Prince Harry’s new Hollywood confidante: how Dax Shepard gets the stars to open up

Some strokes of incredible bad luck meant that, for years, the actor and comedian Dax Shepard seemed stuck in the role of “the other one”. His startling similarity to the Scrubs actor, Zach Braff, held him back in the mid-2000s; some films that seemed box office gold missed the mark; and the stratospheric rise of his wife, Kristen Bell, after she voiced Anna in Frozen could have eclipsed him altogether.

This week, however, the entire world knew his name when the Duke of Sussex appeared on his podcast, Armchair Expert, which has made Shepard one of the highest-paid voices in podcasting since its launch in 2018. It was a wide-ranging talk pinned to Mental Health Awareness Week (and, more cynically perhaps, both men having podcasts due to appear exclusively on Spotify) that encompassed therapy, privilege, and the prince’s naked photos from Las Vegas.

As reports and tweets already show, the podcast appearance gave the Duke’s critics plenty of ammunition – something which he alluded to on the show with wry cheer – but also showed him to be a considerate, thoughtful and funny man, who was very much aware of his extraordinary privilege and was trying to put it to positive use.

This was a very different conversation to the sober, serious conversation he and his wife had with Oprah back in March, and more in keeping with his headline-making appearance on Bryony Gordon’s Mad World podcast for this paper. Thanks largely to Shepard’s casual, unabashed approach, it resulted in an informal chat that was nonetheless intimate – and at times, thanks to Shepard’s complete lack of deference, absolutely riveting. So how has this man become such a key name in podcasting?

Shepard, who co-hosts with the actress Monica Padman who also developed the idea, was inspired to launch the podcast after appearing on other shows and appreciating the length of time allowed to discuss issues compared to a slot on a TV talk show. Shepard’s concept is to “attempt to discover human ‘truths’ without any laboratory work, clinical trials or data collection. I will be, in the great tradition of 16^th century scientists, an Armchair Expert”. Each episode ends with a 30-minute conversation between Shepard and Padman (who also acts as editor and booker) where Padman gives a fact check on claims made during the episode.

While many radio stations and media titles keep the podcast charts filled with podcast editions of popular radio show, the really big names in the medium understand that intimacy and vulnerability make for success. Glennon Doyle, the memoirist whose book Untamed dominated the charts throughout 2020, recently launched her first podcast, while the author Brene Brown did the same in 2020 before landing an exclusive deal with Spotify. Shepard, himself a recovering alcoholic and addict, describes his show as celebrating “the messiness of being human”, and uses his years of sobriety and recovery as a basis for exploring this with his guests.

Dax Shepard’s impressive openness about his experience of recovery, and the traumatic events in his childhood that led him to see relief through substance abuse, has been as key in building up a large and loyal listenership as have his skills as a conversationalist. He entered recovery in 2005, a year before he made a big impression in the excellent 2006 comedy Employee of the Week.

Unfortunately, his startling similarity to actor Zach Braff (at that time, a huge star thanks to the sitcom Scrubs) may have confused production teams who didn’t know what to do with him. That similarity marked a series of several bad luck moments in his career. He starred in several “nearly-greats” like the children’s fantasy adventure Zathura: A Space Adventure, the Coen brothers’ unreleased-turned-cult favourite, Idiocracy (Beavis and Butthead’s Mike Judge directed) and the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler vehicle Baby Mama, which failed to live up to its cast.

He also starred in bro-comedies like Without A Paddle, and made the odd cameo in TV comedies and Kristen Bell pictures, until he landed a main role in the TV drama Parenthood, starring Gilmore Girls’ Lauren Graham, which he starred in throughout its seven-year run.

With a plum TV gig leaving his summers free to work in film, Shepard turned to writing and directing vehicles for himself, but a 2010 mockumentary (Brother’s Justice) and 2012 action comedy (Hit and Run) failed to make their mark. His 2015 adaptation of the 1970s TV comedy CHiPs bombed with audiences and critics but did at least recoup $1 million more than its $25 million budget.

Shepard’s career took a new turn when he launched Armchair Expert in February 2018 with Monica Padman, an actress and fellow improv comedian (who also appeared in CHiPs). Shepard and Bell met Padman through friends while she was babysitting to support herself through the beginnings of her acting career, and she subsequently became nanny to their two children.

Padman’s role in the household soon evolved to be what Bell called their “chief of staff”, becoming a trusted friend and confidant, and taking on production duties on Momsplaining, Bell’s web series for the Ellen DeGeneres Show’s YouTube channel (Padman was Emmy-nominated for her work). Shepard’s engaging manner, and the relaxed recording environment, has helped to secure some major discussions over its 200-plus episode run.

John Legend, Bill Gates, Salma Hayek, Shawn Mendes, Leslie Odom Jr., Matthew McConaughey, Dr. Jane Goodall, Malcolm Gladwell and Hillary Clinton have all joined Shepard and Padman in their lo-fi recording studio. In April, The Simpsons actor Hank Azaria apologised for his role in perpetuating racist stereotypes in voicing the Indian character, Apu: “Part of me feels like I need to go to every single Indian person in this country and personally apologise. And sometimes I do.”

Ashton Kutcher, Shepard’s co-star on the Noughties TV show Punk’d, has appeared twice, discussing his commitments to improving the US foster care system and end global sex trafficking. Emilia Clarke’s episode combined deeply moving stories about her experience of enduring two brain aneurisms with stories about how the on-screen nudity in her breakthrough show had impacted on her career (“I’ve had fights on set before where I’m like, ‘No, the sheet stays up,’ and they’re like, ‘No, you don’t wanna disappoint your Game of Thrones fans.’ And I’m like, ‘F___ you!'”). One of the most moving episodes is a conversation with Dax’s mother, entrepreneur Laura Labo, in which she discusses her depression and suicidal thoughts.

Shepard’s relationship with his wife has been a lynchpin in his career success. They met in 2007, and got engaged in 2010, but agreed not to marry until equal marriage rights were passed, at which point Bell sent Shepard a proposal on Twitter. The couple’s honesty and support of each other, both in work projects and through what is shared on their social media accounts, has led them to become firm favourites with the public. They went viral in 2012 after Shepard managed to arrange a sloth visit for Bell’s 31^st birthday, at which point Bell had a completely understandable sloth-related meltdown.

Their honesty has led to some significant and startling moments being made public, in part due to Shepard’s desire to share the lows as well as the highs of recovery with his audience who might need help. In September 2020, Shepard, a keen motorcyclist who is a host on the US’s version of Top Gear, revealed to Padman on the podcast that he had relapsed and become addicted to painkillers he had taken following a motorbike accident in which he broke several bones. After eight weeks of taking painkillers daily, rather than as prescribed, he turned himself in to Bell, who took control of his medicine.

On the episode, Shepard described how his years in recovery had changed his outlook when he relapsed: "The huge gift that the 16 years did give me was, I used to be able to gaslight people daily, and it didn't bother me," he said. "And I've had a good 15 and a half, or maybe more, of maybe not gaslighting people, and I just don't have that tolerance for it."

Joining Shepard and Padman on an end of year episode, Bell said that Shepard’s honesty, even at his most vulnerable moments, was what had saved him. “Nobody saved you but you. And your courage and boldness to say, "I feel like I'm slipping" or, "I did slip and I need to be honest before it gets worse," and I'm just grateful to all parties involved. I think we did a really good job, team.” The vast audience of “armcherries” that follows Shepard and Padman, and will likely follow them when they move to Spotify in July, would heartily agree.