Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend
Hosted by Conan O'Brien
Original podcast
Conan pays tribute to our friend Aadu.
4,704 words · 5 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
Hey, 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, Aadu 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. And I would go with him as a kid. So I could bond with Aadu 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 Zoom. And we had a connection, but a connection is a connection. 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.
I'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 knew 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. Wanna talk to Conan? Visit TeamCoco.com/callconan. Okay, let's get started.
Hi, Adu. Welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan.
Hi, guys. Really excited to be here.
Hello, Adu. How are you?
Fantastic. How are you, Conan?
Uh, I'm doing well. Uh, I have to compliment you on the, on your voice. You have a terrific.
And your sweater.
Uh, well, you know, I'm thinking it's mostly a vocal, uh, audio medium, but sure. I like the whole vibe. Yeah, the whole vibe is great. You have an incredible beard. You have, uh, a, a true Irishman's sweater, Adu. And, uh, and you.
It's actually from Ireland, so.
Oh, I could tell. Yes, that's the one thing I know. It's got, I can tell by the various coded messages in it right now. It says.
Oh, for sure.
Says, "By Guinness."
But, uh, and you, uh, you've got the amazing beard, but I've got to say that you're, the tone of your voice is very calming. Fantastic.
I, I 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, yeah. We've, uh, 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. We're going through the, uh, the Barry White Estate to see what we can get. Um, Aadu, uh, tell me a little bit about yourself. Uh, what do you do? Uh, what, 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.
Oh, wow.
Um, I, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, um, it's a very cool job. Um, I do R and D for the Argo float program. So Argo floats are these autonomous drifters that we've 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.
Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Are you one of those people that believes in science? Ah, boo. Why don't you take your mumbo jumbo and witchcraft somewhere else?
Right.
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 gonna 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. What do you?
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?
Yes, they are.
Okay.
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's 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.
I don't know if I have any positive gems for you, Conan, but I think one cool thing... So I'm very new to oceanography. I, you know, was a conservation-based person for 25 years and an engineer. And I kind of combined those things and landed in this sector. But 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, right? So we don't know much about the oceans at all because we're gonna, we don't have like
an array of sensors in there for like, you know, last 100 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. Well, it's also as understanding how rising temperatures are going to affect currents, winds, um, you know, we've all noticed that things are getting more severe. Uh, we're noticing that here in Los Angeles, obviously, uh, lately that, and I think across the globe, people are noticing that, that extremes are becoming more extreme. And so, um, and, and it doesn't, climate change doesn't always mean one thing. It, it can, the influences can be very complex. And so we don't really know sometimes what to expect. Sometimes it mean, 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 all this stuff.
I do. Excuse me, I'm not done yet. I believe that by, uh, various, uh, neutron installments 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.
All right. Thank you. Let's just let Adi talk.
Um, no, I do appreciate, uh, all foolishness aside, I really do appreciate the work you're doing and, um, I'm, I'm, as someone who has children, I really do want us to figure this out and, uh, and, and make a better world. So, um, I, uh, I'm glad you're doing this.
We're doing the best we can, Conan.
Well, try harder.
I'm doing the best I can.
Try hard. 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 gotta go talk. You're like, I've got to go talk to. Conan and goof off. Uh, well, listen, I love Seattle. I'm, I'm sort of married into Seattle because uh, my wife is from Seattle. And I, I married there, uh, and I've, I go back a lot and I, I love my in-laws and I love to prowl around Seattle. I'm, it's my second home, so, uh.
Sorry, you said prowl, right?
Yeah. Yeah, you know, late at night, wearing mostly black.
Yeah.
And, and there are, there've been some sightings, uh, I wear a black cap. Listen, um, that's not important. My prowling is my own business. Uh, 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. Bleep, bleep, bloop, bloop. What do you, um, with 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 bird watching.
Oh.
And, um, what I've found is I hang out with a lot of older folks because that's a very kind of niche subset of activities. That, um, I, I find my communities, honestly, but it's, it.
You know.
It gets me outside and, yeah.
My father, uh, was a bird watcher. He loved it and, um, he used to always try and get one of us to go along with him. Bird watching and when I was a kid, I'd noticed that no one else was volunteering and I would feel some like, well, someone's gotta go. And so I would go and I would trudge around marches, uh, in the, in the suburbs of Boston or Rhode Island and, and, um, not enjoying the smell.
And did you enjoy it?
I have to say I didn't at the time. Um, the one thing I really did enjoy was, uh, there was once a gull that got way off course and kind of made the news called Ross's Gull. And Ross's Gull, I think usually hangs out in Alaska or Russia and it, this thing, I think, lost its connecting flight. Um. Got all turned around and Ross's gull showed up. Some birder spotted it in Boston and this might be, I'm gonna say this is 1970. This 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. It never worked.
Never worked.
I, um, I almost traveled nine hours round trip to see something called a bicol teal down in Oregon. It was kind of a similar vagrant, you know?
Yep.
Got kind of lost and found its way over here. Um, but I'm getting married in two weeks and I don't think.
Wait a minute. I do, you buried the lead. This is a huge, this is a huge event and you're talking about the double bill quixel quaxel.
Making fun of his. I am not. This is again, with great respect.
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, uh, flights, uh, choreographed dances, um, cause it's a big kind of soiree.
I've never been to a true, uh, Indian wedding and I've always wanted to go.
It's true that it takes place over more than a day, right?
It's three or four days, yeah, for ours. Um, and actually in my, uh, when writing to y'all, I actually invited the three of you. Um, so 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 swept tonight.
Where in India is the wedding taking place?
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, and I was really bummed out. And my mom was like, here, take some binoculars, go, go look for birds, you know, we'll take you to a park.
And I got hooked, right? It 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 piece of paper away, like all the species I was seeing.
So you're a litterer.
Until maybe, I'm a litterer, that's right.
Okay, that's great.
In the ocean, straight in the ocean.
Big problem with climate change is we keep finding these birding notes. The fish are eating them and dying. Rare fish. We're looking for someone named Aadu. If you know anything about him, he's wearing an Irish sweater that he got from Liam Neeson. But I'm, uh, well, so, but this is how you got interested in it. And so now you're gonna 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 want to say close to a thousand species there. Not specifically in that state, but there's just like so many and I'm very excited. 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.
During the ceremony, will your eyes be kind of wandering up into the skies?
I said, "Adieu. Do you take this woman, huh?"
Adieu.
Nicely done. Uh, yeah, you're gonna drift away so many times, like when it's time for toasts. Where is he?
You're there with nine birds on your arm, talking to them, like Dr. Doolittle.
You're joking, but that's actually how most of...
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, 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." 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. It's close enough.
Uh, my wife is not adjacent to any of my interests in any way. So what you, where you are sounds, you know, much, much healthier. And I, I compliment you and I, I weep for myself.
Adieu. Uh, there's a, uh, well, I, I just think this is a wonderful, I, Sona and I have been to Jaipur. Um, and to the, I guess they call it the, the pink, is it the pink city?
Is it the pink city?
It was very pink.
It was, I think after, but anyway, we were there, uh, 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.
It'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.
Excuse me, I'm sorry. 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 of 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 and 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, I'm super stoked. It was a lot of work to get here, but.
Quick question. Uh, 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 gonna ride in on a vintage car.
What kind of car? What car?
1987 Buick Le Sabre.
I don't think I have a full say on the specific car. I'll, it could be a, um, a Jaguar, 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 it was Jeb, Jebadiah Jonas, I think.
Oh, okay.
Who was married to India and he said that, uh,
I can't believe I stopped saying who it actually was.
The Jonas Brother came in, uh, on, on a white horse.
At the, you know, and the horse was like, what's Jack McBrayer doing here?
Sorry, taking us far afield.
No, it's fine, but elephants are, we don't ride them anymore because we found that it's actually super, you know, harmful to them and so actually it's good that we're kind of
Good.
moving away from that, but
Phasing that out.
Car's nice and my, um, uh, my fiance is gonna be coming in on a boat.
Oh, cool.
Oh, I wanna go.
Well, go to his wedding.
Let's go.
Sona, just come.
Can you postpone the wedding till after the Oscars?
I think we postpone the Oscars.
Okay, let's do it.
You know what I mean? Because I would, 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 L.A. and I'd be like, no, no, no, no, not because of that. Aadu 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.
I want to give us time to process it.
It means gold.
The peanut is neither a pea nor a nut. It's a legume.
Did you know that pirates have an eye patch? Not because they're missing an eye.
Mine was relevant. We're talking about India and that my name means gold.
He kind of forced it in.
All right, well, it's just cool. It's a cool little fact.
Can I just say?
Choreographed dancing, though, I want, I would love to see y'all do, like, join in on the choreographed dancing.
And this is an extra bit of enticement. If you come, we will add the string dance to the choreographed dance. I'm out.
I'm getting, I'm getting
I'm out too.
Eduardo, book me some flights.
I got it.
I love yelling at S.
This is your engineer, not your traveling.
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.
Click, click. Book, book, click. Book isn't a sound effect. Book, book, aisle, aisle.
Well, Aadu, I'm very happy for you. What is your bride's name?
Allison.
Allison, okay. Uh, I'm very happy for you and for Allison, and trust me, if I could find a transporter beam, I would, uh, 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. Um, but I'm, I'm, I'm happy that you're, you and people like you are hard at work on this, so.
I appreciate that, Conan. Thank you.
Um, I think we're, I think we're good, right? Yeah. Yeah. I want to thank you so much, Aadu, for calling in, and, uh, again, very, uh, energizing to find out that we have fans out there who are, uh, smart and funny and cool and, and doing good stuff, so, and have amazing taste in sweaters. I bow to you, sir. I bow to you.
Thank you.
All right.
Could I, could I say one last thing?
Sure.
I, um, as an exercise, I found birds that I thought, um,
Oh!
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, uh, and I'll repeat that, Cock of the Rock.
No, it's not the real name.
I, 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 the, they are, uh, you know, don't go extinct.
What is it called again?
The Andean Cock of the Rock.
Yeah, it's, it's all, all upper body red with a huge red pompadour.
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, you can tell it breeds insatiably. It's called the Cock of the Rock. Yes, no, and it, it, it's just got so much sexual energy. It probably has sex with the rock.
Come on, it probably.
So. They have like these kind of performance halls. Uh, 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.
Oh my god.
And then the female like, uh, cock of the rocks kind of just watch and see.
You know, which one catches their eyes. So I, it just kind of reminded me of Conan for some reason.
You know what? I, I'm, I, I am now cock of the walk.
Cock of the rock.
Andy and cock of the rock.
Okay, I'm the Andean cock of the rock.
I love it. Yeah. All right, let's move on. What's Sona? Let's see Sona.
Well, this is.
This is Sona.
Nice mustache, Sona.
I know, Sona, look at that. It's got your dad's mustache.
Come on, man!
It does.
So.
Hey Gil.
I want, I want to preface by saying I, you know, I love hearing you on like, you know, the podcast and, and all the shorts and your kind of laughter fills up the room. And I, I just wanted to shout out to that.
Aww.
Uh, this is called the three waddled bellbird. Uh, it's a really cool bird from like Central America. And it is one of the loudest birds, uh, in existence.
Yes!
Nice.
It's calls go to, I think, a hundred decibels, like a rock concert almost.
You can hear them across like the rainforest.
Oh my god. Three waddled, I, I don't have.
Bellbird.
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, 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 bellbird.
I'm sorry, Sona.
No, no, no.
No, you're, you know what? You're right. And I get it. And I, and I own that about myself.
And now let's move on to the fussiest of the birds.
Come on.
Yay!
Look at that. I'll take it.
This is the, uh, burrowing owl.
I'll take it.
Um, so Gourley, I've, so I, to all of you, I've been kind of ingesting Conan content for two decades and Gourley, you are, you were on the scene for me, right?
You know, 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, oh, he's insane as well.
Yeah!
And basically.
The Burlingale. Super wise, but I mean, look at him.
I know.
They're kind of insane.
That middle one is crazy. That middle one, no. It's very true that Gourley came in and we all thought, well, he's the steady hand on the tiller. He 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 gonna, we're gonna 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 handshake.
Congrats, Adu.
All right, take care, Adu. Have a great time.
Thank you. Take care.
Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan with Conan O'Brien, Sonam of Sessian, and Matt Gorley. Produced by me, Matt Gorley. Executive produced by Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross, and Nick Liao. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy. Supervising producer, Aaron Blair. Associate talent producer, Jennifer Samples. Associate producers, Sean Dougherty and Lisa Byrne. Engineering by Eduardo Perez. Get three free months of SiriusXM when you sign up at siriusxm.com/conan. Please rate, review, and subscribe to Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan wherever fine podcasts are down.
Page updated November 3, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated