Overview
- Speaking on Armchair Expert with Monica Padman and guest Kaley Cuoco, Shepard revisited a late-night drive in 12th grade when he lay in the back of a Ford Probe on a trip from Toledo to Detroit.
- He said his friend was driving at about 85 mph on cruise control, slumped over the wheel, and the car veered off the road beside pine trees on a Michigan interstate.
- According to his account, the vehicle rolled roughly 10 times and ended upside down, yet both occupants crawled out through the windows without serious injury.
- Shepard recalled feeling a sudden, “shockingly comforting” calm as he thought he would die, attributing the sensation to brain chemicals and mentioning DMT as his belief rather than a verified cause.
- He said he spent three days afterward questioning whether he was dead and that he still cannot fall asleep in a car or comfortably let someone else drive.