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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

Soraya Roberts

Arts And Culture

‘Black Box Diaries’ Splits A Journalist In Two

Lauren Theisen

Interior of the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City, showing orchestra in foreground and audience in back

Silence Brings Us Together

<p>Lindsey Adler is a writer based in Brooklyn. She exclusively covered sports for a decade but has other interests, too.</p>


Lindsey Adler

A woman stands in front of the Yoko Ono, »Cut Piece«, 1965, during a press preview at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Duesseldorf, western Germany on September 26, 2024. In cooperation with the Tate Modern, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is presenting the influential work of artist and activist Yoko Ono in a comprehensive solo exhibition taking place from September 28, 2024 to March 6, 2025.

My Weekend With Yoko

<p><a href="http://www.ddavisla.com"><span style="font-weight: 400">David Davis </span></a>is the author of <i>Wheels of Courage: How Paralyzed Veterans From World War II Invented Wheelchair Sports, Fought for Disability Rights, and Inspired a Nation</i> and <i>Waterman: The Life and Times of Duke Kahanamoku</i>. He lives in Los Angeles.</p>
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David Davis

Photo of Gidget running through the Malibu Pier. Fifty years after Kathy Kohner Zuckerman, aka Gidget, learned to surf in Malibu, the surfing world has accepted her as surfing's early pioneers, mascots and avid promoters. April 27, 2006, (Photo by Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Gidget The Survivor

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


Dan McQuade

David Roth

Ricky Jay, with his hair balding halfway up his head but black and tall, and a large black beard, in a black suit with a black tie and a dark purple shirt, looking at the camera holding a cut-in-half watermelon with two playing cards into the inside.

Someone Has To Save The Film And TV That Studios Won’t

<p>Grace Byron is a critic, reporter, and novelist based in Queens. Her writing has appeared in <em>The New Yorker</em>, <em>Granta</em>, <em>Bookforum</em>, and elsewhere. Her debut novel <em>Herculine</em> is out now.</p>


Grace Byron

Bill Gates speaks at the Global Solutions Summit

What’s The Point Of Bill Gates?

Two manet paintings with a Pop Art painting crashing over them

Eagles Win Loan Of Manet Painting In Super Bowl Bet, Which Is What This Thing Was About All Along

<p>Vince Mancini is a culture writer and old school blogger whose work has appeared in GQ, The Ringer, Uproxx, and more. He writes <a href="https://vincemancini.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://vincemancini.substack.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1739555630062000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0e3B6TjurbpZyGcyNkVTcQ">The #Content Report</a> on Substack and podcasts about prestige TV on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/c/frotcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.patreon.com/c/frotcast&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1739555630062000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0xjEhxjt84GGvFCgoW4S0E">Pod Yourself</a>.</p>


Vince Mancini

Capital

‘Pistachio Wars’ Tells The Story Of California’s Terraforming

There’s Always Room For More Merritt Wever

Israel Daramola

Kendrick Lamar performs at the Super Bowl

Kendrick Lamar Did The Super Bowl Halftime Show His Way


<p>Diana Moskovitz is Defector&#8217;s investigations editor. You can contact her at diana@defector.com or dfmoskovitz@protonmail.com. She&#8217;s also on Signal @dmoskovitz.99</p>


Diana Moskovitz

People stretch and raise their hands during an outside yoga session on Thursday, April 4, 2024 in Long Beach, CA.

Life Lessons

A Hip Stretch To Help You Stay Sane

Alan Kluegel

The actor Matthew McConaughey looking slightly deranged while sitting at an outdoor restaurant table, in the dark, under a torrential downpour.

The Machines

Salesforce Is Using A Hallucination To Sell AI

Patrick Redford

Luis Paez-Pumar

Tom Ley

Kendrick Lamar performs onstage during The Pop Out – Ken &amp; Friends Presented by pgLang and Free Lunch at The Kia Forum on June 19, 2024 in Inglewood, California.

Defector Music Club

Defector Music Club Travels Back To M.A.A.D City

Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson in 'A Different Man'

‘A Different Man’ Has Sebastian Stan At His Most Alluring

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<div>Jen Golbeck is a writer, scientist, and professor at the University of Maryland. Her Substack, The <a href="http://magareport.news/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://magareport.news&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1738242090561000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1v7CItRYSjo8F2e4vcdTQy">MAGAReport</a>, tracks what&#8217;s happening on far-right pro-Trump social media. She splits her time between Washington, D.C. and Key West.</div>
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Jen Golbeck

Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, in Kharkiv. ( Photo/Jen Golbeck)

What’s Wrong With War Tourism?

<p>Heather Chen is a former Defector intern and the managing editor at the <em>Columbia Daily Spectator</em>. She loves hockey, photography, and the good ol’ state of Michigan.</p>


Heather Wei-Xi Chen

DETROIT, MI - SEPTEMBER 14: A worker cleans a RAM truck at the 2022 North American International Auto Show on September 14, 2022 in Detroit, Michigan.The NAIAS opens to the public on September 17 and features the latest state of the art electric vehicles, vehicle rides, the world’s first battery-powered Monster Truck, an Air Mobility Experience featuring flight demonstrations of jet suits, hoverboards, and vertical take-off and landing aircraft, a Dinosaur Encounter featuring 80 life-like and life-size dinosaurs, and the world’s largest rubber duck. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

The Detroit Auto Show Used To Be The Future

<p>Staff Writer</p>
<p>Find me on Signal @DefectorChris.19</p>


Chris Thompson

Two tennis guys get horny looking at Zendaya.

Is My Most Loathed Enemy A Song From The Score Of ‘Challengers’? Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah-Yeah-Yeah Yeah Yeah-Yeah-Yeah

Trump supporters crowd the parade route, with trash everywhere.

Politics

Painting The Town Red

An image of a carriage approaching a moonlit castle, from Nosferatu

When Did The Moving Image Stop Moving?

David Lynch Was The Artist of Our Time

Kelsey McKinney

I Believe In Ethel Cain

<p>Megan Greenwell is the author of <em>Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream</em>, which will be published in June 2025 and is <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/bad-company-megan-greenwell?variant=43151012757538">available for preorder now</a>.</p>
