Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime – Episode #738: Ryan Holiday, Andrew Cuomo, Kristen Soltis Anderson

Episode Date: August 18, 2026

Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 8/14/26) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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All right, our proud old podcast and best-selling offer of wisdom takes work, Ryan Holiday. The former Democratic governor of New York, Andrew Cromo, when she's a seat. and contributor and poll show out. That's a lot inside. Kristen's, Alderson. Okay. First one is from the people for you, Ryan. Which book do you think should every American read? Good question. I heard Obama's going to have a podcast just about books. He's, you know, you know, Oprah thing. Book club. I think it gets people reading books. Books are like dinosaurs now. What is that? What is that? What book do you think every... I mean, this is an obvious pick, but I think Gatsby is the greatest American. novel, maybe the greatest one in English?

I could not disagree more. What? You know, it's, it's, it's, it's a, okay, it's a pretty good book. They've made it into a movie so many times and it always sucks. And the last time, and the last time I watched it and it sucked, I went,

maybe it's the book. Well, why do you think it's so great? To me, Gatsby is the American dream and it's also you know, the careless people smashing things up. Careless. Yeah. The green light is the aspiration. I like that, trying to get back to a simpler time. And at the

same time, we also have the carelessness of the rich, the indifference of the rich, the ridiculousness of the rich. And then, you know, speaking of books, you know, my favorite scene is they walk into the library and he has this enormous display of books. And then Carraway finds out none of them have ever actually been open. The pages haven't been cut, which is how books were. You know, we talk a lot about books. People have opinions about books. People have opinions about The Odyssey.

But if people actually read them, they actually read them more than once, you know, I think there's something there, too. I have a lot of books in my house. I haven't read. I guess. I just love the way books look. I have a whole... I do. I do.

I've read books. I've read plenty of books. But, like, a lot of books I haven't read. Do you organize them by color? How do you organize them by color? Wow, I'm anal. I'm not that bad. I'm anal. I'm anal. I'm not that bad. No, I like it. The fact that there's all different.

colors. It makes for a wall. Nothing else makes a wall, I think. It's a great look, but that's me. Book, what book would you recommend? I would recommend C.S. Lewis, the screw tape letters. And while it is a Christian book,

it's not a, like, proselytizing book. It's a book about what goes on in the mind when you are being tempted away from your values and how we think somebody's temptation to do something bad is, like, it's obvious. And instead, it's about how, like, the little voice inside your head,

just tiny little things, little annoyances, like, can lead you down a path away from what you truly believe is important. I always thought C.S. Lewis was Christian proselytizing. Well, it is a Christian book. And I don't think it's... It's not hiding it whatsoever, but it's not a book that is intended to be about, here's why Christianity is great.

It's a book that's like, here's why the devil is... So if I read it on which page would I throw it against the wall? I don't think you would. I don't think you would. That's my question to you. Give me to try. I'm kidding. Andrew, what's your favorite book?

I'd have a book just for Democrats. Boy, you are true blue. Even bluer. Reason to believe by Mario Cuomo. God rest his soul. Oh, jeez. My father. And it is a very succinct read of what the Democratic Party is supposed to be about with the heart and soul.

and a mission of the Democratic Party was supposed to be about, and we've lost that. Reason to believe, Mario Cuomo. He was a great voice for it, but he was a better writer about it. Okay. That's your dad. Yep. What are your...

Panel, what are your thoughts on Trump saying he will declare the Strait of Hermuz a territory of the United States? I cannot keep up with this guy. I mean, every day, there's a new version of the Strait of Hermuz. It's like Mary Hartman. Now it's going to be a territory of the United States. Wow. Okay.

But it looks like we don't even control it. I mean... It means nothing. Like every other statement, it means nothing. We have peace. We have war. I'm going to bomb. I'm not going to bomb.

We have a deal. We don't have a deal. What does the panel think of reports that sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln have tried to jump overboard amid terrible conditions and a record 250 consecutive days at sea. That makes my blood boil. Didn't Trump say today that it hasn't been out long enough? That's what he said.

His response was it hasn't been out at sea long enough. So this is a guy that supposedly supports the troops. This is to be away from your family that long for a war we shouldn't be in at all. By the way, we're losing to be saying. He's thinking is 250 days. They haven't gotten used to it yet. That's what he's thinking.

I mean, it's bizarre. I've used this phrase before, but Republicans, they have this patriotic immunity. Like, they can do things that are so unpatriotic, and they don't seem to pay a price for it the way a Democrat would. When I hear about troops being on a ship where the toilets aren't working

and there's not enough food and they're so morose about this that at least one of them jumped off the ship, it just makes my blood boil. This is also why it's so important that if you are going to do something like commit American troops to a war, where war is hell,

it has to be for a reason that's a very good reason that you've communicated very well to everybody who's involved. And for these soldiers to feel on this ship, not only are they being let down by the actual conditions that they are in, but to also not feel like they're there

for any kind of mission that is, is worth fighting. I mean... I disagree with that. There was a mission worth fighting. We fucked it up, how we did it. Iran having a nuclear weapon, Iran being the actor in the Middle East that has fucked everything up in that region for the last

50 years. Changing that dynamic was not a unreasonable thing to try. They did it at the wrong time. They fucked it up. They should have done it when the people were in the streets. They didn't, and now we're here where they are. So, I will agree with you

that The world is better off with Iran not having a nuclear program, that we are better off, that we have gotten rid of an enormous amount of their capability. But we've gotten ourselves into a situation now where folks are deployed in the Middle East who, you know, there are, it's thankfully not nearly as many as used to be coming home on a regular basis during Iraq and Afghanistan, but we're still losing American lives over there. We're drifting away from the point, which is that we're a trillion dollars, a trillion dollar defense budget. and you can't put food on an aircraft carrier?

I mean, it's just some of it speaks to just competence, and that should go down the chain, as they say, in the military. Well, that's almost unbelievable. You know, the first, that he didn't lay out the case to the American people before he started, I think it was a big mistake. Because you're right, there was a case to lay out. He just didn't do it. It was just Venezuela yesterday, and now we're going to do this.

No, he did. Yeah, he did. Once he started, and then we weren't prepared. We have the greatest military on the globe. How are we running out of weapons? I mean, it's incredible. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick.

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Hey, y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.com.

Wayfair, every style, every home. Andrew, is there a legitimate... I know why this is for you. Is there a legitimate... Because you're in this business now. You're in the crypto business. Is there a legitimate real-world use for cryptocurrency, or is it just an avenue for criminals and corrupt politicians?

I don't think they mean you by that, but, I mean, but you are in, you, this, it's so interesting to me what politicians do, like John Boehner left politics and went into the pot business. He and I are in the same business now. We are. I have, the woods, the best pot store, it's on Santa Monica Boulevard. The business is. John Boehner went into psychedelic. I mean, no, Rick Perry went into psychedelics.

That's his business now. Rick Perry, former governor of Texas. You went to crypto. Why would you want to get into such a dirty business? Yeah. Well, dirty business is a broad statement. 2014, I became interested in the industry. I was governor of New York.

We were the first to regulate it because the technology, the financial technology is revolutionary. and can do great, great things if properly used. This blockchain technology and these smart contracts, it can make transactions faster, cheaper, more accessible for people. I work with a company called OKX. We just did a partnership with ICE, which owns the New York Stock Exchange,

which I believe is the best exchange on the globe. He says as an arrogant New Yorker. But you will be able to buy tokenized stock 24-7, globally with tokenized securitization. I mean, it's going to change the whole industry, but it has to be done right, and it has to be regulated, and it has to be clean. But the whole point of it is that it's not regulated. That's the whole reason they started it because they don't want regulation. Only in this country. Only in this country. Europe, 30 countries agreed on a common regulatory scheme, have a common regulator. We can't get the Senate.

Senate in the House to agree for our own regulations in this country. That's what happened here. We still don't have regulations in place. That's the controversy about the Clarity Act that was supposed to pass and finally put in regulations. Well, whatever it is, here, I know it's used by hackers and sex traffickers and kidnapper. What? Am I wrong?

Well, it's also used by a lot more. What is the stoic view on crypto? No, really? Where do the stoics come in? Seneca's line was, it's okay to be rich as long as your money is not stained in blood. So it matters what industry you're in.

It matters how you make your money. It matters who you're in business with. So I do think there's some sketchy things about the industry, and there's probably a reason that our president likes it so much. Well, I mean, that's... That's the thing, Andrew.

That's why it has to be done. right. That's why it has to be regulated. That's why it has to be clean. That's why it has to be compliant. Look, before I was a governor... We have that. Like, money itself, it doesn't exist either. It's all about we just believe it. We just believe the bank

has the money. They don't really have the money. Right? So what's the point of just having this new thing that's just in the air and in our minds? Because that's regular... You're focusing on the coins. I'm focusing on the technology. The technology is different.

It's digital ledger technology. It is instantaneous. It is faster. It is cheaper. And it will allow financial transactions disruptive because it's going to reduce the cost by reducing the intermediaries. But literally, 24-7 stock market trading, bringing trillions of dollars into this country. But moving quickly, couldn't that also be a bad thing? Because I seem to remember when there's sort of a run.

run on the market, what they have to do is freeze it because otherwise we'll go it. The exchange will still have checks. They'll still have checks on it. So can we just do that? We can stop the training. It will go through ice, which is the largest exchange globally. Ice? New York stock, intercontinent. Different ice. Different ice. Intercontinental exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange. All right. We'll wind up with this one. Ryan, are there any modern leaders who you think are doing a good job modeling Stoic virtues? Good question. Well, I think these days we obviously see more people modeling the opposite of stoicism.

You know, you have your Elon Musk's of the world waking up every day, freaking out about things that are not in his control. One of my stoic here is, modern stoic here is most of the people I read about are dead. But I think General Mattis is not just an embodiment of the idea, but he famously carries the stoics with him on his deployments. And certainly, you know, watching this situation unfold now, we miss that kind of adult superfluous. supervision in the Pentagon these days. Yeah. I mean, Elon, a lot of people say, well, it's the ketamine talk and when he does crazy stuff.

It's also the social media. It's bad for the right. You know, he's been, it's not out of school. He's talked about his drug use. Is there a place within Stoicism for doing drugs? Well, uh... I'm asking for a friend. Yes. I might point you to a philosophy called Epicureanism.

That seems more in your style. But they have more in common than they do differences. All right. Well, thank you very much. You're all very entertaining. You're a fantastic man. We'll see you next week. 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 HBO.com. Hey, y'all. It's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if, like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair.

With Wayfair, there's no what-if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home.