Armchair Expert: Bad Teacher Horror Stories, Lies, and Lasting Scars

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When bad teachers enter a classroom, the damage can linger for years, and this Armchair Anonymous episode with Dax Shepard and Monica Padman really proves it. They hear three stories about educators who lied, overstepped, and left students to clean up the mess. What I love about this episode is the mix of shock and honesty. Every storyteller is trying to understand how adults with authority could behave so badly.
Joey's story opens things up with a fifth-year teaching assignment that becomes a total nightmare. Right. And Joey even says, "Most teachers are awesome, because I am one," before describing this new colleague who seemed dazzling on paper. Division One credentials, endless confidence, the whole package. But then the absences pile up, the stories keep changing, and the lies become impossible to ignore. One dean eventually admits some things weren't true, and says, "Hey, it's going to all make a good story one day." It gets even more bizarre though. This co-teacher starts writing incorrect information on the board, mispronouncing terms, and then turns fully away from the class with her thong exposed while the head of school is observing.
That's insane! Joey tries to regain control of the room, but the whole episode becomes a portrait of someone living in her own reality.
Joey also reflects on how people lie to be liked, calling it insecurity that spirals into something much bigger.
Chris's story brings a very different kind of school trauma though. After helping his DECA team place first in Texas and qualify for internationals, a teacher suddenly asks, "Are you gay?". What happens next is heartbreaking. The adviser says he can't room with certain students because they could all potentially have sex together, then refuses a proposed alternative by saying, "we can't prove you're gay." Chris sums it up perfectly. "She scarlet-lettered me." The fallout spreads through the organization, but there's an oddly sweet twist. One of his new roommates wakes up to Taylor Swift's "Delicate," and years later, that roommate comes out publicly too. And Chris shares how the whole ordeal became the basis for his college essay. He also talks about how a friend's mother supported him long before his own parents knew. Alexis closes the episode with another frightening example, this time in a charter school arts environment that looked progressive. The biology teacher promoted pseudoscience, told students to stop prescribed medication, and filled class time with invasive questions. She remembers him saying, "stop taking all of your meds," and later insisting that period cramps were actually some inherited stomach bug. Can you imagine? He was eventually fired, though not for everything outrageous he'd done. Alexis says the final straw was using students as examples in class and giving medical advice to families.
Dax and Monica react with total disbelief, and the conversation lands on a familiar truth: the worst teachers aren't just annoying, they can shape trauma, confusion, and lasting distrust. Still, the episode leaves room for gratitude, humor, and remembering the teachers who were actually worth remembering. It's a powerful reminder of how much influence educators really have.