Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend - Jules is Always Right

Episode Date: September 5, 2024

Conan talks to Jules and Maria in Miami about Jules' diagnosis with ALS, how AI has helped retain his voice, challenges and inspirations in day-to-day life, and telling their story with their podcast The Couple Shift. Follow more from Jules and Maria here: Website: https://www.teamhighoctane.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teamhighoctanejules/ 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 and code CONAN.

Conan O'Brien needs a fan. Want to talk to Conan? Visit teamcoco.com slash call Conan. Okay, let's get started. Hey everybody, welcome to Conan O'Brien needs a fan. Today's a bit of a different episode, I'll be talking to Jules and Maria. This will not be my first conversation with this couple.

We started talking, it might have been well over a year ago, more than that. We started talking because Maria reached out and she had been an NBC page. And through various contacts, she got to me and she said that my husband, Jules, is suffering from ALS, and would I be able to chat. So we started having some chats.

They're a wonderful couple, and he's doing an incredible job in this very difficult situation. And then they mentioned, hey, if you're ever in Miami, look us up. And I said, I'm going to be in Miami because we did some podcasts from Miami. Well, you did.

Yeah, we did. Oh, that's right. You left us in the dust. Well, I left you behind because apparently you guys can't handle the night scene there. You took us halfway and then just left us in Oklahoma. Yeah, I did. I left you.

I had the Learjet land in Oklahoma, the golden Learjet land in Oklahoma, the Golden Learjet land in Oklahoma. Anyway, met them in person in Miami. They came to both shows, met their son Skyler, and they're just lovely, cool people. And so have gone on to have another conversation or two with them over Zoom. And then the idea came, hey, why don't they, they seem to be fans or they're doing a really good job pretending. And they are in this very difficult position. Why not chat with them and get their story out?

So let's go now, they're in Miami, to Jules and Maria. Let's get them in here. Hi Maria, hi Jules. Hey guys, it's so great to finally meet you all together. Conan, hello again. Wow, this is so, let me explain. Hi guys. Hi Maria, how are you?

Let me explain what's happening. Well, why don't you explain, Maria, what is the system that Jules is using that allows him to use this AI voice. What's it called? So this is it's an eye gaze device so he's basically controlling the computer with his eyes. Hi Sona and Gorli by the way. Hi. So happy to meet you guys. One thing this AI can't figure out is to say your name right. I like that it's mispronounced.

I also it is or it is mimicking. Conan, Conan, Conan, Conan, there we go. There it is. Don't fix it. No, go back the other way. Conan. Yeah, I prefer the way we just- I'm voting to keep it the other way.

Can we just change it to Larry? Yeah. Regis Philbin used to call me Conan. I know, yeah. But then again, maybe our AI overlords know that you have been pronouncing it wrong all along. Oh! Yeah, every time he plugs it in, it always says Conan.

Conan, Conan. So I was like, maybe this is time for a name change, Conan. It's a new identity coming. Yeah. AI has it out for me, as it always has. So now he'll explain how this works. Okay. You wanna play that one?

Yeah. For normal conversations, I use my Tobii Eye Gaze tablet. It tracks my eyes with infrared cameras and I'm able to navigate the computer like you would with a mouse, just a bit slower. I'll pick each letter or word with my eyes and then it generates the phrase. I can also pick pre-recorded phrases.

That version of my voice was generated by banking my voice back in 2020. I recorded 300 short statements and then a company plugs them into an algorithm that generates a voice I can use anywhere. This is one of the first very sobering things that a person diagnosed with ALS does. It was very surreal.

Three years later, we uncorked my banked voice. It sounds like me, but robotic and with no cadence or emotion. What I am actually using right now is an AI cloned voice. To generate this one, I only needed to submit a couple of recordings that I had from our podcast, the couple shift. We've been recording that since before my diagnosis and continue to this day. It's crazy and painful to hear my voice evolve over time. For the AI cloned voice, I will write a sentence or paragraph like I did for this interview, press generate and you get a much more human

like voice with breaths, emotion, shifts and cadence and pauses. It's been pretty wild to test this new voice out for the past two months. It's not the greatest at spontaneity because all the computations are done through the cloud. So that adds a few seconds depending on your internet. But it is doable and I hope more people begin to use it. It's given me back my expression. I'm even working on a five minute comedy set that I'll be performing soon at a club. It's new challenges like these that keep me motivated, even though I've lost so, so much. I have to say, Jules, we had a conversation the other day,

and that's when we had the concept of, hey, let's do a Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan episode. But you were trying out some of your material, and it was really funny. You had a whole standup set about the local weathermen in Miami who were obsessed with being out in the hurricane to show you that the hurricane is happening. And it was a really funny idea.

It was all about, not to give it away, because I still want you to do this set, but it was all about how they seem to get a neurotic thrill out of standing out. And you were talking about how they're getting off on being buffeted around by that. And I was laughing really hard. And then you were asking me through your AI voice

about various punch-up ideas. And so we were talking back and forth and I thought, this is the essence of comedy writing. And I know that you've been saddled with this terrible situation, but the idea that you are working on a comedy set, exercising your talent in humor is just such a beautiful thing. It was a very inspiring moment for me.

You've given me many gifts. Talking to both of you has been a gift for me, and so that's why I'm so glad we can be here. I did want to ask a couple of questions, which is, what's something that would surprise someone to And so that's why I'm so glad we can be here. I did want to ask a couple of questions, which is what's something that would surprise someone to know about living with ALS? This is not just a disease that strikes older people.

I was 35 when I was diagnosed, and there are many people with ALS even younger than that. You would think this fact would be obvious with Lou Gehrig being diagnosed during his prime, but the optics are still off. Most people assume it's an old white man disease. It's not. The way some ALS clinics approach patients is as if we have lived our lives already and our kids are grown up and we're done. I have a seven-year-old and my family life was just getting started. My interests haven't changed. My desire to live and interact with the world is as lit up as ever.

Also 90% of ALS patients don't show any genetic inheritance, meaning it's sporadic. Something I didn't anticipate was the constant body pain I'm in. It's excruciating. I'll also say that even though this diagnosis is pretty much the shittiest thing ever, the past four years have been filled by experiences that wouldn't have happened otherwise. It is such a devastating disease and it's incredible to me that in our conversations,

you're very frank about the pain that you go through and how intense it is, but you're also always so positive and funny. And frankly, you give me a lot of shit. Which I find to be, well, I hate it by the way. First of all. Get over it Conan. Conan. Get over it Conan. Conan.

But your humanity and your creativity is bursting through. Your body is failing you, but you are there 120%. And it's absolutely beautiful. I, again, I say we've chatted before and I always get off of our chats and I come down to the room where my staff is and I say, I just got the greatest gift, you know, from these beautiful people.

And that's how it feels right now. I'd like to know a little bit about you guys as a couple. How did you and Maria first meet? How did you guys get together? I'll let my wife answer that. Smart. Smart. Wow. Artificial intelligence is very intelligent.

Very highly intelligent. You better ask my wife. I'll check with the boss. Yes, dear. And thank you, Conan, for this beautiful words, landing straight in the heart, we appreciate you deeply. So we met back in May of 2010, it was at a karaoke party for the 30th birthday

of a certain young, beautiful lady sitting next to him. So my coworkers threw me a karaoke bash. I'm still thinking, I'm still, don't get it. For my 30th birthday, and a coworker of mine used to go to high school with him, was still his friend, and basically brought him along, like, hey, we have this thing going on, come hang out. And another coworker who was there,

prior to me getting there, she calls me, and she goes, Maria, there's a guy here for you. And I'm like, okay, who do you know him? She's like, I have no idea, but he's cute. And I have a feeling. And I'm like, okay. So I get there. And sure enough, he's cute. And we introduced each other. He introduced himself to me. And then we didn't speak a word for the rest of the night, like three hours, but we danced and we danced. And it was like the chemistry between us was just undeniable.

At the end of the night, he asked for my number. And then like a year and a half later, we were engaged, then married. So we got married in 2012, December 2012. And then we had Skylar a few years later. And yeah, that's us. Wow. a few years later and yeah, that's us. Wow.

And I've met Skyler who is- Yes, and he gives you a lot of shit too. He, man. He's being trained very well. He is appropriately wary of me. He's got stranger danger every time I need him. One of my favorite recent anecdotes. What's that?

Yeah, so we watched as a family, we watched the four travel shows. So looking forward to the next batch, we saw them with Skyler. We were like, come on, let's go. Cause he'd already met you and you know, he loved them. And he had so many highlights and so many things like he was imitating you afterwards.

Just all these things. And then when we spoke with Conan a few days ago on Zoom, I called Skyler into the room. I was like, hey, come here so you can say hi to Conan. And I said to Skyler, hey, tell Conan what were some of the highlights of watching a show. And he goes, nothing. And he did it on purpose, a little shit.

He went, nothing. He knows. Mic drop, mic drop. Drop. I have a question because you're in this, you know, extremely difficult situation and you've been dealt this hand, but you're still a married couple. I know from experience that there are things, no matter what you're going through, couples have shit with each other. They have stuff that one does that drives the other crazy.

I'm just curious from each of you, what does the other person do that drives you crazy? Oh, that's easy. Just saying no initially when she comes up with an idea, it takes a moment for me to think about what she said and then I may reconsider. But that initial no boils her blood and she drives me nuts by not listening

to my advice on something. And then it turns out that I was right. That's why I have this recording of her. One sec. One sec, I have a gem here for you. Jules is always right. I should listen to him more often. Oh my God. So that is my AI cloned voice

that he cloned while I was out of town. That's great. So Jules can play, Jules is right. I should listen to him more in your voice anytime he wants. Basically, and he does. Question, if you guys ever get into an argument, Jules, are you always speaking in that wonderfully moderated tone that makes you seem so calm and in control?

And is that frustrating, Maria? Yeah. It's taken a while to adapt to it. He can still use his voice somewhat. And I mean, the whole journey of experiencing him losing his voice, like of all the things we've lost, that's the one that I always like, just, it grips my heart every time. So it's taken a while, obviously, to adapt to communicating. But it's such a wonder to be able to still communicate.

But yes, the other night, for example, I have a good example. He played, I was pissed off at him and he played a recording of something for me to help him out, like straighten his fingers or something. And I went, no, not with that tone. Absolutely not. Because I was pissed off. And it was such a chill, like, hey, can you straighten my fingers, please? And I was like, uh-uh, no, no, no, absolutely not.

And he's like, mm. So yes, it happens all the time. Wow. And yes, we fight, and yes, we're totally like, you know, all the things, all the couple things. Oh, he's writing something. Yeah, I'm prepared. Take your time, cause we can pull this all up.

I'll edit it out. Wait, you're editing this one? Oh, what? No? Oh, nevermind. No, that's not me. That's Matt. Matt's gonna edit it.

You forgot what it is you do. You get tape that matches your shirt. That's what you do. You get edited. All right, he's ready to play it. Here we go. This is my banked voice, so there is a lack of tone. But I have a few quotes from you that I use. So what you heard now is the banked voice so there is a lack of tone. But I have a few quotes from you that I use.

So what you heard now is the banked voice. So that was generated off of those 300 phrases that he recorded back in 2020, right after he was diagnosed. And you can hear the difference between the more robotic, you know, kind of him but not really, versus the AI cloned voice, which is what he's been using thus far. So he has a bunch of banked phrases He's gonna play a few of our of our favorites. Okay Fuck happened to me It can also be used for you know What the fuck happened to me? I'm a good guy. It can be used for hot ones

and it can also be used for shitty situations. Ah! You're an inspiration. Is that from Hot Ones? I'm fine. I'm perfectly fucking fine. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Come on, man, are we doing this or not? Oh my god. Oh my god. Yeah, so that scream, Conan scream, is an actual scream that he uses to emote when he wants to scream.

It's a fun gag and it's also useful. That's great. When he's frustrated about something, he will literally do the Conan scream. So yeah. I'm destroying this marriage. Yeah. It's terrible to think of yet another, there's another woman out there who has to be listening to this bullshit in matrimony.

Oh my God. Liza, you need to have a therapy session with Liza. Or no, you need to have like a sona voice ready to go. Yeah. You know? Do me a favor guys, take us through like a typical, you know, day in your life. What time do you wake up?

What's your daily routine? I'd love people to know what your experience is. My daily routine starts around 8.30 in the morning. My wife removes my nighttime mask, cleans my mouth and gives me some water. My wife removes my nighttime mask, cleans my mouth, and gives me some water. Then she puts my daytime mask on, and then I check emails or missed messages. She'll give me coffee in bed while watching some TV. Around 9.30, Monday through Friday, our aid comes, and we begin with some stretching before

he places me in the chair. He helps me to the bathroom, and then we shower in my shower chair. I'll come to the kitchen to have my morning meds and breakfast shake. After that I go outside to our backyard to get some sun. I usually then come in and get transferred to my recliner. I'll stay here for a few hours, have a shake and stretch. By the time he goes home I am back in my wheelchair till my wife puts me into bed. Then some TV and conversation with her until she brushes my teeth, puts the night mask back on and fall asleep. And that's a lot for both of you and Maria,

that's a lot for you too. And it is the aid, how did you find the aid? Cause that sounds like a crucial person in your life. It is. Is the aid, how did you find the aid? Cause that sounds like a crucial person in your life. Through, yeah, through a family friend that recommended him. And so we started working with him about a year ago. For the first three years, really, it was, I was like, you know, and I'm still the number one, but it was all me 24 seven with some help here and there.

Of course we have supportive family, but it really, when you get something like this, it's us. It's just him and I figuring everything out, truly. Getting the aid was amazing so that I, you know, there's support Monday through Friday for a good chunk of hours. And then in the evening, I take over again. And on the weekends, too, it's 100% me. So I'll, you know, take him to the bathroom, readjust him, put him in the recliner, do all the things. We have a wheelchair accessible van. So,

you know, we don't go out a whole lot. We're cautious about, you know, energy and all that stuff because it's a lot for him to just do life normally. But we love going to like Marlins games and if there's, you know a really good comedy show in town, we'll definitely go do that. But for the most part, we just flow here at home and make the most of every day. But yeah, it's hard. It's hard, hard, hard.

Yeah, I mean, you're describing it and I still cannot imagine. I don't think anyone can who hasn't been in that position. I'm curious, you mentioned comedy shows, things like that. What are your hobbies? I know you do stand up that you're working on, which I'm a big fan of. I think you've got better writing than I do.

But what do you do, what brings you joy these days? What do you do for fun? Well, I used to teach before my diagnosis. Now I enjoy doing our podcast together and working on jokes with my good friend. The other thing that I enjoy doing is embarrassing to me because I picture the golden girls doing it, bird watching. I love it and I can't help it. Oh, that's great. We've become those people.

You're those people that birdwatch. Yeah, we garden, we birdwatch. My dad was a birdwatcher and we used to say, who wants to come with me birdwatching? And I would go because no one else would say yes. And I would feel like, well, someone's gotta go. And boy did I hate it. Marshes stink.

They really do. All that methane. You mentioned the podcast. I wanna make sure I get the word out on this. The name of the podcast is The Couple Shift. Starting in 2019, you did it through the pandemic. It originally started, you really started the podcast because I believe it was,

I'm gonna make sure I get this straight, but I think it was, was it you Maria who had left corporate life? Yeah, I got laid off from a corporate job for many years, early 2018, and then I was like, I don't wanna do this thing anymore, let's shift out of that. He was a teacher at the time.

And then, so I started doing my own thing and eventually he was having a really hard, that particular year for him was really excruciating. And looking back on it, it was almost like intuitively we were led to readjust our lives in order to have a better situation for what we would end up experiencing in 2020. Because he chose to step out of the teaching career and basically support me and just work together on creating some new things. And we had lots of plans and goals of ways that, you know, whether we were gonna travel,

all these things with Skyler, basically like shifting out of the rat race into what do we really wanna make out of our lives and not follow in the traditional footsteps. And then March of 2020 is when we first heard the words like, this could be ALS. But thankfully, a year prior to that, we'd had a whole year of really spending time together.

It was like really beautifully orchestrated because we, yeah, we love each other's company, we drive each other crazy, but we love each other's company. And so we got that time together. And then in March of 2020, when the first neurologist told us, this could be ALS, we drove home in tears. And I remember when we got home, he said to me, I don't, no matter what happens, I want to keep like sharing.

I want to keep telling our story. I want to keep talking about this. And I was like, absolutely. So the podcast, which we'd been doing, yeah, since the year prior, we basically shifted it completely to talking about our life and as a couple, parenting, all the things. And since then we've kept shifting to the point

where now the very last episode we dropped, it's the first time we tested out with his AI cloned voice. So he edited together his responses and my responses. And so, you know, it's a place that gives us a lot of joy and has been such a great space for us to bond and even work through things. You know what it's like. It's like, you talk things through, just doors open up and we've seen it all and it's just become this incredible like chronicle of our lives over the past five years of Everything that we've gone through we've been very honest and vulnerable in it we laugh a lot because hello, I have this guy to keep me cracking up and Yeah, so that's the couple shift and we still record we're planning on recording at least once every week with his AI voice now

Which is the newest thing. Once he got that voice, he was like, we were reinvigorated to do it again. Or to keep doing it. I wanna point out that Jules, you edit the episodes and you do it using this technology. So you're editing with your eyes, is that correct? Yep.

I'm just gonna say Matt Gorley is always patting himself on the back for editing this podcast. No kidding. And, and, you know, fuck you, Matt. Fuck you, Matt. Fuck me, fuck me. I'm seeing here that it says it takes about a half hour to edit a 20 minute episode.

I'm not even beating that record. Yeah. That's crazy, that's amazing. I think what we've learned here, Matt, is that you're fired. Yeah, I was fired. Jules is hired. We're moving the podcast to Miami.

Do you guys need any help? I'm a free agent. And Maria, I prefer you to Sona. Oh, what? I just think she's amazing. You know? You know, I mean, and so, I don't know, I see a whole shift in this podcast now.

I don't think that's- And Eduardo, you see my dead weight too. Yeah, you know what, Conan, you too. Get out of here. The Conan. I was waiting for that too. Engineer for the Conan-do. Conan-do.

That's pretty much our time. Is there anything that you guys wanted to end on? Is there anything you'd like to say here at the end of the episode? Cause this has been, by the way, extraordinary. This has been fantastic and funny and emotional and absolutely lovely. And if there's anything else you'd like to say,

the floor is yours. If there was one thing I would like to say that hasn't been said is that ALS does do one thing positive for my life. It has allowed me to appreciate the simple things. It has taken so much away from me, my wife and my son, but it's also given me the ability to stop and appreciate this world. That doesn't mean I'm always present, it just means I am always striving to be. That's beautiful. I'll say it again, I think we've talked numerous times over

the last, I don't know if it's been a year, a year and a half, but I always walk away feeling like I've, someone, like I've been bathed in a golden light, you know, of just gratitude and appreciation, and you're both doing an incredible job. It's very empty for me to say, I'm so sorry that you're dealing with this this because I don't know what else to say. Words don't account for what you've both been handed,

but you've done something really extraordinary with it. You have my love, my respect, and we're thinking about you guys all the time. Thank you for gracing guys all the time. And thank you for gracing us on the podcast. It's just, it's beautiful. Thank you very much. Thank you guys so much, truly.

We appreciate you. And if I see any of that Conan merch behind you on eBay, I'm coming after you. I don't know, we might need a caregiver on the weekend, so we might have to pawn this off and get some extra cash. If I see that bobblehead behind you on eBay, I'm coming and I'm coming hard. All right, you guys, take care and I'll talk to you soon,

all right, and thank you for this episode. This is fantastic. Lots of love to all of you, Conan, and you guys brighten our days all the time, so we appreciate you deeply. You're part of our lives. You wanna say something else? Yes. Thank you for everything.

Thank you for everything. We love you. Thank you guys. Thank you. All right, we love you guys. Take care. Bye bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy. Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples. Engineering by Eduardo Perez, additional production support by Mars Melnick, talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Battista, and Brit Kahn. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Conan?

Call the Team Coco hotline at 669-587-2847 and leave a message. It, too, could be featured on a future episode. And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend wherever fine podcasts are downloaded. -♪ This has been a Team Coco production in association with Inner Wolf.