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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

Lauren Theisen

Arts And Culture

Selling Out Still Sucks

Susan Elizabeth Shepard

The Abrupt And Anonymous End Of StripperWeb

Soraya Roberts

Andrea Riseborough’s Oscar Nod Is A Nomination For The Past

Barry Petchesky

DHI QAR, IRAQ - NOVEMBER 15: British Museum and Iraqi archaeologists carry out excavations in the ancient city of Girsu, the capital of the Kingdom of Lagash in Dhi Qar, Iraq on November 15, 2021. (Photo by Arshad Mohammed/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Science

I Desperately Want To Have A Beer At This Ancient Sumerian Bar

Israel Daramola

Journalismism

Who Is The Celebrity Documentary For?

David Roth

Photo of Tom Verlaine performing with Television during the 1970s.

Tom Verlaine, Out And Back

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

Dan McQuade

A look at a Virgil Abloh exhibit with the gift shop in the background

When Exiting Through The Gift Shop Is The Best Part Of The Exhibit

charismatic megafauna (they/them)

Sabrina Imbler

A woman encourages her child to look at the mummy of young boy during a preview of the 'Ancient lives, new discoveries' exhibition at the British Museum in Central London on May 20, 2014.

How To Respect A Mummy

Dave McKenna

And This Byrd Can Sing: David Crosby, 1941-2023

Chefector

I’ll Have What No One Is Having

Felix Kent

A woman sits on the floor of her hotel room in her underwear, leaning against the bed and with a magnum of champagne turned up to her mouth. Her clothes are strewn about the bed and floor of the room. (Photo by Graphic House/Getty Images)

How To Drink Alone, The Madison Avenue Way

Defector Staff

Our Predictions For 2023

BAY OF BISCAY, SPAIN: Tanker under dark clouds in The Bay of Biscay north of Santander in the Atlantic Ocean, Spain

Goodbye To Dark Sky, The Only Good Weather App

Kelsey McKinney

Will Ticketmaster’s Death Knell Finally Toll?

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

A menorah on a "happy Chanukah" plate. In front of it are dreidels and CRYPTO GELT: Chanukah Coins for the new age.

Hanukkah Doesn’t Need A Hip Rebrand

A baby, blonde hair, pretty cute, but not like incredibly cute, sititng on a chair with a tan blanket draped over it. the baby is wearing a leather jacket. there's a bunch of money in front of him. it all kinda looks real except for one $100 bill which looks so fake so pretend that bill looks real too

It’s Not Nepotism; It’s Wealth.

<a href="https://twitter.com/petesegall?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pete Segall</a> lives in Chicago. His fiction has appeared in The Bennington Review, Conjunctions, The Drift, and elsewhere.

Pete Segall

The eponymous hospital in Lars Von Trier's supernatural soap "Kingdom"

After Two Decades Of Chaos, Lars Von Trier’s Supernatural Soap Opera ‘Kingdom’ Returns

Split image: My cat on a t-shirt; next to the same shirt in the 1995 film Hackers (with a different cat)

I Put My Cat On A T-Shirt That References The Movie ‘Hackers’ And You Can’t Stop Me

Finally, History Endorses Tagging!

Staff Writer
Find me on Signal @DefectorChris.19

Chris Thompson

A Disney World Pervert’s Take On: The Shitcanning Of Disney CEO Bob Chapek

Shamira Ibrahim is a Brooklyn-based culture writer by way of Harlem, Canada, and East Africa,&nbsp;who explores identity, cultural production and technology.

Shamira Ibrahim

Where Does Ye Go From Here?

Capital

It Shouldn’t Be This Hard To Buy Concert Tickets

This Is So Stupid

Did Emily Dickinson Have A Boston Accent? An Investigation

<a href="https://twitter.com/PeteCroatto" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/PeteCroatto&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1664986664225000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1IOCSnf8b8k47CXUQY8Wml">Pete Croatto </a>is the author of <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/From-Hang-Time-to-Prime-Time/Pete-Croatto/9781982103958" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/From-Hang-Time-to-Prime-Time/Pete-Croatto/9781982103958&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1664986664225000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0qtPVCYdWjoWnj-HRERk_r">From Hang Time to Prime Time: Business, Entertainment, and the Birth of the Modern-day NBA</a>. His sportswriting has appeared in many outlets, including The New York Times, The Athletic, The Toronto Star, Andscape, Shondaland, and SLAM.

Pete Croatto

<a href="https://twitter.com/DaveCroatto" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dave Croatto</a> has written for The Onion, The New Yorker’s Daily Shouts, MAD Magazine and Random House’s Little Golden Books. Once, in a diner, he saw a woman take a spoonful of complimentary mints from a bowl by the cash register, put the spoon directly into her mouth, and then place the spoon back in the bowl. The experience haunts him to this day.

Dave Croatto

An illustration of a hand holding a straight flush of Donruss Diamond Kings.