Podcasting can be a “liberating” medium to work in for creatives with a sense of adventure and a willingness to lay themselves on the line in the service of good conversation.
That was the message shared Thursday night by Dax Shepard and Monica Padman, hosts of the Wondery podcast “Armchair Expert,” as the pair were feted with Variety‘s Creative Impact in Podcasting Award. The private event was held Thursday night at Funke restaurant in Beverly Hills during the Variety Shaping Culture with Podcast, presented by Wondery dinner.
Shepard and Padman have been partners in “Armchair Expert” since 2018. The show has racked up nearly 800 episodes to date. In July, Shepard and Padman inked an $80 million deal with Wondery to move the show’s home base to the Amazon-owned podcast platform after several years with Spotify.
Jen Sargent, CEO of Wondery, was on hand to welcome the pair to the fold, with high praise for their work. “These conversations are rooted in the cultural zeitgeist,” Sargent said. Shepard and Padman have a knack for getting to the heart of “what people are really talking about, and they are constantly exploring and just celebrating everything that makes us human,” she said.
Shepard is a multihyphenate who has devoted himself largely to “Armchair Expert” in recent years. The explosion of audio entertainment options has opened yet more avenues for multi-taskers such as Shepard, an actor, writer, director, and digital entrepreneur. “Armchair Expert” led to a spinoff show, “Armchair Anonymous,” that revolves around humorous or poignant anecdotes shared by listeners in their own voices. The show has such a devoted following that Shepard and Padman have dubbed their fans “Armcherries.”
“What’s been so liberating about this medium is that I have sold [over the years] six TV shows to networks. I’ve sold maybe eight features. The development process, getting actors involved…,” Shepard said, gesturing to indicate a long process. With podcasting, “I call Monica and say ‘I think we should do a show where we let Armcherries tell us crazy stories. Then we were doing that six days later, and then it was a show. And now there’s hundreds of episodes. The speed at which we can think of something and then immediately try it and do it has been so liberating after 20 years in molasses.”
Andi Frieder, Head of Theatrical, TV/Streaming and Entertainment Enterprise, Amazon Ads, Anne Martinez, Senior Brand Manager, Brand Partnerships, Wondery and Angie More, Head of Ad Revenue, Wondery attend Variety Shaping Culture With Podcasts, Presented By Wondery.
Both hosts are extremely candid about their personal lives and backgrounds as they engage in freeform conversations with guests who range from Hollywood personalities and other celebrities to authors and thinkers and advocates. Shepard has been extremely vocal about his experience in embracing sobriety in his life. He doubts that he would have had the emotional stamina to host such a show if it were not for his decision to get sober more than 15 years ago. He faced a relapse in late 2020, and he has brought listeners along on his journey of recovery.
For Shepard, sharing his struggle on air was part of the reason he opted to do “Armchair Expert” in the first place. “It’s kind of like a public [Alcoholics Anonymous] meeting. You’re hearing people be honest and vulnerable and owning their own struggles and challenges in a way that I’ve not heard outside of an AA meeting. And that was hopefully the goal of it,” he said during a Q&A with Cynthia Littleton, Variety co -editor-in-chief.
The pair often close out episodes with their own “Fact Check” of each other and their feelings on topics that have been discussed. “We’re extremely honest, especially on our Fact Check,” Padman said. “We’re very vulnerable and I think that leads to vulnerability from our guests.”
For Shepard, the most gratifying part of doing the show has been the ability to demonstrate to listeners without preaching to those dealing with the scourge of addiction that help and a brighter future are possible.
“We were at a friend’s wedding. I was walking to the bathroom. This guy in a tuxedo grabbed me, and he was already kind of almost crying,” Shepard recalled. “And he said, ‘My family won’t talk to me. But three years ago, I started listening to the show and I got sober. And I’m my brother’s my best man today.’ I was just like fucking bawling with this stranger. And so having to come out and go ‘Yeah, I relapsed’ was really obviously quite, quite hard and scary.”
View from the Variety Shaping Culture With Podcasts, Presented By Wondery dinner at Funke.
Padman and Shepard decided to team for “Armchair Expert” after spending many hours together debating the merits of the landmark “Serial” podcast in 2017. Padman, at the time, was working with Shepard’s wife, Kristen Bell. At the outset, the two had no idea they were about to venture into something that would become a nearly full-time vocation for them both. Shepard credits Padman with editing and crafting each “Armchair Expert” episode.
“Basically, the conversation [with the guest] is whatever it wants to be, and then Monica brilliantly carves that into what it should be,” Shepard said. “Ultimately, she’s the one who decides what that is. I’m more just talking because I’m interested.”
