Adam Conover

I loved 'Beakman's World' growing up. As much as I loved 'Bill Nye,' I always preferred 'Beakman's World' because I thought it was funnier.

Growing up as a comedian the most influential person on me was Jon Stewart. He showed that comedy could have a real tangible effect on the world. He showed that comedy could move the needle of society and that a comic can do real things and make a real contribution.

Generational thinking has always been reductive and condescending.

I wanted to go to grad school for philosophy, but I couldn't hack it in college, at least I couldn't at that level.

In philosophy you're never 100% sure. You're always undermining what you think you know. That's always been my philosophy and my intellectual ethos.

That's something I learned as a philosophy major: The philosophy ethos is, always question, never rest.

I wanted to go to grad school in philosophy... Nobody was like, 'You should!' You know, they were all like, 'you could?'

I see myself as an avatar of curiosity and doubt.

I had the benefit of going to a really good high school on Long Island. I went to Shoreham-Wading River High School, which kind of started as an experimental public school back in the 60s and 70s. It had a bunch of teachers there with a unique teaching philosophy.

Human capacity for not thinking about what we're doing is infinite.

I want to do stories that are about the bits of cultural furniture that are sitting there that we're like, 'Oh yeah, that's been there for years! What could possibly be weird about it?' And then we're going to lift that piece of furniture and look at all the bugs scurry away.

Social media is just more media.