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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

Buy a Defector Gift Subscription, Get A (Different) Gift Subscription

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2025 gift subs

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Brandy Jensen

US-POLITICS-CORRESPONDENTS

Arts And Culture

American Cant

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Defector Staff

American director, producer, and actor Rob Reiner gestures near a camera while crew members surround him outdoors on the set of his film, 'North.'

Rob Reiner Directs

Defector’s Favorite Rob Reiner Credits

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Dan Schindel

Protest Against the World Trade Organization

Interviews

Filmmaker Ian Bell On ‘WTO/99’ And The Legacy Of The Battle In Seattle

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Kelsey McKinney

a woman with brown hair wearing a jacket leans forward in the back of a car

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Defector At The Movies

Everything I Remember About ‘Ella McCay’

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Kathryn Xu

Daniel Craig as the detective Benoit Blanc in a still from 'Wake Up Dead Man'

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‘Wake Up Dead Man’ Defines Justice Differently

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Becca Young

Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour – Sydney, Australia

Maggie Nelson Sputters And Stalls In ‘The Slicks’

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Israel Daramola

Giggs And Diddy Perform At O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire In A Special One Night Only Event

Somewhere Between Pettiness And Journalism Lies Netflix’s Diddy Documentary

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


Typing

Sabrina Imbler

Normal Gossip: portraits

Alex Sujong Laughlin

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

Screenshot 2025-12-08 at 5.06.13 PM

Defector Watches A Christmas Movie: ‘My Secret Santa’

Jack Hanson

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Patricia Lockwood’s Inexhaustible Mind

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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.

Ohara

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>


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Brian Feldman

tim robinson using the computer in the chair company

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‘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."

SimpleMen

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

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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

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‘Train Dreams’ Is Afraid Of Its Own Shadow

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Tim Robinson Understands What The Boys Are Going Through

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

Ralph Jones

“Late Fame” Photocall – The 82nd Venice International Film Festival

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

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2022 VidCon

How Normal Is A Celebrity Allowed To Be? 

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Barry Petchesky

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The Eyes Have It

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Patrick Redford

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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>


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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.

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Politics

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

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Joel Pinckney

Gypsum dune fields at White Sands National Monument located within the Chihuahuan Desert and the Tularosa Basin near Alamorodo, New Mexico, USA

‘The High Heaven’ Is A Beautifully Grounded Debut Novel

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Mark Asch

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‘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)