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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

Israel Daramola


<p>charismatic megafauna (they/them)</p>


Sabrina Imbler


<p>Dan McQuade was a founding member of Defector. He died in January 2026.</p>


Dan McQuade

Corporate office, maybe mid-2010s style. Two women are walking in the background, and in front of them is a digital display about Charlie Duncan, case number 1016897, and how she's rude, deceptive, and a general menace.

Arts And Culture

Defector Watches A Christmas Movie: ‘She’s Making A List’

Alex Sujong Laughlin

Kelsey McKinney

a photo of a woman dressed in drag as Santa Claus holding a flaming shot glass looking at a blurry man

Defector Watches A Christmas Movie: ‘My Secret Santa’

Dave McKenna

a still from the movie Jingle Bell Heist, with Lucy Punch in a fascinator looking at Connor Swindells

Defector Watches A Christmas Movie: ‘Jingle Bell Heist’

a photo of the set of the broadway musical Chess, with a sign that says CHESS, and the chorus standing for bows in front of it

‘Chess: The Musical’ Is Somehow More Of A Musical About Chess Than You Can Imagine

a mother leopard seal opens her mouth above the body of her dead pup

Creaturefector

Why Won’t Nora The Leopard Seal Abandon Her Dead Pups?

a photo of RFK Jr. where he looks like a broken Chuck-E-Cheeze animatronic

Science

Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism, No Matter What The CDC Website Now Says

Split image. The lefthand side is Olivia Nuzzi attends the 2023 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner at Washington Hilton on April 29, 2023 in Washington, DC. She's wearing a leopard longsleeve top and has long blonde hair and is smiling tightly at the camera. On the right side is an image of a purple blob of some sort.

Politics

Olivia Nuzzi Addresses The Worm

a female spider next to a funnel-shaped hole in a web

Drop Whatever You’re Doing Right This Instant, There’s Big Spider Web News

A pack of Nanotyrannus attacking a juvenile T. rex.

Let Us Now Celebrate Our Extinct Short King, Nanotyrannus

a photo of the microscopic flatworm Stenostomum simplex, which looks like a worm with green balls inside its body.

Exclusive! A Revealing And Not Made-Up Interview With A Two-Headed Worm

a spider with yellow stripes perched on a web decorated with stabilimenta

Why Do Some Spiders Make Web Art?

a photo of a brown basilisk lizard missing a forelimb sitting on a reed

Fat AND Sassy? A Three-Legged Lizard Really Can Have It All

a wild octopus americanus, arms unspooled and curling

Unlike Our Stupid Human Arms, Octopus Arms Are All Equally Beautiful And Talented

a spotted ratfish, which is a brownish fish with white spots and a white spot between its eyes

Why Not Have A Rod Of Teeth On Your Forehead For Sex Reasons?

two winged male ants: Messor ibericus (left) and Messor structor (right) against a black background

Everything You Need To Know About The Girlboss Ants That Give Birth To Another Species In Order To Exploit Their Offspring (Slay Ant Queen!)

A CVS pharmacy store on February 28, 2025 in San Diego, California

How Are You Supposed To Get The COVID Vaccine Now? An Explainer

RFK Jr. Is Making His Bid To Become One Of American History’s Biggest Killers

a swarm of bumblebee catfish climbing the vertical rock of a waterfall

Where Are You Going, Fish?

Screwworm larva. Tusklike mandibles protruding from the screwworm larva's mouth rasp the flesh of living warm-blooded animals.

Make America Wormy Again

an illustration of two bats together, one with a rat. the next panel shows the two bats biting the rat together

Brother May I Have Some Rat

A photo of a green fla-necked chameleon posing against a swirly yellow and green background

Chameleons Endure Tiny Knock To Colorful Reputation

Mods Asleep

How Climate Change Is Transforming The Soundtrack Of The Natural World

a 3D-printed crab named Wavy Dave is waving his claw at a fiddler crab in the distance

The Brief Adventures Of Wavy Dave

Behold: A Surprisingly Beautiful Depiction Of Being Swallowed By A Toothy Penis Worm

the behind of a chimp named Juma, who is displaying a behavior called grass-in-rear, in which a strand of grass dangles from his rectum