If we had planned it better (and had the budget for it), this interview with Conan O’Brien would been better suited to happen in Vatican City rather than a Zoom room.

Our conversation coincided with the start of the papal conclave, the hush-hush assembly of cardinals who gathered to elect a successor to Pope Francis, and O’Brien can’t help but reference the event when explaining his slight delay: “Sorry, it took me a second to figure out there was a passcode to get into this secret room,” he says. “It felt like I was joining a conclave.”

“I think you and I should put our own vote in,” he continues. “Why can’t they listen to us? Are you paying attention? Are you rooting for somebody?”

“I’m not rooting for anyone except Stanley Tucci,” I tell him, referring to the actor’s turn as a shrewd and calculated cardinal in last year’s “Conclave.”

“I love that you want Tucci. I love that you blurred the line between reality and drama.” (As we know by now, Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected as the first U.S.-born pontiff, taking the name Pope Leo XIV. Sorry, Tucci.)

Absorbing the scene outside St. Peter’s Basilica alongside thousands of visitors from around the world is the sort of thing O’Brien and his crew might revel in on his Max travel show “Conan O’Brien Must Go.” The series, which will conclude its three-episode second season on Thursday, plays like a video postcard of silly and enlightening adventures as O’Brien travels around the world to meet with fans and experience different cultures. It carries on the tradition from his talk show era of international getaways and blends it with his podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.”