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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

Defector Staff

Bebel the cat, hard at work at a typewriter.

Things We Actually Like

Our Favorite Defector Blogs From The Last Five Years

Announcements

Defector Is Celebrating Its Fifth Birthday By Giving You A Big Fat Discount

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<div class="p-rich_text_section">Puja Patel is a writer, editor, and curator who has served as the Editor-in-Chief of Pitchfork and <em>Spin</em>, a culture editor for Deadspin, and a columnist for MTV and the <em>Village Voice</em>. Her work has appeared in publications such as the <em>New Yorker</em>, <em>Harper&#8217;s Bazaar</em>, and <em>Rolling Stone,</em> among others. She serves on the advisory board of NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music and Building Beats, a nonprofit organization that provides music education to underserved youth across New York City and Los Angeles.</div>
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Puja Patel

Mods Asleep

The Worst Songs We Love So Much

Staff Chat

Well Look At That, It’s Time To Chat With The Defector Staff Again

The ballroom photo from the end of The Shining

You’re Invited To Defector’s Fifth Birthday Party And Also Some Baseball Games

We Won A Grant

In Paradigm-Shifting Business Maneuver, Defector Acquires Basketball Podcast

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 20: A hawker advertises a hot dog at the San Francisco Giants home opener at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif. on April 20, 1965. The opener was attended by 37,784 fans. (Photo by Howard Erker/MediaNews Group/Oakland Tribune via Getty Images)

Defector Up All Night

Your Fourth Of July Open Thread

Take Defector’s 2025 Reader Survey

Denver's Juneteenth celebration is back as organizers name the event "Juneteenth 2008: The Rebirth. Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States as slaves in Galveston, Texas learned that President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier. Denver used to have one of the largest gatherings, and this year community leaders- including former Mayor Wellington Webb- worked to bring the festival back. There is a parade along with musical performers and entertainment for the kids. The Showstarz Cheer team perform acrobatics along the route. Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post (Photo By Kathryn Scott Osler/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

Your Juneteenth Open Thread

In the shadows, c.1920. Private Collection. Creator: Cucuel, Edward (1875-1954).

Arts And Culture

Books We Think You Should Read This Summer

We Let Drew Cook

The cast of Our Gang/The Little Rascals singing, circa 1930.

The Staff Chat Begins Right Now

The exterior of Shibe Park, the baseball stadium in Philadelphia. Ca. 1913

Take Me Out To The Staff Chat

A camera operator stands by as director Rouben Mamoulian speaks with Greta Garbo.

Lights, Camera, Staff Chat! Let’s Talk Movies.

Alert: It Is Now Time To Chat With The Defector Staff

Accademia carrara art gallery: playing cards and tarots, bembo e cicognara, 1455-1490, bergamo, Italy.

Underexplained Lists

Underexplained Predictions For 2025

Sancho at the Feast, Starved by his Physician' by William Hogarth (1697 - 1764). English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist. Sancho Panza is a key character in the Spanish novel 'Don Quixote' by Cervantes.

Year In Review

The Best Things We Ate In 2024

May Company Basement Sale, 1 March 1954. Crowd at May Company Basement Sale.;Caption slip reads: 'Photographer: McCarty. Date: 154-03-01. Reporter: Scott. Assignment: May Co. Basement Sale. 1/2/46/76/35/72/71/69/70/75: Crowd at May Co. Basement Sale'..

The Worst Things We Bought In 2024

circa 1897: Portrait of actor John Martin Harvey (1867 - 1944) reading to two children on a postcard.

The Best Things We Read In 2024

The Best Things We Heard In 2024

An old timey drive-in, with an old-timey pickup truck in front of it. The front of the drive in says "DRIVE-IN THEATRE. SIT IN YOUR CAR. SEE AND HEAR TALKING PICTURES. ON THE WORLD'S LARGEST SCREEN. Californa's First." There's also a neon entrance sign. The photo is black and white. The Year in Review Defector graphic is at the bottom.

The Best Things We Saw In 2024

A fan lands himself just foul in the upper level leftfield seats as he keeps cool and takes in the Dodger/Seattle interleague game, Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.

Defector’s Favorite Sports Moments Of 2024

Give Some Blogs, Get A Calendar

black and white photo of a woman reclining with book