Barry's moon blogs have been so good, and this is the best of those. Really excellent stuff here: defector.com/artemis-moon...

Defector has really been hitting it to all fields lately. Give 'em a shot if you haven't yet! defector.com/products

Journalism is better when it's backed by people, not markets: defector.com/products

Go ahead and use AI. It will only help me dominate you. defector.com/go-ahead-and...

Rejoice, tired parents! Defector will raise your children now. defector.com/rejoice-tire...

A rare treat to have @benwurgaft.bsky.social on the site with this searing, well-done piece

This week, Defector's new culture newsletter The Span has an update on Middlemarch Madness: defector.beehiiv.com/p/it-s-elite...

The IOC decision today is so maddening. We already went through the whole process of having a testing policy and then realizing it was a terrible idea for a million different reasons and getting rid of it. This happened very recently!

The mayor absolutely flexed on us by posting a decent photo this morning.

Why I got out of the gambling business: defector.com/why-i-got-ou...

ICE agents deployed to nation's swamped airports to stand around and do nothing: defector.com/ice-agents-d...

We have a new culture newsletter:

"And here we see a shining example of the main peril of using sports as a reason to wrap oneself in the flag. When you look down and see that you've lost your pants, the flag makes a poor trouser substitute." defector.com/team-usa-los...

a good point she brought up: audits are very expensive! the NBA/NBPA devote a ton of $/resources to the annual BRI audit. a rev share system tied to net revenue, like the WNBA wants, would put even more work on the players to scrutinize the “expenses” owners are reporting and that’s *costly* work

Conner O'Malley has done it again

For @defector.com, I wrote about the Nitehawk Workers Union, "saving movie theaters," and why humans respond to other humans defector.com/fair-pay-fee...

❗breaking news❗what do the migrating bigfoots (bigfeet?) know ⁉️ a perfect @christhompson.bsky.social blog defector.com/what-did-the...

Mentally ill former Navy SEAL inspires Team USA to WBC final: defector.com/mentally-ill...

I hope Jonas Valanciunas enjoys his career in Greece, which may as well start tomorrow

Mine too.

Is Nellie Bowles the worst writer in America?

It's stiff competition, but Nellie Bowles may actually be the most evil, vapid person to work at her wife's stupid website:

This is how it feels to watch the Nuggets play basketball

a banger of a blog by @groan.bsky.social defector.com/a-helpful-ex...

An exquisite 2026 Formula 1 preview for true sophisticates:

Really good story about the indignity of reporting from big sporting events: defector.com/how-i-became...

Really enjoyed these two semi-related pieces we ran on Defector this week, about finding and reading old stuff: defector.com/lost-recipes

Really good deep dive on the terrible state of hip-hop media archives and what that means for culture writing today

The Batkid Arc continues. defector.com/anyone-want-...

NWSL preview time? NWSL preview time! There's been plenty of wheeling and dealing heading into the 2026 season, so I tried to make some sense of it: defector.com/the-nwsl-off...

Nikola Jokic is a mountain of angst:

Anyone want to see Kash Patel fall on his ass while playing hockey?

I think that’s the most pathetic game I’ve ever seen Nikola Jokic play. He needs to fix his soul.

I love that the Nuggets traded MPJ and a first-round pick for a guy who pisses down his leg every game and can’t be on the floor in the clutch. It’s fucking awesome.

I have only one prediction for the NBA postseason: Lu Dort is going to do something so nasty to Wemby that it will kick off a week-long discourse about whether the league needs to crack down on physicality.

Here’s a dumb little blog about the experience of witnessing Wemby in person: defector.com/victor-wemba...

Victor Wembanyama sighting confirmed in Brooklyn: defector.com/victor-wemba...

🤷‍♂️

I wrote about Punch the monkey and who, if anyone, is really to blame for the suffering of primates defector.com/the-mournful...

New Listening Habits! What I listened to in the hospital:

Happy Survivor 50 day! Ahead of tonight's premiere, the Defector jury got together to explain every player's deal and pass judgement on their chances of winning. You can read our (massive) preview here: defector.com/an-extensive...

I wrote about my friend "Elena Ferrante" and what it was like to try to engage with a scammer defector.com/what-i-learn...

On the ideals of the Olympics, the fiction of hockey romance, and the real world: defector.com/the-u-s-hock...

Really cool story about a legendary player.

Rich Paul's podcast was built to be useless:

for anyone craving more Alysa Liu content @yuekaxu.bsky.social has been on a tear of figure skating blogs that are simply beautiful to read and learn from defector.com/alysa-liu-is...

Threading four high-quality Olympics blogs that can be read right now on Defector dot com.

The suffering of Lindsey Vonn: defector.com/the-sufferin...

A thing that we do at Defector that I really like: explainers that don't suck defector.com/the-big-cana...