If you woke this morning to a ominous Instagram Story from Donut Podcasts thanking listeners for years of lending their ears, it is worse than expected. The podcast division of Donut Media has been shut down, which appears to have ended production of Past Gas with Nolan Sykes, Talk Talk Nation with Joe Weber and Jimmy Eats Cars with Jimmy Hilton. It gets worse, however, as an undisclosed number of Donut Media team members have been laid off.
What Happened to Donut Media?
Donut Media was founded as a YouTube channel in 2015. It found success with the release of shows such as Up to Speed. After obtaining millions of subscribers, the channel was sold to Recurrent Ventures in November of 2021. Recurrent also owns The Drive and other automotive and unrelated outlets. Major changes came to the various shows in the years that followed, resulting in the 2024 exit of long time hosts Jeremiah Burton and Zach Jobe who went on to start Big Time Decent. James Pumphrey soon followed soon and also started his own YouTube channel, titled Speeed.
In early 2026, Donut’s long-running automotive history podcast Past Gas received a new format that saw the one time multi-host, comically driven show turned into a storytime, audio only (dashboard graphic on YouTube) script read done by Nolan Sykes. Former Past Gas host Joe Weber received his own show, Talk, Talk Nation in which he chatted with automotive enthusiasts, creators, racers and more from around the globe. Jimmy’s Jimmy Eats Cars was also a solo production in which he shared unique automotive tales with a mix of archival photo/video and animation.
The expansion has apparently proved to spread resources to thin and has not garnered the listenership desired. Speaking with Joe Weber via Instagram messages, he confirmed the podcast division was axed lay offs have occurred.
Is Donut Media OK?
With the continued turmoil at Donut, fans now have a new issue to get riled up over. With viewership challenges being faced by all types of YouTube creators, could this be the straw that breaks the camel’s back? Unlikely given Donut’s massive subscriber base on their primary channel. At the time of publication, nobody from Recurrent Media has provided comment. (Editor’s Note: I have written numerous episodes of Donut’s Past Gas and one episode of Jimmy’s show.
