Hollywood is reeling after Netflix’s bombshell plan to buy Warner Bros. — and Janice Min joins Lachlan Cartwright to explain exactly why the town is in full-blown panic.

From mass layoffs to collapsing leverage, shrinking marketplaces, shrinking salaries, and the death of bidding wars, Min breaks down how the merger could reshape Los Angeles, destroy thousands of jobs, and tilt all power toward tech giants. She also dives into HBO’s future, Disney’s succession mess, David Zaslav’s payday, the collapse of the trades, AI disruption, Substack’s rise, and why she built The Ankler as Hollywood’s inside-the-room voice.

This is one of the most definitive conversations yet about the future of entertainment, streaming, journalism, and power.

⏱ CHAPTERS

00:00 – Welcome to The Breaker Pod at Fish Cheeks

00:22 – Introducing Janice Min and her media legacy

01:00 – Netflix shocks Hollywood with plan to buy Warner Bros.

01:25 – Why the entire town went into meltdown

02:10 – The history of consolidation and why it always means job losses

03:00 – LA’s unemployment crisis and what comes next

03:50 – Shrinking marketplaces and the death of bidding wars

04:40 – Pay cuts, leverage collapse, and Sarandos spin

05:30 – Why Netflix triggers Hollywood more than anyone

07:00 – The Albanian Army metaphor and what it means now

09:20 – How Netflix + Warner Bros. upends every studio’s strategy

11:00 – Does the deal get approved? The Trump factor

13:00 – David Zaslav’s windfall and Warner Bros. whiplash

15:00 – Is HBO still the crown jewel?

17:00 – Anxiety, layoffs, fires, and Xanax in Hollywood

18:30 – The Ankler’s origin story

21:00 – Why the trades failed and The Ankler thrived

22:00 – Why chasing scale destroyed journalism

25:00 – Leo DiCaprio, Danny DeVito, and what US Weekly was like

27:00 – Managing Jan Wenner and the old magazine wars

33:00 – Jimmy Finkelstein, Trump, and The Hollywood Reporter

36:00 – Why the Harvey Weinstein story was impossible to land

38:00 – The Quibi chapter and lessons from failure

40:00 – Disney succession in a post-Netflix-Warner world

44:00 – Is Disney becoming a luxury brand?

46:00 – AI arrives in Hollywood — quietly

48:00 – GPT-5, Sora 2, synthetic actors, and the next guild war

52:00 – Will The Ankler sell? What’s next for niche media

55:00 – Is subscription fatigue here?

56:30 – Can the California Post succeed?

01:00:00 – Closing thoughts

#JaniceMin #Netflix #Hollywood #MediaIndustry #WarnerBros

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