Armchair Expert: Joey King on Identity, Aging, and Owning the Burn

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So we've got another stellar Armchair Expert episode to break down—Joey King is back with Dax and Monica, and this conversation goes everywhere. It starts with fashion and somehow ends up touching on addiction, identity, and everything in between. I love how these episodes always start light and go deep. The opening is actually pretty charming—they're all comparing what they wore the last time Joey was on the show. She has this great line: "I only remember things through what people wear." It becomes this playful back-and-forth about who dressed up for whom.
Right, and Dax and Monica tease her about looking summery and girly, very intentional, but Joey owns it—she talks about dressing for people who will actually notice. That small joke becomes a bigger theme throughout the episode: Presentation matters, but not as much as the person underneath it. That's a nice segue into the aging conversation. Joey says she feels better at twenty-seven than she did at twenty-five, which I think a lot of people can relate to. And then Dax hits her with this line: "This is as good as your body will ever feel." It's both teasing and oddly sincere.
Classic Dax. They get into how the twenties can feel chaotic, but the thirties bring more steadiness, less panic, and a better sense of self.
Joey also mentions letting go of some old self-care routines—mouth tape, heavy hair maintenance— because she doesn't need them the same way anymore. It's refreshing to hear that kind of honesty.
It gets personal in quieter ways too. Joey opens up about her father, Terry King, who was once a competitive arm wrestler and later worked in film and as an electrician. She reflects on being in her thirties and feeling more like herself again, learning to separate public narratives from private life. The most powerful moment comes when they discuss her facial burn from cooking. Joey lands on this beautiful lesson: "If you're brave enough to own a defining characteristic, you have the ability to dictate how others feel about it." That becomes the emotional center of the whole episode—funny, candid, and unexpectedly thoughtful.