Conan Gourley

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Okay, let's get started.

Hello.

How are you?

Thanks.

How are you?

We were told this might be a difficult connection because you're coming from kind of a rural

area.

Is that right?

I'm in Appalachia.

I'm in Southern West Virginia.

But you have internet?

I don't have internet or cell service at my house.

So my church was kind enough to let me use the office here.

So you have no internet, no cell service at home.

You drove to your church and you're using their cell service that you can talk to us

right now from West Virginia.

Yeah.

Wow.

That's pretty amazing.

Thank you for going to all that trouble.

I'm just curious, if you have no cell service at home and no internet, are you able to listen

to this podcast regularly?

So I'm actually a huge fan.

I'm a day one listener.

I've been living rurally since 2018 without regular cell service at home and podcasts

you can download while you're in town and then listen to them at home.

So they're my one real form of entertainment.

So yes, I definitely listen regularly.

I love that.

That's cool.

You know, it's, it actually, as a fan, you're making more of a commitment because you must

sometimes drive home.

How long a drive is it for you to get from town to home?

O'Brien Needs a Friend podcast and listening to it and going, oh, that wasn't worth it.

Do you have more than one podcast you listen to?

And if so, you must have limited time in town.

What's the like ranking or priority of podcasts that you download?

You know what I mean?

I do because I do have really limited cell service in town too.

So it takes a while to download.

So I tried to do a mix of comedy and then educational things.

I used to just always have like, I listened to true crime a little bit, but now I have

a toddler and no free time.

So I can't really put that on the speaker.

Same with you guys and all of your cockaroo jokes.

I've had to, I can only listen to it when he's asleep now.

I keep saying we should have an infant friendly show, a toddler friendly show.

And we're trying, but we can never get there.

I think it's time that, is it a boy or a girl?

Your child?

Okay.

I have another one almost, almost here.

Oh, congrats.

Congratulations.

I think Gideon needs to learn about true crime.

I think it's time Gideon learned that there's bad people out there and there's murders that

need solving.

And so, two, three years old, superhero, two year old.

Cause this fascinates me.

You were living out on a farm, I'm guessing in, in rural, in a rural part of Western Virginia.

Is that right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Rural West Virginia.

Southern West Virginia.

My husband and I moved here with Gideon two years ago.

We moved here to start a farm.

We're both first generation farmers.

So we're kind of learning it as we go along together.

We moved here from Northern California after the Dixie fire.

So we kind of just landed on West Virginia and are learning to live here.

Farming is difficult.

It's really hard work.

It's, it's difficult.

And the fact that you and your husband are taking this on, I think is very cool and impressive.

What kind of stuff are you trying to grow on the farm?

So we're hoping to get to the point of self-sustainability.

Right now we, bees were our first major project.

We have 13 beehives.

We raise chickens.

We have beef and dairy cows.

We've had turkeys, ducks.

We're just trying to get to the point where we can either grow or raise all of our own

food.

That's very impressive.

That is impressive.

To be completely self-sustaining.

That is something I will never achieve in my life.

I know.

Constant.

And especially right now, I have to say I'm less helpful in my third trimester of kind

of taking a backseat to all of the dirty farm chores.

I have found that I, my rules for survival is there have to be four whole foods within

strolling, within strolling distance, six ATMs, a multiplex, the list goes on and on.

But these are just, this is just hardcore, simple survival for me.

Those are the only places I will hike or camp, these areas that have all of...

It took some adjusting.

I need an REI nearby.

Tell me about the livestock.

You said you've got some real livestock.

I don't know anything about cows.

Nothing.

I know nothing about cows.

I know that's where the milk comes from and that's all I know.

So I didn't know anything either.

It's been a fun learning process.

Right now we have five cows, so we have a small herd.

Actually two of them are cows, which means that they have had calves.

So they are milk producers, Betty and Penelope.

We have two that we're raising for beef, chestnut and midnight.

And then we have one heifer, which means she hasn't had a calf yet.

And then we have two calves born or due this winter, so beef season.

This may seem stupid, but to the ones you're raising for beef, somewhere in the back of

their minds, do they know?

Yeah.

Do you treat them differently?

Yeah.

Like a new recruit?

You're always hugging the milk cows.

And you're like, I don't need to see that.

You know, I hate to say it, but yeah, I think that there definitely is some emotional distance

there.

I make sure that they're happy, but I try not to get too attached.

I would.

That's the fear.

Isn't that ironic though, that they have a shorter time on earth.

They should have a little bit more love in that short time, but you're starving them

with that.

Yeah.

Okay.

And my son goes out there.

He just loves spending time with the cows.

So I think they get plenty of love.

it's terrible.

It's not good.

But there are steaks that I can get, and these are animals that never knew true love.

And boy, is that a tender steak.

It's a delicious steak.

It's a special restaurant I go to called Loveless.

You know, it's one to do.

These are free range chickens, but they never knew love, real love.

Oh, I know where they were raised.

I'm kidding.

Come on, folks.

You get it.

It's funny.

I have to say, this is, you're living, it's as if, I mean, it could be, I'm sure you have

electricity and things like that, but it could be 1850 in some regards in your life.

Do you know?

I do joke that it does feel like 1880 for sure.

There's a lot of, I mean, charming things, but also annoyances that come with not being

connected to the outside world, except through a drive, but it is, it is a quiet, happy life.

I think maybe the grass is always greener, but I feel like I would love to just do away

with all that and be where you are, but I can't, you know, well, I'm just going to step

I'm going to step in and say that you would die within a month of some disease that no

one's even encountered.

I'd find a new one.

Yeah.

You'd eat a berry and that's actually a perfectly edible berry and, and, and that would be it

for you.

They'd put you in your Sunday suit and down you'd go into the hole.

But, uh, I, I know what you're saying.

Um, I, I, there's something very, uh, I don't know, aspirational about it.

There's something where I hear about it and I go, oh, that would be.

would be so nice.

You guys are probably anxiety-free except for like labor and farm concerns, right?

with their difficulties too.

It definitely, it makes it life a little bit more simple, but we're still human.

There's still, there was plenty of anxiety, uh, out in, in olden times on a farm because

what if there was a frost and what if your crop died?

But that's legitimate anxiety.

Yeah.

Like I, oh, I, you know, this video cut out before I saw the rest of that, uh, street

fight.

Yes.

Thank you.

Yes.

Dammit.

These two guys were wailing on each other and then dammit, I lost the connection.

Those were things that old, honest Abe wasn't worried about when he was, uh, chopping those

logs.

Um, wow.

Okay.

I, I don't know how I would do in that environment, but I do think that being removed from all

of these modern distractions would be somewhat helpful, but it's, it's, it's funny to me

because we also talked to another fan who lived out in like a storage container in New

Zealand and he was in the middle of nowhere, but he was listening to our podcast.

And I do find it amusing that when, when someone's living, they don't have television, they don't

They, and, and they're like, well, time to check out these idiots battling away in Los

Angeles on their podcast.

So that does amuse me.

And uh.

My son was actually, Gideon was in the NICU for a little while and I used to listen to

the podcast on the walk over so that I would arrive in a happy, laughing mood.

So I think that you guys give a big service to a lot of people.

How's he doing now?

He's, yeah, two and a half and just the happiest little boy.

That's a nice story.

I, I, I'm, I'm glad, I'm glad we were, we were able to be there for you even though

we weren't there for you.

We didn't know you, we were there for you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um.

I appreciate it.

You should change his name to Conan.

Uh.

Well the second one.

Conan, Conan Gorley.

You have to change his last name too.

Who knows?

Uh.

Well, I don't know.

I, you know, this, uh, it sounds like you're, I'm very impressed.

I'm very impressed with you and your husband and, uh, very excited for, um, the next child

to come along.

And, uh, you guys have a homestead.

This is very cool.

Yeah.

Is that right?

Yeah.

We have 22 acres.

And coming from California, I didn't realize that land, um, came in that size.

But there is, uh, I mean, much larger farms than ours, but it feels like a huge farm to

me.

It feels like endless, you know, possibility there.

It's a really beautiful place.

Did you, I think you had a question for us, I believe.

Is that right?

Um, so do you think that you could live without reliable daily internet or cell phone access?

And if you could, what would you do to fill your time?

I honestly think, uh, um, it would be great, uh, if I wasn't constantly, you know, texting

or answering texts or getting emails.

Um, and, uh, I think I would probably read more and I would journal and, uh, I don't

know.

I, I, I, I do think that there would, I don't think I would miss that.

I think I'd have pangs or moments where I missed it, but we didn't live.

I'm a lot, you know, I'm older than you guys and I didn't have internet for a big chunk

of my life and never knew what, you know, I didn't have it.

I didn't miss it when I didn't have it.

So I don't think I would miss it again.

So I'd be happy if it wasn't enforced and I didn't have it.

What about you?

I have to have it and I do take breaks a couple of times a year, but, uh, I, it's miserable

and I wish I was just.

woodworker?

is a master woodworker and he also goes on the internet.

So clearly that's not stopping me from being a master woodworker.

Um, no, I think there are no skills that are being, there's no skills that are being stopped

by my, you know, uh, having access to the internet.

But I like to imagine that if you took away my internet, suddenly I'd be one of the great

eye surgeons of all time.

That's the thing.

Yeah.

That's what I would do.

I would love someone to take away my internet.

I couldn't do this job, but...

You know what?

Uh, do you have a place where Girlie and I could stay on these, uh, 22 acres?

So when we first came to West Virginia, we drove across the country looking for a home

in our RV.

So we still have a 30 foot RV that you're welcome to stay in.

It's very cozy.

So I think Girlie and I, yeah, that's something we should think about.

Uh, just...

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

I mean, not the RV.

Yeah.

Well, and all the hashtag van life I see on the internet now, I know that they're all

lying.

It is not as fun as it looks.

I'm going to show up and, um, I'm going to have with me a drifter I met along the way

who I cannot vouch for.

And we are going to live on your property and we're going to look after your family.

You cool with that?

And, uh, anyway, you'll see we're showing up.

Yeah.

you.

He's got a twitch.

Uh, well, uh, Isabel, it was very nice talking to you.

Uh, best of luck with, uh, your, your second child and, uh, congratulations and, um, really

cool.

I think what you're doing is very impressive and, uh, you and your husband have a lot of

character and fortitude to be doing that.

I think it's very cool.

Well, it definitely is a lot of fun.

Well, keep listening to those podcasts, even if it's snowing, if there's a storm, if you're

risking your life to get to town for the next download, don't miss it.

Okay.

It's more important than feeding the children.

Do you understand?

You take care.

Bye bye.

Have a good day.

With Conan O'Brien, Sonam Ovsessian, and Matt Gorley.

Produced by me, Matt Gorley.

Executive produced by Adam Sachs, Nick Liao, and Jeff Ross at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson

and Cody Fisher at Earwolf.

Theme song by The White Stripes.

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Take it away, Jimmy.

Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair, and our associate talent producer is Jennifer

Samples.

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