Drea de Matteo | Club Random

Summary

Club Random with Bill Maher

Guest: Drea de Matteo

Release Date: September 8, 2025

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Overview

This episode of Club Random features a candid, free-ranging conversation between Bill Maher and actress Drea de Matteo. The two dive into topics like aging in Hollywood, Italian-American identity, the legacy of The Sopranos, political polarization, personal fallout from COVID-era controversies, conspiracy theories (especially around geoengineering and chemtrails), gender and the entertainment industry, and Drea's pivot to OnlyFans during career turbulence.

Lighthearted moments, philosophical tangents, and raw exchanges characterize the discussion, offering listeners a blend of humor, vulnerability, and cultural critique.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

Navigating Life and Career after The Sopranos

• Italian-American Heritage & Typecasting:
  Both Bill and Drea reflect on how Italian identity shaped casting choices and the authenticity of The Sopranos.

  "I didn't get a part on the show because he didn't think I was Italian enough. But because I was Italian, he asked me to play just some, you know, the hostess." – Drea (03:47)

• Impact and Legacy of the Show:
  Drea feels her role and the show's impact were career peaks, making it difficult to feel attached to later industry politics or rewards.

  "After I did The Sopranos. I think I did it. I conquered it. I won... After that, I sort of felt like, I don't know what could be better than this." – Drea (10:45) "You were a key part of the show that more than any show ever got critics. Not that they're always right, but they did come all over the face of that show in a way I've never seen." – Bill (11:13)

• Shared HBO History:
  Bill credits blockbuster HBO shows like The Sopranos for boosting his own show's viewership by bringing more people to the network. (12:28)

Aging, Beauty, and Hollywood

• Aging in the Public Eye:
  The pair joke and commiserate about whether movie stars age better, with Bill complimenting Drea’s enduring looks and Drea attributing hers to Italian heritage and outdoor life (03:03–03:45).
• Changing Roles and the Challenge of ‘Normal’ Parts:
  Drea expresses boredom with conventional roles and a preference for more “stereotyped” or interesting characters, even if it means being typecast. (53:41–54:00)

Cancel Culture, Politics, and Isolation

• Losing Friends and Industry Opportunities:
  Both reflect on being ‘canceled’ or ostracized due to political views, especially around COVID and Trump.

  "I've, you know, canceled, whatever. I don't really care, but I don't. And I also don't really care who the President is." – Drea (08:34)

• Bill's Dinner with Trump & Political Tribalism:
  Bill rejects calls to shun people over politics:

  "That is the stupidest thing in the world, not to talk to people, especially when it's the President." – Bill (08:00)

COVID Controversies, Conspiracies, and Medical Skepticism

• Vaccine Skepticism/Narratives:
  Both are critical of the mainstream COVID narrative, with Drea saying industry protocols and political reactions cost her work.

  "I got dropped by my agent. I got dropped by people." – Drea (74:25)
  "You and I both got a lot of shit for what we said about COVID. And we're not exactly on... the same page, but it's a bullshit term from people who are way over on the other side who see someone who's just sensible and have to make them the enemy." – Bill (30:17)

• Alternative Health and Institutional Distrust:
  Bill references Andrew Huberman’s views on how little we know about the human body (25:41), and Drea expresses general skepticism about medicine and institutional motives.

Geoengineering and ‘Chemtrails’

• Strongly Held Beliefs:
  Drea is outspoken about sky spraying/geoengineering (chemtrails), arguing it’s deliberately dimming the sun for climate reasons, while Bill is skeptical but open to hearing the details.

  "We try not to call them chemtrails, but we call them cunt trails." – Drea (35:24) "But it's happening and they're trying to normalize it now." – Drea (36:14) "Where are you getting this? This is nuts." – Bill (40:00) She references “The Dimming,” a documentary she urges Bill and listeners to watch (49:17).

• Bees as Victims of Environmental Damage:
  The discussion branches off into environmental harm, the mysterious disappearance of bees, and the broader impact of pollution.

  "There’s no bees here. We have no bees in California right now." – Drea (49:51)
  Bill responds that he sees bees at his house and reflects on insect die-offs in general (50:04–51:18).

Gender, Feminism, and OnlyFans

• Romantic Relationships & Motherhood:
  Drea talks about never marrying, having “bastard children,” raising her kids as a single mom, and developing a new appreciation for traditions like marriage after the pandemic (65:43).
• OnlyFans and the Hustle:
  Drea discusses turning to OnlyFans (originally for uncensored podcasting), which unexpectedly became a financial lifesaver.

  "I put a picture up as a placeholder and I fucking was able to save my house within hours." – Drea (64:03) She is candid about the desperation but finds humor and some empowerment in the pivot (73:58). "I did it out of desperation, there’s no question...I did it. I haven't." – Drea (73:56, 74:07) Bill and Drea riff on sexual double standards, aging, and women’s sexuality (72:39–73:51).

AI, Technology, and a Changing World

• Drea’s Daughter’s Fear of AI:

  "My kid is at home right now making T-shirt art for us because she refused... to use an AI generator... She’s so obsessed with the idea of AI ruining the world." – Drea (27:01)

• Philosophical Speculation:
  The conversation delves into whether work is essential to human identity or if AI will disrupt that paradigm, and what people might do when relieved of labor (28:34–29:44).

  "Where’s it written that we all have to work?... And do what and how [do we] get money to eat?" – Bill (29:14)

Inverted Politics, Woke Culture, and Social Change

• Left, Right & ‘The Switcheroo’:
  Drea and Bill note how political positions, especially around vaccines and environmentalism, have flipped between left and right.

  "It’s been a big switcheroo. Everybody’s fucking… It’s inverted politics, but it’s like mind control." – Drea (46:02)

• Woke Scolds vs. Conservative Morality:
  Bill critiques ‘woke’ “no-fun” leftists as the new inheritors of the ultra-conservative role in culture (46:09–46:31).

The Entertainment Industry and Strikes

• Residuals and Changing Economics:
  Drea laments not receiving residuals from The Sopranos and recent Netflix hits due to outdated contracts, and both agree streaming oversupply and the actors’ strike have upended Hollywood’s job market. (76:03–77:10)
• HBO Loyalty & Comebacks:
  Bill encourages Drea to look for a second wind in her career, predicting an American “comeback” moment as culture forgives and re-embraces previously canceled figures (75:14–75:49).

Art, Politics, and Censorship

• Art No Longer Separate from Politics:
  Bill observes that the artistic merit is increasingly ignored in favor of political alignment, a new development in his career (83:12–84:29).
• Critique of Social Censorship:

  "I hope you find a second wind to fight this. It bugs me that people can...go 'okay, well, we agree on A, B, C, D, E, F, G, but then… she didn’t agree with us or she believes this and so you’re gone.' It’s just so wrong. It’s so un-American." – Bill (58:53)

Final Thoughts

• On Empathy, Inclusion, and Disagreement:
  Both agree that society is suffering from a plague of exclusion and intolerance of dissent, regardless of who is in power, calling for more nuance, dialogue, and forgiveness (54:23–54:39, 79:37–79:55).
• On the Future:
  They acknowledge personal struggles but—with classic Club Random flair—close on notes of resilience, humor, and hope for cultural rebalancing.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Celebrity Aging:

  "A lot of it has to do with movie stars. They're out in the sun all the time." — Bill (02:13)

• On Political Tribes:

  "I don't ever agree with you about the spraying. That doesn't mean I don't like you." — Bill (54:00)

• On Industry Fallout and Resilience:

  "I don’t have this, like, I feel empowered… I did it out of desperation, there’s no question."—Drea re: OnlyFans (73:56)

• On Being ‘Canceled’:

  "This town is such a bunch of fucking assholes. Yeah, and, and babies and hypocrites. I know, they're just such obnoxious bricks." — Bill (74:34)

• On Lost Faith in Institutions:

  "I have no faith in any of these institutions anymore. I don't care about Trump. I don't care about Kennedy. I don't care… to me, it's just me and you and that's it." — Drea (69:09)

• On ‘10,000 Hours’ and Sex:

  "Same with fucking. Like, yes, it is. It is kind of a skill that gets better with age, you know?... If they have [10,000 hours] by 18, that's not a good thing at all." – Bill (73:26)

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Key Timestamps

• 03:03: Drea on her Italian heritage and casting on The Sopranos
• 08:00: Bill on being criticized for dining with Trump and the perils of refusal to talk across lines
• 10:45: Drea on career detachment post-Sopranos
• 30:17: COVID fallout, skepticism about medical authority
• 35:24: Drea shares her beliefs about geoengineering her term “cunt trails”
• 54:23: Bill denounces exclusionary tactics on the left
• 64:03: Drea describes saving her house via OnlyFans
• 73:26: Bill explains ‘10,000 hours’ of sexual experience
• 75:14–75:49: Bill encourages Drea’s possible comeback and Hollywood’s tendency to forgive

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Conclusion

This episode reveals the personal and professional journey of Drea de Matteo amid the collision of celebrity, politics, and major cultural shifts. Her candidness about struggles—financial, social, and philosophical—combined with Bill Maher’s irreverence results in a thoughtful and, at times, provocative meditation on fame, resilience, and the future of open conversation in a divided culture. It’s an essential listen for fans of either host—or anyone interested in uncensored perspectives on today's cultural flashpoints.

Transcript

[Bill Maher]

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[Edie Falco]

Over.

[Bill Maher]

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[Edie Falco]

He's young. He's young.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, look at you, my girl. Come on, give me a pound on that one. And then hummingbirds showed up and they wanted a piece of the action.

[Edie Falco]

You were like snow fucking white, Phil.

[Bill Maher]

No, no, you held up amazingly well.

[Edie Falco]

Well, thanks.

[Bill Maher]

You look pretty much the same as when we.

[Edie Falco]

Well, but thanks.

[Bill Maher]

No, really, because it is a great variance how people age. I mean, there are people who are almost the same age or the same age and you look at them and like, wow, one looks like 10, sometimes 15 years older. A lot of it has to do with movie stars. They're out in the sun all the time.

[Edie Falco]

I'm in the sun all the time. I love it.

[Bill Maher]

But you don't wear any sun. Well, you're Italian, right?

[Edie Falco]

Yeah, but I'm see through white. But I. Yeah, but I just got back from.

[Bill Maher]

Well, you look like you've just got a healthy tan.

[Edie Falco]

I'm very tan right now. I was away for a big vacation.

[Bill Maher]

My first vacation.

[Edie Falco]

Oh, really?

[Bill Maher]

Where'd you go?

[Edie Falco]

I was in Italy for four weeks and then Greece.

[Bill Maher]

So you obviously have strong Feelings about your heritage?

[Edie Falco]

I do.

[Bill Maher]

Or do you?

[Edie Falco]

I don't know. Yes, I do. I love being Italian. It's my favorite thing.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, that's one thing I gotta say about the Sopranos. Like, he did not hire one person who wasn't actually Italian that I can think of for an Italian role, even if it was a guest. Buscemi, you know, whoever was the, like, guest, sort of like, Arc, even that person was Italian, obviously. Stevie Van Sant. Not Italian, but I think he is. Like I said, he's Italian, too.

[Edie Falco]

Nancy Marchand. Maybe not.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, that's probably wrong, though. But, I mean, it was. It was. I mean, same with, you know, Al Pacino and Marlon Brando. It's like, not. Not Jamie Khan.

[Edie Falco]

I didn't get a part on the show because he didn't think I was Italian enough. But because I was Italian, he asked me to play just some, you know, the hostess. This is my favorite to just watch you drink. This is iconic for me to sit here with you. I'm gonna interrupt myself. What are you drinking?

[Bill Maher]

I'm drinking 818 in the hopes of getting the Kardashians to come on this show.

[Edie Falco]

That's their booze, right?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Chris was here, but so far, you know, they're avoiding me. I don't know why. Women have a great time here. We're gonna have a great time.

[Edie Falco]

Well, there aren't that many chicks on your show, right?

[Bill Maher]

There's not many chicks on any guy's show. This is one of the big problems with this country is that, you know, we're just going in opposite directions in every possible way that matters. Certainly politically. We'll talk about that. But also, just, like, gender. Like, guys are not interested in what the chicks are talking about. They're not.

[Edie Falco]

What are the chicks talking about?

[Bill Maher]

Who the fuck knows? I'm a guy. I don't know. I'm not interested. No, I'm kidding. But guys are much more interested. Yes, they. In subjects that might veer into. I mean, certainly the BRO shows. Some of it's about protein powder and, like, making your dick hard. But a lot of it is political.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And a lot of it, to my view, is political. Wrong. But at least it's, like, on the subject. It's not just Travis Kelsey and Tyler Schreibner getting engaged. No, I mean, did you see this today?

[Edie Falco]

No, I don't. I see. I don't even know.

[Bill Maher]

You didn't hear that they're getting. They got engaged.

[Edie Falco]

I saw it last night because my girlfriend's staying with me. And so the news is on. The TV's never on in my house, but she was watching TV and I was like, oh. I was like, that's cute. Like, I'm trying to. What's that exactly?

[Bill Maher]

That's a. Oh, I'm just roofing myself.

[Edie Falco]

What did you. What did you. What do you got?

[Bill Maher]

I go through this every show because why? No, no, it's natural for people to say, these people better fucking send me a case of steaks or like the head of Alfredo Garcia or something. I don't know. But like every week I plug this. I love it. I do like it. It's jing. It's a way to make like just sparkling water into soda, like diet soda, but without any chemicals. Would you like some jing?

[Edie Falco]

I want to know what the hell this is. I'm going to need glasses now.

[Bill Maher]

This should be called the jing. This is like the Jing Hour with Bill Maher.

[Edie Falco]

Jing a ling. Put a little jing a ling in your fucking cup.

[Bill Maher]

Well, jing, they used to, you know, like, name the variety shows on tv. The sponsor. It would be like the Craft hour with Danny K. That's how they used to do tv. Like the sponsor got right in the name before the star.

[Edie Falco]

It's funny to watch everybody never. That is used to being on television. All these news folks, even yourself doing your own commercials now instead of seeing the commercials come on. And to see you guys reading the commercials. I mean, I did it once too myself, but.

[Bill Maher]

You mean here figures of podcasting?

[Edie Falco]

Podcasting, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. I mean, HBO is such a great place for many reasons, but one is no commercials. And you don't ever have to like, stop the show and say, and. And now a word from Del Monte.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah. How long have you been there for now?

[Bill Maher]

22,002. So 23 years.

[Edie Falco]

Wow. I know, that's amazing.

[Bill Maher]

It is amazing.

[Edie Falco]

I know that's amazing.

[Bill Maher]

And nine years before that on Politically Incorrect and there was only a six month break between them. I've been on TV since 93 doing similar shows. The first one certainly was sillier, but it was still a issue show, you know, so, you know, for all the people who hate me for all the wrong reasons, it's like I just want to say to them, somebody appears to have liked, I love you. I love you too.

[Edie Falco]

I fucking love you. I'm here.

[Bill Maher]

And you know, I know that, you know, we don't agree on everything politically, but nothing bugs me more than people who won't talk to people I know. You know, or, you know, they Gave me all that shit because I had dinner with Trump.

[Edie Falco]

I know.

[Bill Maher]

I'm sure you saw that, and, like, fuck you. I welcome your hatred. That is the stupidest thing in the world, not to talk to people, especially when it's the President.

[Edie Falco]

I knew you would.

[Bill Maher]

And I just want to ask them, is the next question that you have or the next place we have to go? Okay, so I'm not allowed to talk to the President of the United States? What about people who voted for him? Can I talk to Sylvester Stallone? Is that all right? You know, can I talk to you? You know, it's like, shut the fuck up. Get out of here.

[Edie Falco]

Well, I mean, that's going around. I mean, we lost so many friends, and. And I don't really even care.

[Bill Maher]

Lost friends, you say?

[Edie Falco]

Oh, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I mean.

[Edie Falco]

Or, you know, I don't know. I have a small. But a lot of people. I mean, I've just been. I've, you know, canceled, Whatever. I don't really care, but I don't. And I also don't really care who the President is.

[Bill Maher]

Well, you should. Well, you should. Well, you should care about both. You certainly should care who the President is, and I'm sure you do care about your career. And I did.

[Edie Falco]

I did. I had a moment where it was like, holy shit, this is happening. This is real. I have to stay in my lane now. I was never. I never cared about it.

[Bill Maher]

And then you do get over. I would say the analogy for me, mine situation is not quite as severe as yours because they did, like, you are, like, whitelisted, which is what they call it when they won't hire a conservative.

[Edie Falco]

I'm not even a conservative. That's even.

[Bill Maher]

That's even their definition. Right, Right.

[Edie Falco]

I'm just.

[Bill Maher]

Well, but if you. But if you're. If you voted for Trump, then you're just in this category. And that's my analogy to that would be. Up until 2014, they nominated me for an Emmy 40 times. Never would give it to me. I got it. I was still not enough. And then after 2014, it was like, oh, we won't even nominate you anymore. And I'm like, really? I see what the competition is. Are you really telling me I'm not even in that running? Please. It's not even close. But that's a type of. That's a lesser cancellation. And I have the same feeling as I think you do on this, which is, like, at first you're, like, pissed about it, and then you're like, oh, you know what? I don't care. You beat that out of me. I really don't care. So if you're at that place where you really don't care if they hire you, because you still could do, you know, you look good. You're obviously in that age range where I think actors are their best when they've done it for a while and they know how to act without even getting caught at acting.

[Edie Falco]

Yes. You know, I probably was getting caught definitely in the last few years.

[Bill Maher]

Really?

[Edie Falco]

Oh, yeah. I wasn't even. It didn't feel like a huge loss for me, except for financially. I didn't really care about it. I think I never cared about it as much after I did the Sopranos. I think I did it. I conquered it. I won. You know, I didn't think. I never thought that those things were important in my life, but it happened, and I was there for it. And then after that, I sort of felt like, I don't know what could be better than this. I don't know what could be better than this.

[Bill Maher]

You were a key part of the show that more than any show ever got critics. Not that they're always right, but they did come all over the face of that show in a way I've never seen. I mean, like, things like, We Speak the same. They said things like, it is the greatest cultural achievement of the last 50 years. I mean, amazing. And it was a very good show. I watched every episode. And I loved the Sopranos, like so many people did. It was great. I mean, David Chase is a genius.

[Edie Falco]

It was brand new, too. It was a new medium to have something on cable like that. Yeah, they had only a couple of shows.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. No, it really put HBO on a completely different level.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah, it had something for everybody. I think that was the key with that show, is that it appealed to. To so many different kinds of people for different reasons. So you had the, you know, the critics and the elites and all of the intellectuals. And then you also had, you know, people who wanted a family show, and then you had people that loved the Mafia genre. So everybody got something out of it.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, so. And there were also plenty of people who kept watching CSI were like, this is too high for me.

[Edie Falco]

17,000.

[Bill Maher]

You know, but look, I personally feel like I owe it something of a debt because when you're on hbo, a rising tide lifts all boats. You know, Game of Thrones, the Sopranos, shows like this that get more people to watch a pay cable network. Well, you can't even sample my show unless you're getting the network. Unless you're paying for the. So any show like that, that got more people in the HBO tent.

[Edie Falco]

Were we the same years?

[Bill Maher]

Did good for me. Very similar. I started in 2002 and I think the Sopranos was 2001.

[Edie Falco]

I always. Is that the first geology of it? But I. I think. I think so. I think I shot the pilot in 19.

[Bill Maher]

Before 911.

[Edie Falco]

Yes. Because they took out the Twin Towers out of the intro.

[Bill Maher]

Wow.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. I guess that would have been bad taste.

[Edie Falco]

I guess so at that time. Now I wish I could see it.

[Bill Maher]

You mean CGI'd it out? Yeah, Computer.

[Edie Falco]

They did.

[Bill Maher]

Wow. Had a great intro. That. I know that song. And Riding across the Bridge. I grew up there, you know, so.

[Edie Falco]

I forget that you're a Jersey boy. And I also. I also didn't know that you weren't a New York Jew. I didn't know you were a Catholic Irish boy. Was your mom Jewish?

[Bill Maher]

Yes.

[Edie Falco]

Oh.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, cultural, culturally. I mean, there was never any. I didn't even know she was until I was.

[Edie Falco]

Usually you do what a mom does. You do what the mom does. And I mean, really. I mean. I mean, my nieces and nephews are all Jewish and their moms are both Jewish. Well, I guess my brother's kids, though, are.

[Bill Maher]

I think when they got married in 19. What?

[Edie Falco]

They're Jews for Jesus.

[Bill Maher]

Seriously?

[Edie Falco]

They are.

[Bill Maher]

That just makes so little sense. It really does. Jews for Jesus. Do they. Do they know Jesus was a Jew?

[Edie Falco]

Yes, but I mean, just the fact that, I mean, you know, some. Some people are purists. They don't want to believe, you know, I'm not going to get into the full. Although maybe that's my most fun topic these days because I. I totally left the whole. I don't know what's happening in the world politically, but now all I'm doing is trying to trace the origins of where came from.

[Bill Maher]

You mean spiritually?

[Edie Falco]

Yeah. Yeah. That's one of my fun topics, too. But I'll probably. I'll probably drink this first.

[Bill Maher]

But you were raised Catholic.

[Edie Falco]

Just kidding. I was raised Catholic, but nobody in my house cared about religion at all at that time.

[Bill Maher]

Oh.

[Edie Falco]

But I was.

[Bill Maher]

We cared.

[Edie Falco]

Obsessed with going to church myself, so I would go by myself. But there were motivations there, like make my confirmation.

[Bill Maher]

You wanted to go.

[Edie Falco]

I wanted to make my confirmation for.

[Bill Maher]

You want to go to church?

[Edie Falco]

Well, the hot boys were there, too. I mean.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, I missed out on all of this.

[Edie Falco]

It was a thing in. In my neighborhood where I grew up, all the Italian girls And boys, everybody was at church. And then there was my family, who was trying to be progressive, I guess, in Queens, in Whitestone, in the mafia neighborhood. And then my mom was the writer, then everyone called her the lesbian because she would dress hot and sexy.

[Bill Maher]

And I always think of the awesome Billy Joel song, you know, only the Good Die Young, because it's a. You know, the whole song is about getting a Catholic girl to put it. You know, I don't know if I ever paid attention to that song, to the words, you Catholic girls start much too late.

[Edie Falco]

Yes, that's true. Yep, yep, yep. You know, okay.

[Bill Maher]

Saints and sinners have more fun. I mean, the whole thing is just about. Why not do it with me? You're gonna do it Catholic, get rid of the Catholic. It's awesome.

[Edie Falco]

Well, I think the whole institution thing is not. Yeah, I think that. I think that a lot of religion has sort of just been created to keep us down from recognizing our own power.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, some of, you know, I think that.

[Edie Falco]

But that was Jesus message when he was talking to people. If you decode all of this stuff.

[Bill Maher]

He had a great message.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah, but the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven or God is within you. And that's. It's not here in this church. You don't need to show up there and get into groups. What are we doing now?

[Bill Maher]

We're cutting off the.

[Edie Falco]

Is that weed?

[Bill Maher]

I'm circumcising the joint.

[Edie Falco]

Go ahead. Let's go.

[Bill Maher]

Just because I brought Quaaludes, you want.

[Edie Falco]

To always light old school Quaaludes. You ready?

[Bill Maher]

Quaaludes.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah. With the airplane on it. With the 7 4. What were they called? What were the. 747.

[Bill Maher]

747, yes. I only did it one.

[Edie Falco]

Those were my favorite.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. FYI, I wish they worked on me.

[Edie Falco]

They don't work.

[Bill Maher]

I did it once. I was living in New York, my first apartment, right out of college. And some guys came over, two friends. And I remember we took the Quaaludes in my little shitbox apartment and walked downstairs and started walking down Broadway. I lived at 55th and 8th and about two blocks in, I just. I was over the hood of a cab and was just out, like quite loose.

[Edie Falco]

You have to fight. You gotta fight the. You gotta fight the high man. You gotta fight the. Sleep on that.

[Bill Maher]

Well, there was no fighting it. They carried me back to my apartment, which was two blocks away, and they put me on the bed. And I woke up 14 hours later with the door open and nobody came in. And robbed me. That's how poor I was. I'm sure many crooks looked in and.

[Edie Falco]

Went 50 and 7th.

[Bill Maher]

Nah, there's nothing in here.

[Edie Falco]

What 58th and 7th, does that work?

[Bill Maher]

58Th and. No, 8th and 8th. On 8th Avenue between 55th and 56th. So we went out of my apartment, we turned immediately left on 55th, hit Broadway in half a block, started to walk down Broadway, and in two blocks I was passed out on the hood of a cab. So Quaaludes were not my drug.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah, I would walk up a flight of stairs and then wake up with bruises everywhere from the Quaaludes.

[Bill Maher]

So you're not married?

[Edie Falco]

No.

[Bill Maher]

Divorced? No, not divorced.

[Edie Falco]

Never. No marriage, no divorce? None of it. Bastard children only.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, you have bastard children. Oh, that's cool. I like bastards. Yeah, a lot of great people have been bastards. Alexander Hamilton, it's right. Oh yes. Oh, I could list you bastard.

[Edie Falco]

My kids will sing that whole fucking musical to me.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, bastard is one of those words like spinster. It just doesn't really exist anymore because nobody cares, you know? You know, spinster? Yeah, you know.

[Edie Falco]

Oh, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

What's a spinster?

[Edie Falco]

I mean, so a cat lady maybe?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Edie Falco]

Am I allowed to say that? Oh fuck, I'm gonna get even more canceled now.

[Bill Maher]

It's, it's. It's a lady who, in the days when a woman either lived with her father, her parents, her family, or the person she married, there was no in between. There was no that girl getting an apartment in the city in between living with.

[Edie Falco]

We took care of A lot of my aunts were all spinsters. They had never even been with a man. And some of them lived with us by choice. I don't even know.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, those old schools, why were they so unpopular?

[Edie Falco]

Oh, my poor aunt Lena.

[Bill Maher]

Well, why was she unpopular like that with them?

[Edie Falco]

I don't know. I think she was tending to all the other women in her family. Italians are like that. And you also can't sleep with someone when you're an Italian young lady. Or you're a friggin putana.

[Bill Maher]

What's that? That's a whore.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah, Puta. Putana. Or in Spanish, puta.

[Bill Maher]

That's a good name, Utah, for like a character. Putana. I'm going to use that. Oh, I came up with a new fake name for checking into a hotel. Oh, Yersinia Pestis. Do you know what that is?

[Edie Falco]

Wait, say it again.

[Bill Maher]

Yersinia Pestis.

[Edie Falco]

Yersinia Pestis.

[Bill Maher]

Yes, it's the it mean. It's the it's the bacteria that causes plague is the Yersinia pestis. But people are not going to know that.

[Edie Falco]

No.

[Bill Maher]

So I figured I don't know that. Right? No, I'm saying it's a but Yersinia, it sounds like a person's name. And Pestis, you know, you could be Hungarian. You could be anything. So I can't wait to check in under the name yersinia pestis.

[Edie Falco]

Amazing.

[Bill Maher]

Mr. Pestis. Call me Yersinia.

[Edie Falco]

You're going to be real stoned, man. I think I need to get stone for your senior past this. No, no, no. I can't. I haven't smoked pot since I was 30. 37. Why I was a massive pot smoker my whole life. Like huge rolling joints while I'm driving. What tragic thing stuff driving with my knees like that. I was that person.

[Bill Maher]

Driving with your knees?

[Edie Falco]

Driving with my knees while I'm rolling a joint. You know, on a dirt road. Like on a. Like on a quiet road. Maybe in the Hamptons. Okay.

[Bill Maher]

I love you.

[Edie Falco]

I walk out that' Hampton on a quiet road rolling my joints and my Camaro. I don't drive. I don't smoke weed anymore. I don't do any of these things anymore.

[Bill Maher]

The little pamphlet from the DMV that you get, that's what it says. It says if you want to roll a joint while you're driving between your knees, just make sure it's on a lonely road. A A very lonely road. It was a lonely like your aunt. A road that was just un Alina's road. Lowe's knows you've got a job to do and we help get it done. With the Mylo's Pro Rewards program, eligible members save more with volume discounts on qualifying orders through a quote of $2,000 or more. Join for free today. Lowes we help you save offer can't be combined with any other discount contract and or special pricing exclusions. More terms and restrictions apply. Details@lowe's.com terms subject to well, the economy's a thrill ride these days. So here's a thought. Maybe don't rely on luck. Try something that actually works, like audio marketing with radioactive media. They're the folks who just ranked number 20 on Inc. Magazine's list of fastest growing private companies in the Pacific region. Not because they're flashy, but because they're good. Podcasting and radio reach more people than social media and digital combined. Think about that. More reach than TikTok, but without teenagers dancing to sell your product. Radioactive builds campaigns that reach actual human Beings optimizes them and scales them. And yes, they're literally using audio to advertise themselves right now because they know it works. Go to RadioactiveMedia.com or text the word random to 511511, because while the world may feel like it's spinning out of control, your marketing doesn't have to. Again, go to RadioactiveMedia.com or text random to 5 11, 511. Text random to 5 11, 511 today. Message and data rates may apply. Is she still with us?

[Edie Falco]

No, she ended up going blind and. But we took care of her up until the end. My mom.

[Bill Maher]

Well, it's probably not healthy never to get laid.

[Edie Falco]

I mean, right? I mean, I think that was the case. I don't know.

[Bill Maher]

Did she die young?

[Edie Falco]

No.

[Bill Maher]

97 90s everyone. There goes that theory. Everyone maybe takes it out of you. It probably does.

[Edie Falco]

I mean, I want to live till 97. I hope I get that.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, maybe. But maybe. Maybe if you're chased like that. Pure. Well, first of all, you probably have never had a. You've definitely never had an std.

[Edie Falco]

Who? Oh, the old lady.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Let alone Yersinia pestis, because that's going around. But I don't know. I mean, every time you get anything, it. It compromises your health to a degree. Even an std. Have you ever had an std?

[Edie Falco]

No, but I never. I get the. I used to smoke so much fucking pot that when I would do bong hits, we were. We were the bong hit mania maniacs at nyu. I had fever sores going around in a circle around my face.

[Bill Maher]

From the bongs.

[Edie Falco]

From the bongs. Disgusting.

[Bill Maher]

Wow. You mean just because there was bacteria on the bongs?

[Edie Falco]

I don't know, man.

[Bill Maher]

It's just gross.

[Edie Falco]

Very vile. But we did. And a lot of. And I was like, everyone's gonna catch the fucking ring around the mouth now.

[Bill Maher]

That's. But it went away when you stopped doing bong hits.

[Edie Falco]

Yes. Well, the ring. But every now and then I'll get, like a fever blister on my mouth if I'm in the sun too long or if I'm too stressed out.

[Bill Maher]

Right. I mean, everything is living inside you. Everything bad you ever had, and your immune system keeps it in check.

[Edie Falco]

We're gonna live forever, man.

[Bill Maher]

We are not.

[Edie Falco]

But 97.

[Bill Maher]

But I did have Andrew Huberman on my show Friday night, and he. I mean, nobody is more respected these days, certainly in the podcast world for the health and wellness thing. Yeah. And he said to me in overtime something about, like. Because I said, well, I'm going to be 70 my next birthday. And he said, well, I thought we were the same. Thought I was 50.

[Edie Falco]

You look better than me then.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, thanks. Well, I don't know, but, yeah, I mean, I take care of myself. But he said, you know, you could live to 120. And of course, there are cases of people living to 120. It's rare, but obviously it can be done. And I thought, well, do you want to? Yeah. Oh, fuck it.

[Edie Falco]

I want to. You.

[Bill Maher]

Well, first of all, if I'm. If I really could live to 120, that's 50 years for AI to have figured out how to live for. I mean, certainly before 50 years, AI is going to have this figured out. They might do it next year.

[Edie Falco]

You mean for someone's health? For just. Just preserving. They don't want to preserve people. They want to fucking get rid of us, man.

[Bill Maher]

That's true, too.

[Edie Falco]

So there's that.

[Bill Maher]

But I don't know, AI. I feel like as long as you don't insult it, I feel like it's keeping tabs.

[Edie Falco]

Oh, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And we're gonna get to. I can't do that. Hal.

[Edie Falco]

My kid is at home right now making T shirt art for us because she refused. I was putting an Adriana image from the Sopranos through an AI generator and she started crying. I'm like, why? Whatever. It's just this T shirt that we're gonna make. And she is so obsessed with the idea of AI ruining the world. I mean, I haven't fully gotten as deep into it as I probably will sooner or later. She's not wrong, but she's home furious. She has a hundred things to do, but she is drawing my art for the T shirt herself. Cause she's an insane artist.

[Bill Maher]

She's not wrong.

[Edie Falco]

I know.

[Bill Maher]

She's smart.

[Edie Falco]

I know.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, we don't know which way it's going to go. And look, if it does keep people alive forever. And when I say people, I mean me. Look, almost. Whatever else it does, I'm going to owe it. But there is every chance it's going to ruin the world in so many different ways, including. It could be something as simple as. Because it's always gonna be based on who programmed it. I mean, it's only programmed by humans who are flawed with their biases. And so, like, I just don't think it can see the full picture sometimes. And we've seen that already, and that's dangerous. And it's also just gonna take everybody's job I know there's gonna be nothing it can't do, so we're just gonna be useless.

[Edie Falco]

There were the three pillars of. I can't remember the third, I think it was of what, empathy and creativity. I mean, those are the things that will keep us somewhat in the game, but that's a very select few. Not empathy, but creativity. Not everybody. But then I think about, were we always meant not to be working as hard as everybody's continuously working in this rat race? What if everybody is taken out of the rat race and now we have to honor the earth and be with each other and all of the. Because there's nothing left? If AI is doing all the tech shit, then what do we do? Do we communicate?

[Bill Maher]

I mean, that's a very good point. My friend Harvey Levin makes the same point when we talk about this. He says, like, where's it written that we all have to work? And we just got used to that idea. But the question, of course, then becomes, and do what and how get money to eat? You know, like, I know I. I get that idea that, oh, it is kind of communism.

[Edie Falco]

Then there we are. We'll give you this amount of money to just let the computers run the show.

[Bill Maher]

But enough about. And then we're mayor of New York. Oh, Mandami. Mandani. Yeah. New York City.

[Edie Falco]

Did it happen? I'm out. I have been.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, you are.

[Edie Falco]

I have been completely removed from it all. I was so deep in it, and I said, fuck this, I can't.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, you were deep in it.

[Edie Falco]

I was deep in all of the politics of everything.

[Bill Maher]

When to win.

[Edie Falco]

I guess I would say Covid. You know, I kind of feel like I had no choice, I mean, but to pay attention.

[Bill Maher]

You and I both got a lot of shit for what we said about COVID Yeah. And we're not exactly on. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not exactly sure where you are. I mean, I get called an anti vaxxer. It's like I get called a conservative. It's a bullshit term from people who are way over on the other side who see someone who's just sensible and have to make them the enemy. I'm a skeptic of vaccines. Like, I'm a skeptic of everything medical. One thing I love that Huberman said, and I had no idea where he was going to be on this, but it's been like, behind a lot of the arguments I have with mainstream medicine people is I said, if we knew everything we could possibly know about medicine, and how the body works like that. We're at 100, 100% knowledge. Where are we actually, like what percentage of what we could know if we knew everything? And I said, I think most people, because we know so much more than we used to or a hundred years ago, think we know. We got like a 90% and I think it's like 20. And he said, I think he said 10 or something even lower. Yes, he said exactly what I've always said. We're at the infancy of understanding how the body works. Yes, we know a lot more than we used to, but, you know, until we like cure cancer, we're not. We're really.

[Edie Falco]

I mean, who's going to do that? Well, they're going to billion dollar industry.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, you think that's why?

[Edie Falco]

Amy, I think that there are.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, you're not alone in thinking.

[Edie Falco]

Maybe we don't cause it as much as we're. We're causing it on top of things. I mean, it's just a.

[Bill Maher]

We definitely cause it. I mean, America causes cancer. That's it. Everything we do, everything we breathe, everything we eat, stress, you know, we're just, we're just. Look, I love this country and I love the way we are, and I don't give a fuck who knows it. And yes, we are arrogant and we are this and that, but we're, you know, I would take that over what other countries are. We're also rich. No one here is taking a chicken on a bus. You know, I mean, give me a fucking break. I mean, no one. I'm not. I'm definitely sold on this country, but it does cause cancer. It does give you cancer.

[Edie Falco]

I mean, everywhere. And your constitution. Everybody's different. Everyone's fucking different.

[Bill Maher]

Polar bears are contaminated. That's how much the pollution is everywhere. Yeah, okay, but as far as the conspiracy theory that they could cure it but there's too much money in it. I certainly have heard that. I'm willing to listen. There's no real evidence and there's so much money in also curing it. And I just don't think you can keep a secret like that. And I do think people are evil, but I just think it's too big a one to pull off. So I'm not on that page. I think they have methods of dealing with cancer better than they used to, but they haven't cured it. They definitely haven't cured it. But like, if you get certain types versus like 30 years ago, when my father got it, way better. Lung cancer.

[Edie Falco]

My dad too.

[Bill Maher]

And I Know people now who have gotten lung cancer and they're doing fine, that may not last forever, but it's not like what it was when my father got it. That's still not curing it. I do think if they had it, they'd tell us. I just don't think you can keep these.

[Edie Falco]

But they also just don't want us to play around with other things that compliment.

[Bill Maher]

That's true too.

[Edie Falco]

Say their medicines like chemo and amino.

[Bill Maher]

Right? No, no. And that's one reason why, you know, Bobby Kennedy sat there and I mean, I like Bobby, I don't agree with him on everything. And I think he, you know, goes too far in a lot of things. But that basic idea that he has and from the time he was an environmental lawyer, which is that we talk about all these things that are hurting us and killing us and some of those things are true, but the biggest one is this, the environment. And I think that's true. I mean we live in LA where we're breathing the shit fucking plastic filled air from the fire in January.

[Edie Falco]

Oh, I know. Now don't get me started on that topic. We'll get canceled all over again. You may not even be able to go back to hbo. I'm just kidding. I'm talking. You guys edit the whole show.

[Bill Maher]

What do you think you believe that's so controversial.

[Edie Falco]

I just. This whole thing with the pollution and the look, I feel like a crazy person that I even talk about this stuff because I am not a scientist, I'm not a politician. I don't really have the kind of knowledge to be able to lay pipe down on a lot of issues. But there are just things that eat away at me. And every time that happens, I've been right about it. And one of the things that have been driving me crazy and this is what our whole ultra free my T shirt company is about. What they've been spraying lately in the sky. Not lately. It's been going on for many, many years.

[Bill Maher]

Spraying. You're talking about chemtrail.

[Edie Falco]

Well, we try not to call them chemtrails, but we call them cunt trails. We'll call them cunt trails. But it's not, it's. There's no way to dispute what's happening anymore. They're either.

[Bill Maher]

They're coming out of the ass of.

[Edie Falco]

A plane, you're saying, you know, I don't know exactly how. There are a lot of planes that are outfitted with all this stuff and then there are planes that I've heard even Kennedy say, you know they're coming from. There's something mixed into the. I don't know about that. I don't really think that that's the way it's happening. But it's happening and they're trying to normalize it now. So now anybody that's been calling a conspiracy because a lot of people have this whole thing with AI and technology and all of this, there's no way to stop the inflow of information coming in. They can try to censor.

[Bill Maher]

I gotta know where the spraying is coming from.

[Edie Falco]

Okay, I'll back up.

[Bill Maher]

And to what purpose? What's in this? What are they spraying us with?

[Edie Falco]

Because of Jing. It's. With Jing. It's heavy metals. There's a ton of heavy metals.

[Bill Maher]

But they're purposely giving us that.

[Edie Falco]

Well, it's not that they're giving it to us, even though that's probably, you know, oh, well. Agenda like, oh, well, this will kill two birds with one stone. But it's more about just dimming the sun because of the climate change catastrophe and all of this stuff. And there are climate deniers, climate change deniers and other. Everybody. It's politicized. It shouldn't be politicized.

[Bill Maher]

Wait, wait. The spraying is to dim the sun?

[Edie Falco]

The spraying is to dim the sun.

[Bill Maher]

Because otherwise the sun would be too bright now.

[Edie Falco]

Well, I guess this has been going on since the dawn of time. Not the dawn of time, no. But what happened, like in 500 A.D. maybe it was all these volcanoes erupted at the same time.

[Bill Maher]

That's happened.

[Edie Falco]

And you get. It cools the Earth.

[Bill Maher]

Yes.

[Edie Falco]

And then it blocks the sun. It cools the Earth. So these scientists know that this is a way in which to mitigate the sun heating up the earth too much. And then there was the whole.

[Bill Maher]

But it's the opposite of what happens when the volcanoes go off. They block the sun.

[Edie Falco]

They want to because of everything warming too much.

[Bill Maher]

No, I mean the volcanoes don't want anything. They just want to go off. They're like. They're like your aunt who hasn't been laid in 90 years. They are just waiting to explode. And they do sometimes. I don't know if this happened in 500 A.D. it happened many, many thousand years ago. I'm not sure that's a good question. I have to relook at that, but I know.

[Edie Falco]

Imitate it.

[Bill Maher]

It definitely has. We're like. Volcanoes go off. I mean, it has happened in, like, fairly recent. When I say fairly recent, like a few thousand years. It did happen. Oh, I think it was the 14th century, maybe like the early. The 14th century, the 1300s, 6th century, maybe, maybe that.

[Edie Falco]

Maybe there were, like three big ones and it caused a big flash freeze. I think of a lot of. There were no crops. It was, you know, catastrophic.

[Bill Maher]

The 1300s, which maybe is why that number is like an unlucky number, were like the worst we've ever had. Because you've had the bubonic plague, Yersinia pestis, right here. But even before that, Europe was like, they had these horrible rains that. That killed all the crops for, like, 10 years. And I think maybe this was another one of those volcano things. But when the volcanoes go off, they block the sun. You wouldn't need something to block more sun. You want to open it up. So I don't know what the spraying is about.

[Edie Falco]

If the Earth is. If the ozone is damaged from pollution and all of this stuff, we actually healed that with Montreal Protocol. But then the spraying made it worse. All of the continuous dropping of heavy metals into the air made it worse.

[Bill Maher]

But the dropping of heavy metals, is that a side effect of something else that we're doing? Like, it's just in the effluvium of the airplane, which, you know, okay, we still want to fly, so we're going to put up with that. Or is it. You're saying it's deliberate?

[Edie Falco]

I think that whatever they're putting in there, which has been tested, I mean, the people that fly the planes are. Are. Would be pilots in the Navy. I mean, in the Air Force.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, this is from military planes.

[Edie Falco]

This is probably a military operation. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Where are you getting this? This is nuts.

[Edie Falco]

I know.

[Bill Maher]

It's just nuts. Why do you go there? Why?

[Edie Falco]

Because you definitely feel the effects of it on days that they spray. And you can see it in the sky. I mean, the truth is written in the motherfucking sky.

[Bill Maher]

So you feel what? You feel worse? Headaches or something.

[Edie Falco]

They're dropping that shit.

[Bill Maher]

But what do you see? Because I don't. I'm not. Maybe I'm not looking.

[Edie Falco]

Oh, you don't see it? Okay, so can I.

[Bill Maher]

When can I. When should I go out and look? And where. Where am I looking? I'll look. Okay, I'll give you a benefit of the doubt. Where am I looking?

[Edie Falco]

I'll tell you what. Right before those Palisades fires, I knew that everything was going to go up in fucking flames.

[Bill Maher]

Well, that's. But that has nothing to do with.

[Edie Falco]

They were spraying incessantly. It was unbelievable. They crisscross nonstop. It's a pattern. It's not a regular.

[Bill Maher]

This is before the fire started.

[Edie Falco]

Right? Before the fires. It's a desiccant. So even if everything's green outside, everything is now going to be coated in this layer of super combustible.

[Bill Maher]

But the winds were 100 miles an hour and they did like eight other fucking stupid things wrong. And they had some incompetent people running things. Trust me, I got my share of conservative backlash talking about the fires because it wasn't all. Didn't happen because of wokeness. But wokeness didn't help.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

So I'm not saying that's what caused it. It was a huge amount of wind. We get this out here. That's just the facts. But of course they should have done many things to mitigate that. They know those winds are coming. They should have. I mean your boy was not completely wrong when he said do more raking. Rake. Maybe you should rake.

[Edie Falco]

That's not my point.

[Bill Maher]

Okay.

[Edie Falco]

I don't agree with everything there either. And I. I've always been super far to the left, so this was just.

[Bill Maher]

About far to the left.

[Edie Falco]

Me. Yeah. Oh my God.

[Bill Maher]

So how come you have this reputation as someone who. They don't want to talk to you because you're so on the right because of the vaccine.

[Edie Falco]

I'm not on any of it. I don't fucking buy into accounts, whatever.

[Bill Maher]

You want to call it. Spraying. That is a right wing conspiracy.

[Edie Falco]

But it wasn't. Geoengineering was always something that people on the left, the hippies, the. The people that cared about health and all this shit.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, that's true too.

[Edie Falco]

They were the ones that cared about the environment.

[Bill Maher]

No, that's an interesting point because there's a. Anti. Vaxxing was a thing of the left and still is. That's one of the interesting things about Bobby Kennedy's coalition because it does cross over. I mean this is Kennedy, the ultimate name in Democrats, who's now part of a Republican administration. And most of his voters when he was running were Republicans because they. But yes, there are these Maha moms, you know, these are the ladies in the Lululemons who do not want any sort of.

[Edie Falco]

They shouldn't wear the Lululemon. It's all toxic material.

[Bill Maher]

Really. Lululemon?

[Edie Falco]

That's what I heard. I don't. I don't wear that shit. So I don't know.

[Bill Maher]

Lululemons. Did they get sprayed?

[Edie Falco]

No, they're. I supposedly all the stuff they make, their stuff.

[Bill Maher]

I don't. If I can't trust Lululemon not to.

[Edie Falco]

Put don't wear your Lululemon yogurt.

[Bill Maher]

I'm poison. And what is this country coming coming to? I Things are so terrible.

[Edie Falco]

It really is.

[Bill Maher]

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[Edie Falco]

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[Bill Maher]

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[Edie Falco]

With probiotics that taste like the tropics. Mix it up with micronutrients that taste like berry or citrus and take it all the way back with the classic AG1 original with notes of pineapple and vanilla. Do your health a flavor or four with AG1 NextGen, the daily health drink. Learn [e-mail] but the geoengineering thing was always a superlifting.

[Bill Maher]

You're right, it is funny the way.

[Edie Falco]

It'S been a big switcheroo Everybody's fucking. It's inverted politics, but it's like mind control.

[Bill Maher]

There's lots of inverted politics.

[Edie Falco]

Mind control.

[Bill Maher]

I don't know about that. But your point about inverted politics? This goes on all the time. I mean, I've talked about this a lot. When I started doing this, back in the days, we were just talking about the people who were the no laugh, nothing's funny stick up their ass people were the conservatives, and now it's the Woke.

[Edie Falco]

I know.

[Bill Maher]

They're the ones who are no fun, buzz kills, scolds, hypocrites about all this kind of shit.

[Edie Falco]

Is the Woke thing still even happening? Yes, it is, because I haven't been paying attention.

[Bill Maher]

Here's how you know it's happening. Because they made Cracker Barrel.

[Edie Falco]

Oh, I heard about this.

[Bill Maher]

And Cracker Barrel.

[Edie Falco]

What was the old, what was the new logo they tried to have?

[Bill Maher]

Well, they just, the words, they got rid of the barrel and the cracker.

[Edie Falco]

Okay, so it's barrel.

[Bill Maher]

No, no, they just got. No, there was a picture of a guy and a cracker standing by the, I mean a picture of a barrel and a cracker standing by the barrel. Now they just went to the words Cracker Barrel. They said, no, we hear you. We're going back and we're showing the cracker.

[Edie Falco]

What's the fucking cracker like? An actual cracker?

[Bill Maher]

No, a guy who's a cracker.

[Edie Falco]

A guy who's a cracker?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. A fucking.

[Edie Falco]

A fredneck.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Edie Falco]

Yes, a cracker, as it's called.

[Bill Maher]

It's called Cracker Barrel. Okay.

[Edie Falco]

I didn't know that it meant that the guy, that the person was a, was a crack, Just a cracker. Like I didn't know that it was that.

[Bill Maher]

That's what Cracker Barrel is. It's a place where cracker crackers go. And I, I've never been there, but I assume they sit on a barrel and have dinner. I assume that they're.

[Edie Falco]

I've been to many of them.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, really?

[Edie Falco]

Oh my God.

[Bill Maher]

Where are Cracker Bar? I've never even seen one drive cross country so much. Oh, you, you must. Because I, I, I was on the road for 40 years.

[Edie Falco]

They never A New York intellect.

[Bill Maher]

No, but I would have seen it. Driving from the airport to the hotel to the gig.

[Edie Falco]

You got to look for your Cracker Barrel.

[Bill Maher]

I, maybe I must have seen them. I just don't remember. I remember other, like rednecky things that you only see. Trip Circle K. Things that you like, never see.

[Edie Falco]

Whataburger.

[Bill Maher]

What?

[Edie Falco]

Waffle House. Is a big one.

[Bill Maher]

Waffle House. I mean, Denny's is everywhere, but I would say it's more in Marietta, Georgia. You know, certainly every place has a Cheesecake Factory. That's what?

[Edie Falco]

That's not crackery?

[Bill Maher]

No, no. I'm just saying there's some things. You see.

[Edie Falco]

Crackery.

[Bill Maher]

Now that I know what the fucking cracker bars are. Olive Gardens.

[Edie Falco]

That's for Italians. That's for redneck. Rednecks that want Italian.

[Bill Maher]

How would you rate? Is that.

[Edie Falco]

I've never been.

[Bill Maher]

Because it's not authentic enough for you? You'd just do it?

[Edie Falco]

I don't. I probably would not. No. I won't like it. Listen, I just went to Italy and I was not thrilled with the food.

[Bill Maher]

Are they spraying over there or is it just about.

[Edie Falco]

That's the thing I was trying to ask this guy who was like, the expert on it and anybody that wants to.

[Bill Maher]

The expert.

[Edie Falco]

Well, there's a movie called the Dimming. And you'll probably be interested to understand what some of it's about. A documentary documentary called the Dimming. And it's on geoengineering. Watch.org and the guy that's been doing all the research is an environmentalist. And he came upon it because he was trying to understand why his solar panels weren't working. And they weren't working because the sunlight at certain times is being completely blocked. But then beyond that, it's killing all. It's killing a lot of stuff. There's no bees here. We have no bees in California right now.

[Bill Maher]

I got two nests right back there.

[Edie Falco]

You do?

[Bill Maher]

Yes.

[Edie Falco]

Oh, you better don't kill them.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, I don't. I'm totally on the B page.

[Edie Falco]

Oh, you are? Okay. Because that's a big part of it. They can't handle what is coming down from above.

[Bill Maher]

I could not be more on the bee page, but I'm not sure it's from the spraying, but it is definitely from all the kind of environmental damage we do. I mean, they're sensitive creatures. And I very often see one walking. And when I do, I almost want to cry because bees are not supposed. If the bee is walking.

[Edie Falco]

I like. That's really cute, Bill.

[Bill Maher]

Why?

[Edie Falco]

I don't know. I like that you're talking about.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, it's so sad. No, really, a bee should never be walking. I just want to. I don't know whether to put him out of his misery and just quash him or just.

[Edie Falco]

You should smoke some weed, sit down and talk to him.

[Bill Maher]

I was gonna do that. I was gonna Talk. I was gonna be like, bro, I feel your pain. I do. I mean, it's just so wrong what we're doing. And I feel terrible about it. I mean, I didn't personally do it, but, you know, I'm sure I'm not helping as much as I could. And I, you know, I used to take a private plane everywhere. I feel terrible, but, you know, life goes on. But, you know, this is probably apocryphal, but they said it is. It's out there. I don't know if it really happened that Einstein said, when the bees die, humans have four more years left because the bees pollinate the food.

[Edie Falco]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

You know, we need.

[Edie Falco]

But look, they're not all 70% down here.

[Bill Maher]

They're not all gone. I mean, I was sitting today because, I mean, I don't know how much sun we're blocking, but trust me, at one o' clock today, we weren't blocking much of it. It was.

[Edie Falco]

Not today.

[Bill Maher]

We didn't spray it. Oh, good. I had a non spray day. I was out there and I'm sitting like. And like, just like, just where that pole is, like, very close, there's a bush. And I could just sit there, watch all day, and it's just filled with bees. Going from flower, you know, one to. And I'm like. I watched it for like a half hour and I'm like, guys, you must have drained everything you could from this bush. I mean, you're all. You've been at it for so long and you, you keep going and it looks like you're going in the same one and there's a thousand of you. And then hummingbirds showed up and they wanted a piece of the action.

[Edie Falco]

You're like Snow fucking White, Bill. Yeah, buddy.

[Bill Maher]

That is exactly who. That is exactly who I am.

[Edie Falco]

What you're smoking and. Are we about to fucking start eating mushrooms right now?

[Bill Maher]

This right here, I'm smoking this right here. This I grow right now.

[Edie Falco]

Smoking weed.

[Bill Maher]

There are bees probably circling this right now outside.

[Edie Falco]

Nothing. By my house. Nothing.

[Bill Maher]

What do you mean nothing? Nothing.

[Edie Falco]

I love bees. And they used to come sit with. I used to smoke a lot of cigarettes.

[Bill Maher]

Well, you need plants that attract them. They'll come.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah, that's true.

[Bill Maher]

You know, they're not.

[Edie Falco]

Everything's dying at Gray Gardens these days.

[Bill Maher]

They're not going to come for you.

[Edie Falco]

I mean, they used to come. They would sit on me, the beach. Snow White, too. I'm the Italian Snow White. I'm Snow Blanco.

[Bill Maher]

I could see. I could see selling that as a As a Netflix series or something. It'd actually be good. That would actually not a bad idea. An Italian in a kind of a fairy tale role.

[Edie Falco]

Because has he done that?

[Bill Maher]

I don't think so.

[Edie Falco]

Pinocchio think I've ever seen.

[Bill Maher]

Yes, but Snow Blanco is kind of cool.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah, she'll be doing coke and fucking. Putting. Cocking her gun every five seconds. That's our Snow Blanco.

[Bill Maher]

Why are you feeding into those stereotypes about Italians being violent?

[Edie Falco]

Listen, part of the reason why I don't care about not acting anymore is once I started getting cast as sort of normal people, I couldn't have been more fucking bored. I didn't want to be stereotyped when I was young. But now I'm like, if you're not going to stereotype me, then maybe.

[Bill Maher]

I think you do care.

[Edie Falco]

It's more fun.

[Bill Maher]

I think you do care and you should care. And you are not wrong to be bitter about what happened to you. It is just wrong to do this. What do they call it in the church? Excommunicating of people who. Yes. I don't agree with you about the spraying. That doesn't mean I don't like you.

[Edie Falco]

You will, though. You will when you watch the dimming.

[Bill Maher]

It doesn't mean I don't like you. I can't work with you. It's just this exclusionary attitude is just the most obnoxious thing about the left.

[Edie Falco]

And I've said this with their inclusivity, with all their. There's going to be major psychological papers written about this time. You know that.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, there already are being written.

[Edie Falco]

It's going to be wild looking back on it.

[Bill Maher]

Especially the COVID stuff.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, you know, not that they didn't already hate me. The stupid. The stupid woke by then, but that didn't help. And of course now when we look back on it, there's just a giant book that came out that was saying everything I was saying at the time, that first of all, we should never have gotten rid of natural immunity, as we always thought that was the best. But they went right past that too. No, everybody has to get vaccinated as much as we can get in you. Now, that does look corrupt to me. But also just the collateral damage was so much worse than the thing itself. And it wasn't. There were. I mean, masking 2 year olds who never were gonna get sick from this, certainly not die from this. They did a lot of stupid shit that I was calling out at the time and it made me a very bad person.

[Edie Falco]

You were a Hero throughout this, I have to say for, you know, especially working on a station that, you know, we all know all the big canopies over everything corporate wise and stuff. And you talking about it the way you were and every time it was coming out of your mouth, we were all like, oh, oh, shit. Oh my God.

[Bill Maher]

Well, thank you.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah, go, go, go. Cause we're all democrats in our minds. Even though I'm not a political. I never voted until I voted for Joe Biden. I never voted in my life. I never believed in the system. I mean, me and my ex had a whole music video and album. It was his album. But I was involved with him making the music video about mass vaccination back in 2010. And Stephen King narrates the album. And if he would have.

[Bill Maher]

Stephen King.

[Edie Falco]

Stephen King narrated the album. He was a fan of my ex. And the whole album was about, you know, a new world order on the last night before martial law takes over. And he's the last DJ DJing from a pirated radio station. And it's beautiful and it's amazing the way he narrates the whole thing. Shooter wrote most of it. Shooter's my ex, Stephen King. It was during the Bush administration and we were so anti everything that was going on. And we believed in all the conspiracies that were. A lot of them turned out to fucking be true now. But Fast forward from 2010 to Covid and it was everything he wrote in this song. Shooter. And the music video is of my daughter waking up in her crib and there's a TV screen over her and she's. And there's a clown saying, wake up, wake up. And now the TV has taken over parenting and her, she's looking all over the house for her parents. And the TV saying, we're gone, they're gone, everybody's gone. And there's all these images of the parents getting escorted out of the house kind of stuff. And now she keeps trying to leave the house to go outdoors. And whenever she goes to leave, there's different TV in every room. And the TVs like, no, stay here. And then look what I can do. And it blows up a car and there's war and she's driving her little airplane into her world Trade and like all of this crazy shit. Then she gets in the bathtub for bath time. The TV goes, it's bath time. And she goes by herself to the bath in this full bathtub. And the TV's falling into the tub with her. And it's just all this propaganda and information going at her and she's like losing it in the tub. And that was 2010. And the song is called the Summer of Rage. And he's saying in it, they're building mass graves, you and I. They'll vaccinate and it's fucking crazy.

[Bill Maher]

But you would get some vaccination.

[Edie Falco]

My kids are totally vaccinated. They have. They're over vaccinated. This is what people don't know about me. They think I'm some crazy political.

[Bill Maher]

This is why I really don't give.

[Edie Falco]

A fuck about politics. I lived in a bubble like.

[Bill Maher]

But I hope you find a second wind to fight this. It just bugs me that people can do this. They can just look at somebody and go, okay, well we agree on A, B, C, D, E, F, G. But then we got to hide. And she didn't agree with us or she believes this and so you're gone. That's just. It's just so wrong. It's so un American. It's so.

[Edie Falco]

This is the way I saw it. I didn't think I had that much to lose. I was losing my home because I couldn't work. And I took a forbearance. I never worked that much. I'm a single mom. I made sure that I only took jobs that were in California. I would not leave. So I wasn't. You know, people, women my age are not. They're not just fucking throwing jobs at me.

[Bill Maher]

Okay.

[Edie Falco]

But I also didn't want to work that much.

[Bill Maher]

Okay. If you don't want to work, that's why.

[Edie Falco]

No, no, now, now I actually kind of do because I'm sick of the political shit.

[Bill Maher]

Okay?

[Edie Falco]

I'm over it. I'd rather just go be fake and do something fake for a minute.

[Bill Maher]

On the work thing. I must tell you, as a show business manager wannabe. Cause I would be a very good manager. I give people good advice here all the time. When the rocket goes up as far as yours did. In other words, when you're like on a show like the Sopranos, not just a hit show, but an iconic show.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

So long time ago, like an uber show. Yeah. But not so long ago that the audience doesn't remember hbo especially, especially HBO has been great about. They're very usually very loyal to the people who have been on shows. They. You see them come up all the time on other shows.

[Edie Falco]

I said other bad things about them.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, well, that may be a special case about the documentary. Like parts come along for now. Women in your age range. And if it's between you, who an audience remembers fondly from this other iconic thing and like 12 other people who could do the job. Yes. You see it all the time.

[Edie Falco]

You know, my fans do love.

[Bill Maher]

So. Yeah, so it's not like you. It's not like if there wasn't this political stone in their shoe, you wouldn't. If you wanted to, like, you know, look at Winona Ryder, how she got a big hit show from.

[Edie Falco]

But she's not talking about all the crazy.

[Bill Maher]

No, I know, but I'm just. I'm just saying it's not like they don't want to hire people just because, you know, they were on this thing that was. That only adds to it that you were on something big 20 years ago. So.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know, but I. I hope you do find the second wind to do that because, you know, I. I see Gina Carano. You know who that is?

[Edie Falco]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know, I mean, they. Again, do we share politics? Not exactly. I don't have to. And they did the same thing to her.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know, she said something that was slightly not the one true opinion and she had to then march off the plank and she's like, fuck you. Who the fuck? And I forget how she fought back, but she just won some kind of big victory.

[Edie Falco]

Oh, good.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Edie Falco]

Why wasn't it working at the time? So it wasn't like.

[Bill Maher]

But I mean, I was.

[Edie Falco]

I was guest starring on a show that I couldn't go back to because I couldn't go back to Canada without a vaccine. Yeah, well, that's what it was. I mean, I got offered a bunch of jobs during that time, little jobs that would have kept me afloat. But when I. So what did you do to everything?

[Bill Maher]

So when you weren't making money, what did you do?

[Edie Falco]

I went into foreclosure. I was losing my fucking house. I mean, I. I was. For me, it was more like I was petrified. I was petrified knowing what I knew sort of innately about the whole system and what was going on, what I suspected was happening out there. It felt like a really big fucking nefarious play for me from the very beginning. And I was like, wow, they managed to shut the whole fucking world down with this. This is not. This is way more than what anybody is thinking it is. But I can't stop talking about the.

[Bill Maher]

Weren't you on Onlyfans? Didn't I read that that was a.

[Edie Falco]

I mean, people say, you know, a lot of people.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, to drive someone to that is just wrong. Unless you like it? Maybe you like it.

[Edie Falco]

Well, originally I was going there to do a podcast, talk about all the shit that I was discovering about what was going on. I didn't want to be censored, and I was already being censored on another podcast I had years before called Gangster Goddess. And I was like. I couldn't even say the word Covid because we were shooting it during COVID We weren't allowed to even use the word. So I was like, I'm definitely not going to fucking YouTube with this shit. So I'll do it on OnlyFans and I'll just talk to men all fucking day because the women lost in motherfucking.

[Bill Maher]

So that was what your OnlyFans channel was you were just talking about originally.

[Edie Falco]

I set it up to do that and then I put a picture up as a placeholder and I fucking was able to save my house within owls.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, because it's.

[Edie Falco]

I mean, it went viral, like, because this old bitch from the.

[Bill Maher]

I know onlyfans like to, like, describe themselves as a place where, you know, contributors or content providers.

[Edie Falco]

Content providers.

[Bill Maher]

Well, what? Yes. I mean, they say can't it.

[Edie Falco]

Right. Bill.

[Bill Maher]

That they can, you know, put up anything. And there is. You can go on OnlyFans and see stuff on poetry and cooking.

[Edie Falco]

Really?

[Bill Maher]

But yes, but mostly no, no, I.

[Edie Falco]

Is there really some poetry? Well, yes, I'm the one writing the poetry.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I'm just saying, like, about politics, there's just. You can do anything on OnlyFans. It just happens that men masturbating to naked women is the popular choice. So that. But yes, you can do many other things. And I mean, I don't know what you were doing to make men masturbate, but apparently it didn't have to be.

[Edie Falco]

I don't even know if that's what was going on on my page. I mean, men are always masturbating.

[Bill Maher]

You can always. That's true. Assume that they're master.

[Edie Falco]

That's true. Animals.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, they kind of are.

[Edie Falco]

I mean, if you get. If. I mean, I guess if I had a dick. I don't know.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I mean, right. If you had a dick and it's always.

[Edie Falco]

Wakes you up in the middle of the night in the morning. Wakes me up in the morning.

[Bill Maher]

What are you talking about? Guys, like, looking to get some and.

[Edie Falco]

I mean, my boyfriend wakes up in the morning every morning. I'm sorry. He's up there sitting up there with a bunch of girls right now. They're all looking at him like, so.

[Bill Maher]

You have a Boyfriend.

[Edie Falco]

Now I do have a boy.

[Bill Maher]

How long has that been going on?

[Edie Falco]

Six years.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, that's great. And it's good. Works out.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah, it's good.

[Bill Maher]

And you don't want to get married again?

[Edie Falco]

I never. I've never been married. I think that that's something I would like to try because I never did it. I never believed in it. Like you.

[Bill Maher]

Me?

[Edie Falco]

Yeah, I know. I know that about you. I always thought, why the do you need a piece of paper? And why does it have to be government?

[Bill Maher]

Right?

[Edie Falco]

Like the government. Fuck your government and your institutions. And I mean, listen, I am a spiritual person. I want people to get mad at me who think that I'm one thing, and suddenly they hear I'm not. But I don't believe in religious institutions either. I really don't. Even though I, you know, I am a crazy Jesus freak. And that's. I. I love. I love JC because I love men with long hair and beards and I'm a hippie like that. And that's my image that I have, which is probably totally wrong and fake, but. But the marriage thing, I cared about it. After Covid, when I went through what I went through in that time period where I felt so isolated and so alone, and I guess this is how people deduce that I might be a conservative. I sort of felt like everything was going so far left that we were getting so far away from the center of things.

[Bill Maher]

That is true. That happened. That's been.

[Edie Falco]

I wanted to get back to this tradition, any tradition.

[Bill Maher]

I don't want to go all the way that far back. I mean, unless a tradition makes sense. But I'm all for chucking traditions when they don't make sense. Some of them do. But yes, your thing about we went too far left. I mean, that's been what I've been preaching. And of course, that is never good enough for the super woke. They have to then pretend that you are some sort of enemy as opposed to just. I just, you know, as I said to the woke people all the time, we voted for the same person. You're just why she lost.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah, I know. You know, and I never. I never would have. I never would have moved over to the right. To me, it just felt like common sense. It had nothing to do with politics. I was like, well, this makes fucking more sense to me. This scene sounds more like the shit that I was raised on around my dinner table because we were housewives.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I can't go there. I can't go there with you because.

[Edie Falco]

Well, not every topic.

[Bill Maher]

Trump is doing things that are just too harmful to this country. And I mean, you have to really try to be stupider than the woke. But some of those things that they're doing. Yeah, I mean, I'm not down with militarizing our cities and all these troops on the ground. I mean, either the police can handle the job or get better police or redo how we do police. I do think we need to remore. You know, we did, we did take away the morale.

[Edie Falco]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

Because we, we again, stupid woke shit had to pretend that every policeman in America was some sort of racist assassin. And that's just not fair to the cops who do have a hard job. And there are some racists. There's some racists everywhere, and there's some shitty people doing everything everywhere. But you do need the police. What I don't need is fucking Marines doing the job of the police. I mean, first of all, I don't want them to pick up the bad habits of the police. I don't want the Marines to start eating donuts and getting, like, blowjobs from street walkers. I mean, that's just not what the Marines are there for.

[Edie Falco]

New York, the New York police, oh.

[Bill Maher]

You gotta love the New York.

[Edie Falco]

I love them. I love them. I was never, I never got on board with that. But I could easily be swayed into, oh, my God, are people getting hurt. Like, any minor. Like, I, you know, again, I was a fucking far left liberal man, like, progressive in my mind too, if I even understand politics correctly. I don't know. But to me now, those are just fucking pronouns at this point. Left, right, red, blue, fuck, all of it. It's just me and you and that's it. And I feel like that's what it needs to be. I have no faith in any of these institutions anymore. I don't care about Trump. I don't care about Kennedy. I don't care. Even though I went balls to the wall for Kennedy, and I did because of all the other things that I thought were important. And I do love the truth. I think the truth is great. But now once you get into those positions of power, you can't tell the truth anymore. So everybody's compromised and everybody's going to be blackmailed until the end of times. All of these feminist ideas, for me, like, I have a problem with a lot of that shit. Like, I don't, I don't need to fucking wear some pussy hat and run around like a maniac to prove that I am some fucking strong being.

[Bill Maher]

But I Bet you if you Wore it on OnlyFans, it would work good.

[Edie Falco]

I mean, maybe I can just. Naked with a pussy hat inside my own. That would be a whole other fucking thing.

[Bill Maher]

But you haven't shown your pussy, have you?

[Edie Falco]

No. I mean, yes.

[Bill Maher]

Really?

[Edie Falco]

No. No, I.

[Bill Maher]

You know, you're gonna.

[Edie Falco]

Let's get back to geopolitics. Not geopolitics. Geoengineering. Jesus Christ.

[Bill Maher]

But see, I don't. I don't.

[Edie Falco]

For the first time, I took my clothes off, and I haven't. I haven't put the pictures out yet. I've never done it. I've never done nudity in my whole life. Oh, I never did it. Sons of Anarchy asked me to do it for the final episode. To have sex with Charlie Hunnam.

[Bill Maher]

You never did it with Christopher?

[Edie Falco]

I never did it with. I was always in my panties. A panties and a bra.

[Bill Maher]

Panties in a bra.

[Edie Falco]

Panties and a bra.

[Bill Maher]

Why? That was his thing.

[Edie Falco]

I lived in panties and a bra. But hbo, there was no full nudity, and on fx, there wasn't nudity. But that show, Signs.

[Bill Maher]

Hbo, that nudity.

[Edie Falco]

Yeah, I never did nudity. I just. I mean, I don't get naked in front of people normally. I'm uncomfortable. I put a fucking bathing suit on. So here I am now on OnlyFans, doing something completely. But, you know.

[Bill Maher]

And why is your boyfriend always rubbing his flashlight against you?

[Edie Falco]

He's young. He's young.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, look at you. I got myself a yellow. My girl. Come on, Give me a pound on that one.

[Edie Falco]

But I did take off my clothes for the. I was like, I. And it was kind of a political, you know, story. I don't want to get cute about it or Precious, but. But in a lot of ways, me doing OnlyFans was that. It was like, fuck you. Like, I'm not gonna play by your fucking rules. I'm gonna go make my own fucking money, and I'm gonna take a selfie. Like, all these other fucking girls show their everything on Instagram. I don't have a selfie page. Like, I never did that. I was never one of these girls that was like, oh, my God, I feel it. I feel it. Look at my tits. Like, never did that before. But the kids were like, do it. Take a. But. Sell it. And I was like, okay, I'll try. I mean, it was supposed to be podcast, but we didn't do the podcast. Once the picture went up there, I was like, I'm old and tired. Like, this works, but I'm gonna let it ride. For a little bit. I don't fucking care.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, first of all, you look really good. Second of all, more than ever I've noticed in society, maybe it's just la that men are into women. Like there's a lot of men into old women who are into cougar age, women who've kept themselves up. And you know, somebody once said to me, bill, you have no idea what it's like to have sex with a woman in her 40s. And I said to him, no, I don't. You're correct. But I get what you're saying because it's a 10,000 hours thing. You know, the 10,000 hours thing?

[Edie Falco]

No.

[Bill Maher]

Malcolm Gladwell famously said anything worth really mastering takes 10,000 hours, like playing the piano. So if you want to learn to play the piano, you got to put in 10,000 hours.

[Edie Falco]

Okay.

[Bill Maher]

And same with fucking. Like, yes, it is. It is kind of a skill that gets better with age, you know? I mean, yes, the 18 year olds look fantastic, I'm sure, I've heard. But like, of course they're going to be terrible in bed. They haven't put in their 10,000 hours and if they have, that's a real hoe. No, they've got 10,000 hours by 8. That's not a good thing at all.

[Edie Falco]

But, but yeah, I, I, I did it. I did it. I haven't.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, you should be fine.

[Edie Falco]

I mean, no, no, no shame in that. I did it out of desperation, there's no question. So I don't have this, like, I feel empowered if my, if my people.

[Bill Maher]

Made you that shit, the people who should be embarrassed, the people who made you put you in a state of desperation, they should be in.

[Edie Falco]

No one made me fucking do anything. I made my choices. I could have faked it. I could have lied, right. I could have used a vaccination card like a lot of other people like. But I did get dropped by my agent.

[Bill Maher]

I'm gonna make it.

[Edie Falco]

I got dropped by people.

[Bill Maher]

Really? Dropped by your agent without even a phone call?

[Edie Falco]

She was a friend and she told my manager that she was dropping me them.

[Bill Maher]

This town is such a bunch of fucking assholes. Yeah, and, and babies and hypocrites. I know, they're just such obnoxious bricks.

[Edie Falco]

But I, but I love everyone. I don't even care. I know.

[Bill Maher]

And also some of the greatest people. I mean, you know, it's just humanity. What can you do?

[Edie Falco]

But I mean, and I'm not bitter. Like, I'm really not bitter.

[Bill Maher]

I'm more bitter for You. Than you are.

[Edie Falco]

No, I'm not. Because I was. I already had. You know, I didn't feel like I had much. I was losing my home, clearly.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I think.

[Edie Falco]

But career wise, I didn't feel like I had much to lose. I had money to lose, but not something I wanted so bad. So I felt like I had to speak out.

[Bill Maher]

But careers don't go in a straight line, especially acting careers. I mean, somebody would be very smart to grab you right now because it's like, okay, you loved her. You haven't forgotten her. And then she got a bad break. Because that's what America does all the time. They, like cast somebody out and then they go a little while later. Oh, yeah, maybe we were a little hasty about that. Sorry. And then perfect timing. So I think the timing is right for somebody to put you in something good. I really do.

[Edie Falco]

Thanks.

[Bill Maher]

No, I really. I think that would be. Would be a very smart casting move. It just would.

[Edie Falco]

They're not making TV shows. That's another thing, really.

[Bill Maher]

They're not making TV shows. Not all the streaming.

[Edie Falco]

There's not a lot of stuff going on.

[Bill Maher]

The streaming services aren't all doing a million.

[Edie Falco]

They overshot themselves.

[Bill Maher]

That's true, too.

[Edie Falco]

Everything is up.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Edie Falco]

Another.

[Bill Maher]

Not that they needed another log on the fire of why they hate me, but, you know, I wasn't exactly the biggest supporter of the strike.

[Edie Falco]

No.

[Bill Maher]

And of course I'm not a huge supporter.

[Edie Falco]

I understand it.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, of course. And I'm not against their wishes, but it did come out a few months ago. 40% of the jobs never came back. So it wasn't exactly like I was completely wrong about it.

[Edie Falco]

No. But like this movie that I. That I just. That I did two years ago, that was one of the number one films on Netflix right now. Netflix. And it's. I think it's. Yeah, it's nominated for an Emmy this year. It got 2.8 billion streams. And because it was before the strike, we don't get a fucking dollar from that. I don't get residuals from the Sopranos either because it was cable and we hadn't really negotiated that yet. So it's fucked up.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Edie Falco]

So of course I was in fucking foreclosure at that point. After, you know, I work. I work from. I make sure I work for a few. A certain amount of months, and then I don't work for a while so I could take care of my kids. So. But yeah, so, yes, I did. I did. The only fans.

[Bill Maher]

And the kids are how old?

[Edie Falco]

17. And 14.

[Bill Maher]

Wow, that's some very tender ages.

[Edie Falco]

Oh, yeah. Especially growing up in this shit. I mean, with all this technology and it is.

[Bill Maher]

Do they want to be in this business?

[Edie Falco]

Well, now they both want to be musicians, which is.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, good.

[Edie Falco]

Nerve wracking.

[Bill Maher]

Why?

[Edie Falco]

It's another. It's another entertainment section. It's another place where everybody was canceled. And if you didn't follow the protocol.

[Bill Maher]

Music.

[Edie Falco]

Oh, my God.

[Bill Maher]

Who got canceled in music?

[Edie Falco]

Well, nobody. I mean, everybody was fucking woke as hell except for the four people that spoke out, and they were completely demonized. I mean, and if you're. I mean, the only place you can survive is country music. Maybe.

[Bill Maher]

You talking about, like, Kanye?

[Edie Falco]

I mean, I can talk about even my own boyfriend.

[Bill Maher]

Why? What'd he say?

[Edie Falco]

He ended up quitting his band, and he quit his band over other reasons because they were not being cool to him.

[Bill Maher]

So you're with another musician?

[Edie Falco]

I'm always with a musician.

[Bill Maher]

That's your type. You're a groupie.

[Edie Falco]

I'm a groupie whore. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

[Bill Maher]

I'm kidding. Nothing wrong with that.

[Edie Falco]

I'm kidding. Now my kids are musicians, so now I can just take care of their music career.

[Bill Maher]

But no, hey, music goes right to the pussy.

[Edie Falco]

I love music. Oh, I thought you were gonna say right to the bone, but I guess you were.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I'm just. I'm just saying you don't have to, like, intellectualize, you know. No, you just. It's the best, right?

[Edie Falco]

It's the best. I mean, if I could have. I think that was. That's my number one favorite thing in the world. I think when I was a kid, I loved musical theater and then that I just fell in love with rock and roll when I was a kid. Like. Like that. Every musical genre, though, I love all kinds of music. But. But my. My boyfriend on the music thing, once we started ultra free, people started calling him a white nationalist. And like, both of us. People think that we're like, these. These, like, racists, and we're like, what? Like, I don't even understand how we got there. Like, I'm a hippie. You don't want to take medicine because I don't even take Tylenol.

[Bill Maher]

Right?

[Edie Falco]

I mean, so now I'm a racist.

[Bill Maher]

You have to be all in or you're all bad. And this is one of the key things I think that we have to solve. And, you know, I'm. I'm hoping because the Democrats got their ass kicked last time and you know.

[Edie Falco]

I know you want Gavin Newsom to be the president.

[Bill Maher]

I like Evan Newson.

[Edie Falco]

I know you like him.

[Bill Maher]

I do.

[Edie Falco]

You think he's very presidential.

[Bill Maher]

I do.

[Edie Falco]

I mean, he's cute.

[Bill Maher]

He's cute, handsome. I mean, that's not what's doing it for me, but it's. But I'm. But I'm glad you like the way he dances when he's glad he has that going for him when he does.

[Edie Falco]

Like, a popping look when he talks about the fires. I was.

[Bill Maher]

There's two things that go right to the music and politics. Wait, no, but. I mean, come on. It's not a detriment.

[Edie Falco]

Listen, I was in D.C. for some event that we were at for, you know, the Republic, the whole thing, during that era. And I couldn't believe the feeling in this hotel that I was in of. I could feel the sexual, like, degeneracy that previously lived in those hotel rooms. Like, I could feel it. I don't know what it was. I've never said that. I've been living in California my whole life.

[Bill Maher]

Wait, where are we. Where am I feeling this? In D.C. no, but where were you?

[Edie Falco]

What hotel was I in?

[Bill Maher]

You were in a ballroom.

[Edie Falco]

I was in a hotel. I was at.

[Bill Maher]

Where in the hotel?

[Edie Falco]

The rooms, the lobby, everything. Everything about D.C. the whole place felt like. Like dirty sex to me, man.

[Bill Maher]

Maybe they sprayed it. But wait, just. Just a feeling. But you did not. You didn't literally smell it.

[Edie Falco]

No, it's a beautiful hotel that we were staying at. You know, probably.

[Bill Maher]

What hotel? I'm asking for a friend.

[Edie Falco]

You need to know. I can't remember the name of the hotel.

[Bill Maher]

Yersinia Pestis. I'm registered under the name. Mr. Pestis. Yes. Could you have some champagne? Sends up to 6:14. Thank you very much.

[Edie Falco]

Maybe it was called Langham or something. I. I don't remember what it was called.

[Bill Maher]

What is the point being that D.C. is.

[Edie Falco]

Well, we're talking about politics and rock and roll going.

[Bill Maher]

But I never think of. I think of politics as state and like, whenever you.

[Edie Falco]

No, man. This was demonic feeling.

[Bill Maher]

Demonic?

[Edie Falco]

Yes. There was this really dark sexual energy there. I swear.

[Bill Maher]

Now QAnon believes the Democrats are pedophiles.

[Edie Falco]

I don't know anything about QAnon.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, but do you believe the Democrats are pedophiles?

[Edie Falco]

I think that there's pedophilia in the world.

[Bill Maher]

In the world? Sure.

[Edie Falco]

But if. I don't think that should be politicized again.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, good.

[Edie Falco]

You know, I think most of these issues should never Be politicized, I think. But that was a funny thing when that was happening, when all of the, that Sound of Freedom movie came out about that guy that was, that was talking about all the child trafficking and how publications like Rolling Stone and like all of these like pillars of being a liberal, they all came out and said the most awful things about this film. And it's like, who cares about the film? Let's talk about what it's about, right? Like, why do you give a fuck about this movie? Like that it's that it's political and that you don't like it because the right wing people, I mean, you don't think there's pedophiles on the right too? Like, what the fuck, are you crazy?

[Bill Maher]

That's part of our problem is that everybody makes their decisions based on the politics of the art and not the art itself.

[Edie Falco]

That was recent though, right? I mean, I would say that that was not a thing before.

[Bill Maher]

Correct.

[Edie Falco]

Politics were always corrupt.

[Bill Maher]

Correct? Well, no, people used to judge the art for the art itself and the politics was sort of secondary. And now it's the reverse. That certainly has happened in my business. When I started way back with Politically Incorrect, everybody said, you know, you can't do a show where you talk, give your opinions. As a talk show host, you alienate half the crowd. I was like, you know what? Let's, let's. I believe the crowd can take it. And they could. But in those days, like Letterman, Leno, you know, Carson, they never told you their politics. Now we moved into an era, you know, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart and John Oliver. I mean, I'm not knocking them. I'm just saying that Kimmel, the most important thing was to signal to the audience what your politics are. You had to. And it was always scripted or brainwashed. It's not scripted, but it was like very predictably. Just whatever MSNBC was saying, I agree with 100%. That was.

[Edie Falco]

Never mind fucking Microsoft Media.

[Bill Maher]

Well, whatever. But like that and the audience, you know, and of course, half the country was like, well, this is just insulting to me. Whereas Leno, you know, never did that. Leno just played it right down the middle. He just like, I will make fun of everybody. And that's in a different sort of way, what I'm doing also. I mean, I just, I just don't stop criticizing just because you're on the left part. If you do something stupid, I'm going to call it out no matter where you are. And, you know, if people don't pay attention, they don't get it that, yes, I still think the Republicans are more dangerous because, I mean, they don't really believe in democracy anymore and they're doing a lot of harmful things. But, you know, I'm also not going to deny that Trump won because a lot of things did get way out of whack that he said, I'm going to correct. You know, the border shouldn't be open. DEI is out of control. You know, universities are out of control. He wasn't. He's not wrong about all those things. I just don't agree with his method of addressing them.

[Edie Falco]

But some of those things are gonna go too far.

[Bill Maher]

But we can talk about it, you know, we should always be able to fucking talk about it. So that's just what I wish people would take away from this podcast is don't hate people. Because you don't.

[Edie Falco]

Some people glaze over.

[Bill Maher]

Too many people glaze over. And it's like, you know, maybe you're crazy a little too. Anyway, it was great to meet you.

[Edie Falco]

Great to meet you, too.

[Bill Maher]

I'll let you go back to your young boyfriend, your kids, who probably are reaching that age where they're going to be.

[Edie Falco]

They're gonna torture me, the 14 year old.

[Bill Maher]

Crazy things. I'm sure you'll handle it. I'm so glad we got to know each other. That's why I love doing this podcast. And I don't know. Goodbye.

[Edie Falco]

Goodbye.

[Bill Maher]

All right.

[Edie Falco]

Oh, my gosh.

[Bill Maher]

Give me a bigot. Oh, man, I'm sorry.

[Edie Falco]

So hot.

[Bill Maher]

Really? I feel like it's delightful.

[Edie Falco]

You do?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Edie Falco]

Fucking relaxed. You're stoned. You're in your playroom.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, I got my bowling shirt on. That's the sound of the fully electric Audi Q6E Tron and the quiet confidence of ultra smooth handling. The elevated interior reminds you this is more than an ev. This is electric performance redefined.