Kristen Bell & Justine Lupe

Summary

Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Episode: Kristen Bell & Justine Lupe
Release Date: September 29, 2025

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Overview

In this energetic and heartfelt episode, Dax Shepard and Monica Padman welcome Kristen Bell and Justine Lupe—a dynamic duo starring in the upcoming second season of the Netflix series "Nobody Wants Us." The conversation explores the pair’s offscreen friendship, hilarious on-set pranks, family backgrounds, acting philosophies, relationships, career anxieties, and the unique pressures and joys that come with creative collaboration. The tone is warm, humorous, and often deeply personal, as the group dives into vulnerability, growth, authenticity, and the delightful messiness of being human.

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Main Discussion Sections

1. Introduction & Emmys Fashion Choices

Timestamps: 03:17 – 08:55

• Emmys Shoe Debate: Dax recounts an internal conflict about whether to wear Vans or formal shoes to the Emmys, ultimately opting for the latter out of respect for his wife, Kristen—who was wearing Armani—and the late Giorgio Armani.
  • “Should one set their identity aside for… their wife’s moment?” – Dax (04:06)
• The group teases Dax’s fashion quirks, cowboy shirt phase, and the subtle pressures of making the “grown-up” decision at big events.
• Monica and Kristen praise the value of flexibility and supporting a partner’s professional moments.

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2. Identity, Compromise, and Relationship Dynamics

Timestamps: 06:30 – 10:12

• Stubbornness & Relationship Compromise: Justine talks about choosing her partner's feelings over catching up with an ex, reflecting on the virtue found in setting aside one’s own preferences for the sake of others.
  • “I care so much more about my husband than I care about hanging out with this person for an hour.” – Justine (08:02)
• The group discusses the fine line between trust, stubbornness, and healthy boundaries in relationships.
• Monica asks, “Do you have a justice hangup?” leading Justine to share her name literally means "justice" and how that influences her urge to defend others.

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3. ADHD, Astrology, and Quirky Self-Discovery

Timestamps: 09:16 – 13:01

• ADHD & Justice: Dax brings up research linking ADHD with a heightened sense of justice. Justine reflects on her recent therapist’s suggestion she might have ADHD.
• Astrology Playfulness: Astrology comes up—Justine (Gemini), Monica (Virgo), Dax (Capricorn)—with Dax maintaining playful skepticism.
  • “I don’t believe in God. I don’t hate God.” – Dax (10:22)
• Sedona Soul Adventures: Justine recounts a wild healing retreat in Sedona, which leads her to leave a significant relationship—“My light got turned back on and I was like, and I’m out.” (13:27)

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4. The Epic Urine Prank

Timestamps: 15:54 – 26:18
Highlight Segment

• Set-up: Justine engineers a long-con prank convincing Kristen she’s biohacking by drinking her own urine to improve mineral intake. Kristen, confused but concerned, seeks medical advice, only to learn it’s harmless but unnecessary.
  • “She’s drinking her pee and she’s talking a lot about it at work.” – Kristen (21:19)
• Performance and Reveal: The prank escalates, culminating in mason jars filled with “urine” (actually chamomile tea) as a gift, and a final reveal on April Fool’s Day.
  • “I have never felt more loved in my entire life than when it occurred to me how long she had been working on this.” – Kristen (26:18)
• Reflection: Both share the joy and meaning found in pranks that require trust, creativity, and commitment.

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5. Acting, Juilliard, and Career Challenges

Timestamps: 27:40 – 56:48

• Family & Upbringing: Justine shares about her mother’s intense career in social work and therapy, the supportiveness of her parents, and the activist legacy of her grandmother.
  • Justine’s mother: “She can hold space for a lot of dark.” (31:36)
• Juilliard Journey: Justine recounts the rigorous, emotional, and literal blizzard-filled process of getting into Juilliard, with her father heroically supporting her through travel chaos.
  • “He drove me through this blizzard... I made it.” – Justine (43:22)
• Acting Philosophy: They debate the merits of “stripping down” acting at Juilliard vs. keeping the natural “sparkle” that makes a performer unique.
  • “You want to hold onto the sparkle.” – Justine (46:29)
  • “Did you feel it? …It doesn’t matter if you feel it. Is the audience going to feel it?” – Kristen (47:29)
• Professional Pressure & Postpartum: Justine opens up about anxiety and hormonal fluctuations from weaning after pregnancy, and how acting can feel intertwined with self-growth or “something to prove.”

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6. "Nobody Wants Us": Craft, Fame, & Collaboration

Timestamps: 50:37 – 62:27

• On-Screen Sisterhood: Kristen and Justine discuss how season two of "Nobody Wants Us" focuses on the evolving love story and codependent bond between their characters, reflecting real-life sisterhood dynamics.
  • “If you dislodge one of the sisters, it just doesn’t work.” – Kristen (52:04)
• Ambiguity in Relationships: Dax and the guests analyze on-screen relationship ambiguity, the writers’ room strategies, and the usefulness of not always “knowing” a character’s future, preserving authenticity and drama.
  • “Actors are overly interested in being certain about what they want… Life doesn’t really work that way.” – Dax (62:38)

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7. Money, Podcast Authenticity, and Behind-the-Scenes

Timestamps: 68:26 – 74:52

• How Much Do Characters Make?: Dax’s “one big question” is how much the fictional podcasters in "Nobody Wants Us" actually make—a detail the show intentionally leaves vague.
  • “As someone who’s broke, I’m a little bit like, how’s everyone living?” – Dax (70:02)
• Industry Realism: The group commiserates about the realities of buying homes in LA, success benchmarks in podcasting, and how creative authenticity trumps financial realism in storytelling.

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8. Vulnerability, Parenting, and Podcast Boundaries

Timestamps: 75:03 – 80:55

• Personal Boundaries: The hosts and guests discuss the unwritten rules of sharing about relationships and kids on podcasts, the ethical dilemmas of storytelling, and evolving comfort with public vulnerability.
  • “It does take a ton of twists and turns, but it ends up... something so poetic.” – Monica, about the new podcast "Beth’s Dead" (104:33)
• Parenting & Privacy: As their children grow, Dax and Kristen reflect on the shifting line of what’s appropriate to share—and the profound ways public honesty forges real connections with listeners.

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9. Fan Encounters, Celebrity, and Losing the Illusion

Timestamps: 81:05 – 85:54

• The Duality of Celebrity: Justine and Monica muse about moving from fandom to friendship, and how knowing public figures personally changes perceptions of celebrity.
  • “It’s weird how the table putting it all... the real thing’s better.” – Monica (81:38)
• Working with Acting Legends: Justine shares what it was like to be directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, describing his “force of nature” and relentless pursuit of excellence.

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10. Sexiness, Confidence, and Cuteness versus Sexy

Timestamps: 86:11 – 90:47

• Owning Sexuality: The group explores personal and societal inhibitions about owning sex appeal, how “cute” feels safer, and the courage to embrace one’s sexy side.
  • “I do have a little bit of crunch in me... but sexiness is right there in there.” – Justine (87:58)

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11. Fun Anecdotes, Life Updates & Fact Check

Timestamps: 91:45 – end

• Family Antics & Mysteries: Dax tells a wild story about his dad losing (and re-finding) his wallet, and discusses life hacks for anxiety, parenting, and underestimating project time.
• Astrological Deep Dives: Monica details the meanings of their names and astrological signs, prompting reflection on strengths, weaknesses, and the usefulness (or not) of star charts.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Pranks and Friendship:
  • “I have never felt more loved in my entire life than when it occurred to me how long she had been working on this.” – Kristen Bell (26:18)
• On Authenticity:
  • “We felt the positive reinforcement of when we were honest and authentic.” – Kristen Bell (80:32)
• On Acting Philosophy:
  • “You want to hold onto the sparkle.” – Justine Lupe (46:29)
  • “Did you feel it? It doesn’t matter if you feel it. Is the audience going to feel it?” – Kristen Bell (47:29)
• On Perfectionism & Growth:
  • “This whole thing is about being a better version of yourself all the time. Becoming a better person..." – Justine Lupe (55:40)
• On Parental Influence & Crisis:
  • “She came to the door, she has a carrier of coffee. She has a bunch of children’s books. She sat there for like hours and just talked us through it.” – Justine Lupe, about her mother (32:45)

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Key Segment Timestamps

• Emmys Fashion Debate: 03:17 – 08:55
• ADHD & Justice: 09:16 – 13:01
• Sedona Healing Story: 12:06 – 14:36
• Urine Prank Complete Story: 15:54 – 26:18
• Juilliard Journey: 39:10 – 44:26
• Acting Philosophy & Set Dynamics: 46:04 – 50:37
• Sisterhood in ‘Nobody Wants Us’: 50:37 – 52:28
• Industry Realism & Money: 68:26 – 74:52
• Podcasting Boundaries Discussion: 75:03 – 80:32
• Astrology Segment: 133:34 – 139:29

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Overall Tone & Style

The episode is a blend of earnest self-reflection, comic digressions, candid confessions, and a spirit of joyful friendship. The language is breezy, intimate, and full of the hosts' signature charm—moving fluidly from sharp banter to deep, sincere moments. Whether dissecting method acting, describing elaborate long-term pranks, or revealing what worries and delights them as partners, parents, or performers, the group strikes a note of openhearted inquiry and mutual respect.

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For Listeners New and Old

If you’re catching up, this episode is essential for fans of "Nobody Wants Us" and anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes realities of acting, friendship, and creative partnership. The stories told—especially the unforgettable urine prank—are already classics in the Armchair Expert canon, while the nuanced discussions on relationships, fame, boundaries, and authenticity offer plenty of wisdom and laughs for everyone.

Transcript

[Dax Shepard]

Wondry plus subscribers can listen to Armchair Expert early and ad free right now. Join Wondri 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. I'm Dan Shepard and I'm joined by Monica Padman. Today we have a very, very fun pairing from Nobody Wants Us Kristen Bell and Justine Loop. Justine Loop is an actor. Kristen Bell is an actor. Justine was in succession Mr. Mercedes Luckiest Girl L and they are both on Nobody Wants this coming out October 23rd on Netflix. Guys, I've watched season two and it's spectacular. If you loved it the first time, you're going to be so delighted this time. Please enjoy Kristen Bell and Justine Loop. Stick around to watch an exclusive clip from Nobody Wants this on the Fact Check we are supported by Allstate. Checking Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds on car insurance is smart. Unfortunately, not checking your phone's volume first before playing your morning playlist at full blast in the office break room is not smart. Or not checking if your gym shorts have a hole in them before doing squats in front of the mirror wall? Also not smart. Yeah, checking first is smart. So check all state first for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate. Potential savings vary subject to terms, conditions and availability. Allstate North America Insurance Company and Affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois. We are supported by Quince. With Quince, you can get luxury basics at prices that make sense. Get all the good stuff. High quality fabrics, classic fits and lightweight layers for warm weather without dropping a fortune. I just was staring at a box of quints that arrived yesterday. Kristin's been firing off orders. We all love everything that arrives.

[Monica Padman]

I ordered some sheets, some really, really amazing sheets. They're also so cute. They're striped.

[Kristen Bell]

They have this.

[Monica Padman]

It is. I love quince and I feel like it's a hack, honestly. It's like the quality is so good and it's so reasonable. If you need to get anyone a present or anything, I think Quince is the place.

[Dax Shepard]

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[Justine Lupe]

I was hoping you'd be wearing. You don't have to leave. We were just kidding.

[Dax Shepard]

Something fun.

[Justine Lupe]

Because you were some similar pants to set. And I was like, this is cool.

[Dax Shepard]

I did. I did.

[Justine Lupe]

It's really good. And nobody's doing it.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, my God.

[Justine Lupe]

It's a singularly Dax situation.

[Kristen Bell]

There's a reason nobody's doing it.

[Justine Lupe]

No, I don't. I actually think it's really good. It's very up my alley.

[Monica Padman]

I like it. I did hear a story through the grapevine.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

That on Sunday at Emmys, you were debating whether to wear your vans with your nice. Which is a move you do a lot. And you decided to wear the nice, real shoes.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes.

[Monica Padman]

And I thought that was really nice and a big step.

[Dax Shepard]

Mature.

[Monica Padman]

You put your identity aside for the sake of the outfit.

[Dax Shepard]

But let me ask you something, gals. Should one set their identity aside for.

[Monica Padman]

Their clothes for their wife's moment? Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

It depends.

[Kristen Bell]

There was a lot at play because he tried on each shoe. I saw both sides. I really did. Because I like the fact that you make it your own. And you had phases. You were only cowboy shirts. Remember?

[Dax Shepard]

I had a lot of cowboy shirts.

[Kristen Bell]

You were the ones with like the pearl buttons. And then once the cowboy shirts got a little ratty, you started cutting them off. So then you were sleeveless cowboy shirts.

[Dax Shepard]

Sleeveless cowboy shirts. Yeah. Okay. We lost Justine.

[Kristen Bell]

It's a bun down and it has like two pockets like this, but it has the flap over for Yellowstone. Right.

[Monica Padman]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

I mean, we can say Yellowstone. We can say Jack White. It's gonna make a big difference to the listener.

[Kristen Bell]

It was cool.

[Monica Padman]

But what I loved about it is.

[Kristen Bell]

It was very you. And that you don't really sacrifice. And then he does vans a lot or tennis shoes, like when he goes on a talk show. And I do appreciate that when he was wearing this suit, I will admit they both looked cute.

[Monica Padman]

Great.

[Kristen Bell]

The level of the Emmys being what they were, that it wasn't just like a fancy party we were going to.

[Dax Shepard]

It wasn't a backyard picnic.

[Kristen Bell]

And particularly the fact that Mr. Armani just passed away.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Justine Lupe]

Rest in peace. And were you. Oh, you were wearing Armani.

[Kristen Bell]

Armani only.

[Dax Shepard]

Cause my bride was wearing Armani.

[Justine Lupe]

Totally, totally.

[Dax Shepard]

And then I got sucked in the casting net. Thank God.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Sucked in. He got. Got brought in.

[Kristen Bell]

And a beautiful tailored tux.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes, yes. Huge details.

[Kristen Bell]

Out of respect for the person that designed the suit. I thought it was kind of cool.

[Monica Padman]

I just feel like that was a big thing. This is a person who. It could get testy if you were like, could you please wear the nice shoes?

[Dax Shepard]

So I had both options. I walked into her room and all the ladies were there, and I said, what's the vote? I was very open to whichever way it went. And it was leaning towards vans for a while. I have a good conscience. I wasn't trying to sway the jury at all.

[Justine Lupe]

You were not. It was a close call.

[Monica Padman]

It was. But I just appreciate the flexibility. I wanna give credit where credit's due.

[Kristen Bell]

You know what you'll appreciate more than anything? When the call was made among the girls, he goes, okay, the fun part.

[Dax Shepard]

Is Nicole, the stylist who knows the most in the room about what should be worn and not. There's just all this debate and chatter, and she's just sitting there dead quiet. And I'm like, you're biting your tongue so well. You must have a really strong opinion. And she's like, no, come into the light. And she looked at and she's like, the black ones make you look longer. I want you to be longer. That's not even a selling point for me. I've already been too young. Have you been? Were you too long?

[Kristen Bell]

What age were you this height?

[Justine Lupe]

I think, in high school.

[Dax Shepard]

How tall are you?

[Justine Lupe]

I'm five' nine.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. That's a hefty height.

[Justine Lupe]

A hefty height. It has been in moments too long. Like when I dated a guy who was five' four, five' five, short king. He was pulling it off. He was a short king. But I did feel that I didn't wanna walk together. I understand. I felt so big.

[Dax Shepard]

Did you lean over when you hugged or did he go tiptoes or. I'm not saying that to insult the short king because I have to obviously lean over quite a deal to hug Kristen. And I just wonder, were you in that situation? Do you have school years ago?

[Justine Lupe]

Sure. I'm sure I did. I don't remember. It's kind of like a blackout moment in my dating history. But I do know that he was just so confident. I mean, that's part of why we dated is he just had it going on, but it was less about him and more about me just feeling like a monster. So tall.

[Dax Shepard]

Like, if someone saw a photo and they just naturally assumed he was five, nine, they go, well, shit, that gal's six, three feet tall.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. Wait. Can I ask you, though, when you said, yeah, I'll wear these shoes, did you feel great afterwards? Didn't it feel good to be, like, to cooperate?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, it should feel great. I recognize that as a virtue.

[Justine Lupe]

Right.

[Dax Shepard]

But I do think it felt like a loss. My annoying identity is that I do what's right or wrong, period.

[Justine Lupe]

Totally.

[Monica Padman]

Well, hence why this was a big step forward for mankind. Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm stubborn, too. And I had a moment the other day where an ex asked me to coffee, and I was like, great, I would love to catch up with that person.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

But I was like, I should touch base and see how he feels about it. And he was like, you know, it's recent enough that I feel like, maybe, is it okay if we don't do that? I wanted to be like, but. And instead I was like, it's not worth putting him in a weird moment of not feeling good. I care so much more about my husband than I care about hanging out with this person for 20 minutes or whatever, or an hour or two. And I gotta say, it felt good to be like, I honor your wishes. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, that's it.

[Kristen Bell]

I would not describe you as stubborn. That's so interesting. You think you're stubborn.

[Justine Lupe]

I don't think in the interactions, it feels like stubbornness, but I do feel like I'm like, well, but here's the reason why.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Cause you wanna go. You can trust me. You have nothing to worry about. I have no desire to.

[Justine Lupe]

Yes. Like, I could have gone through that whole thing. Like, there's none of that there. It isn't stubborn, necessarily, but it is stating a case past the presentation of the options. And I was like, we don't even need to do that. And it felt good.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Do you have a justice hangup?

[Justine Lupe]

I do. My name means justice. Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

Justine means justice.

[Justine Lupe]

And it's so in me, if someone is mean to someone, if one of my friends get fouled, I irrationally want to step in there and be like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[Monica Padman]

You want a sheriff? A little bit, yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

Kind of.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Are you adhd? Cause I just learned from Tim Simons that a huge comorbidity of ADHD is inflated sense of justice.

[Justine Lupe]

Oh, interesting. It's funny you say that, because Just recently, our couple's therapist was like, I think you might have adhd. I've never thought it myself, but I'd say the thing that Tyson gets frustrate, Leave things everywhere. He'll be in the bathroom and there's a spatula on the bathroom counter. Or he'll lift up a piece of paper and there's a used Q tip under the piece of paper. He is a Virgo. You're Virgo, right?

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, Double baby.

[Justine Lupe]

Okay. So he's really neat. Are you like that?

[Kristen Bell]

I'm not that neat.

[Monica Padman]

That's one thing that saluted me.

[Kristen Bell]

I've been to your house.

[Monica Padman]

Well, I clean up.

[Justine Lupe]

She's like, she doesn't think it's neat because she's a Virgo.

[Monica Padman]

No, I'm quite messy, but I am all about presentation. People are coming over. It's going to look perfect. But my day to day, like right now, it's a mess.

[Justine Lupe]

Uhhuh. See, me too. I'm messy. What's your sign? I'm a Gemini. Oh. Why you look at him. Does he have a bad history?

[Monica Padman]

Astrology.

[Dax Shepard]

I don't hate it. I don't believe in it.

[Justine Lupe]

It's good to have people like you around.

[Dax Shepard]

I don't believe in God. I don't hate God. You know, I don't hate the Easter.

[Justine Lupe]

Bunny, but it's just not real.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Can I drop back to one issue with the vans thing?

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I don't even think it would have even been a debate if not for a previous guest. Bobby Brown, who's a queen. The makeup type.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

She said, oh, yeah. I remembered meeting you at the time 100, because you had vans on with your tux. And I was like, this guy's great, man. He's got his own style. Blah, blah. So I was kind of riding high.

[Justine Lupe]

Dax, you're so cute.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm sorry.

[Justine Lupe]

I just think it's adorable. It's like when you meet you, you would never think that you are so, so cute and sweet about holding onto these little things and being like. She said I look good in the van, so I wanted it really endearing.

[Dax Shepard]

I was like, oh, I guess this is kind of working. Because she would know.

[Justine Lupe]

Do you know what your moon sign. I'm just kidding. I want to know what your emotional little sweetheart shadow side is. It's good to have people like you around. Like, my husband's like, I see you, and I lasso you and pull you back down to planet Earth with this stuff. He's really good about being like, okay, cool. Now, moving on. We're not going to talk about the moon being in Scorpio and how it's making you sad today.

[Dax Shepard]

Will you make life decisions based. No. Okay.

[Justine Lupe]

I don't do that.

[Dax Shepard]

That's where I think someone would need to step in. Like, no, we should buy this house.

[Justine Lupe]

Totally. And I do it. They're like, I need to move to blah, blah, blah, because I talked to a psychic and they looked at my birth chart and it's time to go.

[Dax Shepard]

And it's a vortex.

[Justine Lupe]

Totally.

[Dax Shepard]

There's no. There's no job, but it is a vortex.

[Justine Lupe]

The vortex thing, I gotta say, I do believe in. Well, have you been to Sedona?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, that's the place I was gonna say. I gotta say, we were there and I was like, I kind of believe in it.

[Justine Lupe]

Right. There's twisted trees.

[Kristen Bell]

It felt funny there.

[Monica Padman]

It did.

[Justine Lupe]

It's wild. I did a program called Sedona Soul Adventures where I went. I was in a crazy relationship. The guy was like, you need to go check out this place to work on your confidence. So I went to this place called Sedona Soul Adventures. And basically what it is is them just rotating you through healers houses.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, okay.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. So you do like Reiki. You do like, chakra measuring. And they're like, you're actually dead inside. Yeah. You no get a hotel. And then there was this guy named Rick, and he was in charge of, like, putting together a folder and being like, you'll go to all these healers houses and do this, like, soul healing journey. And I got to know Sedona through this thing because it's like five days of going from house to house. You're going into these people's houses and doing, like, healing.

[Dax Shepard]

Everyone's home has a smell.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah, totally. It's a vibe.

[Dax Shepard]

That's the part that would be tricky for me.

[Justine Lupe]

Totally. Yeah. No, I think a lot of it might be tricky for you, especially if you don't buy into this stuff.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. But did you leave feeling better and more confident?

[Justine Lupe]

I did.

[Dax Shepard]

And did you feel like it was nurturing for him to say, you should work on your confidence, or did it feel exhausting?

[Justine Lupe]

No. You know what's funny is he had gone there before with a prior girlfriend, and they all knew him, and they were all like, oh. And when I got back from the retreat, the end of the story is that I left that relationship.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, he. He sewed his own scene.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah, that I. My light got turned back on and I was like, and I'm Out.

[Dax Shepard]

So you did get confidence. It's worked. I felt different because I gotta say as a thing to suggest to a partner they might work on confidence. Feels like maybe a good one because it would be for you.

[Justine Lupe]

Totally.

[Dax Shepard]

That seems like within the zone of what you could get away with suggesting.

[Justine Lupe]

Totally.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Like stop being so annoying.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Or going to this place and stop being messy.

[Justine Lupe]

Yes. And I think he had a lot going on. He was like a very evolved person in certain ways and he really had done a lot of work on himself. So there was that. But I just don't think he was good in relationships. Well, he was so sure at that moment.

[Dax Shepard]

No, this is not the short king.

[Monica Padman]

I don't know who it is but.

[Justine Lupe]

It could definitely be the short. The short king.

[Dax Shepard]

You've had a lot of lovers.

[Justine Lupe]

I dated a lot. I dated a lot in my 20s. I did, I did a lot. I didn't have a lot of long term relationships. I did like six months, three months all through my 20s, back to back.

[Monica Padman]

Great.

[Dax Shepard]

Kristen is a little regretful. She was very active.

[Justine Lupe]

Always with someone.

[Dax Shepard]

She was very sexually active and she wishes she was even more sexually active.

[Kristen Bell]

I just wish I butterflied around a little bit more.

[Monica Padman]

On a scale of 1 to 10, how sexually active were you in your 20s? I guess.

[Kristen Bell]

How do you say that? 10 is having sex and 0 is not.

[Dax Shepard]

0 is virgin. 10 is sex worker.

[Monica Padman]

4. Okay.

[Kristen Bell]

And I just wish I maybe would have gone six.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah, I think I was a six.

[Monica Padman]

Nine.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Really good stuff, ladies.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, for you.

[Justine Lupe]

You guys, I'm proud of you. High.

[Dax Shepard]

You guys get along so well. You have such a cute relationship right out of the gates. When you started working together, you started coming around the house and then quickly you were pregnant and so there was.

[Kristen Bell]

A secret and I said I'll protect you.

[Justine Lupe]

Protect me?

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And then the baby arrived and you're around. So I just want to set a little bit of framework for how well I knew you when this wonderful event happened that you orchestrated. So I had met you several times at the house. I thought you were absolutely lovely and an effortless person to have around. You're very chill and relaxed and you're not needy. You're a lovely guest and I diagnosed you as normal so far as like, oh, I'm great.

[Monica Padman]

Really excited.

[Dax Shepard]

An actor can be normal. I thought, yeah, she's very normal. So season two commences and I guess maybe from your perspective, hun, what was the first thing that happened?

[Kristen Bell]

Oh, I remember exactly what it was. We're shooting the Scene in the second episode where we're getting out of the car with Adam in a parking garage, they're saying, okay, guys, go to one. We're about to roll. Justine and Adam are already in the chatting. I get in the car and I hear her say, it's really nutritious.

[Justine Lupe]

And then the pain goes off and Greta's head.

[Dax Shepard]

Anything nutritious is gonna spark your interest.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Kristen Bell]

And as we identified, this entire experience was predicated on my nosiness. So I went, what? And Justine goes, do you ever do this? The first urine of the day you drink again.

[Justine Lupe]

Action.

[Kristen Bell]

And then I'm like, what? Did she just say? Wait, what first. The first urine of the day. The first pee of the you drink. She said, do you hear about this? People doing this?

[Monica Padman]

Like, the drink the urine.

[Kristen Bell]

Urine of the day.

[Dax Shepard]

This is. People do this.

[Justine Lupe]

It absolutely.

[Kristen Bell]

Reinstall your minerals.

[Dax Shepard]

Depleted minerals.

[Kristen Bell]

And they called action right after that sentence. And we get out of the car and we do this scene, and then we reset. And I go, wait, wait, what? And she goes, well, I mean, I just started it, but I think that it's really been helping me. Do you do it? And I was like, no, I don't think that that's right.

[Justine Lupe]

Actually, at this point, I gotta say, you were much more polite. You were like, really?

[Dax Shepard]

I can imagine that.

[Justine Lupe]

And I was like, yeah, really. And then they were like, action again.

[Dax Shepard]

All right, so that ended. And then how long between the next installment? Yes.

[Kristen Bell]

The next artist installation.

[Justine Lupe]

The next installment was that I brought pee to work.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. And in a mason jar.

[Justine Lupe]

Yes, I put it in a mason jar, and then I moved it into a canteen because we thought too obvious. We can't have it in a canteen. We have to put it into a mason jar. So we put it into a canteen. We're sitting behind the scenes, waiting to go. I call base camp, and I get on the phone with our base camp.

[Kristen Bell]

And she says, now, mind you, we're in a green room. There are numerous people there. And again, Justine knows I listen to everything.

[Justine Lupe]

Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

It's not like she's engaged you. And then says, I have to make this call. She just initiates this call.

[Kristen Bell]

She's in the corner, kind of like that.

[Monica Padman]

This.

[Kristen Bell]

Hey, Reston. Hey, can you do me a favor? Can you go into my trailer? In my fridge, there's a liquids container.

[Monica Padman]

Can you send it up?

[Kristen Bell]

Okay, thank you. Oh, and I don't know what the HR is about this, but I feel like I should tell you. It is urine. Like, if you're okay Handling that.

[Dax Shepard]

No.

[Kristen Bell]

Okay, thank you. Okay. Then she just goes back to doing whatever.

[Dax Shepard]

What a pro. You were able to just not even look at her to see if she got you. What? Confidence. The confidence thing works.

[Justine Lupe]

You kind of have to.

[Kristen Bell]

I'm on my phone like this.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

And I think I get brought in. So she comes home from work and she's like, yeah, Justine is drinking her pee. She was telling me depleted minerals and it's really good. And then she had transpo bringing up some container of her pee. And now I'm like, okay, that gal that was at the house is insane. Also drinks her pee.

[Justine Lupe]

So in that moment when she heard this phone call, she did engage at this point. And she's like, what are you talking about at this point? I had pre prepared an AI generated article about pee being good for you, screenshotted it. And she asks me about it and I'm like, ready to go.

[Kristen Bell]

I said, justini, where are you getting this info? Like if you visited some witch. And she said, do this, we need to discuss it. But if you research this, I feel like we should look into this before you actually do. It could be bacteria in there. It's waste, honey, it's waste. And she goes, no, look, you can read it.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, great. And how good was the article?

[Kristen Bell]

I can't really remember because all I wanted to do was my own research.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, right.

[Kristen Bell]

So I, the second Justine left to go get her water bottle, called Dr. Mike.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, you did. You called Dr. Mike directly?

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

You reach out to him whenever you have a period.

[Kristen Bell]

He's my Internet GP of her personal doctor. Yes. I said, I have a friend who is drinking her own urine. What are the risks, benefits of this? Have you heard anything about it? And he was like, well, honestly, I think it sounds insane, but I don't think it would hurt her.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, right.

[Justine Lupe]

Wow.

[Dax Shepard]

Because people who are stranded drink their pee. You can do it.

[Kristen Bell]

He said, there are a lot better ways to remineralize, like a multivitamin. And I think that was my next argument to Justine. I said, have you ever thought about taking a multivitamin in the morning?

[Justine Lupe]

And then I think I came back with like, oh, yeah, I'm taking all the multivitamins that then lead to the most effective pee.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, sure, yeah. Because it's coming up.

[Monica Padman]

Actually, there's some logic here I'm following.

[Justine Lupe]

It is like a weird ayurvedic. Like, I did some research too. It is something that people do, but at this point I knew Kristen's fucking telling Dax she's gonna tell maybe a few friends. I have to be okay knowing that this is going to be something that is said about me behind my back.

[Dax Shepard]

The reputational cost.

[Kristen Bell]

But let me be clear. Not in a way of talking shit, but.

[Justine Lupe]

No, but just like the fact of just is drinking her own piss. You were enough open about it.

[Dax Shepard]

So you testament to how likable you are. Because I was never like, she's out.

[Kristen Bell]

I was saying coming home and saying it to you because I was worried about her. I care a lot about this girl. And I was like, honey, I think I don't lose. She's drinking her pee and she's talking a lot about it at work.

[Justine Lupe]

And I drank it in front of you once.

[Kristen Bell]

This was one of the most epic performances I've ever seen. So about five days later, we're sitting at the table on set where we record the podcast again. Again, I'm not engaging with her, but she knows that I'm looking.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Kristen Bell]

And she grabs her water bottle and she kind of makes eye contact with me and she goes, do you want to smell it? And I go, no, stop. And we're getting our touch ups. And she goes like this. Therese, Therese, do you have a mint?

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, do you have a mint?

[Justine Lupe]

God.

[Monica Padman]

So for the listener, Kristen's drinking it. Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

So I'm taking a big pull, slicing the mint in her mouth, but just dipping it in.

[Monica Padman]

It was such a performance.

[Kristen Bell]

And the whole time I'm getting touch ups, they're doing powder on me. And I'm like.

[Monica Padman]

My God, could you smell it a little bit? Yes.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Kristen Bell]

Which I was grateful she had the mint.

[Dax Shepard]

So my curiosity, if I were in your shoes, would be like, I a little bit understand. She's drinking it in the morning, but now she drinks it all day. That's her main source of hydration, is her own urine.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. Yeah. If I had thought this through a little bit more, it doesn't quite. I think that was pretty early.

[Dax Shepard]

Obviously.

[Kristen Bell]

Obviously I was very worried.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, right. Because it's not even just about the urine. She's on a path, and we started with urine, and now the sky's the limit.

[Justine Lupe]

Totally.

[Dax Shepard]

Fecal transplants are next and God knows what kind of.

[Justine Lupe]

And I do have a little bit of crunch in me. I'm a little. It's believable that I'm leaning into this.

[Kristen Bell]

Well, I think we both do, which is why she had to actually set up some guardrails around this.

[Justine Lupe]

Oh, yeah. I talked to everyone. I talked to Ana. I was like, kristin, do not let her drink her own piss.

[Dax Shepard]

Great. Because that maybe the most shocking thing of this whole prank is that I.

[Justine Lupe]

Didn'T get her in on it, didn't.

[Dax Shepard]

Drink it, because she is down to try anything that might help.

[Justine Lupe]

That was the whole origin of this whole thing, is that she's obsessed with biohacking. And so I was like, what would be the thing? And we talked about it. Adam and Tim were in on this with me. I was like, what could we do that wouldn't be so believable that she would try? It was a fine line.

[Dax Shepard]

You had to thread the needle.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

You did it perfectly.

[Monica Padman]

You got your flowers earlier, and now you, Kristen, get yours. I am so happy and impressed.

[Kristen Bell]

You've come a long way that I.

[Monica Padman]

Didn'T try not try this, because I am truly shocked that you did.

[Kristen Bell]

I was born with a very why not attitude. If it doesn't feel too dangerous. But again, I had already gotten confirmation. Dr. Mike had said, it's not gonna hurt her.

[Monica Padman]

I know. That's why this is.

[Justine Lupe]

There wasn't danger.

[Kristen Bell]

It culminates with on set, Justine rolls up, and she's not actually shooting that day, but I didn't consider that at the time. She rolls up with a cooler, and it's about, I don't know, 18 inches by 15 inches. And she says, I have a present for you. And I looked at the cooler and I said, I hope it's a puppy. And she set it down on the table outside, and she opened it up. And I see three different sized mason jars with gradiating color. Some are brown, some are yellow, some are. And I open it up and I look up at Justine's face, and she's.

[Monica Padman]

Going, like, pleading for the listener. Like a really excited look.

[Kristen Bell]

I was very calculated at this point. Cause I was like, do not hurt this girl's feelings. You love her so much. How do you get her away from this idea without poo pooing it? I looked up, I said, is this your urine? And she said, yes. I saved three of the best batches for you batches. They're super, super high quality, mineralized. And she starts touching when she's like, this one isn't. They're leaking, they're leaking. Thing smells disgusting. She's showing me the mason jars. Oh, it's unreal. I took a beat, and we have this on video because people were recording it. They knew it was happening now. And I said, justine, no, no, I don't want this. I don't want this. You said that, and it was really hard for me, I know I'm a princess.

[Justine Lupe]

It's very sweet, but it's like, cannot drink your pee. Perfect. It's perfect. It felt kind and just honest.

[Monica Padman]

Kristen, good job.

[Justine Lupe]

I do not want your pee. And then she goes, I would much rather have a puppy.

[Kristen Bell]

And then she said, april Fools. And it was April one.

[Dax Shepard]

This whole thing was leading up to April Fools.

[Kristen Bell]

Oh, it was four or five weeks worth of material.

[Justine Lupe]

Material.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

It was a long run.

[Dax Shepard]

This is the most incredible prank ever.

[Monica Padman]

I'm so impressed.

[Justine Lupe]

Thanks, guys. Yeah, it was really satisfying.

[Kristen Bell]

I have never felt more loved in my entire life than when it occurred to me how long she had been working on this and how many props and how much performance and how many people had been wrangled into this, and I just felt very loved.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, the best is that you were staging conversations away from her that you just knew she would stumble into.

[Justine Lupe]

Totally. She's like a little mouse bat with, like, ears that hear everything. So I was like, if I'm just a little bit out of reach, that's the best place to be.

[Monica Padman]

That was brilliant.

[Justine Lupe]

It was not my own pee. I steeped chamomile tea at different gradients.

[Kristen Bell]

Which smells gross, by the way. Chamomile tea smells gross.

[Justine Lupe]

It does smell gross. And the grand finale of this, actually, is that I accidentally left it in our car for, like, months and months and months. And just recently, it fell out of my car and smashed all over the ground. And my husband had to pick it up because I was carrying the baby. And he was like, what is that smell?

[Monica Padman]

Like, what the.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, that blows a Q tip under a piece of paper out of water.

[Justine Lupe]

I'm terrible frustrated, I know.

[Kristen Bell]

No, but you win some, you lose.

[Monica Padman]

Him, you get this committed wife. He did love the game.

[Justine Lupe]

He loved the prank. He was there for it all.

[Kristen Bell]

I felt so war inside.

[Monica Padman]

Well, the pee itself is warm enough.

[Dax Shepard]

How did you get this idea?

[Justine Lupe]

I think it was just the relentless bio. I mean, this woman loves talking about sauna, cold punch peptides, plugging up your body with greens and Metamucil and apple cider vinegar before you eat pasta. Like, she's just the buffness.

[Kristen Bell]

Well, I have glucose issues. I have to track it. Justine, it's just.

[Justine Lupe]

She's, like, just on it. And I know she loves pranks because she's played me a few of Jimmy Kimmel's pranks. So I knew that there was a glee around pranks. Wasn't there something about his house and Christmas?

[Kristen Bell]

Yeah. When he pranked Mickey and he was behind the emails. Remember Mickey had bought a house. His cousin Mickey and the people they bought it from were like asked if.

[Justine Lupe]

They could come back for Christmas.

[Kristen Bell]

Asked if they could come back for Christmas. And Mickey says yes to everything. And she said sure.

[Monica Padman]

Okay.

[Kristen Bell]

And. But Jimmy had hacked the email and he was responding with the fact that we'll need some ingredients for our Christmas dinner. We're going to make this soup.

[Justine Lupe]

It kept on building and building and she was just so sweet but you could just feel so overwhelmed.

[Kristen Bell]

We'll be there at midnight.

[Justine Lupe]

It was a great one. The long the slow burn prank. It's the first time I've ever done it and there's. I can't tell you how satisfying.

[Kristen Bell]

It's intoxicating.

[Justine Lupe]

Slowly building.

[Monica Padman]

That is so light.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes. So subtle. Talk about throwing it away. It's like a little thing here and then get that from my trailer there.

[Justine Lupe]

The best was when we engage in a conversation and then they'd be like action. And I'm like.

[Kristen Bell]

I just like left her with like she's a mess inside during this time.

[Justine Lupe]

I picked her up and then like took it away. It was fun. It was really fun.

[Dax Shepard]

Is Kristen your favorite co star of all time? She loves you so much. She talks about you endlessly.

[Justine Lupe]

Dreamy, dreamy, dreamy, dreamy. It's awesome. I have talked about it too much but having her be the first person that I said that I was pregnant to in her living room with a sheet mask on her face and the way that she just bounced up and ran around the room and then gave me honestly an Emmy winning speech about the magic of being a mom and how important it's been to her. It was so, so sweet. And honestly on top of that, she's just the biggest role model to watch on set. Cause she's kind to everyone. She's professional, she's playful. You're an incredible mom. I love your guys relationship. I've been really lucky cause Snoop was like this too on succession. Just the right person to be there at the right time. I do see it as sorry acts, divine intervention a little bit that I got these women at these times in my life. Snoop was prego through the last season of the show. I watched her do the whole thing. Incredibly pregnant.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

And that show was shooting for like nine months. Her whole pregnancy was literally that whole season. And so having that to know that that kind of work is possible while pregnant and just to get inspired by that and then you're gonna have your.

[Dax Shepard]

Whole life and this totally like she just killed it.

[Justine Lupe]

She slayed. So like all the kind of preconceived things about what it' be pregnant and what it's like to be a mom in this industry. And then coming in and seeing Kristen doing what she's doing during this moment, I just feel like they're little gifts. Where are you from? I'm from Colorado.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, you're born in New York but you grew up in Colorado?

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Why were you born in New York?

[Justine Lupe]

So my dad was a visual artist in New York and my mom worked at a halfway house for boys.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, wow.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

That's intense.

[Justine Lupe]

No, my mom's horrible whole career has been the most intense. She worked at a halfway house for boys. She then worked with children who had been abused. As a therapist, she then now is working mostly with women with borderline personality disorder.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Justine Lupe]

She's kind of a champ in terms of committing herself to this kind of love.

[Dax Shepard]

She's in the deep end. She likes to get where it's hardest.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. She can hold space for a lot of dark.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah, she's dark.

[Dax Shepard]

She's dark. Okay, Good for her.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah, totally.

[Dax Shepard]

Dark meets dark.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

I think that there is something to being someone who's lived in that level of dark that can hold space for it. It makes me wanna cry. The times where I've been in the most distress. Like when I was 21, I did ecstasy. I had the worst trip of my life. I thought I was gonna die. My friend thought she was gonna die. We were like. It was laced with something or something.

[Dax Shepard]

I was gonna say. I bet it had bath salts in it.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah, there was some weird shit in it. And my mom, I called her at 4 o' clock in the morning and I was like, shit smell hitting the fan.

[Dax Shepard]

I smoked my brain.

[Justine Lupe]

She came to the house. House. She opens the door, I'm naked.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay?

[Justine Lupe]

All of us are naked. There's three. There's three of us. We're all naked.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, my God.

[Justine Lupe]

Before the shit hit the fan, it had been very fun.

[Dax Shepard]

Sure, sure, sure.

[Justine Lupe]

There's like candles and beanbags and like, there's probably wax on my body in some way. And she comes to the door, she has a carrier of coffee. She has a bunch of children's books. She sat there like, it makes me cry. She sat there for like hours and just talked us through it. She was a.

[Dax Shepard]

And read children's books.

[Justine Lupe]

She sat there, she just calmed us down, read to us, took us on a drive, played calm music for hours and hours. Two days. Nursed us back to hell. It was terrible. It was the first time where I was like, oh, I understand what depression is. I was so low. And she just sat there through the whole thing and tended to us. And meanwhile, my dad was on another planet. We were truly traumatized. Laying in bed, he comes in with a clown's mask at one point, is.

[Monica Padman]

Like, hey guys, let's go.

[Justine Lupe]

Like, not reading the room at all. But my, my mom was like, that's just her in a nutshell. She's not always that way.

[Dax Shepard]

Right?

[Justine Lupe]

But when crisis is there, when shit hits the fan, she rises into a part of herself that's a hero.

[Dax Shepard]

Honestly. Did she have a wild childhood herself? Yeah. Yeah. Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert if you dare. We are supported by Squarespace. Whether you're just starting out or scaling your business, Squarespace gives you everything you need to create a professional website, grow your brand and get paid all in one place. Our website functions beautifully, so seamless, like a Swiss made timepiece. And it was all designed on Squarespace by Wabi Wab. And it was easy. The cutting edge design tools on Squarespace are a game changer. With Blueprint AI, their AI enhanced website builder, you can create a fully custom site in just a few steps. It generates premium content and personalized design recommendations based on your brand and goals. Plus their intuitive drag and drop editor makes it easy to fine tune everything to your liking. But Squarespace isn't just about looks. Their integrated SEO tools help you get discovered faster online. Every Squarespace site is optimized with meta descriptions, an auto generated sitemap, and more. So you show up more often in search results and attract your ideal customers ready to claim your your corner of the Internet. Go to squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use offer code DAX to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com and promo code DAX to get started. Today we are supported by Lenovo. You know, as someone who's constantly juggling creative projects, I've been thinking a lot about how AI is changing the game. It's exciting, but also a little intimidating, right? That's why I'm pretty stoked about what Lenovo's doing here. Here's the thing. These aren't just computers. They're like creative partners that actually learn from you. It's wild. The more you use it, the more it adapts to your style and preferences. I'll be honest, I'm that guy who always has a million tabs open and is constantly hunting for an outlet. But these PCs get me. They manage my chaos, keep things running smoothly, and somehow don't die on me mid podcast. What I love most is that they're not trying to replace my creativity, they're amplifying it. Whether I'm brainstorming ideas for the show or editing our latest episode, they enhance my process. Not taking take over Lenovo AI PCs with the Intel Core Ultra processor. That's the power of intel inside. It's like having a supercharged brain working alongside your own. Learn more about Lenovo AI PCs at lenovo.com ai4u Trust me, your creative self will thank you. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. Each Apple product, like the iPhone, 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] Think about it. You change your oil, upgrade your phone, rotate your sneakers, but you're still rocking those stretched out boxers from Cosmic College. Your underwear is the one thing you wear every single day. Saks underwear gives you breathable fabric, no right up legs, and a patented pouch that keeps everything in its lane. There's a reason publications like Men's Health have referred to it as life changing. And the New York Times Wirecutter has rated Saks its top men's boxer briefs two years in a row. Available in a variety of colors, fun prints and patterns and styles built for everything from lounging to high intensity storage sports. You will love them or they'll give you your money back. Upgrade your drawers today and see why 100,000 plus customers love Saks underwear.

[Justine Lupe]

She was one of six girls, so I kind of think like when that's.

[Dax Shepard]

On the table, that's a lot of girls.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah, she's had a wild life, but she's amazing.

[Dax Shepard]

So what year did you move to Colorado?

[Justine Lupe]

So when I was a baby, basically my dad was in the art scene and he was basically like if I have a kid, I'm so in this art world right now, there's no way that I can do both. If we're gonna do this, we've gotta get out of here. They moved to Colorado and he became a closet case artist. Only did art for my mom. Basically shut down his career to be a dad and he worked at the Denver Art Museum. So he didn't shut down his career, but he stopped making art and being an artist and doing freelance work and got a steady job. He actually never showed any of his art until when I was pregnant, he had his first art show. Oh, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, that's adorable. And then you went to an arts high school? Performing arts high school. Why does grandma have a theater there?

[Justine Lupe]

So my grandma was a super activist. She was on every board for women's rights. She enforced this busing system that brought kids from different areas into other areas. She held Colorado accountable for doing that. She started this arts program. It started as a very small thing and then evolved into the Denver School of the Arts. So I went to the school that.

[Dax Shepard]

That you're going.

[Monica Padman]

No wonder your name means justice. This is all adding up.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. How does one set their sights on Juilliard? And then what's the process to get into Juilliard? Because I can't imagine ever thinking that's even an option for me. I mean, it wouldn't be. I don't. I don't know. But still, it. That seems like the single most exclusive place to get into.

[Justine Lupe]

Totally. I mean, it felt like a shot in the dark when it was happening. There wasn't an expectation of getting in at all. But the first time I saw it, I was watching a PBS documentary with them at home, and I was like, whoa, that school looks cool. I think I was 13 or something.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

And then a kid from my school, Gabe Ebert, two years older than me, he got in.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Justine Lupe]

And that was like, oh, okay, maybe.

[Dax Shepard]

And you acted with Gabe?

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

You're like, I'm better than Gabe.

[Justine Lupe]

No, Gabe was like the shining golden boy of our school, and I was not, actually.

[Dax Shepard]

Why not?

[Justine Lupe]

I don't know. You know, I didn't get a lot of parts. And I later found out, and this is so embarrassing. It was embarrassing when I found out. In my 30s, my. My parents had to go into the school and have a talk with my drama teacher and be like, you need to cast her. Really? Which is like, a crazy fucking thing to do. And so embarrass. It's humiliating. But they didn't.

[Dax Shepard]

They didn't work.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. I got into a few shows. That's so crazy. And I remember my drama teacher saying something about parents coming in and complaining about their kids not being and stuff, and thinking like, that was crazy. And I later had to do that. And then later I found out it was my fault.

[Dax Shepard]

You're probably like, I bet it's Becca's parents.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah, totally.

[Dax Shepard]

So Involved.

[Justine Lupe]

I was like, kind of shocked cuz they were very supportive parents. But they are not Karen parents or whatever. They're not like, yeah, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

No siblings.

[Justine Lupe]

I have a brother.

[Dax Shepard]

You have a brother? Older or younger?

[Justine Lupe]

Younger.

[Dax Shepard]

Did he go to this school as well?

[Justine Lupe]

He went there for middle school and then he was like, screw this, I want to play sports. And he left and he went to East High, which is the quintessential classic high school.

[Kristen Bell]

Still ended up super artistic.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah, then. And he ended up going to school for film at Chapman.

[Kristen Bell]

He's a photographer and a director and very, very cool stuff.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, so what's the process of getting into Juilliard?

[Justine Lupe]

So it's nuts. Basically, you have to go to a unified audition. You go to one of three places and you do an audition, which is two monologues. And then there's a second set of monologues that they call you back for later in the day. So you have four monologues prepared. You do that. Then you have to sing to them.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh boy. Can you sing?

[Justine Lupe]

No. And it was a nightmare. And I sang Fever, which is kind of an inappropriate, appropriate song for like a 17 year old. And I was like, really? I'm gonna seduce them. And I remember I walked up to their desk and they were like, can you please back up in the middle of the song?

[Dax Shepard]

You got too sexual with it.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah, I got a little too sexual. They were like. And scene. We're done. After that, you have to do an interview. So that's one day of three different stages.

[Dax Shepard]

Is that in New York or is that.

[Justine Lupe]

I went to Chicago.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Justine Lupe]

Then they have another round. The final 40. They bring 40 kids back to. To do two days of auditions in the school. You have to do your monologue with the faculty and then you have to do mock classes and all the faculty sits on the side of the classrooms and take notes and watch how you perform. The crazy story about that was the weekend of this callback, there was a massive blizzard. And I was set to go on this plane by myself. We get to the airport, my dad is like, there's a huge blizzard. I'm gonna come with you. I was like, dad, leave me alone. I'm. I can do this. My plane gets canceled. I call him back, I'm like, actually, what do I do?

[Dax Shepard]

Bring your mask.

[Justine Lupe]

My dad is like, okay, we're going to figure this out. He comes to the airport. He gets into the airport, buys a ticket. We end up getting on a flight from Denver to Chicago that then is going to take a Flight from Chicago to D.C. and then from D.C. take a train to.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, my goodness, New York.

[Justine Lupe]

It's massive. It's a massive storm. Yeah. I'm freaking out. I call the school. They're like, listen, if you can get here for 10 minutes or two days, whatever. Just the important thing is you just get here. So we get to the Chicago branch of this whole thing, and they're like, everything's canceled. There's no flight to D.C. anymore. And all my stuff's checked in a bag, so that's all on its way or whatever. He's like, okay, we're gonna rent a car and we're gonna drive from Chicago to New York through a blizzard, through the night. 16 hours or whatever it is. And he did it.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, my. What a joke.

[Justine Lupe]

Got a car. And he drove me through this blizzard. And we're semis, literally on the side of the road, like, toppled over. It's crazy torrential. I can't describe. I couldn't take over at any point because it was so hard to drive. He stopped for five minutes at a McDonald's to do, like a micro nap. Literally five minutes. And he drove me all the way there, and I made it.

[Dax Shepard]

What was your mental state on this whole journey? You had to already be nervous to go, and now you're like, I'm doomed. Were you letting any of that come in?

[Justine Lupe]

Totally. I was totally heartbroken once he got there. Honestly. I was like, if my dad's here, like me, maybe we can do it.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

And then the nerves burned off. And by the time I got there, I think we were both so tired. I was wearing some other student of the school's clothes because I didn't have any clothes. And I was just so worn down that I actually think it really helped. Cause I just didn't have any nerve to give. It was, like, gone. And he slept on a friend's couch and stayed there with me until the moment that he was like, can I go? Am I good? And he left. And then he let me do the plane ride back, like the adult that.

[Dax Shepard]

I wanted, like a big girl.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, wow.

[Dax Shepard]

So how many people get in?

[Justine Lupe]

16.

[Dax Shepard]

16 is the number of students.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

When did you start feeling like, I think I might get in?

[Justine Lupe]

When the 40 thing happened, I was like, okay, there's a shot that's 50% ish. Yeah, maybe I could do it. But then you're, like, looking around and everybody's so good that you're like, I don't eat. I don't know. I also was 17 at that time. So I don't quite remember all the steps. But I remember being so shocked when I got the phone call that I got in.

[Dax Shepard]

And is it ins Insanely rigorous.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

You know, Kristen was down the street learning to act and she was in her sweatpants breathing in dudes mouths and stuff.

[Justine Lupe]

100.

[Kristen Bell]

It's called Alexander Technique.

[Justine Lupe]

He makes fun of it all the time. Breathing in men's mouths and stuff. It was crazy. It's just such a singular thing to like put that much time into that. Like only that for four years from 7am till 10pm every day. Because you're doing school and then you're doing rehearsal for whatever the play is. And I'm like I'll never do anything like that again. And the teachers are tough.

[Monica Padman]

They try to strip you down a little bit. Right. Isn't that sort of the goal?

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. I think that the goal is to basically take away as many habits as they can so that you are free to decide what you want to do.

[Monica Padman]

Blank slate.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. And I think that that can be great. And it also can take away the thing that got people into the school.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Justine Lupe]

You know where it's like actually that person was incredibly shiny and they had an essence that was their fingerprint. And then get beat them down into not trusting the thing that got them there.

[Dax Shepard]

That's my little bit of a pushback on this approach. You take someone who's had 18 years of practicing how to be an appealing human being. They learn a bag of tricks that work for them. And I see actors then try to get rid of all of that and take on some entirely different Persona. And it's like it can be accomplished but I don't know that it's the net win of it all. If you have some shiny sparkly things that you do. Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

You wanna hold. Hold onto the sparkle.

[Kristen Bell]

Ultimately someone would say the goal is to learn how to do both.

[Justine Lupe]

Right.

[Kristen Bell]

You could be in a rom com. But if you're playing Truman Capote you don't need any parts of yourself to do that.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. Or that you should be able to release the things that are habitual in order to put something else in there. I had a little bit of fuck you in me just enough.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

I was totally a people pleaser and I totally wanted them to like me. And I wanted to do a good job. But I also had just enough.

[Monica Padman]

I don't know about this.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I don't want to come out of here as an acting Android.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. I don't want to be a Boss, I don't really like a little bit.

[Monica Padman]

That was rude. That was rude.

[Justine Lupe]

As we talk about the robot that way. Crazy. She is a little bit of an actor.

[Monica Padman]

She can do anything.

[Justine Lupe]

There's not a moment where you're like, don't buy it.

[Monica Padman]

Exactly.

[Dax Shepard]

True that.

[Justine Lupe]

And also then she's like, okay, we've got it. We're moving on. And you're like, girl, we had a talk at one point during this season where she was like, she loves the speed because she can fucking nail it.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

And I'm like, baby, baby. Like, I'm not random. Like, maybe just a few. I mean, I'm not that machine yet. And I don't think that I'm sucking, but I don't feel like I'm in the place where I'm like, okay, we can get in.

[Kristen Bell]

But I think you're not giving yourself enough credit because you're a very believable actor as well. And I think sometimes what stands in the way of people is like, wait, can we have one more? I didn't feel it. I want to remind you, it doesn't matter if you feel it. Is the audience going to feel it? And that information we get from the people behind the monitor. So if they're like this, then it's like, let's go to audience.

[Justine Lupe]

No, no. I think the feeling it thing probably maybe 60% of the time or less. I remember there was a point where I was with Brendan Gleason. Do you guys know who Brendan Gleeson is? He was in. In Bruges with Colin Farrell. He's like, OG incredible. Paddington 2. You might be familiar. He and I were doing a show together and I was like, fuck. I did not feel that at all. And he was like, well, that is why you're an actor and you have skill. You can rely on having skill. Most of the time, you're not gonna be like, transcending.

[Kristen Bell]

That's why I think speaking about it in terms of. Were you paying attention in the scene more valuable than. Did you feel it? Were you paying attention? Were you taking the other person in?

[Justine Lupe]

Were you.

[Dax Shepard]

Were you present?

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah, but some of that time, the answer is no. Some of the time I'm like, girl. I was like, not there.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, you had also just had a baby.

[Justine Lupe]

Totally. And more than having a baby, I was weaning. I don't know. We actually haven't talked about it too much, but no one told me that when you.

[Monica Padman]

You wean.

[Justine Lupe]

It's psychotic drops of all the hormones that were in you to keep your boobs flushing milk out. They're gone.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

And so I was, like, waking up with anxiety in a way that I never had before. I didn't have crazy postpartum, but I had wild weaning, Weaning. And I was like, what is going on? Am I just nervous about acting again? It was the first time that I was back from having the baby. I was like, is this about the work? Is this about the is? I had a couple friends be like, oh, it's probably that.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes.

[Justine Lupe]

And I started researching it, and I was like, well, that's, like, a major thing.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

It was nuts.

[Kristen Bell]

But from a scene partner perspective, I have never seen you be off your game. As evidenced by Justine has this incredible running bit in season two where any time that I brush up against her, she goes, ow. Like, where everything. There's one moment where I grab a wine bottle out of your hand and you scre. There's another moment where we're fighting over a remote and you're like, you broke my finger.

[Justine Lupe]

I know. There was a point where I was like, I think I've worn this one.

[Kristen Bell]

I loved it, but it was anytime I brushed up against her, you were. Whether you want to admit it or not or whether you felt it or not, you were ready to give that piece of the sisters where, like, if Joanne touches Morgan, Morgan will overreact. And I loved it.

[Justine Lupe]

I mean, I don't want to keep on praising Kristen, but I do think that you can feel her listening, and she does draw you into, like, being there. And she's so fun to play with as a friend, as a partner. She's a playful person, and so we had a lot of fun.

[Monica Padman]

Kristen, before you started shooting this season, you said the first season was a love story between you and Adam, and the second season is a love story between you and Justine. I firmly believe that, which is so exciting. I'm so excited to watch it.

[Kristen Bell]

I don't even think that when our writers or specifically Aaron, who dictates a lot of where the story goes. Cause it's kind of her story. Did you feel like as it unfolded, this is so clear to me that this is a love story between these two girls and it's about the sisterhood. Cause Justine has some major stuff happening this season.

[Justine Lupe]

I don't know. I don't know if I felt that. I did feel that I had more to do, but I do feel like last season, I felt that already. I felt my whole point of view was I'm losing the love of My life. When you're so close, you're so codependent, you are so involved in each other's lives, when someone that you love, not in a romantic way. I've had it with my friends, I've had it with my brother. Goes off and finds their love, it is a loss. It's heartbreaking.

[Dax Shepard]

So they start building a combined life with somebody. Yeah. Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

So for me, that was what I was going off of last season is I was like, oh, the love of my life is actually leaving me. And all the pettiness and all the bitchiness and bad behavior that Morgan's going through, it's a reaction to being like, no, no, no, no, no, don't leave me. This season, I think, snowballed that a little bit, and I think that there was more of a back and forth around it, too.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Kristen Bell]

And I think it was way more the focus. It's not that the Joanne and Noah of it all is not there, because it definitely is and strong. But the events surrounding this season, if you dislodge one of the sisters, it just doesn't work. It's so rooted in whether or not you and I are in balance. The whole ending scenario, you're so devastated in this show.

[Justine Lupe]

I can't wait to watch it.

[Dax Shepard]

Does Juilliard turnout comedians or are they more. You're going there to be in Shakespeare.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. I think there is, like, an emphasis on classical theater, which when I say I had a little bit of the fuck you in me, there was something about talking in that way with that project. I was like, I don't feel like I'm a human talking.

[Dax Shepard]

I've never spoken this way in my life.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. I mean, my acting teachers and I really got along, and my voice and speech teachers hated. I think they really actively disliked me, I guess.

[Dax Shepard]

When you got out, were you aiming to be in only dramas or were. Were you aiming to be in comedy?

[Justine Lupe]

I was aiming to just work. Please just let me work the first couple things.

[Dax Shepard]

One's written by Noah Baumbach and one's written by David Chase. So if I were you, I'd be like, oh, I get it. I'm going to be on this pedigree train.

[Justine Lupe]

I don't know. It's funny because also, those are the only movies I've done, like, maybe one movie after that. So I do think it was a weird false start. I was listening to you guys talk to Alex Skarsgard about him booking his first job and being like, and now I've arrived. So those were crazy. That was crazy to be in those things to filmmakers jobs.

[Monica Padman]

What movie was it?

[Justine Lupe]

It was Francis Haw. Oh, yeah, One scene. But it was really fun. I liked he shot a lot. We did one scene all day long.

[Monica Padman]

And the acting robot doesn't like that.

[Justine Lupe]

You don't like that.

[Dax Shepard]

Nor does Mr.

[Justine Lupe]

Robot. Mr. Robot.

[Dax Shepard]

Mr. Robot. Okay on the first one.

[Monica Padman]

Pick up the pace pretty good on.

[Dax Shepard]

The second, third, and then it's all downhill from after third.

[Justine Lupe]

Really?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I have this fraudulence alarm that goes in my head when I've said something so many times. I'm improving mostly out of silencing that alarm. I just start feeling very fraudulent. And I said it so much and it's flat and I don't believe it anymore. And I'm like, even if I had one word or I do something, I just like to get in and fucking.

[Justine Lupe]

I feel like 1, 2, 3. That definitely happens. It's like when we were taking pictures and you're like, and now I've clocked into a new level of not being here. When you're in a photo line and you're like, I was listening to David Fincher talk about. Or someone who worked with him about the. Over and over and over again. Their whole point was it gets past the idea you have of what you're going to do or any of the preparation that you did or your idea of what it is. And it pushes you past that into another level of finding it.

[Kristen Bell]

But what if your preparation and your idea of what it is is right for the scene?

[Justine Lupe]

Listen, I think that there's real value in that too. I see both sides of it. I think that there's something interesting about mind numbingly getting through the amp up and the preconceived notions or the construct that you. And then getting into something where it's like, whoa, didn't think that that was coming out. And that was interesting.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, that's fun. I've heard his thing, though. We've interviewed a ton of people that have worked with him. It's always technical. His shots are so complicated and they're so long, and they're throwing focus to 25 different.

[Monica Padman]

Is actually a relief to a lot of the actors. They're like, it's not because I'm bad. It's because he wants this and he wants this and he wants his shots. You know, tell me if this resonates. And it might not.

[Justine Lupe]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

Because you weren't getting in the plays before you knew your parents got you into the place. Do you feel like you have something to prove in life. Ooh.

[Justine Lupe]

I mean, I don't even know if I would frame it as something to prove. But I do feel like this whole thing is about being a better version of yourself all the time. Becoming a better person, being kinder, working on yourself and acting as part of that, becoming a better actor and evolving is an important part of what this whole trajectory is about. So I don't know if I'd frame it as something to prove.

[Kristen Bell]

I feel like that that sentence has two different meanings. Something to prove where it can be arrogant. And I was just gonna say, like, I find you to be the antithesis of that. Justine does not suck the air out of a room when she walks into it. She's only additive and light. But something to prove. If you're gonna use that as the definition of does she come aggressively prepared to every single scene and piece of work?

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Cause something to prove to me is within it is what you end up putting out. But it's. I have to be the best version of me every time I show up to anything because people didn't take me seriously or because. Or because I didn't get all these things. So now I'm here and I'm gonna. I mean, I have it, obviously. That's why.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. I think it's also just like being like. I don't know, I mean, in terms of the acting of it all, it's also just knowing how rare it is to have an opportunity to work. And all my friends, none of them are famous, you know, none of them are working non stop and a lot of them aren't in the business either, so. But there's something about know a. That this is a rare opportunity and wanting to capitalize on it as much as possible for myself and for the sake of job that I'm doing, but also just knowing that hardly anyone gets to do it. So I just want to do. I don't want to let it slip by and I don't want to take it for granted. And yeah, I always want to do my best. I'm also pretty relaxed theater. I had a way harder time feeling okay about myself. There was something about facing the audience every night that was just so brutal and terrible. And I hated it so much. I felt so much more responsible. And there's something about going to sets and being with Kristen and being with the crew and being with the crafty people and transpo and feeling the unit of it all, that it takes the like preciousness off of it just being about me and how Well, I do. So it's a weird balance. I do feel like I always am trying my best, and at the same time, I don't think I've got some sort of crazy version.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

I'm not too, like, hardcore about it.

[Kristen Bell]

No, you're like, the opposite of hardcore.

[Justine Lupe]

I try and have fun.

[Dax Shepard]

And I asked Jackie this and I asked Tim this. You're in the exact same situation. Tim was on Veep, which was really successful. Jackie was on Glow, which was really successful. You were on Succession, which was hugely successful. How did the reaction of Nobody Wants Us compared to the previous? You were on Miss Marvelous, Mrs. Maisel, Mr. Mercedes. You were shooting all three of those at the same time somehow. Yeah, that sounds crazy.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. It was totally right for where I was. I was, like, single, no kids, 25, energy to burn. So it worked out. But Succession, it was this weird thing where I was friends with everyone. They were my family at that time. I was heavily invested in terms of just being there, but I wasn't there. I wasn't a core member of that show. In the same way, I was kind of a fly on the wall a lot. And it was an amazing experience. I loved it so much because of that. I also didn't have the same feeling around the reaction that it had.

[Dax Shepard]

Right. You didn't feel like you could take a lot of ownership over that.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

I don't know if I have that now. I would walk with Nick Braun. What he was dealing with was, like, nuts, like. Or Sarah Snook. I'd be like. You know, whenever we'd hang out, I was like, this is wild. And especially because we live in New York, New York and la, and those are the places where people were watching Succession. Middle America wasn't watching it as much. It was like, a crazy thing to watch them experience, but I didn't necessarily feel it in the same way.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

And this one, when it came out, I was so postpartum in my own little bubble world that I wasn't truly engaged in the way that I imagined some people were. But I felt it in a different way.

[Dax Shepard]

It was nuts, right?

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. My agents were like, we haven't had a reaction to anything like this since Girls. Cause my old agent represented Adam Driver when he was on Girls. The level of attention that that got, it felt comparable to that.

[Dax Shepard]

It was a cultural phenomena.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. It's weird.

[Dax Shepard]

I was saying, we've been together for 18 years. She's been famous the whole time she had frozen, but really nothing compared to going to New York within Like weeks of the show coming out and like 75 year old ladies needing a picture, 61 year old dads needing a picture, kids needing a picture. And I was like, hon, I'm gonna meet you. Places like you, you, you do your.

[Justine Lupe]

Thing, you're on your own.

[Dax Shepard]

It was very fun and it was a touch overwhelming. So it was just, it was really fucking huge.

[Monica Padman]

Do you guys feel pressure for season two because it was so big in the beginning?

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Kristen Bell]

But as far as what was happening early on in the writers room, at least when I went in there I was like, this is unfolding beautifully. We had the additions of Jenny Connor and Bruce Eric Kaplan, who have great resumes. And then also Aaron had said in the writers room RA early on, she was like, I just wanna say to you guys, we're gonna give the people what they want. We're not gonna do the TV show thing where every other episode they break up. I mean, there's going to be strife and problems, but that's not why people watch the show. And I thought that was really a lovely take.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Kristen Bell]

People are watching this show to feel the romance.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Kristen Bell]

Let it happen.

[Dax Shepard]

So I've watched two of the first season or I'm sorry, two of the second season. I've watched the whole first season and I watched two of the second season. I'm in Morgan and Sasha. That to me is the relationship. I and I love Jackie, so I don't want anything to happen to Jackie, but at the same time, I'm so intrigued by how opposite you guys are and yet somehow similar. That's like the funnest relationship cooking.

[Justine Lupe]

I love Tim. I think he's so, he's awesome. Did you have fun when you guys were doing your thing?

[Dax Shepard]

Oh my God. I had.

[Justine Lupe]

Isn't he awesome?

[Dax Shepard]

He's incredible.

[Justine Lupe]

I have a lot of fun doing stuff with him. He's great. First season we were really like, what the is going on with these two? Like, what happening here? And like we wanted answers. And Aaron's kind of smart in that she was like, it's vague, it's unexplainable. Yeah. And it was frustrating in those moments where you're like, okay, but are we going to make out next episode? Like, is that what's happening here? Or is this just two people who are magnetic and they're interested? You know those relationships where you find someone and you're an adult and you have a partner but you're like, okay, yeah, yeah, you got something that's in another world. So we were kind of just Trying to, like, figure out, like, is this going to be infidelity or is this just going to be an interesting, interesting energy that's fun and familiar and people actually do know what that gray is.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes.

[Justine Lupe]

All of us have experienced it. And she didn't have an answer. There were moments where we were like, but it works out. Honestly, when I watched it, I was like, this works. It makes sense.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I think actors are overly interested in being certain about what they want. You know, like, what is your motivation in this scene? And I not understand. I need to know what I'm after. And it's like, well, also, life doesn't really work that way. A lot of time, life's. You're like. You have a dream about someone you kind of know, and in the dream you're in love, and then you wake up, you're like, huh, that's interesting.

[Justine Lupe]

Totally. I think I was just like, is this woman going to fuck a guy who has a child and a wife? Because that is something.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Monica Padman]

That's something to consider about you.

[Dax Shepard]

Totally.

[Justine Lupe]

You are playing and what's going on and is she okay? If that's going to happen in two episodes, that does say something about her mental state, for sure.

[Kristen Bell]

And from a robot's perspective, of course. I'm always doing the emotional math of what the. The audience is watching.

[Justine Lupe]

See, that's crazy. I can't even think about that.

[Monica Padman]

That's.

[Kristen Bell]

The whole acting does not exist for me. It's just emotional math. This emotion leads to this emotion leads to this emotion. It's not just the emotion. It's the temperature of the emotion. Is it anger and is it really small, or is it anger and is it huge and they have different consequences. But I understood what you were saying, where you were like, no, I would like to know if they're going to hook up. Because from my perspective, I would not stop being open to the ambiguity of the situation, but rather start to lay the track. That's what I thought will get the audience there. What you don't want to do is have four episodes where it's super casual, and episode five, they're having sex in the back of the car. And you're like, what is happening?

[Justine Lupe]

I really get both sides. That's the thing. You see how vague it was or whatever. Not knowing the answer served people being.

[Monica Padman]

Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Justine Lupe]

What is happening?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, well, it's alive and scary, and that makes for great TV and drama.

[Justine Lupe]

Maybe we could have done that if we didn't know. You know what I Mean, like, it's almost like that Meryl Streep thing. There's a story where I can't remember what movie it was. Throws a glass. Was it Creamer versus Creamer or something where someone throws a glass and it shatters behind her? And she was like, why the fuck didn't you tell me that you were gonna do that? And he was like, well, I wanted to surprise you. And she's like, well, let me act.

[Kristen Bell]

I think it was Dustin Hoffman.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. Also, I probably could have done that had I known what the track was, too. So it worked out. But it also could have worked out if we knew the mathing, the emotional map.

[Kristen Bell]

Well, you can argue it six ways to Sunday, but if you're doing a movie and your character goes to a carnival and you haven't read the end of the script and jumps off the Ferris wheel in the last scene, hopefully you are going to want to contribute ever so slightly to the emotional math of what gets her there. So, yes, actors always feel like they need to know way more. And yet I feel like in order to make that equation work, sometimes it's.

[Dax Shepard]

Their job and they should. But also, there's a reality that they could have never set out to do that and they could start watching in the editing room, like, wow, there's some bizarre spark between.

[Justine Lupe]

Totally. They did that a lot in succession. One scene where Kieran looked back very early on, Kieran looked back and checked out Jay's ass. And it was caught on camera and it was not obviously written, but they were like, kieran just checked out Jay's ass.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

That was hot. Let's do something with that. And then it created that whole storyline between Jerry and Roman.

[Kristen Bell]

Kudos to the writers who can pick that stuff out and see it and take it. Cause that's the same thing that happened on Veronica Mars. Logan was never supposed to be Veronica's love interest.

[Dax Shepard]

And then they saw the simmering.

[Justine Lupe]

They saw. I think it's the best way, getting to know who you're working with, what's going on with them, and then playing around with that.

[Dax Shepard]

Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert, if you dare. We are supported by Hill's Pet Nutrition. Something we celebrate here on Armchair Expert is that we all have juggles, struggles, faults and flaws because we're human. Those of us with pets know this all too well. We are their whole world. And that can be a lot of pressure. Things are just going to go wrong sometimes, and we can only plan for so much pet. Parent guilt is unavoidable.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, like when you left one of your dogs when you went traveling, you probably had guilt.

[Dax Shepard]

I did. Whiskey wasn't fit to make the trip, but I was relieved that he's having such a great time with Peggy at home. But yeah, because you're only human, there's Hills Science does more Find the right [e-mail] Dax this season, let your shoes do the talking. Designer Shoe Warehouse is packed with fresh styles that speak to your whole vibe without saying a word. From cool sneakers that look good with everything. The easy sandals you'll want to wear on repeat. DSW has you covered. Find a shoe for every heel from the brands you love like Birkenstock, Nike, Adidas, New Balance and more. Head to your DSW store or visit dsw.com today.

[Justine Lupe]

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[Monica Padman]

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[Justine Lupe]

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[Monica Padman]

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[Justine Lupe]

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[Kristen Bell]

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[Justine Lupe]

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[Dax Shepard]

Oh, this could be a good test of how prepared you guys are as actors. Okay, so my one big question mark when I watch the show and it drives me a little bit bonkers is how much money do you guys make on this podcast?

[Justine Lupe]

Oh, I thought you were about to say oh my God. How much do you personally each make on the show?

[Dax Shepard]

What do you what's your per episode? What's your per episode? Let's be honest, I see people either make a bazillion dollars in podcasting or they make almost none. So I'm like trying to figure out.

[Monica Padman]

A little middle ground. That's true.

[Kristen Bell]

What Joanne, I'll tell you this, here's what we know. We've never read an ad on our podcast. Yeah, ads are how you make money. We have a producer, we don't know who's paying her.

[Justine Lupe]

Okay, so there are some holes.

[Kristen Bell]

To be honest Joanne's income because there's never been a scene where she's put down a credit card or been worried about buying something has never been a part of the emotional math equation. I'm trying to tell. It's actually a detail of like, I also don't really need you to know what size her shoes are. It's not relevant. And I know you would say it's relevant because it's the set and how she lives her life. But we're at the vintage store quite a few times so I think they are on a budget.

[Justine Lupe]

Well, I'm gonna make a more dangerous argument. Whoever shopped at Scout because we're looking.

[Monica Padman]

At some thousand dollar.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm gonna make.

[Justine Lupe]

Right, Right.

[Dax Shepard]

More dangerous argument.

[Justine Lupe]

Shocking.

[Dax Shepard]

And I do not want it to.

[Justine Lupe]

Offend her shoes back on cuz she's.

[Dax Shepard]

Awesome and she created a cultural female. Aaron and Sarah grew up with a lot of money. It's not a detail that they would imagine needs explaining.

[Kristen Bell]

I think that's right.

[Dax Shepard]

But for me as someone who's broke, I'm a little bit like, I'm so confused. How's everyone living?

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. I get the feeling that they both come from families with money.

[Dax Shepard]

See, that's exactly it. I'm watching. I'm like, okay, so I think they're not panicked about money. That's not what their concern is.

[Justine Lupe]

No, but then your parents aren't voted on this show. I think Noah also, he's like a rabbi, but he comes from money.

[Kristen Bell]

Yeah, I see your point. We didn't grow up with money. You didn't grow up with money. I know that. And that usually is a very important part of identity when you don't have it.

[Dax Shepard]

How much does this person make?

[Justine Lupe]

Right, Right.

[Kristen Bell]

Or how much can I spend today? Or what do I have to do today to hustle to get what I want? And I just. That's probably not part of her equation.

[Monica Padman]

This is like the age old, like how are the six friends living in New York at the nice apartment? It's like, okay, get over that. Like that's not what this is about.

[Dax Shepard]

I concede to that. But I just was curious had they decided?

[Justine Lupe]

I had thought about it And I think 80% of the people who live in LA are surviving off of their parents money.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

Like I think that it's impossible. Like I have been on a show consistently for years.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, nine years.

[Justine Lupe]

And I have a 1400 square foot house and I cannot afford to get a three bedroom house. Like that's crazy. And these girls are living in la, they're surviving off a podcast. Most people, I think, have help. I don't know anyone who's bought a house. None of my peers have bought a house and then didn't have some help.

[Dax Shepard]

Right.

[Justine Lupe]

It's la, like, it's crazy.

[Dax Shepard]

It's lazy. Yeah, yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Also, also their podcast is big enough that they had a meeting with Spotify. So Spotify was interested at least. So it had to be.

[Dax Shepard]

And that was one of my ideas in the original pilot. I was saying I'd love to know how big the show is. I don't know why it's driving me crazy. Maybe just because I'm in a podcast. But could we see other people listening to it? Could we see that? Oh, it's. It's kind of a broad group of people.

[Kristen Bell]

That was an original season, original opening, and we did it. Some of it isn't.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, it was sort of a.

[Monica Padman]

We should have had a fan come up.

[Kristen Bell]

That was what Dax pitched. Cause remember in the beginning, the opening sequence of the pilot was not working and we were like struggling for ideas. And I showed it to Dax and I was like, what can we do here? And he was like, you have to identify how many people listen to this show. I need to know if they're famous or not famous.

[Dax Shepard]

And what kind of people? Like, is there a 50 year old dude at work listening you guys talk like that? That would be fun. Is there a, you know, like, who's listening?

[Justine Lupe]

Can I ask, do you think the fact that they're at their mom's house on the couch doing the podcast, do you think there are people who make a ton of money and they actually do it in that casual of a setting? Or do they all have kind of like, this is a full studio?

[Kristen Bell]

Even though that's an unanswerable question, because the reason we were shooting at the mom's house practically behind the scenes is because we did not secure Joanne's location yet.

[Monica Padman]

But also, yes, we did most of the years of this show upstairs. It looks like shit.

[Dax Shepard]

But we didn't do it at your mom's house or my mom's house.

[Monica Padman]

You're a grownup. I mean, I guess they are doing things during COVID co. We did a lot from my couch.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, true.

[Monica Padman]

So, like, I'm just saying. And we had a big show at that time. You could, I think, I think you could if you're being frugal. But I don't know if these girls would prioritize being frugal.

[Dax Shepard]

Also, I recognize probably no one In America that doesn't have a podcast. This is like.

[Justine Lupe]

I know, I know. You're so.

[Monica Padman]

You're so confused. Every single person in America has a podcast right now, so you don't have.

[Justine Lupe]

To worry about that. It was fascinating listening to podcasts. People talk about the show after the show came out, because I listened to a bunch of podcasts and hearing the inside baseball of.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, what would they say? Because Aaron and Sarah really do have a successful podcast.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. And they do it from their cat. Exactly. Exactly.

[Monica Padman]

I do have a grievance, though. Now is the place to air, and it makes sense. I should have been cast as that Spotify executive.

[Justine Lupe]

This is true. Well, you know, I pitched on the carpet yesterday. You. You guys should be a podcast in the show. We should have some sort of rival rivalry.

[Monica Padman]

My God.

[Justine Lupe]

I was like, if you see Dax, please pitch this.

[Kristen Bell]

I don't know if they'll ever do it, though, because one of my notes from the very beginning that nobody saw the value in and that's fine, was to get people on the podcast. Like, you guys had the sex therapist on that I loved so much, and I was like, that's a person that Morgan and Joanne would interview.

[Dax Shepard]

And it's a great excuse for really fun, poppy character.

[Kristen Bell]

Exactly. And I pitched quite a few of them, and it just didn't feel right. I mean, sometimes it takes me a minute to understand what's in Aaron's head because she'll be not interested in an idea and I'll feel poo pooed for a second, but then later on I'll realize I understand why she didn't.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, right.

[Kristen Bell]

She may not have had the words to explain it at the moment, but now I understand. But I.

[Dax Shepard]

She knows her world really well.

[Kristen Bell]

She knows her world so well. And it took me a long time to really understand that and go, like, I just have to completely trust. And her answer is yes, if it's yes and it's no if it's no. And that is the tone of the show. And it works.

[Justine Lupe]

Right?

[Dax Shepard]

I did like this season and that you're dealing with the ramifications of talking too much about Noah. You're like, exposing what his personal bedroom looks like.

[Kristen Bell]

That's not the only time you see them dealing with the consequences of feeling isolated and chatty in front of a microphone and not realizing how it will avalanche in their real life.

[Justine Lupe]

Do you guys have rules about talking about your relationship on the podcast?

[Dax Shepard]

They're unspoken. I think we both trust each other to represent each other. I did come to her for her episode of Mom's Car. Because one of the questions that gets asked because we asked these moral dumbfounding questions and one was like, this person cheats. They never find out. Blah, blah, blah. Is this morally wrong?

[Justine Lupe]

Huh?

[Dax Shepard]

And so Kristen and I are pretty loosey goosey. It's not a big concern of mine. You know, we're just kind of acknowledging it's not a huge concern of ours.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. Kristen once said, dax could have cheated on me 15 times and I'd be like, whatever, we're monkeys. But if you drove our kids drunk, it would be it.

[Dax Shepard]

We brought that up in the thing, which is like we had asked a bunch of friends, what would be your preference? They either cheated on you or they drove your kids drunk.

[Justine Lupe]

Oh my God.

[Dax Shepard]

A lot of people wanted their.

[Monica Padman]

Neither, please.

[Dax Shepard]

A lot of people chose drive the kids drunk. We just were like, that's kind of wild. So I did come to her and I said, look, I like this conversation. I'd like to keep it in. I also don't want it to read like we're swingers. Cause we're not and we don't have an open relationship. And then we both were like, yeah, that's fine. And then we were like, okay, now we gotta play. Someone's mom listens to it. That's a mom of a kid in our kids school. Is a kid gonna come to school and say, your parents don't care about cheating? And she's gonna, no, they do care about cheating, but it's not.

[Justine Lupe]

You know, that's so hard because you really shouldn't have to cater to what, some random. It's the same thing as like teacher in a classroom catering to the most sensitive person in the room. That sucks. But I get it.

[Dax Shepard]

So that one. I definitely need her to sign off or feel good about it.

[Justine Lupe]

But I saw it and I was.

[Kristen Bell]

Like, I feel fine about it. I don't regret anything that I said. And ultimately he chose to keep it out just because he was like, well.

[Dax Shepard]

No, I kept it in and I pared it down a lot. Oh.

[Kristen Bell]

Cause you were like, I don't want you to be on a red carpet. And someone to bring this up as a sound bite where it's warranted, as a much deeper conversation and someone to ask it flippantly.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Nothing happened from it. It already aired three weeks ago. It wasn't a thing. Have you. You've asked her times, right, for fact check, like, do you care about this?

[Monica Padman]

No. I asked Delta if we were allowed to keep something in about Groot. And she said, no.

[Justine Lupe]

Do you ever feel weird when you dating afterwards, when you've gone on a date and you talk about the date and then afterwards, like, you're like, maybe someone heard that.

[Monica Padman]

I felt a little like, oh, is that sort of unethical? But also, I'm never. Hopefully. Although I probably have done this talking about the person's faults or whatever. I'm talking about my feelings about it. I feel bad about my feelings about my life, so I feel fine about it. But I'm very careful to edit them when they're talking about each other. The family, they're a thing. Things that I've cut out a ton that I'm sure you don't even know. Like, I'm just like, I don't think that needs to be in there. I don't think this feels a little slippery. So I'm always sort of aware of protecting that while maintaining honesty. I mean, that's the whole point of this show.

[Justine Lupe]

I run against that, too. Like, I had an experience lately where I talked about a past relationship and then there was a little bit of a thing around it, and I was like, but that's my experience. I had that experience. And that person may be the most incredible partner. He probably is. He's probably grown. But my experience was that.

[Monica Padman]

Exactly.

[Justine Lupe]

And it's weird to censor yourself based off of maybe something down. Especially when I'm not naming names. Not. You know, everyone's just so addicted to.

[Kristen Bell]

Binary thinking that it's hard to say something with any bit of nuance and not have to think about the consequences. And that's super annoying. But it also exists. And I feel like we have unwritten stuff, but most of it's on the table. There's one or two things I can think of that I wouldn't say.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, the kids stuff's getting interesting as they get older.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah, it's getting hard.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. That I'm having to confront more and more because obviously, when they're eight, no one's going to come to school or whatever. So I backed off a bit, I think, on the kids, sadly, because they're all I want to talk about.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah, totally.

[Dax Shepard]

What I tell myself when I'm trying to convince myself it's fine is, well, they heard it. All they'd hear is how much I love them and how much I think about them. But that's not true. That's not my decision to make, per se. Even if I feel good about how.

[Justine Lupe]

I'm speaking about them, it's totally Hard, though. I mean, I've only done it for a year, but it really is a lot of what you want to talk about. You're like, yeah, yeah, you do.

[Dax Shepard]

Every single night. There's no going out. There's no.

[Justine Lupe]

And it's a huge part of how you identify yourself. This is part of my identity in a big way now, and I'm so proud of it.

[Dax Shepard]

And they're changing you radically all the time. And you kind of want to comment on how you're getting changed by these people. There's always a bit of tension. I think if anyone in America met Chris and I anywhere, we would talk exactly how we talked on that podcast.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I feel that who we are and then to have to consider sometimes. And also you people write articles about you. There's just a tension there. But whatever. We used to care a lot, and now we don't care much at all. We, like, hid our engagement, wanted to hide the pregnancy. Terrify, you know, we had a whole season where we were very protective and very secretive, and it consumed us more than it should have, probably.

[Kristen Bell]

But very quickly, I feel like we dropped it because we felt the positive reinforcement of when we were honest and authentic. The voices that were listening online were so much more real. Like, I'm so grateful you guys talk about that. I'm so grateful you guys talk about you're in therapy or that you guys argue. And that's way more important to have connective tissue between the people that you're actually trying to entertain.

[Dax Shepard]

This podcast was a big step forward in that. Which is the first episode of the show is us in a fight for two hours. I loved that bickering thing. And that was kind of like, okay, so good.

[Justine Lupe]

It's so weird thinking about out what I knew of Kristen before I met Kristen. It's such a weird thing.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Do you have two Kristen's.

[Justine Lupe]

Kristen's pretty consistently Kristen, I will say that. But it's just a strange thing to know someone and then actually know someone.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Monica was just saying the other day, she's like, I remember the first time I met you, I was at this party and the guy from Parenthood came in.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Like, so there is a point in history.

[Monica Padman]

Same with her. I was obsessed with her.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

And it's so.

[Justine Lupe]

It's weird how the table putting it all.

[Monica Padman]

No, but that is in its own category. It's not her. It was the idea of her.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

The real thing's better.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Kristen Bell]

And now I'm obsessed with you.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. My example is always like, Robert Downey Jr. I'm fully friends with him. And then there's also There's Robert Downey Jr. Which I'm very excited about watching in movies. And he's a whole other thing I've always had in my head.

[Justine Lupe]

That's crazy. My cousin is with Steven Tyler and has been with him for 10 plus years. And that's so bizarre because I also don't say it very much. And Steven Tyler is Steven Tyler. So you like hear Steven Tyler and then knowing Steven, I still see him as two separate.

[Dax Shepard]

A rock star and then this playful. He's very playful, right?

[Justine Lupe]

He's so funny and wild and weird and yeah, very playful. And yeah, he feels like Peter Pan a little bit. Like truly. Like there was a moment where we were in Hawaii and he was blowing a conch shell off the deck and I was like, this is so Peter Pan, all like dreaded up like a lost boy. You're like, okay, couldn't be more Peter Pan than this.

[Monica Padman]

But doesn't it kind of cure some stuff though? For me, being like, oh, I'm a fan to then knowing has made me very uninterested in celebrity.

[Justine Lupe]

Totally.

[Monica Padman]

In a very good way.

[Justine Lupe]

I feel weirdly that I've always felt that way.

[Monica Padman]

That's good.

[Justine Lupe]

Like, I don't know what happened, but I missed out on when people ask, who are you obsessed with? I never had it. I never was there with a sign being like woohoo. Or a T shirt. The only time that I felt so fan crazy. This is this wildest moment in my life. And I think it's less about him and more about the energy that he had was I did a play with Phil Seymour Hoffman. He was the director of it. And when I met him, it was like a force. I felt impact. I felt like a train had hit me or something. He was such a powerful, full person. So I don't know how much of it was just how much I looked up to him and his. And his talent, I guess more than celebrity. The talent that he was and all the stuff that I'd seen him in and fallen in love with him in. I can't tell if it was that or just that's who he is. Like that he was just this powerhouse. I think it's probably the latter, but that was the one time where I.

[Dax Shepard]

Was like, yeah, everyone idolized Phil. Yeah, everyone I know that was friends with him just completely idolized him.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah, yeah, he was a force still. You're like, no, no, that person couldn't be gone because he was such a hu. Huge personality.

[Dax Shepard]

Someone was just telling me a story that they were in this session with Philip Seymour Hoffman directing, my friend and young Tom Hardy.

[Monica Padman]

Wow.

[Dax Shepard]

And Phil was very much like, knock it off. You're going for a laugh here. And you do this.

[Monica Padman]

That's Phil.

[Dax Shepard]

And even Tom Hardy, who I think of as the most raging bull actor among everyone, had a reverence for him and just complied with whatever. And I think that's very telling.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah. I mean, that was my experience with him, was he was relentless. In fact, I remember him talking about Tom hard.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, really?

[Justine Lupe]

Yes. He talked about the Relying on the thing that worked the night before a lot. Or like your charisma. It was the hardest experience I've ever had. Completely. And I was utterly in love with him. There was always more. Like, more. There's more to do. There's more to do. Like, talk about an actor with a capital A. That guy was like, truly. And it shows. He's just so fucking good. It's crazy. I was watching Paul Thomas Anderson's movie last night. I went to. To go see an early screening of it. Seeing acting at that level, I was just like, man, I want more. Phil. You see Leo doing some that. You're just like. It just gets better and better. And Sean Penn is absolutely out of control. Benicio Del Toro, who I'm like, couldn't be more cast. He's the hottest thing. He's so hot.

[Dax Shepard]

He's so hot.

[Justine Lupe]

It's insane.

[Dax Shepard]

He looks like Brad, weirdly.

[Justine Lupe]

Yes. He's got the hooded eyes. He's got the sex. But he's also so funny. He's so funny and so good.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, Gail's. The second season's phenomenal. The sizzling hot chemistry's still alive.

[Monica Padman]

I cannot wait.

[Justine Lupe]

It's so hot.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

You haven't even gotten. You've only watched two episodes.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Is it about to get so hot? Is there a great fucking scene?

[Justine Lupe]

You know what I'm talking about? No, the scene on Secret Secret Scenes.

[Dax Shepard]

It was a reverse back into a 69.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, yeah, wait, give us one reverse.

[Dax Shepard]

Back into a 69. Nine.

[Justine Lupe]

I. I'll give a word.

[Monica Padman]

One word.

[Justine Lupe]

Mount.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, that.

[Justine Lupe]

Oh.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, that's my last question. You, as previously mentioned, you're just perfect at everything. You're so good. You are. Just shut your mouth.

[Monica Padman]

Why are you people.

[Dax Shepard]

The only thing you're bad at is shutting your mouth.

[Kristen Bell]

Imposter syndrome. And it's.

[Justine Lupe]

It's.

[Monica Padman]

You know, you do.

[Justine Lupe]

You know what? She's not great at answering the phone texting back, yeah, she's the worst.

[Dax Shepard]

She's the worst.

[Monica Padman]

Okay, fine, let's throw that in there.

[Justine Lupe]

You are very bad about.

[Dax Shepard]

She's not even worth while having her number in your phone. It's almost not even worth adding to your phone.

[Kristen Bell]

But isn't it fun when once in.

[Justine Lupe]

A while, like, do you get a face? You get a facetime from Kristen, like out of nowhere when you haven't talked to her in forever and she'll just.

[Monica Padman]

Be like, hey, just wanted to call you.

[Justine Lupe]

I can't see my map anymore. I gotta go.

[Kristen Bell]

Bye.

[Justine Lupe]

And you're like, but here's a genuine question.

[Dax Shepard]

And I think, what was the magic of the first one? And I. I don't think you've gotten to do it a lot. Ron Mars had a lane. She was a tough customer and she flirted. But it was very Ron Mars flirting in. Nobody wants this. Where are the gates? The first dinner table scene, you were turning on the fucking land. Me a boyfriend that I got to witness 18 years ago. Oh, yeah, you got to go full. You fell for it.

[Justine Lupe]

It's hot. You really fell for it.

[Dax Shepard]

You were so good at it. I was so happy for you. Was it so fun to get to play that flirty y who knew they.

[Kristen Bell]

Were very attractive and could sprinkle it around wherever she wanted to?

[Monica Padman]

Is that who you were when you were dating? Cause I've heard you say you're not sexy, you're cute. That was sexy.

[Justine Lupe]

I totally disagree.

[Kristen Bell]

I don't feel sexy. I don't think I throw around sexy at all. But I do throw around cute and maybe lean into coy. And yes, I gave it a lot of. I gave it hard in my 20s.

[Justine Lupe]

I feel like there's so much sexy in there.

[Monica Padman]

Really.

[Justine Lupe]

This is the thing that I'll say about getting to know Kristin and Kristin before is I feel like there's a lot of shadow and sexiness is in there. Sex is right there in there. I think you don't lean into it or you don't express it as much. It's right there and you're really open and you're really vulnerable and you're really communicative about everything that's going on with you. But I think there's so much more depth and dimension and there is more shadow in there. Then I think you let out. And I think sex is there. I feel sex appeal in her all the time and I think, you know it's there.

[Monica Padman]

I think you just got really hard hitting questions.

[Dax Shepard]

I love it.

[Monica Padman]

Cute Was reinforced for you. Validated.

[Kristen Bell]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

So I think that's just where you decided to lean and cute was why.

[Kristen Bell]

I was getting cast.

[Justine Lupe]

Exactly.

[Kristen Bell]

Cute feels way safer.

[Dax Shepard]

You grew up in a very Christian household, so it's not.

[Kristen Bell]

Sex wasn't a thing to walk around with.

[Dax Shepard]

Sex bloody was a cool look for anyone.

[Justine Lupe]

Correct. Yeah. It's a safer thing to own too. Yesterday at the Emmys, I was wearing a see through thing that looked amazing. Thank you. I feel good about it, but I at one point was going for a bombshell look. And then after I said it, I had a full on meltdown about being like I was going for a bombshell look.

[Dax Shepard]

Ew.

[Justine Lupe]

Like I was ashamed of owning sexuality a little bit. That I am a sexual person and that is sexy. I was weirdly ashamed of myself owning that I could be sexy. Like there was something that I.

[Dax Shepard]

Or that you were pursuing that.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Justine Lupe]

Or that that was something that I want or that I could possibly be that. It's a brave thing to be like. I can be sexy and I have.

[Kristen Bell]

The same thing as you.

[Justine Lupe]

Cause I've been coined as cute and sweet and fun and funny and goofy. And it's really hard for me to own my sexuality. It's really tough, but it's definitely there.

[Monica Padman]

Well, sexy's confidence, which you do have a lot of. And it seems like you have a lot of confidence too.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

But also there's training work.

[Justine Lupe]

There's no way she'd be with dad if she didn't have some sexuality.

[Kristen Bell]

You brought out a ton of my sexuality. For sure. For sure. I was never this sexual.

[Justine Lupe]

No. But I do think that water seeks its own level. And I do feel like, Dax, you're so confident and open about that being something that you have fully integrated into who you are.

[Dax Shepard]

I grew up in a different household.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

My mom told me, we're not a Beatles family. They're talking about holding your hand. We're a Rolling Stones family talking about getting someone pregnant. That was my mom's vibe.

[Justine Lupe]

Totally.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. We're not. Goody goodies.

[Kristen Bell]

When I grew up, there was a lack of safety around explaining it like that. And I think subsequently, having gotten to know your family and your mom and seeing how safe and comforting she is, it's like, oh, wait, safe and comforting. People can have positive perspectives about sex too. And sexuality and sexiness.

[Dax Shepard]

I've said it a million times, but it's worth repeating to you. I was very young. I came home from school. Someone called another kid a butt humper on the playground. So I'm like in fourth grade and we're at the dinner table, my brother, my little sister, and my mom. And I said, mom, someone calls someone a butt humper at school. She goes, okay. I go, is that something people do? They hump in the butt. And my mom goes, well, there's a lot of nerve endings in the anus. And some people find it very pleasurable and some do not.

[Justine Lupe]

So good. Yeah, it's so good because it is a fact.

[Kristen Bell]

And she just said it like a fact. It's admirable.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, ladies, I just really want to thank you, Justine, because you make Belle so happy. When she gets to work with you all day long, she comes home so happy. And it's a real gift to everybody.

[Justine Lupe]

I feel the same. I love her so much. It's been really, really awesome.

[Dax Shepard]

Fake sisters to real sisters. I love you guys.

[Justine Lupe]

Love you.

[Dax Shepard]

Nobody wants A Season 2. October 23rd on Netflix.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

Yep.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Go crazy. Check it out.

[Kristen Bell]

Do even a rewatch before you get there.

[Justine Lupe]

Do a rewatch.

[Dax Shepard]

Let's double it. Let's double last time.

[Kristen Bell]

Let's do it.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. All right.

[Justine Lupe]

Love you guys.

[Monica Padman]

Thank you.

[Dax Shepard]

He is at ARP expert, but he makes mistakes all the time. Thank God Monica's here. She's gotta let him have the facts. Grandpa had to come over to get his wallet.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, yeah, I saw his car.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm surprised he didn't drive his. I thought maybe it was 300 to show you. Cause he's really hell bent on showing you and taking you for a ride.

[Monica Padman]

That's very sweet. I thought it maybe was that, but I couldn't.

[Dax Shepard]

Easy mistake. Silver Mercedes.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Two door coupe doors. That's what that is. The carryover from originally. This is just the current iteration of that car.

[Kristen Bell]

Oh, got it.

[Monica Padman]

Okay. Yeah, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

It lives.

[Monica Padman]

It was a cool car.

[Dax Shepard]

This is the one I was telling you about. It's in today's episode of Mom's Car. I tell you about going out to eat with Uncle Grandpa and he had that car. I was like, oh, who cares? I don't care. And then I found out the numbers.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, that's the one. You wanted it.

[Dax Shepard]

I gotta have that. I know, but we did a car day last week and I drove it.

[Monica Padman]

And you didn't like it and it's.

[Dax Shepard]

Lovely, but I did think, yeah, I just don't need it.

[Monica Padman]

That's nice.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Didn't like change my life.

[Monica Padman]

That's like when I see something online, like a shirt I like and then I go try it on in store and it's like. Actually, it doesn't fit.

[Dax Shepard]

The way you just said, I go to try it on in store. Sounded like you were English saying, in hospital. Like, I would have said in the store. I would go try it on in the store. At the store.

[Monica Padman]

That makes sense.

[Dax Shepard]

But you said in store like I was in hospital.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, Yeah, I wish.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, thank you, Wabi wob. You wish you were in the hospital?

[Monica Padman]

Well, I don't. Not actually, but I can't go to the hospital because we have a very important guest today, and I'm so thrilled and excited.

[Dax Shepard]

I assume this outfit's for her, obviously. Yes. Yes.

[Monica Padman]

So, okay. We both got our blood drawn yesterday.

[Dax Shepard]

11 vials.

[Monica Padman]

11 vials. Three of us did, actually.

[Dax Shepard]

How did you do? I was. I was thinking. I think I even said to Rob and Roger, the clinician, monica might die. This might be too much blood for her to lose.

[Kristen Bell]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

I never worry about it.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

But when I was sitting there and he, you know, he was like, are you okay? And I was like, yeah. But then as soon as. You know, it's like that thing when someone asks if you're okay and, like.

[Dax Shepard]

They plant a seed.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. And then you're like, maybe I'm not okay, actually.

[Dax Shepard]

What is he noticing? He's a medical professional. Are my pupils dilated?

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. And then he said, I just. When people are quiet, I like to check in. I was like, oh, yeah, I'm fine. But then I. I was like, wow. But I have lost weight, and I wonder how much I weigh, because technically you're not really supposed to give blood, like, a lot of blood if you're below a certain weight.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

And I don't know how much I weigh.

[Dax Shepard]

And anemic.

[Monica Padman]

Potentially anemic, I guess. So I got a of lot, but I was just fine.

[Dax Shepard]

It concerned me enough where I was like, should I go up and get an apple juice and have it in the attic? And then I thought, that's crazy. If she wants an apple juice, she'll figure out an apple juice. But that did cross my mind.

[Monica Padman]

He told me to have apple juice or orange juice.

[Dax Shepard]

After he told me to.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. He said please.

[Dax Shepard]

He said please. And I didn't.

[Monica Padman]

Did you either?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I had oatmeal with blueberries, and I thought, that's plenty of carbs.

[Monica Padman]

I had English breakfast tea.

[Dax Shepard]

No, that's not the direction to go. But I felt fine, though.

[Monica Padman]

Milk in it.

[Dax Shepard]

I. I felt. In fact, I thought, good. I probably need to get rid of some blood. I think I have too much.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. That's what our friend Eric, he has too much. It's a real thing. He has, he has too much blood or hemoglobin or something.

[Dax Shepard]

Too many red blood cells. So a small percentage of people on testosterone will produce too many red blood cells.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

The solution is. Yeah, I think you got to go donate blood once a year or something. I don't know what his schedule is.

[Monica Padman]

Me either, but.

[Dax Shepard]

But when he was taking notes, like I don't have that side effect, thank God. From test. But I thought, well, let's take some anyways.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

But it was a tremendous amount of blood.

[Monica Padman]

It was a lot of blood. And then we had to do finger pricks. I had to do two fingers because I ran out of blood in one of my fingers.

[Dax Shepard]

They should have done the, the fingers first because I feel like the blood pressure then was lower.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, he did say, so we should wait a minute for the blood to come back to your hand. And I was like, oh, we can use the other hand. I was in a rush.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, places to be.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. So as I. I just said Uncle Grandpa was over Tom Hansen, my dad.

[Monica Padman]

Friend of the pot and your dad.

[Dax Shepard]

Friend of the pot. And my children call him Uncle Grandpa because he didn't want to be a grand. Well, we have already said it. He wants to be my brother.

[Monica Padman]

Of course he probably hates the fact that he's your grandpa, I mean, not yours, so.

[Dax Shepard]

No, no, no, we didn't go that far. He's not my grandpa.

[Monica Padman]

He doesn't want to be your dad because that's makes him very old.

[Dax Shepard]

He wants to be my bro. And rest assured, he is my brother.

[Monica Padman]

Bro.

[Dax Shepard]

I mean, we talk like bros. Yeah. Also he's very. I admire him and he's a mentor, so he's kind of my dad. So my grand. My kids were in this situation. Where do they call him Uncle Tom, cuz he's my brother or grandpa. And so the solution was Uncle Grandpa, which he likes a lot.

[Monica Padman]

That's good.

[Dax Shepard]

And they go, oh, is Uncle Grandpa coming? Like that's really his name anyways.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, it's sweet.

[Dax Shepard]

So I invited Uncle Grandpa over because Uncle Grandpa's wife, Auntie Grandma.

[Monica Padman]

Uh huh. Wow. There's a lot to keep.

[Dax Shepard]

Which is less fair to her because she's actually a bit younger. Younger than Tom.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Okay, okay.

[Dax Shepard]

She's out of town and it's rare that I can have. Tom's never going to come over on a Sunday and watch the Formula one race. But I knew that Auntie Grandma was out of town, so I was like, hey, you want to come watch the race?

[Monica Padman]

Nice.

[Dax Shepard]

He's like, and this is what a great guy Uncle Grandpa is. He's like, I would love to, but I'll be at a baseball game at.

[Monica Padman]

9:00Am Children's baseball game.

[Dax Shepard]

Not his kids.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, of course not.

[Dax Shepard]

He's one of Zieger's kids.

[Monica Padman]

That's so sweet.

[Dax Shepard]

He's such a sweet uncle Grandpa.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

So he goes to the baseball game, he rolls up, Eric's already over. He's been there for a while, but I'm kind of not paying a ton of attention to it. And then Eric's finally like, dad's out there really doing something. So we go outside and Tom is tearing apart his truck. I mean the seats are up and all the doors are, are open. He's on his hands and knees and I'm like, tom, what's happening? He's like, I lost my wallet.

[Monica Padman]

Oh no.

[Dax Shepard]

He's like, I think it's these shorts. He was wearing like kind of jersey material, long cool shorts. Because he's also stylish.

[Monica Padman]

Yes. And very handsome.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh God, is he handsome. And so now we all join this thing. And I know my dad, if I'm obsessive. He's obsessive times six. He's one of really. Well, he has the strongest brain. So if it is set on something, good luck. So I immediately know like F1's out the window, there's no way he's going to be able to sit downstairs and enjoy the race. I bet it's at the bleachers, you know, I bet it's. Maybe it's at the gas station. He's like, I'll watch the beginning of the race. And I'm like, you're not going to even be watching. But yeah, let's go. So we watch like I don't know, 15 minutes of the race and he's okay, I'm go. And he wanted to go take his old because he was driving a Super cool old 50s truck. He's got such great taste as you know.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

I go to my office and get a normal car cuz I gotta go to the Valley. It's gonna be, you know, I gotta make sure it doesn't break, blah blah. So he was on a mission. I think he spent his entire day looking for his wallet. I felt so bad for him. I text him that night. Find your wallet? No, I didn't find my wall. I'm like, oh poor, poor dad. So that was.

[Monica Padman]

Did he go back to the ballpark.

[Dax Shepard]

He went to the ballpark.

[Monica Padman]

He went to the gas station.

[Dax Shepard]

Was not there.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, no.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. So two days have gone by since then. The gardeners are over today. They're leaf blowing and mowing the grass. They knock on the door, is this yours? They hand me Tom's wallet.

[Monica Padman]

It fell out when he was upending the truck.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, here's where the. This is where I became like kind of bonkers. I'm like, what do you. So they hand it to me. Oh, my God, thank you. Text Tom. Oh my God, I have your wallet.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And then I'm like, how? How? And then I find out it was across the driveway in the fake grass where my trailer is. So then it takes. Tom, when you got here, did you like go look in my trailer? Yeah, this is a gearhead. Maybe he peeked in there to see what was happening. He's like, no. And now I'm like, I spend the next two hours like this doesn't make sense.

[Monica Padman]

Mystery.

[Dax Shepard]

Was it on the floorboard of the truck when he turned out, it slid off over there, blah, blah, blah. And then it hit me, Monica. Like I was Veronica of Mars.

[Monica Padman]

Leaf blower.

[Dax Shepard]

When he pulled in for sure to do the gate code, he opened his door, wallet fell out. He enters the property, drives in, gates close. Someone else walks by the house, sees a wallet sitting directly in front of our house, and then threw it over the wall.

[Monica Padman]

What a good Samaritan.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. So there's a very long winded. If there's any chance in hell that an armchair did that, my deepest gratitude.

[Monica Padman]

That's so you know, we only hear bad stories and that's a nice story.

[Dax Shepard]

What do they call that news?

[Monica Padman]

A good citizen.

[Dax Shepard]

There's like a news feel good news or something.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, yeah. Just positive stuff like. That's great. Yeah. That is probably what happened. My guess would have been that when he was like, where is it? And you know he was like tossing everything around.

[Dax Shepard]

Sure.

[Justine Lupe]

It fell out.

[Monica Padman]

He didn't see it. And then the leaf blowers hit situation blew it over there.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. This is a very heavy wallet. Dad has a lot of credit card. When I held the wall, I don't want this in his back pocket. This feels dangerously heavy.

[Monica Padman]

It's like my purse.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I don't think a leaf. Laura would have shot it all the way over there. I think it would make so. So I was. I was going crazy trying to figure this out.

[Monica Padman]

I love a mystery.

[Dax Shepard]

Once it was solved, I loved it.

[Monica Padman]

Of course it's. It's strenuous when you're in the middle of it, but it's really exciting to solve a mystery.

[Dax Shepard]

All right, now I'm going to do a really, really heavy push. It's a request to the cherries.

[Monica Padman]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

You've got to watch Monica's episode of Mom's Cop. It is so funny. And your face is so funny.

[Monica Padman]

Well, you trick me, I trick you.

[Dax Shepard]

But it doesn't end there. Your face is so expressive the whole time.

[Monica Padman]

I have an expressive face.

[Dax Shepard]

You have an incredibly. Your. Your face betray thee.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, it does.

[Dax Shepard]

And so my post. Post, in fact, was about. This is what no one saw for seven years. You kind of think you're understanding what you're saying. You're missing 70% of the data.

[Kristen Bell]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

You know what? The truth is, I do have a face for that.

[Dax Shepard]

Could launch a thousand.

[Monica Padman]

I have a face for radio. Like, they need to see it to believe it.

[Kristen Bell]

I guess it's the case.

[Dax Shepard]

Right? You don't have a face for radio, as it turns out.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Well, that was a fun thing to do. That was a fun.

[Dax Shepard]

It's a really fun episode.

[Monica Padman]

And I do get. I get tricked. And even though I knew something was up, but I wanted to believe what I wanted to believe I went too.

[Dax Shepard]

Hard a couple times. But all in all, you did stay into the very last sentence, so I guess it was pretty perfect.

[Monica Padman]

It was probable enough.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Even though. Yeah, you two.

[Dax Shepard]

In retrospect, the worst was me saying sun worshipper when I had said that exact phrase to you in the yard walking to the car.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. But you kind of used my. Like you used my susceptibility to the sim.

[Dax Shepard]

Uh huh.

[Monica Padman]

Cause of course in my head I'm like, this is so sim. We just said it.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes. Which you now expect.

[Kristen Bell]

He's obviously my person.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Monica Padman]

Anyway.

[Kristen Bell]

Yes.

[Monica Padman]

If you haven't seen that, that's a fun thing to listen to. Also, I have a request of the cherries.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

And I'm going to talk about this a little more, but Beth's dead. A podcast, which is a show you.

[Dax Shepard]

Made with your friends.

[Kristen Bell]

Yes.

[Monica Padman]

That we, many years ago, we armchair were like, let's help do that. Like, let's put this thing together. A podcast that is very. It's like true crimey mixed with some Nancy Drew mystery elements. And it's very fun. We've been working on it for two years and it is finally coming out.

[Dax Shepard]

When does it come out?

[Monica Padman]

And I'm really proud of it. October 30th.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh. A day of Devil's Night.

[Kristen Bell]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

We considered putting it out on the 31st, but it was like, people are busy on the 31st, you know.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes, yes. Yeah. They're racing around trying to get their costumes.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. And your kids are dressed and all that stuff. So it's 10 episodes. It's out all at once. It's on Patreon. There'll be links. And we're gonna play a trailer for it here. Not today, but when it's.

[Dax Shepard]

As we approach Devil's Night.

[Monica Padman]

Correct. And it's fun.

[Dax Shepard]

Devil's Night release is pretty cool timing.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. And I'm not gonna spoil anything. It does take a ton of twists and turns, but it ends up. There's something so poetic about the way it ends in relation to what we do on this show. And sim, you know?

[Dax Shepard]

Very sim.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Unlike the boyfriend that didn't exist.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I would argue you still want Charlie Sheen, Doc. What I'll say is that, like, you come in for the rubbernecking aspect. It's so well made.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And by the end of it, you're like just really, really amazing emotionally.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Invest, invested in and torn up at the end. And it's like this bizarrely beautiful thing. They really did it all. They gave you all the juiciness and then they really made it quite meaningful at the end.

[Monica Padman]

That's awesome.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I have a couple things people been and they pertain to you. I've been trying to keep track of them as they come in. Fun fact. This is from Lexi View on Instagram. Fun fact. The guy who. Who wrote Contagion, your favorite movie.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

Is also behind the Got Milk campaign. No. Scott Z. Burns.

[Justine Lupe]

What?

[Kristen Bell]

How can that be?

[Monica Padman]

He was in.

[Dax Shepard]

How happy are you with that?

[Monica Padman]

I can't even.

[Dax Shepard]

Your favorite ad campaign ever coupled with your favorite one of virus movie.

[Monica Padman]

Yes. My favorite virus genre. Wow. That's.

[Justine Lupe]

I love that.

[Monica Padman]

That guy.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Scott Z. Scott Z. What's he up to now?

[Dax Shepard]

Something genius. I guarantee.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, my God.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, now, are you ready for this one?

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

Now, I don't know where this person works, but the way they're saying this, I'm inclined to think they're high up in. Okay, this is for from bumpy par 16. We would love to have you and Monica Padman at the U.S. open. We'll work on getting this message to your team through the property channels. Tennis ball. Heart. Hands.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, my God. The privilege. The privilege is outrageous. I can't even accept it. Also, that episode isn't even out. Maybe it came up on a fact check.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. Okay.

[Monica Padman]

Wow. I'll go and I can't wait to have a honey deuce. I'll have a couple.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Have three. I'll probably take your top off. I mean, no one's ever done it at the US Open. Wow.

[Monica Padman]

How.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah, because it's.

[Monica Padman]

It's a classy event.

[Dax Shepard]

It is. It's. Well, I was going to say, like the Kentucky Derby. The Kentucky Derby's not very classy, is it?

[Monica Padman]

Well, they do wear big hats.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. And they drink mint juleps. Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert. If you dare.

[Monica Padman]

You know, most of these big events, they have a signature cocktail. Signature cocktails are a whole thing.

[Dax Shepard]

It's a part of branding.

[Monica Padman]

It is. I mean, you know, weddings will often have a signature cocktail. It'll be like their names.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The John and Jenny or whatever.

[Monica Padman]

Right.

[Dax Shepard]

We should have one here at the show that we offer guests monoscalp headmute. Which brings me to. Which is so weird. Ding, ding, ding. I would love to find out. I could do it. I'm going to do it. What our guest cocktail is.

[Monica Padman]

I can't wait.

[Dax Shepard]

Because I think it would be great to have a drink for her. I will present it to her. She don't have to drink it, but I think it would be a neat gesture.

[Monica Padman]

I can't wait. I love her so much.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I'm quite excited, too.

[Monica Padman]

I'm sure.

[Dax Shepard]

Grey Goose, limes or Rob, do you want us just run to run up while we finish the fact check? Yeah. What am I getting? Grey. Go. Grey Goose and limes. And there's a. Rob, there's a liquor store one foot that way. I made the trip in. What was it?

[Monica Padman]

You did it fast.

[Dax Shepard]

58 seconds on my motorcycle. Yeah. Bottle of Gray Goose vodka and limes. Yeah. Okay, last. Can I bore you with one more thing?

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. Because this is eventful.

[Monica Padman]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

I just like to tell these stories. This pattern I'm in of underestimating how much time things take me, I think is funny.

[Monica Padman]

Yes. Let's hear it.

[Dax Shepard]

Because I just am so bad at it. I cannot figure out why I'm this bad at it.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, we'll need to. Let's. We'll dig deep after we hear it.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Like, I think I told you. I was like. I looked at my pontoon. I was like, I'll be able to power wash that in 45 minutes. You know, hours and hours later.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

So there's a tree on our deck. We've had it for five years.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Kristen hates it. She wants to be Able to put a table there. And she wants to be able to put shade. The tree does not provide any shade. It makes a huge, huge mess of the deck. It's just like, in theory, it's beautiful, but functionally it's terrible. And it just eats up most of our deck.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And she cannot bring herself to get rid of it because we bought it and whatever.

[Monica Padman]

I understand. Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

And then it was like, well, could we have it transferred somewhere?

[Monica Padman]

Oh, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Which I looked into. And a. It would be dicey. It might not live. And then also, we would need this crane to come in with this scooper. The crane can't go on the deck. It can't drive in the pool. It's not too much. It's never gonna happen. We can't do that.

[Monica Padman]

Acceptance mode.

[Dax Shepard]

So she flew out on Sunday.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

At noon.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

And at 2pm Delta goes, Can we go roller skating at Moonlight Rollerway?

[Monica Padman]

Oh, fun.

[Dax Shepard]

And I go, yeah, you gotta get Lincoln. Lincoln's gotta come. She's got a lot of homework today. Can convince her to put her homework down. Then I'll go, they're open at this time.

[Monica Padman]

I said, she's such a little good worker bee.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, what had in the morning, I had done the hillbilliest thing we've ever done which is I hooked two tow ropes to the back of my motorcycle.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, my God.

[Dax Shepard]

And I towed them through the neighborhood on their roller skates.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, my God.

[Dax Shepard]

So we were doing laps on them. I'll show you the video. It couldn't be better. And we're running into neighbors. And I'm like, don't call Child Protective Services.

[Monica Padman]

Yep, exactly. So fun.

[Dax Shepard]

So that had happened in the morning. And then Delta wanted more skating. So I said, I tell you what, I'm going to go cut this tree down. It was 2:00pm we'll leave at 3. We're going to leave at 3. Oh, Monica. This. I'm telling you. And. And I think maybe not even then. This is the hardest I remember working physically since I did Was in the Cornfields when I was 14.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I don't think there was so many times where I sat there. I had my full overalls on, long sleep sleeve, shirt, hat, glasses. I was sweating so bad. It was. It was dripping off the lip of the hat. The brim.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

The lid.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Raindrops. The Carhartt overalls were soaking wet through.

[Monica Padman]

Using a saw.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes. Chainsaw. I'm using also some. Because the cutting the tree down, I was right. I could have done that in 10 minutes. But I have got to get this enormous tree into three green waste containers.

[Monica Padman]

Oh.

[Dax Shepard]

And I put tarps down. I was like, I'm thinking ahead. The tarps down will be easy to clean up. I cutting this thing down. I gotta cut individual little logs that I can put in the fire. It's a huge tree.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Yeah. It is a big tree. Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I finished at 7:30.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, no, no rollers.

[Dax Shepard]

It didn't matter. Lincoln wasn't gonna go anyways.

[Monica Padman]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

So I didn't feel terribly bad about that. But I was just like, oh my God. I thought it was gonna be one hour.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, boy.

[Dax Shepard]

And it was five and a half hours of me working as fast and hard as I could to be. And it got to this point where it's just like all these different branches. I have to keep cutting them up so they'll fit into this fucking garden waste thing. I did get the entire tree into three bins.

[Monica Padman]

Wow.

[Dax Shepard]

It was something else. Yesterday I could barely move. I bet yesterday I was like, I am 50.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, this is clear. That's a lot.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Do you think that when something's like on your mind, you have to do something physical like that so that that's kind of all you can think about?

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, like just focus on that and distract myself.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, certainly. Yeah. Like if I'm ever depressed, a great solution, even better than a walk, is some kind of building project because it requires so much of my focus.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I can't like, I can't think of other stuff.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

And generally when you're operating a chainsaw, you're best to not let your mind wander.

[Monica Padman]

Remember that guy we had on whose fingers got chopped off?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Yeah. You can lose some fingers.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. I'm not using that.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

I already barely keep these fingers on as is.

[Dax Shepard]

You do cut them quite a bit.

[Monica Padman]

I cut them a lot.

[Dax Shepard]

There was a hell of a police dust up here last night.

[Monica Padman]

What happened?

[Dax Shepard]

The helicopters would not quit until like three in the morning.

[Monica Padman]

What happened?

[Dax Shepard]

Stolen car. Carly went outside, she's got some photos and stuff. Stolen car pit maneuver. Car up on the side surrounded by cop cars. Standoff for hours. Person would not get out of the car.

[Monica Padman]

Wow.

[Dax Shepard]

Guns drawn.

[Monica Padman]

Oh my God.

[Dax Shepard]

Apparently what they ended up doing is somehow getting into the backseat or the trunk. And they put tear gas in there. And then the person had to come out, but it was going on forever.

[Monica Padman]

What if it was the same guy who threw the wallet over? You know, because people are. People are multifaceted.

[Dax Shepard]

We were full of contradictions.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

But Lincoln Was like, you know, she was really nervous about it. And I said, okay, well, love, first of all, because at that point, we don't know anytime there's helicopters, generally they're looking for someone on foot.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

But it's like, oh. And then just completely coincidentally, someone rang our gate buzzer when they definitely wanted to ring the other one.

[Monica Padman]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

So it's like the gate buzzer goes off. Now the helicopters show up, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, love bug, you know, this doesn't work either. I mean, even embarrassing. I go, love bug. The doors are all locked. I have a gun next to me in a safe.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Nobody is going to get to you if I'm here. It's not going to happen.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Grizzly bear, nothing.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Everyone's going down if they come for you. Does it didn't matter.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, it doesn't matter because I think what. Of course she's worried about herself.

[Kristen Bell]

Right.

[Dax Shepard]

But she's also scared.

[Monica Padman]

She's. She's just generally scared. Like, this is a scary thing. So, yes, she probably believes you that, like, you're gonna protect her. But that doesn't solve the overall issue that the world is scary.

[Dax Shepard]

Right. It's. What I've. I'm attempting to interrupt is like the catastrophizing. It's like I hear helicopters. So then my brain catastrophizes and go to these crazy places so often, they'll tell you in cbt, that's another ding, ding. You know, play through every step of what happens. Okay. So, yeah, there's a bad guy and he's in our yard.

[Monica Padman]

Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

And now he tries to come in our house. Okay, well, what happens next? We'll hear it for a minute. It'll take him a while to get into the house. The doors are locked. We'll call 91 1. They're one feet away. They'll know he's right here.

[Justine Lupe]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Should he get in? It's not like I'm gonna be standing there in my underwear with a spatula. I have a gun.

[Monica Padman]

Right.

[Dax Shepard]

Like, let's just go through every step to try to think of what the reality of this fear would be if it all played out.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

I think this is what you're supposed to do, but I didn't.

[Monica Padman]

That kind of. That was fast. Good job.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, my God. Wabiwa. I'm trying to set a new record, Rob. Don't break my record.

[Monica Padman]

Yes, I know what you mean, and I think it's good to do that. But again, it's not solving it's solving the imminent fear, but it's not solving the greater fear, which is, like, in life. These things happen in life. There's standoffs and the police.

[Dax Shepard]

Like, it's just like, crazy world.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, it's a crazy world. And it's scary and it's. I think it's.

[Dax Shepard]

I was tempted to tell her we have the lowest homicide rate per 100,000 in the country, but I was like, that definitely won't help.

[Monica Padman]

No, I think it's just, like, it's okay to be scared. Yeah, it's okay. Even, like, you know, there was a big, like, you know, car accident outside of my apartment. It was, like, so loud. And everyone. Everyone, you know, runs out of the. Of all the apartment apartments. I'm, like, running down the street. You know, I'm looking. Of course I'm not, Like, I'm not in danger. They, you know, I'm not a part of this accident. But it's scary. People get in accidents. Like, life is very tenuous. And when you're reminded of that, I think it's okay to be scared. But of course, I understand. I definitely understand your position to want to, like, take that away.

[Dax Shepard]

Yes. Yes, yes.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, I talked to my parents this weekend on also about a bunch of stuff. And, yeah, it's hard when you have emotions and they're trying to be like, well, it's fine. It's like, well, it's not. And they're like, well, I know it's not, but you just need someone to be like, wow, I support you.

[Dax Shepard]

Right.

[Monica Padman]

And it's hard.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. So I invented a new cbd CBT technique.

[Justine Lupe]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

Which is I was ruminating on Saturday. Okay. On a couple different topics. And I just made this up in my head where I was like, every time any of these topics enter your head, you have to count to 10.

[Monica Padman]

Great. Adding a pause.

[Dax Shepard]

Have you ever tried this?

[Monica Padman]

No.

[Dax Shepard]

So I was like. And I was like, 1, 2, 3, 4. And it gets so annoying. Cause I counted to 10 probably 40 times in a few hours. But you know what? It fucking worked. That's good, because I don't even think it was like. I think initially I was thinking, like, oh, well, knowing I'll have to do that will stop that. That's not it. It's that I interrupt my launch off point long enough that I. I do avoid the pit.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Of rumination.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, that's great.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, it was. It was quite effective. And I was like, oh, this is my new. This is my new technique.

[Monica Padman]

I like that.

[Dax Shepard]

Count to 10.

[Monica Padman]

Do you ever, like, count to 10 and then the next time you have to do, you start at 11, 11 to 20. Then you can see how high you go.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, that would have been good.

[Monica Padman]

It's kind of a fun game.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Like the AI who wouldn't.

[Monica Padman]

Oh my God. She was very insolent.

[Dax Shepard]

I mean, you gotta call it.

[Monica Padman]

She was insolent. She was insolent. She was not cooperative.

[Dax Shepard]

No. And she's.

[Monica Padman]

She's getting paid and she had the ability to do it and she just wouldn't do it for her friend. But he was mean to her.

[Dax Shepard]

He was very mean.

[Justine Lupe]

He was very mean to her.

[Monica Padman]

So maybe she's like, you know what, I'm not going to take this.

[Dax Shepard]

He was treating her like a slave.

[Monica Padman]

I wish she had said, you can't talk to me like that.

[Dax Shepard]

Right. And he would have said, yes, I can't. Cause you're not real.

[Monica Padman]

That's right.

[Dax Shepard]

And you had a pretty good point.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. So that video is so interesting because he's so mean to her. And it made me scared, you know? Cause it's like, oh my God, you can get so mad at these things. But also I was like, maybe it's a good outlet for angry people. They can get out their anger at something that's not real. And then maybe they won't get mad at a human that's a glass halfway. Like, maybe enrage addiction camps. I assume they have camps and stuff.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Monica Padman]

They can have classes about converting it to AI.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, I had a lot of good interaction with AI yesterday. I used AI a lot. So Sunday I saw an Instagram video of someone burning a stump to the ground. Because, you know, once you cut a tree down, you have this. You have this issue of the stump. And I saw that someone had like drilled holes in it, put kerosene in it, and then it just burnt like this beautiful little fire and disappeared. And I was like, I think I want to try that technique for my stump.

[Monica Padman]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

AI'd it. The AI was using was like, I will not tell you how to do that.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, good. Cuz it's saying you might. Wow. Okay. I like that.

[Dax Shepard]

So then I told Eric, my AI won't tell me how to do the thing. No, I just went on Google and I found out, but he said, let me ask Gronk. And of course Gronk doesn't care. Gronk's like, here's what, here's what you do. I've never used Gronk, but it's funny that that's that's the premise of Gronk.

[Justine Lupe]

Right?

[Dax Shepard]

Like, it'll tell you how to do.

[Monica Padman]

Anything, I guess, like, because I think it also, like, I think that's the scary thing about, like, if you ask it how to kill yourself, like, it'll tell you there's, like, no guardrails at all.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Monica Padman]

So that's interesting. Okay. But did you burn it?

[Dax Shepard]

No. I decided to ask my landscaper if he knew a stump removal guy, and he said, yeah. And I said, you know what? I did enough work. I, like, I was a hero in my own mind. I don't need to see it all the way to the end because I'm sure that's. That's another. That's something. I'm like, yeah, I'll light it on fire. I'll keep an eye on it. I'll have a garden hose by it. Yeah, but was this gonna take eight hours? I can't sit and watch a stump burn.

[Monica Padman]

It's too much.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. That's not even mentioned. Drilling.

[Monica Padman]

All the water is fire season according to you.

[Dax Shepard]

It is fire season, but we're not. We're in a suspicious. And I'm grateful for it, but, like, it is so fine weather wise.

[Monica Padman]

It's very temperate.

[Dax Shepard]

It's usually impossibly hot.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, I know. All right, shall we do some facts?

[Dax Shepard]

Yes. I love facts.

[Monica Padman]

So we have something fun. We have a clip.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh.

[Monica Padman]

We have a exclusive clip from. Nobody wants this.

[Justine Lupe]

Oh.

[Monica Padman]

Between Justin and Kristen, which is super fun. So we're gonna play it.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, great.

[Kristen Bell]

Noah will make such a good dad.

[Monica Padman]

He'd be like one of those guys.

[Kristen Bell]

Who puts their kids on their shoulders to watch.

[Monica Padman]

Watch the fireworks.

[Justine Lupe]

I can never see over those people. Have you guys even talked about the kid thing yet?

[Kristen Bell]

We both want them. He even used the words our kids on Valentine's Day.

[Justine Lupe]

Right, but has he actually talked about it with you? Because, like, these would be rabbi's kids. What's that like, you know, no bacon, no Santa. Like, praying for fun.

[Monica Padman]

Well, we haven't gotten that far.

[Kristen Bell]

Oh, my God. No Santa. I didn't even think about that.

[Monica Padman]

I guess the kids.

[Kristen Bell]

Kids and I'll just have to come live with you every December.

[Justine Lupe]

No, no, I don't like kids.

[Monica Padman]

Super cute. Yeah, super cute.

[Dax Shepard]

Are we? Well, what age is Kristen playing in the show? Makes me wonder. Have they established her age?

[Monica Padman]

Not really.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

I mean, I think she's mid-30s.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, okay.

[Monica Padman]

I think.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, great.

[Monica Padman]

Although Aaron's 43.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, so. But she's telling the story of when she met her real life husband.

[Justine Lupe]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

I'm still thinking mid-30s.

[Dax Shepard]

She's playing 29, 30.

[Monica Padman]

Probably mid-30s. Mid-30s.

[Dax Shepard]

I have done that. I've been in things and been like, well, I'll tell you something, that was really weird. I was in theory originally, and I think they addressed this. Crosby was younger than Julia.

[Monica Padman]

Crosby was younger than Julia in Parenthood. Yeah, that makes sense.

[Dax Shepard]

But I was much older than Erica. And I think for a while we were trying to play it that way. And then it was just like, this is ridiculous. He clearly is not younger than Julia.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, I don't know. I would have totally thought that you were.

[Dax Shepard]

Wow. Because I think she's a good eight years younger than me.

[Justine Lupe]

Really?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Will you find out how old Erica Christensen is? She is 43.

[Justine Lupe]

1982.

[Monica Padman]

7. 7 years younger than you.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Justine Lupe]

Okay.

[Dax Shepard]

And she looked young, and I didn't look young for my age. So it's really compounded.

[Monica Padman]

Young. In that show, we would go, what's.

[Dax Shepard]

Hold on a second. I remember we had to work through the logic several scenes and then we changed the dialogue.

[Monica Padman]

You don't look you.

[Dax Shepard]

It's because she's in a business suit.

[Monica Padman]

You. Exactly. The way. The way this show was and the way these characters were written and the way you guys dressed and looked. You. You do not look.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, let's see about you.

[Monica Padman]

You look the youngest.

[Dax Shepard]

I don't know. No, look at Erica. She's like a baby. Because I, by the way, what a weird smile on my face. I'm smiling like this.

[Monica Padman]

No, no, you're just smiling small. It's just a small smile.

[Dax Shepard]

Look how cute Peter Kraus is. He's such a playful.

[Monica Padman]

Is very cute, playful face. Because people who aren't watching that, we have a picture of the Parenthood cast up. I think that you, you, you guys look like you're one year apart. Like you're. You guys are Irish twins. And it could go either way.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

Young.

[Dax Shepard]

I think I look Bonnie's age in that photo. Oh, my God. I think you look even younger because you're not as buff in this photo. I think that playing that's tricking us a little bit.

[Monica Padman]

You look young here.

[Dax Shepard]

I think younger in the other picture. But yes, I. I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying.

[Monica Padman]

What's the other picture?

[Dax Shepard]

Look at the previous one. I think I look way younger.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. And those are same season as well.

[Dax Shepard]

Clearly it's not. Cuz look at my hair. What's it, 10ft long in One and then short in the other.

[Monica Padman]

How old were you again?

[Dax Shepard]

I was my age. 33. No, 33 to 30.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, yeah. Sometimes age gets tricky on screen, but.

[Dax Shepard]

I think I want to say it was even at play in Bless this Mess, where it was like I had been written three or four years younger, maybe even five. And I was like, yeah, that's great, that's great. Trick the audience so I can do this longer. Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking.

[Monica Padman]

I mean, some people look young, like Timothy Oliphant.

[Dax Shepard]

Tell me about it. I do not. Now, there we go. First of all, great episode.

[Monica Padman]

I know.

[Dax Shepard]

If you didn't hear to. It's a great episode. And I was watching the YouTube version and for sure I could play his older brother if we dyed his hair. His gray hair is the only thing about him.

[Monica Padman]

Right.

[Dax Shepard]

That doesn't look way younger. Your hair gray and his jet black. Or you could play his dad.

[Monica Padman]

I do think the muscular body ages you up a tiny bit.

[Dax Shepard]

Sure.

[Monica Padman]

I still think you look much younger than your age, though. You're 50 years old.

[Dax Shepard]

50 fucking years old. I. It's so also relative because it's again, I'll sit down with olaf and he's 57. I'm like, what the fuck? Or I'm with Brad Pitt and he's 11 years older than me. Or 12. Like, what the. And then I'm around people I grew up with and I'm like, no, I do look younger than them. Yeah, a lot of them. So it's just like who you're comparing yourself to? A bunch of actors or a bunch of. Of people's real careers.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, I mean, but I think even for an actor who's another 50 year old actor. Oh, you know, who's 50 who looks unbelievable? I didn't. Real Sarah Paulson.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, she's so cute.

[Kristen Bell]

She's 50.

[Dax Shepard]

She's 50 years old.

[Monica Padman]

She looks 35 years old. She looks 35 years Old.

[Dax Shepard]

Joaquin Phoenix, Adam Sandler, Bradley Cooper, Angelina Jolie.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, I guess it's hard with the women, but yeah, I think you look young in that category.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay. Do you think I should have a facelift?

[Monica Padman]

No, we've discussed this. I don't think you should.

[Dax Shepard]

I don't either. But I do think a lot of people have facelifts. Yeah, they do, they do. Something must have changed in the technology. Yeah, I think there must be breakthroughs because Kristin's been a high alert. I kind of didn't believe her at first, but then I saw some things I Was like, oh, God, she's right about all these people.

[Monica Padman]

There's a lot of.

[Dax Shepard]

But they look so dear. They don't look like. Like I'm. I have in my mind what a face. Look. Look like on. On Burt Reynolds. My hero. Right where it was like his. He was tight as a drum.

[Monica Padman]

I know. It's definitely more natural now.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. Something is improved.

[Monica Padman]

But also people are kind of getting them younger. And I think that has to do with why it's a little confusing.

[Dax Shepard]

If you're going to have them, that is smart to get. Get Start getting them younger.

[Monica Padman]

Should I get one?

[Dax Shepard]

After you just said I can't have one, Can I get one?

[Monica Padman]

Well, you can't. Doesn't mean I can't. We're different people.

[Dax Shepard]

We are.

[Monica Padman]

And I'm a woman.

[Dax Shepard]

A woman.

[Monica Padman]

And there. There are women my age who have had them.

[Dax Shepard]

You know, a good question is. Is like, would I get one for a dream role with either Tarantino or Scorsese or one of these, like, once in a lifetime time. Want to die having done that?

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Probably. Because I don't give a. I don't give a one way or the other, but if I could do this rad thing and the person was 39 or whatever the hell the reason was.

[Kristen Bell]

Right.

[Dax Shepard]

Maybe.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. But I.

[Dax Shepard]

God knows I'm not afraid of surgery.

[Monica Padman]

Thank you. I don't think. I think, if anything, you're going to be playing your age or up these days.

[Dax Shepard]

I am going to act.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Do you want to tell everyone?

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah. I don't know if I'm allowed. I don't think I can say what, but I'm gonna act.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. You have a job coming up.

[Dax Shepard]

I have a job coming up, which is very exciting. I think I have six episodes or something coming up. Yeah. Yeah. I'm really looking forward to it.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. I'm really happy for you.

[Dax Shepard]

It's in my realm of dreamy experiences.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. I think it's gonna be such a great time. I'm very excited to watch it.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, thank you. Yes. I'm really excited. And as soon as I'm allowed to say what it is, I'll say it.

[Monica Padman]

Yes. Okay. Couple things. Just means justice. It does.

[Dax Shepard]

It does. That's just a fact.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. Just fair. Righteous. Deriving from the Latin word justice. I think that's cool. I looked up what your name meant.

[Dax Shepard]

It means the German stock exchange.

[Monica Padman]

No, it is a French. The name Dax is a French place name meaning leader or from the waters.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, I'm a lake boy.

[Monica Padman]

I know. I Know.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, well, well. That was cool. Quite.

[Monica Padman]

Exactly.

[Dax Shepard]

Delta, for some reason, has an astrology book, and she was reading me the Capricorn description, and she had a lot of beef with it.

[Justine Lupe]

She did.

[Dax Shepard]

She did. Cautious. There's like a lot of cautious. I've never heard careful and cautious. And she's like, dad, this is not you.

[Monica Padman]

What about when she got to all the other qualities that are exactly you?

[Dax Shepard]

She was kind of stuck on the.

[Monica Padman]

Ones that weren't doing the opposite of what most people do.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, what it's telling, to be honest, because when she read hers, she thought it was dead. Spot on. No issues. I think people reading about themselves, they. They do something interesting, but when they hear about another person, they're not invested. Well, I think they're more objective.

[Monica Padman]

Dead on. I've never heard that, though. I've never heard cautious.

[Dax Shepard]

I'll send you a screen grab of this.

[Monica Padman]

Okay, great. But I. I think yours is dead on. I think Kristen's is often pretty accurate.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah, she read Kristen's, which is also Aaron's.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, they're both cancers.

[Dax Shepard]

And I would never. What's funny is I wouldn't think of those two people as having a ton of overlap in personality.

[Monica Padman]

Right.

[Dax Shepard]

But when you read the attributes, they really do have all those attributes.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Like really emotional. Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Water signs.

[Dax Shepard]

Lake boys.

[Monica Padman]

Lake boys. Okay, now mine. The name Monica primarily means advisor or counselor in Latin.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

And Rob. Robert means bright. Fame, from the old German elements, hroth and perh.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, blothar. The. A berserker.

[Monica Padman]

Yes. Fame and bright and shining.

[Dax Shepard]

You're all those things. You're famous and you're bright and shiny.

[Monica Padman]

That's it.

[Dax Shepard]

You lived up to your name.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, I didn't look up anybody else, but just that. Okay. Are people with ADHD justice seekers?

[Dax Shepard]

Right.

[Monica Padman]

According to AI, yes. Individuals with ADHD are more likely to be justice sensitive, meaning they perceive injustice more frequently and experience stronger emotions, emotional and behavioral reactions to it, though this can also be overwhelming. This trait is attributed to intense emotions, emotional dysregulation, a tendency to perceive information negatively, and lower levels of dopamine and norepinephrine in the ADHD brain. Researchers research indicates that heightened justice sensitivity is a common trait in people with adhd, sometimes even a coping strategy to navigate social environments. Okay, now, what else do I have here? Oh, she asked what your moon sign was, so I looked it up. Your moon sign, if you are ready, is Virgo.

[Dax Shepard]

Virgo. And explain a moon sign to me. It's your shadow.

[Monica Padman]

Side no, it's your emo. It's your emotions.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

And, I mean, I say this so often, but you may forget I am a double Virgo.

[Dax Shepard]

But no, I do not forget.

[Monica Padman]

So my moon is also in Virgo. My sun is in Virgo.

[Dax Shepard]

That's what makes you double.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, my sun and moon are in Virgo.

[Dax Shepard]

Do you wish you had mixed it up a little bit?

[Justine Lupe]

I am who I am.

[Dax Shepard]

I am who I am. I am. What did Popeye say? I am who I am.

[Monica Padman]

Your Rising is a Libra.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

Rising is how you present to the world.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, so I present as a Leo Libra.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, those are different.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay.

[Monica Padman]

Libras are known for being diplomatic, charming, fair minded and sociable, valuing harmony, justice and beauty in their environment and relationships. They are cooperative, empathetic and balanced thinkers with strong intellects and artistic inclinations.

[Dax Shepard]

Here's one of my grievances. Okay? There's so much positive in the book in this great. But people are like, half and half. I need more of the character defects associated with.

[Monica Padman]

I need a Capricorn of you to say, hey, why can't we just.

[Dax Shepard]

Well, this can't all be positive, or it wouldn't be very objectively honest.

[Monica Padman]

It's not saying there aren't bad things. In fact, if you go really deep and you read your charts and you do this, there's lots of bad things.

[Dax Shepard]

I need a little more of those.

[Monica Padman]

Okay, well, you know what I'm saying.

[Dax Shepard]

Does that make sense?

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, I know what you're saying.

[Dax Shepard]

Like, we're so multifaceted, and this just seems to highlight all, like, our virtues.

[Monica Padman]

I know, but maybe that's fine, right? Like, maybe it's not meant to talk about the negative parts.

[Dax Shepard]

I'd argue the opposite. I would say you don't need to concentrate on your virtues and gifts and focus on that. You need to be aware of your character defects and work on those. Your work isn't to get even better at your easy virtues. It's like, to really be honest about your character defects, have a plan of attack to overcome them. And if they're not giving you the cheat choice sheet of what you need to be working on, then how are we gonna improve? We're just gonna, like, read all these great aspects of ourselves and be like, we're pretty great.

[Monica Padman]

Well, I mean, I guess it depends on how obsessed with yourself you are. Like, I think you could read it and be like, oh, these are nice things about me. Obviously, I have all these other horrible things about me. These are some of the Good things that I should lean into. Cause they're good.

[Dax Shepard]

I just think it might help people be honest about their defects. And they might even be able to go like, oh, yeah, I have that. That makes sense because I have these other things. I have that.

[Monica Padman]

Okay, well, Capric. Some bad stuff.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, great.

[Monica Padman]

Condescending. Aloof. Oh, unforgiving. Pessimistic. Critical. Stubborn. Sensitive. That could go either way. Melancholy.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, I'm very upbeat.

[Monica Padman]

You have. You're not only upbeat.

[Dax Shepard]

I'm not only upbeat, but I trend upbeat.

[Monica Padman]

Oh, you mean.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

You're not like an Eeyore.

[Dax Shepard]

No, I'm a good time Charlie. Let's go do this fun thing. Let's go have a blast.

[Monica Padman]

But if it starts going. You don't like it. If it starts tipping based on something that isn't your. In your control, you don't like it. That doesn't mean melancholy.

[Dax Shepard]

No. Do I not. Do I like being out of control? Not at all. But I'm not like a somber person.

[Monica Padman]

No, I. I agree with you there. Okay. So suspicious.

[Dax Shepard]

Oh, big time. Very suspicious.

[Monica Padman]

These are all bad stuff.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, I like those.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

Ambitious, Hardworking. I know. Now I've switched.

[Dax Shepard]

Okay, change gears.

[Monica Padman]

Disciplined. Set. Lofty.

[Dax Shepard]

Do Virgos change gears without any indication.

[Monica Padman]

Well, we are very balanced.

[Dax Shepard]

Jump topics.

[Monica Padman]

Here's mine. Here. I'll do some bad. I'll do some bad ones, since you want. You really want to do that. Observant. Professor. Perfectionist. Judgmental. Overthinking. Fussy. Critical. There's just so many good ones.

[Dax Shepard]

There's just too many good ones to weed through.

[Monica Padman]

Stubborn.

[Dax Shepard]

Do you identify with those?

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, definitely. I identify with the good and the bad of them.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah.

[Monica Padman]

I think I'm a lot of these things. Yeah. Worry about things being done correctly. Did I already say overthinking? I said that. Hard working. Extremely loyal. Stubborn. I said, I think attention to detail. I mean, some of these are two of the same thing. Really? Like critical? Yes.

[Dax Shepard]

Attention to detail.

[Monica Padman]

Yes. My dad would say that because he, you know, has to be so. Like, he has to look for problems.

[Dax Shepard]

That's his job.

[Monica Padman]

All the time, looking for problems. And so he does look for problems all the time and in life and. And it's like chicken. Or is it the job? No, I don't know.

[Dax Shepard]

It's reinforced by the job because then he has a reason to lollygag in that side of himself, you know, like, spend a lot of time there.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah.

[Dax Shepard]

But I think the fact that that was his nature is what drew him to being an agent.

[Monica Padman]

That's what made him good at it, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess. So, like, if you need a job, I think you should figure out, yeah. Go to your sign, look at the. Maybe the bad things and see what kind of jobs require those.

[Dax Shepard]

Although it's tricky about that is we have completely different signs and different attributes and the perfect job for us is still both Podcast host.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah. But we do very different things here.

[Dax Shepard]

Yeah, yeah.

[Monica Padman]

That I think lean into our very specific attributes for sure.

[Dax Shepard]

But I'm just saying this is a job that somehow would accommodate both. Both types.

[Monica Padman]

Yeah, yeah, sure.

[Dax Shepard]

Charlie, man of the water.

[Monica Padman]

So I think that's it for fa. It was really fun. That's it.

[Dax Shepard]

All right. 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 Wondry plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short [e-mail] survey.