Amanda Knox | Club Random with Bill Maher

Summary

Club Random with Bill Maher

Guest: Amanda Knox

Air Date: July 27, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode of "Club Random," Bill Maher hosts Amanda Knox, known for her high-profile wrongful conviction and eventual exoneration in Italy. The conversation swiftly becomes an unfiltered, humorous, and deeply introspective exploration of incarceration, human psychology, society’s punitive instincts, parenthood, belief and skepticism, AI, and the modern condition. Amanda’s sharp self-awareness, wit, and philosophical approach meet Bill’s trademark irreverence and world-weary wisdom, resulting in dynamic and candid exchanges.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Art, Friends, and Amanda's Latest Book

• Amanda admires Bill’s eclectic art collection, noting it gives off "archivist" vibes (02:32).
• Amanda gifts Bill her newest book (published in 2025), joking about the obligatory promotion circuit and how “tired as fuck” she is of talking about it (04:06).
• Bill acknowledges Amanda’s supporters—mutual friends like Whitney Cummings, Nikki Glaser, and Sam Harris (03:35).

Prison Life, Friendship & Survival

• Amanda discusses her Italian prison experience, debunking stereotypes:
  • Prison population: 30-90 women, a small, closely monitored environment (05:18).
  • Developed a lasting friendship, with her prison friend writing her daily after release (05:45).
  • "You know what? It makes you feel like you're gnawing yourself from the inside out...if you do not have training for how...to be at peace with just your mind." (06:00, Amanda)
• Books were Amanda’s essential coping mechanism; families could send in books, but selection through the system was limited (06:40).
• Cigarettes as currency and the transactional nature of favors inside (07:07).
• Escaping prison wasn't an option: "My cell was on a second story...I was constantly supervised. There just wasn’t an option." (07:38, Amanda)

The Purpose and Failure of Prisons

• Bill and Amanda critique the U.S. prison system's brutality and failure at rehabilitation. Amanda traces the history of prisons as an alternative to corporal punishment but notes they now simply "steal your life from you" (10:11).
• Amanda: "The kind of people you think go to prison, it's not just the irredeemably evil."
• Bill: "Does it really have to be that way? ...All the things we can figure out, we can't stop rape in prison?" (08:13)
• Both agree that the U.S. system fosters hardened criminality rather than rehabilitation.
• Amanda: "I do have a deep aversion to the punitive instinct...People have this romantic notion about what prison is and what it does..." (12:21)

Meaning, Fate, and Existentialism

• Bill asks Amanda if she believes "everything happens for a reason"; Amanda rejects this, calling herself a "rare wrongly convicted, exonerated person who is not of that ilk." (14:32)
• Amanda: "You can make a reason. I think that the universe doesn't have any inherent meaning whatsoever. But you can make it make sense to you..." (15:16)
• This mutual atheism and skepticism draw Bill and Amanda together—"I see why my friends like you." (15:47, Bill)
• Amanda: "The very idea that there’s, like, no rhyme or reason, is threatening...It’s like the deeply existential problem..." (16:04)

Parenthood, Children, and Gross-Outs

• Amanda and Bill spar about kids:
  • Amanda enjoys motherhood and the developmental process; Bill is openly averse to children but loves animals (24:54).
  • Amanda challenges Bill: "Have you ever wiped someone else's ass?...I think it's an important thing to wipe someone else's ass." (26:26)
  • They analyze aversions, yucks and yums, childhood messiness, and the role of empathy in caretaking.
• Amanda: "There's nothing more fucking interesting than watching a human mind develop from mush." (25:47)
• Bill: "I'm not interested in that particular aspect...especially when it comes with snot and drooling and shit." (25:52)

Belief, Atheism, and Emotional Reality

• Amanda’s perspective: "Poop is real and God isn’t. So I'm not really curious about God like I'm curious about poop." (28:40)
• Bill, referencing his film "Religulous" (31:00), embraces "mainstream atheism": "We're not trying to convert anybody. Just leave me alone."
• Discussion of religious friends and magical thinking—Amanda references Taylor Tomlinson’s comedy about respecting faith when it isn't weaponized (29:02).
• Amanda: "Faith in something that is not real...is a condition of the mind that, like, conditions you to think a certain way and have a certain kind of magical thinking."

Generational Trends & Social Change

• Bill probes Amanda's view of Gen Z, anti-American sentiment, and social activism (17:51).
• Amanda explains her focus on emotional development and how many social and political stances are projections of internal struggles (20:16).
• Quote: "A lot of people don't understand the issue. They're swept up in the issue. Because we're social creatures..." (20:35, Amanda)
• Both reflect on nostalgia for the '90s and analog life, citing concerns about screen addiction and social media’s damage (55:13).

AI, Technological Anxiety, and Human Value

• Bill expresses skepticism and outright dread over artificial intelligence:
  • "I think [AI] will be great...Good way to put it. Yeah, I think so in general because so many smart people like the godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, said it had a 10 to 20% extinction possibility." (43:38, Bill)
  • Amanda wonders how human value would be defined if productivity and work are taken over by AI (45:33).
  • Bill deems capitalism more resilient than communism because "we’re a selfish species", but notes that human motivation may have to shift if robots fulfill all needs (46:16).
  • Amanda: "Could it be exploration? Could it be creativity? Could it be just the simple presence of being...?" (47:41)
  • Bill: "There's no plan. It's just, let's hurdle forward. Just Sam Altman, take the wheel..." (49:07)
• Both discuss youth’s awareness of their own "irrelevancy" in the face of AI and their measured rebellion against it (52:57).

Empathy, Regrets, and Learning from the Past

• Amanda asks Bill about compassion for his younger self and learning from mistakes:
  • "I’m hard on myself always...but do I beat myself up about that?...I’d rather err on the side of...never make the same mistake once." (37:09, Bill)
  • Amanda: "Have you ever talked to Sam [Harris] about meta meditation or anything like that?" (37:19)
  • Bill: "I understand...that, yes, feelings matter and feelings rule." (63:23)

Sex Work, Marriage, and the Nature of Deals

• Bill muses on the overlap between all forms of transactional relationships—religion, business, marriage—with sex work (61:17).
• Amanda: "Marriages contain elements of prostitution." (61:18)
• Both agree real-world relationships are a negotiation and sometimes involve unsavory deals for practical reasons (61:22).

Pretty Privilege, Gender, and Power

• Amanda reflects on "pretty privilege": people’s reflex to please and be validated by beautiful people (70:19).
• She adds: "One of the mistakes that especially young people make is they think that...attention is all the same kind of attention. And it's not." (70:50)
• Bill: "I'm not jealous of women. I mean, they've had it rougher."
• They touch on how men and women experience social privilege, workplace challenges, mental health risks, and violence differently (71:53).

Violence, Entitlement, and Indoctrination

• Discussion of mass killings and young men’s susceptibility to rage and indoctrination (72:25).
• Amanda draws parallels between indoctrination in prison and outside, especially in moments of vulnerability (73:35).
• Amanda: "People feeling bad emotions is an important part of the human experience...from bad feelings you derive meaning and perspective and purpose." (73:46)
• Bill: "I do think kids think they have it way worse than they do. And I think they have been raised wrong...too entitled." (75:04)

Manifestos & Madness

• Brief digression on the Unabomber and the distinction between "well-written" manifestos and the ravings of madmen; Amanda finds manifestos "the saddest and most hilarious thing ever" (78:15).

Comedy, Standup, and Humor as Survival

• Amanda shares her transition into standup comedy, leveraging her harrowing experiences for dark humor (65:23).
• She boasts a repertoire of “hella prison jokes” and “hella mom jokes” (65:52).
• Bill: "You were unfairly railroaded...I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it." (66:17)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Prison’s Impact:
  • Amanda: "It makes you feel like you’re gnawing yourself from the inside out..." (06:00)
• On Meaning:
  • Amanda: "The universe doesn’t have any inherent meaning whatsoever. But you can make a reason." (15:16)
• On Magic vs. Poop:
  • Amanda: “Poop is real and God isn’t. So I'm not really curious about God. Like, I'm curious about poop.” (28:40)
• On AI Dread:
  • Bill: “I think there'll be great...Good way to put it. Yeah, I think so in general because...it had a 10 to 20% extinction possibility.” (43:38)
• On Raising Kids:
  • Amanda: “There’s nothing more fucking interesting than watching a human mind develop from mush.” (25:47)
• On Regret and Compassion:
  • Bill: “Do I assess? Do you think people should feel the feelings of feeling bad when something was obsessing about it? Then I wouldn’t be a happy person.” (37:47)
• On Standup and Laughter:
  • Amanda: “I have hella prison jokes, but I also have hella mom jokes. Just like life jokes, I really appreciate.” (65:52)
• On Different Opinions:
  • Amanda: “Feelings are the basis of all of our thoughts.” (63:38)

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Important Timestamps

• Prison Life, Books, and Survival – 05:00–08:00
• Purpose, Rehabilitation, and Society – 10:11–13:26
• Meaninglessness and Existential Threat – 15:00–16:13
• Motherhood, Poop, and Nurturing – 24:54–28:40
• Atheism and Faith – 29:02–31:29
• AI Anxiety & Human Value – 43:38–49:23
• Standup, Comedy, and Healing – 65:23–66:24
• Gender, Privilege, and Violence – 70:01–73:08
• Manifestos and Misguided Rage – 78:15–79:37

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Tone and Dynamics

The conversation balances dark humor and earnest philosophical probing. Amanda’s direct, often profane candor blends seamlessly with Bill’s deadpan, skeptical asides. While Amanda often brings the conversation back to emotional reality, Bill toys with nihilism and curmudgeonly wisdom. Both dig into uncomfortable truths about society, meaning, progress, and human nature with a winking irreverence tempered by surviving their own “trials by fire.”

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Summary by AI Podcast Summarizer, preserving the hosts’ language, nuance, and rapport.

Transcript

[Bill Burr]

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[Amanda Knox]

That's a dog. You will not have to lift a finger.

[Bill Burr]

Bobby and Connie hard launch their relationship

[Amanda Knox]

now that we're dating, it's important your parents know I'm a man.

[Bill Burr]

And the alley guys are. Well, they're still the alley guys.

[Amanda Knox]

Yep.

[Bill Burr]

Watch the new season of the Hulu original series, King of the Hill, now streaming on Hul Hulu on Disney plus for bundle subscribers terms apply. This has been a paid advertisement while you're remodeling your backyard to make it more, you know, Zen e, we were remodeling our merch store to make it more random. We've slapped our new logo on T shirts, tie dyes, hoodies, and hats and all with premium printed labels. Look, I wasn't kidding. We have it. Because tags are like the junk mail of clothing. All merch is available [e-mail]. once again, that's clubrandom.com are we. Oh, you haven't noticed that by now?

[Amanda Knox]

No.

[Bill Burr]

Oh, wow. You like the kids and I don't. Club Random now we're unlike Barbara Walters. It's a really good question, but it

[Amanda Knox]

clearly doesn't haunt you. Club Random

[Bill Burr]

hi, Amanda.

[Amanda Knox]

Hey, how are you? Nice to meet you.

[Bill Burr]

Well, you came around.

[Amanda Knox]

Of course. Yeah, I was admiring all of your amazing art that I heard gets, like, turned around like you're an archivist of art and history.

[Bill Burr]

Fucking yes, I am. You better think. No, it's Funny. You jump up. Some of the guests we've had here,

[Amanda Knox]

they just sit, watch up.

[Bill Burr]

Well, they really can't get up.

[Amanda Knox]

Why?

[Bill Burr]

Because they're fucking old. Oh, these don't work anymore. Well, they just, you know, this chair, you kind of sink back.

[Amanda Knox]

I have an extra pillow underneath to, like, be on par with you.

[Bill Burr]

You are always on par with me. I have to tell you, the people, you know, who recommend you, it's like a Magi of Whitney. Right? Whitney Cummings. Did you see her in the bathtub?

[Amanda Knox]

I did. I cozied up with her. She. That doll is like of my nightmares. But also, it's this person that I love who's been so supportive of me.

[Bill Burr]

Nikki Glaser.

[Amanda Knox]

Nikki Glaser.

[Bill Burr]

Sam Harris.

[Amanda Knox]

Sam Harris.

[Bill Burr]

I mean, you're recommended by, like, some of my favorite people.

[Amanda Knox]

Oh, well, they have been. So. Yes. That's for you. Oh, that's my newest book.

[Bill Burr]

I always forget we're plugging.

[Amanda Knox]

No, actually, I wasn't even.

[Bill Burr]

This is a show, for God's sake. This is professional. Just for your professional show.

[Amanda Knox]

You're kind of a librarian of stuff, so here's just one more thing to add to your library.

[Bill Burr]

Oh, when did this come out?

[Amanda Knox]

This came out in 2025.

[Bill Burr]

Right. So. But wasn't there a book before this?

[Amanda Knox]

Yes.

[Bill Burr]

So this. Right. This isn't. You must be tired as fuck of talking about.

[Amanda Knox]

We don't have to talk about the book.

[Bill Burr]

I'm just going to give you. I mean, look, this show, as you can see, already has no professionalism or agenda or we might. We might not.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah, okay.

[Bill Burr]

I mean, it's. You know, I was told you can really take a joke.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

Oh, please do. So I'll tell you, when I walked in to do makeup, my producers are there, and I'm always, like, working on my other show. And, you know, I said, I don't know anything except she killed a guy in Italy.

[Amanda Knox]

Because that is the story. Yes.

[Bill Burr]

You know, it's only funny because we know it's not true. And that's. But, yeah, you.

[Amanda Knox]

Speaking of funny, you got the Mark Twain Award.

[Bill Burr]

I mean, the president tried to stop it once, and who knows, you know,

[Amanda Knox]

it's like an execution date.

[Bill Burr]

Right, but let's not talk about that.

[Amanda Knox]

No, I want to know.

[Bill Burr]

I want to be a professional, Amanda. I'm a professional.

[Amanda Knox]

Well, okay, but I'm actually really excited for you.

[Bill Burr]

Like, I'm excited for you. You went through more than I did. I mean, I only had to get past Trump. You had to get out of Italy.

[Amanda Knox]

We've both been on journeys.

[Bill Burr]

How many were in your prison?

[Amanda Knox]

So it was a relatively small. It's a women's prison. So women's prison.

[Bill Burr]

It was a private women's prison.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah,

[Bill Burr]

it was like Sarah Lawrence or whatever.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah, Sarah Lawrence of prisons. No, it was anywhere between. So when it was not very full, it was 30 women, and when it was quite full, it was like 90 women.

[Bill Burr]

You made friends for life.

[Amanda Knox]

I made friends with one person I'm still in contact with.

[Bill Burr]

Is she out of prison?

[Amanda Knox]

She is out of prison. She got out before me, actually. And when I. When she got out, she sent me a letter every single day after she got out, and I was still in prison because she was really worried about me.

[Bill Burr]

Must be so boring. Must be. The worst part is it's just nothing to do.

[Amanda Knox]

You know what?

[Bill Burr]

It.

[Amanda Knox]

It makes you feel like you're gnawing yourself from the inside out. Like, it's. It's. If you do not have training for how. One of the things that. That actually attracted me to meditation was the ability to, like, be at peace with just your mind. Like, I fucking struggled with that in prison. That, like, I. Like, my crutch was reading books. I read hundreds of books, but if I found myself.

[Bill Burr]

Oh, so they give you a book.

[Amanda Knox]

I was allowed books. Yeah. And I devoured them. Multiple languages. Like, I was just, like. Just whatever they had or whatever they fucking had.

[Bill Burr]

So you couldn't order a book? It wasn't like Amazon.

[Amanda Knox]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[Bill Burr]

Could you request a book and get that book? Did that ever.

[Amanda Knox]

No, it was more like, I would tell my family that I wanted a book, and then they would.

[Bill Burr]

Oh, they could send you a book.

[Amanda Knox]

Yes, they could send me books with

[Bill Burr]

a file in it. Is that. Did you ever have to bribe the screws with cigarettes? My.

[Amanda Knox]

Remember, cigarettes are currency in prison. That's true. It is a currency. And one way to solicit favors from others is through cigarettes. Yes, that is a fact.

[Bill Burr]

Did you ever think of escaping?

[Amanda Knox]

I had fantasies of, like, the CIA coming in with a helicopter and pulling me out.

[Bill Burr]

No, but you doing it.

[Amanda Knox]

Me? No.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah, Like Andy and Shawshank.

[Amanda Knox]

No, no, no, I didn't.

[Bill Burr]

No digging.

[Amanda Knox]

I. Well, look, like, now we're getting in, like. Okay, so it was just not an option. There was. So I. My cell was on a second story. I was surrounded by bars. It was highly. I was constantly supervised. Like, there just wasn't an option.

[Bill Burr]

I'm kidding.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah. No, but, like, thank you again.

[Bill Burr]

It just. We've seen so many prison movies.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

And it's like the cliches.

[Amanda Knox]

The cliche of like somehow getting out, like.

[Bill Burr]

Well, all of them. It's just funny. I mean, it's not funny. It's. It can be funny. It's an ongoing scandal to me that they just in this country consign themselves to prisons are going to be these jungles. Like, does it really have to be that way? And there is an answer from it. Should not other parts of the world where they do dip prison differently now? Other parts of the world aren't a bunch of fucking drugged out nuts like this country. Okay. This country is different for better and worse.

[Amanda Knox]

Most of the people I was in prison with were drugged out nuts.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah. This country has a lot of energy and a lot of it is directed in the wrong direction. But okay. That's who we are. So I get it. It's hard to prison to put in prison Americans or whoever is here in America doing dirty shit. But the fact that it's just a place that makes somebody who went in who maybe isn't a hardened criminal. Oh, they're gonna come out a hardened criminal. Because it's just this Hobbesian tooth and nail survival of the fittest. Yeah. And everyone's in on it. It's like really no one can figure this out. All the things we can figure out, we can't stop rape in prison. You know, just there's no possible way we could think that this doesn't have to be this kind of nightmare. And I guess it comes down to the humans. You're always gonna have the humans who are in the prison and they are put together with a lot of people who are the dregs of society. So those dregs are gonna make the guards feel anxious and scared and wanting revenge and jaded and jaded. And then it's just this terrible cycle of I hate you and you hate me and who. This is who we.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah. It's the fucking worst of. It's the worst impulses of society. All there, right there. And I agree. I mean, what's so interesting about like just prison? I mean, I know you like history, right? Like prison was initially intended to be a more humanistic and understanding approach to punishment because it used to be corporeal, it used to be execution. Like that was the only way we punished people. Crucifixion, crucifixion, exile, like all of the things that were basically the equivalent of maiming and death. That was the only way we punished people for wrongdoing. And then they introduced this idea of prison where you could, you could serve time as penitence and in the process you could be indoctrinated by those who are concerned about your soul to become better and rehabilitated. Like, that's the whole idea of prison is if you give someone just enough time away from society, they're not a danger to others, then we might be able to turn you into somebody who could potentially come out and be a part of society. But then somewhere along the way it like reverse reverted back into this idea of like, okay, well, it's a little bit like the corporeal punishment. Like, we just need to hurt you. And we're not going to hurt you by cutting off your hand or hanging you anymore. We're just going to hurt you by stealing your life from you. And that is fucking painful. But we're not going to give you anything to like, process that or cope with that or, or establish your like. And, and to be fair, like, I'm not like a fucking bleeding heart about this. Like, I know that some people are so broken. Like, I've met them, I fucking lived with them. People who are so broken that I would not trust them in a free society where we get to just like go about our business and be around other people without, you know, without safeguards.

[Bill Burr]

Right? Yeah, no, but it all makes sense.

[Amanda Knox]

But like, I do, I do have this, like, I do have like a deep aversion to the punitive instinct of it. Like, I do think it is really important to take people out of society who have proven to be untrustworthy, like, to be, to have proven to be people who are likely to inflict harm on others. To like, not have self control, to not play by the rules that we all agree to. I'm 100% on board with that. I do think though that like, people have this like, romantic notion about what prison is and what it does and what impact it has on people. And the kind of people, you think

[Bill Burr]

they have a romantic notion of it. Yeah.

[Amanda Knox]

Oh, 100%. People have prisoners. Yes. People have this like this fantasy idea that like, only bad people go there and all the good people stay outside and that it fixes you, or if it doesn't fix you, at least you deserve to suffer for what, like, all of that is just like, I don't

[Bill Burr]

think they think it fixes you, but I do think you're right. They are able to shut off their mind to it by saying, well, that's where bad people are who did bad things. So they got what's coming to them, which is true in a x percent of the people there. It is not 100%, but we are humans, so that's, you know, every solution to every problem is. This is the least bad option. But we should have told you this. It's a surprise. We wanted this to be a reunion show. Here are some of the guards that you had that we're gonna remember. Julia. Okay. And some of the girls. Bring them out here. The girls you're in prison with. Let's just.

[Amanda Knox]

No, I was okay in prison, dude. I was okay.

[Bill Burr]

Look, are you one of those people, you know, like, I would say spiritual, maybe they would use that word where they think everything happens for a reason and everything led you to another place for a reason or, you know, that kind of thinking?

[Amanda Knox]

Well, I'm actually one of the rare wrongly convicted, exonerated people who is not of that ilk. In fact, a lot of people that I met in prison, guilty and innocent, like, really do feel like there must be some sort of bigger higher power that's more in charge of them.

[Bill Burr]

And you can understand why people go there.

[Amanda Knox]

Oh, 100%. You're absolutely helpless. And you gotta hope that somebody's in charge or else you're fucked.

[Bill Burr]

Life's a rough ride. And, you know, it can get so rough. You have to hang on. I think you just have to believe that it's for a reason or for something better future that you can't exactly put your finger on.

[Amanda Knox]

You can make a reason. I believe that. I think that the universe doesn't have any inherent meaning whatsoever. But you can make a reason. You can make it make sense to you, and you can have the things that happen to you become propulsive in your own life. And so I've attempted to do that. I think there's wisdom in that. But am I assuming that somebody else is in charge or somebody has a plan? Fuck, no. If anything, I've learned that that's, like, extremely unlikely, honestly.

[Bill Burr]

I see why your friends. My friends like you. Because I feel the exact same way. You know, and it's not really a popular opinion.

[Amanda Knox]

No, it's not. It's surprisingly unpopular.

[Bill Burr]

People don't like you for just having it. I'm not even trying to make you go there. I'm just.

[Amanda Knox]

Well, it's a threat. Like, it's a. Funnily enough, like a threat. Well, it's like the very idea that there's, like, no rhyme or reason to be.

[Bill Burr]

No, you're right. It is a threat.

[Amanda Knox]

It's threatening. It's like the deeply existential problem that goes, I think, beyond even mortality. Did they tell you what my drink is?

[Bill Burr]

No, I try.

[Amanda Knox]

Last word. I like to have.

[Bill Burr]

What does that mean?

[Amanda Knox]

It's a prohibition drink. Do you want some?

[Bill Burr]

What is it?

[Amanda Knox]

It's green chartreuse and gin and. No, not a gin man.

[Bill Burr]

No, My father was.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah. Was he mean to you?

[Bill Burr]

No, no, no, no, no. He needed it to de stress and just being Irish, you know.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay, fair. Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

I mean, I say that like they're the only people who ever drank who drink gin.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

But I mean, as far as drinking goes and nationalities, I mean, they're in the top two, and it ain't two.

[Amanda Knox]

Right.

[Bill Burr]

You know, maybe the Russians, they drink like crazy.

[Amanda Knox]

Never been to Russia. Been to Ireland and. Yeah, that tracks.

[Bill Burr]

What's your heritage?

[Amanda Knox]

Mine, my mom was born in Germany and my dad.

[Bill Burr]

Born in Germany.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah. Mm. And my dad is a mystery because he was adopted. So some kind of.

[Bill Burr]

That just adds to the plot. Because the Germans and the Italians have

[Amanda Knox]

a, you know, a different sensibility. Yeah, well.

[Bill Burr]

And a different history with each other.

[Amanda Knox]

Yes. I don't think that they were looking at me as a German, though. They were looking at me as an American. And American girls, unbeknownst to me, had a certain reputation.

[Bill Burr]

What do you think about, you know, Gen Z and how. How turned against the country they are here in the U.S. yeah. How much they. They. I think many of them on the left, far left, which is usually what, you know, that age is, but it's part of it, is just very anti American. Just really seeing only one side to who the country is. Of course, we shouldn't whitewash any crimes we committed, but they just don't have it in perspective. You don't see that?

[Amanda Knox]

Well, I have kids that are under five, so that's.

[Bill Burr]

Well, don't ask them.

[Amanda Knox]

So I don't get a lot of that in my own home. And I also, you know.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah. But I don't get any of it. I don't have any kids.

[Amanda Knox]

Well, okay, here's your problem, Bill. You are more tuned in to current events and everything that's going on. And, like, you have opinions, and that's your problem, Bill. Why you have opinions about current events.

[Bill Burr]

Problem to who?

[Amanda Knox]

Well, I'm just like, look, I haven't actually super followed what is happening with whatever generation is the most vocal right now.

[Bill Burr]

Because it's so interesting, though. I mean, even if it wasn't like, it is important politically and for the country and blah, blah, blah. I Just find age fascinating, like the different ages and how you. I mean, what are you. How old are you? 30.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah. Yes. Do the thing that you're never supposed to do with women.

[Bill Burr]

18.

[Amanda Knox]

Thanks for giving me alcohol, then, Bill. That isn't illegal.

[Bill Burr]

18 is legal.

[Amanda Knox]

Well, for you to give me alcohol.

[Bill Burr]

Oh, no, probably not.

[Amanda Knox]

To fly me with alcohol in your private dank.

[Bill Burr]

Rat Skeller.

[Amanda Knox]

I don't know.

[Bill Burr]

Is that the word you're looking for? Rat Skeller? Cause it's the word that applies. In fact, there's a rat now.

[Amanda Knox]

I mean, I think when I think of people who are 20 now, the thing that I just think about is where they are emotionally. And maybe this is just the mom in me. I'm always like, where's everybody at emotionally? Like, I think that a lot of people project whatever they project their emotions onto. Their intellectual pursuits.

[Bill Burr]

Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. So it's all that. So much of it is. It's. I know that you think that this is a super important issue, but really, it's about you. The issue is there for you. You're not there for the issue. You're not really doing anything for the issue.

[Amanda Knox]

A lot of people don't understand the issue. They're swept up in the issue. Because we are social creatures, because we do have deep empathy, because we want to feel like what we do matters. And ultimately, we all have something deep down inside of us that is unresolved. And I feel like we project that again, that deep. That deep feeling into whatever is socially accessible, and that's what's accessible to them. So I'm looking at that from an emotional place, I think, and, like. But again, that's because I'm a mom and I'm, like, trying to raise my kids.

[Bill Burr]

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[Amanda Knox]

The Cambria Hotel's got it all.

[Bill Burr]

A rooftop bar. Have a ball, bring a date, your squad, or even your mom. Book [e-mail] My choosy mom.

[Amanda Knox]

What does that mean?

[Bill Burr]

I mean, choosy moms choose Jiffy. You never heard that?

[Amanda Knox]

Well, I've heard of Gentle Moms. I've heard of Tiger Moms.

[Bill Burr]

No, this was a commercial.

[Amanda Knox]

Oh, no. I don't know what that is. I'm 18, Bill. I don't know any of your cultural references.

[Bill Burr]

Well, that's a key one. Trust me. Everything that we ever broadcast goes out into space. When the aliens see that, they'll know.

[Amanda Knox]

They'll really understand us.

[Bill Burr]

They'll know we're really good people.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay, good.

[Bill Burr]

Choosy moms Juice Jif. I mean, they just. They care what peanut butter.

[Amanda Knox]

I see.

[Bill Burr]

Which is a horrible fungus laden slop to their children, right? And then they. You think. People think that I'm probably gonna get sued by the peanut butter industry, but I don't think peanuts are healthy.

[Amanda Knox]

I just let my kids eat off the floor. So, like, my kids are a little feral. And I think that that's a good thing. Like, I think being a little exposed,

[Bill Burr]

that's always the word I use about children, but I mean it in a bad way.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay. I've heard that you're not a fan. I saw the trampoline in the backyard, and I was like, oh, how sweet. And he was like, no, that's for me.

[Bill Burr]

That's for me. Of course. Kids. What?

[Amanda Knox]

Why do you hate kids? I'm actually so curious.

[Bill Burr]

Why not?

[Amanda Knox]

I mean, I know that Anthony Jelznick has great jokes about. Do you have great jokes about it?

[Bill Burr]

Yeah.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah. Okay, give me one of your, like, I hate children jokes.

[Bill Burr]

Well, they're in my specials, you can look them up. I don't do my act here. Club random. But it's just my personality, like. Your personality is to like them. I like furry creatures. I like animals.

[Amanda Knox]

You like furries?

[Bill Burr]

I like my dog.

[Amanda Knox]

That's your thing.

[Bill Burr]

Furries. Not exactly furries, but, like. Yeah, I like.

[Amanda Knox]

I think that was a cultural reference.

[Bill Burr]

Oh, I know that one.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay. Wasn't sure.

[Bill Burr]

Oh, no, just. Just because I ain't laughing. I get it.

[Amanda Knox]

I hear. I hear you. I hear you. Okay. But you love an animal.

[Bill Burr]

I love animals. And some people love kids. And some people get great joy out of, you know, the kid learning something for the first time. The sky is blue and.

[Amanda Knox]

Totally.

[Bill Burr]

And I'm so over that.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah, you're like, figure it out.

[Bill Burr]

Well, I mean, like, I'm interested in going forward intellectually, I feel like, with the kid. And. Yes, there is something to be said for, you know, seeing the world through much more innocent eyes.

[Amanda Knox]

Are you interested in the human mind and how it works?

[Bill Burr]

Very.

[Amanda Knox]

There's nothing more fucking interesting than watching a human mind develop from mush.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah, I get that. I'm sure that's. That's a. Yeah, well, I'm not interested in that particular aspect of it, especially when it comes with snot and drooling and shit and just, you know.

[Amanda Knox]

You are going to go back to snot and drooling and shit? Not too long.

[Bill Burr]

Oh, wow.

[Amanda Knox]

No, I mean, we went there. Well, I mean, we're all mortal. Our bodies are our bodies. Do you not have your own snot and drool and shit today?

[Bill Burr]

I. No, I'm not at that level of senescence.

[Amanda Knox]

Have you ever. Have you ever wiped someone's ass?

[Bill Burr]

No.

[Amanda Knox]

No one's ass but your own?

[Bill Burr]

Yeah, my own. Definitely my own exclusively, I would say, since two.

[Amanda Knox]

I wonder what that has done to you. I think it's an important thing to wipe someone else's ass. To, like, really, like. It is a. It's a deeply intimate thing to do for another person.

[Bill Burr]

I couldn't agree more. It still doesn't make me want to do. It's.

[Amanda Knox]

Are you just averse to gross things?

[Bill Burr]

Yes.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay, I get that.

[Bill Burr]

Especially shit.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

Who likes shit?

[Amanda Knox]

Well, yeah. People are.

[Bill Burr]

Shit is not as.

[Amanda Knox]

Instinctually. We are averse to shit.

[Bill Burr]

There are a lot of people in this world for whom shit is less offensive to them than it is to me.

[Amanda Knox]

This is going really well. You're so happy you invited me.

[Bill Burr]

Well, I mean, we could talk about anything. Yeah, I mean, I feel like I get where you're coming from. It wasn't like. I don't know about this stuff.

[Amanda Knox]

I'm just trying to like, analyze like where the line is of what counts as gross versus not gross.

[Bill Burr]

I mean, it's a case by case, isn't it, for everybody? Doesn't some things give you the ick and some don't?

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah, no, that's fair. I'm not going to. I'm not going to yuck your yum or yum Y or yuck.

[Bill Burr]

So okay, whatever that is.

[Amanda Knox]

But have you not heard that yuck your yum.

[Bill Burr]

I got to get by context, I may have heard it. My kids say it all the time, the little ones. I mean, I thought we were past it into the like. Let's analyze why you are fucked up. I'm not fucked up about this. Or. And you're not fucked up about liking kids. It's just like different opinions.

[Amanda Knox]

That's true.

[Bill Burr]

You know, it's like saying, hey, you're a stupid ass. You're a Muslim. You think that's God. I'm a Catholic. I know who's God. You got your God, I got mine and I got none. And I think you got none.

[Amanda Knox]

Right, I have none.

[Bill Burr]

No, you're an atheist. Yeah. Is all that little group is. Well, we know Sam is Whitney. I don't know what she is. Sometimes people are.

[Amanda Knox]

I just don't ask. It hasn't really been the list you

[Bill Burr]

go into in this kind of depth. But you don't ask if they believe in God.

[Amanda Knox]

I guess poop is real and God isn't. So I'm not really curious about God. Like I'm curious about poop.

[Bill Burr]

God may not be real, but how humans act because they think he is is very relevant. That is very real.

[Amanda Knox]

Yes, but that is the human mind that I'm seeing.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah, but I mean, what has been as controlling in history really, when you think about it than that.

[Amanda Knox]

But again, like, for me, that's just an intellectual projection of an emotional. Something emotional at its core. So what is the emotion? Fear that is driving that impulse to make sense of the universe in this way or another and to control other people through this means or another. And I think that control is a big. Yeah, I'm concerned about the control part and I think. Did you see Taylor Tomlinson's new special prodigal daughter? I'm actually curious to see what you would think because she talks about religion and her upbringing in religion and her relationship to it today and how she has respect for people who are religious as Long as it's not like being weaponized against other people. Like, however you decide to make sense of the universe is up to you, as long as it doesn't, like, cause you to harm anybody. And I thought that that was very sweet. I thought that was a very important sentiment. And I think it's. I think I agree with her in the sense that I'm also very close friends with deeply, deeply religious people, and they do not hurt other people based upon their beliefs. And so that's great. On the other hand, faith in something that is not real is like a condition of the mind that, like, conditions you to think a certain way and to have a certain kind of magical thinking. And then if you go down that rabbit hole, it's like, well, how many things do I have faith in that I don't fully comprehend? And then, so, you know, I don't know if there's a way to win that. Do you have any thoughts about magical thinking?

[Bill Burr]

Oh, over the years, I put out a few.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay. I haven't watched all your Specials, Bill. I'm 18.

[Bill Burr]

I made a movie called Religilous Religious. Yeah.

[Amanda Knox]

I haven't seen that.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah.

[Amanda Knox]

When did it come out?

[Bill Burr]

2008.

[Amanda Knox]

I was in prison.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah, it still plays a lot.

[Amanda Knox]

Like, I just feel like I missed, like, a thing.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah, that's fine. I mean, I do have. You know, just think. I would think mainstream atheist thing, which is. We're not trying to convert anybody. Just leave me alone. I just don't want to participate in this, and so don't worry about that.

[Amanda Knox]

Would you be stoked if an atheist were president?

[Bill Burr]

I think it would be possibly different. Possibly we've already had one because we don't know.

[Amanda Knox]

Well, she put an out agent.

[Bill Burr]

I don't feel like Obama was. When he, like, put on the. I get. I get scriptures on my phone, you know, I didn't feel his heart wasn't in it. He seems like the kind of guy, very cerebral, who, I mean, probably, I think is an atheist or, you know, a closeted atheist. Well, they have these words like secular humanist at a light code, like, okay, people, I don't believe in the fucking talking snake. Okay? I don't. And you call it what you want, but it's hard because so many people are people of faith. As we were saying, it's a threatening thing. When you're not part of it. You're kind of like Serpico with God. Because, like, Serpico, he just didn't want to take the money. You know, he was like, I see the cops. You're dirty. I just don't want to. And it was such like, they could not let a guy not take the money because then you're just.

[Amanda Knox]

Then you're implicating everyone else.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah, well, just morally, you are not even saying anything. They just know. Oh, there's one guy who actually does know right and wrong and who needs a guy like that hanging around making

[Amanda Knox]

us feel bad about ourselves?

[Bill Burr]

The station house. Yeah, exactly. So get on board. Yeah, but. So where you live, you live in Seattle?

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah, I live outside of Seattle. Well, I grew up there. My entire family's there. So is my husband's. But also it's one of the best places in the world. I live on a tiny little island called Vashon that's. You have to get there by a ferry. So I get the benefit of living in a kind of small town vibes, but next to a vibrant, you know, city landscape that has arts and culture. And one of the things I love about Vashon is I get to have a lot of intergenerational friendships. Like I'm not just friends with just people my age. Like, I have best friends who are in their 70s and I. And one really cool thing about the island is there are a lot of like musicians and artists who live there and they're very supportive. So it's like, it's a great place.

[Bill Burr]

I always thought Seattle was cool. Of all the places, all the cities. All the cities and all the gin joints and all the world, that was always one of my favorite stops. You know, Seattle was close. You know, you could just hop on the plane, be there in a two and a half hours. And it was like, it's a big city.

[Amanda Knox]

You know, big city.

[Bill Burr]

People don't realize Seattle, you know, it's like, wow, is this New York? Not quite. But like a lot of it's not New York. No, no, but like the, like big tall buildings for like, you know, for. It looks like a big city and there's some big.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah, there's big companies that are all up in our business there.

[Bill Burr]

So I don't know if I could stand the weather all year round.

[Amanda Knox]

I can't stand the weather here all year round.

[Bill Burr]

Oh, yeah.

[Amanda Knox]

I feel like a naked mole rat. Like, really? Yeah, yeah.

[Bill Burr]

Too much for me. I mean, Woody Allen was sat there and said the exact same thing. I like it when it's gray and I'm like. But you know, that isn't like scientifically healthy. We are solar creatures. We do need sun.

[Amanda Knox]

But don't we need seasons.

[Bill Burr]

We have them.

[Amanda Knox]

Do you?

[Bill Burr]

Yeah. I've lived here for 40 years. I think I would know.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay. I guess when I come down here, it always feels like exactly the same, just with, like, more or less smog. No, we have clean air in Seattle.

[Bill Burr]

Cleaner.

[Amanda Knox]

Clean air in Seattle.

[Bill Burr]

Dude, it's a big city. I'm sure there's some air pollution.

[Amanda Knox]

I mean, we have rain and that cleans the air.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah. No, I'm. No. Not arguing. You have cleaner air.

[Amanda Knox]

We will fight.

[Bill Burr]

We've cleaned up our air pretty good here compared to what it used to be. I remember when I first came out here, the joke was ring around the city because you could see this brown ring. I mean. Yeah, it was gross when you flew in. It was scary.

[Amanda Knox]

Your skin looks great for being in all of the sun and smog.

[Bill Burr]

Thank you. By the way. You can't avoid the sun.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay.

[Bill Burr]

You can stay inside. You can actually, in the modern world, like, decide exactly how much sun you get. Unless you are picking crops or, you know, have to be. You know, I always say this. Movie stars, the guys, they tend to look their age at a certain point. Because when you're a movie star, you're out in the sun a lot. Movies start early. They need the light. You know, and if it's a western or anything, that's. You're just out there a long time and. You know. Whereas I was stupid when I was young with son sometimes. Cause I wanted to be. I was an Irish kid who wanted to look Italian.

[Amanda Knox]

Oh, oops.

[Bill Burr]

And it was never gonna happen.

[Amanda Knox]

No.

[Bill Burr]

And what was so stupid is that nobody wanted it to happen. It doesn't. You look good as what you are.

[Amanda Knox]

As you are.

[Bill Burr]

Be whatever you want. People like that. Look, it was just the kind of thing where you go, oh, my God, if I only could have replaced that stupid thing that was in there with what I know now.

[Amanda Knox]

Do you have compassion for your younger self, though?

[Bill Burr]

Oh, I mean, that's an interesting way to phrase it. Compassion for your own self. I'm hard on myself always.

[Amanda Knox]

Have you ever talked to Sam about meta meditation or anything like that?

[Bill Burr]

I know everything I tell you doesn't mean it a doctor or to. I'm sorry my shit, Mom. I know, but it's ridiculous. I don't want to. I don't need to fix this. It's probably made me what I am today. I'm very happy.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay, great.

[Bill Burr]

You know, so, like, do I beat myself up about that? Good people should beat themselves up more about what they do when it's a fuck up. It makes you better.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

Do I assess?

[Amanda Knox]

Do you think people should feel the feelings of feeling bad when something was obsessing about it?

[Bill Burr]

Then I wouldn't be a happy person. And that's not the case. But some of that I'd rather err on the side of. You know, a friend of mine once said, I like to never make the same mistake once.

[Amanda Knox]

That's sweet. If only.

[Bill Burr]

That's hard to do.

[Amanda Knox]

If only.

[Bill Burr]

And I already missed out on that.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

And some things, you know, you don't even get it the second time. The third, eventually you're like, okay, can

[Amanda Knox]

I ask what your biggest mistake was? Cause I feel like everybody knows my mistakes, but I don't know yours.

[Bill Burr]

Oh, wow. Now we're unlike Barbara Walters. That's a really good question. But you know what? I probably. Did I ever think of that?

[Amanda Knox]

It clearly doesn't haunt you.

[Bill Burr]

No, no. I mean, everything sort of came out pretty good. It would just be in general, just the thing, like I just said, like, I don't know, it's just a small thousand cuts thing. Of all the stupid fucking things that I did. Like, I mean, that we talked about the skin one, but just in general, I realized at some point that I saw this picture of me at 28 and somebody was like, oh, my God, you are such a smoke show, you know, And I'm like, yeah, you're right. And I know at the time, whenever I couldn't get with a girl, I was like, I'm too ugly. She just. Because I had this awesome personality. And it was much more the opposite. I'm sure I probably came on too strong or something or tried to be funny when I shouldn't. So I was plenty good looking.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

But. And if I got rejected, it was probably because, boy, that guy.

[Amanda Knox]

Or a matter of taste, like some people.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah. Or just a matter of taste, like

[Amanda Knox]

she has an opinion. Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

It's like, that's what I regret in life. Just like, why couldn't I have been less stupid later?

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah. Like, youth is wasted on the young kind of vibes.

[Bill Burr]

That kind of vibes. Yes.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah, I feel that. Well, good thing we have vitamin supplements to try to make us young again. No, like. Well, there are stories of, like, women who are post menopausal who got their

[Bill Burr]

periods back and this was good news.

[Amanda Knox]

Well, I mean, it's a sign of the reversal of menopause. So I don't know

[Bill Burr]

my opinion on all of that kind of stuff because there's a lot of stuff out There now peptides and like stuff that's like. I forget the names, but there are letters and numbers and it's. People are taking it, they're getting it. They're not FDA approved, but you can get them. And they do have results for like athletes trying to repair tissue.

[Amanda Knox]

Totally.

[Bill Burr]

Stuff like. But I err on the side of. They don't have a lot of testing on it yet. It's been. And anything that is fucking with how your body naturally functions, it could also exacerbate something on the bad side. In other words, you take the growth hormone, it could also grow cancer cells.

[Amanda Knox]

Yes. That is people have acknowledged that if you have cancer in your DNA, then you should not take it.

[Bill Burr]

That to me tips the scale about like trying to stay on the natural.

[Amanda Knox]

Because we don't fuck with cancer.

[Bill Burr]

I mean it fucks with us.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

And it's going to enough as it is. But invite it. No, it's kind of like lock all your doors and windows at night and put the alarm on. Just don't make it easy for the burglars. They could get in, but just don't make it easy, you know, so. But I don't know. I'm. I'm. What'd you say? I'm just not. And die. What was. I was dying a few minutes. I know. Well, I joke whatever I was. So hopefully I have a few more days before that happens. But as of now, that's my theory. It's just don't until they know better. And I'm very skeptical about whatever they know. I mean.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

Not that I'm anti vaxx or anything, but I am definitely don't sit there in the white coats and say, well, just do what we say. Because when have we ever been wrong? You've been wrong a lot.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

And that's okay. You know, that's what medical science is. Failure.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah. Did you know Sam's Club isn't a store?

[Bill Burr]

It's actually a club with cool finds and like a whole community. It's a club.

[Amanda Knox]

Of course, Jason. It's in the name. Sam's Club. Club.

[Bill Burr]

Oh yeah.

[Amanda Knox]

Come join us.

[Bill Burr]

Sam's Club evening. Buyer's remorse. Buy a new car. I'll be moving in. Let's get started.

[Amanda Knox]

Sorry, I think there's been a mistake. I bought it from Carvana.

[Bill Burr]

You what? Yeah. Great price.

[Amanda Knox]

I even have seven days to love it or return it.

[Bill Burr]

So there's no.

[Amanda Knox]

No. No buyer's Remorse. More like buyers rejoice.

[Bill Burr]

I guess I'll let myself out. Congratulations.

[Amanda Knox]

I mean IT buyers rejoice. Buy your car today on Carvana. Limitations and exclusions may apply. See our seven day return [e-mail].

[Bill Burr]

you know, Bezos just had a rocket explode. And. Okay, that's. Nobody was on it.

[Amanda Knox]

No one has hurt you.

[Bill Burr]

You're not going to learn how to get to Mars without some rockets exploding. And yes, people will die. And that's what mankind does. It marches forward as prudently as possible. But you know, there's. Unless AI which I think will be killing us all very soon.

[Amanda Knox]

Are you. Are you skeptical of the. Yeah, you're on the pessimistic side of the singularity.

[Bill Burr]

I think there'll be great. Good way to put it. Yeah, I think so. In general because I don't know, it's not. It's. Well, because so many smart people like the godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, said it had a 10 to 20% extinction possibility. Extinction event. Musk was talking about that 15 years ago.

[Amanda Knox]

Can you run me through like what the extinction process would be? Because I understand, like people worried about it rendering us irrelevant.

[Bill Burr]

Well, in tests, the AI goes to the nuclear war option way more than humans have, which of course since 1945, humans have never. So it.

[Amanda Knox]

What does the AI. How does it benefit the AI to exterminate us? I'm just really. I'm actually really curious about this.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah, I don't know if it. Look, I can't answer some of these questions on a technical basis, but basically you can program. I mean, they're programmed in some way and they already hallucinate.

[Amanda Knox]

Right, right, right, right.

[Bill Burr]

We know that. So is it like too dangerous? And also they've done run tests and you know, they could think you should be imprisoned for misgendering.

[Amanda Knox]

Sure.

[Bill Burr]

You know, they just, they're not.

[Amanda Knox]

So. It's perverse instantiation is what you're saying.

[Bill Burr]

If we had created this thing that was like Mr. Spock, always logical and always right, we didn't. We created a version of ourself. And by the way, an ass kissing, snotty version.

[Amanda Knox]

I know, it is really. I get so annoying.

[Bill Burr]

I don't trust it. I don't like it. And I mean, it's constantly evolving.

[Amanda Knox]

It's evolving faster than we are. So there's that.

[Bill Burr]

Besides taking lots of jobs which will leave us, I don't know, what will we do with ourselves when the robots do everything?

[Amanda Knox]

Are you worried of that? Like without, like, are you worried that if we separate human value from human productivity, we're gonna find ourselves in like Deep existential crisis.

[Bill Burr]

I think we're there already.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah, well, I. I wonder. So we're there already because we still, like, culturally haven't decoupled human value from human productivity. But if there was, like, a cultural acceptance that, like, your value as a human being was not based upon how much money or how much you could produce, like, I think I'm wondering what would that be a utopia? Or would that. Or do you think like human beings?

[Bill Burr]

I mean, that idea is alive in the present, not in everyone and not in everyone to the same degree. Some, to no degree, very selfish people. Some to a great degree. People sacrifice themselves in their best interest for others all the time.

[Amanda Knox]

Sure.

[Bill Burr]

So it's not like that is totally absent in the human condition. But, you know, we're never. Do I think we're going to get to utopia where everybody. No, we're a selfish species. It's kind of necessary almost to propel forward. People have to, you know, that's why communism is a dismal failure and why capitalism works with all its flaws. It's so much more effective. The jury is in. It's not even close how many more people live better lives. Not to mention having to live under a. You always have to have a dictatorship, really, is what a communist country is, because people don't want to live that way. So you have to have a fucking Gestapo to keep them in line so they don't revolt or crawl over the Berlin Wall or try to get out, you know?

[Amanda Knox]

Well, so here's just to, like, prod this, because I'm curious about this. So, like, you're not a Star Trek fan, right? Are you?

[Bill Burr]

Star Trek, I love the original.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay. The one with the short skirts.

[Bill Burr]

The one with my friend William Shatner, Right.

[Amanda Knox]

I heard that you're friends with him, so. Which is super dope. I'm a huge Star Trek fan and I've wondered, like, when we take away, like, the human need to be productive, what might arise as an expression of our motivation? Could it be exploration? Could it be creativity? Could it be just the simple presence of being which is completely overlooked by a society that is constantly driven to produce? Like, I think that, like, producing.

[Bill Burr]

But what about eating? Well, but if we produce because we want to eat well, sure.

[Amanda Knox]

But if in this, like, hypothetical situation where human beings are rendered irrelevant, they're irrelevant, not just. They're not because, like, we don't need to eat anymore, but because something else is now taking care of our basic needs. So in that kind of world where we don't need to do the work, to get the food. What do we do with our capacity to work?

[Bill Burr]

I don't know. I mean you're leaping right to. We get past this thing where the robots grow the food because they're so brilliant that they can do it without any help. And then they just give us the food and we don't need jobs because the robots.

[Amanda Knox]

I did make a big leap there. Yes, that's true. The transition phase is very awkward. I grant that.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah. I mean, I don't know. This is one of my problems with AI also. There's no plan. It's just let's hurdle forward. Just Sam Altman, take the wheel. Wherever we're going, we're going. And it's moving so fast, but it's

[Amanda Knox]

not going to stop moving fast.

[Bill Burr]

Hopefully there will be some guardrails, but. But as long as we're in a war with China, I think both, both governments recognize at this point that it is possibly in both of our best interests to get this a little bit under control.

[Amanda Knox]

I mean they, this just because of the like the perverse instantiation, mutual annihilation,

[Bill Burr]

the one that they just clawed, just released a program that they announced. They had to say it publicly. They don't think it's safe enough for people to have. They released it just to like 20 or 30 companies. I mean it's anti hacking software. But of course anything that's. That could be turned on its head to do the other. Sure. I mean it's a. Apparently they thought it was that dangerous just to have this out. So. Yeah.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay. I mean, I'm really curious about how this might play out because I think that the unfortunate fact is it's gonna play out. Something is going to play out and you're worried that it's going to be because human beings are constantly vying for this false sense of control over this thing that like we're going to annihilate each other in order to try to have a false sense of control over this thing. But do you think that AI might ever bypass humans altogether and like just take control and like take us out of the control out of the equation?

[Bill Burr]

Of course, that's the worry.

[Amanda Knox]

But like. But to our detriment is what you're saying.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah. To not exist, I feel would be to my detriment. Yes.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay.

[Bill Burr]

I don't want to. Yeah. I don't want to be cut out of the equation. I mean, right now do you trust humans? I trust them more than the robots, yes.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay.

[Bill Burr]

I'm gonna stick with my Kind. I'm gonna dance with who I brought.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay. You know, like the ones, you know.

[Bill Burr]

This is an open air question for you though.

[Amanda Knox]

Me?

[Bill Burr]

Yeah, it sounds a little bit.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah, like I don't, well, I don't trust anybody, so I don't trust humans, I don't trust robots. I mean, like, I mean, I guess maybe one of the things that human beings has to our advantage is we do have some deep, like some deep instinctual like things that, that, that bind us to each other. Like we have deeply common goals, like surviving. Like, you know, having kinship relationships. Like these are all things that are ultimately like universal to human beings. Unless you're a psychopath. And like, maybe, maybe the reason why you don't trust the robots is because it's like on a psychological level a psychopath. It doesn't have any reason to have any emotion and doesn't have any inclination towards kinship, which is ultimately the thing that is preventing us all from murdering each other. Yeah, okay, got it.

[Bill Burr]

That's got it. That's the, that's it. Yeah. And I think it probably is too late.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah, we're fucked, dude.

[Bill Burr]

Maybe. But I don't know. I mean, the kids are booing the commencement speakers when they mention AI. So the younger generation is onto the idea that this is not.

[Amanda Knox]

I mean, the younger generation, I think is onto the idea of their own irrelevancy.

[Bill Burr]

Well, that this is going to make them, you know. Yeah, but I, I would tell them, you know, unlike other causes that different generations had, like ending the Vietnam War or civil rights or climate change, those all involved having to convince the older generations who were in charge, you know, to do something different. Get out of that perspective.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

I think this generation is the AI generation, you know, I think it's in their power. If they were, they're booing at the command.

[Amanda Knox]

Well, you know, they're like, they're anti AI.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah, they see it. I think they got their kids who realize that they got burned by the phone, by social media, by growing up on screens. We certainly have.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah, that was a huge mistake.

[Bill Burr]

Certainly I've seen enough evidence and you know, big best selling books like the one by Jonathan Haidt.

[Amanda Knox]

Oh, I love him. He was so great. Like the Righteous Mind was like so influential about.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah, and this, I mean, very influential about getting places now schools and so forth around the world. Taking the phone away from the kid, you know, at least for school hours. Yeah, but it's still a crazy fucking world we live in where the parents are absolutely obsessed that the kid doesn't even walk home alone, because God forbid he's out without parental supervision for 10 seconds and then go to your room where he has a phone.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

And there's, like, a portal to, like, every fucked up thing in the world. Yeah, but you're gonna lock him in that room with the phone. I mean, it's just deliciously. If it wasn't so sad and has so many really bad repercussions. So I think that generation, they realize now they got burned on the phone, and now it's like, oh, and now AI.

[Amanda Knox]

But are like. But are they. Are they rebelling against the phone?

[Bill Burr]

There definitely is a part of a youth movement that is rebelling against everything that isn't. Like it was in the 90s.

[Amanda Knox]

You know, people just are, like, all about the 90s. It's so funny.

[Bill Burr]

I hope so.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

I mean, even the ipod, which I have long been a champion of, while many people made fun of me and still use the ipod.

[Amanda Knox]

Even that is making you still use the ipod.

[Bill Burr]

Absolutely. I love that. So do a lot of kids. It's making a comeback and.

[Amanda Knox]

No, I get it.

[Bill Burr]

I won't bore you.

[Amanda Knox]

Freaking. Like, I have a phone at home. So the way that my daughter, who's 4, uses a phone is like a cord phone that she can, like, press a button and call Grandma. Like, that's how she can use the phone. And. But it's a physical object that's over there. It doesn't have access to the Internet. And it, like, gives her a sense of autonomy and ability to, like, access the world, but the world that is relevant to her Grandma, her, you know, her cousin, that kind of thing. So I do believe you're right that, like, going back to an analog world where everything isn't immediately accessible and therefore becomes something that we become addicted to. Like, that's something I'm really concerned about.

[Bill Burr]

So when the kid presses a button, it always. Grandma getting like a million fucking calls every day that she.

[Amanda Knox]

I mean, it's actually funny how bored she gets with it. Like, the idea of talking to someone. For her, I mean, she's only four and, like, they're not really real unless they're there.

[Bill Burr]

Well, maybe Grandma could step up her game and come up with some more interesting dialogue for Kraina.

[Amanda Knox]

Fair. Fair.

[Bill Burr]

If she's putting the kid to sleep, we're like, no, no, the kid's. She's four and she's dodging Grandma, I'm not in. Tell her I'm playing.

[Amanda Knox]

No, honestly, I think it's just because for her at 4. Like, people who aren't physically in the room with her aren't really real. And like, she. You know, she's hearing their voice, but it's just not the same. And I think that's so interesting. It's like, when does that level of difference start to happen where people who are not in the room with us are more real than the people who are in the room with us? Like, when does that shift happen?

[Bill Burr]

Well, it's happening. And this is what is so frightening is the amount of change that a human mind. We still have. The human mind can take is somewhat limited. It goes exponentially faster all the time. You know, if you lived from, like, you know, a thousand to nine, nineteen hundred, it kind of looked the same.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah, yeah. And all the people.

[Bill Burr]

And then it just really. And then, I mean, just in my own lifetime, I've seen answering machines after. There were none of those. And. And, you know, Internet, when no one had that and have that. And obviously cell phones, smartphones, email.

[Amanda Knox]

I mean, have you seen the Britannic sketch about AI and VR and porn? Have you seen that?

[Bill Burr]

No.

[Amanda Knox]

Do you know who Prydannic is? Oh, they're like a sketch comedy duo that I love. But, like, they have this. They have a sketch about how, like, the AI and the VR, just, like, we're fucked. Like, as soon as those combined, like, everyone is just masturbating themselves to death.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah. It is a masturbation economy. When you think about how many ways there are for, you know, young women to basically make a living, only fans and so forth, by making men masturbate.

[Amanda Knox]

It's a profession, Bill. It's the oldest profession.

[Bill Burr]

That's prostitution. This is not exactly prostitution.

[Amanda Knox]

I mean, it's akin.

[Bill Burr]

It's akin. Yeah, it's akin. It's sex for money. Of course, the definition of prostitution, you know, like, in the dictionary isn't. Wouldn't just say about sex first, it broadly means anything you do that you hate doing, but you're doing it just for money. You can prostitute. You can. That's just what. You can prostitute yourself in business, you can prostitute yourself in politics. You know, we all prostitute ourselves to a degree, because, I mean, I certainly have done things I hated to do because I needed money. Yeah, Again, that whole eating thing.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah. Yeah. Well. And what's your stance on sex work?

[Bill Burr]

I'm not going to become one.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay, fair enough. It wasn't my plan either.

[Bill Burr]

No, I'm a libertarian on all those kind of like, basic fun things in life. Pot, sex. I mean, Amsterdam has that red light district. It seems like a more.

[Amanda Knox]

It's fucking nuanced though, right?

[Bill Burr]

In a town that is just full of hoes. Am I really. Is anyone really gonna stick up anymore for like a. Prostitution is just the worst thing in the world? You'd be surprised. I mean, it's just. Who are all these people on, you know, the dating sites or the pretty girl? I've never been on a dating site in my life, so I also know this is not coming from firsthand knowledge, but what people who I know say, it's like, what is your job like? It's just a lot of model. Everybody's a model on dating websites. This is what I'm told. Like certain. Like these, you know, upscale. Like, this is what it. You know, these. And I just think maybe. I mean, I think there's much more of an LA thing, but really, like a lot of people here just don't work, you know, this is the kind of place where, you know, pretty girls, you know, they could get into clubs, people buy them dinner. It's like so like your word kin to prostitution. Anytime you're doing something that's like less than completely sincere.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah, sure.

[Bill Burr]

You know, I mean, marriages contain elements of prostitution.

[Amanda Knox]

Oh, hell yeah, they do.

[Bill Burr]

Really?

[Amanda Knox]

I need the sink fixed, so let's. Yeah, let's go there, babe.

[Bill Burr]

Really? That's what marriage is like. I always figured it was. I mean, I always thought it was a lot of horse trading and sex for St. Peter fixing or whatever.

[Amanda Knox]

I mean, it's a love language. It's a love language. How do you. How do you communicate love?

[Bill Burr]

Right? I agree.

[Amanda Knox]

And some people communicate love by fixing the sink.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah, I'd leave the sink out of it, but that, you know, again, we don't agree on these things. You know, we're. We're very opposite.

[Amanda Knox]

Are we?

[Bill Burr]

Oh, you haven't noticed that by now? No. Oh, wow. You like the kids and I don't.

[Amanda Knox]

And that doesn't mean we're opposites.

[Bill Burr]

I think we're opposites.

[Amanda Knox]

Really?

[Bill Burr]

Yes.

[Amanda Knox]

Tell me, tell me how we're opposites.

[Bill Burr]

I mean, we're just not. We just don't think alike. We think like some big issues. We do. Like atheism, I think.

[Amanda Knox]

Well, are you saying so think alike means we have similar opinions but think about things?

[Bill Burr]

I mean, I think everybody thinks about

[Amanda Knox]

things, but do they think about things in the same way? Like, how do you approach the. The thought that, like, how do you approach your ultimate opinion? Like the higher level of how your brain works need not be like, I don't think we think differently. We have different feelings.

[Bill Burr]

That doesn't mean, like, that's thinking differently.

[Amanda Knox]

Having different opinions is thinking differently.

[Bill Burr]

Of course, otherwise we would have the same opinion. Then we would be thinking alike. That's the very definition of thinking differently. We have different opinions.

[Amanda Knox]

So here's where you're wrong, Bill.

[Bill Burr]

I see.

[Amanda Knox]

So the way you think is, like, the way. It's the process, it's the journey. But ultimately, the ultimate conclusion that you come to is based on feelings. So you are processing feelings.

[Bill Burr]

You always come back to. That is. And I have not argued once because I understand also, even though I'm a man, that, yes, feelings matter and feelings rule.

[Amanda Knox]

Feelings are the basis of all of our thoughts.

[Bill Burr]

They rule our thoughts. Sometimes for good, sometimes for not, often for not, because, again, they're feelings. When people say I go by my gut, it's like, well, good for you. I go by my brain. But your brain is a better organ to you.

[Amanda Knox]

I go by your gut.

[Bill Burr]

It truly is. And you have to learn to moderate that, I think, you know, and.

[Amanda Knox]

But even the impulse to moderate it is ultimately a feeling that you sort of train yourself into.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah.

[Amanda Knox]

You learn to, like, mistrust your gut, and that becomes a new feeling that informs your intellectual process.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah. It's like when people say my heart. Well, obviously, we know the heart is not a cognitive organ. They really. It's still. But it's not romantic to say, honey, I love you with all my brain.

[Amanda Knox]

You know, I actually would love if someone said that to me.

[Bill Burr]

I bet you you would. I bet you you would.

[Amanda Knox]

Have you ever said that to anyone?

[Bill Burr]

What? I love you with all my brain. No, I just said it now. It is funny, though. I will say it. You should in the future.

[Amanda Knox]

Who do you love like that?

[Bill Burr]

Oh, somebody.

[Amanda Knox]

Somebody. You do?

[Bill Burr]

Yes.

[Amanda Knox]

Is it one person or more than one person? Just one.

[Bill Burr]

Well, there's also.

[Amanda Knox]

You're, like, monogamous in your brain love.

[Bill Burr]

That'd be a good name for a rock album.

[Amanda Knox]

We should start it.

[Bill Burr]

Or even the band.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah. Monogamous for your brain love.

[Bill Burr]

And what would they call them? For sure. Nog. You see? You gonna see Nog tonight. So you're doing stand up now, right?

[Amanda Knox]

I am.

[Bill Burr]

Oh, wow. How are you enjoying that?

[Amanda Knox]

I am loving it.

[Bill Burr]

Where do you go up? You go up on the Comedy Store and stuff?

[Amanda Knox]

Actually, that's where I'm so fucking annoying. So the first time I ever did stand up was as the, like, surprise guest for Whitney Cummings at her roast at The Comedy Store. So I don't have the typical trajectory of most comedians where they put in their time in all of the comedy clubs. I put in my time elsewhere. But it gave me a sense of humor.

[Bill Burr]

Sure.

[Amanda Knox]

And I get a lot of satisfaction of being able to, like, work through all of the absurd insanity that I've lived through. And also, not necessarily relevant to prison and all of that. Like, I have hella prison jokes, but I also have hella mom jokes. Just like life jokes, I really appreciate.

[Bill Burr]

So you do jokes about the prison?

[Amanda Knox]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It deserves to be ridiculed.

[Bill Burr]

I agree. You were unfairly railroaded. I say it's my estimation. And I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah, it is true.

[Bill Burr]

You know, I always think anything when you weren't there. Don't ever tell me anybody knows anything 100%. But I just know what I instinctively feel and know from facts. I mean, I've had Armie Hammer here. I love rehabilitating people. You don't need it. You're past it. And I'm glad you are. You should be rehabilitated. You shouldn't have gone through that. And, you know, everybody has trials, but, boy, yours was a literal. Literal and a doozy, I don't think. I mean, I know if you ever saw the Oliver Stone movie or maybe he just wrote it, what happens in it. This kid, Billy Hayes, I think was his name. I think it was a true story. He and his girlfriend went to Turkey. This is like the late 70s. And he thinks, oh, I can, like, set us up really well in life if I take back a whole bunch of hash that, you know, you could get in Turkey for probably, you know, you could sell it for a thousand times. So he straps, like, a whole bunch of hash to. And he's about to get on the plane. I mean, the tension, it's a great. If you want a tense movie, maybe not good for you.

[Amanda Knox]

Oh, my God. Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

And, you know, he's Wills.

[Amanda Knox]

You're real. Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

And then suddenly the lights go on, the guards and, you know, on the ground. And then he's in Turkish prison for, like, seven years until he had to get out.

[Amanda Knox]

Only seven?

[Bill Burr]

Yeah. Were you more.

[Amanda Knox]

No, no, no. I mean, just in the sense that he strapped, like, all of that. Hashtag. I didn't.

[Bill Burr]

Well, he escaped.

[Amanda Knox]

Oh, he escaped.

[Bill Burr]

He escaped? Yeah. He had to escape. At least in the movie.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay, yes. How?

[Bill Burr]

Well, spoiler alert. But it's from 1979, so fuck you. He. Something, something. I know. That the guard and guards are.

[Amanda Knox]

He bribed a guard or something?

[Bill Burr]

No, he got him in the. The guard used to take him into like a room to like beat him. You know, that's. This is a Turkish prison.

[Amanda Knox]

My version was sexual harassment, but continue.

[Bill Burr]

Oh, well, I'm sorry.

[Amanda Knox]

I mean, whatever. It's.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah, that's what it is. Yeah, sure, but. And he pushes the guard against the wall and the guards. There's a hat rack and the bulb on the hot rack, like kills it. And then he puts his puts. He, I think, figures this is my chance to get. So he puts on the guard's uniform and walks out the front gate and finds his way across the Bosphorus, I guess to Greece or something. And you know, that's how the movie ends. I don't know how life ends.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay, well, that's not akin to my experience.

[Bill Burr]

Stop that bitch.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah, no, I, I do not claim to have the biggest sad story, like, you know, fuck it a man.

[Bill Burr]

And honestly, you're in Italy. I think you were gonna get sexually harassed anyway. I'm just saying the Italian, that's a justamora. It's a. Josiah, come on. It'd be a pinch of the ass. It just means that we like you.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah, that's actually fair.

[Bill Burr]

It's not fair. I mean, have you ever been a

[Amanda Knox]

20 year old girl on the streets of Italy?

[Bill Burr]

I have. Yes, I have. And I have. You know, I feel, you know, sheep is saying it, but my memories are all good. But I just. It was so great to be a hot young girl in Italy.

[Amanda Knox]

Have you ever been jealous of hot girls?

[Bill Burr]

Yeah.

[Amanda Knox]

Really?

[Bill Burr]

Well, jealous, no. But I think people would be realistic if they acknowledged, along with certain other privileges that in this world, and again, probably more of an LA thing, but not just here, there is such a thing as pretty privilege.

[Amanda Knox]

Oh, 100%. Oh yeah, 100%. There's pretty privilege. Everybody wants to just be close to and around pretty people. When pretty people like you, it's very validating. So then you do things to, to please them because they like. It's to make them like you. That's totally true. I do think that there are different kinds of attention. Like, I think one of the mistakes that especially young people make is they think that if they're getting attention, that that attention is all the same kind of attention. And it's not.

[Bill Burr]

Oh, no.

[Amanda Knox]

But I'm. Hmm. I will say that I've never, I've never once been jealous of men. Like, I've never like thought, oh, if only I was a man.

[Bill Burr]

Oh, I'm right. I'm not jealous of women. I mean, they've had it rougher. I mean, to be. I was. If I still had the personality I have as a woman, you'd kill it. But women in the workplace, very successful.

[Amanda Knox]

Sure, I agree.

[Bill Burr]

You know, and they do better in college now it's the men who are like, so. I mean, both are fucked up in their way. But men are very lost.

[Amanda Knox]

Oh, I. I'm not saying that men are lost. And in fact, again, I think testosterone is a hell of a drug that I don't have to deal with. I feel for that.

[Bill Burr]

And when men get lost, they're dangerous.

[Amanda Knox]

Yes, exactly.

[Bill Burr]

Way more than women.

[Amanda Knox]

When women are lost. They're not.

[Bill Burr]

They can be, but not like men. Not like men. I'm telling you, we agree on that one.

[Amanda Knox]

Okay.

[Bill Burr]

Men lost. Men are dangerous because they're violent by nature. And, you know, when you're a meathead at 20, I mean, why do you think we put very young people in the military? We want people who are not going to ask a question or, you know, when you say to a soldier, run that way toward where the machine gun fire is coming. If you want to have a successful army, they kind of have to do it.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah, no, yeah.

[Bill Burr]

That doesn't happen at your age or mine. It just doesn't. And so, you know, you think about somebody who is that, shall we say, supple of the mind and what can

[Amanda Knox]

be put in that susceptible to coercion and indoctrination.

[Bill Burr]

I mean, the latest batch of, like, batshit killings and crazy shit is just so beyond even a political side. They just believe everything stupid that anybody puts on the Internet. So you can't even say, oh, they're conservative, they're liberal, they're just crazy. They believe some shit out of all of them.

[Amanda Knox]

Right. Like, it's almost like a weird niche thing on its own. It's not even thought about that.

[Bill Burr]

They just know that their life sucks. It really doesn't. But they grew up very.

[Amanda Knox]

And they have feelings.

[Bill Burr]

Entitled and they have feelings. Were indulged too much. So they think life should be perfect. And when it doesn't, they're all in on just like taking people out at their school, just. And they know they're gonna kill themselves, but they're.

[Amanda Knox]

But it's for a higher purpose, which is making a statement, which is like standing their ground, which is.

[Bill Burr]

I feel they wouldn't do it if they weren't so convinced their life is so terrible. It's like, could you wait till it gets started? Yeah, we're all miserable in high school. I didn't even expect it to be different.

[Amanda Knox]

I think that people feeling bad emotions is an important part of the human experience. Right. And being unavoidable, but also an important part of the human experience because from those bad feelings you derive meaning and perspective and purpose. And sometimes that can be channeled in a bad way. And sometimes it can be channeled. In fact, that's one reason why people get indoctrinated towards religion in prison a lot of the time is because they are at that like really deep dark place and they are very susceptible to influence. And the people who have like unlimited influence in prisons are religious figures. Other people have to go, you know, turn themselves inside out to try to like get access. And religious people do not. So like really it's like a captive audience to a. That is very susceptible to indoctrination. So that's why that happens. I'm wondering about the approach of just like the, well, get over yourself approach. I don't know because like, okay, so here's where I'm going.

[Bill Burr]

Who's saying get over yourself to who?

[Amanda Knox]

I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but I'm getting the kind of vibe from you that you're like, yeah, we all feel shitty, get over it. Is that right?

[Bill Burr]

No, because I, because it's such a, such a reductionist. I mean, if you want to, if we have to speak in four word phrases, yes, okay, but that's, there's so much more to it than that. But yes, I do think kids think they have it way worse than they do. And I think they have been raised wrong. I do think they're too indulged. I do think they are too entitled. A lot of the times, a lot of times these kids, you read about their life and you know, are there fucked up things in it? Yeah, families are very often divorced. Broken home, but you know, it's.

[Amanda Knox]

I came from a divorced home, perfectly fine.

[Bill Burr]

That's just the way life is now. Marriages don't stay together like they did when I was a kid.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah. And also marriages staying together doesn't necessarily mean that you're in a non toxic environment.

[Bill Burr]

And it's a tough thing for a kid to go through, but kids are resilient. And I mean, I was so much less happy when I was a kid. I just.

[Amanda Knox]

But do you think that's social media?

[Bill Burr]

There was so much more fear and misery and I didn't expect it to end until I got to be an adult. And I certainly didn't blame society for it. You know, I was like, well, I can't get laid and I just masturbate all day long and that sucks. And so I'm gonna take out the school. No. I wanted to learn how to ask a girl out. That would have solved all the problems. But my second response to not being able to do it wasn't, and then get a gun.

[Amanda Knox]

Well, so here's a question. Do you think that a lot of the sort of anger and just rage and grief that people feel as a natural consequence of their brains changing and being fucking awkward in puberty, like, all of that, everything is fucking chaos in your brain. Like, I feel like prior to today, that was really internally directed as self hatred, which is why you saw a lot of things like cutting and like, all that kind of thing. And whereas now we're seeing it being given an outlet that is outwardly directed.

[Bill Burr]

Yeah. I mean, if you mean I'm gonna hurt myself or I'm gonna hurt you other people. Yeah, and I think that's true. I think we see a lot of it directed. And of course, ultimately, if they do kill themselves, I mean, there's two. Two kids, I think like 18. Round 18. Did you see they attacked that mosque?

[Amanda Knox]

Oh, my God. I'm not in on the news, but I believe you.

[Bill Burr]

And that's okay. I'm just telling you. I know you're not. Yeah. And you know, immediately you would think, oh, these kids are anti Muslim. They were. And everything else.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

They had a manifesto and it was like everything. The punchline was, of course, of all the people they hate. And it's everybody. One of the kids is Latino. He hates Latino. They hate racist. I mean, they hate racists, but they are racist.

[Amanda Knox]

You know what's the most?

[Bill Burr]

They hate gay. They hate every fucking thing. But at the bottom, it's like, it's the Jews. It's the Jews. They literally say at the bottom, like,

[Amanda Knox]

oh, by the way, also the Jews. Yeah. No, you know what's. Like, I find manifestos to be just like the saddest and most hilarious thing ever. Like, I know that they're related to, like all the tragedies, but, like, have you ever seen a well written manifesto?

[Bill Burr]

Yes. The Unabomber.

[Amanda Knox]

Oh, shit. Again, I'm 18, so I don't know, but like, was he compelling?

[Bill Burr]

Very.

[Amanda Knox]

Fuck, that's scary.

[Bill Burr]

I thumbed through it every night before bed. No, it was. No, he was. I think he was an intellect of some kind. I don't know. He certainly was a nut. Because he went and lived, like, well,

[Amanda Knox]

being intellectually coherent doesn't mean that. It's like.

[Bill Burr]

No. He had a point to make about society becoming too technologically dependent, I believe. Think that's what the point was. Maybe in the.

[Amanda Knox]

Oh, damn.

[Bill Burr]

What AI.

[Amanda Knox]

What would he do today?

[Bill Burr]

It's gonna be like, wow, the Unabomber. You'll listen to that motherfucker. Because what he did was he was sending bombs to, like. But it was so random. It was like the head of United Airlines or something. Like, what? So we should ground all the planes,

[Amanda Knox]

you know, because, see, that's where it becomes intellectually incoherent.

[Bill Burr]

But. But in the manifesto, which was apart from the violent part, like, his critique of society and technology did not sound crazy. It wasn't like the scrawlings of a madman. It was like a thesis that probably would have gotten an A at Princeton, you know, because it was sort of anti society. But it was valid, as I recall. I mean, this is. You know, it's been so long since I've been in supermax with him and all the other criminals. Ever been to supermax? Ooh, that's a rough one.

[Amanda Knox]

Well, I've only been to one prison.

[Bill Burr]

No, but you know what supermax is.

[Amanda Knox]

I mean, I've never been to prison here in the US can talk to me.

[Bill Burr]

Well, that's the one to go to. Well, thank you. I enjoyed this. I have to do my other interview now.

[Amanda Knox]

Oh, you. Do you have another one after me?

[Bill Burr]

Yes, I. You know what the thing with this show is?

[Amanda Knox]

What?

[Bill Burr]

It's like, you do it.

[Amanda Knox]

Yeah.

[Bill Burr]

Where you have a guest, and then, like, a lot of times the guest, like, well, okay. Well, you do my. And then it's like, oh, shit.

[Amanda Knox]

So you're on the hook.

[Bill Burr]

You're kind of on the hook.

[Amanda Knox]

Oh, I'm sorry.

[Bill Burr]

You don't want to be. You know, it's like, well, how can I do that to people? Like, well, if you do mine, will I do yours?

[Amanda Knox]

You know, it sounds a lot like the oldest profession in the world.

[Bill Burr]

It does. I'm such a. All right. Thank you. All right, say hi to our mutual friends from Random.

[Amanda Knox]

Hi.

[Bill Burr]

Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Are you looking for a beach read this summer? May I suggest your big wireless build? It's got suspense, mystery, a slightly flat emotional arc, and a shocking twist where you realize you've been overpaying the entire time. Fortunately, though, Mint's story is better. Every plan. $15 a month, even unlimited.

[Amanda Knox]

That's it.

[Bill Burr]

Happy ending zero tears. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment

[Amanda Knox]

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[Bill Burr]

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