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Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend

Peeping Cooper

07 May 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: Who is Cooper and what is his profession?

3.524 - 12.589 Conan O'Brien

Conan O'Brien needs a fan. Want to talk to Conan? Visit teamcoco.com slash call Conan. Okay, let's get started.

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13.598 - 17.363 Cooper Shields

Hey, Cooper. Welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan. Howdy. Hey, Cooper.

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17.383 - 35.067 Conan O'Brien

How are you? Good. How's it going? It's going pretty well. I have a few scratchings about you right here. You are Cooper Shields, and it says here you're an architectural historian from Ohio. That's about all I know about you. That is true.

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35.047 - 62.594 Cooper Shields

uh tell me what an architectural historian does yes so there are a few different facets an architectural historian can be a lot of them are like the uh the the educational side teaching researching and whatnot and the side i'm on i work for a cultural resource management firm And a lot of what we do, so most of my company is actually archaeologists, and there's 10 or so of us.

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62.914 - 83.883 Cooper Shields

And a lot of the projects that we do are government-mandated surveys. So when a project is done in the U.S. that requires, that uses federal money, it triggers a cultural resource survey. And so that... make sure that the project doesn't negatively affect any of our cultural heritage, whether that's architectural, historic, or archaeological.

84.924 - 103.773 Cooper Shields

So what we'll do, what I do in the above ground section, as we call it, is you do just survey work. So is that roundabout going to necessarily impact that historic house that's sitting on that corner? If it is, what can we do to mitigate it? Can they move it? Slightly. Can they move the house? Can they move the project?

104.655 - 106.617 Sona Movsesian

The house. Developers must hate you.

107.178 - 115.77 Conan O'Brien

Yeah, you must be hated by... It says here you've been attacked by many developers. It's mostly homeowners. Homeowners, okay.

Chapter 2: What does an architectural historian do?

115.79 - 123.881 Cooper Shields

Yeah, when you're driving around in a car with an orange vest on taking photos of people's houses, you get some weird looks.

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124.382 - 125.143 Conan O'Brien

Well, I hope so.

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125.643 - 126.645 Unknown

It's a way to be a peeper.

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126.845 - 156.233 Conan O'Brien

Yeah, I mean, that's the thing is you could be a... Cooper, you could be a serial peeper who got into this. And you talk a nice game up front about preservation and surveys, trying to lull people into this sort of NPR fog of it's all legit. But you're a guy in an orange vest, which, by the way, is not mandated by your job. That's your choice. It's branded, but it's not. It's optional.

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156.373 - 161.058 Conan O'Brien

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you're taking some creepy pictures.

162.26 - 162.9 Cooper Shields

I never Zoom.

162.98 - 189.065 Conan O'Brien

These are not historic homes you're photographing. Often these are homes that were... They're apartment buildings. They were built in the 1980s. College dorms. Yeah, college dorms. I have concerns about this sorority. And it's historical value. Sir, it was built in 1993. Oh, man.

189.266 - 192.851 Unknown

He does such important work. And look what we've done to him.

192.871 - 200.702 Conan O'Brien

Is it that important? Yes, it is. Listen, and Cooper, I don't say that to in any way denigrate you.

Chapter 3: How do cultural resource surveys impact development projects?

200.862 - 206.23 Conan O'Brien

I don't think my job is important. And so I think together we're wasting America's time.

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206.75 - 209.192 Cooper Shields

Are any of us actually important in the grand scheme of things?

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209.713 - 217.68 Conan O'Brien

I would say, I don't know. I mean, I think there's some actors, big A-list actors that are very important.

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217.84 - 219.322 Unknown

Oh, what? Okay.

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219.342 - 222.344 Conan O'Brien

I just wanted to throw that out there. I didn't think that's the route you'd go for that. I know.

222.384 - 226.068 Unknown

Neither did I. Doctors. Your dad was a doctor and your mom was a lawyer.

226.088 - 247.572 Conan O'Brien

Yeah, but he was in a movie and neither was my mom. You know, a DiCaprio, that's like a very important person. And I don't want to talk about this anymore. It's just so obvious. Yeah. This sounds very cool. You must have architectural styles that you like, architectural styles that you favor over other styles. What are the kinds that you really like?

247.632 - 247.892 Cooper Shields

That's true.

247.912 - 249.454 Conan O'Brien

What gets you all hot and bothered?

Chapter 4: What architectural styles does Cooper prefer?

638.969 - 641.192 Conan O'Brien

Well, when you think too hard about it, it gets a little weird.

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641.212 - 653.367 Cooper Shields

I know. All right. Well, okay. And what about Sona? So Sona, I like the Gamble House, which is in Pasadena. It's the epitome of arts and crafts style. You know what?

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653.387 - 658.974 Conan O'Brien

Gorgeous. I love arts and crafts. Can I see a picture of that, please? Come on, Eduardo. What are you doing over there?

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659.114 - 662.778 Sona Movsesian

Doc Brown's house in Back to the Future as well.

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662.999 - 664.22 Conan O'Brien

That's a beautiful house.

664.24 - 667.945 Sona Movsesian

It sure is. This is much better than the Team Disney building.

667.965 - 668.065

Yeah.

668.045 - 669.467 Conan O'Brien

That's a gorgeous house.

669.868 - 670.188 Sona Movsesian

Yeah.

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