Club Random with Bill Maher - Arianna Huffington | Club Random with Bill Maher

Episode Date: March 27, 2023

Bill Maher and Arianna Huffington on the countries that revere old people, Arianna’s humble origins, Bill’s yearly birthday present to Arianna, the Harvard electroshock/phone experiment, the generation no one has a beef with, calling out social justice warriors, why Bill is okay being a Bad Environmentalist, why Twitter needed to be taken over by Elon Musk, the day Arianna’s divorce became final, and how Bill made her kids cry.

I'm so comfortable. I love this chair. I want a chair. I love that skirt. What is that? You like this chair? I like the chair. The chair. I like your skirt better than the midget. You like my skirt? I mean, the furniture is from the 80s. It's like it's like it's like a part of the hall. Oh, yes. Well, it's Club random. It's random. I mean, you couldn't find, I don't think, maybe a set designer could find this somewhere. It's random. I mean, you couldn't find, I don't think, maybe a set designer could find this somewhere. It's just, it's beyond ugly, but it is of the era. Not that I'm trying to do the 80s, because everything here is from some different, I mean, it's truly random. But you remember this room when I had my, I remember you talking to Barbara Streisand

right over there in the middle of the room. Who was that? Was that my 60th birthday party? Yeah, 60th birthday. Right. I mean, that's before we made it into this. But yeah, that was a very eclectic group. But also, you know, how I haven't been here since the pandemic.

And you've built sort of, it seems to have grown. Like there's a tree house. And there've built sort of it seems to have grown, like there's a tree house, and there is the other guest house, but somehow it feels more, more structures. No, I just lit them. I mean, I took me a long time to get this place, like, I mean, even this place, which is like a dirty, little rat scholar, which is what I love about it. It took me a while. You know, I've been here 20 years.

Can you believe that? I mean, and didn't you tell me that we know each other 30? 30. Because I did, and it's so amazing, because Chuck and Chris have known them for 30 years. They were there when I did the first politically incorrect in New York, in 1993. Oh, Chuck and the producers of this podcast, yeah.

And they were here. And Chuck told me how... Remember when we were nominated for an Emmy for Strange Bed Fellows that we did with Al Franken. I blocked out the Emmy's arena, but I'll take your word for it. Remember that. I don't know. I've been nominated for 40 of them. So they all just kind of go into one.

But that was the only one I was nominated for. Right. When you and Al Franken did Strange Bed Fellows, as part of politically incorrecting bed together. Right. And I said, Chuck reminded me that I sat with him doing one of the intermissions, I said, Chuck, I just really want to get out of here.

And he said, great, he said, I'll drive you home. I said, really? So he drove me home, and he and my mom and a copy, my sister, sat down and had dinner. Really? Instead of watching the rest of the Emmys, and my mom, do you remember my mom? Of course.

She loved you. My mom loved you, and my daughters loved your girlfriends. Because they always felt that they were more their age. Well, they were. They still are. But, um, and they talked to them instead instead of the all the people who ignored them. I mean, it's been a long time since I brought girlfriends around to you. I mean, it's been a long time, it's 30 years.

I know. You used to bring girlfriends. Oh, I think so. Actually, I hired one of them. Do you remember your science girlfriend? Of course. So I hired her. I Oh, of course. So I, I, I, I mean, of course, but she was amazing gorgeous, brilliant,

and I hired her to be a science editor at the Havvinden Post. Yes. And remember she launched this series, which was, I think your idea, Talk Nerd, did you mean? I produced that. I, yes.

So what happened? Talk Nerd, did you mean such a great franchise? So I said, yeah. We probably shouldn't get into all this. You're right. Beautiful and brilliant and absolutely made to be a science communicator. I've always felt that. She had not even thought of that career.

I said, this is what you should be doing. And of course, you took to it like a Dr. Water because as you say, she had not even thought of that career. You know, I said, this is what you should be doing. And of course, she took to it like a Dr. Water, because as she said, she was quite brilliant, so she could adapt anything very, very quickly. I remember we were going around to like meetings. She was 25 at the time, and, you know, so young and also no familiarity with Shobas, and it's really. And yet, after like the

first two meetings, she was so hip to like what was going on, like we get out of the meeting and she'd say, you know, that network probably needs something in their 8 p.m. slot that I'm like, whoa. Yeah. But look, the girlfriend thing, you know, you always said, I mean, you were always the one saying I should get married, have children. And I just feel like I'm at the point now where we know it's not going to happen. And so I can kind of, I have a little high ground to say to you, people project onto other people. What they think would make them happy, but it's really projecting based on what makes you happy.

And you know, you could have been right all those years. We were certainly remember my mother saying to you, Ariana, let it go. I know, that was the moment when I realized, okay, maybe I do have to let it go, but what I mostly wanted for you, because I loved it for me, you're right, because clearly marriage didn't work for me. I think I divorced after 11 years. So who wins this game?

But what worked for me despite all the pain that came with it was having children. And I remember after a dinner taking you, I said, Bill, you got to come and say my children are asleep. You see how adorable they are. And I took you to their bedrooms and you said, oh my god, they look like drunk and sailors. We're there. That's right. So I failed completely both on the wife fraud and like children. I didn't like children when I was a children. You know, I just,

so it's like I just feel like people project that very forcefully. Like you have to fit into this template of what makes people happy. And I just feel like now that I'm, you know, 45, I can look back and say to you, you arrived and I was wrong. I don't wanna put it that briefly, but I know me, people know themselves. And, you know, matter how much you want them to be happy from the things that make you happy,

that's not what makes me happy. And of all people, I feel like you should know that because you're seen as sort of like this, you know, what do you call the chameleon? You know, we first knew you as this Republican, lady McBeth, speaking of the bad. I don't know why lady McBeth, because I was just... But how was this kind of all-fashion Republican

who was a pro-choice Republican? Pro gay rights and pro-gun control? No, what are these Republicans now? Lady Macbeth, in the sense of... I don't know what... Lady Macbeth's politics were... But Lady Macbeth was the woman behind the man. You were seen as the woman behind Michael Huffington, the president of the United States, and he was the president of the United States. And then he was the president of the United States.

And then he was the president of the United States. And then he was the president of the United States. And then he was the president of the United States. And then he was the president of the United States. And then he was the president of the United States. And then he was the president of the United States. And then he was the president of the United States. And then he was the president of the United States.

And then he was the president of the United States. And then he was the president of the United States. And then he was the president of the United States. And then he was the president of the United States. A congressman, all right. Now remember, I flew from Washington, New York to do the show. 94, he ran for Senate against Feinstein, and it seems unbelievable now that although he lost, he lost by a tiny percentage, like one and a half percent or something, which seems incredible now, when nobody can have seed Feinstein, even though she's... So he ran against Feinstein? Yes. He's still there. Well, he first ran for the Republican primary,

one the Republican primary. But she's still there. And then ran against Feinstein, who is still here. Right, right. And now, even though she still hasn't said she won't run again. I think she did, but then she forgets. Not really, yeah. I mean, whenever that ages in Michigan comes up, of course, it's one of my pet peeves,

but I always do make the point that it's a case-by-case. So if I'm defending somebody for the charge of ageism, I make that case, but I also, I think, would like to think anyway that I gain credibility by also seeding that case by case. There are people who do fucking get old and it shows. It's just not Joe Biden right now. Maybe it will. Maybe we're projecting on that. Maybe 86. How could he do it? He'll be 86 by his second term.

There are people 86 who are completely there, completely, and can do everything, and even 96. So we're playing the, we're basing an individual on the odds, basically, and how other people treat themselves. I don't know. I just saw him walking back from Ukraine and Poland, and he's very slender. You know, I mean, he was always sort of gaffy and I just, I don't know.

So but Dianne Feinstein? Yes. It's definitely that case. It's a case of get off the stage because yes, your marbles are somewhat scrambled. Now it is, you I mean, it is. You're right. It is case by case. I mean, I saw Norman Lear the other day.

He's actually a hundred. And it's kind of amazing. He's mental clarity. I mean, he's hearing is not what it was, but for a hundred. It's just that. Yeah, I was a dinner with him at Rob Reiner's, but for a hundred? He's just... Yeah, I was at dinner with him at Rob Reiner's, only like a couple of years ago, and I don't remember a hearing problem. It just was like another person at the table.

There was no... I forgot his age, you know, I knew it, but, you know, because of the way he's... It's about like the energy project. And he does not project an old energy. And it's not a daughtering this, it's not a faulting this. You know, he doesn't forget things I do, but it's the part. It's not the age. I promise. But you know, I, because I, I come from Greece as you know, this accent is for real.

You, I was like, I was hungry. What that funny talk of yours with all these years. Why did you talk so funny? Oh my god, you think you know a person who lived at the 30 years, Greece. Greece, so in Greece, you know. Home of democracy.

Actually in Greece and yogurt. In Greece, you know, they revere all the people. You know that most of the world does. Yeah, either Japan, Greece, India, everywhere. Anywhere, but stupid America. South America, everywhere. Indians, everybody reverts old people

because they get the most like intuitive thing to understand about life is that, yes, you're beautiful when you're young and you're wise when you're old. Now of course there are variations in that. There are ugly young people and there are stupid old people. And so I'm thick combined in a person. You know what I mean to do it that person. But in general, we get it that even if you're dumb when you're young, you look, you just see the same patterns enough. That's what aging is.

You've seen this movie before. So you don't walk down a completely dark corridor. You're actually walking some with some light helping you along the way. And so you make better decisions. But you also know what doesn't matter. That's a decision. I think it's like you are, I mean,

I'm 72 now. No. And from Greece? And from Greece. You know, you're finding out things about me. And I... During the pandemic, you know, I was sheltering in place in my home here. And I went through the garage where I found all these all journals.

And it was amazing seeing all my fears and worries as a young person. Right. And thinking all these fears and worries for things that largely never happen. Exactly. And it's, and now there's this liberation that you don't have to look over your shoulder for approval. You are not constantly trying to make something happen. It's actually, how would you want to be 30 again? I would, I say the same thing.

If I would, if I had this brain in my body, but if I had, I know. But if I had to go back to the old brain, no, it would cost too much pain. And you had a lot of things to worry about when you were young. I mean, you were a poor black girl. No, that's wrong. I'm sorry. I'm reading from notes. Wrong guess. I'm kidding. The idea that I would have notes on this show, I mean, I have notes on real time, let alone this fucking thing. But you were poor, right? I was brought up, yes, in

a one bedroom apartment in Athens, Greece, my mother and sister. So in this capital, so you were not, that's why you're sophisticated, because you weren't out in a farm somewhere with a goat. No, it's not. Well, the best thing that happened to me in my life is my mom, because she, when I saw a picture of a magazine that had Cambridge University on the cover, something made me say to her, I want to go there. And everybody I said that to, said, don't be ridiculous.

That is amazing. And I'm speaking English. Right. You don't have money and it's hard for English girls to get into camp. Now you've got one out of those two. Here, Richard's fucked now. And so my mom said, let's find out what you can do. And I took my GCs at the British Council. And anyway, I got into the...

So how did you learn English? I bet you're watching rap videos. Oh no, those are my girlfriends. I was a nerd. I was what they call in England, the blue stocking. I just studied and studied and studied and I learned English. But when I went into Cambridge, I was really cute. You mean by yourself? They didn't teach you.

No, not at school. But I went to the British Council. I took special classes. But then they did teach English in the Greek school? No, they taught French. So you had to learn English on your own? French is my first language. Oh, really? And I have a very good French accent, better than English accent. I honestly never knew you spoke French. Yes. I speak French. Or maybe I didn't, I forgot.

I blame the pot. But I probably didn't know that. Well, so yeah, right, And I'm trying to think of whose story yours parallels. I mean, I'm sure there's a list of people who, like, started with so little, with every odd against them, and still made it all the way to where they were thinking of going. And then beyond, I don't think you thought you'd be this rich, right? Well, I definitely didn't think that I would be running a media company like the half-interval. I wouldn't think I would be broadening when I was in Greece, so that I would

be living the half-interval as too long to thrive, which I think, you know, it's like dealing with one of the coolest challenges. How do we help people change behavior so that they are healthier and live longer and better? No, I definitely did not think. Well, I know one way, accepting them what they say makes them happy. Oh, okay. So I took that. I lost that one.

I'm fine. This is one of my biggest failures because I did try, but listen, you... I should write a thrive piece on that subject. Great. Would that make you happy? Yes. Would that be a good birthday present for you?

Yes, do you remember that your birthday presents to me used to be to write a blog for the 100 and post? Yes, right. I do. You said, happy birthday, here's your blog. Right. Well, yes, the error when a blog was a gift. Oh, boy.

It was a gift. A blog and a blog. You've blabbed every book I wrote since the last 30 years, and it's a lot of them. Don't worry. I stopped writing books. You're off the hook. Really? Yeah.

You'll never write another book? I'm done. You know what? I came to the same conclusion. You did it. Not that I wrote a lot of books. You did, you wrote. I wrote one real novel, which is still very funny. I still think it's a good piece of work, although I was 32.

When I finished it, I would do things differently, I think, but OK, a few things. But I have occasion to go back and read it for one recently, or there are parts of it sometimes, and it really still makes me laugh because like, I forget what I wrote. And so I'm, then I'm laughing at it like a fan. So I, I think I really did a good job on that.

And then I wrote one after 9, 11, that picture book that was going on a Broadway show, it's about the World War II poster is transposed to the War on Terror. Yeah, I mean, that kind of worked too, but those are really, then there was two books that are like new rules, but that was just material from the show. So I'm not a, you know, I was never a big lover of putting out a book, but especially now when reading is just such a lost art, I just feel like

so much effort goes into putting out a book, selling it and I mean a novel, not that I would write another novel, but that would be what would be fun for me to write. Like if a novel sells 50,000 copies, it's a huge hit. It's a huge hit. 50,000 in a country of 300 million people, children are taking it.

Well, if you look at English-speaking world, it's even more millions. Right. I mean, people, but especially in America, and I guess it's the world now, but people don't read, they scroll. They scroll. They're attention.

Yeah, it's like. Has been hijacked. I mean, you know, you and I agree on the impact of social media and technology and what's happened to our attention span, which is now shorter than that of the goldfish. Did you know that? What's it? Our attention span is shorter than that of the goldfish. I'm sorry, I wasn't listening. shorter than that of the goldfish. I'm sorry, I wasn't listening. No.

No. Well, how do they measure this? Oh, my God. Very clearly. Very, very, very, very, very good. I know they can do it with us, but how do they get it from the goldfish? OK.

Here is another start. That's everything you're going to like more. This was a study by Harvard and the University of Virginia. They put people into a room and they told them for 15 minutes, you can be here alone without any of your devices or you can get electric shock. And 57% of men chose electric shock, men, 25% of women. The W are sex.

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the dangers of Prozac. Yeah, that was the first show. Right, that's what brought you to our, you were like a one issue candidate on Prozac. Did you have a book on that? No. Okay, but and you were right. And now it's social media.

It's probably Prozac too. But like things didn't get better. They got worse for kids as far as like poison things in their mind. Because again, I don't think that the pro-Zech went away. I just think it's augmented with more things that fuck up their heads. Absolutely. And it's gotten worse and worse since my daughters

were teenagers and they dealt with a lot of problems. Oh, yes. They dealt with a lot of problems. But now it would have been worse because it's the comparisons, the likes, the... Oh, likes. That's an evil thing because the way it's used, I mean, it's funny, I did this editorial

on Melentine's Day about how the phone brought out and like dating on the phone brought out the worst in men because how could it not? You know, if you said to a man before this era, you could have a thing in your hand where you never have to go up to a girl. And there's an endless supply. You can look over. And it's a numbers game. You try to connect with 20 of them and two of them are going to say, hello, I mean, we used to do that in a bar or try to. So it brought out the worst in men, being lazy and horny and not sincere, but it brought out the mean girl that fucking phone

in girls. One of our first issues on politically incorrect was called girls hate each other. You're not supposed to say that, but they do. Not like- I don't think they hate each other. Well, when they first- They come, well, which winds up this hate?

Well, you can't completely- Like if a guy walks in the room, I don't notice. Whereas if another woman walks in the room, it's like, who's she? Who's she thinking? How she thinks that's a great laugh for the, you know what I mean? Like there's this immediate hate is, you know, we're making comedy here.

So do all women hate each other, of course not. But there is an immediate suspicion and weariness very often among women that just, men are just, we're just oblivious. Like it's a guy who cares. I don't want to fuck him. So I don't want to know him. I got friends. I'm like, I don't know.

It's just a guy. We don't, with these, he's of no relevance to me at all. You know, that's how guys think. Well, I don't think that's all, that's how all guys think. I think that's how you think because you're successful.

You have gotten wherever you wanted to go. So if men are on the make, they're more competitive. If I see a guy, if when I was 20, if I saw a guy, I don't know who he is, I'm not trying to know who he is. He's nothing to me. I'm not jealous of him. There's no competition. Just like, get out of the way.

You're blocking that girl. I'm trying to look at you. You know what I of them. There's no competition. Just like, get out of the way. You're blocking that girl. I'm trying to look at you know what I mean? That's all it is. But I feel like with women, there is an immediate noticing and sizing up and you know, is she going to take the term hugely magnified by social media. And everything makes everything work. Yes, much, much worse. They really, I mean, this girl who killed herself in the Jersey a couple of weeks ago, so tragic. And look, I think in general, parents do a shit job these days

of instilling in their kids a sense of, you need to be made of sternor stuff. Just in general, that general note. That's never what they teach kids. It's just like, how can we bulldoze, they call them bulldozer parents. How can we bulldoze all obstacles away from you before you get there? And, but I agree, this social media stuff can drive.

I can see how could it driven me to suicide, because at least in school, if you were bullied, you go home and you can shut that off. Yes. Here you get no break. The phone follows you everywhere. And it follows you forever in life. Something you did in eighth grade.

You know, I remember when I was going off to college thinking, this is awesome. I can reinvent myself. Nobody knows me in Ethica New York. I am completely new to Cornell. Blanks made. I can be exactly a blanks. I can be who I can be James Bond now. And there was one kid from my high school class who was also going to Cornell, so I had to kill him after I did that. I just felt like this. And of course, you were so stupid. Like in two months, I became James Bond. No, I was the same fucking Clueless loser, Dork. I was in high school inept with women and just young and dumb. And Cornell soon found the same person that I was in high school. But with the phone following you, anything you tweeted, and they'll go back to eighth grade to get people

They they they are Well, that's something that we have changed. I think it's changing a little you know the idea that We are going to be judged by the worst thing in our lives. Yes especially This whole idea of the content collapse that it doesn't matter what else you've done. You're going to be judged by this, as though this was the first thing you've done on the subject. I mean, that's from me is the worst. It's actually fundamentally against everything that civilization is about, which is against everything that civilization is about, which is progressing, growing, becoming better. You know, it's like the idea now is that there is this kind of frozen idea, arrested development. Yes.

And it's something which I know you've said so much against, but right now, there is a moment when things can shift. I'm optimistic about it. But we can't just let it continue. Well, I hope you're right. But the demarcation between when it went bad to, from the frying man to the fire, is Jonathan Height says 2015. That's the beginning of Gen Z. It's maybe even a little before that, but it's also Trump announcing the president wrote people

insane for good reason. But around then, there was a whole generation that only ever had the phone. The smartphone comes out, I think, in 2009. So by 2015, if you're a 14-year-old, you have a phone. You've never really known adolescents without this element in it. And we thought Gen Z was going to be a backlash against the millennial, but it turned out they just didn't even mourn. I mean, the fragility, the over-sensitivity, the insanity, just got crazy. The millennials seem sane, I guess, like all generations do as you get older, like they

get wiser, and people get nuttier. And I mean, it's Gen Z. These are the, and they feud now with the millennials, you know. Every generation does it except Gen X. Nobody ever fights with Gen X. What's up with that? Why did they get such a complete pass? You know?

But I think there is kind of a lack of a sense of history. And if you think of it, I mean, you and I have different views on spirituality. But if you are spirituality, okay, here it is. I'm bringing it up. First wives and children, that's spirituality. Well, just here, I'll go along with anything if you could just define it. And I know you've written all books about it. I read the fourth instinct. You, I know, which is amazing.

I think only another three people have read it. But you know, it's only one time you go. Okay, the fourth thing is, let's define it. Let's define it, let's define it. So most behavioral psychology, and sociologists, et cetera, talk about three instincts, right? Survival, sex, and start to slash power, et cetera. And if you can't really fully account for human behavior historically, you can't account for Gentiles risking their lives to save Jews. You can't account for acts of altruism. You can't account for acts of

love and empathy without what I call the fourth instinct. I didn't even want to call it the spiritual instinct. I see. You know, I just want to say there is a mean thing that, yeah, that transcends our first three instincts, which are all about ourselves and now it's coming back to me. That's it. So I deliberately didn't call it spiritual instinct because it doesn't matter what the hell you call it. But then why do we use that word? Because the point is that I want to to reach people like you which I fail to do but I want to reach intelligent people who don't against organized religion which completely

understand and through the baby out with a bath water. I totally could get on this page. It's just, I think I'm already, no, I think I'm already there in the sense that I also believe there is something passed those first three. Yes. You know, humans do cooperate. Now, you can't make the case that they're doing that for survival.

I've heard that people have studied that and come up that conclusion. It actually helps us to survive, of course. And we know it often does, to cooperate. And that's what, you know, I mean, that's what that book's APNs is so great about. Explaining is that, you know, chimps can only cooperate up to like 80 of them because they don't have basically lies, lies and myths. And when you get stories. And so you can get, you know, Catholicism,

you can get a billion people to believe the same story, you can get them to do anything, like attack Jerusalem and take it away from the invaders. Oh, stuff like that, that you couldn't get chim them to do anything, like attack Jerusalem and take it away from the invaders. Oh, stuff like that, that you couldn't get gyms to do, which I think says a lot about four the gyms. Let's just talk about how, what is at the heart of every tradition that is like didn't become organized religion, but it's just like a fundamental tradition around redemption and forgiveness, and things that if we can recover them, it's going to be much easier to

get away from this insane, council culture. You know, you did something when you were 18, therefore you are forever alive to be ostracized, but at the heart of every tradition, whether it's Zen or Buddhism or the so Terry Christian traditions or Taoism or anything, is the same belief that we all have this place of strength, wisdom, in us, and that most of the time we don't leave there because we're very fallible human beings. Most of us have strength and wisdom. Inside us as a birthright, we don't pop into it and we don't leave from that place, but we have access to that place.

But in order to get there... I'm not sure everybody has strength and wisdom. Inside. And no insult to anybody in particular, but I just think there's a lot of people out there who don't have a hell of a lot of strength. And that's probably most of us, because if you put us under pressure,

the plane that crashed and then they ate each other. But also, there are plenty of examples like that, but there are also plenty of examples where something really bad happens. And people come up, you know, when they say, it brought the best out in that. Yes, absolutely. Something comes out that you know,

oh my God, I can't believe this person is something like that. Yes, exactly. So that's what I mean. There is absolutely in humans the capacity to be heroic. And to actually exceed anything we've ever seen from them before. I just don't think it's all of us. That's what I'm saying.

It's like, it's not across the board. And either is wisdom. But wisdom, okay, if you think of wisdom in terms of the possibility for redemption. Like, that's what you think of wisdom in terms of the possibility for redemption, like that's what I think connects us to this moment, like let's look at people and whatever wrongdoing they did. I mean, can we give them the chance to redeem themselves? Once they accept and acknowledge the wrongdoing, atone for it. But if we, if we foreclose the possibility of redemption

and growth, then we're really for basically giving up on our humanity. So this is one of my big rights. And you've done an amazing job. But the world, I can't tell you how happy it makes me to hear you like pile on the woke bullshit which this is as you are. I mean, if you don't know, that's what you're doing.

You are. Yeah, but I want to do it from also a place of our fundamental humanity. If we give that up, we give up our humanity. Yeah, we're not the ones being inhumane. It's these mean girls. It's these mean girls. It's the mean girls. It's a mean girl culture. And they do, you know, and what is so galling so much is like,

you know, they want to think of themselves as warriors, social justice warriors, and they're just fucking sitting home typing. They're not really doing anything. And really, it's not about making any lives better, black lives or whatever lives. They don't really do anything that does that. They just want to catch people who they can feel morally superior to. Well, that's really the thing. It's the only thing. We only have so much energy. And if

that energy is spent judging and finding fault with everything, cancelling and ostracizing, what's happening to all the incredible crisis we're facing? And you know, that reminds me, do you remember in 2000, I organized a shadow convention? I was there in Philadelphia. No, and in Los Angeles. You spoke here. Yeah, yeah. We had one in Philadelphia for the Republican during the Republican Convention, one in Los Angeles. And the three issues that the shadow conventions were designed to address that neither political party we believe those really addressing, remember what they were. They were? They failed war on drugs.

Right. That was my specialty. Yeah, I was speaking on. No, but you didn't speak on that. You spoke on the second, which was campaigned finance reform. Oh, yeah. And the third was growing inequalities. And where are we?

Campaigned finance reform? Nobody's even thinking about it. No, that is not even on the radar. It's just got killed. Growing inequalities have gotten infinitely worse. Well, mostly because of you. No, mostly because of you. Oh, please, if I had your money, I'd throw mine away.

Mostly because of you flying on private planes. Oh, did you see that? That, I didn't put your picture in that montage, but I could have, because that was, I didn't put your picture in that montage, but I could have, because that was my point. I'm not, I can stand being a bad environmentalist because we all really are. I cannot stand being a hypocrite.

And every single person who can't fly in a private jet, including you, including George Clooney and everybody else who's a good, Leonardo DiCaprio, everybody, and I'm big admire of a lot of these people, Ben Affleck, I love these people. But we all do it. It's irresistible. And so that's again, something that looks bad

to someone who's in the middle or leaning right when lefties are fucking hypocrites. So I just really wanted to make that case. And we all do it on whatever our level is. I mean, if you drive a car to work, but you could take the bus, you're just doing it on a budget. I'm doing it like a baller. Eat that, bitches. No, you know, I know.

You're not driving a Tesla. Yeah. I loved what you did about the's absolutely. Are you driving a Tesla? Yeah. I loved what you did about the people who are giving up driving a Tesla. And you had this picture of Hitler with the Volkswagen. He did it with the Volkswagen. Yeah. I know Elon liked that.

Well, of course. But you know, I mean, listen, Elon is a genius, but he doesn't understand how human energy works. What do you mean? Which is kind of on my topic of how can we be our most productive? Right. Selfs. If you sleep in the office on a bean bag,

you're not going to be your most productive creative self the next day. Again, I think you're projecting a little. No. I really do. It's science. Well, it's science that you get the right amount of sleep. That's science.

But there's also variations in the human. Yes. Some great variations. Not often, mostly we do. One and a half percent of the population has a genetic mutation, and they don't need another sleep. Okay. Elon may be one of them.

It's probably him. Elon may be one of them. But the problem is. Maybe the bean bag chair brings impact. It was childhood and he sleeps like a baby. Okay, perfect. But he's also expecting his employees to do that. And not all of them have a genetic mutation.

I don't think he's expecting them to go that far. He's expecting them to commit to be quote unquote, hardcore. If we're talking about Elon Musk and Twitter, like this, I have been a like him, I don't care who fucking knows. No, I like him too. Yeah, I'm sure. And there's two things we disagree on going to Mars I think is incredibly stupid

and it's been great comedy fodder for me. And also his idea that we need to increase the population seems just completely insane. But, you know, people can disagree. And someday I'll talk to him about those things and he'll tell me his side of it this story, but, you know, anyway. But, on Twitter, I think he is doing a very selfless thing.

I think he is doing basically kind of what Edward Snowden did because he surely didn't need this headache. But if you're going to kill wokeness, I'm talking about the side of wokeness that is obnoxious and probably could take down the entire Democratic Party. If you're gonna drive a stake through that, the shit we were just talking about,

the heart of it is Twitter. You got it cut, you got to, that was, that is the place where all the canceling and hating is rampant. And look at what he did. Okay, but I'm just saying that. You removed from Twitter, you just, You removed from Twitter journalist would disagree with him. Secondary point, my point, the view from 30,000 feet point, is that Twitter needed

to be taken over. It wasn't going to go away, and it was this thing that people use for hate. I mean, I remember when it was first out. I loved it because it was a place you could be a reverent. And then it quickly became anything I'd want to say on Twitter, I can't say on Twitter. That was a terrible place for a free speech platform to go, and it's a terrible place for a country that supposedly believes in free speech to be. He wasn't wrong that it's a kind of a town square. You got to be able to speak in the town square.

So has he done it right? No. In many ways. Yes, he did not stick the landing, and he he's gonna make fuck-ups along the way. And yeah, I mean, if you want to go through that chapter in verse, it bores me. And I just think he hasn't done so much horrible that I don't think he can pull this thing out and make Twitter something completely different. And it hasn't gone away. I remember when he first took over. He was like, oh, Twitter's gonna fold, fold.

It's fine. It's, he's right. It's like people, there's not gonna be a, it just is a kind of a establishment thing now. But if the whole point is free speech, and then you basically punish body-wise because she just agreed with him. It's not like a necessary little point I'm making. It's kind of it's fundamental to what he claimed to be doing with Twitter. Anyway, actually, he has stumbled along the way and sometimes

been his on-wrested enemy, but I don't feel like it ever comes out of a place of terrible maliciousness. He's an impulsive genius. I'm not saying at all. He's an impulsive genius kind of guy. You know, it's, it's not going to, you know, love travels on a gravel road. Speaking of which. Yes, speaking of which. Yes, speaking of which.

You mentioned before your marriage, and I remember one time you sang to me, like, I don't know, when did, when was you divorced? Oh my God, I remember so. I divorced 1997. Okay. And I was, I moved from Washington to LA for my divorce, my home that you've been to many times.

The furniture that I've been to. The furniture that you've creasoned. And the day my divorce became final, I literally got the news and went to do a political incorrect that day. I mean, surrounded by boxes and things that hadn't been unpacked. And then the next month, we, I had a Thanksgiving at home and you came, you went to the children's table and you sat down and you said to my eight and six years, I said, okay, are you ready now for your mom to start dating? I did.

Well, you know, you can't shield the kids too much. That's my point. You wanted them to be resilient. What did they say? They cried. You made my children cry. I'm sorry, but they came out better for it, didn't they? But I remember you saying to me,

I asked you, like you were, must have been right around this time, could have been that day. Like you really broken up in emotion, you were wrecked and you said to me, no, the hard part is the two years before this when you're trying to make it work. Yes.

And I just thought, Wow, yeah. That is, you remember that? Yes. And I remember just thinking, wow, that is exactly why I never did that. And for some people it's dead years. For some people it's dead years.

It's a not forever. Yeah. Because it's a codependence and they can't break it. And I mean, I know what it's like to be that way with someone where you're not happy, but you know you're like in this exquisite pain if you break up or if you're apart and you're trying to get them back.

It's like the worst place to be I've found psychologically in life. I mean, I've had physical pain, among the mental pains, this is, there's no pain, like desperately wanting another person. And it's not like anything else in life because it has a choice. And when you, if you turn a woman off off, there's a key in the back.

If it goes, it's like a pilot light. If the pilot light goes off, you can't relate it. I mean, you can get them back from some shit you do. And then sometimes you just turn the key all the way and the pilot light goes out. And you can't. And you kind of know that. And it's like we were saying about, I would never go back to 30. Just to avoid that kind of know that. And it's like we were saying about,

I would never go back to 30. Just to avoid that kind of thing, that's the kind of thing that happens around 30. But then you also began to be much more self-aware. Remember you tell me many times that there is nothing left in the bottle. No, no. You're almost got it right.

No, you said there is a little bit left in the bottle. No, no, you're almost got it right. No, you said there is a little bit left in the bottle. No, no, no. Okay. How is it? It's, there's, when you meet somebody, Yes. The sex god in heaven or a little man in the universe, wherever the sex god is,

sex god knows there are a certain number of fucks in that can. Yes. It might be 5,000, it might be five. I don't know if it's ever going to be unlimited, but if you spread it out enough, it could be. And that's the point. It's how you spread it out.

If it's 5,000, it could less forever. But at a certain point. There's nothing left in the bottle. In the bottom of that can't come on. I know there's one more in the bottle. You're hitting the bottom of that cake. Come on. I know there's one more in there. Come on. That's what I stand by that.

I don't think I was wrong about that one. But you know what is great. I don't think you hold any beat on a story to anyone you've been with. No, I'm bitter at myself for a couple, because like, why did I enter into that relationship? Wasn't very wise of me, kind of thing. But not at then. I don't attract bad people. Like, I always wanted to.

I always wanted to attract the bad girl. You know, the slutty one who'd be easy and fuck me right away. No, that's not who I attracted basically nice people. I guess opposite to drag, isn't it? So I never, that was not really a thing. But I think, you know, it's so amazing if you think of it, not to be carrying bitterness and resentment.

So many people have had it. And I don't really, I don't think a lot of people are resentful of me either. I mean, I'm pretty good friends with all my exes and... But that is such a gift. I mean, especially if you look at the science of health, resentment and bitterness and not being able to forgive, you know, they affect your immune system. Right. They increase your stress levels. Of course.

I mean, there is a new study that came out that if you're incapable of forgiving, it increases your cholesterol levels. I mean, this connection, I'm fascinated by. Well, cholesterol is not a bad thing. You need cholesterol to live, so I don't... Well, it's good for your brain. It's good for... I mean, it's basically what the body repairs itself with.

You need cholesterol, yes, and your brain. It's just a question of... Obviously, too much, but it's like... If you have a lot of inflammation, yes, what I mean, yes. Right, inflammation, right. These emotions create inflammation. Yes, well, there's something sister, we definitely are completely on the same...

The three fates. The same. The three fates of your health. Sugar, sleep, stress. Yeah, it's the first thing I said on the first show, the last show before we all went inside in 2020, March of 2020. The first, the last show we did was March 13th.

After that, we were no show, and then we did it from here. Yes. Christ. And I remember I said we had a doctor on and I said, and I didn't think she really was great on the subject. And I said, everybody will be okay if you just take mine the three asses. Yes. Sleep, stress, sugar. And of course no one listened to me as no one ever does. and the people who were lauded

as the great leaders of our medical establishment during the pandemic, they would, they'd never said something like that. I never heard Dr. Fauci say something about sugar or sleep, or maybe you shouldn't be putting on weight during a pandemic which kills overwhelmingly obese people. But this is a non-going issue.

It's not an issue that ends with a pandemic, because sugar stress and sleep deprivation affect every disease. They affect cancer. They affect... Absolutely. ...obviously diabetes. But they affect every disease.

And here's what I love about the work I'm doing now, is that with micro steps, you can begin changing things. You know, it doesn't have to be big new year resolutions. I'm going to give up sugar forever immediately, or sleep for eight hours. It's just like, what are the little micro steps? You can do every day that become healthier habits. And we've seen amazing success with people

when they start on the journey. And that's why I'm such an evangelist about that. Well, I'd like to masturbate more. Can you, is there a microstep for that? A microstep program. I can get on that. I really think you're an expert. I enjoy it.

I feel it relaxes me. And yet sometimes I get to the end of the day, and I've only gotten it three or four times, and I... You're not prioritizing. I'm not prioritizing. I think the other thing is that you can habit stock. Maybe there's a habit you have. You can...

We all need a hobby. You can habit stock that. So, okay. So, but you know, I always wondered about that divorce because like, I mean, he's gay, right? And the reason- He came out as gay. He came out as gay.

Yes. And I'm fascinated by the, and it's a common, well, yeah, like, more common than you'd think. I can think of three or four right off the top of my head, very successful man. I don't think it's a secret that the head of my agency. I think both heads of the agency,

very successful, great guys, but they were heterosexual and had children. And then they, I hope I'm not saying this out of school If it is we should cut it out, but isn't Friedza Carrera is that no, she's public about that Is that public? Okay another one had a family had a wife and I I and I think this is your husband and I just I don't get it now I'm not saying I'm the macho was guy in the world But I cannot understand this on any level how you can like, yeah.

I'm just either going to think of skeet shooting or guys. But there is a continuum I'm told and you are the extreme. And you cannot imagine and there are people who also think it depends on how you are brought up. So that's the explanation is the spectrum. It's a spectrum. And it is a spectrum. And it's also like where you are brought up when being gay may have been inconceivable. And so any feelings you had were completely suppressed.

And then at some point it became more and more and more. Here's it, here's it between liberal and woke. Liberals, I think, I still consider myself old school liberal mostly believe there is a spectrum of sexuality. I think a conservative would say, no, as men and women, and you know, you're either a heifer or a hamp whenever the terms were animals.

You're either a sour or a bowl. I don't know what that, I don't know animals. That was not right then a farm, but you get the point. But a liberal says, no, of course there is a spectrum. Woke takes it 10 subway stops too far to every child that is born is jump ball. A penis. Well, a penis is one indicator of sub. I could possibly be a male, but I mean, as opposed to, you know what, the default setting is generally penis male, okay?

So, we accept that maybe there's a mix up with the factory once in a while, and you know, this is not going to be how it's going to come out, or the kid is gay, you know, which is a variation, but still a man. Right. So can we wait on this as opposed to like having making people at medical schools apologize for saying the word woman, you know stuff like that. That is, I mean, I mean, you see how they're like that. I mean, I have my, you know, when, I'm, you know, I'm a grandma, right? I have a five, five month old grandchild. I do know that. When my-

But you're sleeping like sailors too. Ha ha ha ha ha. Okay, wait until I show you a picture. You're- Oh, what do you mean? I love to see babies. You're hard to really melt. There's nothing I love more than seeing babies

because they all look so different. Way that you see. So attractive. Boy, if one thing babies are, it's different from each other and attractive. But the other thing. Bring it on. Do you have slides?

You will watch a 30 minute reel, but if the fact that you would call somebody a birthing person instead of a mother. Is that your phone? Do you have a phone here? Is that my phone that it hasn't been turned off. It's not yours, right? No, it just that sound like your phone. You hear that, right? Yes. Okay, good. I was going crazy. No, no, you're not, you're not hearing voices. It's done. Okay. If it is my phone, you can check.

Well, we got to stop in five minutes at the moment. That's funny because the only reason I'm rushing is it's been an hour because I want to make you dinner. Yes, I know. I want you to make my dinner. I made my dinner at eight o'clock for you so that you can arrive by 30. Okay. I'm trying.

So I have eight to eight thirty drinks and then you arrive. We'll wait and it'll arrive. We have a great Greek dinner. I didn't cook it, don't worry. I didn't think you would, all your billions, cooked your own dinner. Oh, you were slaving over this stove. No, no, it's not about a matter of money. It's a matter of, I've never learned to cook.

You know, one of my, one of the things I believe is that you can, there are many things you don't have to do. Like, cook. Or learn to speak. By the way, cooking, as far as like a trait I ever gave a shit about in a woman is at the very bottom of the list. In fact, I find it a negative, because I don't want someone who can cook.

I'll get fat. We'll organize the relationship around food instead of sex, which is always a bad idea. So I could, whereas when I was a kid, they would say the way to a man's hardest through his stomach. I mean, it was like, because this is like before Boston market, you know, like when the guy was going to get food, right, the woman had to make it because, like when the guy was going to get food. Right, the woman had to make it because of course he was incapable of making food. So like it was like a big important selling point in who you made it with.

Whereas I always thought, who, what do I care if you can cook? Well first of all, reading in restaurants. Reading in restaurants, I have my own food at home. I have food that I can make. A scrambled egg and toast. Is that it? You know, what? That's all you can make.

No, no, I can make basic things. And, you know, I mean, I'm not a foodie. I always thought food was the enemy of sex. So that was always why it had to take second place. And, you know, that takes some reorganizing throughout your life because the way people live and it's stupid is they have the food first. And then it's horrible.

Your breath stinks, the blood is in the wrong place. You know, it's just a terrible order of things. But, you know, it's very hard to convince a girl on the first date, you know. We should have this. And And then we started in. I made a regiment for 1130. All right I'm going to. But you know what? No, what? We can't live without mentioning something that I think the world has forgotten. Oh yeah, my blogs. Which is that you were the first person to be cancelled after 9-11.

People remember. But two people who remember what happened to the guy who was responsible, the Texas radio truck. Do you know what happened? You just said, we should forget and move on. No, no, no, no, no, just for fun. I do know what happened to him. Did you have a... The last of Susa? No, down part, Drake.

Who's that? Remember? I love that, I love that. Who's that? The guy, you know, this whole... Let's cancel Bill Maher. Let's cancel Politically Incorrecting. Started with his tech Houston Texas radio show host, Downright.

Do you know who he is now? No. Lieutenant Governor of Texas. Oh, really? Really? He's the Lieutenant Governor of Texas. Oh really? Really? He's the Lieutenant Governor of Texas. Yes. Wow. I just didn't want to leave without giving you that information. I guess that proves that I did not stick pins in his voodoo doll. Exactly. Because I didn't even know the name. Oh, you're right. I remember Houston. And I remember thinking, oh, yeah, that guy, I think he was actually mad at me at something else, even more. And he used this as an opportunity, you know, but the

great thing, it all led to something better. Yeah, real time on HBO. And now on CNN, and now, Club random. It's endless. You're the media empire. You're the media empire. You're the media empire is without end. Did you have it? I mean, I remember that period when you were running for governor and starting the... No, having been posted in 2005, a couple of years later. Well, that period, I said. Yeah. Right. So it's just, oh my God. I mean, not that you were doing bad before that, but yeah, you had quite a third act. And speaking of aging, when we think that we have to do everything before we're 30,

you know, 30 under 30, 20 under 20. I launched the Huffington Post at 55. I launched 5 global at 66. I love to say that so that people don't have that sense of urgency that if everything is not done by 30. And just the idea, I mean, I hear it all the time from stupid millennials. And maybe I was the same way when I was that age about older people, but they just seem to have this idea that you're just gonna be automatically kind of decrepit

at post six years. If you don't see it. And I kind of... If you're stressed, you're gonna be. And you can't be. But, you know, you can also be pretty much exactly who you always were. I mean, nobody's gonna be as cute as they were. No.

You can't stop that. But pretty much everything else, no, there is gonna be a day will come and we're all gonna be dying. Fine, Steve. But you know, don't say it's happening until it's actually happening. Anyway. Anyway. I'll be in the valleys like Saturday, March 11th. If I was decrement, could I do that?

And then fucking the next night I'm at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco. Oh, I've been there in a while. I can't wait for that Saturday, April 1st, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Love Seattle, and Portland, of course, always that great one-two punch. The Sunday April's second Arlene Schnitzer Hall show. Okay, do you have anything to plug? No, I just want to... Right, it's just driving. Driving is thriving. I just want to say how happy I am to be here with you 30 years after we met. 30 years of friendship, that I treasure.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry I pushed you to get married. I was fucking with it. Wait, wait, wait, one more thing. In fact, I want one thing to tell you, in the speaking of knowing, being such great friends in that always about Travis Travis the Uber dude. Yes. And you're in it as played by Uma Thurman.

Yes. I told you this, right? Okay, so I'm waiting for your arrival. Because I'm like, oh Uma Thurman playing Ariana, I have got to see this. And the first line she has is he's at a bar and he's like, it's something bad happened. He fucked up and he's looking down. You walk over, I mean, Uma, as you, Travis, the bad boy, I'm Silicon Valley. And then he's like, Ariana, please, I had a bad day. And he goes, oh, bad day, I've had to have lunch with Pat, you can and then build more. As if you had, I mean, he was both a stupid,

concretely wrong, someone insulting something I would never have said. Lath out loud funny that they thought that that was your attitude toward me, but you've had to have lunch. I hope you haven't ever had to. Oh my God. Never. And what I love is that when we have, we normally have breakfast at 1 p.m. Yes, we are, we are two people who can have breakfast at any hour. That's true. Yes. Alright. Thank you. Thank you. You all see it very soon.

We love you. Yeah. I can do it for three hours with you, but... I could do it for three hours a day or so.