Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend - Summer S’pouses Episode 2: Amanda Lund

Episode Date: August 6, 2026

Amanda Lund feels ‘you go girl’ about being Matt Gourley’s spouse.   Amanda talks to Conan and the crew about performing as a Disney princess at Tokyo Disney, satirizing The Total Woman, and Matt’s shocking secret side hustle.   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.

Hi, my name is Amanda Lund. And I feel you go, girl, about being Matt Gourley's spouse. Summer spouses with Conan O'Brien, Sonam of Sessian, and Matt Gourley, and Eliza Powell O'Brien, Tack Baroian, and Amanda Lund. Amanda, we have a lot to talk about here because I have painted a picture of Matt over the years. And there are occasionally been charges that it's not an accurate picture. I portray him as an effete, you know, fez collecting, loot playing, Shui who hangs out, right?

And little, little bespoke garage sales, right? You're just asking the wrong person if I'm looking for a defense here. But no, but I'm, of course, I'm a caricaturist, not a, I don't paint portraits. I make obscene caricatures. So Amanda, where have I gone wrong in describing the Matt Gourley we all know and tolerate? You're touching on so many truths. There's a lot of truth to it. But I think where you go wrong is the style aspect because I think people are imagining him in like a little vest and like a little cap.

I know he has one. It's deep in the closet. Do you have a vest? I have a vest as part of a suit, like a three-piece suit. But you never had just a solo vest. Oh, like without a shirt. on underneath. So I go to all the time. All the time. He worked at Chippendale. Yes, I portray him as a guy who wears like a strawboater hat and a little bow tie that spins

when he pushes a button in his pocket. And you know what? Since he started working here, he won't wear a bow tie anymore. Anymore. Okay. That's great. So I'm changing his behavior. You and Tucker Carlson killed the bockyto. And I think one time he wore a little scarf, but that was just for 24 hours. And then it was like a little experiment. that you did for a while. So that is true. And so it is true. He loves, he loves like little hobbies.

Yeah. Like a scarf, like a flight attendant. Yes, a 1968 Swedish flight attendant. Named Inga, who's va va-voom. It looked good. We were on vacation. It was like a kind of an open, relaxed linen shirt with a little scarf. Oh, my God.

If you were taken a first phone. Amanda. Thank you. Thank you. I can live off the meat on that bone for seven years. I didn't bring here to have you live for me. I need to sing your praises, Amanda. You are very talented and very accomplished.

And I don't want to embarrass you or anything, but you have quite a list of things that you've done. You're very successful podcaster. You have played Disney princesses, many different ones. Is that right? Where did it all start? Why don't you tell your story for us? Okay.

And you did this motion, which, like, kind of short. I want, I want three, I want your life in three words. Okay. This is like, no, no, no, go for it. This is a nightmare. I did not know I was going to be, like, interviewed. Okay. No, I just thought I was more like a seat filler.

Oh, like here to. No. Amanda, you are not a seat filler. And by the way, no. And if you think there was any planning that went behind any of us, any of this, you don't know us. Okay, okay. We're, I'm just as surprised as you. Okay, let me just say I'm from Long Beach.

California. I worked at Disneyland. This is interesting. I played a princess when I was in high school into young adulthood. And that's where it stops. And that's where I peaked. But this is fascinating to me because I remember clearly my wife and I taking Nev to, I think we took her to Disneyland and the princesses were there. And to this day, I haven't seen my daughter that excited. I mean, she's excited about a lot of things, but it's a kind of they're meeting real royalty. It was, she was.

Well, yeah. Yeah. It is real royalty. The scary thing is she was 21 at the time. No, I'm kidding. No, she was just this little girl, but she was meeting Cinderella. I know you played Cinderella. And you did it in Tokyo for six months too, right?

I did it. I played Mary Poppins and Cinderella in Tokyo when I was 21, and it was the best six months of my life. Oh, well, so you know what it's like that just have been married for a while, have kids, adored. You know what? I had fans. When you work at Tokyo Disney, you have like full on a fan base. Yeah. Because the fan culture there, especially for Disney, is just outrageous and they love it so much. So I would be just riding the subway on my day off and someone would come up to me and like hand me an envelope that was filled with pictures of myself from the park. Oh my God. Is that kind of scary? Well, I liked it.

I did like it. And then also, on the last day that you work, all of your fans, because at the beginning of your term, you worked there for six months, people decide, like, that's, I'm going to be a fan of hers. And then on your last day, they all wait for you and they shower you with gifts. Oh, my God. You're dying. We know we're learning some important things here. The other ones. Matt wore a scarf once, like a flight attendant.

And Amanda likes men to photograph her from a great distance. Yeah. And then hander the photos in an envelope. It's nice to have, you don't get a lot of pictures of yourself, you know, especially as a mom. You're always behind the camera. Yeah, it's true. Through shrubbery. I was, I was going to say, I know there's like a distinction between the ones that have to wear the heads and then the like the ones like you who are just, it's your face.

Yes. So is there, is there like a legit hierarchy? Well, okay. When I worked there, yes. Uh-huh. But it was just a pay hierarchy because. face character, you get paid a little bit more, but you don't get paid as much as what Matt did at Disneyland, which was he was a talking trash can.

Yes, they know. Unbelievable. Unbelievably. Push the talking trash can and he got paid, no joke, like, three times as much as I was making as a princess and working. Is it hazard pay? Because people are constantly shamming a half-eaten burrito in the earth. I wasn't in the trash can for the hundredth time.

You know what? Were you on your knees like waddling? So you weren't in. Inside, I think that's where you really should get the big bucks if you were inside the trash can. I was walking around with a really smart scarf on. Yeah? And I had a little remote controller in a bag. And so I was nearby with a microphone hidden in the crowd.

And it's a remote control. Are you controlling the motions of the... Wow. Okay. So it was like early drone work. Yeah. So you could see why I was at a higher pay grade. No, I don't see that.

No, I don't either. No, the princess is true that the military is interested in weaponizing these trash pants? Just to go defend you. We're going to send 10,000 trash cans. Could be 10,000 Matt Gourleys. Doing improv? Doing improv. Oh, no, that would kill him.

Improving them to death. Good improv is a powerful weapon. It's true. What? You have done many podcasts. Yes. And they're very creative. They involve character work.

I mean, let's face it, we sit here. We babble like chimps. And somehow we get away with it. But these are very creative podcasts. Can you tell us a little bit about some of those? Oh, yeah, sure. Okay, so when I met Matt, this is a long time ago. Like, he was already podcasting because, like, he was one of the first, as we know. But I also was kind of podcasting from my little apartment in Taitown. I had my original podcast was called Trading Movies with Craig Kakowsky and my friend Maria Blasucci.

And so they would each give each other a movie to watch the other one had never seen. And I was just the host. So I would never. They were of different generations, too. They were of different generations. So that was my very original podcast, and I didn't even know what was happening. I just knew, like, I was talking. And I didn't know anyone was listening or anything.

And then, yes, and since then I have my kind of my life's work. It's called The Complete Woman. And that's a character piece based on my muse, who's a love and marriage expert from the 1970s. Her name's Maribel Morgan. It's a real woman. Yes. And she's a real woman. And I found this little book in a used book shop.

One afternoon I had just a rose on the cover called The Total Woman. And I cracked that thing open and I was like, ooh, this is amazing. It's like the most insane marital advice. Yes. And so I do a play on that in this podcast. Right. You inhabit it. This inspired you to become this woman.

I am hurt now. That's a great idea. But it's as if these albums were found. So it sounds like a record from the 60s. It's kind of vintage and it's all produced. It's so good. Yeah. It's really fun.

And I love doing it. And it takes a lot of work because I edited. and do all the sound design. So it's, it's been a while since I've done a season. Amanda is a more legitimate, I will know, Matt's super legitimate podcaster. I'm a total fraud and you're a total fraud, Sona. You guys are the real deal. That's very cool. Well, I can get on the little computer and do a little sound design. She's got it for my job. Is this woman still alive? You know what? Last I checked she was and she's now an artist and she does like paintings of horses. Give me an example of some of the advice. This woman was giving women in the 70s or the 60s?

So, okay, yeah. So this is, okay, so this woman was a direct response to second wave feminism. She was like, no, it's ruining marriages. Like, we have to get away from this. And it was all, it was based in evangelicalism. Is that the word? Yeah. Okay.

And so she was basically like, we can't be feminist. It's ruining our lives. We have to empower ourselves to make our husbands happy. Yes. Okay. No, you're going to like some of this stuff. I feel heard. No. And seen. Conan's legit going to like some of this stuff. And so, okay, one of her, okay, how about this? The only way to stop a man from cheating is to let him cheat with you. Okay, and like she means like, yeah, she means get a wig. Yeah, get a wig. Yeah, get a wig.

What was telling lies and get a wig. Get a wig. Wasn't she dressing up like a Native American or something? She calls it an Indian princess, and guess what? Her kids love it too. Oh, my God. Who is this lady? Tell them about the celibate. Okay, and then another one of her ideas. And this, she was on the cover of Time Magazine, okay? This woman was a sensation. Oh, wow. Okay. Yes. She's like, people know her if you ask a woman of a certain generation.

So she suggests, if you don't have the money for a full-on costume, just wrap yourself in cellophane and go-go boots with nothing underneath and answer the door when he gets home from work with a Chris Martini. and this was actually referenced in fried green tomatoes, I believe. What? Yeah. In the movie, fried green tomatoes, one of the characters does that to spice up the marriage? I haven't seen it in a long time, but that's what the internet says. She's a hoe.

Yeah, I love that. You know, be naked. Yeah, also, if you want to stop your husband from cheating, which is any moral thing to do, it's your job to let him cheat with you, which means it would be so confusing, because then you'd play a character. The guy would spend most of the time bitching about his wife to you. The sex is terrible. Well, well, that's too bad.

Oh, God. It's so strange. So she's dropped all that now. I don't know what the lady's up to, but I just love her. And I hope she's still with us. I'm going to Google it after I leave here today. I'll send you guys an email with an update. Please do that.

If you could put it in the show notes, can somebody. Now, I'm going to ask you some personal questions. Is Matt ever come home just steaming Matt? about Conan and his that prick. I can't believe I had to put up with him today and then you have to give him a martini and wrap him in cellophane. Does that ever happen?

To shut him up. It's only happened like once. Well, let's talk about that. Okay, we'll leave it alone. Not often. Not often. Oh, man, there's something here. Do I probe more or do I leave it alone?

Go for it. Oh, go for it. Okay, Matt's saying goes. Look, I think I'm a fun guy to work with, but I'm sure there have been moments. We all have moments. No, he loves this job. We're so happy to be here. Thank you for having me.

Can I just say something? Thank you for having us. You're becoming the woman again. I know. She's like, I just have to keep this red-haired man happy. One more tip real quick. Okay, so like if you want your husband to take out the trash, but you don't want to nag, obviously.

So you go, oh, honey, your arms look so strong when you take out the trash. This is just manipulation. Oh, my Lord. Or love it. I do love her. Yeah. I thought she was going to say,

there's a hot chick out by the trash hand. You should walk over that way with the trash. And then she has to put a wig on and run over there and go, hi, hi, you big boy. What's great about this woman, though, she ended up being the breadwinner because she was such a sensation. And she would go, like, head to head with the actual. feminist of the time, like on talk shows and stuff.

Oh, she would debate them. Yeah, she was a complete, like, spectacle. She's like the OG trad wife. She, yes, she was. Yeah. It's exactly making all the money, too. Yeah. So I, that's why I love her because she's just crazy. How do you like to unwind? How do you like to relax? Oh. What's a good day for you when this one's out of the house? You get to just chill off with my Indian princess. Who looks suspiciously like Amanda. Oh, I love to kick my feet up.

I love to unwind with a little bit of reality television. You know, I love when people cup their hands into a microphone. You know, you just made it louder. Yeah, yeah. I know. But there's no, listen, you will not be shamed here about reality television. I know. Because Liza's been getting into the real housewives lately of, I think, Beverly Hills.

Yeah, I watch it. It's particularly nutty right now. And, yeah, you know, I don't publicly speak about reality television, not for any reason, just no one's ever asked me. But I will say like, but it's a policy of yours. Yeah. Until someone asks you. I don't. I will not murder unless given the opportunity or ask to murder. I have morals. I have morals. I just don't have a friend to talk to about it. And I don't want to talk to anyone out loud about it. So, but a lot of really dignified women watch these shows. Like Michelle Obama watches some reality. television, Liza. Yep. Are you looking at me? I'm like, survive much.

I abandoned a lot of my reality shows. Yeah. Why? I think now, because my time in front of the TV is so finite that I like, you know, I like my sexy shows. I like shows where people are banging. Okay. Can I just say you talked about how a lot of classy people,

the amazing legendary director, Werner Herzog was here when he did the podcast. And I said, what do you like to? And he said, sometimes I like to watch these reality shows, you know, to observe Honey Boo Boo. And I thought, if Werner Herzog is watching Honey Boo Boo. Yeah, it's true. We're all okay. Yeah.

Yeah. No, it's fine. I like it. I mean, I get too into it, though. Like, I really want to watch Love Island, but it's like a huge commitment. Yeah, I can't, I've not gotten into that or like The Bachelor. I'll say this again. They, each one of those people,

burns about two calories an episode. They sit, they talk, and then one of them might stand up and lead them to a slightly different area that's three feet away to have a separate talk. Matt told me you said that. It's true. Or it's a bad take. Does Matt ever come home and go? Conan said the funniest thing today. Well, he does say, like he told me that and he said, you might be interested in this that Conan said. Oh, that's nice. I have a question. Yeah. Does he have too many projects? Yes. Is he always tinkering and doing it? Is he always tinkering and doing? things and is it annoying? Yes, I can answer for her. Definitely. He does love a project. Yeah. And in your defense, I've been over to your house and he's very talented. He'll say, oh, I built this. I built that. And clearly you are quite handy. But yeah, he does seem like someone who is always tinkering in the corner.

Yes, like the latest project is, okay, so he's got the backhouse, right, which is like our little, his podcast studio, number two, second to this one. Okay, so in the, on the wall. Wait a minute. He's doing these other podcasts. I won't have it. Okay, on the wall, there's, okay, a guitar case with a guitar in it, but it's not just a guitar case. You open it up and a bar comes down. And inside it's a hidden closet and inside the closet are like booze shelves that are lit from below.

Yeah. Oh, my God. He is a crafty alcoholic. And that's... And then he made a bassinet, but it's really a beer dispenser. It's a giant flask. Yeah, yeah. It's, I'm noticing a theme here.

I know. No, but you are, you're very good at it, but I just think there must be times where you think you put down that screwdriver right now. Let's tango. Yeah, yeah. Listen, there is, I support the projects, but in there's certain projects I'm like 100% behind and some that I'm just, like just turned a blind eye too. And I go, let him have his fun. You know what I mean?

As long as he's in the door by 6 p.m., what do I care? What he's doing with the first, you know, 10 hours of the day? Wow. I start podcasting probably at 5.30 a.m. every morning. You can do anything you want as long as you're home by 6.

That's an incredible leeway that you're getting. Yeah. Yeah. Liza's having me to do anything as long as I don't come home. Okay. This is a fair question, I think, but is there anything that Matt does routinely that sort of rankles you a little bit that it doesn't have to be anything terrible, but just is like, oh, my, you know, because my wife has plenty of those. Oh, like a pet peeve. Yeah. Oh, this is like a question. Okay, this is a real question. Okay. Well, okay, this, he doesn't do it as much anymore, but he used to wear noise canceling headphones, like around the house listening. to podcasts. So I would talk and then there'd be no answer. And that I didn't like that.

And so we talked about it. That's why you got a podcast. Just so you could talk to your husband. Welcome back to, Hello, Matt. Can you please put the tuna salad back in the refrigerator? Your arms look great when you take out the trash. We talked about it.

Your legs look great when you Get the fuck out of here. We had a serious discussion about it, but I was wearing noise-canceling headphones at the time. Oh, my God. But now what he does is he just plays him out loud on the phone. Wait, not that often, though, do I? Do I need to scale this back? Listen, I'm cool.

I'm easy-be-zy. I'm like, I don't, I'm just, I'm being put on this spot to say a pet peeve. You know, I think we said rap sign just came up here. No, we found, this is an air. where maybe there could be some improvement. And I think of this series is a little bit of marriage counseling. Yeah.

You know, it's a chance. And the healthiest marriages can use with a little discussion, except for mine. Or maybe I can talk, but I don't want anyone else to type it up. Oh, you guys will like this. Okay, so this is like my talk show story

that I wanted to bring on. Yeah. Okay. So this is something about you that surprised me. Okay. So Matt and I had been, and it kind of goes back to like the question of like your, your hobbies and like his, is he how you perceive him or how

you just play him on the podcast. Okay. So Matt and I have been dating for like a couple of years at this point. It was in our old apartment. And in our bedroom, there was like this old vintage trunk that we were using just as a bench. Like I just thought it was a decorative trunk. Sure. You sit on it. You put your work boots on. You head out the door. Yes. And I never thought to open it. And so one day it was just like, oh, I wonder if this could be storage for something. and I open it, and inside there are hundreds of t-shirts, novelty Shakespeare t-shirts. And for years, he had been selling these t-shirts,

hand-drawn Shakespeare art and these t-shirts on a website. He had a whole website domain, and he never disclosed this to me. You had a secret website? I was not hiding it. The business had like withered to a near-death. They wasn't even, I wasn't even, I wasn't, oh, really? There's not big money in bespoke, cool Shakespeare t-shirts? What, what?

Explain to me what these even are. What do they look like? Okay, I had this. He still sells them and he still. You still sell them? Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Can you describe, I'm not going to go to him.

You can't speak for a second. Amanda, described just what one of these white-sign up. Okay. I just had to say this. It was like a white, t-shirt with like a hand-drawn ink portrait of like, I don't know, like Hamlet. What happened to Hamlet again? Nothing good.

Okay. Okay. And married, like, mom, am I thinking about Oedipus? Okay, and there'd be like a quote underneath it. That was like a joke. Like what? They were humorous. So it was just Hamlet lying dead on the ground and the quote was not to be.

And so I would tell this to Shakespeare festivals. Yeah. And as like merchandise for their plays and stuff like that. Look, I'm not proud. You went to Shakespeare festivals? That's what fascinates me. It fascinates me a couple of things here. There's, I'm imagining it's not a huge bedroom because you're a young couple.

You haven't gotten married yet. You know, he's not, he's, she's living off of t-shirt dough from Shakespeare festivals. Hey, we're living in the house that those Shakespeare t-shirts built. He told me he was a teacher. He did not mention that he was running this company. Right. He tells a lot of people he's a teacher. So being a company is generous.

No, it had just died. It was, I wasn't doing anything. That's what you had an interview. You know what I live here? You're a home. Your wife, fiance, catches you, your secret activity on the internet late at night. And it's not robot porn. It's watching a t-shirt company with puns about Hamlet.

In many ways, it would have been better if I had a mistress. Yes, yeah, it would have been so much better. You'd have been so much happier if it was just, if it was just, you opened it up and it's just, you opened it up and it's just, hundreds of thousands of VHS cassettes. Yeah, or dildos. If it was just dildos. Dildos, you'd be like, oh, well, yeah, we can resell these.

Hose them down and resell them. Resell them. I think I just sat there quietly and just waited for him to get home and was like, how do I, what do I say? This secret life. And so what did you? You just said, explain this.

And you held up a t-shirt. I did. And then... You're bringing in one of these t-shirts. Yeah, you have to. Yeah, you are. Yeah, you are. I gave him all away.

Oh, here we go. Yeah. I've known Matt for maybe 14 years at this point. And I've never heard of this before. I've never heard the story. And it must have been happening while we've known each other. And the fact you had an entire business is just, it shouldn't be shocking because of what it is. But it's just shocking that it exists.

It's been quiet. I mean, it really is like if I was just, if I make landmines in my spare time and bury them around, you know, it's just as shocking. Well, honey, do you want to plug your website? Because it's still live. I don't know. The website is. But it's on red. bubble. It's on red bubble. And every time he makes a sale now, he forwards me the email. And people are buying like the sticker version of it. So it'll be like 88 cents for like this like Ophelia sticker. Can we can we plug it on? No. What is it? How do people find it? We need the money. Oh my God. Things are tough at the gourly house. Go listen to the complete woman. That's the pod. That's where you should go. This is. All right. Well, your your podcast, the complete woman sounds hilarious.

Thank you. I'm going to investigate this business of yours, Matt, and there's nothing you can do about it. I am curious. I know I've been given the rap like 15 times, but you're extremely entertaining. How did you guys meet? Like, what was that the cute meat? How did it go? Yeah, the cute meat.

It was a trash can was following you home. But we actually... Me cute. I'm sorry. Yeah, it's me cute. Me cute. Yeah. We did not meet at Disney, although we worked there together for years, never crossed paths that

we remember, but we met at Universal Studios, Hollywood, the entertainment capital of L.A. And in orientation, anyone who's been to Universal probably has seen on the New York Street, they have like these New York people who hang out of a window are like, hey, like pepperoni or whatever. Pepperoni! I love that. Yeah. So for one summer, they were trying, they had a little like British Street, and they were like, well, let's put some British people hanging out of the window.

And Matt and I were hired to do this job. And we met at orientation. And it was... Your line was English pepperoni. But we met at orientation and it was like love at first speak. Yeah. So right away. Right away.

And then by the end of the orientation day, we were going up, you know, like those big escalators they have to the parking structures? He and I were on the escalator together. And there was a couple in front of us. And they were both wearing... Benicio del Toro werewolf. What's it called? The Wolfman shirt.

Bowling shirts. Yes. That had big wrapper and graphics of Benicio del Toro as the Wolfman. Right. And you thought I could make a T-shirt better than that. And I did. And I turned to man and I said, that's going to be us in 20 years. Oh.

And then it is. In five years. That's what we'll be doing. Yeah. That's really sweet. Yeah. Also, you brought your little kids in today, which was really sweet. Yeah.

That's lovely. Yeah. A new little baby. That is the smilingest baby I've ever seen. Just amazing. And then until I showed up. Smiling at everybody. And then I was like, hi, kid.

Amanda, thank you so much for coming in. Really cool. And this is fascinating. And then there's going to be an episode where just you guys talk. Wow. Are you guys scared? Yeah, I think we might lose the podcast. We're thinking, yeah, I think this could be a problem.

But you know what? I'm happy. We ran our course. Yeah, we did it. We did it. We did it. We had a good run. Put us down.

Put us down. We had a good run. All right. Thank you very much, Amanda. Conan O'Brien needs a friend 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. Theme song by The White Stripes.

Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy. Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair. and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples. Engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns. Additional production support by Mars Melnik. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Britt Khan. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts,

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