Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime – Episode #629: David Sedaris, Scott Galloway, and Annie Lowrey

Episode Date: March 25, 2023

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 03/24/23) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Don't miss what the movie blog calls something you need to watch. Saving those children is how we all go home. From binge all episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus. Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late-night series, Real Time with Bill Maher. Okay, here we are on CNN with our panelists this week. David Sedaris is over here with this new book out, Professor of Marketing at New York's Stern School of Business, Scott Galloway, and the great writer for the Atlantic Annie Lowry,

and here are the things that people want to know about. Okay, a group of conservatives has recently said they want to create an AI chatbot of their own to combat liberal bias. Well, I've heard there was liberal bias. I've read that, that chatbot is a little woke. Can we expect AI to be used as a political weapon in the near few? I think it already is. I mean, it's funny that you create something that is supposed to be

smarter than everybody and above it all, and immediately we're breaking down into, you know, that's what it's going to be. You're going to have the liberal chatbot and the conservative, right? Yeah, and there's some myths. So, like, traditional media, I think it's hard to argue that there isn't oftentimes a liberal bias because it's mostly over-educated people in urban centers, but with respect to new media and technology-driven media,

there's no evidence that there's any sort of bias. They don't lean left, they don't lean right, they lean green. They're all about money. They really don't care. As a matter of fact, seven of the ten each day, most viral pieces of content are usually from conservative commentators. So there's just no truth to the notion that at least online media has a conservative bias.

Hmm. I know people who... I'm sorry, a liberal bias. Excuse me. Oh, all right. David, is there any material you wouldn't perform in red states? Oh. You know, I think I've heard you say this before. You know, I'll go to Oklahoma and people say, who was there? And it's like everybody who didn't vote Republican is there.

So I don't... Or some who did. I hope they all come. I welcome everybody in my... And I'm sure you do, too. I don't like it, no. No? No, I do.

But I don't like, you know, like sometimes you do a show and you get a laugh from people and you think, eh, that didn't feel right to me. I don't want to pander to the audience. No. You know, I don't want to. So I'm happy to go to a red state. Right. And quite frankly, there is more to make fun of on the left in the last five years. I mean, I see it in your book, too.

You know, people ask me that all the time. Why do you make fun of the left more? Because you're providing confidence. for a comedian, that's why. Yeah. It's the blue archipalago, right? All the cities are blue. If you just want to talk to Democrats,

you just go to cities, right? Regardless of the state. Exactly. I mean, Alabama. I've been, I played Mobile, Alabama. Yeah, the only thing, you've got to bring your own hotel, though, when you go to a, to a,

in Mobile, one of the times I was in Alabama, I swear, there was a bass fishing something the same night and I was going out to the show and there was a cry I swear to God there was a large crowd

walking one way that I could tell was for the bass fishing I won't go into details and then my crowd was going in the opposite direction and it could have been any city in the country

so I mean and that's Alabama okay what do you make of Xi and Putin's meeting well boy they exchanged friendship bracelets didn't they gee and Putin

I'll You go first, but then and I will tell you. I think that's the biggest and scariest news of the week. While we're all scared about, I don't know, we're worried about trans swimmers or worried about our kid marrying a Republican, the real threat is an Axis power forming between Russia and China, and it should be scary.

China, you know, China of today is different than China of 10 years ago, and they are not a competitor. They're adversaries, and maybe even enemies. The swing boat will be India, but we should absolutely be... It should have sent chills down the spine of every American

and seeing those two together. Well, I mean, I was mentioning on the show that in the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War, I think this is a result of that. I think, you know, when... Well, in the sense that Xi and Putin see America, they saw 20 years ago we invaded a sovereign country.

Yeah. I mean, we would make the case that we had reasons that Putin... doesn't have and going into Ukraine, but that's not how they see it. So their view is, and yes, China and Russia never had any love for each other. Even during the Cold War, when they were both communists, and they should have been allied closer, it was very frosty. But their idea is we have to just be, number one is to be anti-America.

America is the one is trying to bully the world. We've seen it over and over again, and we have to line up against them. That, I think, is the scary part is because they're going to get more people to join in on premise. Yeah, and I think that there's the eternal folly that wars are won quickly, which we learned twice that that wasn't true recently. And I think that the Russian engagement in Ukraine is going to last for many, many, many, many, many years to come, weakening that state considerably. And it's terrifying. I don't know. Okay. A school principal at a Florida school recently resigned after parents complained that students were shown Michelangelo's David.

Oh. It's a nice sculpture. Was it really appropriate or just an example of parents being too fragile about what their kids are taught in schools? Wait, was the prince allowed to resign because he showed David is a great work of our... Now, yes, the dick is out. But, well, it is. And it was no bigger than the students. I was going to say, it would probably bolster the confidence of a sixth grader.

Yeah. I mean, that's a very... You know, the name of that statue should be, it was cold out. I serve on the board of my kids' school in Florida, and the notion that we were trying to pull the gay or the straight out of them is just ridiculous. Schools aren't trying to turn kids into worksters. We're trying to turn them into warriors. And these culture wars that divide us and use schools as weapons to inflame some weird imaginary problem in schools,

it's just, it's another example of instead of working on the things that actually affect us, people want to figure out what offends us so they can raise money. It's a bullshit topic. Hey, you know You're on CNN. Watch your mouth. Oh, sorry.

Keep your swear words out of your mouth. You know, the southern strategy as the most effective political strategy that we've seen deployed in the United States in the past hundred years. And I think we're seeing Republicans attempt to turn anti-trans legislation, anti-LGBQ legislation into a kind of version of the Southern strategy

that whips voters up. And I think that it remains to be seen how that, certainly in the midterms it didn't seem to work terribly well. But of course, what's at risk is the health and safety of children and the rights of Americans to live how they want and love who they want. So, yeah, it's awful. Okay. Kristen Cinema.

Kristen or Kirsten? Kirsten. Kirsten. Okay. Kirstit, see? I got it. Kirsten Cinema. She's the senator from Arizona. She's now an independent, right? She was elected as a Democrat, but was not quite democratic enough for the party

or liberal enough, so she's an independent. Recently said she's not going to eat in the cafeteria anymore because it's just old dudes eating Jello. Did you hear this? No. Well, I'm telling you. See, aren't you glad you listen to

You know what? I lost so much weight eating diet jello. Really? Jellow's great. I don't think that's the point she was going for but, you know, as a tangential topic. Is regular Jello like a lot of calories? Yeah. Well, sure. It's all sugar like everything else in it.

But dillow is 40 calories for the whole box and you're feeling hungry and you eat two boxes of jello and you're full and it's 80 calories. Jello. We drink it here. on CNN. We haven't... Okay. All right. It's gotta be.

Any thoughts on the old people drinking jello? Because you're talking about. I think her, what you're saying is that our elected representatives are probably not representative of America. The average age of American is 38. The average age of an elected representative is 64.

Meaning every time someone like AOC is elected to Congress, someone else is dead. I mean, it's... We... And what do you know? Costs of living adjustment, biggest in history for Social Security recipients, and the tax credit, the child tax credit, gets stripped out of the bill. We don't have a representative government.

We have basically people who are much older running our government. We need more youth. We have the second oldest elected populace. We don't have a representative government. Psema is one of the few politicians, I think, on the hill who retains a capacity to surprise. And, you know, but it feels like... Well, also, kind of like to tell it like it is. I mean, I don't... Maybe.

I don't think she was making so much of a political statement as just saying, I don't want to eat with Steny Hoyer. Yeah. I think a lot of members of Congress don't necessarily want to sit down and eat with Kristen Ceremony at this point either. All right. But we love all politicians in this show, but we have to be mindful of advertisements here on CNN. So, eat your jello, and we'll see you next week.

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