Real Time with Bill Maher - Ep. #743: Andrew Huberman, Jonathan Swan, James Kirchick

Episode Date: September 26, 2026

Bill’s guests are Andrew Huberman, Jonathan Swan, James Kirchick (Originally aired 9/25/26) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I saw my friend on the other side of the street. I was heading to school with the kids. I let go of mom's hand to wave. I had already forgotten their lunches. I ran over to hug her. She came out of nowhere. And then... It stopped.

Sometimes the moments that never happen matter most. Volvo's automatic emergency braking helps ensure a safe ending for everyone. Learn more at VolvoCars.a.com. Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late-night series, Real Time with Bill Maugh. News, Trump is back on TV. Did you see what happened this week? First, he got a very man at the press. He threw CNN, MS now on Politico, out of the White House.

And then all the other networks in solidarity, including Fox News. This is pretty interesting. In solidarity, he said, well, we're not going to cover him at all either. So no one was covering him. And then a judge saved Trump's ass from the worst fate he could have. which is not being covered, and made them go back. And now the press is back at the White House,

and Trump was like, fine, First Amendment, whatever you got me. And they get back in there and report on me so I can sue you. They didn't really take this lying down at the White House. The White House has introduced a new app called Trump TV, which countries that are, shall we say, not democracies, would call state TV. Really? So we have that now. State TV, our top stories tonight, gas prices are down, and Iran is begging for a deal.

Speaking of state TV, a guy who does it really well, President Xi of China, he was here all week. Have you seen that? Oh, yes, he came in, landed on a big, beautiful new plane. Trump went out and gritty. Is this for me? They, of course, had a big banquet. Xi didn't eat much. He was very full from eating our lunch. This should have been the AI-souye. summit. Because here, finally, we had all in one room the two most powerful leaders in the world with AI, Xi and Trump. Plus, at the dinner, Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Hong from Navity. All these people,

Tim Cook, head of Apple, sat next to China's first lady. She said to him, how's the iPhone business? He said, it's good. It'd be better if you could make the kids work faster. But the problem with these summits with Trump and Jim, it did, it Is it me or do they have them like every two weeks? I feel like they're always with each other. And Trump thinks that, gee, could give a fuck about being his friend. So it's all personal. Trump did everything he could to show him around.

He showed him the new spot where the limo drops people off. That's been improved. Really, I'm not making this up. Showed him a new helipad, the ballroom. Does he know that China builds like entire cities in a way? week. And he's showing him the new driveway. This is like showing Gordon Ramsey how to reheat pizza, you know? It just seems like this administration is very into redecorating. Redecorating or annihilating. I've said it before. It's the most macho and the gayest administration ever.

The latest is, the latest redecoration obsession is Trump is like, we need an arch. yesterday. Fuck, all the cities in the world have an arch. I didn't know that. Okay, yeah, great. I mean, you know, I could Paris, yes, Berlin of St. Louis. Okay, good. We're looking bad over here without an arch.

Fucking Biden let us go archless for years. Luckily, my good friend, President G. is an understanding man. He accepts that we don't have an arch because to not one, have one, is criminal. And if anybody knows about an arch criminal, it's Donald Trump. Always with love that we've been. So that is our agenda here in America.

Arch annihilate. He was at the UN. Trump, the UN met this week. And he was there before the Xi thing. And he talked about annihilating Iran again. And then he met with Mondami. This is the third time he's met Mondami. Wow.

Went over to Gracie Mansion. So that was his week. Xi Mandami for a guy who hates communists. He likes hanging out with him. I'll tell you that. The war in Iran is really dragging down his approval rating. I mean, he's even losing the people who used to be, the bros. You know, the Latinos who voted for him in bigger numbers last time.

There's only one demographic now that thinks the war is going well. Pedestrians. They love it. Because gas, I got to tell you, it's pretty expensive, gas. Here in L.A., they gave up on putting the numbers on the signage. just as market price. I was at the gas station, Andre. I saw a guy put the thing in the tank.

There was just a little drop at the end. And he took it and he rubbed it on his gun. All right, we got a great show. We have Jonathan Swan and James Stritchick. But first off, he is the host of the Huberman Lab podcast and author of the new number one best-selling book, Protocols, and operating manual for the human body. Andrew Huberman, Andrew.

So you have a new book out? What's that like? It's number one? It is. It was number one New York Times best set. Oh, fantastic. You call it a manual. Yes.

And you speak out, I love this part. You speak out against biohacking. Because I see that always when you're scrolling through stuff. Everything is a hack. Right. And you talk about how hacks are really, well, they come from hacks, don't they? Often. And they're really kind of bullshit.

Yeah, it's like taking a paper clip to fix a pair of glasses. It's a temporary solution. What's in the book are, tools that are based on scientific mechanisms that exist in all of us from birth until we die, that you can tap into. Specific ways of breathing, using access to sunlight at specific times, learning to get better at learning, learning how to increase focus, and on and on. Minigate stress.

And all of those are anchored in real, known physiological mechanisms. So there's no mystery to them. And I don't claim ownership of any of them, but I share them with the readers, and then they can use them if they like. How many of them may have to do to be really healthy? I mean, I feel like I don't want to make this all about me, but... You seem like you're doing really well. Yeah, well, I mean, like the sun one.

Like, I've been doing a lot of this stuff before it was cool. You know, I've been talking about all this alternative stuff for years. People thought I was crazy. Now it seems a lot more mainstream. But, I mean, like the sun one, like, I get up at the crack of noon. You know, doesn't mean I'm less productive. I'm just productive at different times of the day. But that's not good, right?

Well, regardless of when somebody wakes up, could be 5 a.m., could be 10, could be noon. Getting some sunlight in your eyes in the first 30 to 60 minutes after you wake up is a great idea because it just sets in motion this huge wavefront of molecules in the brain and body that make you more alert, more alert and calm, better able to focus. It's best for your immune system throughout the day. And most importantly, it sets you up so that 14 to 16 hours later you get tired and you can go to sleep more easily. So it sets a timer. So if you start that timer at noon, what time do you go to sleep, Bill?

Well, let's... I mean, I believe in getting the right amount of sleep. I mean, sometimes you have to be in bed 10 hours to get 8 hours of sleep. I don't even get 8. But, you know, 7.5 or something like that is that's a good night. Yeah. But, again, I'm just as does it matter? Because the hippies have always told me that it matters when you sleep.

That, like, the healing takes place between 10 and 2. am or something like that. You know, I'm not even asleep at 2 a.m. Yeah, that's nonsense. Oh, good. Fantastic. The truth is there are these so-called chronotypes. I talk about this in the book and how people can figure out there.

Some people feel best going to sleep late, waking up later. Some people waking up early, going to bed earlier. And you can shift. It does change across the lifespan. But the truth is, most people find that. And if they can manage it with their work and other responsibilities, if you can adhere to your chronotype, as we say, that is going to be best for your health. So early to bed, early to rise is great for early risers who want to be early risers.

Otherwise, change it up. But that light in the first hour is ideally from sunlight. That's a real thing, regardless of when you wake up. I can do that. I remember when COVID hit right before they took us off the air because, oh, you know, it was so dangerous. But I said, you know, the S's. Just take care of your S's. sugar, cut down on sugar,

sun, get sun, stress, sleep. Of course, we did the opposite on all of them. Everything we did the opposite. People did, I mean, Gavin Newsom said last week, you know, it was insane to close

the beaches out here. And in hindsight. Well, some of the people were saying in present day time, go to the beach. That it was the beach. sunshine, fresh air, I feel like COVID and how we treated it

may have turned people more to like our alternative way of thinking about things. You think that's true? Yeah, I think it's true, and I think it made what used to be called alternative, or just Eastern or niche, mainstream. I mean, the reason I started the podcast, which, of course, I did before the book,

was because during the pandemic, there was a lot of discussion about vaccines, and that was the business of other people to handle. I decide to focus on the problems that I did not see the NIMH or anyone else doing good messaging about, and that's how to manage your stress, how to keep your rhythms, your biological rhythms intact, so that you could be at your best mood, have your immune system functioning at its best, and social connection, nutrition, exercise, how to do that under the conditions of the lockdowns, etc.

That was the mission of the podcast when I launched it, and eventually it became a bunch of other things in this book. But indeed, all the things you describe are crucial for the immune system and for just general well-being. Most of the things that you would do for a dog or a cat or even for a fish tank, like turn the lights on in the morning, turn them off at night, make sure it's a good ecosystem. Most people don't think about doing that for themselves.

But we need to control our own ecosystem as much as we can to be at our best health. And that's not hippie biology, right? No, no, you are not a hippie biology. No, I'm definitely not. You're a real one. Right. Right. I mean, that's just how our brain and body work.

These rhythms of day and night and the sun, of course, is what anchors us to that is vital. If anything, you know, one message that people could really take from this conversation is you want the brightest possible days. Don't get sunburn, but have the brightest possible days whenever they may start for you. And you want the darkest possible nights that you can manage with your job and schedule. Those two things alone have been shown in studies with huge numbers of subjects to greatly benefit mental and physical health of all kinds. Okay, so can we play a little lightning around here since we don't have all that much time? And I know it's hard for you because you have great things that they have. And I'm not known for being succinct.

I know, I know, but just let's give me, like, the skinny on, like, a few things that, like, I want to know, because you go into a lot in this book. You know, what's a real thing and what sort of a trend? Okay. Intermittent fasting. Real thing, but just lowering calories will do it, too. But it really helps certain people control their caloric intake, meaning some people, it's just easier to not eat the croissant at all than to try and eat half. Right. So that intermittent fasting, meaning, like, you eat within an eight-hour window of the day?

Yeah, like 11 a.m. 2 at 7 p.m. The problem is most people don't stick to it, or they find that they stack everything towards a late meal, and then it can disrupt their sleep. But it can work as a tool for caloric restriction, but there are other tools, like smaller meals throughout the day or, you know, just a standard three meal a day thing. Peptides. Now, I hear a lot about peptides. My question is, what is a fucking peptide? Because I hear it, and I... Well, there is a category specifically of fucking peptides.

But really? There is, actually. There are some that are FDA approved for treating hyposexuality. Hypots? Yes. And then we're... Why would you want to treat it? Well, is it?

But let's talk about the most common peptides. So the ones that most people are familiar with are the g-lps, right, that are for weight loss. Oh, those are peptides. Those are peptides. A peptide is a string of amino acids that makes up... basically proteins in our body. Why is it controversial? Like, what is the downside?

I've heard that, you know, it can do good things, but it also could trigger bad things in your body. The GLP's. Okay, so in rapid fire format. So the GOPs have been shown to be very successful for inducing weight loss.

They do have side effects at the recommended dosages. Many people are starting to microdose them on their own accord, a term borrowed from the psychedelic community. So taking much smaller dosages, same effects, lesser side effects, and costing less.

there are people who are reporting apathy, but as a result of taking the GLPs at the recommended dosages, but not everyone. And some people have reduced alcohol craving when they take them, so that could be good for most people, perhaps. The other issue with the GLPs is that unless people are doing resistance training to keep muscle, there can be robust muscle loss, which will then lower metabolism. If they come off the GLPs, then they have to go back on. now they have a smaller but fatter body with a lower metabolism and the cycle can continue. But peptides themselves, all of them. I mean, there's other ones.

There was one called MK 377. Then there's a huge category. What is that? So the one you're referring to and a bunch of similar ones are what are called growth hormone secundagogues. They stimulate the release of growth hormone in sleep, which can lend itself to bodily repair, fat loss, and maintaining your building muscle, perhaps some other benefits. But increasing growth hormone can be problematic over time.

it can lead to some problems with blood sugar regulation, if these things are used too much and in the wrong instance. And there are a bunch of other... Can they give you cancer? If you have cancer in your body, can they make that grow too? In theory, they could accelerate the growth of cancers that already exist. That's all I need to know. Don't do that.

Some of those are FDA approved, but then there's another category. That means nothing. Yeah, so that's interesting too, right? As a consequence of the pandemic, now FDA approved and the CDC says, exactly. I always felt that way. Yeah, so a lot of people feel that way. Okay. And then there's a final category, which are the peptides for which you hear a lot, like BPC157,

for which there's a lot of data in animals showing that it can accelerate wound healing, reduce inflammation, but for which there's essentially zero formal data in humans, but you now have millions of people saying that it helped them get over their shoulder or their knee injury more quickly. People are taking these things like crazy because it's kind of the wild west right now. Yes, most of these come from China. it will be a great thing when these are manufactured in the United States under practices where we know that they are sterile, that what's labeled as being in the bottle is actually what's in the bottle. I think we're going to get there soon.

Meanwhile, the GLP's are coming off patent. So the new one coming out from Eli Lilly, I have no relationship to Eli Lilly, is this Reda Trutide, which is a GLP plus some other things that led to 30% reduction in weight in the trials. This is going to be a trillion-dollar drug, and there's a lot going on politically to try and make sure that that,

patent is protected. And as a consequence, the compounding pharmacies that allow for the distribution of peptides at lesser cost, those are getting, they're under some pressure legally. So this is a big deal, right? It's all about medical freedom. Should you be allowed to take peptides if you want, even if there are no human data? Okay. I have my thoughts, but some people say no, some people say yes. I say yes, but only if people are aware of the risks. So knowing the risks is really important. You've got to answer this one quickly. We want to talk about this, Paul. this week on the panel. You don't have to get on that,

where the people were all wearing masks. What bar is this? Let's watch the show, and you'll see. It's a big controversy this week. But it's not the only place we've seen people wearing bars. All these DSA meetings. I see pictures of people on the street. What is your take on white people, five years after a pandemic?

You know, you studied the human brain. What is going on with people who, like, want to wear the mask and think they need to, this level of paranoia at a place where it's so inappropriate. I mean, if they're wearing it for reasons related to fear of infection. They're not. Okay.

Some of them are, but most of them are not. It's a political statement. Yeah. I mean, I was thinking a lot about this recently. I think it relates to that Banksy painting, you know, the mask with the, you know, the protester. I mean, I think it's a political statement, right? Okay.

And I think there's also, when people wear masks, I often think, you know, they have this, I don't want to call it an advantage, but they have a vantage point where they can see you, but you can't really see them. So it's also a way of remaining anonymous. It's kind of like being online. You see a lot of people saying a lot of things from behind the mask. And now, we should ask ourselves, though, why do they feel they need to do this?

And I don't know. I know you encourage them from the dialogue. All right. Always great to see you. All right. I'll see you soon, Andrew. Thank you. All right.

Let's meet our panel. Hey, gentlemen, how you doing? Okay, he is a White House correspondent for the New York Times. I guess you're back on the job now this week, and co-author of the number one best-selling regime change inside the imperial presidency of Donald Trump, Jonathan Swan. And he is a contributing writer for the Atlantic and author of Secret City, The Hidden History of Gay Washington, James Kirchick.

Jamie, good to see you back here. Can I start with the UN? Because this is the UN week. I look forward to it every year. It's always this time of year in September. The weather's nice. You know, and New Yorkers love it, but the parking situation, I'm sure, with all the diplomats in town. But it's weird, and I'm glad there is a U.N.

But, my gosh, like, we bombed Iran's entire leadership, and then their president is in the same room with Trump. It's just weird. Like Hitler and FDR, never like also were in the same room during World War II. I mean, that's when Hitler was bad. and also Xi comes here and he's Iran's ally which have contributed to killing American troops and yet

he gets paraded around like they're the best friends and it's just weird that we have the two things going on at once I don't know if this is an unusual president who seems to base our foreign policy mostly on his own personal relationships and that's why he behaves like old buddies when he's

meeting with the dictator of North Korea, or Xi, and he treats the Danes, by the way, who were like the only country in Europe to save their Jews, had the most casualties per capita in Afghanistan, are amazing allies of the United States and have been for a very long time. He treats them like they're the enemy by talking about taking Greenland. So it's just, it's insane. I mean, I don't know how it's described it. It's been like this for the past 10 years. Yeah, I mean, John, you wrote the book on him.

I don't know. You seem quiet. No one has played Trump better than Xi Jinping. I've had innumerable conversations with European diplomats, and they're always talking about how do you play Trump? How do you work Trump? And it's the most preposterous conversation. Do you suck up to him? Do you do this? Do you give him a letter?

And the answer is, none of that stuff actually works. The only thing that works is raw power. And what Xi Jinping did last year, he didn't suck up to Trump, you never even seen him smile. What he did was Trump declared a trade war with the whole world, a whole bunch of countries start trying to negotiate with him pretty please, pretty please. Xi Jinping was prepared. He had the rare earths, he had the magnets, and he essentially flipped him the bird. Trump got very worried about it, and then he sent Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary

to Geneva to organize a detente. Ever since then, he's been in very doveish mode with China, doesn't want to upset anything. And the problem for small and middle powers, like Jamie's talking about, if you're Denmark, whatever, you don't have the leverage to do any of that. So the only, it's a collective action problem. The only way to deal with Trump is working together as a bloc. Yeah, I don't think Xi wants to make this trip or walk around and look at the Declaration of Independence. In the autop pen, Biden's auto pen. He was very proud to show him that.

But he does it because he understands. It's great for him. Because Trump really thinks that a personal relationship with Xi matters. There was this scene in Euphoria. Did you watch Euphoria? Where the stripper has a snake, a big snake, that she sleeps with. And she's like, oh, it's so great because, you know, it cuddles around me at night. And the guy says, it's not cuddling.

It's sizing up for when it eats you. Can you guess who the snake is? Who the stripper is in this analogy? Okay. The other one is Netanyahu was at the UN yesterday. He said Israeli genocide in Gaza is the biggest lie of the century. this is the exact point. I was trying to make a couple of weeks ago on this show.

I feel like it is the central point. Obviously, then Mandami said the speech was baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide against Palestinians. Either it is a genocide or it's not. It is a word in the English language. We can define it. We have had seen genocides before. To me, it is plainly not a genocide. It is a counterattack against an attack in a war that's been going on since 1948 in different.

forms. And the way, the fact that they insist on using this word, to me, that's what I was trying to say a couple of years ago, is the essential part of it. Because when you, if you get people saying that a certain group of people have committed genocide, then all gloves are off about how much you are allowed to hate them. And I think this is behind all the anti-Semitism going on in the world. So let's just get it on the table here. Genocide or not? Absolutely not. Look, if it's a genocide, it would have been the first genocide where Israel vaccinated, where the country committing the genocide vaccinated the population, where they sent them two million tons of food. Israel could commit a genocide of Palestinians in a week, probably. They haven't done that because they have no intent to do it, and the intent is what matters when it comes to genocide.

So I agree with Netanyahu and you, it really is the biggest lie of the truth. 21st century. And I'm telling you, I'm predicting right now, it will be a question on the 2028 Democratic debate stage. Raise your hands. Raise your hands if you think Israel committed a genocide. Well, it's not just a question on the debate stage. There was Representative Haley Steven. She's from Michigan. This week was followed to her car. This goes on all the time. I shot a tape up at some other, the guy, Brad Weiner, who's Scott. Scott Weiner, is running for Nancy Pelosi seat and a crowd.

gets around him and say it, say it. You have to say the word. This woman surrounded her and just say it and she said, see you at the gallows. Jesus. Is what, yeah? I was just going to say, the interesting thing is that there were all these other litmus tests

that existed in 2020. And you see politicians, Pete Buttigieg took out, he had his pronouns on his social media account, he got rid of them. Right. So there's actually an effort to get away from what AOC has called Woke 1. But the new litmus test is Gaza and genocide.

That's replaced a lot of these old litmus tests. But this hate, and this brings me to this bar that if you're wondering, we're going to do the bar now. It's called the last ditch bar. And this kind of thing will see you at the gallows, these kind of talk that whenever somebody isn't exactly on your page that comes out at the mouths of these people, and it does on the right too.

but it never used to be this way on the left, not to my memory. So, okay, here's what's going on at the last ditch bar. It's in Massachusetts. It's a very woke bar, which is fine. Their mission statement, for dykes, transsexuals, transgender freaks, workers and friends. I love it the way workers and friends are fourth and fifth on the list, which is fine.

I've been called a freak myself, all right? I'm all for freaks. But economically, it wasn't working. Because even though there was a cover charge, if you couldn't pay, they wouldn't make you pay. Homeless, they were welcome in there. Not the cops, but the homeless. But also it was masked. This is why I was asking the doc about this.

You had to have a mask. So because they're losing money, one of the owners was living in her truck. They said, okay, one night a week, let's make it Saturday night. maybe we can pay the bills and keep the staff paid if we just have one night a week where it's mask optional and of course the tolerant left did what they always do became very intolerant and left. And statements like people like you kill disabled people

in the name of your own leisure and convenience and I hope your venue gets firebomb. This is what I'm talking about. This level of hatred that is out there. What is your take? This is one of the reasons I don't have. frequent lesbian bars. But...

But... We're not a lesbian. It's not justice. More importantly, I think the mask has become, for a certain segment of the left, their version of the MAGA hat. It really is exactly that. But this story, as much as we want to make fun of it,

and there's plenty to make fun of, it actually speaks to a growing divide between gay and lesbian people and queer people. Okay? To be gay or lesbian is a separate... sexual orientation. That's it. To be queer is to embrace a whole political orientation. There are straight people who identify as queer. It's about deconstructing gender, which is how you get in that story a lesbian who uses he-him pronouns. Explain that to me. How does that work? How does a lesbian use

he-him pronouns? And so the example of this, you mentioned Scott Weiner. What was also said to Scott Weiner, who's gay? Who's gay? and very left wing, even after he started using the word genocide, it wasn't enough. And what did they scream at him in the park in that video? Since you supported Israel, you're no longer queer. Right. I remember that.

You know what? I appreciate the honesty of that sentence, because that's what it means to be a queer. To be a queer is to support the Palestinians over Israel, which as a gay person makes, of course, no sense, right? And there was a poll done two years ago, and it was a poll of the LGBT community. Who identifies as what within the LGBT community?

About 15% identify as lesbians. About 21% identify as gay. 56% identify as bisexual. That's a subject for another show. Or after the show. Or after the show. But... But...

0.5% of LGBT people identify as queer. So why are we allowing this 0.5% of the community to speak for all of us and use this word, which, by the way, older gay men that I know, you know, over the age of 50, this was the last word that they heard before getting their head bashed in. So it's actually very traumatizing

for gay men of a certain generation. To hear queer. To hear the word queer, absolutely. It's what they were called. And it's actually having... And all this queer trans extremism is having a real impact. I mean, support for gay marriage has started going down. It started going down in 2002.

Now, I don't think that's because millions of Americans just woke up one morning and said, oh, we're homophobic now. We supported gay marriage, but now we're homophobic. I think it's a backlash to this queer extremism. And it's, you know, as a gay man, that's something I really worry about, frankly. The interesting thing that's happening is you see something like this, And there's this other element of the democratic politics, which is, I don't know if you saw the story this week. There's the Democratic Senate candidate in Alaska, Mary Peltola.

So some of my colleagues reported she was using homophobic slurs, you know, calling people retards, using the word retarded. That would have got her cancelled in 2020, 2019. The parties rallied around her. So I can't really make sense of where the line is anymore or what gets you, you know, canceled. You know, you have these cross currents. But the one issue, as you said before, seems to be Gaza. That seems to be the one thing where they've oriented themselves around a litmus test. Gaza, Gaza is woke 2.0.

It's Gaza. Because no one's, they're all, it's very interesting. It's not right to say that they're talking about mask mandate. Like, you don't hear candidates say, you know, mask mandates and defund the police. They're actually running away from all that stuff. It's completely oriented itself around. Oh, I don't think they're running away. Oh, I do.

You think they're running away? Like, look at El-Sayyad, Mamdani. They're distancing themselves from defund the police from the stuff they said previously. Yeah. It's the Israel issue. Right. That's the new litmus test. Calculating route to avoid seeing poverty.

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Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility Canadian New Vehicle Total Registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. Well, that's not even the biggest story of the week. The biggest story of the week is that we know now that there is time travel. I don't know if you... What? There is an old painting. called Mr. Pynchon and the settling of Springfield, if you would want to show it now, please. Yes, this is a venerable old page. Springfield, Massachusetts, one of the first colonies in the New World,

Massachusetts Bay Colony, very esteemed. And if you look closely, the Indian, one of the Indians there is holding what looks to be a cell phone. You see that? And so a lot of the Internet thinks this is proof that there is time travel. It does look like a cell phone. I'm not going to lie, but anyway, whether you believe that or not, we got some of the things that are on that cell phone, would you like to see? For example, seven signs, he's just not that into thee.

This pilgrim ate nothing but corn for 30 days. Then this happened. Ten things that were totally normal in the 1620s that would get you canceled today. Smith-A-Hontas update, John Smith and Pocahontas seen arguing in canoe, and we have the first sketches.

Massachusetts mother who killed children to plead temporarily bewitched. The surefire smallpox cure, your medicine man, won't tell you about. Why many couples are waiting till 15 to get married? It will kill us all in four years. Is the fear over the apicus

overblown? So, all right, let's talk about Trump, because that's your book. It reads like a novel, by the way. Thank you. really great read. And, you know, I've said this before on this show many times. I think this is the end.

It's really coming. I think it's really coming. I mean, I feel like the president has finally given the ick to people. Like, in a way, how he escaped it for as long as he did is amazing. When you think about the things that a guy could never do if they weren't him that would give people the ick, McCain is not a war hero, grabbing pussies. I mean, just pretty bad clapping for that? Having cussies.

But if you're, if you've missed some of the stuff, I just tell, zombie lies, I hate zombie lies. The zombie lie is, Trump is indomitable. No, keep up, people, keep up. It's really going in the other direction. I mean, the Supreme Court, he talked about them last week. These are not the people I interviewed. By the way, you're not supposed to interview them with it, the president.

I don't think. But because they voted against them with his mail-in balloting. Here's just some other stuff, quick stuff. Byron Donald's, good friend of our show, real big Trumper, took Trump endorsed off his website. Maria Alvira Salazar in Florida. These are all Republican. These are all things coming from Republicans.

She says we feel betrayed. He's running ads against him on the immigration issue. There's a Republican who wants to impeach Pete Hegsa. There are four Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Republicans coming out to end the war and have Congress demand that he end the war. There are Republicans now wanting to investigate Don Jr.'s wedding, merely because it was financed by Putin's good friend. Tucker Carlson is asking for the 25th Amendment. Remember that one? The one that says you could remove a president, if he's not so.

that, you know, and Mike Pence must be like, oh, we're doing this now, huh? And, you know, the bros, his biggest fans, they feel betrayed. They don't like the war. They don't like the Epstein thing. We didn't get the full story on that. The tariffs, even the Maha people,

the make America healthy again people feel they didn't get what they asked for. You know, and the corruption. You know, everybody hates the boss's son. So that thing with the wedding financed by the Russians and you get your own island for three days, this kind of shit is just not flying. So, John, what is your take here now that you, I mean, how long has your book been out and how much has changed since it came out? It's changed profoundly. I mean, we make the case, and I think it's indisputable, that last year, 2025, Trump controlled his own party in Congress like no president in American history. Right. He got senators, there were senators who thought that Pete Higgsath was grossly unfit, grossly. And they still voted for him because they were scared of Trump. And now you have all the things you just read out.

What's really interesting to me is whatever you think about Donald Trump, historically, he's always had a pretty good radar for staying on the right side of populist issues. He's always, he really knows, he's got a fingertip feel for it. And you're seeing him now on the wrong side of some really big populist. issues. Like, you know, data centers. The public hates data centers. They hate them. It's visceral. We talk to Republican strategists. The polling is so upside down on that issue. It's becoming a major, major source of anxiety, just AI in general. And when you listen to Trump, he sounds like Jensen Huang. He sounds like Mark Zuckerberg. Full speed ahead. You know, the Iran war, again, whatever you think about the politics and the policy, is on the wrong side of that now. The public is against that war, the issues that he ran on, gas prices, cost of living, he's on the wrong side of that. And a lot of Republicans I talk to

don't know how he gets out of this. You know, I understand why people think he's super-human, because he's shown us so many times before that the physical physics don't apply to him, but boy, it's hard to see now. Money. When things are going good, I mean, we see this in other countries. We see this in communist China. It was communist, but like as long as you're giving the people a good economy, you can get away with a lot. It's not like

Trump fans didn't know he was crazy. It was like, okay, he's crazy, but he's are crazy, and my stock market numbers are up. That kind of stuff. When the money goes, the one thing you can't lie to people about is money. They know how much money is in their wallet, and you

cannot bob that, Baghdad bob your way through that. through that one. And I feel like that's where he is now. The credibility is just shot. 27% approval he has on the economy. That was always his best issue. Always, always his best issue.

27%. It means a lot of Republicans have decided that he's bad for the economy. Are you surprised that Fox News joined the boycott earlier this week when he threw those three... And he threw... Politico was one of them. Is Politico even left wing?

No. I mean, it's very odd. I don't know why he... It's odd or it's odd that he threw them out? It was... Yeah. I mean, I wasn't surprised in general. I know CNN, MSNBC, he's always barking at them.

But, okay. So he threw them out. Then every... MS. I mean, NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox News joined in and said, you know what? We're part of this gang, not part of his gang. And then we're all in solidarity. That's not unusual.

I mean, during the Obama administration, I remember there was some situation where they were... Exclusion. kick them out, but they excluded them from some sort of press Oh, they did. And all the other networks stood in solidarity with Fox. And so I think on these basic sort of press freedom issues, you will see the networks and the media outlets, the major ones, right of center, left of center, they will stick together.

And what about Trump TV? What, what, is that legal? I mean, can we, I mean, I was saying it's state TV. Yeah, I think you kind of summed it up pretty well, actually, in your monologue. Yeah. And what goes on, you know... Is it like infomercials?

I don't know. Yeah, it's a bit of a mystery to me as well. I don't know how that works. But you have said before that he answers more questions than Biden did. There's no question, obviously. I mean, the paradox with Trump is it's... Two things are true. He, every reporter in Washington has his cell phone.

I have his cell phone. I'm sure Jamie does. I don't, actually. Can you give it to me? Sure. If we called him now, he would probably pick up, okay? It's also true that two months ago, my colleagues reported a story about Air Force One and the Katari jet and security concerns,

and 48 hours later, FBI agents showed up on their front doorsteps and served them subpoenas. And a colleague at the Washington Post, the FBI went through her home, seized her electronic devices. This stuff's not normal. Well, I don't want to be both sidesing it, but... During the Obama administration, they tapped the AP Bureau's phones. That's true.

And the phones of AP reporters, they tapped their phones. And they named James Rosen, a Fox News journalist, as an unindicted co-conspirator in a leak case. You'll never get me to defend Obama. And they subpoenaed James Ryzen, you're a colleague. Obama was horrendous on this stuff. You never get me to defend him. Horrendous, really.

He was bad. I mean, I... On the leak stuff? Oh, yeah. I looked this up about... Terrible. But freezing out one... Yeah.

They did it with Fox News. Josh Ernest, he was in the Abbas, he admitted it. He said, the White House has demonstrated our willingness to exclude Fox News from newsmaking interviews, and he did done. She was also in the Obama. She said, we're going to treat them the way we treat

an opponent. This is exactly what, you know, this is what I always say about this country. Everybody's like, you know, this is the worst thing in the world except when we do it, and it's always perfectly okay. But it's not actually the same. No, it's not the same. Because he is not letting them in the door, but I'm actually more concerned. Like,

the way a leak investigation is supposed to work is going to the journalists for the subpoenas is the last resort. This was the first resort. You send the FBI to the doorstep after 48 hours. That's just intimidation. It's different. It is different. I feel like the pattern is that Democrats do something and then Republicans use it as an excuse to do it triply bad

and say, well, come on, your guy did it. I mean, was Biden a little corrupt? A little. Not like Trump. But not like Trump, but not like selling meme coin. and that kind of shit. Okay. My last issue. Have you seen the Klan shoes?

Yes, I have. Okay. This is an ad. Show the ad, please. I mean, I don't know what the fuck this is. This is a Nike ad. And I would normally say, and of course, people immediately said, this looks like a Klansman and somebody who was lynched.

And I said, well, this is, you know, a Nike ad. Why would they do that? And show it again. Yeah, it looks like a Klansman and somebody. I don't think they did it on purpose. And normally I would say, oh, wow, the woke. They're always just barking at anything they can. But, like, my take on this is not that Nike would try to do this.

No. What could they possibly have? Even if they were racist and they're not, there are a bunch of people in Seattle in 2026. Okay. Stupid. People are just fucking stupid. Well, it puts me in mind of whoever the executive was at Red Lobster,

who came up with the idea of endless shrimp. and then bankrupting the company? Like, did you not think endless shrimp might be a problem? Oh, wait, it's Converse, not Nike. Oh, okay, sorry. Sorry, I don't want to get Nike. Yes, very important. Very important.

But whatever it is, there is shoe company. They sell a lot of shoes to a lot of people, including a lot of black people. What is, who has this meeting of 20 people, and not one of them? No, it's crazy. I don't know. You know, I suspect, I don't know. I think there might be something. No, nobody went around the room.

What is that? Is that just, you know, intimidation? Like, I don't want to be the one to speak up. Is it the... Well, maybe the boss's son designed that ad, right? And no one wants to tell the boss that his son is a fucking idiot, right? So you end up with something like that.

Oh. It's a theory. So, I saw on the news today that El Sayed in Michigan says he would do my show, even though he doesn't like the way I talk about people like him. It's not people like you. I would love to have you on, sir, by the way, and I hope we can make that happen.

I talk about Islam. It's never personal, and it's never about race. It's about ideas. Religion is an opinion. That's all religion is. A group of thoughts that form an opinion of something. I have different views on how women should be treated and things like that that we will discuss.

I hope you will accept our invitation. All right, time for new rules. Okay. Uh, no rule, clickbait headline writers and really must try and find the tiniest shred of dignity. This month, one wrote about Taylor Swift's surprising family nickname, which turned out to be that her nieces call her Aunt Taylor. You see the problem here to be surprising.

Something unexpected has to happen. It's like a story, the shocking thing Taylor and Travis did on their wedding night. And you click and find out they fucked and fell asleep. New World, the competitors at the World Gurning Championships where you're judged on your ability to contort your face into something grotesque. Must be congratulated, you gave it your all, but this year's winner is, once again, Madonna.

New World, don't ask me to read your book. I have to read books for work. The last thing I want to do when I get home is sit down and dive into your 388 pages of self-published bullshit. So when you ask, did you read, read my book yet, the answer is always going to be the same. No, I haven't had time, but my dog

devoured it. Neuro-laffing cow cheese. Has to explain why the cow doesn't look happy anymore. And what's with the message we need to talk? We need to talk. Oh no, mommy. Are you

and daddy fighting? Has he found someone else? It's that Land-a-Lakes whore, isn't it? I knew it. She's always on her knees. New Role, we have to do something about sinkholes. Every week there's a story about a sinkhole somewhere. Like this week's report of a 47-year-old Long Island woman who had to be rescued after disappearing into a massive one in her backyard.

Luckily, she'll be fine. As for her husband, back to the drawing board. After all, it's not a crime when people from opposing parties work together for the good of the American people, and it shouldn't be a scandal if they talk to each other. Democratic House leader Akeem Jeffries recently met with Jared Kushner, and as often happens, he was treated as a collaborator. Yeah, that's what Democratic government is, collaboration,

but bipartisanship is such a dirty concept now that we can only practice it in secret, like how Republicans do with homosexuality. I know it's hard to believe, but we used to actually celebrate it. Democrats and Republicans would sign bills together, all smiles, and then crow about the victory and how working together made it happen. They'd use dozens of pens

to sign the bill so they could hand them to each other, and then they'd say, we disagreed on plenty, but today America won. Now if you handed a pen to someone from the other party, they'd take it and stab you in the neck like Joe Pesci and Casino. This is what government used

to look like. Here's what it looks like now. Meeting with the other side, but having to hide your face behind office supplies. Can anyone really imagine Mike Johnson and Hakeem Jeffries clasping hands today? Boo! Get a room, pussies. How dare you come together in a place called Congress? Congress has a 16% favorability ranking.

And one reason is, even when they do something good, no one's bragging about it on the campaign trail. Because working with the other side is suss. Compromise? That's for assholes. Real leaders. Real leaders, fight! That's how we're gonna fight

I will fight for you You don't get what you don't fight for We'll always fight Fight like hell Fight fight fight fight fight Are you ready to fight Fight Good news stories get buried

Because they're tainted by cooperation Every issue is like that Take drugs I know I do Well I've never hidden the fact that I like drugs And I've smoked my share of wheat And your share And your

And I will admit the weed is stronger these days. I just found out the new TV show I've been enjoying lately is actually Roku City. But here's what's crazy. The progress we've made in the last few years in both street drugs and prescription drugs is truly phenomenal, and no one's talking about it. Deaths involving fentanyl are down 55% from their peak.

cocaine down 37% heroin, 89%. There's been a 34% decrease in meth-related deaths, which has led to a 64% increase in teeth. What happened? It's not like Americans suddenly became a people who make good decisions. Well, part of it is reasons beyond politics. That's true. Heroin, for example, lost a lot of its appeal

now that people can shoot OZemPEC to get skinny. But mostly it's because Democrats, Democrats did some things, and Republicans did other things. And by not actually ever working together, they stumbled upon positive change. Or as Trump put it, it was all me. That's what he said. He said, Biden did absolutely nothing. Well, actually, Biden did do something.

He had great success with this issue because he made Narcan more easily obtainable. What is Narcan? I don't know. What I do know is, when a person used to be... be overdosing and about to croak and had like a minute to live before they died? The way we used to handle it was John Travolta would stick a needle

in your tip. But we found something better, Narcan, and Democrats fast-tracked. That contributed a lot to the huge decrease in drug deaths. But so did closing the border and deporting gang bangers and disrupting

supply. Narcan worked and law enforcement worked. You see, Mommy and Daddy for the sake of the kids, work together even though they hate each other. Just like in a real family. Welcome to the era of accidental bipartisanship.

And it's not just drug crime that's way down. It's all crime. And again, probably much of it is not political. It's because you can't move two inches in America without being tracked, photographed, and followed by a flock camera. But it's also because when Democrats expand the safety net,

there are less desperate people. And because Trump is a badass. No, I don't agree with many of his methods. Like how they sometimes just deport people to countries. Well, they have absolutely no connection, like Megan and Harry. Is doing it this way the right thing?

No. But it's just childish to pretend that when you elect a fuck around and find out president, a no more Mr. Nice Guy booting your ass, V for Vendetta, kick ass and take name. Say hello to my little friend, president. That's not going to have some effect on crime.

He has a UFC fights on the lawn. I think the bad guy's got the message. But maybe the place where accidental bipartisanship has worked best is with prescription drugs, where we have seen the steepest annual decline in prices since 1963. 1963! That's when the most prescribed drug in America

was the speed they gave to Housewives so they could clean the oven faster. How did that happen? Well, of course, if you listen to the Trump people, it's totally all them. And yes, the Trump RX discount site did work. Democrats say no, it was actually all Biden's inflation reduction act that did the trick.

It's both. Because they both independently and totally not working with each other figured out that when it comes to drugs, you can really save a lot of money by buying in bulk, something I figured out when I was a pot dealer in college. All right, thank you very much. That's our show. I want to thank Jonathan Swan, James Kirchuk, and Andrew Heberman, Club Random is every Monday on YouTube, or listen wherever you get to a podcast.

Now go watch overtime on YouTube. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. 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 to HBO.com. Calculating route to avoid seeing poverty. Turn left to bypass the unhoused youth sleeping on the street. Then keep right to skip by the lines of people waiting for food. Steer clear of the crowded shelter turning people away. Then take the next exit. Let's stop looking away and get in the way of rising poverty. Your donations help the United Way fight poverty in thousands of ways, like providing food, shelter, and crisis prevention. Donate today. United WayGGT.org.

Where some see heroes and others see egos. Bloomberg sees the era of billionaire athletes. A fad to some, the future of money to others. We see crypto's trillion-dollar swings. The end of jobs, or the end of human struggle. We see the endless funds fueling the AI hype. While others follow the noise, we follow the money. Learn more at Bloomberg.com