Adam Conover - Episode 1098

Summary

Fitzdog Radio – Episode 1098: Adam Conover

Release Date: May 28, 2025

Hosts: Greg Fitzsimmons
Guest: Adam Conover
Podcast Description: Fitzdog Radio features honest and humorous interviews with Greg Fitzsimmons' friends and colleagues, delving deep into various topics while sharing plenty of laughs.

---

1. Welcoming Adam Conover

Greg Fitzsimmons kicks off the episode by expressing his excitement about having Adam Conover as a guest. Adam is widely recognized for his work on “Adam Ruins Everything,” and Greg mentions their recent collaboration in stand-up comedy.

Greg Fitzsimmons [00:09]:
"Adam, it's like Dave, who's a Dave that has a podcast? Dave Anthony, I think has a podcast. Anyway, it's like that."

2. The Evolution of Media: From TV to YouTube

The conversation delves into the shifting landscape of media consumption. Adam discusses his transition from hosting a television show on TruTV to focusing on his YouTube channel and podcast.

Adam Conover [17:24]:
"We're in this really place in the media ecosystem where companies like Viacom and Warner abandoned a whole bunch of television to YouTube. So that's where all the talent went."

Adam highlights the challenges of producing high-quality content on YouTube compared to traditional TV, noting the reduction in production budgets and support teams.

3. Impactful Exposes and Industry Criticism

Adam shares stories of his investigative work that have led to significant impacts on major corporations. Notably, he discusses his exposé on Luxottica, the eyewear giant, which prompted the company to attempt to have articles about their practices removed from major publications.

Adam Conover [37:04]:
"We did a story about how Luxottica owns almost every glasses brand... Luxottica reached out and tried to get Huffington Post to take down an article they wrote about our video."

He also mentions his miniseries “The G Word” on Netflix, which critically examines various aspects of the federal government, including the USDA and meat inspection processes.

4. The 'World' Orb Incident and Critique of Crypto

A significant portion of the discussion centers around Adam's experience with the company World and their cryptocurrency-based iris scanning device. Adam recounts how World approached him to promote their product, offering payment in cryptocurrency, which conflicted with his prior critiques of both crypto and AI.

Adam Conover [28:13]:
"They offer to scan your retina for identification and give you $40 in crypto. It felt like an attempt to fleece people, creating a database of irises under the guise of future AI security needs."

Despite initially participating, Adam quickly realized the ethical concerns and faced backlash from his audience. He ultimately refused to accept further compensation from the company, emphasizing his commitment to integrity over monetary gain.

Adam Conover [34:30]:
"I ended up not taking the money. I did a 20-minute video explaining why the project is bad and why it’s ethically problematic."

5. Comedy, Satire, and Audience Misinterpretation

The duo explores the fine line between comedy and satire, discussing how comedic personas can be misinterpreted by audiences. Adam reflects on how his character in “Adam Ruins Everything” is often taken literally, leading to misunderstandings about his true beliefs.

Adam Conover [78:44]:
"You have to accept that. And what's really cool is that Shandling saw through that... it's part of the joke that your character is annoying, but people don't realize it's satire."

Greg adds that comedians must balance pushing boundaries with maintaining audience understanding, highlighting the challenges of being both entertaining and clear in messaging.

6. Personal Struggles: ADHD and Medication

Adam opens up about his long-term battle with ADHD, discussing how medication like Adderall and Vyvanse has affected his life and career. He shares his mixed experiences with these stimulants, including the side effects and his eventual decision to manage his symptoms without reliance on medication.

Adam Conover [48:40]:
"I stopped taking Adderall in my mid to late twenties because it messed up my sleep and led to unhealthy habits like excessive drinking and smoking."

Greg contributes by sharing his own experiences with ADHD medication, emphasizing the importance of finding the right balance to maintain productivity without adverse effects.

Greg Fitzsimmons [49:43]:
"When you take the medication, if you don't have it, you're going to be completely wired. And if you do, it's almost going to calm you down. And it totally calmed me down."

7. Navigating Personal Relationships and Dating

The conversation shifts to Adam’s recent personal life changes, including ending a 15-year relationship and re-entering the dating scene through unconventional apps like Field, which caters to a more diverse and inclusive user base.

Adam Conover [59:58]:
"I'm on Field. Field is the app for weirdos... There's a lot of queer people on Field, a lot of kink, a lot of poly people."

They discuss the challenges of modern dating, the impact of long-term relationships on one’s approach to exploring new connections, and the societal pressures men face regarding sexual behavior.

8. Reflections on Comedy Personas and Audience Perception

Adam and Greg delve deeper into how comedic personas can lead to personal branding that doesn’t accurately reflect the individual’s true self. Adam shares his frustrations with audiences mistaking his satirical annoyance for genuine personality traits.

Adam Conover [78:27]:
"It's like they saw the joke happen, but they did not realize it was funny. That's how I feel about it."

Greg echoes these sentiments, noting the difficulty comedians face in ensuring their intended message is received correctly, especially in diverse and fragmented media environments.

9. Fastball Questions and Light-Hearted Moments

Towards the end of the episode, Greg and Adam engage in a rapid-fire segment called "Fastballs with Fits," where they answer spontaneous, often humorous questions about personal experiences. This segment adds a lighter balance to the in-depth conversations, showcasing both hosts' quick wit and camaraderie.

Greg Fitzsimmons:
"What's the closest you ever got to a fistfight on stage?"

Adam Conover:
"The closest I ever got was someone accusing me of being Carrie Nation during a set, which led to them being kicked out."

10. Closing Remarks and Future Endeavors

Greg wraps up the episode by promoting Adam’s new stand-up special, “Unmedicated,” available on Dropout, and his upcoming fall tour.

Adam Conover [91:53]:
"You can get it on Dropout. And I'm doing a fall tour, so go to AdamConover.net for tickets in a couple of weeks."

Greg praises Adam’s stand-up performances, highlighting the shift from his well-known television persona to a more personal and dynamic comedic style.

Greg Fitzsimmons [93:05]:
"I've seen your stand-up recently a couple of times and you're on fire. Really, really funny."

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Adam Conover [17:24]:
  "We're in this really place in the media ecosystem where companies like Viacom and Warner abandoned a whole bunch of television to YouTube. So that's where all the talent went."

• Adam Conover [28:13]:
  "They offer to scan your retina for identification and give you $40 in crypto. It felt like an attempt to fleece people, creating a database of irises under the guise of future AI security needs."

• Adam Conover [78:44]:
  "You have to accept that. And what's really cool is that Shandling saw through that... it's part of the joke that your character is annoying, but people don't realize it's satire."

• Adam Conover [48:40]:
  "I stopped taking Adderall in my mid to late twenties because it messed up my sleep and led to unhealthy habits like excessive drinking and smoking."

---

Conclusion

This episode of Fitzdog Radio offers a candid and multifaceted conversation between Greg Fitzsimmons and Adam Conover. They explore the complexities of modern media, the ethical dilemmas in technology and cryptocurrency, the intricacies of maintaining personal integrity in public personas, and the personal struggles that shape their lives and careers. Through humor and honesty, Greg and Adam provide listeners with insightful reflections on navigating fame, authenticity, and personal growth in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

Transcript

[Adam Conover]

Foreign.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Hi, everybody. Welcome to a special episode of Fitz Dog Radio. And when I say special, I mean it's Fitz Dog Radio. It's always special, isn't it? For me, it is 14 years in, I still enjoy it every week. Except I missed. Was it last week or the week before? I took a week off and I'm back. It was two weeks ago. But have a great guest today, Adam Conover from Adam. Adam. What's it called? Adam hates everything. Adam. Adam ruins everything. You know that guy? I know the show. I used to watch it. Very excited he came in. He's a guy that I've been doing stand up with a little bit lately. And anyway, he's here, or he was here. I interviewed him about two hours ago and the podcast goes up tomorrow. When I here is a couple random thoughts that I've been having. For instance, when I was a kid, I thought that they were saying hi, Hitler. Like, hi, Hitler. I didn't know it was Heil Hitler. I thought it was like a woman going like, hi, hi, Hitler. Hi, Hitler. Like, I wonder if Eva Braun was ever like, why is that woman saying Heil Hitler to you? She never says Heil Hitler to me. Why is she saying Heil Hitler to you? Is Heil Hitler more or less offensive than hi, Hitler? Because if you're saying Heil, you're kind of. It's hail. You're saying hail. So you're putting him up on a pedestal. But if you say hi, that's almost more intimate, like. Like you are flirty. Or if you're just very casual, like, hey, Mike. Hey, Hitler. Hi, Hitler. It's like when I was a kid, I thought when the. We listen to the radio when I was a kid and they would always announce on the news the stock market report and the announcer would say, S&P 500 was up 60 shares today. When I was a little kid, I thought he was saying chairs. And I thought the stock exchange was like a big dining room where people bought and sold stuff and that if there weren't a lot of people there, they would take chairs out. So they would say it was up 60 chairs or downstairs, whatever. No joke. Just little. Just little things that I think about. What if I was one of those comedians? Here's some little things I think about. I mean, not that I'm saying anything important, but I'm certainly not. That guy might go to Montreal this summer. I love it. I speak some French and I enjoy strutting my French out, especially because Quebec is so much more understanding of a Bad French speaker. If you go to France and you try to speak French with an English accent or American accent, they will not speak French to you. They will revert to their even worse English than your Frenches. They would rather have you not understand their shit English than for them to understand your bad French but not like it. How about that? So first of all, Quebec, I'm glad you are. But why are you speaking French? Does that not seem like a reminder of days gone by that were not so good? Like, like when the French colonized you and fucking there was genocide against the native people and they squo. They. The, the French government squo's you. I think the English did after that. First was the French, then it was the English. Don't you think they'd be sick? Why be reminded of, of the, of being colonized? You know, like if you, if you're a woman and you divorce your Cuban husband because he was abusive and he took all your money, you wouldn't then speak Spanish. Like assuming you're an English speaking woman, would you speak Spanish after divorcing your abusive Cuban husband? And again, I'm not saying Cuban men are abusive. Desi Arnaz apparently was a little fucking little heavy with the hand with Lucy once in a while and the kids, who knows? Who knows? Was there a Desi Arnaz Jr. There was. Right? There's a Freddie Prinze Jr. Pretty sure this was a Desi Arnaz Jr. I think if you grew up named Desi in America, wouldn't you? Not based on what you probably dealt with. Would you not fucking name your kid Desi? I don't know. People shitting on you. You think you're a bad person. You internalize. So it is when you're a kid. People tease you for your name. You think it's you. Somehow you're bad. I was thinking about like how we don't like people based on if they like us. Which seems a little self centered and a little egotistical. Like if you really, if you consider yourself a self actualized, grounded person with confidence, why do you care if someone likes you or doesn't like you? If you like you, that should mean very little. Meanwhile, that's kind of what we base our feelings on. Like, hey, do you like Dave? Fuck that guy. That's what you'll say. If you know that Dave doesn't like you, you'll say, fuck that guy. You know, Dave might be everything that you seek out in a friend or even just existing as a person. Kind, generous, great athlete, Good looking. But if he doesn't like you, fuck that guy. Why can't you just go, yeah, Dave's a great guy, doesn't like me. Like, there's a comedian that's like that. Most comics like me. There's one comic, he doesn't dislike me, but he ended our friendship by not calling me back many times. Not many. I just sound like a fucking stalker. But I called him three or four times and needed an answer. Got the hint? I got it. I don't dislike this guy at all. I think he's a really good dude. I think he's a funny comic, great podcaster. And it's not, don't start thinking who it is. It's not who you think it is because he's not that well known. But it's just like, I don't dislike him because I like me. I know that I'm a good person. If someone doesn't like me, it probably has to do with them. Like if I go to chick fil a and the cashier is rude or dismissive, if she's dismissive of me, I don't say, fuck chick fil a. I say I'm going back to chick fil a. This fucking juicy piece of chicken on this warm bun is making me happy. I respect their fucking hustle. I'm going back. Even if they treat me bad again, I'm going back. And I feel like that, I feel like that about Dave. Still going to hang out with Dave. If he doesn't want to talk to me, that's fine. I want to be in Dave's presence. I want to live in the glow of Dave. By the way, the guy's name's not Dave. Now you're thinking it's like Dave, who's a Dave that has a podcast? Dave Anthony, I think has a podcast. Anyway, it's like that. And by the same token, you can think a guy is an asshole until he likes you a lot. Then he, you know what? I didn't like that guy Bill. I always thought Bill was kind of an asshole. You know, he's fucking dirty, treats women poorly, he's fucking broke. He's always borrowing money. I never liked him. But you know what? Hung out with him the other night. He fucking loves me. I. I love him now. Now I love him. Cause my self esteem is so fucking low that somebody just liking me is all I care about. That's how fucking tentative my self esteem is. That that's all it. Like Bill Maher shits on Trump relentlessly and then he sits down with him for an hour, and now he's like, hey, he's a good guy. He's kind of charming. I like him anyway. All right, I'm not going to waste time. I'm going to get to the podcast. I did want to share a nice little email I got. This came from a couple that had seen. Well, here's the email sent to my site. If you ever want to email me fitzdogradiomail.com I get back to everybody. Might take a minute, but I always get back to people. Always wanted to share this story with you. And eight years ago at the Philadelphia Helium Comedy Club, I came to see you on a random Friday night. I went alone and sat up front. The woman sitting next to me went alone and sat up front as well. Halfway through your set, you told me to buy her a drink. Well, we just had triplets. Thank you for the best thing that ever happened to me. Holy shit. That's all it took was one drink for her to have sex with you and have triplets? This is an amazing story. This makes me so. I am so touched by this because I do sometimes try to get people to meet each other at my shows. A lot of people come alone to the shows, and I respect people that come alone to a comedy show. I think it's awesome, and I'm so glad. I don't remember specifically if I have met them at Philly. They've come back to see me at. At Philly before. So I knew they were together, but I didn't know they had triplets. Congratulations. Sending all my love. And I hope that one of those three motherfuckers is named Greg and the other one is named Desi. I got a friend named Keegan Surf, who's a South African comedian that I met when I was in Cape Town at Cricket Christmas. I did a show with him. Very funny, dude. Anyway, we were just texting. I just want to promote a show he's doing in Cape Town at the Baxter Theater on Aug. 30. If you want to go down, tickets are. He said tickets are 120. I guess that's Rand. I think when we were there, rand were about 14 rand to the dark dollar. So that means this is like a $12 ticket. So come on, South Africa. I know they're committing genocide against the white people in South Africa. Maybe this will get you out of the gunfire of the genocide that's being committed against you white people in South Africa. Go check them out. Get tickets at web Tickets. I'll be Coming to you in Tampa at Side Splitters, June 5th to the 7th. Sacramento. I'm opening up for Louis C.K. june 13th and 14th. Torrance, California at the end on June 29th. Austin, Texas. The Mothership, July 4th through the 6th. Pottstown, Pennsylvania, sold Joel's July 31st. Point Pleasant at Uncle Vinnie's on August 1st and 2nd. The La Jolla Comedy Store, August 29th through the 31st. Also got dates coming up in Denver, Connecticut, Vegas, Chicago. Go to fitzdog.com get some tickets. I also want to give a shout out to my buddy Frankie. He's got a coffee company that I think you'll love. Sleepy Hollow Coffee Roasters. He has got. He has been researching and practicing for years, and he just launched his line of roasts. He's got Katrina, which is a vibrant taste of fresh blueberries. There's Ichabod. Is that more of it? Ichabod is my favorite. It's a rich, dark, chocolatey taste. He sent me some samples. They're unbelievable. It's fresh roasted. Stop drinking coffee out of habit. Start experiencing it. Go to sleepy hollow coffeeroasters.com by June 1st. That's this week. Enter promo code Fitz Dog at checkout. Get 15% off and check it out. Support my friend. He's a great dude. He's got a good, good product. Sleepyhollowcoffeeroasters.com promo code fitzdog. All right, let's get to it. My guest today, you know him from his true TV show, Adam Ruins Everything. He's got a podcast called Fat Factually. He hosted a show called the Crystal Maze. He had a show on Netflix called the G Word. Just great. We had such a great talk today. Went long. Hope you enjoy the full length of it. Here is my guest, Adam Conover. Adam Ruins Everything. That was his show.

[Adam Conover]

Are we starting?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, we started. I mean, I. What am I gonna give one of those? Interest, like my next guest starred in and create. You know, your people know who you are. You're this guy.

[Adam Conover]

Hopefully. Yeah, I'm. I'm that. I'm a guy. I'm a very minor, a very minor level of celebrity for people who are watching basic cable. During the last days of basic cable, they're like, oh, the guy who used to come on after Impractical Jokers. I would fall asleep during Impractical Jokers, and then I would be awoken by a nasal voice. And that was me.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yes. But TruTV, it was a dying channel. And then seriously, like TruTV, nobody even knew where it was. And Then Impractical Jokers and you came along, and then they spun out a couple little shows like Dumb Criminals. Like.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Comedians in Boxes talking about Dumb Criminals.

[Adam Conover]

They had been like a sort. They used to be Court tv, and then they were doing. They were doing trashy reality stuff. And then they got a new management, like a new president and people.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

And their mandate was to compete with Comedy Central. And so they started having. They had Impractical Jokers. They had us. They had. Michael Carbonara was a comedy magic show.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

That hacked my life, which was Brooke Van Poppen, Kevin Pereira, two very funny people. Couple of other shows. Comedy Knockout. That was like an At Midnight.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I remember. I think I was on that. I was on that.

[Adam Conover]

And they started to build up some steam, and then AT&T bought Time Warner and shut down the whole network and fired literally 100 people. And those are just people. And then canceled every show except for Impractical Jokers, which is now the only thing that that airs.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Is it still called True tv?

[Adam Conover]

There is if. I mean, does cable still exist? You know, like, if you open cable and you scroll down, there's something called True tv.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

And it runs Impractical Jokers on a loop until March when it plays NCAA Games. And then a lot of these little.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Cable channels, they pop a Pluto or whatever, and they're like, sure. So we're gonna get a show that we think is big enough and throw money into it that will bring people to our channel. All right. If you're that guy, you don't need a cable channel to do that. You just do what you do. You start a YouTube channel and you get all the revenue with none of the overhead.

[Adam Conover]

I wouldn't say you get all of the revenue. You get some revenue.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Well, you got to pay your crew.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah, but you don't. Well, okay, so, yes, I am now doing what I do on YouTube because YouTube has kind of eaten most of television apart from, like, the high end of scripted. Right?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

And so that's where I'm doing YouTube, podcast, etc, and. And I make about as good a living now as I did when I was a host on cable. But the amount of revenue is like a hundredth, because, remember, that's just my part.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

I'm making that amount. True TV used to make a hundred times more than they paid me. Obviously, that's why the. The show was profitable, because they sold ads against it at this really high ad rate. Right.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

But.

[Adam Conover]

But YouTube, the ads are so much cheaper, despite the fact people are still watching them on Their televisions.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

But then you do the Patreon as well, right?

[Adam Conover]

I do the Patreon, yeah. That's some extra money. But it's. And it's nice. Those are like my most committed fans. Right.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Then you got your commercials, I, we.

[Adam Conover]

Do the podcast ads, etc, and it all adds up to a living.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

But my point is we're in this really place in the media ecosystem where like you know, Viacom, Warner, all these companies, they abandoned a whole bunch of television to YouTube.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

So that's where all the talent went. And you can make a living, but you cannot make the same budget of show as you used to. You can have the same infrastructure. I used to have a, I used to have a 10 person writers room, you know, of. Between writers and researchers and we could have beautiful sets and we could, you know, spend time to think about what we are doing. And now it's like me and a couple freelancers who are wonderful, talented people.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

But because of this transition to YouTube, this is just what I harp on all the time. So sorry to launch into it, but because of this transition to YouTube, the sort of quality of all the media we're consuming has gone down. People used to spend money on this.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

You know, and it was union stuff.

[Adam Conover]

It was union work. Right. But now you look at like, look at the biggest comedy podcasters, right? Ten years ago they would all be given talk shows, but now they're just on YouTube. The biggest comics, Andrew Schultz. Right. Massive comic. Yeah. He's you know, touring arenas. Right. But what is the actual show he makes? It's, it's this, it's him in front of a curtain with three guys going, you see what Trump did? Like right? That's it.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

Whereas that, that used to be. A guy like that 10 years ago would be Anthony, Anthony Jeselnik getting the Jeselnick effect Expensive, Right. Or whatever.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

There used to be infrastructure in comedy that led to being able to build a machine around a person. And now we're all just in basements with a couple of cameras, you know, paying some 25 year old to like edit, you know, the thing and toss it up on YouTube. And I, I think that's bad for comedy that like, I think infrastructure has disappeared.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Well, it depends on who the person is. Like if, if there is a guy like say Andrew Schultz, Nobody 10 years ago, 20 years ago, nobody was gonna put money behind a guy that was saying the kind of things he was saying. So there is no gatekeeper now and you do get access to different points of view Which I love. People go like, you know, like, Joe Rogan is a very dear friend of mine. We started together. We literally lived in the same apartment. And how can you hang out with him? What do you mean? Like a guy who's like my brother. Like, I think, whatever. And not to say he's right wing, but he's. He's contrarian. He skews right. I think more so than he used to. But a lot of people that are super right wing. Nick Depaulo, like, I love Nick Depaulo and he is like a newsmax, but he's funny. And I think that as much as I think that the AOC voices belong out there, I think the far right voices belong out there. And I think that it used to be. I thought about this today. It used to be that particularly in Congress, that you had these two. The two. Two disparate. Unfortunately, not three sides coming together with compromise and some kind of a balance. And now they're just two big weights. And instead of the scale going like this, the scale broke in the middle. And now there's just two heavy weights sitting on the table.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah, well. And, you know, media fragmentation is a big part of that. The fact that, look, yes, gatekeepers going away. There's. There are a lot of good things about that. But, you know, the end of the sort of media monoculture that was a compromise inducing force. And there are a lot of very bad things about it. But we are also experiencing the bad things about media fragmentation now that. Yeah. Like, there is no. There's no Tim Russert on Sunday mornings going, okay, we got these sides. Let's. Let's find the middle.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right?

[Adam Conover]

Not that the middle is always the best thing to find, but what you're talking about is, is that, is that fragmentation.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

It's not so the middle. It's elements of each size coming together in a quilt pattern, which is the United States of America. That's what's supposed to be. You know what I mean? It's supposed to be like, you know.

[Adam Conover]

I don't think it's supposed to be anything.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

You know, like, it. It just is what it is.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

And a lot of things about it suck.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, right, right.

[Adam Conover]

But, you know, there are ways that it can work better. But. Yes, the idea that we were brought up with about it was such that it would make a.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Do you think a show like that could exist today? Like a Tim Russert?

[Adam Conover]

I mean, it currently does. Just nobody watches it. You know, who's doing. Who is the host of it? Meet the Press. I don't know. I mean, it's still.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I mean, Bill does, but I don't feel like he's getting real representation from both sides because they both are trying to echo Bill a little bit. They both sides want too hard to agree with what Bill Maher is saying. And I feel like they bend towards him a little bit.

[Adam Conover]

That's funny. I've only been on Bill's show once, and I had a great time. And I did admire because on the.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Show, were you on the panel or interviewed?

[Adam Conover]

I was on the panel. It was like. It was an interview slash panel. Like, I was on panel. But I got a little bit of focus is my memory of it. And I don't remember what he said, but he said something that was so stupid that all of the other panelists, including the right wing guy who I think was Charlie Sykes, who's like a center right guy, all of us were like, bill. No. And he's like. And I do think there's something admirable. And now this was like six or seven years ago. There's something admirable about having on your own show space for people to call you an idiot. Yes. I think that's good. I don't know if he still does. I haven't watched in a little bit.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right, right.

[Adam Conover]

But I. I do think that there's a role for that kind of thing.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. I used to write for him. I wrote for back when it was Politically Incorrect. It was my first writing job. And the problem is that show was every single night.

[Adam Conover]

Damn.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

So at a certain point, if you're Comedy Central 1. Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Conover]

I remember when I was. I was a Comedy Central addict when I was a kid, but I was too young for that show.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Like, I didn't.

[Adam Conover]

I wasn't that much in politics. I was there to watch, like, Whose Line Is It Anyway in Mystery Science Theater 3000.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. So. But anyway, he had to mine to get a hard opinion on things. Required. Required him becoming a little more conspiratorial than he probably even is. And I think that kind of stuck with him because if it was, you know, once a week, you can kind of have a restrained take on things and people are still happy to see you.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

If you want to be in their living rooms every night, you got to come up with some crazy.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah. And that's also what's happening on YouTube. Right. Like, I do that, too. I do a weekly interview podcast called Factually, and then I do a. It's at this point, we've gotten Enough sponsorships that, that we've been able to do it almost weekly, like three to four a month of these monologues that I do where, you know, we, we talk about the news and I have a take Sometimes we do pop culture and stuff like that too. But coming up with something new to say that often that you are interested in, that you can write jokes about and that is like revelatory enough that people will click on it is. It drains you fast. And I see why people just go like Russell Brand or whatever or you know, Tim Dillon say outrageous things, you know, in order to keep people coming back. It, like it's, it's part of feeding the beast, you know, or you have an advantage if that's the way your brain already works.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yes. If your brain works that way. And like Bill Burr has this beautiful disarming ability to once in a while just stop and go after a long rant. Like, I don't, I don't believe half the myself. If you can be that guy and you can flip flop with ease.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Then you, then at least you're getting that there's entertainment value and you're not trying to be, you know, an arbiter of truth. But I think that the guys that like transition into being taken seriously get into real trouble.

[Adam Conover]

That's my problem is I, I look, I care about a lot of stuff. I know a lot of stuff. I think I probably, I investigate things in the real world a little bit more than a lot of comics.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

I would say. And so that's become my niche is me talking about, hey, here's this real thing going on that you need to know about jokes on top of that.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

Right. And yeah. So as it makes me a little uncomfortable because I'm like, I would rather just be fucking telling jokes.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

And I do admire Bill's ability and a lot of comics ability to hold what they say lightly.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

And. Ah, you know, whatever. And that's why people on the left and the right both like Bill. Right. Because like. Well, this today I didn't like what he said, but I feel like if I talk to him or whatever. And that's. It's nice. It's like a, it's a good way to be as a person. Right. Even if it's not politically consistent.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

It makes you more personable. And a lot of my. Is based on me finding out, finding here's what I think and like saying it. And then it makes you rigid and a way that pushes people away sometimes.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. I think being imperfect Is there's something about being imperfect that people are attracted to. Also to make a mistake and to admit it is some. Oh, speaking of which.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Should we talk about that?

[Adam Conover]

Yeah. Wow, that was a really good segment.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Was unconscious.

[Adam Conover]

Was it unconscious?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I. I plan to bring it up like that.

[Adam Conover]

Really? I thought that you. I thought that, that you were just being incredibly slick. Genuinely.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I was like.

[Adam Conover]

I went, oh, wow. Actually we could talk about. And then you went, hey, hold on a second. Oh, no, he planned it.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

No, no, but you actually did. Well, as I was saying it, it just clicked on me. Like, wait a minute, somebody just did that recently? And I was like, oh, you. You were the one that did it recently.

[Adam Conover]

Well, and you've set me up. Good, because you just made it sound like a good thing. Like that. That I did it. Okay, well, let's talk about.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

It was a very good thing. You know, a lot of us have been in positions like Joe Rogan, I think did it pretty elegantly when the. There was the N word tape that came out and he took it face on and he said, you know, I. That was a mistake of judgment. And, but he didn't, he didn't try to say, well, the X, Y and Z. And I think that just to set up what happened, there's a company, was it called Globe, called World. World.

[Adam Conover]

World.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And it does, it's a bitcoin based thing that reads your eye.

[Adam Conover]

I want to hear you try to finish explaining it and then I'll tell you what it is.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

It's a machine and, and it scans your retina for identification purposes. And you were paid in bitcoin in some type of a, a digital currency.

[Adam Conover]

I was not personally paid in this currency.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

You were offered the money, so.

[Adam Conover]

No. Well, they offered me real US dollars is my point. So. And, but I, I was not paid ultimately. So, yes. This is a company called World. They have a product called the Orb. They've been doing it since like 2022. Sam Altman is one of the co founders and their whole pitch.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Is he the guy that designed Open.

[Adam Conover]

He's the open AI guy.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Conover]

And so their whole pitch is in the future, AI is going to take over. And so we'll need to know who's a human or not. And so this scans your iris, not your retina. Apparently that's like a fingerprint type of thing where like everyone's iris is, is different according to them. And then you go, you go to the orb and you get scanned and then it gives you like 40 bucks in crypto when you get scanned. And that's part of what's really weird about it because they went to like, a bunch of third world countries, developing countries, and like, set up orb stations and they like in like Brazil and stuff, and Indonesia, and they were giving out people 40 bucks in crypto and like bribing local government officials to set this up and stuff. And which. Which just a huge number of people, like, this is a horrible ethical thing to do because you're basically creating a database of these people's irises. Now they say that they don't save the iris data. They convert the iris data in some kind of cryptographic signature that is stored on your phone so that. You know what I mean?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

It's like metadata.

[Adam Conover]

It's like metadata. Exactly. Right. But still, there's plenty of privacy concerns about it. Anyway, they're launching in the U.S. they were like, do you want to come? You know, we'll pay you to, to come, like, make a video about it and to interview one of the. One of the people. I was like, I don't want to the interview. But, you know, I was like, this, I cannot. Like, this is. This company is bad. Right. But I was like, this is such a ludicrous thing to ask me. They don't want a particular endorsement. They just want me to go do whatever. I was like, let me go see what it is. Right. And so I go make this video, very much toss it off. And yeah, it caused a firestorm on my social media because I'm like, on record, I've done multiple videos about how bad crypto is.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

About how bad AI is.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

Or my criticisms of AI I don't have criticisms of every single part of AI.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

It's unconstrained. Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

I think the. In. I think the AI industry, I think a lot of it is just. I think like, Sam Altman just goes and lies before Congress or he tells a fan, he tells a fairy story about like, you know, oh, in the future, AI is going to be running everything. And so you need to do what I say and give me $500 billion. That's basically the scheme.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

They make a lot of big predictions when I don't think the. The technology is a lot more limited and has a lot more downsides than they. Than they say.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

There's a lot of false information in it.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah, exactly. There's a million ways that we could criticize it. Crypto, I think, is. Is just like, it's historically just been a way to. To fleece people, you know, very few People have. Yeah, it's. It's essentially a pyramid. They're constantly trying to get new people in, you know, but it's not essentially.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

It is literally a pyramid scheme. There is no actual equity in it other than the belief that somebody else is going to buy it.

[Adam Conover]

Yes. And there's no utility in it. Nobody's really using it.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

No. Well, that's the thing I always say is everybody, when, when Bitcoin started, it had this idea that it was going to work as a currency in the third world so that people didn't have to deal with the swings of their currencies as, as fucking, you know, their government fell. And, and just the, the amount that the banks were making from changing currencies on international trade. None of that has happened.

[Adam Conover]

No. No one's using it for anything, Buying.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Anything with a Bitcoin.

[Adam Conover]

No, they are. They're holding on to it. They're huddling.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

They're.

[Adam Conover]

They're holding on for dear life. They're going to stick with it forever or they're starting new coins so that they can, like, make some quick money and get out. That's the whole industry. Ethereum is another one that was supposed to be used to, like, you know, we'd like, write programs on Ethereum. Like, there'd be like, code on the blockchain also. Hasn't happened. Like, and it's, it's really. And it's gone from a place where it was like a really central tech story to just being like a sideshow now where it's still happening, people are still getting ripped off. But, like, nobody really thinks it's the future. Maybe if they, you know, the Trump. And Trump is like, profiting massively from his own, you know, cryptocurrency right now.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

Maybe they will get enough of a foothold in the US Government because of Trump that, you know, crypto will stick around longer than it would have otherwise. But, but, like, it's not. It's just people making their own money and saying, you should use my money. And then when you do, they take your money and then they leave and that's it. They sell out and they sell out. And that's really all it's been. Part of the reason the orb is giving people crypto and, and like, when you open the app, it's just a crypto wallet. Yeah. I think is an attempt to get more people to use crypto.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

Which benefits who? The people who are running the coin, which is world. Right. So it's the same exact scheme in any case. I, I, I, I go do this video because I'm like, honestly, it was seemed so stupid to me that they were asking me and really had no sense of what they wanted. They were just like, just come and do whatever that I was like, okay, I'll do this and I'll just like do such a half assed job of the video that everyone will be able to tell you, you know, that this is, this is not something that I really believe in.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

My audience hated this.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

Because.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

So you were doing it ironically. A little bit.

[Adam Conover]

A little? Yeah, a little bit. I mean, look, it's not, it was, it was a mistake on my part to do because it's not really possible to do that kind of thing ironically. Right. Because I'm also, I'm not like an Eric Andre or a Tom Green or like someone who's going to show up and just be a prick to them. You know what I mean? So like I'm, I'm a polite person.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

So it wasn't really within my power to go and be like, you know, here I am filming the video fudge, you guys. Right. I was just sort of like, you know, these guys paid me to do this. All right, here it is. You know what I mean?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

So you ended up not even taking the money?

[Adam Conover]

Yes, I ended up. So this was like a mo, there's like a week long firestorm on my, on social media over me doing that. I mean, not, that's not the biggest thing in the world, world, but you know, enough people hated it where I was like, this was, this was very clearly a large mistake on my part. And yeah, so I put out a video talking about it. I turned down the money. I did not take the money from the company. All they, you know, they, they ended up paying me for a flight to go up there and to the keynote, which is also what like, you know, journalists did the same thing.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

So I basically said, I'll just, I did not take the money. And I did like a 20 minute video in which I talked about my actual opinion of the project, which is what I wish I had done in the first place.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, I saw it. Great. Video was great.

[Adam Conover]

Thank you.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

No, I thought it was very unblinking. You, you leaned into it, you handled it.

[Adam Conover]

Thank you.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And then you turned around and gave a pretty good explanation of what this is and why it's bad.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah, because honestly, when I went to this keynote, it was like one of the weirdest experience, one of the weirdest gigs I've ever done. You know, they had this like big hangar in San Francisco. The event was like open to the public because there weren't even that many people who are interested in it. Most of the people, like applauding for the product launch were employees. They couldn't really explain what it was for or why. The crypto was part of it. And so I left going like, man, this was. This was like a, you know, it felt like a weird little corporate gig, right? You'd go do a corporate gig, you talk before some people who don't really know why you're there. You make some easy money and you leave. I was thinking with that part of my brain. But when I left, I was like, this is one of the weirdest things I've ever been to. I would like to make a full video out of it. But I. I can't really because they paid me to be here. Once I decided, okay, I'm actually not going to take the money, then I was grateful because I was like, oh, now I get to actually like break down how fucked up this product is, how bizarre the launches. And like what it says about the tech industry.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Do you feel like any of the kind of exposes you've done or, I don't know, you call it what you do, an expose, but sort of a, you know, an exposition about something. Has it ever really harmed a company in a way that you felt good about?

[Adam Conover]

Have you ever destroyed anyone's life in a way that you are happy about?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

No. Some of these companies need to be taken down.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Some of these like, you know, business schemes that you talk about, you know.

[Adam Conover]

Right.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I'm forgetting this one that I saw yours that I really liked. But like, you know, they need people like you. There needs to be somebody that's, you know, telling the emperor he's got no clothes on. So are there any in particular that you feel like you did some justice to?

[Adam Conover]

You know, we did a. In the early years of Adam Ruins everything. We did the diamond engagement ring story, which was the one that we were most famous for, where, you know, the diamond engagement ring was like made up by the De Beerus corporation in the 30s. People still come to my shows and go like, look, I got an emerald or whatever. I got a. I got a lab grown diamond. I got a cubic zirconia, you know, because it was a lot cheaper. And we got a trip to Europe instead, you know, or whatever. And. And that makes me really proud. The also in that same episode, we did one about Tom Shoes, about the buy one, give one model.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Conover]

Which is bullshit and really harmful because these places don't need shoot, you know, they don't need a bunch of cheap ass American flip flops, you know. And that model has really sort of fallen by the wayside. You know, I'm not going to take responsibility for it, but we did make a splash with that. I remember once we did a story about how luxottica owns almost every glasses brand. Most glasses brands are made by this one company, Luxottica, which also owns, I believe, I believe, LensCrafters. It's been a couple of years, so hope I didn't get that wrong, but that video went really viral. And then luxottica reached out and like tried to get Huffington Post to take down an article they wrote about our video. They didn't go after true TV because we, you know, we would have it's fact checked and everything. Yeah, they didn't really have a leg to stand up, but they tried to like bully Huffington Post about it really. So that made me happy that they, that, that got back to the corporate, you know, overlords at Luxotica. The, the funniest time this ever happened was so I made this show for Netflix called the G Word. We made it during the pandemic, came out in 2022.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

What does G stand for?

[Adam Conover]

Government is about the government made about how the six, six episode miniseries about how the federal government works and all the good and bad things that it does. Yeah, kind of.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

That was miniseries, what you call a series that you did that wasn't picked up for season.

[Adam Conover]

No, it was always a series. It was always a mini.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I mean, I did a short film first. Well, they stopped funding halfway through production. Yeah, it's a short film.

[Adam Conover]

No, this was a genuine miniseries. We had it, it wrapped up at the end. If it had been incredibly successful, would have, you know, we could have done another miniseries on a different topic, you know, but it was, it was like. It did well enough, right, for, for like a Netflix doc docu series in any. At any rate, one of the segments we were doing was on the USDA and meat inspection and we were trying to get into different meat plants which are very hard to get into because they're all terrified of PETA and stuff. We eventually got into a Cargill beef processing plant which was really cool. We were like the first film crew to get in one of these places in 20 years. Really proud of that segment. But the segment before that we had been talking to the pork board, which are like the corporate pork people about going into one of their plants. And I get on the phone with a pork board and they say, hey, so we don't really want to do this because do you remember this segment that you did on Adam ruins everything, like, four years ago? And I like, flashed back in the phone call. Oh, yeah, we did a whole segment on how the craze for bacon. Do you remember the bacon craze of, like, epic bacon? Like, everything tastes better with bacon. Pork belly was on all these fancy menus and stuff. Okay, that was like astroturfing by Big Pork. Right. Big Pork was trying to offload. How do we sell all this bacon? They, like, invented the idea of pork belly as, like, a fancy food. Yeah. And stuff like that. And that's bad because, like, processed pork causes cancer. And, you know, like, there's. There's a measurable amount of deaths that resulted from this. And so we did an expose on that. And so now here's five years later, they're like, yeah, you, like, said the pork board. You criticize the pork board. And now here you are asking for our help.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

Like, do you understand why we might not want to do this?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And, well, if you think about it, what bigger lobbyist is there than pork? They literally call it pork in a bill.

[Adam Conover]

It's literally pork. I was proud of. I was proud of my response, though, because I said, like, look, I stand by everything that we said. It was all true. It was all fact checked. It's also true that the USDA inspects the meat that you produce. So if you'd like to tell a different true story about your plants, I'd be. I'd love to work with you. And they said, thanks, but no thanks. But it was. It was like the rare example where something that. That said, like, literally came and. And bit me on the ass. So here's what I want to ask.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

You also, I'm realizing is you went to Bard College.

[Adam Conover]

I did.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Says right here on my script, Bard College. Did you ever have a professor named Joel Covell? That was my wife's father. He taught communism, sociology, college.

[Adam Conover]

I never had a class with him, but I remember his name because he was, I believe, there at the same time. Or.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Or if not, I think he. He. Well, he didn't get retired. He got forced out. He was. He had the. He had the Alger Hiss chair.

[Adam Conover]

Yes.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And he. There was a big problem with the administration because he wrote a book that was very critical of the. The state of Israel.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And the board was very Jewish. It's a very Jewish school, I guess. And a lot of the.

[Adam Conover]

I don't know if I agree with that.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Well, I think a lot of the. Their endowment is tied to. I. I don't know. But he got fired for it. But he was really famous at the school for fighting against the administration.

[Adam Conover]

I think this happened right before I was in there. And I remember someone telling. I remember hearing a version of that story. And this is, you know, the. The more complimentary version of the institution that, like, he was one of the sort of like, older guardians. Communists on that. That it used to be a much more just sort of like home for retired communists of a college. And then they were getting more rigorous and they were just sort of like, all right, you're like the last one to go, like, get out of here. You know. But I don't. I don't recall anything about, like, that particular book. Yeah. The president of the. Of the school. Long time. Is Jewish, but is also a critic of the state of Israel. Like, there's plenty of. Whatever. I'm not trying. I'm not trying to carry water for the school.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Conover]

But I. But I did hear about that controversy.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And then also my grandfather was in Steely Dan.

[Adam Conover]

Your grandfather was in. Okay, all right, all right.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

That was Bard College.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah. Bart. Steely Dan went to Bard College. And there's also a long standing. This is the dumbest one of all. Chevy Chase went to the school.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

No.

[Adam Conover]

As did one of the Beastie Boys, I think y. Went to. Went to Bard. I believe they're both dropouts. But the, the stupidest, like, music pop culture connection in at Bard College is the rumor that there's the Bob Dylan lyric, the pump don't work because the vandals stole the handles. Right. And people are like that pumps on campus.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

There's a.

[Adam Conover]

There's a pump that someone stole the handle from on campus, and that's our pump. And you ask people, why does anybody think this? And there's no. There's no source. It's just a thing that people say because he. Because, like, Dylan spent, you know, a summer in Woodstock or whatever. You know, like, it's upstate New York.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Sure.

[Adam Conover]

And he, like, had a motorcycle accident, like, not far from whatever Right. Is in that general area. But yeah, I love. I love weird little liberal arts college lore.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I think Carol Leifer went there. Really? And I believe Paul Reiser might have gone there.

[Adam Conover]

Oh, well, I just heard Carol's interview with Marc Maron. It was incredible. Am I. Yeah, yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

She's great. She was great. Yeah. She's got a new book Out. Yes, she was sitting in this.

[Adam Conover]

She was in this chair not long ago. She's a legend.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, she's a legend.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

So when you started, you didn't start in stand up, you started like in sketch, right?

[Adam Conover]

Yes, correct.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

So what was that, a college sketch group?

[Adam Conover]

Yeah, my college sketch group at Bard College. Right.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Was that a stand? Was that like a. They'd been around for years. No, you guys started it.

[Adam Conover]

No, we started it.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Oh, you did?

[Adam Conover]

It was called. It was called Old English. My friend Ben Poppock started the group. A couple of other friends of ours. And yeah, we. We. We started up and started making comedy at. At the school. We did live sketches. And then also the DV video had just come out, which is. Do you remember DV video? There's like a little these. It was tapes.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, little tapes.

[Adam Conover]

Look, cassette tapes. But it was digital, so. And Max had just added firewire ports for the first time, and so you could ingest the tapes and edit them on Final Cut Pro. And so we made video sketches.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Amazing.

[Adam Conover]

And. And, like, started. And then a couple. A couple years into it, started putting them on the Internet.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

And they started having success there. And then we all moved to New York and. Well, some of us did. A lot of people got kicked out. It was basically, the group started with like 15 people, and then one by one, people just got kicked out.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Really?

[Adam Conover]

I said, what? Just like. I mean, we were college students, right? Just like the other people in the group didn't like them. Like, they were annoying.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Oh, I think it was kicked out of bar.

[Adam Conover]

No, no, sorry.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Kicked out of the group.

[Adam Conover]

It was like any. If any of them hear this, it was like, shitty. Like, we were being shitty to each other. You know what I mean? It was like group. It was like group firing squad. It was like everyone would get together and be like, we're kicking this person out.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Your film.

[Adam Conover]

You should write. I had to go once to kick somebody out. I. But I wasn't the talker. I was just going for backup. It was horrible. And at the end of this, I was one of, like, the last five people, and I was like, how did I not get kicked out? Everybody hated me. Like, I was so annoying. I was on Aderall. I was manic all the time. I was like a nerd. I couldn't hang. But I think it was because I was the one who taught everyone to use Final Cut Pro, how to edit, and I was the one who, like, set up the website because I knew how to code HTML and CSS and stuff. Like that. And so I think I got to, I got to stay in the group for that reason because I did all that work.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. Well, let's talk about the add because I know your, your new special sure. Is about ADD and how you felt addicted to it and you feel like. I think you said you were one of the first person diagnosed. Diagnosed with you or I guess the first generation.

[Adam Conover]

Sort of like probably like 1990, 1991. That wouldn't make me the first, but it was like, it was just, it was just starting to hit the COVID of Time magazine. You know, it was like the first wave of it. Yeah, I was, I was.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Before that, I was just called hyperactivity disorder.

[Adam Conover]

It was just like, that kid needs to be put in prison. It was just, what the hell is wrong with that kid? I mean, I was really an acting out kid. I used to like bite the other kids at school and stuff like that and, and couldn't sit still and, you know. Yeah. So at the time it was like child psychiatrist and test you for add. Oh, this kid has add. And they medicated me and stuff like that with Adderall. In the special, I say Adderall. In reality, it was Ritalin first and then Adderall. But, you know, you could. Dense.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

You don't need to.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah, they, they prescribed it to me and I took it for a long time and started taking it again. Started taking it like under my own power in college where I was like, okay, now I'm the one.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

So straight through, though, from, from being a kid through college, you were on it.

[Adam Conover]

I think I maybe took some breaks at some point. But yes, I definitely did. But then in college I was like, I want to go. I'm have, I'm having trouble. Let me go get the diagnosis myself and get the meds myself. And then I took it for a number of years after that.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Do you think taking it at a young age consistently starts to rewire your brain permanently?

[Adam Conover]

That's a good question. I mean, the research I know of is that the main effect that it has on kids when they take it young is it makes them shorter. Isn't that weird? Like, on average it's like an inch or something. You're. You're like, if you start taking as a kid and you never stop, it does make you a little bit shorter. That's like the, as far as I know, that is the only, like really firm physical effect that they know about. I think, I think the main thing about it that we don't talk about often enough is that It's a stimulant, right? It is, it is amphetamines.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And Hitler was an amphetamines and he was short. We figured it out.

[Adam Conover]

Okay, this, that's too negative towards people who take Adderall. Because I want to be clear, sometimes people misread my act. I don't think it's bad to take Adderall. It didn't work for me.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yes.

[Adam Conover]

And I think that they should be more straight up and be like, you're giving the kid amphetamines.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right. You know, full disclosure, I was prescribed with ADHD when I was 40.

[Adam Conover]

Wow.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I'm now 59. I've been taking Ritalin. I. For a while. I took it every day for years. I took it every single day. And it helped me immensely. I got, you know, I. Because I was writing on TV shows while trying to do standup on the weekends and raised two kids. And, you know, I wasn't able to function. And part of it is it worked as a stimulant, which I needed, but it also helped me focus on what I was doing at the time. Since then, I'm. I take it sort of as needed, you know, and it still works as needed. But the only way I can take it is I have to get up, take a walk, get a full stomach, take it. And then as I'm coming down at like 4 or 5 o' clock, go to the gym and work out really hard to avoid the crash.

[Adam Conover]

The crash is the worst.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, yeah. If I don't work out, I'm useless all night.

[Adam Conover]

So I got a long story short. I stopped taking it in my, like mid to late twenties. Cause I had like a really unhealthy lifestyle. You know, it was, it would keep me up, I would have trouble sleeping. So I got in the habit of drinking every night to help me go to sleep. I was smoking like a chimney as well. And some of that's being in your 20s, but some of that was also just like. I became addicted to all three things. And I had to like take. I had to take down the Jenga Tower, you know, or it was going to collapse. And so I, I quit smoking an Adderall in my 20s. It took an extra 10 years for me to quit drinking. Which, you know, for me was very like, I was addicted to drinking the way I was addicted to smoking, where I wasn't like a blackout drunk. I just like, if I didn't have a drink, you know, every day I'd be like, I'd be like jittery, you Know what I mean?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

It was like you were medicating yourself.

[Adam Conover]

I was, Yeah. I was medicating myself. And so I went, you know, sober on. On all that stuff.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

You want more water, by the way?

[Adam Conover]

I do want more water.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Can we grab him another water?

[Adam Conover]

Thank you. I drank it so fast. Should we keep going or should we hold for the water?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

No, no, no, keep going.

[Adam Conover]

Okay, great.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Very fluid show. Literally.

[Adam Conover]

Wonderful. I love that. So I. Now I have to pee. Can we do that on camera?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yes, of course. So my highest rated podcast.

[Adam Conover]

Oh, the feeling of relief. That's the one thing I've never heard done on a podcast. This. I've never heard someone pee.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Oh, okay.

[Adam Conover]

So thank you. Oh, another Pellegrino so that they know I'm. They know I'm fancy. Not a sponsorship. I only take sponsorships from evil tech companies. So I. I quit taking the Adderall, and, you know, it was kind of like everything I've ever. Yeah, let's get rid of that.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

It's a green screen, so we can't have a green bottle.

[Adam Conover]

Oh, of course. After I quit taking the Adderall, literally everything I've ever been accomplished, I've ever been proud of in my life, I accomplished after that.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Really?

[Adam Conover]

Yeah. Like, it was after I stopped taking Adderall that I started doing stand up every night. You know, I really buckled down and I was like, I'm gonna become a standard comedian. This is in New York. Yeah. This is in my. This is like 26, 27 years old. I was like, I'm gonna do open mics every single night. The sketch group had broken up. You know, we sort of ran as long as we could and. And went our separate ways. I was like, I want to keep doing comedy. Started doing stand up every night. Eventually, you know, started. I got my first TV writing job. I got my first job at college humor. I created Adam Ruins Everything. We did, like, you know, five cycles of it, you know, made like, 63 episodes of television. All that without the meds. And I was just like, gunning gun and gunning myself, you know, just like, pushing myself. Then during COVID I was working on the Netflix show, and I was like, I'm really, really having trouble focusing. It's really bothering me. And I went and got myself re diagnosed. You know, I was like, you know what? I was diagnosed as a little kid in, like, 1991. I want to know if I still have it right? So I went to. I found a good place in LA that does diagnoses. They were like, oh, this is kind of weird. No one's ever done this before. No one's ever wanted the diagnosis again. But I was like, yeah, no, give it to me as though I'm an adult. And at the end of all of it, they gave me, like, a big report on myself, and they said, yes, you do have add. You just. You cope well, you know, but you could take medication if you wanted to. And so I got a prescription for Vyvanse, which I cut a joke about Vyvanse in the special, but I want to do it now, which is that I used to snort Adderall in college, because you just crush it up and you snort it, it hits you harder. It's college. Who's not going to try something like that? I stopped doing it pretty quickly. It's, like, bad for you if you do that. Don't. Do not snort your.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

No, don't snort your Adderall.

[Adam Conover]

But Vyvanse, the. It is exactly the same as Adderall. The only difference is it's 10 times as expensive and you can't snort it. So. So they removed the feature and jacked up the price.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I tried Vyvanse once in my heart. Almost came out of my chest.

[Adam Conover]

Really? You found it more powerful?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I had a very. I mean, everybody has a different reaction to different types of stimulants, but Vyvanse was the one that really hit me hard. But I went to get diagnosed when I. Like what I said. I was 40, and I sat down with the therapist who was a psychopharmacologist, and we started talking. And she said, and I didn't go in thinking I had adhd. I just went in because I was on the edge of a nervous breakdown. I told you I was doing all this shit.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And I sat on her couch and we talked for about 10 minutes, and she goes, hold on. So stop talking. She goes, your leg has been pumping up and down the entire time. You change topics six times. You're telling me about how you can't finish one thing, you can't transition from one. She's like, you have adhd. Like, classic. Like I've never seen before.

[Adam Conover]

Wow.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And I went on it, and it never made me feel jacked up. And she's like, that's what you'll. I go, how will I know if I have it? She's like, because when you take the medication, if you don't have it, you're going to be completely wired. And if you do, it's almost going to calm you down. And it Totally calmed me down.

[Adam Conover]

See, I have the opposite experience is I've heard many people say this, that it doesn't, that doesn't jack them up for me when I take, when I take it. And I have confirmed this again recently because I got the Vyvanse prescription. Even when I take just a little bit of it, I feel so wired. I feel like I had like 10 cups of coffee.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

And I feel like I have rocket shoes on for three hours.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Rocket shoes. That should have been the name of the special. Think of the fucking graphics.

[Adam Conover]

You could have made me looking like Sonic the Hedgehog. I Then three hours later, I start crashing.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

And I feel like I feel both exhausted and wired for the rest of the day. Then I can't sleep. And then the next morning I feel shot. I feel hungover the next day. And I literally have tried taking the tiniest amount. Crazy thing about Vyvanse is the reason you can't snort it is because it, it only turns into the amphetamine when it combines with stomach acid. It's like a precursor drug. So, like, if you snort it just nothing happens in your nose. It has to interact with your stomach acid. And that means that the pills, it's like a, it's like a capsule with powder in it. And so they told me is if you want to take less than the full amount, you, you, you open the pill, you put it in water, and then you drink some of the water. You drink like half of the water. And so I got a big takes like, shit, right? It's like there's very little, there's almost nothing in it. But so I got a Nalgene, right? That's like a liter, right. And I got down to where I'm drinking like a tenth of the Nalgene. And it's still has such a powerful effect on me. Yeah. And, and I, it like.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

But you do do it sometimes.

[Adam Conover]

So about once every six months I get frustrated and I'm like, this is not in the special. But I, I, I, I used to have some jokes about it, but I was like, that's too much to talk about. But once every six months or so, I'll get really frustrated. I have the bottle in my closet of like the last pill that I, that I put in this water bottle. Bottle. And I'll be like, all right, let me just try. And I'll take a little sip and for three hours I'll feel great, get maybe slightly more done than I would have done otherwise. And then the rest of my day is Shot.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

You just have to remind yourself sometimes why you don't take this.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah, like, I wish it worked for me. I've talked to so many people who said. Who have said, like, oh, yeah, it really helped me. It changed everything for me. And for me it just didn't. And I honestly wonder if even when I was taking it in college, like, did it work for me? Because most of my memories were of not sleeping, being really manic around my friends, smoking like a chimney, you know, like drinking, you know, you know, a quarter of a bottle of Jack to go to sleep, you know, and. And just like, I looked like shit. When I look at photos or footage of myself from those days, I'm like, oh, my God. You know?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. You look better now.

[Adam Conover]

Thank you.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

You do. You used to be kind of round. You had like a round head.

[Adam Conover]

I mean, that is so spot on. That's how I think of it too. Yeah, I had a really. I had sort of a much more egg shaped head. That was when I was drinking. Especially when I look at Adam. Ruins everything. I quit drinking before the final year of the show.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

And when I look back at the. At the next to the final year, I'm like, I can tell. If you show me a random clip of the show, I can tell you whether or not I was drinking.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

No, because you're a handsome guy now.

[Adam Conover]

Thank you. I also started working out with it.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Oh, okay.

[Adam Conover]

That helps.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Do you find. Now, are you married? Do you find that women have. You've seen a difference in the way women react to you now?

[Adam Conover]

Yes, but I also recently left a 15 year relationship and so they treat me a lot differently. Oh, my God.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

No wonder you left. She was getting too old.

[Adam Conover]

That's incredible. That was. That was incredible. Yeah, no, I was. Yeah. I'm single again for the first time in a long time.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

How's that feel?

[Adam Conover]

Feels good. It was. It was what we both needed. It was what I needed. You know, we're. Yeah, it was good. Yes, it's what it. Yeah, it was. It. It was a very, very happy relationship. And then we realized we. We both needed to. To explore other things. You know what I mean? Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

You're an explorer now.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

You get. You getting on the apps or how you meet?

[Adam Conover]

Yeah, I'm on the apps. Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Really?

[Adam Conover]

Yes.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Are you on the one. What is it, Bumble, where the woman picks you?

[Adam Conover]

No, the only app I'm on is Field. You know, Field.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Field.

[Adam Conover]

Field. Field is the. It's. There's a lot of queer people on Field. There's a lot of kink on field. There's a lot of poly people on. It's just like the app for weirdos. You know what I mean?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Are you kinky or something?

[Adam Conover]

I, I, Dude, I was in a relationship for a very long time. I'm like, trying to. I'm like, I want to see the other side of life.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Really?

[Adam Conover]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, because I don't want to join Hinge and Bumble. These are all going to be full of people who are, like, looking for their soulmates.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

You know?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

And I'm sort of been there, done that. Right.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I get whipped and humiliated or something.

[Adam Conover]

I want to see. I want to see the. How many colors are on God's palette, You know, I want to, I want to. I want to explore the far corners of the buffet of life.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Will you talk about these experiences on your podcast as you explore?

[Adam Conover]

I've not talked about it on my podcast. I am talking about them on stage.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

That, like, my whole, my whole act now is like, I sort of open with, like, 10 minutes of politics, and then I'm just talking about this stuff. And I really enjoy talking about it because most of my career has been me talking about information and comedy.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And now I remember reading that about you talking about your special that you wanted to do something more personal.

[Adam Conover]

Yep. But that, but even that was like, it's A.D.D. it's like there. It's sort of very cerebral. Right. And now I'm talking about sex. You know, I'm talking about. And I really enjoy it.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Have you been with transsexuals yet?

[Adam Conover]

I. I have, actually. Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

That's amazing. I think if I was single, I would try that.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah. It's a great time.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah. Wonderful people. I mean, as is everybody. I'm like, a distinction. But, like, last time I was single, the number of people who are, you know, some form of queer now.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

Is complete. Like, I know some of us want to go back to New York. Right. Because I was in New Yorkers in a comedy scene. Right. I was in my 20s. And, you know, the weirdest anybody got, the freakiest anybody got was, like, being a hipster in Williamsburg. You know, it was like having mutton chops or something.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

And now people are just like, Jim.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Norton, just married trans woman.

[Adam Conover]

Did he really?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. They're very happily married. They've been together forever and.

[Adam Conover]

Wonderful.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. No, and a lot of people have talked about. I, I had a near gay experience that I wrote about in my book, and I talk about about on The Howard Stern Show. And I really feel like our kid. Because I have kids. Yeah. And everybody's like, oh, every kid's gay now. It's like, no, we always were. There was always a spectrum that people lived on. They're actually just honoring it.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah. And, and you know what a big part of my act is about is. It's, it's people experimenting. It's people trying things and seeing what they like, especially in their 20s. It's the right time to do it, you know, and, you know, whatever. Queerness is like something that I think everybody can enter into to some amount, you know, to the extent that they want to explore it. But women are so much better at this than men.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

You know, women like just, just trying new things and, and labeling themselves as like, oh, yeah, you know, I'm whatever, I'm a little bi or whatever it is.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

And. But, but I think we're finally making some progress with, with, I don't know, men, Men trying new things, perhaps in society.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. I always wondered like, if I said, can I be with a trans person. I thought because I've been married 25 years and I've been with her for 28, so I haven't been an explorer in a very long time. I. I am. Like, when you see one of the astronauts that walked on the moon, like, that's, that's what I feel like now.

[Adam Conover]

But. What? You haven't walked on the moon? You haven't walked on the moon? What do you mean?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I mean, since I've even been exploring. Since the, since even the idea of me going into the woods in Boston one night at 3am when I was shit faced to suck a dick. Like, that was so far, long ago.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

That's what, that's when I planted my plan.

[Adam Conover]

I see you're a retired astronaut.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I'm a retired astronaut.

[Adam Conover]

You're like, I remember when I was exploring. I see.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yes. And I really did feel like the only thing that kept me from having a gay experience was the right guy pulling his dick out in front of me.

[Adam Conover]

That's what I talk about my act, man. That's how I really felt as well. Yeah, no, yeah, exactly. But, you know, the thing is with, with I feel like you can get this thing built up in your head where it's going to be some big deal, you know, and it's just another person, you know what I mean? And you just have a reaction or not, you know, it's not like a big reaction like, oh, are you, are you horny still? Then, then you'll have a nice time. You know what I mean? And if you're, and if you're not, then you say, you know, hey, it was nice hanging out and I spending time with you or whatever, right? It's like, it doesn't need to be such a big. A big deal. You know what I mean? We have these, we have these conceptions of ourselves, you know, as straight or gay. I actually used to do a joke about how people consider themselves, like either an alcoholic or a moderate drinker, right? Where like, if you're an alcoholic, you got to go sit in that sad basement and drink coffee out of tiny cups. But if you're a moderate drinker, you can drink as much as you want at any time because you're not one of those sad people.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

People.

[Adam Conover]

Whereas really I realized I was not an alcoholic. I was just addicted to alcohol. Yeah, right. And there's a lot of people who are addicted to alcohol don't self label as, as alcoholics. I think it's the same thing with, with this stuff. A lot of people are like, I'm straight. Well, why are you so sure of this? Yeah, you know, like, what if you give it a, give it a little try, man, you know?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Did you ever have a moment after a new sexual experience, a new type of. Where you felt afterwards any shame or confusion? Confusion or regret? Or was it always just, all right, I tried that?

[Adam Conover]

No, I don't think so. I mean, I've had, I've had shame after sexual. I think the only time that I've ever felt shame after a sexual experience was when I pushed myself to do something I wasn't comfortable with. And that has nothing to do with the type of person that, that's. That's happened with, with, you know, just straight CIS women with me, where I'm just like, oh, I was not that into the person, but I was like, trying to do a good job or something like that, you know, that. That also used to have me in my twenties too, because I think that's the performer in me, right? Where I'm like, oh, I want, I want to do well with the crowd, you know, I'm here on the date with the person, they're into me, right? They're being very nice. They've done nothing wrong. Yeah, they're. They're a perfectly attractive person, you know? Well, shouldn't I be able to give them a good experience for both of us? Yeah, shouldn't I, Shouldn't I. Shouldn't I do a good job on the date? And shouldn't a good date lead to, you know, lead to more things happening, leading back to going back to someone's place and having a good time? And so then I'll. I'll follow through on that. And then, actually, I wasn't really feeling it.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And you're having sex, and you're like, I got to close strong here. I need a good closing bid here. I mean, I can remember going down on a girl just to prove a point. Point for. My tongue ached, and I was like, what am I doing? I'm not even into this. I'm just trying to, you know, get a good Yelp review.

[Adam Conover]

Well, look, if you're trying to make someone else come, that is something that you can just do that generously, you know, and you can say, you know what? I'm gonna take one for the team. And that's altruistic.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right?

[Adam Conover]

But in terms of just. But you should still have a genuine, like, attraction to the person and desire to be there in that moment. You shouldn't be, you know, fundamentally taking one for the team and.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Or just doing it, because, I mean, there's a lot of sexual addiction. People talk about alcohol and stuff, but the amount of men, like, I have friends that, like, we walk down the street, they can't not check out and comment. Like, every woman. And they, you know, go out with women that. I go, like, dude, she's not even in your world. Like, she, first of all, too young. Yeah. Nothing in common with her.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

You know, like, dumb. You're smart. She's dumb. Like, what are you doing? This is only for your physical pleasure.

[Adam Conover]

And you know what? I'm going to draw a comparison here, because I think that. So I think men have a lot of trouble turning down sex. Right? We are socialized to. We're told that to be a man is to want to fuck all the time.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right?

[Adam Conover]

And therefore, it is not actually okay for you to not be in the mood at any particular moment. Right? And I think that leads to what you're talking about. Whereas, like, if someone. You know, if someone's available, hey, I got to. I got to take. Got to take you up on that. You know what I mean? And that's. I think, some of the pressure I've put on myself. Well, why would I say no to this nice person who wants to fuck me? Right?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

Like, isn't that what I'm here to do? And then afterwards, they go, oh, no, actually, I didn't want to. And I couldn't. I couldn't admit to myself I didn't want to. It's the same thing with that orb gig. You know what it was, part of it was like a transition was they're offering me, they're offering me money. Right. It's easy money to do something. I'm like, this doesn't fudgeing matter. Well, it would be wrong somehow to turn it down. Right?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

And that was a mistake. Right. Even though again I tried to sort of wink at it and like do it. I was, you know, everyone will know I'm not into this. Right. It was like the right thing to do would have been said, no, this is obviously wrong.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I did an ad once, I had a very similar experience. I did an ad for Kratom. I don't know if you know anything about Kratom, but yeah, it's basically an opiate and they sent me some free samples. It's like, it's pills and I don't know what the chemical makeup is. They say it's like from the fucking, you know, Peruvian jungles. And it's all organic. Yeah, it's opium. And so, so I took it and I was knocked out and I did the ad and I shouldn't have and then I got all these emails from people going like my cousin committed suicide from withdrawal on that shit. Like, and I looked it up on the Internet. I was like horror stories about this stuff. Kratom.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And I, and then I apologize to people that I had endorsed it.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And. But I, but I knew, I took it and knew that there was something fucked up about it. And I still did the ad and it wasn't until I got the emails that I went, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I shouldn't have done that. And so I called my agent, I go, look, not only I not doing it, you should not be saying sending this to your other clients, this is bad. Have you heard of Kratom?

[Adam Conover]

I have heard of it. Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

You buy it at head shops now.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah. You see like signs up for it like stapled to lamp posts and stuff. Like it's weird and it's one of those things where it's like, it's legal.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

But not only cuz the FDA hasn't done the testing on it yet. It will be, it will be illegal.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah. It might be one of those things where the mar. Where the drug is so up the market is, isn't even that big, you know, where like no one's really like, you know. Salvia.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

That stuff where you like just like trip out for like 30 seconds.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

We're like, not that many people really want to do that.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I think that's like a seed, though.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah. Is. I don't know that much about it. I just remember like, the, like the.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Really listen to every Joe Rogan episode.

[Adam Conover]

The really, the really big stoners I knew in college.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

Would do salvia and then be like, don't do that, don't. I didn't have a good time.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

They say you lose your, the distinction between your consciousness and your unconsciousness and you just float. Which I think with most psychedelics, that's the goal to some degree. Like psilocybin, you step back from yourself, which is why they often prescribe it for people with terminal illnesses. Because you can shrink down your mortality and observe it. So in a way that lets you accept it.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Which is. But you don't want to detach from it. You just want to shrink it down.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And Salvi, you detach.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah. You, you really, you like, lose your ego or whatever it is.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

They lose your ego.

[Adam Conover]

Difficult way. Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. And then how are you going to live in Hollywood with no ego? Jesus.

[Adam Conover]

Well, why would you even do anything right? Well, yeah, I, I, I. Something I've been thinking about is it's, it's easy to force yourself to do stuff that you don't really want to do, you know, and that's like, I'm trying to pay attention to more. It's a weirdly hard thing to only do things that you really want to do. Yeah. That makes sense. Like there's a lot of times where I'm. Classic example of this is like I'm scrolling on my phone. I feel bad about it. I don't like it. I'm not enjoying it. I know that if I were to read a book or even play a video game, I would enjoy that more. And yet for some reason I'm doing the thing I enjoy less. And it's, it's no, I do.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I go to bed with a book in my hand.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And I know I've got a half hour before I'm turning the lights out.

[Adam Conover]

And wouldn't it feel so good?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I feel really good. And then I fucking look at my phone for. And not a half hour. An hour.

[Adam Conover]

Right, exactly.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And you go like, what the fuck am I doing? I would have loved. Instead of feeling if I read a book. I just finished a great book by Alice Rooney. You ever read Alice Rooney at all? She's Irish author Sally Rooney. Sally Rooney, I'm sorry. Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

Also haven't read her, but yeah. I apparently know More about her than you do.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I don't even know the name of the book. I swear to God, if with a gun to my head, she wrote normal.

[Adam Conover]

Normal people is the Hulu one, right?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, but. But anyway, like, I read it, and I feel restored. I feel like reading is every. Every definition of meditation is you're taking your mind off something and you're focusing on something else. And that's how I feel after I read. I feel like I just meditated. And I look at my phone and I feel empty. I feel crashed out. My eyes hurt. It's amazing. And then, like you said, you make that choice or you don't make that choice is a better way of describing it.

[Adam Conover]

And I think it's because when you're on your phone, to me, the feeling is you always feel like you're not really on your phone. You're just on it for a second before you go do something else. So it feels like it's not time spent at all.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

You're like. And I remember when I first got the phone, that was the feeling. Oh, all those little moments when I'm bored. I'm waiting in the. Waiting in the line at the grocery store. That little moment. Now I can entertain myself. But it's not really that. It's, you know, now you're lying in bed for 90 minutes before you get up and make coffee because you're too busy looking at all the shit, you know? So I. You know what I did a couple weeks ago was I deleted everything from my phone that is, you know, pull to refresh. I deleted all the news apps. I deleted all of Instagram, Blue Sky, Twitter. Really, they're all off my phone, and I've mostly blocked them on my laptop as well. I have a social assistant who posts my stuff because I have too much stuff to post myself. Like, too many clips and things. And so I told her, just start sending me, like, a digest, like, once a day, once every couple days of, like, what the activity is. I see what the responses are to things.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

And send me a screenshot of, like, my messages so I see if there's a message. I want to actually go through the trouble logging in or replying to. But that's been pretty good. It's been helpful.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

So that must have been a big phone call. Whenever this thing happened with World or Globe, whatever it's called.

[Adam Conover]

Oh, boy. There's a lot. There's a lot going on. Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Little activity. Adam, you may want to start refreshing again.

[Adam Conover]

There's a point in which you Realize that like you, you're better off just not reading your own mentions. You know what I mean?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I, as a rule, do not go on Reddit. I never go because that to me is the most toxic place for conversations about people.

[Adam Conover]

Absolutely.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

It's just a pile on.

[Adam Conover]

Well, because the tone of Reddit is. Let me just finish the thing I was going to say and then I'll start ragging on Reddit because that'll be an extra 10 minutes now that I've deleted all this stuff from my phone. What I do is when I go to the bathroom, I pull my phone out and I just look at the icons and I go, there's nothing here for me while I'm taking the shit. And I just stare at like emails. No, there's no new emails. I know that because I'm up to date on my emails and like, that's it, you know, and there's nothing to look at. I still have the reflex, but at least I'm not engaging with the bullshit Reddit. The problem is that the tone of Reddit, for some reason, as opposed to every other social media site, the tone of Reddit is like, this pleases me, this displeases me. Oh, yes. Whenever. Look at every comment, the tone of every comment is, I know more about this than anybody else.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

And you know what in my expert opinion is? And so when something comes up about me, right, Someone posts one of my videos, people would be like, oh, Adam Conover, I always thought he, I haven't seen what he's done in 10 years, but I always thought that he was like this or like that, like, and everyone. Yes, I think that too. Like it's like this weird little, like there's some like, court of, of you know, nobles, like staring down at the, at the, at a parade that's going by, oh, what do I think of the Internet today?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And it's based on a thumbnail that they remember. It's based on a headline. It's not based. You hear you are putting out a 30 minute, well thought out video piece that's, you know, you researched and all that stuff. And what you're getting is. Ten years ago I had this thought.

[Adam Conover]

Yep.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

So I'll put it down here.

[Adam Conover]

And here's the worst part about it, that this is, this is my constant. Maybe this is the thing I would have done differently in my career. I'm not sure. You tell me what you think. When I created Adam ruins everything. I was leaning on my background as a sketch writer and a TV writer rather than as a stand up comic. You know, I was not really established as a comic at the time. I was doing like, you know, I was doing 15 minute sets around town like a lot of people. And occasionally I was doing a college or a weekend. Right. But so I wanted it to be really funny. The whole comedic premise of it was that I played a character version of myself who's really annoying. Right. So my character was, you know, someone would say something and my character go, well, actually. And all the other characters would go, oh my God, this guy. Again, that was the comedic engine of the whole thing, was that my character is annoying. The, the point being, yes, it's annoying to say these things. So let's heighten that by having the character be annoying. Basically, I'm Steve Urkel, but myself. Right. There are many, many people who think that is literally me. And so they, they post on the Internet. Oh, Adam Conover. I always thought that guy was so annoying. I thought he had the most punchable face. Yeah, I, he's the human. Well, actually guy. Oh, he's like, he's like if a Redditor was a person. Because he's always going, well, actually. And I'm like, yeah, that was the joke. I'm not like that in real life. That was, you know, the last episode that came out in 2019. I'm a different person. But they don't, it's like they, they, they saw the joke happen, but they did not realize it was funny.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah. No context.

[Adam Conover]

Which is a bizarre problem. But I think this is one of the things about comedy is that like, this is why the, it's just a joke defense doesn't really work that well for comedy because no matter when you tell a joke, 5% of the audience is going to think it's literally true.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

No matter what, no matter how silly your joke is.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

How did you react to Andrew Dice Clay when he was around in the late 80s?

[Adam Conover]

I think I was too busy watching like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Greg, you didn't have a judgment of Andrew back.

[Adam Conover]

I was six years old. I mean, I, I, I don't know, like, what, what do you feel the context of his act was? I've said I've heard it since, but I don't really know how it landed at the time.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Well, it's funny because I'm a comic and I should have been more open to it, but when I heard Andrew Dice Clay when I was in my 20s, I was like, this guy's a pig. You know, the things he's saying and Now I listen to. He's got this album called the Day the.

[Adam Conover]

I've heard this after that, where he's bombing in a basement. Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

In like a shit club in Brooklyn called pips at like 11 o' clock at night. He has already done Madison Square Garden, and he drops into this club that has 50 people in it unannounced at 11 o' clock at night and just bombs.

[Adam Conover]

Wow.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

But he never flinches. You never see him go, like, well, that one didn't work. Or you guys seem like you're having a bad. He just locked in and he did. And to me, it made me go like, oh, right. That's who this guy is. He's the guy that stands behind shit that you can't stand behind. You know, it's. It's completely a Persona. And now I think he's kind of a genius, you know? And do I think that his followers saw this? 90% of them were taking it at face value. And we're going to see a guy say horrible stuff about women.

[Adam Conover]

Look, both things are true, right? Both things are true. When you say something in comedy that's like, is it satire or is it real? Right. It's always both. And that's what we have to remember. One of my favorite things, if you let me tell you a story, this one, my favorite comedy clips I've ever seen. So there's this famous interview where Ricky Gervais interviews Garry Shandling. Have you ever seen this? Now, so Ricky Gervais, this was right after the first Office. I think he was making extras at the time. That was the name of the show.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

And so he is doing some kind of interview show. He shows up at Gary Shandling's house with, like a camera to interview him. And Gary Shandling's his comedic idol because he loves the Larry Sanders show and stuff. Gary Shandling's like one of my number one horrible human being in many ways. Incredible comic. And the Larry Sanders shows, like, my favorite thing ever. So Gervais, hey, now Gervais shows up in this. For some reason, there was a miscommunication. Shandling doesn't know he's coming that day, and so he's pissed off. And so Shandling is being so cutting and, like, mean to Gervais. And Gervais is like, laughing nervously. It's incredible to watch. But there's this. There's this part halfway through where Shandling says, hey, I watched some of those jokes that you did about Jewish people. I don't think you like Jewish people very much. And Gervais goes, oh, no, it's satire. It's about, you know, it's sort of funny when someone says something. You know, there's a misunderstanding and it seems a little racist, but it's not really. And it's about, oh, isn't it a funny situation? Right? And they actually show some clips of this, of the kind of classic Ricky Gervais comedy where a white person or, you know, a white man says something that's accidentally racist in quotation marks. And then there's a Jewish person or a black person or a woman who goes like, oh, what? What did you mean? And then you go, oh, sorry. Oops. Oops. Like a little awkward that I accidentally said something that could be a little racist, Right? And so it cuts back to Shandling and he says, yeah, I know that you think that you're doing that satirically, but when I watch you do it, I see that you're just excited to say the slur. You're just excited that you get to say something racist. I think there's a little boy inside of you who's just excited to say it. And Gervais has no reply to this. He just sort of laughs. And watching this now, I'm like, yeah, that's how I feel about that comedy when I watch, you know, that sort of like mid-2000s and, you know, edgy indie. It was really cool at the time, right? Pushing the boundaries a little bit of like, oh, it's about racism.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

You know, Sarah Silverman used to do a lot of stuff like this. Before that, she's. I won't talk about her because she's talked about it plenty, what she thinks about it now. When I go back and watch it, I'm like, yeah, sure, it's ironic. It's. It's in these layers and everything. But at the end of the day, yeah, you're just saying the slur. You're just saying the racist thing. And that's part of the fun. It is part of the fun. And part of the audience is watching it because that's part of the fun. That's part of what. That's part of why everyone is enjoying it. And, like, you have to accept that. And what's really cool is that Shandling saw through that this video can. You know, this was recorded in, like, 2003 or something like that and was, like, 20 years ahead of everybody else on. Because I think when you go back, watch that stuff now, it's a little bit, like, retrograde to me. Anyway, that's how I feel about it.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

No, it's. I feel like it's to this day, because I was that generation of comic and I saw Louis doing that stuff, and even Zach Galifianakis, there was a lot of people that were demanding that you take in the room that we're a bunch of educated, left leaning people. So when I say it here, it's okay. But then I remember I'm not gonna say which person this was, but they were on stage and they have a joke where they say the N word. Because back then, comics said the N word. I did. Yeah. We didn't.

[Adam Conover]

I did too. I had a. I had a joke very early on where I did. And it was about the joke was about the N word.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Exactly.

[Adam Conover]

And then another comment, thank God, said, don't say man. That's don't do.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Well, I always said I never used it. I've said it, I've used it. In describing the word itself, I've used it in what again? Air quotes. Intellectually, I was using it.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And of course that's on tape and that's been played on the Internet. It's not good. But. But to this day, there are bits that I do that play with that line still.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And I'm fine with that. But then sometimes I realize, oh, I'm leaning too heavily into that. I am the little boy who's got the. Who's. Who's playing with the knife, you know, going like, oh, look at me. You know, So I think what it.

[Adam Conover]

Requires is humility, right? Because like, sure, maybe in a couple decades you'll. You'll look back at what you're doing now and saying, oh, man, I wouldn't tell that joke today. But it's working right now. Just like whatever Galifianakis was doing or whatever Louis was doing, or Sarah. And I'm not going to fault them that, that crazily because it was working at the time. But what you're talking about, that understanding of like, hey, we're all well educated, left leaning people who all. We're. None of us are racist, therefore we can tell the joke is like, now we're like, yeah, that's fucking smug. That's sure full of yourself to think that you're above suspicion.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

And I used to have jokes like that too, where it's premised on, no, no, no. I'm a good person, though. So clearly when I do it, it's ironic. Again, this is the same fucking problem I did with the orb thing because I was like, no, everyone knows I'm an anti scam so I can do the thing because everyone knows I won't mean it. No, to participate in it is to do it. And that's what you learn.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And there's going to be some people that see you do it that don't get the context and may buy that product.

[Adam Conover]

Right. I. I think in this case very unlikely because the product is like essentially fake and barely exists. But yes, that, that's the problem. And so I think having some humility about being like, hey, maybe I'm not as clever as I think I am and maybe I shouldn't be so far out on a limb all the time, you know, is is a better way to be.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Well, my whole thing is I should be able to do my act no matter what. I could be in Dallas, Texas in front of a bunch of MAGA people. I could be at a black comedy show, you know, at the improv on a Monday night or whatever. And I should be able to do the same. My Persona and my material should be so strong that you get it no matter what. It shouldn't rely on the room getting it.

[Adam Conover]

Yep, yep.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

So, all right, it's time for fastballs with fits.

[Adam Conover]

Thumbs up. Let's do it. Was there supposed to be a song that played? Did it play and I missed it? Do you insert it later?

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Let's put a song in. What's the closest you ever got to a fistfight on stage?

[Adam Conover]

Oh, the closest I ever got to a fist fight on stage. I don't think I have ever had one. The weirdest thing that ever happened to me on stage was I was doing a bunch of material about how I quit drinking. Basically the same premise. I told you earlier that, you know, I think a lot of people are addicted who don't realize that they are. And someone in the audience started shouting, are you Carrie Nation? Are you Carrie Nation? And I was like, what? And they had to be kicked out. This is like a theater in Portland, I think. And Carrie Nation, I found out later is like the name of a famous prohibitionist who would like destroy bottles of liquor with. And this person like freaked out. They freaked out that I was criticizing 30s from the 30s.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, it's a hundred year old grudge they had.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah, it was really weird. And this person like lost it and was screaming. This is not a heckler. This was someone who like, I think people in the area were disturbed.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Are you a robber baron?

[Adam Conover]

Yeah. That's not. It's not quite a fist fight, but that's hilarious. Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

There are two types of people in the world go.

[Adam Conover]

Oh, man, I want to have a good one. I think it's still in sparkling.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I think it's tap and sparkling. Tap and sparkling, yeah.

[Adam Conover]

No, well, people who want bottled still at a restaurant. No. Tap and sparkling.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Tap and sparkling. I can see that. Yeah. Okay. Have you ever not finished a set on stage?

[Adam Conover]

Yes. You know what? When you asked me my fist fight.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

The incident I thought about is a different incident.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Okay.

[Adam Conover]

And it's a little bit of a story, if you want to hear. This is. This is, like, one of my. This is one of my biggest moments of humiliation. Early starting up as. As in comedy. So Caroline's used to have a March madness where, you know, it was, like, 100 comics. And then they'd do a bracket, right? And you'd go head to head. You'd be on stage next to each other, right? And so I was doing this. I was on stage with Chris DiStefano, and I was doing this bit where I was my big closer at the time. This was when I. I literally had, like, seven minutes total. So I, like, had to do this closer, right? And it was based on the Raffy song that goes. If you wake up in the morning, it's a quarter to one and you want to have a little fun, you brush your teeth. So my joke was like, it keeps going. You wake up in the morning, it's a quarter to two. Wake in the morning, it's quarter to three. My joke is like, what the is the problem with your teeth? You have ocd, right? And so I'd go through all the way to five, right? But they would do an air horn when you hit your. The end of your set, right? When you. When you ran out of time. And so they interrupted me at three. Oh, no, the Stefano's next. He goes, hey, I want to hear the end of the joke, don't you? And the crowd's like, yay. And the judges are like, all right, you can do the end of your joke. So I go, if you wake up in the morning, it's a quarter to four. And I do that punchline, right? And then I get a big laugh. And then I go, if you wake up in the morning, it's a quarter to five, which was supposed to be the blow of the whole thing, right? But the Stefano goes, hold on a second. He's. And the crowd's like, whoa. Now it looks like I'm biting off more, like I'm trying to take too much time. And the crowd's like, no, I should have stopped at 4. I could have stopped at 4. It was like, fundamentally my mistake.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

You missed your exit.

[Adam Conover]

I missed my exit. And like, it was. It was like a big rookie mistake that afterwards I was like. And this is the kind of show where it's like, all the comics are watching too. So it was like, it felt like rank humiliation. I. I was like, I'm never gonna live this out. No one gave a. But like, in my Just getting started.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Oh, you know, nights with that one.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah. I was. Oh, God, I've destroyed everything.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

All right. Last thing I'll ask you. When's the last time that you apologized? That's literally on my script.

[Adam Conover]

A video on Friday where I apologize for the sponsorship.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

His podcast is. It's a great podcast. It's called Damn, you're a big fan. Hold on. No, factually, thank you. Factually. It used to be called Adam ruins everything. And then it transitioned into being correct.

[Adam Conover]

It was the Adam runs everything. The podcast. And then we transitioned it to factually. Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

The new special is fantastic.

[Adam Conover]

Thank you, man.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And what else?

[Adam Conover]

Unmedicated. You can get it on Dropout.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Yeah, it's on Dropout.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

And you get some tour dates coming up. Oklahoma City, 9 12. Today after 9 11, you're going to be in a home of terrorism. Like Oklahoma City. That's insane. Tulsa, Oklahoma, September 14th. If he makes it brea on September 21st. And he's coming to Tacoma, Spokane. Go to Adam Conover.net and we're doing.

[Adam Conover]

A big announcement of a bunch of new tour dates in like a couple weeks, so. Oh, yeah, I'm doing a fall tour, but we gotta, like, those are the only ones that have been announced yet, but okay, in like a couple weeks. You know, I'm like talking to my agent. He's like, okay, we're going to do a big announcer. Can't we just announce them now? No, we got to do it all on the same day. So I'm going to a bunch of other cities as well. I'm going to be in like, I'm going to be all over the country. So go to Adam Conover.net for tickets in a couple of weeks.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I've seen your stand up recently a couple of times and you're on fire. Really, really funny. And you know, I can't imagine people not coming out to see you, but they're going to be surprised because I think a lot of people probably know you for your podcast, your TV show. They're going to be very happy when they see your stand they're going to.

[Adam Conover]

Be happy to hear about all my strange sexual experiences.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

God, I really. That's a second podcast. We're going to have to bring you back for some feedback.

[Adam Conover]

I love that we. I love that we got into that. This is the first podcast. I talked about this. Thank you.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

I'm glad. All right. Thank you, Adam.

[Adam Conover]

Dude. Listos paraventurace en la mesca de mayo. Ketchup. La barbecue. Que quettono del fondo de la quajita. Hot fudge sundae.

[Greg Fitzsimmons]

Ela Nueva.

[Adam Conover]

Creamy Chili McCrispy Strip Dip. Los Nuevos McCrispy strips out in McDonald's.