Dax Shepard Opens Up About a Terrifying Near-Death Experience From High School

Dax Shepard is sharing a deeply unsettling memory from his teenage years — a moment when he truly believed his life was about to end.

The 51-year-old actor and podcast host talked about the experience on a recent episode of his podcast, Armchair Expert, during a conversation with actor Kaley Cuoco of The Big Bang Theory fame.

Shepard explained that the incident happened when he was in high school, late one night, while riding back to Detroit from Toledo. Exhausted and facing an early morning at work, he decided to lie down and sleep in the backseat while his friend drove.

At first, everything felt calm. The motion of the road was lulling him to sleep — until he suddenly heard gravel hitting the side of the car.

When Shepard lifted his head, he realized something was terribly wrong. His friend was completely slumped over behind the wheel. The car had drifted off the road and was traveling at about 85 miles per hour. Surrounded by pine trees along a Michigan highway, the vehicle began to spin out of control.

Shepard tried to reach for the steering wheel but instantly knew it was too late to fix things. Instead, he made a split-second decision to lie back down.

What followed was chaos. The car launched into the air and rolled repeatedly down the highway — nearly ten times — before finally landing upside down.

As the car spun, Shepard says he was convinced a deadly crash into a tree was inevitable. But then something unexpected happened.

After waves of panic, fear, and frantic thoughts, he suddenly felt calm.

“It was shockingly comforting,” he said, explaining that his fear faded and was replaced by a strange sense of peace. Shepard believes his brain released chemicals that helped him accept what he thought was his final moment.

Against all odds, the car never hit a tree. It ended up flattened, but both Shepard and his friend survived without injuries. They crawled out through the windows and walked away.

The aftermath, however, stayed with him.

For three days after the crash, Shepard felt deeply unsettled, as if he wasn’t sure he was truly alive. He described walking around with an eerie feeling, questioning reality and wondering whether he had actually died in the accident.

That experience permanently changed him. Shepard says he has never been able to fall asleep in a car again and refuses to let anyone else drive while he rests.

“There’s no way I could sleep with someone else driving,” he said. “That’s off the table.”

Now, years later, Shepard says he’s still fascinated by near-death experiences — especially how the mind reacts in moments when survival seems impossible.