Dax Shepard Explains Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Juno’ For His Kid

Dax Shepard found himself in a hilariously relatable parenting moment when his 10-year-old daughter, Delta, questioned the meaning behind Sabrina Carpenter’s hit song “Juno.”

During the March 17 episode of his “Armchair Expert” podcast, Dax Shepard revealed that Sabrina Carpenter’s music has become a staple on their morning car rides.

While Shepard enjoys her song “Espresso,” Delta has developed a strong preference for “Juno,” a choice that led to an unexpected conversation between father and daughter.

“I don’t want to tell her it wasn’t my favorite ‘cause it’s her favorite, but I am not going to lie to her, so here we are. So, we’re working through it,” Shepard shared.

Their discussion took an interesting turn when Delta pressed her dad on whether he understood the reference behind “Juno.”

“She goes, ‘But do you know what ‘Juno’ is?’ and I go, ‘No…’ and she’s like, ‘Well, it’s a movie,’ and I go, ‘The movie ‘Juno’? Yes, I know.’ And she goes, ‘Yeah, it’s a story about a girl who gets pregnant,’” he recalled.

Shepard admitted he was caught off guard, responding, “I go, ‘That’s a little nasty.’ And she goes, ‘What’s nasty about wanting to have a baby with somebody?’”

The conversation quickly became a teachable moment as Shepard clarified that Juno, the character played by Elliot Page in the 2007 film, was still in high school when she became pregnant, something that seemed to surprise Delta.

“And she goes, ‘Oh, she’s in high school?’ She knew part of the Juno story, she just didn’t know she was in high school,” Shepard explained. “And the way she phrased it was like, ‘Wait, what’s nasty about wanting to have a baby with someone you love?’ And I was like, ‘Oh no, there’s nothing nasty about that, I’m just saying, ‘I wanna get pregnant in high school’ is kind of a nasty, fun lyric. It’s a positive ‘nasty,’ I’m saying.”

As it turns out, the connection between “Juno” the song and “Juno” the movie was entirely intentional.

Songwriter Amy Allen, who has collaborated with Carpenter on both her “Short n’ Sweet” (2024) and “Emails I Can’t Send” (2022) albums, confirmed to Us Weekly last year that the beloved indie film directly inspired the track.

“I’m so grateful to have her as a collaborator for moments like that, because I think being a pop songwriter, like, five years ago, if somebody had come in with that concept, that would’ve been like, ‘I’m not sure people will get that,’” Allen said in December 2024.

“But because she’s so authentic and her artistry is so intact and she knows who she is, the second she started talking about her idea for that, I was like, ‘Oh, we’re doing this, it’s gonna be great and it’s gonna be witty and it’s gonna be heartfelt,’” she continued. “She’s such a fearless leader with ideas like that.”

The “Short n’ Sweet” album track quickly became a fan favorite, and Carpenter leaned into its cheeky lyrics during her live shows.

As part of her stage routine, Carpenter introduced Juno by “arresting” a lucky audience member for “being too hot,” a nod to the song’s playful lyric, “Wanna try out my fuzzy pink handcuffs? / Oh, I hear you knockin’, baby, come on up.”

The arrestees varied from show to show, with high-profile guests like actress Margaret Qualley, “SNL” star Marcello Hernández (in character as Domingo), actress Rachel Sennott, and Millie Bobby Brown all getting in on the joke.

But it’s what happened next that really got people talking. Right before launching into the song’s second chorus, “Wanna try out some freaky positions? / Have you ever tried this one?” Carpenter acted out the lyric in real-time, changing her pose each night to match the song’s sultry tone.

Throughout the tour, she playfully experimented with different positions, from arching her back and bending over to putting her legs in the air or suggestively positioning her microphone. Some nights, she even mimed putting the mic down her throat, sending the crowd into a frenzy.

Naturally, fans captured every move, flooding social media with videos of her ever-changing choreography.