Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend XX
[0] Hey, Conan here with a quick message.
[1] If you're a history buff or a fan of good podcast, you should check out 99 % Invisible.
[2] I'm excited about it because they invited me to take part in a little mini -series they're doing about the power broker.
[3] Of course, the famous book by Robert Caro that depicts the life of Robert Moses.
[4] Anyway, I had an amazing conversation with them.
[5] I really enjoyed talking to the hosts.
[6] And this whole series, they talk to Robert Caro.
[7] They're going to be talking to a lot of other guests.
[8] So check it out.
[9] You should go to the 99 % invisible feed.
[10] They cover, I think, 100 pages of the book in every episode.
[11] You can read along.
[12] It's a nerd fest all around.
[13] And I think you'll enjoy it.
[14] In fact, here's a clip.
[15] I have so much admiration for his process.
[16] And I'm always trying to feel this, get this sense of what, what is it about this guy that I like, I want to try and emulate.
[17] And obviously, there's so, in so many ways, I can't emulate him.
[18] But what I, but what I, what I, What I can emulate is it's important, the importance of your work.
[19] Taking your work seriously, even if it's very silly work, taking it seriously and respecting the people who might see it or appreciate it enough to try and put a little detail into it or a little thought or feel how this is going to come across.
[20] It's funny because when I finally did get to meet him and talk to him, there's a real sweetness.
[21] about him, it's his enthusiasm.
[22] So many of us are pleased with so much less, but he's a little like Ahab.
[23] He has that same kind of, nope, I'm going to keep going, and I'm going to keep going, and I'm going to keep going until I literally cannot stop.
[24] And you see him in his books, I mean, the story about, I still don't have it, I still don't have the full sense of Lyndon Johnson's relationship with his dad as a young man. So, you know, he's talked to Lyndon Johnson's brother, Sam Houston, many times.
[25] And Sam Houston's told all these stories.
[26] And he's got it all.
[27] And he's like, nope, I got to go back.
[28] I got to go back.
[29] I got to go back.
[30] And then finally he gets this brother to say, you know, yeah, those are all stories I told.
[31] It wasn't really what happened.
[32] And then he gets him to go back into that room where they used to sit and have dinner.
[33] And he pushes him and pushes him and pushes him and finally gets the brother to relive that moment between Lynn and Johnson and his father.
[34] And suddenly it's not this foxy bullshit tall Texas tale.
[35] It's real.
[36] And any of us, even if we consider ourselves perfectionists or people who care about our work, we would have signed off long ago.
[37] Absolutely.
[38] I would have said, like, you know, we've got a pretty good book here.
[39] I mean, this is a pretty good book.
[40] I think we're good.
[41] And I really do want to go to Aruba and make that because I bought the tickets.
[42] So I think I can submit this.
[43] And no, he needs to keep going back and keep going back and keep going back.
[44] And I keep thinking about that old television classic Colombo.
[45] You know, Peter Fawkes Colombo just kept coming back.
[46] You know, he's talked to the bad guy 35 times.
[47] And then it's like, just one more thing.
[48] There's just, there's one thing I want to ask you.
[49] It's kind of confusing.
[50] And I think of that is Robert Caro's got a trench coat and he's already talked to, you know, Governor Connolly 75 times or he's already talked to Sam Houston or he's already, you know, he's already talked to the Texas oil guy 500 times.
[51] And then the guy's getting dressed for the day and he wants to go out and he's got a tennis match.
[52] He's supposed to play.
[53] the door and there's Robert Caro in a trench coat.
[54] You know, there's one thing that kind of bothers me just a little bit.
[55] Well, what is it, Caro?
[56] You know?
[57] I'm just curious.
[58] You said, but you know, I looked into it and they didn't have a Buick's dealership in Fort Worth at the time.
[59] Okay, okay.
[60] It wasn't a Buick dealership.
[61] It was a Pontiac.
[62] You know, and then he's got his chapter.
[63] But there will not be.
[64] another like him and he's on the planet right now yeah he's working right now as for i think about that sometimes well i'm going around doing whatever dumb podcasting or or whatever thing i'm doing i'm like robert carrow's sitting in his office right now while while i'm doing this working so hard doing something so amazing uh there's a story in the power broker where robert moses's mom reads a newspaper article that says he's been fined for breaking the law and she says oh he's never made a dollar in his life and now we're going to have to pay for this to too.
[65] And his editor is like, well, how do you know she said that?
[66] And he's like, oh, well, I talked to the guy who delivered the newspaper to her at the camp she was staying at, the summer camp she was staying at, well, how did you talk to him?
[67] Well, I talked to everybody I could find who worked at that summer camp.
[68] And as if that was just, well, why wouldn't you?
[69] Why wouldn't you talk to every single person who ever worked at the place Robert Moses's parents used to spend their summers?
[70] Like, it's astounding.
[71] It's astounding.
[72] You know, you gave me an idea, which is we should we should all get together and try and convince him to do this, but there should be a right.
[73] Robert Caro Cam, it's in his office.
[74] And it's set up in the corner of his office.
[75] And it won't bother him because, you know, he's, but basically for people like us, we can, at any time that he's in his office from whenever, from 8 o 'clock in the morning till 6 o 'clock at night, any of us at any time can see him sitting there looking at his Smith Corona or maybe typing and then looking at.
[76] through some papers, and then, well, it's time for him to walk up through Central Park South back to his apartment.
[77] I don't know what the subscription rate is for that.
[78] I'd pay monthly for it.
[79] My children would have to yell at me to get off of it.
[80] As it is, my kids are always annoyed that I'm talking about the power broker anyway.
[81] Right.
[82] And carrying it around with me like it's like a totem.
[83] But that's such a fantastic idea.
[84] And we can point the camera so that you can't see his bulletin board with his notes on it because he's very private about those.
[85] doesn't want anyone to see those we would respect his privacy we would angle it he would sign off believe me this is a man that would sign off on the shot yeah and then there'd just be a couple thousand nerds all across the world who'd be watching uh of course in other parts of the world you'd have to get up at three in the morning to be like the world to to watch an older gentleman think while looking at a typewriter if you miss it people put the set lists up what he did what time he ate his sandwich at his desk.
[86] Right.