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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

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

Corey Atad

Interviews

Steven Soderbergh Says It’s Time To Tear The Streaming Model Down To The Studs

Soraya Roberts

Writers on strike march with signs on the picket line on day four of the strike by the Writers Guild of America in front of Netflix in Hollywood, California on May 5, 2023. - More than 11,000 Hollywood television and movie writers are on their first strike since 2007 after talks with studios and streamers over pay and working conditions failed to clinch a deal.

Arts And Culture

Is An Independent Hollywood Possible?

Albert Burneko

Paul Reubens Did Everything Funny

Adlan Jackson is a writer-editor at Hell Gate. He has written for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Pitchfork, Study Hall and more.

Adlan Jackson

The central branch of Brooklyn Public Library, wrapped in Jay-Z lyrics.

Is ‘The Book Of Hov’ Really For Anyone But Jay-Z?

Hayley Atwell and Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

‘Dead Reckoning’ Knows Exactly Who We Need Behind The Wheel

Alex Sujong Laughlin

Taylor Swift performing, with some help from a video projection of herself and some other smaller video versions of herself, during her show in Kansas City.

What Does Taylor’s Version Of The Past Look Like?

Israel Daramola

Season 2 Of ‘The Bear’ Is About Rooting For Your Guys

Crowds are seen in front of the stage as Lost Frequencies gives a DJ Performance concert on the second day of the Champions Festival, which is being prepared for the UEFA Champions League final to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 9, 2023.

I Just Want To Go To A Concert

Nicholas Russell is a writer from Las Vegas.

Nicholas Russell

Promotional image for Matthew McConaughey's Art Of Livin' event featuring McConaughey, Tony Robbins, Dean Graziosi, and Trent Shelton

The Art (And Commerce) Of Livin’: Five Dazed And Confusing Hours Of Matthew McConaughey’s Self-Help Seminar

Keith Paradise is a freelance writer who somehow won a Keystone Press Award during his 
decade spent as a newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania, where he covered sports, education, and 
the murder of a neighborhood turkey. Originally from Pittsburgh, he is a senior writer for 
Billiards Digest magazine and his name has appeared twice in the notable section of The Year’s 
Best Sports Writing anthology—including in 2024 for his Defector article on the rise and fall of 
sports clothing icon Starter.

Keith Paradise

A rack of Starter jackets, satin and pullover and polyester. Colorado Rockies is in the front.

The Rise And Fall Of Starter, The Coolest Company On Earth

Dave McKenna

Giri Nathan

Patrick Redford

TOPSHOT - Jumbo-Visma team's Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey (C), Jumbo-Visma team's Belgian rider Wout Van Aert wearing the sprinter's green jersey (C) and Jumbo-Visma team's American rider Sepp Kuss (R) celebrate with champagne as they cycle during the 21st and final stage of the 109th edition of the Tour de France cycling race, 115,6 km between La Defense Arena in Nanterre, outside Paris, and the Champs-Elysees in Paris, France, on July 24, 2022. (Photo by Thomas SAMSON / various sources / AFP) (Photo by THOMAS SAMSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Cycling

What Can Hardcore Fans And Curious Newbies Learn From ‘Tour de France: Unchained’?

Lauren Theisen

‘The Comeuppance’ Is The Great American Millennial Play

‘Across The Spider-Verse’ Reclaims Animation’s Pioneering Spirit

In Honor Of Cormac McCarthy, Let’s Reconsider ‘The Counselor’

I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. Episode 302 of I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. Cr.

“You Knew It Was Something Really Nasty”: How The Art Department Brings ‘I Think You Should Leave’ To Life

Gollum looks around; where are the buttholes?

Video Games

The Video Game Where You Play As A Tortured Wretch Isn’t Very Fun

‘The Idol’ Isn’t Good Enough To Be Shocking

Helene Yorke and Drew Tarver in The Other Two

Why ‘The Other Two’ Is So Good

The ‘Succession’ Misery Index: A Meal Fit For A King

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

Dan McQuade

Eight basketball players looking at the Last Supper but it's a basketball backboard

This Is So Stupid

My Pointless Quest To Double The Number Of Apostles At The Last Supper

Tom Ley

It’s Good When Action Movies Remember To Be A Little Silly

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

Movies Have A Reality Disease. ‘Sisu’ Is The Cure

17 February 2023, Berlin: Matt Johnson, director, arrives for the photocall of the film "BlackBerry". Berlinale is one of the major film festivals and lasts until February 26, 2023.

‘BlackBerry’ Director Matt Johnson Is Not Wearing An Outfit

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

Kelly Reichardt directing Michelle Williams on Showing Up