Summer S’pouses Episode 5: The Spouses Alone

0:00Some responses with Conan O'Brien, Sonom of Session, and Mac Gourley, and Liza Powell O'Brien, Tak Baroyan, and Amanda Lund. Hello, and welcome to a very special episode of Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend. My name is Liza Powell O'Brien, and I'm here with Amanda Lund, and Tak Baroyan, the spouses of Mac Gourley and Sonom of Session, respectively. Welcome to Summer Spouses. Doesn't that make you think that there's going to then be a false spouse? And like, they're going to have to get remarried to new people every season so that there's something to put on the air. Oh, my gosh, Summer Spouses. Right? I mean, that could take a break, you know? I could use a break. I heard. By the way, that is a very good idea. Okay, how has this been so far for everybody? It's been great. It's the first time for me.

1:01You've done this podcast. I have not done... What I haven't done is sort of being yourself and talking about your life. Like a chit chat show is what I call that. Do you? And you do that, right? I'm not like this. I mean, I have like one chit chat show with my friend Maria, but it's behind a paywall, and I'm pretty convinced that no one is supposed to. So it feels very safe. This is scary because people are like... This is amazing. Guys and ears, by the way, I think we fewer every second. I think it's going to be out there forever. Right. Also that, yeah. Yeah, but it felt like fun to be in the hot seat a little bit. Did your spouse act a little bit differently in this room with you in it? That's a good question. I was getting like supportive nods from him. From Matt, yeah. From Matt, yeah. Okay, did he look... Was there fear in his eyes? He told me right before we came in, he was like, it's okay. Like you can... Whatever you. He said you can speak freely.

2:03And so I kind of got the green light a little bit. Does that mean that you're not usually in first place? Speak free. No, I've signed a non-disclosure. I thought that was okay. What about you in the zone? I was always so nice. Yeah, she was kind of giving me that fucking embarrass me. But was she also... No, it's kidding. Was she also just watching? It felt like she was also maybe a little quieter. Like she was really interested in hearing what you had to say. Yeah, yeah. She was letting me talk for a change. Is that a new... Yeah, exactly. That's not the norm. Yeah, no, it is. We're cool. She was about the same. She's always herself. That's like her thing, right? Yes. No matter what... It's a gift. Yeah. Really. It's not typical. I don't think. Does one of them take after each of you? Are they... Out from somewhere else entirely? I think so. I think Mikey is more Sona. Because he's very adventurous and just hardheaded and stubborn.

3:08And Charlie... He's very extrovert. And Charlie is more like... He's more me. I think he loves to draw. He likes to do his own thing and look at his monster books. Yeah. Just sort of do his own thing, you know? Yeah. Yeah, we just got these great thank-you notes from them. They're their birthday presents, which was adorable. And I'm going to frame them because I don't have little kids right now to do that with. Yeah. And one of them drew a picture and the other one wrote Michael. Thank you, Michael. And so I was like, this couldn't be a better representation of how different my kids are from each other. That's it. Is one of the more social than the other? Depends on the day. Sometimes Mikey gets a little shy for some reason. It's kind of weird and Charlie steps up and tells the jokes. Which is like so unexpected because he's more of an introvert. Yeah. But he can tell that the usual host isn't there, so he's feeling it. Yeah, yeah. But I would say they're equally social kids.

4:10And they always approach other kids and talk to them. Introduce themselves. That's really cute. That's very cute. Liza, you're such a natural at this. Well, I'm just fuzzy. That's a great quality. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Have you just been like watching Conan all these years? Like I could do it. No. Better. No, I had a nightmare once. I don't know what brought this on that I was supposed to go out in front of people and entertain them. And I had a panicked, I never had a panic attack. My life had a panic attack in my dream. Wow. I had to go do that thing that he does and there's no way I could do it. So no, I never watch or listen to him doing what he doesn't think. Like, let me add it. No, no sweat. No. Are you guys a little bit closer in terms of your skill set? Maybe it's your book performers. Maybe a little bit, but yeah, I don't know. Yeah, probably a little bit because what we cross over a bit like Matt will be on my

5:12shows and all the on his stuff sometimes. So yeah, we do some cross overs. What's your favorite kind of performer? Like is it theater? Is it TV acting? Yeah, I probably theater. I really actually love podcasting. It's just I just really, really like it. There's just so much creative freedom in it. And like you probably, I don't know, maybe felt that when you did your show. Yeah. Well, yes, there were, I mean, I felt it was. It was, it was, it was great. I couldn't believe I got to do it. It was also I signed myself up for so much work that I started to be very grumpy. And it was, it was a lot of research for a lot of research and writing. And I was doing it sort of in lockstep with my younger kids last two years of high school. And then he graduated and I was like, we're done with school. And I sort of felt like I don't want to write anymore papers. Yeah. And it was, it was kind of funny. But so it felt like a really, it felt like a limiting format that I had set up.

6:14But I liked that. Yeah. I appreciate boundaries and stuff like that because I'm, you know, terrified of improvisation. So here we are. Yeah. So it's a very different type of podcasting. Do you have any other projects coming up podcasting over the street? I don't have any other podcasting projects coming up. You know, I have, I have a theater piece in a, in a, in a festival in Aspen and. Oh, that's so wonderful. I feel like theater is where it's at right now. Is that like, is that what's happening? Like, should we all be there? Yeah, that, you know what I mean? Right. Well, it's like how live shows are the sort of backbone of the music industry right now. Yeah. And yeah, these people are into experiences that you cannot, that not every single person in the world can just get. I have a podcast or dead. Right. That's what we've decided. Sorry guys. Yeah. And we're done with that. Yeah. No, I think in other parts of the world too, like in London and Europe, I think there's

7:19a lot of theater happening in like sort of grassrootsy ways. And I think the US is having a bit of a difficult moment with the funding issues, but I don't think it will ever not quite completely go away because it's so human. But yeah, but maybe this is the new campfire. RIP, summer, smores. I mean, I don't know if it's totally gone forever. Okay. Let's see. We have other prompts here. Um, um, um, how has the podcast impacted your lives? Sorry. I read that run. Has the podcast impacted your lives and if so, how well we get like, Sonna gets recognized all the time now. It's like a full blown celebrity at this point. Wow. Yeah. Is that happened after you got married? Yeah. Was that weird? Uh, to go through that transition with her. It may she, people kind of knew she was when we were dating, but like now with one, one to YouTube with the podcast and everything. Yeah. Because people are newer from the remotes from the show before. But now it's the podcast is huge.

8:21Yeah. And everybody just like, I know your voice. Oh my God. And then like people freak out now. And like, they have some weird pictures. Sonna actually says, can we take a picture? Oh my gosh. That's great. That is so generous with her camera. Yeah. Her camera. We have a collection at home. Recorded all of it. All my fans, a wall of them. But it was so weird. We were in Hawaii, like a week ago and we went to, where do we go? We went to the diamond head hike. Oh, yeah, yeah. And there was like the booth where you park. And then these two girls are working there. And Sonna's like, watch this. They're going to know what that is. And we drive up. And our cousin from Australia to Steve, he's there. And so we drive up. And they're like, hi, can we park? And I was like, no, you have to buy parking. You have to go, you have to pre-arrange parking. Or you have to go drive down the tunnel and park there. And then our cousin Steve's like,

9:23Mike, do you know she is? And she's like, it's Santa. They got all giggly a little sun. Yeah, like she got like super stoked. I was like, oh my god. I'm never going to live this down. So then, and I was like, so now that this happened, can we park there? Or like, no, he's still got to go down the tunnel. Flippity has its limits. Yeah, that was it. Yeah, I feel like you can kind of identify a podcast listener in the wild. I know you can be like, that person's going to approach. Yeah. There's a lot of approach. Yeah, I have none of that because people were coming up to him before I knew him. And so I can't tell who knows him for what. People still come up to him and say, I love your show. And I'm thinking, which one? What? Where is it a show? Unless this is a show. Maybe it's a show. And I bet like the travel show has brought in new audience, probably, because that's a whole different. Yeah. Yeah. Worldwide. OK. Well, you didn't ask. Oh, yeah. I think for me, it's been interesting

10:24because both Matt and I are both like, we work like gigs. And then especially podcasting, it's like, you'll do a podcast on a particular. Yeah. And then having something that is so regular, it's like the nine to five job at this point, which I never would have thought podcasting would have been for us. But it's like, OK, yeah, this is like, yeah, this is the career. It's just, I don't think either of us could have foreseen that. Right. That it was going to be like podcasting was like the stable thing because right now, like everything so influx with the other parts of the industry. Yeah. So that's been really cool. And then also post YouTube, Mac gets recognized all the time. But there's like certain places where you can kind of, you think there's a higher chance of it happening. Any theme park, like he'll usually get recognized a couple of times. How often are you in a theme park? You know, and when I met Matt, like he has worked at theme parks,

11:24but he was like, I'm not a theme park person. But then having a kid, he's like a total Disney dad now. It was like the minute we took Glen for the first time to Disneyland. And like, he saw her light up when she saw Mickey Mouse. Like, he cried. OK. He could have, he was like, this is so magical. Oh my god. And now they're like, he's taken her to the to universal, like, a lot. He'll play hooky days where he says beard. Yeah. Yeah. He's going for him. Like actually, because she, he takes her to go see the water world stunt spectacular. OK. Into the point where they're like, regular is now. And so I don't know if you're familiar with water world, the movie. Yeah. Yes. I have. Yeah, you're big fans. Huge. Huge. Kevin Costner. OK, yes. Thank you. OK, so there's the villain in it. I have some funny name. I don't remember what it is. But anyway, he's, oh, look, they're all getting their phones. I feel so powerful. I never have this in my other podcast. Anyway, so the deacon, the deacon, the deacon. OK, so they're like, Glenn's a big fan of the deacon.

12:26And after the stunt show, they wait and talk to the deacon and like take pictures with him. But apparently he's retiring. Uh-oh. So they got to go catch his last show. Is he going to be replaced by someone else? I guess like, I don't know. And well, she'll have to be in on those auditions, I think. Yeah. So like, Glenn could play the deacon. That's great. Who here actually listens to this podcast? I used to listen regularly. And then I got a little uncomfortable with like, talking about our lives and stuff. So I just kind of was like, it's like not looking at the comments anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I now just watched like chunks of it on my feed. OK. Have you and Sonia had like boundary conversations about which you are comfortable with her sharing? No.

13:26Probably sure. We have a guy who's going to be a cop of contract. I mean, I don't want to be like, don't talk about this. Don't talk about this. It's like, it comes with the territory, you know? So do you feel, OK, because for on our end, I am always impressed with sort of Conan's innate sense of boundary. I think he's got, I would not be good at that. I'm a blabber. And he, you know, we can tell, well, everyone's information too. So don't tell me anything. No, but he has a very, I think, a very good intercompress about how not to hurt me one basically. Oh, yeah. I'm not sure if he's that, you know, shouldn't really be sure, even if they would get a big laugh. So I have never even had that thought. Oh, they're interesting. Yeah. Yeah, the same with Matt. I feel like I kind of just trust him. There was only one time. This is a while ago, but it was, it was actually like four years ago and Glenn was a baby.

14:28And I don't know what they were gabbin' on about in here, but there was something about like Matt had the monitor. Maybe I got an alert from like our, we have like a Wi-Fi connected monitor in the nursery. And I'm sitting there in like the dark nursing Glenn and she's like asleep on me. And all of a sudden I just hear hello and it's Conan's voice coming through the baby monitor. And I was like, like so scared, like I didn't know what was happening. And I was like, hello, like hello, I'm the baby sleeping. And then I just hear like this laughter. Like chuckling over there and I was just like, what is happening in the mat? I was like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Like I guess I don't know what bit they were doing where he was like, here. And I can even like talk through the monitor. And he didn't know that I was in there with this sleeping baby. And I think that was the only time when I was like, I don't like that. Right. I just like that. No, thank you. No, thank you. No, thank you.

15:29But otherwise, I listen to some episodes of the show, but I hear a lot of it being edited because Matt's always working on it. So you know, I'm like around in the backhouse in his office where he works. And I always hear lots of, you know, I hear the raw audio. And I hear, get to hear what's taken out. Do you ever disagree with an edit? No, but sometimes I will say not like I'm taking any credit, but there's times and I'm at a rise. Oh, yeah, maybe that could go or stay. Maybe just a couple times where I get to like a little here, some of the notes too, or kind of, he's receptive to that. Oh, I mean, yeah, like he'll do whatever. Yeah, I'm just kidding. No, but it is cool to hear him editing it, you know, and just to see what he takes out. It's never like really big things because there's such pros, especially when it's just the three of them. You know, a lot of that is just what they record is what you hear. Yeah, I want to ask if there's ever been anything from a guest that's been edited out

16:34that you... That can think of. These guys know it, I'm sure. Yeah, that's every podcast, right? Yeah, I mean, it happens, but it's actually less than you would think. Like we give everybody the same disclaimer when they walk in, you know, this is a safe space, we'll take out anything you want. Just let us know either in the moment or afterwards if you're driving home or the next day, if you feel uncomfortable about something, we'll 100% take it out and it's really rare that that happens. It happens. It's just very... It doesn't have enough. Has anyone ever called in after they hear their episodes and say, I want you to fix that? I've never heard of that. I've never heard of that happening. I think the biggest... I mean, every once in a while, maybe once or twice a year, like sometimes the order might change a little bit. Like it might be like, oh, like this was great, we should put this in front. But for the most part, it's kind of like the TV show. I mean, it was kind of like shot on tape and then... So yeah, that was kind of... It might be the first. Exactly. To redo all of it.

17:35So people always ask me especially, is he like this at home, like this being however he is out in the world? And he is who he is no matter what is happening, like all the time. In the mirror, no one around, he's always doing his stuff. Bits, all of that. There is no compartmentalization of his character or his nonsense. So he is what you see is what you get no matter where you are. Is that... How does that compare to you guys, especially with this show? Pretty much, yeah. And just to say about Conan, it was just so refreshing when I first met him to see that he's like that in real life. I think it was just this great awesome guy. And sometimes you meet people and they're like, it's not like that on TV. Right. Like to attack, like who? I'll tell you later.

18:35But yeah, I love Conan and he said some very nice things about me and I just... Well, he means it all of the way. Yeah, he's the most... He said even when you're not listening. And you... He says them even when you're not listening. Okay, that's the real test. But as far as Sona, yeah, she's basically the same person everywhere. Is there ever any time in your lives together where she is? Someone like, like, Conan used to say when my grandmother called, he could always tell she was on the phone because I would suddenly sprout a bonnet. Like, hello. Hello. And hello, and how are you? You know, that kind of... Yeah, I just, you know, I zelicked right back to her whatever she was giving. So is there anything that gets Sona to do that or no? I may be when she's making some kind of like professional call on behalf of Conan, like, making reservations. This is Sona going from Corabrana's office. Oh, professional voice. Yeah, the professional voice. Yeah, but she's always like... I'd love to hear that. She's recording of that. She's extra nice to other people.

19:37Like, you know, like the staff and, you know, people are restaurants and hotels. Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty much the only difference. She gets even nicer. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, it's a good way to go. There's such like a magic charisma that they all have together. And like, well, Conan, obviously, it's a total pro. And then Sona and Matt are just like, they're such good laugh. Yeah, they're good laugh. Like, it makes you feel so safe in a podcast to have that, like, they're just looking at you beaming, wanting you to succeed and supporting you with their laugh. But they also... Yeah. They, like, stand up for themselves. You know, like, he's a big... Yeah. He's a big presence in any room. And but they, they hold their own, which I'm always really happy to hear. It's, it's so, it is just truly magical. I feel like Matt is basically the same, but I don't know if, like, Sona and Conan are, like, true extroverts, because they come across super extroverted. And it seems like they are. I'm like, oh yeah. That I wouldn't, I mean, I would have assumed that, you know, that he is, but I don't

20:41really, you know, think of things that way so much. And then during the lockdown part of COVID, I was benefiting from some of the changes, like, it didn't have to drive to a bus stop at 613, 18 and have to make a bunch of meals before everyone left for the day. And so, and we were all just together and, you know, that sort of hunkered down thing that, and the, so the kids and I were all kind of in the beginning sort of happy about it. And I looked over at Conan and he was like a houseplant that no one had watered in four months. And he was visibly starting to wilt. Yeah. And I thought, oh, this is what people mean when they say extroverts get energy from other people. Yes. He does. And I, I don't. I think it takes energy from me to, to be social. And so it's a real, like, he's very extreme that way. So what about Matt? Matt doesn't seem that extreme. He's, I mean, like, on the podcast, you're like, oh, he's an extrovert, but I think he and I are both similar. We like, we love to socialize and be around people, but we're introverts.

21:41So we got to come home and just like power down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like just kind of chill out for a little bit. We call that extroverted introverts. Yeah. Oh, okay. Maybe that's what he is. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I am too. Oh, it is. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to go pass out in my car. Yeah. I know we drove. And we're going to marry back in the house. Well, we drove separately. That's why. But yeah, I'm going to need a nap. Uh-huh. And maybe a meal. Yeah. I think, yeah, I don't know. Like you gave blood. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I've been evading. Exhausted. Yeah, exactly. Oh my god. I don't think I'd be sure. I don't think I'd be sure. Okay. This has been great. Yeah. Um, let's hope we're all still married to these people by the next time. Yeah. I thought we did good. We could have gone a lot harder. Maybe if they buy us back for false spouses. Part two. Exactly. Actually, we had a really good time doing this. I hope people had fun listening to it and tune in next week when you will get to hear all six people around the table at the same time. Oh boy.

22:42Conan O'Brien needs a friend with Conan O'Brien, Sonom of Sessian and Mack Goryley, produced by me, Mack Goryley, executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross and Nick Lioh, theme song by the White Stripes, incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy. Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples, engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns, additional production support by Mars Melnick, talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista and Britt Khan. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Conan? Call the team Coco Hotline at 669-587-2847 and leave a message. It too could be featured on a future episode. You can also get three free months of serious XM when you sign up at seriousxm.com slash Conan. And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O'Brien, Needs a Friend, wherever

23:44fine podcasts are down the lead.