Defector

Report: President Donald Trump Is Giving 'All The Boys' Dress Shoes That Don't Fit Right | Defector It goes without saying that there is a great deal of Psychology going on in Donald Trump’s second term. None of it is especially complicated, because the people involved are without exception clammy,…

Report: President Donald Trump is giving “all the boys” dress shoes that don’t fit right

Dan Simmons Is Dead, So It's Time To Read 'Hyperion' | Defector Call it the Orson Scott Card problem. You want to recommend a piece of sci-fi to a friend, but you know that if you do, you’ll have to include the disclaimer that the author’s politics are…

Dan Simmons is dead, so it’s time to read ‘Hyperion’:

It's Just Another Day In 'Paradise' Cover Song Hell Paradise is a good show. I have to get that out of the way early, because I do think that it’s fun and well-plotted and knotted with enough twists to sustain a strong momentum throughout its…

It’s just another day in ‘Paradise’ cover song hell:

I Bought A Ticket To The Connor McDavid Show And A Hurricanes Game Broke Out | Defector EDMONTON, Alberta — While fans of the Calgary Flames are steeling themselves to say goodbye to the Saddledome at the end of the 2026–27 season, their rivals to the north are worried about a different ...

I went to the Oilers' downtown spaceship and mostly came away impressed by the Carolina Hurricanes. defector.com/i-bought-a-t...

Who Deserves To Win The NBA Draft Lottery? | Defector Despite what a pair of suspicious NBA owners have whispered to Pablo Torre, I don’t believe that the NBA rigs the draft lottery. Certainly, it makes a sort of cockeyed, intuitive sense that the…

Who deserves to win the NBA draft lottery?

Is Nellie Bowles The Worst Writer In America? | Defector It is not difficult to find praise for Nellie Bowles, who writes a weekly column for The Free Press, a website owned by her wife, Bari Weiss. “If you don’t read ⁦Nellie Bowles every Friday, you are…

Is Nellie Bowles the worst writer in America?

Iran Women's Soccer Team Is Feeling The Effects Of The War All The Way In Australia Following the Iran women’s national soccer team’s third group-stage match of the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup, five members of the team have reportedly defected and are now in protective Australian police…

Iran women’s soccer team is feeling the effects of the war all the way in Australia:

Where Does Tua Tagovailoa Go From Here? | Defector The Miami Dolphins are releasing Tua Tagovailoa, eating an NFL-record $99 million cap hit just to do it. It’s an ignoble end to Tua’s six seasons in Miami, but it was inevitable to anyone who has…

Where does Tua Tagovailoa go from here?

The Crossword, March 9: Music Round | Defector We’ll give you the Monday crossword. Are you gonna solve it? This week’s puzzle was constructed by Daniel Hrynick and edited by Hoang-Kim Vu. Dan lives in Winnipeg, where he works as a laborer for…

The Crossword, March 9: Music round

I Have So Many Nice Things To Say About The Avalanche And The Wild | Defector DENVER — The Colorado Avalanche’s home building, 26-year-old Puck Arena, is a blandly serviceable midpoint between the old-school kookiness of Calgary’s Saddledome and the blinding shininess of Edmont...

the final hockey blog of my western road trip comes from a great game in Denver: defector.com/i-have-so-ma...

We Have Obtained More Footage Of Kash Patel Falling Down While Playing Hockey | Defector When video of FBI Director Kash Patel falling on his little ass during this year’s annual FBI vs. Secret Service hockey game was exclusively provided to us, we were told by our source that Patel fell…

We have obtained more footage of Kash Patel falling down while playing hockey:

The Sabres And Lightning Brawled, Scored, And Cemented A Wild New Rivalry | Defector On a Sunday full of get-a-load-of-this, it was going to be hard to beat this: Oh, and there were 15 goals in that game, too. It happened in a venerable old barn, with a team that hasn’t been good in…

The Sabres and Lightning brawled, scored, and cemented a wild new rivalry:

I Have So Many Nice Things To Say About The Avalanche And The Wild | Defector DENVER — The Colorado Avalanche’s home building, 26-year-old Puck Arena, is a blandly serviceable midpoint between the old-school kookiness of Calgary’s Saddledome and the blinding shininess of…

I have so many nice things to say about the Avalanche and the Wild:

Jayson Tatum Might Redefine Basketball's Worst Injury, Or Might Not | Defector Jayson Tatum played his second game of the season Sunday, after having set what seems like an all-time record for the fastest recovery from a ruptured Achilles tendon. Tatum made his debut Friday at h...

Jayson Tatum might redefine basketball’s worst injury, or might not: defector.com/jayson-tatum...

How I Became A Target For Right-Wing Freaks At The Australian Open | Defector Before I went to Melbourne in January to cover the Australian Open for Defector and a couple other publications, I spent some time in New Zealand with my family. We lived there for five years when I…

How I became a target for right-wing freaks at the Australian Open:

Which Chimp Should Wield The Crystal? | Defector More than a century ago, the Chinese paleontologist and archaeologist Pei Wenzhong found an unusual trove in the same cave near Beijing where he found the skulls of the early hominin Peking Man.…

Which chimp should wield the crystal?

Don DeLillo's Funniest Novel Is A 1980 Hockey Sex Romp He Won't Acknowledge | Defector The end of the 1970s seemed to be a moment of uncertainty for Don DeLillo, creatively speaking. The previous decade had seen him become a rather important American author, enough so that he had left…

Don DeLillo’s funniest novel is a 1980 hockey sex romp he won’t acknowledge:

New Japan Makes, The World Takes | Defector TRENTON, N.J. — The Trenton Transit Center isn’t pretty, or even notable, and it won’t win any architectural awards, but it gets the job done if you’re coming down to see Tomohiro Ishii wrestling in…

New Japan makes, the world takes:

Newly Poly Plover Dad Still Figuring Out His Time Management | Defector The animal kingdom is ruled by open sexual relationships. Bats, beetles, and bonobos all have multiple partners over a season or a lifetime. Barnacles and barracudas don’t even get to pick their…

Newly poly plover dad still figuring out his time management: defector.com/newly-poly-p...

Lou Holtz Lisped Like A Champion | Defector When old guys who played for Lou Holtz talk about him, from my experience, they don’t bring up schemes or Xs and O’s. They bring up speeches from the crusty but legendary coach, TV pundit, and…

Lou Holtz lisped like a champion:

It's Just Another Day In 'Paradise' Cover Song Hell Paradise is a good show. I have to get that out of the way early, because I do think that it’s fun and well-plotted and knotted with enough twists to sustain a strong momentum throughout its…

It’s just another day in ‘Paradise’ cover song hell:

Dan Simmons Is Dead So It's Time To Read 'Hyperion' | Defector Call it the Orson Scott Card problem. You want to recommend a piece of sci-fi to a friend, but you know that if you do you’ll have to include the disclaimer that the author’s politics are…

Dan Simmons is dead so it’s time to read ‘Hyperion’:

'Survivor' Is Better When Everyone Gets A Little Silly With It I remember individual seasons of Survivor by and for their “mood.” This is a nebulous bit of recall, because “mood” (or “vibe,” if you will) is both subjective and insufficient; distilling roughly…

‘Survivor’ is better when everyone gets a little silly with it:

The World Baseball Classic Is Already Producing Some Classic World Baseball | Defector For my money, the best part of any World Baseball Classic is not the back end of the tourney, when the field has been whittled to the world’s best and the level of play is immaculate. Sure, there’s…

The World Baseball Classic is already producing some classic world baseball:

New F1 Season, New Regulations, Same Old Ferrari Fuck-Up Tuning in for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Saturday night (Sunday afternoon in Melbourne), I was expecting many things. I was expecting Aston Martin to retire from the race early in…

New F1 season, new regulations, same old Ferrari fuck-up:

The Crossword, March 2: College Athletes | Defector We’re kind of the big puzzle on campus. This week’s crossword was constructed by Bill Ouska, and edited by Hoang-Kim Vu. Billy is a corporate attorney based in Dallas who’s thrilled to have the…

The Crossword, March 2: College athletes

An Exquisite 2026 Formula 1 Preview For True Sophisticates | Defector The trick with every Formula 1 season is to believe, at the start, that it will be exciting. Fortunately, if last year’s preview was any indication, sports fans tend to be quite good about doing…

An exquisite 2026 Formula 1 preview for true sophisticates:

Talking To A. Natasha Joukovsky About Men, Myths, And March Madness | Defector The odds of filling out a perfect NCAA bracket are one in nine quintillion, two hundred twenty-three quadrillion, three-hundred-seventy-two trillion, thirty-six billion, eight-hundred-fifty-four…

Talking to A. Natasha Joukovsky about men, myths, and March Madness:

A Helpful Explainer Of Kansas's Lunatic Anti-Trans Law | Defector Last Thursday, the Kansas State legislature passed SB 244, overriding a veto by Governor Laura Kelly and enshrining anti-trans law as unhinged in its fury as it is disheveled in structure. Here at…

A helpful explainer of Kansas’s lunatic anti-trans law:

Yoko Tawada Is A Genius In Any Language | Defector There’s always a song to sing, but first a silence must be created for the song to be born in. — Yoko Tawada, Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel The best argument I can make for why I like…

Yoko Tawada is a genius in any language: