Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime – Episode #714: Scott Galloway, Fareed Zakaria, Josh Barro

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 11/14/25) 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. Right. Is any three set? Thank you, Scott. Are you ready to introduce these people now? Yeah?

Nobody tells me what's going on. All right, he's a marketing professor and author of the best selling book, Notes on being a man, Scott Galloway. Thank you. He hosts Farie Zerickory and GPS on CNN. author of Age and Revolutions Fareed Zakaria,

and he's a contributing opinion writer for New York Times and host the podcast Central Air, Josh Barrow. Okay. If you missed the show itself, Scott is trading on my... Applauding him for telling young men to drink. Not to excess,

just so you can talk to a girl. Okay. It does help get your courage up. I mean, it absolutely does. Yeah. Okay. Well, we were talking about safetyism before in all the ways it's hurt things when they think they're doing a good job with making everything full proof, childproof of the world, nobody ever dies. But, you know, there are always some other side to it. All right, let's get to the people's questions. This week,

the U.S. meant pressed its final pennies. Wasn't this long overdue? Yes. Yes. Yeah, I mean, it costs them more to make a penny than a penny is worth. It's amazing it took this long. I liked John Lovett's proposal He wants to have 10, 20, and 50 cent coins and then we can get rid of the whole second decimal place. Prices will just be in a tenth of a dollar instead of a hundredth. John Lovett's from Saturday Night Live?

No, John Lovett from like Potset. Maybe they should team up. And so what are we quoting? As the famous philosopher. Yeah. And what does Carrotop say about it? Yeah. Yes, of course.

I mean, it's amazing that I used to do this example of how the government, once a program starts, no matter what it is, Moher subsidies, whatever. You've COVID, some COVID stuff. You just, you remember the Moherer subsidies is an amazing one, because it was started in World War II because Moher is what you used for Army uniforms. I think it finally got repealed in 2010. Oh, it did? Yeah, so World War II ended 1945, as I recall.

But, I mean, speaking of that, I mean, our health care system is really based on World War II era thinking about health care. Remember, they couldn't pay people for some reason, and so they paid them in health care. That's how we got this employer-based system. It doesn't have to be that way. It wasn't even really thinking. It was that they set wage controls to try to stop inflation from getting out of control during the war, and so companies to get around them started giving people health insurance as a benefit because they couldn't actually raise their wages. So it was like a cludge.

And then it evolved into our whole system. Good ridden to the pen. What is Spotify going to use to pay recording artists now? That's good. Oh, yeah. Lazzang sur-gillet, puissance-moleaned for 15 minutes. We're like to dojo.

Pre-to-joo? Vive the pleasure with the ho-jo. The casino in-line that proposes the more recent machine-assine and some of casino in direct. Profite to 50

Tour Gratue on Big Bas Bonanza without without end of the money

and with the pay to play oh Joe. 188 and plus, 1st, 10% tour

gratuble on the MacBass Bonanza Depos minimum of 10 dollars. Veonet pay for

responsibility the conditions appellate savings time that's a perfect follow-up question

because it's another bullshit thing based on people love to complain about this but they're really

just mad that there's less daylight in the winter. Yes! That's why we're mad. Right, but the government, they can't change the axial tilt of the earth. What daylight savings time does is... No, no, but we couldn't. We make it worse. No, no, we make it better, because if you don't change the clocks, then you waste a bunch of time, like the sun will rise at 4.30 in the morning in the summer,

and people are asleep. They don't get to enjoy the daylight. This way, most people get to wake up approximately a little bit after the sun comes up, and then they can enjoy as much a daylight as is available in the day. And the reason, you know, we fight over this all the time. The Nixon administration did this. They got rid of daylight saving time. And what they found was that people were really angry because they were waking up. They kept it on daylight saving time.

So it was like in the winter, the sunrise was really late, and people were really mad. They were like, oh, my kid has to walk to school in the dark now. And it was supposed to be a two-year experiment. They ended it early because people got so mad. They brought it back to the system that we have. And so, you know, people will just complain about anything. They're always mad that it's dark in the winter. But they'll complain even more if you actually, if you actually change.

So I get, we all get paid to have opinions on everything. I have no opinion. I do. The daylight savings experts in America, they can have it out. I'll accept whatever the outcome is. I guess I'm pissed up because I don't live on this schedule. That's why. When do you wake up?

Closer to noon than dawn. And I'm up, yeah. This is for you, Scott. Does the sports gambling scandal reflect a larger societal problem. I guess they mean that both in basketball now and in baseball, we've had two scandals where the players were in on it. That hasn't happened in a while. Does this reflect a larger societal problem? Yeah, you could argue that the most profitable companies in the world tap into a flaw in our instincts. And since we came off the Savannah,

absence of salty, sugary fatty foods, absence of mating opportunities, an absence of free play in gaming. So we become addicted to trans fats, addicted to porn, addicted to gambling apps, because we're not used to the institutional production. Our instincts haven't cut up to the institutional production. Gambling is probably a real, unfortunately, another thing that's tapping into a pretty immature male brain that wants more dope-ahids. One out of two college-age males bet on the Super Bowl. And you're going to see probably the biggest IPOs of next year will be calcium and polymarket, because now they're trying to pretend that it's It's not gambling if you're betting on a mayoral race.

The reality is when you legalize gambling in a state, you see bankruptcies go up 30%. And this is not investing. It's essentially, again, putting Vegas in people's pockets, and it's going to have really negative externalities. I'm not entirely sure what you do about it because you don't need to want to infantilize people, but you need to educate young men to be clear. You're not investing. You're gambling.

And the only reason these companies are going to have the biggest IPOs the next year is because over the medium and the long term, it's impossible to lose. So have a good time. Have at it. I love Vegas. But be clear, you're going to lose all your money. You know, they say that these GLPs actually decrease your desire for gambling. Have you found that?

GLP, that's Ozzympic. That's Ozzympic and Wagovi. I have not, I mean, I'm not a huge gambler. I'll go to Vegas. I'll play some craps. I'll play poker. It hasn't changed my desires around that. But I think that, you know, the crazy thing with these scandals is they're not even betting on the games.

They're betting on things like, will the next pitch be faster than 97 miles an hour? Right. So you can bet on every pitch. Every pitch. And that means that if you're a pitcher, you can just, all you have to do is flub one pitch. You don't have to conspire with the rest of your team to lose the game. So I don't, I think legalizing sports gambling has not gone great. I would be happy to see us go back to the old system.

But one other thing they could do is they could prohibit some of these proposition bets that are especially vulnerable to these kinds of scandals. and then also go to this kind of degenerate behavior. It's like, why do you have to bet on every individual pitch? Can't you watch the baseball game and maybe just bet on who's going to win the game? But I just enjoy the game. But I wonder, I mean, of course I agree with you, I wonder once technology has been unleashed and you can do all this, you know, if you ban it in America,

won't they just set it up in the Cayman Islands and then you do it through there? Well, I mean, I think the other thing we're seeing is it's pretty easy to catch the people who do these. schemes, a lot of these pro athletes are not that bright. And, like, if there's, like, a whole bunch of huge bets on random actions of some not-especially famous player, like, it's, like, it's easy

if, like, you know, if you get a leaked copy of the earnings report and you buy a ton of options three hours before it comes out, the SEC will catch you. Sort of similar stuff here where, like, some people will just go to... Unless you're a congressman. That's a... What is the panel's reaction to the turmoil at the BBC

over how they edited Trump's January 6th comments. Well, they did do them dirty. There's no doubt about it. They'd purposely put together something to make it look like he didn't say what he said. The tragedy is what he said was bad enough. Why did you have to adopt it?

I mean, I don't understand it. Because that one to me was never a smoking gun. Now, do I think he should have handled January 6 differently? Very much so I do. But you can pull out the thing where he says, peaceful protests. He used the word peaceful. It was always murky. To me, the crime was always simply never conceding the election.

Calling up the Georgia sectionary sentencing, find me 11,000 votes. But that wasn't that day. And waiting for like three hours to try to call the mob off. Right, but I'm talking, from the whole time the election was over, until this very moment, he still hasn't done it. When you don't concede elections, yes, they're going. That's my point is there's plenty of stuff that he's done that you just have to list as you just did. You don't need to make stuff up.

You don't need AI for this. Traditional media does a better job of fact. Don't we hold them to an entirely different standard? Fox News knows that they're spreading misinformation about voting machines being weaponized by Hugo Chavez. They knew it was a lie. They continued to promote that misinformation. They could find three quarters of a billion dollars.

What happened on Fox was a dumpster fire compared to the nuclear muchum cloud that happens every three minutes on social media. Two-thirds of Americans get their news from social media, and yet they are held absolutely no standards. And when the BBC fucks up, we are hairs on fire. Why on earth are we not applying anything resembling the same standards for algorithmically elevated content to these quote-unquote nascent platforms? I get that the BBC screwed up, but by that standard where we're getting two-thirds of our news screws up about a million times a second. There's a double standard here. We need to make big tech and where people get their news. A fraction is accountable as we want to hold the BBC or CNN or Time Warner.

A double standard. It needs to end. Here's one for you. What is the arc of happiness in life? Oh, that's in your book. It's very straightforward. Why are the ages of 20? You said, and again, I'm not the typical one, I guess,

because I don't get up when people get up. This is exactly the opposite of my thing. But I remember reading it in your book. and what you say is the arc of happiness, is people tend to be pretty happy until about 25. And then from 25 to 45 are the difficult years. And then you get a little happier again later. I mean, I hate it up until 25.

And then it got good. That's unusual, so... Hold on. I don't think it's bad on you. Across... Well, okay, across ethnicity, income groups, and cultures, the research is really clean.

If you, across an age spectrum, happiness is a smile. Zero to 25 is prom, Star Wars, making out. It's pretty good. I wish. I didn't go to prom. 25.

I wasn't making out. 25 to 45 is what I call the shit gets real part of your life. And that is regardless of what university your parents told you, you're not going to be a senator or have a fragrance named after you. You, having kids is difficult, economic strain,

someone you love a great deal and loves you, gets sick and dies. It's really difficult. The shit gets good. But then... Shit gets good, error. Then something wonderful happens. No kids.

About the time you hit your 50s, earlier if you're soulful, you recognize the finite nature of life, you have friends, maybe a little bit economic security, and you start finding joy in unusual places. You start finding, like, I find Bougain-Via fascinating now. I just would have never thought that. And so the lesson is the following. That's a very weird aside.

Are you sure I didn't do it right? The lesson is straightforward. If you're 30 years old and you're struggling and your relationships are stressful and you have some economic stress and you think, this is just harder than I thought, that's exactly where you should be. And what I would say is keep on, keep on.

Happiness waits for you. To me, the bottom line. I think I have you a me. Your next book, Bill, your next book is going to be how I broke all of Scott Galloway's views. And I'm rich and happy as hell.

Well, I got to say, I mean, what you're really saying, bottom line, is that the unhappy years are the years when you have kids. But it's true. Wait, I know that. But, and I've said this before, like, I have never had kids,

so I can't speak first person. But unless there's a giant conspiracy going on in this country where every TV show, every movie, every person who talks about it on talk shows presents it as a total fucking nightmare.

Unless this is some giant... I heard some lady on some show the other day talking about I just, I've never had, she says, I never have one moment of peace to myself. I wish I could have just one hour where I wasn't packing lunches or doing this or doing that. And I just want to say to

her, you parent, you did this to yourself. You did. Because my parents did not feel this obligation to be on me all the time and to make every moment of my life their concern. Look, to be fair, there is some research showing that people are actually less happy who have kids than those that don't.

What I would say, though... What I would say, though, is that, one, I find with my kids, they're getting less awful every day. and two that's a vote of confidence hold on are they going to watch this if we're going to get spiritual about this

there are moments where I think that you feel most purposeful and think maybe I'm here for a reason when you're in the company you're kids and I'm sure that's true that you feel like the opportunity to raise patriotic loving you know men or women

with someone else I do think that checks an instinctual box that at least I've had a difficult time replicating anywhere. When I was in your shoes, it was always more. I want more money. I want more relevance. I want more dates. I want more amazing experiences. I was never stated. The only time I ever sounds awful. The only time I ever feel sad is occasionally when I'm in the company of my kids and I feel like they're safe. So anyways, as I've said before in the show, have kids. It's the best thing you'll ever do to ruin your life. Amen. All right. Thank you very much, everybody.

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