Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime – Episode #733: David Sedaris, Ian Bremmer, Hagar Chemali

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 6/12/26) 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 Maher. Okay, he is a humorous and author of the bestselling book of essays, The Land and its people, David Sederis. He's the president and founder of Eurasia Group

and Giza Ramedia Ingrammer and she's the co-founder of the Lebanon Israel Peace Alliance and a host of YouTube's Oh My World, Agar Shumali. Okay. Now the questions from the people, the real questions. First one is for you.

In your book, you had ChatGBT, imitate your writing style. Oh, yeah. Do you think there will come a day when AA can truly capture your voice? No. Somebody else told Chat Chp. To write something in my style.

And so the biggest laugh in the book is I rewrote what it wrote. And just because it can't be dirty. Right now, maybe it'll change. But it can't surprise people with violence and dirt the way I like to. You think it was programmed too woke? Everything sounds like it was put through HR.

I told it. I right. Okay. O'L. Little Elf. I mean, you don't get that from ChatGPT. What? Old Little Elf.

Oh. Yeah. You remember that. That was his best. Yeah. It was so good. The Macy's thing. I mean, you know, it's 100 pages of pure, like, ribald, uncontrollable humor.

Ryebald? Yes. I always thought it was rebelled. Is it ribald? I think it is ribald. Let's ask chat sheep eating. Ryebald. Could be a whiskey king.

Yeah. There are words like that, like flaxid is really flaccid. No. Which is it? It's flaccid. No, but it's actually flaxed. Really? Yes, I'm pretty sure.

Really? Like a flaccid. A flaxid penis. Yes. If you're having a night that's too ribald, you get flaccid. All right. How does the Israeli-Hesbalah conflict in Lebanon complicate Trump's negotiations with Iran? Well, a lot. Yeah, it complicates it a lot, unfortunately,

because the Iranian regime wants Hezbollah to survive because it's its main proxy. It's right next to Israel. So any time they fight for a ceasefire, and on top of it that their running regime is doing it on behalf of Lebanon, it's a gift to Hezbollah. And Trump, he's not negotiating a war. a principled manner. Even though I believe that it's a Nobel Peace Prize on a platter and that we know that he wants that. It is, he's willing, if the Iranian regime says there's no talking

unless there's a ceasefire in Lebanon, he's willing to sell Lebanon to Iran. And that's a big problem, especially because there's so much progress being made between Lebanon and Israel. Sell Lebanon to Iran or Israel? Sell Lebanon to Iran. Well, doesn't Iran already have Lebanon? No. And I mean, they have Hezbollah in there, but there's real effort to sell. Separate the two. Okay.

Well, what if the United States had a separate army like Hezbollah is that was controlling the southern half of our country? Oh, wait. No. I mean, you know, everybody always blames Israel. I always say, you know what? Stop attacking Israel. This whole thing will end. I mean, Hezbollah is on their border attacking.

Now what Israel is doing is it's basically putting in a buffer zone. This is what it did in the Golan Heights with Syria. It's like we stop attacking us and we won't need these buffer zones. But as long as you do, we have to have an area, you know, or we can go and fight and keep our people out of this. Is that not fair? Oh, I think it's fair. I think it's fair. I think that Israelis should only withdraw when certain terms are met and that Lebanese armed forces can control the area.

They don't give up. Hezbollah doesn't give up. Hamas doesn't give up. You know? They don't, but they can... They just don't. They can be significantly weakened. They can't.

And they are in the process of it. And so has Iran. Yeah. That's not given up. No. All right. As we said before, Israel is by far the most powerful country in the region, militarily, economically, technologically.

And yet what have we learned that Goliath frequently is not able to get done all the Goliath wants? And that's true for Israel, too. Yeah. What we also learned from this and probably everything that ever happens overseas is there's never a good answer is only the least bad answer. Absolutely. That's right. What they've been doing. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive.

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William, why do you make up Trump nominating a new director of national intelligence? Oh, yes, we did this last week. Bill Pulte, he's one of his stooges. But now he's not. You know, the Republic, you know, look, you got to live in the present moment. I mean, nobody was more afraid 10 years ago that this is going to become an authoritarian government. I'm still afraid of it. And yet, I have also seen more pushback than I thought would happen.

This guy's not going to be the head. The Republican Party itself finally kind of drew a line. They kind of threw a shit fit about this guy. And now he's not, and he's not getting a slush fund either. The $1.8 billion weaponization fund is not actually happening. The AEPA tariffs all over the world on the whim of the president for an emergency, turns out the Supreme Court said, no, no, no, we're not doing that. Even the Trump Kennedy Center turns out you're going to go there.

It's just going to be the Kennedy Center. I'm going to say this one more time. The more we talk about this, the less likely it's going to happen. So just, please. quiet until June 29th after each time. Let me get my one fucking award. We want to be...

There's so much fucking anxiety. 75% of Americans say the federal government is hiding information about Jeffrey Epstein's clients. Are they right? Well, you know, they just make it look so bad the fact that they've said

how many times that they're releasing the Epstein files and then I think, oh, well, they release the Eustin files, and then I think, oh, well, they release the And then like two months later, we got to release the, wait, you didn't? I thought you did. It just, like Groundhog Day. Yeah, they're just endless amounts of Epstein files and I guess there's still Epstein files.

Yeah. Yes? Someone here at this table is in the Epstein files. I'm in the Epstein files. You want to explain your phone? He, it was Jeffrey Epstein sent an email and it was a copy of a New York Times article. from 2004 about a bookstore in Paris and people who'd read at the bookstore. And I was in there. So I'm in the Epstein files.

People treat me a lot differently after learning when I was in the Eastman. I'll tell you. But you weren't on the plane. No. No, I wouldn't on the plane. And you were not on the island, were you? No, but I mean... Or were you?

I'm in the fire. You what? I'm in the Epstein files. Yeah. Yeah. No, I can see you're very proud of that. I see that, you know, he did actually kill himself. We learned that, right?

We don't know that. Well, I mean, they're not talking about it. The conspiracists have moved on. It turned out there was a lot of, right? We got the letter. We actually... Well, I bet you if I polled the audience, it would hurt. No.

Ah. I bet you if I asked the audience how many people think it was... I bet you it would be our 50. How many people think it was a suicide that he killed himself in prison? Nobody. Wow. Nobody. This was one person right there.

I saw it. I saw. So just you and this other person. That's something. Okay, but, you know. You've got to build from there. All right. So why do you think it wasn't a foul play?

Well, one, because there'd be so many folks that would be aware of some piece of that that we'd hear about from now. We've gotten none of it. All we've gotten is crazy people that just spout off nonsense. But we never really got the truth about the Kennedy assassination. did we? Did we? I mean, they put out a whole bunch of stuff later on, and we didn't end up learning anything, nothing super secret that came out of it. You believe that Oswald acted alone in the Kennedy assassination? I haven't spent the time to study that to give you that answer.

Oh, but I have not. Hold on a second. I have no. Okay. I believe the moon landing. I believe the vaccines actually work all of these things to me. are not conspiracies. I tend to go with science and evidence until you give me something else. Okay. But let me go back to you. You haven't had time to look into it.

This happened in 1963. Haven't you been busy? I know you're a busy man. I mean, you must have heard about the magic bullet theory, the bullet that went in one guy, out the other guy, came around here, and this here, and it through his wrist.

And, I mean, it just, it's, it seems like it really could not have just been the one guy. Okay. Back into the left, back into the right. Remember that video of like, you know. Okay. Oh, perfect for you. The Pentagon just released a new batch of UFO files. See, I do believe in that.

But that's scientific. I mean, I think it's actually less scientific to think we are alone in the universe. That, to me, doesn't it? And also, Many of the people in the military now are saying this. It's not just crazy farmers out there getting anally probed. It's a very serious people. And the Spielberg movie opens.

I'm sure that's going to be something. Is this the government's attempt to slowly disclose that aliens are real? Wouldn't it be funny if Epstein was in this file? Who knows more about anal probing? But anyway, Pentagon just released UFO fire. Yeah, I do. I think that this is, they're slowly trying to, you know, get us so we don't freak out when they say, yeah, they're here, they're queer, get used to it. They're warming us up to it.

What? They're warming us up to it. You believe that? Well, I, I mean, it's hard to see where the government is going with it. I do believe, I think it would be very narcissistic of us to think that we are the only life form in this universe, or in the galaxy. and I'm by no means an expert on this at all. They did not privy me to these files in government, but... I had years to research that.

I should have. You know, I wasn't done for 12 years. You're right. What are you thinking about it? Yeah, I'm not going with UFOs until someone shows me UFOs. That's true. Ah, interesting. And she agrees with me, that one woman.

And you? I never think about them. You know, I never... Really? Never crossed my mind, whether they exist or not. No, never think about it. And, you know, I don't understand either. Like, I lost interest in Jeffrey Epstein so long ago.

Like, years ago, I felt like. I don't, he didn't capture my imagination. And I was curious why, how much do you think his being good-looking has to do with him capturing people's imagination? He was good-looking. I don't think he was good-looking. I don't think he was good-looking. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. That is the weirdest conspiracy theory. All right, we've got to wrap it out. Thank you very much. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10 or watch them anytime on HBO On Demand.

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