The Distraction: A Defector Podcast cover art

All Episodes

The Distraction: A Defector Podcast — 302 episodes

#
Title
1

The Boorish Manners of a Yale-y with Paul Tremblay

E
2

What If We Tried To Win? with Justin Halpern

E
3

We Americans Know Better with Diana Moskovitz & Dave McKenna

E
4

Give the Lobster a Knife

E
5

The Last Refuge of Scoundrels with Kelsey McKinney & Alex Sujong Laughlin

E
6

Sports! (The Human Spirit) with Ray Ratto

E
7

The Provenance of the Lobster with Giri Nathan

E
8

Don’t Tell Anyone How I Live with Leander Schaerlaeckens

E
9

A Larry David Look-a-like with David Grann

E
10

You Can’t Zarf Someone in Pips with Ian Livengood

E
11

Look at What They Done Been Through with Patrick Redford

E
12

Introducing: No Such Thing

E
13

Shodders For The Cup with Lauren Theisen

E
14

Eating a Super Soaker with a Knife & Fork

E
15

My Car Died In Worcester with Aaron Schatz

E
16

Blame It On Pazuzu with Mike Schur

E
17

The Largest Man On The Beach with Ed Zitron

E
18

Bad Baseball Grannies with Kelsey McKinney

E
19

My Best Reply Guys with Emma Baccellieri

E
20

A Never-Ending Math Orgy with Ken Pomeroy

E
21

A Hot Sauce Faceprint on the Hotel Door with Rohan Nadkarni

E
22

I Was Born in the Cutty Sark with Spencer Hall

E
23

Digest It As It Comes In with Tom Ley

E
24

A Good Set of Stones with John Cullen

E
25

A Well-Rounded Apple Dome with Kathryn Xu

E
26

A Difference of Degree and in Kind

E
27

The Italian Word for Waluigi with Rohan Nadkarni

E
28

Born Aloft on a Cloud of Dad Energy with Patrick Wyman

E
29

Nein Mayonnaisen! with Arif Hasan

E
30

Italian-American Inspirational Magic with Kalyn Kahler

E
31

It’ll Work Itself Out In No Time

E
32

Williams Sonoma Price Is Right 2025! with Matt Selman

E
33

Bad For Your Heart, Bad For Your Soul with Matthew Coller

E
34

Batteries Are Woke, Mining is Based with Peter Brannen

E
35

Eat As Much As You Can and Get Out

E
36

Reptile Epicurean Delights with Nathan Thornburgh

E
37

You Depraved the Manner of Men with Stefan Fatsis

E
38

An Emergency Private Podcast with Rohan Nadkarni

E
39

My Hobby is Sleeping

E
40

Becoming A Failson with Justin Halpern

E
41

Quantum Mechanical Quarterbacks with Seth Wickersham

E
42

Smack Barm Pea Wet with Eli Yudin

E
43

MLB Playoffs Preview! with Lauren Theisen

E
44

Doing Less With Less with Andy Behrens and Chris Harris

E
45

The Greatest Garbage Time Performance Ever

E
46

Defector Turns Five!

E
47

NFL Good/Bad with Mina Kimes (Part 2)

E
48

NFL Good/Bad with Kalyn Kahler (Part 1)

E
49

Inspector Fuzz Is On The Case with Giri Nathan

E
50

This Fresca Has ATTITUDE! with Emma Baccellieri

E
51

This Book Could’ve Been a Pamphlet with Maitreyi Anantharaman

E
52

The Defector Swimsuit Issue with Pablo Torre

E
53

Rawdogging The Toilet with Justin Halpern

E
54

Schur-da-land with Mike Schur

E
55

A Fish-Eating American

E
56

The Stupid Teams Are Even Stupider with Ray Ratto

E
57

Hartford Has It (Clinical Depression) with Megan Greenwell

E
58

Living For Lunch with Alan Siegel

E
59

The Most Polite 30 Seconds in Podcasting History with Will Leitch

E
60

An Apology to Brad Lohaus

E
61

Crazy Mid-Air Adjustments with Jason Steinhauer

E
62

A Very Grim Place To Have A Beauty Pageant with Brandy Jensen

E
63

1995 Man of the Year President Bill Climpton with Ben Collins

E
64

Bernie Sanders Liz Phair Lyrics with Patrick Redford

E
65

What Goes On in the Mind of a Football Man with Mike Tanier

E
66

The Incredibly Late Spring Break Podcast

E
67

Why Am I Talking to the New Jags GM Right Now? with Tim Marchman

E
68

I’m Not Going to Mention Where He Went to College with Maitreyi Anantharaman

E
69

Luxury Ice Fishing Apparatus with Bob Mould

E
70

The 2025 Idiot’s Guide to March Madness with Ken Pomeroy

E
71

I Can’t Trust Hot White Dips with Jasper Wang

E
72

The First Half Is About the State of the World with Denny Carter

E
73

Your Kids Are Mid with Nathan Grayson

E
74

The Paddington 2 of the NBA with Rohan Nadkarni

E
75

Disrespecting John Madden’s Name

E
76

Both the Eagles and the Chiefs Are Gonna Win with Dan McQuade

E
77

Apollo 13 Was a Well Made Movie with Will Tavlin

E
78

This Episode Cancels Out the Manhattan Project with Justin Halpern

E
79

Dresses Like Kevin Federline with Ed Zitron

E
80

He Lost the Slack and the Clubhouse with Diana Moskovitz

E
81

The 2024 Williams-Sonoma Catalog Price Is Right

E
82

Oprah Doesn’t Own Discovery with Susie Banikarim

E
83

A Century of Podcast Episodes! with Eric Silver

E
84

An All Pizzas Thanksgiving with Rivers McCown

E
85

The Dog’s Name Is Babydog?

E
86

Part of Our World… of Billionaires with Sabrina Imbler

E
87

Cocaine in an MRI Machine with Arif Hasan

E
88

Violator Was an Investment Banker in LA with Ray Ratto

E
89

The First Half Is About the Election with Denny Carter

E
90

Increase Revenue Across Three Fiscal Hog Moons

E
91

Skin Like Cinnabon Icing with Rohan Nadkarni

E
92

Playing Nice with Jason Schreier and Luis Paez-Pumar

E
93

Stations of the Plaxico Burress Cross

E
94

Look at Mr. Restaurant with Maitreyi Anantharaman

E
95

Investors Demand 13 Players on the Field with Israel Daramola

E
96

The Fastest NFL Good/Bad Ever with Kalyn Kahler

E
97

An Unironic Donald Pump T-Shirt

E
98

Sleep Number 69 with Rohan Nadkarni

E
99

Government Controlled Podcast Microphones with Rachelle Hampton

E
100

Viscosity in the Early 80s with Chris Nashawaty

E
101

Podcast Rant Protocol with Patrick Redford

E
102

Boogaloo Zones with Pablo Torre

E
103

Chief End Times Correspondent

E
104

A Pog on Society with Rohan Nadkarni

E
105

What Was 1982 Like? with Ray Ratto

E
106

Mr. Met Has Fallen Down the Stairs at the Met Gala

E
107

100 Foods to Throw in the Garbage with Megan Greenwell

E
108

It Doesn’t Matter If We’re Off Topic with Ray Ratto

E
109

It’s the Distraction, I’m Sheila, That’s Roth.

E
110

Elite Old Guy Excellence with Stephen Rodrick

E
111

Jake from State Farm Invented Women’s Basketball with Maitreyi Anantharaman

E
112

The Mashup Returns

E
113

Once, Twice, Three Times a Rohan Nadkarni

E
114

The Pajama Lesson with Alec Lewis

E
115

Kennedy Levels of Ruddiness with Patrick Redford

E
116

I Hear Him All Day with Justin Halpern

E
117

Subtraction by Subtraction with Ray Ratto

E
118

As Basil Exposition Once Said…

E
119

The 2024 Hater’s Guide to March Madness with Ken Pomeroy

E
120

I Am a Girl and I Drive! with Kathryn Xu

E
121

Subway Sandwiches Don’t Actually Look Like That! with Rohan Nadkarni

E
122

Run Out of Town with Pitchforks Media with Ed Zitron

E
123

My University of Austin Class on Bloodletting

E
124

The Future of Schlong-Form Reporting

E
125

Live From the Bounty House on Radio Row with Matthew Coller

E
126

I Am Wearing a Christian Black Metal Hoodie in My Headshot With Jason Kirk

E
127

No One Could Make Fun of Me If I Went to Bed Right Now

E
128

The Fist Bump That Ages Me 20 Years with Ray Ratto

E
129

Bury Me with a Terrible Towel with Rohan Nadkarni

E
130

Happy Immunological New Year!

E
131

A Boy Named Cloud with Dan McQuade

E
132

The Extreme Bonilla

E
133

Georgia Frat Relatives with “The Simpsons” Exec Producer Matt Selman

E
134

A Conglomeration of All Sports Writers with Dave McKenna

E
135

Break Out 28 Dollars for Taco Bell with Jasper Wang

E
136

Non-Monster Mash Songs by the Monster Mash Guy with Rob Harvilla

E
137

It Is Self-Care to Not Watch the Giants

E
138

The NBA Tush Push with Ray Ratto

E
139

His Dream Was to Be a Dentist with Emma Baccellieri

E
140

A Farewell to Guys

E
141

The Distraction Live in Brooklyn! with Rohan Nadkarni

E
142

The Haterrr’s Guiiide to the 2023 MLB Playoffs!

E
143

Taylor Swift's Elite Length with Giri Nathan & Samer Kalaf

E
144

Vintage Smarm

E
145

The Baseball Pathetic-Off with Justin Halpern

E
146

It’s NFL Good/Bad 2023! with Kalyn Kahler

E
147

Serious, Emotional Vikings Talk

E
148

Shrimp-Fed Fools with Spencer Hall

E
149

4,000 Flipped Birds with Andy Behrens

E
150

Dog, I Lived at Warped Tour 2011 with Lindsey Adler and Tom Ley

E
151

What Is The Worst Profession of a Person You’d Admit to Have Dated?

E
152

Is This a TV Show That Doesn’t Really Know Soccer? with Abigail Segel

E
153

You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live, with Paul Kix

E
154

Pyrocumulonimbus with John Vaillant

E
155

I Want Something that Blows Up Real Good

E
156

Let’s Remember a Podcast with Alex Sujong Laughlin

E
157

We’re Gatekeeping Mr. Met

E
158

Our Knees Are Almost Touching (with Dave McKenna and Israel Daramola)

E
159

As Albert Einstein Once Said… (With Ray Ratto)

E
160

America Named a Team For Chicken Nuggets (with Rohan Nadkarni)

E
161

Are They Going Bud Lite On Us?

E
162

The Gulf of Pain with David Grann

E
163

You Can Eat ‘Em If You’d Like! with Adam Conover

E
164

What Levels of Sacramento! with Patrick Redford

E
165

You're Not Making Jet Engines, You're Making Art

E
166

How Fast Can You Push This Button? with Rivers McCown

E
167

Allergy Talk! with Lauren Theisen

E
168

My Legacy is a Few Tweets with Kelsey McKinney

E
169

Distraction Spring Break!!

E
170

Please Have Dan Call Me Immediately (with Dan McQuade)

E
171

Fairly Ridiculous University (with Rohan Nadkarni)

E
172

The Idiot’s Guide to March Madness (with Ken Pomeroy)

E
173

GE’s Fart Joke Division (with Mike Schur)

E
174

Ostensible Movie Analysis (with Vince Mancini)

E
175

Wasabi Peas, Smart (with Israel Daramola)

E
176

Excelsior, Young Man!

E
177

The Fresno Venereal Diseases (with Dan McQuade)

E
178

Innovation in the Dickhead Space (with Patrick Redford)

E
179

The Popcorn Sweats (with Kalyn Kahler)

E
180

This Episode Is Sponsored By Bareback Sportsbook

E
181

Look At Us, High Functioning (with Kelsey McKinney)

E
182

Undisputed And First Take Are The Men's Version of Real Housewives (with Jemele Hill)

E
183

I'm Floored That You're Nick Swardson's Cousin (with Seth Wickersham)

E
184

You Know What You Got Into, I'm Watching Sports You Know The Deal Man! (with Tom Ley)

E
185

If You've Seen How Kirk Cousins Cooks Steak That's How Everybody Cooks Chicken

E
186

I Wouldn't Do That If I Were Me (with Jason Gay)

E
187

It's Deeper Than Rap (with Bomani Jones)

E
188

The Nets Are A Shit Sandwich (with Rohan Nadkarni)

E
189

Rolling Out Of Bed And Just Getting Grilled On The Lakers (with Patrick Redford)

E
190

I Told You So! (with Dan McQuade)

E
191

I'm An Old Soul When It Comes To Football (with Tyler Dunne)

E
192

You've Become A Scrabble Boy?

E
193

Been There John, Been There (with Emma Baccellieri)

E
194

This Guy's Got Direct TV So You Know He's Going Places

E
195

How Did They Let You Have A Mic? (with Pablo Torre)

E
196

Tough Shit, This Is Football! (with Kalyn Kahler)

E
197

Welcome To The Haters Guide! The 2022 College Football Season Edition (with Eric Eager)

E
198

Just Two Sun Tanned Guys Chopping It Up

E
199

Welcome To The Haters Guide! (with Andy Behrens)

E
200

I Am A Proud Member Of The Mentally Ill Mets Fan Community (with Ray Ratto)

E
201

Yay It's Our 100th Episode!!!

E
202

I'm A Vibe Believer (with Lindsey Adler)

E
203

What Do You Wanna Do Bro? (with Justin Halpern)

E
204

Where Would We Be As A Society If It Wasn't For Ray J (with Kazeem Famuyide)

E
205

Is It Actually Better To Be The 22nd Best Team In The Big 12? (with Ben Mathis-Lilley)

E
206

No Plays Off!

E
207

That's Good Parenting Right There

E
208

No One Who Works At Twitter Uses Twitter (with Matt Levine)

E
209

You Are The First Person To Say I Wish I Could Still Be A Mets Fan (with Adam Conover)

E
210

These Are The Things That Keep You Awake At Night

E
211

I Love His Kinks (with Pablo Torre)

E
212

We’re Gonna Hit That F*&#king Mountain (with Luis Paez-Pumar)

E
213

The Dander Is Overwhelming (with Patrick Redford)

E
214

I Don’t Want Food That Grows on Me (with Austin Gayle)

E
215

A Found Footage Horror Movie (with Gabriella Paiella)

E
216

I’m Gonna Make This Damn Green Sauce (with Albert Burneko and Kelsey McKinney)

E
217

It’s Been Very Frustrating to See Them Succeed (with Rohan Nadkarni)

E
218

Retrograde and All Those Things (with Tim Marchman)

E
219

It’s Oozing Out of His Shoes (with Ray Ratto)

E
220

Not Everybody Likes A Headband Guy (with Ken Pomeroy)

E
221

Let’s All Get Married On Successive Weekends (with Lauren Theisen)

E
222

The Strong Boys Podcast (with Jason Zengerle)

E
223

How Many Sidewalk Cracks Did I Step On? (with Kyle Buchanan)

E
224

Can You Say ‘Orange’ Again, For Me?

E
225

A Grim Men's Evening (with Andy Behrens)

E
226

Coca-Cola Just Needs to Blink Wrong (with Diana Moskovitz)

E
227

Headed to ’Bama for a Broken Pinky (with Nate Jackson)

E
228

You’ve Entered WASP Mode (with Vince Mancini)

E
229

I Will Keep Drinking That Garbage Until I Die (with Kalyn Kahler)

230

I’m Sure This Guy You Picked is Some Sentient Cigarette Stain (with Tyler Tynes)

231

Gonna Need You to Stop Saying “Gingerbread Boy”

232

I Try to Counteract the Bleakness Fetish of the Internet (with Jason Gay)

233

Nice Beer You’ve Got There (with Kelsey McKinney)

234

Are You Getting Me Neutered Again? (with Lindsey Adler)

235

If You're Not Wondering if You Have the Plague After Eating, Are You Even Doing It Right?

236

Do You Dare Confront the Squircle? (with Seth Wickersham)

237

I’ve Dedicated Myself to Altering the Curvature of the Earth (with Lauren Theisen)

238

This is the Media’s Fault (with Dan McQuade)

239

Please Don’t Tell Anybody How I Live (with Christian Finnegan)

240

You’re Going to Have to Accept Being a Sloppy Boy (with Patrick Redford)

241

It’s a Big World and a Lot of Bad Things Happen in It

242

Now I Have Knowledgeable Hate (with Justin Halpern)

243

Drew and David are Doing Fine (with Liz Cook)

244

The Heartbreak of Learning You Married a Prankster (with Dom Cosentino)

245

Nicki Minaj’s Cousin is Never Going to Marry You (with Spencer Hall)

246

Swag Ahoy! (with the Defector staff)

247

I Like to Tell Stories About Types of Guy (with Patrick Wyman)

248

What if Eli Manning Had Sex Appeal? (with Andy Behrens)

249

It’s Your Show, You Can Do What You Want (with Ray Ratto)

250

Brought to You by America’s Blueberry Growers

251

I Was a Huge Failing Upward Guy (with A.J. Daulerio)

252

Maybe the Apocalypse is Nigh (with Jason Gay)

253

It’s Time to Open Some Third Eyes (with Gabe Fernandez and Nick Walden)

254

You Don’t Get to Reminisce (with Albert Burneko)

255

I’ll Approach the Bench (with Kelsey McKinney)

256

It's Raining Acid on Jupiter

257

I’m Not a Sticky iPad Kid (with Chris Bosh)

258

I’m a Baseball Apologist (with Michael Schur)

259

On Behalf of the Goa Tourism Board (with Rohan Nadkarni)

260

Swimming in the Ocean of Time (with Peter Brannen)

261

I’m Also a Toast Boy (with Albert Burneko and Lauren Theisen)

262

I’ve Got Nothing Else (with Will Leitch)

263

If You’re Working in Politics, You Probably Suck (with Jason Schreier)

264

It’s a Very Dumb Podcast (with Tyler Dunne)

265

It’s Been a Big Year for A**holes (with Ashley Feinberg)

266

I Hope I Get it Wrong (with Tyler Tynes)

267

That’s as Simplistic as I Can Possibly Make It (with Thang Pham)

268

That Way Lies Madness (with Tom Ley and Meg Rowley)

269

We’re Not Talking About Trolls, We’re Talking About Film (with Amy Nicholson)

270

We Have More to Hate Here (with Maitreyi Anantharaman)

271

Have I Forgotten How to Go to a Bar? (with Rachel Handler)

272

The Magary Conundrum (with Dan Pashman)

273

We Were Talking About the Weather (with Kalyn Kahler)

274

This Is Your Legacy (with Dan McQuade)

275

Would You Like Me to Sign This? (with Mina Kimes)

276

You Can’t Steal All the LaCroix You Want (with Justin Halpern)

277

Why Move to New York to Make Bread? (with Pete Wells)

278

It’s a Happy Occasion

279

It’s a Freaking Graveyard Smash (with Lauren Theisen)

280

Sublime Is the Word (with Dom Cosentino)

281

I’ve Had Dreams About Parties

282

Hater’s Guide to the Williams-Sonoma Catalog (with James Austin Johnson)

283

I’ll Wait for the Movie (with Kelsey McKinney)

284

A Virtual Visit with Santa (with Nathan Thornburgh & Chris Jones)

285

Do You Want to Jam Some Tunes? (with Albert Burneko)

286

It’s Awkward to Lie if You’re Not a Sociopath (with Reeves Wiedeman)

287

You Can Get A Tart-Ass Kiwi (with Isaac Chotiner)

288

Words Will Only Get You So Far

289

Nerd Bullies Are the Worst of Both Worlds (w/JUSTIN ELLIS)

290

Collecting Villains is the Fun Part (w/Anna Merlan)

291

Dogs vs Blogs (w/Megan Greenwell)

292

Walking Harley Quinn (w/THE LOX)

293

Do You Ever Miss Metaphors? (w/BOB MOULD)

294

You Can Finally Be a Certified Dick (w/Tim Marchman)

295

Talking All-American: Tiger with Shane Ryan (Bonus)

296

Talking to Pilgrims with Bomani Jones

297

It's a Big Week! with Lauren Theisen

298

Consider the Nightgown with Ray Ratto

299

Andy Behrens and the Hater’s Guide to Fantasy Football

300

Waiting All Day to Watch A Richard Marx Video

301

WE'RE BACK! WE'RE BACK!

302

Introducing: The Distraction