Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Kaley Cuoco Returns

February 9, 2026

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  • Kaley Cuoco owns a ranch that has become a full animal rescue, including exotic animals like two zonkeys (zebra/donkey hybrids). 
  • Kaley Cuoco experienced a moment of shocking calm and acceptance during a near-fatal car rollover in high school, which has prevented her from sleeping in cars since. 
  • Kaley Cuoco met her fiancé, Tom Pelphrey, through a manager-facilitated introduction that began with her researching him on Instagram after a period of intense personal difficulty following her divorce. 
  • Kaley Cuoco expressed strong frustration over repeatedly being passed over for hosting the NFL Honors ceremony despite her knowledge and interest in football. 
  • Kaley Cuoco shared that adopting separate sleeping arrangements with her fiancé, Tom, was a 'game changer' that significantly improved their relationship by accommodating their differing sleep schedules. 
  • Joining the cast of *Charmed* in Season 8 was a 'dicey' experience for a 21-year-old Kaley Cuoco, though Alyssa Milano's immediate warmth made a lasting positive impression. 
  • The speakers debate the narrative value of religious devotion versus unique athletic achievement or criminal acts in documentaries like ESPN's 30 for 30 series. 
  • The conversation heavily features a humorous, yet revealing, discussion about the social anxiety surrounding flatulence in intimate relationships, leading to a defense of separate sleeping arrangements. 
  • Kaley Cuoco's ability to sleep anywhere, anytime, is contrasted with the difficulty others have sleeping next to a partner, especially when concerns about nocturnal flatulence arise. 

Segments

Introduction and Guest Welcome
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(00:00:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Kaley Cuoco is welcomed back to Armchair Expert after a previous remote appearance.
  • Summary: Dax Shepard welcomes Kaley Cuoco, noting her previous appearance was conducted over Zoom. He expresses admiration for her authentic personality, stating she is who she is and does not care what others think. The introduction highlights her acting and producing credits, including The Big Bang Theory and Vanished.
Sponsor Read: Quince
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(00:01:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Quince offers premium quality clothing and home goods by cutting out middlemen and working directly with trusted factories.
  • Summary: Quince provides Mongolian cashmere sweaters and Italian leather outerwear without the luxury markup. They maintain high standards for craftsmanship and ethical production. Listeners can receive free shipping and 365-day returns using the specific podcast URL.
Sponsor Read: Squarespace
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(00:02:14)
  • Key Takeaway: Squarespace’s Blueprint AI feature assists users in building professional, customized websites quickly.
  • Summary: Squarespace is an all-in-one website platform that includes features like AI design assistance. It manages business functions such as payment processing and scheduling for service providers. Using the code DAX saves 10% on the first purchase of a website or domain.
Podcast Milestones and Location Talk
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(00:03:38)
  • Key Takeaway: The Armchair Expert podcast recently surpassed its 1000th episode milestone.
  • Summary: The hosts acknowledge reaching 1000 episodes, noting the milestone occurred about two and a half years into the show’s run. Kaley Cuoco mentions living in Thousand Oaks, where her parents also reside, appreciating the area for being removed from Los Angeles.
Ranch Life and Animal Rescue
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(00:04:25)
  • Key Takeaway: Kaley Cuoco’s ranch functions as a full animal rescue, housing approximately 8,000 animals, including two zonkeys.
  • Summary: The ranch spans 40 usable flat acres and has evolved into a rescue operation, often taking in worker animals from Amish country. The zonkeys were acquired after Amish breeders attempted to breed the donkey/zebra hybrids. Pigs are noted as the dominant animals on the ranch due to their intelligence and size.
Slippery Slope to Exotic Pets
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(00:07:35)
  • Key Takeaway: Kaley Cuoco admits she is on a slippery slope toward acquiring more exotic animals, specifically mentioning a desire for a giraffe or a rhino.
  • Summary: Dax suggests Cuoco is heading toward getting a tiger, which she agrees with, escalating her desire to rhinos and snow leopards. Dax shares an anecdote about a man in Oregon who kept Bactrian camels, noting their beauty and ability to withstand extreme temperatures.
Critique of Amish Animal Breeding
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(00:08:46)
  • Key Takeaway: The practice of breeding hybrid animals like zonkeys and overbreeding dwarf ponies highlights a broader issue of animal welfare in certain breeding circles.
  • Summary: Cuoco clarifies that while she admires the Amish community, cross-pollinating species like donkeys and zebras is questionable given their religious restrictions on other modern technologies. She notes that many rescued animals, including mini ponies, suffer from severe overbreeding for party rentals.
Podcast Listening Habits and True Crime
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(00:14:13)
  • Key Takeaway: Kaley Cuoco’s current podcast obsession is dark true crime, specifically ‘Sword and Scale,’ while her fiancé is obsessed with near-death experiences (NDEs).
  • Summary: Cuoco enjoys true crime podcasts because they allow listeners to model fears and potentially gather defenses against real-world dangers. She became interested in NDEs to better understand her fiancé’s fascination with the topic. Dax shares a personal, highly memorable near-death experience involving a car crash where he felt a surprising sense of calm.
The Gift of Sleeping Anywhere
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(00:20:38)
  • Key Takeaway: Kaley Cuoco possesses the unique ability to fall asleep instantly in any location or position, a skill she attributes to years of working on set.
  • Summary: Cuoco can fall asleep on hard surfaces like tables within 20 minutes, requiring physical shaking to wake up. This contrasts sharply with her fiancé, who cannot fall back asleep after waking up, necessitating them to hire overnight help for their child. She notes Kevin Hart shares this ability to sleep anywhere.
Meeting Fiancé Tom Pelphrey
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(00:24:53)
  • Key Takeaway: Kaley Cuoco met Tom Pelphrey through their shared manager, leading to a manager-facilitated meet-cute at an Ozark premiere.
  • Summary: Cuoco was initially hesitant to meet Pelphrey six months after her divorce, but the manager persisted, arranging for them to attend the Ozark premiere together. Cuoco felt an immediate, strong premonition that she would spend her life with him while stalking his Instagram profile. The actual meeting occurred when she overheard his distinctive laugh while waiting in line for the bathroom at the premiere.
Navigating Fame and Personal Life
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(00:36:08)
  • Key Takeaway: Kaley Cuoco maintains an oblivious attitude toward her fame, which contrasts with her fiancé Tom Pelphrey’s aversion to Hollywood culture.
  • Summary: Cuoco is accustomed to the industry’s demands, allowing her to remain unbothered by public attention, even when visiting places like Chuck E. Cheese where they are filmed. Pelphrey, who prefers New York and is not a ‘Hollywood guy,’ struggles with the superficiality of award shows, which Cuoco attends despite feeling small among A-list celebrities.
Career Shifts and Business Ventures
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(00:37:05)
  • Key Takeaway: Post-Big Bang Theory, Cuoco has intentionally pursued action and mystery roles, and she is deeply involved in her authentic pet food company.
  • Summary: Cuoco feels the current television landscape is difficult, prompting her to seek out roles she hadn’t done previously. She is fully invested in her pet food company, which features healthy, sustainable ingredients and uses cute, profanity-laced branding like ‘WTF Treats.’ Cuoco also revealed she pitched herself to host the NFL Honors ceremony but was passed over for Snoop Dogg and Jon Hamm.
NFL Honors Hosting Ambitions
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(00:43:34)
  • Key Takeaway: Kaley Cuoco actively pitches herself to host the NFL Honors ceremony, citing her knowledge of football and past hosting experience at the People’s Choice Awards.
  • Summary: Kaley Cuoco is frustrated about not securing the hosting gig for the NFL Honors, which went to Snoop Dogg one year and John Hamm another. She believes she is a good candidate because she understands the game and is funny. She has previously hosted the People’s Choice Awards twice during her Big Bang Theory tenure.
Handling Career Rejection
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(00:45:42)
  • Key Takeaway: Cuoco maintains a healthy attitude toward rejection, viewing it as the role not being the right ’look’ rather than a reflection of her talent, even after being fifth in line for a desired job.
  • Summary: Cuoco recounts wanting a specific job badly but being rejected repeatedly, eventually reaching fifth in line before the role was filled by someone else. Her team wanted to stop pursuing it out of offense, but she insisted on continuing to try. She concludes that if they didn’t see her for that role, it simply means she wasn’t the right look they were going for, not that she isn’t talented.
Joining Charmed Season 8
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(00:47:18)
  • Key Takeaway: Alyssa Milano’s immediate, warm welcome to Kaley Cuoco during the Season 8 Charmed gallery shoot set a positive standard for how to treat new cast members.
  • Summary: Cuoco was terrified joining Charmed in Season 8 at age 21, walking into the established family photo shoot. Alyssa Milano immediately ran over, hugged her, and welcomed her warmly, which deeply impacted Cuoco. This experience motivated Cuoco to always go the extra mile to welcome newcomers, especially when joining an established show family.
Animal Ownership and Home Chaos
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(00:49:54)
  • Key Takeaway: Cuoco and her partner maintain a high number of dogs, often around six, leading to constant barking and household chaos, including dogs eating trash.
  • Summary: Cuoco currently has four dogs, though they are usually at six, as they frequently rescue seniors. The constant barking makes it nearly impossible to get work done in the house, and one dog has ‘garbage gut,’ eating everything from the trash, including a tampon that required physical removal. They also adopted a gigantic, destructive Cane Corso puppy.
Separate Bedrooms as Relationship Solution
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(00:53:52)
  • Key Takeaway: Sleeping in separate rooms resolved conflicts arising from differing schedules and disruptive behavior from aging dogs, leading to a happier partnership.
  • Summary: Tom Shepard began sleeping in the guest room because his late-night routine and the older dogs’ nighttime roaming disrupted Cuoco’s early mornings. Cuoco initially worried about the appearance of separate rooms, but realized they were losing nothing important, as they weren’t cuddling or being intimate in bed anyway. This decision, supported by couples therapy, was the ‘best decision we ever made’ for their sleep and happiness.
Vanished Filming Logistics
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(00:57:47)
  • Key Takeaway: Filming Vanished in France required Cuoco to overcome significant anxiety about leaving her young daughter, a decision made easier by her partner’s strong support.
  • Summary: Cuoco was hesitant to film Vanished across the country in France because her daughter was only about two years old. This followed a six-month period where she lived in Philadelphia while Tom shot Tasks. Tom was highly encouraging, assuring her they would handle everything at home, which ultimately allowed her to take the two-month filming opportunity.
Vanished Plot Overview
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(00:59:55)
  • Key Takeaway: Vanished centers on an archaeologist character whose English boyfriend disappears from a moving train in Marseille, France, launching a mystery where her trust in him is immediately questioned.
  • Summary: Cuoco plays an archaeologist returning from a dig in Albania to meet her boyfriend in France, where she has secured a professorship at Princeton. The romantic train journey turns into a mystery when she wakes up alone, realizing he has vanished, leading her to investigate with the help of a reporter while dealing with a condescending French inspector. The series is available for binge-watching on MGM Plus.
30 for 30 Viewing Preferences
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(01:26:15)
  • Key Takeaway: Cuoco prefers sports documentaries like ESPN’s 30 for 30 that focus on athletic achievement or crime, finding documentaries centered solely on a subject’s religious devotion less compelling.
  • Summary: While watching a 30 for 30 about an NFL player, Cuoco realized the entire documentary focused on his role as a pastor, which she found disappointing. She stated she comes for sports and impossible accolades, not for someone’s devotion to a book, noting that being Christian is not unique enough to warrant a sports documentary focus.
NFL Pastor Documentary Critique
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(01:26:28)
  • Key Takeaway: Religious devotion is deemed less worthy of documentary focus than unique athletic achievements or criminal notoriety.
  • Summary: A 30 for 30 documentary focused on an NFL player being a pastor was criticized because being a Christian is not a unique selection criterion among the population. The speaker prefers documentaries focusing on impossible sporting accolades or, alternatively, rare events like murder. The existence of the OJ Simpson 30 for 30 was cited as precedent for covering non-sports achievements.
Farting Vulnerability and Sleep
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(01:28:18)
  • Key Takeaway: Fear of loud nocturnal flatulence is a significant barrier to comfortable shared sleeping arrangements.
  • Summary: One speaker recounted a partner waking himself up with an extremely loud fart, highlighting vulnerability during sleep. This led to a discussion about the difficulty of falling asleep next to someone due to worry about farting. The concept of separate bedrooms in marriage was supported as a way to avoid this nocturnal anxiety.
Marital Fart Etiquette Debate
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(01:30:24)
  • Key Takeaway: There is a significant cultural divide regarding whether couples should fart openly in front of each other after marriage.
  • Summary: The idea that one must eventually fart in front of a spouse to be their ‘full self’ was countered by examples of couples who strictly avoid it. Holding gas too long can result in loud, alarming releases, one instance of which was mistaken for vomiting. The necessity of overcoming the fear of being judged for flatulence was framed as therapeutic work.
Disneyland Trip Recap
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(01:35:38)
  • Key Takeaway: Experiencing Disneyland at night, especially the ‘Soarin’ Around the World’ ride, enhances the magical quality of the park.
  • Summary: A recent trip to Disneyland with children involved navigating varying levels of bravery for rides, but the evening atmosphere was particularly enjoyable. The speaker found the nighttime lights magical, suggesting that simply walking around after dark is a worthwhile attraction. The ride ‘Soarin’ Around the World’ was mentioned, noting Patrick Warburton’s narration.
Kaley Cuoco Facts Segment
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(01:37:55)
  • Key Takeaway: Kaley Cuoco owns a large Cane Corso dog and is currently promoting her new show, Vanished, which releases episodes weekly.
  • Summary: The Dole founder David Murdoch has not been the subject of a major commercial feature film. Kaley Cuoco has a two-year-old Cane Corso, a breed whose males typically weigh between 99 to 140 pounds. Her new show, Vanished, is available on MGM Plus, with new episodes releasing weekly, which the host noted is not his preferred release schedule.