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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.

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Defector

The Defector Crewneck Sweatshirt Is Back In Stock

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Merch v3

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Defector Staff

circa 1897: Portrait of actor John Martin Harvey (1867 - 1944) reading to two children on a postcard.

J Martin Harvey

Year In Review

The Best Things We Read In 2024

John Saward

Clockwise from top: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Carol Coombs, Jimmy Hawkins, Larry Simms and Karolyn Grimes.

One of the Final Scenes from Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life

Arts And Culture

How Can A Life Be Wonderful?

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Kelsey McKinney

“It Ends With Us” UK Gala Screening – VIP Arrivals

The Narrative Is All That Matters


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


Typing

Sabrina Imbler

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Rachelle Hampton

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Justin Ellis

chad michael murray and two other male revue dancers are shirtless in suspenders in front of a green fundraising chart

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Defector At The Movies

Defector Watches A Christmas Movie: ‘The Merry Gentlemen’

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Maitreyi Anantharaman

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Giri Nathan

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Patrick Redford

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David Roth

Firefighters wash up after fighting the O'Brien Creek fire. Lolo national Forest, Montana, August 21, 1940.

Firefighters Wash Up After Forest Fire

Defector Reads A Book

Racing With Mortality In Norman Maclean’s ‘Young Men And Fire’

An old timey drive-in, with an old-timey pickup truck in front of it. The front of the drive in says "DRIVE-IN THEATRE. SIT IN YOUR CAR. SEE AND HEAR TALKING PICTURES. ON THE WORLD'S LARGEST SCREEN. Californa's First." There's also a neon entrance sign. The photo is black and white. The Year in Review Defector graphic is at the bottom.

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The Best Things We Saw In 2024

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Israel Daramola

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‘Babygirl’ Wants To Know Your Fantasy

<p>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 <em>Point B</em>. Handsomest man in the world.</p>


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Drew Magary

A bunch of Cardinals sit in their pointy white hats in a screengrab from Edward Berger's 2024 film Conclave.

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The Ending Of ‘Conclave’ Was Cheap And Stupid

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Alan Kluegel

Denzel Washington looking incredibly sinister and cool in Gladiator II.

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II Decadent II Decrepit: The Politics Of ‘Gladiator II’

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Lauren Theisen

Still from Carmelita Tropicana. A person in sunglasses and a person in leather holding a neon plunger interrogate a man tied to a chair.

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‘Give Me Carmelita Tropicana!’ Seizes The Full Potential Of The Theater

<p>A Rockies fan by birth and a White Sox fan by geographic proximity, Annie Howard spends her non-suffering sports moments ardently rooting for the Nuggets and the Orioles.</p>


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Annie Howard

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Perform At The National Stadium

Music

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Works Hard To Hope

An artistic interpretation of artificial intelligence, showing a stack of books surrounding a laptop with a pixelated face on it

AI Chat Illustration Photos

The Machines

There’s No Shortcut To Publishing A Book

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Food

I Loved How Much Ugly Baby Hated Me

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Luis Paez-Pumar

Normal Gossip: portraits

Alex Sujong Laughlin

Lindsay Lohan sitting on a chair opening a book that reads "Construction Proposal Lifestyle Complex"

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Defector Watches A Christmas Movie: ‘Our Little Secret’

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


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Nicholas Russell

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‘The Village’ Still Has Questions To Ask

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<div>Casey Taylor is a writer living and working in Pittsburgh. He is currently writing a book for St. Martin&#8217;s Press about cannabis religions, Haile Selassie I, and the Cold War in the Caribbean. He also writes a free newsletter called <a href="https://weedchurch.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://weedchurch.substack.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1709306863919000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1mVH2xiID6S0zvlyj6yHco">Weed Church</a> covering foolish spiritual things that occur to him. His work has appeared in The New Republic, WIRED, New York Magazine, and a sports blog he can’t currently recall the name of. You can <a href="mailto:caseyt7@gmail.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">email</a> him if you’d like.</div>
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Casey Taylor

The crowded work bench of New York tattooist Charlie Wagner in the 1940's. (Photo by FPG/Getty Images)

Tattooist Work Bench

How Do You Preserve Tattoo History When Skin And Memory Fail?

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Soraya Roberts

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Crowd Work Isn’t A Substitute For Comedy

Dave McKenna

A still from a movie. a white woman in a red coat and a red beanie stands in front of a dilapidated house that needs fixing up.

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Defector Watches A Christmas Movie: ‘’Tis The Season To Be Irish’