Dan McQuade, 1983–2026: defector.com/dan-mcquade-...

This is great and the Whiskey Fridays section also functions as a try not to laugh challenge (impossible)

Dire shit: www.thesecondserve.com/open-tennis-...

On that great Keys-Oliynykova match: www.nytimes.com/athletic/698...

I wrote about an up-and-coming Swiss the mainstream is not yet aware of: www.nytimes.com/athletic/697...

I'll be doing some work for The Athletic during the Australian Open! I asked Jannik Sinner to reflect on the moment he considered quitting tennis today, and spun that into my first piece for them: www.nytimes.com/athletic/697...

I wrote about the One Point Slam: www.thesecondserve.com/wham-bam-tha...

I wrote about the One Point Slam: www.thesecondserve.com/wham-bam-tha...

I've been looking for a reason to write about the Disintegration Loops for a while but then I realized "you can just blog stuff." defector.com/the-disinteg...

Hey! @wired.com is doing a bunch of hiring. Here we go with a thread of five great jobs, with a few more coming shortly: 1) We are hiring a senior editor for our science desk, which means you get to work with geniuses like @timmarchman.bsky.social @mollytaft.com and @emilymullin.bsky.social

Of the many reasons to love Defector, one is that brilliant kickers are as likely to appear in a daily sports blog as in a long feature.

RUN (to a computer)!

This is insanely gripping but we've gotta sort out the format for recent editions. Under the game show format a non-top player missing out on a life-changing amount of money in the space of a few giggly seconds feels kind of gross.

Just had the thought that the unfortunate Gen Z folks who haven't seen Parks and Rec will probably think of Amy Poehler as a podcaster rather than an actor and that is really bumming me out. Singing the praises of the podcast form is so far below the woman who played Leslie Knope.

best podcast is a very dumb award. this is unserious.

Pascal Siakam legacy game

This is a vetted fundraiser for the family of Renee Good, the woman who was killed by ICE in Minneapolis. www.gofundme.com/f/support-fo...

0-10 since...

Damian Kust, who I have always thought of as the most knowledge "tennis person" I've ever gotten to know in the online tennis world, has died. Just unbelievably tragic. I had a chance to work with Damian just a few times and through exchanges online. Not great friends. But, I'll miss him alot.

"OpenAI has never provided full transparency on what information trained its flagship product, but there’s evidence that the company fed ChatGPT massive chunks of the internet...that means a random Reddit user’s post could inform ChatGPT’s next response."

Hi friends. I’m taking some time off for chemo. Not the way I wanted to start 2026, but it’s a necessary step. I’ll be trying to stay disconnected. I hope you can keep me in your prayers as I continue treatment.

I think the first point of these highlights ended the Open Era and started...the era of whatever is the best way to describe that point, because the ballstriking is so perfect I can't wrap my head around it at all. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATQ1...

Is this anything

The staying power of tennis's old-world etiquette is so strange to me. In any other sport Fritz doing the "too-small" gesture to Baez is just goofy and a bit dumb, but in tennis it's somehow awful sportsmanship. I don't think we can have the intensity without the edge, or that we should want to.

I really can't imagine any justification for staying on Twitter at this point

Normal people: celebrating the new year, not checking email, trying to relax Me: intensely thinking "what is a contributing editor" while walking down the beach

Meanwhile, at the other place:

Tried to get 2026 off on the right foot by contributing a cheery, non-existential prediction to this Guardian roundtable: www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...

The top option for a Stranger Things (I don't watch but I'm invested in the Mind Flayer) finale liveblog on Google is from a website called "Tom's Guide," searches are so cooked

Now that my final bylines of December have been published, here's a thread of my favorite stories I wrote in 2025. My first months of freelancing full time have been an adventure, to say the least—one that has gone better than I dared to hope when I graduated from college in June. The stories:

Here are a few great blogs from Defector's 2025, starting with Chris Thompson's comprehensive and maddening history of Color Star, would-be titans of just about anything: defector.com/a-comprehens...

This year ending with Siakam airballing a free throw kinda sums it up

Naoya Inoue is becoming a bigger monster: defector.com/naoya-inoue-...

My pal and freelancer extraordinaire @charleylocke.bsky.social and I are working on a cool project to help other full-time freelancers and wanna-be full-time freelancers make it work financially, so STAY TUNED. 🤭

Hello. I’ve been doing regularish webposts that collect all the tennis news into a fun and tidy format for you to read at your leisure. If that is a service that would be useful to you, subscribe or just bookmark to read. It’s free and always will be. See you in the 2 6. forty-deuce.ghost.io

2025 was my first full year freelancing, and to my happy surprise I got enough published to do a summary thread! I mostly wrote from bed, but I was at the very fun and hot Australian Open, and covered it for Defector. (Sans credential, but check back in a month.) defector.com/the-australi...

For The Guardian, I wrote about the Spurs bringing intrigue back to this NBA season: www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/d...

I mostly liked the year-in-review Press Box episode but David Shoemaker wishing that podcasts were around in Frank Deford's time was completely brutal. I for one am glad we remember Deford for his writing and not as the host of the Frank Deford Show, a video podcast from Spotify and FanDuel.

Honored to have made a few contributions here alongside a bunch of great writers!

Good morning! For @defector.com, I wrote about what @rachelreidwrites.bsky.social's "Game Changers" books, and the resulting TV show, have meant to me as a lifelong hockey fan with an increasingly... complicated... relationship to the men's pro game.

Oh "sublime," you deserve so much better than being used for a clickbait description of this thoroughly mediocre tennis set www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqnG...

Merry Christmas to all. defector.com/what-did-we-...

*Spurs end season 65-17 with a 5-0 record against OKC* NBA media: don't really see them as a contender yet, but next year they will be a PROBLEM

A mere four days after writing this, I must ask: what's worse than hell?

🚨JOB ALERT🚨 Enjoy writing clever headlines and assigning one-of-a-kind stories? Have an eye for detail and a knack for turning rough copy into sparkling prose? We're looking for another editor to join our small but elite team covering New York City news and culture: hellgatenyc.com/hell-gate-is...

finally wrote a bit about this freaky day. i didn't touch the highlights for weeks!

Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:

I like Pluribus so far despite some pacing issues, but I cannot forgive the podcast plug before the start of every episode

cowboy who stubbed his toe:

This team has now given up 44 points in a quarter to the New Orleans Pelicans 👍 defector.com/following-th...