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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

Books

Defector At The Movies

Music

Arts And Culture

Defector Staff

Defector Wuthers Some Heights

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


Nicholas Russell

Interviews

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

Eli Cugini

Fanfiction’s Total Cultural Victory

James Webster

Elisa Shua Dusapin Is The Real Deal

Danny Funt

Journalismism

How Bill Simmons Went All In

Natan Last Has Thought A Lot About Crosswords

Year In Review

The Best Things We Read In 2025

Brandy Jensen

American Cant

Becca Young

Maggie Nelson Sputters And Stalls In ‘The Slicks’

Jack Hanson

Patricia Lockwood’s Inexhaustible Mind

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

Kelsey McKinney

elyse myers in a yellow shirt smiles at the camera

How Normal Is A Celebrity Allowed To Be? 

Patrick Redford

Thomas Pynchon Is Laughing All The Way To The Brink

Joel Pinckney

‘The High Heaven’ Is A Beautifully Grounded Debut Novel

<p>Jae Towle Vieira [they/them] works as a producer for Normal Gossip. Their fiction has been published in <i data-stringify-type="italic">The Normal School</i>, <i data-stringify-type="italic">New England Review, Carve Magazine, Passages North, Fairy Tale Review</i>, and elsewhere.</p>


Jae Towle Vieira

Here Is What Reading To My Child Has Done To My Brain

<div class="gmail_default">
<div class="gmail_default">Ryan Goldberg is an award-winning journalist and author who has written for <i>Texas Monthly</i>, The Intercept, <i>The</i> <i>New York Times</i>, <i>Popular Science</i>, and ProPublica, among many other publications. Some of his best stories ran in the old Deadspin. He lives in Brooklyn, and leads regular walks for the Brooklyn Bird Club. You can find more of his work at <a href="http://ryangoldberg.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://ryangoldberg.net&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1758917926877000&amp;usg=AOvVaw04lh06uBoaa598nfG5ro-G">ryangoldberg.net</a>.</div>
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Ryan Goldberg

UNITED STATES - 2023/05/31: Close-up of a barred owl (Strix varia), also known as the northern barred owl, or striped owl, in a park in Kirkland, Washington State, United States. (Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Birdfector

The Owl Code Tearing Apart New York’s Birders

<p><a href="https://tomwhyman.com/">Tom Whyman</a> is a British philosopher.</p>


Tom Whyman

Werner Herzog’s New Book Tackles The Problem Of Truth

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

The Blog Of The South

<p>Becky Ferreira is a science reporter based in Ithaca, N.Y. She writes <a href="https://www.404media.co/author/becky/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.404media.co/author/becky/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1740083778769000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3_mk31dNhas5lklZb38a6k">The Abstract</a>, a weekly science column for 404 Media. Her book <em>First Contact</em>, about the search for alien life, <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/becky-ferreira/first-contact/9781523527755/">is available now.</a></p>


Becky Ferreira

National Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, New Mexico (Photo by: Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Science

A Brief History Of Martian Ruckuses

Nick Sturm

Good Riddance To ‘The Best American Poetry’

Soraya Roberts

To Artistic Freedom: The Cause Of, And Solution To, All Of Life’s Problems

Tom Ley

Maitreyi Anantharaman

Luis Paez-Pumar

Defector Reads A Book: The Art of Fielding

The Art Of Reading

Lauren Theisen

Birch boletus - edible mushrooms on moss (Leccinum scabrum)

My Favorite Part Of ‘Anna Karenina’ Is The Guy Who Can’t Stop Himself From Talking About Mushrooms

Annie Berke

‘Ugh! As If!’ Takes On The Enduring Appeal Of ‘Clueless’