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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

Dave McKenna

A story in the Wright State Daily Guardian about Robert Pollard's no-hitter for Wright State University on March 11, 1978.

Celebrating Robert Pollard’s No-Hitter And The Rock-Jock Nexus

Soraya Roberts

Kelly Reichardt directing Michelle Williams on Showing Up

Indie Cinema Is Now Genre Cinema

Israel Daramola

Arts And Culture

Cam’ron And Mase Argue About Sports Now, And It’s Working

Alex Sujong Laughlin

Writers Guild of America members walk the picket line on the first day of their strike in front of Amazon studios on Tuesday, May 2, 2023.

Reality TV Won’t Fix What’s Broken About Hollywood Economics

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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

Audrey Kim, curator and artist, talks about the piece "Genesis: In The Beginning Was The Word" by Eurypheus at the Misalignment Museum on March 8, 2023 in San Francisco, California. - A new exhibition titled the Misalignment Museum opened to the public in San Francisco on March 9th, 2023, featuring funny or disturbing AI art works, supposed to help visitors think about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence. (Photo by Amy Osborne / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY MENTION OF THE ARTIST UPON PUBLICATION - TO ILLUSTRATE THE EVENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CAPTION (Photo by AMY OSBORNE/AFP via Getty Images)

The Machines

AI Art Sucks Ass And You Should Say It’s Bad

<div>Adam Charles Hart is an author, curator, and archivist who lives in Pittsburgh. His second book, &#8216;<i>Raising the Dead: The Work of George A. Romero, </i>will be out in early 2024 from Oxford University Press.</div>
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Adam Charles Hart

An evil zombie poking its head up from behind a black wall, and at the bottom it says DIRECTED BY GEORGE A. ROMERO. And zombie has baseball stitches on his head. And then above there are comic word bubbles that say things like "OJ SIMPSON" and "BRUNO SAMMARTINO" and "REGGIE JACKSON" and "FRANCO HARRIS"

Remembering “The Winners,” George Romero’s Forgotten Sports Documentary Series

Kelsey McKinney

The Bluesky app can be seen on a smartphone. The service of the Twitter alternative Bluesky can only be used with invitations so far, so that the infrastructure is not overloaded in one go.

The Internet Isn’t Meant To Be So Small

John Mulaney Still Goes For The Laugh First

Beef. Steven Yeun as Danny in episode 102 of Beef.

Steven Yeun Knows What To Do With How He Looks

<p>John Semley is a writer and researcher based in Philadelphia.</p>


John Semley

Clint Eastwood at a podium, it's an animated GIF, and different Clint Eastwood fake twitter accounts slowly fill the screen

This Is So Stupid

A Fistful Of Eastwoos: Inside The Battle For Clint Twitter

David Roth

The United States Supreme Court building seen from a distance, through a window, from inside a darkened room.

Politics

The Art Of American Conservatism

How Did Hip-Hop Media Get So Bad?


<p>Corey Atad is a freelancer writer based in Toronto with an unhealthy Air Bud obsession.</p>


Corey Atad

‘How To Blow Up A Pipeline’ Is A Film About Action


<p>Annie Rauwerda is a writer and comedian from Michigan. She loves Wikipedia, digital archives, and her cat.</p>


Annie Rauwerda

Life's Rich Pageant

In Search Of Wikipedia’s Shrug Guy

‘Cry Wolf’ Shows How Easy It Is To Blame The Victim

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


Dan McQuade

The messed up basketball court shaped like a parallelogram

They Turned This Museum Into A Basketball Court And It Rules

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


Nicholas Russell

Keanu Reeves as John Wick, holding a handgun, with the text "Check Out the JW Collection" and a "shop now" button

The Gunplay Of ‘John Wick’ Is A Bit Too Real For Comfort

Silicon Valley entrepreneur Marc Andreessen onstage at the TechCrunch Disrupt festival in 2016.

The Limits Of The Billionaire Imagination Are Everyone’s Problem

Lauren Theisen

‘How To Defend Yourself’ Knows That You Will Fail To Solve Rape Culture

A Mark Rothko painting, featuring his signature planes of color, on display in Munich's Kunsthalle in 2008.

Bob Nightengale Is Capturing The World Baseball Classic As Only He Can

David Spade on the set of his 2019 late-night series on Comedy Central.

It’s Hollywood’s Biggest Night And All The Stars Are Out, With Vince Mancini

AI Art Only Looks Like Art If You Don’t Care

No, That Movie Was Not All A Dream

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<div class="gmail_default">Sophie Lewis is a writer based in Philadelphia, and the author of <i>Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation</i> as well as <i>Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family</i>. You can support Sophie&#8217;s writing at <a href="http://patreon.com/reproutopia" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://patreon.com/reproutopia&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1676579571242000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0v46ws-benlRFZQr_vtOrj">patreon.com/reproutopia</a>.</div>
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Sophie Lewis

Rihanna Rubbed Her Belly And Broke A Million Brains

NEW ORLEANS - JULY 03: Musician David Jude Jolicoeur better known as Trugoy of De La Soul performs at the 2010 Essence Music Festival at the Louisiana Superdome on July 3, 2010 in New Orleans, Louisiana.