DankPods is a comedy technology showcase and review YouTube channel created by Australian YouTuber and musician Wade Nixon. Based out of Adelaide, the channel mainly reviews and showcases consumer-based technology devices with a heavy focus on old low-end portable media players and headphone reviews. Originally the channel was dedicated exclusively to content around iPods hence the name, however has since expanded to more general technology videos.[1][bettersourceneeded]
Known for its witty and impromptu humour, fan-favourite catchphrases such as "Dingus" and off the cuff chaotic style, DankPods has since amassed over 1.8 million subscribers and 480.3 million views as of December 2025.[2][bettersourceneeded] Nixon has also created several other YouTube channels in the same vein as DankPods such as Garbage Time, a car channel with a more vlogger-esque style, and The Drum Thing, a drum channel.
Background
Wade Nixon was born in 1990 in Adelaide, South Australia.[3] Nixon was raised in the country outside the city with his siblings.[1][bettersourceneeded] Around the age of 8, Nixon wanted to play the drums after being impressed by a friends' playing ability, and began to study the instrument.[4][bettersourceneeded] Nixon also developed a passion for cars and motorbikes growing up in the country. He worked various jobs as a teenager including as a farm-hand and concreter.[1][bettersourceneeded] During school, Nixon tested expensive headphones, which he states made him an audiophile.[3]
In 2011, Nixon moved out of the country and attended the University of South Australia studying Jazz Philosophy.[3] Nixon's father passed away whilst he was completing his degree. Nixon had attempted various YouTube channels mostly around drums but found minimal success. After completing his degree, Nixon worked as a secondary schoolmusic teacher while living out of cheap rental homes with various roommates and struggling to earn a stable income. He simultaneously worked as a gigging musician playing for all kinds of music acts. He also repaired and resold motorbikes and iPods as a side hustle.[1][bettersourceneeded]
Nixon found some online success after creating the YouTube channel Dankmus in 2016, a channel sampling and electronically remixing episodes of The Simpsons in a style known as Simpsonwave. In 2019, Nixon left his job as a music teacher to become a full-time gigging musician. However this never occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[1][bettersourceneeded]
YouTube career
DankPods
Nixon created the YouTube channel DankPods solely dedicated to content around iPods, for which he had gotten inspiration after his reselling side hustle. Nixon was surprised at how largely forgotten and cheap iPods had become, and wanted to bring them back into the public's attention, guided by nostalgia. He had used iPods heavily during his university studying days. The name is a combination of Dank and iPods and was a callback to his previous channel Dankmus. Nixon had been planning the channel for months prior to its first upload, perfecting its visuals, style, pacing and editing as well as writing around 70 videos. Nixon's grandfather had earlier passed away and left behind an inheritance which Nixon used to purchase a computer to make online content.[1][bettersourceneeded] The channel quickly grew in popularity after the video of him modding his iPod to have 2,000 GB of storage.[3] This success led to Nixon quickly finding sponsorships, for which he used the money to purchase various sets of headphones to expand his channels' content. Despite this, Nixon hated the sponsorships and has since never had a paid sponsor in a video.[1][bettersourceneeded] He instead earned most of his income from Patreon, which he disabled in 2024 due to ongoing stress.[5][bettersourceneeded]
In an interview with Verge, Nixon stated that he only had "manky MP3 players" in his childhood and that he's "nostalgic for them, but they’re pieces of junk."[3] In 2021, Nixon began live streaming himself playing drums along to various meme music on Twitch. However, Twitch suspended his payments after the platform suffered a large data breach in October.[6][bettersourceneeded] Due to this, as well as the poor support service, Nixon left Twitch and instead moved to the paywalled independent content and streaming platform Floatplane in 2022.[7][bettersourceneeded] In May 2022, Nixon featured on the Australian news television program A Current Affair in a story about the iPod's discontinuation.[8] In July 2023, Nixon announced he was going on hiatus for 3 weeks.[9][bettersourceneeded]
After Garbage Time became exclusively dedicated to car videos, Nixon created The Drum Thing exclusively for drum videos.[10][bettersourceneeded] In 2021 Nixon began investing in various cryptocurrencys during the 2020-2022 Cryptocurrency Bubble which allowed him to purchase various drum equipment,[1][bettersourceneeded] which he then used to create a private drum-museum in his warehouse.[14][bettersourceneeded]The Drum Thing covers all the various different drum and cymbal related oddities from his collection, along with its history.[citation needed]
Other works
Name
Description
Link
Borkus Time
Nixon's video gaming channel, with a heavy focus on low quality games.
Garbage Drum Stream
Nixon's drum stream, exclusive to Floatplane.
Wades World
Nixon's personal vlog, mostly with videos of him trying snacks from around the world and reacting to music. Exclusive to Floatplane.
Frank The Snake
Videos about Nixon's pet snake Frank, who is a popular and reoccurring character in DankPods and other channels. Exclusive to Floatplane.
James Channel
YouTube channel of James from Garbage Time, with a very similar style to DankPods, and videos showcasing James's extensive video game collection and his bizarre electronic creations. It has 354K subscribers as of December 3, 2025.[relevant?]
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