Jack Antonoff (Bleachers, everyone for ten minutes) is a Grammy-winning producer, songwriter, and frontman. Jack joins Armchair Expert to discuss growing up as an unsupervised middle child in suburban New Jersey, processing profound family loss at a young age, and finding early identity through obsessive music discovery. Jack and Dax talk about grinding through DIY touring as a teenager, the evolution from punk purist to global pop collaborator, and how environment and movement shape his creative process. Jack explains why grief clarifies what truly matters, how the anxiety of the well running dry fuels his restlessness, and why starting over is the key to staying alive creatively.

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Dax and Monica talk to Armcherries! In today's episode, Armcherries tell us a crazy bar story.

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Tara Stoinski (A Gorilla Story) is a primatologist, conservationist, and CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Tara returns to the Armchair Expert to discuss growing up outside Philadelphia, her academic path from Tufts to Oxford to Georgia Tech, and balancing motherhood with a career studying gorillas in Rwanda. Tara and Dax talk about documenting rare gorilla dominance battles, the challenges of filming endangered animals in the wild, and how gorilla social structures differ from chimpanzees. Tara explains the importance of long-term behavioral research, how early life trauma can impact animal behavior, and why strong social bonds are key to survival in both gorillas and humans.

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Laufey (A Matter of Time, Mei Mei the Bunny, and Bewitched) is a two-time Grammy Award–winning singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Laufey joins Armchair Expert in between Coachella performances to discuss growing up between Iceland and the US with a violinist mother in the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, how having an identical twin helped shape her sense of self, and navigating her identity as a biracial kid in a homogenous society. Laufey and Dax talk about the discipline of classical music training at Berklee, building a fanbase during COVID through her Sunday livestreams and vintage jazz-inspired covers, and why she believes general admission is the best way to experience Coachella. Laufey explains how discipline should be about building habits rather than winning, how choice can be more overwhelming than limitation, and how vulnerability is the real key to connection - both onstage and off.

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Dax and Monica talk to Armcherries! In today's episode, Armcherries tell us a crazy twin story.

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Alvin E. Roth (Moral Economics) is a Nobel Prize-winning economist, Stanford professor, and author. Alvin joins Armchair Expert to discuss growing up in Queens with two schoolteacher parents, skipping a traditional high school path to attend college at 16, and how early academic exposure shaped his curiosity about markets and human behavior. Alvin and Dax talk about pioneering kidney exchange programs that have saved thousands of lives, the surprising ways incentives influence behavior in everyday systems, and how market design applies to everything from matching students to schools to allocating scarce resources. Alvin explains the difference between repugnance and disgust in economics, why some markets are morally contested yet necessary, and why solving complex social issues requires designing better systems rather than relying on good intentions alone.

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Tom Pelphrey (Task, Ozark, Love and Death) is an Emmy-winning actor and mental health advocate. He joins Armchair Expert to discuss growing up in New Jersey near the Shore, the impact of his intense high school acting teacher, and how he maintains lifelong childhood friendships. Tom and Dax talk about early success colliding with addiction, the relentless pace of daytime television, and rebuilding a life through sobriety. Tom explains why tying identity to achievement can be dangerous, how awareness unlocks real change, and why fatherhood is the ultimate ego reset.

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Dax and Monica talk to Armcherries! In today's episode, Armcherries tell us about a time they were scammed.

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Rachel Zoffness (Tell Me Where It Hurts: The New Science of Pain and How to Heal) is a psychologist, pain scientist, and author. Rachel joins the Armchair Expert to discuss why she was drawn to pain in her early neuroscience studies, the most pressing question regarding pain being made in the brain, and how a pain psychologist is like a used car salesman. Rachel and Dax talk about the biopsychosocial factors that contribute to pain, definitive psychological origins of phantom limb syndrome, and the sensory map on our brain called the cortical homunculus. Rachel explains the tale of two nails, compelling evidence that pain and physical damage are not the same, and why data we give the brain that amplifies danger will also amplify pain.

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Jennie Garth (I Choose Me, 90210, What I Like About You) is an award-winning actor and author. Jennie joins the Armchair Expert to discuss her vegan journey, being discovered in a pageant and moving to LA to work as an actor, and the recent experience of watching herself in Beverly Hills, 90210 for the first time. Jennie and Dax talk about how tense dynamics between their characters began to seep into real life, what it means for her to have been ‘born blue,’ and the layered, heartbreaking connection she had to Luke Perry. Jennie explains how having kids young saved her life amid the industry, having her stomach pumped at the end of her marriage, and healing through Buddhism and learning to care for herself after a near-divorce.

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Dax and Monica talk to Armcherries! In today's episode, Armcherries tell us about a really bad date.

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