Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Podbit · Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Steve Aoki

Explore episode Jun 22, 2026
Society & Culture
Growing Up Japanese in All-White Newport Beach

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026 Society & Culture

Steve Aoki's Japanese-immigrant mother inexplicably moved to the whitest neighborhood in Orange County — Newport Beach — when she could have lived in a Japanese community 10 minutes away. The result: Steve got bullied, paddled by Catholic school teachers, and bounced between schools unable to make friends. He's now grateful for it, because feeling like an outsider fueled everything that came after.

Where this was said

Rocky's Personal Life: Comas, Affairs & 7 Siblings

At 15:56 · chapter starts 13:30

The conversation takes a darker, more intimate turn as Steve recounts the moment Rocky's hidden life became public: waking from a near-fatal boat crash to find his wife on one side and his girlfriend on the other, each with their respective children. Steve notes that by then his mother already knew — or at least the secret wasn't entirely new — and she eventually divorced Rocky and moved from Miami (where Steve was born) to Newport Beach. Despite the complicated family structure, Steve describes all seven siblings as close and says they still gather for family events as adults. The story is told without bitterness — Steve frames it as part of the 'no rules' operating system that defined Rocky's entire existence, while also acknowledging, with a wry laugh, that it 'didn't age great.'

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