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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

Columnist. Author of many <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Drew-Magary/e/B001JS8R52/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1">fine works of literature</a>, including Point B. Handsomest man in the world.

Drew Magary

Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington being held at gun point in the control room in a scene from the film 'Crimson Tide', 1995.

Arts And Culture

A Small Gene Hackman Memory for You

Barry Petchesky

George Lowe Had To Be Brilliant To Make Space Ghost That Stupid

Israel Daramola

Conan O'Brien on stage hosting the Oscars.

Society Can’t Quit The Oscars

Kelsey McKinney

You Don’t Have To See Everything In The Museum

Matene Toure

‘Nickel Boys’ Deserves Best Picture

Sarah Brouillette

A collage of covers of books. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Barbarian Lover, Fourth Wing, Ice Planet Barbarians, The Serpent and the Wings of Night, and The Games Gods Play

Alien Pleasures

Samer Kalaf

Palestinians walk through the destruction in Gaza.

Interviews

Pankaj Mishra On Gaza, The Memory Of The Holocaust, And The “Very Dark World” To Come

How Donald Trump Won Rap Back

screenshot with the terrible score bug in the corner

The Scorebug Snuggery: The Phillies Abandon “P00P”

Lauren Theisen

Warhol's 'Ladies And Gentlemen' portraits in the Warhol Museum gallery

Lost At The Warhol

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 28: Cash Cobain and Bay Swag attend Funk Flex Winter Fest on December 28, 2024 in New York City. Cobain is wearing a Yankees cap and sunglasses. He has a beard that's short and hit shis chin. He's in a blue hoodie. Bay Wag is wearing a big gold chain, sunglasses, a baseball hat, a very diamond-encrusted watch, and holding a plastic bottle of water in one hand and a microphone in the other

Listening Habits

How Do You Make Sex And Party Music For An Era Uninterested In Both?

Soraya Roberts

‘Black Box Diaries’ Splits A Journalist In Two

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

Silence Brings Us Together

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

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

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

Dan McQuade was a founding member of Defector. He died in January 2026.

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

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

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

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>.

Vince Mancini

Capital

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

There’s Always Room For More Merritt Wever

Kendrick Lamar performs at the Super Bowl

Kendrick Lamar Did The Super Bowl Halftime Show His Way

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

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'