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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

Brandy Jensen

Arts And Culture

‘Last One Laughing UK’ Is Absurdly Funny

Annie Geng

‘The Drama’ Has More Going For It Than A Provocative Twist

Rafaela Bassili

Anatomy Of A Gaucho

Rachelle Hampton

A yellow path curves through sprays of purple irises.

Monet, Through The Iris

Eli Cugini

It’s Time To Grow Up

<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

The Gentle Parenting Of Ben Lerner’s ‘Transcription’

<p>Mychal Denzel Smith is the author of <i>Stakes Is High</i>, winner of the Kirkus Prize for Non-Fiction.</p>


Mychal Denzel Smith

I Demand That Jay-Z Perform All Of ‘Kingdom Come’ At His Yankee Stadium Concert

Annie Berke

‘Imperfect Women’ Is The Latest Entry In A Fittingly Flawed Genre

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


Nicholas Russell

Interviews

Namwali Serpell On Understanding Toni Morrison The Author, Not The Icon

Tom Ley

A side by side photo of Jorginho and Chappell Roan

Soccer

Chappell Roan And Jorginho Are Beefing

Kelsey McKinney

taylor frankie paul in a baby blue dress looks over her shoulder at the camera

The Not-At-All-Secret Life Of Taylor Frankie Paul

Eleanor Russell

The New Evangelists

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


Sabrina Imbler

A still from the trailer for Hoppers showing a beaver standing on a pile of machine rubble and proselytizing to a crowd of animals

Dam It All To Hell

Defector Staff

Announcements

We Have A New Culture Newsletter

Jonah Walters

Stephen Fishbach’s Reality-TV Novel Is More Reality TV Than Novel

Jaya Saxena

Fair Pay Feels Good In A Place Like This

Kathryn Xu

A poster of the American animated movie "GOAT" displayed in a cinema in Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China.

This Is So Stupid

A Series Of Facts About ‘Goat,’ The Steph Curry Goat Movie

Michael B. Jordan kisses his oscar wearing a brown suit with three small broaches on the lapel.

Brooches Won The Oscars

Israel Daramola

Paul Thomas Anderson accepting an Academy Award

Paul Thomas Anderson Finally Gets His Coronation

Alex Sujong Laughlin

Pete Davidson sits in a garage on an armchair. There's a giant TV on a second armchair with an image of Jon Stewart calling in remotely,

Netflix Has Trapped Pete Davidson In His Garage

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<p>Robert Rubsam writes fiction and nonfiction. His work has appeared in the NYT Magazine, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, the Baffler, and Liberties. He is a contributing writer for Commonweal Magazine.</p>
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Robert Rubsam

Lewis Pullman and Danielle Brooks announce the nominees for Original Score

The Academy Missed Some Of 2025’s Best Film Scores

Luis Paez-Pumar

It’s Just Another Day In ‘Paradise’ Cover Song Hell

Barry Petchesky

WRITER DAN SIMMONS PUBLISHES 'FIRES OF EDEN'

Defector Reads A Book

Dan Simmons Is Dead, So It’s Time To Read ‘Hyperion’

<p>Flatbush Local, Culture Writer, Former Mayor of New York City.</p>


Abe Beame

Lost Recipes


<p><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 <em>The Bennington Review</em>, <em>Conjunctions</em>, <em>The Drift</em>, and elsewhere.</p>


Pete Segall

A collage featuring three of the different paperback covers for "Cleo Birdwell"'s 1980 novel Amazons.