Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Latest Episodes:

Curtis Duffy (chef and restaurateur) Jun 25, 2025

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Curtis Duffy (Fireproof: Memoir of a Chef, Ever) is a chef, restaurateur, and author. Curtis joins the Armchair Expert to discuss being dropped off at 6 months old on his 15 year-old stepmom’s doorstep, building a safe space in his closet at home and in home economics at school, and starting work in kitchens at 14. Curtis and Dax talk about the violent and tragic event that defined his life at 19, the eye opening moment he was exposed to through learning culinary practice, and how cooking gave him the structural pillars he needed as a young man. Curtis explains how a bad business deal lost him his three-Michelin Star restaurant, how the drive to continuously get better each day in some way keeps him going, and why his new goal is expanding his business so he can create opportunities for younger chefs.

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Brad Pitt Jun 23, 2025

Show notes

Brad Pitt (F1 The Movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Fight Club) is an Academy Award-winning actor and producer. Brad joins the Armchair Expert to discuss whether it makes him nervous to talk to Dax in public, holding two realities about people he knows that are famous actors, and leaving school one week shy of completing his degree for Hollywood. Brad and Dax talk about getting shut down trying to get his SAG card, still feeling like the kid from Oklahoma learning his way through this whole thing, and why his favorite humor is the most irreverent kind. Brad explains that there’s no bummer about being in a Tarantino movie, having to work up a case for insurance that it’s actually safer to drive at higher speeds while filming F1 The Movie, and the visceral high of delivering lines at 180 miles per hour.

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Armchair Anonymous: Foreign Object in Butt Jun 20, 2025

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Dax and Monica talk to Armcherries! In today's episode, Armcherries tell us a crazy story about finding a foreign object in a patient's butt.

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Michael Calvey (on being wrongfully imprisoned in Russia) Jun 18, 2025

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Michael Calvey (Odyssey Moscow: One American's Journey from Russia Optimist to Prisoner of the State) is an investor, businessman, and author. Michael joins the Armchair Expert to discuss how the Soviet Union existed when he climbed the the matterhorn but had fallen by the time he came down, learning that contact lenses freeze inside one’s eyes in Russian temperatures, and being an early tech investor in the Russian during its big recession. Michael and Dax talk about his apartment being deliberately set on fire by rivals, being raided and arrested by armed men in the middle of the night, and feeling betrayed by believing so much in a country that wrongly imprisoned him. Michael explains discovering he had a malignant tumor in his leg while behind bars, what the average Russian citizen thinks of Putin, and why writing this book was both cathartic and cheaper than therapy.

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Alex Cooper Jun 16, 2025

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Alex Cooper (Call Her Daddy, Call Her Alex) is a podcast host and television personality. Alex joins the Armchair Expert to discuss coveting Orna as her own shrink, growing up with a therapist mother, and the push to continuously be learning and honing her craft as a podcast host. Dax and Alex talk about her parents bombing their speech at her wedding, feeling vaguely aware of their competition upon first meeting but rooting for each other anyway, and why in order to be professionally respected she knew she had to create a bubble around herself. Alex explains attempting to hide her middle school past as a bullied “ugly duckling,” the sexual harassment she experienced as a college soccer player, and delving into how the system failed her in her new documentary Call Her Alex.

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Armchair Anonymous: Jury Duty Jun 13, 2025

Show notes

Dax and Monica talk to Armcherries! In today's episode, Armcherries tell us about a crazy jury duty experience.

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Shan Boodram (intimacy expert) Jun 11, 2025

Show notes

Shan Boodram (Too Hot to Handle, Lovers by Shan, The Art of Sex Appeal) is a certified sex educator, intimacy expert, and sexologist. Shan joins the Armchair Expert to discuss the exoticism of Americans to Canadians, connecting intimacy to something specific or unusual, and that sexuality can be found playing in a facet of shared humanity. Shan and Dax talk about growing up as a precocious child with an interest in the sexual, how her mission became how to make sex education sexy, and the relationship between how porn looks and the perception of sex in different countries. Shan explains improvements in the orgasm gap, why it’s hotter to be direct rather than sneaky with your desire, and giving birth to the squirt.

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Sam Rockwell Jun 09, 2025

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Sam Rockwell (Bad Guys 2, The White Lotus, Moon) is an Academy Award-winning actor. Sam joins the Armchair Expert to discuss growing up in the Tenderloin of San Francisco, doing plays and improv with his mom at 10 years old, and the parallels between charm and fuel. Sam and Dax talk about stumbling into a Willy Wonka entrance doing his faker baker dancing, adopting delusions of grandeur that he moves like a stretch limo, and completing the two year Meisner program that changed his life. Sam explains getting recognized for the first time while bussing tables, how he builds characters with his acting teacher of 26 years, and the illusion of safety amid peaks and valleys of success.

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Armchair Anonymous: Stalking II Jun 06, 2025

Show notes

Dax and Monica talk to Armcherries! In today's episode, Armcherries tell us about a crazy stalking story.

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James Kimmel Jr. (revenge and forgiveness expert) Jun 04, 2025

Show notes

James Kimmel Jr. (The Science of Revenge: Understanding the World's Deadliest Addiction) is a lecturer at Yale University on forgiveness and revenge. James joins the Armchair Expert to discuss plotting his revenge against the other Jimmy Kimmel for months, wanting to grow up to become a farmer until he was bullied because of it, and how eerily close he came to an irreparable act of violence to even a score. James and Dax talk about becoming an attorney to get revenge legally and professionally, how justice-seeking blesses all manner of disastrous human impulses, and finding himself addicted to revenge. James explains by studying forgiveness he learned that any method of finding peace works, why people who are victimized have a powerful rumination on being heard, and roleplaying a functional process of litigation resolution.

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