Don Lemon | Club Random with Bill Maher

On this episode, Bill is joined by veteran broadcaster and cultural commentator Don Lemon. The two discuss Don’s transition away from CNN and his new foray into streaming, the shifting landscape of media bias and viewer trust, the lure of unfiltered conversation versus traditional “managed” television formats, and the political tightrope walk of modern journalism. They candidly dive into everything from Don’s experiences as a gay Black man in the public eye and meeting his husband, diversity and inclusion in hiring, the mystique of AOC, “defund the police,” and how Democrats might counter the MAGA movement without veering into extremes. They also weigh in on the comforts (and occasional perils) of personal freedom. All this, plus reflections on life in New York vs. Los Angeles, the ups and downs of public perception, and much more. Go to https://www. RadioactiveMedia.com or text RANDOM at 511511 to save up to 50%, today! Get 15% off OneSkin with the code RANDOM at https://www.oneskin.co/ #oneskinpod #ad Follow Club Random on IG: @ClubRandomPodcast Follow Bill on IG: @BillMaher Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: https://bit.ly/ClubRandom Watch Club Random on YouTube: https://bit.ly/ClubRandomYouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:01Bill Maher?

  That guy cannot be intimidated.

• 1:03Speaker 02

  But is that something that's admirable?

• 1:05Bill Maher?

  No.

• 1:06Speaker 02

  Should we celebrate that?

• 1:07Bill Maher?

  I'm not celebrating it.

• 1:11Bill Maher?

  Don, it's time for our cooking segment. I don't know if you noticed, but I make a...

• 1:16Speaker 02

  Moving on.

• 1:16Bill Maher?

  I make a mean omelet.

• 1:21Bill Maher?

  Don here?

• 1:22Speaker 02

  I'm here.

• 1:23Bill Maher?

  Roll call?

• 1:24Speaker 02

  Keep 'em waiting.

• 1:25Bill Maher?

  Lemon?

• 1:26Speaker 02

  Keep 'em waiting. Try to intimidate 'em, come in.

• 1:29Bill Maher?

  What time is it?

• 1:30Speaker 02

  It's 5:30.

• 1:32Bill Maher?

  Show is scheduled for exactly 5:30.

• 1:36Speaker 02

  It's good to see you. How you doing?

• 1:37Bill Maher?

  I am never late and never have been.

• 1:39Speaker 02

  Are you never late? You hate being late?

• 1:41Bill Maher?

  And I find it rude when people are. And I really don't like it when people go... They're late all the time. They go, you know... I'm not a rude person. Well, my thing is, you are what you do. If you're late all the time, you are a rude person.

• 1:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:57Bill Maher?

  But, uh, no, 5:30, you were here early. I appreciate that. It's a work day for me.

• 2:06Speaker 02

  I know when you're doing.

• 2:07Bill Maher?

  This is my, uh, this is my pleasure time.

• 2:11Speaker 02

  So it's busy. It's gotta be crazy for you.

• 2:13Bill Maher?

  Yeah, you know, it's like, hey, I've been doing it forever. It's a, I'm a person of, uh, habit. I like a ritual. I like that. Monday I do this, Tuesday I do this, Wednesday we do this part of the show, Thursday, Friday, we, it's game day, you know? I like that. So it doesn't bother me, but, you know. Whenever there's a change in administration, people always say, you know, like, ah, what are you gonna do? Bush is gone. Is there, we're. Yeah, I think there'll be comedy, even when the Democrats in office, there's always a lot of comedy. There's always. I've never, I never get the newspaper and there's nothing in it. Like it's blank that day.

• 2:48Speaker 02

  There are slow news days, but there's always something.

• 2:51Bill Maher?

  Not these days.

• 2:52Speaker 02

  But then that, it's, that's a good challenge though. Whenever there's a slow news day, I find that sometimes I do my best and.

• 2:58Bill Maher?

  But have you seen one since January 20th? I have not.

• 3:02Speaker 02

  No, I have not.

• 3:03Bill Maher?

  There's, there's always too much. I can't get it all in. And that were just the things that would be, uh, headline, headline kind of. Making news or just, that's like the fifth or sixth story. You know, with, with, um, the vibe change.

• 3:21Speaker 02

  It's, it's, it's a lot. I thought it was a lot in 2016 and then in 2020 during the election, but. This is a lot. I mean, the first 40 days is like the first 40 years.

• 3:34Bill Maher?

  And the odd thing is, it's actually, you know, in many ways. Worse. I mean, there are things that I like even less than the first time. And there are some things that I'm not gonna judge yet. Uh, I might even be positive, but mostly I'm, I'm thrilled with a lot of things like switching sides in the Cold War, you know, little things like that.

• 3:56Bill Maher?

  And yet, my mood is so much better.

• 4:00Bill Maher?

  Because I've been through it once.

• 4:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 4:02Bill Maher?

  And I think, you know, I said that in the lead up to, you know, Free One, I was like, you know, he got the White House, he's not gonna get my mind this time. And I think everybody kind of, at least everybody I talked to, kind of feels the same way.

• 4:17Speaker 02

  I always say you can be informed without being inundated, and it's good for me that, you know, I'm not on cable news anymore because I would just, I'd have to absorb all of it 24/7 because, you know, what do you, they're always in touch, as you know, you have a show. What do you want to do with this? This guest is on, this canceled, blah, blah, blah. So you're sort of in it. Um, but now I find that I can go in and out of it whenever I want. And I figure I read the headlines, I read the papers.

• 4:45Bill Maher?

  You do your YouTube show.

• 4:47Speaker 02

  And I do my show.

• 4:48Bill Maher?

  So doesn't that the same kind of prep?

• 4:51Speaker 02

  Yes and no. So with the YouTube show, with my show, The Don Lemon Show on YouTube, I don't have to, um, I don't have to pretend. And I don't have to, um...

• 5:02Bill Maher?

  Dom, we know you're gay. What? You don't have to pretend, not here. We love it.

• 5:08Speaker 02

  Oh, you know? Are you, Billy, you're outing me. Um, I don't have to pretend that, I don't have to give false equivalence. I don't have to invite someone on to lie. I don't have to have an election denier on. I don't have to. If I want to, I do. And it's all my decision. Um, so I've chosen not to, in many ways, insult the viewer's intelligence by just having someone purposely who's gonna lie, or just to fight.

• 5:34Bill Maher?

  I, I get that. It's also a very dangerous thing, I feel, to think you always know what, what's a lie and what isn't, and, and to kind of like summarily think that only one side is lying. One side is lying more than the other. That's true. Um, but... It is a slippery slope.

• 5:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:54Bill Maher?

  It to set.

• 5:54Speaker 02

  I don't believe that just one side lies, but I mean, I think you should have people on who can tell the story on the other side, but I don't have to have, I don't have to book people just to fight. I hate that.

• 6:06Bill Maher?

  I do too.

• 6:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:07Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I stopped doing that. I mean, that was, that was the old Joe Politically Incorrect.

• 6:11Speaker 02

  I love that show though.

• 6:12Bill Maher?

  Was much more of a, well, people like fighting.

• 6:16Speaker 02

  Well, it wasn't just because I actually got, I thought, excuse me, I got more out of that show than most news shows on television back then.

• 6:24Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 6:24Speaker 02

  But there were fights, but I thought they were organic. Cable news is not booking organic fights anymore, organic guests. They're booking people to come on and yell at each other because they're desperate for ratings. So.

• 6:36Bill Maher?

  You think your old network does that?

• 6:38Speaker 02

  I think they all, I don't want to specifically, I think they all do. I think, not, not they all do. I think.

• 6:42Bill Maher?

  MSNBC doesn't because you don't see people on there who disagree.

• 6:46Speaker 02

  I see many of them do, some of them do. Fox does it, I believe. They invite a Democrat on or someone left leaning just to yell at them. And.

• 6:54Bill Maher?

  Right. Yeah, yeah.

• 6:56Speaker 02

  I do see some cable shows doing that, which is for me, at the end of the fight or the argument, I wonder like, what did I get out of this? I usually don't get anything out of it. And, and I think people need to be informed more than ever now.

• 7:09Bill Maher?

  I know you think like broadcast TV is dead. I think I heard you say that.

• 7:13Speaker 02

  No, I don't think broadcast TV is dead. I think it's on the decline. I don't think it has as much influence as it.

• 7:18Bill Maher?

  Did you say that when you used to be on it?

• 7:20Speaker 02

  Yeah. I'm, yeah, no, I was, I was on broadcast TV for a while, but do you mean cable? You mean just in general?

• 7:26Bill Maher?

  Well, I mean, broadcast cable, I mean, most people have basic, I mean, most people have CNN in their house. I mean, uh,

• 7:38Bill Maher?

  a pretty, uh, pretty primitive TV setup you have if you don't have CNN. But like, let's say legacy media.

• 7:47Speaker 02

  Uh huh.

• 7:47Bill Maher?

  I mean. Legacy media, the polling from people has it in the toilet. You know, it's down there with Congress that they don't trust it.

• 7:59Speaker 02

  I've been really surprised by, um, yes, you're right about that. They don't trust it because they don't trust the corporate influence, you know? And then look, in order to stay afloat, they need corporations to own them, right? But they just don't like, I think they, I think people believe, and rightfully so, that the corporation is influencing.

• 8:16Bill Maher?

  That's part of it, but that's, that's, well, it is.

• 8:19Speaker 02

  But also they're not holding people to account and also that they are, um, they're just not doing a very good job at, at some things.

• 8:26Bill Maher?

  You know why I don't trust it?

• 8:27Speaker 02

  Why?

• 8:28Bill Maher?

  Because I never feel like I'm hearing the full story. I'm hearing narrative. I'm hearing what, um, what the, whatever outlet I'm listening to, they are asking themselves first, not what's true. They're asking themselves, what does this audience want to hear? How does this audience want me to interpret this story? And I'm going to give them that. So to get like a full story, I can never get it just from one source. And what I always try to do on Real Time is be that source. Be that, that place where if you watch the full show, you get the full story.

• 9:09Bill Maher?

  Now, of course, what people do in this media atmosphere that we're in is many people don't watch the full show, they see clips. So you can, you can, you could carve up any one of my hour-long shows and just feed, and a lot of people only see it this way, just feed them the part that they either will make them love me or hate me.

• 9:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, they can feed to both sides. Something that they think is right, they just feed it and then something they think is left. Yeah, but that, that's always been the case, don't you think?

• 9:40Bill Maher?

  Not this bad. No, no, no, I don't.

• 9:42Speaker 02

  You think it's worse now?

• 9:44Bill Maher?

  Oh, way worse. I think the New York Times, just to take the most prime example, because it is the paper of record, blah, blah, blah. Not to me anymore. I mean, it used to be, I feel, the editorial page was opinion, yes.

• 9:59Bill Maher?

  But not the front page, and now every page. That's just a change they made. Now, part of that is because of Trump. It's very hard to be honest and true and not say he lied, basically. Newspapers never used to say the president lied, even though presidents have always lied. But they just basically, they just went out and said, because you can't not, because there, he took it to such a different degree of lying that you just have to say, so that is true. He did lie. But, or does lie about many things. We saw, I mean, there was lots of crazy stats in the, in the speech he made last night.

• 10:36Speaker 02

  The fake State of the Union? It was the joint address to Congress. Yeah, you know.

• 10:43Bill Maher?

  Luckily, I had a joint when I was watching it.

• 10:46Speaker 02

  Did you, is it better to watch high?

• 10:49Bill Maher?

  Everything's better high, Don, don't you get high?

• 10:51Speaker 02

  But like, can we get back to the New York Times? I don't disagree with you on some things about the New York Times, but I do believe it's still the paper of record. I used to compare, I used to read the New York Times and then the Washington Post. And the Washington Post, I found, was much more straightforward than the New York Times. I thought that the writing in the New York Times was much more interesting and flowery, and perhaps that may have sort of influenced people. But then I read it and I said, you know what? After a while, I said, this is a left, a more left-leaning message than the Washington Post. But the Washington Post now, I don't know what the fuck is going on with them and Jeff Bezos.

• 11:28Bill Maher?

  Well, they just had a big, yeah, shift. I mean, they, they went super woke too, like the New York Times. It's a generational thing, you know, a certain cadre of.

• 11:36Speaker 02

  You think the Washington Post went super woke?

• 11:39Bill Maher?

  I gotta give you my book that came out last year.

• 11:44Speaker 02

  I have it, I was on your show, remember? You gave me a copy of it.

• 11:46Bill Maher?

  Okay, well, there's a, there's a really funny one in there about the story in the Washington Post. There was a, Dave Weigel, I think is his name, he's one of the star reporters. I think he's somewhere else now. Very respected guy. And he tweeted something that was so benign, I think it was, all women are polar, you just have to find out whether it's bi or sexual.

• 12:11Bill Maher?

  Oh, no. Um, what, no.

• 12:13Speaker 02

  All, all women are bi. You just have to figure out if it's polar or sexual. Is that what, is that what happened? Yeah, that makes more sense. You're high.

• 12:21Bill Maher?

  I'm fucking, I'm high, fuck it. Anyway, it was benign. I thought. It was just somebody, it was just, it's just a joke, for Christ's sakes. Get over it. The insanity that went through the newsroom, and we did the thing on it, it's in the book, it's real, it's just hysterical. I mean, I hardly had to embellish it, but of course, who could resist, uh, at least making jokes about it. But, like, there was a reporter who was just, let's shall we say, a lot. And she went apeshit about this, and of course, nothing can be done behind closed doors. Everything had to be done on Twitter, and so, you know, he was let go, and then somebody else joined the Twitter fight on his behalf, and that he was the person who had to be like a

• 13:02Bill Maher?

  it was like, the fact that this fucking kindergarten went apeshit over this silly little joke on Twitter. So, please, the question, do you think they've changed? Yes, they have.

• 13:15Speaker 02

  Well, two things. I wouldn't know about what you're talking about, joking is kind of my story, and, but the

• 13:19Bill Maher?

  Read the, read the piece.

• 13:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, but I, I get it. But I mean, I, I'm talking about the content in the post. I understand. I agree with you on the fallout. I think it's ridiculous. But on the contents, at least the people who are writing for the New York, um, the, um, Washington Post, um, I think that they are really good journalists, and they tend not to be as biased.

• 13:41Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 13:41Speaker 02

  Or as left, but that

• 13:42Bill Maher?

  Yeah, and there were some for the New York Times, too.

• 13:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, but what you're talking about is ridiculous, and I think, look, that's the reason I think that Democrats are in the place that they're in now. Is because of shit like that.

• 13:51Bill Maher?

  Of course.

• 13:51Speaker 02

  And because they get rid of their strongest allies for some stupid thing that no one is perfect. Look at Al Franken. It was the dumbest thing that I've ever seen. I had a really tough time, I'm in New York, I had a really tough time, like, you know, filling in the dot for Kristen Gillibrand, because she did that, and she was such, you know, virtue signaling.

• 14:10Bill Maher?

  Don, I'm sure if you had a nickel for every time someone's hand drifted down Your waist, when you were taking a picture with them, you'd be a very rich man. I'm just guessing.

• 14:21Speaker 02

  I would. I've been harassed by women and men in the work and and some things are not even. It's ridiculous. Now, look.

• 14:29Bill Maher?

  Tell us. I'm very interested.

• 14:30Speaker 02

  There are some things that are.

• 14:31Bill Maher?

  No, no, no. I'm interested in this.

• 14:33Speaker 02

  There are some things that are really egregious, right? And that not but not everything is Harvey Weinstein level.

• 14:39Bill Maher?

  No, that's great.

• 14:40Speaker 02

  And then some of the right, that's a whole different story. I'm not talking about that and I'm not saying it makes it right. But I remember when I was in Atlanta and was in the cafeteria commissary, whatever.

• 14:51Bill Maher?

  At CNN?

• 14:51Speaker 02

  At CNN. And this woman, young lady, tweaked my nipples and said, oh, it's cold in here. And I said, OK, you realize if I did that, they'd be walking me out the door right now. But I didn't. I didn't care to go to HR. I didn't say anything because I was just like, it's a double standard.

• 15:10Bill Maher?

  Good for you.

• 15:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, and also, but I've never told this story as well. Someone who I worked with also harassed me at CNN and I didn't. I never went to management. First of all, I was so new there.

• 15:24Bill Maher?

  A man or a woman?

• 15:24Speaker 02

  A woman, and she knew I was gay. And it was just bizarre. She was going through a divorce. It was just weird. And I never went to management. First of all, I thought like, OK, they may find a way to get rid of me. Because if I tell this story, I don't know if they're going to believe me or not. But then she was so mean to me after that. I was like, I should have told the story. But yeah, I've been harassed by men and women.

• 15:46Bill Maher?

  But when like, what constituted this harassment? Like, like, what did you physically, like in the office, like come in and twirl for me, Don?

• 15:55Speaker 02

  It wasn't a twirl for me, but it was not. It was not in the office, but yeah. It's all I'll go that far.

• 16:02Bill Maher?

  Well, so you had to be with her in certain business occasions, but outside the office?

• 16:06Speaker 02

  Outside the office.

• 16:06Bill Maher?

  Like at a cocktail party? Places like that. No, I know, because like in our business in media, there's a lot of cocktail parties. There's a lot of assholes.

• 16:16Speaker 02

  A lot of cocktail parties, and remember, this was a while ago, and there was not Uber, anything like that, and if you are in Atlanta, their taxis aren't available, and so, you know, you say, hey, you know, I'm gonna, um, uh, we've had a couple of drinks, and do you mind if I like, you know, whatever? No, no, no, don't go home, stay in the guest room, that sort of thing. So, yeah.

• 16:37Bill Maher?

  The guest room?

• 16:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:39Bill Maher?

  Oh, you were at somebody, staying at somebody's house? Right. Well, I mean, look, um, let me go back to the cocktail party, because, because something very important about those kind of cocktail parties.

• 16:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:51Bill Maher?

  They serve these garlicky hors d'oeuvres.

• 16:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:54Bill Maher?

  And people have the worst sort of breath.

• 16:56Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 16:57Bill Maher?

  Usually unattractive, pudgy, doughy male reporters, and they pin you to the wall, and they're talking to you, and their breath stinks. If someone was sexually harassing me with that breath, I would definitely go to HR. But if they did not have the garlicky breath, I would let the nipple tweaking go. That, that's just where I draw the line. We, it just shows that we're all individuals.

• 17:21Speaker 02

  We're all individuals, and I'm an adult, and, and look, maybe it's, I think it is different for men and women, um, you know, depending on the power structure and that sort of thing.

• 17:30Bill Maher?

  I wish I had been harassed this much, quite honestly. I think it's a, it's flattering, as long, as long as you can offend them off easily.

• 17:38Speaker 02

  Yes. Um, I know, as a man, I could say, no, I'm not interested, or just.

• 17:43Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 17:43Speaker 02

  But also as someone, as a, look, I, as a, someone who was, um, molested as a child.

• 17:51Bill Maher?

  You were?

• 17:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:52Bill Maher?

  Oh.

• 17:52Speaker 02

  So, for me, it is a whole different thing.

• 17:54Bill Maher?

  Oh, of course.

• 17:55Speaker 02

  I know how to say.

• 17:57Bill Maher?

  Must be very triggering.

• 17:58Speaker 02

  Well.

• 18:01Speaker 02

  Yes and no. Because you know, because you know how to deal with it and you know what's really important or not. And you know, like, who has the power. I figure as a man, I have the power to say, I don't want to do this.

• 18:12Bill Maher?

  And you're bigger and stronger.

• 18:14Speaker 02

  Yes, I don't need to go to HR and earn your career. I just tell you, I'm not interested in this. You were drunk, we had a couple of drinks or whatever. Let's let it go. But some people, they've made a business out of it, quite frankly.

• 18:25Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 18:26Speaker 02

  Whether it's, you know, whoever it is, but some people have. But in many ways, and many times, most times, it's legitimate, but there are times that it's not. I think it's a little bit.

• 18:36Bill Maher?

  No, but I mean, look, I can't relate to that. I'm almost the opposite. I remember the first time I was lucky enough to say to my friend, what does it mean when a girl grabs your dick? You know, that to me was like, oh, I've really arrived.

• 18:49Speaker 02

  That happened to me recently.

• 18:51Bill Maher?

  Because that's a very, I feel like it's a very strong signal.

• 18:54Speaker 02

  Someone did that to me recently.

• 18:56Bill Maher?

  A man or a woman?

• 18:57Speaker 02

  A man.

• 18:58Bill Maher?

  Whose name is?

• 18:59Speaker 02

  I can't, well, I'll tell you.

• 19:00Bill Maher?

  I thought I would.

• 19:01Speaker 02

  But I was.

• 19:02Bill Maher?

  We rolled right into that.

• 19:03Speaker 02

  Honey, that flu keeping you up?

• 19:05Speaker 03

  Yeah, I don't got this.

• 19:07Speaker 02

  You need NyQuil Intense Flu.

• 19:09Speaker 04

  Undo your flu symptoms with NyQuil Intense Flu. The nighttime sniffling, aching, aching fever, best sleep with a flu medicine. You do got this. Use as directed, keep out of reach of children.

• 19:17Speaker 00

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• 19:47Speaker 02

  We were at a restaurant and they were drinking. They're like, oh my God, look at you, you've lost weight, you look so hot. And then they, and I was like, whoa. And there were people around me, they're like, what the fuck just happened?

• 19:56Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 19:57Speaker 02

  The guy was drunk. And I just said, okay, he's drunk or whatever. Perhaps I should have said something, but I don't. I mean, it happens a lot to men, more often to men, I think, than people realize.

• 20:07Bill Maher?

  From your lips to God's ears. But, you know, again, I pray for this to recur in my life.

• 20:14Speaker 02

  Look, I'm gonna say this because in this world of cancellation, I don't know, I'm not a woman, so I don't know how it feels to be a woman and that happen, happens to a woman.

• 20:20Bill Maher?

  I'm not a woman and I do know how it feels, awful, of course, how could it not?

• 20:24Speaker 02

  I know that, but I'm not, I'm not gonna speak for women in this situation, I can only imagine how terrible it is.

• 20:29Bill Maher?

  I will speak totally for women, and it's just terrible, it's not hard to imagine, because they are, I know, because we have to pretend differently with gender stuff these days, that we're all kind of the same, we're not, they're smaller generally, weaker generally.

• 20:45Speaker 02

  I agree with you.

• 20:46Bill Maher?

  This is not a criticism, it's just science, it's just biology, and so you just feel, the same way I would feel if a six, if Reacher was trying to, to reach around to me, I would be like, oh, I'm powerless against this stuff.

• 21:00Speaker 02

  That might be a different story for me, but, no, I think we're saying, no, we're saying the same thing, I'm just saying I don't wanna speak for women, I can't imagine how awful it is for a woman, I'm not, so I'm not condoning it.

• 21:10Bill Maher?

  It's terrible for a man too, I mean, look, look, they say that because of prison, um, oh, I know, I know, I don't wanna mess up the statistics, but if you asked the person in the street, you know, who do you think gets raped the most, men or women, they would, and maybe it is women, and maybe it's by 10 to 1, I don't know.

• 21:29Speaker 02

  No, women get raped the most, yes.

• 21:30Bill Maher?

  Okay, but like because of prison.

• 21:32Speaker 02

  I believe in facts, yeah.

• 21:33Bill Maher?

  I think, yes, I do too, that's why I said I don't have them, uh, but because of prison, like it's not as one-sided as you think.

• 21:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:45Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 21:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:46Bill Maher?

  So it's not like men don't get raped, it's just, that's where it happens, and why we allow that, I, I mean, why, you'd think we could control prison, you know, why, why is something like that such a, uh, they just accept it, you know, like, well, if you go in there, you're gonna, you know.

• 22:04Speaker 02

  I think it probably happens, I think that's sort of a...

• 22:11Speaker 02

  I think that's sort of a myth that people have. I'm not saying it doesn't happen in prison, but as often as it, you know, people would like to believe that it happened in prison. But also, on the other end, it's men. Men are do- dogs. They're horny.

• 22:23Bill Maher?

  Right. Yes, some prison sex is certainly consensual.

• 22:26Speaker 02

  Yeah. But I'm sure all of that happens, but I mean, it's a weird conversation we're having. I never thought I'd be talking to Bill Maher about prison sex.

• 22:37Bill Maher?

  Dom, this is, I play the long game. This is just my way of tweaking your nipples, but I just not, I'm just, I just do it verbally. No.

• 22:45Speaker 02

  We've seen Oz. You've seen Oz, right?

• 22:47Bill Maher?

  Yes. Oh, Oz scared the shit out of me.

• 22:50Speaker 02

  Why? You were afraid someone was gonna prison rape you? You're not in prison.

• 22:53Bill Maher?

  It was just as, no, I'm not. But it was just a scary show. It was. I mean, it was, if people don't remember, this is HBO like 20 years ago, before streaming and all that.

• 23:05Speaker 02

  His name is on, um.

• 23:06Bill Maher?

  J.K. Simmons?

• 23:07Speaker 02

  No, J.K. Simmons.

• 23:08Bill Maher?

  Was the Nazi in prison?

• 23:10Speaker 02

  And the guy who's, why can't I think of his name on Law and Order?

• 23:13Bill Maher?

  Yes, absolutely. Yes, absolutely. Him.

• 23:17Speaker 02

  And, uh.

• 23:18Bill Maher?

  That guy.

• 23:18Speaker 02

  That guy, he was the, he was the.

• 23:20Bill Maher?

  And he also does the commercial where his face is always the bottom of a car getting beat up.

• 23:25Speaker 02

  No, that's the other guy.

• 23:26Bill Maher?

  Oh, that's the other guy.

• 23:27Speaker 02

  That's the other guy who does the mayhem guy on the commercial.

• 23:30Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 23:31Speaker 02

  I'm talking about Chris, whatever his name is from.

• 23:33Bill Maher?

  Oh, yes, Chris.

• 23:34Speaker 02

  From, uh.

• 23:35Bill Maher?

  Right, I know. Maloney.

• 23:36Speaker 02

  Chris Maloney.

• 23:37Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 23:38Speaker 02

  Chris Maloney was the main character.

• 23:39Bill Maher?

  Right, Dean, the other guy.

• 23:41Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:41Bill Maher?

  Uh, yeah, there, there was a show that, like so many HBO shows spawned, you know, a lot of big talent.

• 23:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was a good show. But Chris Maloney was already on Law and Order SVU and was very famous. I think this was sort of a side gig for him.

• 23:55Bill Maher?

  But I'll tell you why it was scary, Dom.

• 23:57Speaker 02

  Why?

• 23:57Bill Maher?

  Because, of course, they have to have a character through whom we can see ourselves as the regular person. So, do you remember? Who were we all? We were Beecher. He was this guy who went to prison because he had a few too many drinks one night and hit a little girl with his car. Okay, so you can go to prison for that. That's manslaughter, okay? But he's just like a regular, normal guy, never thought of himself. So that's who we all, that's us. And so in the first episode, the Nazi J K Simmons, who I still can't get past that when I see him. He pretends to befriend Beecher.

• 24:42Bill Maher?

  And he says, you know, it's okay, come in my cell, I'll protect you. And then, of course, cut to he's tattooing a swastika into his ass, into Beecher's ass.

• 24:56Bill Maher?

  So not good.

• 24:57Speaker 02

  You paid more attention to that than I did, but go on.

• 25:01Bill Maher?

  I did what?

• 25:01Speaker 02

  You paid more attention to that than I, I watched, I don't remember all those things. I just remember that there was a lot of shower scenes.

• 25:08Bill Maher?

  You've seen more men's asses than I have.

• 25:09Speaker 02

  But I'm not sure about that, Bill, right now.

• 25:12Bill Maher?

  When I see, I've seen none, except mine. When I see a guy who's like, he burnt something with a match and he, and so it was, he could, yes, he tattooed a swastika into his ass cheek. So yes, that did stay with me.

• 25:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, but it stayed with you, but you weren't worried someone was gonna do that to you, right?

• 25:31Bill Maher?

  No, it's not rational, but you know.

• 25:33Speaker 02

  I get it.

• 25:34Bill Maher?

  We all worry about that. Look, do I think the comet that's gonna hit us in 2032? They say there's a one or two percent chance. I'm not worried about it, but it could happen. I mean, the comet could happen and somebody could frame me and I'm there with a swastika on my ass. It's not even the ass part.

• 25:50Speaker 02

  Maybe I should light up a joint. Come here, Bill.

• 25:51Bill Maher?

  Really?

• 25:53Speaker 02

  I'm joking. I'm talking about Jer- burning a swastika.

• 26:00Speaker 02

  He's a little slow.

• 26:03Bill Maher?

  Yeah, that's right.

• 26:04Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 26:04Bill Maher?

  But anyway. Um, oh, there was something so important that I wanted to.

• 26:10Speaker 02

  You want to talk about, you were talking about the possibility of that happening in men and women.

• 26:14Bill Maher?

  Yeah, but we, that was way off the, uh.

• 26:16Speaker 02

  That was off the beaten path. This is crazy. I'd never thought I'd be having this conversation.

• 26:20Bill Maher?

  Well, you know, that's the joy.

• 26:22Speaker 02

  At all, but along with you.

• 26:23Bill Maher?

  That's the joy of this podcast. It is all pop conversations you never thought you'd be having. Because in real life, do you plan your conversations? No. So like, there's a, what? Uh-oh, are we high fiving?

• 26:37Speaker 02

  No, I agree with that because that's, that, you're, you're saying my philosophy that happens. And people, you know, often when you're just having a real conversation, you say things that are brilliant sometimes. And then you say things that are stupid. And that's the whole point of a conversation. But somehow we have.

• 26:54Bill Maher?

  Me or in people in general?

• 26:55Speaker 02

  Just people in general.

• 26:56Bill Maher?

  Right, right, right.

• 26:57Speaker 02

  But somehow we have forgotten that, that, I feel that that's what television should be like. That you should.

• 27:03Bill Maher?

  Television can never be that way. I wouldn't even try to do it on my show. I couldn't, it's boring for the audience to go through all that. It's just, it just isn't. Believe me, if anyone knows, I think it's me. I try to make real time, uh, as real as you can in that setting. It's just not this. First of all, I'm not high. Believe me, I've talked to the boss about it.

• 27:24Speaker 02

  You've been high on real time ever?

• 27:25Bill Maher?

  No, that would be a disaster. I mean, I have, you know, Senator Tester on Friday night. I'm not gonna get high with him.

• 27:33Speaker 02

  Couple cocktails?

• 27:35Bill Maher?

  Uh, no, no, I mean, John, I'm almost 70. You can't like drink. I mean, I'm drinking tonight. Okay, so already I'm full of shit. No, you just can't drink a lot. I save it like for this. I really enjoy, um, I do enjoy drinking, but you know, you just can't.

• 27:49Speaker 02

  Every once in a while I would go out, when I was in CNN, I'd go out to dinner and have like a glass of wine. Or, or maybe like one cocktail and then two hours later I would do a show. I didn't feel like I was drunk, but the conversations were really good.

• 28:01Bill Maher?

  Yes, oh, absolutely. I mean, uh, look, the history of drugs of all kinds, improving art.

• 28:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:09Bill Maher?

  That's why they do it.

• 28:10Speaker 02

  That's what LSD was for, it was a mind expanding drug.

• 28:12Bill Maher?

  I mean, if, if I had.

• 28:16Bill Maher?

  Been lucky enough to get a message that resonated with me when I was 20 and starting to smoke. It would have been, "Hey kid, cigarettes, they don't get you anything. They don't make you smarter."

• 28:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:27Bill Maher?

  Uh, they, but, you know, iPod, yes. I mean, LSD, my record collection would be very different without it. Even heroin, I wouldn't do it, I wouldn't recommend it, but, you know, it, there would be Miles Davis not without it.

• 28:44Speaker 02

  Yeah. You know? Music is, why is music so good when you're high?

• 28:47Bill Maher?

  Well, because it was made when they were high.

• 28:49Speaker 02

  Ah!

• 28:49Bill Maher?

  Or at least, no, no, it's just, it works both, it works both ways, you know, it's just, we like drugs for a reason. They work, okay? It's just that there's a downside. And it's very hard to convince people when you're in your twenties, when your body is so strong, that you can come back from anything. It's just hard to convince you that, uh, oh, you know what? Think about when you're, "Yeah, I'll never be that, and now I am that, and I wish I had thought about it then." But, you know, that's youth versus age.

• 29:21Speaker 02

  Well, I think, Bill, you know, I, I'm gonna disagree with you on, I think that we can have conversations like that on television. I think it's-

• 29:29Bill Maher?

  Not like we're having now, never.

• 29:31Speaker 02

  Well, I think that's the reason that there, that linear television is on the decline. It's because people are craving that realness, and they're not giving the people what they want.

• 29:40Bill Maher?

  It just moved to a different place, this-

• 29:42Speaker 02

  It's a different-

• 29:43Bill Maher?

  Your show's on YouTube now.

• 29:44Speaker 02

  It's a different mechanism. It's the same thing, though, it's a smaller screen.

• 29:47Bill Maher?

  Do more people watch you on YouTube than watch you on CNN?

• 29:50Speaker 02

  I think now, I, I think they, well-

• 29:52Bill Maher?

  You don't know the answer to that question?

• 29:53Speaker 02

  No, no, I do know the answer to that question. I think, um, you know, in my early days on CNN, I would say more people watched me on CNN. Um, and then also when I was there, it was a different time. I think more people watched me on CNN.

• 30:07Speaker 02

  I don't know. I think more people watch me now. But I think the highest point of CNN was during COVID and we had COVID and George Floyd at the same time. And Donald Trump. And that was the height, that was the highest ratings, the most profitable of CNN. And so it was amazing to be there. People watched every night.

• 30:24Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 30:24Speaker 02

  And they sort of relied on us because you were stuck in your home and you had nothing else.

• 30:28Bill Maher?

  I bet you more people see you now.

• 30:29Speaker 02

  More, you're right. And more people see me now and more people recognize me now.

• 30:32Bill Maher?

  And there's lots of, there's lots of stories. I can't think of any specifically right now, but about like, for example, streaming versus the theater and directors, maybe Martin Scorsese said this, I don't know, but somebody like that. And one of their movies, maybe it was The Irishman, maybe this is just, I'm making that up, but some, but I've heard this story about movies from directors before who said, you know, this movie I made and I fought it to go to streaming and it went to streaming and 20 times more people saw it than would have in the theater.

• 31:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:02Bill Maher?

  You know, it's just, I, I'm that person. Like, I see all the movies in my bed. Why wouldn't I? If, unless I have to see something like the next day, uh, which only rarely happens, or there's like a reason maybe for my, I, we want to comment on it on the show, I would go to a theater, but I think the last movie I saw in the theater was Barbie.

• 31:24Speaker 02

  I didn't even see that. I can't remember the last time. Unless I go to an opening like a friend or someone, some group invites me to come to an opening, I don't see it.

• 31:33Bill Maher?

  I mean, I just watched, um, the Dylan movie. What's that? No Direction? Oh, no, A Complete Unknown.

• 31:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:41Bill Maher?

  I just watched that.

• 31:42Speaker 02

  With Chalamet.

• 31:43Bill Maher?

  In my bed.

• 31:44Speaker 02

  Yeah. Which is why, I agree with you.

• 31:47Bill Maher?

  It's, yeah.

• 31:48Speaker 02

  So I, now I, look, I don't pay attention as much because I'm used to people going, oh, Don Lemon, hey, CNN guy, whatever. My husband says, Don. More people recognize you now than when you were on CNN. And I'm like, really?

• 32:01Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 32:02Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 32:03Bill Maher?

  I'm not surprised.

• 32:04Speaker 02

  Because, but also not just because of, you know, the podcast or whatever the streaming show, but because of social media. And my pledge to myself, someone asked me like, you know, what is your purpose? And I said, my purpose as, and my professional purpose is to meet the audience where they are. And the audience is not on cable. The audience is on social media and it's on digital and on YouTube and those kinds of places, Twitch or whatever. And that's where I'm meeting the audience and having success with it. People think I'm nuts, some of the things I do on social media.

• 32:36Bill Maher?

  Yeah, you're a little crazier than you used to be.

• 32:38Speaker 02

  I'm not crazy. I don't think it's crazy.

• 32:39Bill Maher?

  No, not crazy. I'm, I said crazier, like you do more wacky things.

• 32:44Speaker 02

  I do things that are-

• 32:45Bill Maher?

  Man in the street kind of stuff.

• 32:47Speaker 02

  I do, well, I do man on the street. Every single journalist has done man on the streets. And that's where the real, that's where you re- You want to be where the people are. You want to know what they're saying.

• 32:55Bill Maher?

  I love the people, Don.

• 32:56Speaker 02

  No, seriously, you do.

• 32:57Bill Maher?

  I do.

• 32:58Speaker 02

  And if, people who are sitting in studios, you know, you know, on a nightly basis and talking to people with suits on and ties or cocktail dresses about, they're not, they're not getting to the heart of what's happening. But I'm having fun.

• 33:11Bill Maher?

  They're the kind of people who harass you later at the party, huh?

• 33:13Speaker 02

  Yeah. Tell me about it.

• 33:15Bill Maher?

  They're the-

• 33:15Speaker 02

  Especially, especially if it's a Republican-

• 33:17Bill Maher?

  Those are the titty twisters, those people he has.

• 33:19Speaker 02

  Especially if it's a Republican event.

• 33:21Bill Maher?

  What?

• 33:22Speaker 02

  Oh, my gosh, Republicans are so repressed, the guys. They're always, they're all, I, when, if there's a Republican event or a convention, I try to stay in my hotel room.

• 33:32Bill Maher?

  Because they hit on you more?

• 33:34Speaker 02

  150%. Yes.

• 33:37Bill Maher?

  You measured it.

• 33:37Speaker 02

  They, I'm just, I'm joking.

• 33:39Bill Maher?

  I'm hunking with it, but, so that, so the Republicans hit on you more. This is so interesting. I mean, I'm not surprised. You know, I used to do this gig every year in Hawaii, 12 years, New Year's Eve. It's the best. And-

• 33:59Bill Maher?

  The promoter of the event was a gay man. Love, I mean, I love this guy. We worked together for 12 years. I miss him. Does a lot of other shows. But we stayed at the Four Seasons in Maui.

• 34:13Speaker 02

  Beautiful. I love that place.

• 34:15Bill Maher?

  And he said Grindr was very active with the bathroom in the lobby.

• 34:26Bill Maher?

  And I'm like, who is that? And he said, married men whose wife had a massage that day and fell asleep in the room. And they go down and hook up with guys.

• 34:38Speaker 02

  Wow. That never happened to me there, but I'm not surprised. Grindr, by the way, crashes during the Republican convention.

• 34:48Speaker 02

  Joe, where have you been? Are you kidding me? You don't know this?

• 34:51Bill Maher?

  No.

• 34:51Speaker 02

  Are you serious?

• 34:53Bill Maher?

  No, I'm not in that world. Why would I know that?

• 34:55Speaker 02

  It's just been reported, like people, like it's a thing. People know. I mean, I think it's because they're so repressed and they can't, because they can't be themselves, because they, you know, they're kind of have this whole thing about homosexuality or being gay.

• 35:07Bill Maher?

  Oh, very much so.

• 35:08Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, you know, you watch CNN, right? Do you know Bakari Sellers?

• 35:12Bill Maher?

  Sure.

• 35:12Speaker 02

  So Bakari Sellers is a friend. And on inauguration night 2017, Bakari says, let's go to the Trump Hotel. And I said, are you kidding me? No way, I'm not going there. And he said, why? They're not gonna, I'll protect you. I'm like, no, not against, like, I'm not afraid of anyone beating me up because I'll kick their ass. There's so much rage inside of this body, I will kick their ass. And he said, why don't you want to go? I said, because I am seeing someone, number one, and I don't want to be hit on so much by, and he goes, you gay guys, you want every straight guy to be gay? I'm like, no. And he said, come with me. I was like, okay. So I go. Everyone's buying me drinks. Don Lemon is here, blah, blah, blah. And then all of these guys are over. Talking to me and sort of rubbing up against me and whatever.

• 35:56Speaker 02

  And Bakari's like, oh, my God. You're right. I have no idea. He had no idea. And it's, I don't think they're doing it to just normal heterosexual men. I think they're doing it to gay men who they know because they know that they're gay. And so they're shooting their shot. I hate to say that, but it's, it's the truth.

• 36:15Bill Maher?

  No, that, that really doesn't surprise me. But I do think that the idea that you would go over there, even if it was, this was a Trump.

• 36:24Speaker 02

  The Trump Hotel on inauguration night. Yeah, it was a Trump crowd.

• 36:27Bill Maher?

  Okay. The idea that they would be hostile, I, I mean, I know a lot of MAGA people.

• 36:32Speaker 02

  One person was hostile.

• 36:33Bill Maher?

  Right. See, let me ask you the, your opinion on this. Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary show. They did one thing, did a sketch where Tom Hanks puts on a MAGA hat. So he's a Trumper. And then Kenan comes over to shake his hand and he won't shake his hand.

• 36:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 36:52Bill Maher?

  And I said this on Fareed's show the other day. I found that so old, you know, I, I, I didn't vote for him. I, I get all the bad things about that administration. But if you think they don't shake black people's hands, that's, it's just, it's just, you're wrong. It's, that's not who they are.

• 37:09Speaker 02

  So.

• 37:10Bill Maher?

  Matt Gaetz shakes black people's hands, you know? Kid Rock will shake your hand. They're just, it's just, it's just, it's just too, it's just not helpful to like, think that half the country, that's, that's where they are. That's your step.

• 37:22Speaker 02

  No, you're a comedian, you know, it's part of his comedy.

• 37:24Bill Maher?

  I, I understand.

• 37:25Speaker 02

  But let's be honest, there's a, there's a huge faction of the MAGA movement that's really fucking racist.

• 37:33Bill Maher?

  I wouldn't say huge, no. I'd say partly.

• 37:36Speaker 02

  I would say huge.

• 37:37Bill Maher?

  Yeah, okay. Well, we have different perspectives.

• 37:39Speaker 02

  I would say huge, but and even if they're not, you have to overlook a lot of that in order to support Donald Trump, which I think is maybe even more egregious than just saying, I'm a racist.

• 37:50Bill Maher?

  So what do you think is the worst? I mean, to me, the, uh, back in, was it eighty-nine with the, the Central Park Five?

• 37:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 38:00Bill Maher?

  That was, to me, like, the most egregious thing, because it just seems so like, uh, and then, of course, the Obama birth certificate, which-

• 38:09Speaker 02

  You mean with Donald Trump?

• 38:10Bill Maher?

  Yeah, Trump.

• 38:11Speaker 02

  What's the most egregious?

• 38:12Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I mean, he sued me, Trump did.

• 38:14Speaker 02

  For the orangutan thing?

• 38:15Bill Maher?

  Yes, because I was making fun of that, because that was very racist. But also, like, he seemed to be, uh, just, I mean, there was something very animating about his, like, uh, just laser-focused drive about the Central Park Five thing. That seemed to, I, I, you would feel the racism in there.

• 38:41Speaker 02

  What was the payoff? Why was he there? He wasn't running for office.

• 38:44Bill Maher?

  It was, right, it just seemed like, like, just, there was something in him. And, of course, we know his father was a virulent racist.

• 38:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 38:54Bill Maher?

  You know? Um, and he grew up in a different time, and he's almost eighty, and, yes, I, I understand that element to it. But, you know, to, to ascribe to all the people who voted for him, which is a majority of the country-

• 39:08Speaker 02

  I didn't say all the people.

• 39:09Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I, I understand.

• 39:10Speaker 02

  It's not a majority, it's plurality.

• 39:12Bill Maher?

  Well, whatever it is, he won.

• 39:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:15Bill Maher?

  Uh, it's at least half the country. I mean, to ascribe the, his worst traits to all of them-

• 39:20Speaker 02

  I don't think it's half the country, but, go on.

• 39:22Bill Maher?

  Well, what is, what, what is it?

• 39:23Speaker 02

  To whatever.

• 39:24Bill Maher?

  How, how do you win an election?

• 39:26Speaker 02

  Well, first, it's the electorate, not everybody votes, and I don't think, I think most of people in America don't vote, and I don't think it's half the country. So what I'm saying is, I don't think half the country is racist, and I don't think all of MAGA is racist, but I do think that there is a huge element in the MAGA party that is racist, whether they are, whether they are conscious of it or not. Some of them are not, and if they are not, they have had to overlook a lot of racism and a lot of bigotry, and if you do that, and you say, "I'm okay with this," that, I think that makes you worse than someone who just says, "Hey, I'm a racist," and they tell you.

• 40:00Bill Maher?

  But some of it is just a backlash to what they think was going too far, like all these corporations now that have dropped DEI. Now, in the government, they did it because he ordered-

• 40:11Speaker 02

  Backlash for what?

• 40:13Bill Maher?

  For too much DEI.

• 40:16Speaker 02

  I don't think those people understand what DEI is. DEI is not the hiring of black people who are not qualified or

• 40:22Bill Maher?

  It can be.

• 40:24Speaker 02

  No, no, no, that's not what it's about.

• 40:26Bill Maher?

  It can have that result.

• 40:27Speaker 02

  But anything can be, yes, of course it could have that result, but there's no evidence that it does have that result.

• 40:33Bill Maher?

  Oh, I don't know about that.

• 40:34Speaker 02

  Okay, so then what is your evidence? There's no evidence that there is that result. If you can show me the evidence, then okay, then I will agree with you.

• 40:43Bill Maher?

  Well, I'm not going to name any names.

• 40:45Speaker 02

  Okay, but diversity, equity, inclusion, first of all, is not, maybe they're talking about affirmative action, which is a whole different thing, which is about making sure you hired, you know, a certain number of people that are this, that, and that. But diversity, equity, and inclusion is about making sure that the pool of candidates is larger. So if you are fishing, rather than fishing in a swimming pool, maybe you're in a pond, rather than fishing in a pond, you're in a lake, or maybe in the lake instead of a river, or in a river and you're in the ocean. So you're just trying to find different people, and you're trying to increase the number of options of qualified people that you can hire. It's not about hiring people who are not qualified and who are just black. The biggest recipient of DEI is white women.

• 41:28Speaker 02

  And also veterans, because of veterans, and also people who are disabled people. It's just about making sure that disabled people have a ramp somewhere at work so that they get to work.

• 41:38Bill Maher?

  I understand, but equity is the word, not equality. That it was a change that people noticed. Equality was everybody gets an equal shot. Equity is like, no, it's basically quotas. Equity is we're going.

• 41:55Speaker 02

  It's quotas, I don't think that everybody, America's never been about everybody getting an equal shot.

• 42:00Bill Maher?

  No, it certainly hasn't been, no one's contesting that.

• 42:02Speaker 02

  No.

• 42:03Bill Maher?

  But that's what the idea, the old school liberal idea was, we need to strive for equality. That changed to equity. This is what some people are against, and reasonable people can disagree on it without being racist. Having said that, there are other, of course racist in this country, there always will be, just like there will always be criminals.

• 42:25Speaker 00

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• 42:53Speaker 02

  I agree, but I think the people who are disagreeing about it, they need to understand exactly what it is. I think people who disagreed may not understand what it is. Now, I have an issue with DEI because I think when you make it a religion, it is, it's not, then you end up with the Al Franken's of the world, people who get canceled and they use the DEI stuff to get rid of people. But I think you have to understand what the real definition is and that people have sort of co-opted it. And I think if you believe as in the definition that the MAGA Trump administration, that they're saying what DEI is, that is a racist definition of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

• 43:28Bill Maher?

  What is it, what is it?

• 43:29Speaker 02

  They're saying that this is because they're hiring people, women, people of color, minorities who are not qualified. And that's not what is happening.

• 43:38Bill Maher?

  So you're saying no person of color or woman was ever, who was not qualified, was ever hired for any job?

• 43:44Speaker 02

  I'm sorry, well, no, no, I'm not, I'm not saying that.

• 43:46Bill Maher?

  Oh.

• 43:47Speaker 02

  But that would be saying that.

• 43:48Bill Maher?

  It seems like that would have to be the logical conclusion today.

• 43:50Speaker 02

  But that would be saying that no white people were ever unqualified.

• 43:52Bill Maher?

  And we know lots of them have.

• 43:53Speaker 02

  Yeah. And so, but so when you're, most of the people who are, they talk about the airplanes and the airplane industry. Most of the pilots and the people are white. Most of the doctors in the country where they say DEI, we don't want it. We were, hey, most of the doctors are white. And so all of those malpractice suits are against mostly white doctors. Most of the planes that fall out of the sky are.

• 44:14Bill Maher?

  Of course.

• 44:14Speaker 02

  Piloted by white pilots. And so then what is your issue then with diversity, equity, and inclusion?

• 44:21Bill Maher?

  I don't have one. I'm.

• 44:22Speaker 02

  No, I'm not saying you. I'm talking about the, understood you. What is your issue then if there is no evidence?

• 44:27Bill Maher?

  Well.

• 44:28Speaker 02

  That by the, by, by hiring a bigger pool of people.

• 44:32Bill Maher?

  No, I think they think they, I mean, I think there is evidence. There are places, okay, I will give you an example because we had fires here recently. I mentioned it on my show, so something new on the thing. But our fire chief was a lesbian. And I said on my show, uh, do I think a lesbian can do that job? Of course I do. But I think what they did was said, okay, we want to hire a lesbian first. So we're going to hire the best person among lesbians. As opposed to we're going to hire the best person. That kind of thing. Now, I'm just, I'm not saying that's exactly what happened. But to pretend that that kind of thing hasn't been happening in this country.

• 45:12Speaker 02

  I don't disagree with you on that.

• 45:14Bill Maher?

  Is disingenuous.

• 45:15Speaker 02

  Okay, I understand what you're saying. I shouldn't say I don't disagree with you. I understand what you're saying. But that one example, as opposed to the, hang on. As opposed to the millions of examples of people who are not diverse, as they say, who have been hired and unqualified. I think that that is, that's apples, that's like this and that.

• 45:37Bill Maher?

  But again, I'm answering to you why people vote for Trump. Who, because if it's you, by the way.

• 45:44Speaker 02

  No, you're right. I understand that.

• 45:46Bill Maher?

  If you think you lost out on something, you're going to be bitter about it. Like, I did a thing once about how political parties are really like, you're a lawyer. That's how people think. Are you going to represent me? So you might think philosophically one way about something. But for example, in San Francisco, they had a pretty woke board there for a while that they got rid of, that they got voted out. Because they were discriminating against Asians. And there's a lot of Asians in San Francisco. And they got rid of the, like, the merit test. Or the whatever, the genius test, something. Because it was too many Asians were getting in and they wanted to be, and again, this is equity.

• 46:28Bill Maher?

  They wanted the racial quota of it to be, let me finish.

• 46:32Speaker 02

  No, I'm about to agree with you on something.

• 46:35Bill Maher?

  Okay, they wanted it to be more equal.

• 46:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:37Bill Maher?

  So the Asians were basically like, well, we think it's a noble goal to advance the cause of Latinos and Black Americans and lots of other people. But my kid would have benefited from having this advanced program that you got rid of. So you know what? You're not my lawyer. You're not representing me in the court of America. And therefore, I'm going to vote for the other guy. That's what happens a lot.

• 47:03Speaker 02

  No, so I understand, but you, so a couple of things here. You're saying. Um, I'm talking to you about what diversity, equity and inclusion actually is. Nothing that we do ever is perfect, right? Even your show is not perfect, right? So, okay, so there, there, this is, so you're talking, that, that's, let's put that aside. But you're talking about reasons that people vote for Donald Trump. I don't disagree with you. But some of those reasons are not based in reality and they're irrational and some of them are very rational. So to vote for someone who is, who you think is looking out for you is very rational. But it doesn't mean that you're voting for that person on the basis of something that is actually factual.

• 47:43Bill Maher?

  I mean, people are not rational at all about anything.

• 47:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I don't disagree with you about why people are voting for Donald Trump.

• 47:49Bill Maher?

  I mean, do you think your life is rational?

• 47:51Speaker 02

  No.

• 47:51Bill Maher?

  You don't?

• 47:52Speaker 02

  No, I don't think my life is rational, but I think.

• 47:54Bill Maher?

  I'm still curious about this, what's so.

• 47:56Speaker 02

  I don't think that life is, in general, if you're just talking about life, I don't think that is.

• 48:00Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 48:01Speaker 02

  I don't think that it's rational, I just think sometimes it's very random.

• 48:06Bill Maher?

  I couldn't agree with you more.

• 48:08Speaker 02

  And you just sort of deal with the random nature of life the best way that you can and you have to have a good attitude about it.

• 48:14Bill Maher?

  You, you walk around all day as if you're in control and you're not.

• 48:17Speaker 02

  You're not in control.

• 48:18Bill Maher?

  Isn't that right? You walk around all day as if you are, but the reality is you're, you're really not. You're, you're more of a jellyfish with the tide and you go, and you, you handle the tide as best you can.

• 48:29Speaker 02

  And it's best to like either, sometimes it's best to just go with the tide?

• 48:33Bill Maher?

  Yes, or.

• 48:34Speaker 02

  So not to take your hands off the wheel?

• 48:35Bill Maher?

  Right, or if someone steps on you, sting them. That's what I do and hope you don't get washed up on shore.

• 48:42Speaker 02

  I agree 100%, and that's the time that we're in right now.

• 48:45Bill Maher?

  What do you mean?

• 48:46Speaker 02

  When you said someone steps on you, sting them.

• 48:48Bill Maher?

  Well, I'm a jellyfish.

• 48:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, if you're a jellyfish, but I think there are too many people just sort of laying back and not stinging. Then like the Democrats are not stinging.

• 48:56Bill Maher?

  No, they are definitely not, they're pathetic. That, that display last night at the speech, I don't know when we're dropping this, probably very soon, so it was probably last week. Uh, where. I mean, it looked like auction paddles with like signs like Musk lies.

• 49:13Speaker 02

  Oh my god, I did that on my show today. So I said, this is what the Democrats were doing at the convention. And I wrote on a piece of, on a tablet and I said, Trump bad. I was like, Trump bad. And they were like, Trump bad. And I'm like, yes, Trump is bad. Uh, Musk mean, Musk is so mean. So it's like, if you're gonna fight back, shouldn't you be stronger about fighting back?

• 49:35Bill Maher?

  Oh my god, they're, they're just, they're just, they're showing the country who are not savvy about issues, why they voted for them. Because people are instinctive about politics. No, Donald Trump is not literally true with almost anything he says. We've litigated that. They don't care.

• 49:53Speaker 02

  He's a liar. He lies a lot.

• 49:55Bill Maher?

  Exactly. They don't care. He, they don't take him literally. They take him seriously. The media takes him seriously, but not, uh, literally, but not seriously. That's somebody's great line about it.

• 50:08Speaker 02

  I forgot her name. It was during the 26th.

• 50:10Bill Maher?

  But when they see this, what they see is, oh, one side, I don't really understand Ukraine and lots of stuff, but one side looks so weak and disorganized and feeble. And this guy looks strong. Yeah, I think he's kind of an asshole. And I'm not sure he's right about a lot of things, but he's strong. And they're in charge. And they're willing to look at things different. That's what a lot of people are seeing right now. Um, so the Democrats have got to, I mean, I've been, last week I proposed Fetterman. I think he's the best one they have because he's got a pair of balls on him. He, uh, will not, uh, kowtow to the far left of his own

• 50:53Bill Maher?

  party. He's, he acts like a guy who's got nothing to lose because he's had a stroke. You know, he's been through the fucking mill. And he wears shorts. He does whatever the fuck he wants. And that's what people react to. Authenticity and balls. Trump has that. This guy has that. The rest of the Democrats, they just, uh, I mean, they're, they're embarrassing and they're not helping themselves.

• 51:18Speaker 02

  Well.

• 51:19Bill Maher?

  And we need two parties in this country.

• 51:20Speaker 02

  There's a lot there, Bill. I think that Trump is.

• 51:25Speaker 02

  Unfortunately or unfortunately, able to live in existence where he doesn't have to rely on facts.

• 51:31Bill Maher?

  Correct. That's his superpower.

• 51:33Speaker 02

  That's his superpower.

• 51:34Bill Maher?

  Is that he lies so much.

• 51:35Speaker 02

  Right.

• 51:36Bill Maher?

  And gets so much so off.

• 51:38Speaker 02

  Right.

• 51:39Bill Maher?

  That it's so baked in the cake that he's not held to those standards. Like I said, they take him seriously, but not literally.

• 51:47Speaker 02

  Literally, but not seriously.

• 51:48Bill Maher?

  They just assume that that's who he is. If he says Zelensky's approval rating is 4%, it's 57.

• 51:57Bill Maher?

  And you just go with it. It is amazing.

• 52:01Speaker 02

  Because again, he doesn't, a lot of folks who are, especially in this streaming thing they're in, you don't have to deal with facts, you don't have to deal with reality. And Trump sort of, Trump is a shapeshifter. He shapes reality into whatever he wants it to be.

• 52:13Bill Maher?

  A genius.

• 52:14Speaker 02

  But he doesn't have to live in that. And I think Democrats demand.

• 52:17Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 52:18Speaker 02

  Other people that everything has to be factual and.

• 52:21Bill Maher?

  One side.

• 52:21Speaker 02

  Blah, blah, blah.

• 52:22Bill Maher?

  Has to hit the ball over the net.

• 52:24Speaker 02

  Right.

• 52:25Bill Maher?

  And the other side, there's no net.

• 52:27Speaker 02

  There's no net and they don't care.

• 52:28Bill Maher?

  But you know what? He created that and people and stuck with it.

• 52:33Speaker 02

  I think.

• 52:34Bill Maher?

  Until people just bowed down and said, okay, fine. That's it. You stuck with that and we're gonna just, I mean, it's an amazing accomplishment of sorts.

• 52:45Speaker 02

  I think the Tea Party created that. And then, and then Donald Trump.

• 52:48Bill Maher?

  No.

• 52:49Speaker 02

  I think Donald Trump just came in and.

• 52:51Bill Maher?

  The Tea Party did not, did not say something was 4% if it was 57%. They all have their spin and their bullshit, including some people on the left, obviously, but not to this degree.

• 53:03Speaker 02

  I said, Bill, that's what starting it means.

• 53:05Bill Maher?

  Just making a number up in your head that you think it should be.

• 53:09Speaker 02

  Well, he amplified that. I think he is a recipient of that.

• 53:13Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I find this so boring. This is why I said I don't want him to win because, well, there were other reasons, but because I've been through this administration. I've been through this thing. It's so boring to just constantly hear people talking about what an asshole Trump is. I know. I was the first one to say it. Over it. It's just fucking boring. We get it. He's bad, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like, you know, I just, I don't, I don't wanna, I just, I'm, I'm done.

• 53:46Speaker 02

  I think you were the first to say that.

• 53:48Bill Maher?

  He wouldn't leave.

• 53:49Speaker 02

  He was, wouldn't leave. But I was the first to actually call him a liar on TV. And I was the first to actually call him racist on TV. And maybe that's why I'm not on TV anymore. But, but I do think that he was the recipient of what the Tea Party started, but he, on steroids, he was, he was the recipient of that, but on steroids, Donald Trump says, I don't give a fuck.

• 54:10Bill Maher?

  Don't give a fuck.

• 54:11Speaker 02

  And he does whatever he wants.

• 54:12Bill Maher?

  So appealing.

• 54:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, and, and, amen. I, I think it's appealing to a degree. But I think at some point you have to give a fuck because you have to care about people, if you are in a, if you are a public servant, then you need, you have to care about the people and actually working.

• 54:29Bill Maher?

  I will name the person who most exemplifies.

• 54:33Speaker 02

  I've been using the thing you're using. Can you mind if I use my hand?

• 54:35Bill Maher?

  No.

• 54:36Speaker 02

  All right, go ahead.

• 54:37Bill Maher?

  Unless you're gonna grab my tits with, you know, it'd be cold.

• 54:40Speaker 02

  It's too cold for that.

• 54:44Bill Maher?

  Kanye. Who is more of a, I mean, you can't get more, I don't give a fuck than I like Hitler. I love Hitler, uh, whatever, all his Hitler things. You can't get more of a, and that's why he will always have a fan base, somewhat similar to Trump's, because there are people who are like, for, damn, that guy cannot be intimidated.

• 55:10Speaker 02

  But is that something that's admirable?

• 55:12Bill Maher?

  No.

• 55:13Speaker 02

  Should we celebrate that?

• 55:14Bill Maher?

  I'm not celebrating it.

• 55:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 55:16Bill Maher?

  I'm saying, if you're, if the subject is what you were just talking about, people who don't give a fuck, I said, you know, Fetterman is kind of that guy, uh, Trump is kind of that guy.

• 55:27Speaker 02

  Fetterman is more of a libertarian to me than a.

• 55:29Bill Maher?

  Well, whatever it is, he says what he thinks.

• 55:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 55:31Bill Maher?

  And he doesn't care if you don't like it.

• 55:36Bill Maher?

  Kanye, I mean, that is, to me, that's his performance art. He is at the very edge of that, like, I dare you to completely destroy me. I'm just gonna say, I don't know if he even believes that shit about Hitler, but it's, I think it's more the fact that I will say it than what he's saying. If there was something else that was more egregious, I think he would say that. But he found that thing, and that's his litmus test. And there's, he will always have fans.

• 56:11Speaker 02

  Okay, so, you're right, he will always have fans, but my question is why? Why be, why be an anti-Semi?

• 56:20Bill Maher?

  Well, I just explained why. Not because I don't think he really cares that much about it, but because it's a way to demonstrate you cannot intimidate me into not saying anything.

• 56:35Speaker 02

  I think it is, I don't think it's that. I think it's, I think when people do that, it's the shortest line to the front of either promotion and whatever sense it is, it could be promoting a product, it could be promoting themselves, and you are doing something that is out of the box to get attention just for the sake of getting attention, or just for the sake of, for the sake of pure ambition. Where it's the same thing that I, when I see, not all black Republicans, but I see a black MAGA person who is carrying Donald Trump's water, and they know that he's lying, it is the shortest line to the front. Because if you're black and you're whatever, you're just in line with a bunch of other Democrats that are doing the same thing that, that you're doing.

• 57:16Speaker 02

  But if you become a black MAGA person, it's like, whoa, let's book this person, let's put him on television.

• 57:21Bill Maher?

  So you don't think you can be a sincere black MAGA person?

• 57:24Speaker 02

  No, no, I just said, I don't think that, I just said, I think there can be sincere Republicans.

• 57:31Bill Maher?

  But you can't be a sincere black Republican?

• 57:34Speaker 02

  I don't think that you can, I don't think that you can be a rational MAGA. Be black and be a rational MAGA person. I think you can be black and be a Republican.

• 57:43Bill Maher?

  I think they would find that very insulting.

• 57:45Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, the truth is often insulting.

• 57:48Bill Maher?

  That's true, too.

• 57:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 57:49Bill Maher?

  But I don't, I, mm, yeah, I wouldn't say that because there are cases to be made that they're making. I don't, I never would go all the way to Donald Trump because he does not concede elections. That's my biggest issue with him. So like the Republican types who think, oh, someday Bill Maher is gonna, no. No, no, Bill Maher is always gonna be where Bill Maher has always been. I, if, if you change enough, like, yeah, you could, but you're going in the wrong direction. But, you know, I think 20% of black men voted for Trump.

• 58:28Speaker 02

  Well, I think that, that's okay that 20% of black men voted for Trump.

• 58:31Bill Maher?

  Can't they just think differently? Can't people just have different? It's not, it's not just, like, you're informed about everything? Like, you don't think anything you have is skewed?

• 58:42Speaker 02

  I don't think you're hearing me. I said that I believe that black people can be Republicans. Remember, there were lots of Republicans, Frederick Douglass.

• 58:48Bill Maher?

  It was different in those eras.

• 58:49Speaker 02

  It was different in the, I was a Republican, by the way. But I started as a Republican.

• 58:53Bill Maher?

  Is that right?

• 58:54Speaker 02

  Yes. But, so I think that a lot of what MAGA does is irrational and it's often based in lies. And it's not factual. It's people that you said you don't like, people who are, who deny elections, who deny insurrections, whatever. So that's the MAGA party. That is the MAGA party. I'm not saying that's all Republican.

• 59:12Bill Maher?

  Yeah, look.

• 59:12Speaker 02

  So for a person of color, a black person, to, you know, lend their, to believe, you know, in that when it is based in irrationality and a lot of it is based in racism, for me, I have lots of questions about that. I don't question black Republicans.

• 59:29Bill Maher?

  I'm gonna let, I mean, do you talk to people like that? Like, I had Byron Donalds on my show.

• 59:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 59:37Bill Maher?

  Maybe two weeks ago.

• 59:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 59:39Bill Maher?

  I got to my office today and there was a lovely pen that he had sent me. Um, it had his name on it, an American eagle and, you know. Um, I like Byron. I'm just, you know, I, I just can't, I just can't live in this country where I hate half the people who, yes, think fundamentally differently about a lot of things. I've said this here before. We have to be able to get to this point where you can say to somebody who you agree with A, B, C, D, but E, whoa. How could they believe in E if we both believe in A, B, C, and D? And it is a conundrum, but it does happen in human nature. And you just have to be able to go, okay.

• 1:00:24Bill Maher?

  We just, we have different upbringings, different influences in our life, different, I don't know, metabolism, different, just, we're just different. And we come to different conclusions.

• 1:00:35Speaker 02

  I understand that, Bill.

• 1:00:37Bill Maher?

  And you can't be so.

• 1:00:38Speaker 02

  But it doesn't be, because I am, because I can see what is happening and I live in reality, it doesn't mean that I hate anyone. I don't hate anyone. I don't hate Donald Trump. I don't hate MAGA.

• 1:00:48Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 1:00:48Speaker 02

  Right? But I understand that MAGA is based on

• 1:00:53Speaker 02

  that you were not born in this country. MAGA is based on Mexicans are rapists. MAGA is based on, um, that Donald Trump did not inspire an election. MAGA is based on Donald Trump didn't try to overturn an election. MAGA is based on Donald Trump, uh, they don't believe that he, that he was found guilty in a court of law. So they're built, it's built on lies. So that's why, that's why I question that. To understand and to be able to see through that, it doesn't mean that you hate people. It just means that you're being rational and logical. As I said, I think they're black Republicans. I was one. I think that's all fine, but I think that MAGA is, I think it's, you know, it's problematic and it's based on lies and racism.

• 1:01:39Speaker 02

  And that doesn't mean I hate those people. I actually kind of feel sorry for them.

• 1:01:43Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I mean, you know, it's not untrue. There is racism in it and there's certainly a lot of lies. So what do you do in the morning, John? Are you an early riser or? John, it's time for our cooking segment. I don't know if you know this, but I make a

• 1:02:00Speaker 02

  Moving on.

• 1:02:00Bill Maher?

  I make a mean omelet that I think you will

• 1:02:02Speaker 02

  Moving on.

• 1:02:03Bill Maher?

  Um, no, uh, tell me about your, your day.

• 1:02:06Speaker 02

  I'm not a morning person.

• 1:02:08Bill Maher?

  Me neither. I hate the morning. I hate waking up in the, I like to wake up in the afternoon. I'm like, I like to All the way into the afternoon.

• 1:02:14Speaker 02

  I like to rise at the crack of noon.

• 1:02:16Bill Maher?

  I, that's, my father used to say that.

• 1:02:18Speaker 02

  Usually I like to rise at about 11, maybe 10, but 11, because I am a night owl.

• 1:02:23Bill Maher?

  Exactly what I do. Right.

• 1:02:25Speaker 02

  But now, because I want people to be informed about what's happening, I think we have to have an informed electorate. I wake up at like 8, 8:30.

• 1:02:33Bill Maher?

  Wow.

• 1:02:34Speaker 02

  I do a live 10 o'clock show on YouTube, The Don Lemon Show. Every day I do a live show, live stream.

• 1:02:39Bill Maher?

  Why's it gotta be so early?

• 1:02:41Speaker 02

  10 a.m. Uh, because most people are starting their day and are going about their day and I think they need to be informed. And I think that there is, um, there was a need for content there and for people to, to understand what was happening.

• 1:02:57Bill Maher?

  I'm so lucky.

• 1:02:59Speaker 02

  Um, and I don't think anyone was fulfilling that.

• 1:03:02Bill Maher?

  I'm so lucky. I only have to show up in makeup once a week at 4 o'clock on Friday afternoon.

• 1:03:07Speaker 02

  Well, I used to have to show up in makeup at 9 o'clock and Eastern every night and that's it and then go on at 10, but that, I mean, that's fulfilling for you. That was fulfilling for me at the moment, but this is what's fulfilling to me now. And then I do a live, a live stream or a live show every day at 5 Eastern as well. I do two live shows a day.

• 1:03:22Bill Maher?

  Ah, happy for you. I'm glad you, glad it all came out in the wash for you. No, because for a while there, like CNN, there was just lots of, uh, it's amazing how much they cover what goes on at CNN and MSNBC, considering that their ratings are not exactly through the roof, but I mean

• 1:03:40Speaker 02

  It's a good point.

• 1:03:41Bill Maher?

  But, you know, it's, it's the media. The media loves the media. Uh, but we heard everything about you and Chris Cuomo and, you know, like, it was It's always this boom, a storm and drunk and it's being taken over by this guy and this guy and he was fired and we gotta get CNN. I mean CNN is such, and I'm on CNN now. They re-show my show on Saturday night. I'm thrilled about it.

• 1:04:00Speaker 02

  But that's one thing that's also, um, when people do that, that's a sign of your relevance.

• 1:04:05Bill Maher?

  It does.

• 1:04:05Speaker 02

  Where you are in the culture.

• 1:04:06Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 1:04:07Speaker 02

  And so you don't hear that much anymore, do you?

• 1:04:09Bill Maher?

  Not, well, yeah, I mean, they definitely have to find their footing again. I think the guy they got there now is, is, is heading in the right direction. Um, and, uh, I'm, I'm, I mean, Don, when they said to me, we want to put your show on CNN. I said, what about all the fucks? And they said, they don't care. And I'm like, they don't care? CNN? I'm like, wow.

• 1:04:32Speaker 02

  Do they beep it?

• 1:04:33Bill Maher?

  This, no.

• 1:04:34Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 1:04:34Bill Maher?

  I'm like, this world has changed. When I first went on the Tonight Show, you couldn't say ass. And now you can say fuck on CNN. I mean, I try to keep the, keep the cunts to the minimum. I mean, I'm not an unreasonable, I'm not an unreasonable man.

• 1:04:50Speaker 02

  You know, it's a word that I would never even think about saying.

• 1:04:52Bill Maher?

  Great word.

• 1:04:53Speaker 02

  And people say that I love that word. It's a great word. It's a word that I would never even think of saying.

• 1:04:58Bill Maher?

  I think the gays should take it over.

• 1:05:00Speaker 02

  It's hard for us to do that because the gays love women.

• 1:05:04Bill Maher?

  I know. Yeah, but, but the British use it in a way that isn't demeaning, you know?

• 1:05:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, but it's different. The British press, they have a different.

• 1:05:12Bill Maher?

  But like, couldn't we like call the asshole like the man cunt or something and it would be kind of fun?

• 1:05:20Bill Maher?

  You're such a mutt.

• 1:05:25Bill Maher?

  Or, I want to get in that month tonight, you know? I mean, it could also be sexy. That's what, that's what I'm saying. I mean. Well, I think.

• 1:05:34Speaker 02

  No, that's gross. I don't think that would appeal to any.

• 1:05:36Bill Maher?

  Uh, wow. You're turning red and you're a black man.

• 1:05:39Speaker 02

  Rust, rust. It's unbelievable. But we have a word for that. The gays have a word for that. Do you want to hear it?

• 1:05:44Bill Maher?

  I want to know everything about it.

• 1:05:45Speaker 02

  It's called bussy.

• 1:05:48Bill Maher?

  Bussy. That's better.

• 1:05:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:05:50Bill Maher?

  What's the B for? Boys? Wait, what am I getting wrong? Pussy, I get that part. B, the... I don't know. I really don't know. Am I stoned?

• 1:06:02Speaker 02

  How would, how do men have sex? What do they do if they do, usually?

• 1:06:06Bill Maher?

  They do it in the naughty place.

• 1:06:08Speaker 02

  What is a naughty place called?

• 1:06:11Bill Maher?

  The ass, the booty.

• 1:06:14Speaker 02

  Or the...

• 1:06:14Bill Maher?

  The booty.

• 1:06:15Speaker 02

  Or the butt.

• 1:06:16Bill Maher?

  The butt, butt, okay.

• 1:06:17Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:06:17Bill Maher?

  All right, well, there's lots of words for it. You can't hate me that much. I get it.

• 1:06:23Bill Maher?

  What do you, what, what? Like, like anthropo- anthropologically, what, what do you make of?

• 1:06:29Speaker 02

  Anthropologically.

• 1:06:31Bill Maher?

  Thank you, sir. Thank you, John. I need a, I need a real anchor here to help me with that. We can do a show together. I got harassed you when the cameras went off. Anyway, they, um... And then, like, anthropologists always, why is there a homosexual element in nature? I'm not, please, it's a wonderful thing. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. It's just different.

• 1:06:53Speaker 02

  You don't have to preface it. Just ask me the question. I don't, I...

• 1:06:56Bill Maher?

  It's just, it's just counterintuitive. Like, why would you have a certain segment of the population that isn't for repopulating? And, you know, if you had to start from scratch, would you have sex where the shit comes out? You know, that kind of thing.

• 1:07:11Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, if you look in nature, the homosexuality is in it.

• 1:07:14Bill Maher?

  Even in animals?

• 1:07:15Speaker 02

  Even in animals. And there are, sometimes there are two members of the same sex who can actually repopulate or whatever. But sex is not necessarily for, yeah.

• 1:07:23Bill Maher?

  I think worms.

• 1:07:24Speaker 02

  Sex is not necessarily for repopulation because, I mean, how many kids do you have?

• 1:07:30Bill Maher?

  I've never been married.

• 1:07:32Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:07:32Bill Maher?

  I'm way behind on that.

• 1:07:34Speaker 02

  How often have you had sex?

• 1:07:36Bill Maher?

  Today?

• 1:07:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:07:38Bill Maher?

  Zero.

• 1:07:38Speaker 02

  Okay, and how, have you helped to repopulate the earth?

• 1:07:41Bill Maher?

  No, I'm really actively against it.

• 1:07:43Speaker 02

  I rest my case.

• 1:07:44Bill Maher?

  Yeah. No, but I'm just saying like...

• 1:07:46Speaker 02

  It feels good.

• 1:07:46Bill Maher?

  No, but I'm talking about nature. Like, nature usually, I mean, you believe in evolution and all that. Of course, okay, so. So like, everything in nature seems to be driven toward just this, like, very often cruel, how animals kill each other and the way they die off. And if you lose a step in nature, you know, I mean, if you lose a step on the jets, you get cut. But if you lose a step in nature, you die. You know, nature's cruel like that, you know what I mean? So like, everything has a purpose. And everything seems to be to, just to keep the fucking species going. Uh, it just, what is the anthropological?

• 1:08:20Speaker 02

  Anthropological.

• 1:08:21Bill Maher?

  Thank you. Um, explanation for that. It's just, it's, it's interesting, right?

• 1:08:26Speaker 02

  The anthropological explanation of homosexuality?

• 1:08:29Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:29Speaker 02

  I don't know.

• 1:08:30Bill Maher?

  Like, why does nature want this? Nature obviously wants this element.

• 1:08:33Speaker 02

  I don't know if nature wants it. I think it is what it is. Maybe it's population control. Is that what you're gonna say?

• 1:08:38Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:38Speaker 02

  Maybe it's population control, and maybe it is not such an egregious thing, except for religion.

• 1:08:47Bill Maher?

  Correct. It's not egregious at all.

• 1:08:50Speaker 02

  Okay, so then, that's what I'm saying. So why does nature want it? Maybe nature wants it because it actually feels good and because it's actually normal, and um, because of people's religious beliefs and this whole puritanical thing.

• 1:09:02Bill Maher?

  Religion is totally the villain in this one.

• 1:09:05Speaker 02

  And that some people like you, we, remember we had this conversation the other week at a party? Couple of things, you know.

• 1:09:10Bill Maher?

  We did, at a party?

• 1:09:12Speaker 02

  We were at a party, and I think that you were.

• 1:09:14Bill Maher?

  Oh, I know, the Grammys.

• 1:09:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, we were at the Grammys.

• 1:09:17Bill Maher?

  Oh, remember I was torturing the poor Ari Melber?

• 1:09:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:09:20Bill Maher?

  Because you look so fly, and I look good, and then somebody else came in, and Ari wore the wrong jacket, and I love Ari. Not a schlub, but he just.

• 1:09:29Speaker 02

  It was a slubby jacket. I love Ari, don't get me wrong, we're friends.

• 1:09:32Bill Maher?

  I just said, this is Hollywood, you know, we know this shit.

• 1:09:35Speaker 02

  Yeah. And I told him, I said, Ari, you need a gay friend, remember?

• 1:09:40Bill Maher?

  Yes, I do.

• 1:09:41Speaker 02

  Best friend.

• 1:09:45Bill Maher?

  Anyway, so we were at this party, yeah.

• 1:09:47Speaker 02

  And we were talking about, like, um, you know, I think we were talking about attraction and who we were dating or something.

• 1:09:52Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 1:09:53Speaker 02

  And, I don't know if it was you, maybe it was you, I don't know, but you would like, you are a heterosexual.

• 1:09:57Bill Maher?

  Some white guy, some guy.

• 1:09:58Speaker 02

  You are a heterosexual guy, you're not attracted to men, and that's okay, but there are some men who may choose to spend their life married to a woman, being in relationship with a woman, but they may find gay sex appealing.

• 1:10:10Bill Maher?

  In the bathroom at the Four Seasons in Maui.

• 1:10:13Speaker 02

  But if we didn't have such a thing about it, they would have to do that.

• 1:10:17Bill Maher?

  Of course. Yeah, I, I know.

• 1:10:19Speaker 02

  And the same thing, I mean, maybe there are some gay men, maybe once in a while I might like to hang out with a woman.

• 1:10:26Bill Maher?

  Oh, they all do. Yeah, once in a while.

• 1:10:29Speaker 02

  I do, I mean, I like boobs.

• 1:10:31Bill Maher?

  Really?

• 1:10:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, I like boobs. I think they're beautiful, like the way they look.

• 1:10:34Bill Maher?

  Yeah, they're okay.

• 1:10:37Speaker 02

  You're an ass man.

• 1:10:40Bill Maher?

  No, I mean, talk about this conversation is getting weird, Mrs. Robinson, but no, I like the midsection. Like if I had to pick, yes.

• 1:10:49Speaker 02

  You like the V? You like the cha-cha? Or that the midsection of the body?

• 1:10:56Bill Maher?

  Yeah, like, like, like from the, like, I'm not against any of it. I love women like, like, trust me, I'm like the last guy who's gonna like to experiment with your side of the street.

• 1:11:08Speaker 02

  That was our conversation. I told you.

• 1:11:09Bill Maher?

  Right. It's just, and that's just, it's okay. There's a spectrum. There truly is a spectrum. You know, I mean, I, I'm totally on that page.

• 1:11:17Speaker 02

  But you know how I know that you are a 100% homosexual, I mean heterosexual, excuse me, not a 100% heterosexual? It's because you're okay with it and you get it.

• 1:11:26Bill Maher?

  Totally.

• 1:11:26Speaker 02

  Like if I, you cannot say, you cannot make yourself be with someone that you're not attracted to.

• 1:11:32Bill Maher?

  No, no.

• 1:11:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:11:33Bill Maher?

  No. I mean, do you think it's wrong if a person asking for a friend

• 1:11:41Bill Maher?

  doesn't even really like to watch gay sex in like, say, a movie?

• 1:11:45Speaker 02

  Uh, no, I mean, it makes, I think it makes a lot of people uncomfortable. PDA makes me uncomfortable. You know, seeing a man and a woman kiss on, on television or movie doesn't make me uncomfortable, but sometimes in public, I'm like, okay, guys, I don't really need to.

• 1:11:58Bill Maher?

  Right, I agree.

• 1:11:59Speaker 02

  And I, maybe it's my internalized homophobia, but sometimes it makes me uncomfortable to see like two men kissing or whatever. And I'm like, why don't I feel that about women? Because it's much more accepted in culture and society. And guys are like, oh, my gosh, this is hot. And so I think maybe it's just sort of environment and, and training.

• 1:12:18Bill Maher?

  You know, I was watching Breakfast at Tiffany's the other day. Have you ever seen it?

• 1:12:23Speaker 02

  Wait, are you sure you're not gay now?

• 1:12:26Speaker 02

  You're watching Breakfast at Tiffany's?

• 1:12:28Bill Maher?

  In the kitchen.

• 1:12:31Bill Maher?

  I take things in the kitchen. You know, I watch it like at 15 minutes at a time when I'm making food. Have you ever seen it?

• 1:12:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, of course.

• 1:12:38Bill Maher?

  So awesome. I had never seen it. That's how not gay I am.

• 1:12:43Speaker 02

  You've never seen it?

• 1:12:44Bill Maher?

  I just watched it. Yeah, because it always looked kind of gay.

• 1:12:50Speaker 02

  It's actually not. I forget who's, who's the guy in it? What's his name?

• 1:12:54Bill Maher?

  George Pappard. Pappard. Went on to be the head in the, uh, lead in the A-Team in the eighties. And Audrey. This was nineteen sixty-one, Audrey Hepburn, Truman Capote, a gay author. Right. His book. And I always knew it was about, she's like a hooker. It's so interesting, like a hooker in nineteen. She's a gal about town. Well, you know what it was? This is so, this is nineteen sixty. Maybe the book she was a hooker, but not in the movie. No, no, no. No, it was true to the book. Here's what it is. In nineteen sixty-one, uh, gentlemen give her fifty dollars to go, when she goes to the powder room, which, you know, maybe you tip a dollar. Now, fifty dollars in nineteen sixty-one was like five hundred. Yeah.

• 1:13:35Bill Maher?

  So that's as close as they could get to say that she was a hooker. And then, I mean, there's no sex in it. And he, that's why I never knew. I knew that about the movie because it's so famous. He's a fucking whore too. He's a whore too. He's a hooker? Not a hooker, but there's this older woman who like writes him checks. So they're both fucking whores. I mean, sex workers because they're the new group that, since the Oscars now. Oh, man, the Oscars had a good night for whores. Am I wrong? I mean. Bill, what happens if you have to pee on Club Random? Oh, you just hold it. No, no, no, go ahead. I can't hold it any longer. No, no, I'll, I'll wait.

• 1:14:19Bill Maher?

  Hold that thought. It's right here, right? Yeah, yeah. Oh, shit. Okay, sorry. Yeah, yeah, right there. I'm sorry, Bill. No, no, no. I've done it myself. I mean, peed, not like peed on camera.

• 1:14:36Bill Maher?

  No, no, there's no cameras in there.

• 1:14:41Bill Maher?

  That I know of.

• 1:14:47Bill Maher?

  That's so good of you, Don.

• 1:14:50Bill Maher?

  I love that we're having the interview continue while you're in the bathroom. Because this is a first for Club Random, but I don't dislike it. And you're such a pro. Such a pro. A lot of people will not continue the interview while they're peeing.

• 1:15:11Speaker 02

  You can put it on TV if you want. I don't give a shit.

• 1:15:14Bill Maher?

  Well.

• 1:15:15Speaker 02

  I didn't like, you know, it wasn't anything like that.

• 1:15:19Bill Maher?

  Honestly, Don, they're not watching this for the guest.

• 1:15:26Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:15:27Bill Maher?

  Yeah, it's all good.

• 1:15:28Speaker 02

  That was amazing. Thank you very much for that.

• 1:15:30Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:31Speaker 02

  Is anyone?

• 1:15:32Bill Maher?

  I'm so happy you came.

• 1:15:34Speaker 02

  Is my mic still working?

• 1:15:35Bill Maher?

  I'm so happy you came here. I appreciate you making.

• 1:15:39Speaker 02

  Wait, are we done?

• 1:15:39Bill Maher?

  No, I'm just telling you, I'm happy you came here. I appreciate you made the effort. Um, I'm glad I'm getting to know you.

• 1:15:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:15:47Bill Maher?

  First you do such a progression.

• 1:15:49Speaker 02

  I'd like to hang out with you.

• 1:15:50Bill Maher?

  There we go, but like, that's how it happens. People sometimes see me out with somebody, like, "How do you guys know each other?" I'm always like, "You know what? I don't remember." And here's how it happens. First you do real time. Okay, great. You know, that's on the air. We talked a little after the show. Fine. But, you know, you don't want to bum rush people. "Hey, let's be friends right away." Then you see them at a party, you talk a little more. Then you come here, you talk a little more. Friendships have to happen organically. I mean, how'd you meet your husband?

• 1:16:15Speaker 02

  I agree. Um, uh, I met my husband at a restaurant slash bar. So, no, it's weird.

• 1:16:24Bill Maher?

  Well, most restaurants have a bar.

• 1:16:25Speaker 02

  It's kind of a bougie story. Do you want to hear it?

• 1:16:27Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I really do.

• 1:16:28Speaker 02

  So, um, I was renting with friends in the Hamptons one summer. And, um, we were renting in Bridgehampton. And on Friday night, there's this restaurant called Almond in Bridgehampton.

• 1:16:41Bill Maher?

  What year is this?

• 1:16:42Speaker 02

  This is twenty, what, twenty fifteen?

• 1:16:45Bill Maher?

  Twenty fifteen.

• 1:16:46Speaker 02

  Fourteen or twenty fifteen. Um, twenty fifteen. And, um, so I was renting and then on Friday night, this restaurant called Almond, on Friday night, it's gay night. And so you go, everybody's there, all the gays that you would know, famous gays, not famous gays, everybody.

• 1:17:02Bill Maher?

  The other night, it's hetero?

• 1:17:04Speaker 02

  Heterosexual.

• 1:17:06Bill Maher?

  Boy, I feel bad for the guy who gets his days wrong.

• 1:17:09Speaker 02

  They do. That happens and they walk in.

• 1:17:11Bill Maher?

  Yes, it happens.

• 1:17:12Speaker 02

  And they're like, holy shit, what's going on?

• 1:17:14Bill Maher?

  It's you. Really?

• 1:17:16Speaker 02

  Yeah. So I rented the year before that, but I didn't go to the bar or whatever because I was just kind of like getting used to whatever. So we rented in 2015. I'm like, I was single. You know, I was just starting CNN. I was like, you know, in prime time. It was great. I was living the life. And then, so I was there one night and I met this guy. He had a boyfriend. He talked to me or whatever. So I met my, when I met my now husband, he had a boyfriend. I'm not a homewrecker. And so we became friends and I had this, is this going on too long?

• 1:17:46Bill Maher?

  No.

• 1:17:46Speaker 02

  I had this inflatable paddleboard that I would take with me to the beach. And I couldn't get it back. This sounds so bougie. Because I got, I was, I would go to the Hamptons in a helicopter. Because I bought these things in a helicopter and I couldn't, it was too heavy for the helicopter and he drove back because he was from, um, he actually grew up in the Hamptons.

• 1:18:05Bill Maher?

  Damn that D E I.

• 1:18:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, I know. So he grew up in the Hamptons and he, uh, took my paddleboard in the car back to the city and it sat in his apartment for a year.

• 1:18:16Bill Maher?

  Wait, why did he take it?

• 1:18:18Speaker 02

  He, because he was in a car. The weight is too heavy for the helicopter.

• 1:18:21Bill Maher?

  Okay.

• 1:18:22Speaker 02

  And so he had a car. He drove it back. It sat in his apartment for a year. And he, I would see him at events and he'd go, you gotta get your paddleboard. I'm like, yeah, I'm so sorry. You can bring it. He goes, ah, no big deal. And so then the next summer, I bought a house there. And so because his family is from there, he would start to come over to the house. And, um, we became friends and one day in the summer, he came over in the morning. We went for a run. Um, and I said, you know, you're gonna be my husband one day, right? He's like, wait, what? And I just had this sort of premonition thing. So he came over at like nine in the morning. And we went for a run. And then at nine at night, he was still there. We had spent the day together. And he was still seeing someone. And I said, um,

• 1:19:06Speaker 02

  I'm not a home wrecker, whatever you're seeing somebody, I can't see you anymore because I'm starting to have feelings and this is weird, I didn't realize it. And so he's like, okay, and then like a month later, he broke up with his boyfriend. We went out on our first date.

• 1:19:18Bill Maher?

  Sounds like you are a home wrecker.

• 1:19:19Speaker 02

  On election night.

• 1:19:21Bill Maher?

  Sounds exactly like what a home wrecker does.

• 1:19:23Speaker 02

  I told him not to, it was his decision to break up with his boyfriend. We went on our first date, election night, 2016.

• 1:19:30Bill Maher?

  Well, okay.

• 1:19:31Speaker 02

  When Trump was elected.

• 1:19:32Bill Maher?

  That's exactly what a home wrecker does. They say, they say, I'm not a home wrecker. I have feelings for you and they plant that seed and the guy's like, okay, I've been with this person for a while. It's kind of tired because we've been there for a while and I'd really be trading up. And it's hot. I didn't know it's gonna be hot. So, yes, and you should not feel guilty about that. That is human nature.

• 1:19:54Speaker 02

  I'm gonna give you that, maybe you're right.

• 1:19:55Bill Maher?

  That's human nature. We're all in the jungle. Okay, and we all know that there's no, you know, there's no morality in love and war. We just are out there. And so, good. So, and it lasted 10 years, obviously.

• 1:20:09Speaker 02

  Well, it was election night, 2016, almost 10 years. And we got, we went on a date. It was funny because we were at this huge, can I tell you about this party?

• 1:20:19Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:19Speaker 02

  You know who had, who was holding the party?

• 1:20:22Bill Maher?

  P. Diddy.

• 1:20:23Speaker 02

  No, close.

• 1:20:27Bill Maher?

  Kanye?

• 1:20:27Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:20:28Bill Maher?

  Think about movies.

• 1:20:31Speaker 02

  Movies.

• 1:20:31Bill Maher?

  R. Kelly.

• 1:20:32Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:20:33Bill Maher?

  Okay, I'm moping for the movie.

• 1:20:34Speaker 02

  Harvey Weinstein.

• 1:20:37Bill Maher?

  It was worse than those three.

• 1:20:39Speaker 02

  Seriously. So Harvey Weinstein invited me to a party, an election night watch party at Cipriani in New York City. And, and I wasn't on that night because that's when the political folks are all on. And so I said, sure, I'll go. And then I asked my now husband, Tim, if he wanted to go and I said, sure. And so we walked in a little bit early. We met like downtown and we walked in. And he was not used to going out with me. He, you know, didn't know. And he, you know, they expand the tables. They put like a board on top of the table.

• 1:21:11Bill Maher?

  Of course.

• 1:21:12Speaker 02

  And he sat down and kicked it over.

• 1:21:15Speaker 02

  That was our first night. And so then, you know.

• 1:21:18Bill Maher?

  Didn't I give you the ick?

• 1:21:20Speaker 02

  No, I mean, I was just like, oh, he was embarrassed. But then, you know, who was there? Governor Cuomo was there. Miles Teller was there. Martha Stewart was there, like, just all the folks. And they were all like, many of the people there were like, oh, she's got, she's got Florida. No, no, no, she's got Pittsburgh, she's got that. And I'm looking at the CNN thing going.

• 1:21:41Speaker 02

  So Tim and I looked at each other and said, let's get the fuck out of here. So then we went to the Polo Bar to meet my agent. And then that was our first date. And that's where our reception was at the Polo Bar.

• 1:21:51Bill Maher?

  Well, I must say, I find this story very inspiring. No, no, no, not boring at all. Inspiring. Because I'd always thought of gay men having sex or something that happens immediately.

• 1:22:03Speaker 02

  Oh, you think we hook up the first night?

• 1:22:06Bill Maher?

  We don't have to leave the bar.

• 1:22:08Speaker 02

  That's lesbians. Lesbians, they hook up the first night and then the U-Haul happens the next day.

• 1:22:13Bill Maher?

  There were people leaving at the height of the AIDS crisis who said, bathhouses, I'm sorry, that's the whole point of this lifestyle. And I don't want to give that up, even though AIDS was like a sword of Damocles over their heads.

• 1:22:26Speaker 02

  Okay, can I tell you something that I think may surprise you?

• 1:22:28Bill Maher?

  But I know, I'm being facetious.

• 1:22:30Speaker 02

  No, no, no, not really. You're not wrong about that.

• 1:22:33Bill Maher?

  No, there is that element in the gay world, but it is not the vast majority of gay people who, when they finally did pass gay marriage, and we saw them showing up at courthouses in sweatshirts and looking glubby like the rest of us. That's when America went, oh, okay. It is just as everyone else.

• 1:22:51Speaker 02

  I think people should be having fun. And I've certainly, look, I have gone to heterosexual swingers clubs. So the heterosexuals are just as kinky as the gay people, maybe even more. But I think that that was a part of gay culture. And I actually liked it when gay people were kind of, you know, a little bit different, a little bit of, you know what I mean? We were kind of dangerous or whatever. And now we've become so heteronormative.

• 1:23:17Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:17Speaker 02

  It's boring sometimes. All of, most of my friends have kids. And so I understand that. And if you're two men and you're just having fun, I don't put a judgment on sex and what people do. As long as it's two consenting adults, I don't really give a shit.

• 1:23:29Bill Maher?

  But there still is something about, to me, the look. Mostly of a gay man. I used to, one of my first jokes was about, why are they, I would, I would love to be mistaken for a gay man. Why are they better looking? And the joke was, um, you know, does, do you become gay and then get good looking? Or do great looking guys just look in the mirror and go, oh, I'm not wasting this on chicks?

• 1:23:56Speaker 02

  I think it's both. Now, look at the competition, as you said, so you gotta like take care of your body. You gotta, you know, you gotta look good if you're a gay man. There's lots of competition.

• 1:24:04Bill Maher?

  There's a certain look, that's cer- like agents. Have a certain look, don't you think? They really do. You can spot them a mile of fucking way.

• 1:24:12Speaker 02

  What the, they have the suit coat on and the leisure pants and the sneakers and the sport jacket, yeah.

• 1:24:18Bill Maher?

  Put it in words, but it's just something, it's a good haircut, I don't know.

• 1:24:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:24:22Bill Maher?

  And then, yeah, but.

• 1:24:24Speaker 02

  You think gay men have a certain look?

• 1:24:26Bill Maher?

  Better looking, yes.

• 1:24:27Speaker 02

  You think they're better looking?

• 1:24:28Bill Maher?

  Like clean and like better skin. And, um, I just think there's something maybe that is connected with, whatever makes someone gay with the skin. I do, I, I do.

• 1:24:41Speaker 02

  And it's not a dermatologist.

• 1:24:42Bill Maher?

  As someone who's struggled with skin problems, seriously, but you know.

• 1:24:46Speaker 02

  I understand what you're saying. That's, some people are gonna say, he's being very, you know, sort of stereotypical or whatever, but because we come in all shapes and sizes.

• 1:24:53Bill Maher?

  Generally better looking.

• 1:24:54Speaker 02

  The out ones are generally better looking.

• 1:24:56Bill Maher?

  Right. Good point.

• 1:24:59Speaker 02

  Cause there are a lot of them that are not out and they're not generally better looking.

• 1:25:02Bill Maher?

  I'm sure that's true too.

• 1:25:03Speaker 02

  Yeah. So I don't, I can't disagree with you on that.

• 1:25:06Bill Maher?

  That's probably, uh, something from a bygone era that I, you know, I'm always trying to, yell at people for zombie lies and it may be a zombie lie, you're right. But now, when I wrote that joke, people weren't out.

• 1:25:18Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:25:19Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:20Speaker 02

  Now people are out.

• 1:25:21Bill Maher?

  Now, absolutely.

• 1:25:22Speaker 02

  And no one, I, I don't think anyone gives a shit, I mean.

• 1:25:25Bill Maher?

  Nobody does.

• 1:25:26Speaker 02

  Well, there are certain people, like I, the criticism of me, if you read the comments on my, channel or whatever on social media, it's always something that's gay, he's a homo, it's whatever, he's blowing people, whatever.

• 1:25:36Bill Maher?

  Children use whatever they have to get you. If you're fat.

• 1:25:42Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:25:43Bill Maher?

  Though, again, I don't think they even care, Jew, whatever, they don't care that much, about what it is. It's just a cudgel to hit you with. So if they can use that one, they will. It's, you know, I, I wouldn't trip on that. I mean, but do you read your social media a lot?

• 1:26:02Speaker 02

  No, but my, the guys send me like, oh my gosh, they'll say this one, this one was really good. This one wasn't so great. This one like, oh my God, I can't believe the trolls on that. And then, but when I'm on, the difference between, pardon me, being on linear television and doing what I'm doing, I see, I can see the audience. The numbers are there. It's in real time. It's not just minute to minute that you get the Nielsen ratings. It's in real time. So I can see how people are engaged and I'm reading the comments from the people who are, um, who are streaming with us at the same time. So you know, it's much closer to the bone than television. It's much more real.

• 1:26:39Bill Maher?

  And you do that? You follow it along like that?

• 1:26:41Speaker 02

  I follow it along, but I don't let the engagement determine what I'm talking about or what I think is important just because of the audience. Absolutely 100%.

• 1:26:49Bill Maher?

  You can, you really think you trust yourself that much to see what they're liking and not go with the likes?

• 1:26:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, they didn't like what I said about, um, Joe Biden during the election. They didn't like some of the things I said about Kamala Harris during the election. They didn't like that I was interviewing people as I was going around the country during the election. And there was, there were a lot of people telling me, I heard a lot of Trump out there. And so I knew before everyone else, like, I'm like, I'm hearing a lot of Trump. I contacted the campaign. I'm like, you guys have a problem, especially with black men. Never contacted me back. Um, but I knew before that they were in trouble and my subscribers didn't really like it. And I said, you may not like it. I want you to stick with me, but I'm not going to tell you something just because I think you want to hear it. I'm always going to be honest with you. And a lot of the streamers and, uh, podcasters who are more progressive or to the left or center or whatever,

• 1:27:41Speaker 02

  they lost a lot of subscribers after the election. I didn't. It was the exact opposite. And I think that's because I was honest with my audience. So yes, I can be honest with myself.

• 1:27:50Bill Maher?

  Certainly my formula.

• 1:27:52Speaker 02

  It is your formula.

• 1:27:53Bill Maher?

  But I don't, but I mean, I would not trust myself.

• 1:27:56Speaker 02

  You wouldn't?

• 1:27:56Bill Maher?

  You know, my, they had a billboard here.

• 1:27:59Speaker 02

  You're a ratings whore?

• 1:28:00Bill Maher?

  I, I am the opposite. Uh, my billboard says, he's not in it for the likes. That's the catchword.

• 1:28:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:28:07Bill Maher?

  And, you know, I'm sure there were snarky people on the left who was like, yeah, that's right, Bill. That's, you know, that's why, uh, we, we hate you. No, I mean, it's a way of saying. You can't buy me.

• 1:28:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:28:21Bill Maher?

  And that's, so if you're on that page, we need more of that.

• 1:28:24Speaker 02

  I am, I, I, thank you, I appreciate that, and I, I appreciate the platform that you have. When people ask me, what do you want to do, what's your ultimate goal, and I said, I would like to have a platform like Bill Maher, I don't want to be Bill Maher, but where there's honesty. You said earlier, you, you know, you can't do that in television. I think folks in television now should start serving people what they want, instead of what they think that they want.

• 1:28:47Bill Maher?

  I mean.

• 1:28:48Speaker 02

  Instead of what the bosses and the people in the C-suite want.

• 1:28:50Bill Maher?

  Wait, no, you can be honest on television, I'm totally, uh, I'm roofing you. Oh, you know, you have no idea what's gonna happen after this. No, Jing, I drink it. It's a way to make, um, just regular sparkling water into tasty diet soda.

• 1:29:06Speaker 02

  Oh, God, okay. So you were saying about linear television and what?

• 1:29:11Bill Maher?

  I was?

• 1:29:13Speaker 02

  Is that water?

• 1:29:14Bill Maher?

  Uh, that's, uh.

• 1:29:15Speaker 02

  Tequila.

• 1:29:16Bill Maher?

  Tequila.

• 1:29:17Speaker 02

  You're putting it in tequila?

• 1:29:18Bill Maher?

  Yeah, well, it's like if you mix it with diet Coke, it would have its flavor to it. Uh, this just puts a flavor to it. You want some? Jing, I drink it.

• 1:29:28Speaker 02

  I'll try it. I usually just like, you know, my.

• 1:29:30Bill Maher?

  What are you drinking there?

• 1:29:31Speaker 02

  Uh, Reposado Casa Azul Reposado with, um, some lime.

• 1:29:35Bill Maher?

  Jesus, you are gay.

• 1:29:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:29:37Bill Maher?

  Reposado, what the fuck is that?

• 1:29:41Speaker 02

  It's a darker, smokier tequila than a blanco.

• 1:29:45Bill Maher?

  Oh. No, you can, what you can do, uh, you can be honest on television. What you can't do is veer from a conversation like we're having right now to the one of, oh, really?

• 1:29:56Speaker 02

  It tastes like a frickin' 7-Up now. What did you do? Like a Fanta.

• 1:30:01Bill Maher?

  People like 7-Up. They're diluted with this. It's just too, it's just too, uh.

• 1:30:06Speaker 02

  No, I would like this maybe if I'm drinking water during the day. I'm not, I don't think I necessarily wanted it.

• 1:30:11Bill Maher?

  Put that in, I think, I think you'll like it after that.

• 1:30:13Speaker 02

  Oh, wait, no, I'm gonna, I would prefer a sparkling. I'm gonna do a sparkling.

• 1:30:16Bill Maher?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:30:17Speaker 02

  What were you saying?

• 1:30:18Bill Maher?

  I'm saying you can be honest on TV. What you can't do is have a conversation veer from the State of the Union address to what should we call a man's asshole.

• 1:30:28Speaker 02

  No, no, no.

• 1:30:30Bill Maher?

  Because that's life. It just flows where it flows. And then it comes back and we talk. It's like there are no agenda. I could have called this show No Agenda, No Notes, No, you know, I'm High, whatever it was. That's what you can't do on TV.

• 1:30:45Speaker 02

  That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying it should go in that. What I'm saying is, is that people should be more honest in their conversations. And because in conversations, people say dumb things, they make mistakes. And I don't think people should be canceled for that. I think that, I actually think in television, they should be applauded for that because it makes better television.

• 1:31:03Bill Maher?

  I mean, people should, but you know, if shoods and butts were veering nuts, we'd have a hell of a party.

• 1:31:08Speaker 02

  But I also think that linear television would not be quite in the position that it is now with people who are unsubscribing or people who are cutting the cord if they actually had more interesting people on, more people like you and more people like me.

• 1:31:21Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 1:31:22Speaker 02

  That are, that, and they said, we're not gonna cancel, we're not gonna, we're not gonna go for the woke left or the woke right. You know there's a woke right, right?

• 1:31:29Bill Maher?

  Of course.

• 1:31:30Speaker 02

  There's a woke right.

• 1:31:31Bill Maher?

  Oh, totally.

• 1:31:32Speaker 02

  Who are?

• 1:31:33Bill Maher?

  There always was. They canceled Colin Kaepernick faster than anybody.

• 1:31:36Speaker 02

  Trump canceled AP, the Associated Press, because they wouldn't call it the stupid Gulf of America.

• 1:31:42Bill Maher?

  Oh, well, they threw him out of the press room.

• 1:31:44Speaker 02

  I was doing that, it's kind of canceling them? Mr. Free Speech?

• 1:31:48Bill Maher?

  No. I mean, who reads news? I mean, newspapers are kind of dead anyway. I mean, people read them.

• 1:31:53Speaker 02

  The Associated Press is not the newspaper. I get, I get my stuff from the Associated Press. I have a respect for them.

• 1:31:58Bill Maher?

  Oh, yeah, I do too. I just don't know, I mean, all I ever read about is how newspapers are dying and, you know, I mean, again, The Times is doing well because they went with that model that I was describing before. How do our readers want to interpret this story and then write the story that way? That's the difference between the New York Times of today and 20 years ago.

• 1:32:24Speaker 02

  Don't you think, I'm glad you mentioned that, except I forgot about this earlier. But don't you think that's kind of your show? You're the interpreter on the show.

• 1:32:32Bill Maher?

  Yeah, but I'm not pretending to be a newspaper. It's an opinion show. It's a debate show. It's that's not a newspaper. If I was a newspaper, I would just try to keep it as much down the middle as I could. I give my opinion on everything. When the Democrats are, as they were under Obama, I thought, much more sane and not championing silly things. I was much more always on their side. Then they became crazy woke about a lot of bullshit. And I wasn't gonna hold my tongue like a lot of people did just because it, you know, oh, it's your team. There's no teams. I'm on team what's real.

• 1:33:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm dealing with that right now.

• 1:33:14Bill Maher?

  All the time when I'm out, like I was at the Vanity Fair Oscar party the other night.

• 1:33:19Speaker 02

  Oh, my friend invited me. I didn't go. I shouldn't. I wasn't.

• 1:33:22Bill Maher?

  Why?

• 1:33:23Speaker 02

  I was in New York. Lee Daniels said, do you want to be my date to the Vanity Fair? I've gone. I just didn't. I was in New York.

• 1:33:29Bill Maher?

  What? What a dick.

• 1:33:31Speaker 02

  So I've gone?

• 1:33:31Bill Maher?

  Of course.

• 1:33:32Speaker 02

  Why?

• 1:33:33Bill Maher?

  Why? Because it's like this town, people think it's such a party town, showbiz. It's not. This is like the one weekend a year people party.

• 1:33:41Speaker 02

  I flew in on Monday night. It was so boring.

• 1:33:44Bill Maher?

  I'm always amused, like every year, somebody's always like, Koy, what happened at the Vanity Fair party? What happened to it? Everybody came to it. That's what happened to it. Everybody comes to it. If you didn't see somebody there, it's because they didn't want to see you. Wait till the magazine comes out in two months and they have pictures. Everybody was there. It's one of the few times here in the petting zoo, we call the Hollywood Zoo, you see all the stars in the same room. It's just fun. It just feels great. Everybody's like fucking dressed to the nines. You know, all the tension from the show is over. The winners are there and they are beaming and the losers, okay, they lost, but that fucking shit is over.

• 1:34:29Bill Maher?

  Timothy Chalamet, it didn't look like he was suffering. You know, I mean, the chicks are dressed like crazy. They always turn it up. If you're a ten, you turn it up to eleven on Oscar night.

• 1:34:40Speaker 02

  Now you're making me feel bad that I didn't go.

• 1:34:42Bill Maher?

  Yes, and you would have went with Lee Daniels. That's cool.

• 1:34:45Speaker 02

  Lee's a friend. He's good. He's a really good friend.

• 1:34:48Bill Maher?

  You know what? People would be very surprised to know about me if I once did one of those 25 things you don't know about me things.

• 1:34:56Bill Maher?

  I've seen all the Tyler Perry movies.

• 1:35:01Bill Maher?

  But I haven't.

• 1:35:04Speaker 02

  I haven't. I love Tyler, but I haven't seen all the movies. But you were mentioning, you were talking about the, I'm getting it now from the left.

• 1:35:14Bill Maher?

  Well, they're like, Bill, what are we gonna do? And my answer is, well, there's not much you can do. You lost, elections matter. You lost all the branches of government. So what can you do? I mean, apropos of the speech the other night, show up, you know, with the paddles that you were very amusingly making fun of, and then some people wore pink. Like, and then some people wore like, white for Ukraine. It's like, they look so disorganized.

• 1:35:46Speaker 02

  There's a way to do it.

• 1:35:46Bill Maher?

  And weak, weak!

• 1:35:48Speaker 02

  But there's a way to do it that they're not doing it, and I think they feel weak. And I also think the people, and look, again, I don't want to keep beating up on the Democrats. But I do think, I'm not a Democrat, I'm an independent.

• 1:35:57Bill Maher?

  I do, I want to keep beating up on them.

• 1:35:59Speaker 02

  I think that they are, they should be the bulwark between us and democracy, right? And craziness, and they're not very good at it. I think that they have people in place who are not very good at leadership. Look, Hakeem Jeffries can hate me, people are mad at me. I don't think he's the person that should be leading the Democratic Party.

• 1:36:16Bill Maher?

  You know what? Someone who I'm very close to, who is one of the savviest political people I know, said that exact thing to me today.

• 1:36:23Speaker 02

  I think behind the scenes, he's very good, he's very good at, I'm sure, negotiating and coming up with a plan. I feel the same way about, I love Nancy Pelosi, I think she's a very smart woman. But I think that era of the Nancy Pelosi type in the Democratic Party is over. I think that this is the era of, and I didn't like her policies at first. And I'm not necessarily in love with her policies. But people love AOC, people love Jasmine Crockett, people love Eric Swalwell.

• 1:36:51Speaker 02

  And the like, and I think that the Democratic Party should put the people out there who the people want. They should put the, the, the politicians out there who the people want, who they're asking for, who are meeting the moment with the same energy that

• 1:37:05Bill Maher?

  They're not asking for AOC.

• 1:37:07Speaker 02

  Yes, they are.

• 1:37:07Bill Maher?

  The people you party with are.

• 1:37:09Speaker 02

  No, no, no. The people I party with don't like AOC.

• 1:37:11Bill Maher?

  Oh, please.

• 1:37:12Speaker 02

  No, they don't at all.

• 1:37:13Bill Maher?

  Well, most people don't, but she's very far left.

• 1:37:16Speaker 02

  This, let me tell you why I'm saying that. Because AOC, because people will vote for AOC and Donald Trump on the same ticket. Because they're authentic. No, because they're authentic.

• 1:37:26Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I don't think, I, that, that, that, Don.

• 1:37:29Speaker 02

  I think you're wrong about that.

• 1:37:30Bill Maher?

  What people like about people like Trump and Fetterman is they're, because it's irrelevant to her life.

• 1:37:37Speaker 02

  But you don't know her life.

• 1:37:38Bill Maher?

  I, I, I know that being a gorgeous woman who I wouldn't even know was Hispanic in a city that's, has a million Hispanics and is, does not treat them badly.

• 1:37:50Speaker 02

  But that doesn't mean she doesn't struggle. That doesn't mean that she was set down.

• 1:37:53Bill Maher?

  It implies it.

• 1:37:54Speaker 02

  But that doesn't mean that she was set down in Hispanic ghetto in the Bronx and, and had to deal with that growing up. And that she's come from a working class family.

• 1:38:02Bill Maher?

  It implies that for some, that in, it implies that in some way she's behind the eight ball. Because of that, and it's just not true. And so I, I don't.

• 1:38:13Speaker 02

  I don't know if she's behind the eight ball, but I don't think she's as privileged as many people who are in Congress right now.

• 1:38:18Bill Maher?

  Is she privileged or not? She was a bartender.

• 1:38:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:38:21Bill Maher?

  You know, so I was a delivery, I was a delivery boy.

• 1:38:24Speaker 02

  But I'm saying sometimes, like, I, just Bill, like, you don't agree with, with Donald Trump's policies.

• 1:38:30Bill Maher?

  No.

• 1:38:30Speaker 02

  But that's what the people want.

• 1:38:32Bill Maher?

  Some of them.

• 1:38:33Speaker 02

  Whether you like her or not, I don't like what she did with Amazon in New York. But I think AOC is, and she's a Democratic icon.

• 1:38:40Bill Maher?

  Well, she's a wrong, if you think that's the direction, the country, the Democratic.

• 1:38:45Speaker 02

  I'm not saying the policies that she has files is that's the direction, but I'm saying that you have to give the people who are, the people who are out front speaking for the party, not the people who are.

• 1:38:54Bill Maher?

  If you think.

• 1:38:54Speaker 02

  She's evolving.

• 1:38:55Bill Maher?

  Yeah, she's evolving, as, as we all are.

• 1:38:58Speaker 02

  And she is moving into.

• 1:39:00Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 1:39:01Speaker 02

  The game a little bit more and if you notice she is sort of becoming a sort of normal kind of Democrat in many ways. I think she's a very smart tactic. She's very smart.

• 1:39:11Bill Maher?

  Let's get behind that. Another one who's doing that Gavin Newsom, who I've always been a fan of and thought always could and should be president. And then I recently had a conversation with somebody and I said, gosh, I've always been hoping Gavin would move toward the center. It doesn't seem to be happening. And then as if I had just manifested it, I see this headline somebody sent me a few days ago. Gavin Newsom name checked me in how much he wanted to, how he wanted to move.

• 1:39:40Speaker 02

  Cause he's starting a podcast.

• 1:39:42Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 1:39:42Speaker 02

  What he wants to talk to.

• 1:39:43Bill Maher?

  Talk to everybody. So I'm like,

• 1:39:48Bill Maher?

  thank you, Jesus. This is the direction we want to go with. So if you can get AOC there toward the middle, but, you know, again, for the people that come up to me, Bill, what are we gonna do? Well, you can't do much because you lost all the levers of power. What you can do, the thing that you can do, is get on your side to not look crazier than him. That's all you can do. Now go back to your $800 four plate dinner. While you're worrying about how the world is going to end.

• 1:40:21Speaker 02

  What did you say? You don't want to look as crazy as he does?

• 1:40:24Bill Maher?

  That's the, that's the only thing liberals can do. Just don't be, don't do shit that makes people go, oh, Trump, he's just crazy, but at least he doesn't. And then whatever the crazy story of the day is.

• 1:40:42Speaker 02

  So you're making my point. The other side should, I don't, I don't believe that they should not be as crazy. Why not?

• 1:40:51Bill Maher?

  Crazy in what way? Like because the guy was shaking his cane?

• 1:40:54Speaker 02

  You said the only thing that Democrats should be is not be as crazy as Donald Trump, but why not?

• 1:40:59Bill Maher?

  Not have, not, not hold policy positions and beliefs and support silly things that are crazier.

• 1:41:08Bill Maher?

  Not to give it away, but I guess it'll air before this does Friday night. My thing that I was just working on is about the Oscars. I saw it started with a.

• 1:41:19Bill Maher?

  Land acknowledgement, that's the kind of thing that makes people roll their eyes.

• 1:41:24Speaker 02

  The land acknowledgement, I missed that part, who was it?

• 1:41:26Bill Maher?

  It's like when you, whatever, you're at some place, like the Oscars, and before you can even start, you have to acknowledge that this is the land that we are standing on, that really belongs to the proud Chumash people, you know? And it's like, as I said, either give it back or shut the fuck up. So like, every day, there's some little thing like that, that the left does. And it may not be politicians. I mean, democratic politicians weren't really for defund the police, but it got out there that that was what the liberal, woke thing was. And so it just gets in people's heads. Oh, defund the police, that's not really something that's gonna help my life a lot. I mean, I know people who are very liberal, who said to me, son of Ocho,

• 1:42:13Bill Maher?

  when Trump won, "I'm not unhappy that the police are gonna get their morale back."

• 1:42:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:42:19Bill Maher?

  You know, where, you don't live here.

• 1:42:21Speaker 02

  It would be an interesting thing though.

• 1:42:22Bill Maher?

  You know, where do you live?

• 1:42:23Speaker 02

  I live in New York.

• 1:42:24Bill Maher?

  Oh, you live in New York? So, we've had a really tough time out here with not just the fires, but the crime, even before the fires.

• 1:42:31Speaker 02

  I've seen it, I'm here now.

• 1:42:32Bill Maher?

  Like, people who never, ever said, "I don't really wanna go to that restaurant."

• 1:42:39Bill Maher?

  They demure now. When you ask them to a restaurant in a part of town they consider a little too dangerous. That has, I have not witnessed that in L.A. Or they don't wear watches when they go out, you know, they're, they're.

• 1:42:54Speaker 02

  You mean in New York City?

• 1:42:55Bill Maher?

  No, here.

• 1:42:55Speaker 02

  Here?

• 1:42:56Bill Maher?

  You know. They, they don't wanna live like that. You know, where they, I mean, there's been like robberies in broad daylight on Rodeo Drive, you know? Where you just get this creepy feeling that, wow, the whole order is broken out. And we elected a very different DA here.

• 1:43:14Bill Maher?

  You know, like, we're gonna, we're gonna, crime's gonna be illegal again. Here in L.A. was basically what he ran on. So.

• 1:43:25Speaker 02

  I don't know a lot of that if I can disagree with you on, because this is where the conservative side of me comes out. Like, I think people should be tough on crime. As a someone who has witnessed one of those people running out of the CVS or the pharmacy in a big bag, it is very disconcerting, and that should not happen. I wish, I should say, I wish that would not happen, and it shouldn't happen. And so, but there are things that go beyond that, that I think about, like, how do we help this person not having to feel like they need to go to rob a place? And I think, for me, there are folks who think about those things just further, you

• 1:44:08Speaker 02

  know, beyond just like, what is the problem? But what is the solution? And I think for me, you're not gonna like this, but I think the party that's looking out for that now, whether they are terrible or doing it the wrong way, is a democratic party.

• 1:44:20Bill Maher?

  I don't disagree that we should look at the reason why that crime happens in the first place.

• 1:44:25Speaker 02

  So, I think that.

• 1:44:27Bill Maher?

  But it changes, I bet, when you have kids.

• 1:44:29Speaker 02

  But, to get around, I'm glad that, that I think L.A., you said a DA, the district attorney, right, elected a district attorney that can go up against a liberal or whatever mayor, and that they can somehow.

• 1:44:41Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:41Speaker 02

  Work it out, right? They'll meet, they'll have a consensus, and it won't be an agree fest. And so I think that that's good, actually.

• 1:44:48Bill Maher?

  Do you have kids?

• 1:44:49Speaker 02

  I don't have kids, that I know about.

• 1:44:52Bill Maher?

  Because you'd see, it would be impossible with the whole penis in the.

• 1:44:57Speaker 02

  No, no, you act like I've never been with a woman. What are you talking about?

• 1:45:00Bill Maher?

  I don't, well, I assume a gay man hasn't.

• 1:45:02Speaker 02

  No, there are different levels of gay.

• 1:45:04Bill Maher?

  Oh, so like, you were not gay for a while, like, when you were young and figuring it out?

• 1:45:10Speaker 02

  So there's like, a gay, I forget, but the, but like, the platinum is that you've never been with a woman, like, and then there, you know, there's like, a gold, a platinum, and something, I don't remember the exact things. But there are certain levels of gay.

• 1:45:21Bill Maher?

  Wow, there's so many award shows in this town. But, but what, okay, so you're, how old are you now?

• 1:45:30Speaker 02

  Should I tell my age?

• 1:45:31Bill Maher?

  You look great, so it doesn't matter, moot point.

• 1:45:33Speaker 02

  All right, I'm fifty nine years old, I just turned last week.

• 1:45:36Bill Maher?

  You look amazing.

• 1:45:36Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 1:45:37Bill Maher?

  Tell you, gay don't crack. But, um, do I have that right? Okay. No, you look amazing for that. But, so when was the last year you had sex with a woman?

• 1:45:49Speaker 02

  No, it's been since the nineties?

• 1:45:54Bill Maher?

  Okay.

• 1:45:55Speaker 02

  Early two thousands.

• 1:45:56Bill Maher?

  Okay.

• 1:45:56Speaker 02

  No, late nineties, let's put it that way. It's been a while, but I've been with women.

• 1:46:01Bill Maher?

  We'll say right around the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

• 1:46:05Bill Maher?

  Just to give a late nineties.

• 1:46:07Speaker 02

  Columbine or something like that.

• 1:46:09Bill Maher?

  I mean, blowjobs were in the news.

• 1:46:12Bill Maher?

  And you, and you were like.

• 1:46:13Speaker 02

  Hey, why not?

• 1:46:14Bill Maher?

  Right. So you weren't a kid when you completely swore off.

• 1:46:18Speaker 02

  In my twenties, I didn't swear.

• 1:46:22Bill Maher?

  The punani.

• 1:46:22Speaker 02

  The fuck. I didn't swear it off, I was just like, hey, there's something else I'd rather have, you know, the.

• 1:46:28Bill Maher?

  I honestly never understood bisexuality. I'm sure, I know it exists and I know it's, maybe it's more normal than me. I just never understood, like, eh, maybe a guy. That's, you know, again, because I'm there on the specter, I'm way over here on the spectrum. Like, again, when you're seventy and you've never been married, I've said this before, it's either because you don't like girls or you like them a lot.

• 1:46:52Speaker 02

  But I gotta tell you, I'm kinda gay and I have been with women before, but I really like being alone. Doesn't mean I don't love my marriage, but I love, I love.

• 1:47:01Bill Maher?

  So how do you handle that in a marriage?

• 1:47:02Speaker 02

  It's really tough for me. I gotta be honest, it's really tough for me.

• 1:47:06Bill Maher?

  I could not agree more.

• 1:47:07Speaker 02

  Because I'm so used to, I didn't get married until I was.

• 1:47:09Bill Maher?

  You gotta save up your charm.

• 1:47:11Speaker 02

  Fifty eight years old.

• 1:47:12Bill Maher?

  For when you see the person. You can't be charming every day of the year. You just can't.

• 1:47:17Speaker 02

  But you're, you're confirmed bachelor, you said if a guy's seventies, either gay or what did, what'd you say?

• 1:47:22Bill Maher?

  I'd say either you, either you don't like girls or you like them a lot.

• 1:47:25Speaker 02

  Yes, okay, so you're on the, I like them a lot part.

• 1:47:30Bill Maher?

  I do, I like them a lot.

• 1:47:32Speaker 02

  There could have been that element for me on the other side. That was part of it, but part of, the biggest part of it is that I liked myself and I liked being alone. I loved living alone, but I also love having a husband, but there are times when I say.

• 1:47:46Bill Maher?

  Did his family accept you readily and lovingly?

• 1:47:50Speaker 02

  You mean, did I accept them?

• 1:47:52Bill Maher?

  I mean, okay, yeah, sure, that too. I didn't, I think it was an insult to just ask that.

• 1:47:58Speaker 02

  I'm just saying, uh, yes, of course, and I would not.

• 1:48:01Bill Maher?

  No, because he's a white guy, right?

• 1:48:02Speaker 02

  I would not have expected anything else. It was just a question. But I, yeah, he's a white guy.

• 1:48:06Bill Maher?

  Okay, I'm assuming the white people are bad in that question. Okay, so I.

• 1:48:10Speaker 02

  So I'm defending my in-laws.

• 1:48:12Bill Maher?

  No.

• 1:48:12Speaker 02

  So, listen, I think, um, I think, you know, my husband is a, his family's devout Catholics. He's an Irish Catholic, church, mass, whatever. Every Sunday, like, these are really great people, like during the pandemic. One of his family members filmed the mass, because he couldn't go to church, and videotaped it, right? So they're, they're, they're, like, they're a family that is entrenched.

• 1:48:36Bill Maher?

  Well, what a good idea for a silly superstition.

• 1:48:38Speaker 02

  For a silly superstition. So, um, yeah, they accepted me. They're amazing.

• 1:48:44Bill Maher?

  That's great.

• 1:48:44Speaker 02

  They never even, I don't, look, they never said to me that they thought twice about it, but I consider them my family and I, I'm as close to them as I am my blood family.

• 1:48:54Bill Maher?

  But, I mean, if they were bigots, they'd have, like, two reasons to hate you. You know, you gotta, you gotta give them.

• 1:49:01Speaker 02

  That's a lease bill.

• 1:49:03Bill Maher?

  You gotta give them credit.

• 1:49:04Speaker 02

  Here's the weird thing, though, right?

• 1:49:05Bill Maher?

  They got past everything.

• 1:49:06Speaker 02

  The gay, black part is like the least of it. There are other things that they should be like, that guy's, fuck that guy. We don't want him going out.

• 1:49:12Bill Maher?

  Are you a lot older than your husband?

• 1:49:14Speaker 02

  I'm just, I'm making up, but like, I think the gay and the black part is like not as egregious.

• 1:49:18Bill Maher?

  What is your age difference?

• 1:49:20Speaker 02

  Uh, nineteen years, almost twenty years.

• 1:49:23Bill Maher?

  Wow, so he's seventy-eight?

• 1:49:28Bill Maher?

  Okay, all right, so twenty years. So it's okay when you do it, but I'm a pervert.

• 1:49:32Speaker 02

  What? Did you think you're a pervert?

• 1:49:34Bill Maher?

  No, but people say that when you, when you're with women who are not your age.

• 1:49:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, but who cares?

• 1:49:39Bill Maher?

  I certainly don't. If I cared, it would have been evident by now.

• 1:49:43Speaker 02

  I, I don't care. If I cared, I would not be married to who I'm married to and would not have the age difference, but.

• 1:49:48Bill Maher?

  Well, I hope the next time your, your guy is out here with you, that you'll have dinner.

• 1:49:53Speaker 02

  We'll come over. We love, we, I'm only.

• 1:49:56Bill Maher?

  Go out to a restaurant.

• 1:49:57Speaker 02

  I'm only a few blocks from you. It took me three minutes to get here.

• 1:50:00Bill Maher?

  Let's not say where I live.

• 1:50:02Speaker 02

  Oh, sorry. I mean, this is. I'm sorry, but this is Bel Air.

• 1:50:07Bill Maher?

  No, no, this is, you know, we're in the Los Angeles area. We're in an undisclosed location.

• 1:50:14Speaker 02

  Don't put that in, sorry.

• 1:50:15Bill Maher?

  Anybody can find out anything. I mean, they could have been thrown overhead in two seconds.

• 1:50:18Speaker 02

  I had seen your house online. You talked about it. You showed pictures when you couldn't get the solar panels, all kinds of shit, yeah.

• 1:50:24Bill Maher?

  Anyway, thanks, man. This was such a fun thing.

• 1:50:26Speaker 02

  Oh, my gosh, really? Did you enjoy this?

• 1:50:28Bill Maher?

  Well, we were here for like two hours, so I must have.

• 1:50:34Bill Maher?

  I can be a little, you know.

• 1:50:35Speaker 02

  What's that?

• 1:50:36Bill Maher?

  I like to.

• 1:50:36Speaker 02

  Roll it.

• 1:50:37Bill Maher?

  Come here, bring your hair. Stand up, stand up.

• 1:50:39Speaker 02

  Roll extra.

• 1:50:45Speaker 05

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• 1:50:48Speaker 03

  Nah, I got this. Hmm, okay, I don't got this.

• 1:50:54Speaker 05

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• 1:51:05Speaker 05

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• 1:51:07Speaker 04

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