Dax Shepard Just Made a Huge Business Move

Dax Shepard’s podcast Armchair Expert just got added to the list of exclusive podcasts on Spotify. This means all past and future episodes will be available exclusively on the streaming platform, and the successful podcast will also now have a first look deal with Armchair Umbrella Network, meaning the podcast will get first dibs on any content the network pushes out according to theverge.com. While this is a big move for Shepard, it’s also a great pick for Spotify as Armchair Expert has grown into the one of the most popular podcasts out there.

Less than two years ago, in 2019, Forbes estimated that Shepard had an average of 20 million listeners per month, making it one of the most listened to podcasts yet. Details were not disclosed on how long the terms of their contract will be, but now ad-sales will be handled in house for the host. As Spotify continues to grow, the company grew their premium subscribers by 21 percent year-over-year as they keep adding some of the largest names in the industry to their list of exclusives.

Over the years, Shepard has shared quite a bit with his listeners on various episodes, including the time he admitted he’d be okay with his kids testing out drugs, including weed and mushrooms, despite his sobriety. He opened up about the topic when he had on fellow actor Rob Lowe as they both discussed their children. “[…] I am pro my children doing mushrooms at some point. I do think … well, there are a lot of different studies that have pretty conclusively shown that you have long lasting creative advantages right. Like, if you would’ve done mushrooms … that lasts.” However, he does have two rules though.

“So I guess yeah, I’m going to tell my girls to do shrooms and to smoke pot and to drink and to just cocaine or opioids,” he detailed. “If you don’t do those two things you’ll likely be able to do all the other ones for the rest of your life but if you get involved with those two…” he added. Over the years, the Punk’d star has been very open about his journey with sobriety, and the time he’s fallen short of that. His wife, Kristen Bell, has openly discussed how proud she is of her husband and how hard he’s worked to correct certain things in his life as he seeks to know more and do more when it comes to being sober.