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Defector

Eli Cugini

Arts And Culture

It’s Time To Grow Up

<p>Grace Byron is a critic, reporter, and novelist based in Queens. Her writing has appeared in <em>The New Yorker</em>, <em>Granta</em>, <em>Bookforum</em>, and elsewhere. Her debut novel <em>Herculine</em> is out now.</p>


Grace Byron

The Gentle Parenting Of Ben Lerner’s ‘Transcription’

<p>Mychal Denzel Smith is the author of <i>Stakes Is High</i>, winner of the Kirkus Prize for Non-Fiction.</p>


Mychal Denzel Smith

I Demand That Jay-Z Perform All Of ‘Kingdom Come’ At His Yankee Stadium Concert

Ben Wurgaft

Politics

RFK Jr.’s Offal Advice

Veronica de Souza

Three mirrors in vintage frames above console table with lots of decoration stuff in bright room.

Make It Nice

Make It Nice: Mirror Mirror On The Wall

<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>


Brent Rose

The Great Outdoors

Keeping Big Mountain Freestyle Riders Alive Is A Lot Of Work

Annie Berke

‘Imperfect Women’ Is The Latest Entry In A Fittingly Flawed Genre

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

Gambling

Why I Got Out Of The Gambling Business

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


Nicholas Russell

Interviews

Namwali Serpell On Understanding Toni Morrison The Author, Not The Icon

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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

A tightly cropped image of a player releasing a jump shot

Elder Wisdom

I Miss My Jump Shot

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<div>Abigail Segel is a contributing writer at Defector. She is also an editor for The IX Soccer and the Equalizer. Her work has been published in the Guardian and the Montreal Gazette.</div>
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Abigail Segel

Laura Harvey looks perplexed while receiving a yellow card

Soccer

The Cascadia Rivalry Was Totally Bonkers

Eleanor Russell

The New Evangelists

Jonah Walters

Stephen Fishbach’s Reality-TV Novel Is More Reality TV Than Novel


<p><a href="https://twitter.com/kenpomeroy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ken</a> has been cranking out college basketball statistics at <a href="http://kenpom.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">kenpom.com</a> since 2004. He’s written at The Athletic, Slate, the late <em>ESPN The Magazine</em>, and the late Basketball Prospectus. He hopes to live long enough to see the men&#8217;s game start using quarters, like every other basketball league in the world.</p>


Ken Pomeroy

Braden Smith of the Purdue Boilermakers celebrates with his teammates after being named outstanding player of the tournament after winning the championship game of the Big Ten Men's Basketball Championships on March 15, 2026.

College Basketball

March Madness’s Phony Rules Were Made To Be Broken

Jaya Saxena

Fair Pay Feels Good In A Place Like This

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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

Lewis Pullman and Danielle Brooks announce the nominees for Original Score

The Academy Missed Some Of 2025’s Best Film Scores

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

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

<p>Owen Lewis is a former Defector intern and has written for The Guardian, The Second Serve, The Athletic, and other publications.</p>


Owen Lewis

A view of the court at the Australian Open

Tennis

How I Became A Target For Right-Wing Freaks At The Australian Open

<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.

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