Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Jared Diamond (Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings, The World Until Yesterday, and Guns, Germs, and Steel) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist, historian, and UCLA professor. Jared joins Armchair Expert to discuss growing up in the shadow of World War II, his family’s connection to the Holocaust, and his path from physiology to geography. Jared and Dax talk about testing history through natural experiments, measuring the ...

Leanne Morgan (Leanne, You’re Cordially Invited, I’m Every Woman) is a comedian, actor, and author. Leanne joins Armchair Expert to discuss growing up in a 600-person Tennessee town, leaving her first marriage, and raising three kids while chasing Hollywood. Leanne and Dax talk about developing stand-up while selling jewelry at house parties, spending 20 years as the “$2,500 girl” on the corporate comedy cir...

Ben Lamm, co-founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences, serial technology entrepreneur, and pioneer in de-extinction. Ben joins Armchair Expert to discuss being raised by his mom and grandparents in Texas, starting his first company while at Baylor, and why a conversation with geneticist George Church changed the course of his life. Ben and Dax talk about building a team to engineer a mammoth from scratch, creating woolly mice in 30 ...

Joey King (Practical Magic 2, The Act, The Kissing Booth) is an Emmy-nominated actor and producer. Joey returns to the Armchair Expert to discuss starting work at nine years old, her dad’s past as a professional arm wrestler, and losing and rediscovering her natural sense of joy. Joey and Dax talk about joining the beloved world of Practical Magic, working alongside Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, and finding fulfillment in...

Eric Goode (Monsters of God, Chimp Crazy, Tiger King) is a filmmaker, hotelier, and conservationist. Eric joins Armchair Expert to discuss growing up in an animal-filled home, surviving Northern California’s New Age movement, and befriending Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring in 1980s New York. Eric and Dax talk about creating legendary nightclubs and hotels, directing Nine Inch Nails videos, and stumbling into Tiger King ...

Dave Franco (Idiots, The Studio, Together) is an actor, writer, and director. Dave returns to Armchair Expert to discuss growing up as the youngest of three brothers, being a hopeless romantic from childhood, and becoming Hollywood’s sexiest cat dad. Dave and Dax talk about pursuing Idiots for a decade, surviving the exhausting long takes of The Studio, and forging an identity outside his brother’s shadow. Dave explains...

Angela Duckworth (Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best, Grit) is a psychologist, MacArthur Fellow, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Angela returns to the Armchair Expert to discuss nearly drowning while trying to save her mother, apologizing 15 years later to an author she treated poorly, and how a graduate student’s critique of Grit changed the direction of her work. Angela and Dax ta...

Lizzo (Lil Lizzo Meets Sasha B. Flootin', Cuz I Love You, Special) is a Grammy and Emmy Award-winning musician and performer. Lizzo joins Armchair Expert to discuss growing up in a Detroit church where her uncle preached and her cousins made up the choir, being mocked in Houston for “talking white” and liking anime, and losing her father at 19 who told her she could become the next great flute player. Lizzo and Dax talk...

Ray Madoff (The Second Estate, Immortality and the Law, Practical Guide to Estate Planning) is a Boston College law professor, author, and tax-policy expert. Ray joins Armchair Expert to discuss being a proudly mediocre high school student, reluctantly trading philosophy for law school, and becoming a terrible Wall Street tax lawyer who loved teaching. Ray and Dax talk about America’s return to a pre-revolutionary aristocracy...

Gal Gadot (The Runner, Wonder Woman, Fast & Furious) is an actor, action star, and former pageant winner. Gal joins Armchair Expert to discuss unexpectedly winning a beauty pageant, being thrust onto the front page of the New York Post at 21, and surviving cerebral venous thrombosis after the birth of her fourth child. Gal and Dax talk about being discovered for a Bond audition while studying law, reaching the point where she w...

Olivia Fox Cabane (The Charisma Myth, The Net and the Butterfly) is a bestselling author, speaker, and leading authority on the science of charisma. Olivia joins Armchair Expert to discuss growing up in Paris without television or movies, receiving an autism diagnosis in her 40s, and decoding the “secret manual” of human interaction. Olivia and Dax talk about translating charisma research into a teachable system, showin...

Jimmy Kimmel is an Emmy-winning host, comedian, and producer. Molly McNearney is an Emmy-winning writer, producer, and actor. Jimmy and Molly join Armchair Expert to discuss how working together strengthened their marriage, why ten quiet minutes in bed can constitute a date, and raising children who know the president as their family’s antagonist. Jimmy, Molly, and Dax talk about rescuing unprepared talk-show guests, getting ...

Chris Young (The Wound Is Where the Light Enters, Coherence Consulting) is an author, consultant, and public speaker. Chris joins Armchair Expert to discuss watching addiction consume his mother, spending two years without electricity or running water, and selling drugs by age 11. Chris and Dax talk about the small choices that hardened into a drug-dealing identity, the courtroom speech that moved his sentencing judge to resign, an...