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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

Remind Everyone That Your Team Sucks

WYTS shirt

Merch v3

<p><span style="font-weight: 400">Erik Baker is a historian and an associate editor at </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">The Drift.</span></i></p>


Erik Baker

Professor Richard Dawkins next to a bus displaying an atheist message in Kensington Gardens, London.

richard-dawkins-atheism

Mods Asleep

The Ghosts Of New Atheism Still Haunt Us

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<p>Charles P. Pierce is a writer at <em>Esquire</em> and the author of four books, most recently <em>Idiot America</em>, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston with his wife but no longer his three children.</p>
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Charles P. Pierce

Portland Trail Blazers' Bill Walton, who received many accolades for his performance on the court, is depicted here. Walton would later go on to pursue a career off the court as a sports broadcaster and an actor in feature films.

Portrait of Bill Walton

Bill Walton Let His Joy Flourish

2019-01-01 00:15:14.989

Maitreyi Anantharaman

Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever looks on during the game against the New York Liberty on May 16, 2024 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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WNBA

On The Caitlin Clark Beat, Everyone’s Plotting

<p>Nick Zarzycki is a Toronto-based writer whose work has appeared in the <i data-stringify-type="italic">Washington Post</i>, <i data-stringify-type="italic">Deadspin</i> and <i data-stringify-type="italic">Toronto Life</i>.</p>


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Nick Zarzycki

A wizard dressed in a suit looks upon a fortress on a hill as lightning bolts and dollar bills dot the sky

Games

The Creator Of ‘Magic: The Gathering’ Knows Exactly Where It All Went Wrong


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


Typing

Sabrina Imbler

An ancient grave with a skeleton with both masculine and feminine signifiers.

ancientgraves

Science

Can We Exhume Gender From The Long-Dead?

<p>Puja Changoiwala is an award-winning journalist and author based in Mumbai. <a href="https://www.pujachangoiwala.com/">This</a> is her website.</p>


Puja Changoiwala

An image of the frontline in the Russia/Ukraine war, with an image of Mohammed Sufiyan, who was lured into that conflict by an Indian YouTube influencer.

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Politics

How A YouTuber Duped Indians Into The Russia-Ukraine War

<div>Nate Jackson is a former NFL tight end and author of <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/slow-getting-up-a-story-of-nfl-survival-from-the-bottom-of-the-pile-nate-jackson/6430451?gclid=Cj0KCQjwpc-oBhCGARIsAH6ote9JzWMngZDpSjF2eoL1_JlyPm2QhDfkNgOzqvaB4n9ic0qqUNQ4iCwaAsasEALw_wcB"><em>Slow Getting Up</em></a>. He lives in Denver.</div>
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Nate Jackson

Drawing of cannabis industry people chasing after a football player.

NFL Weed

I Wish I’d Never Become The NFL Weed Guy

Jackson Holliday #7 of the Baltimore Orioles looks on during batting practice prior to a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on April 12, 2024 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Milwaukee Brewers v Baltimore Orioles

Here’s How The White Sox Can Still Lose 100 Games, But In An Interesting Way

<p>Asher Elbein is <a href="https://www.asherelbein.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.asherelbein.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1712179533443000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2CJ0U-vHMdK0s6sOdzlGGF">a journalist and fiction writer</a> based in Austin, Texas. Among other places, his work has appeared in The New York Times, Scientific American, Undark Magazine, Audubon, and Texas Monthly.</p>


Asher Elbein

An illustration of Magneto placing a yarmulke atop his head.

Magneto (1)

History

The Judgment Of Magneto

<p><span class="il">Hoang</span>&#8211;<span class="il">Kim</span> Vu is the co-editor of the Defector Crossword. His puzzles have appeared in multiple venues, including the New York Times, L.A. Times, and USA Today.</p>


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Hoang-Kim Vu

Three competitors take part in the ACPT final

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The World’s Fastest Crossword Solvers Can’t Tell You How To Do This

Cathy Engelbert and the draftees pose for a photo during the 2024 WNBA Draft on April 14, 2024 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn, New York.

2024-wnba-draft

Caitlin Clark And The Two-Way Street

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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

Having escaped a raging war at home, Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia face more conflict and insecurity as the border region of Amhara is plagued by unrest and clashes that sees the Ethiopian National Defense Force battling an ethnic Amhara militia known as 'Fano'. According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) over 100,000 people have crossed into Ethiopia from Sudan since April 2023. Sudanese and other refugees in the border camps in Amhara lament a lack of security, difficult communication with the outside world - the Ethiopian government has disrupted access to mobile internet in the region since August 2023 - and a general sense of abandonment, raising the question if they fled a dire situation to end up in similar one. (Photo by )

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Journalismism

How Do You Get Americans To Care About A War?

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Samer Kalaf

Caitlin Clark daps up Jake From State Farm, for some reason, at the WNBA Draft

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This Is So Stupid

Send Jake To A Farm Upstate

<p>Alex Prewitt is a writer in Brooklyn. He shoots free throws the normal way.</p>


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Alex Prewitt

The inside of Jamsil Arena, home of the Korean Basketball League's Seoul Thunders.

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Life's Rich Pageant

A Journey To Korea In Search Of The Bank-Shot Free Throw

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David Roth

New York City Mayor Eric Adams smiles and gives a thumbs-up at an MTA event in January of 2023.

Mayor Eric Adams attends a joint press briefing with

Capital

Does It Matter That AI Doesn’t Work?

College Basketball: NCAA Final Four, North Carolina State David Thompson (44) victorious with net after winning game vs UCLA, Greensboro, NC 3/24/1974

North Carolina State David Thompson, 1974 NCAA Semifinals

College Basketball

50 Years Later, My First Final Four Is Still The Best

<p>Kevin Koczwara is a writer, reporter and dad in beautiful Worcester, Mass.</p>


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Kevin Koczwara

Pianist Vikingur Olafsson performs at a concert in 2018.

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Arts And Culture

Víkingur Ólafsson Plays The Familiar And Makes It His Own

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Kathryn Xu

A screenshot of an ESPN broadcast, featuring a live win probability graphic displaying a 35-percent Dodgers win probability, and Chris Taylor making a beaver face.

chrisTaylorWinProbability2

ESPN’s Win Probability Graphic Wants To Give You Gambling Brain

<p>Dan Gentile is a writer, editor, and DJ based in San Francisco by way of Austin, TX. He works as the culture editor at SFGATE and has freelanced for publications like The Ringer, Rolling Stone, Texas Monthly, Wax Poetics, and more. Find more of his work at <a href="http://dangentile.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://dangentile.net&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1711040620694000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3XTZa73tUKo0JIWhdqylUa">dangentile.net</a> and on that <a href="https://twitter.com/Dannosphere" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/Dannosphere&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1711040620694000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3jvqFxajyG27FDs81Ssg-S">terrible social media site</a>.</p>


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Dan Gentile

sixstringsoldiers

Partying With The U.S. Army At South By Southwest

<p>Sam Eagan is a freelance reporter and documentary producer based out of Brooklyn, by way of the high plains of Wyoming. He was a Division I wrestler for the University of Wyoming.</p>


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Sam Eagan

Wrestlers warm up on the mat during the 2017 NCAA Wrestling Championships in St. Louis.

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College Wrestling

The Blood Round Is Where College Wrestlers With Nothing To Lose Have Something To Win

Dave McKenna

An illustration showing a figure run into and out of the frame.

Didnt Die

Stories

When The Night You Didn’t Die Never Ends

<p>I am an independent writer/journalist based in New Delhi, India. I mainly work on long-form reportage on conflict, gender, climate, culture, intersection of technology and human agency. Published with the Al Jazeera Journalism Review, Aljazeera Digital, Defector, C S Monitor.</p>


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Meher Qadri

Two divers jump into the foamy Yamuna River

Divers

Climate

The Yamuna River’s Treasure Divers Fight More Than Poverty To Survive

<p>Stefan Fatsis is the author of <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/word-freak-heartbreak-triumph-genius-and-obsession-in-the-world-of-competitive-scrabblep-layers-stefan-fatsis/11648962"><em>Word Freak</em></a>, <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-few-seconds-of-panic-a-sportswriter-plays-in-the-nfl-stefan-fatsis/7891278"><em>A Few Seconds of Panic</em></a>, and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Outside-Renegade-Baseball-Heartland/dp/0802712975"><em>Wild and Outside</em></a>, and is a co-host of Slate’s weekly sports podcast, “<a href="https://slate.com/podcasts/hang-up-and-listen">Hang Up and Listen</a>.” He used to write about sports for the <em>Wall Street Journal </em>and talk about them on NPR. His daughter has a much higher Scrabble rating than he does.</p>


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Stefan Fatsis

Scrabble World Champion Nigel Richards holds up a trophy and shows the final winning board in London in 2018

World Scrabble Championship

From TED To PERNOCTATED, Scrabble’s Best Player Knows No Limits

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Albert Burneko

Sen. Kyrtsen Sinema (D-AZ) speaks at a news conference after the Senate passed the Respect for Marriage Act at the Capitol Building on November 29, 2022.

Senate Votes On Respect for Marriage Act

Point/Counterpoint: Senator Kyrsten Sinema Retires

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Patrick Redford

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 04: Malik Monk #0 of the Sacramento Kings passes the ball around Alex Caruso #6 and Jevon Carter #5 of the Chicago Bulls in the second half at Golden 1 Center on March 04, 2024 in Sacramento, California. 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 Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

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