Alexander Skarsgård

Alexander Skarsgård (Murderbot, Melancholia, True Blood) is an Emmy Award-winning actor. Alexander joins the Armchair Expert to discuss accidentally signing up for a month-long cross country ski trek in the South Pole, gaining 25 pounds and long hair in the final season of True Blood because he was prepping to play Tarzan, and how everyone in Sweden exhibits symptoms of No Tall Poppy Syndrome. Alexander and Dax talk about why a sprinkle of anarchy would be good in Sweden, growing up around actors and artists he longed for a dad that drove a Saab, and joining the military as a response to being raised by bohemians. Alexander explains booking his first Hollywood audition for Zoolander, playing AI gone rogue in Murderbot, and whether as a Swede he’s liberated from the hedonic treadmill of obsessing about money. Follow Armchair Expert on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube or listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/armchair-expert-with-dax-shepard/ http://www.wondery.com/links/armchair-expert-with-dax-shepard/ now. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Dax Shepard?

  Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert. I'm Dax Shepard and I'm joined by Monica Padman.

• 0:05Speaker 01

  That's me.

• 0:05Dax Shepard?

  This was a very fun interview. Alexander Skarsgård. Oh.

• 0:13Speaker 01

  Spicy hot.

• 0:15Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. What a stud.

• 0:17Speaker 01

  I want to say.

• 0:18Dax Shepard?

  Say it.

• 0:19Speaker 01

  I'm gonna, just to clear my good name, I'm very late in this interview. And it is not my fault.

• 0:28Dax Shepard?

  No, our guest was a half hour early.

• 0:31Speaker 01

  Yes, and I was in a meeting, so I didn't get the text that you guys were starting. And so I'm a fair amount late.

• 0:39Dax Shepard?

  But you're not late. You're exactly on time.

• 0:42Speaker 01

  But I hated it.

• 0:43Dax Shepard?

  But, um, oh boy, what a sweetie pie. Alexander Skarsgård, please enjoy. We are supported by Audible. Thanks to Audible for being the presenting sponsor of today's episode. We could all use an escape these days, and the best way to do it, Audible. With over 1 million titles in their selection, there's more to imagine with Audible. We get support from Quince.

• 1:07Speaker 01

  Okay, can we talk about the fact that the holidays are already here? It's crazy. I feel like I blinked and now we're in gifting season, which I'm not really mad about because I do love giving gifts. And Quince is making it so easy to find something great for everyone on my list, including myself. Because let's be honest, self gifting is a love language.

• 1:27Dax Shepard?

  Quince is seriously the gift that keeps on giving. Their high quality staples are made with premium materials like 100% Mongolian cashmere, 14 karat gold and Italian leather, full on luxury quality at prices that won't wreck your holiday budget.

• 1:43Speaker 01

  It's the dream. The cashmere sweater, starting at $60, down jackets, wool outerwear, cashmere accessories. You and everyone on your list are staying cozy and looking incredible all season long.

• 1:54Dax Shepard?

  Well, I'm gonna tell you this, it just got chilly for the first time this year in California, and I'm so excited. And I'm wearing my Quince cashmere right now.

• 2:01Speaker 01

  It's great.

• 2:02Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, and I am going to give this to some of my friends. I hope they're not listening.

• 2:06Speaker 01

  Quince is also more than clothing. They've got fine jewelry for your significant other, leather bags for your bestie, hotel-quality bedding to set up your guest rooms, chef-grade cookware. That's an amazing thing they offer here. And it's such a good gift because people don't like buying cookware for themselves, but it's very important. And they also have five-star luggage, another good gift that people don't like buying for themselves.

• 2:29Dax Shepard?

  Give the gift of quality this holiday season. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK, too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was Armchair Expert. It's the best way to support the show. This episode is supported by Helix.

• 2:53Speaker 01

  Okay, can we talk about how November is basically survival mode? Between the holidays, the travel, the hosting, the cooking, the everything. Sleep is the one thing keeping me from completely unraveling.

• 3:04Dax Shepard?

  It really is the foundation. And I think people underestimate how much a bad mattress is quietly ruining their day. You wake up stiff, your back's angry, you're already behind before your feet hit the floor.

• 3:15Speaker 01

  That was me before Helix. I took their sleep quiz, which is so fast. It took me like two minutes. And they matched me to a mattress that actually fits how I sleep. Not a guess, not a firm or soft coin flip. It's a real match. I have a midnight mattress and I really like it. I was noticing it because I actually had to sleep in one of my other beds.

• 3:32Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 3:32Speaker 01

  Recently.

• 3:33Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 3:33Speaker 01

  That doesn't have a Helix mattress on it. And I really could tell a big difference in my sleep.

• 3:38Dax Shepard?

  Temperature was all over the map.

• 3:39Speaker 01

  It was a mess.

• 3:40Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 3:40Speaker 01

  I need a new one.

• 3:41Dax Shepard?

  Look, they've got over 20 mattress models. So whether you sleep hot, need extra back support, or you've got a partner who moves around all night, there's one built for you. Plus free shipping and a 365-night happy with Helix guarantee. That's a full year to decide.

• 3:55Speaker 01

  Helix has been named the most awarded mattress by Forbes, Wired, and more. So it's not just us being enthusiastic. The experts agree.

• 4:02Dax Shepard?

  Right now, Helix is running their Black Friday sale with up to 30% off. Go to helixsleep.com/armchair for up to 30% off your Helix mattress. That's helixsleep.com/armchair for up to 30% off your Helix mattress. Helixsleep.com/armchair.

• 4:38Dax Shepard?

  Any heads up on Monica?

• 4:39Speaker 02

  And you guys are old pals? Is that how you guys started working together?

• 4:41Dax Shepard?

  She started as a babysitter.

• 4:43Speaker 02

  Really?

• 4:44Dax Shepard?

  We discovered that she was at UCB and really funny and she was an actor. And then she started working with Kristen and then she started writing everything for Kristen. Then she directed, she's just running Kristen's life. And so she was always around and she and I would argue in the kitchen for fun as a hobby. Cause she's very opinionated and so am I and we don't agree on anything. And so I wanted to start a podcast and I thought, oh, she would be perfect. Cause all we do is disagree. And so then we started it and this became very full time. So basically I stole her from Kristen seven years ago. You haven't done a lot of podcasts, have you?

• 5:21Speaker 02

  I mean, a few, yeah.

• 5:22Dax Shepard?

  Do you like them?

• 5:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:23Dax Shepard?

  I love them because I was used to going on talk shows and you have seven minutes or 12 minutes and you gotta be fucking on it. And then I started guesting on other people's podcasts, like Marc Maron's.

• 5:34Speaker 02

  I did Marc yesterday.

• 5:36Dax Shepard?

  Oh, for his last show?

• 5:37Speaker 02

  Well, it's not his last show, but it was the day he announced, but he's wrapping it up in the fall. So he's doing a few more months.

• 5:43Dax Shepard?

  Oh, it's not like yesterday it was over.

• 5:45Speaker 02

  No, but it was the first show since it was public.

• 5:47Dax Shepard?

  Oh, yeah. How did that feel?

• 5:49Speaker 02

  I'm sure it's an emotional time for him. 16 years, 1600 episodes. I know it's a big chunk of his life.

• 5:56Dax Shepard?

  It's bonkers. We're midway through that, right? We had 900 episodes last week.

• 6:02Dax Shepard?

  And yeah, I started to think, you know, how long do we do this?

• 6:04Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:04Dax Shepard?

  It's crazy. I was on a show called Parenthood for six years. That was the longest I had ever worked on anything. And now this is the longest job I've ever had, which is very weird. Not at all. Cause I would want to stop. I love it. I love you. I've been watching you since True Blood. I've been wanting to meet you for a long time and you just came over to my house. And now you have to hang out with me for two hours. I love it.

• 6:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:24Dax Shepard?

  So it's not that I would ever not love it. It's as a challenge to myself. I just want to be like, okay, you acted for 20 years. You podcasted for 10. What else are we going to do before we die?

• 6:35Speaker 02

  Yeah. How much of your time does it take up?

• 6:38Dax Shepard?

  Kind of a lot. We do 162 episodes a year.

• 6:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's a lot.

• 6:42Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, so it's three a week.

• 6:43Speaker 02

  One every other day.

• 6:44Dax Shepard?

  And it's all year long.

• 6:46Speaker 02

  Okay, so it's not like you do a bunch and then you take a little break.

• 6:48Dax Shepard?

  I don't want to bore you with the fucking sausage being made, but I do do that because we want to take summer break, right? So every year around this time, I'm doing two a day, five days a week to build up a little war chest so that I can be with my kids on vacation for a few weeks. Did you see that bus out front?

• 7:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:07Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, that's the family bus.

• 7:08Speaker 02

  You driving it to Nashville?

• 7:09Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah. Well, first Idaho and then to Nashville.

• 7:11Speaker 02

  Amazing.

• 7:12Dax Shepard?

  Did you do anything stupid like that? Like, do you have any hobbies when people meet you, they go, oh, I wouldn't have expected that?

• 7:20Speaker 02

  I mean, I love a good adventure. That gets me excited.

• 7:22Dax Shepard?

  Don't you have a fantasy of being a rock star? I certainly do.

• 7:24Speaker 02

  Hell, yeah, yeah.

• 7:25Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 7:25Speaker 02

  If I have a tune to go on an adventure, I'll do it. Like, I've gone to the South Pole and to Greenland and sailed across the Atlantic.

• 7:31Dax Shepard?

  You went to the South Pole around Christmas?

• 7:33Speaker 02

  Well, because it's the summer window down there, so that's the only time you get daylight, really.

• 7:37Dax Shepard?

  Did you feel like you were on another planet?

• 7:39Speaker 02

  It was trippy, yeah, because we spent three weeks up on the plateau and the ice sheet, basically. The nature documentaries you see from Antarctica are from the coastline. That's where, like, all the cute penguins are. But once you're up on the plateau, there's nothing.

• 7:52Dax Shepard?

  Is it ice up there?

• 7:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's 10,000 feet of ice.

• 7:55Dax Shepard?

  Two miles of ice.

• 7:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, so we did this thing where we skied across the plateau to the pole. We skied for three weeks. And it was trippy because once you're up there, the sun is just daylight 24/7. Going to Greenland, or if you're on the coast in Antarctica, the landscape is pretty dramatic. But once you're up on the plateau, it's like a white desert, just ice. There's no topography. It's just completely flat.

• 8:14Dax Shepard?

  So you get bored out of your mind?

• 8:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, we were 21 skiers, but it's single line formation. It's not like if you're on a hike, you go and talk to your buddy, because it's also negative 40, so you all bundle up. And then you got your pulk, your sled with all your gear and food and your tents and everything. So you're kind of just looking at someone's ass for hours and hours, and you also get no real sense of progress. Because if you're hiking in the mountains or something, like you look at, all right, we're aiming for that peak tonight. We're going to camp out here and then tomorrow morning we'll hit the peak. This is just head in that general direction for three weeks. And when you camp at night, it looks exactly like it did when you woke up.

• 8:50Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, did you feel like you were losing your mind at all?

• 8:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, definitely a little Groundhog Day and also it was an incredible experience at the same time because it's just so unreal.

• 8:59Dax Shepard?

  Did you go with any friends?

• 9:01Speaker 02

  No.

• 9:01Dax Shepard?

  You didn't know anyone on the trip?

• 9:03Speaker 02

  No.

• 9:03Dax Shepard?

  That's kind of brave.

• 9:05Speaker 02

  I was in New York and I met a friend of a friend is an explorer and he knew that I was in the military back in Sweden when I was younger, was on a boat sailing trip across the Atlantic. So he knew that I was interested in doing other things and hanging out at the Bowery in New York. And we were just out having drinks and he was like, hey, we're doing this thing next month. Are you available? Do you want to come? It's a charity thing for wounded soldiers and we're gonna be down for a month. And I was shooting True Blood at the time. We were wrapping up the TV series here in LA.

• 9:32Dax Shepard?

  Okay, so this is like 2014 or something?

• 9:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly. It was 10 years ago. We were on hiatus and I was like, you know what? Fuck yeah. Why not?

• 9:39Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, this is Monica.

• 9:41Speaker 02

  Hey, nice to meet you.

• 9:42Dax Shepard?

  I started with a hug.

• 9:44Speaker 01

  We're gonna start with a hand.

• 9:45Dax Shepard?

  Okay, maybe.

• 9:46Speaker 02

  We'll start with a handshake and then a hug.

• 9:47Speaker 01

  We're rushing in.

• 9:49Dax Shepard?

  See what it builds to.

• 9:50Speaker 01

  How embarrassing. What'd you guys talk about without me?

• 9:52Dax Shepard?

  He went on a 21 day cross-country ski trip to the South Pole. Didn't know anyone on the trip. Impulsed by said, yeah, I'll go in 2015.

• 10:05Speaker 01

  That's wild.

• 10:06Dax Shepard?

  Isn't that wild?

• 10:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:07Dax Shepard?

  So what makes me think of, and maybe I'm completely wrong, but I got into off-road racing for a while. And off-road racing is not pleasurable. It's very violent inside of the car. And I was doing a night race in the middle of the desert in California and it's just brutal and the visibility is terrible. It's just dust from all the people and you're passing people and it's kind of blind and then it's just so violent. It is a 250 mile race. I had a lot of time to think about, what is this all about?

• 10:33Speaker 01

  Like life?

• 10:34Dax Shepard?

  This goal, this pursuit, what is this about? Because it's objectively not fun. It's uncomfortable. It's dirty. I can't see. We might crash, but I got to prove that I can win this race. And then I'm now just thinking about my ego in depth, really having to confront my ego like, what is all of this about? And what will this satiate?

• 10:56Speaker 02

  Is it a solitary experience?

• 10:58Dax Shepard?

  I have a navigator, but he can't see. There's a nav in the dashboard.

• 11:02Speaker 01

  He's blind, obviously.

• 11:03Speaker 02

  I have a blind navigator.

• 11:05Dax Shepard?

  Headless navigator.

• 11:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:06Dax Shepard?

  But I have a nav in the dashboard that's got the line, because it's not like you're on a road or anything. There's just a line on a map. But the visibility is so bad and it's dark and the lights that are shining are so fucking bright. It's illuminating all the dust in the air. I know he can't see the nav because I can't see him lots of times, not the whole time.

• 11:25Speaker 02

  So he's like emotional support animal? Like, what's he doing there? He can't see anything?

• 11:30Dax Shepard?

  That's its own story. Like, I bought the car off that guy and he raced forever.

• 11:34Speaker 01

  It was like a codependency, like you need to invite him to the party.

• 11:39Dax Shepard?

  God bless him, Lee, because that was my first race. And he's like, I'll be your navigator. I can't put too fine a point on how much you can't see.

• 11:50Dax Shepard?

  And so in those moments, I'm like really trying to figure out what I'm doing.

• 11:54Speaker 01

  Why you're pushing yourself like that?

• 11:56Speaker 02

  Have you gone on another race since?

• 11:58Dax Shepard?

  Oh, yeah.

• 11:59Speaker 02

  Oh, you have?

• 12:01Speaker 02

  If it's like a bucket list thing, it would make sense to do it once and be like, all right, I've done it.

• 12:05Dax Shepard?

  Right.

• 12:06Speaker 02

  That was horrible. I couldn't see shit, but I did it. But I'm curious how you go from that to be like, that was horrible. I did it and I will do it again next week.

• 12:14Dax Shepard?

  A few years went by.

• 12:16Speaker 01

  Hold on, I need to interject.

• 12:17Dax Shepard?

  Interject.

• 12:18Speaker 01

  Dax considers, well, not considers, one of his main identity points is that he's a good driver.

• 12:24Dax Shepard?

  My number one.

• 12:25Speaker 01

  He thinks that's part of why people like him. None of it's true.

• 12:29Speaker 02

  People like hanging out with me because I'm a great driver.

• 12:31Speaker 01

  That's what he really thought for a long time.

• 12:34Dax Shepard?

  But I really did think that. Because where I grew up in Detroit, among all my friends, they did love that I was a great driver.

• 12:39Speaker 02

  And that's why your wife fell for you, right? Because you're a great driver.

• 12:42Speaker 01

  She would definitely say that.

• 12:44Speaker 02

  She's so attracted to great drivers.

• 12:46Dax Shepard?

  I'm one of 10 great drivers she's dated.

• 12:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, like, do you think on like Raya, anyone's writing, like, great driver? I doubt it.

• 12:54Dax Shepard?

  Several off-road races.

• 12:55Speaker 01

  That's an identity marker. So that's part of it. If you think I don't need to go do that again, a part of your identity will be fucked with.

• 13:04Dax Shepard?

  It's scary. Okay, now back to you because you're our guest.

• 13:07Speaker 02

  Have we started?

• 13:08Dax Shepard?

  Always. We are always just rolling.

• 13:10Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 13:11Dax Shepard?

  Does that scare you?

• 13:12Speaker 02

  Well, I haven't, my radio voice, this is like, hey, what were you saying, Dax?

• 13:16Speaker 01

  Good. We finally got your real voice. The world has been waiting.

• 13:21Speaker 02

  Hey, guys, have we started? No one told me.

• 13:26Dax Shepard?

  Okay, now back to your skiing trip.

• 13:28Speaker 02

  Back to me.

• 13:29Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. Do you two suffer from constructing this image of yourself and being a bit of a romantic? And I'm an adventurer. And then you get in these situations and yes, you're proud you've made it and you've survived. And I do believe in that. But do you have those moments where you go, what is this all about?

• 13:45Speaker 02

  I tell you this much, I haven't been back since. For me, it was more like, that was great. I did go back to Greenland, so I've been there twice, but the skiing trip definitely felt like a once in a lifetime thing.

• 13:54Dax Shepard?

  I didn't expect to get an answer to this question, and it was gonna be way further down in the conversation. But as a True Blood super fan, when I was out, I was so obsessed, specifically with your character. I love bodies. I love men's bodies so much. I noticed you started the show really huge, and then you had a couple of seasons where you were smaller. And I'm now thinking, did this three weeks of doing cross-country skiing, did you come up skinnier?

• 14:22Speaker 02

  We did it before the seventh, which would have been the final season. Yeah, you lose a lot of weight down there because you ski for 12 hours a day. So of course, you're struggling to get as much sustenance in.

• 14:32Dax Shepard?

  If you sat on a lawn chair there, you would probably burn 3,000 calories a day just staying warm.

• 14:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, I don't know if I lost weight, but I know that the final season, I gained like 25 pounds over the course of that season because I was going straight from the final season of True Blood into Tarzan.

• 14:49Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 14:50Speaker 02

  HBO were kind enough to be like, this kind of news definitely gonna be an issue because I was growing my hair out and was just eating a lot of steak and working out. So if you look at the final season of True Blood.

• 15:01Dax Shepard?

  You're a meathead by the end.

• 15:03Speaker 02

  I think it takes place over two weeks or something, but Vampire Eric got big and his hair grew.

• 15:08Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, that was one of my weird preoccupations when I'd watch the show is I was like, well, if they can't die, they can't change, right?

• 15:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:15Dax Shepard?

  This guy is fucking bigger. How's this vampire?

• 15:18Speaker 02

  Yeah. And if they ever wanted to do like a reunion or something.

• 15:21Dax Shepard?

  You couldn't do it?

• 15:22Speaker 02

  No, because we're old as fuck now, you know.

• 15:25Dax Shepard?

  The whole thing would be CG.

• 15:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, exactly.

• 15:28Speaker 01

  Wait, back to the skiing. I may have missed this, but did you go just because like you were invited and it sounded fun? Or did you go because you needed an escape?

• 15:37Speaker 02

  I think it was a little bit of both. It was for a charity called Walking with the Wounded, a British charity for wounded soldiers. And they were all set to go a couple of weeks after this night out. And he basically said like, hey, there's a spot on one of the teams.

• 15:50Dax Shepard?

  I think he might have been drunk when you said yes.

• 15:52Speaker 02

  Very much so.

• 15:55Dax Shepard?

  I'm kind of reading between the lines.

• 15:58Speaker 02

  The following morning I woke up and I was like, what happened last night? You'll go to the South Pole, my friend.

• 16:05Dax Shepard?

  How good of a cross-country skier are you?

• 16:07Speaker 02

  And I can't ski at all. I woke up, I was like, I hope I didn't do anything stupid last night. I'm sure he's fine. And then get like an itinerary with a plane ticket down to Antarctica to this Russian base on the coast.

• 16:19Speaker 01

  And you're not one to back out.

• 16:20Speaker 02

  Then I was guilt-ridden and I was like, no, I can't.

• 16:22Dax Shepard?

  For the soldiers.

• 16:26Speaker 02

  So that's how I ended up down there.

• 16:28Dax Shepard?

  That's fantastic. Can I tell you, I'm so stupid. I did not know until I started researching you today that you're related to your dad.

• 16:34Speaker 02

  Peter Sarsgaard.

• 16:37Speaker 02

  We get that a lot, Peter. A lot of people think we're siblings.

• 16:39Dax Shepard?

  He's the only Sarsgaard you're not related to, though, right?

• 16:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, because he's Sarsgaard and we're Sarsgaard.

• 16:44Dax Shepard?

  And you're Sarsgud.

• 16:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, with a little umlaut over the second A.

• 16:48Dax Shepard?

  Obviously, I know who your dad is from a bazillion movies, but I had no idea.

• 16:53Speaker 01

  I did, because I'm up to date on most things.

• 16:56Dax Shepard?

  Good Will Hunting's her religion.

• 16:57Speaker 01

  My favorite movie of all time.

• 16:58Speaker 02

  Is it?

• 16:59Speaker 01

  I love it so much.

• 16:59Dax Shepard?

  Did you love that movie? Or is it hard to love it because your dad's in it?

• 17:02Speaker 02

  It was his first, well, he was in Hunt for Red October. You remember that one?

• 17:06Dax Shepard?

  I do.

• 17:07Speaker 02

  He did a small role in that. Yeah, yeah. But other than that, he hadn't really worked in the States. So when I was growing up, Dad worked primarily in Sweden. And then he did a movie called Breaking the Waves, Lars von Trier, in 96. And that got him Good Will Hunting. So Good Will Hunting was his first Hollywood movie in a bit more substantial role.

• 17:26Dax Shepard?

  But can you enjoy?

• 17:27Speaker 02

  I loved the movie. It was on so many different levels. I was also excited for Dad to be in a Hollywood movie. That was exciting. I was like, wow, this is really cool. And then it turns out that it was like a really good Hollywood movie. Yeah, yeah, so it was a good start. It's been downhill since then.

• 17:43Dax Shepard?

  A lot of my fascination with you and what I want to get into a lot is I love all the cultural stuff. I went last summer. We did a family vacation and we were in Norway for two weeks and we drove through Sweden and an old man assaulted me in a gas station. That's what we do. Yeah. Welcome to Sweden.

• 17:59Speaker 01

  Wait, is it? Are people angry there? That is not a reputation.

• 18:03Dax Shepard?

  Well, it's very simple. I had pulled up to the gas pump and my credit card wouldn't be taken by the machine. I'm assuming because I'm American. So I had to go inside to use it. And the man behind me was so furious that I had left the pump and gone inside. And now my kids are buying some treats and so I'm gonna pay for the treats and the gas at the same time. Oh. And so I'm just kinda at the counter and this guy comes in and he's yelling at me in Swedish. Hee de bee de fee de bee de. Smorgasbord, smorgasbord. Sounds very intimidating, right?

• 18:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:36Dax Shepard?

  He's older, but he's my size, right? And then obviously he's poking me and I don't do well with that. But my kids are there. So I'm ignoring this and I'm kinda putting together with context clues what I've done. And so he then leaves and then he stands at the window and he's just staring at me outside. He's still going crazy. I'm calm, calm, calm, calm, calm. And I come out and I'm walking to the car to put my gas in. Then he gets right in my face and bumps me and then I lose it. And a nice Swedish person was watching the whole thing. Also, when I lost it, all of a sudden he goes, oh, why are you so mad? That's a bad Swedish accent, but I go. It's pretty good accent. I go, oh, now you fucking speak English. Cause I was speaking English in there and he was acting like he didn't know. But luckily this nice person that was watching, he got involved. He basically started yelling at the guy. He's like, fucking calm down. There's

• 19:20Dax Shepard?

  five other pumps. Go over there. Why are you treating these people like this? And then the wife was out of the car and then my wife was trying to put me in the car. The angry guy's wife. Yes, there's now a lot of the car getting involved. Was she also upset? She was upset too. They're a perfect pair.

• 19:34Speaker 01

  She was upset with you as well?

• 19:36Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 19:36Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 19:37Dax Shepard?

  She was defending her man there.

• 19:39Speaker 01

  As you should.

• 19:40Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. Compounded with, I could also sense, she's like, oh, here we are. We're at the gas station. He's in a fight with a foreigner.

• 19:48Speaker 01

  Just imagine having to be his wife. That sucks.

• 19:52Dax Shepard?

  It made for a great. Great story. Now that we're through it, I like it.

• 19:56Speaker 01

  And can't we say that's just his personality and that's not about being a Swedish man?

• 20:00Dax Shepard?

  That's not representative of Swedish people at all.

• 20:03Speaker 02

  You can find passive aggressive people in other places as well.

• 20:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, they're everywhere.

• 20:08Speaker 02

  It's not exclusively a Swedish thing, I hope.

• 20:10Dax Shepard?

  But you guys have this kind of contradiction, I think, which is, I was on a Eurail train with my girlfriend and these four Swedish kids traveling. One of the girls had done an exchange student program in Georgia and she fucking hated it, right? She hated how everyone's like, hello, how you doing? They're missing, like all the pleasantries.

• 20:26Speaker 02

  I'm obviously generalizing here, but I think we do, but Swedes are also quite.

• 20:31Dax Shepard?

  Direct?

• 20:32Speaker 02

  No, we want consensus. That's why I think people can be a bit passive aggressive because people aren't really direct in being like, I don't like what you're doing. That guy was an anomaly. Like, that's not very common in Sweden. People would rather be like, oh, this guy's leaving his car out there and it's like, oh yeah. And giving you like a side glance.

• 20:48Dax Shepard?

  That's kind of what I expected.

• 20:50Speaker 02

  That would be more Swedish. You'll never see a Swede talk to a random person on the subway or on the bus, kind of like, hey, what's up? Mind your own business, look down, no eye contact. When you're with friends, then people are chatty and then like those people you were on the train with, a couple of drinks for sure.

• 21:06Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 21:07Speaker 02

  Then people open up and then they're very chatty, but not with strangers, I'd say.

• 21:11Dax Shepard?

  But my question, all the way back to Good Will Hunting is, Good Will Hunting to me feels very American. American exceptionalism, the individual. I have this genius gift. I'm finally discovered for having this genius gift. I'm curious, is that a barrier at all? That kind of story, it's such an American story. This guy's so exceptional and no one will see it. And then they see it. When you're in Sweden or when you're Swedish and you're watching that, are you a little bit like, what is this?

• 21:37Speaker 02

  Swedish culture, very much no tall poppy syndrome.

• 21:41Dax Shepard?

  Which is kind of ironic because everyone there is like seven feet tall. It's a funny place to an.

• 21:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's true.

• 21:45Dax Shepard?

  Tall poppy syndrome.

• 21:48Speaker 02

  But there's this word called yngda logan, the law of yngda in Sweden. Basically, that's the meaning of it. No tall pop, but like stick to your lane. Don't think you're special. Don't think you have special talents. Don't dream big. It's about consensus fitting in. And I think it's good and bad aspects of that. It is a very egalitarian and equal society in many ways.

• 22:09Dax Shepard?

  Women have had it better there historically than a lot of other places.

• 22:12Speaker 02

  We're trying to change that, but they still have it pretty good.

• 22:14Dax Shepard?

  Well, let me know if you need help. I'll come over.

• 22:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, with your big car.

• 22:18Speaker 03

  Working hard to get some misogyny in there.

• 22:19Dax Shepard?

  My off-road car.

• 22:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, your off-road car.

• 22:23Speaker 02

  You can't see shit.

• 22:23Dax Shepard?

  I see some dirty dishes, ladies.

• 22:25Speaker 03

  Oh, gross.

• 22:28Dax Shepard?

  But you know what's so true is all of these approaches all have value and they all have trade offs. I had this experience where Kristen was doing press and we were in Hamburg, Germany for a week. And you cannot be in Hamburg, Germany and not appreciate how fucking perfectly everything runs. The shops are spotlessly clean. Everything's on time. Everything's orderly. And I was just euphoric with how my OCD was that piece. But then we went directly to Paris and it's fucking graffiti and fucking shit all over. And I'm like, mm, I'm horny and hungry. And I'm like, oh, I like this too. That trade off I want. I think that we're inclined to label one of these approaches the best. It's just what trade off do you want?

• 23:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, I recently moved back to Sweden after many years out here.

• 23:14Dax Shepard?

  Twenty?

• 23:14Speaker 02

  I guess around twenty, both here and New York. It was a bit of, I wouldn't say culture shock because I was obviously born and raised there and I would go back over the years. But I haven't had a place there in almost 20 years. I love being back in many ways. In my heart, it's always felt like home. My parents still live there, my siblings and childhood friends and everything. And like you said, shit works. It's peaceful and quiet and nice, except for that guy on the gas station. People tend to be quite polite.

• 23:37Dax Shepard?

  If anyone could find a bit of me.

• 23:38Speaker 02

  But the flip side of that would be there is a sense of conformity. I think a sprinkle of anarchy would be good for Sweden. If you walk down the street in Stockholm, people look great. But they all kind of look the same. So there's a lack of individuality there that sometimes I'm like, it'd be nice to have a bit more anarchy here.

• 23:55Dax Shepard?

  I don't think you should feel guilty about that. Even if I move back to Detroit where I'm from, when I'm back, I go same thing. Oh, on a cellular level, there's lakes, it's green. I love it. Fills me up. And I go, oh, right. The culture I've been living in for 30 years is much different. And I'm very aware of it when I'm back.

• 24:12Speaker 02

  Have you been out here for 30 years?

• 24:13Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, only LA for better or worse.

• 24:15Speaker 02

  I moved from New York to Stockholm. That was definitely a bit of culture shock. Stockholm is a decent sized city. It's like 2 million people. There's definitely a culture and great restaurants. There's life, but it's not New York City and definitely not in terms of the intensity of the city and the intensity of the people.

• 24:31Dax Shepard?

  Have you found yourself at all out and you're like, oh, that was pretty American. I gotta reel it in a little bit.

• 24:38Speaker 01

  My poppy is growing.

• 24:40Speaker 02

  This poppy is getting too tall.

• 24:43Speaker 02

  Probably not.

• 24:43Speaker 01

  But you're also famous. I mean, that adds another element to it, probably.

• 24:47Speaker 02

  Well, I also think all those years when I lived out here, I would go back, obviously because my family was out there. I'd learn how to dial it up or down. You know, I landed Sweden, I'm like, hello, I'm back home.

• 24:58Dax Shepard?

  But it's a perfect place to be famous because this is what Will Ferrell says. So Will Ferrell has a house there and he's there every summer and he says he loves it. Cause he goes there and nobody acknowledges the fact that he's Will Ferrell.

• 25:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, people are very aware of your personal space.

• 25:13Dax Shepard?

  Unless you're at a gas station.

• 25:14Speaker 02

  Unless you're at a gas station and if you're a loud American.

• 25:18Dax Shepard?

  Well, the other thing is, tell me if I'm wrong. I know it didn't help that there were a ton of snacks on the counter.

• 25:26Speaker 01

  These fucking American indulgent.

• 25:29Dax Shepard?

  What's the beautiful word? The just right word?

• 25:31Speaker 02

  Logom.

• 25:31Dax Shepard?

  We were so not logom.

• 25:33Speaker 02

  That's not logom.

• 25:34Dax Shepard?

  No, my kids are like, yeah, I want that and I want that. And I'm like, yeah, we're in the car for eight hours.

• 25:38Speaker 02

  So this dude was behind you seething as your kids like grabbing chocolate bar.

• 25:41Dax Shepard?

  Spending $300 at the gas station.

• 25:44Speaker 02

  Yeah. Meanwhile, your car, your big diesel car is still running out there.

• 25:47Dax Shepard?

  Very conservative car. I knew better.

• 25:51Dax Shepard?

  One thing I loved learning about you today, it confirmed my hunch, which is you grow up in Sweden. You have, I guess, five at this. Point, younger siblings and dad is a famous actor, but it's more than that. He's an artist and there's poets over and there's late nights and you just longed for him to drive a Saab and go to work from nine AM till five PM and wear a gray suit.

• 26:12Speaker 02

  And I also want to mention that driving a Saab in Sweden is a different connotation than driving a Saab here in the States.

• 26:18Dax Shepard?

  Here, you're making a statement if you drive a Saab.

• 26:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's the little NPR liberal. Like in Sweden, it was very much you drive to the office.

• 26:26Speaker 01

  It's a Toyota.

• 26:27Speaker 02

  Toyota, dude, to wear a gray suit, drive to the cubicle in the office in their gray Saab. It was very utilitarian and very quote unquote, normal. And that's what I longed for.

• 26:37Dax Shepard?

  And you wanted that.

• 26:38Speaker 01

  Why?

• 26:39Dax Shepard?

  You can now look back and find the comedy in that, right?

• 26:42Speaker 02

  I still want a Saab.

• 26:44Dax Shepard?

  No, everyone should own a Saab.

• 26:46Speaker 02

  Everyone should, we can all agree on that, right?

• 26:47Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. This has nothing to do with anything, but I worked for General Motors for 14 years, the car company. And there was a period of time where GM bought a big chunk of Saab. So all of a sudden Saab was.

• 26:57Speaker 02

  I remember that.

• 26:57Dax Shepard?

  Integrated into our work. And so we'd have these big car shows for journalists and they'd show the new product and we'd have these Swedish engineers come over. And it's very memorable. The key for a Saab is in the middle between the seats. This is the only car in the world that has the key between the middle. And so the Swedish guy said, we've found that an inordinate amount of car crashes, rollovers, you can't reach the key. So it's better here. And I was like, that can't possibly be the explanation.

• 27:25Speaker 02

  He said that?

• 27:26Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 27:27Speaker 01

  So he's basically saying the car's bad. It rolls over a lot.

• 27:31Dax Shepard?

  No, it's all about safety. The other car was the Volvo.

• 27:33Speaker 02

  Towards the end of the Saab era, when they were bought by GM, they came out with like a SUV Saab that was basically a GM car. And I remember that that was like an existential crisis for Saab lovers.

• 27:46Dax Shepard?

  Of course, we McDonaldized.

• 27:48Speaker 02

  It was just like they slapped a Saab logo on a GM truck. Not that GM trucks weren't great, but the identity was gone. And a year later, Saab went under.

• 27:57Speaker 01

  Oh. But what happened? You thought he was just too flashy?

• 28:01Speaker 02

  He wasn't flashy. He was just too bohemian.

• 28:04Dax Shepard?

  He was naked a lot. He'd bring friends over and his dad would be bare naked.

• 28:08Speaker 02

  As a kid, I didn't care. And when I got older, I didn't care. But it was those teenage years. Those were tough. I can't blame it all on my dad. I come from a big family of artists. My uncle was an author and other uncle was a composer and painter. Most people in the extended family had some kind of artistic profession and were quite eccentric. And lovely, fantastic people, but they weren't wearing gray suits and they weren't driving Saab. A lot of tall poppies.

• 28:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:36Dax Shepard?

  Too many tall poppies in one house.

• 28:37Speaker 02

  As you know, I'm not a fan.

• 28:40Speaker 02

  So longed for some normalcy. I didn't want my friends to come over and be like, oh, this is like a circus. All these weirdos running around drinking wine 10 o'clock on a Tuesday morning and dancing samba in the living room, you know?

• 28:51Dax Shepard?

  You also had your own kind of experience with it, right? You did your first movie at seven. That's all good. But then at 13, you get onto this very popular show.

• 28:58Speaker 02

  Well, it wasn't even a show. It was a 50 minute long TV movie. But this was back in the 1930s. So we only had like two channels in Sweden way before cable. So it was two channels. So if something was on, the whole country would watch it, basically. I was 13 and suddenly just because of that one little thing, I was.

• 29:16Speaker 01

  Recognized.

• 29:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, a little recognition. I mean, it was weird.

• 29:18Dax Shepard?

  It's more than that. There were people out in front of the house, yeah?

• 29:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean.

• 29:20Speaker 01

  Oh, you're being such a medium poppy. Be a tall poppy on this show.

• 29:24Dax Shepard?

  Yes, this is a tall poppy friendly show.

• 29:25Speaker 02

  I became a star.

• 29:26Speaker 01

  Great, great.

• 29:28Dax Shepard?

  That was the biggest thing to ever hit.

• 29:30Speaker 02

  A Swedish star was born. And for someone who was longing for a father in a gray suit, driving a gray Saab to the gray office, it was rough. I didn't like being recognized. I didn't like going to school and kids at school being like, ah, I saw the movie.

• 29:44Dax Shepard?

  It made you self-conscious?

• 29:45Speaker 02

  Incredibly self-conscious, yeah. My confidence was just down the drain. I remember being 13, 14, and if a girl showed a little bit of interest in me, I was like, she's just a fan of the movie. That's it.

• 29:56Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 29:56Dax Shepard?

  You wouldn't believe.

• 29:57Speaker 02

  No, no.

• 29:59Speaker 01

  And you weren't like, but I'll take it?

• 30:01Speaker 02

  No, it just crushed me. I was like, this is terrible. And I've done one. 50 minute made for TV movies. I don't want to keep doing this.

• 30:10Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. So you retired at 13.

• 30:11Speaker 02

  I retired. I threw in the towel at 13.

• 30:13Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 30:14Dax Shepard?

  I think that's the theme of this. The theme of this is.

• 30:16Speaker 02

  Give up.

• 30:17Dax Shepard?

  Everyone quit. Do what you're gonna do till 13 and then put it neutral.

• 30:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 30:21Dax Shepard?

  Don't you think it's human nature to want whatever you don't have, which is like, I was 13 with a fucking mohawk and crazy punk rock clothes. Please look at me. Please be a fan of me because I didn't have it.

• 30:35Speaker 02

  Did you want to be an actor at the time?

• 30:36Dax Shepard?

  No, I wanted girls. I love girls.

• 30:40Speaker 02

  I wanted to be popular as well, but I wanted to earn it. I didn't feel like I earned it if someone had seen me on television. Then I'd be like, well, you're into the character that I play in the movie. You're not into me. Plus, even though my dad was an actor and my younger brother, when he was five, six, he was adamant about, I'm going to be an actor. And I wasn't. I'd done a couple of odd jobs here and there, but it wasn't like I was pursuing it. It just kind of happened.

• 31:02Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 31:02Speaker 02

  My first thing when I was seven, dad's friend, Alanya Dvad, he's like an iconic Swedish actor and director. And he was going to direct the film. He needed a seven year old kid. And he was over with the rest of the Bohemians, just drinking wine at 10 o'clock on a Tuesday morning. Was just like, hey, do you want to be in my movie? And that's how I got started. Classic case of nepotism.

• 31:23Dax Shepard?

  Nepo baby.

• 31:23Speaker 02

  It wasn't a difficult decision because again, I was like, I don't want to be an actor anyways. I just want to drive a Saab. So I just kind of stopped doing it.

• 31:30Dax Shepard?

  Mom is a doctor.

• 31:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:33Dax Shepard?

  Did you at any point think, I'm going to be like mom?

• 31:36Speaker 02

  No. My other brother, Sam, the third in the order, he's a doctor. So he followed mom.

• 31:42Dax Shepard?

  Oh, he is? Same kind of doctor?

• 31:44Speaker 02

  No.

• 31:44Dax Shepard?

  Gynecologist?

• 31:47Speaker 02

  They run a clinic together.

• 31:49Dax Shepard?

  Other son gyno clinic.

• 31:51Speaker 01

  They tend to do the appointments together.

• 31:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:54Dax Shepard?

  I gotta get a second set of eyes on here. Let me get my son in here.

• 32:01Dax Shepard?

  Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert if you dare. Let's take a minute to thank our presenting sponsor, Audible. With Audible, the leading audio entertainment app, it's easy to discover new stories and ideas while going about your day.

• 32:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, and with over a million audiobooks, Audible Originals and more, it's basically impossible to run out of things to listen to. Plus, there's just something about audio storytelling that hits a little different.

• 32:28Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, it really does, especially Audible Originals that feature performances from celebrities and top voices. It's like watching a movie in your head. Uh, one on my list is Treasure Island.

• 32:39Speaker 01

  Uh-huh.

• 32:40Dax Shepard?

  Uh, which is an Audible Original drama. It's a timeless tale of pirates, lost treasure, maps and mutiny. What more could you need?

• 32:48Speaker 01

  That sounds really fun. I'm more of a psychological thriller girl.

• 32:52Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you're dark.

• 32:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm, I'm dark and I'm broody. And I've been hearing all about the author Freedom McFadden, and I love that I can listen to her audiobooks on the Audible app when I'm commuting, taking my wogs, as you know, or just like doing laundry and chores.

• 33:07Dax Shepard?

  Well, with Audible, you can find the genres you love and discover new ones. There's more to imagine when you listen. And to make it even better, Audible has a special offer for armchairs. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.com/dax. That's audible.com/dax. We get support from our sponsor, Lilly. For adults with obesity or with excess weight and weight-related medical problems, it's time to find out about Foundo or for Glee Pro. Foundo is a once-daily prescription GLP-1 medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off.

• 33:52Speaker 04

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• 34:34Speaker 04

  in 0.8 milligram, 2.5 milligram, 5.5 milligram, 9 milligram, 14.5 milligram, and 17.2 milligram tablets. Learn more at foundo.lily.com or call 1-800-LILY-RX. Now is perfect to talk to your doctor about Foundo.

• 34:49Dax Shepard?

  This episode is brought to you by ServiceNow. Look, I have my dream job. I get to talk to folks I admire like crazy and ask them virtually any question that I want to. I can't imagine a better way to spend my time. But even dream jobs have some not so dreamy parts, the stuff that gets in the way of the actual work. Now that's where ServiceNow's AI specialists come in. They don't just tell you what you should do about your busy work. They actually do it, start to finish. Cases closed, requests handled, no extra work for you. So you and your team can focus on what matters most, which for me is, are they obsessed with male bodies on the same level as I am?

• 35:32Speaker 01

  They never are.

• 35:33Dax Shepard?

  To learn how to put AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com. We get support from Instagram teen accounts. So we talk a lot on this show about how the world is different now than when we were growing up. And one of the biggest differences is obviously social media. And I think a lot of people wonder, okay, what's actually being done to make it safer for teenagers?

• 35:54Speaker 01

  Which is a fair question.

• 35:56Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, so Instagram has got something called teen accounts, and they come with automatic protections built in by default. So anyone between 13 and 17 is automatically placed into this experience. They get age-appropriate content settings, contact limits, so that by default, only people they're already connected to can message them. And time management tools, daily time limit reminders, and also sleep mode that mutes notifications from 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM.

• 36:22Speaker 01

  Sleep mode is genius.

• 36:23Dax Shepard?

  Right? And here's the thing, for anyone under 16, a parent has to give permission to change any of those settings to be less strict. The guardrails are on, and Instagram keeps building new safety features to create age-appropriate experiences for teens.

• 36:38Speaker 01

  I am really glad Instagram's helping to give parents peace of mind with teen accounts.

• 36:43Dax Shepard?

  Learn more about teen accounts and Instagram's ongoing work to protect teens online at instagram.com/teenaccounts.

• 36:51Speaker 05

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• 37:44Speaker 02

  She runs a rehab. My brother's a cardiologist.

• 37:47Dax Shepard?

  Oh, okay. What age were you when they got divorced?

• 37:49Speaker 02

  I was out of the nest. I was in my late 20s.

• 37:51Dax Shepard?

  Okay, great. So you grew up with them together?

• 37:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 37:53Dax Shepard?

  Would I be wrong to assume those are really different dispositions, a doctor and a bohemian?

• 37:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, but she's quite creative and has that kind of artistic side. She dabbled in acting when she was like 19, 20. She went to theater school in Stockholm and was considering it.

• 38:08Dax Shepard?

  How'd she meet your dad?

• 38:09Speaker 02

  My uncle, my mom's older brother, is my dad's best friend.

• 38:13Dax Shepard?

  Oh, nice.

• 38:14Speaker 02

  And they had country homes on, on this island in the Baltic, in the same little village. So that's how dad met Johan, his best friend. So they played every summer on the island and then...

• 38:24Dax Shepard?

  She got breasts.

• 38:25Speaker 02

  That's exactly what happened. She was like this annoying little kid and then one summer dad gets there and he's like, oh hello.

• 38:30Dax Shepard?

  Yes, somebody grew last year.

• 38:33Speaker 02

  We lived in the same building in Stockholm. So Johan and his wife and kids lived on the third floor. We were on the second floor.

• 38:39Dax Shepard?

  Oh.

• 38:39Speaker 02

  Our entire childhood, we basically grew up as one big family.

• 38:42Dax Shepard?

  And you have a ton of cousins.

• 38:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 38:43Dax Shepard?

  This sounds very fun because there's six of you guys.

• 38:46Speaker 02

  Eight now because dad has two kids with Megan, his wife.

• 38:49Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have a younger brother that's like 19 years younger than you or 20 or something.

• 38:52Speaker 02

  No, more than that. Cool. The youngest is 13. He'll be 13. And I'm 25, so...

• 38:58Dax Shepard?

  You're 25, so 12 years older.

• 39:00Speaker 02

  I was 12 when he was born. Any questions, guys? Are we good?

• 39:04Speaker 01

  I was surprised to see your age today.

• 39:07Dax Shepard?

  We're almost the same age.

• 39:08Speaker 01

  You're almost the same age. I was surprised to see that.

• 39:10Dax Shepard?

  Because he looks so youthful.

• 39:12Speaker 01

  You do look very youthful. I guess it's that vampire thing.

• 39:15Dax Shepard?

  That Scandinavian, the whole thing.

• 39:18Speaker 02

  Don't make me smile because the botox will like crack.

• 39:22Dax Shepard?

  Your cheek will fall off. Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. You have glue here? Okay, so I guess the next big chapter in your life is joining the Navy.

• 39:32Speaker 02

  I was, my teenage years adamant about not following dad and not becoming an actor and was like most teenagers, I guess, like trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I was into architecture, so I was considering that a little bit. I love drawing houses and I was like, oh, this would be fun. But then someone was like, oh, it's mostly math. It's a lot of engineering and stuff. And I was like, that doesn't sound great.

• 39:52Dax Shepard?

  Wait, I had to figure out the structural integrity of this thing?

• 39:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fuck that. I just want to draw a cool shape. And then, yeah, I was 19 and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do and some recruiting officer like gave me a pamphlet as I was walking through a park in Stockholm and it was this unit called Sekjuk. And it sounded really cool. And it was like out of the archipelago and it was James Bond stuff. So I was like, hey, that list looks cool.

• 40:12Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. What I'm learning is that this plus this story from the bar that ends up in it.

• 40:17Speaker 01

  The ski trip, yeah.

• 40:17Dax Shepard?

  It's like if anyone's in the audience, pitch you something.

• 40:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're easily convinced.

• 40:22Dax Shepard?

  You're liable to just leap at it. Like you meet a guy in the park and then 18 months in the Navy.

• 40:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, that sounds great.

• 40:29Speaker 01

  I'm surprised you haven't been married a lot of times.

• 40:31Dax Shepard?

  Yes, I am too a little bit.

• 40:33Speaker 01

  For this exact reason.

• 40:35Speaker 02

  You like me? Let's get married.

• 40:36Dax Shepard?

  That's fun.

• 40:37Speaker 01

  Yeah. If you want to get married, sure.

• 40:40Speaker 02

  I don't know why I joined. Definitely not for any like patriotic reasons, or maybe it had something to do about rebelling against my bohemian family and doing something very different. Or it was just for a teenager. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And again, this was post-Cold War, before Russia started invading all these countries. So it was a time where everyone was like, this will be the everlasting peace. There will never be a war in Europe ever again.

• 41:03Dax Shepard?

  Don't even know why we're doing this, but let's do it.

• 41:05Speaker 02

  Pretty much. Military service used to be mandatory in Sweden. Late 90s, early 2000s. It was technically still mandatory, but it was very easy to get out of it. But again, I didn't even try it because I was like, I didn't know what I wanted to do. This sounded fun. I knew that I wasn't going to go have to shoot it and so on. Not going to go on deployment. Selfishly, this sounds like a kind of interesting way to spend a year and a half, I guess.

• 41:26Dax Shepard?

  Would it be too generic to guess that in the absence of great structure, that also this idea that this is antithetical to Bohemian?

• 41:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:35Dax Shepard?

  That maybe you craved that experience?

• 41:37Speaker 02

  Yeah. I don't know how much it had to do with rebelling against my dad, but for sure, I was probably drawn to a little bit of the notion of structure.

• 41:44Dax Shepard?

  Was he perplexed when you signed up?

• 41:47Speaker 02

  Not really.

• 41:48Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. He's too many of you.

• 41:50Speaker 02

  He doesn't keep track. So many kids.

• 41:52Dax Shepard?

  Ones that have fire in the kitchen.

• 41:54Speaker 02

  He was like, who are you again?

• 41:57Speaker 01

  Well, that's another thing, having so many people. Maybe the independence part was interesting.

• 42:02Speaker 02

  Very much so. Because again, it was a big household. Johan, my uncle, my dad's best friend, lived upstairs. My grandma and grandpa lived across the street. So this was like within three blocks of South Stockholm, the whole extended family. So it was always lots of people. In hindsight, amazing. It was beautiful. But as a 17, 18 year old, when I tried to find my own path and independence, that had to do with it. I'm going to go off and just be out on my own on an island in the archipelago, far from all the scars, guards.

• 42:28Dax Shepard?

  That makes a ton of sense.

• 42:29Speaker 02

  And I hated it. I don't recommend doing it.

• 42:32Dax Shepard?

  Just move to another city. You can be independent.

• 42:35Speaker 02

  You don't want to have to join the military for a year and a half to get independent. I don't recommend it.

• 42:39Dax Shepard?

  Okay. So then you go, you get out of there and then you go to England to Leeds. And you do six months in college and there you decide, actually I'm gonna act.

• 42:47Speaker 02

  I was kind of at a loss. I didn't really know what I was interested in. I remember thinking, I had fun when I was a kid, when I was on set. And not in a pretentious way of like, oh, the process or finding a character. Cause I was a kid. I still don't have a process. But I remember the camaraderie, the sense of family, the energy on the set was fun. And obviously seeing my dad and how much joy he got of his job. And I was 21 instead of 13. I could also see that a lot of people aren't happy when they get out of bed in the morning to go to work.

• 43:15Dax Shepard?

  Those gray sob drivers aren't necessarily singing on the way to work.

• 43:19Speaker 02

  So it was like, oh, dad's kind of blessed to have a job that he's really passionate about. My fear was that in 30 years from now, I'll be looking back and I'll be like, oh, I should have tried acting.

• 43:30Dax Shepard?

  I think that was a good hunch. Truly. I think if you were 48 right now and you would be like, why didn't I want to do that?

• 43:36Speaker 02

  And then I applied to a theater school in New York, Theater College, Merrimount.

• 43:39Dax Shepard?

  Do you know what the current ratio is, guys to girls at Merrimount?

• 43:44Speaker 02

  70, 30?

• 43:45Dax Shepard?

  It's 81% female, 19% male.

• 43:48Speaker 02

  I was gonna say 80. It went down to 70, but.

• 43:50Dax Shepard?

  It felt too tall poppy.

• 43:53Speaker 01

  Too extreme.

• 43:54Dax Shepard?

  Was it that way when you went?

• 43:55Speaker 02

  Probably, yeah.

• 43:56Dax Shepard?

  Do you at that point trust that girls like you? Have we gotten to a point where you can accept that girls like you?

• 44:01Speaker 02

  No, I wasn't very popular there.

• 44:03Dax Shepard?

  How could you not have been? You're 11 feet tall. You're from another country. This is all so exotic and fun.

• 44:09Speaker 02

  Hello, New York.

• 44:10Dax Shepard?

  Be careful.

• 44:12Speaker 02

  What are we doing?

• 44:12Dax Shepard?

  I wanted to take a bite.

• 44:13Speaker 02

  Yeah. Ousam, you're back at. I love it.

• 44:20Speaker 01

  Did you have an accent?

• 44:21Speaker 02

  So dad did a movie in Budapest when I was 13 and I went to an American school there. So I was there for six months. I had a great time in New York. I remember feeling like, oh, this is kind of fun. When we started the classes and we were workshopping and we were doing a little place and stuff. And I was terrible, but I remember feeling like, at least it's fun. So I dropped out.

• 44:39Dax Shepard?

  You had a pattern at that point. You loved to go places for six months. Cause you did six months in Leeds and then you did six months in New York.

• 44:45Speaker 02

  So I dropped out.

• 44:46Speaker 01

  Wait, why? I need a real reason.

• 44:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, you're gonna get a real.

• 44:50Dax Shepard?

  The alarm on his watch went off. Six months, time to go.

• 44:54Speaker 02

  For love.

• 44:55Speaker 01

  Oh, for love.

• 44:56Speaker 02

  For love, true love.

• 44:58Speaker 01

  Okay, in Sweden.

• 45:00Speaker 02

  Well, we met, I was in Sweden for a couple of weeks in the summer between Leeds and going to New York. And I met a girl and fell in love, moved to New York. The school was great. The long distance thing was hard. This was many years ago, way before Zoom and FaceTime and all that. It was like a call from a phone booth once a week. It was so expensive. Yeah, yeah, we did.

• 45:19Dax Shepard?

  Pictures? Would you take pictures of each other and send them?

• 45:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, but it would take three months for them to arrive.

• 45:24Speaker 01

  Oh, I got my hair cut since then. I don't look like that anymore.

• 45:26Speaker 02

  I want to say that she went back to her ex-boyfriend. So I'm gonna say that.

• 45:30Dax Shepard?

  Okay, and it also makes sense now while he said, no girls like them at that college. Cause he was in love with someone else.

• 45:36Speaker 01

  They all liked you.

• 45:37Dax Shepard?

  I get it, all the pieces.

• 45:40Speaker 02

  And I lived on Times Square.

• 45:42Dax Shepard?

  Oh, wow.

• 45:43Speaker 02

  And I remember going to Virgin Megastore. You can listen to the CDs, you know?

• 45:47Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 45:48Speaker 02

  And I remember listening to like really melancholic music, like Jewel. And just feeling heartbroken. I remember it was like standing there around the corner from my house, listening to these foolish games, you know that?

• 46:01Speaker 02

  Oh, I felt very lonely. I was so lonely. I didn't know New York and I was like, oh, Times Square is great. It's very central. You can get anywhere. And it was very central.

• 46:11Dax Shepard?

  The epicentral.

• 46:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was on 44th and Broadway. So right there, not the most charming neighborhood to live in, really. You're heartbroken and kind of broke. I didn't have money. So you're in the city with great restaurants everywhere. But you can't really partake in it.

• 46:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:25Dax Shepard?

  And everyone's so social right in front of your face.

• 46:27Speaker 02

  So, yeah, I was like, ah, this is crushing me. I gotta go home and work on this relationship and save it. So I dropped out and moved back. I did not save the relationship. We got back together. We didn't know each other. We'd spent two weeks together in the summer. And then I spent six months going to a Virgin Megastore, listening to Jewel.

• 46:45Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you're in love with the idea of what was.

• 46:47Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 46:48Speaker 02

  The idea of like crying and this idea of what we were and how great we were together. And then I got home.

• 46:53Dax Shepard?

  Again, I hate to point this out, but it's the pattern.

• 46:56Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 46:56Dax Shepard?

  It's the pattern, like you matter for two weeks and you're like, yes, I will have a long distance relationship with you for the next six months.

• 47:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:04Dax Shepard?

  And if we can ski somewhere impossible.

• 47:06Speaker 02

  And now I'm coming home, we're going to be together for the rest of our lives. And then two weeks later, it's like, it didn't really work out.

• 47:10Speaker 01

  It's very, you're not gonna like this bohemian.

• 47:13Speaker 02

  Oh, damn. Am I my father?

• 47:16Speaker 01

  You might be. We all are. We all are just our fathers.

• 47:19Speaker 02

  I need that sob right now. Kick him in the gray suit and the sob.

• 47:23Dax Shepard?

  You have money. I think you should buy a gray suit and a gray 90s sob. And I think once in a while you should suit up and just play in your imagination.

• 47:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, a little briefcase, pretend that I'm going to my office.

• 47:35Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, waved here. You have what, a two year old now?

• 47:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, build a little cubicle in my apartment.

• 47:40Dax Shepard?

  But just rent a little cubicle. You'll pack your lunch and you'll get it out.

• 47:45Speaker 02

  What a dream.

• 47:47Speaker 01

  Sometimes it does sound like a dream. You know where you're gonna go. You know you could work at this job for 50 years.

• 47:53Speaker 02

  You have colleagues more than three months like you do on a movie?

• 47:56Speaker 01

  There's a stability to it that is kind of alluring.

• 47:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:58Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, there's a fantasy that you could kind of turn your brain off. For me, that's the kind of fantasy is, oh yeah, it'd be nice to not think or worry. That's someone else's problem if this business works.

• 48:08Speaker 02

  Right.

• 48:09Dax Shepard?

  But as an actor, what we do, you're in charge of whether it works or not.

• 48:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, anxiety ridden.

• 48:13Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 48:14Speaker 02

  Now give me that sob.

• 48:15Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, give it to me. It feels so safe. Okay, so you moved to LA after that, LA or New York?

• 48:22Speaker 02

  Six months later. No, it was a bit longer than that. I was working at a coffee shop, at a clothing store. I was working as a busboy in Stockholm.

• 48:30Dax Shepard?

  Now would be a good time to ask you, do you connect to the sex symbol aspect of you? Do you understand it?

• 48:36Speaker 02

  Oh, 100%.

• 48:37Dax Shepard?

  I know you can't technically say yes, but.

• 48:40Speaker 02

  I technically just did.

• 48:43Speaker 01

  That's the clip we're gonna pull.

• 48:44Speaker 02

  I deserve that title.

• 48:45Speaker 01

  You do.

• 48:45Dax Shepard?

  We've had many guests that are sex symbols.

• 48:48Speaker 02

  But have you had any sexier than me?

• 48:49Dax Shepard?

  No.

• 48:50Speaker 02

  Thank you, guys.

• 48:51Speaker 01

  But we have one on Thursday.

• 48:52Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, one's coming that's gonna blow you out of the fucking water.

• 48:55Speaker 02

  Are you serious?

• 48:56Dax Shepard?

  Guess who would that be? Who could blow you the fuck? Where people are like, well, I didn't even see that guy.

• 49:01Speaker 01

  There's only one.

• 49:01Speaker 02

  You know. Adeline Albright is coming in.

• 49:03Speaker 01

  You got it. Oh, my God.

• 49:05Dax Shepard?

  You are so smart. You should have stuck with architecture. You could have done the math.

• 49:09Speaker 02

  It's a dude?

• 49:11Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 49:11Speaker 01

  It's a dude. People under the age of thirty-five would still pick you.

• 49:17Speaker 02

  Under thirty-five?

• 49:18Dax Shepard?

  I don't know. That's too much of a clue.

• 49:20Speaker 01

  I know, I'm sorry. I had to give a clue.

• 49:22Dax Shepard?

  I was gonna give another clue. Speaking of men's bodies.

• 49:26Speaker 02

  Brad Pitt?

• 49:26Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 49:28Speaker 02

  Brad's coming in.

• 49:29Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 49:31Speaker 01

  It's pretty big.

• 49:31Dax Shepard?

  See? That's the power of Brad. You looked off for half a second. You could see him.

• 49:36Speaker 02

  Oh, I can see him. I can see him all right.

• 49:40Speaker 01

  We all can see him.

• 49:41Dax Shepard?

  It's like universal, isn't it?

• 49:43Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 49:43Dax Shepard?

  It's so powerful.

• 49:45Speaker 01

  That's why it's not even an insult.

• 49:46Speaker 02

  Can I come sit in the corner?

• 49:47Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 49:48Dax Shepard?

  It's gonna be a busy cornering. Or my wife will be here. Everyone we know will be here.

• 49:52Speaker 02

  How did you know him?

• 49:52Dax Shepard?

  I do know him a little bit.

• 49:54Speaker 02

  Have you met him?

• 49:54Speaker 01

  No, I'm excited.

• 49:55Dax Shepard?

  We've been talking about what she's gonna wear for a long time.

• 49:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, I met him at a dinner party years ago.

• 49:59Dax Shepard?

  Did you get on with him?

• 50:00Speaker 02

  Oh, I did. I don't think he liked me very much, but.

• 50:05Dax Shepard?

  But you liked him.

• 50:06Speaker 02

  No, I was up in his personal space a lot.

• 50:09Dax Shepard?

  Very un-Sweedish of you.

• 50:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:10Dax Shepard?

  You went full American when you're around Brad Pitt.

• 50:13Speaker 01

  How could you not? He's a picture of American hunk.

• 50:16Speaker 02

  I just wanted to feel his musk, his scent. Yeah. I need to get close.

• 50:19Dax Shepard?

  But Fight Club, what a physique.

• 50:21Speaker 02

  Come on.

• 50:21Dax Shepard?

  God. Fucking hurts.

• 50:24Speaker 02

  But still, he's tight.

• 50:26Dax Shepard?

  Fucking Once Upon a Time?

• 50:27Speaker 02

  Double now.

• 50:29Dax Shepard?

  Did you see this new GQ thing that just came out with him?

• 50:31Speaker 02

  Oh, he's dirty. He's filthy.

• 50:33Dax Shepard?

  He's riding that motorcycle shaved head. Do you know why I have this dumb mohawk? Cause I saw that video. I'm like, I can't shave my head. I can't pull off a shaved head. I've tried it. What else can we do in that world? And that's what happened.

• 50:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 50:44Dax Shepard?

  I saw that on Friday. I gave myself a mohawk Saturday morning.

• 50:47Speaker 02

  Did you really?

• 50:48Dax Shepard?

  Swear to God, this is all real.

• 50:49Speaker 02

  When I walked in, I got a little Brad Pitt vibe from you when I saw you.

• 50:52Dax Shepard?

  God bless.

• 50:53Speaker 02

  See all that cars and like from that photo shoot as well? Like little dirt and little oil.

• 50:57Speaker 01

  All stinky.

• 50:58Dax Shepard?

  Super masculine, so masculine.

• 51:01Dax Shepard?

  Oh, I'm glad we did that little side detour. It's really comforting. This is universal. It's like a law of physics. It's like comforting in that we know.

• 51:10Speaker 02

  We argue about everything, but we can all agree. We all want to make out with Brad Pitt. Right?

• 51:15Dax Shepard?

  They should send him to Ukraine.

• 51:17Speaker 02

  They should send him everywhere.

• 51:18Dax Shepard?

  Yes. And everyone just go, what are we doing? We all love this guy.

• 51:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:25Dax Shepard?

  We all believe in the same thing.

• 51:26Speaker 02

  He can save humanity.

• 51:28Speaker 01

  He really could.

• 51:29Speaker 02

  He's the one. He's the chosen one.

• 51:30Speaker 01

  Why he hasn't? He's being kind of lazy, actually.

• 51:33Dax Shepard?

  Well, that's part of his charm.

• 51:34Speaker 02

  He's right. His dirty motorcycle down to South Sudan.

• 51:37Dax Shepard?

  The white flag.

• 51:38Speaker 02

  Yeah. Plant that white flag.

• 51:42Speaker 02

  Make love. Not war, guys.

• 51:43Dax Shepard?

  Honest to God, if they said to both sides, if you guys put your guns down, Brad Pitt's gonna make love to a very beautiful person in front of everyone. They go, fuck these guns.

• 51:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, 100%.

• 51:53Speaker 01

  No, you have to be able to put your name in to be the person he.

• 51:57Dax Shepard?

  Oh, he makes love to.

• 51:58Speaker 01

  So maybe it could be you. It's a raffle situation.

• 52:01Speaker 02

  What if it's one from each side of the conflict? So it's like a little threesome.

• 52:06Dax Shepard?

  It would be, it would be a threesome. That's a great point.

• 52:07Speaker 02

  Right?

• 52:08Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you got to include everyone.

• 52:09Speaker 02

  Because you want to unite the two sides.

• 52:10Dax Shepard?

  There won't be peace.

• 52:11Speaker 01

  Wow, we really figured it out.

• 52:13Dax Shepard?

  It wasn't even that hard.

• 52:14Speaker 02

  It took us five minutes.

• 52:15Dax Shepard?

  We just figured it out.

• 52:17Speaker 02

  You're welcome, humanity.

• 52:18Dax Shepard?

  OK, I want to be sincere. We've had a lot of guests. They've come to occupy a very heartthrobby space, but they cannot connect to that because that's not who necessarily they were growing up. So I'm just wondering, when you're working in this coffee shop, are you having a heartthrobby effect on people when you were not famous?

• 52:34Speaker 02

  Um.

• 52:37Dax Shepard?

  You can't answer that question, right? It's a hard one to answer.

• 52:38Speaker 01

  Well, let's say this. Jude Law basically said yes.

• 52:41Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, and I loved it.

• 52:42Speaker 01

  He was honest.

• 52:43Speaker 02

  You've been to Sweden. I'm definitely not a tall poppy in Sweden. Like, I look like everyone else there.

• 52:47Dax Shepard?

  That's a good point.

• 52:48Speaker 02

  I wish I had the narrative of like, I was bullied when I was a kid and no one looked at me and I could never get a girl. And then it all changed. I was kind of popular as a teenager.

• 52:58Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 52:58Speaker 02

  I was a six out of 10, I'd say. What I set out to accomplish when I was 13, when I stopped acting, I just want to be normal. And I kind of succeeded in that.

• 53:04Dax Shepard?

  So you go back. You go to LA. I really just want to get to one zone in your career that I'd imagine was uniquely hard. We're similar in that I was out here forever before I started working.

• 53:16Speaker 02

  I booked the first audition I went to.

• 53:18Dax Shepard?

  Zoolander?

• 53:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 53:20Dax Shepard?

  That's fine, because then nothing happened for a long time, American film-wise.

• 53:24Speaker 02

  We don't need to talk about that. Let's just focus on the fact that I booked my first audition.

• 53:28Dax Shepard?

  Very Ashton Kutcher of you.

• 53:29Speaker 02

  So it's one for one.

• 53:31Dax Shepard?

  You should have gone back to Sweden.

• 53:32Speaker 02

  Well, I did.

• 53:33Dax Shepard?

  Oh, you did?

• 53:34Speaker 02

  I was working as a hot barista in Stockholm. Dad was shooting a movie out here in LA, and we all came out to visit, and my dad's manager, he's just like, "I'll send you out to an audition if you want," and it was for a Zoolander, and I booked that baby.

• 53:50Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 53:50Speaker 02

  I didn't have representation out here. I'd never been on audition. I'd never auditioned in Sweden for anything. I was just like, "Oh, I guess this is how Hollywood works." You walk into a room, and Ben Stiller's sitting there, and then you're like, "All right, let's go to New York."

• 54:02Speaker 01

  Oh, my God.

• 54:03Speaker 02

  And then listen to a little wham and drive down and have a gasoline fight. So then I went back to Stockholm. My dad's manager was like, "That went all right. You should come back when you're done with whatever you're doing out there."

• 54:12Dax Shepard?

  And you serve all those coffees.

• 54:14Speaker 02

  Yeah. Then I came out in, I think, 2003, maybe? Incredibly naive, thinking, "All right, Hollywood."

• 54:19Dax Shepard?

  I'd finally decided.

• 54:21Speaker 02

  You're welcome, Hollywood. I'm here.

• 54:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, here I am.

• 54:23Dax Shepard?

  I'll take it.

• 54:23Speaker 02

  Yeah. You'll find me at Starbucks on Sunset Boulevard. Come get me, Spielberg. And he didn't, and no one else did either.

• 54:30Dax Shepard?

  Because Zoolander's 2001, and Generation Kills 2008.

• 54:33Speaker 02

  We shot it in 2007.

• 54:35Dax Shepard?

  So were you here the majority of those six years?

• 54:38Speaker 02

  Yes, sir.

• 54:38Dax Shepard?

  Yes. Okay, this is what I want to live in, because, again, I did that.

• 54:42Speaker 01

  It's the most relatable part of your story.

• 54:44Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 54:45Speaker 02

  I like to be relatable.

• 54:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, we all do.

• 54:48Dax Shepard?

  But I didn't have on top of that, "Well, my dad's great at it, and he's really successful, and I should be able to do this." Was that a compounding, or was it fine, or was it grueling?

• 55:00Speaker 02

  The dad relationship wasn't really grueling, or I didn't feel like an external pressure to, like, live up to or reach his level of success. It was hard because... I couldn't get a job and the fact that I came out being very naive, thinking like, oh, it's super easy. Zoolander was a great experience. It was also like a super fun movie.

• 55:20Dax Shepard?

  Fuck yeah.

• 55:20Speaker 02

  And then I found myself auditioning for things that I didn't really like, but I was also in a position where I was at another agency then, and I was constantly worried that they would drop me because I wasn't booking anything.

• 55:31Dax Shepard?

  You're like paying to get new headshots all the time.

• 55:33Speaker 02

  Pilot season, you would audition a lot, not book anything. And then it would be like weeks without an auditions. When they finally called and they're like, we have this audition, even if I felt like this is terrible and I'm so not right for it.

• 55:44Speaker 01

  You had to do it.

• 55:45Speaker 02

  Cause then you have to do it. Cause then like I was constantly worried. They would be like, well, you know what? It's not for us to part ways. I don't know if you've had to do that, but auditioning for stuff that you don't believe in.

• 55:53Dax Shepard?

  Oh.

• 55:53Speaker 02

  Where you feel like you're completely wrong for it. You feel dirty in your soul. It was horrible.

• 55:57Dax Shepard?

  You're already worried you're not good enough to do this job. And then when you go in and try to put your square peg in that round hole, it just is like, oh my God.

• 56:05Speaker 01

  It makes with, sometimes you think you're too good to do it. You're like, I'm better than this horrible piece of shit. And then you don't book it. And you're like, oh my God, what is this like?

• 56:15Speaker 02

  Yeah. And then you get from there to being like, I'm clearly not better than this horrible piece of shit, but I'm so wrong for it. And I know I'm not going to book it, but I still have to go into that room and get humiliated. So yeah, several years of that.

• 56:27Dax Shepard?

  Were you going out and having fun? Did you have friends?

• 56:29Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well, the first couple of years I went out with a bunch of friends from Sweden. First we rented like a little pool house in Santa Monica. So four of us lived in a small pool house with this Swedish lady. And then we're renting a small apartment. So we had each other. I didn't know anyone else out here. We definitely not plugged into the city or the nightlife.

• 56:44Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 56:45Speaker 02

  On Saturdays, we would play ping pong in our pool house in Santa Monica and drink beer and then take a cab into Hollywood to try to get into a nightclub, knowing that we wouldn't get in.

• 56:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:55Speaker 02

  Four dudes.

• 56:56Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 56:57Speaker 02

  Get turned around and then happily get back in the cab and go back to Santa Monica and keep drinking beer, play more ping pong. So that was like our weekend routine.

• 57:05Speaker 01

  Having done that, do you ever now, this happened to me, I went to Craig's. Have you ever been to Craig's in West Hollywood-ish? It's a restaurant. There's always paparazzi there.

• 57:13Speaker 02

  It's a hotspot.

• 57:14Speaker 01

  It's a hotspot. And I just imagine you going to Craig's now or coming out, it'd be a frenzy. It'd be. Like a hold to do. And I wonder how you can sort of reconcile that as someone who would just like stand in the line at the club and never be able to get in. And now they would die for you to come in. Can you integrate that?

• 57:34Speaker 02

  No, I just remember after a couple of years, we met a Swedish girl out here and she was so nice. She moved out of here when she was like 20, but she was very plugged into the city and she would take pity on us. We would try to get into another club, couldn't get in. And my buddy called her and was like, Helena, do you know anyone here at the club? And she's like, I'll be right down, boys. And then she would come down in her sweatpants to just like, hey, can you let these guys in? And he's like, oh, all right, Helena. And then she would go back home. So she wouldn't even go out. Like, it was so sweet of her. She knew that we spent years going to clubs, not getting in, back to Santa Monica to play ping pong. So a couple of times, we did have the luxury of getting in somewhere.

• 58:12Dax Shepard?

  I can tell you how I integrate it. I wanted that and I have it. And I love that. I love that when I drive by all these places that for years kind of haunted me. Like, I'd be afraid to even try to get in, just knowing as I drive by, oh, they would let me in.

• 58:28Speaker 02

  But I can't, and again, this is the yontalog, the Swedish thing. I can't walk up to a bouncer. If there's a line, I can't walk up and be like, what's up?

• 58:36Speaker 01

  Let me in.

• 58:37Dax Shepard?

  Succession, bitch.

• 58:38Speaker 02

  Dude, Google me.

• 58:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:40Dax Shepard?

  Google me.

• 58:40Speaker 02

  I dare you.

• 58:43Speaker 01

  But you wouldn't have to. As soon as you get out of the car, they're gonna be like, oh, Alex is here. We gotta get him in.

• 58:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, but the Swedish me would be like, look down, back of the line, shut up, wait for your turn to get in.

• 58:53Dax Shepard?

  It's all wasted on you, really.

• 58:55Speaker 02

  It is.

• 58:56Speaker 01

  It really is.

• 58:57Dax Shepard?

  Cause I don't do it, but I do know what it was like to be so on the outside. And when I drive by, I'm not even going to the places, but I just go like, oh, you could, you moved here and you were looking at it and you couldn't have it. You have it now.

• 59:08Speaker 02

  I remember it being a conversation that we often had as we were waiting for the cab to take us back to Santa Monica. We would be like, in 10 years, if we stand here on Santa Monica Boulevard, you think we could get into any of these clubs?

• 59:21Speaker 01

  One day.

• 59:22Dax Shepard?

  That's the dream.

• 59:23Speaker 02

  Will one of us be able to get the others in? Do we leave Elena alone? Can we let Elena sleep? Can we take her off the clock? Yeah.

• 59:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's a weird thing to get to that place here.

• 59:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 59:35Dax Shepard?

  I know this bumps up right against this Swedish thing, but I don't think that's bad.

• 59:40Speaker 01

  I don't think it's bad.

• 59:41Dax Shepard?

  I mean, I don't think you should define yourself by it, but I think if there are all these markers along the way, even if they're extraneous and they're not related to the thing, but they're markers and you've accomplished them in any other endeavor, you would notice those things. And that's okay. It's not okay.

• 59:58Speaker 02

  No, it is. I think it is.

• 59:59Speaker 01

  As long as you're not thinking you're better.

• 1:00:02Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:03Speaker 01

  As long as superiority doesn't come into play.

• 1:00:05Dax Shepard?

  You're not making it your identity. Like, I'm special. You're just going, that's a marker of the thing I tried to do. It's a proof of the thing I tried to do worked out.

• 1:00:13Speaker 02

  I just feel like it'd be so presumptuous of me to go up to a bouncer and be like, do you recognize who I am?

• 1:00:18Dax Shepard?

  I kind of want to go out with you tonight. I haven't been out in Hollywood in 20 years, but I kind of want to go out and just force you.

• 1:00:24Speaker 02

  Cause I'm not Brad Pitt, so the fear is also that the bouncer would be like, no dude.

• 1:00:29Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:30Speaker 02

  Okay, I'll be in the back of the line.

• 1:00:32Dax Shepard?

  That's why we're gonna do it, because you're wrong and I can't wait to show it to you. Okay, I want to jump now to True Blood, because now it's back to the 13 year old. You have another go at it. How does it feel that second time around? Cause that shit was enormous and certainly now people know who you are and they're recognizing you. Did it start triggering that other like, they don't really know me, they like the vampire?

• 1:00:52Speaker 02

  I was able to look at it, change the optics of it a bit and be like, oh, that's great, isn't it? I've done something that I'm excited about, that I'm passionate about, and these people have seen it and they clearly responded to the show and that is great. Even if they don't know who I am, enjoy that. Don't run away from it. I've done a couple of things that no one saw, so I knew the feeling of working on something that you're excited about and then it just crickets. It's actually kind of a nice feeling when you work on something and people see it and people respond to it. And it wasn't until season two came out, because the first season, I had a long blonde wig and I was only in seven of the 12 episodes as a kind of the antagonist. So no one recognized me, but beginning of season two, my character cuts his hair.

• 1:01:33Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, it was a big glow up for you.

• 1:01:34Speaker 02

  Then it changed. Yeah.

• 1:01:36Dax Shepard?

  Okay, you do a lot of great stuff. After that, you do melancholy, which is incredible battleship. Tarzan, your body's so sick in Tarzan. Fucking good on you.

• 1:01:43Speaker 01

  Men's bodies.

• 1:01:44Dax Shepard?

  But big little lies. This is the first moment, again, I'm a fan, like I'm first in on True Blood. So I'm a fan already of yours, but I think this is the first project I see you in where I'm like, oh, this dude's got a lot of gears and this is a really tricky role. And specifically, and I think we talked about it several times, I don't know that world. I've never been in that kind of relationship.

• 1:02:07Speaker 01

  For people who haven't seen it.

• 1:02:08Dax Shepard?

  Oh, right. So you're in this very kind of toxic, violent relationship with Nicole Kidman. You guys are married. There's this kind of physical abuse, sexual psychodynamic happening. But that thing was so illuminating. I couldn't have, prior to that show, even really understood what the cycle and the pattern of those relationships are. Like what drives them? Why do you stay? I was like, oh, I get how you'd get trapped in this. It's like high, low, high, low, high, low.

• 1:02:35Speaker 01

  Passion.

• 1:02:36Speaker 02

  That's what I found so spectacular about the writing. Often when you read in a script, a character that has that darkness, the script writer can be afraid of showing any redeeming qualities or any other aspects of the character. So it can easily be turned into caricature. He beats his wife, so he can't be charming. He can't be a great dad. He can't be like nice to his kids. That made it feel so real to me. Reading it, I was like, oh, this is a real human being. It's incredibly dark, incredibly abusive, but he's a narcissist in many ways. And narcissists are often very charming and social in the fact that this was an opportunity to show other aspects of the character where it's not like the classic stereotypical villain of the piece. It added a layer of complexity that I thought was so interesting.

• 1:03:20Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, because it's unfair to show just the bad part because no one would really fall into a cycle with someone who's just bad.

• 1:03:29Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:03:30Speaker 01

  There are good things. That's how you get sucked in and how it just continues.

• 1:03:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, because then it turns into like a bad rom com. The girl's ex boyfriend is always a douchebag. And you're like, there's no way she would end up with that guy. He sucks.

• 1:03:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:41Speaker 02

  But then if you have a character that Has that darkness, but again, like there are other aspects, we can see like, oh, I can see why she fell for him. And I can see that they probably had a great time the first couple of years or like, oh, I despise him so much, but oh, he's so great with his kids. That makes it complicated.

• 1:03:57Dax Shepard?

  Juicy.

• 1:03:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, really.

• 1:03:58Dax Shepard?

  Mechanically, as you guys would approach those scenes, how are you figuring out how far we go, like the boundaries of that performance?

• 1:04:06Speaker 02

  We would kind of block the scene, stumble through it, but not really with any kind of intensity, discuss it technically, like where we would move throughout the room. And the way those scenes were shot was also handheld camera, one single moving shot. We could play it through if we wanted. It wasn't like, oh, it's a wide shot. And then we cut to this was a very organic way of shooting.

• 1:04:27Dax Shepard?

  Were you scared at all in those?

• 1:04:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:04:29Dax Shepard?

  I just imagine myself in it. I want to make it real and I care about this person I know in real life and I don't want to go too far, but I gotta find that line.

• 1:04:36Speaker 02

  Nicole, as I was an incredibly committed actor and I'm glad that we had some time before we started shooting together. We hung out at home with her kids.

• 1:04:43Dax Shepard?

  Build a little trust.

• 1:04:44Speaker 02

  Yeah. Cause we hadn't worked together prior to that and didn't know each other at all. So I think that was very crucial to really feel that we're in it together. And we were both so excited about the material. This is such an interesting, incredible opportunity to tell this story. I think we were both excited about what we just talked about, like the fact that we can show something that is really complicated and you can understand why she would end up with this guy in the first place and why it's not easy for her to just leave. You have to kind of be with her throughout this. But then of course, a couple of those scenes were horrible to shoot. It was really, really hard.

• 1:05:16Dax Shepard?

  I imagine afterwards, I imagine myself in these takes and afterward when they'll cut just me going, hey, I'm so sorry and everything's good and I like you and I would.

• 1:05:25Speaker 02

  Yeah. No, but we would, it was intense, but that was just important to constantly check in with Nicole before and after each take. And sometimes we would ramp it up a bit. We'd do one take and she's like, actually.

• 1:05:35Dax Shepard?

  That's my hunch is that she would be driving it.

• 1:05:37Speaker 02

  I didn't want to barge in and start just like throwing her around. Was that okay? Are you good?

• 1:05:41Dax Shepard?

  More?

• 1:05:42Speaker 02

  We built up to that. So I lived in New York at the time. We shot most of it here in LA and some up in Monterey. And I'm glad I was in a hotel room. I was staying with my best friend and his wife and two kids, usually. You just switch off and then I'm like, all right, leave that behind. I'm going home. But this was a tough one. After a day of shooting those intense scenes to be like, all right, see you tomorrow. And then what saved me was the fact that I got to go home to a family with laughing kids and just normal, lovely wholesome that I wasn't alone in a hotel room staring through the wall.

• 1:06:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, that would have gotten dark.

• 1:06:12Speaker 02

  Really glad I had some friends around for that.

• 1:06:15Dax Shepard?

  Well, that was incredible. I mean, the whole show is good, but I think that relationship is what made that show. You had to see it. I mean, it was incredible. You won an Emmy for that. Congratulations. You deserve that. And then I just got to say, Succession, what a fun, exciting, didn't know that side of you existed. It was so great. Such a fun fucking character to watch.

• 1:06:34Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 1:06:34Dax Shepard?

  Tall poppy all the way.

• 1:06:35Speaker 02

  Tall poppy.

• 1:06:36Dax Shepard?

  Tall as of the poppies.

• 1:06:37Speaker 02

  Very cathartic to get to play myself.

• 1:06:38Dax Shepard?

  Loved it. And then just, I urge everyone who hasn't seen The Northman. The Northman is so fucking awesome. What a cool fucking movie.

• 1:06:48Speaker 02

  Thanks.

• 1:06:48Dax Shepard?

  Have you seen it?

• 1:06:49Speaker 01

  Mm-mm.

• 1:06:50Dax Shepard?

  Oh, my God, Monica. Bjork's in it. Nicole Kidman, Willem Dafoe. He's a monster. I don't know what you weighed in that, but back to monster mode.

• 1:06:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:06:59Speaker 01

  Tarzan mode?

• 1:07:00Dax Shepard?

  The traps were on fire. Sorry I kept you so long. Now Murderbot, but this was so fun.

• 1:07:06Speaker 02

  It was so fun.

• 1:07:07Dax Shepard?

  Okay, so Murderbot.

• 1:07:08Speaker 02

  I could talk about myself all day, guys.

• 1:07:10Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you and me both.

• 1:07:11Speaker 01

  We like hearing about that.

• 1:07:13Dax Shepard?

  How does Murderbot come your way?

• 1:07:15Speaker 02

  It's based on a book series called Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. But I hadn't read the book, so I was unfamiliar with Murderbot when it landed in my lap. It was coming off of The Northman and a movie called Infinity Pool, both quite dark, intense movies and dark, intense characters. So then I get this Murderbot sci-fi thing and I'm like, I've done enough testosterone-filled characters. I want to do something else. And then I started reading it and the character is so not what I expected. It's like this socially awkward android.

• 1:07:45Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, it's a misleading title.

• 1:07:47Speaker 02

  It's a very misleading title.

• 1:07:48Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:48Speaker 02

  Zero amount of testosterone or adrenaline. It's Ferdinand. He just prefers to be left alone and watch soap operas. It was just so delicious and totally the palate cleanser that I was on the hunt for after those darker projects.

• 1:08:02Speaker 03

  Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert if you dare.

• 1:08:14Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, so it's set in the future. There's some planet that people need to go to. They can rent from the bond company. Well, they have to take security with them.

• 1:08:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, for insurance purposes.

• 1:08:24Dax Shepard?

  Planet is very dangerous. There's these insane worms that come out of the ground. And so you get assigned a robot or a group of robots, but you're not like the cutting edge robot. You're kind of like the old cheap option.

• 1:08:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, low rent version.

• 1:08:36Dax Shepard?

  Which is already great. You're not Robocop. You're like six generations behind.

• 1:08:41Speaker 02

  The cheapest version you can get.

• 1:08:42Dax Shepard?

  You have figured out how to hack your governor module, which prevents you from ever hurting a human.

• 1:08:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:08:48Dax Shepard?

  And we meet you, just the kind of people that are going to this planet are fucking ass. They're like people who drill for oil. There's a bunch of men that are stuck somewhere and they're vile and they're terrible to you and you feel so fucking bad for this little robot. And then you figure out how to hack this module and you're now in a position that you could kill everybody, which you consider all the time, which is really fun.

• 1:09:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:09:06Dax Shepard?

  And so much of the show is your internal monologue, which is kind of hilarious.

• 1:09:10Speaker 02

  Chris and Paul White's, the writers and showrunners, and I spent almost a month together in post here in LA and in New York and Stockholm, getting together in a recording studio to try to finesse the voiceover. We wanted it to be a juxtaposition to what's happening on screen and Myrtobot, again, is very socially awkward, doesn't talk much, avoids eye contact, wants to be left alone. But we wanted a voiceover to be way more, not exuberant, but just lively and comedic and definitely more verbose.

• 1:09:36Dax Shepard?

  It's only a comedy in your internal monologue.

• 1:09:38Speaker 02

  For sure. It's not a comedy in a sense of setting up a joke. The comedy derives from the awkwardness of the situation, the exchanges, and then Myrtobot's thoughts, basically.

• 1:09:46Dax Shepard?

  That's the only time you're talking and you're not concerned at all with anyone hearing it.

• 1:09:50Speaker 02

  So we wanted that to be like a contrast. Myrtobot in dialogue with the humans that it's been assigned to protect, it's very matter of fact, it's very give, receive orders.

• 1:09:58Dax Shepard?

  And you're a little self-conscious because you're aware that you could have gotten caught for having hacked this thing, which is hilarious, because you're now super self-conscious as a robot.

• 1:10:06Speaker 02

  So the character has hacked its system, basically AI gone rogue, and has given itself the name Myrtobot. It's a security unit and it talks about these epic adventures it's going to go on, but it has to wait for the right moment to take off because the company that owns it. Can't find out that it's gone rogue.

• 1:10:22Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:10:23Speaker 02

  So it's waiting for the right moment. And meanwhile, it's been assigned to protect a bunch of space hippies.

• 1:10:28Dax Shepard?

  These scientists, they don't even want to bring them.

• 1:10:30Speaker 02

  They are very different from the humans that it normally protects. In the opening scene of the first episode, you see how Myrtabot is normally treated by people who vomit on it, basically.

• 1:10:39Dax Shepard?

  Light his hand on fire.

• 1:10:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, treated like a piece of indoor.

• 1:10:42Dax Shepard?

  I feel really bad because he wants to be a real boy.

• 1:10:45Speaker 01

  Oh, robot. Yeah. Oh, is that why you wore it? Oh, my God. We have a robot on the show.

• 1:10:50Dax Shepard?

  He wants to be a real boy.

• 1:10:52Speaker 01

  I bet he loves the show.

• 1:10:53Dax Shepard?

  He does. He does. A little too close to home, but he likes.

• 1:10:57Speaker 02

  Myrtabot doesn't want to be a real boy. It just wants to be left alone. And that's what I thought was interesting about it. It's waiting for the right moment to take off. But meanwhile, it's kind of stuck with these hippie scientists, and they are very different. They kind of invite Myrtabot into the group and the camaraderie and asks it to take its helmet off. And it's very uncomfortable to Myrtabot. And Myrtabot is just like, I just want to get out of here. But slowly, it starts to form these relationships and build these bonds with these humans.

• 1:11:21Dax Shepard?

  He starts becoming a real boy.

• 1:11:23Speaker 02

  Starts reluctantly discovering its own humanity in a way. It was a real fun character to play, a really interesting character.

• 1:11:28Dax Shepard?

  Well, it's great, and I'm really glad that it's working so well. It seems to be, yeah, people love it.

• 1:11:33Speaker 01

  Did you go to the Cannes Film Festival? You did, right?

• 1:11:35Speaker 02

  I was there with a movie called Pillion that I shot in the UK end of last summer.

• 1:11:39Dax Shepard?

  This is the leather boot look?

• 1:11:41Speaker 01

  People are talking about your look.

• 1:11:42Speaker 02

  Kinky gay biker movie. It's like a sub-dom story. A lot of leather in the film. So then I felt like, well, if I'm going to Cannes with a kinky gay biker movie, and the bikers from the movie are GBMCC Gay Biker Motorcycle Club in London, they came down to Cannes, so we're going to celebrate with them. The world premiere. So I was like, of course, I need some leather for this.

• 1:12:01Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, show off.

• 1:12:02Speaker 02

  It's gonna be a long night.

• 1:12:02Speaker 01

  I love that.

• 1:12:03Speaker 02

  I need some leather and latex.

• 1:12:05Speaker 01

  So fun.

• 1:12:06Dax Shepard?

  OK, now this one's gonna be tough for you. But you need to know, two-second backstory is my children, particularly my 12-year-old, is completely obsessed with Taylor Swift. And I have been telling her for six years that the song "Wildest Dreams" was written about me. And they're like, no, it's not that. And I go, listen to the fucking words. He's so tall and handsome as hell. He's so bad, but he does it so. I'm like, who else could that be about? Then I took my 12 year old to see her in Lisbon last year. And I guess she doesn't really sing that song often. And she sang it.

• 1:12:40Speaker 02

  Cause she saw you in the audience.

• 1:12:41Dax Shepard?

  And I said, Lincoln, this is almost inappropriate. I'm married. She can't sing this song. And then in my fucking research today, I read that the song's about you.

• 1:12:52Speaker 01

  Oh, this is so exciting.

• 1:12:55Dax Shepard?

  I have to kill you.

• 1:12:56Speaker 01

  You invited him here to kill him.

• 1:12:58Dax Shepard?

  Because I've told my children that song's about.

• 1:13:01Speaker 02

  She saw you in the audience. She's like, I'm gonna sing this song.

• 1:13:03Speaker 01

  Maybe it is about you.

• 1:13:04Speaker 02

  It is about you.

• 1:13:05Dax Shepard?

  Well, you're dead, then yeah.

• 1:13:06Speaker 02

  I wasn't in the crowd in Lisbon. I wasn't there. So it was clearly about you.

• 1:13:10Dax Shepard?

  Okay. Now, do you have the same fear to either acknowledge or deny that that could be true? Because the power of the Swifties is so strong that you just don't even want to talk about it?

• 1:13:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:13:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's fair. That is totally fair.

• 1:13:23Dax Shepard?

  I just couldn't believe I've been making that joke for six years and I found out maybe who it is actually about.

• 1:13:28Speaker 01

  You know what? It is so funny.

• 1:13:29Speaker 02

  It's about Brad Pitt, guys. Let's be honest.

• 1:13:31Speaker 01

  Well, it always is.

• 1:13:32Dax Shepard?

  All roads lead to Brad Pitt.

• 1:13:33Speaker 01

  We got in like a little tiff last week about Taylor. Dax and I did.

• 1:13:37Dax Shepard?

  She's a super fan.

• 1:13:39Speaker 01

  I love her.

• 1:13:39Speaker 02

  Aren't we all?

• 1:13:40Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, she's a monster in the best way.

• 1:13:42Speaker 02

  We're all Swifties.

• 1:13:43Speaker 01

  Yes, but mainly the beef you have is you can't say anything negative or anything about her without the.

• 1:13:51Dax Shepard?

  Army.

• 1:13:52Speaker 01

  The army coming for you. And even when you just said that, as soon as you said it, I was like.

• 1:13:57Dax Shepard?

  You panicked, right?

• 1:13:58Speaker 01

  I really honestly panicked. I was like, oh my God. First of all, I bet his publicist said we're not allowed to bring that up.

• 1:14:05Dax Shepard?

  Oh, did that happen?

• 1:14:06Speaker 01

  No, but normally.

• 1:14:08Dax Shepard?

  Generally.

• 1:14:08Speaker 01

  Normally that's the case.

• 1:14:10Dax Shepard?

  Someone could have like a rape conviction. You can talk about that, but it's like, if they have any connection.

• 1:14:14Speaker 02

  To Taylor's hood.

• 1:14:14Speaker 01

  They're like, please don't. Literally, it is funny when you just did that. Cause I was like, you are right.

• 1:14:21Dax Shepard?

  It's dangerous.

• 1:14:23Speaker 01

  That's not fair. We should be able to say it.

• 1:14:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:14:26Dax Shepard?

  Okay, moving on.

• 1:14:27Speaker 02

  I'm gonna be honest. I wrote the lyrics to that song myself.

• 1:14:30Dax Shepard?

  Well, I would have too.

• 1:14:32Speaker 02

  And sent it to Taylor.

• 1:14:34Speaker 01

  Great job. Great writing.

• 1:14:35Speaker 02

  Taylor, here's what you should sing.

• 1:14:37Dax Shepard?

  But this is the most important line. He's so bad, but he does it so well. That's the line.

• 1:14:42Speaker 02

  That's a good line.

• 1:14:42Dax Shepard?

  A lot of people can be tall, but to be bad and do it so well.

• 1:14:45Speaker 02

  A lot of people can be bad.

• 1:14:47Speaker 01

  You can all do it well.

• 1:14:49Speaker 02

  You cannot do it well.

• 1:14:50Dax Shepard?

  That's the art. That's where the art comes in.

• 1:14:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:14:53Dax Shepard?

  Okay, boy, I had written this down and it happened. So the funniest joke I heard while I was in Scandinavia last summer is someone told me a joke about the Swedes, which is if you throw a birthday party at 6:00 PM, the doorbell will ring at 5:59 and when you open it, everyone that's coming to the party will be outside.

• 1:15:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:15:14Speaker 01

  People show up on time.

• 1:15:15Dax Shepard?

  So I had heard that and then literally I'm researching you and Rob's like, Alex is gonna be a half hour early. And I'm like, oh my God, I just wrote that joke down and you delivered.

• 1:15:26Speaker 02

  But then I was freaking out because I knew it was gonna be early. So I had to call my team and be like, guys, because that's also not okay.

• 1:15:31Dax Shepard?

  Well, that's why it's 5:59.

• 1:15:33Speaker 02

  You show up at 5:59. So you're early, but you're not half an hour early or an hour early.

• 1:15:38Dax Shepard?

  You're not intrusively early.

• 1:15:39Speaker 02

  I felt I was being a bit intrusive there. I was like, I'm showing up very early now. So I felt bad about that.

• 1:15:44Dax Shepard?

  It's a testament to that I I'm a fan of yours because I was like, great, yeah, I'll start her. I never say that. I go, tell them to do something. I'm still working.

• 1:15:51Speaker 02

  You weren't even.

• 1:15:51Speaker 01

  I was in a meeting and at two, I was like, well, I'm gonna be a couple of minutes late. And I look at my phone. I was like, oh, my God, they've been going for a half hour.

• 1:15:58Speaker 02

  They're already done.

• 1:15:59Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:16:00Dax Shepard?

  A half hour late.

• 1:16:01Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:16:01Dax Shepard?

  Which is still early.

• 1:16:03Speaker 02

  No, but Swedes are very, I'm generalizing, of course, but six o'clock, yes.

• 1:16:07Dax Shepard?

  No, so you're at 5:59.

• 1:16:09Speaker 02

  Why would I show up 6:30 when you said six?

• 1:16:11Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:16:11Speaker 02

  That's be very, very rude.

• 1:16:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:16:14Speaker 02

  Very rude.

• 1:16:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:16:17Dax Shepard?

  Okay. Do you feel like you're a better actor when you're speaking Swedish or English?

• 1:16:21Speaker 02

  When was the last time I acted in Swedish? It's been 15 years.

• 1:16:25Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:16:25Speaker 02

  I threw in a couple of lines in succession in Swedish, but I haven't done a scene in Swedish in 15 years.

• 1:16:32Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I really wondered that. Acting's already challenging enough. If I had to do it in another language, I mean, I can barely do it successfully in English.

• 1:16:40Speaker 02

  We did the press junket for Myrdabot a couple of weeks ago in New York and suddenly there was a Swedish journalist who obviously wanted to do it in Swedish. And I was really struggling because I have not thought about Myrdabot in Swedish. I've not thought about the character. I read it in English. We shot it in English. My Swedish is okay. I can speak Swedish, but I was struggling to kind of string a sentence together, be fluid when I was talking about that specific character, that specific subject, because in my head, I had to translate word by word what I was trying to say. So I couldn't get any like fluidity in it. Really staccato, I was like trying to speak Swedish.

• 1:17:17Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:17:17Speaker 02

  So I'm sure when people saw it, they would have been probably like,

• 1:17:20Dax Shepard?

  What happened?

• 1:17:20Speaker 02

  What is wrong with this guy?

• 1:17:22Dax Shepard?

  What has happened to our Alex?

• 1:17:23Speaker 02

  Do you know who Dolph Lundgren is?

• 1:17:25Dax Shepard?

  God, yeah, I was at a restaurant next to him in a booth about a year ago and I was losing my mind.

• 1:17:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, so he played Ivan Drago in Rocky IV.

• 1:17:32Dax Shepard?

  Rocky IV.

• 1:17:33Speaker 02

  Rocky IV. He got a lot of flack for some interview in the eighties and someone asked him something and he answered something in English and that doesn't fly in Sweden. If you're from Sweden and you go like, well, I don't know, guys. Everyone's like, how dare you? You're from Sweden? How could you not answer? I empathize with him now. It's tricky.

• 1:17:48Dax Shepard?

  It's funny, man. I would have never even thought of what you just explained is like, had they asked you about a topic you had already mulled over back when you spoke it primarily, you probably would have been able to drop into that. But the actual like, oh, I've got to think in Swedish about this project.

• 1:18:04Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:18:05Dax Shepard?

  Makes sense. That's wild.

• 1:18:06Speaker 02

  That created a delay because I hadn't thought about it in Swedish.

• 1:18:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:18:09Dax Shepard?

  Because you have your go-to explanation, your character and the storyline. That's all there in English.

• 1:18:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:18:14Dax Shepard?

  And so it all needs conversion.

• 1:18:16Speaker 01

  You almost have two brains going.

• 1:18:18Speaker 02

  There are definitely topics or areas where English is easier for me than Swedish. Like when I got my apartment in Stockholm and we were going to renovate it, I didn't have the words for it in Swedish. I had done it in the States, but I was like, what is this called?

• 1:18:29Dax Shepard?

  Was there an exact moment you can remember where you stopped thinking in Swedish?

• 1:18:33Speaker 02

  I don't think much at all.

• 1:18:35Dax Shepard?

  Okay, well, then that's.

• 1:18:36Speaker 02

  Crickets.

• 1:18:37Dax Shepard?

  What a blessing.

• 1:18:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, no language there.

• 1:18:39Dax Shepard?

  No thoughts.

• 1:18:40Speaker 02

  Same thing with stuff that's related to my childhood, big gaps in English because it's all Swedish.

• 1:18:44Speaker 01

  That's so interesting.

• 1:18:45Dax Shepard?

  It really is.

• 1:18:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think people who can speak two languages fluently are the smartest.

• 1:18:50Speaker 02

  We are, we are.

• 1:18:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:18:52Speaker 02

  I think you're right. Thank you.

• 1:18:55Dax Shepard?

  Okay, my last question. Does being Swedish liberate you from being obsessed with money? Because I have a sickness and I know it around money.

• 1:19:03Speaker 02

  Of accumulating?

• 1:19:03Dax Shepard?

  There would never be enough. I'm always afraid I won't have any. I think about it too much. I wanted it so bad. That's what you're supposed to get here. And I just wonder if you'd be free of that from growing up there.

• 1:19:15Speaker 02

  But have you had that classic, I need a bigger house, I need a faster car, that chase?

• 1:19:19Dax Shepard?

  The hedonic treadmill and then already realizing it doesn't give me any more happiness. Fully intellectually understanding all of it, but still having fear emotionally in my body.

• 1:19:29Speaker 02

  Right.

• 1:19:29Dax Shepard?

  I'm just curious if it's a uniquely American sickness.

• 1:19:32Speaker 02

  I think I have that. But then I like to project an image of myself as I'm just a swede. I'm like everyone else. I just want a small cabin on the island.

• 1:19:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:19:42Speaker 02

  And I want a gray sob. Nothing special for me.

• 1:19:45Dax Shepard?

  A small cubicle.

• 1:19:46Speaker 02

  I'm like everyone else, just a little cubicle. But deep down, I'm like, oh, give me a McMansion. Come on.

• 1:19:52Dax Shepard?

  I'm a monster.

• 1:19:53Speaker 02

  Where's my monster truck?

• 1:19:54Dax Shepard?

  Give me that SUV sob.

• 1:19:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:19:57Dax Shepard?

  Give me that American abomination.

• 1:19:58Speaker 02

  I have a very curated image.

• 1:20:01Dax Shepard?

  Okay, well, Alexander, I bet you wanted to leave an hour ago, but you're so Swedish and polite that you just stayed.

• 1:20:06Speaker 01

  We kept you here.

• 1:20:07Dax Shepard?

  I'm glad that I could exploit your Swedishness.

• 1:20:09Speaker 02

  I really enjoyed this.

• 1:20:10Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, this was so fun.

• 1:20:12Speaker 02

  It was great. This is the very tail end of a long press tour and.

• 1:20:18Dax Shepard?

  You weren't excited to come. It's okay if you say.

• 1:20:20Speaker 02

  This is so nice after, you know, you've done junkets, you do 74 minute interviews in a row and you come home with so much self-loathing because you feel like a parrot, you're just like saying the same thing over and over again.

• 1:20:32Dax Shepard?

  It's just so fucking fraudulent.

• 1:20:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:20:34Dax Shepard?

  And insincere.

• 1:20:35Speaker 02

  So you have a weepy slide down the shower wall and it's really refreshing to be able to sit and talk about yourself for two hours.

• 1:20:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, we give you all the space to talk about yourself.

• 1:20:47Speaker 02

  And I got a creamy coffee with lots of.

• 1:20:50Speaker 01

  Lots of cream.

• 1:20:51Speaker 02

  I know you drank like a green juice and you gave me like a.

• 1:20:53Dax Shepard?

  No, it's not a green juice.

• 1:20:55Speaker 02

  Trying to fatten me up? Is that weird?

• 1:20:56Speaker 01

  He's upset about this song. He needs to take you down a peg or two.

• 1:21:00Dax Shepard?

  No, this is, what is this, Monica?

• 1:21:01Speaker 01

  Machalot.

• 1:21:02Dax Shepard?

  This is matcha. This is tea. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:21:05Speaker 02

  Well, I got a big jug of heavy cream.

• 1:21:09Speaker 01

  Great for the voice.

• 1:21:10Speaker 02

  Well, Dax, you are so bad, but you do it so well.

• 1:21:15Speaker 01

  We got that dog back.

• 1:21:17Dax Shepard?

  All right. Thanks, brother.

• 1:21:17Speaker 02

  Thank you very much.

• 1:21:20Dax Shepard?

  I sure hope there weren't any mistakes in that episode, but we'll find out when my mom, Mrs. Monica, comes in and tells us what was wrong.

• 1:21:29Speaker 01

  It says, homie. What does it say?

• 1:21:32Dax Shepard?

  Well, it does. I don't like that. You like that?

• 1:21:35Speaker 01

  I don't get it. It's like Rolling with the Homies from Clueless?

• 1:21:39Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. I think it's a Clueless campaign.

• 1:21:41Speaker 01

  I love that movie.

• 1:21:42Dax Shepard?

  The 25th anniversary.

• 1:21:44Speaker 01

  More like...

• 1:21:46Dax Shepard?

  Twenty-six?

• 1:21:47Speaker 01

  Probably like thirty. When did it come out?

• 1:21:50Dax Shepard?

  Ninety-five? No.

• 1:21:52Speaker 01

  I was young when it came out.

• 1:21:53Dax Shepard?

  You're a baby?

• 1:21:54Speaker 01

  I was a baby.

• 1:21:55Dax Shepard?

  You could have been eight in ninety-five.

• 1:21:57Speaker 01

  Ninety-five?

• 1:21:58Dax Shepard?

  Thirty-year anniversary?

• 1:21:59Speaker 01

  Yeah. July nineteenth? Oh, my God, it really...

• 1:22:02Dax Shepard?

  What?

• 1:22:03Speaker 01

  It really is almost the thirty-year anniversary. Wow, maybe it is Rolling with the Homies. Oh, my God.

• 1:22:10Dax Shepard?

  All right, now I love it.

• 1:22:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, now we love it.

• 1:22:12Dax Shepard?

  Now I love it. Welcome to Nashville.

• 1:22:14Speaker 01

  We are in Nashville. We're in your Nashville studio.

• 1:22:17Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:19Speaker 01

  First time. We just recorded for the first time here.

• 1:22:21Dax Shepard?

  We did, and it went well.

• 1:22:24Speaker 01

  It went well.

• 1:22:25Dax Shepard?

  Wabi Wab deserves a round of applause.

• 1:22:28Speaker 01

  A hundred percent, he deserves a round of applause.

• 1:22:31Dax Shepard?

  Because Wabi Wab created this whole thing in about seventy-two hours.

• 1:22:35Speaker 01

  And it looks incredible. It looks so good. It's beautiful.

• 1:22:39Dax Shepard?

  We got Papa Bob now. We had your grandma.

• 1:22:41Speaker 01

  I know. We have my grandma in L.A. and your grandpa here.

• 1:22:45Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, look at that guy.

• 1:22:47Speaker 01

  I didn't know who he was at first.

• 1:22:49Dax Shepard?

  Oh, you didn't?

• 1:22:49Speaker 01

  No, I guess I've never seen a picture of him.

• 1:22:52Dax Shepard?

  Well, that makes sense, though, because also there's three other guys you've never seen on the wall.

• 1:22:55Speaker 01

  Of cour... I don't say that. I've definitely seen Charles Lyden.

• 1:22:59Dax Shepard?

  The inventor of the podcast.

• 1:23:01Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yep, Christopher Lyden.

• 1:23:03Dax Shepard?

  Chrissy Lyden. And then your two guys from the Stanford Prison Experiment in the shock.

• 1:23:08Speaker 01

  Milgram and...

• 1:23:11Dax Shepard?

  I bet even hanging on the wall, we still won't get it.

• 1:23:13Speaker 01

  Milgram and like Sobolinski or something.

• 1:23:16Dax Shepard?

  Ooh, let's see.

• 1:23:17Speaker 01

  Something like that.

• 1:23:18Dax Shepard?

  Let's see, Rob.

• 1:23:19Speaker 01

  Zimbardo.

• 1:23:20Dax Shepard?

  Zimbardo, Philly.

• 1:23:23Speaker 01

  And then...

• 1:23:23Dax Shepard?

  Philly, Sassy, Steffi, and Bobby.

• 1:23:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's great.

• 1:23:28Dax Shepard?

  Babaloo. Babaloo is his nickname, Papa Bob.

• 1:23:30Speaker 01

  And if you missed The Armchair Anonymous, that was, um, Things Up People's Butts.

• 1:23:38Dax Shepard?

  Which, go listen to that one. That's a, that's a primetime content.

• 1:23:42Speaker 01

  It's one of our best episodes of all time.

• 1:23:44Dax Shepard?

  It's an A+.

• 1:23:45Speaker 01

  There was a girl... Who told a story about a presidential female Barbie?

• 1:23:53Dax Shepard?

  Oh, yes, this does need some explanation. If you're watching on YouTube and you see in the background that we have a President Barbie here.

• 1:23:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:24:00Dax Shepard?

  You were extremely triggered in that episode because the man had put a presidential Barbie in his ass and you thought it was an act of misogyny.

• 1:24:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, I still do.

• 1:24:08Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:08Speaker 01

  And I'm glad she's here. Glad she's here, poopless. Um, yeah, okay, so we're here.

• 1:24:15Dax Shepard?

  We're in Nashville. You've already had one boat ride. I took you on a jungle cruise last night.

• 1:24:20Speaker 01

  Yes, it was lovely.

• 1:24:21Dax Shepard?

  To Firefly Cove.

• 1:24:23Speaker 01

  Where there were no fireflies.

• 1:24:24Dax Shepard?

  There were no fireflies.

• 1:24:26Speaker 01

  Um, I did feel a little codependent during that.

• 1:24:29Dax Shepard?

  Like you had to enjoy it more than you were enjoying it?

• 1:24:32Speaker 01

  No, no, I enjoyed the boat ride, but the fire, you know, it was this whole thing to Firefly. Oh, it's so beautiful. You're gonna see all these fireflies and, and then there were, there were none.

• 1:24:41Dax Shepard?

  There was absolutely zero fireflies.

• 1:24:43Speaker 01

  I felt a little.

• 1:24:43Dax Shepard?

  And two nights before, there were in excess of 10,000.

• 1:24:47Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then everyone was just like, where are the fireflies? And I knew it was because like, oh, they're showing it to me and now there's no fireflies.

• 1:24:55Dax Shepard?

  And in place of the fireflies, which we did not have on the previous trip, was a bazillion fishflies.

• 1:25:00Speaker 01

  Like, a lot.

• 1:25:01Dax Shepard?

  That was probably hard for you. I'm more of a hillbilly, so that.

• 1:25:05Speaker 01

  No, see, this is where, this is where we're already gonna have a fight, you know?

• 1:25:10Dax Shepard?

  Let's have our first Nashville.

• 1:25:11Speaker 01

  We haven't had one in a while.

• 1:25:12Dax Shepard?

  Probably get boring without it.

• 1:25:14Speaker 01

  I think we're gonna have a few, actually. But you are a hillbilly, but I am southern.

• 1:25:21Dax Shepard?

  I know.

• 1:25:22Speaker 01

  So because it just is my truth.

• 1:25:26Dax Shepard?

  Southern?

• 1:25:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, I just am from the south.

• 1:25:29Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:25:29Speaker 01

  I don't talk about that that much. Obviously, we talk about like my growing up and growing up in Georgia and cheerleading and being brown and Dairy Queen and all those things.

• 1:25:40Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:40Speaker 01

  But I don't realize it's part of my identity.

• 1:25:43Dax Shepard?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:25:44Speaker 01

  Until.

• 1:25:45Dax Shepard?

  I'm challenging it.

• 1:25:46Speaker 01

  Yeah. Until you're kind of taking it on. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no.

• 1:25:51Dax Shepard?

  But would you agree I had a much more rural upbringing than you?

• 1:25:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:25:54Dax Shepard?

  I'm definitely swimming in ponds and lakes and shitty little dams in Milford and bugs and animals and snakes. More than you, yeah?

• 1:26:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would, I would say probably in my head, yes.

• 1:26:07Dax Shepard?

  Detassled corn for a job.

• 1:26:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, you, you detassled corn for a job.

• 1:26:11Dax Shepard?

  Very hillbilly stuff.

• 1:26:13Speaker 01

  But I, yeah, we were in the creeks. No, see, this is the thing.

• 1:26:18Dax Shepard?

  This is where you're mad.

• 1:26:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, cuz you, you, you paint me as a, as a person that.

• 1:26:23Dax Shepard?

  A dilettante. Is that the word?

• 1:26:25Speaker 01

  No, a dilettante is like a faker.

• 1:26:29Dax Shepard?

  A debutante.

• 1:26:30Speaker 01

  Okay, a debutante.

• 1:26:31Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you're like a, an aristocratic debutante.

• 1:26:34Speaker 01

  Which also, I wasn't wide enough to be a debutante, but, um, no, we were in creeks and I, you know, people were jumping in places and, you know, I've been dealing with this weather my whole life.

• 1:26:45Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:45Speaker 01

  And fireflies.

• 1:26:47Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you do know fireflies in this weather better than me.

• 1:26:50Speaker 01

  Thank you for saying that.

• 1:26:52Dax Shepard?

  Absolutely. You know, the humidity, oh, Michigan's quite humid.

• 1:26:55Speaker 01

  Okay, but it's, the, the southern humidity is specific.

• 1:26:59Dax Shepard?

  But I do know the hick stuff. I do know getting your car stuck in the muddy field from off-road. You know, I know that kind of.

• 1:27:05Speaker 01

  I know, but like, I think.

• 1:27:08Dax Shepard?

  Field parties, bonfires.

• 1:27:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, I went to, I had bonfires. I don't know what a field party is. That's not southern.

• 1:27:14Dax Shepard?

  It's literally you go to a field and start partying.

• 1:27:16Speaker 01

  Okay, well, um, uh, it's just, it is, it is funny cuz I obviously know, I never feel defensive about my southern roots.

• 1:27:28Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:29Speaker 01

  And I, I feel it, I, I have felt it pop.

• 1:27:33Dax Shepard?

  How about this, though? Bringing this into the analysis.

• 1:27:37Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:27:37Dax Shepard?

  You were also running from that stuff and I was.

• 1:27:41Speaker 01

  You were running towards it and I was running away from it.

• 1:27:43Dax Shepard?

  I generally will talk about it more.

• 1:27:45Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm, exactly.

• 1:27:46Dax Shepard?

  Cuz I was running towards it.

• 1:27:47Speaker 01

  Exactly, but I think that's also where I get kind of like, I find this, this whole thing more complicated than it should be, right?

• 1:27:54Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:55Speaker 01

  Where I get in the car yesterday, I land.

• 1:27:58Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:59Speaker 01

  And, um.

• 1:28:01Speaker 01

  You know, I step out and I know, I know it, you know, I know this weather. Also,

• 1:28:06Dax Shepard?

  You're in a Ziploc bag in the microwave.

• 1:28:08Speaker 01

  Yeah. And it's not even like, oh, I remember it. It's like, yeah, four months ago when I was home, you know, like I'm, I still, it's still a big part of my life. I go home a lot.

• 1:28:18Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:18Speaker 01

  But anyway, you know, I get, I'm looking for my driver. I have a driver now. That's different.

• 1:28:23Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:24Speaker 01

  That part's different. But guess what? The person picking me up, as soon as like he saw my face.

• 1:28:29Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:30Speaker 01

  He, I mean, maybe he would have done this. Anyway, maybe, but he did like change the pronunciation of my name. I think when he saw me, he was like, like Padman, like he like had, he like made it Indian.

• 1:28:43Dax Shepard?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:28:44Speaker 01

  When he saw me, cause he was like, oh, obviously it just can't be Padman. Like this is an Indian person.

• 1:28:49Dax Shepard?

  Padman.

• 1:28:49Speaker 01

  Yep. And I was like, oh yeah, like.

• 1:28:51Dax Shepard?

  Do you know I whisper now when I, doesn't make it better, but like I whisper now. If I do my accent, I whisper it.

• 1:28:58Speaker 01

  Oh, okay.

• 1:28:58Dax Shepard?

  So it's less offensive.

• 1:29:00Speaker 01

  Or have you not gone back?

• 1:29:02Dax Shepard?

  I haven't.

• 1:29:03Speaker 01

  Okay. Now I'm, I do need you to do that.

• 1:29:06Dax Shepard?

  I'm gonna get to it. I've been so busy doing nothing. It's crazy.

• 1:29:10Speaker 01

  Okay. So, so he, so that happened and I was like, yeah.

• 1:29:14Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:15Speaker 01

  Um, also, this is a weird thing to say, but I guess I'm gonna. He was a southern white man picking me up.

• 1:29:22Dax Shepard?

  Uh huh.

• 1:29:23Speaker 01

  I don't remember the last time I was picked up by a white person.

• 1:29:28Dax Shepard?

  Cause it's Latino in LA, you mean?

• 1:29:30Speaker 01

  No, not really Latino, but just like, not white.

• 1:29:36Dax Shepard?

  It's true. You, when you fly to New York and you get a car from JFK, it's rarely a white.

• 1:29:42Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:29:42Dax Shepard?

  It's rarely a, a, a born in the USA person.

• 1:29:46Speaker 01

  Exactly. And then also our drivers. Also driver, no, you can be.

• 1:29:52Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you could be American.

• 1:29:53Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 1:29:53Dax Shepard?

  That's right. My apologies.

• 1:29:54Speaker 01

  Drivers, yeah, you've been here for a little too long. You're already redefining what American means.

• 1:30:00Dax Shepard?

  Should've taken longer, but.

• 1:30:02Speaker 01

  Um, so, and our drivers that we use a lot at home are, are not.

• 1:30:08Dax Shepard?

  Romanian.

• 1:30:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, they're not. They're white, I guess, but not really. So anyway, you know, we.

• 1:30:14Dax Shepard?

  US born. They're not US born.

• 1:30:15Speaker 01

  They're not US. They're ethnic, like they're they're of a different ethnicity.

• 1:30:21Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:30:21Speaker 01

  I'm allowed to say that.

• 1:30:23Dax Shepard?

  I'm not, but you could get away with it.

• 1:30:25Speaker 01

  That's like by.

• 1:30:26Dax Shepard?

  White people refer to non-white people as ethnic, but ethnic is ethnicity. Everyone has ethnicity.

• 1:30:32Speaker 01

  I said they have a different ethnicity.

• 1:30:34Dax Shepard?

  Or a different ethnicity. But that's funny, too, because that's suggesting America has an official ethnicity.

• 1:30:41Speaker 01

  Well, this white southern man that picks me up.

• 1:30:43Dax Shepard?

  You would be right. You go like, well, there's a hegemonic group. Who are we kidding? But if I were to say this country has an ethnicity, that's probably that we would agree that's not a great.

• 1:30:53Speaker 01

  Okay, yeah, that's fine.

• 1:30:54Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:30:55Speaker 01

  Um, I just.

• 1:30:56Dax Shepard?

  Cause implicit in my statement is like, and that's how it should be, or that should be upheld.

• 1:31:00Speaker 01

  None of it's how it, to me, that's a, there's a difference there. I don't think.

• 1:31:04Dax Shepard?

  I'm only pointing out it sounds much different when either of us would say the exact same sentence. And for a good reason.

• 1:31:10Speaker 01

  That's right. Anyway, this white southern man picked me up.

• 1:31:14Dax Shepard?

  Honky.

• 1:31:14Speaker 01

  No, I don't say that. And he, uh, was, I think, surprised to see me. And then.

• 1:31:22Dax Shepard?

  A child.

• 1:31:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, perhaps an Indian child. I think there was some potential resentment that he had to drive an Indian child around.

• 1:31:30Dax Shepard?

  You got three things. You're brown, you're a child, and you're a woman.

• 1:31:33Speaker 01

  Exactly, yeah.

• 1:31:34Dax Shepard?

  You should not have any money.

• 1:31:36Speaker 01

  And then.

• 1:31:37Dax Shepard?

  You should be destitute.

• 1:31:38Speaker 01

  He didn't understand how it was possible that I was there.

• 1:31:41Dax Shepard?

  Well, he did. You're a doctor.

• 1:31:42Speaker 01

  A doogie?

• 1:31:43Dax Shepard?

  He was like, oh, she's a doctor.

• 1:31:45Speaker 01

  She's a baby doctor?

• 1:31:47Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:31:47Speaker 01

  Okay. Anyway, you know, we get in the car and I don't normally, I'm not very chatty in the car. But this is what happens immediately as soon as I sit in that car.

• 1:31:58Dax Shepard?

  In the south.

• 1:31:59Speaker 01

  I'm like, oh, God, I gotta start, I gotta have a conversation. I'm gonna, I have to be, like, immediately the I have to's start coming back to, like, I need to make this person feel like I'm like.

• 1:32:15Dax Shepard?

  You don't think you're better than them?

• 1:32:17Speaker 01

  Opposite. It's not that I don't want him to think I'm better. I want him, I don't want him to think he's better. Like, I want him to think we're the same.

• 1:32:28Dax Shepard?

  Okay, okay.

• 1:32:29Speaker 01

  Which is how I grew up. I'm the same as you.

• 1:32:31Dax Shepard?

  That's a different dynamic.

• 1:32:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm the same as you.

• 1:32:34Dax Shepard?

  I'm in the back of a car feeling guilty.

• 1:32:35Speaker 01

  Right, you're a rich white man. That's so different.

• 1:32:38Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. Yeah, but and then I assume if I don't engage with them, they're going to think I think I'm better than them. And shouldn't be troubled with talking to them. Forget that if it was a billionaire driving the car, I still wouldn't necessarily want to talk.

• 1:32:53Speaker 01

  Right, no.

• 1:32:54Dax Shepard?

  Although I like to anyways, go ahead.

• 1:32:56Speaker 01

  Um, no, for for me, it's definitely like, we're the same. Don't judge me.

• 1:33:02Dax Shepard?

  Right.

• 1:33:03Speaker 01

  I feel like I'm holding the weight of my ethnicity.

• 1:33:07Dax Shepard?

  Uh huh.

• 1:33:07Speaker 01

  On my shoulders.

• 1:33:08Dax Shepard?

  You want him to know I'm one of you.

• 1:33:09Speaker 01

  Yep. And it is that it's like, so. I I said, how long have you lived here? How long have you lived here? Uh, and he said, oh, about 20 years. And I said, oh, how have you like, it's changed a lot, right? Or, you know, and then he was like, yeah, and I was like, do you like that? And he said, well, it's good for the city, but Nashville is not meant to be a metropolitan city. It's it's just not meant to be that, not like in Atlanta, Georgia. And I said, oh, I'm from Atlanta. And I was really happy I got to say that.

• 1:33:42Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 1:33:42Speaker 01

  I wanted him to know I was from the south.

• 1:33:45Dax Shepard?

  Yes, and not India.

• 1:33:47Speaker 01

  Correct. I said, oh, yeah, I'm from Atlanta.

• 1:33:50Dax Shepard?

  They got an Atlanta in India?

• 1:33:54Speaker 01

  Atlanta, India, never heard of it.

• 1:33:55Dax Shepard?

  Is that in Delhi?

• 1:33:57Speaker 01

  So I I got that out. I felt good about that. And then I said, but I've lived in LA for 15 years. I assume he knew I lived in LA because he knew where my plane was coming from.

• 1:34:10Dax Shepard?

  Right.

• 1:34:10Speaker 01

  So I said, I've lived in LA for 15 years. He said, oh, I'm sorry. And I got so defensive so fast. Yeah, I was like, well, I love it. So you don't need to apologize.

• 1:34:23Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:34:24Speaker 01

  And then I was quiet for most of the rest of the ride.

• 1:34:26Dax Shepard?

  Okay, that shut things down that he said. He didn't elaborate.

• 1:34:30Speaker 01

  To say that. And then I.

• 1:34:31Dax Shepard?

  Well, did he elaborate on why he doesn't like?

• 1:34:33Speaker 01

  No, he felt, I think he felt like, maybe he felt like, oh, I shouldn't have said that.

• 1:34:37Dax Shepard?

  Can I mount a defense of him?

• 1:34:39Speaker 01

  You can try.

• 1:34:40Dax Shepard?

  I can assume someone who's only experienced with LA, if they've never been, is watching, again, I don't watch a ton of Fox News, so I can't say what the overall theme is, but I have seen Tucker Carlson talk about LA before. And it's very much, it looks like Beirut. If you're watching Tucker Carlson, it's singularly about the homeless crisis. And then the other footage they're seeing is like the BLM protests and Rodeo Drive being boarded up.

• 1:35:15Dax Shepard?

  If that's the only images you're getting, right? And you have no sense of what it's like to walk around on a sunny day in Los Feliz? I could see where he might think it's different than it actually is.

• 1:35:24Speaker 01

  But here's my problem. I find, you don't have to like it.

• 1:35:28Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, but don't shit on my city.

• 1:35:30Speaker 01

  Don't shit on my city that I just said I live, I live in and I've lived in for 15 years. And what was worse is I sat there like stewing about this for minutes, right? Where I was like, if I fucking said that, if you said you lived in Tennessee for 20 years and I said, yeesh, I'm sorry. I'm an elitist liberal asshole.

• 1:35:53Dax Shepard?

  That would be rude, yeah.

• 1:35:54Speaker 01

  And that's rude.

• 1:35:55Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:55Speaker 01

  So.

• 1:35:56Dax Shepard?

  He's punching up. In his mind, he's punching up.

• 1:35:59Speaker 01

  I don't think, in his mind, he is not punching up.

• 1:36:01Dax Shepard?

  I mean, in that, I think anyone would feel fine being critical of New York City because everyone loves New York City. So they wouldn't feel like they were piling on.

• 1:36:11Speaker 01

  I don't know, but I, I didn't like the hypocrisy.

• 1:36:15Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:15Speaker 01

  Of, because that is, that's this idea that like, we're all these like liberal elitists and we like, we shit on the South. It seems to me that the opposite thing is happening.

• 1:36:25Dax Shepard?

  Or that it's equal, yeah, that it goes both directions.

• 1:36:28Speaker 01

  I would never say anything like that and no one we know would.

• 1:36:31Dax Shepard?

  You and it and we want it, but, but the Barbara Kingsolver thing is true, that a lot of media is, is playing heavily on this trope.

• 1:36:39Speaker 01

  I guess media both ways then.

• 1:36:41Dax Shepard?

  Sure, sure.

• 1:36:41Speaker 01

  But individually, I do not know.

• 1:36:44Dax Shepard?

  I just know the South feels like. Hollywood makes fun of them a lot, which I think is historically pretty true.

• 1:36:50Speaker 01

  Sure, but, but just, I don't know anyone who would say that to someone's face.

• 1:36:55Dax Shepard?

  I don't either.

• 1:36:56Speaker 01

  And I almost said, oh, wow, southern hospitality really died since I left.

• 1:37:00Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:01Speaker 01

  But I didn't.

• 1:37:02Dax Shepard?

  I didn't, I don't think he should have said that. Let me be clear.

• 1:37:04Speaker 01

  It was just interesting.

• 1:37:05Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:06Speaker 01

  Oh, boy.

• 1:37:06Dax Shepard?

  I had a fun experience yesterday. I got a little of your perspective yesterday, which was fun.

• 1:37:10Speaker 01

  Oh, I love that.

• 1:37:11Dax Shepard?

  And I recognized it. So Eric and I are driving the boat and he's telling me about some Trump policy that's working out or something. And he's going on and on and I, I realized in that moment, oh, man, I, I can see what's going on in both directions. He's doing what I'm doing so often in my friendship circle, which is like, I think I'm trying to mitigate the fear of the people I love. They're like, well, hold on, things haven't collapsed. You know, this thing might even work. Who knows? But being on the other end of it, and I said to him, I go, this is really funny for me because generally I'm talking with people that are more liberal than me and I'm trying

• 1:37:54Dax Shepard?

  to point out it's not going to be so bad, blah, blah, blah. And you're now doing that. And now I'm almost grateful to be back in the position where now I'm defending the liberal point of view because he's doing that. And it, but, but specifically what I realize is

• 1:38:11Dax Shepard?

  it sounds like he's telling me he loves Trump. And I actually had to realize he's not, he's doing the same thing I'm trying to do, which is like, it's, the world's not going to collapse. We're going to be fine. We're going to live. We're going to, you know, we're going to survive. It's not as bad as we think. But yeah, I, I noticed like, yeah, it sounds like he likes Trump.

• 1:38:28Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:38:29Dax Shepard?

  And I bet sometimes it sounds like I like Trump.

• 1:38:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, or that like there's, there's in, there's kind of a one-sided acknowledgement. It's like there's, there's acknowledgements of like, when there's something that might be working, but there's not as much of an acknowledgement when like a lot of stuff is not working or things are bad because you don't want to cause a, a fluster, which I understand.

• 1:38:51Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I'm just trying to always dig everyone out of what I'm worried about is like an overwhelming fear of.

• 1:38:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:38:56Dax Shepard?

  The present day.

• 1:38:57Speaker 01

  But then what it ends up causing is a fear.

• 1:39:00Dax Shepard?

  That I.

• 1:39:00Speaker 01

  About you.

• 1:39:01Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I know. Yeah, it was, it was, it was good. It was a good experience.

• 1:39:05Speaker 01

  That's good, I'm glad.

• 1:39:06Dax Shepard?

  And I mean, minimally, all he would have to say, and it's pretty much all you're asking is like, I don't agree with this guy.

• 1:39:13Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:39:14Dax Shepard?

  I don't like him, but this, a couple of these things might work out.

• 1:39:16Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:39:17Dax Shepard?

  You know?

• 1:39:17Speaker 01

  I'm not gonna say that's not true.

• 1:39:18Dax Shepard?

  But it's almost like, um, it feels redundant, but it's worth saying.

• 1:39:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, totally.

• 1:39:24Dax Shepard?

  It's also just a really, um, it's emblematic of if everyone around me has got, is saying one thing, I just feel obliged to like offer the counter.

• 1:39:34Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:39:34Dax Shepard?

  And so it just forced me to be in a situation more than I would otherwise be.

• 1:39:39Speaker 01

  Everything's complicated. I do think though, I think that there are some, not policy about this or policy about this, but there's some like real deep inherent values things.

• 1:39:55Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:56Speaker 01

  That are on the line, that are really scary. And, um, and I actually, when I was also in this car ride, short car ride, but a lot happened, you know?

• 1:40:08Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whole life went by in a car ride.

• 1:40:10Speaker 01

  I drove by a gas station and the gas is of course so cheap here.

• 1:40:15Dax Shepard?

  Oh my god.

• 1:40:16Speaker 01

  It's unreal.

• 1:40:17Dax Shepard?

  Like $2.60 a gallon.

• 1:40:18Speaker 01

  Yep. And I think that every time I'm home, it's also so funny because every time I talk to my parents, it's always like, what's the gas? Like, gas is, is so on the brain. And I saw, I was like, oh my God, gas is, is so cheap here.

• 1:40:30Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:40:30Speaker 01

  And like, I get why that's a huge appeal. And I'm so fucking privileged and lucky that I can get gas at an astronomical price and I don't really think much of it.

• 1:40:42Dax Shepard?

  This came up just yesterday. Eric and I were again, driving to get a piece, that piece of furniture you're sitting on.

• 1:40:47Speaker 01

  Oh, that's very nice.

• 1:40:48Dax Shepard?

  And we're driving for a while and he sees gas prices. And again, this is where I get critical of the left. I go, you know, California's approach to the gas is the most un-liberal thing imaginable. It's so disproportionately punishes poor people.

• 1:41:03Speaker 01

  It does, yes, it does.

• 1:41:04Dax Shepard?

  And it's nuts. It should be a fucking, um, and we have this other crisis where it's like, people are driving electric more and more and more, so they're not paying gas taxes. So that, that's all the funding for the roads.

• 1:41:16Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:41:17Dax Shepard?

  Right. So, so the electric drivers are no longer putting into the road maintenance pool. And all these states that have a heavy electric consumer population, they're trying to figure out how to offset this.

• 1:41:27Speaker 01

  That's interesting. Yeah.

• 1:41:28Dax Shepard?

  And so, yeah, Eric and I was, we were talking about the gas prices. I was like, it's, it's so disproportionately punishes disenfranchised people, which our party is supposed to be all about the opposite of that. And why don't they just like, put a huge tax on new cars? That is the highway tax. Poor people generally aren't buying new cars as much.

• 1:41:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's.

• 1:41:48Dax Shepard?

  So right away, you're like targeting who you want to target.

• 1:41:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:41:50Dax Shepard?

  You could also put the price point on the cars, like any car above 50,000 is getting this amount. You know, like.

• 1:41:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:41:56Dax Shepard?

  That would be the liberal approach to helping poor people.

• 1:41:59Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 1:42:00Dax Shepard?

  But where we have a cancer is where we're like, seemingly some people are just so pro-tax. Like, any tax is good. Any tax must be helping poor people. No, a lot of these taxes are.

• 1:42:12Speaker 01

  Well, depending. Yeah.

• 1:42:13Dax Shepard?

  Disproportionately really hurting the poor people.

• 1:42:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's true. There needs to be some reform for sure. And I, I, I do recognize that it's a privileged position to be able to say this, but I did think when I had that thought that like, yeah, I'm willing, because people ask all the time, like, oh my God, how do you afford living there? How do you, like, it's so outrageous. It's so outrageous. And even when I was not making the money I'm making now, when I was living with two other people.

• 1:42:42Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:42:44Speaker 01

  I'm willing to pay more.

• 1:42:48Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:42:48Speaker 01

  For a sense of like decency and safety. I'm sure it's just my own background and coming from places where, yes, I feel like I don't land in LA and get in the car and think like, okay, I gotta, I'm like, holding the weight of.

• 1:43:01Dax Shepard?

  Right. Yeah.

• 1:43:02Speaker 01

  My ethnicity on my shoulders. I'm just not. And so I am willing to pay for that.

• 1:43:07Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:43:08Speaker 01

  Which is, it's just all very interesting.

• 1:43:10Dax Shepard?

  Well, a lot of these, Brad and Hannah who moved here.

• 1:43:14Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:43:14Dax Shepard?

  Six months ago, been talking to both of them and they're so happy.

• 1:43:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, great.

• 1:43:18Dax Shepard?

  And there is a reality. It's like, it's a very hard city to not make a lot of money in.

• 1:43:25Speaker 01

  LA?

• 1:43:25Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:43:25Speaker 01

  Oh, God, yes.

• 1:43:26Dax Shepard?

  Like, they're paying the same amount in rent that they had a one bedroom apartment. Now they have a yard and their dog runs around. It's like they can approach art in a way that's not like, oh, my fucking God. It costs us six grand a month to live in L.A. Where are we coming up with this money?

• 1:43:39Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 1:43:40Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, just talking to them and recognizing like, yeah, man, it's one of those cities. It's like New York was like, if you make it, it's great.

• 1:43:46Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:43:46Dax Shepard?

  And if you don't, it's it's rough. Yeah, it's just so, even here, we're going out to breakfast with like eight people yesterday and the bill's ninety nine dollars.

• 1:43:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:43:55Dax Shepard?

  I'm like, this is nuts. I've not seen a breakfast for eight people in L.A. under two fifty in a decade.

• 1:44:01Speaker 01

  It's, yeah, cost of living, there's no question. I mean, there's, and it's why a lot of people have left and come to these places. I do do, I really get it. But I, I feel very defensive and protective

• 1:44:14Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:15Speaker 01

  of Los Angeles and California. And I feel, I feel safest there. It's why, it's weird, like.

• 1:44:21Dax Shepard?

  I don't feel defensive. Like, I love L.A. It's given me everything.

• 1:44:25Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:44:26Dax Shepard?

  It's given me everything. Um, I love it. And I totally understand why people don't like it or they're threatened by it or they feel like it as a city has too much sway over the whole country. You know, I, I understand these

• 1:44:39Speaker 01

  But also not.

• 1:44:40Dax Shepard?

  criticisms.

• 1:44:41Speaker 01

  We're not represented proportionally, but yeah.

• 1:44:44Dax Shepard?

  L.A. has had the power to set culture more than any other city in history.

• 1:44:47Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 1:44:48Dax Shepard?

  You know, Will and Grace, Philadelphia, all these things are the day after changing Reagan's opinion on nuclear armament. I mean, like, you know, we've had some major sway in a very tiny area.

• 1:44:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:44:59Dax Shepard?

  Um, so I understand people's suspicion of any place that has disproportionate

• 1:45:04Speaker 01

  Cultural capital.

• 1:45:05Dax Shepard?

  sway over what happens.

• 1:45:07Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 1:45:07Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's interesting.

• 1:45:09Dax Shepard?

  I just like it and I, and I feel fine if they don't. I, you know, like, I get it.

• 1:45:14Speaker 01

  I don't either until.

• 1:45:17Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I'm sorry. That's, that's kind of condescending.

• 1:45:19Speaker 01

  It was so condescending.

• 1:45:21Dax Shepard?

  Like, I know better.

• 1:45:23Speaker 01

  Oh, I'm sorry. Excuse me?

• 1:45:29Speaker 03

  Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert if you dare.

• 1:45:41Dax Shepard?

  There weren't fireflies, but did you enjoy the boat?

• 1:45:43Speaker 01

  I did. It was lovely.

• 1:45:45Dax Shepard?

  Pirates of the Caribbean.

• 1:45:46Speaker 01

  It was pirates. It was breezy. It was really nice. It's lovely. You have, I won't out you, but this is quite.

• 1:46:00Dax Shepard?

  You can out me because.

• 1:46:01Speaker 01

  In a boat.

• 1:46:02Dax Shepard?

  It'd be insane for me to not process this in public. It's a big part of my life.

• 1:46:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:46:09Dax Shepard?

  And it is nearly impossible for me to compute. I've spent the last 16 days here just going, no way.

• 1:46:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, I imagine so.

• 1:46:20Dax Shepard?

  I just, I just love this yard so much. I can't believe how much nature there is in the yard. There's fucking deer in the yard and there's little turkeys and they have baby turkeys that we call giblets.

• 1:46:30Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:46:31Dax Shepard?

  There's a family of giblets. I saw them this morning.

• 1:46:33Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:46:34Dax Shepard?

  There's just like, it's so noisy at night with the frogs and the.

• 1:46:38Speaker 01

  It is.

• 1:46:39Dax Shepard?

  Crickets and whatever goddamn other thing is out there.

• 1:46:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:46:42Dax Shepard?

  Oh, so soothing. I like it.

• 1:46:44Speaker 01

  It's lovely.

• 1:46:45Dax Shepard?

  But yeah, I'm having a very hard time integrating it, trusting it, waiting, not, you know, waiting for something bad to happen.

• 1:46:52Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:46:53Dax Shepard?

  All those, it's very complicated and wonderful.

• 1:46:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:46:57Dax Shepard?

  But, um.

• 1:46:58Speaker 01

  But the house itself is really astonishing.

• 1:47:01Dax Shepard?

  It's gorgeous. It's much better than our LA house.

• 1:47:04Speaker 01

  No, and see, this is where, no, that's so unfair.

• 1:47:09Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:47:10Speaker 01

  To that house.

• 1:47:11Dax Shepard?

  It is. It is totally. It's a beautiful house.

• 1:47:14Speaker 01

  Insane house as well.

• 1:47:15Dax Shepard?

  I know. I said to Kristen, day three, I'm like, well, we've somehow done the impossible. We've made our LA house, which is gorgeous, seem tight, I'm sure, when we get home.

• 1:47:26Speaker 01

  This is also, so last night when I was sitting in bed and I was thinking about a lot of things.

• 1:47:30Dax Shepard?

  Let's talk about the main thing. You must be here going, he's gonna quit.

• 1:47:34Speaker 01

  Well, with pin in that, we're gonna, we're gonna get to that. I had a big therapy session before I came here.

• 1:47:40Dax Shepard?

  Oh, you did? Okay.

• 1:47:41Speaker 01

  I now know.

• 1:47:44Speaker 01

  Why I can like kind of put words to why the constant joke about Monica built a house bigger than ours bumps me.

• 1:47:52Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:47:53Speaker 01

  Because your house at home, your house in LA at home.

• 1:47:57Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 1:47:58Speaker 01

  Is.

• 1:47:59Dax Shepard?

  I capital H O M E.

• 1:48:00Speaker 01

  That's our home. Um, is unbelievable. I mean, the house is unbelievable.

• 1:48:06Dax Shepard?

  It was gorgeous.

• 1:48:07Speaker 01

  Structures, there's multiple structures.

• 1:48:09Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:48:09Speaker 01

  When people come over.

• 1:48:10Dax Shepard?

  We're so lucky.

• 1:48:11Speaker 01

  They comment, every single person who comes in comments on the house in the land.

• 1:48:16Dax Shepard?

  Love our house. We're insanely lucky.

• 1:48:18Speaker 01

  But I think when, when it said like, and Monica bought this house across the street is bigger than ours.

• 1:48:24Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:48:24Speaker 01

  There's a like, there's an implied modesty on your part and an implied indulgence on my part.

• 1:48:33Dax Shepard?

  Oh.

• 1:48:33Speaker 01

  And I can own, I am indulgent. Like my house is gonna be too big for me. It's, it's um, be, it's gonna be beautiful and lovely, but it is not, it is, it is not your, your estate is that. It is, it is an acre.

• 1:48:55Dax Shepard?

  LA or here?

• 1:48:56Speaker 01

  LA.

• 1:48:57Dax Shepard?

  Okay, okay. I just wanna be, I wanna keep it straight.

• 1:48:59Speaker 01

  LA. And then when I arrived here.

• 1:49:02Dax Shepard?

  You were just like, fuck this guy.

• 1:49:03Speaker 01

  I was just like, okay, I, I literally, I can't ever, ever hear any faux modesty again. Like you.

• 1:49:15Dax Shepard?

  Well, yes. If your conclusion about that whole thing is, if you're right about that, if it's an attempt for me to make you seem indulgent, me seem humble or modest.

• 1:49:27Speaker 01

  I think more about.

• 1:49:28Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 1:49:28Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:49:29Dax Shepard?

  Reject it to no end.

• 1:49:30Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:49:31Dax Shepard?

  I'm not modest.

• 1:49:32Speaker 01

  Okay, great.

• 1:49:33Dax Shepard?

  I have a tour bus.

• 1:49:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:49:34Dax Shepard?

  I have a sweet pontoon boat. I'm not modest.

• 1:49:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:49:38Dax Shepard?

  I love the story again, I'll tell you.

• 1:49:43Speaker 01

  Oh, about me?

• 1:49:43Dax Shepard?

  It's such an incredible American story.

• 1:49:48Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:49:49Dax Shepard?

  That you start as a babysitter.

• 1:49:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:49:53Dax Shepard?

  And then six years later, you build a house that's bigger than the, that's the story I like.

• 1:49:58Speaker 01

  I know, but we can't.

• 1:49:58Dax Shepard?

  That's not about me being modest.

• 1:50:00Speaker 01

  But we can't tell a false story.

• 1:50:03Dax Shepard?

  Well, that's why I say specifically your main house is bigger. I have to, I'm admitting I have to find a very specific definition of this claim so that I can keep the story that I love, which is starting as a babysitter, then building a bigger house. I just love that.

• 1:50:18Speaker 01

  I understand. I love it too. I'm so grateful for it.

• 1:50:21Dax Shepard?

  I mean, it's probably perpetuating the thing we hate, which is like, you really can't move up in life of the couple of us do, and then everyone else kills themselves trying. It's probably bad, but I love.

• 1:50:29Speaker 01

  Why?

• 1:50:30Dax Shepard?

  It's the classic American story. That's why I like it.

• 1:50:33Speaker 01

  That's why I like it.

• 1:50:33Dax Shepard?

  Land of opportunity.

• 1:50:35Speaker 01

  It is.

• 1:50:35Dax Shepard?

  But then I'm just also recognizing the land of opportunity is sometimes been weaponized to convince people to kill themselves when really we know that that upward mobility is way less than what the quote American.

• 1:50:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, or that like everyone has an equal opportunity. That's not true.

• 1:50:49Dax Shepard?

  So I'm only saying, I know I love the story and I know the story itself is maybe part of our overall problem, but I love, I, I kind of love the story. If I don't know us and I just know this story, it's one I would repeat.

• 1:51:03Speaker 01

  On 4th of July was an interesting 4th because we were, I was in Palm Springs with our friends and some of our friends are really like, what do we do? We're black today? Like, you know, like very upset with the, the current state of the United States and, and felt like celebrating it was tricky for them. And I, I was like,

• 1:51:30Speaker 01

  Absolutely not.

• 1:51:32Dax Shepard?

  Thank God you're saying this, because we would have had maybe a-

• 1:51:35Speaker 01

  Are you gonna let, do not let them-

• 1:51:38Dax Shepard?

  I know, it always angers me.

• 1:51:41Speaker 01

  Well, I know, but you can't, don't-

• 1:51:42Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I'm not gonna be angry, but I don't know who it is, so I'm-

• 1:51:44Speaker 01

  That's fine, I just, you cannot let other people take that from you. And I, I said, I, I am not letting anyone take the flag from me, the concept of America from me.

• 1:51:59Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:52:00Speaker 01

  I am, I am what it is.

• 1:52:03Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:52:03Speaker 01

  For real, not this other bullshit. And so I'm not gonna let them commenteer it, and no one should.

• 1:52:09Dax Shepard?

  No.

• 1:52:10Speaker 01

  But anyway, so, American dream, I've lost my train of thought. Anyway, um, yeah.

• 1:52:16Dax Shepard?

  Well, I have a barn burner of a story, but I'm gonna save it to the next fact check.

• 1:52:19Speaker 01

  Oh, shit.

• 1:52:20Dax Shepard?

  But it's about, I had my first, I have my second incident, but my first big incident. Yeah, so that's, that'll be on the next fact check.

• 1:52:27Speaker 01

  Can't wait.

• 1:52:28Dax Shepard?

  Let's just say as a teaser, I have dealt with law enforcement already.

• 1:52:32Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:52:35Speaker 01

  Oh my God. Wow, well, I am excited to hear-

• 1:52:40Dax Shepard?

  Took a little shorter than I was hoping, but uh-

• 1:52:42Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:52:43Dax Shepard?

  I have met a lot of the law-

• 1:52:46Speaker 01

  Okay, that's a, that's a, um-

• 1:52:49Dax Shepard?

  I just wanna say, um, yeah, I feel guilty.

• 1:52:53Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:52:54Dax Shepard?

  Um, I feel weirdly ashamed to say in public.

• 1:52:57Speaker 01

  That you have this?

• 1:52:58Dax Shepard?

  But I'm, I, I would feel crazy dishonest, like, I, I, I just am so happy.

• 1:53:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:53:03Dax Shepard?

  I'm so happy.

• 1:53:04Speaker 01

  Why are you ashamed?

• 1:53:05Dax Shepard?

  I don't know, a tall poppy, or like, we didn't like rich people growing up, I don't know.

• 1:53:11Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 1:53:11Dax Shepard?

  People hate rich people, I know that, I don't want someone to hate me.

• 1:53:14Speaker 01

  You've spread that a lot.

• 1:53:15Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I, I probably am gonna reap what I sowed, is what I, yeah, the bills come due. But, um, but it would, it would feel crazy to not share how just unbelievably grateful and happy I am, I'm so happy I could cry. I mean, I just can't believe-

• 1:53:29Speaker 01

  What are the, like, the, tell me more?

• 1:53:33Dax Shepard?

  Well, a couple things, you won't like one of them, but a couple things are just like- I love where I'm from. Like, my whole family was here, my brother and my sister, my mom. And we're on the boat and all of us are saying the exact same thing like, well, this is definitely just up north Michigan. This is up north Michigan, yet there's also a Walmart five minutes away. And there's restaurants. So it's like, it's an impossible, like this almost doesn't even exist in Michigan where you have that rural of a lake. I can, for people who don't know, I can turn right out of my cove and I can go 60 miles up river before I hit a dam. It's just endless and all these little coves and it's just, it's not built up.

• 1:54:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:54:11Dax Shepard?

  So my whole family's going like, oh, fuck, we're in northern Michigan. Yeah, we're in northern Michigan and we're 40 minutes from Emily Burger.

• 1:54:17Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:54:17Dax Shepard?

  Which we ate at. So like, I just can't even believe the gift that is this place. Uh, location wise. Going to get ice cream at night, like Americans. There's so much of it I miss from childhood. You go on summer nights to go get ice cream.

• 1:54:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:54:33Dax Shepard?

  There's no Dairy Queen in LA.

• 1:54:35Speaker 01

  There's Baskin Robbins, just a stone's throw.

• 1:54:38Dax Shepard?

  Too close, someone argue. The clientele. But this is the, the part that you won't like, but I still would share with you.

• 1:54:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:54:46Dax Shepard?

  I'm tell you everything. In just a couple of weeks here, I am able to resee LA. The way I did before I moved there. In just a few weeks of being away from there.

• 1:54:59Speaker 01

  What do you mean?

• 1:55:00Dax Shepard?

  Like, do you, well, do you remember leaving Georgia and your idea of Hollywood? And then going there and it's like very intimidating and scary. And then you gotta get going and you gotta get an agent and you gotta figure this thing out. And then you're really paying attention to what everyone else is doing because hopefully someone will have a tip and I'll figure out how to get an agent and then I'll figure out what to do in auditions and oh, that's a good tip. And it's a very consumed town.

• 1:55:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:55:32Dax Shepard?

  It's very, very consumed. This is what I love about it. It's one of the most ambitious places I've ever been in my life, other than New York City.

• 1:55:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, both, they're similar.

• 1:55:41Dax Shepard?

  It's just like so ambitious and such a company town.

• 1:55:44Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:55:44Dax Shepard?

  And billboards of your peers everywhere you drive. And just the whole like, This is the, what you won't like about it, but a little bit of our self obsession with ourselves. Like, we're kind of the center of the universe there. And

• 1:55:59Speaker 01

  It's about getting ahead.

• 1:56:00Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. And just being on task and, and, and again, just you're, you're looking around.

• 1:56:05Speaker 01

  Working hard.

• 1:56:06Dax Shepard?

  And looking around nonstop. And there's all this visual, when you're in insurance here, you could be crushing as an insurance provider. You're not gonna see a billboard of your competitor, unless it was an ad, but you're, I mean, I guess, but you know, in our town, you just, the whole place is covered with your peers.

• 1:56:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:56:22Dax Shepard?

  With their different projects that are happening.

• 1:56:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:56:25Dax Shepard?

  It's like, oh, I haven't.

• 1:56:26Speaker 01

  But you don't still, and I don't either.

• 1:56:30Dax Shepard?

  I'm out of that.

• 1:56:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:56:32Dax Shepard?

  But just as a town, it's a very, it's a very navel gazer-y town.

• 1:56:37Speaker 01

  Yes, it is.

• 1:56:37Dax Shepard?

  I guess my thought was, I was like, yeah, no wonder Chappelle moved back to Ohio. Like, to be able to do comedy and have it be cutting, accurate, astute, you can't be sitting in the center of it.

• 1:56:51Speaker 01

  I mean.

• 1:56:51Dax Shepard?

  I mean, that's his explanation.

• 1:56:53Speaker 01

  Yeah. I don't know if that's true, cuz I think there are other people doing it who live there that also like are

• 1:57:02Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:57:03Speaker 01

  able to, but for him, I guess that's, I mean, for him, I mean, his, he's so specific. He had to like leave the country to get away from

• 1:57:11Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:57:12Speaker 01

  Everything for a while. So like, for him, that's where he makes the best art.

• 1:57:15Dax Shepard?

  But I just heard him say that once and I was like, do you real, I was kind of like, do you really need to live in Ohio to have a real perspective? But, but I understand what he's saying. I understand what he's saying a lot.

• 1:57:25Speaker 01

  I understand too.

• 1:57:26Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. And maybe there's more insular towns, but it's a very insular town, LA.

• 1:57:31Speaker 01

  I just think, not to diminish it, maybe it's cuz you just got here, like, I don't.

• 1:57:34Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, it could wear off. There's a lot of things.

• 1:57:36Speaker 01

  No, I think you'll love it for, it's not about that. I just think you, to me, this is insular too. Like, to me, everywhere you go becomes insular, becomes about what it is. And that becomes, that becomes clear after being in a place for a while.

• 1:57:51Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:57:51Speaker 01

  LA is specific cuz it's glitzy. It's across the board. Everyone knows what it is. Same with New York. Like, that's, but, but when you're in a place for a long time, the fabric of what it is comes to the surface. And it is this, it's as, to me, as insular and telling and specific.

• 1:58:11Speaker 01

  As LA is.

• 1:58:13Dax Shepard?

  I guess here I just, I get this sense that life's about so much more than work.

• 1:58:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's nice.

• 1:58:19Dax Shepard?

  And I think a lot of, I have a lot of friends I love and care about in LA that have, their lives have been ruined by the fact that they haven't met their goals.

• 1:58:27Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 1:58:28Dax Shepard?

  Professionally, and that's heartbreaking.

• 1:58:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, it is.

• 1:58:31Dax Shepard?

  And I like being reminded like, no, life is about also friends and family.

• 1:58:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:58:38Dax Shepard?

  And like, that part's neat.

• 1:58:39Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:58:40Dax Shepard?

  And, and I don't, I don't think I ever thought I'd be able to see LA again the way I saw it before I lived there.

• 1:58:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:58:46Dax Shepard?

  But I can see myself being able to actually kind of have two, two, two visions of it.

• 1:58:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:58:51Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:58:51Speaker 01

  I just, I think it's interesting that you're feeling that now though, because I feel like, I feel like now we're not, especially you are not there anymore. Like in that headspace of on the hamster, like, and I actually, that, that's sort of a beautiful thing about being there for that long. If, if you, if you do get a lot of the things you want, you do see the truth. You do see the reality.

• 1:59:18Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:59:18Speaker 01

  Of, of what achievement really is, or what work really should feel like, or you know, I don't know. I, I think that's a thing you get there if you're lucky.

• 1:59:29Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:59:30Speaker 01

  That you don't get from a nine to five job that most people are living in these parts.

• 1:59:36Dax Shepard?

  I guess if I had to say one statement that I just really would stand by, it's that, oh yes, every place has trade offs. Every country has trade offs. Life is trade offs. There's no perfect place. There's no perfect city.

• 1:59:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, of course.

• 1:59:50Dax Shepard?

  It's like these trade offs and what is it that you are hungry for in your life? And yes, that exists there and you're willing to take on this unfortunate trade off of it.

• 1:59:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:00:00Dax Shepard?

  And that evolves over time and, and every city has it. And I'm not declaring one or better or worse, it's just like seeing and recognizing the trade offs is, is interesting.

• 2:00:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:00:12Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 2:00:13Speaker 01

  There, there definitely are. Again, just to, I feel it's needed to say, like, the reason you can feel like.

• 2:00:23Speaker 01

  Life isn't about work.

• 2:00:25Dax Shepard?

  Mm hmm.

• 2:00:26Speaker 01

  Is cuz you're in a position. It's in sight and it's like, most people, it's not in sight at your age.

• 2:00:34Dax Shepard?

  Right, you know, I know.

• 2:00:35Speaker 01

  Not even close.

• 2:00:36Dax Shepard?

  Again, back to the, yeah.

• 2:00:38Speaker 01

  So like.

• 2:00:38Dax Shepard?

  Guilty gratitude.

• 2:00:39Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, but I'm just saying, like, there's a reason, most people don't have the luxury of saying, like, most people should say, your whole life shouldn't be about work. But most people can't say, your life isn't about work because that's how we all live in this country. We, that's how we.

• 2:00:56Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, but even if you're working, it's a means to an end more than an identity. It feels like here, it's like, Huey does his thing so he can go on vacation.

• 2:01:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, of course.

• 2:01:08Dax Shepard?

  Wherever island he just came from. Anyways, yeah, it's just, I think in our town, our work is more our identity than in other places.

• 2:01:16Speaker 01

  Yes, but to me, and this is maybe wrong, it's because our work is connected to art. And art is an identity and, and our work specifically is our identity. It's who, it's literally us.

• 2:01:30Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 2:01:31Speaker 01

  Putting forth our thoughts and our, you know.

• 2:01:35Dax Shepard?

  But where the evaluating your identity on the outcome of your artistic pursuit is tricky.

• 2:01:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, it is. I guess not to like pull the curtain too far back, but we, we obviously, we're, we have our job at least for two more years. That's, we're in a contract.

• 2:01:51Dax Shepard?

  Yep.

• 2:01:51Speaker 01

  So I feel like, safe in that way.

• 2:01:55Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 2:01:55Speaker 01

  But you being here.

• 2:01:57Dax Shepard?

  Is scary.

• 2:01:58Speaker 01

  Scares me and has been interesting for me, like, okay, the things that I think are permanent are not.

• 2:02:08Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 2:02:09Speaker 01

  And I need to plan for that.

• 2:02:11Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 2:02:12Speaker 01

  And it sucks, like, it, it really bums me out because I like our lives a lot. I like our, this job so much.

• 2:02:20Dax Shepard?

  Me too.

• 2:02:21Speaker 01

  And it's so special and we got so fucking lucky, like, it's so wild.

• 2:02:27Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 2:02:28Speaker 01

  And the idea that like, that is going to end and it's not really probably going to be my decision. That sucks, like, this, this kind of thing we stumbled into, um, I'm gonna have to figure out something else, potentially, and, and I, and I need to potentially start thinking about that before I wanted to. Like, I was really sort of happy. Being very present doing this and putting a lot of all my effort and energy into it and and not being like, I don't have to worry.

• 2:03:02Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 2:03:03Speaker 01

  And this has triggered a lot of worry.

• 2:03:05Dax Shepard?

  Sure. I bet.

• 2:03:06Speaker 01

  So I'm just moving through it, I guess.

• 2:03:10Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I would be stressed if I were you.

• 2:03:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, if you were thirty seven and you had your dream job and you knew it was on its way.

• 2:03:18Dax Shepard?

  That's right.

• 2:03:19Speaker 01

  Based on nothing you could do.

• 2:03:20Dax Shepard?

  I too have my dream job. Same. Love it. And yeah, I'll be fifty two or fifty three at the end of our contract, which is, yeah, just different.

• 2:03:31Speaker 01

  It is different. And I but also it's like, that seems young to me. Like, that's like so young and

• 2:03:37Dax Shepard?

  It is young.

• 2:03:38Speaker 01

  You know, my dad's in his seventies and he's like, not, you know, I don't know. It's just, it's just interesting. It's all, it's all interesting.

• 2:03:46Dax Shepard?

  My thing, and I think I've tried to tell it to you, is in some weird way, I am so lucky. And it would weirdly feel kind of disrespectful and dishonoring of how much luck I've had to not explore the gift of that, which is like, who am I without work? Who, I have that luxury. I'm really lucky. I'm so lucky. I get, I get to maybe say, who am I without work?

• 2:04:16Speaker 01

  Yeah. It's just like, it's almost, I mean, it is this.

• 2:04:19Dax Shepard?

  Let's just say this. I don't, I don't think, A, this job doesn't resemble what I'm about to say. So be very clear, I'm not doing a false equivalency. And I don't think you're, you would be doing it this way. But I have over my years in LA seen a lot of people stay at it simply because they they knew it was really hard to get and they don't want to lose it. And they're not doing it for any inspired reason.

• 2:04:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:04:42Dax Shepard?

  Or they just got trapped.

• 2:04:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:04:44Dax Shepard?

  They got fearful it would never stick around. And then that led to, they just never

• 2:04:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:04:51Dax Shepard?

  evaluated in. I have this bizarre feeling that that would be a dishonoring of this huge lucky.

• 2:05:01Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:05:01Dax Shepard?

  Thing for me to like, never stop and go, okay, what else do we want to do before we die?

• 2:05:08Dax Shepard?

  On planet Earth and I, but again, I, I, I don't want anyone to listen, listening to think that I have declared I'm quitting in two years. I'm not. I haven't said that. Um, there's also a version where maybe we don't do 162 episodes a year. That would be, you know, appealing to me. The soonest I could ever be here full time would be eight years from now.

• 2:05:27Speaker 01

  I know. I, I'm, I'm just saying.

• 2:05:30Dax Shepard?

  I understand. If I were you, I would be nervous and scared and I understand all of your anxiety and it's, it's very normal.

• 2:05:37Speaker 01

  I guess I think I thought that I was like Buddhist, you know, since I've been Buddhist recently and I thought like.

• 2:05:44Dax Shepard?

  Since White Lotus, season four.

• 2:05:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, the most recent White Lotus. I thought that I was like really at peace.

• 2:05:51Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 2:05:52Speaker 01

  Like, oh, I'm fine. Like, and I am fine. I, I feel like, oh, I don't, I'm not, I'm, I'm off the treadmill. I'm not thinking about what's going to happen in the future or what's, what, how am I going to maintain this? Or how am I, I'm very present.

• 2:06:08Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 2:06:08Speaker 01

  In this job.

• 2:06:09Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 2:06:09Speaker 01

  And like, now I feel like that's gone and that feels like a loss.

• 2:06:14Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 2:06:15Speaker 01

  So I want to figure out how to have that still, but also be realistic about my life. And that's very.

• 2:06:23Dax Shepard?

  That's what you're juggling.

• 2:06:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's what I'm juggling.

• 2:06:25Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 2:06:26Speaker 01

  Anyway.

• 2:06:26Dax Shepard?

  I understand. I'm sorry. I'm stressing you out.

• 2:06:30Speaker 01

  It's, look, I guess that's also part of it. I feel very competent as a person. I feel very independent as a person. Um, I believe in my skills and myself for the most part now. But again, when this is happening, I don't.

• 2:06:53Dax Shepard?

  Well, you're in fear.

• 2:06:54Speaker 01

  Yeah. And I feel like, oh, this is all here because I'm attached to you.

• 2:06:58Dax Shepard?

  Never make a dollar again.

• 2:06:59Speaker 01

  I'm attached to you. You decide to go, then what? Then I don't have anything anymore. I don't have any skills. I don't have it. What am I going to do? I don't even have.

• 2:07:06Dax Shepard?

  Soul cycle.

• 2:07:07Speaker 01

  I can always go back to soul cycle, I guess. Um, yeah, it's just a lot to, I just have a lot of anxiety.

• 2:07:14Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 2:07:14Speaker 01

  But it's fine. It'll all be fine.

• 2:07:17Dax Shepard?

  I'm sorry I'm part of that.

• 2:07:18Speaker 01

  It's okay. I chose it. But also I didn't like you can't do I don't think um independent full fully independence like works it doesn't work for me I'm a collaborator I like that it requires them being connected to other people and not having full control and that sucks but that's part of the game too so yeah anyway okay we gotta do some facts all right this is for another hottie with the body

• 2:07:51Dax Shepard?

  Alexander Skarsgård

• 2:07:54Speaker 01

  Oh yeah

• 2:07:54Dax Shepard?

  Oh, consider me charmed

• 2:07:58Speaker 01

  Me too

• 2:07:59Dax Shepard?

  I'm gonna add a piece of information that wasn't available in the interview that I can't imagine he would care I say now but I think it would be very informative to people

• 2:08:09Speaker 01

  It's telling

• 2:08:10Dax Shepard?

  Yes, I think you and I both went into this interview going who is he he's such a kind of enigma he dresses so uniquely on things is he playful is he serious what is he and what we found out after is his best friend here we go ding ding ding best friend I I mean

• 2:08:28Speaker 01

  Best friend

• 2:08:29Dax Shepard?

  I presume he means in LA he might have a different one in Sweden but

• 2:08:32Speaker 01

  He probably means his one and only

• 2:08:35Dax Shepard?

  Jack McBrer is his best friend which I can't think of a better vote of confidence than Jack McBrer being your best friend that's a winner

• 2:08:45Speaker 01

  I agree

• 2:08:46Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, so Alex was so playful and fun it was a real revelation for me I fell pretty in love with him did you

• 2:08:54Speaker 01

  A hundred percent he's wildest dreams you know

• 2:08:57Dax Shepard?

  That's a tall boy right there

• 2:08:59Speaker 01

  He was so tall

• 2:09:01Dax Shepard?

  Would you climb around on there would you do a little climbing

• 2:09:03Speaker 01

  Hey hey hey that's let's be respectful he's got a family okay

• 2:09:11Dax Shepard?

  I'd go for a climb if I were a gal I'd go for a little climb

• 2:09:14Speaker 01

  Okay he can he's so nice he hangs out with Jack McBrer

• 2:09:20Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, that's how he gets you

• 2:09:21Speaker 01

  Has a family

• 2:09:23Dax Shepard?

  Then you're in a pretzel reverse back double penny and you're like what happened

• 2:09:27Speaker 01

  Oh my god

• 2:09:31Speaker 01

  Uh, anyway, he, he was lovely. I really, I, I liked him a lot. Okay. Now, I looked up how many calories do you burn in Greenland just trying to stay warm?

• 2:09:40Dax Shepard?

  Hmm.

• 2:09:41Speaker 01

  But I couldn't find that because it kept saying, you know, it has to do with your BMI and stuff.

• 2:09:48Dax Shepard?

  Right.

• 2:09:48Speaker 01

  Some other stuff, you know?

• 2:09:49Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 2:09:50Speaker 01

  But it does say being cold can lead to increased calorie burning. When your body temperature drops, it triggers a process called thermogenesis, where your body works to generate heat, burning more calories in the process. This can happen through shivering or through the activation of brown fat.

• 2:10:05Dax Shepard?

  Hmm. That's what I'm trying to do in my cold plunge.

• 2:10:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I wish it wasn't called brown fat. It's like very racist.

• 2:10:13Dax Shepard?

  I like it and it's confusing because it sounds bad, doesn't it? Brown fat, like it's decayed, but...

• 2:10:20Speaker 01

  It's gone rancid.

• 2:10:22Dax Shepard?

  You want to activate that brown fat, so now I've come to embrace brown fat as positive. But you're right, it sounds, it's not a great branding.

• 2:10:30Speaker 01

  I bet if people knew about brown fat when I was little, they would have called me, um, brown fatty.

• 2:10:37Dax Shepard?

  No, you're very tiny. You're, I've seen pictures. You were, they would have made fun of you, but not for, it would for the other direction, probably.

• 2:10:46Speaker 01

  Okay. Now, I looked up can vampires change if they can't die?

• 2:10:51Dax Shepard?

  Right. Great question.

• 2:10:53Speaker 01

  As mythical beings, vampires don't follow the rules of normal human aging or physical change. Their appearances generally fix at the moment they are turned into vampires. However, some sources suggest the following ways in which their look might change. And then there's a bunch of ways, but it has not, it's not what you were talking about. So I think there was a slip up in True Blood.

• 2:11:12Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah. I think so too. How are you going to keep these actors in the same exact shape? It's not easy.

• 2:11:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, you can't. Maybe how, it depends on how much blood they're getting. Like they could get thin because they're gonna die because they're not getting enough blood.

• 2:11:28Dax Shepard?

  Maybe, but it doesn't seem like that happens either. Their weight doesn't seem to fluctuate. Also, blood's not super caloric. It's not like, I mean, I doubt they're even getting... Three thousand calories a day in blood. That's a lot of blood.

• 2:11:42Speaker 01

  But it's how they, it's all they consume.

• 2:11:46Dax Shepard?

  How much blood would three thousand calories of human blood be? This might get me flagged.

• 2:11:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, it will.

• 2:11:53Dax Shepard?

  Okay, so one liter of blood is six hundred and fifty calories. So you'd need four point six liters of blood to get three thousand calories a day. That's like a gallon and a half.

• 2:12:06Speaker 01

  Would you ever drink someone's blood?

• 2:12:08Dax Shepard?

  For fun, like, wait, did I or would I?

• 2:12:11Speaker 01

  Would, would you?

• 2:12:14Dax Shepard?

  Sure.

• 2:12:14Speaker 01

  Have you?

• 2:12:15Dax Shepard?

  No, I don't think so. And yes, sure. Would you?

• 2:12:19Speaker 01

  It would really, there's, there is something about blood. It's like one of the only, uh, it really makes me feel queasy.

• 2:12:31Dax Shepard?

  It does, cuz it's.

• 2:12:31Speaker 01

  Thinking about drink, thinking about drinking it.

• 2:12:34Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 2:12:35Speaker 01

  Don't say warm.

• 2:12:36Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 2:12:37Speaker 01

  Um.

• 2:12:38Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 2:12:38Speaker 01

  I mean, I would like lick.

• 2:12:41Dax Shepard?

  Someone's bloody cut, right?

• 2:12:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would lick someone's bloody cut, depending on the person, depending on the person.

• 2:12:47Dax Shepard?

  Of course.

• 2:12:48Speaker 01

  Um, but the, if like, thinking about blood in a cup.

• 2:12:51Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 2:12:52Speaker 01

  I don't think I can do that.

• 2:12:53Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah. And it gets sticky quick, I think.

• 2:12:57Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 2:12:58Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 2:12:58Speaker 01

  Like, I think I'd rather drink someone's pee.

• 2:13:01Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, me too. Yeah. But pee's just water.

• 2:13:05Speaker 01

  Um, and, and bacteria.

• 2:13:07Dax Shepard?

  Minerals. I think it's, I think it's sterile when it comes out.

• 2:13:11Speaker 01

  But isn't it like cleaning? I don't get that cuz it's like cleaning out your system. So it should have gross stuff in there.

• 2:13:19Dax Shepard?

  But then I think your kidneys and your bladder and your liver take all the shit out. They, they cleanse it.

• 2:13:27Speaker 01

  Not if you have a UTI cuz they test your urine and they test it for bacteria.

• 2:13:33Dax Shepard?

  That's true. All right, I'll ask if urine is antiseptic. Is human urine sterile? No, human urine is not sterile. At least not once it leaves the body. Here's why. Inside the bladder, urine is generally low in bacteria, but not completely sterile. Advanced DNA testing has shown that even healthy bladders contain small amounts of non-pathogenic bacteria, the urinary microbiome. But once the urine exits the body, it picks up bacteria from the urethra and skin, making it definitely non-sterile. The myth, the idea that urine is sterile came from outdated testing methods that couldn't detect low levels of bacteria.

• 2:14:16Dax Shepard?

  In short, not sterile in healthy people, just low in human bacteria, harmful bacteria.

• 2:14:22Speaker 01

  Okay. Now we know.

• 2:14:23Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 2:14:24Speaker 01

  Okay. Why do Saabs have the key in the center? Saab placed the ignition key in the center console primarily for safety reasons. Moving the key away from the steering column and dashboard reduced the risk of injury during collisions, as the key could potentially cause a knee or other body part injuries. Additionally, it allowed for a more ergonomic design, facilitating a smooth transition from starting the car to shifting gears.

• 2:14:48Dax Shepard?

  Hmm. Not in an inordinate amount of rollovers, as suggested by the brand ambassador.

• 2:14:55Speaker 01

  I guess not, but it is still safety related.

• 2:14:58Dax Shepard?

  So they're claiming, yeah. Cause your knee would hit the key so often.

• 2:15:03Speaker 01

  Speaking of Swedish vehicles, my mom just got a Volvo.

• 2:15:08Dax Shepard?

  No kidding?

• 2:15:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:15:10Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, those are nice. My best friend Nate has one.

• 2:15:13Speaker 01

  Oh, my God.

• 2:15:14Dax Shepard?

  He loves it.

• 2:15:18Speaker 01

  Um, okay. You said Taylor doesn't sing Wildest Dreams often.

• 2:15:24Dax Shepard?

  In concert, yeah.

• 2:15:25Speaker 01

  In the Eras Tour. Now, I looked.

• 2:15:27Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 2:15:28Speaker 01

  And, and, and she did sing it when I saw her.

• 2:15:32Dax Shepard?

  All right.

• 2:15:33Speaker 01

  Okay. And then, and then, yes, Taylor Swift does perform Wildest Dreams during the Eras Tour, specifically in the part of the 1989 era segment of the show. This may be where you're confused. In the original theatrical release of the Eras Tour film, Wildest Dream was not included, but it is present in the extended version.

• 2:15:53Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 2:15:54Speaker 01

  So the movie didn't have it originally.

• 2:15:56Dax Shepard?

  Certainly didn't. And that's what I saw first.

• 2:15:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:15:59Dax Shepard?

  And then I saw the show. And I think she was singing it to me. I'm gonna stand by that, though.

• 2:16:06Speaker 01

  Oh, all right. I don't love you getting a fact and then not taking it.

• 2:16:10Dax Shepard?

  Right.

• 2:16:11Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 2:16:12Dax Shepard?

  I understand.

• 2:16:12Speaker 01

  Um, also, at one point, I just want the people to know that this is clogged, that you do a Swedish accent, but you definitely slipped into an Indian accent.

• 2:16:21Dax Shepard?

  Oh, I don't know about that, because I know my, I know my Indian accent very specifically. Like, I know when I'm in it. But you think I was in it unintentionally or unaware?

• 2:16:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're gonna have to listen back just for that.

• 2:16:35Dax Shepard?

  All right. What word was I saying? Do you remember?

• 2:16:37Speaker 01

  You were saying a bunch of words.

• 2:16:39Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 2:16:40Speaker 01

  Like, a couple sentences worth.

• 2:16:41Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 2:16:42Speaker 01

  You'll know it. You'll know it when you hear it.

• 2:16:44Dax Shepard?

  Okay. All right. Thanks for making me better.

• 2:16:48Speaker 01

  You're welcome. And that's gonna be it.

• 2:16:51Dax Shepard?

  Oh, I loved him. Call me, count me charmed.

• 2:16:55Speaker 01

  Me too.

• 2:16:55Dax Shepard?

  It was a hot couple of weeks for you.

• 2:16:57Speaker 01

  Oh, man, were we on a tear of hotties.

• 2:17:00Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, hottie summer.

• 2:17:01Speaker 01

  Really nice. Boys' summer.

• 2:17:03Dax Shepard?

  Hmm. The rat summer's over. We're done with rats? Rat boy summer?

• 2:17:07Speaker 01

  I'm not. I'm not done with them.

• 2:17:09Dax Shepard?

  You're just getting into your rat phase.

• 2:17:14Dax Shepard?

  All right.

• 2:17:15Speaker 01

  All right.

• 2:17:15Dax Shepard?

  I love you.

• 2:17:16Speaker 01

  Bye.

• 2:17:17Dax Shepard?

  Bye.