Good morning. The Academy Awards announced nominations yesterday, and Sinners walked away with a whopping 16 noms—more than any other movie in the history of cinema.

And if you missed it the first time, the film is now back in theaters ahead of the Oscars.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

Since men's lifestyle YouTube channel Speeed launched mid 2024, its viewership has been in overdrive. Despite covering a variety of niches—clothing, cars, life lessons, and outdoors—they’ve cultivated an engaged audience with 2 million subscribers and 78 million views.

Founders Jesse Wood and James Pumphrey, formerly producers and talent at auto channel Donut, sat down with Colin and Samir to share the secrets behind their success.

Here are the highlights →

Know your references. Pumphrey and Wood claim that authenticity is crucial in building audiences. Part of that authenticity comes from being entrenched in the community you are part of.

“If you’re going to work in a medium or an art form, you have to be a fan of the medium and art form,” Pumphrey said, citing YouTube creators Emma Chamberlain and Will Tennyson as inspirations.

Have loose, but optimistic bookkeeping. “It’s important to not get caught up in optimization,” Wood said. “You need to be able to play, make misses, and break things.”

For creators able to take financial risks, Wood says that focusing on ROI can put a damper on creativity.

Develop a point of view. “Every video has been made. Every subject has been covered,” Pumphrey said. “You just have to make it yours.” 

With 20 million videos uploaded to YouTube daily, Wood and Pumphrey said they don’t present information the same way they used to at Donut Media. By reframing ideas to fit their personal style (i.e. “The History of Volkswagen” becomes “How Volkswagen Turned Their Back on Us”), Speeed is adapting their POV to stand out.

Media brand Overheard—best known for posting quotes of real conversations overheard in cities like NY and LA—just turned 10. 

We talked to Overheard’s vice president Justyna Gawlik, on the key to the brand’s staying power. Maybe 2026 really is the new 2016. 

Business snapshot:

For Gawlik, staying power comes down to relatability. “Instagram changes constantly, but at the end of the day it’s about connecting to humans,” she said. “When you make content that resonates it will inevitably perform.”

That means hiring Gen Z and millennial staff who share the audience’s pop-culture instincts and treating followers as participants. “We never want to talk to the audience—we always want a conversation with them,” Gawlik said.

Overheard staff replies to DMs (maintaining relationships with fans that stretch back nearly a decade), runs an advice hotline, and hosts a book club.

Zoom out: After relaunching its flagship account in 2025 and rolling out formats like Happy Hour and Relationship Rehab, Overheard is focused on deepening community with its new properties. “Last year was a growth year,” Gawlik said. “This year is an investment year.”

While Charli xcx might say that everything is romantic, or Sky Ferreira might counter that everything is embarrassing, platforms from Instagram to Netflix are declaring a new reality for creators: Everything is TV.

Here’s the latest →

Substack launches a TV app: Available in beta, the newsletter platform made its videos and livestreams free to watch on smart TV for both paid and unpaid subscribers. Substack says that features like read-alouds and in-app upgrades to paid content will soon be added to the TV app.

Disney+ is adding vertical video. After the integration of a short-form feed to the ESPN app in 2025, Disney+ is bringing the feature to their flagship TV app. The feed will contain both original short-form programming and repurposed scenes from TV shows and films.

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos changes his tune on YouTube. Less than a year after saying YouTube was a place to “kill time,” Sarandos said the platform is Netflix’s biggest competition for TV viewing. “We all compete with [YouTube] in every dimension, for talent, for ad dollars, for subscription dollars, and for all forms of content,” Sarandos recently said on an earnings call. Netflix is actively signing deals with several creators, including Alix Earle, Jake Shane, and Alan Chikin Chow.

The content we’re looking forward to reading, watching, and listening to this weekend.