Monica has got to go! It’s amazing that despite this being the clear consensus from these reviews and on Reddit, she is still here. Dax is a good interviewer and an intelligent, honest person; without Monica it would be 4-5 stars.

This dude is not a good actor and is completely out of touch with reality and common society. You’re all a bunch of dorks.

I’ve enjoyed this pod cast immensely over the years. While I understand that they want to edit the podcast down for length, the way it is done runs the flow of the conversations! I feel like it is being fast forwarded through and I can’t follow the thread at all. The worst was the Wyatt and Kurt Russell episode. They edited out every pause in a sentence or other things said that were thought to not be relevant to a story, but it totally ruined the stories. Specifically the story Kurt was telling about Tombstone. Dax started by talking about EfNY and then all of the sudden Kurt was talking about Tombstone and I have no idea how they got from one story to the next. I think Monica has says she edits these. If that is the case, please stop. Just let it be long. I’d rather listen to a natural conversation then one butchered for time.

I wish so very much that people would stop commenting on Dax’s Instagram page and feeding his ego or narcissism. He loves it. He also loves the feeling of being righteous and blocking people on Instagram. He blocks people on his page and the Armchair Expert page. So be prepared to only say butt kissing comments or you will be blocked. The only thing that they all care about is their fame and money and they will do anything for that. Rob is a snob. Monica is super judgemental. Dax is clearly bisexual. I find Kristen pathetic for staying with him. He knows that she keeps his career going and money flowing so he stays with her and then flirts with other females and males. I feel so bad for their daughters as their parents are greedy hypocrites. They are also frauds and a poor example of what a healthy marriage or relationship should be. And all of Dax and Kristen’s friends go along with it because they benefit from them financially. Am I the only one whom sees that? I hope that very soon they will all be exposed and cancelled.

Monica thinking she doesn’t have a valley girl accent was hilarious. Has she heard herself say, “Yeeeeaaaahhhh?”

Working overtime to avoid addressing Palestine, Gaza, and genocide on the pod. I get it—you don’t talk about everything on this show. But you do talk about the world, and on several occasions, it could and should have been a part of the convo. To be unaware of Michigan’s Uncommitted movement (and state movements thereafter) and the basis for it is just, I dunno, so out of the loop (?) for people who want to have an opinion about that very matter. (It has nothing to do with Biden being old. It’s because he is using our tax dollars to let a foreign entity commit massive war crimes.) The conversation with Joey King was the most disappointed I’ve ever been as a lover of the show. Deeply disconnected to have the ‘never again’ conversation and not mention Palestine and to laud Germany for being such a good guy when in reality many Germans (including my family) are incandescent with rage at their government for sending weapons to murder Palestinian children, drawing no red lines, and ultimately- not learning their lesson from the Holocaust. Is it really ‘never again’ if it’s not for everyone? Or does ‘never again’ only apply to white people and American allies? You can’t avoid it. You have a podcast where you talk about the world, and the people in it. To watch you worm around reality and avoid taking a stance on the ethnic cleansing of a people is the desperately sad. You could do so much. People listen to you. I hope you consider being brave for the people of Palestine.

Love the show and the guests but better help should not be supported.

Great episode, I never really watched late night comedy shows but I now have a lot of respect for how much work they do to pull that off. Also thought it was funny that Dax told the same story in the fact check as he did when he was on the show, not sure if that was intentional or not. Either way, hilarious story and I love that Dax talks about some challenges with his kids and how he navigates them. As a father of 4 I can relate and when things get a little rough I try and think “what would Dax do” because he is a great role model and father. Thanks for the great content!

Cool content, hosts can be a bit too Hollywood for my taste. Monica is braggy and too big for her britches

Love Dax! Love Monica! Love David and his flightless bird! This is a well rounded fun podcast, sometimes serious and always entertaining and informative. Love the dynamic between Dax and Monica.

David should really get out of this “umbrella.” His show is great! It’s smart and interesting and gives a really funny outside view on day to day American life. Armchair Expert is terrible. Dax is terrible. Monica is terrible.

Something about this girl is off and I cant understand how Dax doesnt see it. Beyond shallow and holier-than-though which usually indicates an actual bad person beneath the surface. Kind of fascinating

I’ll listen to hear my favorite or interesting guests. But not a favorite. Updated - hadn’t listened to in awhile because lost interest. A couple of even more uninteresting other shows with Monica and “flightless bird”. Have zero appeal.

I beg of you to get rid of Monica. She is unbearably superficial. While I appreciate that she is concerned about fertility issues and is open about them, I could not care less what she has purchased or plans to purchase. Nor do I think she should act as though she and the experts they have on the show are in the same universe. As a woman of color I appreciate the balance of the show having a co-host who is different from Dax. But dear lord, there are tens of thousands of genuinely qualified candidates that won’t make you cringe.

I love Dax Shepherd. He’s a great conversationalist and id love to see him interact, relate, and chat with Drake Bell. Call him!

They’re not only deleting comments but blocking people on Instagram who dare give critique or criticism. I used to love this podcast. Have their egos gotten so big!?

I’m halfway through the interview with Christina, who I absolutely love, and cringing at how MUCH she seems to despise Dax. She’s been interrupting his schtick at every turn, not letting him get away with a thing. Or make every story about himself. Can’t wait to listen to her MeSsy podcast now!!

So this is the oddest relationship in my life today…of course the interviews are top-notch; best show of its type. I never miss a show and they punctuate my week in important ways. But over time it’s the fact checks that have created an odd connection to 2 strangers I’ve never met but feel I know better than many IRL people I know. How can this be? I need help.

I love this show!! Keep up all the good work.

MAKE MONICA GO AWAYYYYY!!!! Or, put a muzzle on her!!!! I cannot take it anymore. She is RUINING IT FOR ME!!!! Does anyone under the AE ☂️ Read the comments or listen to the eps??? Monica is single handedly DESTROYING this podcast. Dax & her handful of cult followers continue to keep her comfy atop her self proclaimed pedistool by showering her endlessly w compliments. Whereas I’m forced to either hit “mute” each time she interjects (which is A LOT) OR endure her mind numbing comments, her fake “Dax laugh”, her utter lack of perspective and her constant bossy, entitled braggy, rants in her baby voice, deliberately intended to tap into Dax’s paternal side. She can’t decide if she wants to be THE BOSS (of everything & everyone) OR be infantilized and treated like a delicate child, who bruises if you rub her in the slightest wrong way. Meaning, you cannot disagree, challenge or tease her… EVER. she’s so insecure that she’s gone as far as to DELIBERATELY MISPRONOUNCE WORDS TO MIRROR DAX. Who btw, was raised speaking/mispronouncing certain words… Thus, He’s a product of his environment. What’s M’s excuse?? Ex… “pitcher” (picture) “Dinnent” (didn’t) “counent” (couldn’t). Listen up, you’ll hear her! Truth is, Monica hit the Dax Lotto and is riding his coattails, first class only, all the way to The Row!! All the while, she’s “building the house across the street” (in case you didn’t hear the 40X Dax told a guest) Somehow Dax keeps drinking. The kool aid & she’s ironically THE most unlikable, untalented, ill fitted co host ever!!! She knows NOTHING! Dax is naturally a wonderful host and conversationalist. Whereas, Monica doesn’t possess any social skills. Her need to interject unnecessarily throughout the interviews, legit dumbs down the podcast. The 2 episodes that were just Dax and the guest was BLISSFUL!!! Too bad she came back. 🙊🙉

I really like the interviews, but the intros are so off putting that I am tempted not to listen anymore. Why not actually say your names in the beginning? The calling yourselves weird names is so confusing to new listeners. Much worse is the intro to the fact check with the offensive voice and talking about getting into someone’s pants. What is the point of that?? It’s so awful I can’t imagine why it would be included.

The experts are great! The actors are fun. Monica and Dax have happy chemistry and know how to pull the best out of their guests. This is my #1 go-to podcast.

Two Oregon residents traveling in NZ on holiday when we heard this episode. Found a restaurant in Rotorua serving honey roasted feijoa atop a chicken salad and also as a poached dessert with mascarpone vanilla cream. We ate both and loved them! Thanks for the timely tip, David! Your home country is a true gem!

I can’t listen to this anymore because of Monica’s laugh and inane questions. ‘Do all men’s lives rotate in the axis of wanting to win in a fight?’ Love the guests, Dax is who he is, all admiration for a program of recovery, but would love less to no Monica.

I just love your podcast, you have such amazingly knowledgeable guests on your show. I’m a grandmother of four, ages ranging from 9-17. I hope and pray that I can learn a thing or two from your podcast to help my grandchildren with advice since I’m the one that they run to when they’re mom or dad piss them off or don’t understand them. It’s a very different kind of generation now from when I grew up. The world is harder and the people cruel. When I was growing up I delt with some similar situations but I wasn’t able to talk to my parents because in my family we just didn’t do that and instead I got high in order to deal with my pain. Iam grateful that my children were always able to come to me for help and because of that my children do the same with their children, now it doesn’t always go so well and when it doesn’t that’s when I try to step in and help. I’m grateful for your podcast. I also have to say Dex I think you are an amazingly talented actor/artist!

I’ve listened to this pod for so long and have always enjoyed the banter and honestly. I seriously do not think I can listen to another episode after hearing Dax try to “bro out” with Conner Mcgregor. Dax was promoting his NA beer and in the episode said a slogan is that it’s safe to drink with your sister in law, he then laughed and said “you know, anything could happen, you could hook up or you could kill her”. You’ve got two daughters, a wife and your best friend is Monica and you are joking about men getting drunk and being unable to control themselves to the point of either hooking up with someone else’s wife or killing them. On top of that, deleting and blocking anyone on socials that doesn’t like an episode is wild all while openly liking and only responding to comments that support your view even if they are crapping all over Monica’s opinion is legit so cringe.

I was so enamored with Goldie's stories and her banter with Dax. As a fellow J2C (yep, I'm Jan 2nd too!), I'm genetically incapable of being like her, but boy would I love to embody her loving and carefree spirit!! Such a sweet little series with the Russell/Hawn clan 🙂

Dax is so gnarly when his privilege gets challenged. The dreadlock conversation was a nightmare and he is super emotionally dishonest when he argues; uses every trick in the book, makes giant reductive leaps and then concludes that the notion of cultural appropriation is an idea that liberals have taken too far…based on his own echo chamber reasoning rather than research or education. Very similar when he upset JVN. He makes a belligerent decision based on his privileged position instead of listening to marginalized voices talking about their lived experience. But they have great guests.

What if an elitist narcissist had a podcast…oh wait he does. This podcast is so condescending and empty. Hi I’m Dax. My wife is famous. I like to talk down to people. I think I’m smart. If you think I’m a jerk wait until you meet my friends. How anyone could be awful to JVN is beyond me. What a waste of megabytes. Don’t waste your time. I thought it was cancelled long ago then I stumbled across it again and heard the Jonathan Van Ness mess. How dare you!

I don’t understand what happen to this show it use to be so good minus Monica who get on my nerve but it was still possible to listen but now that they have all these other shows I can’t find which one is the original podcast it’s so annoying the way y'all have done this can we just go back to one podcast and do your umbrella show individually but separated from this it’s just annoying to have to find the one I like and one more thing Monica you have to stop thinking that you are the voice of reason you not and stop thinking that because you say something that it apply to us all it doesn’t

…but Monica is ruining the show. And as a liberal myself, it’s so disappointing. She finds a problem with EVERYTHING and obviously detests Dax for his open-mindedness. Honestly she gives feminists a bad name. If I do listen, I stop before it gets to the fact check because I CAN’T.

I would love to listen, since I still enjoy Dax and find majority of the guests to be interesting people (do not care for all the other shows under the “umbrella”), but Monica, man, I don’t think I have ever encountered more unbearable creature. I’ve tried given myself a pep talk and kind of bracing myself before I listen to an episode, but it’s too much, I shouldn’t have to do this, so unfortunately I’ve chosen not to listen anymore.

I’ve listened to this show for a while and honestly will be embarrassed to have it on my spotify wrapped. The ignorance and lack of self awareness present on this pod is such a bummer, especially JVN. The choppy editing to force what sounded like an apology was deeply upsetting. The fact check where no facts were checked, no learning was done, but instead D and M spent time discussing their own access to gender affirming care with literally 0 self awareness. Also, perhaps the fact check could have included corrected pronouns for sweet JVN, especially after they went through the ringer while Dax pontificated his garbage takes. I think the big thing for me is: ignorance is not the same as vulnerability. It is not vulnerable to build ignorant straw man arguments or share your uniformed opinions like they’re fact, it’s just stupid. This show gets away with a lot by calling it vulnerability.

I need Monica to be less critical of Dax and get back into the magic of when you two just jive, my fave pod since the beginning tho 🥰😘🙋🏼‍♀️

I absolutely adored Masie in this episode, my beef is with Monica and how exhausting she was during the fact check. This is the 2nd time Monica has brought in her liberalism into this show, in the episodes I’ve listened to, and it’s so unsettling. I didn’t start listening to this show to hear about how black people would be offended for white people to wear a certain hair style. The truth of the matter is that imitation is the highest form of flattery. Monica, your insecurities are your own, you don’t need put your insecurities on a whole other race.. that isn’t yours. Dax, I’d think about getting another, less boring, more secure podcast partner.

I love the Anonymous episodes and many of the Expert interviews but most of all I loved the Eff Won with DRS episodes. There are better strictly F1 racing podcasts but Eff Won adds hilarious banter and Jethro Bovingdon is the real deal and provides great racing history and context. please let us know if it will be returning for the 2024 season which is already filled with enough craziness for Dax, Jethro and Charlie to chew on for many episodes.

I came to show site to search for a particular guest and was distracted by the reviews. I love reading all the good and even the honest reviews. But geez, some of y’all are just nasty! If you don’t like the podcast, stop listening, I doubt you’ll hurt Dax and Monica’s feelings. It’s completely unnecessary to attack someone’s character and tell someone they add no value to something they clearly put a lot of time and effort into. Clearly, the ratings speak for themselves. Are you perfect? No, but you are so quick to pass judgement. Remember, every one is going through something that you know nothing about. So unless you have a perfect podcast and always say the perfect thing that doesn’t upset anyone and everything you do is perfect. Then back off! I mean really, just stop being mean and move on. Aside from that I just wanna say I love the podcast and even when I don’t love a particular guest or topic, I still listen because I respect the people making it and putting it out there. So on behalf of the nice people of this world, thank you Dax and Monica and Wobby Rob and all the people who work so hard to make this podcast a highlight of my day.

Love this podcast. Always look forward to the next episode. I recently listened to Bradley Cooper and felt like I was in on a conversation between friends. So natural and enjoyable. The fact check for this episode included a discussion of penis molds. I really didn’t like this part until Monica mentioned JFKJr. And also old high school friends-I was shocked at the name that immediately popped into my head. The whole podcast was just a great experience as they all are.

Dax listens and is thoughtful with his responses. Monica is negative, interrupts, defensive and takes over the fact check. It’s too much. I barely listen to the fact check anymore because of it. Also I know we sometimes sound like our friends but her mimicking Dax’s laugh too…I remember when Jimmy Fallon pointed it out. Can’t unhear it. Just wish Monica would stop trying to take over so much, vibe kill. Less Monica More Dax please!

I absolutely love how good of a conversationalist that Dax is, and I love that he is supremely open to competing ideas. If he may or may not disagree with opinions, he does give space for healthy discourse, however a lot of his initial gut reactions are still rooted in privilege. Listening to the poverty episode and his episode where interviewed a trans guest, I was surprised at how ‘out of touch’ he seemed. I’m learning and unlearning complicated and nuanced issues, just as he is, but the way he dominates a lot of conversations leads me to believe that he may be not as open to truly listening to his guests. But we are all in this together, so let’s keep listening and keep moving forward for the good in humanity.

I love this podcast and the variety - so funny yet also so much teaching/learning and diving deep! Thank you! I have noticed some sections repeated/editing mistakes lately, which are odd. No biggie though. 💗 Also, in the Fact Check after Anna Kendrick (awesome conversation), Monica says one can’t go to Heaven if they committed suicide. Just so everyone knows, that is absolutely NOT true and never once mentioned in the Christian Bible. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” That is the only requirement for eternal life. 💗

Monica and Liz have zero real life experience which makes Synced impossible to listen to. It’s like listening to two fourth grade girls. Monica is just way too ignorant and annoying about any subject she doesn’t understand on all of the podcasts under the umbrella. If Dax wasn’t the main person here, I wouldn’t be listening.

Monica — no one is here to listen to you talk over Bradley Cooper and act like you are a relevant part of him and Dax’s friendship. Your questions are mind numbingly boring and irrelevant. Stop riding Dax’s success once and for all.

Pretty solid content and interviewees. Would be better without the frequent casual swearing and I cannot for the life of me understand why Monica is a part of the show. Zero value add. And honestly it detracts from the show overall.

I’ve noticed episodes skipping back to parts already played. I even went back and listened to make sure it wasn’t something with my phone. Love the podcast.

I listened to a few episodes recently. With it’s exclusivity, over the years, being available on certain platforms, I wasn’t eager to chase a podcast that’s formula has been replicated over and over again. However, I’m huge fans of Dax and Kristen as actors, parents, people, and entertainers and loved the bits I listened to. I just feel like out of a two hour podcast there is really only about 50 minutes of the meat and potatoes a hungry pod listener is craving.

Listened from day one. For a few years, listened to every episode. The more popular it got the more I noticed an air of arrogance with Monica and Dax though. The fact check of every episode became not about correcting mistakes in the episode but just chatting about shopping and dumb LA beauty treatment stuff, super boring and not relatable. I started only popping in when I really liked a guest because I could no longer stand the hosts’ personalities. Then they had JVN on…. it was a disappointing disaster. Dax is clearly not very educated on the trans experience and in the MANY weeks since that episode, has shown no reflection or desire to learn. Not the compassionate, curious host I was interested in to start. I also just learned that I’ve been blocked on IG for pointing out to Dax that his testosterone treatments are gender affirming care, something he seemed to struggle to understand. Anyway, I hoped there would be change but it seems like he’d rather just ignore and block, so here I am, completely giving up on this podcast ever getting good again.

Consider having Andy Crouch on the show

Monica is just the most immature person. In the episode where the person was talking about an incident where the stole an ancient artifact from another country she actually couldn't understand what the fuss was about. How culturally insensitive can she be. She really doesn't deserve a big platform like this until she grows up. Dax is only slightly better. He seems like a real scum based on things he narrates about his past especially with not much regret about them. The world is truly a sad place if such humans thrive!

I've been a huge fan since day 1.. and it just continues to evolve and grow into an even more amazing podcast. I've learned so much, laughed even more, and even shed a tear or two! The real-est podcast out there. I think everyone should be an Armcherry!!