Joe Rogan Experience #2029 - Bill Maher

1. 0:00 – 2:04

   Austin catch-up and why Maher loves the long-form podcast format

   1. BMBill Maher0:00

      (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience.

   2. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music plays) Hello, Bill Maher.

   3. BMBill Maher0:13

      Hi, Joe.

   4. JRJoe Rogan0:14

      Good to see you.

   5. BMBill Maher0:14

      Great to be in Austin.

   6. JRJoe Rogan0:15

      What's happening? Look at you. You're all comfortable and shit. (laughs)

   7. BMBill Maher0:18

      I asked you before if I could put my... I don't know.

   8. JRJoe Rogan0:20

      Of course. We want this table-

   9. BMBill Maher0:22

      Thank you.

   10. JRJoe Rogan0:22

       ... as dirty as possible.

   11. BMBill Maher0:22

       I... (laughs) It's not like I'm messing it up.

   12. JRJoe Rogan0:25

       No.

   13. BMBill Maher0:25

       Let's be honest.

   14. JRJoe Rogan0:26

       I like it lived in.

   15. BMBill Maher0:27

       Um...

   16. JRJoe Rogan0:28

       I like it stained and-

   17. BMBill Maher0:29

       Yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan0:29

       ... ashes and all that jazz.

   19. BMBill Maher0:32

       How you doing?

   20. JRJoe Rogan0:32

       I'm good, man. What's happening?

   21. BMBill Maher0:34

       In town to, you know, do my thing.

   22. JRJoe Rogan0:37

       Doing a show tonight at ACL, right?

   23. BMBill Maher0:38

       Telling jokes to strangers, what we do.

   24. JRJoe Rogan0:41

       Nice. Nice.

   25. BMBill Maher0:41

       And, uh, of course, when I got the invite, how can you, how can you turn down the king? I know you hate being called the king-

   26. JRJoe Rogan0:48

       (laughs) .

   27. BMBill Maher0:49

       ... but you are, Joe. So bask in it a little.

   28. JRJoe Rogan0:51

       Well, thank you very much.

   29. BMBill Maher0:52

       Yeah. So-

   30. JRJoe Rogan0:53

       It's always good to see you.
2. 2:04 – 4:07

   Weed, cultural change, and how context changes the outrage machine

   1. BMBill Maher2:04

      You know, it's a different kind of intelligence. Uh, uh, it's not worse or better, it's just different. So, to be able to talk to a lot of people on Club Random in a setting where I can just be high as a kite and constantly blowing pot smoke in their face, first of all, it's just, it's just a joy. It, uh, it, it's a, it's a sign of the progress that this country has made, that, th- th- to think that I used to sweat bullets going through every airport in this country 'cause I had this much little pot that I was hiding under my balls.

   2. JRJoe Rogan2:38

      Right.

   3. BMBill Maher2:39

      That's really where I hid it, was-

   4. JRJoe Rogan2:40

      Yeah.

   5. BMBill Maher2:41

      ... uh, so that if the dog sniffed it, you know, that they'd be embarrassed, I hoped, (laughs) to look there. And now I can freely, uh, smoke pot, uh, in a nationally aired program, is, is kind of amazing. Um, so I'm, I'm enjoying the fuck out of it.

   6. JRJoe Rogan2:58

      That's beautiful. Yeah, it's also nice to have like a pre- completely open format, so conversations can really air out.

   7. BMBill Maher3:05

      Right.

   8. JRJoe Rogan3:06

      You know, when you... You don't have to worry-

   9. BMBill Maher3:07

      Yes.

   10. JRJoe Rogan3:07

       ... about running out of time, and-

   11. BMBill Maher3:08

       Right.

   12. JRJoe Rogan3:09

       You also... You can kinda let them breathe a little because sometimes you really wanna let someone talk for a long time to try to... Before you try to interject and pick apart their conversa- their argument. You really wanna... I wanna know what you're really thinking.

   13. BMBill Maher3:23

       Yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan3:23

       I don't wanna be confused.

   15. BMBill Maher3:24

       Again, that's kind of what you pioneered.

   16. JRJoe Rogan3:27

       Yeah.

   17. BMBill Maher3:27

       And we're grateful for it. And, um, I, I do like that. Uh, I also find it's interesting, the setting makes a big difference as to what arouses the furies on the left. If I said so many of the things that I've said on Club Random on a podcast, on Real Time on HBO, uh, they would have had my head.

   18. JRJoe Rogan3:55

       Yeah.

   19. BMBill Maher3:55

       But somehow, when I say it in the setting of the podcast, in my own home, blowing the pot smoke, somehow it's okay, and I find that very interesting.

3. 4:07 – 6:12

   ‘’90s liberal’ vs ‘woke’: defining the ideological split

   1. JRJoe Rogan4:07

      I think they look at you like a guy who they're worried about-

   2. BMBill Maher4:12

      (snorts)

   3. JRJoe Rogan4:12

      ... because you don't toe the line.

   4. BMBill Maher4:14

      They should be. Exactly.

   5. JRJoe Rogan4:15

      You're, you're like a '90s liberal. You're like the liberals back when they were more reasonable, before they became leftists. And now every liberal kinda has to be a leftist. It's not... It's like if you wanna be on the team, you gotta subscribe to the most fringe ideas that the team is promoting.

   6. BMBill Maher4:34

      Right.

   7. JRJoe Rogan4:34

      And I get in trouble with that too. It's just... It's such a... I mean, there's so many... Like Joe List has talked about that recently, the comic, Joe List, very funny guy. And he was talking about like... He goes like, "I'm a '90s liberal." He goes, "What? I, I didn't change. It's like everybody else kinda changed."

   8. BMBill Maher4:49

      That's right. Yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan4:49

      It got... It just got real weird, like what you're allowed to disagree with and not to disagree with, and you know?

   10. BMBill Maher4:56

       Yes.

   11. JRJoe Rogan4:56

       It's-

   12. BMBill Maher4:56

       I'm-

   13. JRJoe Rogan4:57

       ... strange.

   14. BMBill Maher4:57

       I'm always trying to make the case that liberal is a different animal than woke.

   15. JRJoe Rogan5:05

       (inhales through teeth) Yeah.

   16. BMBill Maher5:05

       Because it is. And, uh, you can be woke with all the nonsense that that now implies, um, but don't say that somehow it's an extension of liberalism.

   17. JRJoe Rogan5:18

       Right.

   18. BMBill Maher5:19

       Because it's most often actually an undoing of liberalism.

   19. JRJoe Rogan5:23

       It's a big thing.

   20. BMBill Maher5:23

       And so, you can have your points of view and your positions on these things, but don't try to piggyback on what I've always believed. I have always believed, as liberals do, for example, in a colorblind society, that the goal is to not see race at all anywhere for any reason.

   21. JRJoe Rogan5:41

       Yes.

   22. BMBill Maher5:41

       That's what liberals always believed all the way through. Obama, going back, Kennedy, m- everybody, Martin Luther King. That's not what the woke believe. They believe race is first and foremost a thing you should always see everywhere, which I find interesting because that used to be the position of the Ku Klux Klan.... that we see race first and foremost everywhere.

   23. JRJoe Rogan6:03

       Yeah.

   24. BMBill Maher6:04

       Uh, so again, you can have that position, but don't say that's a liberal position. You're doing something very different.

4. 6:12 – 11:00

   Crime, policing, and policy blowback in major cities

   1. JRJoe Rogan6:12

      I think the idea behind it, I think I understand their idea. The idea is that the society is imbalanced, and so in order to address that imbalance, you're going to prop up as many minorities as possible, make as many opportunities for minorities as possible, and get it to a position where there are... Like, white people are a minority, and so that's not a concern anymore. And that through that, somehow or another, you'll achieve equality. I think the way to achieve equality is your way. I think the colorblind way is the way to really, truly achieve equality, and to truly judge people just on their merits. But also recognize that if we don't address the problems in this country a- as far as like how disenfranchised some people are, and how horrible some communities are that people grow up in and people find themselves stuck in, with no recourse, no way out, no- n- no role models, no nothing-

   2. BMBill Maher7:10

      Mm-hmm.

   3. JRJoe Rogan7:10

      ... no financial opportunities, that's what our real problem is in this country, more than it is race. It's- it's extreme poverty, extreme poverty and extreme crime, and that these things don't get addressed over and over and over again. And in fact, a lot of the policies that you see coming from places like San Francisco and Portland, and they just exacerbate it. You're just seeing stores close because like, okay, you can't just steal. You can't just have everybody-

   4. BMBill Maher7:33

      (laughs)

   5. JRJoe Rogan7:33

      ... just walk into a Walmart-

   6. BMBill Maher7:34

      Yeah. (laughs)

   7. JRJoe Rogan7:35

      ... and steal. I was watching a video-

   8. BMBill Maher7:35

      That's- (laughs)

   9. JRJoe Rogan7:35

      ... where they were showing a Walgreens, and they had everything chained up. Chained.

   10. BMBill Maher7:40

       Oh, yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan7:41

       Chains.

   12. BMBill Maher7:41

       Even minor little things.

   13. JRJoe Rogan7:43

       Yeah, little things.

   14. BMBill Maher7:43

       Like- like frozen food dinners.

   15. JRJoe Rogan7:45

       Yeah. Yeah, they had the-

   16. BMBill Maher7:46

       (laughs)

   17. JRJoe Rogan7:46

       ... frozen food section chained off.

   18. BMBill Maher7:49

       Right. No, a- again, that's not... Liberalism was never, um, shoplifting is progressive.

   19. JRJoe Rogan7:56

       Right.

   20. BMBill Maher7:57

       (laughs)

   21. JRJoe Rogan7:57

       Yeah.

   22. BMBill Maher7:58

       And we- we weren't interested in legalizing, um, shoplifting, or I s- I guess (laughs) we should call it justice shopping. But, you know, in Minnesota, for example, I think it was Minneapolis, after the George Floyd murder and the riots, I think there was, uh, a movement to disband a lot of the police, and they did. I think a lot of the police were let go, or somehow the police force was- was a- a lesser force than it was. And what happened was, of course, crime went up in certain areas, and a lot of the officers who had been fired or let go or quit or w- for whatever reason they weren't on the force anymore, they were hired as private security. By who? The rich people-

   23. JRJoe Rogan8:50

       (laughs)

   24. BMBill Maher8:50

       ... who could afford to do it, so their neighborhood stayed safe.

   25. JRJoe Rogan8:54

       Ugh.

   26. BMBill Maher8:54

       So that wasn't exactly, I thought, a victory for liberalism.

   27. JRJoe Rogan8:58

       No, it's the opposite.

   28. BMBill Maher8:59

       Yeah.

   29. JRJoe Rogan9:00

       It's unfortunate. Austin defunded the police and then refunded it, and refunded it by far more-

   30. BMBill Maher9:06

       Mm-hmm.
5. 11:00 – 13:30

   Community accountability and the limits of political fixes

   1. BMBill Maher11:00

      Well, I mean, I think a lot of the murders that happen are over nonsense, you know?

   2. JRJoe Rogan11:06

      Sure.

   3. BMBill Maher11:06

      Somebody dissed you on social media or made fun of your sneakers or some shit. I mean, some of it is- is drug turf and that kinda stuff.

   4. JRJoe Rogan11:16

      Yeah.

   5. BMBill Maher11:16

      Um, but I think some of it is just bullshit, and I don't understand why there isn't a more concerted effort to shine a spotlight on that. And- and w- where are the leaders of the community, the- the people who- who could, who would have such cachet among those young African American men? 'Cause that's who's killing each other-

   6. JRJoe Rogan11:40

      Yeah.

   7. BMBill Maher11:40

      ... young African American men, to say, "Cut it out. What the fuck are you doing killing each other?" If- if there was a- a- a concerted effort by- by people in the music industry, people in sports who they look up to, w- wouldn't that have an effect?

   8. JRJoe Rogan12:01

      I don't know.... you know, at this point in time-

   9. BMBill Maher12:02

      Worth a try?

   10. JRJoe Rogan12:03

       I don't know. Worth a try, sure. Worth something. I mean, something needs to be done. I'm not the guy to figure out what needs to be done, uh, but something needs to be done. It should have been done a long time ago. I, I don't know what that answer is. But no answer is not the answer. And continuing the same policy has got you in the same problems, and just defunding the police officers and making things far worse, and then not course correcting, that's not the answer either.

   11. BMBill Maher12:30

       Right.

   12. JRJoe Rogan12:31

       It's nice to talk about politics. It's great. I would hate to be one of those fucking people, to be an actual politician and have, be responsible for all this shit. And to, and, and also to-

   13. BMBill Maher12:43

       Yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan12:43

       ... come in now.

   15. BMBill Maher12:44

       (clears throat)

   16. JRJoe Rogan12:44

       You know?

   17. BMBill Maher12:46

       Yeah. I mean, they are the easiest people to target because, of course, they have to kowtow to what the voters want, and the voters are completely contradictory. So I do have some sympathy for politicians because if you ask the voters what they want, (clears throat) they will basically say they want every sort of goodie that the government can provide on a Arizona tax base.

   18. JRJoe Rogan13:11

       (laughs)

   19. BMBill Maher13:12

       (laughs) They want a... They want a Swedish social net-

   20. JRJoe Rogan13:15

       Yeah.

   21. BMBill Maher13:15

       ... on a Arizona tax base, and that's just not possible. Um-

   22. JRJoe Rogan13:19

       And then the answer is always tax the rich, which is-

   23. BMBill Maher13:21

       (clears throat)

   24. JRJoe Rogan13:21

       ... like, well, that doesn't help incompetent government.

   25. BMBill Maher13:25

       It does not.

   26. JRJoe Rogan13:25

       If they have more money, it doesn't help them.

   27. BMBill Maher13:26

       Well, I mean, that's... I think that's why you moved here, wasn't it?

   28. JRJoe Rogan13:29

       No. I moved here-

   29. BMBill Maher13:30

       (clears throat)

6. 13:30 – 19:25

   COVID lockdowns, health messaging, and the obesity third rail

   1. JRJoe Rogan13:30

      ... because they were locking down the city, and it didn't seem safe, and it seemed very sketchy. And I just didn't agree with what they were doing. The more I talked to doctors that were experts in respiratory diseases, the more they were convinced there was no way to stop a respiratory disease. They're like, "This isn't gonna do anything. In fact, it's probably gonna damage people's immune systems because they're not gonna be around other people. They're gonna be filled with anxiety. They're gonna be locked in."

   2. BMBill Maher13:55

      I couldn't agree more.

   3. JRJoe Rogan13:55

      "Isolation, depression."

   4. BMBill Maher13:57

      No, I was always making this case on-

   5. JRJoe Rogan13:59

      Yeah.

   6. BMBill Maher13:59

      ... on Real Time and, uh, you know, people thought I was crazy, and I'm sure they think you're crazy, but they're crazy, and they don't know anything.

   7. JRJoe Rogan14:06

      Well, they're, they're definitely wrong. If you talk to virologists and epidemiologists that aren't-

   8. BMBill Maher14:12

      (clears throat)

   9. JRJoe Rogan14:13

      ... captured, that don't have to deal with whatever Fauci and the NIH tells them what to say, and if you talk to those people, they're like, "Well, first of all, you should be telling people they have to lose weight." They have to lose weight. It was the number one comorbidity. It was a giant factor.

   10. BMBill Maher14:28

       Right. I think something like 75% of the people who were hospitalized or died, yes, were obese.

   11. JRJoe Rogan14:35

       Yeah.

   12. BMBill Maher14:35

       But, of course, in this country, we're so through the looking glass on the obesity issue that even mentioning it-

   13. JRJoe Rogan14:41

       Yeah.

   14. BMBill Maher14:41

       ... is some sort of a hate crime.

   15. JRJoe Rogan14:43

       Right.

   16. BMBill Maher14:43

       I mean, it's, it is so Orwellian. And this is, again, a topic I've covered many times, and there is nothing that garners me more hate than this. No issue.

   17. JRJoe Rogan14:53

       (laughs)

   18. BMBill Maher14:53

       No issue. Um, you're just not allowed to talk about this. And it's preposterous because, first of all, if this is truly a life and death issue-

   19. JRJoe Rogan15:03

       Yeah.

   20. BMBill Maher15:03

       ... we can't talk about the one thing that, more than anything else, is causing the death? But it is Orwellian. Terms like body positivity.

   21. JRJoe Rogan15:11

       Yeah. (laughs)

   22. BMBill Maher15:12

       There is nothing positive health-wise.

   23. JRJoe Rogan15:15

       Yeah.

   24. BMBill Maher15:15

       Now, if you think it's beautiful, great. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But science is not.

   25. JRJoe Rogan15:22

       No, it's not. And it's... And honestly, it's not even beauty. It's people trying to help-

   26. BMBill Maher15:26

       (laughs)

   27. JRJoe Rogan15:26

       ... people's feelings. (clears throat) They're trying to help your feelings.

   28. BMBill Maher15:28

       Yeah. There, there are people, we used to call them chubby chasers.

   29. JRJoe Rogan15:31

       Oh, sure.

   30. BMBill Maher15:32

       There are people-
7. 19:25 – 26:22

   Ozempic and the ‘quick fix’ debate: side effects, incentives, and agency

   1. BMBill Maher19:25

      (sighs) I mean, the, these new, uh, drugs they have.

   2. JRJoe Rogan19:28

      Ozempic and things like that.

   3. BMBill Maher19:28

      Ozempic.

   4. JRJoe Rogan19:29

      Yeah.

   5. BMBill Maher19:30

      I was reading about Ozempic. Uh, I didn't know this until recently. They have zero clue why it works.

   6. JRJoe Rogan19:39

      Hmm.

   7. BMBill Maher19:40

      They know that it works, just not why. I, this would bother me-

   8. JRJoe Rogan19:46

      Yeah.

   9. BMBill Maher19:46

      ... a little, you know?

   10. JRJoe Rogan19:47

       It should.

   11. BMBill Maher19:48

       (laughs) That if they're, they're giving me something, and, and they're like, "Hey, this new miracle pill, just take it. We're working on the reason why it might do this to you. But until then, just fuck it." Uh-

   12. JRJoe Rogan20:02

       There's no biological free lunch either.

   13. BMBill Maher20:04

       (coughs)

   14. JRJoe Rogan20:04

       I have friends that are on that stuff, and one friend who just got off of it, because he was having some serious gastrointestinal issues that are apparently one of the side effects. There, it's not, there's no free lunch. If you're taking an, an injection that makes you less hungry, something's going on that's probably not good.

   15. BMBill Maher20:21

       Yes.

   16. JRJoe Rogan20:22

       And you're also losing a lot of connective tissue, bone mass, and muscle mass. Uh, my good friend, Peter Attia, did a study on his patients. He's a doctor. He did a study on patients that took Ozempic, and one of the things they found is they lost weight, but they gained fat. They were actually, had a f- higher percentage of body fat, because they were primarily losing muscle tissue and connective tissue. They were losing so much of that, that even though they lost, like, 20 pounds, they actually went from, like, 15% body fat to maybe 20% body fat or whatever the number was.

   17. BMBill Maher20:54

       But what I, what I find the most alarming is the way, in just a matter of a few years, the group think that this is a disease now-

   18. JRJoe Rogan21:03

       Now.

   19. BMBill Maher21:04

       ... that cannot be controlled by what, for 50, 100, a million years before this, it was the scientific consensus that, of course, you can control it-

   20. JRJoe Rogan21:16

       Yeah.

   21. BMBill Maher21:17

       ... with diet and exercise. It just, in a couple of years, that went out the window. And you cannot read, you cannot find an article, uh, on the front page or in the op-ed page of the New York Times in the last couple of years that has any other belief than this one, that it is a disease, it is not within a person's control. So, they're all in on Ozempic or whatever else, because w- we certainly can't leave this to people themselves to control it. That's a giant sea change, and the way they sheep-like just go right in a row-

   22. JRJoe Rogan21:53

       Yeah.

   23. BMBill Maher21:54

       ... uh, uh, with no dissent, not one person standing up in the paper of record to say, "Wait a second, this can't really be the case. I mean, 50 years ago, we looked like a completely different people."

   24. JRJoe Rogan22:07

       Yeah.

   25. BMBill Maher22:07

       Why is it the case? In 50 years, did we evolve in 50 years, human beings? Was cake not delicious in 1969? I think it was, and yet, some, somehow people resisted it.

   26. JRJoe Rogan22:19

       Well, there was a lot of diet changes, for sure. And I think one of the things about the narrative, there was, there was a lot of influence by, uh, vested interests. Like, you know, I'm sure you know about the 1950s, I believe it was, where the, uh, sugar industry paid off scientists-

   27. BMBill Maher22:35

       Of course.

   28. JRJoe Rogan22:36

       ... to, uh-

   29. BMBill Maher22:36

       Yes.

   30. JRJoe Rogan22:36

       ... yeah, to put the blame on-
8. 26:22 – 32:20

   SSRIs, depression, and ‘logical’ vs biochemical suffering

   1. JRJoe Rogan26:22

      And look, if that's the only way you can lose weight and you lose weight, and then that's what starts you along the way, I kinda feel like that the same way I feel about SSRIs. I've had frie- I mean, I've had friends that have had disastrous, uh, s- s- situations come up because of SSRIs, and I've had other people that got from being suicidal to getting their life in order, and then slowly getting off of them, and then saying it was overall a good thing for them.

   2. BMBill Maher26:44

      Wait, what is SSRI?

   3. JRJoe Rogan26:46

      Uh, antidepressants.

   4. BMBill Maher26:48

      Oh.

   5. JRJoe Rogan26:48

      Prozac. Well, Prozac's not one of them.

   6. BMBill Maher26:50

      Well, what does SSRI stand for?

   7. JRJoe Rogan26:51

      Yeah, that's what it is, uh, selective serotonin reup inhibitors. It's, uh-

   8. BMBill Maher26:56

      Oh, wow.

   9. JRJoe Rogan26:56

      It's, um-

   10. BMBill Maher26:56

       But I thought they recently found out that it wasn't the serotonin that was making-

   11. JRJoe Rogan27:00

       Well, what they found out is it's not a chemical imbalance in your brain.

   12. BMBill Maher27:04

       Right.

   13. JRJoe Rogan27:04

       Uh, uh, s- uh, SSRIs are another one where they're not exactly sure why they work, you know? Like Zoloft is a good one. Um, they don't know wha- they just, you know, help some people, doesn't help other people. For a lot of people, it just makes them disconnected.

   14. BMBill Maher27:16

       Right.

   15. JRJoe Rogan27:16

       And they feel like just everything is flat and dull.

   16. BMBill Maher27:19

       I took a Zoloft once. I don't know why I had a Zoloft in the house-

   17. JRJoe Rogan27:24

       (laughs)

   18. BMBill Maher27:24

       ... but I thought it w-

   19. JRJoe Rogan27:25

       You recreationally took a Zoloft?

   20. BMBill Maher27:27

       I did not recreat-

   21. JRJoe Rogan27:28

       (laughs)

   22. BMBill Maher27:28

       I thought it was a sleeping pill.

   23. JRJoe Rogan27:30

       Oh.

   24. BMBill Maher27:30

       Because Z, Zo and Loft.

   25. JRJoe Rogan27:33

       Right.

   26. BMBill Maher27:33

       I was like, "Oh, this-" (laughs)

   27. JRJoe Rogan27:35

       Must be.

   28. BMBill Maher27:37

       I don't... I d- I, well, this is a long time ago, and I don't know why it was in my house, but I had one pill, and I remember, Zoloft, and I thought, "Oh, good, I need to sleep." Uh, and it, the way it made me feel, because I don't have an imbalance, was horrible.

   29. JRJoe Rogan27:54

       Really?

   30. BMBill Maher27:54

       Yes. Like, like, I know what it feels like to be doing something I don't wanna do. Some people call that work, and we're lucky we like our work mostly, but there are things I don't wanna do that I do, and I know what it feels like to be doing things I do wanna do. When I was on this drug, it was like neither. Like, I didn't feel anything.
9. 32:20 – 34:50

   Show business realities: careers, burnout, and Hollywood’s uneven standards

   1. JRJoe Rogan32:20

      I mean, do you remember the people you did open mic with? How many of them-

   2. BMBill Maher32:22

      Exac-

   3. JRJoe Rogan32:22

      ... are still around?

   4. BMBill Maher32:23

      I remember everybody I was, in the clubs with. It was hundreds of guys.

   5. JRJoe Rogan32:26

      Yeah.

   6. BMBill Maher32:27

      Mostly guys, some women, but I mean, back in 1980, uh, yeah. And yes, you could name them all. Or like I always like to point out to people (laughs) when they get into these discussions about the strike and show business and what kind of business this is and is it different than other businesses, yes, if you look at the credits of any movie, uh, eh, eh, especially ones that are a few years old, 10 years old, 20 years old, 30 years old, look at the credits as they go by at the end of the movie. Outside of the two or three stars of the movie, you'll see a list of 20 or 30 people who are in that movie. All of them thought they were gonna be stars. They all had parts, not the biggest parts in the movies, but parts. And you look at that list and you do not recognize one of those names.

   7. JRJoe Rogan33:17

      Yeah.

   8. BMBill Maher33:17

      They all wanted to be something that this movie that they were in was gonna take them to the next level, and it did not.

   9. JRJoe Rogan33:24

      Yeah.

   10. BMBill Maher33:25

       It did not.

   11. JRJoe Rogan33:26

       I was watching-

   12. BMBill Maher33:26

       That's just show business.

   13. JRJoe Rogan33:28

       I was watching an interview, well, it wasn't really an interview. It was like they caught her at the airport with Bridget Fonda. Eh-

   14. BMBill Maher33:34

       Bridget F- Well.

   15. JRJoe Rogan33:35

       She just dropped out of show business and, you know-

   16. BMBill Maher33:38

       Oh.

   17. JRJoe Rogan33:38

       ... they caught her, yeah, like, walking and they said, "Do you think you'll ever do a movie again? You were in so many iconic movies, like Single White Female and this and that."

   18. BMBill Maher33:45

       Right.

   19. JRJoe Rogan33:45

       Naming these movies. She's like, "No way." She's like, "Nope, I like being a civilian now."

   20. BMBill Maher33:50

       Yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan33:50

       "It's too much fun."

   22. BMBill Maher33:50

       That's different.

   23. JRJoe Rogan33:51

       "Bye. See ya."

   24. BMBill Maher33:52

       (clears throat) That's different. She had a big career.

   25. JRJoe Rogan33:53

       Yeah.

   26. BMBill Maher33:54

       And she just, you know, had enough of it.

   27. JRJoe Rogan33:56

       Yeah.

   28. BMBill Maher33:57

       And yeah, that's okay. I mean, it's, uh, eh, first of all, show business, especially acting, very tough on females as they age.

   29. JRJoe Rogan34:09

       Sure.

   30. BMBill Maher34:09

       We just know that.
10. 34:50 – 39:12

    Closeting, ‘bravery,’ and why gay leads remain rare in blockbusters

    1. JRJoe Rogan34:50

       You know what's fascinating? The, the one group that absolutely gets discriminated in Hollywood is gay men. Gay men never play straight men in blockbuster movies. Openly gay men are never like the romantic interest in a blockbuster movie. You can have an openly gay woman and no one cares.

    2. BMBill Maher35:11

       Like who?

    3. JRJoe Rogan35:12

       Oh, you could have one. I don't think it would be a problem. There's-

    4. BMBill Maher35:14

       Well, name, name somebody. Like who's an openly gay woman?

    5. JRJoe Rogan35:18

       Who is one?

    6. BMBill Maher35:19

       (laughs) Well, Kristen Stewart is now a- an openly gay woman.

    7. JRJoe Rogan35:24

       Oh, she is?

    8. BMBill Maher35:25

       Kristen Stewart?

    9. JRJoe Rogan35:27

       I didn't know she was. The woman, the girl from Twilight?

    10. BMBill Maher35:28

        Yeah. (laughs)

    11. JRJoe Rogan35:29

        I didn't know she was openly gay. I mean, I need-

    12. BMBill Maher35:31

        Hello?

    13. JRJoe Rogan35:31

        I'm out of the loop. No, but she used to date that other guy.

    14. BMBill Maher35:33

        (laughs) You should look it up. I'm... eh, uh, uh-

    15. JRJoe Rogan35:35

        She used to gay, date Robert Pattinson. I didn't know-

    16. BMBill Maher35:37

        I, I, that was 10 years ago.

    17. JRJoe Rogan35:39

        ... that she was gay then. I didn't... I don't follow her romantic career. You're acting like-

    18. BMBill Maher35:43

        (laughs)

    19. JRJoe Rogan35:43

        ... like I'm not paying attention to who the president is.

    20. BMBill Maher35:44

        I, I'm, I'm, I'm offended, Joe.

    21. JRJoe Rogan35:46

        (laughs)

    22. BMBill Maher35:46

        (clears throat) Um, no, I mean, she's very... I mean, first of all, she, uh, des- definitely is. I mean, you see pictures of her. She, you, you could tell that she's walking that side of the street now. She o- she openly announced it on, on Saturday Night Live. Uh-

    23. JRJoe Rogan36:00

        I don't watch that show.

    24. BMBill Maher36:01

        (laughs) I don't either.

    25. JRJoe Rogan36:04

        (laughs)

    26. BMBill Maher36:04

        But, (blows raspberry) but sh- I know she did. And of course it was met with thunderous applause, which should tell you something about the hypocrisy of how brave it is to come out. Brave-

    27. JRJoe Rogan36:14

        Well, if she wanted to play a leading woman, nobody would have a problem with that.

    28. BMBill Maher36:17

        No, but I, I just... Parenthetically, brave, by the way-

    29. JRJoe Rogan36:20

        Yeah.

    30. BMBill Maher36:21

        ... is when you say something and people boo.
11. 39:12 – 47:48

    LGBTQ+ expansion, ‘two-spirit,’ and the trans debate—especially for kids

    1. BMBill Maher39:12

       Well, uh, see this is why it's so odd to me that gay and trans have wound up in the same...

    2. JRJoe Rogan39:25

       Yeah.

    3. BMBill Maher39:26

       ... grouping, LGBTQI, excuse me, I'm sorry. Hate crime, I don't remember all of them.

    4. JRJoe Rogan39:31

       I think there's a two and an A in there and a plus.

    5. BMBill Maher39:34

       Okay. Uh, th- then that's what I just said. The, the-

    6. JRJoe Rogan39:36

       I don't know what the two is.

    7. BMBill Maher39:37

       I don't (laughs) . That's two-spirit.

    8. JRJoe Rogan39:40

       I saw for... Is that what it is?

    9. BMBill Maher39:41

       I, it could be. Who knows?

    10. JRJoe Rogan39:43

        Oh my God. If that's what it is, that's amazing.

    11. BMBill Maher39:44

        But what I'm saying is, is tr-

    12. JRJoe Rogan39:46

        Mm-hmm. That is what it is?

    13. BMBill Maher39:48

        It is.

    14. JRJoe Rogan39:48

        Oh, Jesus Christ.

    15. BMBill Maher39:49

        Two-spirit. Oh my God.

    16. JRJoe Rogan39:51

        I like it.

    17. BMBill Maher39:51

        And I c- I'm not sure I could even define two-spirit.

    18. JRJoe Rogan39:53

        Uh, two-spirit. I didn't even know it existed until I saw Trudeau.

    19. BMBill Maher39:58

        That's hysterical.

    20. JRJoe Rogan39:58

        Trudeau rattled off the newest, latest list one time.

    21. BMBill Maher40:02

        Oh Lord.

    22. JRJoe Rogan40:03

        "We, we have to prot- unlike America, we have to protect our..." la la la la la.

    23. BMBill Maher40:07

        Oh.

    24. JRJoe Rogan40:07

        Two-spirit people. What is it?

    25. BMBill Maher40:09

        Um...

    26. JRJoe Rogan40:10

        Um, I don't know. Let's find out what two-spirit is. What does two-spirit mean?

    27. BMBill Maher40:14

        Two-spirit, I think...

    28. JRJoe Rogan40:15

        (laughs)

    29. BMBill Maher40:15

        I've heard, uh, AOC talk about it too.

    30. JRJoe Rogan40:18

        Oh boy.
12. 47:48 – 57:18

    Biden vs Trump: age, competency, criminality, and election denial

    1. BMBill Maher47:48

       And this is kind... This is the one thing I really don't like about Biden is the way... And I know you really hate him. I don't hate him. But the way he just goes along with shit like this. I feel like he doesn't really believe in it. He just, he's just like an old guy who doesn't quite get it. You know, "The kids are doing what?" But he, he's like the husband, you know, who, who doesn't really understand what the kids are into-

    2. JRJoe Rogan48:16

       Right.

    3. BMBill Maher48:16

       ... but he doesn't wanna start a big fight about it.

    4. JRJoe Rogan48:18

       (laughs)

    5. BMBill Maher48:18

       So when the wife says, "Honey, the kids wanna cut their dicks off and tear down a statue of Lincoln," he's like, "Yeah. Oh, fine. Okay. I'm watching the game. Leave me alone." And so he just goes along-

    6. JRJoe Rogan48:32

       Yeah.

    7. BMBill Maher48:32

       ... with all the woke nonsense because he doesn't wanna fight that wing of his party. He can't afford to have a battle on the left.

    8. JRJoe Rogan48:39

       Yeah.

    9. BMBill Maher48:40

       So that's my big issue with him. I know you have others.

    10. JRJoe Rogan48:43

        Well, my, my biggest issue is he lies a lot. And he's probably-

    11. BMBill Maher48:48

        Well, certainly not more than Trump.

    12. JRJoe Rogan48:50

        Uh...

    13. BMBill Maher48:51

        Oh, please. Come on, man.

    14. JRJoe Rogan48:53

        Well, listen, I think they both lie.I mean, I don't like that-

    15. BMBill Maher48:57

        But, but-

    16. JRJoe Rogan48:57

        ... more than this guy, 'cause I wanna just... if you wanna talk about Trump, we could talk about Trump, but if you just talk about Biden. I don't think comparing him to Trump does anybody any good. If you just look at the beliefs-

    17. BMBill Maher49:07

        Well, it does-

    18. JRJoe Rogan49:07

        ... and situations-

    19. BMBill Maher49:08

        ... because they're running against each other.

    20. JRJoe Rogan49:09

        Yeah. Okay.

    21. BMBill Maher49:10

        So it's, so it's kinda necessary.

    22. JRJoe Rogan49:11

        Well, it could, it could, when... if you wanna talk about in terms of an election, but you talk about the... in terms of the guy-

    23. BMBill Maher49:15

        Or-

    24. JRJoe Rogan49:15

        ... who's in office right now, like, why don't I like him? Well, one of the things that I don't like has nothing to do with any of his choices, it's that he's mentally compromised. I think there's something wrong, and I think it's clear.

    25. BMBill Maher49:26

        (laughs) As if the other guy isn't.

    26. JRJoe Rogan49:27

        Well, okay, he speaks much clearer. He, he might be crazy-

    27. BMBill Maher49:30

        He's...

    28. JRJoe Rogan49:30

        He might be a sociopath.

    29. BMBill Maher49:32

        He is crazy.

    30. JRJoe Rogan49:32

        Okay.
13. 57:18 – 1:08:48

    Universities, ideological capture, and the collapse of rigorous debate

    1. BMBill Maher57:18

       Well, he wants to abolish, like, half the government.

    2. JRJoe Rogan57:22

       Yeah.

    3. BMBill Maher57:23

       Uh, some of the government could be abolished. I mean, a lot of the government is a big fucking waste.

    4. JRJoe Rogan57:28

       What do you think is a big waste?

    5. BMBill Maher57:30

       Um, well, I'm not sure the- I wouldn't abolish the Department of Education, but considering how stupid our kids are, uh, there's a lot of answering to do there. I mean, I'm not sure that a national Department of Education has done us any good, because kids have just gotten stupider and stupider and stupider. They- uh, it used to be that they didn't know anything, but they could read about things if they wanted to. Now they can't even read. Now, part of that was because of the horrible policies during the pandemic, yes. Um, but also, it's just been going downhill. Uh, and it starts, of course, at colleges.

    6. JRJoe Rogan58:14

       Yeah.

    7. BMBill Maher58:15

       I mean, that's where this woke rot begins-

    8. JRJoe Rogan58:18

       Yeah.

    9. BMBill Maher58:18

       And it all seeps down. What goes on at universities, elite universities in this country, is insane.

    10. JRJoe Rogan58:25

        Have you ever seen that Russian, um, defector, Yury, uh, Bezmenov? Be- Bezmenov? He detailed, uh, the Soviet Union's plan for the moral decay of the United States by introducing Marxist and Leninism-

    11. BMBill Maher58:44

        Hmm.

    12. JRJoe Rogan58:44

        ... into school, Marxism and Leninism i- into school.

    13. BMBill Maher58:48

        Interesting.

    14. JRJoe Rogan58:48

        Marxist and Leninist ideas, and that these would be, uh, ingrained in younger people, and then they would go into the workforce, and then they would slowly but surely ruin the society through this. And it's a fascinating conversation-

    15. BMBill Maher59:04

        That is.

    16. JRJoe Rogan59:04

        ... because it's in 1984 that he's talking about this.

    17. BMBill Maher59:06

        Wow, what a perfect year to talk about it.

    18. JRJoe Rogan59:08

        What a perfect year to talk about it.

    19. BMBill Maher59:10

        Yeah.

    20. JRJoe Rogan59:10

        I think it was '84. Um, it was in the '80s for sure, but it's- it's a fascina- you've never seen it?

    21. BMBill Maher59:15

        No.

    22. JRJoe Rogan59:15

        You should watch it.

    23. BMBill Maher59:16

        I've never heard of this.

    24. JRJoe Rogan59:17

        This guy. Um, what's his name? Former KGB agent named Yury Alexandrovich Bezmenov claimed in 1984 that Russia had a long-term goal of ideologically subverting the US. He described the process of- as a great brainwashing that has four basic stages. The first stage, he said, is called demoralization, which would take about 20 years to achieve. It's really fascinating. When you hear him talk, it's fascinating, because that's exactly what they did.

    25. BMBill Maher59:46

        But I don't know if they did it. I think it's definitely been done.

    26. JRJoe Rogan59:49

        Uh-huh.

    27. BMBill Maher59:50

        But did it come from Russia? And how did it come from Russia?

    28. JRJoe Rogan59:53

        Well, he would-

    29. BMBill Maher59:53

        Let me-

    30. JRJoe Rogan59:54

        ... explain it. Uh, he used the example of the 1960s hipsey- hippies coming to the positions of power in the 1980s in government and businesses in America. Bezmenov claimed this generation was already contaminated by Marxist-Leninist values. Of course, this claim that many b- baby boomers are somehow e- espousing KGB-tainted ideas is hard to believe, but Bezmenov's larger point addressed why people who have been gradually demoralized are unable to understand that this has happened to them. Referring to touch- such people, Bezmenov said, "They are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern. You cannot change their mind even if you expose them to authentic information. If you prove that white is Black and bl- and Black is Black, you still cannot change their basic perception and logic of behavior." Demoralization is a process that is irreversible. Bezmenov actually thought back in '84 that the process of demoralizing America was already completed. It would take another generation and another couple of decades, here we are, to get the people to think differently and return to their patriotic American values, claimed the agent.In what is perhaps the most striking passage in the interview, um, Bezsonov described the state of a demoralized person. "As I mentioned before, exposure to true information does not matter anymore. A person who is demoralized is unable to, uh, assess true information."
14. 1:08:48 – 1:19:13

    Media incentives, pandemic misinformation, and pharma distrust (ivermectin, EUA, Fauci)

    1. BMBill Maher1:08:48

       Well, I mean, MSNBC, for example. Now, I always made fun of Fox News, and they richly deserve it. MSNBC, I felt, used to be somewhat different. But MSNBC has become a place that I think lies by omission. I think Fox sometimes just out-and-out lied, but they do the same thing. They lie by omission. They always have. Like, matter what Trump did, Tucker Carlson would do a show about, you know, some crazy professor. (laughs)

    2. JRJoe Rogan1:09:21

       Mm-hmm. Right.

    3. BMBill Maher1:09:23

       Some cra- you know, which wasn't not happening too.

    4. JRJoe Rogan1:09:27

       Right.

    5. BMBill Maher1:09:27

       It just wasn't the story of the day, you know?

    6. JRJoe Rogan1:09:30

       Yeah.

    7. BMBill Maher1:09:31

       "Japan destroyed by earthquake." Well, that's topic number five. (laughs)

    8. JRJoe Rogan1:09:37

       Right.

    9. BMBill Maher1:09:38

       Okay. So MSNBC, I feel like, now is in that category, and I feel like the reason is, their hosts know that they get ratings-

    10. JRJoe Rogan1:09:51

        Mm-hmm.

    11. BMBill Maher1:09:52

        ... sometimes taken by the minute, but certainly, I think, by the 15-minute mark.

    12. JRJoe Rogan1:09:57

        Yeah.

    13. BMBill Maher1:09:58

        You know, they know exactly how much the audience is liking or not liking what they're saying.

    14. JRJoe Rogan1:10:03

        Yeah.

    15. BMBill Maher1:10:03

        And the audience does not wanna hear something that they don't think they already know and they already believe. So are they gonna cover that story that might get people to question what they... No, of course not.

    16. JRJoe Rogan1:10:15

        No.

    17. BMBill Maher1:10:15

        'Cause, 'cause otherwise they'll get fired.

    18. JRJoe Rogan1:10:18

        Yeah.

    19. BMBill Maher1:10:18

        You know, they had a few people on there who weren't, like, fully in the tank. Remember that guy Ed Schultz?

    20. JRJoe Rogan1:10:26

        Yeah.

    21. BMBill Maher1:10:28

        Gone. (laughs)

    22. JRJoe Rogan1:10:29

        Yeah, too reasonable.

    23. BMBill Maher1:10:31

        Well, not-

    24. JRJoe Rogan1:10:31

        Did you read Hate Inc.?

    25. BMBill Maher1:10:33

        Who?

    26. JRJoe Rogan1:10:33

        Hate Inc., Matt Taibbi's book?

    27. BMBill Maher1:10:35

        Hate-

    28. JRJoe Rogan1:10:35

        He's basically saying that Rachel Maddow has become Bill O'Reilly.

    29. BMBill Maher1:10:39

        (laughs) No.

    30. JRJoe Rogan1:10:41

        It's, it's basically the same thing. He's, he's basically saying that at one point-
15. 1:19:13 – 1:20:00

    Wrap-up: Maher heads to the stage, mutual respect, and plugging Club Random

    1. BMBill Maher1:19:13

       But Joe, I gotta be on stage in-

    2. JRJoe Rogan1:19:14

       Yeah, you do.

    3. BMBill Maher1:19:15

       ... one, one hour.

    4. JRJoe Rogan1:19:16

       You gotta go kick some ass. (laughs)

    5. BMBill Maher1:19:17

       (laughs) I could talk to you all day.

    6. JRJoe Rogan1:19:19

       I could talk to you all day too.

    7. BMBill Maher1:19:20

       I love talking to you.

    8. JRJoe Rogan1:19:21

       We'll do it again. I love talking to you as well.

    9. BMBill Maher1:19:22

       I love li- love listening to you.

    10. JRJoe Rogan1:19:23

        Thank you.

    11. BMBill Maher1:19:24

        I know you're never gonna come back to California. If you-

    12. JRJoe Rogan1:19:26

        Well, I'll go back to visit and go, "Whoo."

    13. BMBill Maher1:19:28

        Right.

    14. JRJoe Rogan1:19:28

        "Dodged that bullet." (laughs)

    15. BMBill Maher1:19:30

        (laughs) But if you, if you do and you wanna call me, I'll always be around.

    16. JRJoe Rogan1:19:35

        Thank you, sir.

    17. BMBill Maher1:19:35

        All right.

    18. JRJoe Rogan1:19:36

        Well, thanks for coming on. Appreciate you very much.

    19. BMBill Maher1:19:38

        Pleasure, always.

    20. JRJoe Rogan1:19:38

        Club Random. It's available on YouTube. Is it on, uh, all the other stuff too?

    21. BMBill Maher1:19:41

        Yeah.

    22. JRJoe Rogan1:19:42

        Like everything?

    23. BMBill Maher1:19:43

        (laughs) I'm j-

    24. JRJoe Rogan1:19:43

        I only watch it on YouTube.

    25. BMBill Maher1:19:44

        I'm sure it is. (laughs)

    26. JRJoe Rogan1:19:45

        It's great though. I really enjoy it.

    27. BMBill Maher1:19:46

        Thank you.

    28. JRJoe Rogan1:19:47

        I'm glad you're doing it.

    29. BMBill Maher1:19:48

        I appreciate that.

    30. JRJoe Rogan1:19:48

        I'm glad you're... I'm glad you do it too like the way you do it. You smoke joints, drink whiskey, have some fun.

Episode duration: 1:20:21