Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Alexi Pappas is a Greek-American Olympic runner, filmmaker, actor, and writer. Her debut memoir-in-essays, Bravey was published in January 2021. Alexi joins the Armchair Expert to discuss her experience competing at the Rio Olympics, getting into running later in life, and the impact her father had in her life after her mom passed away. Alexi and Dax discuss post-Olympic situational depression, tr...

William Jackson Harper (The Good Place, Midsommar, Dark Waters) is an Emmy-nominated actor and playwright. William joins the Armchair Expert to discuss feeling like an outsider growing up in a Dallas suburb, not being good at anything as a kid except acting, and his father passing away at a young age. William and Dax discuss him moving to New York to pursue a Broadway career, how he never felt lik...

Dorothy Brown is an author and law professor at Emory University. Dorothy joins the Armchair Expert to discuss her new book "The Whiteness of Wealth" and how race relates to taxes and wealth inequality. Dorothy and Dax discuss the problems with the current tax system and solutions to the systemic racism of tax law. Dorothy explains the differences in married couples filing for taxes, homeownership...

Andrew Yang is an entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, non-profit leader, and currently running for Mayor of New York City. Andrew joins the Armchair Expert to discuss growing up as a first generation Asian American in the 80's, being an older dad to young kids, and running for mayor of New York City. Andrew and Dax discuss universal basic income and how artificial intelligence technology is thre...

Macklemore is Grammy Award-winning rapper and songwriter. Macklemore joins the Armchair Expert to talk about growing up in a progressive neighborhood in Seattle, falling in love with music when he heard the Beverly Hills Cops soundtrack, and why he chose East Coast Rap over West Coast Rap. Dax and Macklemore open up about their journeys with sobriety and Mackelmore explains how fame fueled his add...

Michael Moss is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter. Michael joins the Armchair Expert to discuss food addiction, the invention of processed food, and what government oversight of the food industry would look like. Michael and Dax discuss free will when it comes to diet, how big food companies use marketing tactics to influence our choices, and...

Hank Azaria (The Simpsons, Brockmire, The Birdcage) is an Emmy-award winning actor and comedian. Hank joins the Armchair Expert to discuss his addiction and recovery, being mistaken as someone in the upholstery business, and the controversy around his Simpson's character. Hank and Dax discuss getting in touch with your emotions to help with conflict resolution and how addiction is really just an o...

Daniel Goleman, PhD is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-nominated author and science journalist. Daniel joins the Armchair Expert to discuss the differences between cognitive empathy, emotional empathy, and empathic concern, and that emotional intelligence starts with being aware and able to name your feelings. Daniel explains the importance of cognitive control, that the same circuitry that helps you fo...

Lamorne Morris (New Girl, Woke, Unwanted) is an actor, comedian and podcaster. Lamorne joins the Armchair Expert to discuss growing up on the southside of Chicago, how he knew he wanted to get into comedy at a young age and his relationship with his father. Lamorne and Dax discuss systemic racism, the time he got handcuffed after trying to stop a fight, and the conflicting nature of playing a poli...

Walter Isaacson is an American author, journalist, and professor. Walter joins the Armchair Expert to discuss his work as a biographer, that it's important to remember that all people are human, and how much more inspiring they are when you realize that. Walter explains the three great innovation revolutions of modern times, how transformative Jennifer Doudna's gene editing work is, and how she us...

Rachel Bilson (The O.C., Hart of Dixie, Jumper) is an actress and podcast host. Rachel joins the Armchair Expert to discuss getting her role on The O.C. at twenty-one years old and how being a fourth-generation actor helped keep her grounded. Rachel and Dax discuss Rachel's tantric sex expert mother, how to talk to your kids about sex, and how poorly certain things they used to watch have aged. Ra...

Sam Pollard is an Emmy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated director and producer. Sam joins the Armchair Expert to discuss growing up in Harlem in the 50s, his path into becoming a film editor, and working with Spike Lee. Sam talks about his new film MLK/FBI: the red scare, non-monogamous activity, and racism. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://a...

Dr. Susan Liautaud (The Power of Ethics) is an author, teacher of ethics at Stanford University, and founder of Susan Liautaud & Associates Limited. Susan joins the Armchair Expert to discuss ethics: the six forces present in all ethical dilemmas, why we can't look at things in a binary manner, and how we're only as ethical as our last decision. Susan explains that there's no place for blame, sham...

Robin Thicke is a singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, musician and actor. Robin joins the Armchair Expert to discuss losing his home to the Malibu fires, his time on set of Growing Pains with his dad, and getting his first recording contract at 16 years old. Robin opens up about losing himself after the death of his father, how he was still searching for his dad's attention and approval,...

Ethan Kross (Chatter) is an experimental psychologist, neuroscientist and writer, who specializes in emotion regulation. Ethan joins the Armchair Expert to discuss the usefulness of your inner voice and how to harness it. Ethan explains how important context is when triggering emotions, how negative emotions are just as vital as positive ones, and the ways language can shape our emotional experien...

Ben Schwartz (Parks and Recreation, House of Lies, Middleditch and Schwartz) is an actor, comedian, writer, director and producer. Ben joins the armchair expert to discuss starting off in improv comedy, how Eugene Cordero is the funniest person in the world, and dancing with Dax at a pajama birthday party. Ben recounts working as a camp janitor as a minor, the importance of separating his self-wor...

Dax and Monica host a conversation with Bill Gates about his new book, How To Avoid A Climate Disaster, for the Chicago Humanities Festival. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

George Saunders (A Swim in a Pond in the Rain) is a #1 New York Times bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author. George joins the Armchair Expert to discuss the mental phenomena of life, farting in an elevator, and romanticizing everything as a writer. George explains how he learned that being a writer wasn't about your adventure resume, how to trust your own mind and bless your reactions, and how...

Rupert Grint (Harry Potter, Servant, Sick Note) is an English actor known for his role as Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter film series. Rupert joins the Armchair Expert to discuss how different of a role his character on Servant is from anything he's done before, how he can't fully detach from Ron Weasley, and what it was like going through puberty on camera. Dax tells Rupert he was obsessed with h...

Michael Eric Dyson is a professor, ordained minister, political commentator, and the author of seven New York Times bestsellers. Michael joins the Armchair Expert to discuss preaching at the National Cathedral on the King's Sunday, the transition from going to an inner-city segregated school to a school with rich white kids, and how the church became a lifeline for him. Michael recounts the day wh...

Amy Poehler (Moxie, Parks and Recreation, SNL) is an actress, comedian, writer, producer, and director. Amy joins the Armchair Expert to discuss how much she likes to identify as an outsider that worked her way in, how control is the dream state, and how important it was for Dax to do car stuff in Baby Mama. Dax & Amy bond over having a class warfare chip on their shoulder and how much they both r...

Chad Sanders is the author of the book Black Magic: What Black Leaders Learned from Trauma and Triumph. Chad joins the Armchair Expert to discuss his experience at Morehouse College, how isolating code switching can be, and his journey to embracing who he really was while working at Google. Chad explains that race is the operating system of everything, how black people are expected to be bold enou...

Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace is an ethologist and advocate for the environment, animals, and the natural world. Jane joins the Armchair Expert to discuss her journey to studying chimpanzees, how her approach of empathy allowed her to learn how human chimps are and that they have a culture of their own. Jane explains how similar the gender rol...

Viggo Mortensen (Green Book, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Captain Fantastic) is an Oscar-nominated actor, writer and director. Viggo joins the Armchair Expert to discuss why it took him so long to finally direct a movie, his ability to revert back to speaking Spanish based on what he's doing, and falling in love with ice hockey. Viggo opens up about the comfort he finds in being untethered and h...

Erin Meyer (The Culture Map, No Rules Rules) is an author and professor at the INSEAD Business School, based in Paris. Erin joins the Armchair Expert to discuss how feedback is interpreted differently in various cultures, who the most direct and confrontational culture is, and how to move beyond stereotypes to understand the more complex issues we are unaware are affecting us. Erin teaches us how...