Cooper Wingert
Appearances
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
I'd love for you to blurb my next book, but for it to be something totally unrelated to the book.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
Sure. Like this book about the Civil War. This had the greatest tomato soup recipe ever. Done.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
What's your next book going to be about? My next book is about the destruction of slavery during the Civil War.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
It is. It's really amazing. And I get the chance to lead students on tours there every year. And you can tell not all of them are really into the military history, but I think the human interest stories are really how you get to the students. Like when I lead a tour of, shall I say, older people, they really want to know the nuts and bolts of where was the right flank of the third Alabama.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
But when you're engaging with high school and college students, it's the human interest stories that like really blow them away at a place like Gettysburg.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
Yeah, I read that when I was very young. It's a good one.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
Yeah, absolutely the same for me. I mean, I grew up a little bit north of Gettysburg. So I kind of grew up in an area where Civil War history was, you know, all around me. And then moving to D.C. for grad school, obviously, I'm next to the archives. I'm immersed in history all the time. So almost almost to the point where I take it for granted, but I try not to.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
I guess my two hobbies besides, I love reading and writing. I love teaching. That kind of is an extension of my work. So that's a big part of who I am. One of my favorite things professionally that I do is each summer I do a summer program for rising high school seniors. It's aimed at first-generation college students. Ah. So I actually get to live in the dorms with these students.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
I'm like their TA, their RA. I'm like basically their, you know, glorified babysitter. So I get to kind of help them transition to, you know, doing college level coursework. But at the same time, I have to like, you know, just be like the adult in the room and make sure they don't, they look both ways before they cross the street. So it's kind of one of the fun things I get to do.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
I get to be really silly. I get to do like PowerPoint night with them. I have a fan favorite, Nicholas Cage PowerPoint.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
I know. How old are these kids, by the way? They're 16, 17. So we got to keep them, you know, like, you know, fun and not crazy entertainment. Yeah, but when do you get to the fun part, Cooper?
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
Yeah. When... No, they get to design the PowerPoint. So they design a PowerPoint about some crazy topic they pick. And then we as the staff also design our own PowerPoints. So I designed one about how Nicolas Cage blew his fortune and they seem to like that one.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
A series of very strange purchases, like a dinosaur skeleton that ended up being repossessed by Interpol, I think.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
Maybe not. That's kind of the theme of the presentation.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
I live in DC. I'm in the final stage of my PhD program. So I am kind of like on the job market. So I'm like potentially moving anywhere in the country. So everything's kind of up in the air right now, but it's kind of a good position to be in because I don't really like, the choices are in some ways like out of my hands. So I'm kind of, you know, just kind of seeing where things go right now.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
Okay, but what about like dating? Are you on the apps? Like all the young people, are you on the apps? No, I am single. I try not to bring up the Civil War stuff on dates.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
I think let it out in moderation. I don't want to scare somebody on a first date, you know? It's kind of like, I almost imagine giving a date, like, you know, the cards they give you in, like, a soccer game, the refs, like, they hold up a card if you do something, like, commit a foul. Sure. Like, that's what I need for, like, when I start going off about the Civil War.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
I need somebody to just be like, you're cut off. Okay. You got, like, this is your warning, so...
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
I have. When I was like 12, I was conscripted into one for 10 minutes and I quit.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
I think one of the reenactors had to leave for something. He just got in his car and drove away. So they gave me a uniform and they said, like, carry this baked potato from here to the cannon and put it in the cannon or pretend to. What? And we're going to fake fire it.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
I have. I've been a history buff my whole life. When I was in third grade, my teacher wrote on my report card that I watched too much History Channel. Wow. Held back a year. Enough history! Yeah, which basically meant I couldn't shut up. And then it was a fifth-grade field trip to Gettysburg that really got me onto Civil War, and I haven't really stopped since.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
I mean, to be honest, I don't think that's ideal in a partner. I think if there's too much similar interest, I don't know that I want to hear about the Civil War from somebody else. I like to listen to myself talk about it all day, but I don't know if I want to hear somebody else's voice talking about it.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
I know. I actually stress so much about my Zoom background. Basically, I just moved apartments, so I was going to do like a bookshelf, so I looked very professorial, but just life got the better of me, so you're getting the hostage background.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
I do, so I'm curious. I know you have a big love of the Civil War. If you were a Civil War general, I wanna know what skillsets or liabilities you would bring to the battlefield.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Power Point Night
Well, I mean, considering that I quit reenacting after 10 minutes because the uniform was too hot, you know, probably not. But give me a baked potato. Sure. I mean, I could probably launch that thing.