Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend - Cover Your Hole

Episode Date: April 30, 2026

Conan talks to Phillip from Colonial Williamsburg about relic hunting for lost treasures (and sometimes live hand grenades) and why you should always fill in your holes after a search.     Wanna get a chance to talk to Conan? Submit here: teamcoco.com/apply Get access to all the podcasts you love, music channels and radio shows with the SiriusXM App! Get 3 months free using this show link: https://siriusxm.com/conan. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Conan O'Brien needs a fan. Want to talk to Conan? Visit teamco.com slash call Conan. Okay, let's get started. Hey, Philip. Welcome to Conan O'Brien needs a fan. Hey, you guys. Hey, Philip, how are you?

I'm doing well. How are you? I'm just going to comment right away, and I encourage our listeners to watch the video. You've got one of the most neatly curated beards I've seen in my life. I mean, it's incredible. I feel like you had a jeweler come in. and maintain your beer.

Yes. Impressive. Very impressive. Philip, tell us a little bit about yourself. Where do you live? Where are you coming to us from right now? So I live in the Williamsburg, Virginia area. So Colonial Williamsburg, if you ever been here, right in that area, the eastern,

eastern Virginia. So, yeah, this is live at. And tell us about yourself. What makes you tick, Philip? All right. Well, I am, I grew up in this area, so I've always been huge. fan of history. Yep. So love history.

I live here. I'm married to my wife, Karen. She's a high school math teacher. I have two teenage boys. We love being outside, whether it's in the woods, hiking, boating, whatever it may be. So that's kind of our world. Okay. I feel like this is a dating app now.

And I like. You swipe right if you're interested or left. Right, right? Right. You swipe right. If you're really interested, you swipe up for a super swipe. Get out. Yeah, that's right.

I just swiped you up, Philip. Yeah. Because you like history, which I love. Now, I see in my notes here, it says you're a relic hunter. I don't really know much about that. What do you do? So it's a hobby. So relic hunting, if you've, it's kind of like using a metal detector to go out and find old things.

You go out looking for, well, I guess if you're in Williamsburg, Virginia, you've got lots of stuff. I mean, mostly there's a lot of stuff. probably civil war stuff and there's probably also revolutionary war. What else? Absolutely. I mean, that sounds like you had hit hay dirt. Go ahead. Yeah. So growing up in this area, it was sort of all around me. I live right between Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, Cold Harbor, all the, all the battles outside of Richmond area. So it kind of grew up right at the epicenter of that sort of history. And so what are you finding when you got your metal detector, what are the things you're pulling out of the ground that are exciting to you? Um,

Also, we find bullets, Civil War bullets, American Revolutionary bullets. We find buckles, sometimes old cannonballs and artillery shells and buttons and coins and all sorts of things. What's one of the coolest things you ever found? Like, you pulled it out of the ground and you thought, this is awesome. One of the coolest things I found was a posy ring. It's called a Colonial Posey Ring is the name of it. It's a gold ring that they would. of a young man would have shared with a young woman back in colonial times. And when I first

found it, I thought it was just simply just, I'm not sure what it was. And then when I got home and cleaned it up, I realized what it was. And inside of it, it has some old Gothic script. I think it says I choose the, I actually have some stuff over here. I have it here. That is so cool. That's amazing. How well you can see that. And now, yeah, I swiped up and now you're proposing to me. That's right. That's how. things happen on this. This is one fast app. That is so cool and poignant and sad and sweet at the same time, you know? Yeah. Well, I mean, I found it in a field. And so oftentimes, you know, people got married much younger during those times than they do today. And so it was much smaller and probably as she got older. She would wear it as a necklace or a charm. And it fell off at some point and laid there for probably 200 years until, One day I dug it out of the ground.

Right. And does her ghost haunt you now? No, no. That's what I would worry about when I pull something out of the ground is eventually the ghost or zombie would come looking for it. Zombie. And it says here you once found a live grenade. Yeah. So you find all sorts of things.

Did the grenade say, I choose thee? No, it did not, fortunately. The one thing I would say You're so proud of yourself Yes, yes Sorry, so proud It's whatever, it's what I do It's what I do

Nice ceiling there, Michelangelo That's what I do That's what I do Sorry So what happens when you find a live grenade Don't you have to call the police? Yes, you do When you're digging

You find all sorts of stuff And one of the things I would say is Most of the stuff you find when you go hunting or relic hunting is trash. You find shotgun shells and beer cans and more beer cans and anything metal you can think of that's been in the ground for a long time. So you don't, most of what you find is not worth keeping. Right.

It's not Civil War or American Revolution. But this particular day, I dug a hole and pulled out of the ground. I wasn't sure what it was at first and realized quickly. We live, if you know anything about the Hampton Roads area, that's a lot of military bases I've been in this area for a very long time. And realized pretty quickly what it was and moved it. I don't know. I sort of got told I shouldn't have done this later.

I picked it up and moved it to a tree line and stuck it next to a tree. I don't know why I did that. He started juggling it. Taking it like a hacky sack. You kicked it like a hacky sack for 20 minutes. Yes. While you were listening to a fish album. There you go.

You okay there, Stona? Laughing pretty hard. Sona, when you laugh, don't move away from the mic. Get those laughs right in there. I work hard for those. For the record. Yeah. Okay, for the record, let me just say it.

Sona has the best laugh. She does have the best laugh. She has the best. But Philip, you know what drives me? Philip, this drives me crazy. Let him continue. What I'm saying is I'll say something. She'll laugh real hard and she does this.

She fades away from the mic. And I'm like, those are my laughs. Give my milk, mama. You're hearing. Wow. That's sweet milk to me. You hear them. You want other people to know I'm laughing at you.

That's what that is. With me. With me. Not at me. Anyway, Philip, we got off on this sidetrack thing. No, I was talking about Sona's laugh. Yeah, let's continue with that. Yeah, let's get off the Civil War stuff.

Let me just say, okay, I know. I could hear you, Sona, before they call me in the room and they told you guys there was a Civil War with Relic Hunter and you were like, oh, I knew that was going to happen with you. But that's okay. Because I wanted to you, no, but my. My goal was that she would laugh at some point because you guys, just real quick, we're getting off the relics hunting stuff for a moment. I listen to you guys all the time of the car on XM radio. So I listen to you guys, there you go, a little plug for XM.

I listen to you guys. So you guys are the voices in my car. And so we've talked about Sona has the best laugh. You know what? I will agree. You have the best laugh. Sony. You've always had the best laugh.

And I considered you one of the treasures I pulled out of the ground. Does that work? As a compliment? It was so close. It was almost close. When I met you, you were dirty. Yes, I get it. You know that, right?

Well, you tell people I, like, jumped out of a bush. No, but you were, you had soil on. Yeah. There was a, maybe the first year of me knowing you was me brushing you clean. Oh, that's so sweet. Thank you so much. Thanks for making me human. But she had a great laugh.

I was the live grenade you picked that. You were in a way. But wait, back to the grenade, Philip. Okay. What vintage is the grenade? Is it, it's not a, don't tell me it was a, it was Korean. Oh, good. Okay.

Korean War Air grenade is what I found out later. And so, again, set it next to this tree. I'd spent over 20 years in the fire department. These sort of things happened in this area again because of all the military bases. So I knew what needed to be done. So I called it in. There's a lot of the military base nearby us sent their bomb technicians over who examined it and quickly determined that it was a live grenade.

and that is actually the pen had been pulled out of it and thrown, but I guess somehow it hit just right, it never exploded, and I moved it with a shovel. Oh, my God. And so the guys were not, they were like, you moved that? You should have never moved that. And, but what was really cool, I mean, these guys got out of the truck. They looked like they were extras in a military movie,

I mean, tall, the mustache, the whole deal. And they go over and they basically put a thing of C-4 and sandbags around. it and I have a video of it. They blew it up? They did a whole fire in the hole, fire in the hole, the whole fire in the whole fire hole and blew it up. And I asked him where the little wire was that went from the C4 to the little like explosive thing.

He goes, no, we do that all by Bluetooth now. And so they blew it up with their phone. Oh my God. That's not that cool. No, but no, it is cool. It sounds dangerous to me. Like I'm there setting up my C4 and I'm packing it around the object I want to blow up when someone near me accesses a song on Bluetooth and my half my face gets blown off

because they wanted to listen to fish yeah whatever you know fish just because David needed to hear Hillary Duff I have to die hey something's are worth that can you imagine having that job where your job is to blow things up You know, you have C4 and you have a van and you get to drive around and, okay, I got to go blow something else up in a field. Yeah. That's what a great job. Is it great? I think it would be fantastic.

Oh, I didn't know if you were going to say great or terrifying. No, I love that. You get, first of all, your time's your own. You get to drive around. Sure. Probably a company car. You get C4 that you don't have to take for. You don't know.

I just like it. You just want a company car? Kind of. It just could be fun. And you get to see stuff blow up, which would be fun. Yeah. I don't think that ever gets old. How do you do, because how do you even know where to look?

How do you do, I imagine there's some kind of research involved in finding out what's a good place to try and find relics, what will be fruitful? Because you can't just wander around a big state like Virginia hoping that the thing that sets off your metal detector is a Civil War, Civil War heirloom. You have to do some research, I would think, right? Yeah, that's over half of it is just spending the time to study. It's really dorky, but it's a ton of fun. But just look at old maps in history, and Library of Congress has maps that you can access online.

So you're looking at those and then figure it out where you can go. But then getting permission to go to those places, obviously you can't go to any national parks or state parks or anything like that. So it's finding private property. Farmers, people that own land that you ask permission, can I come on your property and dig holes? and can I search for relics for old things that might be on your property? And a lot of times they'll say no and sometimes they'll say yeah. Okay. And do they have a deal?

Like if you find something valuable, they want to keep it? Sometimes. It sort of depends. Some of them, most of them actually don't really care. You know, what I've run into is they just kind of go, I don't really care. I'm not, you know, that's your thing. It's not my thing. So whatever you find.

There's others who have said, hey, I'd really like to see what you find. And then there's others you can maybe work a deal with and go, hey, let's split whatever, whatever it is, we find. I'm intrigued. There's part of me that would want to go around and fool guys like you. Like, drop things in the ground. Do you know what I mean? Go out and buy, you know, go and buy like what looks like a knight's helmet. And then drop it in a whole.

Just hide and watch them. And then hide in a bush. And watch you guys come by and think that you've found, oh my God, King Arthur's Court, they hung out here and Williamsburg, Virginia. I know that's a bad thing I'm admitting to, but no, there's people that do that. No, really? No, there's a guy. No, there's a guy here locally who has like been known for decades as one of the best replica makers of Civil War buckles and things like that. Right. And if he made one that wasn't quite perfect, he was known to go in the Cold Harbor area and bury it and hide it. What it did. And people would find it and lose their minds. Oh, fantastic. I love this. Such

I'm sorry. I love this guy. Yeah, you would. Hey, can this guy contact me? I will fund your operation. Yes. Yes. Gary Williams is named.

You know, I would be drawing up like a fake Gettysburg address and then dropping it in a hole. Oh. You know, stuff like that. A fake Lincoln's beard. And a note that says, if you find my beard, contact A. Lincoln, 1600, Pennsylvania Avenue. Just, I would want to see people freak out. 1600. Was he?

He didn't live in the White House. Did he live in the White House? Lincoln? Yeah. Yeah, the White House was there. Who is the first person to live in the White House? Good question. Thomas Jefferson. Oh, okay. I didn't know that. Sona, there's a Lincoln bedroom. It's like what the most famous room in the White House. I just thought it was, I'm sorry. I wasn't sure who the first president went.

You thought he lived in a split-level condo in Reseda, California. Yeah, I saw him at the hot tub the communal hot tub. Sorry. Yeah. I like learning. I asked questions. I'm curious. Yeah. This is, I mean, this is fascinating to me.

I just, because whenever you examine something, you find out that it's a whole ecosystem, there are probably really good, you know, artifact hunters, but they're also probably ones that give you guys a bad name. Do you know what I mean? That break some of the rules, I imagine. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's like any other. Oh, you just got mad.

much behind that, yeah? You got mad. Yeah, so much behind that. Well, no name names. Don't name names. No, I mean, there's just like any other niche or subculture. There's etiquette and there are people that hold to that etiquette and do it respectfully. And there's others that just simply don't.

What is the etiquette of treasure hunting like this? Well, one of the things would be just if you dig holes, you cover holes. And you'd be just surprised how many people will dig holes in somebody's yard and just leave them, which if they have animals like horses. and livestock, they could step in it and get hurt. Yeah, terrible. Yeah. That didn't feel sincere. No, I meant that's bad.

That's bad. It didn't feel sincere. No, my rule, man, my rule number one is cover your hole, you know? I've said that since day one. And when I meet a guy that doesn't cover his hole, I'm out. I'm like, cover that hole, dude. Cover the hole. Yeah.

And then every now and then. Etiquette. Yeah. I say that all the time in my regular life. And I'm rare, guess what? I'm rarely outside when I say it. Hey dude, cover your hole. I'll cover my hole.

You've heard on the podcast before. I don't like it when someone covers my hole. That's where I draw the line. Don't cover my hole. If I said you can't cover my hole, don't cover my hole. You cover my hole. I'll cover your hole. How much more do you think I can go on this?

I don't know, but it needs to stop. I don't think it does. I think it needs to go more. I think it's to stop. Yeah. But anyway. Never heard you say whole. so many times.

Well, I'm just saying, cover your hole. That is the rule. That is the rule. Guess what? Guess what? Philip, people here are laughing and acting like it's a joke, but it is the rule

and it's a simple rule to live by. Cover your fucking hole. You know what I mean? Or I'll come over there and cover it for you, you know what I'm saying? I've got a hole cover in my pocket.

It's a little brass plate. So you cover the hole. I love that you, you know what I love? I love that you just said, so. My favorite thing about this whole interview is Philip finally going, so. And you think you're going to get away from the topic, and then you said, you got to cover your hole. So you brought us right back. Can we also talk about what else he does, which is he's also a preacher?

I spent over 20 years in a fire station. There is little of these ears have not heard. You got to cover your soul. You got to cover your soul. And if you don't cover your soul, I'll come and get a preacher to cover your soul. So you live by two rules. Cover your whole and cover your soul. These are the rules that Philip lives by. And then he was a fire chief.

Yeah. Listen, we'll get to that. We've got a lot to get, you know, we've got a lot to cover here. Yeah, we really do. Preacher. So I hope I didn't offend you with my cover your whole run, but I think it can be taken many different ways. and so I'm not worried about it. And what is your religious denominational acceleration?

Non-denominational process. Non-denominational. Got it. Very good. You accept all kinds. All kinds. I'd be welcome as a Catholic. You would be welcome.

Okay. Absolutely. I like that. I like it. Very accepting. Absolutely. And how long you've been preaching for? 12 years?

I think it is. 13 years, something like that. And before that you were a firefighter. I was bi-vocational for a while. I worked in the fire service, and I worked at a church simultaneously and did that for a period of time. And then as the church grew, it was a church plant. So it started from scratch. And as things grew, then I was full-time here as the preacher.

You seem like you'd be a good preacher. You seem like someone that would be very understanding, accepting a cool guy, good sense of humor. I think you would be very good at that. I hope so. I will tell you this. I grew up and my dad did not go to church very often. And one of his biggest things was he was like he'd meet preachers and he would go, that preacher doesn't know anything about real life.

He doesn't know anything about me. He doesn't understand anything because they live in his little world. He just reads the Bible all day and sits in his office and sings hymns or whatever. And so I was determined from the beginning. beginning that I wouldn't be that guy. And that's one of the reasons why between the fire service and just real life, just to just be a regular, just a regular dude, just a regular guy. Regular dude out there digging up grenades. I get it, man.

It is not, it's not the sexiest hobby. I get it. I love it. It's actually pretty cool. I think it sounds great. I'm sorry you heard me make that voice. That's not what I meant at all. I thought it was just more like Conan's going to geek out over it.

She was mocking me for being a Civil War history geek. So that's the typical response I get whenever anyone finds out that I dig holes and find old stuff. So I completely, it's the, it's the reaction I get from my wife when I bring stuff home. And there's mud and I bring it in the kitchen and I'm cleaning stuff up that I found and I'm dorking out over it. And my wife just like, could you, uh-huh, uh-huh, could you just please get that out of the kitchen? So I get it. It does not offend me at all. Oh, good. I mean, I just know Conan would have going to get really excited about it. I am excited about it.

And I feel like you want to go out with Philip and, like, dig holes in Virginia. I do. I tell you what, you come to Eastern Virginia. I got another metal detector. We will go out and dig holes. We'll find something cool. And we'll cover them. We'll cover them.

And we will make sure that every single one of them is covered. Got to cover them. We'll make sure that every single one's covered. That's right. No one plugs a hole like me. All right. I think we broke it. Philip, it was lovely talking to you.

By the way, when this airs, you will no longer be a preacher. So you need to find yet another vocation Because that is over When our little who's on first routine plays But it was really nice Talking to you And I'll see you on down the road, sir Hey man, I really appreciate the time

It's good to see you guys. Seriously, I listen to you guys all the time Thanks for listening to us And I've followed you since I was Since I was like in college So I just thanks for just taking the few minutes just to hang out. This was a joy for us, seriously. Really fun talking to you.

I appreciate it. All right. Take care, Philip. Bye-bye. Yeah, take care. Thanks a lot. Bye. Conan O'Brien needs a fan with Conan O'Brien, Sonam of Sessian, and Matt Goreley.

Produced by me, Matt Goreley. Executive produced by Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross, and Nick Leow. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy. Supervising producer Aaron Blair. Associate talent producer Jennifer Samples, Associate producers Sean Doherty and Lisa Burm. Engineering by Eduardo Perez.

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