Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime – Episode #737: Mike Rowe, Tara Palmeri, Matt Welch

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 8/7/26) 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. All right, here we are in overtime with the founder and CEO of Mike Rowe Works Foundation and a host of the way I heard it, podcast Mike Rowe. The editor-at-large of Reason Magazine, co-host of the fifth column podcast, Matt Welch,

and she likes the Red Letter Newsletter and host the Tara Paul Mary show. Terrapal Mary. All right. First one is for you, Mike. What do you think when... And state fair living, that's for you. Thank you.

You're your... I will. I will sign it for you later. Great. What do you think when you hear Elon Musk say that in the future, no one will have jobs because AI will make work optional? He said that?

I never heard him say it, but... Well, a lot of people are saying AI is going to take all the jobs. Yeah, I... Not your kind of jobs, though, right? No, look, in time, Elon's saying there's going to be more optimist robots in three years than people. He's saying that the optimist robots are going to guarantee a level of medical coverage and excellence comparable to what the presidents.

What kind of robots are we talking about? The optimist, the thing he's making. That's what it's called? Yeah, it's called the optimist. Oh. Well, that sounds good. Yeah. Why are we worrying?

I'm optimistic. Optimistic. Yeah. No, I mean, look, there's no crystal ball, and there's no precedent in history for that happening. Doesn't mean it won't, but I wouldn't bet on it. Yeah, I mean, the jobs you mentioned when we were talking before, you listed like eight or ten jobs.

Yeah. Those kind of jobs, pipe fitter. Short term, those are literally AI-proof six-figure jobs. In the near term, I do not know what's going to happen three, five years from now. No idea. I mean, it's all moving so fast, it's almost impossible for anyone to say. And the thing is... What do we do? Well, panic, obviously.

Yeah, we panic. Freak out. I feel like they're going ahead with this without the plan B of like, what do people do when they don't have jobs? And then I hear someone say, oh, well, you know, the government will have to give a universal basic income. With what?

Where's the tax money coming from if no one is working to pay taxes? Where are they getting this money to give to the people who don't have jobs. That we've blown on a war abroad that we're losing. I mean, is it a war? It's a... It's complicated.

Okay. For the panel, will Tucker Carlson run for president in 2028? Well, what do you have a lot of support as a third-party candidate? This is coming up. I know why I read the story. Tucker Carlson certainly sounds like a candidate because he did what candidates do this week. He released a 10-point plan for America. This is kind of candidate-added.

adjacent kind of stuff, and also he smells blood in the water. Yeah. A lot of MAGA is unhappy. They do not like Trump's war, as you just mentioned. They do not like the tariffs. They do not like high gas prices. The Corleone family is being run out of New York. Yeah, he's running to the right of Trump.

He's essentially doing the things that Trump promised. I mean, that's what he's offering in this 10-point plan that Trump is not doing. And I just think that I know your former guest, J.D. Vance, Yes. He's going to be dragged down by Trump. I mean, if Trump's approval ratings right now are in the 40s and below, how is he going to come out of this being his right-hand man looking good? Nobody who's a vice president ever goes on.

I mean, Gore, Biden tried. Obama told him not to. George Bush did. George Bush won. Yeah, okay, that's fair. Yeah. But for the most part. William Henry Harrison. Okay.

Great question. I'm just saying. Okay, fair. Okay, fair. But it's just not looking good for him. And Rubio, too, I mean, this is just, they're both going to be dragged down by it. And the great thing about being a podcast host is you have no responsibilities. You can say whatever you want.

And he does. Yeah, he should. He should have responsibility to his audience. But he's not actually up to, like, he's not given any responsibility in terms of. No, he's already way up in the polls among smirking douchebags. And for this world war two historians, don't need them out. That's right. Right.

Every four years, I have to be the buzzkill and say that starting a third party or an independent run of the presidency is really, really hard and detailed work. And so, therefore, there's no chance in hell he's going to do that. It's much easier to be a podcast host. Okay. That's fair. Yeah. Panel, what are the panel's thoughts on Ariana Grande's announcement? Okay, I made a joke putting it.

I'm making fun of her, and we hope she gets well if she's not well. it's unclear. I mean, yes, she's thinner than you should be. That she'll be stepping back from public. Is this even a topic everyone should be talking about? Because I noticed that people talk about it like, oh, we're the good people and we're doing the thing. We need to step in.

And maybe that's true. Maybe we need to step in with pop stars. Britney Spears was another example of that. And people in show business, you know, it looks like a great life. I think it's been a great life. But I'm from a different generation. Like, good things are actually good. I like good things.

Real quick, Bill. What's going on? Oh, geez. Oh. Okay. What happened? Arianna Grande. Some years ago, she licked a donut.

Yeah. Blow up like a tick. But she never finished it. This should have been the first sign. How many people can lick a donut and not take a bite out of the donut? But she's very thin and they're worried. Well, people are saying she's dying before our eyes and nobody is doing anything. I mean, it's anorexia.

It's a horrible thing, yeah. It's a real psychological syndrome. Right. Yeah, I'm glad as someone whose daughters who are quite fond of her, that she's stepping aside because she looks unhealthy. She looks unhealthy. It's not my business or whatever, but I hope I hope that she gets better. Okay.

What does the panel make of Bank of America? spending two, well, this is somewhat related, spending roughly $250 million a year on GLP1 medications for its employees. Bank of America spending... Seems like a lot. I don't get it. So like Bank of America is subsidizing its employees

for getting OZEPIC. That's weird, because what I heard from captains of industry is they hate OZEPIC because it does take away your drive to eat. It also takes away your drive to eat. work a lot. Yeah, I'm sure, like, messes with your energy, your flow, your life. I mean, your digestion. But also, it's not, I know. Scott Galloway was here last week. He says, he thinks it's more important than AI. Sorry, Scott. I'm not with you on that one.

Maybe they want, they want them to be miserable and then feel like they should work more because their lives are so terrible. I don't know if it's some sort of plant. I mean, how can we possibly know what this is going to do in two or three years? I mean, honestly. Exactly. What is the, It's a very long tail on that. It's amazing the way they jump so quickly at things. And it's like... Yeah, it's scary, actually. Okay.

How dangerous is it that the U.S., for the U.S., that our stockpile of cruise missiles has been nearly depleted due to the war in Iran? Now, Trump says this is fake news. How do we know this? I'm very curious about that, because the Pentagon, when Pete took over, they put a big clamp on what the reporters access to the... depending on... He won't let them in the building. Right, we won't let them in the building. Exactly.

So I'm just, I'm not saying this is not true. I'm just asking how do they know it? Well, they're making up the number of casualties. They literally changed from 18 to 14 on their website. I don't know how we can believe that, but also do we want to fill the munitions that are losing this war? Shouldn't we be using drones like the rest of them, cheap drones? I don't understand. Oh, it's so ridiculous.

I think we want anti-aircraft missiles. They're just going to go out in a limb here saying that's a good thing for a country to have, especially if we're... Well, these are the ones that shoot down drones partly. Are they not? Yeah. Okay. So I've been to the Pentagon a couple times in the last few months.

They let you in? What's it like in there? It's roomy. Is it? You can get lost. It's so freaking big. It's the world's biggest office building. Yeah.

I mean, it's a city. It's literally in Pentagon City. And the Pentagon itself is... Anyway, and I was in the Secretary's office. And we had a chat. What did he say? Well, I'll tell you. I'll tell you, Terri.

Look, this is so far out of my lane, but, like, the buzz is asymmetrical warfare. The conversation is the... We're never going to out-manufacture China. Never in a million years. They delivered 982 ships last year. We delivered six, all right? We're not even close. So they're companies like Hadrian and Apex and Mock,

who are actually shooting with them later this week. But they're making very, very cheap, very lethal weapons. And the thought is, a balloon, for instance, at 80,000 feet carrying a kind of payload that would be very bad to have over your country. That balloon's got to come down. The only way to get it, it was with a $2 million ICBM or a Patriot missile, right? So the thought is just to flood the zone with these really inexpensive, effective, lethal weapons. And that was the scuttlebub. That's the way forward to think.

That's the new guerrilla warfare. It's already here. Yeah, that's how they're still in the game right now. Every three months, there's new protocols in Ukraine. It's amazing. It's the new plot of Lioness. I know it's already here. But it's so cheap, too.

It's so cheap. If it's in Lioness already, it's got to be real. Yeah. Okay. Mike, are tariffs a good way to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.? Oh, thanks for that, Bill. That's awesome. Why?

These are from the people. Yeah, sure. Yeah, the people. Why is it? Why are you mad at that question? Well, because, look, I, you know, I just had a guy on my podcast. Terrific guy.

Montana Knife Company. His name is Josh Smith. And he started with nothing. He has 160 employees now. He makes the best knives in the country. And I think, I don't want to speak for him, but Montana, Missoula,

the inclination is, They're rooting for the president, you know. But when you look at the extra $300,000, it costs to bring in a grinder from Germany, which is absolutely essential to doing what they do, you can see that cost is either going to get passed on to their customers or they're going to eat it. So I'm super sympathetic to a lot of small businesses who are wrestling with workforce primarily and then dealing with this.

And I don't think their stories get told enough. Thank you. State Fair Magazine, everyone. All right. Final question, and this goes to something I say, like, every week on this show, which is, I don't understand the American economy. Because I was reading recently, I assume it's true. It's published a lot of places that the upper middle class has gained, like, crazy amounts in the last 10, 20 years.

Because they're invested in the stock market. I guess what it is. Or wait. But, like, you know, like, by 30%, like, that's why we have less of a middle class, because we have a way bigger upper middle class. Now here's this. A nurse survey finds that 63% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. How could both things be possible?

But I always ask that. Like, how can some people have so little money? And I understand how economies work. But then, like, so many people can go to a concert, which is thousands of dollars. Well, not all the tickets are thousands of dollars. But it's very expensive. It is expensive. Even just to get like a Coke and some, you know, fries or whatever.

It's absurd. Or these 7 million men who don't work. What are they living? They're living on credit in their parents' basements. Exactly. Disability insurance. We have more people on disability than we've had for a really long time. And the Nicholas Ebersop book, which is admittedly fantastic, talks about that a lot.

We are paying people to not work. So these 63% of Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck. These are not these young men because they have no paycheck. Paycheck to no paycheck. And just don't trust that number. I mean, the paycheck to paycheck studies are almost all written by activist groups who are trying to say that we have more poverty in this country,

hidden poverty than we actually do. We do have poverty, and it's a problem, but we don't have 63% paycheck-to-paycheck poverty. You know what I think? The voice of reason. See, that's why his thing is reason. I get it. It's very clever. Sorry, go ahead.

I was going to say that I don't know about the paycheck to paycheck either, but I'm pretty sure that the lack of participation in the markets is a thing. And I had a chance to kind of dropping names horribly, but Secretary Besson came on the podcast. Okay. Very chatty. It's a little less impressive than you thought it was. Yeah, I know.

But the, oh, it was the Trump account. thing, which I thought was an interesting conversation. And I get it. It's not a panacea. It's not perfect. But for those families to have a kid and to get to get them in the market, at least in a way that they can monitor it, they can have it. They can participate in some way. You know, the fact that so many people in that position are not only going month to month, they're not saving anything. How could they? That's the tragedy. Yeah. Well.

All that is so. It's hoping to end on more of a positive note. But my optimist robot is waiting for me. Thank you very much, 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. For more information, log on to HBO.com. Larry David is back in the new HBO Original Limited Series.

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