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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

Kelsey McKinney

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


Sabrina Imbler

Anne Hatahway cries in her Subaru in a scene from The Idea of You

Arts And Culture

The Ideas Of ‘The Idea Of You,’ According To Us

Pro-Palestinian protesters opposing Israel's participation in the 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) demonstrate in Malmo, Sweden, on May 11, 2024, with a poster saying : NEJ TILL FOLKMORD, Welcome to the Genocide Song Contest

The Myth Of An Apolitical Eurovision

Brood XIX cicadas hold onto blades of grass on the campus of the University of North Carolina

Creaturefector

Everything You Need To Know About The Cicadas, As Well As Some Additional Cicada Information That Is Less Crucial But Still Provocative

An ancient grave with a skeleton with both masculine and feminine signifiers.

Science

Can We Exhume Gender From The Long-Dead?

a dice snake feigning death on top of a camouflage piece of clothing

Want To Eat This Snake? What If It Was Dead, Bleeding From The Mouth, And Covered In Poop? What Then?

A male albert's lyrebird, which is a brown bird, with its extravagant tail feathers flipped over his head

Are You Wooed By This Bird’s Gronking Song?

Beekeeper Matt Hilton removes a colony of bees that formed on the net behind home plate during a delay to the MLB game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on April 30, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona

Beefector

Can You Blame Bees For Loving The Great American Game Of Baseball?

A round stingray (Urolophus halleri) I photographed in shallow water at Bolsa Chica wetlands (Southern California). The clouds of sand around the eyes and and body were formed as the stingray flapped and positioned deeper in the sand, expelling water. You can see the spiracles behind the eyes.

A Brief Investigation Into Whether Charlotte The Pregnant Ray Is Scamming Us All

Whale swimming underwater in ocean close up.

Whales Are Singers Too, Billie Eilish

an illustration by Ray Troll depicting a gigantic spike-toothed salmon overpowering a fisherman

Meet The Extremely Metal Spike-Toothed Salmon

a brown pacific field cricket with a whitish parasitoid fly sitting on top of it

In Hawaii, Crickets Are Learning New Songs Of Sex And Death

a tiny gall midge pollinating a tiny orchid

The Secret Life Of A Tiny Flower

several of Toshiko Takaezu's moon-shaped ceramics on black sand

The Forbidden Worlds Of Toshiko Takaezu

Kate Schapira sits at her climate anxiety booth in a public park in Providence, Rhode Island

Interviews

What Do We Do With Our Climate Anxiety?

a snakefly on a plant (Dichrostigma flavipes on Corylus avellana)

It’s Time For God’s Ugliest Little Bugs To Be Represented In The Beautiful Tradition Of Haiku

Two coral snakes in a tug-of-war over a worm lizard called a caecilian

Point/Counterpoint: That’s My Lunch!

A fossilized piece of amber preserving two termites in the act of mating

If Romeo And Juliet Were Ancient Termites They Wood Look Like This

a silhouette of a semi truck in front of a starry sky

Vibrations From “Interstellar Meteor” Actually From Local Truck; Or, Fact-Checking The Celebrity Scientist

A Brunneria borealis mantid hanging upside down from a twig of wheat (is that how you say it)

She’s Literally Mother

A saltwater fish called a cero looking concerned

This Parasite Has Become A Full-Time Booger

a deep-sea Malacosarcus sp., or prickelfish. Seen at a depth of nearly 5,900 meters (3.7 miles)

The Twilight Chorus That Can Be Heard 18,000 Feet Under The Sea

a Kakapo named Sirocco exhibited at the Orokonui Ecosanctuary in Dunedin, New Zealand

Honey, They Yassified A Kākāpō!

Two adult male humpback whales. one whale has its penis inserted into the genital opening of the whale below it An injury is visible on the mandible of the whale underneath.