Variety presents the first-ever Variety Creative Impact in Podcasting Award to “Armchair Expert” co-hosts Dax Shepard and Monica Padman.
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00:00Well, thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you for being here and taking and taking part in this
00:05I think I'm gonna give this a little tight up here
00:07So I think I'm just gonna give you all some room and give you some aura after winning these these August Awards
00:13But in all seriousness, I mean, this is a new medium and it is you all are absolutely
00:19pioneers in this kind of
00:21conversational
00:23informational episodes
00:24How would you describe the show to somebody you're talking to at a cocktail party said to them and they haven't heard heard the show
00:31How do you describe on armchair? I'm really that are not in the know curious to hear Monica's description before I say mine
00:38Well, no, we we have a joke that we used to tell everybody
00:42It's about the messiness of being human and then we got very self-conscious about we didn't like it anymore. It sounded trite
00:50Yeah, we thought it sounded too saccharine
00:52But it's been like etched all over the place and it's been on billboards and we're like, it's on your bio
00:59Exactly. I wrote it. I have a lower back tattoo that says that's rightably. That's right
01:04But I would say it's yeah, I would say it's like a public a a meeting
01:10It's like you're hearing people be honest and vulnerable and kind of owning their own
01:15Struggles and challenges in a way that I've not heard outside of an AA meeting and that was hopefully the goal of it
01:23and we get close to that and it's
01:26Yeah, that's kind of but I'm gonna add this we didn't know what our show was as much until we started doing live shows
01:33and
01:34We learned this from having attended a Sam Harris live show if you go to a Sam Harris live show and the questions from
01:39The audience the person will always be showing Sam how brilliant they are
01:43they'll use a lot of huge words and they want Sam to know I to him an intellectual and
01:49Not in that fashion our audience when we ask them questions
01:53I'll never forget the first time we did it. This gal was like, oh my god. I'm so sorry
01:57I'm gonna really crazy outfit my thighs were too sweaty and I sweat through that dress
02:00So I had to go to Ross down the street and then I got the stupid thing
02:03Anyways, I was wondering and then the next person was like, I just was wondering I fell down the other day
02:08I like this that they're letting us know. Hey, I'm flawed and vulnerable, too
02:14And I don't think we knew
02:16We wouldn't have been able to diagnose why people liked it up until that point and I thought oh, this is a very lovely thing
02:22They want us to know about them and that's I think we've discovered
02:26What we were through that process a bit. I think also in the interviews
02:30We are very much not focused on the highs at all
02:33Like we have a lot of incredible celebrities who've won a ton of awards
02:38No one's got one of these bad boys
02:41But we don't really talk that much about that
02:44We want to know about two weeks after when they couldn't get hired or you know, they got divorced
02:50I mean not in a salacious way
02:52But you know the lows of life were a little bit more interested in because that's the real stuff. That's the relatable stuff
02:58Absolutely
02:59If you seem to have kind of a mixture of stars a lot of a lot of people that you know
03:04And it's always you know
03:05It's the six degrees of separation with DAX people you've worked with or they've worked with people you've worked with
03:09So a lot of that but also a lot of you know
03:12Everyday people calling in you want to talk about sort of you've kind of
03:16Franchised it now a little bit and you have armchair expert kind of the mother
03:21Mothership, but you have your armchair anonymous where you talk to everyday folks
03:26Talk about how you develop that mix and and at what point did you break that off in armchair anonymous off into its own show?
03:33armchair anonymous is
03:35Hilarious anecdotes in the voices, you know in the own voices of your listeners arm cherries
03:41It is also a it is also a good time
03:44Thank you. I will say what's been so liberating about this medium is I have sold
03:51You know six TV shows to networks I've sold maybe eight
03:55features the development process
03:58Getting actors involved. I called Monica
04:00I'm like, I think we should do a show where we let arm cherries tell us crazy stories
04:04and then we were then doing that six days later and then it was a show and now there's hundreds episodes like the speed at
04:10Which we can think of something and then immediately try it and do it has been so liberating after 20 years in molasses in
04:17LA
04:19And in yes, so Mondays is celebrities
04:22Wednesdays is experts. They could be doctors lawyers scientists and then Fridays are insane stories from our listeners with
04:30Crazy prompts. Yeah, I'm afraid even say some out loud
04:35And it's dinner will be served to
04:38Yeah, but we'll put out prompts and then our listeners will write in but the Wednesday episode the experts
04:44Was kind of what we wanted to do from the beginning we just are in love with podcasts and
04:50Hearing like, you know interesting thought leaders speak and so we wanted to do that
04:55But we kind of thought the way in would be to have celebrities
04:59So we say like you the little vegetables and doughnut. Yeah Mondays candy and Wednesdays protein
05:05Yeah, but I'll give an example you have Maren Morris on and you're talking you're getting into the nitty-gritty
05:10You're going where I'm interested the nitty-gritty of her publishing rights deals what she gets to keep and what's not?
05:16It's a it's a really interesting format and the lengths can be summer view summer 50 minutes summer two hours
05:22How decks haven't come up in the discipline of the rigor of it's got to be 48 minutes or 22 minutes
05:28How did you come to grips with or how did you come to realize that?
05:31This could be two hours if you if if you wanted it to be that long or it could be 39 minutes
05:37Well, we had the great gift of zero expectations this all started because Monica was working with Kristen and
05:44We had both listened to cereal and we had differing opinions on Adnan's guilt. I'll let you guess who thought what and this is 2018
05:53But a little bit before that
05:55And we spent hours arguing in the kitchen about cereal and then we were listening to other podcasts
06:02And Monica and I love to debate and argue and we thought oh, let's do this in public. Yeah, and
06:10Having no expectations. We didn't think well, it'll be most sellable if it's this or we want this many ad breaks
06:16We're like no one's gonna listen and I'll never make money. Let's go do this
06:21Yeah, we were wrong I've never been happier to be wrong people listen and it makes money
06:27but generally
06:29And what is the fun of doing the show is that it's the most consistent state of flow we get to experience in life
06:36We sit down with somebody we start talking always always always the guest goes
06:40I can't believe that was two hours and it never feels like two hours
06:43So basically the conversation is whatever it wants to be and then Monica
06:48Brilliantly carves that into what it should be. Ultimately. She's the one who decides what that is
06:53I'm more just talking because I'm interested and then when I
06:57Both people run a steam that's it. So we have no guiding principle
07:01well
07:02and actually that was learned like at the very beginning Dax had
07:05Papers that he had it written out and it was very like he had to stick to it and you got very good advice
07:11I think from another podcaster who said, you know, you can have your paper, but also you you're good at talking
07:16So just don't miss do that. Yeah, don't miss out on the moment
07:21Yeah, what I found was I if I planned it too much the best-case scenario was they would get to a story
07:26I was hoping they would get to as opposed to oh my god, they're telling me the story. I never even thought
07:32Might have come up and then my genuine curiosity enthusiasm is much more authentic that way
07:38So and as you said, we're extremely honest, especially on our fact check which happens at the end of each episode or we talk about
07:46Everything we're very vulnerable. So I think it leads to vulnerability from our
07:52Guess it makes a great listen, but is that hard, you know
07:56You've put a lot about you put a lot of yourself out there, especially you Dax about your background your childhood some some tough stuff
08:03Yeah
08:03I mean of the last seven years the hardest was obviously being very known for being sober and being very proud of that and having
08:10A listenership that also aspired to that at times we get stopped all the time with people who are like I'm a year sober
08:16For me, you know, there's nothing there's no reward like that. I'm gonna brag. We were at a friend's wedding
08:21And there were multiple weddings happening at the same time and I was walking to the bathroom this guy in a tuxedo grabbed me
08:26And he was already kind of almost crying and he said my family wouldn't talk to me
08:31Three years ago, and I started listening your show and I got sober and I'm I'm my brother's best man today
08:36And I was like, oh, I just was fucking bawling with this stranger
08:41And so yeah having to come out and go. Yeah, I relapse was really obviously quite quite hard and scary
08:48but in general
08:51It's been informative that like and I think our guests have this same fear
08:55You think you're gonna say something that is really embarrassing or or will lead to great judgment and it's just not what happens
09:02it leads to connection and it leads to recognition and it leads to
09:05Community and it's just it's the most counterintuitive and beautiful experience. We get to have three times a week
09:14And again, I credit a I had lots of experience of talking like that in a group of strangers
09:20So I think I had that, you know
09:23Fortunate background the reach and the impact is it can just be absolutely immense
09:28It's really it's really something and in all honesty
09:31that's that what that's one of the reasons why that we thought that that your show and just again the community you've created and the
09:36Reach that you had
09:39Recently and not too recent not too long ago a couple years ago
09:41You added video to the mix and you started putting the show on video. How did the presence of visual media impact what you do?
09:50And how you do it? I have been very vocal for the last four years about being so grateful
09:55I no longer had to do hair and makeup and I didn't have to think how I looked anymore and I got all the tattoos
09:59I ever wanted to get now I had a job and I have to worry about any of that and the fine folks at
10:03Wondery invited us under their wing and they said you'll be doing video. We said, okay, we'll be doing video
10:11So that forgive me this so that is more recent yeah, yeah
10:14Yeah, we're only maybe three weeks into releases and maybe a month into recording them
10:19but I will say
10:21It has added
10:22Look, we also approached it with like we don't want to do this and something great will happen from this
10:27like we're at that stage where we do need to be challenged to try another thing and we've I think rose to that of that
10:34Challenge and now all this other great stuff's happening. I'm watching people fall in love with Monica a
10:41Second go-around because they don't know what she looks like when she's chewing me out and they don't know how playful her faces
10:47And I'm like, oh, this is what like people are falling in love in a whole new way with Monica
10:52And they're getting through how I look, you know, so it's it's great
10:56And are you both would you say this is like like mostly your full-time jobs?
11:00Are you juggling other creative endeavors and other things in other in other fields? It's too full. It's three full-time job
11:08Yeah, it takes up
11:11all of our energy in the bat, I mean we have the best full-time job and
11:15Yeah, I think we both sort of put some of the other things other opportunities aside because this is our priority and we feel
11:23Genuinely, we say all the time. It's not like lip service
11:26We're always sometime like looking at each other and saying I can't believe this is our job
11:30No
11:31the podcast took us to India for a week with Bill Gates this year and we were on his private plane and I looked at
11:37Monica was like fuck are we doing here? We have a podcast
11:41So stupid do they know it's like we're really still getting away with it is crazy
11:48Yeah, I
11:50Think we really just want to thank you all for being
11:53Thank you both for coming out here and being here and you know being the authentic selves that has generated this incredible fandom
12:01and
12:02You know kind of community that you have stitched together and really reaching people with a lot of good and a lot of great
12:09Entertainment in the ear. Thank you. Again. This is one of the moments on the plane
12:13Like what the fuck are all you guys doing here? Talk about Monica and I's podcast
12:19The goal here, yeah, have a great meal. Okay, wonderful. Well, thank you all for joining us. Thank you so much