N.P.R.'s Rose Freeman reports the hearing this week became an opportunity for the prosecution to renegotiate the terms of his release the judge set the bail which had been $1000000.00 to a $2000000.00 bond and said a few other conditions including no passport no travel outside the u.s. And if Weinstein it's to leave New York or Connecticut he must notify the D.A.'s office Weinstein is charged with a number of counts of sexual assault and rape against 2 different women his trial is scheduled to begin in January while he's out on bail he has to wear an ankle bracelet the district attorney's office argued that he violated those conditions by repeatedly leaving the bracelet at home Weinstein's lawyers argued the device had technical glitches Rose Friedman n.p.r. News New York. You're listening to n.p.r. News live from k.q.e.d. News I'm ina came Senator Dianne Feinstein focused on Republican claims that the F.B.I.'s Russia investigation was politically motivated during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this morning Feinstein questioned Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz your report states that you didn't find documentary or testimony leveled instead political bias or improper motivation played a role that's correct and you didn't find a deep state conspiracy against a candidate for President Trump and we found no bias no testimony of documents on that Horowitz said he was surprised at Trump administration criticism of his report which did find some mistakes the agency made in investigating the time campaign Mills College is selling its copy of one of the world's most valuable books Sam Lafave explains the Oakland liberal arts college is selling Shakespeare's 1st Folio a historic book expected to John millions at auction as part of its plan to recover from ongoing financial struggles the 1st collection of Shakespeare's plays one of 235 copies known worldwide was gifted to meals in 1977 by in a line in honor of her father a former English professor at the college. College president Elizabeth Hellman revealed the plan in an internal e-mail Thursday writing that the revenue will support current programs Mills face the $9000000.00 deficit in 2017 school officials say they got still has not closed I'm Sam a fave k.q.e.d. News more news online Eki q.e.d. News dot org I mean it can support the softer non-coms from Stanford health care where patients and physicians turn one health care matters most support for n.p.r. Comes from the n.p.r. Shop where visitors can browse Public Radio nerd an n.p.r. Gear at n.p.r. Shop dot org And by the listeners and members of k.q.e.d. . Cloudy skies in Northern California today Bay Area highest fifty's and sixty's rain chances continue the rest of the afternoon and tonight and also after midnight Sacramento also cloudy highs 55 to 60 also a chance of showers the seating in the Sacramento Valley Sacramento is high today 59 degrees. It's time for fresh air on k.q.e.d. Public Radio 88.5 f.m. . This is Fresh Air I'm Terry Gross we had promised you an interview with actor Adam Driver today but unfortunately we weren't able to do it as planned but the good news is instead we're going to hear one of our favorite interviews of the year with Conan O'Brien he's been up to some new things he changed the format of his late night t.v. Show and cut it back to half an hour and he moved into the podcast world with a popular show called Conan O'Brien needs a friend featuring his conversations with comics actors and writers Conan O'Brien was a comedy writer having worked on The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live when he 1st started hosting N.B.C.'s Late Night with Conan O'Brien in the 1230 spot that had been David Letterman's O'Brien was unknown as a performer and a lot of people thought he wouldn't make it but now he's been hosting late night shows longer than anyone 26 years his career has taken some surprising twists and turns which we'll talk about but he's never stopped being funny Conan O'Brien welcome back to Fresh Air It's been a long time and it's a great pleasure to have you back you're kind of shaking things up in your life I mean your change change your hour t.b.s. T.v. Show into a half hour and you're on all these new podcast ventures and doing standup comedy and now you have this series of performances at clubs around the country kind of produced by Team Coco. So what's going on in your life that made you want to make all these changes. I'm having a nervous breakdown I know it. Thank you. Yeah I know I have yeah it's just like a very deep answers. Yes yes it's the Larry King method. Larry King used famously said once I don't I don't prepare for interviews I just say ask whatever pops into my head that's my technique and I said that's not a technique. That's just not fairing Larry that's my technique is I just get up and I don't join him so much and then I go in and I say whatever happens and then that's that's my magic but. You know. I decided a little while ago I've loved my career I've been very lucky I I'm hard pressed to think of some thing I wanted I didn't get to do and so you know and I'm very lucky in my personal life I married the right person I have great kids sort of certain point you say why not but I guess I got to a phase where I thought I don't what I don't want to do is sleep walk my way through my career. At this stage I think I'd be very easy to Ok I got this down I can do this for a bunch of members and then you know sort of fade off into the sunlight and I 5 that's Or there's another way to go which is scare yourself and try to be rather than be intimidated and afraid as a lot of middle age people are by everything it's changing choose to be excited by it you know maybe some later career kookiness doesn't make any difference you know if people don't like it they don't like it do you think the things that you find funny and or the comedy that you want to do has been changing as you get older. Yeah probably well I don't think the things that I find funny have changed I still find the same things funny and I really love the silly and I the silliness and the absurdity that I can find. And every day life I think as time goes on I've become much more interested in things that. Actually this is probably always been the case so I don't know if I can say it's new but my interest in what we call evergreen comedy comedy that. I think of a Warner Brothers cartoon you can watch it today and it was maybe it was made in 1948. You know whether it's Bugs Bunny or coyote Road Runner you're watching one and it's just is the timing and the simplicity of the ideas but the beauty of the execution it's always funny today as it was when it was shown at Theater in 1948 and that's the stuff that as I get older I'm more and more interested in which is something that's. Not just funny if you've read the news today you know I mean yes I'm definitely definitely funny if it's funny if someone sees it online and I think that's something that's I'm happy about is I'm constantly having because of You Tube. Total accident but because of You Tube. People will see something that I shot 20 years ago but it's me. You know going to the nurse and finding out that I have a heart murmur and it's all happening on real time and did you find it for real when she did this is the whole bit where you had like a cold so you went to see the doctor or the nurse and then you insisted she could tell you everything's fine you insisted that she listen to your chest and she said did anyone ever tell you that you have her arm or she you know she has a different word for it but you have to really rise and I wasn't sure yeah well if I was a real no no no it was not static it was absolutely real and I think that's why it reads is funny I'm fine by the way I've never had any issue that's good. Yeah. This is going to Brian's last interview by the way. At any issue. So our Terry Gross had the last interview with time but But what I like I like comedy that is about me as a person who somewhat ridiculous going through life and whether it it's Chaplin NASCAR's Jacques Tati or it's just it's it's about. A person encountering being embarrassed or humiliated or being you know going through life and. And sort of like Buster Keaton or any of those great people I I'm not playing at their level but I that is my approach to comedy is to try and find connections and things that other people can relate to and those are the things some of these remote remotes that I've shot over the years are my probably my favorite medium and all of comedy is I have this you know hundreds and hundreds of these remotes I've shot and some of them I think I really managed to make something that might be a little bit timeless and that's the stuff I'm in love with. So are there jokes that you feel like you can't tell anymore in this era of heightened feminist awareness and the need to movement like one of the things you always used to do is like your bar Bob Hope growl. At after attractive women I mean you went yeah I want to be Yeah I mean I know you know what I said I still I was your No I didn't let go of the art of the joke can you do that anymore Yes Well 1st of all I was molested myself yes thank you allow Yes You know the other thing is the growl you know I would when when women would come on it was this cartoony Bob Hope thing if I thought about it and I don't know if anybody has ever seen it is sexual. Because I don't know that I come across as. Being really bluntly honest. As that sexual and so. I don't know that I do the growl as much anymore but I find that the response is usually women laughing at me because it is such a caricature of a guy a cartoonish non-sexual person attempting you know this this crazy what is sort of 1950 s. Or 940 s. Tiger growl so yeah I don't know that that. Is the tiger growl as I don't know if that's verboten because I don't know that anyone takes it seriously nor should they but I know I know agree I hate to lose it completely you have the strangest career of all the late night hosts you've been more of a writer than performer when you got your 1230 late night show on n.b.c. Coming on right after The Tonight Show no one knew who you were and it took a while for you to catch on when Leno left The Tonight Show you replaced him Leno got a 10 o'clock show that didn't do well he wanted to go back to the 1130 spot and. N.b.c. Let him do it before your year was up you were out of the $1130.00 spot they offered you a spot at 12 o 5 to do The Tonight Show and you basically said that's ridiculous and you left and you know few months later started your show on t.b.s. So your career has had this strange mix of like complete stardom and rejection mixed in and I just think psychologically that must really be like a roller coaster. Yeah that was that 1st of all just listening to you summarize it right now I went through 7 episodes of p.t.s.d. Just listening if you're. Just listening to the summary of what I already know happened I'm just I'm completely drenched I'm drenched in sweat right now in need of medication which I'm taking here we go and done. Yeah it's I have to say I agree with you it has been. Say what you want about my career you can someone can like me they can despise me they can completely not care . Be completely neutral about me but everyone would have to agree that it's a really unusual career just completely unprecedented I mean the way that I got on to the late night show was absurd which is basically they Lorne Michaels took a complete hell mary pass and said I know this writer and he has you know very little performing experience besides some improv but I think he could be good and I went to an audition and because I had no chance was completely relaxed in the audition and did really well and then n.b.c. Said Will we have no other choice because this is pre I mean it wouldn't happen today today if there was a major late night spot open there would be $600.00 candidates from $600.00 different cable shows so the whole way I got the show was absurd hang on to it for the 1st year a year and a half 2 years when I think I was actually canceled at one point in a meeting and then shortly after the meeting and did they said well we can't cancel him yet because we don't have his replacement quite ready to go so let's uncancel him and then cancel him at the next meeting and then they just didn't get around to it so. I was supposed to die about 6 different times and just didn't through some I don't know what else to call it other than dumb luck. And then yeah you push forward through all these years of success too it's like being on a college professor you're getting 10 year you're going to get The Tonight Show and people don't they don't try you out at The Tonight Show they give it to you and then. I take it away my predecessor it had Yeah and then my you know my predecessor had had you know some difficult times it all worked out so the feeling was. At that point I'd been on the air for 16 years and well this should be Ok and then it was as he said it was just this crazy set of circumstances. And that was traumatic and I did a tour which was very therapeutic I went out on the road and I did comedy and some music and it was just a big variety show and we had a lot of insanely huge guest stars come out in support Was it helpful to you to have audiences who were incredibly enthusiastic about seeing you at this time when you'd been rejected from n.b.c. . Yeah oh it was here it was. Therapeutic and satisfying to you know all I ever wanted to do was make people laugh I know it sounds corny the motivator to me as I just really do love getting in front of people and making them happy making them laugh and so getting to do that on a national tour and really delighting these crowds that was great I think the trouble for me came after that to her because I I think I am motion only crashed you know that the tour it's like a probably a typically Irish response but you'll do the Irish a lot of times will do anything to avoid feeling pain so I think it was very obviously very painful to have to. Give up the Tonight Show and so what I did was I have voided that pain by doing this tour where I probably burned 3000 calories a night. Would sweat through my clothes really give everything I have then go out and take selfies with a 1000 people then sleep for a couple of hours but then not be able to sleep on the bus or on the plane and asked I think when that tour was over I was skeletal. And then I was faced with we got to start over again build a new show and I think that was the painful part that was the part that took a good 2 years to to work through what helped you through it. Well I like being honest about this for other people out there I had always done some therapy but I went to I got a lot of therapy and I gotz help with medication and that helped a lot and then it also helped a lot that as I said earlier the smartest thing I ever did in my life was was marry my wife in 2002 so it's been 17 years and she's just a great partner and very emotionally intelligent and my best friend and so she helped me through this and you have kids too I mean I have 2 children so that puts things in perspective. So all of those things helped me enormously and you know I've since become a big advocate for people who are if they're going through something and they're having a hard time. You know talking to somebody and getting some professional help. If you're just joining us my guest is Conan O'Brien of course he has his t.b.s. Show at 11 o'clock at night but he also now has a pot cast it's called Conan O'Brien needs a friend we'll be right back this is Fresh Air support for k.q.e.d. This afternoon comes from a foster more thousands of kids are in need of foster parents in every community for information about making fostering part of one story visit foster more dot org . This is Fresh Air If you're just joining us my guest is Conan O'Brien in addition to hosting his t.b.s. 11 O'Clock Show Conan he's now deep into the podcast world his podcast is called Conan O'Brien needs a friend. I remember when I was a guest on your late night show on n.b.c. Back in I think like 2004 when the show was I was like the last gasp when the show was over and you were leaving the set knew you were very generous with your time you spend a few minutes talking with me and I introduced my husband to you he's a big fan and and you said. You said Well now that the show is over I can go back to being depressed and it was really funny but at the same time I thought I better some truth to that to that once you leave the stage like depression takes over Yeah you know it's funny everyone has a different. I used to think I'm not depressed I'm just anxious and I didn't understand but I've always been I was anxious as a little kid I think I started having real bouts of strong anxiety around that's in 4th grade I remembered 4th 5th 6th 7th mean through high school and I was. Just had a lot of anxiety and anxiety in the night and getting up a lot and and not understanding what it was and so. I remember there was a period in my life in my forty's when people were saying. You know maybe maybe you're depressed and I would be irritated I would seem not to Proust I have anxiety but I'm not depressed and then of course when I finally went and got some help. You know at this sort of big chaotic time in my life one of the 1st things that the doctor said to me was I said I'm not depressed I'm I just have anxiety he said you know yeah anxiety is a chronic anxiety is a subset or form of depression it's a mode you know and so I think because I was able to function so well I can always work I can always get up and do what has to be done. And I just thought well I'm not depressed and I had read accounts of people with real depression who can't get out of bed and I said that's never been me and so I'm not that so I don't have depression but I realize that anxiety is a form and it's certainly something that can get in the way of your life and yeah I did go down. It's sort of a classic trope but I think there's a lot of truth to it which is when you're a performer when you're on stage. There's no thinking you just have to act you there's no time to think you just do and so for that time that you're in front of people in a weird crazy way you'd think that the anxiety would be at its peak and it's not everything goes away because there's no time you're just in front of them and you just react and you completely rely on your muscle memory and your inner clown that's been there since you were born and you just go and it's very liberating and it's really freeing the problem is when it's over and you need to negotiate it then you have to start thinking again about what's tomorrow and what are we going to do and then it's all back in your brain you know it's it's not you just sort of reacting out of your diaphragm or war your soul or whatever you're back in your brain and that's where the problems start so when I say it's time to be depressed again after a show it's much better now I mean now I go home and see my wife and kids and deal with whatever they're dealing with and so it's different you know it's not it's not the way it used to be I used to go home and brood about what am I going to do next and what's tomorrow and how was that show and if it was a good show can we replicate it tomorrow if it was a bad show oh my God how are we going to make up for that what will people think there's less of that now so it's it was a joke but it wasn't a joke. We're listening to my interview with Conan O'Brien his t.b.s. Show is weeknights at 11 his podcast is called Conan O'Brien needs a friend we'll talk more after a break they just happen to be a guitar in the studio when we spoke so of course I asked them to play and sing something it was great we'll hear that too I'm Terry Gross and this is Fresh Air. The Neubau