Overview of Peeping Cooper
In this episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan, Conan chats with Cooper Shields, an architectural historian from Ohio who works in cultural resource management. What starts as a playful interrogation about his “peeping” job—driving around in a vest and taking photos of buildings—turns into a funny and surprisingly nerdy discussion about historic preservation, underappreciated architecture, and whether Conan can somehow get a plaque for himself while he’s still alive.
Main Topics Discussed
Cooper’s work as an architectural historian
- Cooper explains that he works on cultural resource surveys tied to federally funded projects.
- His job is to determine whether construction might affect:
- historic buildings
- archaeological sites
- other culturally significant resources
- If a project could impact a historic structure, he helps figure out how to mitigate the damage or avoid it.
Why Conan keeps calling him a “peeper”
- Conan repeatedly jokes that Cooper’s job sounds like legitimate cover for a person who likes to take pictures of houses.
- The comedy comes from Cooper’s orange safety vest, the photos he takes, and the fact that much of his work involves looking at ordinary homes and buildings that may not seem historic at first glance.
Architectural tastes: the weird, the overlooked, and the unloved
- Cooper says he’s drawn to historically underappreciated styles, especially:
- brutalism
- postmodernism
- late modernism
- He defends buildings that many people consider ugly, including:
- Boston City Hall
- the Team Disney building in Los Angeles
- Conan pushes back hard, turning the disagreement into a running joke about taste, contrarianism, and architecture that “grabs your eye” even when it’s bad.
Cooper and his wife Abby
- Cooper and his wife Abby met in grad school at Ball State University in Indiana.
- Abby also works in historic preservation, which Conan finds adorable and highly compatible.
- Conan is especially amused that they’re both in the same field and imagines them meeting in matching orange vests.
Historic registry plaques and Conan’s real agenda
- Conan asks Cooper about the National Register of Historic Places and whether a living person can have buildings associated with them recognized.
- Conan pitches the idea of getting plaques for places tied to his life, including:
- his childhood home in Brookline, Massachusetts
- the schools he attended
- other homes and studios he’s lived/worked in
- Cooper explains that while official historic status has rules, local plaques can be more flexible.
- Conan insists he wants this done while he is alive, mostly so he can stand near the plaque and pretend to discover it by chance.
Notable Bits and Running Jokes
Buildings as personality types
- Cooper assigns architectural “styles” to the hosts:
- Conan = postmodern / dramatic / bright and larger-than-life
- Sona = the Gamble House in Pasadena, a classic Arts and Crafts example
- David = a simple, warm prairie-style four-square
- Conan immediately turns the idea into a joke about the Team Disney building looking like a building held up by cartoonish dwarves.
Conan’s obsession with plaques
- Conan becomes extremely invested in the idea of getting a plaque on a building tied to his name.
- He wants it to be:
- cheap-looking but durable
- placed in a discreet location
- ideally somewhere in Massachusetts
- He asks Cooper to have Abby look into it, making it feel like a real mini-side quest by the end of the episode.
Takeaways
- The episode is a mix of architecture nerdiness and classic Conan absurdism.
- Cooper comes off as:
- smart
- dryly funny
- genuinely passionate about preservation
- The central theme is that even “ugly” or overlooked buildings can be culturally meaningful.
- The episode ends with Conan delighted by the idea of historic self-mythology: getting a plaque, standing near it, and acting surprised.
Quick Note
The transcript also includes several ad reads and sponsor segments, but the core content is the conversation with Cooper Shields about architecture, preservation, and historic plaques.