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Defector

Barry Petchesky

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - MARCH 23: Travelers stand in long lines at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on March 23, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia.The travel disruptions continue as hundreds of TSA agents quit or work without pay during a partial government shutdown. U.S. President Donald Trump said ICE agents will be deployed to U.S. airports on Monday, with border czar Tom Homan in charge of the effort.(Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images)

Politics

ICE Agents Deployed To Nation’s Swamped Airports To Stand Around And Do Nothing

Kelsey McKinney

taylor frankie paul in a baby blue dress looks over her shoulder at the camera

Arts And Culture

The Not-At-All-Secret Life Of Taylor Frankie Paul

Eleanor Russell

The New Evangelists

<p>Staff Writer</p>
<p>Find me on Signal @DefectorChris.19</p>


Chris Thompson

A grainy black-and-white 1981 photo showing something that looks like an ape striding out of the woods.

Science

What Did The Migrating Bigfoot Family Know About This Ohio Meteor Explosion?

Albert Burneko

I Will Never Forgive Trae Young For Surpassing Kobe Bryant’s Career High For Assists In A Game Eight Times

Israel Daramola

The Atlanta Hawks’ Magic City Night Was Too Misunderstood To Live

David Roth

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives ahead a meeting with Paraguay's Foreign Minister Ruben Ramirez Lezcano at the State Department in Washington, DC on December 15, 2025.

Report: President Donald Trump Is Giving “All The Boys” Dress Shoes That Don’t Fit Right

<p>Former Defector intern, now freelancer.</p>
<p>For professional inquiries or tips please write lucybl00m@protonmail.com or yuck.20 on Signal.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


Lucy Bloom

A Helpful Explainer Of Kansas’s Lunatic Anti-Trans Law

Giri Nathan

Giannis Antetokounmpo #34 of the Milwaukee Bucks looks on during the first quarter against the Indiana Pacers at Fiserv Forum on February 06, 2026 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

An Interview With A Tenant Who Doesn’t Have Heat In Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Building

<p>Flatbush Local, Culture Writer, Former Mayor of New York City.</p>


Abe Beame

Lost Recipes


<p><a href="https://twitter.com/petesegall?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pete Segall</a> lives in Chicago. His fiction has appeared in <em>The Bennington Review</em>, <em>Conjunctions</em>, <em>The Drift</em>, and elsewhere.</p>


Pete Segall

A collage featuring three of the different paperback covers for "Cleo Birdwell"'s 1980 novel Amazons.

Don DeLillo’s Funniest Novel Is A 1980 Hockey Sex Romp He Won’t Acknowledge

FBI Director Kash Patel is sworn in before testifying during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation" on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on September 16, 2025. Patel faces the Senate panel amid criticism of his handling of the investigation into the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the case of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Anyone Want To See Kash Patel Fall On His Ass While Playing Hockey?

Luis Paez-Pumar

Football journalist Fabrizio Romano during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD6 match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and FC Internazionale Milano at BayArena on December 10, 2024 in Leverkusen, Germany.

Soccer

Why Is Soccer’s Most Famous Scoopster Doing PR Work For Saudi Arabia?

Nate Rogers

Jason Lee at Netflix and Shondaland's "The Residence" Los Angeles Premiere at The Egyptian Theatre

A Complimentary Profile Of Jason Lee That Was Surprisingly Difficult To Publish

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


Sabrina Imbler

Baby monkey named 'Punch' is seen with a stuffed animal at a zoo on February 20, 2026, in north of Tokyo, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Abandoned by his mother at birth, the monkey found comfort with a stuffed animal.

Creaturefector

The Mournful Ballad Of Punch The Monkey

a screenshot of an email exchange with "Elena Ferrante", which contains six back-and-forth emails out of an exchange of 12

Life's Rich Pageant

What I Learned From My Annoyingly Long Correspondence With “Elena Ferrante”

Lauren Theisen

The U.S. Olympic men's ice hockey team arrives for U.S. President Donald Trump's State of the Union

Olympics

The U.S. Hockey Men Spoil The Fantasy

<p>The author can be reached at postpostdoc@protonmail.com.</p>


Post-Postdoc

Mech Mind automatic vending robot gives a thumbs-up after fetching beverages from a shelf at the exhibition area of the 2025 World AI Conference (WAIC) and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance on July 27, 2025 in Shanghai, China.

The Machines

Something Of Moderate Size And Importance Is Happening

<p>Maya Goldberg-Safir writes about women’s basketball and splits her time between Chicago and Oakland, where she was born and raised. She is the creator of <a href="https://wnbaroughnotes.substack.com/">Rough Notes</a>, a newsletter chronicling women’s basketball from the court, the road, and the heart.</p>


Maya Goldberg-Safir

Women's Basketball

Cardte Hicks Played Above The Rim And Ahead Of Her Time

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<div dir="ltr">Georgia Cloepfil is the author of <i>The Striker and the Clock</i> (Riverhead, 2024). Her other writing can be found in <i>The Yale Review</i>, The New York <i>Times</i> Magazine, <i>n+1 </i>and elsewhere.</div>
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Georgia Cloepfil

The Suffering Of Lindsey Vonn

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


Nicholas Russell

Interviews

Where Is Cinema?: An Interview With A.S. Hamrah


<p>Michael is a writer who has worked with The Atlantic, The New Yorker, WIRED, Vox, The New York Times, and other publications. His first book, <em>The Other Olympians</em>, which uncovers the stories of several European athletes who transitioned gender in the 1930s, is now available for purchase.</p>


Michael Waters

Officials in hazmat suits remove a medal around an olympian's neck

Chromosome Testing Will Take Sports Back To The Dark Ages

Marc Kennedy of Team Canada competes in the curling men's round robin between Canada and USA during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium in Cortina d’Ampezzo on February 13, 2026. (Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP)

The Big Canada-Sweden Curling Beef, Explained

Kathryn Xu

Ilia Malinin of Team United States reacts after competing in the Men Single Skating on day seven of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Ice Skating Arena on February 13, 2026 in Milan, Italy.

Even Ilia Malinin Is Mortal

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<div>Rena Behar is a Brooklyn-based writer and editor specializing in responsible travel and various international oddities.</div>
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Blogs Of Note