The Double-Billed QuixlQuaxl in Honor of Aadu (Re-Release)

0:00Hey, Conan O 'Brien here, and we are going to re-air a Conan O 'Brien needs a fan. This is a segment that aired originally not too long ago, February. We're re-airing it for a very sad reason. I just found out moments ago that this fan, Adu Prakash, has passed away. And it's very upsetting because we had a very nice, I mean, for a million reasons, but I'm thinking of him because we had a lovely conversation. He talked to us about his love of birding. He's a birder. And that fascinated me because my dad, who I lost in December, was a lifelong birder, fascinated with birds, and always going out to check out birds and identify them.

0:48And I would go with him as a kid. So I could bond with Adu about this. And he was really sweet, very funny, as you'll see in the segment. And we had a lovely chat. He came up with birds that we looked like. He had a really good sense of humor. And it is the just, it's very strange to be kind of shocked by the passing of someone who we just spoke to over a Zoom. And we had a connection, but a connection is a connection. And it's a real, he reached out to us and we shared time with him and had a lovely experience. And he even invited me to his wedding. And I said I wasn't able to go because I was getting ready for the Oscars at the time.

1:27I'm not sure I would have been able to go anyway, but still, it's just very unsettling. My thoughts and all our thoughts are with Adu's family and his friends and people who really know him. And we just wanted to re-air this conversation because it was just lovely getting to chat with him. And so this is our way of honoring his passing. So let's air this segment with Adu Prakash. And we are very sorry, very sorry to everyone who knew and loved him. Conan O 'Brien Needs a Fan. Want to talk to Conan? Visit teamcoco.com slash call Conan. Okay, let's get started. Hi, Adu. Welcome to Conan O 'Brien Needs a Fan.

2:25Hi, guys. I'm really excited to be here. Hello, Adu. How are you? Fantastic. How are you, Conan? I'm doing well. I have to compliment you on your voice. You have a terrific... And your sweater. Well, you know, I'm thinking it's mostly a vocal audio medium, but sure. I like the whole vibe. Yeah, the whole vibe is great. You have an incredible beard. You have a true Irishman's sweater, Ado. It's actually from Ireland, so. Oh, I could tell. Yes, that's the one thing I know. I can tell by the various coded messages in it right now. Oh, for sure. It says, by Guinness. And you've got an amazing beard, but I've got to say that the tone of your voice is very calming, fantastic.

3:11I appreciate that. I mean, I brought my mic from home just so that you can hear it, like the rich fullness of it all. Yeah. We've not found a mic in the universe that will give me a rich fullness. I've put Eduardo on that task. I'm still searching. Yeah. It doesn't exist. Yeah. We're going through the Barry White estate to see what we can get. Adu, tell me a little bit about yourself. What do you do? What are you all about? Where are you coming from? Wow. That's a huge question. Yes, it is. Right now, I am a research engineer for the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington. So I live in Seattle.

3:50Oh, wow. Cool. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's a very cool job. I do R &D for the Argo Float Program. So Argo Floats are these autonomous drifters that we put out, you know, in the world's oceans that sample various things, you know, in the ocean. temperature pressure salinity ph dissolved oxygen basically kind of giving us a comprehensive look on how our oceans are doing and how our atmosphere is doing and it's all climate change related uh conservation related and it's it's a cool gig you know i'm not an oceanographer are you one of those people that believes in science ah boo why don't you should i go why don't you take your mumbo jumbo and witchcraft somewhere else.

4:41Hooray. Let's pack up and go, guys. I'm sorry. Three cheers. If I don't understand it, I don't like it. Exactly. Yeah. I don't like science. Now I'm going to go get in my car and drive around. Yeah. That sounds like really good work. I'm hoping you can tell me something optimistic because these are perilous times. It can feel for a lot of us. Oh, you want it optimistic? No, no, no. It doesn't have to be optimistic. I just want to get your take your it sounds like you're devoting your career and your incredible mind and hard work to trying to figure out the oceans, I'm guessing, are warming. That is happening.

5:21Yes, they are. OK. Yes. And they are getting hotter and hotter. They're just taking in all the heat that we're producing. And part of this program is to study how the heat content of the ocean is changing over time. and a large part of that also is how much carbon is taking in so oceans are very good carbon sinks for all the you know carbon that we as humans produce and some studies are actually showing that there are some regions that are actually sources of carbon now so it's not just sinks but there's a flux between the ocean and the atmosphere um i don't know if i have any positive gems for you uh conan but uh i think one cool thing so i'm i'm very new to oceanography i you know was a conservation-based uh person for 25 years and an engineer and i kind of combined those things and landed in this sector but um i think i've just been learning how cool and complex our oceans are and how many different subsystems are you know in there and what what's cool is that oceans are like space to us in that they're just criminally undersampled.

6:36Yeah. Right. So we don't know much about the oceans at all because we don't have like an array of sensors in there for like, you know, last hundred years or so. But that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to put as much technology out there and like kind of sample as much as we can. It's very cool. Better understand. Well, it's also as understanding how rising temperatures are going to affect current winds You know, we've all noticed that things are getting more severe. We're noticing that here in Los Angeles, obviously, lately. And I think across the globe, people are noticing that extremes are becoming more extreme.

7:17And climate change doesn't always mean one thing. The influences can be very complex. And so we don't really know sometimes what to expect. sometimes it means and and we're all figuring that out together so um and i think my work in this area is every bit as important i was gonna say you're telling him i do excuse me i'm not done yet i believe that by uh various uh neutron installments uh throughout uh what are you installing the oceanographic uh plates and plateaus uh there might one day be hegemony Can we just go back to your sweater? Your sweater looks amazing. Thank you. Let's just let Adi talk.

8:01No, I do appreciate, all foolishness aside, I really do appreciate the work you're doing. And as someone who has children, I really do want us to figure this out and make a better world. So I'm glad you're doing this. We're doing the best we can, Conan. Well, try harder. I'm the best I can. You don't look like it. You just called into a podcast to goof around. This is time that could be saving the world. And you're like, I've got to go talk to Conan and goof off. Well, listen, I love Seattle. I'm sort of married into Seattle because my wife is from Seattle and I married there. And I go back a lot and I love my in-laws and I love to prowl around Seattle.

8:48It's my second home. Sorry, you said prowl, right? Yeah. You know what? Late at night, wearing mostly black. Yeah. Okay. And there have been some sightings. I wear a black cap. Listen, that's not important. My prowling is my own business. Tell us about yourself. What are your hobbies? What do you like to do when you're not studying your sensors? What do you... And I say that with great respect. No, you don't. Of course. Beep, beep, bloop, bloop. What do you... Great respect. What do you like to do in your spare time? I do. What's your hobby? I think, yeah, my two main ones are trail running and birdwatching.

9:30Oh, and what I found is I hang out with a lot of older folks because that's a very kind of niche subset of activities that I find my communities, honestly, but it gets me outside. And yeah, my father was a birdwatcher. I loved it. And he used to always try and get one of us to go along with him birdwatching. And when I was a kid, I'd noticed that no one else was volunteering and I would feel someone's got to go. And so I would go and I would trudge around marshes in the suburbs of Boston or Rhode Island and not enjoying the smell. And did you enjoy it? I have to say I didn't at the time. The one thing I really did enjoy was there was once a gull that got way off course and kind of made the news called Ross's Gull.

10:26And Ross's Gull, I think, usually hangs out in Alaska or Russia. And this thing, I think, lost its connecting flight, got all turned around. And Ross's Gull showed up. Some birder spotted it in Boston. And this might be, I'm going to say this is 1970. It could be 76, 77, something like that. and I went, my dad was really excited and he said, we've got to go. It was like a 40 minute drive. And so we, there was a bunch of, I mean, there was 300, 400 birders there and we found a spot and we, I saw Ross's gull and I remember thinking, wow, I, you know, and then I tried that line on women for years.

11:11It never worked. Never worked. I almost traveled nine hours round trip to see something called a Baikal Teal down in Oregon. It was kind of a similar vagrant. Yep. You know, got kind of lost and found its way over here. But I'm getting married in two weeks. And I don't think your wife would be. Wait a minute. I do. You buried the lead. This is a huge event. And you're talking about the double billed Quixel Quaxle. making fun of his interest i am not this is again with great respect um so so tell me about this you're getting married in two weeks and and um basically there's a lot to do because i'm getting married in india and um my uh fiance soon-to-be wife uh is from texas and her whole family's from Texas and not a lot of them have visited Asia or India and I'm basically coordinating a bunch of stuff like clothing visas flights choreographed dances because it's a big kind of soiree I've never been to a true Indian wedding and I've always wanted to go I think it would be amazing take place over more than a day right it's three or four days yeah for ours and actually in my when writing to y 'all, I actually invited the three of you.

12:43So invitation's still open. It's on the 10th of February. And I know you have the Oscars to host. It'd be really great if I blew off the Oscars. I'll handle the Oscars. You go to the wagon. I love that. There's been a quick program change. Instead of Conan O 'Brien, Matt Gourley's here. And best picture goes to Goldfinger. How is that possible? Every category. James Bond films from the 70s Wept tonight.

13:22Where in India is the wedding taking place? The southwest side of India. And there are a ton of birds there. You know, I keep like a life list of birds. And, you know, I started when I was six years old. and my mom and dad really got me into it because we would go visit India all the time and I'd see all these like elephants, tigers and like, you know, all these cool big mammals and we'd watch Animal Planet and then I'd come back to the Bay Area where, you know, I grew up and I'd see, you know, a squirrel or like, you know, like a rabbit and I was really bummed out and my mom was like, here, take some binoculars, go look for birds, you know, we'll take you to a park and I got hooked, right?

14:06It was just kind of like, I want to see everything. They're all so cool. They all act so differently. And, you know, but then I just kind of like wrote them on a piece of paper and then I would throw the paper, you know, pieces of paper away, like all the species I was seeing. So you're a literate. It wasn't until maybe, I'm a literate. That's right. Okay, that's great. In the ocean. Straight in the ocean. Big problem with climate change is we keep finding these burning notes. The fish are eating them and dying. rare fish we're looking for someone named adu if you know anything about him he's wearing an irish sweater that he got from liam neeson uh but i'm uh well so but this is how you got interested in it and so now you're going to go to india and it's a chance to probably see some some new birds oh for sure yeah like you know i lost all those lists from before so there's you know i i want say close to a thousand species there right specifically in that state but there's just like so many and i'm very excited uh the venue is actually right next to a bird sanctuary which i don't know if my fiance knows about but i'm probably gonna sneak away oh that's right during the ceremony will your eyes be kind of wandering up into the sky i said i do do you take this woman huh?

15:22I do. I do. Um, nicely done. Uh, yeah. You're going to drift away so many times. Like when it's time for toast, where is he? You're there with nine birds on your arm, talking to them. You're joking, but that's actually, I'm not joking. I sum up a human being very quickly. Is your fiance into birds? She's into large mammals and she kind of tolerates my birding and sometimes i'll find a bird you know we we um went to peru um earlier this year and i was showing her oh look that one's like a really prehistoric looking bird and she's like yeah yeah yeah and then like every once in a while i'll find something that she'll be like oh wow that that actually is really cool and beautiful um but i don't know we got our camps we're in the wildlife camp but you know that's good it's close enough areas it's close enough Yeah.

16:16My wife is not adjacent to any of my interests in any way. So where you are sounds, you know, much, much healthier. And I compliment you and I weep for myself. I do. There's a well, I just think this is wonderful. Sona and I have been to Jaipur. Yeah. And to the I guess they call it the pink. Is it the pink city? Is it the pink city? Yeah. It was very pink. It was, I think after, but anyway, we were there together. We've had so many adventures together, but we were there together, I think around 2010. And that was my one dip into India. And I loved it. I think it's a magical place. I really do.

17:03It's fantastic. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I think the most exciting thing for me outside of, you know, marrying my soon to be wife is showing all these people who are so near and dear to me a culture that I have kind of taken for granted all the cool experiences that I've had. I'm allergic to niche interests. I'm sorry. Oh my God. He was having a nice moment there. He's really having a really sweet moment talking about India. I couldn't help it. I sneezed for real. And then I had to add a joke to cover my human moment. I'm sorry. Continue. So get it back. My sneeze is over. Well, I'm just excited to kind to show parts of my culture that I took for granted growing up, like being invited to all these weddings, going clothes shopping, like going up into the mountains, staying in a bungalow, you know, you know, seeing elephants.

17:49And it's there's the culture, there's the environment, there's just like the country itself that I'm really excited to show people. And yeah, I'm super stoked. It was a lot of work to get here. But quick question. I know it's a tradition. are you going to ride in at one point on a white horse i am not but i am going to ride in on a vintage car okay what kind of car what car 1987 buit le sabre i don't think i have a full say on the specific car i'll it could be a um a jaguar uh hopefully fingers crossed um but yeah i basically growing up for a lot of our weddings that i like you know attended you know elephants were used you know riding in on elephants riding riding in on a big animal is a is a big thing and i know this because jack none other than jack mcbrayer oh yeah was invited to one of the jonas brothers i think was jeb jebediah jonas i think okay who was married in india and he said that uh i stopped saying the jonas brother came in uh on on a white horse yeah at the you know and the horse was like What's Jack McBriar doing here?

19:02Sorry, I'm taking us far afield. No, it's fine. But elephants, we don't ride them anymore because we found that it's actually super harmful to them. And so actually it's good that we're kind of moving away from that. Phasing that out. A car. A car is nice. And my fiancé is going to be coming in on a boat. Oh, cool. That's nice. Right. I want to go. Yeah. I want to go to this wedding. Let's go. Sona, just come. Can you postpone the wedding till after the Oscars? I think we postpone the Oscars. Okay. Yes. Let's do it. You know what I mean? Easy. I would love to say the Oscars have been postponed and people would be like, oh, you know, well, probably because of everything that's had in LA.

19:46And I'd be like, no, no, no, no, not because of that. Adu is getting married and I need to be there. Yes. And he's been a good friend of mine for about 11 hours. Yeah. You know, Sona means gold in Hindi. Okay, no one cares. We need Sona at the wedding. Give us time to process it. It means gold. The peanut is neither a pea nor a nut. Oh, God. It's a legume. Did you know that pirates have an eye patch? Not because they're missing an eye. Mine was relevant. To adjust to the light. We're talking about India and that my name means gold. You kind of forced it in. All right. Well, it's just cool. It's a cool little fact.

20:18Can I just say, choreographed dancing, though. I would love to see y 'all join in on the choreographed dancing. Yes. And this is an extra bit of enticement. If you come, we will add the string dance to the choreographed dance. Okay, I'm out. I'm out. I'm out too. Eduardo, book me some flights. You got it. I love yelling at us. This is your engineer. Highly trained sound engineer to book. I know, but you have to be jack of all trades in these situations. Eduardo, get me those flights. And a cup of black coffee, see? Book, click, click, click. Book, book, click. Book isn't a sound effect. Book, book, aisle, aisle, book.

21:01Well, Adu, I'm very happy for you. What is your bride's name? Allison. Allison, okay. I'm very happy for you and for Allison, and trust me, if I could find a transporter beam, I would be there. You seem like a very cool guy, and I support, I just love that you're using your mind to try and help the planet. I love that. I would do that, but my mind's no good. But I'm happy that you and people like you are hard at work on this. I appreciate that, Conan. Thank you. I think we're good, right? Yeah. I want to thank you so much, Adu, for calling in. And again, very energizing to find out that we have fans out there who are smart and funny and cool and doing good stuff.

21:52So, and have amazing taste in sweaters. I bow to you, sir. I bow to you. Thank you. All right. Could I say one last thing? Sure. I, as an exercise, I found birds that I thought reminded me of each one of you. And I have some photos. Go, go for it. That's a quick edit right there. Yeah. This is called the Andean cock of the rock. I'll repeat that. Cock of the Rock. No, it's not the real name. That is, I mean, it's like looking in a mirror. I'm sorry. I'm not sure who that is. That is my bird. What's it called again? I want to write it down and make sure that they are, you know, don't go extinct.

22:35What is it called again? The Andean Cock of the Rock. Yeah, it's all upper body red with a huge red pompadour. Yes. I mean, you can't even tell what's head and what's like mating plumage or whatever that is. No, no, and you can tell it breeds insatiably. It's called the cock of the rock. Yes. No, and it's just got so much sexual energy. It probably has sex with the rock. Come on. It probably does. So they have like these kind of performance halls. I'm not even joking where all the males just come and kind of unleash all their sexual energy by like bobbing and making like weird dances. Yes. And then the female, like, cock of the rocks kind of just watch and see, you know, which one catches their eyes.

23:21It just kind of reminded me of Conan for some reason. You know what? I am now cock of the walk. Andean cock of the rock. Okay, I'm the Andean cock of the rock. I love it. Alright, let's move on. What's Sona? This is Sona. Nice mustache, Sona. Look at that. He's got your dad's mustache. Come on, man! It does. Hey, Gil. I want to preface by saying I love hearing you on the podcast and all the shorts, and your kind of laughter fills up the room, and I just wanted to shout out to that. This is called the three-waddled bell bird. It's a really cool bird from Central America, and it is one of the loudest birds in existence.

24:10Yes. Nice. Its calls go to, I think, 100 decibels, like a rock concert almost. Oh, my God. You can hear them across, like, the rainforest. Oh, my God. Three-waddled. I don't have it. It's so funny you say that because we work in this office building, and I'm on the top floor. When Sona enters on the first floor, I hear it as clear as we all do. The whole building shakes because you're one of the loudest people I've ever met. Okay. Yes. Okay. You're a three-waddled. Three waddled bell birds. I'm sorry, Sona. No, no, no. You know what? You're right. And I get it. And I own that about myself. And now let's move on to the fussiest of the birds.

24:51Come on. Yay! Oh, look at that. I'll take it. This is the burrowing owl. I'll take it. So, Gorley, to all of you, I've been kind of ingesting Conan content for two decades. and, Gurley, you were on the scene for me, right? But I think you came in and you were kind of this wise presence, right? I always think of you as an owl, like the spectacles and everything. And then you kind of started to emerge as, oh, he's insane as well. And basically, the burrowing owl, super wise. But I mean, look at them. They're kind of insane. That middle one is crazy. That middle one. That's me. It's very true that Gourley came in and we all thought, well, he's the steady hand on the tiller.

25:43He is, you know, he's clearly the experienced podcaster here. And he very quickly went quite mad. Definitely not the worst, but pretty terrible. Well, I do. That was a real treat. And we're going to post those because we want our fans to see those. And we should probably wrap it up. But my heartfelt congratulations to you. And I hope our paths cross in person. That would be very cool. I'd like to shake your hand. I would love that. I would love to do that. I have a very firm, firm hand to shake. Congrats, Adu. All right, take care, Adu. Have a great time. Thank you. Take care. Conan O 'Brien Needs a Fan.

26:23With Conan O 'Brien, Sonam Avsessian, and Matt Gourley. Produced by me, Matt Gourley. Executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and Nick Liao. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy. Supervising producer Aaron Blaird. Associate talent producer Jennifer Samples. Associate producers Sean Doherty and Lisa Berm. Engineering by Eduardo Perez. Get three free months of SiriusXM when you sign up at SiriusXM.com slash Conan. Please rate, review, and subscribe to Conan O 'Brien Needs a Fan wherever fine podcasts are down.