Sam Denby

Created in 2010, Denby's primary channel is Wendover Productions. As of March 8, 2024,^[update] that channel has over 4.55 million subscribers and more than 695 million total video views.^[1] His videos most commonly feature the topics of logistics, most notably those of aviation, as well as geography, economics,^[2] and military. The Wendover Productions video about tourism in Iceland received significant attention from Iceland's national newspapers.^[3] Wendover Productions is based in Aspen, Colorado.^[4]

Launched on August 26, 2017, Denby's second YouTube channel, “Half as Interesting”, publishes weekly releases on an unrestricted range of curious topics delivered in a witty style. The videos are 2‒3 times shorter than a typical release on the main channel and are dedicated to a single little-known fact each. According to the launch announcement, the channel continues the well-liked coverage of topics from the Wikipedia:Unusual articles list, referred to as “That Wikipedia List” or TWL, which was previously published on the main channel, but doesn't restrict its scope to it.^[5] By the end of Q1 2024 the channel had more than 2.66 million subscribers, over 450 published videos and more than 648 million views.^[6]

In June 2019, Denby created a scripted podcast called Extremities about the logistics of living in the world's most isolated and populated locations.^[7] The show's format has since been modified into short documentaries exclusive to the streaming service Nebula with the same concept.

Sam Denby

Denby's YouTube channel Jet Lag: The Game hosts a travel competition show created by Denby and Half as Interesting's writers, Ben Doyle (the son of writer Larry Doyle) and Adam Chase.^[8] Inspired by The Amazing Race, the season usually consists of four players (with the fourth player being another YouTuber). The show was nominated for Best Editing at the 13th Streamy Awards.

All air travel on the show is carbon-offset by a multiple of 10 via Gold Standard carbon credits.^[9] As of June 2024, the channel has over 674,000 subscribers and more than 61.3 million total video views.^{[‡ 3]} The episodes were released on Nebula one week earlier than YouTube, causing large spikes to Nebula's usage traffic.^[10]

On August 25, 2023, Nebula announced that they had appointed Denby as their chief content officer.^[11] Nebula's CEO stated, "the process for developing Nebula Originals should be creator-led, so we turned to a creator with a solid track record for format development across production styles and genres to lead the charge on content as we continue to expand our Originals slate for Nebula." Denby also holds a minority stake in the content distribution platform.^[12]

Denby was born and raised in Washington, D.C..^{[‡ 4]} In 2018, Denby stated he had been living in Edinburgh, Scotland, for the past two years for university studies at the University of Edinburgh.^{[‡ 5]: 1:32} As of April 2018,^[update] he was studying international business.^{[‡ 6]} He has said that he has also lived in Rennes, France and Sydney, Australia.^[13] As of 2020, Denby stated he has lived in Colorado, somewhere around Aspen.^{[‡ 7][‡ 8]} Through Standard, he became a minority owner in the streaming service Nebula in 2020.^{[‡ 9]}

In the text these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

• Official website