Speaker

Dax Shepard

1 podcast 28 moments 2026
7 episodes
1 podcasts
9 quotes
19 snapshots
1 years active

Appearances over time

7 episodes

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Episodes

7

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Quotes & moments

Science
Data point 65M cars

Edward Norton Returns Again · Jul 1, 2026

Norton's port-emissions barge company, operational since 2023, captured pollution equivalent to 65 million cars operating for an entire year — in just one year of deployment.

Sports
Data point 0.5s

Susie Wolff (Managing Director of F1 Academy) · Jun 24, 2026

Toto Wolff reportedly cannot beat Susie on a racetrack no matter what he does — including cheating with different tyres and ballast in her car.

TV & Film
Data point $6M

Olivia Wilde · Jun 29, 2026

Booksmart was made for $6 million, grossed $25 million at the box office, and earned over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes — a remarkable debut for Olivia Wilde as a feature director.

Business
Data point $40M+

Edward Norton Returns Again · Jul 1, 2026

Dax Shepard noted that Edward Norton declined The Avengers franchise, waving goodbye to what Dax estimated at $40 million or more — potentially hundreds of millions across sequels.

Sports
Data point 22 years

Susie Wolff (Managing Director of F1 Academy) · Jun 24, 2026

When Susie Wolff drove in FP1 at Silverstone for Williams, it had been 22 years since any female driver had been on track in a Formula 1 car during a race weekend.

Sports
Data point 0.2s

Susie Wolff (Managing Director of F1 Academy) · Jun 24, 2026

In her second FP1 appearance at Hockenheim, Susie finished the session within 2 tenths of a second of her Williams team-mate Felipe Massa.

Sports
Data point 2,000 kg

Susie Wolff (Managing Director of F1 Academy) · Jun 24, 2026

A current Formula 1 car generates approximately 2,000 kilograms of downforce, meaning at sufficient speed it could theoretically drive upside down.

Music
Data point 2012

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026

By 2012, Steve Aoki had become the highest-grossing dance music artist in North America, playing to crowds of tens of thousands at major festivals.

Music
Dim Mak: Born From Living Room Shows

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026 Music

Steve Aoki launched Dim Mak Records with zero capital out of his tiny Isla Vista apartment, hosting 400 bands before getting evicted. He named it after Bruce Lee's mythical 'death touch.' The label's first breakthrough came when Allison of The Kills asked him to release their EP — and his decision to take that over a PhD program set the course for everything.

TV & Film
He Turned Down Tropic Thunder for a $5K Philippines Gig

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026 TV & Film

In 2007, Steve Aoki was offered a role in Tropic Thunder — playing a slave DJ for Tom Cruise's iconic dance scene. He turned it down for a $5,000 gig in the Philippines because he needed the money. Tom Cruise ended up just using an iPod. To this day, Aoki calls it one of his biggest 'I wish' moments.

Society & Culture
Rocky Aoki's Last Words to His Son

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026 Society & Culture

Rocky Aoki wasn't a man of emotional declarations. He never said 'I love you' much, and Steve spent decades competing for his approval. Before Rocky died in 2008, he told Steve: 'I don't have to worry about you anymore.' That was it. To Steve, it was everything — an indirect, roundabout, but unmistakable declaration of pride.

Society & Culture
Son Named Rocky: The Legacy Comes Full Circle

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026 Society & Culture

Steve Aoki's son, born in July, is named Rocky — after his late father. The man who inspired Steve's ambition, who never gave easy praise, who raced boats and flew balloons and built Benihana, now lives on in a 9-month-old. Steve says fatherhood, brain health, and longevity are now what matter most to him.

Business
Benihana Was Almost a Total Failure

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026 Business

When Rocky Aoki opened Benihana on 56th Street in the 1960s, he was selling Japanese food to a white American audience that had never seen anything like it. Business was so slow the venture nearly collapsed — until a single New York Times review turned everything around. One critic, one article, one chance: that's how Benihana survived.

Music
Vegas Residency as Creative Laboratory

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026 Music

Steve Aoki's Las Vegas residency isn't just income — it's research. With 50 shows a year in Vegas, he uses the crowd as a real-time feedback mechanism for new music. The pressure to bring fresh material to each festival set forces him to keep creating. He says that schedule — and that challenge — is what keeps him from burning out.

History
Rocky Aoki: The Evel Knievel of Restaurateurs

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026 History

Rocky Aoki arrived in New York in 1961 with no English and a dream. After an ice cream truck failed in Harlem, he invented a concept that didn't exist in Japan — cooking in front of diners — and nearly went bust until a single New York Times review turned everything around. He went public in 1983, then spent the profits racing offshore boats, starting a porn magazine, and flying a hot air balloon across the Pacific.

Education
The Fork in the Road: PhD or Music

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026 Education

Steve Aoki was accepted to two graduate and PhD programs with a sociology and women's studies degree from UCSB. He chose music instead when Allison from The Kills sent him a demo that blew him away. The decision came down to one question: was this small indie label enough of a proof of concept? The answer was yes.

Music
LCD Soundsystem Changed Everything

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026 Music

James Murphy's 'Losing My Edge' — 118 BPM, a looping bass line, and Murphy talking over the beat — was the record that converted Steve Aoki from punk to electronic. He heard it and thought: I could make this. It was DIY enough to feel possible, hypnotic enough to be powerful. He went straight to Craigslist to hire a Pro Tools teacher.

Music
The Straight-Edge Paradox: No Drugs in the World's Biggest Drug Scene

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026 Music

The EDM world runs on MDMA. Steve Aoki ran on nothing. His straight-edge roots meant he never touched cocaine, meth, heroin, or MDMA — even while performing for hundreds of thousands of people on drugs. The only substance he ever tried was acid at age 13, alone, which terrified him so badly he never touched anything again.

Music
How Hardcore Punk Saved Steve Aoki

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026 Music

At 13, Steve Aoki found his tribe in the straight-edge hardcore punk scene. The appeal was radical accessibility — you didn't have to be good, you just had to show up. Playing in garages after school, making zines at Kinko's, and silk-screening T-shirts taught him that any creative endeavor was achievable. That ethos became the backbone of Dim Mak Records.

Music
Most Traveled Musician in the World

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026 Music

Steve Aoki became the most traveled musician in a calendar year on the planet. The training ground was punk: by age 21 he'd toured the US 14 times, always sleeping in vans or on floors, never in hotels. When DJing eventually came with hotels and car pickups, it felt like luxury. That willingness to endure anything made him unstoppable.

Music
Diplo's First Remix Was the Other Side of Steve's First Remix

Steve Aoki · Jun 22, 2026 Music

Steve Aoki's very first remix — of Bloc Party's 'Helicopter' — was pressed on a 12-inch with no digital distribution. The other side? Diplo's first remix. Neither man knew the other would become a global superstar. Around the world, small underground hipster party scenes in LA, Philadelphia, London, and Japan were quietly building the infrastructure for the EDM explosion.

Business
From Team Principal of Venturi to Managing Director of F1 Academy

Susie Wolff (Managing Director of F1 Academy) · Jun 24, 2026 Business

After retiring from driving in 2015, Susie became team principal and then CEO of the Venturi Formula E team, helping it nearly win the world championship. When her business partner sold the team to build an electric Mars rover, she was about to join that project — until Stefano Domenicali called about F1 Academy. She had to exit the space venture to take it, letting Gildo de Pastor down in the process.

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.

Analysis

What they talk about

  • Society & Culture 56%
  • Health & Fitness 33%
  • Music 11%

Connections

Shows they appear on and people they share episodes with. Drag to explore.

Dax Shepard Podcasts Co-speakers