’t Want Brain By Seventeen, I Want Body By Pancake

An illustration of several people, each one passing some juicy gossip on to the next one.