I’ve always struggled with the idea of a “guilty pleasure.” Truly innocent pleasure shouldn’t come with a side of shame. Most guilty pleasures are purposely private, indulged alone or among the ...

On a breezy spring night in 2023, the Georgia Room at the Freehand Hotel was humid with sweat. Queers of various genders wore cowboy hats and bedazzled denim, camouflage and American flag bikinis. The ...

Some people are fans of the Seattle Seahawks. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Seattle Seahawks. This 2025 Defector NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the ...

Some people are fans of the Arizona Cardinals. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Arizona Cardinals. This 2025 ...

For most of my 20s, I did not believe that I had clinical depression. No, what I had was clinical depression’s cuter, more ...

It is easy enough to read about the climate crisis through the dozens of devastating stories that run each week, warning us ...

If it feels like white rappers are sprouting up all around us, it’s with good reason. Though they never really went ...

At some point in the thick of the pandemic, I became briefly obsessed with a silly-seeming online controversy over what is known as the double-beat theory. The argument concerns classical music, which ...

There’s a scene in the new Superman movie that illustrates the precarious nature of music compatibility and how touchy it can ...

In 2018, Mitski released her fifth album, Be the Cowboy. She had been putting out music that was as critically acclaimed as anything in the American indie world, and promoting it in the only way that ...

When I listen to new music, one of the biggest influences I hear—both in the sound and the choices of samples—is video games. Specifically, the games and sounds I remember hearing constantly while I ...

That’s right. It’s Puja Week and I’m Puja—everyone has to do what I say, or else. Don’t worry, this isn’t my first rodeo. A ...