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• I spent three days at SXSW, where Hollywood is divided over AI, LA's future, and more.
• Insiders also fretted over Trump's influence and debated YouTube's rise in podcasting.
• Creators may be getting big deals, but they're still fighting for respect.

The contours of the entertainment industry feel like they're being remapped in real time — and that sentiment was reflected at this year's South by Southwest.

I flew to Austin for the festival, where creative folks come together to share knowledge and ideas. Hollywood has been pummeled by strikes, contraction, and tech disruption. SXSW still had its tacos, tequila, and movie stars (Seth Rogen, Blake Lively, and others showed up to promote projects). But festivalgoers told me it felt more muted than in years past, a fitting metaphor for the uncertain state of the industry.

I spent three days talking with filmmakers, media executives, and other insiders to get a temperature check on the TV, film, and the creator economy. Some were riddled with existential angst, while others saw opportunity in the chaos. Here were the biggest topics and debates I heard on the ground.

AI fights are as hot as ever

A few years into the generative AI era, the distinction between good AI and bad AI is coming into sharper focus.

I heard from a few camps. There's the creative community that's embracing AI's good parts (saving time on mindless tasks) while being conscious of its bad parts (job losses and artistic theft). Then there's the debate on the timeline. Some think the film industry is a long way off from being replaced. Others believe full-length movies made with AI actors indistinguishable from the real thing are closer than you think.

There's also a fear among some that Big Tech will set the rules of the game, with the latest example being Amazon adding its controversial music generator Suno to Alexa+.

"These tech companies have more money than anyone's had in the universe, and they're using it to get their way and trample on the rights of others," said entertainment lawyer Gene Salomon, a partner at Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman.

Podcasts: To see or not to see

Podcasting was a big topic at the festival, helped by the fact that YouTube is now a major podcast player.

While there's definitely excitement among podcasters about the growth in the space, not everyone is sure what to make of the shift to video. Podcasters have to decide if putting their show on YouTube in video form is worth the extra production time and expense required.

Even uber-podcaster Megyn Kelly has her doubts, as she expressed on a recent edition of her show, saying, "Can't be in the cam glam all day long — it's just weird."

Advertisers are intrigued because video podcasts offer another way to benefit from the authentic relationship podcasters have with their audiences. However, not all video pods have the high production quality they require. Plus, they'd have to come up with new ad creative and figure out which budget the dollars would come from (video? marketing?).

Some also see the rise of YouTube and worry it'll crowd out established podcast players like Spotify and Apple that have less established ad businesses.

"You'd feel better if there was parity," one audio exec confided to me. They, like some others I spoke with at the festival, asked to remain anonymous to discuss business dealings.

Hollywood's Trump turn

President Donald Trump's presence loomed over the blue enclave and largely liberal Hollywood and creator crowd.

There was simmering worry among some insiders over the partial dismantling of DEI in Hollywood and an embrace of Trump-aligned material. The latest example was Amazon bringing the Trump-starring reality show "The Apprentice" to Prime Video. It follows the streamer paying for a Melania Trump documentary that the first lady will executive-produce.

Hollywood has been exploring making more conservative entertainment for some time, but insiders said the vibe shift had intensified with Trump in office.

One entertainment lawyer told me that some financiers are scrutinizing filmmakers for their political views before deciding to invest.

This person added that they had multiple clients get notes from streamers or networks they felt were designed to avoid attracting the ire of Trump or his allies. In one case, the note was to avoid making a prominent trans character come across as too positive.

"I've never had a president figure so much in decision-making," this person said.

Creators are still fighting for respect

In some ways, it's never been a better time to be a digital creator.

YouTube's rise in the living room has helped legitimize social media talent. Hollywood is finally waking up to it, with top YouTubers like MrBeast and Ms. Rachel getting streamer deals.

But I saw a dichotomy between the attention YouTube lavished on creators at the festival and how some creators really feel.

"Hot Ones" host Sean Evans griped that he still has to fight for recognition from advertisers, despite his YouTube show having become a regular stop for stars including Scarlett Johansson and Margot Robbie.

In one conference room, influencer advocates lamented (to mostly empty chairs) that despite their increased visibility in pop culture, creators still suffer from a lack of job protection, respect as a worker class, and power versus the platform giants.

Go niche or go broad?

There's a long-standing narrative in Hollywood that the monoculture is over.

Few programs can command a massive audience outside of sports. The global streamers haven't produced a new Disney-level franchise, despite spending billions. No one at the festival seemed especially optimistic about the future of the Bond franchise now that it's in Jeff Bezos' hands. Blockbuster movies feel few and far between.

Some industry insiders believe the future lies in going after niche audiences.

It's working for Fox-owned Tubi, which has grown by programming to fandoms as narrow as those who like "comfort horror."

Others want to see Hollywood take more risks.

"To me, great art comes from challenging audiences, and then figuring out how to get audience buy-in," Salomon said.

Hollywood is over. Long live Hollywood.

I've been writing about how Los Angeles' importance to the entertainment industry has been diminished over the years by an exodus of productions and workers to lower-cost places like Atlanta and Miami. The entertainment spending slowdown and devastating LA wildfires have added to its troubles. There's a lot of interest among filmmakers in ditching LA for cheaper, more livable states that offer tax incentives to the industry.

But they also acknowledge that the power center will remain in LA. When it comes to high-stakes functions, like writers' rooms and casting of top roles, the traffic still goes one way.

Producer Britta Erickson said: "Do I see LA coming to people in the Midwest, Cincinnati, for a meeting? Probably not. I don't think it's going to be a major shift."

• Commissioned in 1954, the USS Nautilus was the world's first nuclear-powered submarine.
• It was the first ship to visit the North Pole and participated in the Cuban missile crisis blockade.
• Nautilus is now an exhibit at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut.

On January 17, 1955, the USS Nautilus transmitted a historic message: "Underway on nuclear power."

As the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, Nautilus could remain submerged for two weeks at a time and travel at speeds of over 20 knots, or about 23 miles per hour.

Previously, World War II submarines powered by diesel engines and electric batteries could stay underwater for just 12 to 48 hours at a time. Since their batteries only charged while surfaced, diesel-electric US Navy vessels like the USS Cobia had to move at around 2 or 3 miles per hour to conserve power and hit maximum speeds of 9 knots, or about 10 miles per hour.

Nautilus is now part of the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut. Visitors can walk through the historic nuclear submarine and see how its crew members lived and worked while submerged up to 700 feet below the surface.

I visited the museum in March to tour Nautilus. Take a look inside.

Between 1954 and 1980, the USS Nautilus participated in scientific and military operations around the world.

Nautilus, which was commissioned in 1954, hosted the first-ever underwater legislative meeting when 13 members of Congress rode Nautilus in 1955.

Its nuclear power allowed Nautilus to sail under the polar ice cap and become the first ship to traverse the North Pole in 1958 in an expedition known as Operation Sunshine.

Nautilus also participated in the naval blockade of Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.

The submarine is now a museum operated by the US Navy in Groton, Connecticut, a short distance from the shipyard where it was built.

After 26 years of service, Nautilus was decommissioned in 1980 and recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1982. It opened to the public as part of the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut, in 1986.

In 2021, Nautilus underwent $36 million of preservation work and reopened in 2022.

The Submarine Force Museum is open Wednesday through Monday and is free to visit.

Measuring 3,400 tons with a length of 319 feet, Nautilus is longer than a football field.

I was amazed by the size of the submarine. As I climbed aboard, the deck provided gorgeous views of the Thames River.

The first stop on my self-guided tour was the forward torpedo room, which featured two torpedo tubes with bronze doors.

Here, crew members loaded torpedoes for firing.

Mannequins depicted crew members working in the forward torpedo room.

After the torpedoes were loaded, the tubes were flooded with water. When the command to fire was issued, high-pressure air from the submarine's ejection pump then forced the water and the torpedoes out of the tubes.

The space also included crew bunks.

Signs on the sink and mirror indicated that they were part of the submarine's original equipment.

Doorways on the USS Nautilus were narrow hatches that sailors had to step through.

Handles on top of the doorways provided a grip to hold on to while stepping through.

The next stop on the tour was the wardroom, which functioned as the living and working space for Nautilus' officers.

Nautilus had a crew of 11 officers and 105 enlisted service members.

A panel of instruments along the wardroom's wall indicated Nautilus' depth and speed.

The officers' meals were served from the officers' pantry next to the wardroom.

Officers ate the same meals as the rest of the crew members, but their food was brought up to the officers' pantry via a dumbwaiter to be reheated and served on Navy china.

Past the wardroom, a hallway led to the officers' quarters.

The walls of the narrow hallway were covered in wood paneling.

The hallway featured a display of an 1892 edition of "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," a novel by Jules Verne.

The book was gifted to Nautilus' commanding officer, Commander William R. Anderson, in 1957 by the French Navy's chief of staff, Adm. Henri Nomy. The fictional submarine in the book is also named Nautilus.

The officers' staterooms included sinks, small desks, and storage areas.

Fewer beds in a room indicated a higher rank.

The executive officer's stateroom contained another bunk that folded down.

The executive officer, also known as the "XO," was the ship's second-in-command.

The commanding officer enjoyed the privacy of the ship's only private room.

The commanding officer used the stateroom as a workspace and living quarters.

A crew member known as the yeoman managed all of Nautilus' paperwork from a small office.

The yeoman managed the ship's correspondence and personnel records.

The attack center was Nautilus' battle station.

The attack center contained periscopes to spot enemy ships and the controls to aim and fire torpedoes.

Crew members used a line-of-sight diagram to calculate the range and direction for firing torpedoes.

On the diagram, Nautilus is represented by the bottom ship, and the top ship represents the target.

Torpedoes were fired using this firing panel next to the line-of-sight diagram.

The torpedo firing key, which was used to deploy the torpedoes, was indicated with a blue sign on the firing panel.

An alarm panel in the attack center had various alerts for different emergencies.

The alarms were color-coded for different scenarios:

• Yellow: a fire or casualty
• Red: flooding or a collision
• Green: submerging or emergency surfacing
• Pink: a power plant casualty

A small arms locker contained guns kept under lock and key.

The guns were used for security while the submarine was in port.

The sonar room featured equipment used to listen for and detect other vessels.

Sonar stands for "sound navigation and ranging." Active sonar emitted sound pulses to locate targets, while passive sonar listened for underwater activity.

Nautilus featured the first-ever set of stairs on a submarine.

Before that, ladders were used to climb from one level to another.

In the control room, sailors controlled the ship's depth, tilt, and speed.

Commands were issued in the control room by a crew member known as the diving officer of the watch, who received orders from the attack center.

These levers controlled the flow of water and air in the submarine's main ballast tanks.

When the main ballast tanks filled with water, the submarine would submerge. When filled with air, the submarine would surface.

A crew member worked in the ESM bay, which stands for "electronic surveillance measures."

The ESM bay's instruments could detect other ships' radars.

Nautilus communicated with other ships from the radio room.

The radio room was located just off the control room on the right.

The crew's mess was the largest common space on the submarine.

Here, crew members ate meals, worked, and spent their recreational time.

One of the museum's displays featured a mannequin wearing an oxygen breathing apparatus, or OBA.

Damage control personnel used OBAs if fires broke out on board while submerged. The hoses on the masks could be attached to the submarine's reserve air supply.

The crew's mess also included a lay services box, which crew members used to celebrate religious holidays.

Since there was no Navy chaplain on board the submarine, crew member volunteers conducted services for various faiths with items from the lay services box.

A window in the floor of the crew's mess provided a look into Nautilus' battery well.

Nautilus was mainly powered by its nuclear reactor, but the battery served as an auxiliary source of power in case of an emergency.

Chief petty officers had the privilege of their own private lounge and living area.

Chief petty officers acted as liaisons between officers and crew members. Their living quarters were sometimes known as the "goat locker." There are a few possible explanations for the nickname:

• Chief petty officers used to be in charge of goats that were kept on ships to produce fresh milk
• Chief petty officers were nicknamed "old goats" because they were senior officers who had been in the Navy for a long time

All meals on board Nautilus were cooked in the galley.

A window connected the galley to the scullery, where crew members washed dishes.

The tour ended with more crew bunks.

Nautilus had two crew quarters, one at the front of the submarine and one at the back.

Inside the museum building, I perused exhibits about Nautilus and submarine history, including real working periscopes.

I swiveled the periscope until I could see my car sitting in the museum's parking lot, which was pretty cool.

Nautilus' notable history serves as a reminder of how quickly maritime technology has continued to advance.

Just over 70 years after Nautilus was commissioned as the first nuclear-powered submarine in the world, all of the US Navy's submarines are now nuclear-powered, according to the Department of Defense.

• I usually take a one-hour flight to visit family, but this time I took the 12-hour train ride.
• I worried I was wasting time even though I was saving money, but I don't regret my choice.
• The train ride was a relaxing break from my kids, and I felt refreshed when I visited my family.

I have family in Melbourne, about 450 miles away from me in Adelaide.

It usually takes me an hour by plane to visit them for a quick weekend getaway. I often go alone as bringing my two kids and partner isn't worth the hassle or cost for such a short visit.

However, when booking a flight for a recent trip, I realized my plans coincided with a big event in my hometown. Flight costs were even higher than usual, with the cheapest seats starting at $380 each way.

Instead, I decided to take the cheaper 12-hour Overland train ride from Adelaide to Melbourne. Standard tickets were $145.

I was worried I'd feel restless on the long train ride, and that it'd take time away I could be spending with my kids or extended family.

Full of nerves, I added the business-class upgrade for $100, too, which would give me full meal service and more legroom.

My train journey felt way more relaxing than my plane ones

On the day of my trip, I hugged my little family as I said goodbye and took a cab to the train station.

The train station felt more relaxed than the usual hustle and bustle of the airport. Boarding was fairly quick and easy.

I was assigned a comfy seat next to an oversized window and had plenty of legroom and space for my bag.

Almost straight away, the train attendant offered me a hot drink and asked me to select my meals.

At home, no one asks me what I want to eat — I'm usually the one trying to plan and serve meals to fussy kids. I was in awe as I chose a decadent selection of a hot breakfast, curry, and desserts.

Then, I put my headphones on and relaxed, watching the city pass through my window.

I'm not new to extended travel through the amazing Australian Outback. In fact, we routinely caravan as a family to wild campsites everywhere.

However, there was something special about not needing to carefully watch the road or worry about others. The biggest decision I had to make on the train was whether to have another serving of cake.

As we got closer to Melbourne, I got to just quietly watch the flat desert-like landscapes pass for miles. For the first time in a long while, I was actually feeling relaxed.

Eventually, after almost a full day on the train, I arrived at the Melbourne station around 7 p.m.

I now only had two full days to spend time with my Melbourne extended family, but I felt ready to slow down and appreciate our moments together.

I'll book the 12-hour train ride anytime I get the opportunity

Fortunately, booking the train ride (and an upgrade) was one of the best decisions I made — and doing so gave me a much-needed break for just myself.

I always love visiting family in Melbourne, but my typical itinerary leaves me exhausted.

Usually, I rush to and through the airport, board a short flight, and then get immediately swarmed by more loved ones. The fast-paced journey doesn't allow for much downtime or moments to reflect.

By booking a 12-hour train ride, I was forced to relax and take almost a full day to myself.

It didn't feel like a waste of time at all. In fact, my downtime helped me have better quality time with my Melbourne family and return to my own feeling refreshed as a parent.

Plus, I saved money in the process. Even with the business-class upgrade, my train ticket was far cheaper than the flight.

If you ever get the opportunity to choose the slower travel option, I would highly suggest taking it.

• Sales for Shein and Temu slowed after Trump announced tariffs and de minimis changes.
• Shein's sales growth dropped significantly.
• The de minimis loophole remains open — for now.

Shein and Temu's sales slowed in the weeks after Trump announced tariffs and said he would close the de minimis loophole, February data from Earnest Analytics showed.

Shein seemed to take more of a hit than Temu. Between the weeks that ended February 1 and February 22, its sales growth slowed from 22% year over year to 9.6% year over year.

Temu's sales also decelerated, though at a slower rate, from 15.4% to 14.4%, which Earnest's head of marketing, Michael Maloof, said was in line with its usual weekly fluctuations. Earnest analyzes debit and credit card transactions from millions of US consumers.

By the week of March 1, Shein's sales growth was back up to 21.4% year over year.

The ups and downs demonstrate how closely US consumers are watching the news cycle — and could be a preview of what's to come when the Trump administration ends de minimis shipping for good.

"Nothing materially changed from an import perspective for Temu and Shein during February, and yet customers made fewer transactions during that period," Maloof told Business Insider. "The later recovery suggests this pullback could have been more news-driven than fundamentals-driven."

Representatives for Temu and Shein did not return a request for comment from BI.

The weeks when Shein's sales decelerated coincided with a series of whiplash moves in global trade.

In early February, Trump issued an executive order closing the de minimis loophole while imposing tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico. (The administration has since rescinded some of the tariffs on Canada and Mexico). De minimis, also known as Section 321, is a provision of US customs law that allows retailers to import goods duty-free as long as they are valued at less than $800 and sent directly to customers.

The announcement that de minimis shipping would no longer be allowed sent much of the retail world into chaos. While Shein and Temu's use of de minimis brought the provision into the mainstream, many other brands selling directly to consumers also use the loophole to find cost savings.

US Customs and Border Protection said in a January press release that de minimis shipments increased by more than 600% from fiscal year 2015 to fiscal year 2023, going from 139 million a year to more than 1 billion. More than 1.36 billion shipments were sent via de minimis in fiscal year 2024, according to CBP.

Just a few days after the executive order was issued, Trump issued a follow-up order saying that the loophole would remain open until customs officials could establish a new process for collecting duty on packages sent using the provision.

Logistics experts expect de minimis to go away soon, though the exact timing is still unclear.

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