Steve Aoki

Steve Aoki (Wonderland, Dim Mak, and Neon Future) is a Grammy-nominated DJ, producer, and record label founder. Steve joins Armchair Expert to discuss the larger-than-life legacy of his Benihana-founder father Rocky Aoki, growing up a skater kid in Newport Beach, and finding belonging in the straight-edge hardcore punk scene. Steve and Dax talk about launching Dim Mak out of living room shows, transitioning into electronic music through DJing and remixes, and why he still regrets turning down the chance to appear in Tropic Thunder. Steve explains why DIY culture makes creativity feel possible, how competing for his father’s approval shaped his ambition, and why the brain, longevity, and being present as a new dad matters most to him now. Check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds: https://www.allstate.com/ 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 Lilly Padman.

• 0:05Speaker 01

  Hello.

• 0:06Dax Shepard?

  Today, we have one of the biggest DJs to ever live.

• 0:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:10Dax Shepard?

  Steve Aoki. He is a Grammy nominated DJ and record producer. His albums are Neon Future, Wonderland, Colony with a K, like Krispy Kremes.

• 0:19Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 0:20Dax Shepard?

  Quantum Beats. Cool. And he's celebrating, as he should, the 30th anniversary of his record label, Dimmok.

• 0:29Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 0:30Dax Shepard?

  And guys, if you're like me and you think, well, I'm not terribly interested in DJing, it doesn't matter. Steve is such a fascinating guy.

• 0:38Speaker 01

  What an incredible story he has, work ethic, the whole thing. It's just a fun ride.

• 0:44Dax Shepard?

  Legendary father. Oh, it's such a good episode. I really loved him. I think you're going to too. Please enjoy Steve Aoki. We get support from Quince.

• 0:54Speaker 01

  I have to say, I am so ready for fall. I want sweaters. I've been craving a true crisp morning where I actually need a jacket. I can't wait.

• 1:02Dax Shepard?

  I'm fully there. The second it dips below 70, I'm like, this is my season. Give me the layers, give me the boots, give me a reason to wear something other than a t-shirt. And honestly, that's why I love Quince, because fall is when your wardrobe actually has to show up. And everything at Quince is 50 to 80% less than similar brands. We're talking 100% Mongolian cashmere sweaters, starting at $60.

• 1:25Speaker 01

  $60. $60 for cashmere that you'd expect from a luxury brand without the luxury price tag. It's amazing. Gets me every time. It really shouldn't be real, but it is because they go straight to the factories, they skip the middlemen, and they just hand you the savings. The stuff isn't trendy. It's the kind of pieces you grab over and over because they work every time.

• 1:43Dax Shepard?

  The 100% Mongolian cashmere sweaters for me are it. When I look at Steve McQueen, this man owned a couple of sweaters he wore all the time, and he looks iconic.

• 1:52Speaker 01

  It's a uniform.

• 1:53Dax Shepard?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:54Speaker 01

  And Quince isn't just about the clothes. They have hotel quality bedding, cookware, bath essentials, thoughtfully designed furniture. You can really go there and outfit your entire apartment or house. So if you're in need of any kind of fall refresh at home too, same quality, same attention to DJ. Detail for every corner of your life.

• 2:11Dax Shepard?

  Find your next fall favorites at Quince. 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.

• 2:34Speaker 01

  Dax, is there anything better than crawling into a perfect bed on a cold fall night? Candlelit, hoodie on, maybe even some rain outside. The dream.

• 2:44Dax Shepard?

  That's the dream. You just described one of my ideal fall nights.

• 2:49Speaker 01

  I know. And thanks to Helix, my bed actually lives up to the vibe. All I had to do was take the Helix Sleep Quiz and within two minutes, they match me to a mattress built for exactly how I sleep. I have a midnight mattress. It also has cooling technology, which I really.

• 3:05Dax Shepard?

  Increasingly so.

• 3:06Speaker 01

  I need it. I have to have it. And I heard that you're supposed to sleep at a cold temp for optimal sleep. It's very, very helpful.

• 3:16Dax Shepard?

  She is not wrong. I have one too, and it's been such a game changer for sleep. And I love that they make it so easy. Free shipping right to your door. And with their happy with Helix guarantee, you'll get a full 365 nights to try it. A whole year to live in that cozy. They've got over 20 mattress models, so no matter how you sleep, they've got one for you.

• 3:36Speaker 01

  And it's not just us saying it. Helix has been named the most awarded mattress brand by Forbes, Wired, and more. You gotta try it for yourself.

• 3:43Dax Shepard?

  Go to helixsleep.com/armchair for 20% off site wide. That's helixsleep.com/armchair for 20% off site wide. Helixsleep.com/armchair.

• 4:13Dax Shepard?

  From Henderson?

• 4:14Speaker 02

  From Henderson, yeah.

• 4:16Dax Shepard?

  My father-in-law lives in Henderson.

• 4:17Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah?

• 4:18Dax Shepard?

  Mm-hmm.

• 4:19Speaker 02

  It's surprising how many people I know say they have someone in Henderson. You know what they call it? Hender-tucky.

• 4:25Dax Shepard?

  That was a common thing in Michigan, too. Like, people would deride Taylor, Michigan. They called it Taylor-tucky. There are a lot of, like, you really just gotta feel bad for Kentucky, because they're getting used as a punchline in all these other cities.

• 4:40Dax Shepard?

  How long have you lived in Henderson?

• 4:41Speaker 02

  I am from LA.

• 4:43Dax Shepard?

  Newport.

• 4:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, Newport, yeah, center of suburban LA, then moved to Vegas, moved to Henderson, and I bought the house in 2013.

• 4:51Dax Shepard?

  Okay, so 13 years there.

• 4:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, then I moved there in, like, end of 2015. My residency is in Vegas.

• 4:57Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 4:58Speaker 02

  Residency as in, like, my DJ residency. So I was playing there every month.

• 5:01Speaker 01

  That makes sense. I was like, why would you go there? But that makes sense.

• 5:04Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 5:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's like, if you're always working in Hollywood or LA, and you're gonna be in LA if you're an actor, you know?

• 5:10Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 5:11Speaker 02

  So if you're a DJ, I mean, I have 50 shows a year there, so.

• 5:13Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 5:14Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I mean, you could live anywhere. How many days do you think you're home a year?

• 5:18Speaker 02

  Well, I do 200 shows a year.

• 5:21Speaker 01

  Oh, my God.

• 5:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, 200, 250.

• 5:23Dax Shepard?

  And then you want vacations and shit, right?

• 5:24Speaker 02

  Vacation is kind of tour.

• 5:26Dax Shepard?

  You'll just extend on either end of a show?

• 5:28Speaker 02

  Maybe a day.

• 5:29Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 5:30Speaker 01

  Sounds like you don't really vacation.

• 5:31Speaker 02

  Honestly, the vacation for me is being home.

• 5:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, that makes sense.

• 5:35Speaker 02

  Because there's nothing better. I don't care to be on a deserted island or something.

• 5:39Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. I gotta tell you about the suspicious timing of you coming today. So a month ago, my daughter turned 13, and I was taking her to Disneyland for, like, the weekend. And I says, "Is there anything special you want to do?" And she said, "Yeah, I want to eat at Benihana." And I'm like, "Oh, my God. That's great. I love Benihana." I'm not even sure how she knew about Benihana. But anyways, we go to Benihana in Anaheim, right? And I'm looking at the wall inside of Benihana, and I'm like, "Hold on a second. Fucking Benihana was sponsoring offshore raceboats?"

• 6:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 6:14Dax Shepard?

  I'm super into boats and all racing, so I was mesmerized by these photos of the Benihana racing boat. And I was like, that's such a weird thing for them to sponsor as a restaurant. And then I'm fucking reading about Steve Z. His father is Rocky Aoki, started Benihana.

• 6:33Speaker 01

  No.

• 6:33Dax Shepard?

  And raced. Sorry, I said Aoki. I didn't say your last name right.

• 6:37Speaker 02

  Aoki is the American way.

• 6:39Speaker 01

  Okay, okay.

• 6:40Speaker 02

  I mean, if you're in Japan, it's Aoki. If you're in Mexico, it's Aoki. If you're in, in England, it's Aoki.

• 6:48Speaker 01

  Okay, so we can get away with Aoki.

• 6:50Dax Shepard?

  But we gotta do, first of all, what was your relationship with your father? Do you like talking about him?

• 6:55Speaker 02

  I love talking about my father. I mean, he's a legend for me.

• 6:57Dax Shepard?

  No, he's a legend.

• 6:59Speaker 02

  But I, I love to bring up his name because the people that really knew him.

• 7:02Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 7:03Speaker 02

  Are older than us. You have to be like 55 and up and then you knew, you heard about him because he did have an impact in the eighties.

• 7:11Dax Shepard?

  Well, he's crazy.

• 7:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, he was the Evel Knievel of, of restaurateurs, for sure.

• 7:16Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 7:17Dax Shepard?

  Okay, so let's start. He's from Japan.

• 7:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, he's from Japan.

• 7:20Dax Shepard?

  And he was a wrestler there.

• 7:21Speaker 02

  He was a wrestler. He went to the US. I think he was wrestling for the Olympics on the Japanese team or something. You know, he was a high level wrestler, came to the United States and then this is where it gets kind of blurry. He came out there for some reason, I think some wrestling thing, hurt himself, couldn't wrestle for Japan and then stayed in New York. That part, I don't know the exact storyline, but he then came to New York.

• 7:46Dax Shepard?

  Did he speak any English?

• 7:47Speaker 02

  No.

• 7:47Dax Shepard?

  No.

• 7:48Speaker 02

  It's 1961. So 1961, he came to New York. It was difficult for, for Asian immigrants.

• 7:56Dax Shepard?

  You're in the least friendly city in America not speaking the language.

• 8:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 8:00Dax Shepard?

  I mean, it's gotta be a jail.

• 8:02Speaker 02

  Like his book, he does talk about like living in Harlem and being broke and trying to figure things out. He had an ice cream truck.

• 8:08Dax Shepard?

  Uh huh.

• 8:08Speaker 02

  He was like, okay, you know what? I'm a wrestler, so I'm gonna paint a Japanese restaurant on the side of this ice cream truck.

• 8:15Dax Shepard?

  See what we get.

• 8:16Speaker 02

  Tried to run Harlem, tries to sell ice cream and it just didn't really work out.

• 8:19Speaker 01

  What a cool guy.

• 8:21Dax Shepard?

  And then he was taking classes for restaurant management at some small college. He also won like a flyweight wrestling division. Like he also was really successful. Wrestler.

• 8:32Speaker 02

  And then he was like, let's start this restaurant idea. And his father, my grandfather had the original Benihana's was in Japan.

• 8:41Dax Shepard?

  Oh, it was.

• 8:41Speaker 02

  Yeah. Benihana means it's a flower, basically named it after a flower that grew outside of the rubble of post World War II.

• 8:50Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 8:51Speaker 02

  Next to his cafe. And it's like this resilient flower, this red flower that just grows through anything.

• 8:56Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 8:56Speaker 02

  It's like, okay, let's call this, it wasn't a restaurant, the cafe, Benihana.

• 8:59Dax Shepard?

  And it wasn't like hibachi grilled.

• 9:01Speaker 02

  No, no, no, it was just like a small humble cafe. And grandfather really helped him. He brought the chefs over. He brought the hibachi grills over.

• 9:10Dax Shepard?

  And starts with four grills, right?

• 9:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:12Dax Shepard?

  In a restaurant?

• 9:12Speaker 02

  And the idea to like cook in front of people.

• 9:14Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 9:14Speaker 02

  That's actually, interestingly enough, that's not a Japanese concept.

• 9:18Dax Shepard?

  They don't do that there.

• 9:20Speaker 02

  They don't do that. So that's very much an American born concept.

• 9:23Dax Shepard?

  Where did he get that idea?

• 9:25Speaker 02

  I don't know where he got the idea.

• 9:26Dax Shepard?

  Well, he's a showman of some sort. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 9:29Speaker 02

  Cause no one really did that. There's no inventions. Not like he invented it, but like definitely founded this idea of entertainment.

• 9:38Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. Entertainment. Already conceptually out of the gates, there's problems. You're not gonna have huge turnover in concept. I can see someone going, well, how's this gonna work? You only have four tables and they gotta cook at the table so they can't be cooking for other people.

• 9:50Speaker 02

  On top of that, Japanese food in the sixties, they only serve Japanese people. Yeah, like the little like immigrant cultures, right?

• 10:00Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 10:00Speaker 02

  If you want Chinese food, you have to go to Chinatown.

• 10:02Dax Shepard?

  Uh huh.

• 10:03Speaker 02

  And you're gonna be eating with Chinese people. It's not made for Westerners.

• 10:06Dax Shepard?

  Right. Right, right, right.

• 10:08Speaker 02

  They open Benihana's, they open in like a Western white New York.

• 10:13Dax Shepard?

  Fifty sixth street or something like that?

• 10:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's fifty sixth street. So what my father was thinking was like, well, I want to try to break this open.

• 10:20Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 10:21Speaker 02

  To Americans, not to Japanese people. This isn't a Japanese concept. Japanese people won't adopt this.

• 10:26Dax Shepard?

  They don't like it. They don't like it.

• 10:28Speaker 02

  They don't like, they want traditional Japanese food.

• 10:30Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 10:31Speaker 02

  It's not Benihana's.

• 10:31Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 10:33Speaker 02

  So it was struggling because it was a completely foreign concept.

• 10:37Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 10:38Speaker 02

  And it almost didn't work.

• 10:40Dax Shepard?

  Sure.

• 10:41Speaker 02

  The first phase of it was almost a complete failure up until this one New York Times writer.

• 10:48Dax Shepard?

  Back in the days when you could make a restaurant with one review.

• 10:51Speaker 02

  From one review.

• 10:52Dax Shepard?

  Ah.

• 10:53Speaker 02

  And she came in and ate there and was blown away. And then she wrote this incredible review.

• 10:58Dax Shepard?

  Ah.

• 10:58Speaker 02

  And then. Business picked up and it's sustainable, yeah.

• 11:01Dax Shepard?

  And when did he start franchising it and building it out?

• 11:05Speaker 02

  This is 1964, he started it. I think in the seventies, it just took off.

• 11:10Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 11:10Speaker 02

  Privately scaling it out.

• 11:12Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 11:13Speaker 02

  I think it's like late seventies or early eighties is when he went public.

• 11:18Dax Shepard?

  It was a publicly traded company.

• 11:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, at some point went public.

• 11:21Dax Shepard?

  So he probably got absurdly rich overnight, kind of, from that public offering?

• 11:26Speaker 02

  Then he became like an employee of the company. But in the seventies, when it was his company, he's like, okay, I'm gonna do the offshore boat. I want to do all the stuff I want to do.

• 11:34Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 11:34Speaker 02

  But I'm just gonna tag Benihana on the side of the boat.

• 11:37Dax Shepard?

  So it's all a write-off?

• 11:38Speaker 02

  I'm gonna tag Benihana on the side of the hot air balloon.

• 11:40Dax Shepard?

  His father's the first person to fly a hot air balloon across the Pacific.

• 11:44Speaker 01

  Oh my God. And it didn't say Benihana on the hot air balloon?

• 11:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, it would be like his face on the balloon. Like the guy was like a marketing.

• 11:53Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, he was the Mickey Mouse of Benihana.

• 11:55Speaker 02

  He really, he was like Colonel Sanders with Casey.

• 11:59Dax Shepard?

  Sanders, Dave Thomas from Wendy's.

• 12:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, he definitely marketed himself really well and he was never afraid to be in front of a microphone, never afraid to talk to people, never afraid to be in an interview.

• 12:11Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 12:11Speaker 01

  So inspiring.

• 12:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, and for Japanese people, which are known to be more like, keep your head down, don't make a ruckus, don't make noise. He was a complete opposite. He adopted like this American mindset of showmanship. A very incredible story.

• 12:27Dax Shepard?

  So what he's doing, I mean, he's a thrill seeker. This whole hot air balloon across the Pacific's nuts. The fact that no one had done it and then he does that. And then the offshore racing was serious. Like he almost died in San Francisco under the Golden Gate Bridge. He started a porno magazine.

• 12:41Speaker 02

  He did, yeah. So he did, I guess. He started Genesis magazine, actually sold to Larry Flynt.

• 12:46Dax Shepard?

  Okay, yeah, forty years this magazine was around.

• 12:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, he had a club.

• 12:50Dax Shepard?

  He was trying to be like Japanese Hugh Hefner.

• 12:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was married to my mom, but then had a whole other family.

• 12:56Dax Shepard?

  There's a quote from him saying he had three children from three different women at the exact same time.

• 13:02Speaker 01

  Oh wow.

• 13:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, so there's that story too.

• 13:04Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 13:05Dax Shepard?

  Didn't age, didn't age great, but in the seventies, that was great.

• 13:09Speaker 01

  I guess you don't get that type of person without that type of, you know?

• 13:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, he kinda did it all. It was like a no rules, I'm just gonna do whatever I want.

• 13:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:17Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 13:17Speaker 01

  Yeah. So you have like a million brothers and sisters that you do or don't know?

• 13:21Speaker 02

  There's seven siblings from my father's side and honestly, we're all very close.

• 13:26Speaker 01

  Oh, good.

• 13:27Dax Shepard?

  Oh, that's lovely.

• 13:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, so we'll do family get togethers with all of us. Now we're in our 40s.

• 13:32Dax Shepard?

  Soon to be 50s, let's be honest.

• 13:37Speaker 02

  I'm like, thank God music keeps me young and hard, you know? And my longevity and stuff like that is important.

• 13:43Dax Shepard?

  What a character and how present was he? He sounds very busy. He had a lot of shit going on.

• 13:48Speaker 02

  He was definitely present though.

• 13:50Dax Shepard?

  He was. So when they go public, he's got some cash. He's like, let's go live it up in Newport.

• 13:54Speaker 02

  The crazy part of the story is, and this is very public.

• 13:57Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 13:57Speaker 02

  Is that he had a major boat accident, came out of the coma. And that's when he woke up to my mom on one side and to his girlfriend.

• 14:07Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 14:08Speaker 02

  I don't know if I was born yet, so I think mom and my older brother and sister and his girlfriend and my brother.

• 14:14Dax Shepard?

  Oh, okay.

• 14:14Speaker 02

  My half brother, her son.

• 14:15Dax Shepard?

  News to your mom or she already was tipped to this?

• 14:17Speaker 02

  Oh shit.

• 14:19Dax Shepard?

  Dude, this is out of a movie. You wake up in a coma and all your secrets are revealed.

• 14:23Speaker 01

  He's just like, I wanna go back into my coma now, please.

• 14:26Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I would have been like.

• 14:29Speaker 02

  He's like, oh, I wish I died.

• 14:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:31Speaker 02

  You know, this is pre-social media.

• 14:33Dax Shepard?

  Everyone's life was a fucking mess, but no one knew.

• 14:35Speaker 02

  Eventually my mom did divorce and then she moved from Miami where I was born.

• 14:40Dax Shepard?

  Great boat racing down there. You gotta be in Miami.

• 14:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, and also Benihana headquarters moved to Florida.

• 14:45Dax Shepard?

  Oh, okay.

• 14:46Speaker 01

  So you moved?

• 14:47Speaker 02

  I was one. So my mom moved to Newport and then I grew up in Newport. Wasn't born there, but really I'm a Newport born, not born, but raised there.

• 14:55Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 14:56Speaker 02

  Till 17.

• 14:57Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. So did he stay in Florida? Like, how often were you seeing him?

• 15:00Speaker 02

  He had a place in Florida. He was really New York. He could not leave New York. He was a New York guy.

• 15:04Dax Shepard?

  It sounds like his arousal template, what he needed to be alive. He could only exist in New York.

• 15:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, Florida's just.

• 15:09Dax Shepard?

  Like, he needs a lot of stimuli.

• 15:11Speaker 02

  He's not a Floridian. He. Is not afforded. He is a New Yorker through and through. He had a brownstone when he was living in 63rd for this last part of his life, but he was in New Jersey 30 minutes outside of New York City when I was young. That's where I would go visit.

• 15:25Dax Shepard?

  You would go visit him in the summer?

• 15:27Speaker 02

  In Inglewood. And that's where you can get acres of land and a big house. I was surprised. I don't think the house was that extraordinarily expensive. In the eighties, it's a different price point.

• 15:36Dax Shepard?

  Probably a $380,000 house.

• 15:38Speaker 02

  It was something ridiculous, like less than a million dollars and you have all this acres, you have a tennis square, a big Victorian style house. Kind of creepy, not something I was excited to be in at night, you know, this is scary.

• 15:49Dax Shepard?

  Now, I know you love Bruce Lee. There's weird parallels here. Bruce Lee was breaking the mold. He was this fucking sexy dude. He was in San Francisco being cool.

• 15:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:58Dax Shepard?

  And in the sixties, right?

• 16:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, I guess so, right? Sixties, because he passed away in 77, I think.

• 16:03Dax Shepard?

  Okay. Your dad never met him by chance, did he? Running in these fun circles?

• 16:08Speaker 02

  You know, he met a lot of people. He loved being out. So he's definitely extrovert, socialite guy.

• 16:15Dax Shepard?

  Is he a drinker?

• 16:16Speaker 02

  Not so much.

• 16:17Dax Shepard?

  Oh, interesting.

• 16:18Speaker 02

  Not so much, yeah. My grandfather was a drinker. My father wasn't. He had a whole book on sake and stuff like that, you know, it's a connoisseur of Japanese food. But I never actually experienced him drunk. So I never saw him drunk.

• 16:31Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, from a child in the seventies?

• 16:32Speaker 01

  Well, he was getting high on other things, clearly.

• 16:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:38Dax Shepard?

  Six foot waves.

• 16:38Speaker 02

  He got his dopamine on life for sure. He is friends with a lot of people in the art world, the club world.

• 16:44Dax Shepard?

  He also needs to be said, he visibly looks like a stud. You can tell there's a dude who wrestled, like he is a stud.

• 16:49Speaker 02

  I mean, he's stocky, short. He's a perfect wrestler type because he's not tall and lanky.

• 16:54Dax Shepard?

  Good luck with that.

• 16:54Speaker 02

  It's hard to take him down.

• 16:56Dax Shepard?

  Okay, so in Newport, 78 onward, I mean, for people who haven't been to Newport, it is like blonde chads who go surfing and skateboarding. And it just couldn't be whiter and blonder.

• 17:10Speaker 02

  I always joke about this because my mom, who is through and through a very Japanese immigrant, speaks broken English.

• 17:19Speaker 02

  Moved to the widest neighborhood in Orange County when 10 minutes away is Irvine. It's like majority is Asian and Japanese.

• 17:29Dax Shepard?

  She could have been, yeah, numerous nice enclaves.

• 17:32Speaker 02

  15 minutes away is like she could be in a Japanese community.

• 17:34Dax Shepard?

  She could have spoke Japanese all day. Yeah, yeah.

• 17:37Speaker 02

  But she moved to Newport. We always kind of laugh about that. You know, in the end, I'm glad that she did do that for me because being a fish out of water in many cases, when you're younger, it's just different, you know, being an immigrant is a very different life than when you're adult. You get a real experience racism or you get a real experience feeling left out at the loudest levels.

• 17:58Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, at your most insecure, you know who you are.

• 18:01Speaker 02

  And then you're also so impressionable, you're so vulnerable, so like emotional, you're so confused.

• 18:07Dax Shepard?

  There's multiple factors. A, you've gotten older and you've found success and status. That's going to change what you deal with, but also just being Japanese in 1978 versus now is a much different thing in the US.

• 18:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, definitely. You know, social media is almost like an educational tool for so many kids just to go like, oh yeah, I shouldn't say that.

• 18:27Speaker 01

  Right.

• 18:28Speaker 02

  I shouldn't do that. Like the social norms are if I do that, I will get canceled. So therefore I should not do that. You know, back then there was like, no, oh, the social norm to not do this.

• 18:38Dax Shepard?

  Also, we got a really big education on Japan in the early 90s when Japan was really rising to economic dominance. And there were now movies about it. Some of the culture was coming in this direction. I also just think the general understanding.

• 18:54Speaker 02

  There's the kids now that love anime and manga and like Japanese cultural stuff. That's like, cool.

• 19:01Speaker 01

  And the food. Everyone eats Japanese food now.

• 19:04Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 19:04Dax Shepard?

  Everyone's been to fucking Benihana. Your father is like, your father is weirdly part of that movement.

• 19:10Speaker 01

  Cool. That's really cool.

• 19:11Dax Shepard?

  I mean, he miseducated us. I was like, cool. This is how they cook in Japan.

• 19:16Speaker 02

  This is another funny thing is that Benihana is more American than Japanese and people don't realize that. The cooking, the showmanship, the hats, that's a French style hat. Right. Yeah. So there's a lot of interesting things that my grandfather was like, oh, he wants. The red French style hats because they're louder.

• 19:31Dax Shepard?

  They catch shrimp better when you flick it in the air.

• 19:34Speaker 01

  But it's smart because he was trying to get Americans in, so he has to visually make it appealing to Americans. You don't want to push them away. If they walk in, they're like, I don't know. I don't recognize anything in here. I'm leaving.

• 19:45Dax Shepard?

  Well, the only offering was the food and it was good. I love Benihana. But if that was the only offering, it's not becoming some big national sensation.

• 19:53Speaker 02

  Just going back to what you were saying about your daughters, like it's a birthday thing.

• 19:57Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 19:57Speaker 02

  It's like every kid's birthday spot. Okay, it's my birthday. Let's do Benihana. It's just kind of like part of normal conversation now when you're a kid. Yes, it's cool that it's become that. I forgot what the statistic is. I used to work at Benihanas when I was a teenager. I think it's like 70% birthdays or something, something ridiculous. It's like, I don't know what the percentage is. It'd be interesting to fact check, but it's a large percentage.

• 20:19Dax Shepard?

  You get any fluff off of people knowing you are associated with Benihana? Did that provide anything cultural capital?

• 20:26Speaker 02

  For me, coming up as an artist, no.

• 20:29Dax Shepard?

  No, I mean, as like a kid on the playground.

• 20:32Speaker 02

  No, not really, no. I mean, my close friends would be like, oh, can we eat a Benihanas?

• 20:37Dax Shepard?

  Is it your birthday?

• 20:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, but not, not really.

• 20:41Dax Shepard?

  So how did you do in elementary and in middle school? And how'd you find your way?

• 20:45Speaker 02

  Like when I grew up, when I was first through fourth, fifth grade, for a period of time, I was one of three boys in my class.

• 20:53Speaker 01

  Whoa.

• 20:54Speaker 02

  Usually that's a good thing. So you're not. But like when you're a kid, if the two guys don't like you, you're kind of screwed.

• 21:01Dax Shepard?

  Oh, so in your school, there was only three boys in your class? Oh, that's so bizarre. Was it a private school?

• 21:07Speaker 02

  I hopped around because I just could not make friends. So my mom was like, okay, let's try this school, try this school. I had bad socialization. Like I could not figure it out.

• 21:16Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah. Well, let's be fair.

• 21:18Speaker 01

  It wasn't your fault.

• 21:19Dax Shepard?

  I don't think it was being offered to you to figure out.

• 21:22Speaker 02

  It was really tough to make friends.

• 21:23Dax Shepard?

  So what was the inroad? Like for a lot of kids, it's skateboarding or it's smoking weed or, you know, you find a little niche you can cement yourself in.

• 21:31Speaker 02

  Yeah. So the interesting thing that I saw is that I went to public and Catholic or Christian. The Catholic and Christian private were the most difficult. My grades were the worst. My socialization there was horrible. One thing I recognized when you're an outsider. The teachers all recognize that and you just get sent to the principal's office all the time.

• 21:49Dax Shepard?

  Oh, really?

• 21:50Speaker 02

  It's like easy to pick on the guy that everyone doesn't like. There's something wrong with this kid. No one likes this kid. Okay, just go to the prison. And then I would just get spanked and like.

• 21:57Dax Shepard?

  Oh, God.

• 21:58Speaker 02

  Back then I would get, oh, man, it was horrible. The spank with the big old holes in the paddle. I just hated.

• 22:05Dax Shepard?

  Oh, that's brutal.

• 22:06Speaker 02

  And my mom would have to pull me out. I was like failing in these classes and I loved being in public schools in Newport. Cause also, public schools in Newport is gonna be different than other places too. But it was still pretty brutal sometimes.

• 22:18Dax Shepard?

  It's the dude who himself got shit on by another echelon of popular kids that decides he's up to gotta find someone to shit on. So you're just gonna be next.

• 22:28Speaker 02

  My mom put me in school early.

• 22:29Dax Shepard?

  Oh, boy.

• 22:30Speaker 02

  So I was one year younger.

• 22:32Dax Shepard?

  No, that's not the move.

• 22:33Speaker 02

  Physically smaller and that doesn't help.

• 22:37Dax Shepard?

  Would you ever, I was curious when I was learning about your dad, I was thinking of kind of the pressure when you have a dad like that. I don't even know, but if you ever shared with your father the challenges, I would assume his response would be like, yeah, get tough, like I did.

• 22:53Speaker 02

  You know, it's interesting. I never ever shared that stuff with him.

• 22:57Dax Shepard?

  You didn't.

• 22:57Speaker 02

  Because he's not one to listen to that. He always wants to hear the good things. So I'd always have to tell him the good things. I would never tell him the bad things, ever.

• 23:05Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 23:06Speaker 02

  I would never like complain to him. One of the things I learned growing up, let's say I got hurt and I went to the hospital. The first thing I would hear from my dad when I see him, I had to pay for that. Like, stop getting hurt.

• 23:20Speaker 02

  Like, why do you always go to the hospital? What's wrong? You're not hurt. You can't really say the bad stuff. I always wanna try to impress him. I think with him, he has a lot of kids, so we're always trying to compete for his attention. Even, you know, when we were like children to adolescent to like adults, my late twenties, when I finally was like. I actually making money on my own.

• 23:43Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 23:44Speaker 02

  And I wanted to share that with them immediately.

• 23:46Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, of course, of course. Your siblings were older?

• 23:50Speaker 02

  I'm kind of in the middle, but for my mom.

• 23:53Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, from your mom you were living with.

• 23:55Speaker 02

  I felt like a only child because my mom's kids, they're 10 and 11.

• 23:59Dax Shepard?

  Oh, way older than you.

• 24:01Speaker 02

  So by the time I was eight, they were already out of the house.

• 24:05Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 24:05Speaker 02

  So from eight to 17, I was like a only child there.

• 24:09Dax Shepard?

  Who welcomed you in in high school? Like what ended up being your niche?

• 24:12Speaker 02

  Like you said, skateboarding and punk and hardcore music.

• 24:15Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 24:15Speaker 02

  And that changed my life.

• 24:17Speaker 01

  Saved your life maybe.

• 24:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, it really was like 13, 14 year old age. That's when the clay gets molded.

• 24:24Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 24:24Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 24:25Speaker 02

  My son's nine months. When he's 10, 11, 12, I'm gonna make sure that like we set him in a really good clay molding.

• 24:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:33Speaker 02

  Because that's a really important age.

• 24:35Dax Shepard?

  Well, you start becoming aware of, oh, people have identities. I've got to pick one.

• 24:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly.

• 24:40Dax Shepard?

  And what one feels natural to me. Which one will I be accepted in?

• 24:44Speaker 02

  Most of the time it's sports.

• 24:46Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, right. If you're not a jock, you're like, alright, my art is.

• 24:49Speaker 02

  Sports, I tried all of that, it wasn't working. And then it's always peers. Peers have so much influence.

• 24:55Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 24:56Speaker 02

  So when I went with these kids to a show, we're skating and going to shows. That's what we did.

• 25:02Dax Shepard?

  That was my life.

• 25:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, and then you see other kids, like they're your age and they're like screaming around and like thrashing guitars. And they're like not on a stage, they're right here.

• 25:11Dax Shepard?

  They also have all been shit on in school. So there's like a beautiful bonding and acceptance.

• 25:16Speaker 02

  Singing about it.

• 25:17Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 25:18Speaker 02

  Like I relate to all this stuff.

• 25:20Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 25:20Speaker 02

  I am that same kid up there.

• 25:22Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 25:23Speaker 02

  You're like, the barrier of entry to be that kid is actually right there.

• 25:27Dax Shepard?

  And they're not that good. That's another thing I try to tell. Yes. The great thing about punk music is like you go to a show and you're like, I don't know, I think in a few months I'd be able to play drums as good as this guy. That's what I did.

• 25:38Speaker 02

  Exactly. That's why I love punk. Cause then I was like, I don't know how to sing. I don't know how to play any instruments. My friends that we were going, we're like, we don't know, let's just figure it out.

• 25:47Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 25:48Speaker 02

  We know a guy knows how to play drums. That's the most important guy you need. Because that's the most technically skilled thing that you need to have is a drummer that knows how to keep a beat.

• 25:56Dax Shepard?

  Keep time, yeah, yeah.

• 25:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, and we found a drummer and hey, we'll bring him to the shows and get him inspired. I'm like, can we try to do this in your garage?

• 26:04Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 26:05Speaker 02

  And he lived off the street for me and then I would just go there after school every day and practice and learn how to play bass, guitar, drums, and I was like singing. I didn't know how to sing. I was like, we're just fucking around. That was the start of my music journey. And it's like this rough and tumble, like you could just show up.

• 26:21Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 26:22Speaker 02

  Wake up out of bed and whatever and then just do it. That's the cool thing.

• 26:25Dax Shepard?

  To care would be uncool. You're buffeted from any failure.

• 26:28Speaker 02

  It's such a great entry point for creativity. It allows you to feel like you can become something. And then when I did that with my friends, we were like messing around and we're like playing in living rooms, which was a start. Then everything opened up, this idea like, I think I can do it all, whatever is exciting to me. Then we started writing in a zine. We'd go out with my friends, the Kinkos, making a little poetry and cutting up a little fun, like, you know, ransom note letters and making poetry out of making zines and passing them out to friends and

• 26:58Dax Shepard?

  Same.

• 26:58Speaker 02

  silting t-shirts, like everything was like, oh, this is all doable. We could actually make a business doing that kind of stuff.

• 27:03Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I think when people that weren't in that culture, they just see a mosh pit. They're like, oh, all these kids are crazy. But it's like, yes, everyone did zines. We all made collages.

• 27:12Speaker 01

  Wait, sorry, what's a zine?

• 27:14Speaker 02

  It's like a handmade magazine.

• 27:16Dax Shepard?

  That you're making at Kinko's. You're like, you're going up to Kinko's.

• 27:19Speaker 02

  Kinko's was the spot, so like.

• 27:20Dax Shepard?

  You're figuring out how to rip off Kinko's.

• 27:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, I figured that out. I don't know if you remember, like, they had those big rectangular blocks you stick in there and then we make a copy. It's like, one, two, three, right?

• 27:30Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 27:31Speaker 02

  So you go, you make all your copies, right? So you do like a thousand copies. It's a lot of money.

• 27:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:36Speaker 02

  A few cents a copy. Then you take that, go to the bathroom with it.

• 27:40Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 27:40Speaker 02

  You smash it. It goes to like a million. You realize then you go to the front, your friend takes like the thousand copies, runs out to the store. It's like, I only made like 10 copies.

• 27:51Speaker 02

  I was doing zines all the way through college. We had a friend, my roommate, he worked there. So he's, I would just bring it to him and he's like, okay, he was like,

• 27:58Dax Shepard?

  We also all had this little device that you would put on a payphone so you could get free calls. That was like everyone in the punk rock world in Detroit had these. When you drop a quarter in there, it makes a digital noise and that's actually what puts the credit on the phone. So we all had these little things from Radio Shack and you pick up the thing and you like put like $3 worth of coins on it and you could call. Yeah. All kinds of like mildly gently illegal stuff happening. It's so fun.

• 28:24Speaker 02

  Yeah. Another fun illegal activity I did when I was a kid was sneaking in movie theaters.

• 28:28Speaker 01

  Sure. We did all do that.

• 28:30Speaker 02

  That was always fun.

• 28:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was always scared.

• 28:33Speaker 02

  That was like one of my favorite.

• 28:35Dax Shepard?

  Well, you had multiplexes in Newport, so you could probably go in and bang out six movies.

• 28:40Speaker 02

  We've loved doing that. The way I would do it, I don't know if you know, if you could talk about this, but it's kind of wholesome.

• 28:45Speaker 01

  It is.

• 28:47Speaker 02

  But you go in, first of all, in order to get in, you would say like, oh, I left my wallet inside the theater. So they let you in, you go in the theater, then you go through the back. I had a belt or a shoe. Put this shoe in through the exit door. Leave the door open. Then you have to go down a whole flight of stairs. This is at Edward Cinemas in Triangle Square. And then you go to the bottom where it opens out to the street and then you let in like six of your friends.

• 29:11Dax Shepard?

  Oh, perfect.

• 29:12Speaker 02

  And then they go off. Then you go out to the friends. I got my wallet. Thank you. And then you go around and then you go around the back and then once you're in, then you can watch like however many movies.

• 29:22Dax Shepard?

  Just keep it going.

• 29:23Speaker 01

  Okay. Wow.

• 29:24Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, let it ride.

• 29:25Speaker 01

  We would just buy one ticket and then see like eight. We did pay for one.

• 29:29Dax Shepard?

  For one. You got buy one, get ape free.

• 29:31Speaker 02

  That would be the solution if you didn't want to pay.

• 29:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 29:38Speaker 03

  Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert if you dare.

• 29:43Dax Shepard?

  We are supported by Allstate. Checking Allstate first could save you hundreds on car insurance. Not checking what the warning light means before pulling out of your driveway. You absolutely convinced yourself it was probably just a sensor thing right up until you were standing on the side of the road waiting for a tow. Yeah, checking first is the right move. So check Allstate first for an auto quote. It could save you hundreds. And for fast, reliable help when you need it, add an Allstate roadside plan today. You're in good hands with Allstate. Potential savings vary. Insurance and roadside assistance plans are subject to terms, conditions, and availability. Insurance provided by Allstate North American Insurance Company, Northbrook, Illinois. Roadside assistance plans provided by Allstate Motor Club, Incorporated, an Allstate affiliate.

• 30:28Dax Shepard?

  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 Gleepran. 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.

• 30:54Speaker 04

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• 31:33Speaker 04

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• 31:51Dax Shepard?

  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?

• 32:07Speaker 01

  Which is a fair question.

• 32:09Dax 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.

• 32:35Speaker 01

  Sleep mode is genius.

• 32:36Dax Shepard?

  Right? And here's the thing, for any- One 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.

• 32:51Speaker 01

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

• 32:55Dax Shepard?

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

• 33:09Dax Shepard?

  So you must have been pretty good in high school because you got into UCSB.

• 33:13Speaker 02

  I'm surprised, to be honest, I got in. I applied to like every UC school. I got rejected to every school.

• 33:19Dax Shepard?

  You didn't get accepted at UC Santa Cruz?

• 33:21Speaker 02

  Nope. My GPA was 3.1.

• 33:23Dax Shepard?

  That's pretty good.

• 33:24Speaker 01

  Not horrible.

• 33:25Speaker 02

  For UC?

• 33:26Dax Shepard?

  Well, not for UC, but in general.

• 33:29Speaker 02

  Like UC Santa Barbara, I don't think you can get in now unless you're 4.0 plus plus.

• 33:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:34Speaker 02

  So I was like, I got in. I think they had to let me into one of the UC schools.

• 33:42Speaker 01

  They all talk.

• 33:45Dax Shepard?

  Just for the listener, I would say, I can imagine if you're a listener in Milwaukee right now, you're like, they wanted diversity and they wanted you in there. But you should know in 95, already all the UCs are already predominantly Asian. They didn't need Asians.

• 33:57Speaker 02

  That's true.

• 33:57Dax Shepard?

  In 95.

• 33:58Speaker 02

  That's still a question in my head. Like, how did I get in? I think it's like, it has to be because they had to let me into one UC school because I'm from California.

• 34:06Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 34:07Speaker 02

  Preferential treatment to California residents.

• 34:09Dax Shepard?

  You're a little weighted, yeah.

• 34:10Speaker 02

  I think that's part of it.

• 34:12Dax Shepard?

  Because I went to UCLA in 98 and at that time it was 39% Asian and 31% white. And there's no way they.

• 34:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's not like they need affirmative action for Asians.

• 34:24Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I don't think that was the case.

• 34:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, I did write in my newspaper thing. I was like, I think affirmative action helped me get into school. But then I was like, but there's so many Asians here.

• 34:34Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I don't think. So here's where you and I could have potentially met in real life, which is I graduated high school in 93. I went on a road trip for a year with my best friend and we ended up in Isla Vista for like four months, just living in. People's dorm rooms and on Del Pla and some friends' houses. Just couch surfing for months. The most mind blowing place imaginable if you're from Detroit. It's like this college is on an ocean. The first party we went to on our first night there was like these dudes living on a cliff with the ocean in the backyard. An infamous Isla Vista for these insane parties, right? Halloween is just this enormous party. Tens of thousands of people come. It's a wild, exciting place. I then went back to Detroit and then I moved to Santa Barbara in ninety five.

• 35:19Dax Shepard?

  When you started at UCSB.

• 35:20Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 35:21Dax Shepard?

  But I was living downtown on Bass Street, like right next to State.

• 35:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 35:25Dax Shepard?

  But I would go to IV, you know, occasionally to get hammered.

• 35:27Speaker 02

  There's a house party at every other house. When they designed Isla Vista, I don't think they realized what.

• 35:34Dax Shepard?

  Was coming.

• 35:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, what kind of chaos.

• 35:36Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 35:37Speaker 02

  You put a bunch of eighteen year old kids in a bunch of houses.

• 35:41Dax Shepard?

  On the ocean.

• 35:42Speaker 02

  Yeah. It's almost like energy, do what you want.

• 35:46Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 35:46Speaker 02

  They're throwing parties every night. I didn't want to leave, actually.

• 35:49Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I'm sure.

• 35:50Speaker 02

  So when I graduated in two thousand, I was so embedded in that little world. I was kind of a king of a castle.

• 35:58Dax Shepard?

  You start this record label.

• 35:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I started my label, but really that was a byproduct of being in this hardcore punk world. We would just put on shows in my living room, which was the size of this room here.

• 36:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:10Dax Shepard?

  And you were in student housing?

• 36:11Speaker 02

  So the first year I was in student housing and then the next year I lived in a vegan co-op. Typical for a straight edge hardcore kid.

• 36:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, okay, okay.

• 36:19Speaker 02

  I'm vegan.

• 36:20Dax Shepard?

  And you're not drinking?

• 36:21Speaker 02

  Uh, yeah, that's another interesting dichotomy because I'm living in Isla Vista with the party capital. One of the biggest party schools because of Isla Vista in the United States. And I'm straight edge, like no drugs, no drinking. But there's a really small but strong and present hardcore scene in Isla Vista, Santa Barbara, that the whole hardcore community knew about.

• 36:42Speaker 01

  Oh, wow, okay.

• 36:43Speaker 02

  Mainly because of this label zine distribution company called Ebulition Heart Attack. They're publishing their zine from there and they had a record label that was putting out all of those kinds of bands from there. So when I went to school, I was more excited to be close to this label.

• 36:57Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 36:58Speaker 02

  Going to school at UCSB. Actually, that was the most excited kid in me. I was like, I want to intern for them. And I ended up writing for the zine for seven years.

• 37:06Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 37:07Speaker 02

  Everything for free and you would never wish to get paid.

• 37:11Dax Shepard?

  No.

• 37:11Speaker 02

  You care so deeply about this, you know?

• 37:13Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 37:14Speaker 02

  And I just wanted to contribute, like helping put on the shows and writing reviews for the bands and eventually starting my label, which requires no capital, by the way. That's the interesting thing. It's what most people think.

• 37:25Dax Shepard?

  It's called Dim Mac?

• 37:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, Dim Mac.

• 37:27Dax Shepard?

  And how's that related to Bruce Lee? I know it's a nod somehow.

• 37:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, when I was coming up with this label idea, I'm like, what is that thing? That represents me in a like symbolic way. That's cool. I love Bruce Lee. So I was like, oh, Dim Mac is a Chinese death touch. It's like a martial art move where you touch someone. It's like a mysterious thing.

• 37:46Dax Shepard?

  And they can die like two days later sometimes.

• 37:49Speaker 02

  But Bruce Lee is like known to harness it and he mysteriously died of a brain hemorrhage. So some may say he was killed by it. So I was like, there's like that mystery. I'm like, that's cool.

• 38:00Speaker 01

  I love it.

• 38:01Dax Shepard?

  By the way, did you ever buckle? Cause I just tell you, my best friend Aaron and I, we lived in a punk house. This band Current that was huge in Detroit.

• 38:08Speaker 02

  I love Current.

• 38:09Dax Shepard?

  You know Current?

• 38:09Speaker 02

  I love Current.

• 38:10Dax Shepard?

  My cousin, Justin, was the bass player. Yeah, the greatest.

• 38:14Speaker 02

  Wow, Council Records?

• 38:15Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, Council Records.

• 38:17Speaker 02

  Council Records.

• 38:17Dax Shepard?

  Ottawa.

• 38:18Speaker 02

  Jihad.

• 38:19Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 38:20Speaker 02

  That was my world. That's the real screamo emo.

• 38:23Dax Shepard?

  Yes, pre emo.

• 38:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, because people, when they think about emo, they think about, you know.

• 38:29Dax Shepard?

  The produced emo.

• 38:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, sunny day real estate.

• 38:32Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 38:33Speaker 02

  The ordination of Aaron. I don't know if you know.

• 38:35Dax Shepard?

  Oh, yep. Saw them play many times. All these bands stayed at our house. So we're in Detroit in Dearborn and I'm living with half.

• 38:41Speaker 02

  Oh my god, I love all those bands.

• 38:44Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, they're the greatest, right?

• 38:45Speaker 02

  I never got to see.

• 38:46Dax Shepard?

  Jawbreaker.

• 38:47Speaker 02

  I love Jawbreaker. Oh my god.

• 38:49Dax Shepard?

  We could geek out forever.

• 38:51Speaker 02

  We could go down a music tangent.

• 38:52Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, Shutter to Think.

• 38:54Speaker 02

  Shutter to Think.

• 38:55Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 38:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, at some point I would love for you to see my vinyl.

• 39:00Dax Shepard?

  Oh, yeah, I would love to see it.

• 39:03Speaker 01

  Thanks for the invite.

• 39:05Dax Shepard?

  If you have a hard time falling asleep.

• 39:06Speaker 01

  That's very sweet.

• 39:07Speaker 02

  Love to invite you both to my house.

• 39:09Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 39:10Speaker 02

  I pick up these records of Konstantin Zankadi and that era. I love it.

• 39:14Dax Shepard?

  Aaron and I move into this house. Half the band lives there. Bands are sleeping at our house every single weekend because they're in town playing shows. So just like every great band and Aaron and I are drinking forties and eating steaks and everyone else is straight edge and vegan. But over time, we fucked them up and they started drinking. So I think we won. So I'm wondering, did you ever buckle? And when did you start drinking? Because that was a big deal back then.

• 39:37Speaker 02

  Oh, it was. Yeah. So I was straight edge all the way until about 2002.

• 39:41Dax Shepard?

  Oh, wow.

• 39:41Speaker 02

  Last year before I left Santa Barbara, I was living in another vegan co-op called Bico Co-op. And we would put on shows there. This is post Pickle Patch where I had 400 bands play in my little apartment there. So anyways, I moved to that house because I got kicked out of that apartment.

• 39:54Dax Shepard?

  Oh, shockingly. Yeah.

• 39:57Speaker 02

  This band came in town that I was signed to my label called Kill Sadie. They're from Minnesota. Anyways, they came over and like I was really close with them and those boys got me into drinking.

• 40:06Dax Shepard?

  Sure, sure.

• 40:07Speaker 02

  I mean, at that point, I'm like, why am I straight edge?

• 40:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 40:11Speaker 02

  I'm 21 now, 22 or whatever age I was. I'm like 22. I'm like,

• 40:15Speaker 01

  Like, what am I doing?

• 40:16Speaker 02

  Questioning everything. I'm not putting X's on my hands, like I'm not going to hardcore shows really anymore. I'm like, eh, okay, let's do this.

• 40:24Dax Shepard?

  Well, you see how fun it is.

• 40:25Speaker 02

  Yeah. And everyone's drinking. They're all my friends. It's like, you know, you have the nice bonding.

• 40:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:30Speaker 02

  Drinking is a bonding thing.

• 40:32Speaker 01

  Sure is.

• 40:33Dax Shepard?

  It's the most important part.

• 40:34Speaker 02

  The bond. This is fun.

• 40:35Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I love these guys.

• 40:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:38Speaker 01

  Why is straight edge? Is it like you want to keep your clarity? What is it? Like, why?

• 40:43Dax Shepard?

  My understanding of it is basically you have like the godfather of all of this, the Michael Jackson of punk is Ian McKay, who had Minor Threat.

• 40:52Speaker 02

  Absolutely. Discord Records.

• 40:54Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, Discord Records, which put out all the greatest punk bands.

• 40:57Speaker 02

  All DC, Washington DC bands.

• 40:58Dax Shepard?

  They had real good musicianship. You would have heard of Fugazi. That was his next band, Fugazi.

• 41:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:03Dax Shepard?

  And so he was very vocally progressive. He was like into women's rights. He was into living a clean life and he proselytized. And I think it all fell from him, no?

• 41:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, it really did. So like in the eighties, when Minor Threat was around, this is the early eighties, punk music was the opposite.

• 41:21Dax Shepard?

  It was skinheads and racist.

• 41:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, there's a lot of that, but there's a lot of nihilism. Like, I don't care. I'm gonna get drunk. I'm gonna do lots of drugs and just say fuck everyone. And there's like this negative energy of like fuck the world.

• 41:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:35Dax Shepard?

  Which is all British. That's all comes from London.

• 41:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's like kind of like really angry energy. And then Ian's like, hey, we could be punk and rebellious against things that are controlling us, but let's have this attitude of the opposite. Unfuck the world.

• 41:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:50Speaker 02

  Positive mental attitude.

• 41:52Dax Shepard?

  Help people at shows. Someone falls down, help them up. Community, collective.

• 41:56Speaker 02

  Then it's like, oh, you could be punk. You could scream. You could go to shows. But you could actually go, I live a drug-free life. I don't drink.

• 42:04Speaker 01

  Healthy.

• 42:04Speaker 02

  I don't have sex.

• 42:05Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 42:07Speaker 01

  That feels extreme.

• 42:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. You know, with everything, there's like the extremes.

• 42:11Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 42:11Speaker 02

  And then there's a lot of straight edge people that are really into Hare Krishna, you know, like shelter.

• 42:16Dax Shepard?

  Best merch ever. Still have a ton of it.

• 42:18Speaker 02

  And I love those bands too.

• 42:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:20Speaker 02

  And I was like, oh, I don't even know what Hare Krishna was, but like because of the bands, I was like, you've like learned about.

• 42:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, like I'm into it.

• 42:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:27Speaker 01

  Wow, cool.

• 42:28Dax Shepard?

  And that leads all the way to Jack Antonoff, a couple of weeks ago, who we had, which is like, Ben, he's doing shows. He's eight years younger than us or 10 years. Every show has to have a philanthropic component. So it's like, you know, there's a food drive at everyone. It's like, he started a thing that really just kind of carried on even when Jack was doing it. It's really cool. Okay, so you leave Santa Barbara. Thank God you're drinking now. And then you go to LA.

• 42:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I moved to LA. There was a fork of the road because I was super into academia.

• 42:57Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you double majored sociology and women's studies.

• 42:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's right. So when you're a sociology women's studies major, it's all critical writing and thinking. And then once you get to that fifth year, I was like in school for five years. I just didn't want to leave school.

• 43:09Dax Shepard?

  And you started early. This is perfect. You actually finished right on time.

• 43:13Speaker 01

  True.

• 43:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, it's true. I kept going. I'm like, how do I stay in it? Because now I found my groove. Now I'm hanging with professors. Now I like want to get professors' respect and have them talk to me like a colleague almost.

• 43:26Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, peer. Yeah, yeah.

• 43:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm like, okay, now I'm reading the text. I'm having real. Thoughtful conversations and those thoughtful conversations are already being had at these hardcore shows. So there's a lot of cross and we're all reading books and talking. It was just cool to be intellectual to talk about. So I was like, this is great. This is aligning with my academia. And then I was like, okay, well, I guess maybe I'll consider staying academia. I sent off for graduate and PhD programs. I accepted the two and then that's when I had to make a decision because I was like, okay, do I go down this road? Do I follow music? At the time, my band or my bands, I mean, we were playing to like 30 people.

• 44:07Speaker 02

  It was fun, but it wasn't like sustainable. And then I got a demo from a band that was like interested to get signed or probably release their music.

• 44:16Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 44:16Speaker 02

  The singer of the band played at the Pickle Patch, which was my apartment. She was in this really cool band called Discount.

• 44:22Dax Shepard?

  Don't know Discount.

• 44:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, Discount's from No Idea Records from Florida. I was like obsessed with Discount. She was on tour with Hot Water Music. It was Discount, Hot Water Music and another band. And she's like, I'm in this new band called The Kills. It's a rock and roll thing. I couldn't believe what I heard on that demo. And I was more like, wow, she just asked me to put out this record. I'm just a little guy, but I put out some other bands that kind of showed proof of concept. So I was like, you know what? Because she gave me the cosign and I like so inspired by her, I'm just gonna do the music thing. I think this is what I need to do.

• 44:53Dax Shepard?

  And The Kills was probably your first really successful?

• 44:56Speaker 02

  It was the second.

• 44:58Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 44:58Speaker 02

  Or potentially the third. It's like the first would be Plays With Staken For Stars. That was like Dimmock Seven. And then this band called Pretty Girls Make Graves from Seattle, which was one of the members of Kill Sadie that got me drunk.

• 45:11Speaker 02

  That band is the reason why Allison from The Kills was like, hey, I saw your success with Pretty Girls. Would you consider putting out this EP? And I'm like, yes, yes, yes, exclamation point, exclamation point. I wish I could find this letter because back then there was like handwritten letters. So it was just an interesting time, 2002. And then I moved to LA. I said, I'm just gonna do the label. I'll do the academic route maybe later.

• 45:35Dax Shepard?

  It can be there waiting for me. Yeah, yeah, you could resume that.

• 45:38Speaker 02

  Yeah. So then I moved to LA and then I was like. Well, it's definitely the best place for me to start Dimmack. This is the music hub of America. I mean, in my mind.

• 45:47Dax Shepard?

  Well, you got Capitol Records, you got Warner Brothers. I mean, you really, historically, this is where all the big labels are.

• 45:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, and then I moved to LA, and then I already got hit up by major labels. Smart major label A and R scouts are always looking for other ones in the underground that are scouts, which are indie labels.

• 46:04Dax Shepard?

  Okay, so they're tracking all the-

• 46:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, they want to incubate their bands with indie labels. I'm like, free dinners, free lunches, I'm in. And so I started hanging out with Capitol Group and Interscope and all the different labels. And I was like trying to get a swing of things in LA. It's already kind of like buzzing. And then the next band, once I moved to LA, this is even before I was really DJing. It's probably coincidentally at the same time, but I was just kind of just playing here and there. Was a band called Block Party from England.

• 46:33Dax Shepard?

  Oh, yeah.

• 46:34Speaker 02

  And once again, the same kind of thing happened with Alice from the Kills. The manager of Block Party was like, we saw you doing some really great work with the Kills. We would love for you to consider releasing our-

• 46:45Dax Shepard?

  And Block Party is way more electronic.

• 46:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, they're more British indie rock 2000s, like Friends, Ferdinand, Pre-Arctic Monkeys, that kind of British rock invasion that was happening in the US.

• 46:55Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 46:56Speaker 02

  But they're one of the earlier ones, because we got their first demo in 2003. And that's right when I started DJing.

• 47:01Dax Shepard?

  All right, so how do we start DJing? You're just, you get some equipment because you're bored and you start fucking with it?

• 47:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, so when I moved to LA, I was doing the label full on. When I thought of turntables, I had a record player.

• 47:12Dax Shepard?

  Right, right.

• 47:12Speaker 02

  People don't realize there's two different things.

• 47:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:14Speaker 02

  Turntables are the ones you like go backwards and forwards and scratch.

• 47:18Dax Shepard?

  You need a techniques with magnetic drive.

• 47:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, a record player, boom, you put the needle down and you play a full side.

• 47:24Dax Shepard?

  Go make a cocktail.

• 47:25Speaker 02

  I had a record player, because that's how I listened to music, and a pretty sick vinyl collection. And when I moved to LA, there's this bartender that became my friend. He was tatted, he was cool, and he definitely welcomed me to LA. I remember he's like, I've seen your band, I was in a band called Esperanza as well, another punk band, I used to play guitar in. It's like, I saw your band play at Headline Records, but the word on the street is you have the sickest vinyl collection, which I do. I definitely do.

• 47:51Dax Shepard?

  The aforementioned vinyl collection.

• 47:53Speaker 02

  I'll tell you why I have it. I'm a collector. So I've been collecting since I was a kid. And it's not like I had a lot of records, but I always was a completionist. I wanted all the Revelation. I want all the Discord. I want all like the labels I followed. But the thing is, I'm also a hoarder. And I'm a known collector in college. So when my friends would leave college, I remember Koji Bodanishi, he used to be in strictly ballrooms, this other band, he left. He's like, I don't know what these records might give them to me.

• 48:20Dax Shepard?

  So you are dumping ground for other people's collections?

• 48:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm like, you could take them back whenever. I will just be a great, you know.

• 48:26Dax Shepard?

  Steward of it.

• 48:28Speaker 02

  They're like, you know, Steve will take all your records. It's not like it's like a valuable thing, like expensive thing. It's just heavy and a lot of space.

• 48:35Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 48:36Speaker 02

  So I just became like the dumping ground of vinyl and I just amassed this insane collection.

• 48:41Dax Shepard?

  Imagine your apartment being no room to walk.

• 48:44Speaker 02

  Oh, it was like that.

• 48:46Dax Shepard?

  Just milk crates everywhere.

• 48:47Speaker 02

  Yeah. And so my friend, the bartender of Three Clubs, he's like, come to Three Clubs and bring your records. I'll show you how to DJ. It's very simple and play whatever you want. And I'm like, I could play hardcore?

• 49:00Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 49:01Speaker 02

  Wow, this is amazing.

• 49:02Dax Shepard?

  Let me get this straight. Me and the bartender will be happy and all the other people hate it?

• 49:08Speaker 02

  He had a night called sides and you just play whole sides of records. You just sit there and you play whatever you want. I was a radio DJ at KCSB. I was K Juice, which is like the platform for just the library.

• 49:19Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 49:19Speaker 02

  And for the dorms. I didn't make it to KCSB status. I was never good enough. But I was like, oh, this is cool. I get to play records for 30 people drinking beers and me and my friend. I was like, this is awesome. So I started going there and playing. And then he's like, hey, you know, we should just DJ together. And I'm like, yeah, I'm down. And we'll call ourselves the Cry Babies. Cause he was always thinking of ideas. I mean, Callie DeWitt, if you look him up, he's got an incredible history of LA. He ran with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And then he started his own record label and now he has an incredible fashion line.

• 49:50Dax Shepard?

  Oh, really?

• 49:51Speaker 02

  People really follow.

• 49:51Dax Shepard?

  Oh, wow.

• 49:52Speaker 02

  Yeah. And he designed for Kanye West's Yeezy collection. Like he's just a well-known curator, creative director, street kid.

• 50:00Speaker 02

  Awesome burst of creative energy and I didn't end up DJing with him ever.

• 50:06Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 50:06Speaker 02

  But my first gig, I have to find the flyer, was under DJ Cry. No one really knows this. It wasn't Steve Aoki and it wasn't Kid Millionaire, which I later used as a name. It was DJ Cry.

• 50:18Dax Shepard?

  How are you spelling Cry?

• 50:19Speaker 02

  C R Y.

• 50:20Dax Shepard?

  Okay. The conventional one.

• 50:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, and I opened for my friend, this guy Sam Spiegel, who was a producer. I was always in his studio. And he was a big part of my early part of my career. He let me open and stuff like that.

• 50:33Dax Shepard?

  When do you get bit by the electronic bug?

• 50:37Speaker 02

  So this is like 2002 era, right when I moved to LA, I was starting to DJ a little bit. There was a record by James Murphy's LCD Sound System. He dropped this record called Losing My Edge. It was 118 beats per minute and it was this loop of a beat and him talking over the beat. And he's just talking about the history of dance music. It was hypnotic. When I got that record, I went to Amoeba or wherever I did to get that record, I'd play it. And that was when I was like, wow, I could produce something like this. It's simple enough, it's hypnotic and it grooves and you stay on track with it for a long time.

• 51:15Dax Shepard?

  Beats have the same appeal that punk did in that, okay, I get an 808 or I get these three pieces of equipment. I don't have to know how to read music. If I have rhythm, it's very, again, accessible. And even like the hip hop revolution is like, oh, I don't need expensive instruments. I have these albums. They already have the music on it. It's all very DIY. It's kind of weirdly similar.

• 51:36Speaker 02

  Yeah. I remember the beat because the beat's like.

• 51:44Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, very seventies.

• 51:47Speaker 02

  And the bass line just stays there the whole time and it grows with the vocal and it gets louder with the live drums and stuff. But I'm like, fuck.

• 51:56Speaker 02

  I think I could do this. And then I was like, okay, I went on Craigslist and I got this guy that can teach me Pro Tools. I was like, I love the Neptunes. I loved that world of music. And I was like, I kind of want to do that. You know, I was kind of figuring out what I wanted to do. You know, I'm a hardcore punk kid, but I love pop music as well. My sister Devon.

• 52:15Dax Shepard?

  She was in Fast and Furious.

• 52:17Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 52:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, she was Suki in Fast and Furious.

• 52:19Dax Shepard?

  Very attractive.

• 52:20Speaker 02

  And she's, and she had a successful modeling career, which led her into some movies and it opened her up into music. So I was going with her in the studio when she was doing more of an R and B thing. And I was trying to learn to do very quick sampled beats and sounds to make hip hop beats for my sister, really.

• 52:39Dax Shepard?

  That's adorable.

• 52:39Speaker 02

  And then I heard LCD Sound System Losing My Edge. And then that's when I was like,

• 52:44Dax Shepard?

  I'm the artist now.

• 52:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, this is where my heart is going. I want to go faster. I don't want to go 90 to 100 bpm. I want to go 118 to 130 bpm. I want to start playing this out. So I have to give a lot to the LCD Sound System, James Murphy, what he was doing in New York at the time in the early 2000s and the party scene, you know, what I was doing with Denmark and the party scene in LA.

• 53:07Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a wonderful.

• 53:09Speaker 01

  So fun.

• 53:09Dax Shepard?

  Yes, that was wonderful.

• 53:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, I was going back and forth.

• 53:12Speaker 01

  I love it.

• 53:13Dax Shepard?

  So we took more time at the beginning, which I love. That's my favorite. So we are going to have to kind of fast forward a tiny bit. And let me, so whatever I knew about hardcore, I know nothing about electronic and the dance world.

• 53:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 53:27Dax Shepard?

  Just quickly remixes. You kind of get known for remixes first, right?

• 53:32Speaker 02

  Right, right, right.

• 53:32Dax Shepard?

  So you're just kind of mashing up different things?

• 53:35Speaker 02

  Remixes or remixing is the best way. And that's why I tell every young producer or someone who wants to start producing, or that someone wants to become a DJ or once again to the world, start with remixes. Because now there's technology that you don't need to ask for the stems. Let's say you listen to a track, stem would be like bass, guitar.

• 53:54Dax Shepard?

  Isolated instruments.

• 53:55Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 53:56Dax Shepard?

  Isolated vocals.

• 53:57Speaker 02

  Exactly. And you need the stems in order to remix.

• 54:01Dax Shepard?

  Remix.

• 54:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, or change production. Back then you needed stems. Luckily for me. Me, I had my label and I had the stems for the bands on Dimmack. So my very first remix happened to be Block Party because I had the stems. When I was remixing Helicopter, I also called my friend who was on tour with MIA at the time to also remix the other side of the 12 inch. Because there was no digital back then. You would press the 12 inch and that's how people would hear this. He was also throwing a cool party and I was throwing my LA party. So it's interesting because all around the world, there was these little pubs of communities growing where we're playing indie, electronic, underground hip hop. And we had this cool little thing happening. I was doing it in LA, he was doing it in Philadelphia.

• 54:46Speaker 02

  Someone was doing it in London, Japan. And that's where we would end up. If I did a show, I would probably play it, these underground little hipster parties. So he did the other side. I did the other side with my friend Blake Miller.

• 54:57Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 54:57Speaker 02

  Science. It was his first remix and now he's a very well-known DJ and people have known him as Diplo.

• 55:02Dax Shepard?

  Another ding ding ding. He was at The Fight. I was at Saturday.

• 55:05Speaker 01

  No way.

• 55:06Dax Shepard?

  And I was seated, three seats next to us. And I love his body. So let's just be clear. I love his physique. But he was up and down a lot. We had to get up and let Diplo in and out a lot. And that was my first sighting of Diplo.

• 55:15Speaker 01

  And you said it was tied in there.

• 55:16Dax Shepard?

  It was tied. I was sitting next to a linebacker and the Diplo was very social. So he was going back and forth.

• 55:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 55:20Dax Shepard?

  But again, a great physique. So I didn't hate seeing his biceps and stuff.

• 55:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, he does work out a lot. It's fun to go back in time and see who's still in the game, you know?

• 55:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:30Speaker 02

  Wes is still crushing it. So it's good to see that.

• 55:33Dax Shepard?

  When do you start going on these massive tours and when do you start getting the big audience? I mean, I know by 2012, you're the highest grossing dance artist in North America. I know by 2010, you've recorded with Will I Am Now? When do you make that big leap to where you have an audience?

• 55:48Speaker 02

  2007 was a pivotal year for me. That was the first time I played Coachella.

• 55:53Dax Shepard?

  Oh, okay.

• 55:54Speaker 02

  Yeah. So that was big. It was a horrible show.

• 55:56Dax Shepard?

  Okay, okay. Sometimes they go bad.

• 55:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was nerve wracking. It's like kind of thing you just want to throw up after a set because it was so bad.

• 56:04Speaker 01

  Just because it went wrong or people didn't like it? Oh.

• 56:07Speaker 02

  Many times.

• 56:09Dax Shepard?

  Technical difficulties or you just weren't on your game?

• 56:11Speaker 02

  I wasn't on my game. I was nervous. The wind blew the needle off the record.

• 56:15Speaker 01

  The wind seems to be an issue at Coachella.

• 56:18Dax Shepard?

  They don't tell you about the wind.

• 56:19Speaker 02

  The wind blew the needle and went.

• 56:21Dax Shepard?

  Oh, fuck.

• 56:22Speaker 02

  And then the music stops. I'm like, sorry, there's a crowd going, who are you? Like, I don't even know who you are. You suck.

• 56:29Dax Shepard?

  I'm on four hits of E and now I'm miserable. How'd you make that happen?

• 56:33Speaker 02

  They still booked me again. I was surprised, but by 2007, I had the most insane party in LA. We had Lady Gaga's first show. We had a lot of pop artists for a show, a lot of underground hip hop, like K Cuddy's first show. Kanye was rolling through at the time.

• 56:48Dax Shepard?

  What venue were you hosting this at?

• 56:50Speaker 02

  It was CineSpace, right on Hollywood Boulevard, which is very small, but we had the best underground shows. And then at the same time, I'd formed another allegiance with one of my best friends at the time, DJ AM, and we had another party.

• 57:03Dax Shepard?

  I was curious. I was friends with Adam as well.

• 57:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 57:07Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, sweet.

• 57:08Speaker 02

  So we were like running LA's hipster, underground rock, electronic, hip hop. Anyone that's about to blow up, they had to play at one of these dimmack parties. I was just getting booked because of that, not necessarily because of my songs. I only had a few songs. I was like the guy that had the cool scene.

• 57:26Speaker 01

  Like your dad.

• 57:27Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 57:27Speaker 01

  I mean, it all circles back.

• 57:30Speaker 02

  It's similar and different, yeah. And then 2007, I mean, I think I was already doing like 300 shows.

• 57:36Dax Shepard?

  So how big of audiences at that time?

• 57:38Speaker 02

  I don't know, a thousand, maybe less. I don't know. It wasn't like crazy, but I was getting paid like 500 bucks. So it's easy to like spend 500 bucks.

• 57:47Dax Shepard?

  Especially if there was a record store in that town, yeah.

• 57:50Speaker 02

  And I was playing everywhere.

• 57:54Speaker 03

  Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert, if you dare.

• 58:06Dax Shepard?

  I was exposed to this world a little bit through Adam, DJ AM, and knowing what he was making on a weekend to fly to cities and play two cities in one weekend, and it was astronomical.

• 58:18Speaker 02

  If you're making 40 grand in a weekend.

• 58:20Dax Shepard?

  Oh, you're king.

• 58:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, like he was making 20 to 30 grand.

• 58:25Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 58:25Speaker 02

  Turning him down sometimes because he's getting that consistently and I'm getting like maybe a thousand dollars. But I'm happy with the thousand dollars.

• 58:33Dax Shepard?

  You're playing music.

• 58:34Speaker 02

  I was at one point making fifty dollars and a bar tab. You know, a few years before that, now I'm making like five hundred to fifteen hundred dollars. And then sometimes on like the privates, you get like five thousand dollars. This is crazy.

• 58:47Dax Shepard?

  And you're probably thinking the whole time, this has gotta be the ceiling.

• 58:50Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 58:51Dax Shepard?

  Right?

• 58:51Speaker 02

  I'm like, I just made five thousand dollars.

• 58:53Dax Shepard?

  Yes, yes, yeah.

• 58:54Speaker 02

  I remember like in two thousand seven, I got booked in the Philippines and they had billboards up of me everywhere. They give me like five grand. At that time, I'm getting like five hundred, eight hundred dollars at my own party. And sometimes a little bit more, fifteen hundred, two thousand. I'm getting five thousand dollars in Philippines and this movie wanted to book me to be a DJ. It was like a scene where I was like a slave DJ in this, this guy's office.

• 59:19Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 59:20Speaker 02

  It was Tropic Thunder.

• 59:21Speaker 01

  No.

• 59:22Speaker 02

  So like, I didn't know, because they don't say the movie title. They don't say who's gonna be in the movie. I have the script. It says DJ Aoki on every, you know, because it's like actual physical scripts.

• 59:30Dax Shepard?

  They're all watermarked.

• 59:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was Todd Phillips. He was the one, I think it was, still directed it.

• 59:36Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 59:37Speaker 02

  So they're like, okay, hey, we want you to be the slave DJ for the scene with Tom Cruise where he plays Get Low.

• 59:42Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 59:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:43Speaker 02

  He plays the iPod. Thank God he didn't have booked another DJ. I was like, when I saw that he didn't book another DJ and he's on the iPod, I was like, yes, they didn't book it. But anyways, I had this Philippines offer and I couldn't say no to the Philippines offer, so I passed on the movie.

• 59:57Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 59:58Speaker 02

  To this day, I'm like, I wish, it's like, you know, there's the I wish moment. It's like, I wish I made it to that movie because that would have been so epic to be part of like one of the funniest movies at that time.

• 1:00:08Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:00:09Speaker 01

  But you had to say yes to the.

• 1:00:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, because it's a free thing. It's like you get a thousand dollars. It's not like about the money. It's about just being in it.

• 1:00:16Dax Shepard?

  You couldn't pass up five grand.

• 1:00:17Speaker 01

  You couldn't pass up this is your career.

• 1:00:19Dax Shepard?

  So fast forward to two thousand twelve, five years after that, you're the highest grossing. Now you're making millions of dollars at DJ.

• 1:00:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:00:26Dax Shepard?

  It gets pretty crazy, right? Imagine some of these festivals you're going to are astronomical.

• 1:00:31Speaker 02

  Yeah. The other thing that's interesting is that I did become the most traveled musician. In a calendar year on a planet. So I was touring the most. I didn't realize that I was, but what got me there was being in the punk bands.

• 1:00:44Dax Shepard?

  Right. You're just so used to.

• 1:00:46Speaker 02

  When you're in a punk band, first of all, like every single tour I was on, I toured the US 14 times by the time I was 21, we'd never stay in a hotel.

• 1:00:55Dax Shepard?

  Right, right, right. You're at the other band's house.

• 1:00:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, you just stay in like friends' houses or you sleep in the van or you just figure it out, but you'd never stay in a hotel. So when I started staying in hotels, I was like, I get a hotel?

• 1:01:07Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, this is easy.

• 1:01:08Speaker 02

  I'll play for free.

• 1:01:09Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah. What are you guys talking about?

• 1:01:11Speaker 02

  I get like a car to pick me up. This is crazy. Touring, you get that boot camp of being in a band.

• 1:01:17Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:17Speaker 02

  And you go from touring alone, up until 2011, I didn't tour with anyone. I was touring alone. And I was happy to fly eco in the middle backseat. Like, I was like, this is better than being in this band with four sweaty guys, smelly. We haven't showered in two weeks.

• 1:01:32Dax Shepard?

  Bunch of vegans, fucking eating too many beans.

• 1:01:34Speaker 02

  Forty or? Touring was a cinch for me at that point.

• 1:01:38Dax Shepard?

  So 2012, you put out Wonderland and that's your first solo album. I'm just thrilled. I learned this today. I cannot believe you had John Duncan, the guitarist for Exploited on this album. That's impossible. I saw Exploited when I was 11 years old with my brother. I was fucking terrified. It was the scariest event of my childhood.

• 1:01:59Speaker 02

  When I think of Exploited, I always think about the cover with the spiked mohawk.

• 1:02:02Dax Shepard?

  I wear that shirt all the time. I still have it.

• 1:02:04Speaker 02

  It's at every butt patch of every punk.

• 1:02:08Dax Shepard?

  He was iconic.

• 1:02:09Speaker 02

  That was cool to have that because I wanted to have some echoes from the punk and hardcore world.

• 1:02:15Dax Shepard?

  And you got nominated for a Grammy for that album.

• 1:02:17Speaker 02

  I did.

• 1:02:17Dax Shepard?

  Have you been able to look back, obviously 2012 to get that honor, that distinction of being the highest grossing DJ? That's a moment. But being at the Grammys from where you started, were you able to like be there and be present and accept that that really had happened?

• 1:02:31Speaker 02

  Yes. The two times that that I've been nominated, I've went to the Grammys and it's definitely that moment. I'm like, is this really happening to me?

• 1:02:39Dax Shepard?

  You're a shithead for my love of this stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:02:42Speaker 02

  Like, this doesn't make sense. How did I get here?

• 1:02:45Dax Shepard?

  It was everything we were against. And all of a sudden you're there.

• 1:02:48Speaker 02

  That's so true.

• 1:02:49Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:02:50Speaker 02

  It's so interesting.

• 1:02:52Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, to try to integrate that like, oh, I'm at the place I made fun of and guess what? I like it here.

• 1:02:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. It's like, how did I get here? I'm not supposed to be here.

• 1:03:00Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:03:01Speaker 02

  You know, like.

• 1:03:02Dax Shepard?

  It's been a mix up.

• 1:03:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's a mix up. Like, there's something not supposed to happen. Definitely felt that way for sure.

• 1:03:07Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:07Speaker 02

  I still feel that way sometimes. I'm like, how am I even here? And I'm just doing what I love to do. It is hard work when you're doing the work.

• 1:03:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:14Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:15Speaker 02

  But when you're on stage and you're having the best time of your life, it's not hard work. And you're like, wait.

• 1:03:19Speaker 01

  I'm getting paid for this?

• 1:03:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, this is crazy.

• 1:03:22Dax Shepard?

  Now, when you play shows, how many people are there?

• 1:03:26Speaker 02

  Well, it depends. So like the festivals, like for example, EDC, I just played last weekend.

• 1:03:31Dax Shepard?

  Okay, where's that?

• 1:03:32Speaker 02

  It's in Las Vegas. So that is the largest, I think it's the largest festival in the world. Two hundred thousand now a day.

• 1:03:38Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:03:39Speaker 02

  Three days, six hundred thousand people.

• 1:03:41Dax Shepard?

  Oh, my gosh. So when you're in the pit and you're looking out, how many people are physically right there? It tends to thousands of people.

• 1:03:48Speaker 02

  I would say minimum like sixty to eighty thousand.

• 1:03:51Dax Shepard?

  My god.

• 1:03:52Speaker 02

  But it's like so massive. At some point, you don't know. It's just a sea of people.

• 1:03:57Dax Shepard?

  Yes, you're not sure if it's a hundred or forty. Yeah, anything beyond probably thirty thousand.

• 1:04:02Speaker 02

  All you're looking at is like just the flagpoles of signs. Because it's just like a lot of heads, a lot of little flashing lights and flagpoles of signs. It's like far as you can possibly see.

• 1:04:12Dax Shepard?

  And you do a bunch of crazy shit at your shows, or at least you used to, right?

• 1:04:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, I've toned it down a lot.

• 1:04:17Dax Shepard?

  You have, because you're getting older.

• 1:04:20Speaker 01

  He said, don't bring that up.

• 1:04:22Dax Shepard?

  Acrobatic crowd work, surfing stunts, throwing cake at fans.

• 1:04:27Speaker 02

  Cakes are still present.

• 1:04:28Dax Shepard?

  Oh, they are?

• 1:04:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. I had to get an arm surgery at one point. But yeah, the cakes are definitely for people that don't understand it. Yeah, it is a signature.

• 1:04:36Speaker 01

  How did that start?

• 1:04:38Speaker 02

  It's funny that you ask that. I just posted on my Instagram, the first cake video

• 1:04:42Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:04:43Speaker 02

  that I had done, and that was back in two thousand and eleven.

• 1:04:46Speaker 01

  You just picked up a piece of cake and threw it?

• 1:04:48Speaker 02

  Well, no, it does require, I had to go to the bakery and like get you the cake. I got a video guy, let's film this. I think this will be a funny, cool idea. I have no idea what to expect. This is gonna be confusing to a lot of people.

• 1:05:03Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:05:03Speaker 02

  Maybe no one's gonna get caked and I'm just gonna be holding the cake going, what the hell do I do with this thing? So there's a lot of those questions that arose in the beginning. But now, when you do it consistently and you post it up and you're like, That's what this guy does? I'm gonna show up and I wanna get cake cuz it's my birthday.

• 1:05:19Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:05:20Dax Shepard?

  Birthday, Benny Hana.

• 1:05:22Speaker 01

  Benny Hana, oh my god. We just repeat, we're just repeats of our parents.

• 1:05:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:05:27Dax Shepard?

  I mean, look, you have a real run with Wonderland getting nominated, then between 2011, 14, now your stuff's getting licensed, you're like in the Scion commercials, Budweiser, you're in Step Up, All in the Movie, you and Diplo have a song in 22 Jump Street. I mean, look, I don't know DJs and I know your name. You become ubiquitous and one of the titans of this space. It's a very drug-heavy space.

• 1:05:51Speaker 02

  It is, yeah.

• 1:05:51Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, how have you navigated that aspect of it?

• 1:05:55Speaker 02

  Well, the straight edge lifestyle, it did rub off, as we talked about, but I never did drugs after.

• 1:06:01Dax Shepard?

  You never got wild.

• 1:06:02Speaker 02

  I never did coke, I never did meth or heroin.

• 1:06:05Dax Shepard?

  Just some MDMA when appropriate?

• 1:06:07Speaker 02

  No MDMA.

• 1:06:08Dax Shepard?

  As a DJ?

• 1:06:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:06:09Dax Shepard?

  Cuz most of the audience is on MDMA.

• 1:06:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, no MDMA, no acid, no hoesigenetics. Before I was straight edge, I tried one drug and that was acid.

• 1:06:18Dax Shepard?

  Oh, that's not a great strawberry drug.

• 1:06:19Speaker 02

  I was 13.

• 1:06:20Speaker 01

  Oh my god, whoa.

• 1:06:21Speaker 02

  And I did it like by myself, trying to be like ballsy. And then I realized, I was like, I can't get out of this, not all your hours, I'm stuck, ah!

• 1:06:29Dax Shepard?

  It's gonna be forever.

• 1:06:30Speaker 02

  That scared me away from all drugs.

• 1:06:33Dax Shepard?

  That can take you out, make you a lifeline.

• 1:06:34Speaker 02

  That took me out, I was like, I will never touch this again and still I never did. Now I'm like in this place of if it has a healing or it's like a longevity.

• 1:06:44Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, that might go pollen approach.

• 1:06:46Speaker 02

  If there's like some benefit that I could be more creative or something, then I can baby step towards something, so I'm curious.

• 1:06:53Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you're kinda like Machine Gun Kelly in that he's a volcano of things he is interested in and starts like you had or have an esports company, you're into gaming, you're in different video games.

• 1:07:04Speaker 02

  Right when esports was taking off in the mid 2010s, 16, 17. Anytime I have this interest or curiosity, then it leads me down into the space. And then, yeah, I wanna figure out like, how do I get myself involved, monetize or to help provide another? Mirror into this world.

• 1:07:23Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you're a do it yourselfer guy. What year did your dad die?

• 1:07:27Speaker 02

  In 2008.

• 1:07:28Dax Shepard?

  Oh, bummer.

• 1:07:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, he missed a lot of this stuff that I wanted to.

• 1:07:31Dax Shepard?

  I wonder what the moment would have been if he A would have been able to say like, holy smokes, I think you're more successful than I was.

• 1:07:39Speaker 02

  He would never, he would never, he would never say that.

• 1:07:42Dax Shepard?

  If he would say it, B, could he say it, would he be proud or would he have that terrible dad thing where it's like they can't be surpassed by his son or they would love it?

• 1:07:50Speaker 02

  One of the most important things he said to me before he died was, I don't have to worry about you anymore. That was big for me.

• 1:07:57Dax Shepard?

  It's the subtext is, I'm proud of you.

• 1:07:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:07:59Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:08:00Speaker 02

  Cause he didn't overly say anything.

• 1:08:02Dax Shepard?

  Not a lot of I love yous and stuff?

• 1:08:04Speaker 02

  No. Not really.

• 1:08:06Dax Shepard?

  Not as jam.

• 1:08:07Speaker 01

  But he was relieved, like that's him saying like, I'm relieved, you've done it.

• 1:08:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's why like I was always thinking of like, how do I get him to say that?

• 1:08:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:18Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you're gonna have to win an offshore race boat race.

• 1:08:21Speaker 02

  I mean, I do have the adrenaline junkie and that spirit of chasing the edge.

• 1:08:27Dax Shepard?

  No, dude, you guys are very similar in a lot of ways. You're just like the modern version. You're not starting a porno mag or having three babies on the same weekend.

• 1:08:37Speaker 02

  Well, luckily it's, he wasn't a castle culture. I mean.

• 1:08:40Dax Shepard?

  He wouldn't have made it. Yeah. Okay, my last question is, you had a baby in July?

• 1:08:45Speaker 02

  I did.

• 1:08:46Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, a boy?

• 1:08:46Speaker 02

  Rocky, his name is Rocky.

• 1:08:48Dax Shepard?

  Oh, yes, fuck yeah.

• 1:08:52Speaker 02

  He's back.

• 1:08:53Dax Shepard?

  Can't wait to take him to Benny Hanover's birthday.

• 1:08:56Speaker 01

  Oh my God, how fun.

• 1:08:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:08:59Dax Shepard?

  When you think about the future, obviously, I don't even need to ask, I'm sure you're just fucking loving, it's so fun, right? Having a little kid.

• 1:09:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, cause he's that age now where he's laughing a lot. He's alert, he's not aloof, he's not walking yet, so I'm not sure what that'll be. He's crawling, so it's easier to control.

• 1:09:19Dax Shepard?

  No, there's a very rough phase from when they learn how to walk to they actually get good at walking. They just wanna walk everywhere.

• 1:09:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. My house has a lot of stairs and stuff.

• 1:09:28Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you might be shopping for a ranch in the next little while, but obviously. You won't be able to tour 200 days a year. Once that little boy's in school.

• 1:09:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. So I don't know what that's gonna look like. I don't know how we're gonna navigate that. Cause my wife travels with me everywhere, too.

• 1:09:42Dax Shepard?

  Right.

• 1:09:43Speaker 02

  We have a great nanny, though. We have an incredible nanny.

• 1:09:45Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, and you can do that for the first five years, but then he'll go to school and he'll wanna be with his friends. And you'll go, I can't take this kid out of his life all the time.

• 1:09:53Speaker 02

  Exactly. I don't know how to deal with that. I'll also be like my early 50s at the time.

• 1:09:57Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you'll be 53.

• 1:09:58Speaker 01

  You might be in a different headspace.

• 1:10:00Speaker 02

  It's hard for me to like, I've been touring since I was a teenager.

• 1:10:03Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:04Speaker 02

  It's weird. I've never broken below 200 besides COVID.

• 1:10:07Dax Shepard?

  Really?

• 1:10:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, 207 was the lowest.

• 1:10:10Speaker 01

  Oh my god.

• 1:10:10Speaker 02

  Last year. So it's strange to me to not have a free weekend, for example.

• 1:10:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:10:15Dax Shepard?

  You're gonna have to get comfortable with that.

• 1:10:18Speaker 01

  You don't have to worry too much about that yet.

• 1:10:20Dax Shepard?

  You've played all the shows.

• 1:10:23Speaker 02

  That's true.

• 1:10:23Dax Shepard?

  What you haven't done is this chunk. If there's some novel left in life, it's that thing.

• 1:10:28Speaker 02

  Right, right. No, I'm excited about that chapter, but man, I love the stage.

• 1:10:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:10:33Speaker 02

  I love playing for people. I thrive.

• 1:10:37Speaker 01

  It's your life source.

• 1:10:38Speaker 02

  I thrive there.

• 1:10:39Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, that's awesome.

• 1:10:40Speaker 02

  I live for it. I love it.

• 1:10:42Dax Shepard?

  I'm so happy, cause you've been doing it for a long, long time and you haven't burnt out.

• 1:10:45Speaker 02

  No, and also the thing is, is like, when you play like festivals like EDC or Ultra or Tomorrowland, these festivals, you have to prepare all this new music.

• 1:10:53Dax Shepard?

  It forces you to be creative. It puts you on a schedule.

• 1:10:56Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 1:10:56Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:10:57Speaker 02

  That schedule is important to me, that challenge.

• 1:10:59Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:59Speaker 02

  To maintain my presence of my current music. It's not about like your last singles. It's not about all the songs that have impacted the culture. It's about, what about now? Do I have a song now that's gonna actually matter?

• 1:11:13Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, and you'll get to, like a stand-up, you'll get to evaluate that real time. You'll know if it works or not.

• 1:11:19Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 1:11:20Dax Shepard?

  You'll have real feedback, real time.

• 1:11:22Speaker 02

  I love that. That's why Vegas is like my laboratory.

• 1:11:25Dax Shepard?

  So do you have a residency currently?

• 1:11:27Speaker 02

  I do.

• 1:11:28Dax Shepard?

  Where at?

• 1:11:28Speaker 02

  So in Vegas, I do about 50 shows a year there. I play Omni, Haxan, Tal Beach, the whole world. But that's great, cause I'm in Vegas.

• 1:11:35Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:11:36Speaker 02

  So I just drive from home. And then 150 on average, like.

• 1:11:41Dax Shepard?

  Oh my God.

• 1:11:42Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:11:43Dax Shepard?

  You're aging slower. That's the only good news.

• 1:11:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:11:47Dax Shepard?

  Time moves just a fraction slower at altitudes. So you said you spend so much time at altitude.

• 1:11:53Speaker 02

  Okay, I didn't know.

• 1:11:53Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, your clock's a little behind ours at sea level.

• 1:11:57Speaker 02

  That's a good thing. I definitely think about my biological age a lot more than I ever have.

• 1:12:02Dax Shepard?

  You also give a lot of money to regenerative brain research.

• 1:12:06Speaker 02

  The brain is who we are.

• 1:12:07Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:07Speaker 02

  You know, like you could change your heart out, your liver, your body parts, but your brain.

• 1:12:12Dax Shepard?

  You don't want to transplant that.

• 1:12:14Speaker 02

  You can't do that really. You can't actually now with Parkinson's patients could take a chunk of your brain out. So you're not having to have the jitters and still be who you are because your brain is so neuroplastic, right? So who you are can just move over this side of the brain.

• 1:12:28Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. Well, it's like stroke people, they lose their verbal control. They just relocate it to a different part of your brain.

• 1:12:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, the brain is so interesting.

• 1:12:37Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Steve, this has been a delight. I'm really infected by how much you like it.

• 1:12:42Speaker 01

  You're so passionate about it. It's incredible.

• 1:12:44Dax Shepard?

  To be here. The fact that you've loved all this since a kid.

• 1:12:47Speaker 02

  It's the gratitude. When you're fighting for it for so long and then you finally get there.

• 1:12:52Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:52Speaker 02

  You gotta remember, like, the second you don't think it's that important to you, someone else does and someone else will take it.

• 1:12:58Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:58Speaker 02

  And then when you're like, oh, I'm back, guys. They're like, no, we already have someone else. It's like, you better fight for that every single time you have the chance.

• 1:13:05Dax Shepard?

  This is the 30th anniversary of the label?

• 1:13:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, it is. Yeah, 96, 2026. We survived 30 years as an independent label.

• 1:13:13Speaker 01

  It's amazing.

• 1:13:14Dax Shepard?

  That's so impressive.

• 1:13:15Speaker 02

  It's really wild.

• 1:13:16Dax Shepard?

  Well, this has been lovely, man. I'm really glad I got to meet you. Yeah.

• 1:13:19Speaker 02

  Thanks for having me.

• 1:13:19Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, you deserve all this. I'm thrilled for you. Yeah.

• 1:13:22Speaker 02

  Thanks.

• 1:13:25Dax 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.

• 1:13:33Dax Shepard?

  Oh, sometimes water is so delicious.

• 1:13:37Speaker 01

  Sometimes, rarely.

• 1:13:39Dax Shepard?

  Never, almost never for you.

• 1:13:41Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:13:42Dax Shepard?

  At least once a day for me, where I have it and I just go like, oh, thank God this exists.

• 1:13:47Speaker 01

  It hits.

• 1:13:49Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, like I feel it hydrating me.

• 1:13:51Speaker 01

  Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

• 1:13:53Dax Shepard?

  It's got a good taste. I know people say it doesn't have a taste, but it does have a taste. It tastes like water.

• 1:13:57Speaker 01

  It does. That's true.

• 1:13:59Dax Shepard?

  It's unmistakable.

• 1:14:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, God.

• 1:14:02Dax Shepard?

  Right? When you have a sip of water, you know right away that's water. Could be good or bad water.

• 1:14:07Speaker 01

  Huh. But you wouldn't. Hmm. That's interesting.

• 1:14:11Dax Shepard?

  We've filed it under no taste, but that's not true.

• 1:14:15Speaker 01

  Interesting. But it doesn't have any of the properties, right, that taste has like.

• 1:14:22Dax Shepard?

  Like umami, salty, whatever the heck.

• 1:14:25Speaker 01

  Sweet.

• 1:14:26Dax Shepard?

  I'm taking one of my shoes off. I can't possibly take off the left.

• 1:14:30Speaker 01

  Why?

• 1:14:30Dax Shepard?

  Oh, no shit. No, I can't take off the right.

• 1:14:32Speaker 01

  Why?

• 1:14:33Dax Shepard?

  Cause of the deformities.

• 1:14:35Speaker 01

  Oh, well, just do it. Just like, who cares?

• 1:14:39Dax Shepard?

  You know, I'll keep them under the table. That's how I'll handle that. Cause I didn't wear socks. I'm in a special outfit because we have a special guest.

• 1:14:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:47Dax Shepard?

  And then I, I tried footies.

• 1:14:50Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:14:50Dax Shepard?

  They were visible.

• 1:14:52Speaker 01

  I hate that.

• 1:14:53Dax Shepard?

  I know.

• 1:14:53Speaker 01

  I struggle with this as well.

• 1:14:55Dax Shepard?

  I think it's a common struggle.

• 1:14:58Speaker 01

  And even if you get the ones that are not visible, then it doesn't go up high enough and then it slides down.

• 1:15:06Dax Shepard?

  Falling off in your shoe are like 80%.

• 1:15:08Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:15:10Dax Shepard?

  They need to make it with like an adhesive on back or something, but all to say I, I, cause this person is so fashion forward. I was like, well, I can't have socks hanging out. I'm going to go socksless and shoes, which I never do because my feet sweat real quick. And that's what happened. So

• 1:15:25Speaker 01

  Well, let's just see your feet.

• 1:15:26Dax Shepard?

  Well, this one is fine ish. No, it's got that crazy toenail. Well, yeah, there's a bris on it and fuck, yeah. And then that disgusting toe nail that I have to use a drum on.

• 1:15:36Speaker 01

  Really see. So it's fine. Okay. It's fine. Wow. Well.

• 1:15:41Dax Shepard?

  We went to a momentous event.

• 1:15:43Speaker 01

  We did. We sure did.

• 1:15:45Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:45Speaker 01

  We went to a graduation.

• 1:15:47Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:47Speaker 01

  No, I'm sorry. A culmination.

• 1:15:50Dax Shepard?

  A culmination. Exiting elementary school.

• 1:15:53Speaker 01

  You know, I rarely, I'm almost never on the side of like, oh, like, why do we have to have a new word for everything? Like, I'm generally like, sure, who cares? Doesn't bother me. I do think it's crazy that we can't call it a graduation.

• 1:16:07Dax Shepard?

  Oh, I didn't even interpret it as that, but probably maybe you're right.

• 1:16:11Speaker 01

  Well, I don't know.

• 1:16:12Dax Shepard?

  I didn't think they put a lot of thought into it. Like, we're not, we don't use that word as much as just recalling it this.

• 1:16:19Speaker 01

  No, I looked it up. It's you don't call it that because there's no diploma.

• 1:16:22Dax Shepard?

  Oh, a culmination is a graduation without a diploma?

• 1:16:26Speaker 01

  Basically.

• 1:16:26Dax Shepard?

  By the way, they did give them a diploma.

• 1:16:28Speaker 01

  I know. I know. A graduation, I guess, only counts if it's like high school or college.

• 1:16:35Dax Shepard?

  Right.

• 1:16:36Speaker 01

  But I think that's silly and we can, they can just all be graduations.

• 1:16:40Dax Shepard?

  Well, that's what's fun about the experience of having kids in the modern society, which is it's so different from when I was a kid. And then so your knee jerk is like, this must be crazy and silly. Cause my thing is like, no, you got one graduation. It was hugely meaningful because you only got one of them and you looked forward to it and it was finally done. And that's what I enter it with going like, this is silly and indulgent.

• 1:17:03Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:17:04Dax Shepard?

  Why do they got to step up from every grade?

• 1:17:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, that part I do think is silly.

• 1:17:07Dax Shepard?

  Get a trophy for everything, you know?

• 1:17:08Speaker 01

  Yes. I do think that's, yeah.

• 1:17:11Dax Shepard?

  There's some like, I have some hesitation against it.

• 1:17:14Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:17:15Dax Shepard?

  And then I'm there witnessing it and I absolutely love it.

• 1:17:18Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:17:18Dax Shepard?

  And then I go, why do I care? What is, what is it I care about?

• 1:17:22Speaker 01

  You care about people getting soft, um, and the world getting soft, which I tend to care a little bit about, but not, you know, whatever, we're all on the spectrum.

• 1:17:33Dax Shepard?

  Probably perfectly proportional to our age and generation.

• 1:17:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:17:37Dax Shepard?

  It's like you guys had a little more of that than I had.

• 1:17:40Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:17:41Dax Shepard?

  And now they have a lot more of that than you had.

• 1:17:43Speaker 01

  I still eye roll at a lot of the things that are happening now.

• 1:17:47Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:47Speaker 01

  But yeah, I had a fifth grade graduation.

• 1:17:50Dax Shepard?

  And then I try to step back and go like, there's no right or wrong. It's just, they did it that way when I was a kid. Now they're doing it this way. And then if there is some real obvious problem as a result of it, people will notice and they'll write op-eds about it and we'll probably fix it. So what's the big deal? But I do, you just, I just bristle like, well, there's another thing that's like, you've, I, this is what I'm telling myself when I'm objecting to it is like, you're setting them up for massive failure in that the world's not going to celebrate them.

• 1:18:22Speaker 01

  That's how I feel.

• 1:18:23Dax Shepard?

  A mediocre job, it doesn't get a ribbon. You're not going to get a, a, a raise or a promotion at work for just being normal. It's misleading, right?

• 1:18:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:18:34Dax Shepard?

  But then I guess you could quite easily make the argument of, yeah, exactly. That's how life is. So why not give them during childhood when they're innocent and they're carefree? Like, why not let them have this experience since they're never going to have it again?

• 1:18:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, there's just different schools of thought, like on childhood. Like my parents' school of thought was childhood is to prepare you for adulthood.

• 1:18:56Dax Shepard?

  Right.

• 1:18:57Speaker 01

  It's, it's like, it's not there just to be carefree and fun. It's like to learn lessons, to learn things that once you're an adult and you're on your own and you don't have help from us, that you can live.

• 1:19:07Dax Shepard?

  But the Japanese, they're, they're kind of the opposite. They, they go like, oh, adulthood is fucking rough. It's sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice. So they weirdly really protect the childhood as being way more carefree because they know what they're going to have to take on. So it's like, I don't know, they've been doing it that way there for a very long time and it's worked out just fine for them, other than that they're not having kids.

• 1:19:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:19:31Dax Shepard?

  No, this is not my learning college, not my observation.

• 1:19:34Speaker 01

  Oh yeah, I was going to say, I was like, I don't like, I don't think of Japanese children as like being like so effervescent or like running around or be like, they're pretty contained and mellow.

• 1:19:44Dax Shepard?

  Well, the, I haven't been. Yeah, I haven't been to Japan to even witness how kids are, but I do remember having a class where they were saying specifically, they're not trying to prepare them.

• 1:19:55Speaker 01

  Oh, interesting.

• 1:19:56Dax Shepard?

  They're, they're recognizing this is a once in a lifetime chapter, which is like, no, this is the time to be all these things because you're not going to be able to be all these things.

• 1:20:07Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:20:07Dax Shepard?

  Which whatever, they're all valid. Okay, but then the event itself.

• 1:20:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was great. So we went, you and Kristen, obviously, and Lincoln and grandparents and me and Anna and TT. Yeah, we all went and um, we're gonna talk through the whole thing. Okay, so first of all, you had been given a number beforehand. You didn't know what it was, but you Delta gave you a number.

• 1:20:39Dax Shepard?

  A purple piece of paper and the number was 24.

• 1:20:43Speaker 01

  Okay, yeah. So then at the top of the graduation, um, the principal says, okay, if you were given a number, if you're in this person's class, you'll go to the left and you'll make a line and here.

• 1:20:54Dax Shepard?

  The middle aisle.

• 1:20:55Speaker 01

  Exactly. And then if you're in this person's class, da, da, da. It made no sense.

• 1:20:59Dax Shepard?

  Right.

• 1:21:00Speaker 01

  It didn't make sense what she was saying. It was clear. Everyone was confused.

• 1:21:03Dax Shepard?

  I was muddling around with all the parents holding numbers and no one knew where they were supposed to line up or in what order.

• 1:21:08Speaker 01

  Yes, and um, and then she said it again, also confusing. And then you did have allowed, um, clarificate, you said, well, there's a.

• 1:21:22Dax Shepard?

  I raised my hand for a while and she didn't call me.

• 1:21:24Speaker 01

  Okay, and then you.

• 1:21:26Dax Shepard?

  I was like, okay, I gotta just, yeah, so I loudly said, hey, um, there's a couple middle aisles. Is it the ones running parallel to the stage or these ones perpendicular? Oh, it's middle. Oh, and then we got clarification on that. So okay, the middle, that's the middle aisle. That's great.

• 1:21:40Speaker 01

  I do think because it was an auditorium.

• 1:21:43Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:43Speaker 01

  It was, it was with gust. It wasn't exactly the way you just did it.

• 1:21:48Dax Shepard?

  Well, I had to be heard in the back row. Yeah, it was extremely assertive.

• 1:21:53Speaker 01

  It was.

• 1:21:54Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 1:21:55Speaker 01

  And I was like.

• 1:21:55Dax Shepard?

  You were certainly nervous.

• 1:21:57Speaker 01

  I got nervous. I did a little bit of sinking down because you know what happens is they see, they see it's you, that they look at the group of, they look at your people, obviously, because that's how life works. That's how people work. They're like, oh, and people are laughing and then they're looking and I was like, oh, my God.

• 1:22:15Dax Shepard?

  Probably made you nervous.

• 1:22:16Speaker 01

  A lot of attention.

• 1:22:17Dax Shepard?

  I was thanked by all the parents that were in the confused because we were just trying to comply. But I just got that sense. We're not moving closer to this being lined up the way it's supposed to be. I stand by that it needed to be sorted out.

• 1:22:30Speaker 01

  It needed to be sorted out. I agree with you there.

• 1:22:32Dax Shepard?

  And a ton of the parents thanked me like this. Oh, thank God. You said, I didn't know where the hell this was. So I was getting tons of validation there, but then I started getting really self-conscious like, does that principal feel like I just completely interrupted her thing?

• 1:22:45Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:22:45Dax Shepard?

  And then I was planning to go apologize to her after.

• 1:22:49Speaker 01

  That's nice.

• 1:22:50Dax Shepard?

  And so my full intention was to find her and to say, I'm so sorry if that was disruptive or rude. But she found me. I was like in the middle of talking to the teacher and she came up. She goes, oh my gosh, thank you so much for. And I was like, oh, thank, and I go, thank God. I was, I was, I was coming to say I'm sorry if that was. But she, she did at least express that she was grateful that I got involved. Yeah.

• 1:23:12Speaker 01

  Great. So anyway, you guys got lined up appropriately and you were one of the lucky ones that got.

• 1:23:20Dax Shepard?

  Flower.

• 1:23:21Speaker 01

  A special flower.

• 1:23:22Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, Delta handled me a flower. Standing there with a flower.

• 1:23:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was so cute. Some of, yeah. And then you sat back down.

• 1:23:31Dax Shepard?

  They sang a beautiful song.

• 1:23:33Speaker 01

  Such a cute song. What was it?

• 1:23:35Dax Shepard?

  And I just, I just thinking on the last fact check, I've come to terms with the fact that Delta's little, which I didn't know.

• 1:23:41Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:23:42Dax Shepard?

  So weird.

• 1:23:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:43Dax Shepard?

  I really don't know how I didn't know that. I think this is because their personality is so big.

• 1:23:46Speaker 01

  Well, also because she's just the person you see every day.

• 1:23:48Dax Shepard?

  It was when she went to the dance and I saw these photos and I was like, oh, she's a head shorter than everyone.

• 1:23:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:52Dax Shepard?

  So then at the big singing thing, I'm like trying to find her and she's kind of buried behind tall people.

• 1:23:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:23:58Dax Shepard?

  But you can see her teeth from a mile away. That's how you find Delta. Her rabbit teeth.

• 1:24:03Speaker 01

  She just has the biggest smile.

• 1:24:04Dax Shepard?

  She's the cutest rabbit teeth that you can see from so far away.

• 1:24:08Speaker 01

  Yes. And the song was so, so sweet.

• 1:24:12Dax Shepard?

  Cry, cry, cry.

• 1:24:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, everyone's already crying at that point. It just has just begun.

• 1:24:20Speaker 01

  And then they did a really, really beautiful thing.

• 1:24:25Speaker 01

  Where at first I got anxious.

• 1:24:27Dax Shepard?

  Yes.

• 1:24:28Speaker 01

  When this was announced was gonna happen.

• 1:24:30Dax Shepard?

  You start doing math immediately.

• 1:24:32Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:24:32Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:33Speaker 01

  So it's the graduation is just two classrooms

• 1:24:36Dax Shepard?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:24:37Speaker 01

  Of fifth graders, but.

• 1:24:38Dax Shepard?

  So probably like eighty kids or seventy.

• 1:24:41Speaker 01

  So many those I didn't realize like how many kids are in these classrooms these days. A lot. And then that made me so like, God, these teachers, you know? Oh, my God.

• 1:24:52Dax Shepard?

  They're nurses, you know, it's them and nurses.

• 1:24:54Speaker 01

  Oh, and so for each kid, a teacher spoke about them, like, wrote a little like paragraph about them and said it out loud.

• 1:25:03Dax Shepard?

  As they came up and got their little diploma.

• 1:25:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:25:05Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:25:06Speaker 01

  And yeah, so at first, when I hear this is happening, I was like, oh.

• 1:25:09Dax Shepard?

  I did the math. I was like, it's gonna take at least a minute to read each one.

• 1:25:15Speaker 01

  Ooh.

• 1:25:15Dax Shepard?

  Probably more.

• 1:25:16Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:25:16Dax Shepard?

  Then it's like seventy five minutes at the quickest version of this.

• 1:25:20Speaker 01

  Yep. This is, yeah, the brain starts doing that. And then I was like, okay, but go to her classes first. Not that it even.

• 1:25:27Dax Shepard?

  Well, no, I did too, but then I'm like, wait, I can't leave. I'm gonna be a dick. So it's almost worse. There's nothing to look forward to.

• 1:25:34Speaker 01

  That's true.

• 1:25:34Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:35Speaker 01

  So anyway, they say all these beautiful things about these kids and it really, after the first couple, I was like, oh, my God, this is just so important that they are doing this because as we know, what teachers say about you sticks.

• 1:25:52Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:25:53Speaker 01

  It really sticks. And I was like, each one of these kids gets a moment.

• 1:25:57Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:58Speaker 01

  Where they're being told about their, you know, assets and like.

• 1:26:03Dax Shepard?

  Moments throughout the year that happen. Um, did you have, so first round of anxiety was the time?

• 1:26:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:26:10Dax Shepard?

  Second round of anxiety was like, oh, these teachers have to say something unique about each student. How are they gonna do it? I, how is it not gonna become generic?

• 1:26:18Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:26:19Dax Shepard?

  Uh, but fucking hats off to the teachers. It was, each one was so specific and thoughtful. No one, no one phoned any one of them.

• 1:26:27Speaker 01

  Yes, they were all, they were all unique. And I was like, oh, my God, this is great. But then I did, I did have some, um.

• 1:26:35Speaker 01

  Uh, what's it called? Like mirror neuron stuff happening? Yeah. With some of the kids. Cause I was like, okay, some of the kids got the teachers to cry.

• 1:26:46Dax Shepard?

  Oh, sure.

• 1:26:47Speaker 01

  Over them.

• 1:26:47Dax Shepard?

  But I thought in a great turn of events, it wasn't like the most popular kids in class. It wasn't like they got double, like A, they were already really popular and the teachers crying over it. To me, that wasn't happening.

• 1:27:00Speaker 01

  I know, but sometimes it was.

• 1:27:02Dax Shepard?

  Sometimes, but sometimes it is or both, I guess.

• 1:27:06Speaker 01

  Yeah. No, it just, I just know me and I was like.

• 1:27:09Dax Shepard?

  You would be noticing.

• 1:27:11Speaker 01

  That so bad.

• 1:27:12Dax Shepard?

  Even wanting a teacher to cry.

• 1:27:14Speaker 01

  And not be able to keep it together at all. Come on, they had to say bye to me.

• 1:27:17Dax Shepard?

  That is the high bar.

• 1:27:20Speaker 01

  I just want them to be so sad.

• 1:27:22Dax Shepard?

  Devastated.

• 1:27:22Speaker 01

  Miss me so much.

• 1:27:23Dax Shepard?

  Announce their retirement. I can't possibly go on if you're not in my class.

• 1:27:27Speaker 01

  Yeah. That's what I would have wanted, would have been what I was striving for.

• 1:27:33Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:33Speaker 01

  And some people got it, some people didn't. And there was one that was like, I have no idea what's, you have no idea about these kids, obviously, and what's been going on. But there was one that you, based on the little speech, you could kind of put some pieces together about this kid. And it was, everyone was crying. It was so moving.

• 1:27:54Dax Shepard?

  Yep.

• 1:27:54Speaker 01

  And I did think, this person will hopefully never forget this.

• 1:27:59Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:00Speaker 01

  And make decisions based on that, based on, no, I'm a leader. I'm a this, I'm a, you know? Oh, it was just so lovely. And of course, the deltas was so, so wonderful and.

• 1:28:12Dax Shepard?

  More crying, cry more crying.

• 1:28:14Speaker 01

  Yeah. I felt, I did feel a little dead inside.

• 1:28:18Dax Shepard?

  You did?

• 1:28:19Speaker 01

  Yeah. Cause all of you guys were crying so hard. And.

• 1:28:25Dax Shepard?

  Oh, you felt judged?

• 1:28:26Speaker 01

  Well, I know, I didn't feel judged.

• 1:28:27Dax Shepard?

  I didn't even clock whether you were.

• 1:28:29Speaker 01

  I know. No one was, but I knew, I was like, I'm not like really, I was feeling emotional. But I wasn't, I wasn't, um.

• 1:28:37Dax Shepard?

  Emoting.

• 1:28:38Speaker 01

  Crying. I wasn't crying tears. Um, and then.

• 1:28:44Speaker 01

  And then I was like, like, not, these people are pretend, not you, but I was like, some of these people are just performing, you know?

• 1:28:53Dax Shepard?

  I thought, it crossed my mind that you thought I was performing.

• 1:28:56Speaker 01

  No, if it's your kid, I mean, I felt, I was like, oh my God, I cannot believe she's graduating fifth grade. I can't believe she's this old. Look at her. Oh my God. I mean, I was definitely like, I had tears in my eyes.

• 1:29:09Dax Shepard?

  In your mind?

• 1:29:11Speaker 01

  In my mind's eyes. Um, no, I had tears, but there was no spillage.

• 1:29:17Dax Shepard?

  Right, right, right. It didn't break the.

• 1:29:19Speaker 01

  And some people, not the parents, obviously, but some other people were crying so hard that I was like, this isn't real.

• 1:29:32Dax Shepard?

  You were calling bullshit.

• 1:29:32Speaker 01

  And then, I know it was real. It was real. And everyone's on a spectrum of how easily they cry and what they cry about, you know, but I felt a little in my head about that.

• 1:29:44Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:47Speaker 03

  Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert, if you dare.

• 1:30:00Dax Shepard?

  It's so great how you can be having multiple experiences at the same time. Cause I too was having like, I was having like three levels of engagement with it. A, it's my sweet spot, right? We know what I'm gonna cry about. It's earnestness. It's like, it's earnestness in the face of a cruel world. That's, that always hits me.

• 1:30:17Speaker 01

  Of course. Yeah.

• 1:30:18Dax Shepard?

  Vulnerability and sweetness, in spite of the fact that everyone's been fucking terrible and mean.

• 1:30:23Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:30:24Dax Shepard?

  And then there was this little girl that was just brought the house down. This little girl with a lot of different developmental stuff going on, who fucking graduated fifth grade. And the way she was celebrating, waving her diploma over her head, I was, that girl made me cry like five times. And then I just stared at her in the front row, swinging her feet. She's so happy. It made me.

• 1:30:44Speaker 01

  So happy.

• 1:30:45Dax Shepard?

  It's like, it's, it was happiness cry.

• 1:30:47Speaker 01

  I know, I know.

• 1:30:48Dax Shepard?

  Too happy for her to not be crying about it.

• 1:30:51Speaker 01

  Beautiful. Yeah. Okay. I had an experience with. That beautiful girl as well.

• 1:30:56Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:30:56Speaker 01

  Where I was like, oh my God, she's so ha- like, yeah.

• 1:31:01Dax Shepard?

  Happy.

• 1:31:01Speaker 01

  But then I was struggling.

• 1:31:03Dax Shepard?

  So supportive. It was not like when I was in fifth grade.

• 1:31:06Speaker 01

  No, I know.

• 1:31:07Dax Shepard?

  Those kids were like separate.

• 1:31:08Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:31:09Dax Shepard?

  And they were in a room and you're like, oh no, stay away.

• 1:31:11Speaker 01

  I know. It was so, it was so beautiful, but I did have a moment of like, I felt sad and then I felt guilty for feeling sad.

• 1:31:23Dax Shepard?

  Right.

• 1:31:24Speaker 01

  And I was like, you can't feel sad about this or upset.

• 1:31:27Dax Shepard?

  What you probably have is fear, which is like, look at this beautiful human being on earth and, and, and earth's not designed for her.

• 1:31:34Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:31:34Dax Shepard?

  How will she do?

• 1:31:35Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:31:36Dax Shepard?

  But look at her.

• 1:31:38Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:31:38Dax Shepard?

  Fucking crushing it.

• 1:31:39Speaker 01

  I just hope it stays like that.

• 1:31:41Dax Shepard?

  But that's what's going on is like you, you, you immediately care and want to help and protect. And that's what a wonderful part of us that we all feel that anxiety.

• 1:31:50Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:31:51Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. And that's nice. And then I go, oh, we're kind of nice. Most of the time I think we're terrible, but then no, we're kind of nice. All of us feel this way about this little girl.

• 1:31:59Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:32:00Dax Shepard?

  And that's so wonderful.

• 1:32:01Speaker 01

  Yeah. Oh, she was so cute.

• 1:32:04Dax Shepard?

  So I had all that stuff going on and I was like very present for that stuff.

• 1:32:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:32:08Dax Shepard?

  But very, very actively as well. I got crazy, um, aware in a very anthropological way. And this will be so dud to you and to everybody, but it took me a minute to figure out why.

• 1:32:24Dax Shepard?

  But ceremonies.

• 1:32:26Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 1:32:26Dax Shepard?

  Are often when we most coalesce around what our group values are. These are kind of the moments where we declare group values.

• 1:32:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:32:37Dax Shepard?

  And like pro-social and antisocial, like it's these rites of passages where we kind of talk about how you should be in the world.

• 1:32:45Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 1:32:46Dax Shepard?

  And I, I just got like hyper aware of like, oh wow, yeah. Culture's being passed on to them right now. Like it's so concrete right now. Cause it starts with a song about having dreams. Have a million dreams. Go get those dreams.

• 1:33:05Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:33:05Dax Shepard?

  And I was just like, this is so American. Like, this is how the system works. Everyone in here should be dreaming of being spectacular. Right? Which obviously is not reality. Not everyone's gonna be spectacular. And then I was just thinking about how opposite this is probably from the Japanese graduation. That's more collective society, right?

• 1:33:28Speaker 01

  Right, right, right.

• 1:33:28Dax Shepard?

  And finding probably how to be a great family member or whatever. Whatever virtues are reaffirmed in those moments for their expressing. So it was like, have a, you know, dream to the stars. It's just so interesting. Again, I say it was zero judgment.

• 1:33:44Speaker 01

  Of course. There was a moment, I'll never forget it, and I of course argued with him. At my brother's high school graduation.

• 1:33:54Speaker 01

  You know, the valedictorian comes up and says something and salutatorian and it is, and it's like, Chase your dream. You know, it's all this dream stuff.

• 1:34:02Dax Shepard?

  Chase your dream.

• 1:34:03Speaker 01

  Not work hard. You know, like that part's not really in it.

• 1:34:07Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:07Speaker 01

  Even similar here, right? It's like, just go after it.

• 1:34:11Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:12Speaker 01

  And, and be the best you can be and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

• 1:34:17Dax Shepard?

  Be great. I mean, be great.

• 1:34:18Speaker 01

  And my dad was like squirming in his seat and after he was like, what is this? He was like, why don't people just strive to be mediocre?

• 1:34:30Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:34:30Speaker 01

  He literally said that. He was like,

• 1:34:31Dax Shepard?

  Or strive to be content.

• 1:34:33Speaker 01

  He said mediocre, which was, I was like, dad, no.

• 1:34:36Dax Shepard?

  Pejorative in our society.

• 1:34:38Speaker 01

  Exactly. But he means strive to be safe. Just strive to get some things. You don't have to get all the things. You don't have to be the best. Just have enough.

• 1:34:49Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:50Speaker 01

  To, to live a life.

• 1:34:51Dax Shepard?

  Try to get enough.

• 1:34:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:34:52Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:53Speaker 01

  He really hated that.

• 1:34:54Dax Shepard?

  Oomphaloompa, or the Swedish thing is the right amount.

• 1:34:58Speaker 01

  Oh, lakuma or whatever.

• 1:35:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, he really, and I like, I was so eye rolly with him. I was like, dad, that is not, like, that's not an inspiring message. That's not what you do. And he was like, it should be. And I of course thought that was silly as someone who was chasing a dream.

• 1:35:16Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:17Speaker 01

  But I do, as the older I get.

• 1:35:21Speaker 01

  Agree a little more with it, I think. I mean, it's not really fair for me to say because I did get a lot of the things I wanted to get.

• 1:35:28Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, there's a certain reality, which is like of these 75 kids, all 75 of them can't be President of the United States. It's not going to work out time wise for them.

• 1:35:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:35:37Dax Shepard?

  And they're not going to be CEOs and they're not going to be world famous artists. So on, on some level, I start a little judgmental like, man, do we not set everyone up for total failure? Like when they're not spectacular, which 99.9% of people are not spectacular, then they're just disappointed in themselves. They didn't fulfill this thing that seemed so easily everyone should be achieving.

• 1:36:00Speaker 01

  You should have it. Yeah, I know.

• 1:36:01Dax Shepard?

  So I think about that. And then I go like, yeah, this is a little messed up. But then I step back even further and I go, no, forget right or wrong. It's like, this is just how it is here. And what's the result? So we have a system and regardless of what the intentions of the system were, whatever results the system produces are what the system creates.

• 1:36:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:36:21Dax Shepard?

  And the result is, yeah, dude, a person came to this country from South, um, South Africa and became the first trillionaire to ever live because he came here.

• 1:36:32Speaker 01

  It's wild.

• 1:36:33Dax Shepard?

  And every invention, not every, damn near every fucking invention happens here. And so it's just the system by which you get this other thing. You can then decide all the way later, is it good or bad to be America versus Japan versus Spain versus whatever? I don't know. I kind of think, no, I think.

• 1:36:54Speaker 01

  Well, they're all, I don't think you can say better. Yeah.

• 1:36:57Dax Shepard?

  It's just all trade off.

• 1:36:58Speaker 01

  Yeah. There's good things about all the places.

• 1:37:00Dax Shepard?

  So I literally, I didn't leave it going like this. We shouldn't do this. I just like, oh, this is how we get this result. And it's really baked in. And this is a very progressive and very self-aware school.

• 1:37:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:37:12Dax Shepard?

  And even they probably haven't consciously thought, oh, we're passing on this culture.

• 1:37:20Dax Shepard?

  It's just, it's just what you do and you do it innately because it was given to you and then you pass it on.

• 1:37:26Speaker 01

  I know. It's hard though, because even though I agree that it might be maybe setting us up to all fall short. I also fully bought into that, fully. And like, I was like, I'm getting what I want. I'm, I'm chasing this crazy dream. I'm gonna do it. I like, you know, when you're like young and you need like, some so embarrassing design wise now, you know, but like, you like get like words from like TJ Maxx. If there was a dream, I'd always get it. Like, that was like such a word for me. And it worked.

• 1:38:06Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:06Speaker 01

  Like, for me, it worked. And I don't know.

• 1:38:10Dax Shepard?

  The system is, is living and breathing because 1% do break through.

• 1:38:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:38:16Dax Shepard?

  And.

• 1:38:17Speaker 01

  You need to be motivated. I don't know.

• 1:38:19Dax Shepard?

  And we'd rather live in a place where that's possible, even if it's not probable. I would.

• 1:38:24Speaker 01

  Exactly. Exactly. Yes.

• 1:38:27Dax Shepard?

  And a lot of people would. And then some people want it.

• 1:38:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:38:29Dax Shepard?

  It's just all really interesting. And so, yeah, so there was that thing that was being passed on. And then even the nature of this thing that was beautiful. Everyone gets something read about them to identify something special about them.

• 1:38:44Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:38:44Dax Shepard?

  And it's like, yeah, that we all like, we all need to be special. We all need to be individual. We all need to be uniquely special.

• 1:38:51Speaker 01

  Yeah. I know.

• 1:38:53Dax Shepard?

  And we'll figure it out because that's what we want and what we do. And again, I, I'm not right or wrong. It's just like, oh, I was aware, I was just noticing, oh, now this bit of culture is being passed on in this bit of culture.

• 1:39:06Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, no, at first, again, she said the thing, this is gonna happen. And then I was like, oh, my God, we're gonna be here for so long. And then I was also like, oh, I also was like, Jesus, like, we're, can't they just write?

• 1:39:17Dax Shepard?

  It's indulgent.

• 1:39:18Speaker 01

  Exactly. It felt indulgent. And then a part of me was like, can't they just like write it on a paper and give it to them or something? It was like this whole like, standing in front of everyone while you're hearing nice things about you, it felt was a little bit like, oh, my God. But then it was happening. And I was like, this is a beautiful thing.

• 1:39:33Dax Shepard?

  I love it. Yeah. Because this is my culture. Yeah.

• 1:39:36Speaker 01

  I don't know. I don't know.

• 1:39:38Dax Shepard?

  It's really, it's just funny. Before I had kids, maybe, I don't know. I just sat through all these things. I never really was aware of what was happening during these things.

• 1:39:49Speaker 01

  And I was just, I just.

• 1:39:50Dax Shepard?

  It's like, I know each one's like, I know you're gonna be a star in sixth grade. Or I know you're gonna be a mathematician. It's like.

• 1:39:57Speaker 01

  One of them was like, gonna be run for president.

• 1:39:59Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:40:01Speaker 01

  Uh, yeah, I was really putting myself in the position of being up there. And like, what I would have wanted them to say about me. And like, what would they have said about me at that age?

• 1:40:12Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I was thinking about that, too. What they would say about me.

• 1:40:15Speaker 01

  I know, I felt really, I was like, oh, my God, I'm.

• 1:40:16Dax Shepard?

  Cause I'd be a naughty boy, but I bet I would have won them over enough. Like, they would, they would have, they would have talked about me being naughty and then said I was really funny, I think.

• 1:40:24Speaker 01

  Well, there was one boy that before the one, before the teacher could speak about him, he said, okay, I gotta, I wanna say something. And I was like, oh, this is Dax. But then it was so sweet.

• 1:40:36Dax Shepard?

  He wanted to call out a dude that works in the office.

• 1:40:39Speaker 01

  Yes, it was so sweet. Cause at first I was like, oh, my God.

• 1:40:44Dax Shepard?

  Way too confident. Who's he thinking he's, he's, everyone has come up and played their part.

• 1:40:48Speaker 01

  And he has to do something different.

• 1:40:50Dax Shepard?

  Stop, stop, I need to say something. And you're like, whoa, what's this tall poppy doing?

• 1:40:54Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:40:55Dax Shepard?

  And then it was selfless.

• 1:40:56Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:40:57Dax Shepard?

  What a gangster.

• 1:40:58Speaker 01

  It was great. It took a turn, cause I was like, oh, no. And then I did, I was like, this is just like Dax. But then it was sweet and I was like, I guess it is like him. I guess that is part of it.

• 1:41:10Dax Shepard?

  It was neat. I really, I really enjoyed watching.

• 1:41:13Speaker 01

  And then all the kids were crying. Crying.

• 1:41:18Dax Shepard?

  Was that the kids crying?

• 1:41:19Speaker 01

  All the kids were bawling after.

• 1:41:21Dax Shepard?

  I was happy to see that because as I told you, when I picked up Lincoln from the fifth grade dance, no one was, everyone was crying. Cause they realized they weren't gonna see each other. And then when I picked up Delta, they didn't seem to have any awareness of that. But now it seems to have hit them at this ceremony.

• 1:41:34Speaker 01

  That made me sad. And it is sad, like. These, these chapters, you know, I was thinking about her little preschool graduation that we did in COVID. Remember it was COVID. So we just like went one by one.

• 1:41:48Dax Shepard?

  This is when I had just crashed the motorcycle.

• 1:41:50Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:41:51Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I was in there in a sling. Yeah.

• 1:41:52Speaker 01

  Same day. And, um, and like, I just, that, we were said bye to that school.

• 1:41:59Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:41:59Speaker 01

  And now this school. And it's like, what the fuck is going on? I hate time.

• 1:42:06Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. And you really, I think you specifically hate chapters.

• 1:42:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, endings. I hate endings.

• 1:42:13Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. I think the, I think the, the more you look at life as chapters, the easier it is to handle the bittersweetness.

• 1:42:23Speaker 01

  I don't like that.

• 1:42:24Dax Shepard?

  Which is to go like, yeah, this is sad. I'm leaving this chapter. And there'll be a different chapter I'll experience and that will be special too. And I'll be sad to say goodbye to that one, but then another one will come.

• 1:42:35Speaker 01

  I know. I said that to her when she was crying. I said, it's hard to, it's, it's hard. It's a really big chapter.

• 1:42:41Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:42:41Speaker 01

  But yeah, and my inclination was to say, but there's gonna, but there's, and the next one's gonna be so fun.

• 1:42:48Dax Shepard?

  You're gonna be a star.

• 1:42:48Speaker 01

  But I didn't. Cause I was like, yeah, it's just, it is hard to end things. It's hard to say goodbye to things. And I don't.

• 1:42:57Dax Shepard?

  But it also shows you that you cared about things and that they were special and important because you will miss them and long for them.

• 1:43:05Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:43:05Dax Shepard?

  Without that part, we don't get the other part.

• 1:43:09Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:43:10Dax Shepard?

  If everything's a given, then you just take everything for granted.

• 1:43:12Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:43:13Dax Shepard?

  That's our terrible nature.

• 1:43:14Speaker 01

  It's, yeah, it's just hard. But I also, it is funny because I was like, oh my God, like they're so old. And this is like, they're in college tomorrow. And like, I hate this. Then I was thinking back to fifth grade and I was like, oh, that was so long ago. Like, I like can't really remember it. So there's a lot, a lot will happen.

• 1:43:38Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:43:39Speaker 01

  It's not, it's gonna move fast, but it's like, things are going to happen and they're, and. Yeah.

• 1:43:45Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:43:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:43:46Dax Shepard?

  I was thinking about that the other day. I was, I don't know what I was journaling about, but I was thinking, oh, in a few birthdays, I'll have been on TV as long as I've not been on TV.

• 1:44:02Speaker 01

  Enough. Oh, I see. I see. I see. Yes.

• 1:44:04Dax Shepard?

  Right. If I was 28, when I hit 56, half of my life I'll have spent having been on TV.

• 1:44:11Speaker 01

  Show business.

• 1:44:12Dax Shepard?

  And what I weirdly liked about that was I thought, oh, that's, that's so long ago.

• 1:44:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, a lot happens.

• 1:44:21Dax Shepard?

  Long ago. And I still have that chunk of time ahead of me.

• 1:44:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:44:26Dax Shepard?

  That's really comforting.

• 1:44:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, I know.

• 1:44:29Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:30Speaker 01

  I know. I think about that as well. It went by so fast, but also so much happened.

• 1:44:36Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:36Speaker 01

  And so much will happen in the next, that next chunk of time, but it's still stressful. Anyway, well, happy graduations to all.

• 1:44:46Dax Shepard?

  It's a time to think about.

• 1:44:48Speaker 01

  Life.

• 1:44:48Dax Shepard?

  Moving forward, new chapters, next stages.

• 1:44:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:44:52Dax Shepard?

  What we are as a people, how we prepare each other for that, how we, I don't know, you know, ceremonies and rites of passages, maybe because I was into anthro. It's just.

• 1:45:05Speaker 01

  A human thing.

• 1:45:06Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, it's really interesting that we all have developed these things.

• 1:45:10Speaker 01

  It's an animal thing. I mean, I feel like, right? Don't even animals like elephants do like a little mourning thing?

• 1:45:18Dax Shepard?

  Mourn. Yeah, they have elephant grave sites where they play with the bones and stuff.

• 1:45:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:45:23Dax Shepard?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:24Speaker 01

  But.

• 1:45:25Dax Shepard?

  Their rites of passage are more like you get kicked out of the, the, the, they call elephants caravans, right?

• 1:45:33Speaker 01

  Oh, that sounds right.

• 1:45:35Dax Shepard?

  You get kicked out of the caravan because you're an adolescent male and you can't be around anyone. And then you get to come back when you've chilled out. So I guess that's a rite of passage.

• 1:45:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, I guess so. But yeah.

• 1:45:48Dax Shepard?

  Want to do some fact?

• 1:45:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, let's do some facts.

• 1:45:51Speaker 05

  Pack of elephants as a memory or a parade?

• 1:45:54Dax Shepard?

  Parade. Oh, wow.

• 1:45:56Speaker 01

  I like that.

• 1:45:57Dax Shepard?

  A memory?

• 1:45:58Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:45:59Dax Shepard?

  That's interesting.

• 1:46:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:46:01Dax Shepard?

  They have such good memories. But that is weird. Yeah.

• 1:46:05Speaker 01

  That's why.

• 1:46:06Dax Shepard?

  Like, you wouldn't call a pack of cheetahs fast.

• 1:46:09Speaker 01

  It's a fast cheetah. That'd be great.

• 1:46:11Dax Shepard?

  A fast of cheetahs.

• 1:46:12Speaker 01

  That'd be great.

• 1:46:13Dax Shepard?

  They also look like they're fasting cheetahs.

• 1:46:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, because they're spending so much energy.

• 1:46:18Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I'm gonna say light and quick.

• 1:46:20Speaker 01

  Okay, well, this was for Steve.

• 1:46:22Dax Shepard?

  Steve Aoki, who I really, really liked.

• 1:46:25Speaker 01

  Me, too.

• 1:46:26Dax Shepard?

  You know, I think I even said it in the episode, but I don't have a ton of interest in DJing. So when we're considering a guest like Steve, I go, I gotta recognize that this guy's like a world fucking famous, one of the biggest DJs to ever live. That's, that's worthy of an exploration, but I personally am not so into DJing.

• 1:46:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:46:48Dax Shepard?

  But this whole punk rock thing that happened and to see how enthusiastic this guy is and always has been about music.

• 1:46:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:46:55Dax Shepard?

  I thought, boy, does he deserve all this.

• 1:46:58Speaker 01

  Yes, I agree.

• 1:47:00Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, I like him so much.

• 1:47:01Speaker 01

  Me, too. He was also just very kind and sweet energy.

• 1:47:06Dax Shepard?

  Very sweet energy.

• 1:47:08Speaker 01

  Um.

• 1:47:09Dax Shepard?

  Almost so sweet, it's amazing he made it. And what a cool counterfactual to his father's approach.

• 1:47:14Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:47:15Dax Shepard?

  But yet they both were wildly successful.

• 1:47:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's true. Um, okay, when did Benihana start franchising? Wait, iPod?

• 1:47:28Speaker 01

  Oh, embarrassing. IPO'd. No. IPO'd in 1983.

• 1:47:38Speaker 01

  Like, that's not what I asked. Um, in 1983 and started soon after. The exact date is unclear, but by 1970s, there were many locations. First store opened in 1964. I wanna go, I want that fried rice. I want it with butter.

• 1:47:52Dax Shepard?

  We were just talking about it last night.

• 1:47:53Speaker 01

  Oh, I want that. No info on the percentage of birthdays that are at Benihana, but.

• 1:48:00Dax Shepard?

  Hard to find out.

• 1:48:01Speaker 01

  I think it is 70%.

• 1:48:03Dax Shepard?

  I think he would know.

• 1:48:04Speaker 01

  Yeah. Is Kill Sadie banned from Minnesota? Yes. From Minneapolis and active 1997 to 2001.

• 1:48:10Dax Shepard?

  What is this?

• 1:48:11Speaker 01

  A band. Kill Sadie.

• 1:48:13Dax Shepard?

  Not they were banned like a book banning.

• 1:48:16Speaker 01

  No, banned.

• 1:48:17Dax Shepard?

  Got it, got it, got it, yes. I'm like, I was, I was having a lot of cognitive dissonance. I'm like Minneapolis is very progressive. They wouldn't ban anything.

• 1:48:27Speaker 01

  No, they wouldn't. That's true.

• 1:48:28Dax Shepard?

  Okay.

• 1:48:29Speaker 01

  Um, Devin, some fun facts. Fast and Furious and City.

• 1:48:35Dax Shepard?

  His sister.

• 1:48:36Speaker 01

  Yep. DOA, Mutant Chronicles, modeling career, walked for Balenciaga, Comme des Garçons, Chanel. Wow.

• 1:48:45Dax Shepard?

  You know, I immediately, not immediately, it took me three days weirdly, but I got on the phone with my cousin.

• 1:48:51Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:48:52Dax Shepard?

  Who was in the band that Steve was obsessed with.

• 1:48:54Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:48:55Dax Shepard?

  And so I wanted to tell him, I'm like, dude, that, that DJ Steve Aoki like loves current. You know, I just wanted to tell him all that. And then also pass on the fact that he authenticates records.

• 1:49:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:49:06Dax Shepard?

  For his dad.

• 1:49:07Speaker 01

  So, oh yeah. He was telling us about that after and we were going to talk about that.

• 1:49:11Dax Shepard?

  Yeah. So he has a company that now authenticates records and yeah, gives them a quality and then encases them.

• 1:49:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:49:19Dax Shepard?

  And so he had offered to do that to my uncle's record collection, which is kind of famous. And, um, and then my cousin said, oh yeah, he, he was like a Santa Barbara punk rock kid, huh? Like he kind of knew that he had that origin. And he goes, and doesn't he, he's got a super hot sister? And I go, yeah, yeah. She's like crazy, huh?

• 1:49:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:49:40Dax Shepard?

  Those are the two things he knew about him.

• 1:49:42Speaker 01

  Well, yeah. She replaced Naomi Campbell as the face of Versace in 98 at the age of 16.

• 1:49:48Dax Shepard?

  Dude.

• 1:49:49Speaker 01

  Wow. Um, okay. 2007 Coachella, the headlines were Bjork, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine. Steve played on Saturday afternoon in the Sahara tent. Sahara?

• 1:50:03Dax Shepard?

  Sahara, Sahara.

• 1:50:04Speaker 01

  What year did esports take off? He guessed 2010s. Yeah. Sources cite 2010s as the big surge in popularity, mostly after the launch of Twitch in 2011. In 2013, viewers watched 12 billion minutes on the platform. Oh my God.

• 1:50:21Dax Shepard?

  Oh my heavens.

• 1:50:22Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, there's also like some obviously fun stuff on his dad.

• 1:50:29Speaker 01

  Was he wrestling for the Olympics? He came to the US with a spot on Japan's 1960 Olympic team, but never competed. And a scholarship to wrestle in the States at Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts. His 1979 offshore powerboat crash near the Golden Gate Bridge resulted in many injuries, including a ruptured aorta, lacerated liver, and multiple broken bones in his arm and leg, leaving him with a 10% chance of survival. Oh, my God.

• 1:50:55Dax Shepard?

  This guy's a maniac, Rocky.

• 1:50:56Speaker 01

  It is claimed that the hepatitis he had at the time of his death was from a blood transfusion from the crash.

• 1:51:02Dax Shepard?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 1:51:02Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:51:03Dax Shepard?

  Wow.

• 1:51:04Speaker 01

  Um, okay, he won a bunch of awards, wrestling and powerboating, backgammon, hot air ballooning.

• 1:51:11Dax Shepard?

  Backgammon?

• 1:51:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, won the World Leisure Class Backgammon Championship in 1974.

• 1:51:17Dax Shepard?

  This guy might have devoured life more than anyone we know of.

• 1:51:20Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:51:20Dax Shepard?

  Yeah, he's kind of my new hero.

• 1:51:22Speaker 01

  Part of the form, uh, the hot air ballooning, part of the four man crew that completed the first trans-Pacific balloon flight in 1981, setting a 34-year record for the longest manned balloon flight, covering 5,208 miles.

• 1:51:35Dax Shepard?

  Probably until Richard Branson.

• 1:51:37Speaker 01

  Oh, he didn't have to do that.

• 1:51:40Dax Shepard?

  He traveled the world.

• 1:51:41Speaker 01

  He didn't need to.

• 1:51:42Dax Shepard?

  He circumnavigated the earth on a hot air balloon.

• 1:51:45Speaker 01

  Poor Rocky.

• 1:51:46Dax Shepard?

  Well.

• 1:51:48Speaker 01

  He got unseated.

• 1:51:49Dax Shepard?

  You, you correct for his level of technology versus the other balloon. I think it's probably more impressive going across the Pacific and the thing they did.

• 1:51:56Speaker 01

  I agree. Um, those are the facts.

• 1:52:00Dax Shepard?

  Well, Steve, if you're listening, you're so likeable, it's crazy.

• 1:52:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was really a lovely interview.

• 1:52:06Dax Shepard?

  It really was.

• 1:52:07Speaker 01

  I enjoyed it a lot.

• 1:52:08Dax Shepard?

  All right.

• 1:52:09Speaker 01

  Love you.

• 1:52:09Dax Shepard?

  Love you. You're special, you're great, and you're gonna be the president.

• 1:52:12Speaker 01

  Oh, right back at you.