• Roseanne Barr has a history of supporting President Donald Trump, as well as promoting popular online right-wing conspiracy theories.
• Barr received a congratulatory call from Trump on Wednesday for the ratings success of the premiere of "Roseanne," the revival of her ABC sitcom, in which she plays a Trump supporter.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump called Roseanne Barr to congratulate her on the ratings success for the premiere episodes of "Roseanne," the revival of Barr's ABC sitcom.

Roseanne Conner, Barr's character on the show, is a Trump supporter. Barr herself has been a vocal Trump supporter since the lead-up to the 2016 election, and she also has a history of promoting popular online right-wing conspiracy theories.

"I have always attempted to portray a realistic portrait of American working class people, and it was working class people who elected Trump," Barr said in January at the Television Critics Association press tour of depicting her character as a Trump supporter. 

"He says a lot of crazy s---,” Barr continued. "I’m not a Trump apologist. There are a lot of things he’s done and said that I don’t agree with in the same way there are probably a lot of things Hillary Clinton has done and said you don’t agree with."

But as The Washington Post recently reported, Barr's Twitter page had been a trove of Trump support and tweets promoting right-wing conspiracy theories like Pizzagate, up until she deleted most of her page's history in December.

"4 those who wonder-back in the day when I was called a 'liberal' by journalists, I used to answer-‘I’m not a Liberal, I’m a radical’ & I still am-I voted Trump 2 shake up the status quo & the staid establishment," Barr tweeted in December.

Barr has shared YouTube links promoting Pizzagate, a conspiracy that Hillary Clinton and her former campaign chair John Podesta were using a Washington, DC, pizzeria as a base for a child trafficking ring. ("Pizzagate Journalists Being Attacked by MMFA & ThinkProgress!" she tweeted in December).

She also tweeted about the conspiracy of a "cover-up" surrounding the death of former Democratic National Convention staffer Seth Rich in July 2016.

Read the Washington Post's report on Barr's internet presence >

SEE ALSO: Trump called Roseanne Barr to congratulate her on the high ratings for the 'Roseanne' reboot

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This is how LUSH makes its solid, packaging-free shampoo — which saved the use of 15 million plastic bottles in 2016

• Spotify will hold its direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange on April 3.
• RBC Analyst Mark Mahaney believes Spotify will leverage its position as a "global music streaming leader" thanks largely to its scale and data, which should help the company become profitable.
• He sets his price target to $220 per share with an "Outperform" rating.
• Come back here to find out how Spotify's stock is trading in real time.

Spotify is poised to take the global music streaming industry by storm as the company prepares to go public.

The company's sheer scale of 71 million paid subscribers and an additional 92 million ad-supported monthly users puts it solidly ahead of its closest competitor, Apple Music, with nearly double the amount of paid subscribers.

"Spotify is the global music streaming leader," wrote Mark Mahaney, an analyst at RBC, in a note to clients ahead of its direct public listing on April 3.

Mahaney initiated coverage on Thursday, giving Spotify a $220 per share price target and an "Outperform" rating.

"Scale matters," he said. Scale can help an internet company like Spotify because it creates a loyal fan base through personalization that can further spread to others through social features that allow users to share their favorite playlists and artists with friends.

Its position and scale could also help move it out of the red as the music streaming company can use its increasing leverage as a leader to negotiate better deals with the music industry and incentivize labels and artists to promote on its platform. This can help alleviate some of investors' concerns over the company's billions of dollars of spending on royalties and licensing fees because its business model is starting to inflect with higher margins and revenues, Mahaney notes.

Data and personalization can also boost its projected success, Mahaney says. Spotify's large data trove can lead to further personalization for users, as well as monetization. Spotify has a data set of more than 200 petabytes compared to Netflix's 60 petabytes, Mahaney adds.

"Why does this matter? We all know information is power, and for many it helps bridge the gap between the struggling and the successful," Spotify CEO Daniel Ek told investors.

Not only can this data be used by advertisers, it can also be used by artists who can gain insight into how users are listening to their music and which songs they skip.

"This is a flywheel that keeps on turning," Mahaney wrote.

You can view Spotify's stock price in real time after April 3.

Read more about another way Spotify can save itself from hemorrhaging money to the music industry.

SEE ALSO: Spotify is hemorrhaging money and it needs to become Netflix to stop the bleeding

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What living on Earth would be like without the moon

• Actor Ben Affleck responded to a New Yorker article about his "great sadness" and back tattoo.
• Affleck said he was "doing just fine" and had thick skin.

On Thursday, actor Ben Affleck responded to a New Yorker article about his "great sadness," body shape, and giant back tattoo by saying he was "just fine" and had "thick skin."

Affleck has recently been the subject of talk online, which has centered particularly around his back tattoo of a phoenix. The tattoo had long been rumored to exist after his ex-wife Jennifer Garner commented on it in 2016, but pictures emerged earlier this month that displayed it to the world (Affleck had once claimed it was a temporary tattoo for a movie).

Affleck remained silent about much of the gleeful press banter about his tattoo, until The New Yorker jumped into the fray with an article titled "The Great Sadness of Ben Affleck."

Affleck tweeted at The New Yorker, "I’m doing just fine. Thick skin bolstered by garish tattoos."

 The New Yorker article highlights Affleck's successes — Oscar wins for writing "Good Will Hunting" in 1998 and best picture for "Argo" in 2013 — before diving into his "despondent" look in recent viral photos.

"These depressed-Affleck images can arouse both amusement and a sense of poignancy, a touch of Schadenfreude as well as something like sympathy," the article says.

The article proceeds to comment on Affleck's body shape: "His gut is pooching outward in a way that, in a more enlightened country like, say, France, would perhaps be considered virile, not unlike the lusty Gérard Depardieu in his prime but, in fitness-fascist America, tends to read as Homer Simpsonesque."

The New Yorker concludes by contending that the "sad" image of Affleck on a beach in Honolulu, "gargantuan" tattoo clearly visible, represents his "fall" — and not just his.

"The image suggests not just the fall of Affleck but the coming fall of man," it says. "There is something about this exhausted father that reflexively induces panic."

Affleck seems to think The New Yorker might be reading a bit too much into it.

SEE ALSO: 4 reasons why 'The Incredibles' is Pixar's best movie — and one of the best superhero movies of all time

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why 555 is always used for phone numbers on TV and in movies

• Roseanne Barr is under fire for appearing to promote a far-right conspiracy theory about the Parkland school shooting activist David Hogg. 
• In a since-deleted tweet, Barr wrote the words "NAZI SALUTE" in response to a conspiracy theorist's post that tagged Hogg.  
• Barr's tweet seemed to reference a debunked conspiracy that Hogg raised a Nazi salute at a March for Our Lives rally on Saturday.

Roseanne Barr sparked controversy this week for appearing to promote a far-right conspiracy theory about the Parkland shooting student-activist David Hogg. 

On Tuesday evening, just before the revival of her ABC sitcom "Roseanne" premiered, Barr tweeted the words "NAZI SALUTE" in response to a Twitter user who tagged Hogg in a tweet. She later deleted her tweet.

Barr, a vocal Trump supporter with a history of promoting right-wing conspiracy theories, seemed to be referencing a far-right conspiracy theory that Hogg raised a Nazi salute at a March for Our Lives rally on Saturday.

As Mic noted, a number of Twitter users, including Chrissy Teigen, criticized Barr for the tweet, while some called out ABC for giving Barr a platform with her revived sitcom.

Barr has previously used her Twitter page to promote debunked far-right conspiracies including Pizzagate and the  conspiracy of a "cover-up" in the death of former Democratic National Convention staffer Seth Rich. 

ABC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.

SEE ALSO: Roseanne Barr has a history of supporting Trump — and promoting right-wing conspiracy theories

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why 555 is always used for phone numbers on TV and in movies

• Streaming service Hulu is among the companies facing pressure to pull advertising with Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
• Ingraham is facing backlash for mocking Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg on Twitter.

Companies are facing increased pressure to drop their advertising with Laura Ingraham, a Fox News host who recently received backlash for mocking a Parkland shooting survivor. 

Hulu is among the companies the survivor, student David Hogg, has called out on Twitter to pull their advertising with Ingraham. Many on Twitter have vowed to boycott Hulu and other companies if they don't sever ties with Ingraham.

Hulu did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider.

Actor and comedian Patton Oswalt joined in on Thursday, alluding that he would drop the service. "Do the right thing here," he said. "Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn also threatened to drop his subscription, tweeting "Online bullying & shaming of teenagers should not be supported by Hulu."

Ingraham, host of Fox News show "The Ingraham Angle," mocked Hogg on Wednesday for being rejected by four colleges he applied to. "David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA...totally predictable given acceptance rates.)" she tweeted.

As of Thursday, the tweet was still on her page.

But on Thursday, as several companies announced they would pull ads from Ingraham's program, Ingraham tweeted an apology, stating "On reflection, in the spirit of Holy Week, I apologize for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland."

"For the record, I believe my show was the first to feature David immediately after that horrific shooting and even noted how 'poised' he was given the tragedy," she continued.

Despite the apology, the calls for Hulu to pull their advertising with Ingraham continued throughout the day on Thursday on Twitter, with many saying they would cancel their subscription to the service.

Update: Thursday evening, Hulu posted a statement on Twitter saying that it would "like to confirm that we are no longer advertising on Laura Ingraham’s show and are monitoring all of our ad placements carefully."

SEE ALSO: Ben Affleck hits back at The New Yorker after an article about his 'great sadness' and 'gargantuan' back tattoo

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why 555 is always used for phone numbers on TV and in movies

A slew of TV shows were canceled in 2017, and the list of shows canceled in 2018 is growing quickly, especially with streaming services like Amazon and Netflix letting go of some.

We said goodbye to a lot of shows in 2017, which was the first year Netflix decided to start really canceling shows in earnest.

The networks, as usual, axed plenty of shows (old and new) in 2017 as well, like the comedy "2 Broke Girls," which faltered in ratings later into its run. One of CBS' new shows, "Wisdom of the Crowd," was also canceled after its star, Jeremy Piven, was accused of sexual misconduct.

So if you're wondering why a show you love hasn't returned in 2018, it might have been canceled. 

In this roundup, we've also included shows that knew their end was coming. HBO's "Vice Principals," for example, had always been set to finish after two seasons.

Here are all the shows that were canceled in 2017 and 2018, including those from networks and Netflix:

SEE ALSO: All 26 notable new Netflix original shows that debuted in 2017, ranked from worst to best

Canceled in 2018:

"The Mayor" — ABC, one season

"Chance" — Hulu, two seasons

It has been a crazy couple of weeks for Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, the 26-year-old Twitch streamer who recently played the popular game "Fortnite" with Drake and reportedly makes half a million dollars every month from his bedroom.

In just the past five days, he's gained an average of 83,000 followers a day on Twitch, broken a world record for greatest number of in-game kills on a "Fortnite" mode called Duos. He also entangled himself in his first large-scale scandal by casually rapping a racial slur during a livestream.

Ninja has taken the internet by storm. And Twitch projections show that Ninja's online popularity is only growing.

Here's everything you need to know about Ninja, the pro gamer who's bringing streaming into the mainstream:

SEE ALSO: We asked famous YouTubers what it’s actually like to play video games for a living — here are all the perks and drawbacks that come with the job

Ninja is one of the highest-paid personalities among Twitch streamers, YouTubers, and e-sports players.

In an interview with CNBC, Blevins confirmed he earns over $500,000 a month from his more than 160,000 paid Twitch subscribers, which are separate from his 4 million followers on the same platform.

On Twitch, streamers net $3.50 for every subscription, which costs the viewer $5 a month and gets them exclusive emotes and badges while allowing them to view the stream without ads. Meanwhile, simply following a streamer is free, but doesn't come with any perks.

Ninja's subscriptions have ballooned in the days since the interview, so it's safe to say that he makes much more now. Even without accounting for the likely rise in "tips," which Twitch lets viewers leave for streamers, Blevins also makes money from his 6 million YouTube subscribers, and any additional sponsorships he's likely to have taken on since his appearance on national TV.

Ninja spends most of his time playing "Fortnite: Battle Royale," the internet's favorite video game right now.

Ninja's success has been bolstered in part by the surge in popularity of "Fortnite: Battle Royale," a shooter game in which a hundred online players are dropped onto an island where they mine for materials, build structures, find supplies, and kill each other until a single player is left standing, similar to the dystopian arena game described in the "Hunger Games" books and movies.

While packages with the full version of "Fortnite" start at $39.99, the "Battle Royale" game mode is free to play on PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and mobile (both iOS and Android). It stands as the most-watched game on Twitch, by a lot.

The popularity of "Fortnite" is what sparked his friendship with Drake, who is also a fan of the game.

Drake initiated the unlikely pairing, saying he had watched Ninja's streams before they played together.

On March 14, Drake joined Ninja for a "Fortnite" stream late at night, and the two broke Twitch's record for the most concurrent viewers of all time, partly thanks to Drake's advertising the marathon to his 36.9 million Twitter followers.

During the hours-long session, Ninja implied that it had been Drake who actually initiated the team-up.

While the two ran through the virtual island looking for weapons, Drake said he had recently been playing "Fortnite" in the recording studio during his breaks, had seen a video of Ninja playing on Instagram, and later watched more of his content on YouTube.

"I am 99.9% sure we are about to break Twitch," Blevins said shortly after, pointing out the number of their concurrent viewers had surpassed the previous non-tournament record of 388,000, held by Dr. DisRespect.

"That's easy," Drake replied.

The duo was later joined by rapper Travis Scott and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, who admitted during the game he is a huge Ninja fan.

That night, they maxed out at 635,000 concurrent viewers. Luckily, Twitch didn't actually crash. You can watch the recorded games on Ninja's YouTube channel.

There's no telling if Van Halen would have still become one of the most successful rock acts of the 1980s if they had settled on their original choice of band name, "Rat Salad."

A number of other famous bands initially intended to go by names that were equally questionable or cringe-worthy.

From the banal "On a Friday" (Radiohead) to the offensive "The Young Aborigines" (The Beastie Boys), we turned to a comprehensive Billboard article on the subject for this list of some of the many terrible names that bands wisely avoided.

Here are the 19 worst original band names of famous bands:

SEE ALSO: The 50 best-selling music artists of all time

Van Halen

Original name: Rat Salad

Kiss

Original name: Wicked Lester

Destiny's Child

Original name: Girl's Tyme

• Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields, the showrunners for FX's "The Americans," said fans wanted them to kill off Paige Jennings. 
• Paige is the teenage daughter of KGB spies Philip and Elizabeth Jennings in the show.
• The showrunners said this was "very upsetting."
• Paige is still alive, and the show is now in its sixth and final season.

Some fans have great ideas. But many fans of FX's "The Americans," now airing its sixth and final season on FX, wanted teenager Paige Jennings to die, which was "very upsetting" to the showrunners, they told Business Insider. 

On "The Americans," which follows undercover KGB agents Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, there are a lot of deaths. It's not "Game of Thrones" level by any means, but at any time, any character of significance can go.

In season four, Nina Krilova (Annet Mahendru), is abruptly executed in the Soviet Union for working with the FBI. In season three (and in one of the most brutal deaths in television history), Philip and Elizabeth stuff a woman's body into a suitcase to hide the evidence. In season one, one of the main characters, FBI agent Chris Amador, dies after being stabbed by Philip.

But fans wanted at least one more person to die.

Speaking to Business Insider, showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields said that fans wanted them to kill off Paige, the teenage daughter of Philip and Elizabeth Jennings. 

Throughout the series, Paige grows more and more suspicious of her parents, and eventually gets close enough to finding out the truth that her parents tell her. Paige finds a community at a local church, and tells her Pastor (Tim) and his wife that her parents work for the KGB.

This apparently resulted in fans wanting to see her die, likely at the hands of her parents or their bosses. 

"One of the interesting things for us on the show has been to discover that the audience wants the strangest people to die," Weisberg said. "There was a long period of time when they kept wanting us to kill Pastor Tim. And then a lot of people were very bitter about Paige. They wanted Paige to die!"

"It's very upsetting," Fields added. "And from our perspective we're like, 'How many people do we have to kill?' Although that's not how we decide who to kill. But sometimes the nice people have to go."

Paige is alive on the show now, and will probably survive.

But everyone else is fair game.

SEE ALSO: 'The Americans' creators share their feelings on ending the show after 6 seasons — and reveal the character fans wanted them to kill

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why 555 is always used for phone numbers on TV and in movies

• ABC executives told The New York Times that the "Roseanne" reboot was a direct result of President Trump's election.
• Executives met the morning after Trump's victory to discuss the future of the network.
• The reboot's premiere scored big ratings on Tuesday with over 18 million viewers.

ABC executives say the network's "Roseanne" reboot, which scored huge ratings when it premiered Tuesday night, was a direct result of President Trump's election victory.

According to The New York Times, executives at ABC — which had finished last among the major four networks that November — met the morning after the election to discuss the network's future. One thing that came out of it was a reboot of "Roseanne," the sitcom about a working-class family that ABC thought could resonate with those who voted for Trump.

It seems it did, as the reboot raked in 18.2 million viewers on Tuesday during its two back-to-back episodes. Trump even called star Roseanne Barr, who is a Trump supporter on and off the show, to congratulate her on the high ratings.

ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey told The Times that the show was a "direct result of the post-Election Day initiative to pursue an audience that the network had overlooked."

"We had spent a lot of time looking for diverse voices in terms of people of color and people from different religions and even people with a different perspective on gender," Dungey told The Times. "But we had not been thinking nearly enough about economic diversity within our own country. That's been something we've been really looking at with eyes open since that time."

ABC thought the "Roseanne" reboot could resonate, but even its execs were surprised by exactly how well it did, according to Indiewire. Still, Dungey told Indiewire, "If you deliver a show that connects with audiences, people will come." And they did.

Despite New York and Los Angeles — the two biggest markets in the country — not tuning in heavily, "Roseanne" was the best performing comedy telecast in 3.5 years, according to Deadline.

The "Roseanne" reboot will have nine episodes this season. The Times said Trump will be less of a topic in the remaining seven episodes, but that other economic and cultural issues will be brought up — so we'll see if its ratings power will continue.

SEE ALSO: Roseanne Barr is under fire for appearing to promote a conspiracy theory about a Parkland student activist

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why 555 is always used for phone numbers on TV and in movies

• Netflix's new 6-part docuseries, "Wild Wild Country," has become its latest sleeper hit.
• Business Insider talked to the directors of the series, which takes an in-depth look at a cult that attempted to build a utopian city in rural Oregon in the 80s.
• The show is filled with "insane" details — from guns, to Rolls Royces, to salad bar poisoning — but the real accomplishment of the series is how it captures compelling characters on both sides of the conflict between the cult and the local townspeople.

When documentary filmmaker brothers Chapman and Maclain Way first heard the story of the rise and fall of Rajneeshpuram, a utopian city in Oregon built in the 1980s by followers of an Indian guru, they thought it was “actually insane.”

It’s not hard to see why.

The story, which started in 1981 when a cult led by mystic Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh bought a 65,000-acre ranch in rural Oregon to construct a paradise on Earth, quickly captivated the imagination of the American news media during the 80s.

The guru and his followers (“Rajneeshees” or "sannyasins") had so many attributes that were impossible for the media to resist: free love, machine guns, and a leader with dozens of Rolls Royces and a million-dollar watch.

But the real meat of the news fodder came from their conflicts with local ranchers and other townsfolk, who resisted the cult's attempts to commandeer the municipal government, which included bringing in thousands of homeless people by bus to vote for Rajneeshee candidates.

The tale of Rajneeshpuram was capped off by a wild crescendo, in which the Rajneeshees attempted to suppress voter turnout by poisoning the salad bars of nearby restaurants with salmonella. They ended up poisoning 751 people in the largest bioterrorism attack in US history. The architect of the attack and operational leader of the group, Ma Anand Sheela, spent more than two years in prison. Ranjneesh himself fled to India, where he died in 1990.

Then the story largely faded from memory in the United States.

But interest has been revived by the release of the Way brothers’ 6-part docuseries, which has become a word-of-mouth hit for Netflix since it came out earlier this month.

Part of the reason is that the Ways reached beyond the salacious sound bites to present Rajneeshpuram in all its wonderful complexity. Their interviews with the major players on both sides of the conflict are nuanced, compelling, artfully shot, and simply darn fun to watch.

Business Insider spoke to Chapman and Maclain Way about how they put together the series, what Sheela was like in person, and whether another Rajneeshpuram could spring up in our current time. Fans will be glad to know the brothers said they are "definitely" interested in potentially making a follow-up (though likely not a whole second series), and have gotten a bunch of new tips since the series went live on Netflix.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Nathan McAlone: What first caught your interest about this particular story?

Chapman Way: The whole project started for us about four years ago, in 2014. We were talking to a film archivist in the Northwest, up in Portland, who told us that he had access to this incredible collection of archive footage of what he told us was “the most bizarre story that had ever happened” in the state of Oregon. Mac and I were shocked we hadn’t heard about this story. We were born right after it all ended. Our first initial instinct was, “Holy crap, this is an actually insane story.” But it wasn't until we started searching and found this complex underbelly — what is a religion, what is a cult, fear of the other, immigration rights, and all these thorny topics — that we thought this could make for an interesting deep dive.

McAlone: How did that archivist come to have the footage?

Maclain Way: It was a really interesting story about this particular collection. When the Rajneeshees came to Oregon in 1981, they immediately drew a lot of local news attention to them. [It was a time] when news station were switching from 16 millimeter film to U-matic tapes and one of the big selling points of U-matic tapes was that you could tape over them, and save costs that way. In general, from 1980 to 1985, it’s a time period where there are not a lot of news film archives because news stations were taping over their tapes trying to save a dollar. But with the Rajneeshees, news directors knew how significant this story was, how historical the Rajneeshees were going to be. So they never taped over their Rajneeshee tapes. The whole collection was 525 U-matic tapes, and that in addition to all the other archive footage we were able to track down ended up being about 300 hours of archive footage.

McAlone: Once that happened, did you then start reaching out to set up interviews? Were you nervous some of these people on either side wouldn't want to go on camera?

Chapman Way: The first thing we did was digitize the footage. At worst, we’d release a feature [length], archive-only version of the story. The story is just so incredible. Even if no one wanted to be interviewed, we’d do a 90-minute, archive-only [film]. But then as we started watching the footage, the first character who jumped out at us was not even the guru so much as this Ma Anand Sheela, who was the secretary really responsible for building this huge religious empire in the 80s. She's feisty, she cusses, she speaks her mind, she’s not afraid, she doesn't take sh-- from anyone. We were equally fascinated and terrified, but we knew that if we could talk to her, maybe this had the potential to be something really special. So we reached out to her. We found an email address for some health institutions she runs. We got her on the phone. It became clear immediately that she felt like she hadn't been given an opportunity to tell her version of the events, her side, how she thought it unfolded. Mac and I — and my wife, Julie, who’s a producer — we took about three or four trips to Switzerland before we even interviewed her, just to get to know her, to understand what she's doing today, to meet some of her family members. I think it led to this really intimate interview that we got with her.

McAlone: It must have been strange for her. She got to tell her story a lot [in the 80s], in a combative way on camera, but after the fact it all went away.

Chapman Way: I think she felt like some of her persona at the time, in the 80s, was this cultivated persona. Maybe she was being provocative for a reason. All press is good press. I think there was a value in interviewing her 35 years after the fact. I think there was a lot of new insights into the movement, what was happening, and what their purpose was in Oregon.

McAlone: You had watched all the archival footage of her. Was there anything when you met her in person that stuck out as, “Wow, that was so different than what I thought?”

Chapman Way: Yeah, the first thing that you are really struck by, and it's in the series, is just how tiny she really is. I don't even know if she is over five feet tall. She's very small. And it’s almost shocking cause she's such a larger-than-life figure in the footage, and how everyone speaks about her, that it's almost stunning to see how tiny she is in person. When we met her it was right during the primaries, when Trump was starting to gain steam, and the first thing out of her mouth was she just started roasting us for being from America, and for the rise of Trump, [and saying] how America was falling apart without her. She was funny and charming and witty. And we started immediately diving into her backstory and whole life.

McAlone: Was there anyone it took more to convince, or were people pretty open?

Maclain Way: When we first started, we knew that the sannyasins or former Rajneeshees would be hard to get to open up, especially since we had made a documentary about an Oregon baseball team, so I think from their perspective we were coming from Oregon, a state they had kind of gone to war with. But I think the thing we were most surprised by was the ranchers and the neighbors of Rajneeshpuram, their hesitancy to talk about this. From their perspective, it was a very painful and traumatic time in their life that they didn't want to revisit. I think that the interesting thing was that both sides — Antelope and the neighboring ranchers, or the Rajneeshees themselves — saw the story of Rajneeshpuram as a warning of sorts, and they were realizing how forgotten the story was. Granted, each side looks at the story of Rajneeshpuram as a very different type of warning. I think sannyasins will talk to you about how this was an example of government overreach and religious persecution they were facing, whereas people from Antelope or neighboring ranchers will talk to you about the dangers of cults, and what brainwashing can do to you. Ultimately, everyone who did participate in the documentary series [talked to us because] they didn't want the story of Rajneeshpuram to be totally forgotten. They saw value in it as a warning.

McAlone: There are definitely sympathetic arguments on both sides. But the moment when [the Rajneeshees] started busing in homeless people [to try and sway the election], it seemed that the decision-making was going to places that were illogical. This was clearly not a good idea and would go off the rails. Up until this point, the [decisions of the leadership] seemed rational. What changed?

Maclain Way: It was really interesting, when we talked to sannyasins who were not involved in that decision-making to bring in homeless people, they often talked to me about this, unprompted, as “the beginning of the end.” And that was their reflection 30, 35 years after this happened. That decision was so far off base from what the original intention of the community was, which was kind of “peace, loving, meditation, personal and spiritual growth, we are all on this path walking toward enlightenment — now we are kind of becoming a homeless shelter,” which was really interesting as interviewers.

McAlone: What is the status of the community now generally?

Chapman Way: There’s sort of one main organization, and then there's a bunch of little offshoots. The main organization is the Osho International Foundation. They go by “OIF.” They are run out of the same ashram that they started out in the 70s, and it's not really community living, more of a resort you pay to do some meditation and spa treatment, and psychotherapy is involved. They have completely rebranded. It is no longer Bhagwan’s face all around the area. They changed his name to Osho. It’s an international resort for seekers, and people interested in spirituality and yoga and that sort of thing. But there are still these communes all over. My wife, who produced the series, is from Brazil, and she knows people who live in some of the communes in northern Brazil who are still dedicated to Osho’s teachings. Mac and I during research went to their headquarters in Italy — Osho Miasto — which is one of their communes and spent a few days talking to sannyasins there. They do have these satellite communes all over the world. But their main headquarters and moneymaker is based out of Pune, India.

McAlone: In terms of the sannyasins who were in the Oregon commune, how did they feel about the current organization?

Chapman Way: They all kind of have their own circles and are still devoted to Osho. One of our talking heads is in northern California and belongs to an Osho group out there in Marin county. Niren, who is the lawyer we interviewed, still travels to India every once and awhile. They all have different thoughts. The interesting thing I found is that while the organization doesn't like talking about this chapter of Osho's biography and history, all of the American sannyasins felt such a traumatic — almost PTSD — response to this failed experiment [that they] wanted to dive back into the story one more time, so they could tell their version.

McAlone: Was there anything you were conscious of avoiding [when making “Wild Wild Country”]?

Chapman Way: I think the most difficult part was that there were just a lot of rumors that had gone around on both sides. I think for the people of Oregon, [there were rumors of] things they had said, that we could have dove into, that really paint these people as horribly racist and bigoted. But you know it’s rumors and there is no evidence of it. In the other direction, the people of Antelope would say horrible things that were rumor-based about the Rajneeshees, and crimes that were committed, that we couldn't find evidence of, and the government could not find evidence of. [But] that didn't mean it didn't happen. As a documentary filmmaker, you are trying to straddle that line by giving the audience the most information that you can. But you are afraid of hearsay seeping into the narrative and things being misinterpreted. It’s always a difficult line.

McAlone: Do you think [the story of Rajneeshpuram] relates particularly to its time period, or do you think anything of that scale would be possible now in a place like Oregon?

Chapman Way: What I've found fascinating — and this is just my armchair take — was that a lot of the sannyasins that we talked to had come to this point in life where they were successful. They had achieved career success, but they were ultimately unfulfilled and were looking for something new, something exciting. And from my own social circle, my own friends, there does seem to be a similarity with the millennial generation, of people that have gone to school, gone to college, gotten a degree, started a family — and then people are asking, “What do we do next, is this really the pinnacle of happiness?” There are definitely always these movements, especially in America, where people start looking for something more, start looking for something more fulfilling. I think something of this scale could be achieved again. And I think this series has some warning signs of what happens when these things unfold.

SEE ALSO: What surprised the creators of Showtime's 'Billions' the most about the world of hedge funds

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why 555 is always used for phone numbers on TV and in movies

• Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud got the job in July 2017, for her vision on how to differentiate Vimeo from larger video services, like YouTube and Netflix.
• At 34, she's the youngest CEO of an IAC company.
• She explained what is was like growing up in Flint, Michigan, and career advice she learned from her father, an immigrant entrepreneur.

Anjali Sud has always sought out opportunities that aren't easy — that seem intimidating at first.

She left Flint, Michigan, at 14 for the elite Massachusetts boarding school Phillips Academy on a scholarship. And she became the CEO of Vimeo at 34.

"I think that when you are pushed outside of your comfort zone, you get off that learning curve so much faster and you develop as a leader so much faster," she told Business Insider in an episode of our podcast "Success! How I Did It."

Vimeo is an ad-free video platform for filmmakers, who Sud calls "creators." The videos on Vimeo generally have a higher production value than those on YouTube.

Sud worked at Vimeo for three years before getting the CEO job in July. Vimeo's owners weren't sure where they wanted to take the company, but they ultimately decided that Sud, who was leading the team working with filmmakers, had the best plan.

It was an opportunity she told me she wasn't expecting — so that's why she had to take it.

Read her full interview with Business Insider below:

Listen to the full episode here: 

Subscribe to "Success! How I Did It" on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. Check out previous episodes with:

• Edible Arrangements founder and CEO Tariq Farid
• Astronaut Scott Kelly
• Flatiron Health founder and CEO Nat Turner
• X Prize founder Peter Diamandis

The following transcript has been edited for clarity.

Anjali Sud: As I was leading that business, and as that business continued to get traction, the world around us sort of changed when it came to original content. We started to see companies — not just Netflix, but many others — spending billions of dollars on content, and it sort of became clear that we weren't really going to be solving a problem that wasn't already being solved.

On the other side, creator opportunity was just so big and was only growing, and we felt that we had a really unique story and a role to play.

Richard Feloni: Can you explain what Vimeo's approach is and how that would be different from, say, YouTube?

Sud: It is different from a YouTube. YouTube is providing tools specifically to get creators to get eyeballs and audience as they build their ad business.

But Vimeo, we are sort of a platform-agnostic company. We provide creators with the tools to create video, review rough cuts, share them with their team members, use very advanced privacy tools. Then when they want to distribute those videos, we actually help them distribute not just on their own websites, but all over social media, including on YouTube and Facebook.

In many ways, we're not really a substitute to YouTube — we're actually an enabler in helping creators distribute and monetize their work anywhere.

Feloni: Maybe like a creator on YouTube, you could have this 14-year-old kid talking to his webcam, but with Vimeo, you're going to have an actual film-production team.

Sud: Yeah. Vimeo started off really as a community for independent filmmakers and for the video professionals, everyone from a freelancer to the videographer.

What's interesting is that now technology has enabled more and more types of professional creators, so what we actually see is every startup, every small business, every school, every church is using video now to communicate with their audiences, and in many cases, they want really professional-level tools.

They don't want to see ads on their videos and not be able to control or own that experience. They want to be able to control and own the customers who are watching those videos. In many cases, they actually want to build their own businesses on video. We actually provide the tools and technology to build your own Netflix and go directly to your own consumers. That's actually one of our fastest-growing businesses.

Feloni: Since there are no ads on Vimeo, how do you guys make money from this relationship?

Sud: We are, in today's nomenclature, a classic SaaS business, similar to a Dropbox or a Slack.

Feloni: What is SaaS?

Sud: Software as a service. You can use Vimeo's tools — you can use a basic version for free. Then you subscribe to an annual plan to get access to more professional services.

We do not make any money from advertising, which is fairly rare for a company of our size in the video space, and it's a really important part of our strategy, because we aren't incentivized to keep an audience on Vimeo — we don't want to monetize that audience. That means that we can actually make choices that we believe are really better for creators. That's why we can do things like help them get distribution out everywhere.

Feloni: Yeah, so it's the creator base, not necessarily the viewer base?

Sud: Exactly.

From Flint to Phillips Academy

Feloni: I want to talk about your story as well. You grew up in Flint, Michigan?

Sud: Yeah!

Feloni: What was that like?

Sud: Flint is a town that once had a very booming economy, and then as the auto industry left has really struggled for decades from a poverty perspective, crime, and then more recently health, with the water crisis.

Honestly, my experience growing up was as part of a wonderful community of loving, caring people, most of whom are still there today, including my family. So I think sometimes Flint probably gets a worse rap than the reality.

Feloni: Is it tough to see that?

Sud: I think it's great that there's more emphasis, information, and the world is hearing more about what happened in Flint. I think that for many people, we hear about things happening outside the US, and people forget that in the US itself we have this dislocation. I think it's great that there's more awareness; I guess on a personal level, it's always a bit hard.

But I grew up in a town where you could see the impact that business can have on a community. My dad has his own plastics-recycling plant in Flint and was a big believer in how business can help create jobs for the local Flint community.

When I think about my role today at Vimeo, I really love the fact that Vimeo as a business can influence the creator community. I think that tie-in is something that influenced me. I come at it from more of an optimistic angle, which is the power that business can have to positively influence a community.

Feloni: Your parents were immigrants from India. What brought them to Flint?

Sud: They just settled in Flint because that's where they got jobs, and we had a really great — small, but great — Indian community there. They had left all their family and friends, so that was really important. They settled there, and they like it. I grew up in a family that was very interested in doing things to be an active part of the community. I certainly think that is part of what drives me.

Feloni: How do you think you've taken that to your role at Vimeo?

Sud: At Vimeo, we're a technology company, we're a SaaS company, but at the same time, we do invest a lot in our community on the platform, whether that's going out to festivals and conversations, and being out on the ground, and hearing from the creators about what their needs are.

We also have a whole team that sits at Vimeo and watches videos from our community and actually highlights some of the best work that's happening on the platform, not via algorithms, but more about the stuff you would never find. We've actually seen an enormous number of careers get launched on Vimeo because of that visibility.

That's the kind of certain empowerment that I think Vimeo can provide to our community. For me, that's one of the most meaningful parts of the job.

Feloni: You want a connection with your customers as opposed to just seeing them as numbers, basically?

Sud: Yeah. The other thing is that community can provide inspiration, right? Every day, there are new types of creators. They watch what others are making on Vimeo, and it makes them want to try to create.

Now, again, technology is making it so much easier to create video that I think we will continue to see more diverse types of creators on the platform, largely driven from the community.

Feloni: You ended up going out east to Massachusetts — Phillips Academy, this elite boarding school. How did you end up there?

Sud: It's a funny story.

So I was 13 at the time, and I was with my dad at a Barnes & Noble bookstore, and we happened to walk past a book that was "The Best High Schools in America," and we just started flipping through it.

I didn't know there was a thing called prep schools; I didn't know that was a thing that existed. And it was sort of this moment where, like, "Wait, hold on — even though I'm sitting here in Flint, I could get access to a totally different kind of education than what I am getting, say, in public school."

We didn't really know what we were doing. My dad bought me the book. The next day, I started applying. I applied to maybe 30 schools, ranging from a military academy to a Catholic school. I really didn't know anything.

Feloni: This was your idea, not your parents' idea?

Sud: Yeah. It was more of an experiment. I was curious about what this world was outside of what I knew — and sort of through a lot of random steps, ending up getting into Phillips Academy, and after getting in, realizing that this was actually one of the best schools in America.

My dad and mom drove me in our minivan there for the interview. You walk on this campus, and there's literal ivy on the buildings, and it's like the nicest place. They have their own museum.

I think once I saw it, I sort of realized, "Oh man, I'm never going to be able to just go back and stay in Flint and not give this a shot." It's just this world I never even knew existed. I left when I was 14.

Feloni: Was it at that point like, "Oh, I want to go to an Ivy League school and then get this job or that"? Were you thinking that far ahead?

Sud: No, I wasn't. Honestly, it was more about getting a better education.

I wasn't used to being around kids my age who were so intellectually stimulating, who were kind of like masters in their craft. I think for me, it was super intimidating and terrifying, but also really inspiring to see kids my age pursuing their interests. It was really that that drew me.

Feloni: What was your interest at this point?

Sud: I was really into chemistry. I was a science person, so that was sort of my thing. I always liked math and science. I was very interested in business because of my upbringing and particularly my dad's work, so I always thought I wanted to do something like that, but you know, you're in high school —

Feloni: To start a business, maybe, or something?

Sud: Yeah, I always thought maybe I could be an entrepreneur.

The truth is that as I got older, by the time I got to college, I kind of knew that I wasn't likely to be an entrepreneur myself, and the reason was just that I was really attracted to finding companies and problems where I could add value and help take something from growth stage to a whole other level.

Feloni: When did you realize that?

Sud: Probably by the time I was in college. I was surrounded by people who were really focused on finances, surrounded by entrepreneurs. And I think you just sort of become self-aware over time about what are the things that you're drawn to.

I had a job working as a consultant for other small businesses, and I just realized that helping them — I loved sitting with a woman who had just started a flower shop in Philadelphia and helping her think about her business plan and how she could grow it. I think that's when I realized that maybe instead of being the entrepreneur myself, what I really wanted to do was help really grow businesses.

Seeking opportunities to grow

Feloni: That path from Phillips to Wharton to Harvard Business School, that's like the prototype for a career on Wall Street, basically. How did you not end up as a Wall Street executive?

Sud: I did do investment banking right out of college! But I always knew I was not going to be an investment banker.

I did it for really one reason, which is I wanted to be really well-versed in finance, and I wanted to see how value was created and destroyed. I specifically worked in mergers and acquisitions because I wanted to develop that skill set. I always went in there with the view of "let me get the best training that I can, and hopefully I can take that and use it in the context of a business." I think that has largely been true for me.

On my first 90 days on the job as CEO of Vimeo, we did our biggest acquisition in our history: We acquired a company called Livestream. And that experience of having worked in mergers and acquisitions and seen it a bunch of times really helped me.

For me, it was really never about Wall Street, but it was about getting a really valuable skill set that I thought would make me a better leader.

Feloni: On your way to Vimeo, you worked at Amazon and Time Warner. At this point, did you still have an idea of what you wanted to get from each of these companies? Did you have a clear path in mind?

Sud: I knew I wanted to do finance first and get the experience, then I wanted to transition into an operational role. The reality is that it's hard to transition into an operational role when you're a banker.

When I was in business school, I applied to every startup in the city, and nobody really wanted me because I didn't have a great skill set for them. I had been doing mergers and acquisitions — most early-stage startups don't need that as an in-house job. I really struggled to transition.

Amazon was the opportunity that I had. I started at Amazon in a finance capacity in their corporate business development team in Seattle. Then after doing my summer internship there, I convinced them to give me an operational role, my first real operational role. I was a toy buyer; I worked in the toy category. And I remember I was the Javits Center Toy Fair, over here in New York, writing purchase orders for Melissa & Doug toys.

It was my first real operational role. I had no idea what I was doing, no experience. And a big credit to Amazon — over the years that I was there, I was able to move into several different operational roles and get a really nice breadth of experience as an operator.

Feloni: IAC, which is Vimeo's parent company, is a big media conglomerate. They spent a year looking for a new CEO. Did you volunteer yourself? Did you actively go for this role?

Sud: I didn't explicitly raise my hand for the role, because I didn't really — it didn't occur to me that that would make sense. At the time, we were looking to do our own original content and programming play, and I would not be the right person to lead that. It wasn't explicit.

At the same time, I definitely implicitly was advocating for this other strategy, and I was leading the creator business — it was going well. I was definitely very patient about continuing to remind everyone of how well it was going and what a great opportunity it was. I think that certainly influenced the decision.

Feloni: When you saw the effectiveness of the strategy, did that give you an indication like "I could do this"?

Sud: Yeah, for sure. It definitely gave me an indication that I felt the strategy was right. Everything I believed about Vimeo, what's wrong with the industry, and what we could accomplish as a business — I was getting validation, and it definitely made me trust my gut around where we should grow.

I would be lying if I said it really occurred to me that this path would happen the way it unfolded.

Learning to swim in the deep end

Feloni: IAC's chairman, Barry Diller, he's got this unique philosophy where he doesn't like to hire outside CEOs — he prefers to get homegrown talent and kind of throw them into the deep end, see if they could rise to the challenge. Do you see that dynamic there with you?

Sud: Absolutely. I'm the perfect example of that strategy, and I'm obviously a beneficiary of it, but I also am a really big believer in it as a philosophy.

We're trying to build a company that also creates those accelerated career paths for people that gives them an opportunity to throw themselves in the deep end of the pool and own things that they might not normally get a chance to own. It's a trial-by-fire approach, but I think it rewards results and talent over pedigree, and that can be really powerful.

Feloni: When you have this kind of an approach that's ingrained in a company like IAC, does that inspire you? Is that scary at all, knowing that you're a part of this kind of experiment?

Sud: No, I think it's really exciting.

Honestly, it's a really eye-opening experience to work with people like Barry Diller — he's a visionary who has shaped the media industry for 40 years. The culture at IAC I would describe as one that's very intellectually honest, and it's very results-driven. I personally happen to be someone who likes that kind of cultural environment.

Feloni: You connect with it.

Sud: I connect with it. I think many of the people that come to Vimeo and that come to IAC also possess that. There's not a lot of politics. There's no ego. It's very intellectually honest. I think for me, it's been great.

Feloni: IAC's CEO, Joey Levin, he told Reuters earlier this year that he wants Vimeo to bring in $100 million in revenue, reach 1 million paid subscribers, and that it's IAC's biggest nonpublic opportunity. He states this publicly. How did you see this?

Sud: I'm totally aligned with that view. I think Vimeo is IAC's next big bet, and it's a next big bet for a reason.

We put together our strategic plan for Vimeo. We've worked closely with Joey — he was our interim CEO for a year. He knows the business incredibly well, and I very much agree with him that those are our goals for the year and that we're going to accomplish them.

I think it's a really great time for video creators and for SaaS companies. Vimeo is in a really special place. We have an incredible brand, we have scale, and we combine technology and community in a way that no one else does.

So I think everything he's saying is what I'm in full agreement with.

Feloni: Having this go public motivates you?

Sud: Yeah, absolutely. I think it does, but it does to the extent that what's motivating is the ability to invest to achieve our mission: to empower creators to tell their stories.

What I think is exciting is having IAC's backing and knowing that if we want to be aggressive, we can make smart but big bets to capitalize on this opportunity and fulfill our mission, whether that is through investing more in the team, or in marketing, or in M&A, or improving our tool set — that we can do that. I think that's the beauty of being part of the IAC family.

Feloni: What motivates you in general?

Sud: The community aspect is a big one for me. Realizing the impact of what we're building and what that impact can have on people's lives and their livelihood is a big deal.

Feloni: Is that something you've thought of throughout your career?

Sud: Yeah, for sure. I mean, certainly there have been jobs where I haven't had that much at that time. What's awesome is when I think about my role today, I get to meet a lot of the people who are being impacted by the tools we're providing. That's a huge thing.

I think the other thing for me that's a big motivator is the team. Because I'm an internal promotion, I now lead a team of people who I worked personally with in the trenches for years.

Feloni: So that's the advantage instead of just bringing in an outsider CEO?

Sud: Yeah. I know them — I know them really well — and I care about them. We are a team that's together working towards this. That's also very motivating.

Feloni: You were saying how your dad, he's got a recycling company, right? In Flint?

Sud: Yes. Plastics recycling.

Feloni: Have you called him up for advice as CEO?

Sud: Yeah, for sure. I go to my dad for advice all the time. When I was offered this job, he was the first person I called.

Feloni: What was that call like?

Sud: He claims he saw it coming, which is, I think — I don't know if that's true. He said, "You'd be crazy not to take it."

My dad's given me great advice. Probably one piece of advice that I give to others that he's given to me is to live outside of your comfort zone. It speaks somewhat to the philosophy of "put yourself in positions where you might not have a ton of experience."

It's something I feel like I've done my whole life. Leaving home at 14, going to Andover, where I didn't know really anything, I was definitely outside my comfort zone then. In many of the roles I've had at Amazon and certainly at Vimeo, I've been in situations where it wasn't like I had the playbook and I knew exactly what to do.

I think that when you are pushed outside of your comfort zone, you get off that learning curve so much faster and you develop as a leader so much faster. I tell people to get comfortable doing that and do it as early as you can in your career.

Feloni: Would you recommend someone seek out opportunities like that? And if they feel that they're in a weird spot, it might be over their head, then that's good? How do you balance that?

Sud: I think — and I'd say this for most young people, but I would always say particularly for women — create your own opportunities. I absolutely think you should seek those out.

I would even say one sort of tip I have for how you create your own opportunities is look where others aren't looking. One of the reasons I was given ownership of the creator side of the business is because it wasn't, at the time, the area that was getting all the focus and attention, so they could take more of a chance on me.

That's not a bad strategy — it gives you an opportunity to own something yourself, especially if you're passionate about it. It gives you an opportunity to own that thing and maybe get an experience that you wouldn't normally get if you just went down the standard track.

Becoming a leader

Feloni: You were saying that this approach helped you become a better leader. What are some insights that you've had in your role as CEO?

Sud: One is, for me, leadership is about doing the hard thing or the right thing, even when it's not the popular thing. That was a big lesson for me, because when you're young and you're moving up in your career, often you have to be well-regarded and popular to do well and to be able to have people want to work with you.

As a leader, I find now that often you're in a situation where you may be the only one in the world with all the information or all the contacts. Sometimes, you have to make decisions that aren't going to be popular or that people might not fully understand.

Feloni: Can you give an example?

Sud: When I took over as CEO, we pivoted away from this strategy to build Vimeo as an entertainment destination. That meant in the first couple weeks on the job, we had to make a lot of changes. We had to shut down parts of the business. We had to shut down offices and teams, and reallocate teams. That's hard, especially when you're stepping in for the first time.

But it was also my job to bring clarity and focus to the company. We had to be razor-focused on our mission. Our teams and our organizational structure needed to reflect that. I think that's an example of sometimes you have to do things that aren't easy.

Another thing that I really feel like is important in the way that I lead at Vimeo is transparency. I always say to my team that, to the extent possible, I will keep it real. We do open Q&A with the team regularly. We have lots of mechanisms through which we ensure that everybody is able to give their ideas, their feedback, as part of our strategic planning process, as part as any new initiatives that we roll out.

I think having that transparent culture is really important, especially when you're in a very fast-paced industry that's changing all the time. When you're a CEO, you can often develop blind spots, and you can often surround yourself with people who will just tell you "yes" instead of telling you what's honestly happening. Building that culture where everyone is comfortable being honest and keeping it real I think for us leads to better decision-making.

Feloni: What do you think the biggest challenge you faced in your career has been?

Sud: It's hard. Probably the biggest challenge has been having the guts to raise my hand for stuff. It is uncomfortable sometimes to feel — I've been accused of being too impatient in my career. Especially as a woman, I think there's always this "Ah, I don't want people to think I'm being too ambitious." But the truth is I am deeply impatient.

There have been times in my career where I felt like I really wanted an opportunity, but that opportunity didn't make sense. Actually, in those instances, I've been willing to walk away. But having the ability to do that and not question and second-guess yourself and wonder if you're being impatient has probably been the hardest part.

Feloni: With the repetition of that, you learn to trust yourself.

Sud: Yeah, and I was being impatient, and I knew it. There was that question of "Shouldn't I just play by the rules, and sit and wait, and just do what I'm supposed to do?" Then at some point, I just had to think back to my core, and I was like, "No, I'm not going to do that."

Feloni: How do you define success?

Sud: I define success for Vimeo in terms of our ability, long-term, to fulfill our mission — how are we going to help video creators in fundamental and life-changing ways?

Then for myself, I define success in terms of my ability to positively impact my community and the world around me through business. It's why I love business — there's no limit to the impact that you can have. You're not constrained by the number of hours of the day or the amount of dollars on your balance sheet. You can have this disproportionate amount of impact.

For me, that's really powerful. It's definitely the thing that I get up every day and I say, "I get to be the CEO of Vimeo!" And that's why I'm so excited!

SEE ALSO: The founder of Edible Arrangements moved from Pakistan to the US at 13, borrowed money to open a single flower shop, and built it into a $600 million business

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: FACEBOOK COFOUNDER: How I negotiated with Mark Zuckerberg for a $500 million stake

• The directors of Netflix's "Wild Wild Country" said they are "definitely" open to doing a follow-up.
• The 6-part docuseries looks at the rise and fall of Rajneeshpuram, a city built in rural Oregon in the 1980s by followers of an Indian guru.
• Directors Chapman and Maclain Way talked to Business Insider about what they had to leave out of the series because they couldn't find a place for it.

The directors of Netflix’s hit docuseries “Wild Wild Country” are “definitely” interested in a potential follow-up, they told Business Insider in a recent interview.

The series looks at the “actually insane” (their words) story of Rajneeshpuram, a utopian city the followers of an Indian guru built in rural Oregon in the 1980s. It includes free love, machine guns, Rolls Royces, and bioterrorism. But it’s not all about the headline-grabbing details. The series works so well because it’s both a wild ride and a nuanced portrait of a struggle between the cult and the local townspeople — complete with compelling interviews with the major players on both sides.

The series has gotten great word-of-mouth buzz since it debuted earlier this month, and fans are clamoring for a follow-up. They might be in luck.

"We are definitely open to a follow-up," co-director Chapman Way told us about a potential “Wild Wild Country” sequel. "I don't know whether we’d do a whole other season two, but maybe a one-off episode." Chapman Way said that because of the popularity of the series — that they weren't quite expecting — they have gotten a wide range of emails of people giving them new information and updates on the story of Rajneeshpuram.

Way also said he and his brother (co-director Maclain Way) were in the process of developing two other documentary series they didn’t want to discuss in detail quite yet.

As to what form a "Wild Wild Country" follow-up would take, the Way brothers were not specific. But they did mention one particular element they left on the cutting-room floor for the 6-part original series: a “day in the life” section.

Here’s how Maclain Way described it:

"We asked our interviewees to walk us through a day in the life in Rajneeshpuram and they gave us some amazing material, almost in the mundaneness of it. But really beautiful answers about how they would wake up, and sometimes they would sleep in, or get a little tea. And after breakfast they would go get some work done in their department, and then they'd come back for lunch. Some people worked as mechanics in Rajneesh Buddhafield garage, some people worked in PR and they would go to their office, some people worked in the legal department, some people worked the farms. [It was] just really interesting to hear them slow-walk you through an average, typical day. It was just something we couldn't find a spot for. But maybe as a DVD extra or something we’ll be able to get it up there."

If “Wild Wild Country” does get a sequel, it will no doubt appear on Netflix. The Ways said they loved their experience working with the streaming giant, who also distributed their previous documentary “The Battered Bastards of Baseball” (2014), after buying it at Sundance.

And the Ways hope others will dig into the Rajneesh story as well.

“We feel no ownership over the story of Rajneeshpuram,” Maclain Way said. “It belongs to the public and there is a ton of footage out there, and archives, and even stories and angles that were not included in ‘Wild Wild Country’ that I would be the first person to buy a book about, or watch another documentary or podcast [about].”

SEE ALSO: How the directors of Netflix’s ‘Wild Wild Country’ unraveled the morally complex story behind a cult famous for sex, Rolls Royces, and bioterrorism

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why 555 is always used for phone numbers on TV and in movies

The PlayStation 4 continues to be the most popular game console in the world. Over 70 million consoles have been sold, and that's just in the past four years.

In 2018, the console's dominance shows no signs of slowing — if major entries in the "God of War" and "Spider-Man" franchises don't ensure that, then the other huge blockbusters assuredly will.

Here's everything we know coming to the PlayStation 4 in 2018 so far!

SEE ALSO: This 26-year-old makes $500,000 every month playing 'Fortnite' in his bedroom — here's how he does it

1. "Shadow of the Colossus"

In 2018, the best game from 2005 is on the PlayStation 4. It's called "Shadow of the Colossus," and it's already out!

When the game originally launched in 2005, it was a revelation for PlayStation 2 owners. Though it may look like a standard video game, "Shadow of the Colossus" is anything but — the diminutive character you see above is who you play as, and he's got an objective: Take down gigantic monsters. But why? And what are these "monsters"? Are they monsters, or is he, for murdering them?

Release Date: February 6

2. "God of War"

The newest entry in the "God of War" franchise stars the same bald-headed marauder from previous games, but Kratos looks a bit different than the last time we saw him.

Aside from that epic new beard, he's apparently moved on from the Grecian setting of previous games to a more domestic existence in a Norse setting. At the very least, he looks like he'll be playing the role of a mentor — Kratos is a dad now (and there'll apparently be some interaction as the player using both Kratos and his son). This is not the same vengeance-driven hyperviolent demigod we're used to seeing — and, frankly, good— but a (slightly) more reserved family man.

Release Date: April 20

3. "Detroit: Become Human"

"Detroit: Become Human" is a game about artificial intelligence and humanity's future.

The game is set in a near-future version of real-world city Detroit, Michigan, which has become a manufacturing hub for artificially intelligent robots that look exactly like human beings. It stars a robot named Kara, the first robot to "wake up" from servitude and demand freedom.

In this sense, what the game's really about is consciousness, and what it means to be alive. How that story is told is up to you.

Release Date: May 25

• Arnold Schwarzenegger underwent heart surgery on Thursday and was in stable condition as of Friday, his spokesman told The Washington Post.
• Schwarzenegger, 70, underwent a planned procedure to replace a pulmonic valve, though TMZ reported that complications arose and he required an "emergency" open-heart surgery. 
• The actor and former California governor previously had an elective heart surgery in 1997, at the age of 49, to replace the same valve. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger had heart surgery on Thursday and was in stable condition as of Friday, his spokesman Daniel Ketchell confirmed to The Washington Post.

Ketchell said on Twitter that Schwarzenegger, 70, underwent a planned procedure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles to replace a pulmonic valve. He said the valve was "successfully replaced."

TMZ, which first reported the surgery, said complications arose in the valve replacement and Schwarzenegger required an "emergency" open-heart surgery, though Ketchell did not appear to confirm that in his statement on Twitter. The Post said he "noted that an open-heart surgery team was on hand during the procedure, but downplayed its seriousness."

Schwarzenegger's representatives did not immediately respond to a request for further comment from Business Insider.

The actor and former California governor previously had an elective heart surgery in 1997, at the age of 49, to replace the same valve, which resulted from a congenital condition.

"I've never felt sick or had any symptoms at all, but I knew I'd have to take care of this condition sooner or later," Schwarzenegger said in 1997. "I said to the doctors, 'Let's do it now, while I'm young and healthy.' They agreed this was the way to go."

Ketchell told The Post on Friday that the 1997 replacement valve "was never meant to be permanent, and has outlived its life expectancy, so he chose to replace it yesterday through a less-invasive catheter valve replacement."

SEE ALSO: Arnold Schwarzenegger talks about playing his most outlandish character yet in 'Killing Gunther,' and which of his movies he'll stop to watch

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why 555 is always used for phone numbers on TV and in movies

"Ready Player One," the latest film from director Steven Spielberg, is the story of Wade Watts, a kid from Columbus, Ohio. He lives in a futuristic world where everyone — the young, old, poor, and rich — spends the vast majority of their time in virtual reality (VR), to avoid the dystopian real world where poverty and despair run rampant as a result of global warming and overpopulation.

Based on the 2011 novel by Ernest Cline, "Ready Player One" paints a rather pessimistic view of society's growing dependence on technology, but also depicts the fantastical possibilities presented by VR and other futuristic technologies. 

Given the many realistic-looking and fantastical gadgets and technologies featured in "Ready Player One," we took a closer look at some of the most exciting technologies featured in the film to see how they compare with innovation happening in the real world. 

Take a look:

SEE ALSO: All the futuristic technologies in 'Black Panther,' and how close they are to becoming reality

"Ready Player One": Fully immersive virtual reality

"Ready Player One" depicts a VR experience that is so seamlessly immersive, there are no physical barriers between the user and the virtual objects and environment.

In the movie, players are able to touch, pick up, and hold onto things — and even people — in VR that are not really there in real life. They can sit in virtual chairs and lean on virtual surfaces without falling down in the real world. 

While this is the ideal future of VR technology and it looks great on screen, complete immersion is really difficult to achieve in real life, mostly because it's just really impractical.

For example, many players are seen running through real 3D space, out in public, which is obviously a massive safety hazard.

Real Life: The Void

Current VR systems can be incredibly immersive if a physical play area is custom-made to match the virtual one.

All over the world, virtual reality theme parks like The Void are starting to open to the public. 

The Void lets small groups of people to enter the same physical space for a virtual adventure. People are let loose in a physical maze created to perfectly align with the world they see in their headsets. So, when a player sees a wall in VR, they can reach out and touch it because there is also a real wall there in real life. 

These VR-enhanced obstacle courses are heavily padded and specially equipped to be safe for the players, who can be ducking for cover or shooting invisible monsters at any given point. These experiences are very immersive, intense and — at least, so far — are really difficult to replicate with commercially available VR equipment in one's home, as "Ready Player One" depicts.

"Ready Player One": The Oasis

Much of the film takes place in The Oasis, a massive multiplayer online game and virtual society in which everyone has chosen to escape their real-world problems.

Wade Watts describes The Oasis as a place where anything is possible, and is only limited by the user's imagination.

Since each player's avatar (a.k.a virtual body) is customizable, The Oasis is riddled with pop culture references, including lots of video game heroes like Tracer from "Overwatch" and Chun-Li from "Street Fighter," as well as beloved cartoon characters like The Iron Giant, and nostalgic movie references like the DeLorean from "Back to the Future."

SEE ALSO: Facebook accounts for 20% of the global online ad market Facebook accounts for 20% of the global online ad market

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The best and worst features of the Samsung Galaxy S9

This is a preview of a research report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about BI Intelligence, click here.

What is eSports? History & Rise of Video Game Tournaments

Years ago, eSports was a community of video gamers who would gather at conventions to play Counter Strike, Call of Duty, or League of Legends.

These multiplayer video game competitions would determine League of Legends champions, the greatest shooters in Call of Duty, the cream of the crop of Street Fighter players, the elite Dota 2 competitors, and more.

But today, as the history of eSports continue to unfold, media giants such as ESPN and Turner are broadcasting eSports tournaments and competitions. And in 2014, Amazon acquired Twitch, the live streaming video platform that has been and continues to be the leader in online gaming broadcasts. And YouTube also wanted to jump on the live streaming gaming community with the creation of YouTube Gaming.

eSports Market Growth Booming

To put in perspective how big eSports is becoming, a Google search for "lol" does not produce "laughing out loud" as the top result. Instead, it points to League of Legends, one of the most popular competitive games in existence. The game has spawned a worldwide community called the League of Legends Championship Series, more commonly known as LCS or LOL eSports.

What started as friends gathering in each other's homes to host LAN parties and play into the night has become an official network of pro gaming tournaments and leagues with legitimate teams, some of which are even sponsored and have international reach. Organizations such as Denial, AHQ, and MLG have multiple eSports leagues.

And to really understand the scope of all this, consider that the prize pool for the latest Dota 2 tournament was more than $20 million.

Websites even exist for eSports live scores to let people track the competitions in real time if they are unable to watch. There are even fantasy eSports leagues similar to fantasy football, along with the large and growing scene of eSports betting and gambling.

So it's understandable why traditional media companies would want to capitalize on this growing trend just before it floods into the mainstream. Approximately 300 million people worldwide tune in to eSports today, and that number is growing rapidly. By 2020, that number will be closer to 500 million.

eSports Industry Analysis - The Future of the Competitive Gaming Market

Financial institutions are starting to take notice. Goldman Sachs valued eSports at $500 million in 2016 and expects the market will grow at 22% annually compounded over the next three years into a more than $1 billion opportunity.

And industry statistics are already backing this valuation and demonstrating the potential for massive earnings. To illustrate the market value, market growth, and potential earnings for eSports, consider Swedish media company Modern Times Group's $87 million acquisition of Turtle Entertainment, the holding company for ESL. YouTube has made its biggest eSports investment to date by signing a multiyear broadcasting deal with Faceit to stream the latter's Esports Championship Series. And the NBA will launch its own eSports league in 2018.

Of course, as with any growing phenomenon, the question becomes: How do advertisers capitalize? This is especially tricky for eSports because of its audience demographics, which is young, passionate, male-dominated, and digital-first. They live online and on social media, are avid ad-blockers, and don't watch traditional TV or respond to conventional advertising.

So what will the future of eSports look like? How high can it climb? Could it reach the mainstream popularity of baseball or football? How will advertisers be able to reach an audience that does its best to shield itself from advertising?

Robert Elder, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled an unparalleled report on the eSports ecosystem that dissects the growing market for competitive gaming. This comprehensive, industry-defining report contains more than 30 charts and figures that forecast audience growth, average revenue per user, and revenue growth.

Companies and organizations mentioned in the report include: NFL, NBA, English Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, NHL, Paris Saint-Germain, Ligue 1, Ligue de Football, Twitch, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, ESPN, Electronic Arts, EA Sports, Valve, Riot Games, Activision Blizzard, ESL, Turtle Entertainment, Dreamhack, Modern Times Group, Turner Broadcasting, TBS Network, Vivendi, Canal Plus, Dailymotion, Disney, BAMTech, Intel, Coca Cola, Red Bull, HTC, Mikonet

Here are some eSports industry facts and statistics from the report:

• eSports is a still nascent industry filled with commercial opportunity.
• There are a variety of revenue streams that companies can tap into.
• The market is presently undervalued and has significant room to grow.
• The dynamism of this market distinguishes it from traditional sports.
• The audience is high-value and global, and its numbers are rising.
• Brands can prosper in eSports by following the appropriate game plan.
• Game publishers approach their Esport ecosystems in different ways.  
• Successful esport games are comprised of the same basic ingredients.
• Digital streaming platforms are spearheading the popularity of eSports.
• Legacy media are investing into eSports, and seeing encouraging results.
• Traditional sports franchises have a clear opportunity to seize in eSports.
• Virtual and augmented reality firms also stand to benefit from eSports.  

In full, the report illuminates the business of eSports from four angles:

• The gaming nucleus of eSports, including an overview of popular esport genres and games; the influence of game publishers, and the spectrum of strategies they adopt toward their respective esport scenes; the role of eSports event producers and the tournaments they operate.
• The eSports audience profile, its size, global reach, and demographic, psychographic, and behavioral attributes; the underlying factors driving its growth; why they are an attractive target for brands and broadcasters; and the significant audience and commercial crossover with traditional sports.
• eSports media broadcasters, including digital avant-garde like Twitch and YouTube, newer digital entrants like Facebook and traditional media outlets like Turner’s TBS Network, ESPN, and Canal Plus; their strategies and successes in this space; and the virtual reality opportunity.
• eSports market economics, with a market sizing, growth forecasts, and regional analyses; an evaluation of the eSports spectacle and its revenue generators, some of which are idiosyncratic to this industry; strategic planning for brand marketers, with case studies; and an exploration of the infinite dynamism and immense potential of the eSports economy.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
2. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

Join the conversation about this story »

• Snap Inc., parent company of the popular photo messaging app Snapchat, laid off around 7% of its staff in March.
• The company expects to save $25 million in 2018 on payroll and taxes, it said in a filing Friday. Around $10 million of that savings will go toward severances.
• Despite the savings, the company has one other major expense this year. Snap expects to lose between $25 million and $45 million as it vacates existing leases around Santa Monica. 

It's been a rough March for employees at Snap Inc., parent company of the photo messaging app Snapchat. The company endured two separate rounds of layoffs which cut over 220 people — around 7% of the staff — from its payroll across both sales and engineering.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Snap Inc. shed some light on what these layoffs mean for the $19.5 billion company.

Over all, Snap expects to save $25 million on payroll and taxes in 2018, or $34 million on an annualized basis, as the result of the reduction in its staff. 

Around $10 million of that savings, however, will go toward severance costs for the employees that were let go. 

The 22 content-side employees who were laid off in January were not included in the above figures. 

The layoffs were made in order to "align resources around our top strategic priorities and to reflect structural changes in our business," Snap said in the filing, without elaborating. 

Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel has reportedly told employees that his goal is for Snap to break-even in 2018, though it seems like a long shot. Snap Inc. reported $824.9 million in revenue for 2017, but saw net losses of $3.4 billion, do in large-part to a massive bonus Spiegel received for taking the company public.

Snap also revealed one other major expenditure in its filing on Friday. The company will lose between $25 million and $45 million subletting its existing leases when it moves to a centralized corporate office in Santa Monica later in the year. 

SEE ALSO: Snap hands out pink slips to about 100 employees in latest round of layoffs

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Google, Apple, and Amazon are in a war that no one will win

Spanning more than 40 years, Steven Spielberg's work boasts an extremely diverse array of stories, characters, and themes.

He's made whimsical fantasies aimed squarely at children ("E.T.," "The Adventures of Tintin"), complex morality stories ("Bridge of Spies," "Amistad"), and graphically violent dramas ("Munich," "Saving Private Ryan").

For his latest, "Ready Player One," the Oscar winner returns to his popcorn blockbuster roots and proves that he's still the king of the genre.

Here we take on the difficult task of ranking from worst to best all 32 of Spielberg's feature-length movies. 

SEE ALSO: All 30 Steven Spielberg movies, ranked by how much money they made at the US box office

32. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (2008)

Earning its rightful place at the bottom of this list is the fourth entry in Spielberg's "Indiana Jones" anthology. There are so many problems with this movie. If you really want to understand all of them, we suggest watching Red Letter Media's in-depth analysis of why it's so bad. Disney announced that Spielberg and star Harrison Ford will reunite for a fifth "Indy" movie. Hopefully, in the words of Max Von Sydow's character in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," it "will begin to make things right."

31. "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" (1997)

Spielberg rushed to deliver a sequel to his 1993 record-breaking box-office smash "Jurassic Park." In the process, he failed to produce a worthy successor to the groundbreaking original. He also created a scene in which a little girl uses gymnastics to fight a dinosaur that many refer to as the worst thing he's ever done.

30. "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" (2001)

Stanley Kubrick originally intended to direct this project, but Spielberg took it over after Kubrick passed away in 1999. While it possesses many solid attributes, such as a superb John Williams score, the marriage of Spielberg's sensibilities with those of Kubrick result in an uneven mess that will hopefully improve with repeated viewings.