FeedCity: Defector

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14 Jul 14:24 • Tajja Isen

‘Famous Men’ And Ambitious Women

Is there a story writers love to tell more than the one about how we became ourselves? Give me all of them: Your künstlerromans, your campus novels, your NYCs, your MFAs. I didn’t go to Iowa, but I’ve read so many recollections of the program that sometimes I think I might h...

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14 Jul 14:24 • Patrick Redford

How Cycling Solved Sleep

AURILLAC, France — Is the Tour de France is the most competitive sleep environment in sports? "Probably, yeah," answered Dr. Jon Greenwell, EF-Education EasyPost's Head Doctor when I asked him. Every athlete needs to recover, though the demands on professional cyclists at th...

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13 Jul 20:27 • Alex Sujong Laughlin

What Will Happen To My Ambition After Children?

To someone without children, the world of parenthood seems like a walled garden that contains knowledge of the very best and worst experiences of humanity. But will you love it or hate it? Are you still yourself on the other side? Will you regret it? The only way to know for...

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13 Jul 19:36 • Chris Thompson

The Hornets Aspire To Be An Also-Ran With A Plan

Listening to Jeff Peterson, president of basketball operations for the Charlotte Hornets, talk about the recent LeMelo Ball trade, you get a pretty good idea of what he thinks about last season's team. "There's no doubt in my mind that we had a successful season last year, b...

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13 Jul 18:39 • Sarah Borus

Is There Any Limit To Zack Wheeler’s Spite?

There are four players in MLB with a higher bWAR than Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler, but nobody can hope to top him in PAR (pettiness above replacement). Last week, after he was left off of the All-Star Game roster, Wheeler struck out 14 batters to tie his career-best perfor...

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13 Jul 18:06 • Tom Ley

Bryce Harper Only Pawn In Game Of Exploitation

Bryce Harper has finally provided an answer to the question of how he ended up helping FanDuel convince a problem gambler to lose more money. You may not be surprised to learn that Harper got himself into this sticky situation partly due to an inability to assign meaning to ...

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13 Jul 16:51 • Dave McKenna

If Conor McGregor Was A Horse, They’d Have To Shoot Him

Conor McGregor came up lame literally one second into Saturday’s comeback bout with Max Holloway. To open a fight that the UFC claimed drew the biggest live gate in mixed martial arts history, McGregor rushed out of his corner and threw a flying kick with his left leg. The...

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13 Jul 15:48 • Patrick Redford

I Believe I Have Located A Ham Truck In France

SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE OF FRANCE — They call it the diagonal of the void: the corridor running southwest to northeast across France where population density is significantly lower than elsewhere in the country. Explanations vary as to why, though after spending three nights...

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13 Jul 15:27 • Maitreyi Anantharaman

The Crossword, July 13: Flat Out

You have one last job to do this Monday morning. This week's puzzle was constructed by Madison Shultz, and edited by Hoang-Kim Vu. Madison has too many hobbies. She spends most of her free time skiing, climbing, hiking, and rockhounding, but started constructing cr...

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13 Jul 15:27 • Albert Burneko

Lindsey Graham Dead, World No Worse

The Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina died on Saturday, after what reports have called a "brief and sudden illness" following an official visit to Ukraine. He was 71. In 2003 Graham succeeded ancient dread Confederate mummy Strom Thurmond in the Senate, an...

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13 Jul 13:27 • Giri Nathan

Jannik Sinner Reinstates The Regime

After losing the 2025 Australian Open final, Sascha Zverev was remarkably despondent. The man who defeated him, Jannik Sinner, put both hands on Zverev's shoulders and delivered a pep talk to the sobbing runner-up as the duo awaited the presentation of their trophies. "I th...

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12 Jul 19:18 • Diana Moskovitz

Telemundo Is The Real Winner Of This Year’s World Cup

It was Sunday night in Los Angeles and streets of the city legendary for its traffic sat empty. Even Trader Joe's—the beloved grocery chain known as much for its tiny parking lots as its low prices—had plenty of spaces. For once, as the Clueless joke goes, you really could g...

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12 Jul 16:48 • Luis Paez-Pumar

You Can’t Do That, Man

The master plan is clear to anyone with eyes. FIFA rigged the World Cup draw so Argentina would become the first team to make the semis without playing a side ranked in the top 15. FIFA has rigged every match in favor of Argentina. FIFA demanded that the VAR take away Egypt's second goal over a much-delayed foul call. In that same match, FIFA instructed the referees to not call a foul by Argentina's Julián Alvarez on Mohammed Salah. FIFA even put an all-Argentine referee crew on the France-Morocco match.

And, during Saturday night's quarter-final against Switzerland, FIFA pulled out the big guns, rigging the game in Argentina's favor by forcing Breel Embolo to commit the single stupidest dive I've ever seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ttdGtk8eGI

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12 Jul 16:00 • Luis Paez-Pumar

Mikel Merino Is Spain’s Much-Needed Closer

For all of its defensive solidity and possession dominance, Spain has been missing a finishing touch in this World Cup. It hurt the Spaniards in the opening match, the stunning draw to Cape Verde. It made them struggle against Uruguay in an ugly game on the final day of the ...

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12 Jul 14:00 • Patrick Redford

The Inter-Red Bull Teammate Drama Is The Best Story Of The Tour de France So Far

BERGERAC, France — The 2026 Tour de France is thus far mostly bereft of big narratives and interesting surprises. The race for the first two podium places seems mostly over. There is no off-bike story that's captivated the race or raised larger-order implications like the sa...

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10 Jul 19:42 • Sohini Desai

Here’s What Texas Tech’s Leadership Is Being Sued For Censoring

Is Plato’s Republic too gay? This is one of many brave questions posed by the Texas Tech University System’s chancellor and Board of Regents as they implement an “extraordinary system of censorship in higher education,” according to a new lawsuit filed Wednesday...

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10 Jul 16:48 • Sam Mostow

The AUSL Plans To Do What Other Pro Softball Leagues Couldn’t

Cheri Kempf knows exactly how hard it is to sustain a professional women’s sports league. She was the commissioner of the now-defunct National Pro Fastpitch league. During her tenure, the NPF’s league office had two full-time employees, one of whom was Kempf. It launched in ...

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10 Jul 15:57 • Barry Petchesky

I Sit In Solidarity With The Norway Fan Who Refuses To Do The Viking Row

Norway's charmed and charming run to the World Cup quarterfinals has been a good time all around. Erling Haaland is probably the most lovingly memed man on Earth at the moment, and with good reason. The Norwegians are getting really into cowboy fashion. It's all very fun. Th...

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10 Jul 15:57 • Patrick Redford

An Interview With Three Italian Backpackers Who Crossed The Pyrenees And Accidentally Ran Into The Tour de France

GAVARNIE-GÉDRE, France — Millions of people travel to the Tour de France every year, almost all of them on purpose. This is the story of three people who did so by accident. While waiting for the riders to make their way up to Gavarnie-Gédre for the finish of Stage 6, I too...

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10 Jul 15:57 • Veronica de Souza

Make It Nice: Do Not Put Contact Paper On Your Countertops

Welcome back to Make It Nice, Defector’s best interior design advice column. Today we have a balcony makeover, thoughts on washable rugs, and a plea to please, please not use contact paper on your countertops! Jessica asks: By NYC standards my balcony is HUGE (11' x 5') b...

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10 Jul 13:57 • Tom Ley

The Kawhi Leonard Investigation Is Now Holding Up The Kawhi Leonard Trade

In September 2025 the NBA hired the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to investigate the Los Angeles Clippers for potential salary cap circumvention after Pablo Torre Finds Out reported that the team had arranged a no-show endorsement deal for Kawhi Leonard with a ...

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10 Jul 13:57 • Luis Paez-Pumar

France Feels Inevitable

World Cups are rarely wire-to-wire coronations. In fact, the competition is so fierce, and the margins so small, that usually there isn't a single clear "best" team that goes ahead and wins it all. In 2010, you could argue that Germany looked stronger than eventual champions...

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09 Jul 19:48 • Giri Nathan

Karolina Muchova And Coco Gauff Played A Tiebreak Neither Will Forget

Nervy tennis is so rich. It can contain both the worst of the sport (in a technical sense) and the best of it (in a narrative sense). You can witness breakdowns in routine strokes, diseased shot selection, and facial expressions that indicate a horrible geyser of bile into t...

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09 Jul 17:57 • Tom Ley

How Did Bryce Harper End Up Helping FanDuel Keep A Gambling Addict On The Hook?

Terry Thompson is part of a lawsuit against FanDuel and DraftKings claiming that the sports books used their VIP services and products to intentionally prey on his gambling addiction. Thompson says he wagered $18.5 million with FanDuel and became addicted to gambling via the...

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09 Jul 17:00 • Patrick Redford

Meet Torstein Træen, The Stoic Norwegian Survivor Who Briefly Lit Up The Tour de France

PAU, France — Some people are natural performers. Torstein Træen is not, though his work on the bike might have been the last exciting general classification action before we get to Paris. As the 30-year-old Norwegian rider ascended the podium in Foix after Stage 4 to be wr...

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09 Jul 16:24 • Dave McKenna

Trump’s State Fair Was Ass In All The Ways I’d Been Warned

I went to the Great American State Fair figuring it would make me feel lousy about my country. I don't remember being so right about anything.

I'd read all about how entertainers wouldn't take the stage, how states wouldn't staff the booths, and how nobody was showing up because the president had hijacked America's 250th birthday celebration and messed everything up. But with only a few days before this circus leaves town—the fair closes tomorrow—I wanted to see for myself if The Mess on the Mall could live down to its billing. And, sure, I wondered if Trump's Stonehengeian rendering of his proposed Arc de Failure looked as ridiculous in the flesh as online. (Yup and yup.) So I went. Turns out I was prepared for most of the awfulness. But not all the Jesus. So much Jesus.

First, a summary of its pros and cons.

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09 Jul 16:06 • Sabrina Imbler

The Other Elephant

There was always an irony to Happy's name. The elephant's misfortune stamped her a celebrity. In their home in the wild, female Asian elephants roam for hundreds of miles and form lifelong attachments to a group of around seven relatives. In her home in the Bronx Zoo, Happy ...

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09 Jul 15:27 • Lauren Theisen

A Front-Row Seat To The Worst Team In Pro Baseball

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — If you regret that you never got a chance to see the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, the losingest team in MLB history, can I interest you in a trip to Staten Island? No wait, come back. Just a few steps away from the ferry terminal, a morbidly curious fan can ...

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09 Jul 15:27 • Barry Petchesky

I’m Not Sure There Are Enough Dundons On The Stanley Cup

The Carolina Hurricanes are worthy NHL champs, plowing through the playoffs with a 16-3 record. It's a victory of commitment to an approach, as head coach Rod Brind'Amour's system finally paid ultimate dividends after seven years of postseason exits. It's a victory for blogg...

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09 Jul 15:27 • Drew Magary

The World Cup Quarterfinals Are Here. Pick A Team Or DIE

OK, now shit is about to get even realer. The FIFA World Cup sponsored by FIFA and presented by FIFA is now down to eight teams. If your favorite team isn’t among the last countries standing, that’s tough shit. You must pick a NEW favorite country, and you must do it right this instant or else suffer the consequences.

[I draw my sword]

But how can anyone pick just one team from France, Morocco, Belgium, Spain, Norway, England, Argentina, and Switzerland? Fear not, amigo, because this week’s episode of The Distraction is here to help you do just that.