Cover Your Hole

Conan talks to Phillip from Colonial Williamsburg about relic hunting for lost treasures (and sometimes live hand grenades) and why you should always fill in your holes after a search. Wanna get a chance to talk to Conan? Submit here: teamcoco.com/apply

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Conan O'Brien?

  Now Sona, clearly I'm a very important person to you.

• 0:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:05Conan O'Brien?

  Just accept the premise and we'll move ahead.

• 0:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 0:08Conan O'Brien?

  I'm a very important person to you. What would you get me from Macy's for the holidays?

• 0:13Speaker 01

  A vase.

• 0:15Conan O'Brien?

  No, I don't want a vase. I want something better.

• 0:17Speaker 01

  A jacket.

• 0:19Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, nice jacket. I love a nice jacket.

• 0:20Speaker 01

  Oh yeah, that jacket, nice jacket.

• 0:22Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, so now you have to do it, because you said you would.

• 0:23Speaker 01

  Aw man, I didn't know you were doing that.

• 0:25Conan O'Brien?

  Well, I know the holidays, I know the holidays are months away, but it's never too early, Sona, to find gifts that I will love, gifts I will wear, and surprises that make the season unforgettable for me.

• 0:37Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 0:37Conan O'Brien?

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• 1:02Conan O'Brien?

  Ever invest in something that seemed incredible at first, but didn't live up to the hype?

• 1:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, like all the time.

• 1:07Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, I did that with an all-potato restaurant.

• 1:10Speaker 01

  Oh no.

• 1:14Conan O'Brien?

  Marketers know that feeling. They optimize for the numbers that look great, like impressions, but then they don't see revenue. You know what I'm talking about, don't you, Sona?

• 1:22Speaker 01

  Oh yeah, all the time.

• 1:23Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, LinkedIn has a word for that: bullspend.

• 1:26Speaker 01

  Bullspend.

• 1:27Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, instead you can get the highest ROAS of major ad networks with LinkedIn Ads.

• 1:31Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:32Conan O'Brien?

  Cut the bullspend. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 and get a $250 credit. Go to linkedin.com/conan. Terms apply.

• 1:47Speaker 02

  Conan O'Brien needs a fan. Want to talk to Conan? Visit teamcoco.com/callconan.

• 1:55Speaker 02

  Okay, let's get started.

• 1:57Speaker 03

  Hey Phillip, welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan.

• 2:00Speaker 04

  Hey you guys.

• 2:01Conan O'Brien?

  Hey Phillip, how are you?

• 2:02Speaker 04

  I'm doing well, how are you?

• 2:04Conan O'Brien?

  I'm just gonna comment right away, and I encourage our listeners to watch the video. You've got one of the most neatly curated beards I've seen in my life. I mean,

• 2:13Speaker 04

  Well, thank you.

• 2:14Conan O'Brien?

  It's incredible. I feel like you had a jeweler come in and maintain your beard.

• 2:19Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 2:20Conan O'Brien?

  Impressive, very impressive.

• 2:23Conan O'Brien?

  Phillip, tell us a little bit about yourself. Where do you live? Where are you coming to us from right now?

• 2:27Speaker 04

  So I live in the Williamsburg, Virginia area. So Colonial Williamsburg, have you ever been here? Right, right in that area, eastern, eastern Virginia. So yeah, this is where I live at.

• 2:37Conan O'Brien?

  And tell us about yourself. What, what makes you tick, Phillip?

• 2:42Speaker 04

  All right, well, I am, I grew up in this area, so I've always been a huge fan of, of history.

• 2:49Conan O'Brien?

  Yep.

• 2:50Speaker 04

  So, love history. I live here, I'm married to my wife Karen, she's a high school math teacher. I have two teenage boys, we love being outside, whether it's in the woods, hiking, boating, whatever it may be. So that's, that's kind of our world.

• 3:04Conan O'Brien?

  Okay, I feel like this is a dating app now.

• 3:08Conan O'Brien?

  And I like, you swipe right if you're interested or left?

• 3:13Speaker 04

  Swipe right, right, right.

• 3:15Conan O'Brien?

  You swipe right, and if you're really interested, you swipe up for a super swipe.

• 3:19Speaker 02

  Get out!

• 3:20Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, that's right. I just swiped you up, Phillip. Yeah, because you like history, which I, which I love. Now I see in my notes here, it says you're a relic hunter. I don't really know much about that. What do you do?

• 3:32Speaker 04

  So, it's, it's a hobby. It's so relic hunting, if you, it's kind of like using a metal detector to go out and find old things.

• 3:39Conan O'Brien?

  You go out looking for, well, I guess if you're in Williamsburg, Virginia, you've got lots of stuff. I mean, mostly, there's a lot, probably Civil War stuff, and there's probably also Revolutionary War. What else?

• 3:51Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 3:52Conan O'Brien?

  I mean,

• 3:53Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 3:53Conan O'Brien?

  That sounds like you had hit pay dirt. Go ahead.

• 3:55Speaker 04

  Yeah, so growing up in this area, it was sort of all around me. I live right between Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, Cold Harbor, all the, all the battles outside of Richmond area. So I kind of grew up right at the epicenter of that, that sort of history.

• 4:10Conan O'Brien?

  And so what are you finding? When you got your metal detector, what are the things you're, you're pulling out of the ground that are exciting to you?

• 4:17Speaker 04

  Um, also, we find bullets, Civil War bullets, American Revolutionary bullets. Uh, we find buckles, sometimes old cannonballs and artillery shells and buttons and coins and all sorts of things.

• 4:33Conan O'Brien?

  What's one of the coolest things you ever found? Like, you pulled it out of the ground and you thought, "This is awesome."

• 4:37Speaker 04

  Um, one of the coolest things I found was, uh, a posie ring. It's called a colonial posie ring is the name of it. It's a gold ring that, uh, they would have, a, a, a young man would have shared with a, a, a young woman, uh, back in colonial times. And when I first found it, I thought it was just simply, just, I'm not sure what it was. And then when I got home and cleaned it up, I realized what it was. And, uh, inside of it, it has some old Gothic script. Uh, I think it says, "I choose thee."

• 5:05Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 5:06Speaker 04

  Um, I actually have some stuff over here. I have it here.

• 5:08Conan O'Brien?

  That is so cool. That's, that's amazing.

• 5:11Speaker 04

  How well you can see that.

• 5:12Conan O'Brien?

  And now.

• 5:13Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 5:13Conan O'Brien?

  I swiped up and now you're proposing to me.

• 5:16Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 5:17Conan O'Brien?

  That's how things happen on this. This is one fast app.

• 5:23Conan O'Brien?

  That is so cool and poignant and sad and sweet at the same time, you know?

• 5:28Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, I mean, I found it in a, in a, in a field. And so oftentimes, you know, people got married much younger during those times than they do today. And so it was much smaller and probably as she got older, she would wear it as a necklace or a charm. And it fell off at some point and laid there for probably 200 years until one day I dug it out of the ground.

• 5:49Conan O'Brien?

  Right.

• 5:49Speaker 01

  Oh, God.

• 5:50Conan O'Brien?

  And does her ghost haunt you now?

• 5:52Speaker 04

  Hmm, no, no.

• 5:55Conan O'Brien?

  That's what I would worry about when I pull something out of the ground is eventually the ghost or zombie, um, would, would come looking for it.

• 6:03Speaker 01

  Zombie?

• 6:04Conan O'Brien?

  Um, and it says here, "You once found a live grenade."

• 6:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, so you find all sorts of things.

• 6:11Conan O'Brien?

  Did the grenade say, "I choose thee"?

• 6:13Speaker 04

  No, it did not, fortunately. Um, the one thing I would say, there's a sort of a.

• 6:18Speaker 01

  You're so proud of yourself.

• 6:20Speaker 04

  Yes, yes.

• 6:21Conan O'Brien?

  Sorry.

• 6:22Speaker 04

  So proud.

• 6:22Conan O'Brien?

  You know, whatever, it's what I do. It's what I do. Nice, uh, nice ceiling there, Michelangelo. That's what I do. It's what I do. Um, sorry. So what happens when you find a live grenade? Don't you have to call the police?

• 6:37Speaker 04

  Uh, had, yes, you do. Um, when you're digging, you find all sorts of stuff. And, and one of the things I would say is most of the stuff you find when you go hunting or relic hunting is trash. You find shotgun shells and beer cans and more beer cans and anything metal you can think of that's been in the ground for a long time. So you don't, you don't, most of what you find is not worth keeping.

• 6:59Conan O'Brien?

  Right.

• 6:59Speaker 04

  Um, it's not Civil War, American Revolution. But this particular day, I, I dug a hole and pulled out of the ground. I wasn't sure what it was at first and realized quickly. We, we live, if you know anything about the Hampton Roads area, that's a lot of military bases.

• 7:12Conan O'Brien?

  Sure.

• 7:13Speaker 04

  That have been in this area for, for a very long time. And realized pretty quickly what it was and moved it. I don't know. I sort of got told I shouldn't have done this later. I picked it up and moved it to a tree line and stuck it next to a tree. I don't know why I did that.

• 7:27Conan O'Brien?

  You started juggling it.

• 7:29Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 7:31Speaker 01

  Kicking it like a hacky sack?

• 7:32Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. You kicked it like a hacky sack for 20 minutes.

• 7:35Speaker 04

  Yes. Yes.

• 7:36Conan O'Brien?

  While you were listening to a Phish album.

• 7:38Speaker 04

  There you go.

• 7:39Conan O'Brien?

  You okay there, Sona? Laughing pretty hard. Sona, when you laugh, don't move away from the mic. Get those laughs right in there. I work hard for those.

• 7:48Speaker 04

  For the record.

• 7:49Conan O'Brien?

  Yep.

• 7:49Speaker 04

  Okay, for the record, let me just say, Sona has the best laugh.

• 7:51Conan O'Brien?

  She does have the best laugh.

• 7:52Speaker 04

  Yay! She has the best.

• 7:54Conan O'Brien?

  But Phillip, you know what drives me?

• 7:55Speaker 04

  Cause I'm just gonna say this.

• 7:56Conan O'Brien?

  Phillip, this drives me crazy.

• 7:57Speaker 01

  Wait, let him continue.

• 7:58Conan O'Brien?

  What I'm saying is I'll get, I'll say something, she'll laugh real hard and she does this. She fades away from the mic. And I'm like, those are my laughs! Give me my milk, mama.

• 8:09Speaker 01

  You're hearing, wow!

• 8:11Conan O'Brien?

  That's sweet milk to me.

• 8:14Speaker 01

  You hear them. You want other people to know I'm laughing at you. That's what that is.

• 8:18Conan O'Brien?

  With me, with me, not at me. Uh, anyway, Phillip, um, we got off on this sidetrack thing.

• 8:25Speaker 04

  No, I was talking about Sona's laugh.

• 8:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, let's continue with that. Yeah, let's get off the Civil War stuff. Yeah.

• 8:30Speaker 04

  Let me just say, okay, I know. I could hear you, Sona, before they called me in the room and they told you guys it was a Civil War relic hunter and you were like, oh, I, I knew that was gonna happen with you. But that's okay. Cause I wanted to, no, but my goal was that she would laugh at some point because you guys, listen, real quick, we're getting off the road. hunting stuff for a moment. I listen to you guys all the time in the car on XM radio. So I listen to you guys. There you go. A little plug for XM. I listen to you guys. So you guys are the voices in my car.

• 8:57Conan O'Brien?

  Oh.

• 8:57Speaker 04

  And so we've talked about Sona has the best laugh.

• 9:00Conan O'Brien?

  She does. You know what? I will agree. You have the best laugh, Sony. You've always had the best laugh. And I consider you one of the treasures I pulled out of the ground.

• 9:08Speaker 01

  Uh.

• 9:10Conan O'Brien?

  Does that work? As a compliment?

• 9:12Speaker 01

  It was so close. It was almost close.

• 9:14Conan O'Brien?

  You were, when I met you, you were dirty.

• 9:16Speaker 01

  Yes, I get it.

• 9:17Conan O'Brien?

  You know that, right?

• 9:17Speaker 01

  I get, well, you tell people I like jumped out of a bush like a feral.

• 9:21Conan O'Brien?

  Soil on, I was, there was a, maybe the first year of me knowing you was me brushing you clean, remember?

• 9:26Speaker 01

  Oh, that's so sweet. Thank you so much. Thanks for making me human.

• 9:29Speaker 04

  But she had a great laugh.

• 9:31Speaker 01

  I was the live grenade you picked that up.

• 9:33Conan O'Brien?

  You were, in a way. But wait, back to the grenade, Phillip.

• 9:36Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 9:37Conan O'Brien?

  What vintage is the grenade? Is it, uh, it's not a, don't tell me it's a.

• 9:40Speaker 04

  Korean.

• 9:40Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, good. Okay.

• 9:41Speaker 04

  Korean War air grenade is what I found out later. Um, and so again, set it next to this tree. Knew, uh, I'd spent, uh, over 20 years in the fire department. I, these sort of things happen in this area again because of all the military bases. So I knew what needed to be done. So I called, called it in. Uh, they, there's a lot of, the military base nearby us, uh, sent their, their bomb technicians over. Who examined it and quickly determined that it was a live grenade and that, uh, it was actually the pin had been pulled out of it and thrown. But I guess somehow it hit just right and never exploded and I moved it with a shovel.

• 10:19Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, my God.

• 10:20Speaker 04

  And so the, the guys were not, they were like, you moved that? You should have never moved that. Uh, and. But what was really cool, I mean, these guys got out of the truck. They look like they were extras in a military movie. I mean, tall, the mustache, the whole deal. And they go over and they basically put a thing of C4 and sandbags around it and, um, I have a video of it.

• 10:43Conan O'Brien?

  They blew it up?

• 10:43Speaker 04

  The whole fire in the hole. Yeah, they did fire in the hole, fire in the hole, fire hole and blew it up. And I asked him where the little wire was that went from the C4 to the little like explosive thing. And he goes, no, we do that all by Bluetooth now. And so they blew it up with their phone.

• 10:57Speaker 01

  Oh, my God. That's not that cool.

• 10:59Conan O'Brien?

  No, but, no, it is cool. It sounds dangerous to me.

• 11:03Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 11:03Conan O'Brien?

  Like I'm, I'm there setting up my C4 and I'm packing it around the object I want to blow up when someone near me accesses a song on Bluetooth.

• 11:14Conan O'Brien?

  And my, half my face gets blown off because they wanted to listen to.

• 11:20Speaker 01

  Fish.

• 11:21Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, whatever, you know?

• 11:23Speaker 04

  Fish.

• 11:24Conan O'Brien?

  Just because David needed to hear Hilary Duff, I have to die.

• 11:28Speaker 03

  Hey, some things are worth it.

• 11:37Conan O'Brien?

  You know, winning an award, that's a big achievement, right?

• 11:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:40Conan O'Brien?

  Every now and then in life, maybe something nice like that comes your way. Winning them consistently is almost impossible. It just doesn't happen, you know? Well, guess what? Winning five times in six years? You know what that sounds like to me? Sustained excellence.

• 11:54Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 11:54Conan O'Brien?

  Hyundai has done just that, earning the title of America's best SUV brand for 2026 from US News and World Report. You are a very happy Hyundai driver.

• 12:03Speaker 01

  I drive a Hyundai Palisade and I love my car. I love it. I love driving it around.

• 12:07Conan O'Brien?

  I've been tooling around in an Ioniq 5 N, which I love. Beautiful car. Well, listen, whether you need an SUV for everyday life, your next big adventure, or extra room for family and friends, Hyundai has an option for you. The Tucson Hybrid is loaded with technology and built for everyday life. The Santa Fe Hybrid's fully capable and ready for adventure. The Palisade, that's yours, right?

• 12:27Speaker 01

  Hello.

• 12:27Conan O'Brien?

  They're gonna rename that the Sona. The Palisade Hybrid, yeah, delivers premium capability and class-leading interior space. With available, I have this memorized, H-Track all-wheel drive, up to an EPA-estimated 619 miles of range on vehicles like the Palisade Hybrid and Hyundai's industry-leading warranty. It's easy to see why Hyundai continues to deliver the quality, innovation, technology, and value drivers expect from an award-winning brand. View US News Best Cars at cars.usnews.com and call 562-314-4603 for complete details.

• 13:02Conan O'Brien?

  Did you know that one in four Americans targeted by scams end up falling for them?

• 13:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:06Conan O'Brien?

  You fell for one.

• 13:07Speaker 01

  I fell for a scam?

• 13:08Conan O'Brien?

  Now, you didn't lose too much money, but you did lose.

• 13:11Speaker 01

  I did lose and it was very inconvenient and now they put protections on my account like I'm dumb.

• 13:16Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, I don't know where they got that impression. Criminals are now using AI to make scams look more realistic than ever. In 2025, AI fraud spiked 1,210% and cost Americans $893 million. That's incredible. Well, with AI, it can get so smart now.

• 13:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:37Conan O'Brien?

  Do you know what I mean?

• 13:38Speaker 01

  Maybe I should start scamming.

• 13:39Conan O'Brien?

  No, that's not the point.

• 13:41Speaker 01

  That's not the point of this.

• 13:42Conan O'Brien?

  That's not the point. One accidental click, Son, it can expose your information, putting you at risk of identity theft. Luckily, this is the point, not that you should start scamming, but that everyone should get LifeLock.

• 13:52Speaker 01

  Right, right, right, right.

• 13:53Conan O'Brien?

  LifeLock has live US-based restoration specialists who will be with you every step of the way to fix your identity theft from first alert to full restoration. This is fantastic. How do you not have this?

• 14:05Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 14:05Conan O'Brien?

  If you have expenses or money stolen due to identity theft, you're backed by the million-dollar protection package with up to $3 million coverage in some plans. Join now and save up to 30% off your first year. Go to lifelock.com/conan. That's lifelock.com/conan to save 30%. Terms apply.

• 14:24Conan O'Brien?

  This fall, I want to try something different.

• 14:26Speaker 01

  What?

• 14:27Conan O'Brien?

  I like to change it up. I like to learn things. So I'm going to try and make apple cider.

• 14:30Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 14:31Conan O'Brien?

  Every morning.

• 14:32Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 14:32Conan O'Brien?

  This fall, just to see if I can do it.

• 14:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:34Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, fall's the perfect season to try something new, like joining T-Mobile.

• 14:38Speaker 01

  Oh, that's good.

• 14:39Conan O'Brien?

  See what I did?

• 14:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:40Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, there are 250 reasons to join T-Mobile right now. You want to hear what they are?

• 14:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:44Conan O'Brien?

  They're America's best network.

• 14:46Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 14:46Conan O'Brien?

  True story. Plus, T-Mobile has got off-grid satellite coverage. That comes in really handy. I like to just wander in the woods sometimes.

• 14:53Speaker 01

  Oh, that's weird.

• 14:54Conan O'Brien?

  When I'm thinking about, like, making apple cider. And that's when it comes in handy. Here's another reason. High-speed data in over 215 countries and destinations. I travel a lot for the

• 15:03Speaker 01

  You travel a lot.

• 15:04Conan O'Brien?

  Travel show that I do.

• 15:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:05Conan O'Brien?

  Stream this podcast while ignoring local landmarks. That's always fun to do, like, oh, look, there's the Mona Lisa. Yeah, check it out. I'm in the Louvre. I should, but I'm listening to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend.

• 15:15Speaker 01

  That doesn't seem like a good idea.

• 15:17Conan O'Brien?

  It's a great idea.

• 15:18Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 15:18Conan O'Brien?

  You know, you can see art anytime. But how often can you listen to this podcast?

• 15:23Speaker 01

  My god!

• 15:24Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 15:25Speaker 01

  What?

• 15:25Conan O'Brien?

  No, all these reasons make T-Mobile a great choice.

• 15:28Speaker 01

  I agree.

• 15:28Conan O'Brien?

  T-Mobile is stacking up reasons to join. Go to T-Mobile.com and find yours best. Based on analysis by Ookla of speed test intelligence data first half of 2026. Can't believe I read that. T-Satellite with capable devices in most outdoor areas in the US where you can see the sky. High-speed international data with qualifying plan. Visit T-Mobile.com. Consult a physician. I just threw that in there.

• 15:53Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 15:56Conan O'Brien?

  So now, what are some of the things in life that really get you down?

• 15:58Speaker 01

  Uh, driving?

• 16:00Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 16:00Speaker 01

  That's the first thing that popped in my head.

• 16:02Conan O'Brien?

  No, but I've seen you drive, and it's true. I'm always picking mailboxes out of your grill.

• 16:07Conan O'Brien?

  You're a creative driver. Uh, look, let's face it. Just living on Earth can be a lot, right?

• 16:13Speaker 01

  It can.

• 16:13Conan O'Brien?

  I mean, oy vey, it's a lot.

• 16:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:16Conan O'Brien?

  There's gravity, there's mosquitoes, there's the... You know that they say the sun is going to, at some point, go supernova and incinerate the Earth, probably in five billion years?

• 16:24Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 16:25Conan O'Brien?

  But watch your diet, we might be sticking around for that.

• 16:27Speaker 01

  Oh, man.

• 16:28Conan O'Brien?

  So cosmically speaking, you've earned a break.

• 16:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:30Conan O'Brien?

  And you know where this is going? I think you do.

• 16:32Speaker 01

  No.

• 16:32Conan O'Brien?

  Pluto TV.

• 16:33Speaker 01

  Oh, right, of course.

• 16:34Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. To escape all of these hassles in life, you gotta get Pluto TV. Turn off all your earthly problems and turn on the movies and shows you already love. You've seen them, but you want to see them again. They're old friends.

• 16:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:45Conan O'Brien?

  Anchorman, The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Dirty Dancing, Alias, X-Files. Pluto TV is completely free.

• 16:51Speaker 01

  Ooh.

• 16:52Conan O'Brien?

  These streamers, all these things cost so much money these days. And I won't mention that when I do an ad for them, but...

• 16:58Conan O'Brien?

  No subscription, no fees, zero dollars. And as any mathematician will tell you, zero is one of the most profound numbers ever conceived. I was thinking about that this morning.

• 17:07Speaker 01

  Wow, that's profound.

• 17:08Conan O'Brien?

  I really wasn't. The best thing on TV are free. Escape to Pluto TV. Stream now, pay never.

• 17:19Conan O'Brien?

  Can you imagine having that job where your job is to blow things up?

• 17:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:25Conan O'Brien?

  You know, you have C4 and you have a van and you get to drive around and okay, I gotta go blow something else up in a field.

• 17:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:32Conan O'Brien?

  That's a, what a great job.

• 17:34Speaker 01

  Is it great?

• 17:35Conan O'Brien?

  I think it'd be fantastic.

• 17:36Speaker 01

  Oh, I didn't know if you were gonna say great or terrifying.

• 17:38Conan O'Brien?

  No, I love that. You get, first of all, your time's your own. You get to drive around.

• 17:42Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 17:42Conan O'Brien?

  Probably a company car. You get C4 that you don't have to pay for.

• 17:45Speaker 04

  You like it?

• 17:46Conan O'Brien?

  I don't know, I just like it.

• 17:47Speaker 04

  You just want a company car?

• 17:49Conan O'Brien?

  Kinda. It's just gonna be fun. And you get to see stuff blow up, which would be fun.

• 17:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't think that ever gets old.

• 17:55Conan O'Brien?

  How do you do, because how do you even know where to look? How do you do, I imagine there's some kind of research involved in finding out what's a good place to try and find relics, what will be fruitful, because you can't just wander around a big state like Virginia hoping that the thing that sets off your metal detector is a Civil War heirloom. You have to do some research, I would think, right?

• 18:18Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's, that's over half of it, is just spending the time to study. It's really dorky, but it's a ton of fun. But just look at old maps in history and the Library of Congress has maps that you can access online, so you're looking at those and then figuring out where you can go, but then getting permission to go to those places. Obviously, you can't go to any national parks or state parks or anything like that, so it's finding private property. Farmers, people that own land, that you ask permission, can I come on your property and dig holes? And can I, can I search for relics, for old things that might be on your property? And a lot of times, they'll say no, and sometimes they'll say yeah.

• 19:00Conan O'Brien?

  Okay. And do they have a deal? Like if you find something valuable, they get to, they wanna keep it?

• 19:06Speaker 04

  Sometimes. It sort of depends. Some of them, most of them actually, don't really care. You know, what I've run into is they just kinda go, I don't really care. I'm not, you know, that's your thing, it's not my thing, so whatever you find. There's others who have said, hey, I'd really like to see what you find. And then there's others you can maybe work a deal with and go, hey, let's split whatever, whatever it is we find.

• 19:27Conan O'Brien?

  I'm intrigued. There's part of me that would wanna go around and fool guys like you. Like, drop things in the ground, do you know what I mean? Go out and buy, you know, go and buy like what looks like a knight's helmet.

• 19:42Conan O'Brien?

  And then drop it in a hole. Just hide and watch them? And then hide in a bush and, and watch you guys come by and think that you've found, "Oh my God, King Arthur's Court, they hung out here in Williamsburg, Virginia." I, I know that's a bad thing, I'm admitting to, but...

• 19:56Speaker 04

  No, there's people that do that.

• 19:57Conan O'Brien?

  No, really?

• 19:58Speaker 01

  That's not cool.

• 19:59Speaker 04

  No, there's a guy, no, there's a guy here locally, uh, who is like, been known for decades as one of the best replica makers of Civil War buckles and things like that.

• 20:09Conan O'Brien?

  Right.

• 20:09Speaker 04

  And if he made one that wasn't quite perfect, he is, was known to go in the Cold Harbor area and bury it and hide it.

• 20:15Speaker 01

  What a dick.

• 20:16Speaker 04

  And people would find it and lose their minds and be excited.

• 20:19Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, fantastic. I love this, I'm sorry.

• 20:21Speaker 01

  You like this guy.

• 20:21Conan O'Brien?

  I love this guy.

• 20:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, you would.

• 20:24Conan O'Brien?

  Hey, can this guy contact me? I will fund your operation.

• 20:27Speaker 04

  Yes, yes. Gary Williams is his name.

• 20:30Conan O'Brien?

  You know, I would be drawing up like a fake Gettysburg address and then dropping it in a hole.

• 20:34Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 20:35Conan O'Brien?

  You know, stuff like that. A fake Lincoln's beard and a note that says, "If you find my beard, contact A. Lincoln, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue." Just, I would want to see people freak out.

• 20:47Speaker 01

  1600, was he, was, he didn't live in the White, did he live in the White House?

• 20:51Conan O'Brien?

  Lincoln?

• 20:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:53Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, the White House was there.

• 20:54Speaker 01

  Who is the first person to live in the White House?

• 20:56Conan O'Brien?

  Good question, Thomas Jefferson.

• 20:58Speaker 01

  Oh, okay, I didn't know that.

• 20:59Conan O'Brien?

  Um... Sona, there's a Lincoln bedroom. It's like one of the most famous rooms in the White House.

• 21:03Speaker 01

  I knew that. I just thought it was, I'm sorry, I was, I wasn't sure who the first president was.

• 21:07Conan O'Brien?

  It's true. You thought he lived in a split level condo in Reseda, California. Yeah, I saw him at the hot tub the other day, the communal hot tub.

• 21:16Speaker 01

  Sorry.

• 21:16Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 21:17Speaker 01

  I like learning. See, I ask questions. I'm curious.

• 21:20Conan O'Brien?

  Um, yeah. Uh, this is, I mean, this is fascinating to me. I, I just, there's a, because whenever you examine something, you find out that it's a whole ecosystem. There are probably really good... Um, you know, artifact hunters, but they're also probably ones that give you guys a bad name. Do you know what I mean? That break some of the rules, I imagine.

• 21:45Speaker 04

  Yeah. Well, I mean, it's like any other.

• 21:47Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, you just got mad.

• 21:48Speaker 03

  So much behind that, yeah?

• 21:49Conan O'Brien?

  You got mad, yeah. So much behind that.

• 21:52Speaker 04

  Well.

• 21:53Conan O'Brien?

  No name names. Don't name names.

• 21:55Speaker 04

  No, I mean, there's like any other niche or subculture. There's etiquette and there are people that that hold to that etiquette and do it respectfully and there's others that just simply don't.

• 22:04Conan O'Brien?

  What is the etiquette of, uh, you know, treasure hunting like this?

• 22:08Speaker 04

  Well, one of the things would be, uh, just if you dig holes, you cover holes. Um, and you'd be just surprised how many people will dig holes in somebody's yard and just leave them, which if they have animals like horses and livestock, they could step in it and get hurt.

• 22:20Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, terrible.

• 22:22Speaker 01

  What?

• 22:22Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 22:23Speaker 01

  That didn't feel sincere.

• 22:24Conan O'Brien?

  No, I meant that's bad. That's bad.

• 22:26Speaker 04

  It did not feel sincere at all.

• 22:27Conan O'Brien?

  No, my rule of if, if, man, my rule number one is cover your hole, you know? I've always, I've said that since day one. And when I meet a guy that doesn't cover his hole, I'm out. I'm like, cover that hole, dude.

• 22:38Speaker 04

  Cover the hole.

• 22:39Speaker 01

  What's wrong with you?

• 22:40Conan O'Brien?

  And then every now and then.

• 22:41Speaker 04

  Etiquette.

• 22:41Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. I say that all the time in my regular life and I'm rare, guess what? I'm rarely outside when I say it. Hey dude, cover your hole.

• 22:51Conan O'Brien?

  I'll cover my hole, you cover your hole.

• 22:53Speaker 04

  Heard that on the podcast before.

• 22:54Conan O'Brien?

  I don't like it when someone covers my hole. That's where I draw the line.

• 22:58Speaker 01

  Come on!

• 22:58Conan O'Brien?

  Don't cover my hole. If I said you can't cover my hole, don't cover my hole.

• 23:03Speaker 01

  Just into the.

• 23:03Conan O'Brien?

  You cover my hole, I'll cover your hole. How much more do you think I can go on this?

• 23:07Speaker 01

  I don't know, but it needs to stop.

• 23:09Conan O'Brien?

  I don't think it does. I think it needs to go more.

• 23:11Speaker 01

  It needs to stop.

• 23:12Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 23:13Speaker 01

  Oh my god.

• 23:14Conan O'Brien?

  But anyway, um.

• 23:16Speaker 01

  Never heard you say hole so many times.

• 23:18Conan O'Brien?

  Well, I'm just saying, cover your hole.

• 23:21Speaker 04

  That is the rule. That is the rule.

• 23:24Conan O'Brien?

  Guess what? Guess what? Phillip, people here are laughing and acting like it's a joke, but it is the rule and it's a simple rule to live by. Cover your fucking hole.

• 23:33Speaker 04

  It's very serious.

• 23:34Conan O'Brien?

  You know what I mean? Or I'll come over there and cover it for you. You know what I'm saying? I've got a hole coverer in my pocket. It's a little brass plate.

• 23:43Conan O'Brien?

  Um.

• 23:45Speaker 04

  So you cover the hole.

• 23:47Conan O'Brien?

  I love that you, you know what I love? I love that you just said, "So." My favorite thing about this whole interview is Philip finally going, "So."

• 23:57Conan O'Brien?

  And you think you're gonna get away from the topic, and then you said, "You gotta cover your hole." So you brought us right back.

• 24:02Speaker 01

  Can we also talk about what else he does, which is he's also a preacher?

• 24:09Speaker 04

  I spent over 20 years in a fire station. There is little that these years have not hurt.

• 24:13Conan O'Brien?

  You gotta, you gotta cover your soul. You gotta cover your soul. And if you don't cover your soul, I'll come and get a preacher to cover your soul.

• 24:22Conan O'Brien?

  So you live by two rules: cover your hole and cover your soul. These are the rules that Philip lives by.

• 24:28Speaker 03

  And then he was a fire chief.

• 24:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:30Conan O'Brien?

  Listen, we'll get to that. We've got a lot to get, you know, we've got a lot to cover here.

• 24:36Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, we really do.

• 24:39Conan O'Brien?

  Preacher.

• 24:41Conan O'Brien?

  So I hope I didn't offend you with my "cover your hole" run, but I think it can be taken in many different ways.

• 24:47Conan O'Brien?

  And so I'm not worried about it. And what is your religious denominational acceleration?

• 24:54Speaker 04

  Non-denominational.

• 24:56Conan O'Brien?

  Non-denominational, got it, very good. You accept all kinds?

• 25:00Speaker 04

  All kinds.

• 25:01Conan O'Brien?

  I'd be welcome, as a Catholic.

• 25:03Speaker 04

  You would be welcome.

• 25:03Conan O'Brien?

  Okay.

• 25:04Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 25:04Conan O'Brien?

  I like that. I like it, very accepting.

• 25:07Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 25:08Conan O'Brien?

  And how long you been preaching for?

• 25:12Speaker 04

  12 years, I think it is. 13 years, something like that.

• 25:15Conan O'Brien?

  And before that, you were a firefighter?

• 25:18Speaker 04

  I was bivocational for a while. I worked in the fire service and I worked at a church simultaneously. And did that for a period of time, and then as the church grew, it was a church plant, so it started from scratch. And as things grew, then I, then I was full-time. Here is the preacher.

• 25:36Conan O'Brien?

  You seem like you'd be a good preacher. You seem like you're very, someone that would be very understanding, accepting, a cool guy, a good sense of humor.

• 25:47Conan O'Brien?

  I think you'd be very good at that.

• 25:49Speaker 04

  I hope so. I will tell you this. I grew up and my dad did not go to church very often. And one of his biggest things was he was like, he'd meet preachers and he would go, "That preacher doesn't know anything about real life. He doesn't know anything about me. He doesn't understand anything because they live in his little world. He just reads the Bible all day and sits in his office and sings hymns or whatever." And, uh, and so I was determined from the beginning that I wouldn't be that guy. And that's one of the reasons why between the fire service and just real life, just to just be a regular, just a regular dude, just a regular guy.

• 26:23Conan O'Brien?

  Regular dude out there digging up grenades.

• 26:28Speaker 04

  I get it, man. It is not, it's not the sexiest hobby.

• 26:32Conan O'Brien?

  I get it. I love it.

• 26:33Speaker 01

  It's actually pretty cool.

• 26:34Conan O'Brien?

  I think it sounds great.

• 26:36Speaker 01

  I'm sorry you heard me make that voice. That's not what I meant at all. I thought, I was just more like Conan's gonna geek out over it.

• 26:41Conan O'Brien?

  She was mocking me for being a Civil War history geek.

• 26:44Speaker 04

  No, that's the typical response I get whenever anyone finds out that I dig holes and find old stuff. So I completely, it's the, it's sort of, it's the, it's the reaction I get from my wife when I bring stuff home and there's mud and I bring it in the kitchen and I'm cleaning stuff up that I found and I'm dorking out over it. And my wife just like, "Could you, uh huh, uh huh, could you just please get that out of the kitchen?" So I get it. It does not offend me at all.

• 27:09Speaker 01

  Oh, good. I, good. I, I mean, I just know Conan would, is gonna get really excited about it.

• 27:13Conan O'Brien?

  I am excited about it.

• 27:14Speaker 01

  And I feel like you wanna go out with Phillip and like dig holes in Virginia.

• 27:18Conan O'Brien?

  I do.

• 27:18Speaker 04

  I tell you what, you come to Eastern Virginia, I got another metal detector. We will go out and dig holes. We will find something cool.

• 27:25Conan O'Brien?

  And we'll cover them. We'll cover them up.

• 27:27Speaker 04

  And we will make sure that every single one of them's covered.

• 27:30Conan O'Brien?

  Gotta cover them up.

• 27:30Speaker 04

  Every single one of them's covered. That's right.

• 27:32Conan O'Brien?

  No one plugs a hole like me.

• 27:35Conan O'Brien?

  All right. I think we broke it. Phillip, it was lovely talking to you. By the way, when this airs, you will no longer be a preacher. So you need to find yet another vocation because that is over. When our little who's on first routine plays.

• 27:53Conan O'Brien?

  But it was really nice, really nice talking to you and I'll see you on down the road, sir.

• 27:59Speaker 04

  Hey, man. I really appreciate the time.

• 28:01Conan O'Brien?

  Of course.

• 28:01Speaker 04

  It's good to see you guys. Seriously, I, I, I listen to you guys all the time.

• 28:04Conan O'Brien?

  Thanks for listening to us.

• 28:05Speaker 04

  Followed you since I was, since I was like in college. So I just.

• 28:10Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, cool.

• 28:11Speaker 04

  Thanks for just taking the few minutes just to hang out. Let me talk.

• 28:14Conan O'Brien?

  This was a joy for us. Seriously. Really fun talking to you, sir.

• 28:17Speaker 04

  Appreciate it.

• 28:18Conan O'Brien?

  All right. Take care, Philip. Bye bye.

• 28:19Speaker 04

  You'll take care. Thanks a lot. Bye.

• 28:22Speaker 05

  Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan with Conan O'Brien, Sonam of Sessian 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.

• 28:39Speaker 05

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• 29:06Speaker 06

  If you remember when your VCR was your personal trainer. Up and back and up and back. Feel that burn. Then remember this. RSV can be a serious respiratory virus. If you're over 50 with certain health conditions or over 75, it can make you really sick. You got this. There's no prescription treatment, but there is a vaccine that can help protect you. Find out more at pfizerforall.com. Pfizer, out due yesterday.