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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

NYC: Come To Our WNBA Comedy Show On May 16

Ten Minute Quarters comedy show at 3:2 ratio

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Live Event

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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

Payton Pritchard #11 of the Boston Celtics attempts a three-point basket against the New Orleans Pelicans during the second quarter at the TD Garden on January 12, 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts. 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.

New Orleans Pelicans v Boston Celtics

Payton Pritchard Brings The Hush

Screenshot 2025-03-03 at 5.14.33 PM

Mark Asch

Screenshot 2025-03-06 at 11.46.04 AM

Interviews

‘Eephus’ Director Carson Lund On Baseball As A Way Of Being

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


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Alex Prewitt

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How “Ball Don’t Lie” Became More Than A Basketball Mantra

Robert Pastore

New York correctional officers and sergeants continue their strike for a second week outside of the Coxsackie Correctional Facility on February 28, 2025 in Coxsackie, Greene, New York.

New York Prison Guards Strike Over Proclaimed Unsafe Working Conditions

Policing

What The Corrections Officer Strike Means To Incarcerated People Like Me

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<div class="p-rich_text_section">Tom Scocca is the editor of <a href="http://indignity.net">Indignity</a>, a subscription-supported newsletter of news, essays, and commentary.</div>
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Tom Scocca

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, behind a podium at a press conference, looking like doofuses.

Schumer Jeffries DOGE Presser

Margin Of Error

This Is Uvalde

<p>Brent Rose covers sports, science and tech, health and fitness, travel and adventure, and more for magazines and websites you have heard of and deeply respect. <a href="http://www.brentrose.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.brentrose.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1740705584988000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3nXxS34PFPs6s9xKFmyn-U">www.brentrose.com</a></p>


JUN 03-10, 2023 – Surf Simply PhotoPack-745

Brent Rose

ASPEN, COLORADO - JANUARY 24: Hiroto Ogiwara of Japan competes in the Men's Snowboard Big Air during Day Two of the X Games Aspen 2025 at Buttermilk Ski Resort on January 24, 2025 in Aspen, Colorado.

X Games Aspen 2025 – Day Two

Olympics

How Big Can Big Air Go?

<p>Abigail Segel is a writer based in Montreal.</p>


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Abigail Segel

USA's forward #9 Ally Sentnor celebrates scoring her team's first goal during the SheBelieves Cup football match between USA and Japan at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, California, on February 26, 2025.

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Soccer

Emma Hayes Shows Us The USWNT She Believes In

Matene Toure

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Arts And Culture

‘Nickel Boys’ Deserves Best Picture

Dennis M. Hogan

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - FEBRUARY 19: People including researchers from Chicago area universities gather on the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) campus to voice concerns about the potential loss of federal funding for medical research on February 19, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. The researchers are worried about the future of their projects as the Trump administration cuts grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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Politics

The NIH Cuts Are Part Of An All-Out War On Higher Education

<p>Becky Ferreira is a science reporter based in Ithaca, N.Y. She writes <a href="https://www.404media.co/author/becky/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.404media.co/author/becky/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1740083778769000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3_mk31dNhas5lklZb38a6k">The Abstract</a>, a weekly science column for 404 Media. Her book <em>First Contact</em>, about the search for alien life, will be out in fall 2025.</p>


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Becky Ferreira

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Science

Which Pests Shall Inherit The Earth?

Sarah Brouillette

A collage of covers of books. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Barbarian Lover, Fourth Wing, Ice Planet Barbarians, The Serpent and the Wings of Night, and The Games Gods Play

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Alien Pleasures

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Ali Domrongchai

An illustration of a fake social media page depicting uncanny vegetables being sliced by a hand with too many fingers

AI Food

The Machines

Glossy, Gunky And Ready In Minutes: AI Meal Recipes Are Overrunning The Internet

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Soraya Roberts

Screenshot 2025-02-20 at 11.00.11 AM

‘Black Box Diaries’ Splits A Journalist In Two

<p>Eva Holland is a freelance writer and editor based in Whitehorse, Yukon. She&#8217;s a correspondent for Outside magazine and the author of the books <i>Nerve </i>and <i><a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/no-sleep-til-fairbanks#/">No Sleep &#8216;Til Fairbanks</a>.</i></p>


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Eva Holland

Alaskan Dogs In United States –

The Great Outdoors

What’s The Yukon Quest Without The Yukon River?

<p>Lindsey Adler is a writer based in Brooklyn. She exclusively covered sports for a decade but has other interests, too.</p>


Lindsey Adler

A woman stands in front of the Yoko Ono, »Cut Piece«, 1965, during a press preview at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Duesseldorf, western Germany on September 26, 2024. In cooperation with the Tate Modern, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is presenting the influential work of artist and activist Yoko Ono in a comprehensive solo exhibition taking place from September 28, 2024 to March 6, 2025.

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My Weekend With Yoko

<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

Photo of Gidget running through the Malibu Pier. Fifty years after Kathy Kohner Zuckerman, aka Gidget, learned to surf in Malibu, the surfing world has accepted her as surfing's early pioneers, mascots and avid promoters. April 27, 2006, (Photo by Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Photo of Gidget running through the Malibu Pier. Fifty years after Kathy Kohner Zuckerman, aka Gidg

Gidget The Survivor

<p>Grace Byron is a writer from the Midwest based in Queens whose writing has appeared in The Cut, <em>Vogue</em>, <em>LARB</em>, <em>The Baffler</em>, <em>Bookforum</em>, and elsewhere. Find her @emotrophywife. Her debut novel <em>Herculine</em> is forthcoming from Saga Press.</p>


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Grace Byron

Bill Gates speaks at the Global Solutions Summit

Conclusion Global Solutions Summit

What’s The Point Of Bill Gates?

NYPD officers prepare to make arrests during a rally and a march in Manhattan to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recent raids and crackdown on migrants in New York. New York City, U.S., February 13, 2025.

Rally against ICE in New York

The Country That Was Here Is Gone

<p>Vince Mancini is a culture writer and old school blogger whose work has appeared in GQ, The Ringer, Uproxx, and more. He writes <a href="https://vincemancini.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://vincemancini.substack.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1739555630062000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0e3B6TjurbpZyGcyNkVTcQ">The #Content Report</a> on Substack and podcasts about prestige TV on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/c/frotcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.patreon.com/c/frotcast&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1739555630062000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0xjEhxjt84GGvFCgoW4S0E">Pod Yourself</a>.</p>


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Vince Mancini

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Capital

‘Pistachio Wars’ Tells The Story Of California’s Terraforming

<p>Kit Fox is a writer, and former editor at Runner&#8217;s World and Men&#8217;s Journal, based in Emmaus, PA. He peaked in middle school after breaking sport stacking&#8217;s world record in the 3-3-3. He is also the co-author of the non-fiction book <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374311605/mightymoe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374311605/mightymoe/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1739381570912000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3ixF1HpjLWDV7W39BiDUhA"><i>Mighty Moe: The True Story of a Thirteen-Year-Old Women&#8217;s Running Revolutionary</i></a><i>.</i></p>


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Kit Fox

Cups stacked in the 1-10-1 formation, with a glowing eye on the top cup

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Stories

If You Ever Stacked Cups In Gym Class, Blame My Dad

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There’s Always Room For More Merritt Wever

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Alan Kluegel

The actor Matthew McConaughey looking slightly deranged while sitting at an outdoor restaurant table, in the dark, under a torrential downpour.

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Salesforce Is Using A Hallucination To Sell AI

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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

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History

The Last Living Bedwardite

<p>Lesley Ryder is a writer and a host covering the Chicago Red Stars. She co-created <a href="https://galpalsports.com/">Gal Pal Sports</a>, a platform that lives to make women’s sports fun for everyone.</p>


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Lesley Ryder

The digital signage shows the NWSL logo on it before the National Women's Soccer League match between NJ/NY Gotham FC and the Houston Dash at Red Bull Arena on July 31, 2022 in Harrison, New Jersey.

NWSL Logo

NWSL

NWSL To Pay $5 Million To Abused Players As Part Of Settlement

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


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Nicholas Russell

Two hands, a drawing, holding an orange sign with yellow text that reads: MAKE YOUR OWN JOB

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The Power Of Negative Thinking