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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.

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<p>Nicholas Russell is a writer from Las Vegas.</p>


Nicholas Russell

Gross distressing AI image of the disparate threads of the American flag wrapping themselves into the shape of Civil Rights marchers, like something out of John Carpenter's The Thing.

Arts And Culture

Darren Aronofsky’s AI Videos Are A Fitting Tribute To America, I Guess

Interviews

John Early’s Secret Is Total Commitment

‘Backrooms’ Doesn’t Quite Capture The Weirdness Of The Originals

How The U.S. Military Rots American Masculinity

Carolyn Swords Sees The WNBA Becoming The League She Hoped For

Namwali Serpell On Understanding Toni Morrison The Author, Not The Icon

Where Is Cinema?: An Interview With A.S. Hamrah

Natan Last Has Thought A Lot About Crosswords

Seth Harp Talks About The Rot At The Core Of America’s Empire

YONKERS, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 11: A view of autumn foliage at the Untermyer Park and Gardens over the Hudson Valley on November 11, 2021 near New York City.

Erin Somers On The State Of Literary Fiction, Hudson Valley Life, And Reviving The Infidelity Novel

Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen Talks Old Scenes And A New Tour

Sphere lights up with an advertisement for "The Wizard of Oz at Sphere" ahead of the show's premiere

No Courage, No Heart, No Brain

Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal in Eddington

Ari Aster Wants You To Take The Bait

Lady Gaga performs onstage during The MAYHEM Ball Tour at The Kia Forum on July 28, 2025 in Inglewood, California.

Music

No Journey With Lady Gaga Is Ever Wasted

Promo still from the 1961 Film The Children's Hour

Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back: Michael Koresky On Hollywood’s Queer History

‘Mission: Impossible’ Must Finally Reckon With Tom Cruise’s Ego

: A COVID face mask dangles from the rear-view mirror of a car

Life Lessons

Why I Keep Masking

‘Moby-Dick’ Is Still Too Big For The Opera

On a gradient background going from tan-ish to pink-ish, the front cover of the book Trauma Plot by Jamie Hood. The book is black with a statue of a woman with wings in the center. It also identifies Hood as the author of How to Be A Good Girl.

“Rape Is Political”: Jamie Hood On Trauma Narratives, Writing The Self, And Ethical Obligation

Two hands, a drawing, holding an orange sign with yellow text that reads: MAKE YOUR OWN JOB