Good morning. It is officially spring in the Northern Hemisphere, meaning it will (hopefully) be warm enough to spend our Sunday evening doomscroll on the porch instead of the couch. 

By the way: On Wednesday, we misrepresented the relationship between two YouTube strategists and Red Bull. An updated version of the story can be found here. Sorry about that.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

Today’s lineup:

1) An AI podcast about the Epstein files hits No. 1 on the UK charts
2) Fox Creator Studios hires a new lead
3) Facebook launches a new creator program

121 podcast episodes in 6 weeks. Almost 2 million downloads in the first month. It’s not Call Her Daddy. It’s not The Colin and Samir Show.

It's a vibecoded podcast about the Epstein Files, made by AI creator Adam Levy on Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.5 model.

But what does that mean? “Vibecoding” is when creators use large language models (like ChatGPT or Claude) to create apps—often without prior coding knowledge. Levy vibecoded a private app called Distill, which aggregates links and creates audio summaries of certain topics.

From there, the idea for The Epstein Files podcast was born: a daily, self-updating podcast that uses data from news sites and the released files themselves.

“These tools are a really great opportunity for being better at what you’re bad at, but being 10 times better at what you’re good at,” Levy told Samir in an interview.

Reception: The podcast reached No. 1 on the UK podcast charts last week, but some listeners have criticized the podcast for using generative AI.

“I don’t think it’s fair to say that traditional journalism can’t handle this case while also referencing traditional journalism several times in every episode,” one commenter said on Spotify.

Looking ahead: Levy used the success of The Epstein Files to launch War Desk, a vibecoded podcast covering the war in Iran, and plans to add more shows to the mix.

“My goal is to build a net of all this IP,” Levy said. “[I want to] build the next great media company.”

Samir’s take: “I can feel it as a creator when I have something that I honestly want to say versus something that I know will strategically do well.” Samir said. “Operating strategically is getting less interesting because, whether I create it or not, [the idea] will just get made. So it pushes me ask, ‘Who am I as a creative that an AI model couldn’t replicate?’”

"Everything I've been doing since I left college led me to this role."

That’s what former Slow Ventures partner Billy Parks told us about taking the helm at Fox Entertainment as the head of Fox Creator Studios, a new branch dedicated to producing digital-first formats with creators.

Breaking down the business: 

“Creators today are modern production companies with scaled audiences, and we’re focused on partnering with these entrepreneurs looking to unlock new growth opportunities," Parks told us. 

Big picture: Fox Entertainment tapping a leader with an extensive creator background is further proof that the industry’s convergence with Hollywood has already happened. Already, Fox Corporation has made successful creator content through its subsidiary Tubi (which recently signed a development deal with TikTok to produce creator shows).

How we see it: For Fox Entertainment, working with creators could deliver more of what legacy media needs: built-in distribution with an engaged audience, new production models, and speed to market. Creators, for their part, can tap into studios’ resources (like bigger production and marketing budgets and more robust ad sales strategies).

With creators and Hollywood each plugging gaps for one another, we expect to see more moves like this in the near future.

Sponsored by Adobe

Adobe is expanding Firefly into a more powerful creative AI studio for image and video creation, introducing new generative capabilities and Custom Models that let you produce content in your own unique style. This is part of a broader expansion of Firefly - creators can now work with more than 30 top models from across the industry, including Google’s Nano Banana 2, Veo 3.1 and Runway’s Gen-4.5.  Firefly brings these models together in a single creative environment. It’s the only place where you can generate with one model, refine with another, compare outputs and continue editing using Adobe’s professional creative tools.

As creators, you’re stretched thin enough. Post-production only makes matters worse.

But Adobe is changing that with even more updates.

AI Assistant in Photoshop lets you describe the edit you want. Change backgrounds, remove distractions, or fix lighting through simple conversation with AI.

Firefly Image Editor now includes generative fill, remove, expand, upscale, and background removal in one streamlined workspace.

These are live now. Photoshop Firefly customers can currently access unlimited generations. Learn more here.

In an effort to entice established creators to the platform, Facebook just rolled out its new Creator Fast Track program.

Creators with over 100K followers on TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube are eligible for Fast Track, which gives them: 

Zoom out: Facebook’s audience skews older, and users spend less time on the platform than they do on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. Facebook’s strategy to incentivize more original content—and more engaged audiences? It paid creators almost $3 billion last year, up 35% from 2024, and it’s debuting features that deprioritize spammy content.

*This is sponsored content

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