Curtis Duffy (chef and restaurateur)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard – Curtis Duffy (Chef and Restaurateur) Release Date: June 25, 2025

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of Armchair Expert, host Dax Shepard engages in an in-depth conversation with renowned Michelin-starred chef and restaurateur, Curtis Duffy. Known for his acclaimed Chicago-based restaurants, Ever and Grace, Curtis delves into his tumultuous upbringing, culinary journey, and the personal challenges that have shaped his illustrious career. His newly released memoir, Fireproof Memoir of a Chef, serves as a backdrop for this revealing discussion.

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Early Life and Family Struggles (00:53 - 05:10)

Curtis opens up about his challenging childhood, marked by his parents' volatile relationship. His father, a passionate motorcyclist with a penchant for intensity and volatility, separated from his teenage mother when Curtis was just six months old. This separation led Curtis and his older brother to live with their stepmother Jan, who, despite stepping up to care for them, also exhibited violent tendencies.

Notable Quote:

"Trying to deal with that at 15 years old would be just mind-blowing for me."
— Curtis Duffy [03:18]

Curtis describes the constant tension at home, where walking on eggshells became a necessity to avoid triggering their father's anger. The instability at home drove Curtis to seek refuge outside, immersing himself in work and later pursuing a culinary education to find structure and purpose.

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Culinary Beginnings and Education (05:10 - 10:07)

Determined to escape his tumultuous home life, Curtis began working in restaurants during his teenage years. By 16, he had saved enough to buy a car, allowing him to explore opportunities beyond his immediate environment. Curtis attended a vocational culinary program in high school, where he met influential mentors like Kathy Zay, who connected him with professional chefs and ignited his passion for haute cuisine.

Notable Quote:

"I spent the last two years of high school in that culinary program. And that's where I really wanted to work."
— Curtis Duffy [26:17]

Curtis’s dedication led him to prestigious establishments, including Charlie Trotter's in Chicago, where he honed his skills under relentless pressure and high standards.

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Rise to Culinary Stardom (10:07 - 31:42)

Curtis recounts his time at Charlie Trotter's, a crucible of intense work environments and perfectionism. The hierarchical structure and demanding nature of high-end kitchens cultivated his resilience and commitment to excellence. His relentless pursuit of culinary mastery eventually led him to Alinea, where he played a pivotal role in shaping its innovative menu.

After several years, Curtis ventured out to open his own restaurant, Grace, in collaboration with his business partner. The endeavor was meteoric, earning three Michelin stars within four years—a testament to Curtis's culinary genius and leadership.

Notable Quote:

"We earn two Michelin stars, blown away, like, what could we do? Immediately start thinking..."
— Curtis Duffy [43:40]

Despite Grace’s success, Curtis faced significant challenges due to a flawed business agreement, leading to its closure in 2017. This setback highlighted the complexities of the restaurant industry, where culinary brilliance must be matched with savvy business practices.

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Personal Reflections and Overcoming Adversity (31:42 - 54:03)

Curtis reflects on the pressures of maintaining Michelin stars and the emotional toll of navigating personal traumas alongside professional ambitions. He emphasizes the importance of fostering a supportive and creative team environment, allowing his staff to thrive and contribute to the restaurant's success.

Notable Quote:

"I want my employees to leave any of my establishments knowing they got the best knowledge from me or from anybody else working there."
— Curtis Duffy [62:09]

His journey underscores the balance between striving for culinary excellence and ensuring personal well-being, illustrating how overcoming past adversities can fuel professional success.

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Involvement with Popular Culture and Continuous Growth (54:03 - 74:35)

Curtis discusses his inadvertent connection to the popular TV show The Bear, clarifying that while there are superficial similarities, his life story is not directly mirrored in the series. He appreciates the show's depiction of the high-stress culinary environment but maintains that his experiences are uniquely his own.

The conversation also touches on Curtis’s dedication to innovation in the kitchen, his reluctance to be pigeonholed by specific dishes, and his ongoing commitment to creative culinary expression.

Notable Quote:

"It's very important that I was able to do that."
— Curtis Duffy [68:52]

Curtis shares insights into his leadership philosophy, focusing on empowering his team and fostering an environment where creativity can flourish without the constraints of repetition and complacency.

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Maintaining Excellence and Future Aspirations (74:35 - 100:16)

As Curtis continues to lead his restaurant, Ever, he navigates the challenges of sustaining Michelin-starred standards while expanding his culinary empire. He expresses a desire to spend more time in the kitchen, his true passion, despite the increasing business responsibilities that come with success.

Notable Quote:

"It's not so exciting for them anymore."
— Curtis Duffy [52:52]

Curtis emphasizes the need for constant improvement and attention to detail, ensuring that each dining experience remains exceptional. He also shares his aspirations for future projects and the importance of mentorship in his career.

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Closing Thoughts and Personal Development (100:16 - End)

In the concluding segments, Curtis touches upon personal growth, breaking negative cycles from his past, and the therapeutic process of sharing his story through his memoir. He underscores the significance of overcoming personal demons to achieve professional greatness and highlights the ongoing journey of self-improvement and resilience.

Notable Quote:

"It was very, very brilliant, very therapeutic for me to get these demons off my chest and onto the paper."
— Curtis Duffy [66:26]

Curtis’s narrative is a powerful testament to the human spirit's capacity to rise above adversity, embodying the very essence of what Armchair Expert seeks to explore: the messy, vulnerable, and ultimately uplifting journey of being human.

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Conclusion

Curtis Duffy's episode on Armchair Expert offers listeners an intimate look into the life of a celebrated chef whose personal struggles and unwavering dedication have propelled him to the pinnacle of the culinary world. Through candid storytelling and profound insights, Curtis exemplifies the transformative power of resilience and passion in overcoming life's greatest challenges.

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For those captivated by Curtis Duffy’s story, Fireproof Memoir of a Chef is a must-read, providing deeper insights into his extraordinary journey from a tumultuous childhood to becoming one of America's most esteemed chefs.

Transcript

[Dax Shepard]

Wondry plus subscribers can listen to Armchair Expert early and ad free right now. Join Wondry plus in the Wondry app or on Apple podcasts or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert. Experts on Expert. I'm Dan Shepherd. I'm joined by Monica Padman.

[Monica Padman]

Hi.

[Dax Shepard]

And Aaron Michael Weekly.

[Curtis Duffy]

Hello.

[Dax Shepard]

Today's guest is Curtis Duffy. Any foodie in the world will recognize Curtis's name immediately. He's a Michelin starred chef and restaurantee tour known for the Chicago based restaurants Ever and Grace. He has a new memoir out that is hair raising.

[Monica Padman]

He has really lived a life.

[Dax Shepard]

My God, did he go through it all. The book is called Fireproof Memoir of a Chef. Was it you that was just making fun of how I say memoir?

[Monica Padman]

Yes, it was.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. What do you. Cuz sometimes they say memoir.

[Monica Padman]

That is what you.

[Dax Shepard]

I want to say memoir and I correct myself to memoir.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Which is correct.

[Dax Shepard]

That's correct.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Memoir.

[Dax Shepard]

How would you say it?

[Curtis Duffy]

Memoir. Memoir.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, the memoirs.

[Monica Padman]

Maybe it's a Michigan thing.

[Dax Shepard]

We just don't know how to talk. Please enjoy Curtis Duffy. We are supported by Allstate. Some people just know they could save hundreds on car insurance by checking Allstate first. Like you know to check your flights on time first before heading to the airport. Like you know to check your presentation is safe first before closing your laptop. That's one mistake I'll never make again. Checking first is smart. So check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate. Savings vary subject to terms, conditions and availability. Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. Each Apple product, like the iPhone 16, is thoughtfully designed by skilled designers. The titanium Apple card is no different. It's laser etched, has no numbers and earns you daily cash on everything you buy, including 3% back on everything. At Apple. Apply for Apple Card on your iPhone in minutes, subject to credit approval. Apple card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch terms and [e-mail] he's an armchair expert. He's an archer expert. He's an unchanged fan.

[Monica Padman]

You have two sleeves you guys are matching.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, wait till you hear about his book. I think we have the series. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

That's exciting.

[Dax Shepard]

So I'm going to show you one thing right away.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Is that what side it's on?

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

J2C. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

No way is he a J2C.

[Dax Shepard]

July 2nd.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Oh no.

[Dax Shepard]

1975. Wow. July 2nd cancer.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

You're July 2nd, January 2nd, Capricorn. My very best friend is July 2nd cancer. So in junior high, we came up with. With J2C. Very exclusive club. No one could be in it now. We have matching tattoos.

[Monica Padman]

But irony that you always make fun of me for astrology and you have it tattooed on you.

[Dax Shepard]

I do. It means nothing to me other than the letters and the fact that Aaron has them, too. But, yeah. When I read your birthday, I was ecstatic. Wow.

[Monica Padman]

That's very rare. It's a rare club.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Congratulations.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Thank you.

[Dax Shepard]

That was J2C.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I know a lot of people with July 2nd birthdays.

[Dax Shepard]

You do?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Which is bizarre to me. Maybe six or seven of them.

[Monica Padman]

Weird.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

July 2nd, July 3rd, and July 4th.

[Dax Shepard]

And would you always just do a full birthday party into 4th of July like Aaron did?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I try never to celebrate birthdays. I'm turning 50 this year.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Yeah, I just did it.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

How'd it go?

[Dax Shepard]

It's okay.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

It's all right.

[Monica Padman]

It's all right.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

It's just a number. I feel better than I did when I was in my early 40s.

[Dax Shepard]

Same for me physically. I think I'm doing my best mentally.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

In a better place professionally. Some people are like, where would you go back in time? I'm perfectly fine.

[Dax Shepard]

So you start in Ohio, and Mom and dad are very young. Yeah. 18.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

When they have you somewhere around that age. I don't know the exact date my father was, but pretty young.

[Dax Shepard]

How much older is your brother than you?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Just one year. He's a 1-2-J2C? No, he's a little bit later, but in January.

[Dax Shepard]

What if he just looked at me and said, brother. Brother. Oh, my God.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Triplets.

[Dax Shepard]

Long lost, but yeah. What was the scene that your brother arrived into and the scene that you arrived into?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I've remembered most of my time in Colorado, but as a child in Ohio, I would imagine it was terrible.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Your biological mother and your father, Bear, were already in a violent, messy situation when you arrived.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. I was six months old when they separated.

[Dax Shepard]

But your dad initially caught your mom with another guy. Physical altercation ensues, and then he leaves with your older brother and goes to.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Colorado and leaves you and leaves me. Yeah. Six months old.

[Dax Shepard]

And how long did that last?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

From what my aunt has told me, some of the stories, not long after I arrived on my stepmom's doorstep. For me, that was my mother. That's all I knew from six months on to current state. So, yeah, six months old and your.

[Dax Shepard]

Biological mom just showed up at this woman's house.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Jan. Yeah, Jan. And she was 15. She was 15, still in high school.

[Dax Shepard]

And Dad's 19 or 20 or something.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. Somewhere around that time they're together.

[Monica Padman]

So she's dropping you off to him. Ostensibly, yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

The words were something like, you have my ex husband or my husband. You might as well have all of my children. And my brother was already there, but then dropped me off as well.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Trying to deal with that at 15 years old would be just mind blowing for me.

[Monica Padman]

She's a kid.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Just trying to be a kid.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

She probably loved being in high school when she got to be in class and not dealing with two little kids. She was probably like, oh, my God, I hope the school day goes on.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I know. You know, I remember having conversations with my mom later in life saying how much she never got to be a part of that. Growing up, to experience those things as you do as a child, like going through prom, experiencing graduation, because it was all of a sudden, here we have two children in her life that were not hers and felt incredibly responsible to take care of us all of a sudden.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. And what kind of guy was your dad?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

He would give his shirt off his back to you in a second, but he was incredibly intense, angry, gentle. He was all over the place.

[Dax Shepard]

Mercurial.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. He was just a lover of fast cars and motorcycles. And he was a huge biker. I mean, just a ball of energy, full time, all the time, and violent as hell. Anything would piss him off.

[Monica Padman]

So you had to walk on eggshells a lot.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

That's what it felt like a lot. Just constantly wondering what the hell is going to set him off all the time.

[Dax Shepard]

And when he went to Colorado, it was some attempt to be normal. He joined the army, and so in some ways it seems like he was declaring he wanted to have some kind of a stable, better existence than he had.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. A big part of what he was searching through life was just trying to be stable and have that family structure. I think he went through a lot of bad times as a child himself. So what you know is what you.

[Dax Shepard]

Pass on into his dad, your grandfather, wasn't too dissimilar to him.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Correct. And that's what he's learned. So I think he probably craved that a lot was to try to have a loving family, but obviously didn't know how to do it.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I was a little shocked when I learned of his kind of relationship with partying because he reeks of an addict, but he wasn't very Addicty, huh?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

He wasn't a constant drinker. I remember as a kid having that smell of marijuana in the house. But it was only when his buddies were over and it was one of the smells that I love to this day. I don't smoke weed, but I can tell you I love the smell of it and I want to smoke weed. I want to enjoy it. Yeah, I don't enjoy it, but I love the smell.

[Dax Shepard]

So Jan, though, she really kind of rose to the occasion. She stepped in and was a mom.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

She stepped in and really never let the foot off the gas. There's notes that I've read from her in the past that said she really thought that these two kids could be hers. That's how much she loved us at such a very young age. But she's violent too, to some degree. Absolutely.

[Dax Shepard]

Just beating the shit out of the kids was totally fine and normal.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

It was back then to varying degrees.

[Dax Shepard]

You were on the wrong side even in 84.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. I felt it was in a way that she was trying to show that she was able to do it as well. I never felt it from like a. Intentional place.

[Dax Shepard]

An anger.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. When we screwed up, we knew. I mean, come on, you're a kid, you know, you're getting your ass beat one way or another.

[Dax Shepard]

But the strap they hit you with is like hanging on the wall from the stairs. That's like a real declaration. Like this is how we parent. We're not hiding it.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

No. You see that over there? If you don't X straight, that shit's coming real quick.

[Dax Shepard]

What would have been then, your dad's father in law or your step grandpa Jan's dad? He owned a retreading tire place.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Correct.

[Dax Shepard]

And he took your dad in, I would guess. It seems like it's all going to kind of work for a minute.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Some of my favorite times as a child was being at that retread tire shop. Maybe it was the tire smell, maybe it was just watching these guys work incredibly hard.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I don't know what I loved about it, but I love being there. The tires would produce these little warm rubber pieces and if you caught them in time, you picked them off the ground, you can roll them into balls.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Everybody would collect those things and then they would have a rubber ball fight. At the end of the day, all the employees would be throwing them at each other.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, I love it.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

That was a blast.

[Dax Shepard]

Do you think any part of the appeal of that place was that your dad had to be somewhat in check of himself because he was at work. Was he more consistent and more predictable while he was there?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, I think he'd get away with a lot more there because he was in front of peers or he was the GU who was running the shop. So he was the boss there. Certainly not gonna backhand one of us in front of all of them.

[Monica Padman]

Did it make you really close with.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Your brother growing up? Yeah, we were pretty close till we got about 12, 13 years old and then we kind of just separated. What age do you start skateboarding right around that time? 12, 13.

[Dax Shepard]

Sixth grade for me is when it's time to skateboard.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Right there is the time we moved back to Ohio and yeah, started skateboarding. My brother stayed in Colorado with my grandmother, which was my dad's mom. That's probably why we separated.

[Dax Shepard]

He wanted away from your dad? Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. At that point, he never really got along with Jan, my mom. There was something there. I don't know what it was. At 5, my dad and mom set us down and said that Jan is really not your real mother. She's out there somewhere. We didn't know that until then. And I think around that point is when they were just always butting heads, always fighting my mom and my brother. And if it was an opportunity for him to stay away from them, he stayed with my grandma.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, Grandpa sells the tire shop. And you guys moved to Ohio and it's a pretty radical adjustment, right?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. That we moved into a two bedroom apartment and that's where it was like, all right, you're going to live in the closet in your parents closet? In my parents closet. That was my house.

[Dax Shepard]

No bed.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

That was my room. No.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, my God.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

That was the floor. And shortly after my brother had moved back to Ohio because my grandmother had.

[Dax Shepard]

Passed away, the hits just keep on coming.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

So it wasn't long before my brother and sister shared that second bedroom. My mom and dad and myself now in the closet on the floor.

[Dax Shepard]

And you talk about actually loving that closet and loving the escape.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

It was an escape, you know, it wasn't that big of a space. I don't know if you kind of relate it to a dog enjoying the doghouse. They love that. Cozy, probably. For me, it was the same feeling. I was able to throw some posters on the ceiling and it was a daydreaming moment. I can escape everything else that was happening and just go in there and think about a lot of stuff.

[Dax Shepard]

Hide, I would suggest.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, probably hide.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, yeah. Your imagination works overtime when you're in areas like that.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, I can relate to being the middle child. So my brother's five years older than me, so he was at, like, apex adolescent insanity. And my little sister was still a baby, like a toddler. So one of them always needed a lot of attention.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Right.

[Dax Shepard]

And, yeah, I just kind of went and hid and was happy to be out of it all.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. Kind of unseen.

[Monica Padman]

That's why kids make forts and stuff. They're trying to create a little world they can control. Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Interesting thought.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. So another place that you kind of found comforting was Home ec.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Place to feel loved. And I wasn't excited to be there, but I was thankful to be there also.

[Dax Shepard]

I imagine you're getting validated there because you're kind of good at all the stuff your teacher's impressed with the pillow you made. Impressed with this and that. I'm sure you were in deep need of that. Were you getting a lot of affirmation at home?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I can't imagine. No. And you know, with Ruth Snider, she was the teacher there. That's where it came from. I was able to cook some things and one have a nourishing meal. That felt great for me. Cause it wasn't like we were eating great at home.

[Dax Shepard]

What were you eating? Chef Boyardee TV dinners.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Swansons.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Swanson. Really shitty aluminum tins. Salisbury steak.

[Dax Shepard]

Boy, Swanson's good for them. It didn't take shit to be a leader in that space back then. It just had to be, like, digestible.

[Monica Padman]

It's true. Friends came in after, like, Stouffers. I loved it.

[Dax Shepard]

The microwave had just come out when we were kids.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. These moments, you were still putting Swansons in the oven.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, the aluminum foil ones.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

The aluminum foil ones, Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I think the main ingredient was salt. No matter if you got like a steak or whatever, you looked in the back, it was going to be salt.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Sodium.

[Monica Padman]

Isn't it funny, though, when you walk by those aisles? I have so many memories tied to those items. And, like, I crave it.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, me too. They were my favorite items.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, you just grab one every once in a while just to throw back and put yourself in check.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. We did another show called Flightless Bird, and it was about learning about America, basically. And so we did a frozen foods episode, and I would just throwing so much in the cart. I was like, oh, we have to get the Swedish meatballs. Oh, we have to get the salary steak. And then we made it all. And. Yeah. It's so bad.

[Dax Shepard]

It's bad.

[Monica Padman]

I have so many memories.

[Dax Shepard]

You know what? I still Crave like crazy. And I swear it's good. When you look at the back of the can, you just can't go forward. But Dinty Moore Beef stew. Do you ever fuck with the Dinty Moore beef stew?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I remember that.

[Dax Shepard]

Powerful can of soup right there.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I remember that. I remember. Wow. Damn.

[Dax Shepard]

Darren and I, we would splurge when we got paid, would get six cans of Dinty More.

[Monica Padman]

Did you cook it or did you just eat it?

[Dax Shepard]

You dump it in a saucepan, warm it up, and then white bread with butter dipping. Man.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

The struggles are real.

[Dax Shepard]

Do you see this thing that. Who's our guy? Rob Michael. Voltaggio Voltage, where he does these things, where he takes a stab at these things he liked as a kid. These kind of shitty meals. He does some of these famous dishes that are.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I haven't seen that episode or any of those yet.

[Dax Shepard]

SpaghettiOs.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Then he's trying to make it like professional level.

[Dax Shepard]

Like the high end version of Hamburger Helper. Like it'd be fun for if you tackled the pop Tart at your restaurant.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Oh, yeah, A lot of that's been done.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Some of those nostalgic pastries people will bring back. My staff, they used to make every Saturday for family meal. We would do no bake cookies. And I lived on those damn things in junior high and high school. They're 25 cents. They were peanut butter. There were no chocolate in them. It became such a thing for me. I had to search out a recipe and then adjust the recipe how I liked it. And then I would give it to my staff and see if they can make it.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, and did it deliver.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

And they were always wrong. Almost 90% of the time they're wrong. You don't have to bake them. You have to do a certain thing with the sugar. You got to bring it to a temperature and cook it for a certain amount of time. Let's see how good you can follow directions and they're always fucked up.

[Dax Shepard]

They're not good. I wonder if that's similar to my mother all growing up. Still, my favorite dessert she would make is called choc no bakes. That's what they were called in my family. And it's chocolatey. It's got oatmeal in it.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

That's it.

[Dax Shepard]

Those are phenomenal. Yeah, what a treat.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Most of the time they have chocolate in them, but the ones that I remember had no chocolate. Cocoa powder?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, cocoa powder. Peanut butter.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Oats, sugar oats.

[Dax Shepard]

My mom still makes these every Christmas. They're so good.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I bet she gets them Right, too.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. By my account, she.

[Monica Padman]

Unlike your staff.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Unlike my staff, who are professionals.

[Dax Shepard]

How are you doing in high school? How are you handling all of the chaos at home? How are you compartmentalizing? What's it doing to you socially? Certainly don't want to have a friend over for a sleepover.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

No. You know, when I was 14 is when I really stepped into the restaurant. Not a professional kitchen, of course, but it was a diner in my small town that I was living in.

[Dax Shepard]

A Big Boys.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Similar. Yeah. I did work at a Frischies Big Boy.

[Dax Shepard]

We had Elias Brothers and I worked there. Up in Michigan.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yes. Same, same concept.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, real quick. Did you eat the food off the plates of the tables you cleared?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Oh, no.

[Monica Padman]

Good for you.

[Dax Shepard]

I did.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

God, no.

[Dax Shepard]

It started slow. And my best friend J2C, he also worked there at a different time. One time, years later, we were talking about him like, do you ever eat the food? He goes, yeah. You know, it started with someone leave a half of a grilled cheese untouched. So, yeah, I'd eat that. Or they'd make the milkshake and they'd give you the steel container that they mixed it. So if someone didn't touch that, I'd have that.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

But that grew into. I would just grab a big boy bite directly into the previous bite parts. Like, that's what. It just unraveled to that. But they were paying $2.35 an hour, and you only got half off on the meal. So I broke even.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I'm gonna eat for free.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, I had to do that. Okay, sorry. So you got a job at a diner washing dishes.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

And I was able to cook what would have been my family meal, my staff meal. I was able to have a meal a night there working. Plus, he would pay me $15 cash every night. So I thought I was like, the richest guy in the world.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Free meal, $15 cash in my pocket. 14 years old was loving life. And I wanted to work. I wanted to make money. I was poor as shit, so I was smart enough that I started putting that money away. And over time, it built up enough to where when I was 16, I was able to buy a car. Then I could get a job further away. And then that spiraled into working in another restaurant, not in my hometown, but further away because I could drive. And that just all expanded into better opportunities for me. And I already knew at that point, I want something greater than what I could possibly have here. Living in that closet couldn't be the end of the world for me. There's got to be something else out there. So through high school, I didn't have a lot of time at home. I was always get up, go to school, go directly from school to work. And I work five, six nights a week. At that point, my parents were already on shaky ground. And if I wasn't home, I didn't have to deal with any of the shit.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I would get home at 11, 12 o' clock at night, do some homework, go to bed, hit repeat. But I was loving it so much that exhaustion didn't even factor in my brain.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, again, you're like Jan, probably loving high school and yeah, 11th grade. You're just happy to be away.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Exactly.

[Dax Shepard]

So where are you at when you get the phone call?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

So I just got home from school.

[Dax Shepard]

What college were you going to? Ohio State, which is in Columbus.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Columbus, yeah. At the time, my girlfriend was a senior in high school, so she had just got out of school and I was on the second floor. She came by and honked her horn. I looked out the window and she's like, hey, something's going on with your family. Your sister got picked up about an hour ago from school from the cops. And I'm like, what? What's going on? She told me, like, something happened when your dad kidnapped your mom or something. And I'm like, what the hell?

[Monica Padman]

What?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

And ironically, my father kept messaging me that morning or trying to get a hold of me saying, come and see me today at the house. I was so involved with school, so involved with work and trying to deal with my parents. I was stuck in the middle a lot and I didn't want to be manipulating to my mom and telling my dad and telling my mom one thing because of my dad saying, hey, go tell her this. Yeah, I hated those moments. And that happened quite a lot. So I just decided I'm not going to go to the house today and just talk to you later of the week. 20 minutes later or so, knock on the door from one of the local police department and asked me to come with him out to my dad's house, which was about 20 minutes away from where I was living.

[Dax Shepard]

In the house that he inherited. When your grandfather went to jail.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Correct.

[Dax Shepard]

And so what happens when you arrive?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

So ironically, I'm sitting in the back of a cruiser, completely innocent for the first time driving out there, and I'm just trying to process what is going on. The cop was telling me, you know, your father took your mother at gunpoint, kidnapped her in the car and is now holding her hostage.

[Monica Padman]

What?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Out of your house. And I'm like trying to process this for what felt like an eternity. Drive to where we were going. We couldn't get there fast enough.

[Dax Shepard]

Turn on the sirens. Step on it.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, let's go. So we finally got there. They took me to a house next door. It was in the middle of the country, so next door was down the street a half mile or so to what they called a safe house. And there was my brother, my sister, my uncle, who was also a police officer at the time.

[Dax Shepard]

But a terrible dude, a terrible man.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Beat you unconscious while they were out.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Of town all the time. Just a piece of shit of a man.

[Dax Shepard]

Thank God he had a badge.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, exactly.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, my God.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

It justified everything in his mind. So, yeah, we stayed there as the standoff continued for 10 plus hours, I think it was. So it went in through the middle of the afternoon until well into the night. 10 o' clock, 11 o' clock at night.

[Monica Padman]

So she wasn't living there with him?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

No. At this point, she had moved out. She had got her own place. And one of the conversations I had with her was like, I need to live on my own. I need to experience all these things I didn't get to experience when I was younger. One of them was, how do I survive on my own? Living on my own, having my own apartment, having my own bills, fending for myself and making it through life by myself. Sidhard moved out six months prior to that. So I was in and out of the house a little bit with my father staying there. But he eventually would come home to a place where we had everybody living there to the now, nobody except for him. So I think it was very difficult for him to grasp that feeling of no one wanting to be there. Nobody wanted to be around him. Yeah, at this point, he's off the rocker a little bit, Trying to stay on the meds of antidepressants. And that was a whole roller coaster as well. Some nights I would decide to stay there instead of staying at my house closer to school, and I would come home to unconscious. Couldn't even wake him up. Just out of it, out of it. No alcohol involved, no drugs involved, other than just the stuff he was taking. I don't know if it was overtaking it or if he decided to stop taking it at that time.

[Dax Shepard]

But brought down with depression and.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, just didn't want to move. Just didn't want to do anything.

[Dax Shepard]

So he shot Jan. Yeah. And then he shot himself.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, boy, did J. Like, everyone's dead and you're 19.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

19. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

This is.

[Dax Shepard]

And in a unique and cruel twist, for whatever reason, the police who hated his father asked him to identify the body. And they're showing him a stack of pictures, and they're showing both of them killed, dead. And he's like, yeah, that's them. The guy just continues to show him pictures. Shows them the autopsy.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, all autopsy pictures. Not just a picture of the face or anything.

[Monica Padman]

God, you've met the worst people on earth.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I mean, really, an abundance of terrible fucking people.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

It was so bizarre.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, man, I'm sorry.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. Because a few days later, they asked me to come and grab all of their personal belongings. The bed sheets that they were laying on, anything they used for evidence, come and get the clothes, the jackets, all their personal belongings. And then as I sat down and grabbed all that stuff, they sat me in that room and just started dropping pictures, Polaroids of my parents. And one or two's enough. Yeah, I get it, guys.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. It's so twisted. Well, when you see the pattern of erratic decisions. We're moving to Colorado. We're moving back. We're gonna be a cop. We're gonna join the army. These are all from the outside. They seem like attempts to fix what's going on.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Mentally running from something.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes. Hoping that this big reset will somehow change him.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, you're right.

[Dax Shepard]

What's clear in the book. You still have a lot of love for your dad, though.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I do. It is bizarre because I did go through a long time of hatred towards him. He's disrupted, interrupted, fucked up my life to some degree. Our lives, our family, the whole thing. There was a lot of hatred. Stuff I had to work through personally to overcome that. But I try to see who he is. I try to understand the position and the things that he went through, where his mind was at that age. I mean, I'm well older than he was at that time. He's 40 years old.

[Monica Padman]

Wow.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

So I've outlived him. My mom never saw 40.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Did you ever reconnect with your biological mom?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

You know, speaking of Frisha's big boy.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

My brother, when I was working one day, he's like, hey, I got a friend outside who wants to meet you. He's dying to meet you. I'm like, all right, cool. I think I'm 16 or 17. I go outside, hey, this is your mom. Sue is her name. And I'm just in complete shock. I'm thinking I'm going to meet one of his buddies.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

And I'm here. This lady is standing and she tries to hand me 50 doll dollars. I'm like, what the hell am I going to do with that? I don't need your money. I didn't take it. $50 doesn't capture the last 17 years. So I never really reconnected with her. My brother has a relationship with her to this day. I just chose not to. Meeting her, it hurt me because I didn't want to upset my mother. I felt disloyal. I told her right away. I had to tell her. It was killing me. I was so worried about breaking her heart. I didn't put myself in that position. I was forced into that position. To this day, I probably would have never met her.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. And it's weird because if you don't see her, you can kind of compartmentalize it. Like she doesn't really exist. Maybe. But seeing her, you have to face this person dropped you off at six months old, made a choice. Your life is tough. And part of it's because she put.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

You in that situation and never looked back.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, yeah. As far as the compartmentalization, there's layers to it. It's like a. It's best to just ignore she even exists. And then if she does exist, it's actually a lot easier if she doesn't want to meet you.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

It's very complicated. If. Wait, she's gone now? No, she isn't gone. And I don't know if I can handle that. She actually wants to have a relationship with me.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

That's kind of overwhelming.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

It is. There's a lot of things that I want to know from her medically, you know, the lineage of her father and all the things that maybe could affect me and my family, but not so much that I want to have that relationship because I'm sure if I reach out, it's going to open a can of worms.

[Dax Shepard]

You're not in the market for that.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I'm not. I'm good. My life is great.

[Dax Shepard]

What do you major in at Ohio State?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

It was a culinary degree in applied science. It was a three year program for culinary.

[Dax Shepard]

You knew from that first restaurant job you got. This is what I want to do.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. Once I got into high school and I started working, like in a professional kitchen, this is all I want to do.

[Dax Shepard]

When do you decide to go from, for lack of better terminology, like a pedestrian cook, to, oh, I actually want to be an artist.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

My last two years of high school was in a vocational school or a tech school. Luckily they had a culinary program there. So I spent the last two years of high school in that culinary program. And I met a lady named Kathy Zay who was the teacher and the instructor there. She was very well connected to a lot of professional chefs in the Columbus area. And she would take students every year, once a year to a place called Muirfield Village Golf Club. It was owned by Jack Nicklaus that held one of the PGA stops of the tour. And I went out there consecutively for two years and that's where I really wanted to work. So she was able to connect me with the chef and I just went there to work that week. But then I started going there on the weekends to work for free because I just wanted to be there.

[Dax Shepard]

What was he doing that was so intriguing because I think it's important for context. Anyone that's 25 years old right now, they've grown up in an era where there were many, many cooking shows on. There are Instagram accounts where you follow this. There's knowledge of Jose Andres teachers in Spain. Like, like you could really know everything.

[Monica Padman]

Celebrity chef culture.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes. Pre Bourdain's book. But for you and I, I don't know, what would you see in a magazine, like a travel magazine? How would you even be exposed to this kind of far end of cooking?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

For me, it was the environment that was there, being able to go there and the houses around the golf courses. This one has an elevator and this one has eight rooms. And it's just massive eye opening moment for me that I wanted to be a part of. And the only way to be a part of it is if I was working there.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Not only that, the chef John Souza was so great with the young cooks and was a very educational and a great hands on teacher. So any opportunity I got, I went there to work for free or whatever. They didn't hire me, just let me spend my time that I wasn't working somewhere else here. So he agreed to take me on as an apprentice. As I went into college, I spent a total of about six years there. Everybody would leave at night and I would stay there and I would start creating. I would leave at 3 o' clock, 4 o' clock in the morning where everybody else is out drinking and partying. I'm still in the kitchen, working for free, doing my thing, trying to create, just trying to learn and learn and learn. That's where I put the blinders on and just was like total focus.

[Dax Shepard]

And would you ever be experimenting and discover something and then pitch the chef?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, as a young cook, that's the greatest thing is like to try to have something on the menu.

[Dax Shepard]

It's like seeing your name in the credits of a movie when you're an actor.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

It's the greatest thing for a young cook. Because most of the time there was always like, no know, it's the chef's restaurants, his ideas, it's his everything.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes. In 2000, you're now 25, you are working at Charlie Trotter in Chicago.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

That was the draw to come to Illinois. The Internet was around a little bit at that time, so it wasn't a lot of communication through there. It was just like sending resumes, sending a cover letter, just trying to get in the door. And finally they called and said I could come there and do what we call a stage, which is basically work for a short amount of time for free. It's a way to interview you, if you will.

[Dax Shepard]

How standardized are the cultures in these higher end restaurants? So, like the golf course that you were coming from, what was the culture in there versus what it was like at Charlie Trotter? I'm presuming some of these are more dictatorial.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. There is a brigade system that you follow by. You have chef, you have the executive chef, chef cuisine, sous chef. There's a banquet chef in there somewhere, depending on how large the operation is. Pastry chef, and then what we call chef de parties, which are all the cooks. So the hierarchy there is very interesting. And something that's pretty standard across most high end restaurants. But culturally, huge difference. Going from Muirfield, which was more laid back. Although there's a lot of great standards there. And culturally, there was a great time in place. But when I got to Charlie Trotters was completely different. Just really intense work environment, a lot.

[Dax Shepard]

Of panic and yelling.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Not so much yelling. It was just very demanding physically, mentally. Like you had to be on point all the time. Charlie was relentless for putting you in positions of uncomfortableness because of the perfectionism. Yeah. And you think he wanted everybody in that restaurant to be great.

[Dax Shepard]

I imagine myself in some of these kitchens, at least that I hear about, and I'm like, that would be too much for me.

[Monica Padman]

You'd punch them for me.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I think it was welcoming to some degree.

[Dax Shepard]

I guess you admired the people. That's the key. Right? You probably did admire this chef.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yes, you're right.

[Dax Shepard]

And want their skills enough to tolerate it all.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. And I think even dating back to John, Susan, also a good friend of mine who was the banquet chef, Regan Koi Vistov. I admired these chefs so much that they could have told me to Jump off a building. I probably would have done it.

[Dax Shepard]

Right. You wanted what they had.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. And that was the structure I was craving. That was right at the time my parents passed away. And now I'm like all of a sudden this malleable teenager that needs structure. I need it, but I don't have it.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

So I could have went any direction in life I wanted to had I not had these structural pillars in my life. You know, Regan was a huge asset for me. Stay tuned for more armchair expert if you dare.

[Dax Shepard]

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[Monica Padman]

Yeah. If you want to revamp your wardrobe, which I suggest per season.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Add some pieces in that are fun, kind of just for the season. There's some really good summer pieces, some great button downs that you can also wear by the pool.

[Dax Shepard]

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[Monica Padman]

Oh wow. Good for him.

[Dax Shepard]

Five years older than me, I got him to take a hike and then to my surprise, he pushed for the seven mile hike. Ooh. Then the second we got home, Lincoln was like it's time to play volleyball. You guys promised you play volleyball. Second that was over. You promised to play pickleball. Play pickleball. Then when that was over, Delta, you promised him more motorcycle ride. So we found ourselves wall to wall. Six hours and I'm telling you I needed a quick hit of nutrition. I didn't have time to sit down. And wherever the day takes you, you need nutrition that fuels your daily adventure. Like Cachava's whole body meal shake will keep your body and mind nourished all day long. Because Kachava has 25 grams of 100% plant based protein and comes in five indulgent flavors including chocolate, vanilla, chai matcha and coconut acai.

[Monica Padman]

I'm a chocol.

[Dax Shepard]

The chocolate solid in the vanilla is also really good. I'm a sucker for vanilla.

[Monica Padman]

And then if you add, you can add like frozen fruit and a little peanut butter.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, then you got a full deal.

[Monica Padman]

You can mix it with your iced coffee. Lots of options.

[Dax Shepard]

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[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

Again, I'm stupid. I know nothing about this. But I would imagine a pastry chef is solely going to be a pastry. I just think of someone as cooking dessert that feels like a specialty unto itself. That that would be the end goal for some people.

[Monica Padman]

Right?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

For most people in the pastry world, it is a completely different discipline. And that is exactly what they do. They are set on pastry. And this is what I do. I don't really screw around with the savory world. Like I to want want pastry, sweet world's my thing.

[Dax Shepard]

I need to rise perfectly, and that's all I want to think about.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Restaurant Trio back in 2003, it was a different mindset. Like sweet and savory could intermix. So I never really looked at myself as a pastry chef. I spent a lot of time in the pastry department in every job that I was at because I felt like it was important to be well rounded. And when the opportunity came, when Grant had said, hey, you want to take over the pastry position? I jumped at it because I felt like I had base knowledge of it and it was a way for me to express some creativity.

[Dax Shepard]

Because the pastry chef I'm imagining is a little more empowered to create 100%.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

They're basically the chef of the whole sweet side.

[Dax Shepard]

The head chef's gonna leave them to that kind.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. But I felt so obligated as a younger cook to understand that side of the it because the language barrier, talking to a pastry chef and someone who doesn't understand the pastry world can get blurred really quickly. But if you can have that conversation about pastries as a savory cook, how much greater could you be you can now conceptualize together.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, it's like at other businesses when you should have worked every single piece of it, even when you're at the top. So you can then speak.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

So you understand it. Yeah, you understand where everybody's at that.

[Dax Shepard]

And so you're two years there. And then in 2005, you go to Alen, Alenia, Alinea and Rob. That's where you ate.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yep, couple times.

[Dax Shepard]

How long had Alinea been a prominent restaurant in Chicago?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

At the time we actually opened Alenia. So Grant Ach, who is the chef at Trio, where I was the pastry chef, we closed Trio with the idea that Grant is now going to open Alinea and he asked me to be one of the chefs that that would help him open it. So then we spent the next year and a half in an office creating what would be Alinea. We were working in one of the investors home to create dishes for a.

[Dax Shepard]

Year and a half.

[Monica Padman]

These are not a solid year and a half dishes. You should watch the chef's table. It's incredible.

[Dax Shepard]

I watch several different videos of what happens at your restaurant ever. It's mind boggling. You take the simachi, you cut it up, then you freeze it in little blocks, then you put it on a meat slicer to make it crazy. Th. And then you let that curl up and you put that in liquid nitrogen. Liquid nitrogen. And now it's this little curly tail and then it's gonna basically thaw at the perfect time that it's on the plate.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, it's thawing thigh. Yes. It's science and art.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, it's a little bit of everything.

[Dax Shepard]

I only remember this from interviewing Jose, but a lot of that was pioneered in Spain there.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Well, the liquid nitrogen aspect was certainly pioneered there. The science side of cooking was really implemented there in El Builler in Spain there. And a lot of the great restaurants in Spain now still practice that modern gastronomy.

[Dax Shepard]

So how are you guys becoming adept and educated on it?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Back in the day, it was just about the Internet. Everybody was on the race to post new and creative and interesting things. To be the first one to kind of say we did it. That was a huge race back then. That was early 2000s. And you know, at that time, Spain was so far ahead. Everybody's eyes were on what they were doing over there and just trying to not really compete, but stay up to speed with everything, not be embarrassed by what they're doing, basically because they were so far ahead and they are always forward thinking. Even in their architecture.

[Dax Shepard]

They're so far ahead, I'm imagining there was a huge reward for you with Alinea just having been a part of creating the whole thing. Did you have a sense of pride and ownership over all that?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

100%. They're celebrating their 20 years right now. Grant's traveling a couple cities to celebrate the 20 years. I think it's a milestone. It's incredible because restaurants of that nature, they don't stick around that long. Yeah, most restaurants don't stick around 20 years. Certainly one that's super progressive and forward thinking like that.

[Dax Shepard]

After Alinea, you go four years later to Avenues in the Peninsula Hotel, and there you're a head chef. So this is your first time on your own.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And was it hard to leave Alinea? Did you feel the loyalty you felt towards Jan? Was it hard for you to break out and finally do your own thing and not be with anyone?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Well, funny story is if we back up to me leaving Charlie Trotter's, I interviewed with Grant at Trio and Grant didn't want to hire me because he's like, you need to do your own damn thing. I'm getting ready to do my own thing. He's like, you need to go find your own kitchen and kind of like have your own voice. I didn't feel like I was ready for it, so I convinced him somehow to hire me. And that's where we made that connection. We started working together. So when it was my time to leave Alinea, for me it was, you know, you're in the shadows, you're doing other people's food, which is great because it's still a huge learning thing. But at some point, if, you know, you have that entrepreneurial spirit and you know you want to do your own thing, you have a voice, you can't stand in those shadows. So I left and spent some time just figuring out what I wanted to do. And then Avenues came available for me to, I don't want to say audition, but I cooked for certain people in the hotel and it was a restaurant that was already very successful with the chef that was there. And they needed to carry on what was going on in that restaurant space. So they allowed a chef to come in there and have really their own voice. The restaurant didn't have an identity, so, you know, they would just hire the right chef to run it for as long as they would wanted to run it.

[Dax Shepard]

It just needed to be great food. It didn't need to have a personality.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Right. It wasn't like, oh, it needs to be a steakhouse, it needs to be an Italian place. They're like, it's a chef driven restaurant.

[Monica Padman]

What did you make for your audition? Do you remember?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I don't remember. That's a great question. Chocolate, no bakes for everyone. But I think mostly with my resume and my time in Alinea and just who I was in the city, I'd already started to develop a name a little bit and it was an easy sell for the hotel.

[Dax Shepard]

And so the year after you took that job, you earned two Michelin stars.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Correct.

[Dax Shepard]

All right, so help me understand. I'll see like Michelin star restaurant. And then I notice you got like three stars. How does this Michelin star thing work? Yeah, I didn't realize there's multiple. I just thought either you get one or you don't.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

It's an earned accolade every single year. So it is not yours to keep and it's theirs to take away whenever they decide you're not holding the standard properly. It is not a permanent thing.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, I didn't know that either. So you could be a one Michelin star restaurant for a couple years and then be a zero Michelin star.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Absolutely.

[Dax Shepard]

Lose it.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, God.

[Dax Shepard]

Are you allowed to say previous Michel star? I would still want.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

There is plenty of restaurants out there that have lost it.

[Dax Shepard]

It. And how's it earned? They just drop in at some point and they.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

So yeah, they shop you throughout the year unannounced. They could be buried in a six out. They could be buried in a large party. They could be a single diner.

[Monica Padman]

2.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

They could be really anywhere. Male, female.

[Dax Shepard]

I think you and I would be old.

[Monica Padman]

How dare you? I just.

[Dax Shepard]

We like things so much. I don't think we'd be discerning enough. Oh, I know personally, we would have given out like 50 of them by now. Like we had a sticky toffee pudding at a pretty medium level hotel and.

[Monica Padman]

We'Re like, this is the best thing ever.

[Dax Shepard]

Like we gotta plan a trip back there just to get that speed. We would have given them two or three for that.

[Monica Padman]

Eight. Eight Michelin stars.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I could give them eight.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

So how does it work? What's the max you can get?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

3 is the highest.

[Dax Shepard]

And that's so rare. Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Worldwide there's less than 150. So you can imagine at the time when we received the third Michelin star, we were one of 12 in the country.

[Monica Padman]

Wow, that's amazing.

[Dax Shepard]

What's the celebration like when that's announced? Cause it's gotta be so good for your business.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

It does make the restaurant. Restaurant busier Certainly it changes clientele immediately from people not just locally, but now they're flying in from all over the place just to eat at your restaurant. Because there's die hard Michelin fans that just travel the world to eat at restaurants. That's all they do.

[Monica Padman]

I know we were maybe gonna do a podcast.

[Dax Shepard]

We lightly suggested.

[Monica Padman]

We suggested where we would go to all the Michelin star restaurants and record while we ate it. But misophonia, people don't like the sounds.

[Dax Shepard]

Of eating while people just kind of casually mentioned it. And didn't we get a bunch of emails, Rob? Yeah, we got like four or five.

[Monica Padman]

I think maybe we should maybe pick up.

[Dax Shepard]

We should dust that all. Okay, so why do you only stay there for a few years before opening? Grace.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

As a young cook, I didn't get in the business to earn accolades. It was not even a thought to be a chef and to win awards. For me, it was about feeding people, making them happy, creating memories. And this was a way for me to make a living. And I get to be creative and do what I love to do. So that's the reason why I started cooking. Michelin was not in the US until recently. We're less than 20 years since Michelin's been in the US. Always been in Europe. And they're still expanding from different countries still. You know, I think they saw a huge potential in North America. Started in New York, then the California Vegas, and then Chicago, I think was the fourth state city. So as young cooks, as young chefs, you always look at three Michelin stars as like the pinnacle of some chef's career. That's the highest accolade you can get.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Where do you go from there?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Where do you go from there? When we received two stars, blown away, like, what could we do? Immediately start thinking, like, with what I'm surrounded with and the tools that I have and the people that I have and everything here, I have control over it, but I don't have control over it. It's not mine. It's in hotel. And there's guidelines and there's certain things that you gotta play by. There's certain rules. What if I didn't have any of that? What does that look like now all of a sudden? It's like, I could possibly obtain that third star on my own because I have full control over everything at that point.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

So that's where the mind went. That's where I started searching for investors and starting to build what I thought would be my restaurant.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, so now here's where I Get really confused because you start Grace in 2012, 2013, the Rob reports named you the best restaurant in the world. You earned three Michelin stars four years in a row.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, my God. What?

[Dax Shepard]

It closed in 2017. I'm like, I'm reading this and I'm like, wait, why did you close?

[Monica Padman]

Because you can only go down from.

[Dax Shepard]

There, imagine anything in the world. What we've now discovered is, it's perfect. Let's shut it down. Like, what is that?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

That is called a shitty business deal.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, okay.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

That's where it came from.

[Dax Shepard]

You were in an arrangement that didn't work for you.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. When you're young and hungry and you want your own thing, you just go. And we did. And we signed an agreement that wasn't looked over through a professional lawyer to say, don't sign that. Are you fucking crazy? But we signed it because we were hungry and we knew this guy was going to give us money to build this restaurant.

[Dax Shepard]

And this guy was so bullheaded that in 2016, if you had gone to him and said, look, you're gonna have either nothing or you're gonna give me my fair share. I'll take nothing.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

If you would have been part of that story or behind the scenes. That's exactly what I said.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

What happened was, so we had gone into a place where we knew we were going to leave, but we were trying to buy the restaurant from him. All of a sudden we find out we're not really owners, we're just employees of this guy's restaurant. He is not a restaurateur. He's never been. He's a guy who does real estate on the super, super low end, bottom.

[Dax Shepard]

Feeder, slum lordy type stuff.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Slum lord to the max. Right? So we start to see all these red flags as we're building it. We should have paid attention to the red flags. We just said, ah, that'll never be us. And we just moved forward.

[Dax Shepard]

But if I can defend you for one second, you have a crazy skill. You're a crazy artist.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Right.

[Dax Shepard]

You cannot be expected to also be the savviest man. To expect that out of one person is kind of ludicrous.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I know, but the idea is you're supposed to surround yourself with great people. Right.

[Monica Padman]

It takes time.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

It takes time to build her out up. So we build the restaurant and we get to a place where it's paid back and then some. And then some and then some. We're at a place where we're supposed to be making now money from this Restaurant. We ton of sweat equity into it.

[Dax Shepard]

It's fucking three stars four years in a row. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

We earned everything we set out to do. The restaurant was busier than could ever possibly think of. I mean, we had, you know, wait lists for months and months at a time. It was everything that we wanted it to be. So. So we get to a place where it's like, look, this is not working out. If I leave, the restaurant closes. This guy was like, no, okay, then walk. So I walked. But when I walked, I didn't announce it to the public because we were also still negotiating, trying to buy this restaurant from him, which he was never going to sell to us. He was just putting a carrot and a carrot and a carrot to buy more time, make more money. So he was never going to sell it. And the buyback number was so atrocious, you would just fall off your seat. No, we're not buying it for $10 million. It took us a million and a half to build it.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

What are you talking about? I left. And I left for, like, four months, but I was still managing everything from the outside. I wasn't physically there, but I was having zoom with my chef de cuisine, who was creating dishes from me at home and going, no, put this here, change that. Make sure the puree is this, and then taste it. How does it taste? And we were just doing things like. That was so bizarre. And this was all behind this guy's back because I wanted the restaurant to.

[Monica Padman]

Succeed because I had your name.

[Dax Shepard]

It's your child.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

And restaurants of that caliber just don't close for no reason. That was the pinnacle, and it was running like a damn Olympian. It was an amazing thing. It was just carrot after carrot after carrot. And I'm like, all right, we're done. So my business partner and I, we were in California here, riding motorcycles with Keanu Reeves and a few other buddies. Just the Archer folks through Joshua Tree and. Yeah, with Archer Motorcycles. Exactly. It was an amazing time. And we both looked at each other and said, this is the day. We already drafted the story of the New York Times. So Monday morning, New York Times drop Grace announces chef leaving. The restaurant never reopens.

[Dax Shepard]

Wow.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

But this was a conversation I had with this guy. I said, you don't understand. The moment I announced it to the public, it's done. They're not coming here because you.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, exactly.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

They're coming here, here because of my name and what I do. And.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I'm like goose laying the golden egg.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

And you're just Willing to throw it all away.

[Monica Padman]

So short sighted.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

He was just ready to burn it down. So he did.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. He thought he was being a shrewd businessman. And he has 100 of nothing.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Ego.

[Monica Padman]

Exactly.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Ego.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm delighted there was a good explanation.

[Monica Padman]

Because that makes sense.

[Dax Shepard]

I would really been scratching my head.

[Monica Padman]

That's why I'm sad though, because I want to go there.

[Dax Shepard]

Go to Ever.

[Monica Padman]

I will.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. We have a better restaurant now called Ever.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Yeah. Had any other restaurant gotten three stars four years in a row?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

There's restaurants that have been three stars for 30, 40 years. A lot of great French restaurants. But here in the U.S. in the U.S. no. But the ones that had three stars were consecutive. Alinea's three stars since day one. They're 20 years now. French Laundry, maybe they're 15 years deep. However long Michelin has been in the U.S. french Laundry, they've all held those accolades since they achieved.

[Dax Shepard]

Boy, I bet it's a blessing and a curse.

[Monica Padman]

So much stress to maintain. To know you have to keep getting it. Well, that's a lot.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I think you get to a point where it's like, what did we do to obtain the three stars? What are we doing every day? The mentality has to switch to just be better every day on every little thing. Small details is what pushes the whole operation forward. And that's always been kind of my mentality anyways. It's like we don't have to be great at everything, but we have to be great at something every single day. Day, even a little bit. And that little bit will push us in that direction. And if we got the three stars doing what we were doing, we don't need to change much. Just continue doing great things.

[Dax Shepard]

In ways it's harder to maintain something that's great than it is to make something that's great.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

The fire burns out, there's more distraction at the top. Right. There's a lot greater opportunities coming your way. There's more restaurant deals. Maybe there's tv, maybe there's books. Maybe there's other things that pull you out of the kitchen. And that's something I'm experiencing the last five years is I don't get to spend as much time in the kitchen as I really, really want to. That's my heart and soul is being in the kitchen. But I have all these other things that also need me to help grow the business and to expand and create other opportunities for my younger cooks that work for me. That's my responsibility now.

[Dax Shepard]

This is a topic I can never Be tired of. And I think it's very rare that people in life accomplish the exact thing they were set out to. And I just think the mindset of trying to get something versus trying not to lose something, trying not to lose something is just a very tricky and dangerous headspace.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Mentally.

[Monica Padman]

And everyone roots for an underdog, but nobody roots for a top dog. So you go from being like, oh, this guy is so great. Have you ever heard of him? To, like, oh, well, let's see how good it is. It starts shifting, and that's.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, it's much more fun to say, like, do you hear about this great new chef at X, y, or Z versus he's been doing this for 15 years. I hope it's still as good as.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Like, a whole different animal. The expectations are constant, at least in our business, at our level.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Like, I'm watching you cook in some of these videos for so many reasons. I'm like, oh, yeah, I could never do any of this. Like, first of all, you're so meticulous.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And I am not meticulous.

[Monica Padman]

Well, you are with, like, mechanics Kenny.

[Dax Shepard]

Who, you know, when we work on stuff together, he's furious. My runs, but I didn't label all the hoses the way he did. You know, like, I want to be on the road. Whereas he's, like, very anal meticulous. You know, some people are built that way and some aren't.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

My dad was that way on all of the parts in the garage. He knew if we screwed with one.

[Dax Shepard]

Tool in his toolbox, well, he'd position his drumstick, make sure.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Exactly right.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Like, don't even look at it. Just, like, you can clean it. But he's the guy that says, go clean my motorcycle, but don't fucking touch it.

[Dax Shepard]

Thank you, but, yeah, you're just very meticulous. And it's very tedious.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

The kind of food you're making, it is. And does that bleed over into your whole life? Is your wife like, oh, my God, hon, it doesn't matter how the bed's fucking made. Just throw the sheet up?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

No, I mean, my kitchen at home is pretty meticulous.

[Dax Shepard]

Church, you're not that way across the whole spectrum.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

No, I wish I was.

[Monica Padman]

It does require a level of perfectionism at that level of. I can't even call it cooking. That level of being a chef is so detailed. Like, you said, the shaving of the thing that.

[Dax Shepard]

The main instrument I'm seeing is tweezers more than knives. It's crazy.

[Monica Padman]

It's so awesome.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

A lot of it is the team too. I'll set a standard, obviously, with how I do things, but their job is to really exceed those standards. So the camaraderie between all of them and the fun playfulness of trying to be better against each other is what also takes it to the next level, which makes my game a little bit better every day too.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, so you win the James Beard in 2016, and then you start ever in 2020 and you've won two Michelin stars. 2021, 2022, 2023. One thing I really liked about your kitchen, and knowing your backstory, I'm not surprised. But your kitchen's dead quiet.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

That's like a big rule for you.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

For me it is. Yeah. I love silence. I love quietness.

[Dax Shepard]

Is that novel, to have it that.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Quiet Normally, like you said earlier, it's like screaming and yelling and fire and people yawning at each other and over talking each other. For me, it needs to be that way because it demands a certain amount of attention to detail. Not a certain amount. A tremendous amount. So if I can take away all the distractions such as the noise, the white noise particularly.

[Dax Shepard]

Do you guys blend in a, like, room off the kitchen?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, blending stops. So, like, once the front door's open, there's no more blender use. Actually there's no prepping at all once the front doors open up. But the sound for me is non verbal communication, especially during service time. Everybody knows what they're supposed to do. They know the next step. They can look at somebody and know exactly what's going to happen next.

[Dax Shepard]

How are the employees flirting and stuff?

[Monica Padman]

They're not.

[Dax Shepard]

How are you going to fuck? You can't talk, you can't flirt with each other.

[Monica Padman]

Sometimes that's fun.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, I see where you're going.

[Monica Padman]

You know, it's not so overt.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, you really gotta have a good non verbal game, I guess.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, maybe.

[Monica Padman]

So we just had a second sex expert on teach us about a look.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, the triangle look or something. She hit Monica with it and she was powerful.

[Monica Padman]

It was intense. Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Oh, really?

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I tried that on my wife.

[Monica Padman]

Is there a dish that you're the most proud of? It could even be at home.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I've been a guy who's always said, I don't want to be known for something. I don't want to be known for a particular dish. I don't want to be the guy that's serving the same dish 20 years from now.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, interesting.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I force myself not to repeat Dishes, Because I think that's an easy way way of cooking is just fall back on something you know is a really solid dish, and then you start to execute it every day and fine tune it. Fine tune and fine tune it. And there's something great about that too. There's a lot of chefs out there that do that, and there's something magical about that as well. It's just really trying to perfect that dish. But I think it takes away the creative side, and you hit that comfort mode, complacency mode. That's why I fear a lot of times with a tasting style menu, with our cook books, it becomes a very mundane moment where it's like, all right, well, tonight, Dex, you're gonna do 60 hamachi dishes, and then tomorrow you're gonna do 60 more. And then fast forward three months, you're still doing 60 a night. You hit a mode where it's like you're just going through the motions.

[Dax Shepard]

Subconscious will take over.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. And it's just. It's not exciting for them anymore. But you really have to think about it. Like, that's the first time the guest is going to see that dish.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, exactly.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

So it needs to be the same way away tonight as it was four months ago.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, that's the part I'd imagine. If I were a regular customer of yours, I'd be pissed at you. Like, if Emily changes their cheeseburger, you. Yeah, we're saying, you know.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, there's something about that too.

[Dax Shepard]

Do you have to hear the complaints of people? Like, you take away their favorite.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

We have a crab dish, Alaskan king crab dish. It's a very beautiful dish. It was kind of in the moment for a Valentine's Day dinner at Avenue. So we're dating back. Back 15 plus years. And then I took that dish and just started refining it into a place where it is today. But it is a crab dish. It's Alaskan king crab that has different elements of citrus cucumber. But the way it sits is in a stemless martini glass.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, wow.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Without the stem. So it's a V tapered glass. And we build everything inside along the sides so you can see through it. And we create this sugar tuile on top of it. So. So it's a clear glass pane that sits on top, so it separates everything almost kind of like a lid to it. And then we're able to build very gently on top of that lid. So from the side view, it looks like all these elements on top are floating. Oh, wow. And it's Become one of these dishes that people just like is that the guy has a crab dish on the menu, Right? No. Cause we can't get good crab right now. So we take it off.

[Monica Padman]

But you might put it back on as well.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. Every once in a while, we'll make a debut again.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

You will call us before that.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, yeah, for sure. It's a very fun, interactive dish. People love it. It's simple, it's clean, it's sweet, savory, salty. A little bit of spice from Togarashi. Kind of hits everything on their palate.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. You said your kink is having customers who come in who say, I don't like peas, or I don't like this. And it's like, okay, well, let me see if you're gonna like these.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. Because you don't have a choice. You're forced to eat what we serve. And sorry, you don't like peas. But today you're ironically, you love peas. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Turns out you do like peas.

[Dax Shepard]

I love that experience. I've only been to a few of these restaurants. French Laundry Bean, the most famous of those. And their most famous dish is diamonds and pearls or something.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. Oysters and pearls.

[Dax Shepard]

Oysters and pearls. And I'm like, I hate all those things. I hate everything that's on that. And it came, and I was immediately furious. That was the only one I was gonna get to have.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Oh, really?

[Dax Shepard]

That's incredible. I hate these things. And like, I would eat six of those.

[Monica Padman]

I went to San Sebastian with some friends a couple years ago, and my friend's a big food guy, so we went to all these Michelin restaurants there. Cause they have so many. And by the end of that trip, I was like, I can't e food again. Like, I'm done eating food for two or three months. It was so intense and rich because they're experiences.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Right.

[Monica Padman]

You're not there to just eat food. You're there to take in the environment. And it's like, how many days putting on a show.

[Dax Shepard]

How many days could you go to Disneyland in a row? Or how many days could you see Taylor Swift in a row?

[Monica Padman]

It's like at some point, amusement park. But it was such a cool experience.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. San Sebastian's got the highest population of Michelin star restaurants. We've been there many times, and phenomenal restaurants there.

[Dax Shepard]

Do you find that you generally get on with other chefs?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, our level, absolutely. You know, I just had a great meal last night at Vespertine here in Culver City. Jordan used to be a chef with us at Alinea. So it's so nice to see these young guys that work beside her. Underneath you go on to do amazing things. His restaurant, Vespertine. He also has Destroyer, which is right across the street. Great experience. Incredibly forward thinking food. And looks at food and art a different way.

[Monica Padman]

How do you think your sous chefs and the people under you, how would they describe you?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Intense. Very demanding. Fair. Psychotic? A little bit.

[Monica Padman]

That's fair.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I think it's fair. I think you have to be a little crazy to want something great. And it only comes from a place that I want greatness for them too. I want them to leave any of my establishments that they're working for me and know that they got the best knowledge from me or from anybody else that was working there. I want them to go on and do great things. That's all I want. That's where I'm at in my career is, you know, it's not so much about me anymore. It's about creating either restaurants with the guys that work for me or creating opportunities for them. Because I think that's more satisfying for me right now.

[Dax Shepard]

I cannot help but see the parallel between fine dining and art to some degree.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Sure.

[Dax Shepard]

A good deal of art's driven by the story of the artists. It's definitely part of the appeal. Are you sometimes seeing being a very popular chef and then you eat at the restaurant, you're like, this is. He's just an interesting dude. Or she's an interesting.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Does that exist in this new world of tons of famous chefs?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Absolutely. There's plenty of chefs out there that are more interesting than the food that they're serving or the restaurants that they operate.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. How does the Bear, the show, tie into all this?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

A lot of people will say that the Bear was storied after my life. Life inspired by it is not. I'm there to say it for the 12,000th time at least. They never said that to me, so I can't own it. I think there's a lot of similarities. The irony that the guy's name is Bear and he's a chef, maybe that's how a lot of people make that connection with my father and me. And so the storyline, the Chicago. Yeah, there's a lot of pieces. If you really wanted to go down that road of connecting the dots. Sure, there's some dots that you can connect.

[Dax Shepard]

Were you consulted when they were formulating the show?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I consulted with them a lot. I did a lot of their food for some of the seasons. The fork season shot in the restaurant. They spent a couple weeks with us in the restaurant. Both restaurants. It's been an incredible experience. I mean, everybody working there has been top notch, from the actors all the way to the cameramen and people setting up. They're all incredible people. In the very beginning, I spent a lot of time just teaching people how to canal.

[Monica Padman]

I've tried to do it. I can't do it.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

There's a certain touch to certain things that if it's not done right.

[Dax Shepard]

Right.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

It comes off like.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, exactly.

[Dax Shepard]

Him excluded. What's the best cooking by an actor you've seen?

[Monica Padman]

There's also not that many.

[Dax Shepard]

There's a good amount.

[Monica Padman]

Bradley Cooper in that.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Oh, yeah, that's actually a good one.

[Monica Padman]

He's like, really into cooking.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, let's hear from the pro.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, I think Bradley Cooper was a great one. Was it Burn, right?

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, Burn. Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I love Kitchen Coffee. Did you read that book?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I did, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I did too. I loved it, but I'm an addict, so I like any.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, but he was the first guy who didn't sugarcoat anything. And I love that. He was very blunt. And that time for me was like, yeah, that is exactly what is happening in our world right now. That's what I've been surrounded by. The drugs and the alcohol and the promiscuous that goes on behind the scenes when all the lights are off.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Very appealing.

[Monica Padman]

Your favorite?

[Dax Shepard]

My favorite, yeah. Yeah. I guess my last question is, what motivated you to write the book? I love it, by the way. It's very Kitchen Confidential. Like, it reads as like, you're going to read a book about the Hell's Angels. Like, it's not a lofty French cooking. It's my kind of book. Immediately, what prompted you to write it?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

2016, we released a documentary called For Grace. It was a documentary about building the restaurant, Building Grace for Grace. And that's kind of where I let my guard down for the first time time in my world with my parents. Not a lot of people, even close people around me didn't really know the story of my parents. I was super embarrassed by it. I was embarrassed that my father did that to the family. And I think at that time I was also looking at it like he was a coward. I didn't really process a lot of it at that point. They caught me in a very vulnerable time filming that documentary. They spent hours and hours with me every single day for months on end. And it was at the end of a workday. We got back to the house and the cameras Were still going. And we just started talking about my parents somehow got on the subject. I told them the whole story of what happened. And they got all that on camera.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

And then they left. And then I realized the next day they had drove to Ohio to get actual footage from the TV studio. Because they're like, we have a story now. Yeah. So that was released in 2016 on Netflix. Spent a few years on there.

[Dax Shepard]

Did you feel a lightning of your spirit having that finally out and realizing people didn't look at you as a piece of shit, but rather a strong survivor? Did any of that happen?

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

You know, it reached people that I never thought it would reach before. We saw an influx in the restaurant of just teachers coming through because of Ruth Snider and how much she was a huge part of my life and how she helped me navigate through a lot of things. And teacher side of it was just huge. And teacher, we'd come through the restaurant, we'd give a free meal to and just take care of them because it was so special. It was pretty amazing to watch that moment. But that documentary, it just skimmed the surface of who I was and where I really come from. I decided one day that I just wanted to let it all out. I needed to just get it the hell off my chest, everything that I could remember, and get it on paper. And, you know, I asked my good friend Jeremy if he would be interested in writing the book for me because he had already written a few other books that were published, and I know he's an incredible writer, and he said, absolutely. And I said, okay, I got one thing for you. And he's like, I got one thing for you. And I said, okay, what? And he says, it has to be brutally honest. I'm like, dude, that's exactly what I said. That's exactly what I want. I said, it has to be brutally honest. It can't be sugarcoated. I don't want a fluff piece. I need it to be real. I need a platform that I can emotionally let out my stories so I can be done with it. So it was very, very brilliant, very therapeutic for me to get these demons off my chest and onto the paper.

[Monica Padman]

Did you feel reluctant to have children, knowing sometimes these things are pat? You said, like, your dad had a bad dad. And I feel like that would scare me.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

You're right. It does. It did. I was worried about having that continuation of that type of behavior. I was scared to have kids in the beginning, but I couldn't even imagine doing what was done to me. To anyone around me. Any person, especially. Especially my two daughters or my two stepchildren. I couldn't even imagine, like, laying a finger. I mean, I get emotional yelling at them when I have to yell at them, and that's maybe once a year.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

I'm like the biggest sissy.

[Monica Padman]

Well, that's kind of nice then.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Then you broke that cycle.

[Monica Padman]

Exactly.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. It's very important that I was able to do that.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, the book is aptly named Fireproof Memoir of a Chef. I think it's great, man. You guys knocked it out of the park. It's so interesting.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Thank you.

[Dax Shepard]

It's a page turner. Curtis, this has been a delight. I really hope I get eat.

[Monica Padman]

I'm dying.

[Dax Shepard]

We're going to exploit this relationship in Chicago.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah. Well, I'd love to have you guys come to the restaurant when you get there next.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Love to have you.

[Dax Shepard]

Wonderful. Hey, after watching those videos, I'm like, oh, I got a trial. This is smoke pouring out of things and steam.

[Monica Padman]

I know.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah, yeah, It'll be fun.

[Dax Shepard]

It's incredible. Well, congrats on a great book.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Thank you.

[Dax Shepard]

The many awards and I'm glad that you found your way through it all in such an amazing way.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

It's been great.

[Dax Shepard]

All right, take care. Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert if you dare. We are supported by Skims.

[Monica Padman]

Yes. Let's talk about skims. I have been raving about their ultimate bra collection. They sent me some new items which was very nice of them. I pretty much live in this bra. It's so comfortable, but it's also cute. You never know when your bra is going to need to be showing.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. You got to be prepared for the best case scenario.

[Monica Padman]

And actually, I really do believe, believe this, that you kind of have to work from the outside in confidence wise.

[Dax Shepard]

Sure.

[Monica Padman]

And so when you get dressed in the morning, you want to put on a cute pair. You feel cute underwear and bra.

[Dax Shepard]

And the ultimate bra is the move.

[Monica Padman]

It is.

[Dax Shepard]

Skims does it again. Check it out for yourself. Shop Skims ultimate bra collection and [e-mail] after you place your order, be sure to let them know we sent you select podcasts in the survey and select our show in the dropdown menu that follows. We are supported by Shipstation. We love to talk about tech and AI advancements on the show and if you're still operating your shipping and fulfillment processes with last year's technology. Have we got an ad for you. It's shipstation, baby. Lead your business into the future with smart features and automations that boost efficiency and save you time. Seamlessly automate repetitive tasks so you can work smarter, not harder. And you can seamlessly integrate with services and selling channels you already use and manage orders on one easy dashboard. We just shipped all of our last round of merch with Shipstation and it made Carly's life a breeze. Over 130,000 companies have grown their e commerce business with Shipstation, and 98% of companies that stick with Shipstation for a year become customers for link your life. Calm the chaos of order fulfillment with the shipping software that delivers. Switch to Shipstation today. Go to shipstation.com and use code DAX to sign up for your free trial. That's shipstation.com code DAX how much do I love dogs?

[Monica Padman]

This much. You can't see because this is an.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Audio ad, but I'm holding my hands.

[Monica Padman]

Really far apart to show that I love dogs an awful lot. You know what else I love about awful lot? CareCredit. You can use the CareCredit credit card to pay for your dog's vet care or for your own dental, vision and more. At over 270,000 locations, CareCredit offers flexible financing for health and wellness for pets and people. I give it two thumbs and 3.5 paws up.

[Dax Shepard]

Visit carecredit.com to apply and find a location near you. Subject to credit approval. Hi there. This is Hermion Permium. If you like that, you're going to love the fact check. Ms. Monica.

[Monica Padman]

You have let me turn powder. Yeah, powder. Rub it in a little bit. Right here. Just rub it in?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. When I hit my face with the brush, it exploded. I had put too much on.

[Monica Padman]

Sure.

[Dax Shepard]

That'll keep it.

[Monica Padman]

That'll happen.

[Dax Shepard]

We heard these stories of David Crusoe. I've heard these incredible stories for people, but people have worked on set with him. Do you know who I'm talking about?

[Monica Padman]

Not really.

[Dax Shepard]

He was on one of these CSIS or one of these procedurals, you know, and he famously wore sunglasses.

[Monica Padman]

Yes. I mean, I know of him. I know the lore.

[Dax Shepard]

You know the lore. And like, we all know the fun stuff. But I definitely worked with some reputable people that had either been actors who come from the show or also crew members. And the one I found to be. I just hope it's true. Which is so incredible, is that. Well, I heard he would rewrite his side of the scene, but not the other side.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

So like the actor, the day player. Rarely. This stuff didn't make sense anymore.

[Monica Padman]

That's tough.

[Dax Shepard]

And then he would self edit and I guess he added the glasses on and he would like, let's say his line was like, no, the. No, the results just came back in and they're the negative. He would not like one part of it. And then he'd go results in negative. And he'd go boom. And he'd look down one of the cameras and go boom.

[Monica Padman]

Oh.

[Dax Shepard]

Telling them that's the take.

[Monica Padman]

Oh.

[Dax Shepard]

So he was kind of self directing and editing and he would just hit chunks. Oh, this is what I heard.

[Monica Padman]

Look, he knew his biz, he knew his show.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm so sad I didn't ever get to just be on set and watch it all.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, that sounds fun.

[Dax Shepard]

You can't argue with the results. It was a huge hit and everyone loved it.

[Monica Padman]

It's too bad he missed met a AI glasses because he could have been like, he could have done directing the whole show maybe. Yeah. And he could just touch one side and that would mean something. And then the other side would mean something.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, he could probably edit real time. You'd just be cutting right now.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, I would. I'd just be holding it and like, just like. You didn't even notice. Right. I just didn't.

[Dax Shepard]

No, I would know. You. You must admit, I know exactly when you're editing in your head. Cuz I. I'm going to catch you every time.

[Monica Padman]

You catch me every other time.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, well, because I'm also paying attention to the guests pretty hard. But if I were to only watch you, I would know exactly when you were editing.

[Monica Padman]

In this case, if it's just us two, let's practice. We'll practice. Okay. So throughout this, I watch this great.

[Dax Shepard]

Doc about the turning point of the. It's happening. No, it's not.

[Monica Padman]

I knew you were trying to trick me and so I didn't do it. I didn't edit it.

[Dax Shepard]

You use your ear as the clicker to edit. You had a story you were going to tell me that you didn't tell me on the last fact check.

[Monica Padman]

Yes. This is a gross fact check. Okay. Because we have two groceries to meet you there to talk about. You sent me a article that Topo Chico, a brand we love.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, I sent that to you?

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, you did.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, great. Because today I was like, I got to bring that up to you.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Trusted brand.

[Dax Shepard]

We love Topo Cho.

[Monica Padman]

We love.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, still do. I don't care what they say, just same.

[Monica Padman]

I do too. But there I guess was a recall and we've been drinking it and I.

[Dax Shepard]

Had a tummy oh, you went there?

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, of course I did. Like. Oh, I probably. And guess who else I'm worried had some.

[Dax Shepard]

Ooh, Brad Pitt. I should ask him if he said an ass.

[Monica Padman]

We maybe gave him a tummy bug. It's kind of cute. It's kind of cool.

[Dax Shepard]

By the way, that would be a plant for you in your sickness where you got. You made him sick. Oh, my God. Yeah. This is where we find out. You're moonchilding. You're poisoning us.

[Monica Padman]

I haven't done it. I haven't crossed the line.

[Dax Shepard]

But that was a. You would call that a happy accident? Yeah, if he had Hannes, like, he.

[Monica Padman]

Can'T really make it home, so I have to help him home.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

And how would you help him home? Well, I get him in my car.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. He can't drive.

[Monica Padman]

Baggy with the bag.

[Dax Shepard]

His harness is so bad he can't drive.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, Ideally, it's coming out both ends.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Anyway, I still have. I have Hannes, so.

[Dax Shepard]

You still have it?

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, it was gone for a day, but it's back.

[Dax Shepard]

It's interesting. I said, I saw that recall. I sent it to you. And I have since drank Topo Chico. Rob, did we get ours from Costco? Because I want to say Costco was in that article. No. Lazy Acres. I've been drinking like two or three a day the last two months. And no Haunted? No, I've been fine, but. Okay. We should just be checking in with Rob, I guess.

[Monica Padman]

No, because it could be. Be like, some are rancid. I doubt every single one is.

[Dax Shepard]

We're drinking from the same package.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, but it could be each bottle.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm still going to drink it. Isn't that wild? Wow. I am, too. I don't know.

[Monica Padman]

I guess. You guys want me to take you home. That's what it seems like. Get you home.

[Dax Shepard]

I can't imagine turning over the wheel like, what? That's more crazy to me than. Although we've driven in the car where you drive and I like it.

[Monica Padman]

You've let me drive.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, Yeah, I like it. It. But I like it because I decide I like it. You know what I'm saying? It's. It's unnatural for me. And I decide to enjoy the notion that we might get in an accident.

[Monica Padman]

No.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, that's what I do. I just go, well, that'll be fun. We'll survive in these accidents.

[Monica Padman]

Around driver?

[Dax Shepard]

No, not at all.

[Monica Padman]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm just such a control freak. I hate not having control of the car. Yeah, I mean, look, let's Just say this. I think my story is I avoid several accidents a month that I tell myself. Your average person wouldn't have found their way out of that.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

So I didn't even have to be a bad driver. I just go like, will they be able to get out of this weird situation where there's an oncoming car but you have to quickly go. It's okay to drive on the grass at this point because that's less bad than a head on.

[Monica Padman]

It's so funny because you. The reason you are avoiding accidents is because of the way you drive.

[Dax Shepard]

That's part of it.

[Monica Padman]

You drive wildly so then there's almost accidents and then you get out of it. I not.

[Dax Shepard]

Be careful though, because. Be careful what you're saying because I would got a really cryptic email. I shouldn't say this, but it is. It's been. It's been in my head since he sent it.

[Monica Padman]

What happened?

[Dax Shepard]

Someone on our business manager team sent a random email to me and saying like, hey, we're renewing all your insurance on your cars. They will go through your social media. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Oh.

[Dax Shepard]

And I'm like, oh, he's telling me I have like one video of Aaron and I not even going that fast. We're on Los Feliz Boulevard. We go first through third gear in the. In the Z wagon.

[Monica Padman]

Are they going to go through the podcast? Can they do that?

[Dax Shepard]

I don't know. But I was like, oh, my God. Wait. I've only. Look, I've had one accident in 30 years of living in LA. I feel like I'm a pretty good bet.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I got zero tickets for the last. I have no speeding T. Like, my record is nice.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And he sent me this and I was like, he's telling me the truth.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. No, it's good.

[Dax Shepard]

He's. But it really made me mad at him. I felt like I was in trouble.

[Monica Padman]

He's telling you so you can clean up some stuff on there.

[Dax Shepard]

I know, but I. I don't know why. It's funny. I keep thinking about reading the email and it makes me angry. And then I'm like, why? What is. Why am I angry about this?

[Monica Padman]

I know why.

[Dax Shepard]

Because it's like it feels like a teacher called me.

[Monica Padman]

What?

[Dax Shepard]

Like, don't have.

[Monica Padman]

No. That you got caught. You feel like you got caught and you don't like it and no one.

[Dax Shepard]

Likes maybe it's like, I want to have all things be true. You think I'm. Well, I am a very safe driver, very good record, and I want you to Ignore my fun I'm having on Top Gear and on my Instagram.

[Monica Padman]

But it's not his fault.

[Dax Shepard]

No, I know. He. No, he's a blessing.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, he's.

[Dax Shepard]

But I mad at him.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, no.

[Dax Shepard]

I felt like he was shaming me about my Instagram.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, my God. This is wild.

[Dax Shepard]

None of it makes sense. Sense. But I'm just being honest with you. That I keep thinking about. And then I go, why are you thinking about this over and over again? Like, what's actually been triggered? And I still haven't figured that out, but something deep has been activated.

[Monica Padman]

Well, I do think. I think you feel you got caught. You feel judged.

[Dax Shepard]

Am I ashamed of having had the accident? I think I'm still dealing with the shame of having that accident a long time ago. I know it was, like, four years ago, but he brought it up in the email. He did. I was kind of of like, that was three years ago.

[Monica Padman]

Okay. Maybe he's trying to help you get over. He's trying to help you get over your identity marker of being a good driver.

[Dax Shepard]

He's trying to help me have good rates, which is what he's there to do. And I'm very appreciative of it. And I'm mad at him, and I don't know why, because I know he doesn't deserve it. I love him. And we even have cars in common. Like, when I get a new car, he's the only one there that's excited. He's like, oh, that's a cool year. And then he sent me this email.

[Monica Padman]

And shame me, he's gonna come off your team now. No, no, no, no, no.

[Dax Shepard]

He's looking out for me. But it's funny how much it's bothered me, you know, like when you read a comment and it sticks around way too long in your head.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. This is wild.

[Dax Shepard]

It is.

[Monica Padman]

Although that's funny, because I also have a comment that is in my head that I can't get out.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

That also doesn't make much sense of why it's, like, bothering me so much.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, we're.

[Dax Shepard]

I just think people are, like, really? There's certain areas where we're so fragile.

[Monica Padman]

We are. We're really sensitive. And I do think the common thread, maybe in both, is judgment. Like, I feel judged by this comment.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

And I think you feel judged by yours.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Then I'm, like, reckless and irresponsible.

[Monica Padman]

Even though Jacob is only trying to.

[Dax Shepard]

Protect you, it couldn't be clear about that. We're. We're dead Clear on his. His intentions and. And good will. He wishes for me. And he's doing the right thing.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And still I didn't. I felt like I got slapped on the wrist.

[Monica Padman]

Z, sometimes it's a. We all do make mistakes. But you don't think it's a mistake.

[Dax Shepard]

This is why me getting an accident was a mistake.

[Monica Padman]

Okay. No, an accident. That's not. He's telling you, don't talk about doing illegal stuff. That's what he's saying. And literally, we just did it on the fact that.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Check.

[Monica Padman]

Like, tomorrow's fact check. You and Aaron talk about doing some illegal stuff?

[Dax Shepard]

Well, we wanted to.

[Monica Padman]

No. But then you raced that guy.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, that was all in the speed limit. I was thinking about Jacob when that was happening, and I was really mad that that was in my mind.

[Monica Padman]

Well, it needs to be.

[Dax Shepard]

I've been having fun in cars since I was 16. That's the name of the game.

[Monica Padman]

Why don't you do this, then? Just come to terms with the fact that your insurance is going to be astronomical.

[Dax Shepard]

You're right. That's the solution. And I've been working towards that, but it's hard.

[Monica Padman]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Wow. All right. I want to talk about pin worms.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, Great. It's your favorite topic. Would you want to nurse a boy back to health who is suffering from pin worms?

[Monica Padman]

Okay, I think I'll draw the line there.

[Dax Shepard]

That's where it ends.

[Monica Padman]

If people don't know about pinworms. They're tiny bugs in your butthole.

[Dax Shepard]

They'd be better. They'd be more accurately called shit worms. We were just discussing them in the house. House a couple days ago.

[Monica Padman]

They're in your butt.

[Dax Shepard]

They're in your poop.

[Monica Padman]

They come out your butt, into your poop.

[Dax Shepard]

Itchy.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. They make it. They make your butt itch a lot. And then.

[Dax Shepard]

And when you do, there are insects in the duty.

[Monica Padman]

I find it so horrific. And when the kids were little, your kids, they got it a couple times, so we all had to take the preschool. Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I think it's a preschool thing. It's like every few months, there's a pinworm outbreak. All these kids are eating their butts and their fingers and.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, my God, it's so horrible. But you just drink this, like, chalky powder, basically, and it's kind of done. So we've done that a few times in the past, and I thought those days were over. Oh, you haven't heard this?

[Dax Shepard]

No.

[Monica Padman]

They're back in. In our rotation. Someone in our circle has pinworm. She said I could say who. She said I could talk about it.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, who?

[Monica Padman]

But I feel unethical. Oh, Anna.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, okay.

[Monica Padman]

Where has she been exactly?

[Dax Shepard]

Preschool. For me. It would be like the tapachico. I know she's infected. I'll still hang with her.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, that's what it is. But also, every 10 minutes or so, I think about them.

[Dax Shepard]

They don't bother me like they bother you.

[Monica Padman]

I know. I wonder.

[Dax Shepard]

I don't think I've ever had them, even though my family's had them enough. Drank that liquid.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I don't have any memory of a scratchy. Like. Well, Aaron and I were laughing about. Because when we were talking about pin worms, we were like, if the symptoms. Scratchy anus. How on earth would either of us think there's something new going on?

[Monica Padman]

What if you.

[Dax Shepard]

And also if that's the. The outcome, like, yeah, that's standard. You're. You have a scratchy anus?

[Monica Padman]

Never. What if you.

[Dax Shepard]

Your anus is never itchy?

[Monica Padman]

I. I mean, no.

[Dax Shepard]

What a gift.

[Monica Padman]

What does it mean? Mine is like, moist.

[Dax Shepard]

No, I think clean, I would imagine.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, you're itching because it's dirty.

[Dax Shepard]

No, because I'm cleaning like crazy. In fact, Eric and I just had a sidebar about we don't think people are being honest who have bidet toilets.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, I don't have one.

[Dax Shepard]

Right. And we're not saying people are not honest about owning one or not owning one, but when they own one and they can spray the water on their butthole, do they not use their finger to clean their butthole? Which is a polarizing topic. And Eric and I are like, you clean. You use your finger to clean your butthole in the shower. Shower.

[Monica Padman]

I don't.

[Dax Shepard]

How are you cleaning your butthole? I'm so nervous about your butthole. If you're not cleaning in a bidet or you're not cleaning in the shower.

[Monica Padman]

Of course I'm cleaning it, but I'm not sticking my finger up my butt.

[Dax Shepard]

No, no one's asking you to put your finger in your butt. What do you clean? Your anus?

[Monica Padman]

Oh, the outside. Yes, of course.

[Dax Shepard]

With your fingers.

[Monica Padman]

With so. And fingers.

[Dax Shepard]

But often when people go like, no, I use soap as if that's a great thing. Oh, great. So now your soap has your. On it. And then you're rubbing your soap on your self cleaning.

[Monica Padman]

And you don't use your butt so for your face.

[Dax Shepard]

It's not more sanitary when people think they're saying that is like a virtue that they use their bar of Soap. I'm like, great. Then you have on your bar of soap.

[Monica Padman]

No, you don't. Ew. Why doesn't you have so much everywhere? The water cleans the off.

[Dax Shepard]

If you wipe with your fingers, you need friction.

[Monica Padman]

Is your butthole, like, so high up or something? Like, I feel like the water is mostly cleaning it. And then you think the water.

[Dax Shepard]

That trick.

[Monica Padman]

Listen.

[Dax Shepard]

Rolls past your anus. Cleaning it.

[Monica Padman]

You.

[Dax Shepard]

Like, you already said it. You used a bar of soap in your fingers.

[Monica Padman]

Right. But mainly the bar of soap is the. The main instrument. Instrument. And then. Then once it's clean, then I put it on my face. I use soap on my hands and just do, like, a little extra.

[Dax Shepard]

On your. Yeah, your hands on your butthole in the shower. Yes, everyone. And everyone should.

[Monica Padman]

But I thought you meant up your butt. And the bidet is up your butt, right?

[Dax Shepard]

No, it's clean the outside of your anus.

[Monica Padman]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

Unless you're somehow dilating your butthole and letting it all spray up there. Which. It would be the dream. That would be the dream.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And I have some success in that realm. But at any rate, it's really funny. People are like, oh, gross. You use your finger with the bidet, and it's like, I don't get it. You use your finger in the shower and then you wash your hand after. What are we talking about? This is pageantry.

[Monica Padman]

I have a question about the bidet. So are you wiping first with your tissue? You're not?

[Dax Shepard]

Of course not.

[Monica Padman]

Why?

[Dax Shepard]

Because why would you want to take dry paper and smear in dry poop and just rub it into your skin and then add water? No, you spray the water. The debris is freed. Then you go with the finger and really clean. Then more rinsing, then toilet paper for drying, and there's. Now there's nothing. I'm telling you this. There's nothing on the toilet paper when I wipe my fanny.

[Monica Padman]

Yes, Same there.

[Dax Shepard]

No, if you're not using water. Are you saying there's not poop on your toilet paper?

[Monica Padman]

No, no, sorry. By the time I'm done With what? Wiping. By the time I'm done wiping, there's no poop. Oh, my God.

[Dax Shepard]

Of course. But with the bidet, if you do the rinse first and a cleanse with your finger, when you wipe, it's spotless.

[Monica Padman]

Okay, that's fine.

[Dax Shepard]

And then you're just looking at, like, virgin clean toilet paper.

[Monica Padman]

Okay, but you're. You are making a. A harness. Like, you have, like, poop particles on your butt after you've pooped and then you're putting water on that poop immediately.

[Dax Shepard]

Spraying it, and then it falls down into the toilet.

[Monica Padman]

Drips.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

And then it's still gonna be on there a little bit.

[Dax Shepard]

No, it's not. You get in there and you clean with your finger.

[Monica Padman]

So you're getting poop on your hands for sure, right?

[Dax Shepard]

No, because I've sprayed the debris. Now I'm cleansing with my finger, my anus. And then I'm grabbing tissue and drying all off. And then I wash my hand and I'm spotless. And I've not wiped my butt 300 times till it's bleeding as I do when I'm not on a bidet.

[Monica Padman]

Oh my God.

[Dax Shepard]

Anyways, okay.

[Monica Padman]

My butt doesn't itch and yours does occasionally.

[Dax Shepard]

And Aaron's more.

[Monica Padman]

What if you guys are the ones that have had pin worms this whole time and just.

[Dax Shepard]

You would like that one.

[Monica Padman]

No, I don't. I don't. I draw the line of pin worms. I don't like, like bugs.

[Dax Shepard]

No, I'm saying you wouldn't like if we were guilty of spreading.

[Monica Padman]

Oh yeah. Well, it just makes the most sense. Really.

[Dax Shepard]

I couldn't even have pinworms. They drown because I'm flushing that area with water.

[Monica Padman]

That's not how they work. Apparently they're. They don't like light and that's it. And that chalky substance.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, I wonder if you could put a LED light.

[Monica Padman]

I know. Bulb in your butt, but they go up. So. Kristen knows a lot about pin worms.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, she's spoken in the press a lot about. I applaud her willingness because she'll talk about her own pinworms a lot. Freely.

[Monica Padman]

God. Yeah. She was educating Anna about the pinworms and she said the way to find them is you. You have your kid bend over, spread their butt out and then the. In the dark and then all of a sudden you turn on the light super quickly and then you have to like, get it. Get it.

[Dax Shepard]

You get it.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Use some sort of. Of thing to get out. She keeps calling it the mother.

[Dax Shepard]

That sounds like a. The scoby or whatever.

[Monica Padman]

I know it sounds like from apple cider vinegar. Cuz it does have a mother.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Or kombucha.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I don't know about the retrieval and everything. We've. I. I don't know if she's embellishing, but we generally give them the drink and then it's over.

[Monica Padman]

No, she uses like some sort of thing to get the mother out, according to her.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, wow. And then. Okay.

[Monica Padman]

I Told. Told you this. Ew.

[Dax Shepard]

That's the mother.

[Curtis Duffy]

Wait, that's just.

[Monica Padman]

Dude, that's from. Dude.

[Dax Shepard]

That is a pin worm, though.

[Monica Padman]

That is disgusting. Anyway, I just really. There's so many gross things in the world. Topo Chico.

[Dax Shepard]

No, don't say it's. Please don't say it's gross.

[Monica Padman]

It work.

[Dax Shepard]

No, no, no. Don't exclude Top Chico.

[Monica Padman]

All right, well, those were my main things. Do you want to make it cute again and talk about Aaron and Delta and you riding your motorcycles?

[Dax Shepard]

I mean, just. We had what a time we had. We. We went out on the electric motorcycles, and we really, really explored. We got into Griffith Park. We got onto some closed roads. Just watching my little one Negotiation associate mountain turns on with cliffs on the side with total confidence.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

It's just so fun. We had so much fun.

[Monica Padman]

That's great.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Would you rather we make the best husbands? Like, if we had a little girl?

[Monica Padman]

Sure.

[Dax Shepard]

It's a great little team.

[Monica Padman]

That's cute.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Now, would you rather have pinworms forever?

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

And as you said, you don't actually think you've had them or great insurance rates. Neither do I, but apparently it's really, like, itchy. Yeah. And really bad.

[Dax Shepard]

Are you scoping his Honor in her butt every five seconds? Scratch, scratch, scratch.

[Monica Padman]

She said it. She thought she had cancer.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, my God. Wow. Extreme.

[Monica Padman]

That's why this happened. She. She was looking really upset. And then she. She said, I have to talk to someone about this. I'm really worried. My butt is so itchy.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, wow.

[Monica Padman]

And then Carly said, oh, you have pinworms.

[Dax Shepard]

I guess I don't. I don't think I've had it then.

[Monica Padman]

Because exactly the way she was saying it, it felt extreme.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

And Carly said, oh, you have pinworms. And she was like, are you. Are you sure? Like, I'm worried it's something serious. And she was like, I think I really. I feel like I woke up today, and I was like, I definitely have cancer. I need to talk to an adult about. And then she took the medicine, and it's been fine ever since. Okay. Would you rather have pinworms or penis worms?

[Dax Shepard]

How do penis worms work?

[Monica Padman]

I guess let's just say they work the same.

[Dax Shepard]

They're worms coming out of my penis.

[Monica Padman]

Are they?

[Dax Shepard]

Then definitely my butt.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. That's a good answer. Well, like. Or like crabs?

[Dax Shepard]

Crabs.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Isn't that. Isn't that the same?

[Dax Shepard]

That's a venereal disease.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. That's itchy. But it's your.

[Dax Shepard]

I never had it shockingly.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm going to be honest, it's shocking how little diseases I got. I deserved a lot more.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I have a very close friend who got them when we were in our twenties and it was. It was insane. He showed me his mom's pubis. There's just like. It was like a Katrin mosquito bites. It looked insane. It looked. It looked terrible.

[Monica Padman]

You were afraid of get getting close and.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, he already shaved his pubic hair and applied the cream and everything. But it was. It was. It was major.

[Monica Padman]

Are crab scabies or. No, they're separate.

[Dax Shepard]

I think they're separate. But scabies is also a thing and that's got the worst name ever.

[Monica Padman]

I have a scab story, but I don't know. I don't think I'm allowed to share it. It's not me, so I don't think I can.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, but you know someone that had scabies?

[Monica Padman]

Yes. And. And.

[Dax Shepard]

My father's girlfriend had scabies. Maybe he gave them to her. I don't know. He's passed. Maybe we should put that on him.

[Monica Padman]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

But I know there was a scabies outbreak in my father's bedroom when I lived with him. And I remember being nervous that I knew scabies were in the house.

[Monica Padman]

Yes, see, it is nerve wracking.

[Dax Shepard]

I knew scabies were in the house.

[Monica Padman]

You could have. I know, but it's an automatop. Like they sound exactly like I think what they are. Anyway. Would you rather have scabies slash crabs or pin.

[Dax Shepard]

Pinworm for sure.

[Monica Padman]

Okay, well with. No. There's no medicine.

[Dax Shepard]

The thing with pinworm is you drink this thing, they all live inside your body and you shit out a bunch of dead pinworms and it's over. Scabies and crabbies and dinghies and chomp. Chomps.

[Monica Padman]

Stop.

[Dax Shepard]

They all, I think can live on your sheets and in your carpet.

[Monica Padman]

So do the pinworms though. They're in your carpet. That's. You have to bleach it all.

[Dax Shepard]

And I don't even have carbon.

[Monica Padman]

But continue anyway. Wait, the. The. Would you rather is there's no medicine. So these are permanent conditions.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, pin worms. For sure.

[Monica Padman]

Scabies. Yeah, I know. I. I know. Say.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. I hope we get a scabies medication sponsor. Cuz obviously we are against scabies and pin worms. And pin worms.

[Monica Padman]

Pinworm medication.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. And I think we're bringing awareness to pin worms, which is good if you have suspiciously itchy anus.

[Monica Padman]

Well, that's What Ana said. She said, I do. People need to be talking about it.

[Dax Shepard]

They call Sia in the middle medical world spreading information, suspiciously itchy anus as the patient is Sia.

[Monica Padman]

That's like maybe on season two of the Pit. Whole thing. All right. Well that was disgusting.

[Dax Shepard]

That was. It was unnecessary.

[Monica Padman]

Can you. Without saying which ones.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Say the number of STIs you've had for awareness.

[Dax Shepard]

I think one.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, wow. That's not a lot at all.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Was it aids?

[Dax Shepard]

You go without saying which one and then you're like, which one.

[Monica Padman]

Is it gonorrhea? Was it?

[Dax Shepard]

I'll tell you that if I was your age, it wouldn't have been an issue because there's a vaccine.

[Monica Padman]

Hpv.

[Dax Shepard]

Hpv, Human Papa. Although I'm not even sure I got. I had it. It's too messy of a story. But I got a call from a girlfriend saying she had it and then I. I don't know.

[Monica Padman]

Did you. What'd you do? Did you get checked?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, I got checked.

[Monica Padman]

A ton of people have HPV. It's very common.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh. They say like 80% of the sexually active.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

Public has it. And then, and then even went further, which is they started having cases where there was no sexual activity. So like, oh, this is being spread without sexual activity. Yeah. HPV is like common cold. But there's a vaccine.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

You had it, right? I had the vaccine and Kristen had it. Did you have it, Rob? I think so, yeah. Okay. Kristen had it, had the vaccine.

[Monica Padman]

Really?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. That's the five year gap. Like that that came out when you know, that was the crucial gap.

[Monica Padman]

I got the vaccine early. It was really early almost in a sense of like, is it too early?

[Curtis Duffy]

Uhhuh.

[Monica Padman]

Is it tested enough? But I got it.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I wonder if these people that are anti vaccine still get the HPV vaccine. Cuz there's a lot of times where the rubber meets the we all are contradictions. Let's. I don't think this is unique to vaxxers, but certainly there's ones that they must make exceptions for. Like, yeah, I don't want hpv. I'll get that.

[Monica Padman]

But they're like not getting measle. Oh. I guess cuz they think, they think it's not an issue.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. It's such a lower percentage.

[Monica Padman]

Right.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Well, I, I think if you can get that vaccine, I mean, let's do it, y' all.

[Dax Shepard]

I want everyone. I don't want shingles. I don't want, I don't want. I don't want anything.

[Monica Padman]

I don't either. Another onomatopoeia. Shingles.

[Dax Shepard]

Shingles. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Okay, let's do some facts.

[Dax Shepard]

Let's do some facts.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert if you dare.

[Monica Padman]

There's some incredible TV coming out of the UK right now. Brits just. Just do it differently. The accents, the wit, the scenery, the devastating one liners disguised as compliments. It's all streaming on Britbox. They have the best mysteries, dramas, comedies, and seriously addicting originals like Outrageous. Based on the true story of the Mitford sisters. They were kind of like the Kardashians of the 1930s. Wealthy, audacious king, chaotic, wildly opinionated, and always making headlines. And chances are you've never heard their story. It's stunning. It's jaw dropping. It's very British. So check out Outrageous. It could be your next favorite. Don't miss Outrageous. Streaming now only on Britbo. Facts for Curtis.

[Dax Shepard]

Facts for Curtis.

[Monica Padman]

What a life story.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes. To bring up the speed, Aaron. His father killed his mother and then killed himself.

[Curtis Duffy]

Holy. Yeah, that seems very. When we were growing up.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes. Yeah. And he's our age.

[Curtis Duffy]

Okay, there you have it.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Curtis Duffy]

I can't wait to get to that Michelin star in Chicago.

[Dax Shepard]

This song bitch got three. Three stars three years in a row or something crazy. No, he's like the most. One of the most decorated American chefs. And they say bear's a little bit based on the bear. Okay.

[Monica Padman]

But he says no. But he says no.

[Dax Shepard]

But I believe that.

[Curtis Duffy]

I don't believe.

[Monica Padman]

I don't either. I don't believe.

[Dax Shepard]

First fact. We don't believe.

[Monica Padman]

I'm gonna inform you guys a little bit. Okay, so one of my facts, it is current restaurants with three Michelin stars. Okay. In the U.S. i'm going to do. In the U.S. yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Atelier Cren. That's in San Francisco.

[Dax Shepard]

Triggering.

[Monica Padman]

You can't be triggered.

[Dax Shepard]

I am. We can't use that word. But go ahead. Atelier. What was it called?

[Monica Padman]

You can use it for a three Michelin star restaurant.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

Atelier Cren San Francisco. Known for its contemporary American cuisine and innovative tasting menus. Now, French Laundry, Lovely. Yontville, California. Haven't been.

[Dax Shepard]

I've been. It is a worthwhile experience.

[Curtis Duffy]

Is it wine country?

[Dax Shepard]

It's in wine country. It's so good. And you eat for like three hours and you're so full, but you keep going.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. That's how most of these restaurants are. It's like tasting menus. You go. You. You don't pick what you're Eating. And you're there for hours and hours and hours. Okay. 11 Madison Park, New York City. That's a big one. There's like a book on, I think the chef or somebody wrote a book about that restaurant Masa, also in New York. That's Japanese. Le Bernardin, New York. Very, very trusted brand. Very trusted brand. Yes. The Inn at Little Washington. That's in Washington, Virginia. Oh, historic inn. American cuisine.

[Dax Shepard]

That sounds like our alley. Up our alley. I like nice porridge.

[Curtis Duffy]

I, I immediately was like, I don't.

[Monica Padman]

Think you're gonna be getting porridge.

[Dax Shepard]

I think there's a really robust and hearty stew.

[Curtis Duffy]

Right.

[Dax Shepard]

And a real nice thick piece of bread.

[Curtis Duffy]

Yeah, yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

Hearty.

[Monica Padman]

Okay. You guys go and you report back what was on the menu.

[Dax Shepard]

War mug of hot coco.

[Monica Padman]

Okay. Smith. That's S M Y T H, Chicago. Alinea. Ding, ding, ding. Chicago. Ooh. I'm going to say Young Sik. That's a Korean restaurant, New York City. Or it might be Jung Sik.

[Dax Shepard]

Probably Young.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, I think so. And then we have single thread, Healdsburg, California. What's your favorite restaurant? And Aaron of all time.

[Curtis Duffy]

That's hard. Like, are we talking real good food? Like, I, I don't know.

[Dax Shepard]

This is your favorite?

[Monica Padman]

Just my favorite. It doesn't have to be best food.

[Curtis Duffy]

Yeah, I mean, I think Lafayette, Coney island is my favorite.

[Monica Padman]

That's great. That's a great answer.

[Dax Shepard]

I was almost gonna guess that for you and that that might be mine too.

[Monica Padman]

I, I understand. Understand.

[Curtis Duffy]

I was a little disappointed they shut down for a second time recently.

[Dax Shepard]

They have so many rats.

[Curtis Duffy]

These rats are just, they like, it's their favorite restaurant.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Curtis Duffy]

They love that restaurant. And the poor restaurant next door has to make please that the rats aren't there. They're like, you can still come here. And everyone's, like, not going anywhere near that.

[Dax Shepard]

Some of these videos, some of these videos, the rats are kind of insane.

[Curtis Duffy]

The rats are like, looks like they're mixing the coney sauce. Like they're in the action, like a ratatouille.

[Dax Shepard]

And they're not shy. Like, one jumped, like, on a table, right on someone's table, and then they went into the trash can. There's videos of that. They're, like, coming in and out of the trash. Yeah. They're just, I mean, what are they gonna do? I mean, so they're open now. I, I, by the way, I don't care.

[Curtis Duffy]

I don't either. It doesn't please me. I mean, I hate why I said I hate it is because they were closed last time. I was, like, attempting to go in.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Curtis Duffy]

I was like, fuck.

[Dax Shepard]

You know, be great as if they just had, like a liability waiver you sign. Yeah, I don't deal with the fuck that there's rats. And, like, stop even trying to kill them. Let's just deal with the rats. He's got to wear, like, leather boots when you go.

[Curtis Duffy]

You know, it's always been going on. It's just the city is getting a little too hoity toity for their own good now.

[Dax Shepard]

All of a sudden, you can't have a bunch of rats running all around.

[Curtis Duffy]

Oh, now there's people down here, right?

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. The only thing is the droppings kind of look like Coney Sauce. Yeah. You wouldn't be able to tell.

[Dax Shepard]

And they. Dude, spread a lot of disease.

[Monica Padman]

They do. They do.

[Curtis Duffy]

Yeah. They're cute.

[Dax Shepard]

It'd be great if you went to grab, because you get a little tray and you've ordered a few. It'd be great if you, like, went to grab your cony and the rat had it. You in, like, a tug of war.

[Curtis Duffy]

With the rat or you ate it like lady and the Tramp with the rat.

[Dax Shepard]

You became great friends with the run of the Rats.

[Monica Padman]

Three Michelin stars for the United States currently.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, so that's not a long list.

[Curtis Duffy]

No, I think, you know, I don't think Michigan at all has a Michelin restaurant. No.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, maybe they have a one Michelin.

[Curtis Duffy]

Not even. Not even. We'll save that for the next.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, clean up that infestation. They might get up.

[Curtis Duffy]

Sure.

[Monica Padman]

Now it's good you're here. Really good. You're here because J2C comes up because Curtis is a J2C.

[Curtis Duffy]

No doubt.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

July 2nd.

[Monica Padman]

He's July 2nd.

[Curtis Duffy]

Yeah. Yeah, that's coming.

[Dax Shepard]

And he had an internal sweetness that was very. JT.

[Monica Padman]

You're July. Yeah.

[Curtis Duffy]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

He's gonna be 50 in five seconds.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, yeah.

[Curtis Duffy]

50.

[Monica Padman]

How do you feel?

[Curtis Duffy]

You're not kicking us, stretch.

[Dax Shepard]

50 years old.

[Monica Padman]

Wait, you're gonna be 50 in next month.

[Curtis Duffy]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Wait, so you. Then you are exactly Curtis's age. You guys were born on the exact.

[Curtis Duffy]

Oh, he's gonna be 50.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Curtis Duffy]

Oh, how about that? So we're both exactly six months younger than dad here.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes. Yeah.

[Curtis Duffy]

He could be Curtis's dad, too.

[Dax Shepard]

I wanted to be.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, my gosh. How do you feel? What are you gonna do?

[Curtis Duffy]

Well, I'm gonna take a little ride down to Nashville, Tennessee, see and celebrate with my fellow J2C.

[Monica Padman]

Nice. Nice.

[Dax Shepard]

Maybe I'll make you a steak in the woods.

[Curtis Duffy]

Yeah, well, I. You sure didn't get one from me.

[Dax Shepard]

That's my fault. I was down in Mexico throwing up violently.

[Curtis Duffy]

That's rights itself.

[Monica Padman]

Love it.

[Dax Shepard]

Maybe some donuts and the Corvette, some boat rides. I mean.

[Curtis Duffy]

I mean, come on.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Curtis Duffy]

You only turn 50.

[Monica Padman]

That's right. If you're lucky, you could turn 150 once we have those drugs.

[Curtis Duffy]

Well, that's coming soon. My. I'm most excited about the. The dog drugs that are coming. I know.

[Monica Padman]

Tell me about those.

[Curtis Duffy]

Probably aren't as into it.

[Monica Padman]

What is it?

[Curtis Duffy]

They're going to keep dogs alive now.

[Aaron Michael Weekly]

Really?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Curtis Duffy]

For a long time.

[Dax Shepard]

That's my nightmare. That is. Your literally was just thinking this morning, like, what's gonna happen when they go away to school and I'm trying to be in Nashville and Kristen's in New York City.

[Curtis Duffy]

Those dogs.

[Dax Shepard]

And they're still gonna be alive.

[Monica Padman]

Do you think they are. In nine years?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Really?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Whiskey is unfortunately quite young.

[Curtis Duffy]

He is. He's like aging in reverse.

[Monica Padman]

He's like seven. That's. That's an old dog.

[Dax Shepard]

He's gonna go till 18 or 19 because he's so tiny and angry.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

So.

[Curtis Duffy]

Yeah. So. Well, I'll be 150. You'll still have Franken Whiskey.

[Dax Shepard]

Maybe I won't take the medicine if they going to go the distance.

[Monica Padman]

Wow. Okay. So there's a drug that's going to keep them alive much longer.

[Curtis Duffy]

Not forever, but it's close to like in a span. It's. Yeah, sounds like it sounds like that they're going to have it. Start seeing it on the market next year.

[Dax Shepard]

That would be just like Americans to have a pill for our dogs to keep them alive forever and then we're dying.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, exactly.

[Dax Shepard]

Because I think when you're in the rest of the world and you see like we had. I don't want to shame anyone because actually we met her and she was a lovely woman. But we were delivering food two days ago. There's a dog restaurant. We went to a dog restaurant so the dog could get delivery food.

[Curtis Duffy]

It was called the pestaurant. Wait, not pesterant.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, pet. Pet storant. It's wrong. Yeah. When we got. And we were like, could this possibly it. Well, it would have to be a restaurant for pets because no one would eat at a restaurant called Pet Store.

[Monica Padman]

No, not me.

[Dax Shepard]

And sure enough, it was a huge smorgasbord for this dog.

[Curtis Duffy]

It was a humongous bag of. I thought it was Ice cream. When I went in and grabbed it, because it was like, it was really cold, the bag. And I go, is this. And there was like a dozen containers.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Curtis Duffy]

I go, is this ice cream for the dog?

[Dax Shepard]

These doggy blizzards.

[Curtis Duffy]

Like, no, it's not ice cream cream, but it's. It is food. And I was like, weird.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, my God.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. But if you're, like, in a country and you're starving and you hear that dogs in America have food delivery, like, whatever they're in the mood for is pretty wild now that our dogs are going to live longer than us.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, yeah.

[Curtis Duffy]

Take that with a grain of salt of where I get my pets from.

[Dax Shepard]

Your food speed.

[Curtis Duffy]

That might have been a dream.

[Monica Padman]

That's your algorithm. Different than mine. Okay. Now, because of the birthdays, I wanted to look up most popular birthdays.

[Dax Shepard]

We do this once in a while.

[Monica Padman]

We do, but I. And I think it's not always the same.

[Dax Shepard]

So it's always end of August. Right.

[Monica Padman]

September 9th.

[Dax Shepard]

September.

[Monica Padman]

September 9th is the most common birthday according to AI makes so much sense.

[Curtis Duffy]

When the coitus takes takes place.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. You're. You're at Christmas.

[Curtis Duffy]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And you're like, we want a family next Christmas. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, yeah. It doesn't die. Fu. Yeah. We got September 9th, September 19th, September 12th, September 17th, September 10th, July 7th. Oh, September 20th, September 15th. Basically all of September. Tier. Tier. Your point?

[Dax Shepard]

I know the most. August. I'm shocked.

[Monica Padman]

Well, that's. Okay. Now it says what is the most common birth month? Despite the fact that September is so heavily represented in the top 10 most common birthdays, there are actually more births reported in August. All but one August birthday made the list of 100 most common birthdays. The exception being August 3, which lands 116. If you do the math, the conception time for August babies lines up with the approach of cooler weather in the. The holidays maybe making cuddling up extra appealing. Oh, this is from happiestbaby.com. oh. February 29th.

[Curtis Duffy]

My daughter has.

[Monica Padman]

Your daughter has the least common birthday. Not surprisingly. But that's fun. Yeah. Leapers or leapings.

[Curtis Duffy]

That took some special planning to get her.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. When did you get horny last snowstorm?

[Curtis Duffy]

May I was.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, that makes sense. Spring weather, spring fever, Spring fling. I always get very. I get romantic. I get the most romantic around fall.

[Curtis Duffy]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Cozy beginning of school is romantic. It's a new class, new people, new clothes, new opportunities.

[Dax Shepard]

You're feeling kind of good in one of your outfits.

[Monica Padman]

You.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Least popular birthdays. February 29th, December 25th. January 1st. December 24th, July 4th. January 2nd.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, thank God. I really felt like mine was the top ten.

[Curtis Duffy]

There you go.

[Monica Padman]

You mean bottom. Well, top ten. Least.

[Dax Shepard]

Least.

[Monica Padman]

Yep.

[Dax Shepard]

Number one.

[Curtis Duffy]

Bottom ten.

[Dax Shepard]

Number one. None.

[Monica Padman]

Now no bait. Could cookies. He told an interesting story that he used to eat. No. Bake cookies. And then in his kitchen, he would give a recipe to his staff and see if they could follow directions and make it. And they never could. But according.

[Dax Shepard]

Dora would have passed.

[Monica Padman]

Exactly. According to this. This is not his recipe.

[Dax Shepard]

Right.

[Monica Padman]

He's probably.

[Dax Shepard]

I think this was made famous on the oatmeal. What's the most trusted brand in oatmeal? I use Bob's Quakers. Quaker Oats.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Try some Choco bakes this year for Christmas time.

[Monica Padman]

It's on the box.

[Dax Shepard]

Be. Be conservative about your treats. Mostly protein and baked potatoes. And pray a lot on that rare occasion. You deserve a treat. Make it a chuck. No bait with quick rolls.

[Curtis Duffy]

God, I can taste those.

[Dax Shepard]

One bite will do. Pass it around. Two bites. So get the devil knocking at your back door.

[Curtis Duffy]

It's too much sweets.

[Dax Shepard]

Too indulgent.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, my God. Again? Okay, okay. I'm gonna read the recipe. 2 cups white sugar, a half cup butter margarine, a Half cup milk. 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 pinch salt. 3 cups quick cooking oats, a half cup peanut butter butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. And then you do have to, like, do some stuff. You have to bring stuff to a boil.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, It's a mud. And then you. My mom would spread it out on a McDonald's tray that she stole from McDonald's, and then it would harden. In the fridge. Yeah, in the McDonald's tray.

[Monica Padman]

Smart. That's very savvy. Instead of getting a baking sheet using.

[Dax Shepard]

A bag, just steal it from McDonald's. Yeah. You're a single mom. You're allowed to do a lot of things.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Good for her.

[Dax Shepard]

Did you guys have McDonald's trays at home?

[Monica Padman]

I think, but it's hard to get out of there holding them.

[Dax Shepard]

Not if you run. You got the car running. Send your kids out to the car to get it running. Put it in drive. Pull the E brake.

[Monica Padman]

Wow.

[Dax Shepard]

Someone come flying out with three trays. We used to steal salt and pepper shakers as well.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, that makes more sense to me. That can just go right in a purse.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

I used to steal cups all a lot. Glasses, like from bars and stuff. You've always had trinket as like, a souvenir?

[Curtis Duffy]

Sure. It was more about Nothing wrong with that.

[Monica Padman]

There was a brewery in Athens called Terrapin and it was a thing to like steal those glass. We had so many and they were like nice pint glasses.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Probably put them out of business.

[Curtis Duffy]

They probably use plastic.

[Monica Padman]

The whole. The whole college put them and kept them. Put them out. Kept them in. Okay, now we also refer to you, both of you eating the food off of big boys plates, which we've discussed.

[Dax Shepard]

I was explaining to Curtis the progression of how it starts with. Oh, there's a full half of a slim Jim there untouched. Sure, yeah, I'll eat that.

[Curtis Duffy]

Of course.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, of course.

[Dax Shepard]

And then by the end I'm just biting directly into the whole bite marks. You just stop caring.

[Monica Padman]

So then, you know, you guys answered the. Then that's the answer that the question. Spit. Spit is the one that you don't care about.

[Dax Shepard]

I care about it. Obviously I care about it, but not as much as I cared about having some good food. Well, it was a cost benefit.

[Curtis Duffy]

Spit.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, well, I mean I'm sorry but I think that's evidence to the question. Hair. Spit. What's the other one?

[Curtis Duffy]

Skin.

[Monica Padman]

Skin.

[Dax Shepard]

Nails.

[Monica Padman]

And then we added nails.

[Dax Shepard]

We added nails.

[Monica Padman]

I want to remove nails because everyone just get so hung up on the nail thing.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah. But I just like it as a model of human nature which is like everyone always moves the line. It's like if you're. No affair starts with sex. It starts with like a hug or some hand holding and that's it.

[Monica Padman]

Not according to my sexy show.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. They go straight in.

[Monica Padman]

Jumping right in.

[Dax Shepard]

Or your drug use, you know, it starts one and you got a rule and then you go just 5% beyond it and you just inch your yourself closer until you're eating direct. Like half eaten french fries. Sure. Licking the plate. Last sip of a diet Coke.

[Monica Padman]

It is true. The. Ew.

[Dax Shepard]

Ew. Ew.

[Monica Padman]

That was disgusting. Last sip? Yeah. Would you rather last sip or.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, last sip of a diet Coke's rough because it's already melted.

[Monica Padman]

Backwash.

[Dax Shepard]

Terrible.

[Monica Padman]

You didn't drink that.

[Curtis Duffy]

You're hungry.

[Dax Shepard]

I didn't need to. I. You think you could. You could manage free soda sneak? Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

You would definitely have AIDS by now. Sure, sure, definitely. According to er that's it for Curtis.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. Well, I loved him. I thought he was very sweet human being.

[Monica Padman]

He was. He was. And he has really overcome so much. I was very moved by his story.

[Dax Shepard]

Me too. All right. Love you.

[Monica Padman]

Love you.

[Dax Shepard]

Love you. Follow armchair expert on the wondry app, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to every episode of Armchair Expert early and ad free right now by joining Wondery plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short [e-mail] survey today.

[Monica Padman]

Is the worst day of Abby's life. The 17 year old cradles her newborn son in her arms.

[Dax Shepard]

They all saw how much I loved him. They didn't have to take him from me.

[Monica Padman]

Between 1945 and the early 1970s, families shipped their pregnant child, teenage daughters to maternity homes and forced them to secretly place their babies for adoption in hidden corners across America. It's still happening. My parents had me locked up in the godparent home against my will. They worked with them to manipulate me and to steal my son away from me. The godparent home is the brainchild of controversial preacher Jerry Falwell, the father of the modern evil evangelical right and the founder of Liberty University, where powerful men, emboldened by their faith determine who gets to be a parent and who must give their child away. Follow Liberty Lost on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.