Real Time with Bill Maher - Ep. #736: Erin Brockovich, Scott Galloway, Peter Hamby

Episode Date: August 1, 2026

Bill’s guests are Erin Brockovich, Scott Galloway, Peter Hamby (Originally aired 7/31/26) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late-night series Real Time with Bill Maugh. Vacation we just had a break. I had a crazy break. I got to say, I'll tell you one thing. I had Mitch McConnell can party. The rest of it is a blur. All I know is I'm married to Taylor Swift now.

I don't know how it happened. No, I kid. Well, while we were off, only a month. But lots of change in the Republican Party, Lindsey Graham dropped dead. You know this. Mitch McConnell also died, but he still wanders the earth. But not Lindsey Graham, you know, and look, you say what you want about him.

You had a funeral the other day, National Cathedral, world leaders showed up. It is not often a senator gets that kind of a send-off. And just, I must say, on a personal note, looking for common ground, you know, with Lindsay. But we both made it to 70 without getting married. we took slightly different pathways but I'm just saying we both made it to 70 but you know Lindsay was kind of the Trump whisper you know he really was the guy

the Senate they said they're going to miss him for that because and boy Trump needs it because the poll numbers are not good 73% of Americans say Trump has not paid enough attention to the important problems I guess somebody missed the fireworks thing on 4th of July I know what people mean

Because while we were off, did you see this? Trump gave a big speech About the election. The 2020 election. Oh, for fuck's sake. You know, you fucked a porn star, Melania didn't hold this much of a grudge. A kid.

Always with love. But I'm so glad we're back. And, you know, midsummer, it's hot out there. And summer's tricky now, you know? You want to get a good tan, but not so good you get picked up. by ice. Speaking of that,

you think we have immigration problems? Did you see what happened in Spain yesterday? 60,000 people in one day bum rushed the border and got through.

And this is amazing. And this poor Spain, at the same time, they're having horrible fires. Spain is the new California. There it is. The northern part is on fire. The southern part

gets overrun by migrants and everybody speaks Spanish. It's the new California A week kid A couple of pretty important milestones happened while we were off The Iran War is now six months old

Trump says please Keep it in perspective It hasn't taken nearly as long As Vietnam or Korea Or getting home from Troy Have you seen the Odyssey? Amazing Hollywood has a movie

This big people going to sit at 2 in the morning This is awesome And if you haven't seen it It's about a serial adulter who gets stuck in a war that takes forever. Trump calls it the feel-good movie of the Senate. Okay, so... Where are we with the war,

since our last show was June 26th. Where are we? Well, we won many times. We've won many times, and we're still fighting. It got nasty this week. Trump said, and I'm quoting this directly, he said, we're going to be hitting them hard because it's our turn to hit them.

I'd like to point out this is exactly the argument I used against my sister in 1967. Exactly. It is my turn. Trump's very mad now because Iran fired missiles and now they hit two of our tankers. I mean, it's one thing to fire on the troops, but not the oil.

Oh, another milestone. This is pretty big. More people now in this country use marijuana on a daily basis than use alcohol or cigarettes. Unfortunately, no one told Tony Roma. Okay, and one other minor story, AI has escaped containment, gone rogue, stopped caring what we tell it to do, and it's going to kill us all. But on the bright side, they have developed AI holograms of deceased people.

You know, your loved ones, there they are now. It's a way to deal with grief and also a way so Mitch McConnell can keep voting. Well, the first time she is a consumer advocate, environmental activity. and founder of the Brockovich report on substack, Aaron Brockovich. There you are. Still a big star. How are you?

I'm good. Nice to see you. Because we remember what you did with the environment and stopping people from poisoning the water. And that's it. But, you know, that was one environment. We always have environmental issues that you are always into.

You were all environmental issues. And, I mean, I get to go up just off the top of my head, the ocean. I mean, we have other things going on now, but these things haven't gone away. What we're doing to the ocean, bad air, the ice is melting. This is still going on, species extinction. But now we have this new one, AI, and your new issue is data centers. So tell us what we should be thinking about data centers, and why are people pissed off about them?

So it was unintended. I woke up one morning, and I had three emails from the same community out of Pennsylvania. and they were talking about data centers. And it felt like kind of a moment where I was back in Hinkley and you're looking at something or seeing something or hearing something, and you're like going, I don't know, what is this? That's not right.

So I started researching data centers. Well, I... What did the email say? Well, so they were concerned about these data centers that were being placed in their backyards. Why? So, well, because these big data centers have to feed AI the beast.

So we've always had data centers. They're generally smaller... It wasn't matter if I live next door to one. Oh, well, because they're very destructive. So a lot of these facilities aren't small. They're big. There's 2,000 acres, 3,000 acres, 4,000 acres. So one of the first things that people were reporting to me

in those specific 30 emails was everything was done under a non-disclosure agreement. Everything. Everything. at the city council level, I'm like, that's really odd. So for me, I wanted to see the bigger picture. Where were these data centers? So I created a map, brocovichdata center.com.

The first day it crashed twice, and by day three, every single state in the United States and America was reporting to me. Isn't that ironic? I mean, that's why we're building data centers. Because people use this shit so much if they didn't, if they weren't looking at videos of a raccoon every day. Yeah, yeah. I'm not saying we should stop. I'm just saying... You're not arguing that we don't need the data centers.

It's just... No, what I've read is that people are pissed off because you live next door to something that is always humming and light, even at night. Sounds like a spaceship. Yeah. Maybe it is a spaceship.

Well, it's very disturbing to them, and I get it. And it's the whole country. And I now have nine other countries reporting. Look, we need our natural resources. We need our water. We need our land. We need our air.

We need our food. We worry about our health. And with these big super AI data centers, it's risking and taking all of that. It's taking land masses. It's taking farmland. It's taking water consumption. People are losing their wells. We definitely have enough land.

I mean, they are big. I mean, they're building one now. I read $500 billion. $500 billion to, that's a piece of infrastructure we're talking about. But this is the data center is the infrastructure of AI. And we're not turning our back on AI. No, that genie's left the bottom. I wish we could.

And, you know, we can talk about how scary it is or not, whatever it is. But it's not going away. Right. It can't because we don't control it anymore. Ha, ha, ha. No, really? I'm going to talk about this with the panel, but this is the moment in every space movie

where the alien, bad idea to bring it on board, but they do. Gets out. Right. And now it's escaped containment. Right. Okay. But your issue is just what people,

I want to understand why people are pissed off. No, it's on a, like, local level. It's because you are living next to something, just like you would at a power plant, that you can hurt you. On a bigger level, yes, the complaint is that it uses too much water. It takes an incredible amount of water to cool these incredible giant supercomputers that they use. I don't think it's the land.

We have the land. I don't know why we're putting them in places like near Louisiana, near cities. Why don't we build them in our 51st state where it's cold? Well, absolutely. And they are building them in absolute wrong places. They're building them on drought-restricted land. and our water is very precious to us, but you're talking they're building

in these very rural areas of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, some of your finest farmland, some of your finest cattle, all of that that matters to every one of us. So it's a really big deal if you're taking their water, their land, their sanctuary, their natural environment, they're worried about their health.

It's extraordinarily disruptive. Okay, but to put it in, perspective because I was reading about the water thing also for for weeks, months, and then somebody put it out, and it's true, golf uses way more. Right. Golf and fucking raising, what are we, almonds is the thing we raise here. Like almonds and golf, I'm against both of them. I'm definitely against golf.

I'm not against almonds. I'm against raising them where we don't have water to do it. Right, correct. So we are, and it's like seven times the amount of water is being used on golf courses. Right. So maybe the issue itself is water? Well, you have to look at the golf courses and its water usage compared to smaller or medium-sized data centers. You can go look this stuff up all day long. Because the bigger data centers that we're talking about, an average golf course could use 500 million gallons average a year.

But these super AI data centers can go up to 1.5 billion gallons of water per year. So that's kind of an illusion to say that golf courses use more. If you're going to compare it to a smaller, medium-sized data center, great question, good argument. But if you're going to talk about these super data centers, it's not the same. It's going to be more water consumption. Yeah, I mean, it always makes me think of the bigger questions that are looming that I don't think ever get addressed. For example, water itself.

I keep reading that we're running out of water, just water that we need here in big cities because we build them in places where the water doesn't flow naturally. So we're fighting with Nevada and Arizona from this river and this river. We tap the groundwater to the point where that's depleted.

Correct. And yet so many people say these days, we've got to be having more babies. We are not having enough babies. People get to fucking... I mean, I don't get it. I don't get the cognitive dissonance. You do know when you have more babies,

they're going to need more resources. Can we fit them on the planet? Yes, we can fit them. But there's only so much water, and that's not... Yes, and I think that's what people are worried about. Listen, I'm working with them. I'm going to be down in all these communities. I'm hearing from every one of them.

I'm hearing from city council members, mayor members, legislative. They don't know. what are we supposed to, what's happening here because nobody knew what was happening. But what I'm watching with the American people, Bill, is something I've never seen in my 30 years. We are dealing with as pretty close to a bipartisan issue as I've ever seen regarding these data centers, not AI itself, the data centers. Some places have outlawed them, right? Absolutely. New York has banned it. When I first started this, we had 79 municipalities,

that had moratoriums or bans? Right, New York banned it, so they're not going to have to live next. But my guess is they're going to be using what the data centers produce. Okay, so it's just one of those not in my backyard issues, isn't it? Everybody's a hypocrite. Oh, we can't have it, but I will use it. Well, yes, first of all, data centers need to be placed somewhere else, not in rural lands that are jeopardized or are taking farmland or jeopardizing our

water or actually jeopardizing people's sanctuary. You know, we're entitled to that. We're entitled to show up to these city councils that we've been completely blocked out of. And what I'm observing with the people is there's a shift happening out there. And you've cornered them enough. We could have all these conversations, but at the end of the day, you're jeopardizing every resource that's valuable and meaningful to them.

And so they're showing up in big opposition like I, never seen before. And so there's a movement happening around out there with the people. It sounds like it's going to be awesome when Julia Roberts plays you in this middle. Thank you. Bill!

Let's see you. Evan Brockettish, ladies and gentlemen. Let's meet our panel. The Chief National Correspondent at Puck and host of the Powers That Be podcast, Peter Hamby is over here. Peace. We'll see you again.

and he is a professor at NYU Stern School of Business podcast host to say the least and author of the book Notes on Being a Man, Scott Galloway, our friend, you see. Thank you. All right, so let me pick up on the AIA discussion. I mean, I'm sure there's many issues that people think are more important. I feel like if I look back in time, I would be remiss if I didn't go, oh, you know what? The big issue that week really was that A.A.

AI escaped containment. I mean, this is what I keep hearing. That first it was OpenAI. That's JetGBT. They announced that. That's Sam Altman's company. That it got out. It got out and started hacking other companies that it wasn't supposed to do that.

And then Anthropic, they said, okay, also, we were testing it, and it got out. And, again, this escaped containment, this going rogue. Sam Altma used the term singularity. I remember when Ray Kurzweil predicted singularity. would happen, I think, in 2028. This guy's unbelievable. Now, he defined it as when we and robots, machines sort of became the same thing. We were just mixed all together. It's part of that. Sam says A.A.A. has become, I'm paraphrasing, it's when AI has become smarter than us and begins improving itself at a rate that we can't control. Are we there? Am I panicking for no reason?

I the thing that intrigues me about Sam Altman when he says these things and it's a question of trust with him

I think he's giving us updates in real time like the current models are the frontier models that's what they call

them we're in the frontier right now and it feels like every other week Sam Altman comes out and says oops

something bad happened it could be a trust and safety issue it could be that some weird company got and was using

their API to create some creepy sex bot It could be that their model they were testing escaped the sandbox. By the way, he was saying Sam, with this specific case, the model leapt into Hugging Face, another AI platform, that this was so powerful it escaped containment.

It's also possible that they were rushing this model and testing it and were being sloppy. Like, I just think with Sam Altman opening eye specifically, we could be in singularity, or he could just be in a permanent PR hype cycle where he's talking about all the crazy things they're doing slash cleaning up whatever mess they've made every day. It's really unclear, and I think this is why President Trump won't do this,

but I think we're going to get to the point where there will be some federal architecture regulating AI companies because we can't just let these masters of the universe hoard all of this information that could be hugely destructive. Sounds to me like it's already too late for that. Yeah, but what you're talking about, this was more Jurassic Park than... sky net. Someone left the door open. And that it's not sentience, it's competence. And while this

AI tried to go places it wasn't supposed to go, I don't think that's the threat. I think there's a lot of AI catastrophizing that is essentially fundraising. That look at how powerful my technology is, but invest in my company so I can sell shares and piece out to co-desure with Russian horse. Excuse me for saying that. That's not especially helpful. The bigger threat of AI, in my view, is that our economy has become so incredibly concentrated on a small number of companies. 40% of the S&P, 73% of earnings growth, 93% of our GDP is based on the capax of AI, that if these things fail, America has become a giant bet on AI. And look at what China's doing.

China is doing the equivalent of steel dumping, but with AI. They are dumping cheap LLMs. What? Cheap what? So basically, they're dumping cheap AI into the, United States. Eight percent of token usage, which is a measurement for how much AIs we used, was from Chinese LLMs. What's an LLM? My mother's... Arthropic, Chad GBT. What? ChatGT, they're called large language models,

where you use to access AI, and tokens are the level of usage. Eight percent of it in January 2025 came from Chinese models. Now it's 58%. Basically, Beijing is doing to Silicon Valley, what Tokyo did to Detroit. But they've done it. in 20 weeks versus 20 years. And that could crash the economy. So not good news. It's just where I just... Okay.

Let me move on to something more pedestrian. We have to talk about Dr. Fauci. You know, and it's a shame that when COVID came, we were already past the point in this country where anything could be discussed without partisanship entering it, or other. head into the debate, and we see that now. He was brought before Congress, Rand Paul, who, by the way, was always a libertarian, and yet he released Dr. Fauci's personal diary. By the way,

Rand Paul, next week, I'm going to tear you a new asshole for that. And, okay, but you just put out my things on this, and then you can tell me I'm right or wrong. Anyway, for Rand Paul to be saying Fauci's responsible? for every death. Can you just not always go full asshole, everybody? Could you... I don't blame... Fauci took the fifth to every question

he was asked this week. I don't blame him. Because it was an expedition to try to get him to commit perjury in some way. You know, a pandemic is the fog of war. You know, did he lie? He absolutely did. We absolutely caught him in lies.

Which I've said all along. Okay. But, you know what? people sometimes lie to stop people from panicking or whatever. It's not right, and maybe there should be some repercussions. We've got to stop putting people in jail for everything. Okay. The other thing is releasing the diary,

it is the most embarrassing public releasing of anything since Anthony Weiner put out a picture of his dick next to a baby. And like, he's just so susceptible to flattery. And for the people who say, you know, Trump, you know, he just lives by people. kissing his ass. I got some of the this is from Fauci's diary compared to some of the things Trump

has said. Trump, a strong man came up to me, tough kind of a guy. He said, I want to thank you, Mr. President. He had tears coming in his eyes. Fauci. The nurses went absolutely wild to see me. They were squilling and laughing and clapping. It was something to behold. Trump, I've been on the

cover of Time magazine 14 or 15 times. I think we have an all-time record. Fauci, many print profiles and features on me. Ridiculous. Too many to count. Fauci, I'm such a valued spokesperson and a good communicator. Trump, I have a very good brain. So I'm just saying

this kind of stuff is dangerous because he was having his ass kissed by one side in the debate and I think he made decisions based on that. Do you agree? I think it clearly went to his head. Fouchi had been in Washington for decades and was a frontline leader on AIDS and HIV research. And, and

and became a hero during COVID, which we all remember. And by the way, this whole thing is a statement against the notion of putting partisanship in your personal politics ahead of facts, evidence, logic, even intuition. How many people who had Ruth Bader Ginsburg merch in their house? Like, had ever read an RBG dissent? You know, Fauci became this liberal figure, even though, as you said, we were in the fog of war. And, you know, we lived through this in California where the beaches were closed,

even though the beaches were actually, like, that was a good place to go. The best. People were shamed for going to the beaches, and, like, there's hypocrisy all around. I will say, unlike you two, I lived in Washington for a good long time. I had been to these parties that Anthony Fauci was going to,

where he was calling A-list. He was going to A-list parties, and he was so giggly. He was hanging out with, like, Mark Warner and, like, Andrea Mitchell. Like, these parties, and this is D.C., right? And I'm a former high school nerd. All these nerds come together in this town and I live there and

you just pat each other on the back and you're so flattered. I will say to his credit, we're talking about AI. I kind of, you know, the diaries were a little very cringe. But at least you know, he's keeping journals in the year of our Lord 2020. Good for him for writing. He was also getting...

He was also getting texts from celebrities. Julia Roberts There are actual celebrities. No city is more susceptible to flattery from famous and important people, attractive people, celebrities than Washington, D.C.

They love it. Anyone who's been to the White House correspondent there knows that. And Senator Paul, who filibustered the Patriot Act for 10 hours complaining it was a surveillance state, is fine with a surveillance state when he's holding a flashlight.

Right. This diary was more of vanity than villainy. And what you have, when you constantly, when you threaten 85-year-old public servants and disparage our institutions, you end up with cyclospora outbreaks where literally 45 states are shitting themselves.

And the bumper sticker... Instead of having a thoughtful conversation around biosafety, we gave Republicans a TikTok to raise money. The bumper sticker American needs isn't prosecute Fauci. It's prevent fucking measles. On this topic, But Annenberg, people, the public's approval rating of Anthony Fauci has declined over the recent years since COVID, since the height. Annenberg did this study last year, a poll where they asked people, what do you think about the CDC?

What do you think about your personal physician? What do you think about Anthony Fauci? 56% of the country still supports, likes, and believes Anthony Fauci as a leader in health. And they also compare them to RFK Jr., who was down, like, at the bottom, or Dr. Oz. Like, people think RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz are jokes. They still trust Anthony Fauci, Americans. Okay, but having said that, he was caught in actual lies. He was telling people, and the big issue to me is the origin of this, which is very important.

How did it start? And he was telling people up front when it first began. It was from the wet markets. It could not. That's a conspiracy theory, if you say it, escape from the lab. And he knew better because we have. him in his diary telling us what he was saying to other scientists who were saying, no, absolutely.

And the real issue here is the gain of function research. And again, if we weren't so partisan, we could just say gain of function research, Obama told him not to do it. I would always have said, don't do it. But it's a viable debate. It's a reasonable debate. Should we soup up something that's bad, this bacteria, to study it? Maybe if it got out, it would be even worse.

I think that's what did happen. We could have had that debate in a rational way. We didn't want to do that. Because why? Because we make everything about race. And this is one of the repercussions in this. You couldn't say it escaped from the lab because that was the racist point of view somehow,

that the entire Asian continent would have been somehow complicit in this because it escaped from it. It was ridiculous, but that is where they went. You were racist if you said this escape from a lab. I think we've morphed from a place where we want to, you know, obviously not be prejudiced against anybody to where people of color can never do any wrong. An Asian, something couldn't have escaped from an Asian lab. It was ridiculous.

There should. The possibility that it escaped from a Chinese lab or was weaponized, was within the realm of possibility even at the time and should be debiliped. The racism went the other way, too. I mean, Donald Trump called it the Kung flu. People here in Los Angeles, Asian folks were being assaulted across the country. Gun purchases by Asian Americans went through the roof because they were scared of the backlash from the coronavirus. Well, I mean, it was called a flu after where it came from, as has every flu and disease throughout our history.

West Nile. I mean, I could name all of them Spanish flu. They just do that. Yes, Trump, of course, made it worse. Duh. But if you look at, like, the number of Asian hate crimes, I mean, it went up a certain percentage

because it was a small number and then it went up, but it wasn't, it did not need to have us thrown off course this much, is my point, by getting to something that killed millions of people. But we started talking about Fauci. I think the tens of millions of people who are still alive because of PEPFAR and the millions of people

who are able to go HIV negative including my oldest son's godparent give him a hall pass on this one. I think there's a lot of public officials who have served our country much less effectively and nobly than an 85-year-old Anthony. Yeah, a bunch of which you put him in jail.

Okay, moving on to something else, very important. Raccoons have been on my mind. What? Wait, I think you're way ahead of me. We're talking about Jimothy. You know who Jimothy is? He is the... Oh, this is... What a story. He's this raccoon. There he is, Jimothy. He's in the Seattle area. Yes, he has a spinal deformity. And so people have really taken to heart. I mean, he's just a viral sensation. He's been beloved in the Seattle area. I mean, you could... Even the Mariners had a night for Jimothy. and I think we love him because this plucky scavenger just keeps going. You know, I think he's a hero to me. And yet, you know what happens when someone's a hero in this country?

We build him up and then we got to tear him down. And that, yeah, the haters come out of the woodwork, and that's what happened with poor Jimothy. They got a hold of his old tweets. And while some of them haven't aged well, and some of them are bad because he's a raccoon. Would you like to hear some of the... Okay, these are some of a...

Well, some of them are not going to be... It may not be politically correct. Like, here, one of us, Sidney Sweeney, I wouldn't mind knocking over those cans. Hot tip, want to get laid? Take your girl to eat out of Bill Cosby's garbage. Raccoons were in North America three million years before the white man.

I don't hear anyone acknowledged stealing my land. Doesn't have to be garbage, but Ariana Grande should eat something. Oh, Jimothy. Jimothy. I can't stand all the flopping in soccer. If I want to watch someone play dead, I'll fuck a pasa. Chicago-style pizza can go fuck itself.

Oh, I guess he must have gotten a bed. Defund animal control. Unpopular opinion. Some babies deserve rabies. Oh, Jimothy. There are things worse than dying, like dying and having D. Crocket wear your asshole on his head. Is it me or has J.D. Vans totally stolen my love? I mentioned in the monologue, a lot of benchmarks we've passed, little things that are changing in America.

More people smoke pot. It's great. Here's a big one. We are now in a place in this country where gambling. We spend more money gambling than on everything else combined. movies, TV, music, books, theater, museums. Well, I never spent a lot of money at a museum. Okay, but all of it combined, not as... I mean, this is... In my lifetime, gambling has gone from a place where you did it

in one place in America, Nevada. You could do it in one place to... Now, it's so ubiquitous. First of all, it's ruining sports, but I know, as I always say when you're on the show, you think a lot about young boys. And it is mostly a disease of young men. Over 50% of people under 50 have a account, have a gambling account.

And, I mean, the floodgates opened in 2018 when the Supreme Court said that we could do this. We could have this kind of online gambling and sports gambling. I think that's going to look worse than the Citizens United decision. Yeah. Maybe worse than the one where he said the president could. do anything if it's a really bad decision and now this is the world we're living in.

I think that sports gambling is one thing. There's Draft Kings, Fandul, MGM, whatever, and obviously they're all in bed now with the leagues and they're advertising on ESPN because everyone there understands that more people will watch for longer periods of time, the NBA, NFL,

whatever, if they have some skin in the game. I do think we have to talk about the idea of friction, though, and we have to talk about the prediction markets as a huge piece of this. You have to be 18 years old to join Kalshi, which is where you can put prediction markets and bids down on sports,

but they say it's not gambling. But anything, right? You can bet on politics. You can bet on what Tim Cook will say on an earnings call. You can bet on a Democratic primary in New Jersey. And then Polly Market is even more of the Wild West. You can gamble on war. They say it's not gambling.

They say that it is a financial advice. the wisdom of the crowds. You know, it's a way for us to understand what the American people are thinking or whatever. It's not age-gated to 21. It's 18. 44 attorneys general in this country call it illegal and illegal sports book.

90% of it is sports gambling. You know, Pizza Hut can go out and say, they can put chicken wings on the menu and say we're a chicken restaurant. It's pizza hut. Like, this is gambling and it's legalized. And I will say this. I'm pro vice.

like drinking, fun, whatever, Provites. There's something to be said for friction. Like, there's something to be said for the fact that if you are a young man in this country on a college campus, you can't just go get Zinn, Adderall, Celsius, spend all your time on social media, gambling. Like, I hate to sound like a carmugn, old millennial, but, you know, back in my day,

you had to, like, ride your bike down the street to, like, you know, maybe go in your friend's dad's liquor cabinet or whatever. It's so easy to do all of these things now. And again, being pro-vice, when you look at the full spectrum of access that young men and, by the way, young women, gambling on calcium putting prediction market bets on who's getting voted off Love Island. It's not just young men. You know, it's adding to our screen time, and I don't think it's a net positive for society. That's my obvious statement.

3% of Americans say they have a gambling problem. It's 10% of men under the age of 30. Gambling, more than any other addiction, has the highest suicide rate, states to legalize gambling see an uptick of 30% in bankruptcy. The message I would have for young men is around risk adjustment.

You need to take less risk on a screen and more risk off a screen. Don't retweet your aunt's conspiracy theory, show up to your aunt's place, and help her move. Don't watch as much... I'm not done. Don't watch as much.

porn, don't swipe right, approach a woman at a bar in a Starbucks line, learn how to express romantic interest while making her feel safe and get used to know because that's what you need to get to a great yes. Don't ship post someone online who has different political views than you. Vote. Don't gamble. Gamble with your person. Show up for jobs you're not qualified for. Apply to college. that you aren't qualified to get into. This, I use this as a prop. This is a casino with different games.

If you play it long enough, you're always going to lose. In real life, in relationships, in friendships, and friendships, and taking risks, you play this game long enough, you're going to win. Less risk online, more risk offline. I'm glad you draw that line from gambling to not getting laid. It's true, because I think you're right. To me, it's the psychological damage of thinking that life is this fatalistic. Now, whenever I read about Gen X, I mean Gen Z these days, it seems like a lot of them think the game is rigged.

We can't get ahead. The other generations took all the good stuff. We're left with the crumbs. We might as well gamble. And yet, I read in the paper last week that more businesses applied for, new businesses, applied for licenses. than any time since they've been keeping record, 5.7 million applications for new businesses. So that's part of AI.

Part of that as big as AI makes starting a business easier. But part of it is just we still live in America. And kids, you still can get ahead. You're right. Get off the phone. Get off, stop, damn it. That's a lot of businesses that people, because for all the bad in America,

I know we're terrible, terrible, terrible. But it is still a place that people come to, because if you get an idea, if you see a niche in the market that needs to be filled, you can do something about it. Now, most businesses fail, but a lot of them don't. Yeah, but the number one key to the probably the, quote-unquote, crisis among young men, is helping young men recognize and acknowledge they have more agency than most young men throughout history. And just attaching it back to sex again, the thing I hate most is the in-sell movement,

involuntarily celibate. Well, spoiler alert, 99% of men through 99% of history have been involuntarily. in celibate. I was involuntarily celibate for the first 19 years of my life. And only 40% of men have reproduced throughout history, 80% of women. Men don't have a birthright to reproduce. But here's the thing. If you try hard, if you level up, if you get in shape, if you get a job, if you have a kindness practice, if you're willing to take risks, you are going to do something wonderful. And that has become involuntarily or voluntarily insolibate. Men have more agency than they've ever.

ever had and it's up to them. Get out there. Welcome to the work week. It is hard to get late and women force you to be better men and there's nothing wrong with that. Get out there take a way. I have a story. You have a personal story? You want to hear a personal story? Yeah, yeah. I mean you were inspired by his speech about getting laid. Let's hear your story. I'm married. I was on a bachelor party at the Alabama Tennessee game in Tuscaloosa last year for my friend. No raccoon. My buddy Easton's bachelor party, a bunch of guys

who are playing beer pong tailgating. They'd never been to an SEC tailgate. We go in the stadium. We have a bunch of booze left over. No one's drinking it because we've got to go in the stadium. There's a University of Tennessee sorority visiting tailgating next to us. I go over to them and I say, hey, y'all,

we're going into the game. Do you guys want this? Like, I'm not hitting on you, whatever. These young women were like, thank you for talking to us. We've been standing here this whole time, not like necessarily looking at our group, but just like they validated what Scott is saying in real life. That's why I think it's a valuable anecdote.

They're saying it's a lot of men, a lot of our fellow valls in Tennessee, don't come up and talk to us. No one flirts with us. They don't come to bars. Look, I assume the data is there to back that up, but it was striking to see that in real life. And they were just very grateful, not for the booze, just that we came over and said, hi.

And that was like a shock to them. And that also shocked me. So the upshot of the story is you actually could have gotten laid. A lesson I would pass on to the young Tennessee valls out there. We're going to run out of time before I do. Congratulations are in order to you, Mr. Scott Galloway, because I heard that you have been appointed to the Board of Regents of the California school system here. Governor Newsom did that?

Governor Newsom did that? Yeah. Governor Newsom did that, went to school down the street, 74% admissions rate of UCLA when I applied, raised by single immigrant mother, lived and died of secretary. The thing that changed my life was California taxpayers from the regents of UC. So it's a big honor for me.

And you still teach at a four degree? Are colleges the hotbed of indoctrination as we hear, or are they better than we hear? I think they're better than you hear. It's not indoctrination that's the threat. It's homogenization, and that is four out of five faculty members say a conservative member wouldn't fit in. And I think that we're doing a disservice to young people, whether they adopt a progressive ideology or not, of not providing them with thoughtful opposition that helps them be more critical thinkers.

And one of the more dangerous things... Aren't you just describing indoctrination in a different way? If there is no balance of thought... We need balance. And even more than that, we need... to teach young people that if someone doesn't believe in your political views, it doesn't mean they're morally inferior to you. Right.

I think our job is not to create woke stuff, it's to create warriors. Well said, and congratulations on the appointment. We need you out here. All right, time for new rules. You know that the Air Force One that Trump got from Qatar has cost $400 million to spruce up and still can't fly overseas because it's not as safe as the old one. I have one piece of advice for the president.

If a guitar wants to give you a great big wooden horse, say no. Speaking of which, New Rule, now that obsessive fanboys are selling out around-the-clock showings of the Odyssey, someone has to tell them there's a slight difference between Odysseus and you. He had a woman at home. Tonight for men. New Rule, since the two big stories of the summer were that America is running out of explosives, and Americans all have explosives. of diarrhea.

Stop building bombs to drop on Iran. Drop lettuce. New Rule, stop getting into fights with ChatGPT. Jesus, when it's not kissing your ass, people are yelling at it. And I do mean it. You're yelling at glass and plastic.

It's like bumping into your coffee table and saying, you know what, let's take this outside. New Rule, if you must go to a funeral, avoid saying he would have wanted it that way. It's such a tired old platitude that dismisses valid feelings of pain.

That being said, Lindsay Graham's coffin being carried into the rotunda by a group of men who look a lot like the village people, he would have wanted it that way. And finally, new old Donald Trump has told one trillion lies, but when he says the Democratic Socialists of America are actually communist, that's not one of them. and it's not hard to prove it

just by quoting the DSA and their candidates. It gives me no pleasure to have to do this. I'd much rather keep going the good vibes for my summer vacation. I had an awesome one, by the way. I totally got a girlfriend at Bible camp. However, right before we left,

Vice President J.D. Vance was on the show, and I told him that if the Democratic Party keeps going in the direction of the DSA, my vote was in play. And all I heard all vacation, it's, oh my God, you're a Republican now. No, that's not what I said. I said in play. And here's why.

Because not a week goes by where I don't read about some newly chosen, exciting new face in the Democratic Party. And then when that face opens its mouth, the Communist Manifesto or some other crazy shit comes out. Again, let's just read the quotes. The DSA platform says, your work. You work as much as you are able and no more than needed. If that was any closer to Karl Marx's dictum from each according to his abilities to each according to his needs, they'd be sued for plagiarism. Not to leave any doubt, New York Mayor Mandani once tweeted Karl Marx's words,

Exactly. They're not trying to hide it. Their most popular influencer, Hassan Piker, thinks communism is so groovy. He laments the fall of the two of the most murray. murderous regimes in history, the Soviet Union and Chairman Mao's China. Mandami's aide, his top aide, Cia Weaver said, if you don't believe in the government's sacred right to seize property, it's over, and impoverished the white middle class. What? That's a goal?

You know you're supposed to scare people into voting for you, right? One of the new, soon-to-be Democratic Congresspeople, Darleesia Chavallier, supports seizing all properties from landlords and said seize the means of production. Mendami has said the end goal is seizing the means of production. I think they want to seize the means of production. Now maybe you miss that in school or missed school altogether, but that's communism.

That's communism, which we tried, and it doesn't work. Parties can change sometimes, you know. You have to keep up. Who freed the slaves? Republicans, Lincoln, Democrats were the racist party back then. But then JFK got elected and it switched. The DSA itself has switched, even five years ago. It shunned communists.

That changed. Things change. Now the coalition within the DSA called the Marxist Unity Group is in ascendance, and I must take them at their word when their words include our commitment is to the long-term struggle for a fully liberated, classless society in a word communism. What do they have to do? Tweet out, elect more communists? Oh, yeah, see, a weaver did that. Yes.

Good, I'm glad you're shot. People got to realize this is going on. Yes, my vote is in play. I'm not voting for anyone who thinks the wrong side won the Cold War or cheers for the Intifada like it's the World Cup. It's so ironic from the people who obsess about colonization. You know what's being colonized now? The Democratic Party.

Last month, two Democratic congressmen released an open pledge. They wanted their fellow Democratic members to sign. It said, we are capitalist, not socialist. We want safety, not lawlessness. We are proud, not ashamed of America. These should not be hard words for a congressional Democrat to sign on to. You know how many did?

Eight. Eight out of a two hundred and twelve. Guys, really, there's got to be an easier way to lose the swing states. And no, this nonsense is not where most democratic politicians are right now, but it's also becoming a raging fire festival in the party that neither is anyone putting out. People are actually getting elected now who literally don't think we should have police

or prisons or borders. And again, they're not lying about who they are. The media is. Ask Ms. Chevalier about the border. She says, yes, literally abolish the border. You know, if you call a woman a whore and everyone gasps, and then the woman says, oh, no, he's right, I'm literally a prostitute.

This crowd literally wants to get rid of our form of government, the Senate, but also, and I quote, replace the president and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress. Yeah, no biggie. Just taking the very essence of our government with just three branches checking each other and shit-cannning two and a half of them.

Who could be this nuts? I'll tell you who. who are still wearing COVID masks in 2026. This photo is from the DSA meeting in Denver three weeks ago. Okay, I'm just going to say it. Since the far left, the far far left, is overwhelmingly made up of affluent, ultra-woke, white people,

you raised your kids wrong. You told your precious brats that every brain fart was genius, and now those brain farts are becoming Democratic Party pop. Francesca Hong, yet another major Democratic candidate who's all in on abolishing, abolishing the police, and is running for governor of Wisconsin says, I think that my perfect world would be a world without prisons, because we all see the humanity in one another, and then we know nobody's disposable. Well, murder victims are.

I mean, if you heard this kind of nonsense coming out of the mouth of a teenage beautiful, Queen, it would be an eye roll. No wonder that the most true blue Democrat ever, James Carville says, there's just some shit I can't be in the same tent with. Yeah, Carville said, I'm done.

I'm not in that fucking political party. Now, Gavin Newsom disagrees. He says he's good with it because the party is a big tent. Well, you know what else you're finding a tent? Clowns. It's so funny. So many liberals shit themselves every time

Trump puts gold on something in the Oval Office. Oh, it's historic. And the separation of powers isn't? Get your head out of your ass. I would vote for Sarah Palin before this shit. She's a bimbo, but if you asked her to come up with something she likes about America, she could do it. You bet you.

But random drops every Monday on YouTube. This guy will be on it soon or less than wherever you get your podcast. Now go watch overtime on YouTube. Thank you, people. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10. Or watch them anytime on HBO on demand. For more information, log on to HBO.com. Larry David is back in the new HBO Original Limited series.

What a pleasure to be a part of such a historic occasion. Life, Larry, and the pursuit of unhappiness and almost history of America. This is a declaration of common sense. Those who don't know history. You are the world's worst butter churner! Are doomed to watch Larry David repeat it. What the hell is going on here? Watch Life Larry in the Pursuit of Unhappiness.

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