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Defector

Samer Kalaf

New York Islanders Raise Money For A Convicted Killer Because He’s A Cop

Dave McKenna

An illustration of feet walking over a chalk outline

Stories

The Killing That Won’t Let Go

Investigations Editor. You can contact her at diana@defector.com or dfmoskovitz@protonmail.com. She&#8217;s also on Signal @dmoskovitz.99

Diana Moskovitz

A screenshot of Dianna Russini when she appeared on the Dan Patrick show. She's sitting in a chair and talking into a microphone

You Can Never Let Them Think They Have A Chance

Craig Fehrman last wrote for Defector about <a href="https://defector.com/it-never-ends-like-it-should" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://defector.com/it-never-ends-like-it-should&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1775741247521000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1R6Fh05yMdaM2z1ukPQtbb">the death of Iris</a>, his NBA-loving neighbor. His book <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/This-Vast-Enterprise/Craig-Fehrman/9781982174248">This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis and Clark</a> comes out on April 21.

Craig Fehrman

Map showing the route taken by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their first expedition from the Missouri River near St. Louis, Missouri, to the mouth of the Columbia River at the Pacific Ocean in Oregon and the return trip to St. Louis. The expedition took place from May 14, 1804 to September 23, 1806.

History

The Hardest Part Of History To Tell Is How It Felt

Barry Petchesky

Earthset captured through the Orion spacecraft window at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon. A muted blue Earth with bright white clouds sets behind the cratered lunar surface. The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime. On Earth’s day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region. In the foreground, Ohm crater has terraced edges and a flat floor interrupted by central peaks. Central peaks form in complex craters when the lunar surface, liquefied on impact, splashes upwards during the crater’s formation.

Science

Why We Fly

Eli Cugini

Arts And Culture

It’s Time To Grow Up

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA - APRIL 01: (EDITOR'S NOTE: Getty Images provides access to this publicly distributed image for editorial purposes and is not the copyright owner. Additional permissions may be required and are the sole responsibility of the end user.) In this handout image provided by NASA, NASA's Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist onboard launches on the Artemis II mission, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, from Launch Complex 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA's Artemis II mission will take Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back aboard their Orion spacecraft. The quartet launched at 6:35 p.m. EDT, from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. (Photo by Aubrey Gemignani/NASA/Getty Images)

Artemis Boldly Goes Where No Toilet Has Gone Before

Hamilton Nolan is a journalist based in New York City. Subscribe to his work at <a href="https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1687350200913000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0naFbUVOe-5ZgtPDtIM3gz">HamiltonNolan.com</a>.

Hamilton Nolan

The Machines

Go Ahead And Use AI. It Will Only Help Me Dominate You.

Piles of dirty snow and discarded trees, backdropped by a wet, gray sky. One featureless building is visible in the background. On the whole, not a postcard view.

Life's Rich Pageant

We Asked The Mayor Of Ottawa Why He Keeps Posting Such Grim Photos

A hand holding a phone with a tapeworm coming out of it

Gambling

Why I Got Out Of The Gambling Business

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

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

Eleanor Russell

The New Evangelists

Staff Writer
Find me on Signal @DefectorChris.19

Chris Thompson

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

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

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

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

Flatbush Local, Culture Writer, Former Mayor of New York City.

Abe Beame

Lost Recipes

<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 The Bennington Review, Conjunctions, The Drift, and elsewhere.

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

charismatic megafauna (they/them)

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.

Blogs Of Note