Smash Notes
Monica Padman
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Episodes
Notes
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard · Malcolm Gladwell #4
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What Magazine Does Gladwell's Book Say He Got?
Malcolm Gladwell's book says he got Life magazine and read it. In the interview he said the magazine was Time.
After Malcolm Gladwell leaves, Dax Shepard and Monica Padman catch the mismatch. The book says Life. On the interview Malcolm Gladwell said Time. They call the slip comforting because Malcolm Gladwell's recall usually feels daunting. Time and Life are not the same magazine. The same person created both, and the same company published both. They offer Time Warner, then say probably. Time is a news magazine. Life is a general interest photojournalism magazine. They remember Life from the book and heard Time in the interview. They bet it was Life, and they are recording a fact check.
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Should You Test Drive a Ferrari You Cannot Buy?
Dax Shepard says you should not test drive a Ferrari you cannot buy. Personal decency, he says, means you should not make salespeople spend their limited eight hours trying to sell a car to someone who cannot buy it.
When Dax Shepard was 18, he had no money and went to a Ferrari dealership. He says he would be a shithead to waste a salesman's hour and to take on the liability of driving an expensive car he could not replace if he smashed it on the ride, only to experience a Ferrari for a half hour. He asks where his personal responsibility is if he feels entitled to drive a Ferrari only because he wants to. A dealer will let him test drive now, he says, because he can buy one and can replac
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Why Does the Kelly Clarkson Story Feel Light?
Dax Shepard and Monica Padman turn to a Kelly Clarkson story that feels light because the world is so depressing right now. The algorithm needs a cleanse. Geopolitics and politics are a mess. Inflation is through the goddamn roof. Everything is bad. Personal stories feel heavy on the heart, including a horrible story about a man who fell off a roller coaster and was a dad.
Dax Shepard and Monica Padman have not both watched the video. The one who has been with Kelly Clarkson knows the details. The other saw there was a video, did not have time to watch it, and has only heard about what happened. That side still calls the Kelly Clarkson story light and inconsequential. The reply is that it c