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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

Israel Daramola

Arts And Culture

Somewhere Between Pettiness And Journalism Lies Netflix’s Diddy Documentary

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


Sabrina Imbler

Alex Sujong Laughlin

Kelsey McKinney

a photo of a woman dressed in drag as Santa Claus holding a flaming shot glass looking at a blurry man

Defector Watches A Christmas Movie: ‘My Secret Santa’

Jack Hanson

Patricia Lockwood’s Inexhaustible Mind

David Roth

A crop of four images of people kind of partying and hanging out from Ken Ohara's "Contacts" show at The Whitney, with the relevant Whitney credit language superimposed at lower right.

Make Yourself At Home


<p><a href="http://Feldman.cool" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Brian Feldman</a> is a software engineer living in Brooklyn.</p>


Brian Feldman

tim robinson using the computer in the chair company

‘The Chair Company’ Is A Show About How Fun It Is To Use The Computer

<p>August <span class="il">Prum</span> is a writer and filmmaker based in Queens.</p>


August Prum

Martin Donovan, Elina Lowensohn, and Bill Sage, left to right, dance in an empty restaurant in a scene from Hal Hartley's film "Simple Men."

Hal Hartley Is Still Figuring It All Out Onscreen

Dave McKenna

a still from the movie Jingle Bell Heist, with Lucy Punch in a fascinator looking at Connor Swindells

Defector Watches A Christmas Movie: ‘Jingle Bell Heist’

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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

‘Train Dreams’ Is Afraid Of Its Own Shadow

Tim Robinson Understands What The Boys Are Going Through

a photo of the set of the broadway musical Chess, with a sign that says CHESS, and the chorus standing for bows in front of it

‘Chess: The Musical’ Is Somehow More Of A Musical About Chess Than You Can Imagine

Ralph Jones

Interviews

An Illuminating Conversation With The Man Who Was Willem Dafoe’s Stunt Penis

elyse myers in a yellow shirt smiles at the camera

How Normal Is A Celebrity Allowed To Be? 

Barry Petchesky

The Eyes Have It

Patrick Redford

Thomas Pynchon Is Laughing All The Way To The Brink

<p>Alex Shultz is a journalist based in Brooklyn. He&#8217;s a writer for <a href="https://www.hardresetmedia.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hardresetmedia.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1763581679564000&amp;usg=AOvVaw07bi0TNndgTXDN2QH72s3J">Hard Reset,</a> a newsletter about tech, labor, and power.</p>


Alex Shultz

US Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, looks at his cellphone in between Senate votes to reopen the government on day 41 of the government shutdown at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, November 10, 2025. The longest-ever US government shutdown appeared headed Monday to an eventual resolution, after several Democratic senators broke ranks to join Republicans in advancing a compromise deal -- sparking intra-party backlash.

Politics

John Fetterman’s Memoir Is As Low-Effort As His Senate Tenure

Joel Pinckney

‘The High Heaven’ Is A Beautifully Grounded Debut Novel

Mark Asch

‘Bugonia’ Makes A Crash Landing

<p><a href="http://www.ddavisla.com"><span style="font-weight: 400">David Davis </span></a>is the author of <i>Wheels of Courage: How Paralyzed Veterans From World War II Invented Wheelchair Sports, Fought for Disability Rights, and Inspired a Nation</i> and <i>Waterman: The Life and Times of Duke Kahanamoku</i>. He lives in Los Angeles.</p>
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David Davis

Marty Reisman, holder of 18 International and US National table tennis titles, and author of the 1974 book "The Money Player" in which he described his life traveling the world, playing high-stakes matches. Reisman won the 1997 United States National Hardbat championship. Now at age 77, he is probably the oldest person ever to win an open US national title in a racquet sport. (Photo by Neville Elder/Corbis via Getty Images)

Table Tennis

The Real Marty Supreme

oscar isaac as frankenstein gazes up at his creature on a cross

Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’ Is Flawed Because His Creature Is Not

In ‘Die My Love,’ Motherhood Is A Mad Mad Mad World

<p>Jae Towle Vieira [they/them] works as a producer for Normal Gossip. Their fiction has been published in <i data-stringify-type="italic">The Normal School</i>, <i data-stringify-type="italic">New England Review, Carve Magazine, Passages North, Fairy Tale Review</i>, and elsewhere.</p>


Jae Towle Vieira

Here Is What Reading To My Child Has Done To My Brain

Don’t Watch ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere’ Unless You Want To Cry About Your Dad

<p>Cat Fitzpatrick is the Editrix at <a href="http://www.littlepuss.net" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.littlepuss.net&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1762370146099000&amp;usg=AOvVaw32JizYx318M3PPu4pk8ywT">LittlePuss Press</a> and teaches at Rutgers University—Newark. Her novel-in-rhyme<i> <a href="https://www.sevenstories.com/books/4458-the-call-out" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.sevenstories.com/books/4458-the-call-out&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1762370146099000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0x1xQpV0dOeP9rAfMJufQ_">The Call-Out</a> </i>won the 2023 Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Fiction. Her next book <i>The Dinner Party: A Book About Love</i> is due out in May 2026 and you can pre-order it <a href="https://www.sevenstories.com/books/4817-the-dinner-party" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.sevenstories.com/books/4817-the-dinner-party&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1762370146099000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2GA0SB3SAFIWLj_EdeVhey">here</a>.</p>


Cat Fitzpatrick

Unearthing The Hidden History Of A Singular Trans Punk Zine

Kelly Reichardt’s Labors Of Love

<p><a href="https://tomwhyman.com/">Tom Whyman</a> is a British philosopher.</p>
