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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

VictorPortraitWClaw

David Roth

A Toys R Us store that was shuttered in 2018 is seen on June 21, 2019 in Orlando, Florida. The company was bought and destroyed by private equity.

Toys R Us Store In Orlando

Interviews

Megan Greenwell On Living Under And Outside Of Private Equity, The Invasive Species Eating American Life

charismatic megafauna (they/them)

Typing

Sabrina Imbler

a photo of Sabrina Valenti, formerly a budget analyst for NOAA. Sabrina has brown curly hair and is standing against a floral background.

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An Interview With A Fired NOAA Budget Analyst

a photo of Kaesee Bourne, a former fish and wildlife biologist at the USFWS, holding a shovel in front of a wetland

kaesee bourne

An Interview With A Fired USFWS Biologist

Abigail Segel is a writer based in Montreal.

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Abigail Segel

Former McGill women's soccer players Stéphanie Hill and Mara Bouchard, in separate side by side photos, playing soccer.

mcgill players

Soccer

“It Changes Everything”: What Canada’s New Women’s Soccer League Means To Two Of Its Players

a tiger named Elena seemingly retching after she has just sampled elephant dung

Picture by Tambako the Jaguar

Creaturefector

Normalize Eating Poop

A fire fighting helicopter drops water as the Palisades fire grows near the Mandeville Canyon neighborhood and Encino, California, on January 11, 2025. The Palisades Fire, the largest of the Los Angeles fires, spread toward previously untouched neighborhoods January 11, forcing new evacuations and dimming hopes that the disaster was coming under control. Across the city, at least 11 people have died as multiple fires have ripped through residential areas since January 7, razing thousands of homes in destruction that US President Joe Biden likened to a "war scene." (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

US-WEATHER-FIRE

Climate

The Future Of West Coast Wildfire Is Whiplash

In this aerial view, a person walks through flood waters that inundated a neighborhood after Hurricane Milton came ashore on October 10, 2024, in Punta Gorda, Florida. The storm made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane in the Siesta Key area of Florida, causing damage and flooding throughout Central Florida.

Hurricane Milton Barrels Into Florida

What Can We Learn From Back-To-Back Monster Hurricanes Helene And Milton?

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Luis Paez-Pumar

Sunset Rubdown Photo Credit

Music

Sunset Rubdown’s Spencer Krug Doesn’t Want To Live In The Past Forever

Nicholas Russell is a writer from Las Vegas.

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Nicholas Russell

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump leaves the stage during a commercial break as he participates in the first presidential debate of the 2024 elections with US President Joe Biden at CNN's studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27, 2024.

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‘Know Your Enemy’ Host Matt Sitman Talks About Covering Politics Without Becoming A Hack

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Lauren Theisen

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK - MAY 18: Ben Braymer #40 of the Rochester Red Wings throws a pitch in the third inning against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders at Frontier Field on May 18, 2021 in Rochester, New York. (Photo by Joshua Bessex/Getty Images)

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders v Rochester Red Wings

Wings Week

An Interview With The Biggest Washington Nationals Prospect Sicko Any Of Us Know

Corey Atad is a freelancer writer based in Toronto with an unhealthy Air Bud obsession.

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Corey Atad

Ethan Hawke and Maya Hawke attend a screening of "Wildcat" at Angelika Film Center on April 11, 2024 in New York City.

Dior, Cinema Society & Oscilloscope Laboratories Host A Screening Of “Wildcat”

Arts And Culture

Ethan Hawke Wants To Make Movies That Begin At The End

Kate Schapira sits at her climate anxiety booth in a public park in Providence, Rhode Island

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What Do We Do With Our Climate Anxiety?

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Soraya Roberts

A photo from the set of The Kid Detective

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‘The Kid Detective’ Is Too Good To Be Forgotten

Englishmen in Paris gathered in Galignani’s library, 1820. English gentlemen read books, newspapers and periodicals. Doctor Syntax discovered by his wife in a bookshop. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Charles Williams from Doctor Syntax in Paris; or a Tour in Search of the Grotesque, W. Wright, London, 1820.

Englishmen in Paris gathered in Galignani‚Äôs library, 1820

“It Really Matters If Somebody Has Bad Taste”: An Interview With Book Critic Becca Rothfeld

Joanna Arnow in a scene from her movie, The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed

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Joanna Arnow’s Time Has Arrived

Audacy Beach Festival

The Internet’s Biggest Jack Antonoff Hater Explains Himself

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Ray Ratto

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Rays Week

And Now, The Raybag

US actor Ben Stiller attends the premiere of Apple TV+'s "Severance" at the DGA (Directors Guild of America) theatre in Los Angeles, April 8, 2022.

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Ben Stiller Explains How ‘Severance’ Became The Rare Streaming Show That’s Actually Good

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