Lewis Howes | Club Random

Summary

Club Random with Bill Maher: Episode Featuring Lewis Howes Release Date: May 4, 2025

Summary

In this engaging episode of Club Random with Bill Maher, host Bill Maher conducts an in-depth, one-on-one conversation with renowned lifestyle entrepreneur and author Lewis Howes. The discussion spans a wide array of topics, including personal development, relationships, health and wellness, skepticism in modern medicine, the impact of upbringing on personal beliefs, and perspectives on politics and society. The episode offers valuable insights into Howes' journey, philosophies, and his approach to overcoming personal challenges.

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1. Personal Journey and Relationships

Moving to Los Angeles: Lewis Howes shares his transition from Ohio to Los Angeles thirteen years ago, initially motivated by a romantic relationship that eventually didn't work out. Despite his reservations about living in LA, Howes found a supportive community that made the city feel like home.

• Lewis Howes [03:12]: "I didn't want to be in LA. I never wanted to live in LA. I moved to New York for like a year and a half after, you know, college days. And I loved the energy in New York, for whatever reason."

Marital Life: The conversation delves into Howes' recent marriage two months prior, highlighting the shift from living in condos to embracing a larger living space with a yard. This change marks a significant step in his personal life, emphasizing the importance of space and environment in sustaining long-term relationships.

• Lewis Howes [05:39]: "I'm a new husband, two months ago. And we were living together for a few years, but got the home a couple years ago. But just got married."

Overcoming Fear of Marriage: Howes opens up about his fear of marriage, rooted in witnessing his parents' tumultuous relationship. This fear influenced his decision to leave home at a young age and shaped his understanding of healthy relationships.

• Lewis Howes [07:04]: "I was terrified of marriage for a long time, probably because I grew up with... it felt like there wasn't a good model of marriage. Love. It was like. Seems like stress and chaos."

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2. Emotional Intelligence and Personal Development

Navigating Emotions: A significant portion of the discussion revolves around emotional intelligence. Howes attributes his expertise in this area to personal failures and persistent self-improvement efforts, emphasizing the importance of overcoming insecurity and self-doubt.

• Lewis Howes [08:24]: "I do think understanding how to navigate emotions is one of the most powerful skills."

Self-Taught Life Skills: Howes highlights the shortcomings of traditional education in imparting essential life skills, especially for individuals with dyslexia. His journey towards self-education underscores the necessity of developing personal resilience and adaptability outside the classroom.

• Lewis Howes [09:02]: "School didn't give me life skills. And that's what I wanted to learn after school was really like, how do I live a better life?"

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3. Health, Wellness, and Skepticism in Modern Medicine

Approach to Health: Both Maher and Howes discuss their approaches to health, with Howes advocating for a balanced lifestyle centered around whole foods, adequate sleep, and moderation. Maher shares his interest in fasting and explores the mind-body connection's role in healing.

• Lewis Howes [82:45]: "I'm all about trying to eat 80% whole foods, healthy foods, non-processed, minimally processed foods."

Skepticism Towards Medicine: Bill Maher expresses skepticism about the advancements in Western medicine, questioning the extent of current medical knowledge and the reliability of expert opinions. This skepticism extends to vaccines, where Maher clarifies his stance while acknowledging their significance.

• Bill Maher [17:26]: "I have research way more skepticism and questions about it because I have way more about everything."

Mind-Body Connection: The dialogue delves into the influence of thoughts on physical health, with Howes exploring the potential benefits of meditation and positive thinking in fostering inner peace and well-being.

• Lewis Howes [46:02]: "I love having neuroscientists on to understand the emotional charge the physical charge in the body..."

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4. Religion, Ethics, and Morality

Atheism and Ethics: Howes poses questions about the ethical foundations of atheism versus religious belief systems. Maher argues that atheists often develop a more logically grounded morality free from religious dogma, leading to more ethically aligned behavior.

• Bill Maher [39:28]: "I think atheists and agnostics are usually more ethically aligned than religious people, of course."

Impact of Organized Religion: The conversation touches on the rise of Christian nationalism and its attempts to influence laws and societal norms. Maher advocates for the separation of church and state, emphasizing personal freedom from religious imposition.

• Bill Maher [76:55]: "There's a lot of Christian nationalism working overtime to shove their beliefs into our laws, our schools..."

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5. Political Views and Media Skepticism

Meeting Former President Trump: A focal point of the episode is Maher's experience meeting Donald Trump. He discusses the complexities of maintaining journalistic integrity while engaging with controversial figures, highlighting the importance of truth-telling over pandering to audiences.

• Bill Maher [26:15]: "There was a big fight within the Democratic Party about why you can't hang out with someone like Trump."

Critique of Partisan Bias: Maher criticizes the partisan divide, noting that the Democratic Party has shifted towards enforcing moral conformity, akin to past conservative movements. He underscores the necessity of open dialogue and the dangers of political echo chambers.

• Bill Maher [57:17]: "You have to have relationships with people than not... some people, you know, just think, let's just run out of the room screaming..."

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6. Reflections on Success and Happiness

Defining Accomplishment: Howes and Maher explore the relationship between success, material wealth, and genuine happiness. While acknowledging that wealth can alleviate certain stresses, they agree that it doesn't guarantee emotional well-being.

• Bill Maher [69:01]: "I've lived both. I've been poor and unhappy, and I've been rich and unhappy."

Finding Inner Peace: Both guests emphasize the importance of inner harmony and personal fulfillment over external achievements. They discuss practices like meditation and gratitude as tools to achieve a consistent baseline of peace amidst life's challenges.

• Lewis Howes [72:27]: "Practices like meditation and gratitude help achieve inner peace..."

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7. Future Outlook and Personal Goals

Health and Longevity: As Maher approaches his 70th birthday, the conversation shifts to his focus on maintaining health and enjoying life without overextending himself. He expresses satisfaction with his career and personal life, highlighting the joy he finds in his work and interactions.

• Bill Maher [96:07]: "The life I started to live at 60... keeping my health because life is better than it was when I was young."

Legacy and Contentment: Maher reflects on his career achievements and the importance of staying true to oneself. He discusses the balance between professional success and personal contentment, advocating for authenticity and integrity.

• Bill Maher [95:54]: "I do beat myself up about that. I could have enjoyed my 50s a lot more if I had just realized..."

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Notable Quotes

1. Lewis Howes [03:12]: "I didn't want to be in LA. I never wanted to live in LA. But I found a community that made it feel like home."

2. Bill Maher [17:26]: "Vaccines are one of the greatest tools, but I have research way more skepticism and questions about it."

3. Lewis Howes [08:24]: "Understanding how to navigate emotions is one of the most powerful skills."

4. Bill Maher [39:28]: "Atheists and agnostics are usually more ethically aligned than religious people."

5. Bill Maher [69:01]: "I've been poor and unhappy, and I've been rich and unhappy."

6. Lewis Howes [72:15]: "I'm more about trying to eat 80% whole foods, healthy foods, non-processed, minimally processed foods."

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Conclusion

This episode of Club Random offers a candid exploration of Lewis Howes' personal growth, his views on emotional intelligence, and his pragmatic approach to health and relationships. Bill Maher complements the conversation with his skeptical yet open-minded perspectives on modern medicine, religion, and politics. Together, they provide listeners with a nuanced discussion on achieving personal fulfillment, maintaining integrity, and navigating the complexities of contemporary society.

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Note: This summary omits commercial breaks and advertisements to focus solely on the substantive content of the conversation between Bill Maher and Lewis Howes.

Transcript

[Bill Maher]

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[Lewis Howes]

Club Random. Random. You train ducks?

[Bill Maher]

Sort of. They walk around the pool and they never go in.

[Lewis Howes]

How do you train a duck not to swim Club Random.

[Bill Maher]

Flying by the seat of the pants at this place. Hi, how are you, man?

[Lewis Howes]

Thanks for having me.

[Bill Maher]

How are you?

[Lewis Howes]

An awesome spot. Thanks for having me.

[Bill Maher]

Thanks. Nice to meet you.

[Lewis Howes]

Great to meet you. Well, that's a great space.

[Bill Maher]

It is a great space. I tell you. I thought about five years ago during the we had fires, horrible fires here, and it blocked out the sun for a week. And I actually thought about moving to Miami. And then I stopped being super high and I realized, first of all, I'm just too dug in, too old to move. If I moved anywhere, I'd always feel like, when am I gonna go home? And California, I'm going down with the ship. You know what I mean? It's got its bad shit, but you're right, it's a great spot. And I'm never gonna find a place where I'm more comfortable or this particular place has Such a vibe to it. I'd never find a place like that. So. Yeah. Where do you live?

[Lewis Howes]

Right, in Studio City. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, but you always been out here. Or did you?

[Lewis Howes]

Thirteen years ago, I moved out here, yeah. From Ohio.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. And why did you come to la? Why do you need to be?

[Lewis Howes]

Oh, I originally came for a girl I was dating that didn't. Didn't work out, and then I ended up staying and it worked out. Yeah, I didn't want to be in la. I never wanted to live in la. I moved to New York for like a year and a half after, you know, college days. And I loved the energy in New York, for whatever reason. Maybe it's because I was my late 20s, but then the first year here, I thought it was kind of more superficial and less real. But then I met my people and I met, you know, communities I was involved in, and I was like, oh, this is awesome.

[Bill Maher]

New York is. I always used to say, you know, at least we're honest about being phony. New York, you know? Please. I mean. Yes.

[Lewis Howes]

You lived there, right?

[Bill Maher]

Didn't you? Twice.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And I'm from the area, you know, I lived across the river. We were New York centric. My father worked at the center of Manhattan. Every day, we just, you know, so New York teams, New York attitude. That's why I get along well with east coast people, you know, and west coast people. But, you know, New York is still so phony. I mean, not the. Perhaps the glitterati. I mean, the literati, but the glitterati. Yes. It's the home of, like, you can't come in. Yovang Brown. You know, like, we don't get started until 1am at the club. You know, my friend used to always say, there's so many beautiful girls in New York, none of them will talk to you. Right, right, right, right. You know, it's like any other city. I mean, the people are not. It's not just a plethora of intellectuals. It has that. But it's just, you know, it's also very. Just like everywhere else, except, you know, you have to put up with bad weather, rudeness, overcrowding, trash everywhere. I don't like living in a building. Yeah, do you?

[Lewis Howes]

I used to, but then when I got, you know, in the right relationship, I was like, oh, I want space. Now, being married, I'm like, I love having a bigger space and a yard and, you know, all this stuff.

[Bill Maher]

You need a yard when you're married, huh?

[Lewis Howes]

Exactly.

[Bill Maher]

Even what that means, it sounds like.

[Lewis Howes]

A more just other than a two bedroom condo until like two and a half years ago, essentially. I mean, not the same one, but essentially I was living in two three bedroom condos like for the last 15 years.

[Bill Maher]

Are you a newlywed?

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah, two months ago.

[Bill Maher]

Two months ago, yeah. Well, that's. Wow.

[Lewis Howes]

And we were living together for a few years, but got the home a couple years ago. But just got married. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Here's a question, Mr. Life Coach. Like, so when, when you're living. When you're living like with someone for a couple years and, and then you have the wedding day, what do you do on the wedding night to like make it like you have a lot of fun? I know, but like, you have a lot of fun, but how can you. But like in the old days, this was the night. I mean, a lot of the world still operates that way, you know, I mean, I'm sure the wedding night in Karachi, Pakistan is still the wedding night. You know, I don't think there's a lot of premarital going on, but I.

[Lewis Howes]

Think for me, you know, I was, when I met her, I was what, 38 or 39? I'm 42 now. So we're different seasons of life. You know, we've lived life a little bit longer and got married at this age.

[Bill Maher]

So is she age appropriate?

[Lewis Howes]

She's the same age as me.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

She's not like 20 years younger or something?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, nothing wrong with that.

[Lewis Howes]

Dude.

[Bill Maher]

What? You got to be kidding.

[Lewis Howes]

So, yeah, she's great.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I'm sure you married her. That's awesome.

[Lewis Howes]

Exactly.

[Bill Maher]

So two months and they said it wouldn't last. Huh?

[Lewis Howes]

You know, two months. It's still going.

[Bill Maher]

Still going strong.

[Lewis Howes]

Cheers to that. Right.

[Bill Maher]

Believable. There you go. Well, did you always want to get married or did you just meet somebody?

[Lewis Howes]

I was terrified of marriage for a long time, probably because I grew up with. My parents were always, you know, it felt like they were always fighting and they were stressed out. And I was the youngest of four and it just felt like there wasn't a good model of marriage. Love. It was like. Seems like stress and chaos. It's one of the reasons why I left home at 13.

[Bill Maher]

What did they fight about?

[Lewis Howes]

Money, stress. Who knows? I was, I was also young, so they wouldn't, no one would tell me what was going on.

[Bill Maher]

You know, they've studied this. And the number one thing people fight about and there's not a close second. It's money is money.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You'd think it would be, you know, fucking or, you know, you don't fuck laws or something. Yeah, you don't fuck me anymore. I would guess that would have been like a high on the list. But it's kids, of course. But no, it's. And all those things matter. And many other things. But it's money. Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

They got married when they were 19. They had a kid at 19. I just don't think they had the emotional tools on how to communicate effectively and really know what they wanted, you know, it's just a different time. So I don't blame for it.

[Bill Maher]

Emotion tools. I may not have emotion. I gotta look at my tools.

[Lewis Howes]

What do you think is the.

[Bill Maher]

I don't know. But like that's one of those sayings. I've never heard that exact one, but I bet you they emotionally, you use it a lot.

[Lewis Howes]

I do. I think understanding how to navigate emotions is one of the most powerful skills.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. So how did you become an expert in it?

[Lewis Howes]

I think by being a failure at it for a long time, you know, just making mistakes over and over again. Constantly feeling like I was never enough, constantly doubting myself and saying, I don't want to live this way anymore. How do I overcome this insecurity, self doubt, this feeling of not enough, this feeling of unlovable, unworthy, all these things.

[Bill Maher]

So it's totally an autodidact.

[Lewis Howes]

I don't even know what that is like.

[Bill Maher]

As opposed to going to school. Self taught, self taught.

[Lewis Howes]

Because school, this is everything I had to learn after school, how to live life. Because school didn't give me life skills. It taught me I was dyslexic growing up. I was in the bottom of my class every year. They used to grade us in our report cards and I was always in the bottom four and I pretty much cheated my way through tests and homework and things just to get by. So for me, school didn't give me life skills. And that's what I wanted to learn after school was really like, how do I live a better life?

[Bill Maher]

Did you use drugs as a crutch?

[Lewis Howes]

I've never been drunk, never been high in my life.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, would you like to start? That was your problem. You've never. You gotta have moderation. I always say, well, I have sugar.

[Lewis Howes]

You know, I have coffee, I do other things.

[Bill Maher]

I'm not perfect, but that's not. But you know, without looking into places in your mind that you can't get to, without drugs, I would say that that is walling off part of the self discovery process, which I know you're so invested in in ways that you can. You know, there's just certain ways. You can't get to a place without. Well, I know a guy. Let me know.

[Lewis Howes]

Have you ever done, like, deep fasting for many days?

[Bill Maher]

Oh, I fast every year for, like, five days.

[Lewis Howes]

Five days?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

Would you say that your mind opens up in certain ways when you fast?

[Bill Maher]

Not really. I mean, there are times when you feel more clear.

[Lewis Howes]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, if I fasted for 30 days, maybe, you know, that kind of thing. I mean, you can. We really are nuts. Or similarly, Keith Richards used to talk about they would purposely stay up and not sleep for, like, three days because, again, you are accessing hallucinating. Yeah. You're accessing a kind of delirium. I ain't gonna do that.

[Lewis Howes]

Yep.

[Bill Maher]

You know, I mean, I remember coming down from taking speed in college and you couldn't get to sleep for at least. It was just terrible. Yeah. But drugs, you know, Aldous Huxley wrote a book called the Doors of Perception. That's where the rock group the Doors got their name. And it was. That was his metaphor for it. Like these. This is a door to perception that you can't otherwise get. I mean, I'm not trying to. It sounds like I am trying to convince you to do this, but I'm really not. But I'm just interested if you're never curious about seeing that part of your head.

[Lewis Howes]

I've never had a desire. I mean, maybe I thought about, what would that look like? But I.

[Bill Maher]

You think you know everything.

[Lewis Howes]

No, no, I don't know everything. And I think that's why I keep learning and keep trying to grow. But I feel like, you know, one of my. When I was 8 years old, my brother went to prison for selling drugs to another undercover cop. And I read that you. You got by in college by selling, like, pot.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

And.

[Bill Maher]

Well, we had whatever our dealer had.

[Lewis Howes]

Exactly.

[Bill Maher]

Let's put it that way.

[Lewis Howes]

And it's kind of helped you get by.

[Bill Maher]

And it's, you know, also my first couple of years living in New York in comedy, I was a pot dealer.

[Lewis Howes]

There you go. And he got in a sting with, like, an undercover cop, and it sent him six to 25 years in. In prison. So I was an eight year old. I was the youngest of four. He was 11 years older than me. He was 18, 19 when he went in. He got out in four and a half years on good behavior. But it was the war against drugs in the 90s. It was the whole thing, and it was devastating for our family. It was like crippling for our family. And it's what caused a lot of pain, a lot of shame, a lot of guilt. Just it was a lot. And that led to, you know, I saw that early on the what drugs can do with the destruction of a family.

[Bill Maher]

But I mean, you could say I saw a fire and saw what that destruction can do. And so I'm never going to use fire. And of course you want to use fire for certain things.

[Lewis Howes]

I also think that, you know, for me, I've just learned that drugs or an alcohol are a toxin or are a poison. And it's like as an athlete growing up, my whole vision was sports because school was. I was horrible in and I was like, oh, guys are getting drunk on the weekend and then on Monday practice they're slower. This is an edge. So it wasn't like I wasn't exploring, like, maybe I'd go do this or maybe check this out, but I was like, oh, this is going to slow me down or hurt me with my skill set. Maybe with you as a creative writer or a comedian or, you know, it's like opening and expanding your.

[Bill Maher]

Absolutely.

[Lewis Howes]

Capabilities.

[Bill Maher]

Yes.

[Lewis Howes]

But I was like, this is going to hurt me.

[Bill Maher]

Well, there's also performance enhancing drugs, which I've never done. I know, but like, but athletes do.

[Lewis Howes]

You know, guys in college were doing it and shooting up steroids, coming back 20 pounds bigger with, you know, freaks of nature. And I was like, I thought about that in college. I thought about it because if I was 210 faster in the 40 yard dash, I probably would have gone to the NFL. And I was just like, I couldn't live with myself knowing if I would have done it like illegally based on society's terms and based on where sports was at. I was just like, I can't do it.

[Bill Maher]

You dodged a bullet, man. Because if you had played in the NFL, you'd be broken now. Your body would be hit by a train.

[Lewis Howes]

I played arena football for one year and I broke my wrist and had to have surgery. And it's just like so physically demanding.

[Bill Maher]

Demanding is a kind word for it. It's just punishing. It's just, it's a train wreck every day destroying you. Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

So a blessing. It ended after a year. But I got to live a dream and pursue that and experience it.

[Bill Maher]

But, well, you must feel a tremendous responsibility to people who, like, can't afford a shrink or, you know, they don't have a best friend and they're like, what should I do? I was like, well, what would Jesus do? And then you right After Jesus or, or, you know.

[Lewis Howes]

Well, I don't think of myself as that.

[Bill Maher]

Well, you're very successful in the industry of telling people what the fuck to do that, you know, you'd think it.

[Lewis Howes]

Would just responsibility would be high. Well, for me, the reason I started my show has been 12 every week for 12 years. It's called the School of Greatness. The reason I started it, I didn't call it the Lewis House Show. Cause I knew I was getting into a world of expertise around personal development, growth, health, wellness, mindset, therapy, money, all these topics. And I was like, I don't know any of this. I know a little bit of a lot. But I really am not the expert at anything. Let me go find these experts and elevate those voices.

[Bill Maher]

Right?

[Lewis Howes]

So that's been. But by doing it over 12 years, you pick it up, sure.

[Bill Maher]

You grow, of course, you know, yeah, you immerse yourself. It's the old 10,000 hours thing, you know, exactly. You've spent 10,000 hours or whatever the number is with the experts and the people. And so.

[Lewis Howes]

And then I've made a ton of mistakes and I've implemented how to overcome it. And I'm.

[Bill Maher]

What do you do when, when the experts disagree with each other, I bring.

[Lewis Howes]

Them together and I say, let's talk it out and let people decide. You know, it's kind of like what you've done for a long time. It's like, hey, bringing the experts in and then maybe no one has the answer. Or maybe this research paper is, is combating with this research paper and every. If it's around health and wellness, everyone's got to have a different process and try things.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, this theme comes up a lot here and I guess on my other show and probably at dinner, too much. But you know, I am less of a believer than most people in how advanced we are medically. I think this is a big difference between how I see things and they see things. I mean, they call me like an anti vaxxer. I'm certainly not, I say it a billion times. Vaccines, one of the greatest tools, physical tools we ever came up with. But I have research way more skepticism and questions about it because I have way more about everything. And like, if you ask me, like, of all the things we possibly could know about wellness in the human body, what percentage do you think we know now? Most people would probably say, oh, we're probably at like 90%. I mean, like of course a hundred years ago we didn't know much, but. And I would say maybe more like 20.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah, maybe.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, like, cure cancer and then tell me you really have even the fucking faintest clue. Because there's just lots of shit that they don't know. And I'm, like, not blaming them for it or saying it's because of corruption. I'm just saying we're just where we are in history. We're in the year 2025. We're not quite living in the future. I hope we get there soon and AI gets us there and I never have to die. But. But as long as I have to die, I feel like we're pretty much. We're not at the infancy. Of course we know what a germ and an Adam is, and. But we're just not where people think we are. And that gives them a faith in what the experts say. And my thing is always. But the experts don't agree with each other.

[Lewis Howes]

I know.

[Bill Maher]

That's why they say, get a second opinion, because that tells you, one, it's an opinion which isn't a fact, and two, you need a second one, and that often doesn't jive with the first one.

[Lewis Howes]

I know.

[Bill Maher]

And then what do you do?

[Lewis Howes]

Then you go with your instincts, your gut, what feels right to you, what aligns with you, especially if it's like a health or medical condition. And you're like, one doctor says there's no cure, and another doctor says, oh, have you tried this yet? Maybe you're gonna feel more open minded to seeing how the energy was or what the research shows and feel more open to.

[Bill Maher]

I actually. Hi. Have someone I've hired for many years now. You know, an actual job that is pretty much just to referee what doctors say.

[Lewis Howes]

Interesting.

[Bill Maher]

Like, when they disagree, you do a deep dive and you tell, give me an opinion. Now, I may disagree with the ref too, but, like, there's no other way to do it. And it is funny you say that a minute ago about what I do. Similar. Yes. It's like refereeing or trying to keep it right there and with just the truth between, like, the two political parties. It's. It does remind me of, like, when. I mean, because I have had diagnoses from doctors that are just diametrically opposite. And sometimes it's just factual, you know, like free PSA is the. The higher number the better? No, the lower. It's like, really, It's a fact. You mean we can't just look it up? Well, we can, you know, stuff like that. I don't know.

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[Bill Maher]

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[Lewis Howes]

I mean you mentioned you how old do you want to Live till you mentioned you would love until.

[Bill Maher]

I'm not enjoying it anymore, but I'm enjoying it right now.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah. Is there a number, though? Is there like an age that you'd love to reach if you could?

[Bill Maher]

I feel like once you've gone down that road, you're fucked. You know? Like, I only look forward. I'm not a backward looking person. But I can't look too far. I mean, it's like tomorrow, you know, tomorrow has to be a good day.

[Lewis Howes]

What makes it a good day for you? At the end of every day, when you look back and you say that was a good day, versus that's not.

[Bill Maher]

A good day, It's a good question.

[Lewis Howes]

Does one thing have to go off for it to be not a good day? Is it a few things?

[Bill Maher]

Does it have to be.

[Lewis Howes]

You felt good. You created something with people you joined.

[Bill Maher]

What was starts with sleep, you know, mostly I get the right amount of sleep and wake up refreshed. That's like, if you don't. Certainly at my age, if you don't sleep well, you're gonna feel like shit. But even when I was younger, your age even, I always remember if I didn't have enough sleep, I just didn't feel. I just felt like shit, you know, nothing is quite great. And so that would certainly. That can throw a wrench into any day. I mean, a feeling of accomplishment. It's always great, you know, I mean, I'm not at this level.

[Lewis Howes]

You've done so much creative work, you've had so much success. What do you have to go that much greater to feel accomplished? Or could it be like, oh, I did something small and it was accomplishment today. Do you know what I mean? You've got so much accomplished.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, thank you. But I mean, you know, it is amazing in the way when you start out, the littlest thing is like a big win, a big. Yes. I got a call back.

[Lewis Howes]

I got this.

[Bill Maher]

I remember when I first in the clubs and there was a guy and he got his sitcoms, like, and then his picture was in TV Guide. And I was like, wow, I know a guy whose picture is in TV Guide. And now, you know, like, you know, I can have, oh, I'm not gonna name drop. But like, there are nights when I'm like, wow, I can't believe the people who I was with tonight. And they accepted me as their peer, you know, and we. And the next day, I mean, it's like, yeah, I'm not even thinking about it. Whereas the guy in TV Guide, I thought about it for a month. You know, it's just like your perspective changes.

[Lewis Howes]

What do you think has shifted?

[Bill Maher]

But I don't want to ever be jaded and I don't think I ever am. I mean I am acutely aware. I make myself. I enjoy being aware of how far I've come and how much I cherish what I have. And I'm not a materialistic person really. I mean I had a break in here about six months ago and they didn't take anything. They looked everywhere, they didn't find anything. There's nothing here but sentimental shit. I mean, you want my fucking yellow submarine poster? You know, go nuts bro, because like it means a lot to me. But you nothing. And you know, I just don't have cars and watches and you know, the crazy shit that people have, that's not nice property. I mean you have property, it's hard to steal the property.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah, you can't take that with you. You were talking about peers though. You're with around a lot of inspiring people lately. I saw some great clips of you with Trump and I'm. I was wanted to ask you about that. I'm curious about what that was like because I saw the before clips that you said.

[Bill Maher]

I did a 12 minute piece on my show.

[Lewis Howes]

Uhhuh.

[Bill Maher]

Describing the whole thing in great detail because there was intense interest for me to do it. You watch that?

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah, I watch.

[Bill Maher]

Send it to you. The 12 minutes. Did you see it?

[Lewis Howes]

I don't know if I watched all. I watched clips of that. I watched some clips of that.

[Bill Maher]

You're going to watch the whole thing. Knock yourself out and devote 12 minutes. I'll watch because I'll give you the headlines of it. But basically, you know, by the way, there was a big fight over this sort of within, I think I would say within the Democratic Party why you.

[Lewis Howes]

Can'T hang out with someone.

[Bill Maher]

Well, exactly. And you know, look, I don't want to like make this human being, make this a bigger thing than it was, but I do think I won this one. Tell me just because I mean the number of people I heard from, you know, even the. Yes. The people who. The 10% who hated me before this just found another reason to hate me. But I do think that it was not a hard case to make one. If you want to break it down, should you go if you're invited to have a private dinner with the President? Yes, of course. You'd be crazy not to. To see the see in person. Get the two then you have to describe it. Should you lie. No, to me, that's also a no brainer. But obviously a lot of people wanted me to, but no, I'm not a liar. And then three, after this, do you go back to just doing exact. And before this, I never took a break from exactly doing what I've always done with Trump, which was keep it real. It's not like I went maga. You know, if that had happened, they would have a case and they have no case. And they know it because. Because I went right back to tearing him a new asshole the week after I did it. The week before he even complained about it to me. Like, oh, you hit me hard last week. You hit me hard. And yes, that's my job. I can separate the two. It's funny how these people who think of themselves as the most intellectual, they violate the very first rule of being an intellectual, which is keeping two disparate thoughts in your mind at the same time. It's like page one. But they apparently couldn't do that. But you know, what was the big. It was easy to make the case. I don't want to like keep doing it forever, but. Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

What was the biggest takeaway from you, from the whole experience?

[Bill Maher]

Well, I mean that the haters and clickbaiters are always going to be there. But, you know, if you just tell the truth, people really appreciate that, whatever it is. And then there's this other segment, the haters and clickbaiters who hate the truth, unless it's their truth. You know, they even use that term a lot. I mean, sure, this, I'm. Sure this comes up in your world.

[Lewis Howes]

I think this is my truth.

[Bill Maher]

My truth. This is. Well, you know, there's your truth and my truth and the truth.

[Lewis Howes]

The truth. Yeah, yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know, and people, people gravitate, I think, to what I do because they feel like what? Well, I don't always agree. Possibly many people do agree. Most of the time, doesn't matter. I feel like this guy is telling me what he really thinks and what really happened and he'll let the chips fall where they may and he'll take the fans who like that and be okay with the fans who leave the room because they can't take that. And that is exactly right. That's exactly what I'm doing.

[Lewis Howes]

Did your perspective of him shift afterwards knowing that also?

[Bill Maher]

I mean, it wasn't a total shock. Every person I've ever known who has met him privately, including big liberals. Like, I believe Keith Olbermann once was telling me maybe on the air that he lived in the same building as Trump for a while. Or. No, that couldn't be. Trump lives in. Well, whatever. That he saw him and. Yeah, same thing. Charming in person. So it wasn't like a shock that he was different. It was surprising that he was more self aware, let's put it that way, that he lets on in public.

[Lewis Howes]

He was more self aware.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. Watch the piece. You'll see. But also that I said lots of things to him that liberals should love. That a guy got in there and said to him, to his face, and I think they hated it, that I also reported that when I did that he was okay with it. He never, like, went ballistic like he does publicly. You know, if you. If these things had been said to him publicly, he would been like, you're a terrible person. You're disgusting. But obviously, he's two different people. Interesting. But, you know, that's complicated. And people don't like things in life that are complicated. You know, I'm sure you deal with this all the time.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And I'm so sorry that I complicated your life with the truth, but, you know, that's what I'm gonna do. And if you can't hang with that, I get it. But, you know, I noticed we're like the number one show. My rerun of my show. It's the number one show on cnn. And I feel like CNN is the place where people at least used to go for, like, down the middle. Like, let's just tell me what the fuck happened. Don't fucking give me your slant. Or if you do, just be honest about your slant. Just tell me what you really think. So I feel like that's a good sign that people are watching it. Also on cnn.

[Lewis Howes]

That's cool.

[Bill Maher]

That's great.

[Lewis Howes]

You talk about truth. What is. I'm asking you the questions now, but I'm curious. With all the experience that you've had, you know, the success, the ups and downs, what is the truth for you?

[Bill Maher]

About what?

[Lewis Howes]

About what you've learned.

[Bill Maher]

About what? It's so broad.

[Lewis Howes]

About life. About life. What's the truth?

[Bill Maher]

Life.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah. What's the truth for you?

[Bill Maher]

You're gonna have to narrow this down. I mean, life is a very broad topic.

[Lewis Howes]

If you could give three truths about all of your experience, three truths, you.

[Bill Maher]

Know, like advice to people. Okay. I would. First of all, don't be a jack of all trades and a master of none, as the old saying went. Figure out what you're naturally good at and develop that. Because if you try to do something that you're not naturally awesome at to begin with from the get go given to you. You will fail because there are people who are the people who are just have the God given God, you know I'm kidding. Ability in something. They're just gonna always be that far ahead. And you know like athletes is a perfect example. You know if you're, you can have the greatest basketball skills and I do. But if you're five, eight, you're never going to play in the NBA. You know, just don't waste your time. You have to be awesome at it. And I mean even guards are six, six and up. I know Michael Jordan was six'six Magic Johnson was six'nine Luka is six'seven he's hulking. And LeBron basically plays point guard. The point forward, he's six. Whatever. You know, it's just, it's just not for you if you're not big and tall. So don't like work on that. Work on what you are already great at. And sometimes that's hard for people to figure out. And I imagine sometimes it's you know, something that's not that sellable. Yeah, you know, okay, that's one truth that's so. That's very important in life I feel like is develop what you're good at.

[Lewis Howes]

Don't you still play basketball even though you'll never make it?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, but I play it for fun.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know, I play with girls because I can beat them. I do. I'm 70. I play. I mean there's. Girls are good. They are, I play. They're. They're not bad. I just can beat them.

[Lewis Howes]

I mean you can't beat WNBA players.

[Bill Maher]

No, I didn't say that.

[Lewis Howes]

You can beat a 12 year old girl.

[Bill Maher]

Not a 12 year old girl. Girl. Good girl. But you know I was never in the pros and yeah, I mean but so that's truth. Okay, so that's one.

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[Bill Maher]

Brought to you by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. You ever notice how more and more people are stepping away from organized religion? It's like we all collectively realized, hey wait, I don't actually have to go to synagogue on Friday or church on Sunday. And boom, sleeping in one. But here's the thing. Not everyone's cool with this shift. Christian nationalism is on the rise and they're working overtime to shove their beliefs into our laws, our schools, even our personal lives. It's like, hey, I respect your right to believe whatever you want, just don't make me live by it. That's where the Freedom From Religion foundation comes in. They fight to keep church and state separate like our founding fathers actually intended. So whether you have always been secular or have left religion behind, believe in keeping faith out of government. FFRF has your back. Join us go to FFRF us freedom or text club to 511511 and become a member today. Text club to 511511 or go to FFRF dot us because the only thing worse than someone forcing religion on you is when they do it by law. For a membership information, Text Club to 511-511-Text fees may apply when you think of quintessential American foods, there's fried chicken, mashed potatoes, apple pie and the hamburger. And sure, the burger may have its roots in Germany, but boy have we taken that idea and run with with it. Now some people like their burgers fat and juicy and others like them smashed and slim. I'm for the slims personally, but hey, life is about choices. Well now Omaha Steaks is delivering their delicious Smash Burgers right to your home. They're pre smashed, no extra smashing required, no griddle or cast iron pan needed and they won't fall apart on the grill when you flip them. And right now you can get 16 free in the built for the grill pack at OmahaSteaks.com smash. These burgers are made from 100% premium aged Omaha Steaks beef for exceptional quality and flavor. They're also fast to make Omaha Steaks Smash Burgers go from freezer to bun in just five minutes. With over 100 years of expertise in the meat industry, this family owned company provides uncompromising quality. Get ready to smash expectations with new Omaha Steaks smash burgers. Visit omahastes.com smash and order the built for the grill pack with 16 free smash burgers. That's 16 free Omaha steak smash burgers at omahasteaks.com smash. See site for details.

[Lewis Howes]

I'll do the second one for you.

[Bill Maher]

Be a decent human for the sake of it and don't think that there's some ulterior reward or that the devil is poking you with a pitchfork. If you're bad or you're gonna get this, go to paradise. If you're good, just accept that you'll feel better about yourself. It actually helps all of humanity, which comes back to help you. Don't look for a giant reason to not be an asshole. Just don't be. Just don't fucking be an asshole. Just, you know, be. And that's a lot. That's a hard one for a lot of people to take because they do need that motivation to stay in line or to, you know.

[Lewis Howes]

Why do you feel you don't need that?

[Bill Maher]

I mean, maybe I did when I was younger or, you know, I don't know. It's just something you come to. I mean, I would make the case that atheists and agnostics are usually more ethically aligned than religious people, of course. Because religious people very often do the most horrendous things. I mean, a lot of wars, a lot of beheadings, torturings, burning people at the stake, lots of stuff that happens. Because you think the most important thing is that your God is the God and that you're so invested in that that it's not really the kind of thing where when another person says, no, I think my God is the God, you can just kind of let it go. You have to either kind of convert this person or kill them. That is the view that has been.

[Lewis Howes]

Those are extremists in the religions though, right?

[Bill Maher]

It's not like, okay, but there are times in history when extremists ruled the religions. They ruled the religions in Christianity in the 16th century. I think I was talking to somebody here. I don't know why we got onto this, but I was saying that, you know, Columbus discovered America in 1492. And then the next we hear about it is the first colony at Jamestown, 1607. What happened for that whole century? Why didn't they go back? Because they were killing each other in Europe. Because some of them were Protestants and some were Catholics and the entire 16th century was just fucking killing you over whether you think I need to go to a priest or I don't, or whether Jesus's foreskin ascended with them or it didn't, or this bullshit that people fight about. So, you know, I don't know why.

[Lewis Howes]

Do you think atheists or non religious individuals are more ethical?

[Bill Maher]

Because it's not about this bullshit, the first four commandments in the Bible or all about God's ego. Atheists don't give a shit about this. We don't care about praying to other gods in this nonsense. And oh God, don't let them hear you praying in the other room. Hey, you got another God in there, bitch. Fucking. Okay, you know why be ethical? Because if you're absent all the bullshit and the spiritual shit and the nonsense where you're really invested in who's the God and how we worship him, and your wisdom comes from books that were written 2000 years ago that don't even condemn slavery. If that's where your wisdom comes from, yes, your morality is going to be fucked up. Mine isn't. Because it doesn't come from books like that. It just comes from logic.

[Lewis Howes]

Where do you get logic from if it doesn't come from wisdom of the Bible? Well, just say wisdom of the past in general.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, it's a priori. It's just from living life. It's just from what makes logical sense.

[Lewis Howes]

But why live an integrous life at all? Why not just I'm going to do what I want to do and say what I want to say and live my life and I don't care what people think?

[Bill Maher]

Well, I mean you can, first of all, you can likely get arrested for doing the things that that would lead you to do. You know, that's. I mean, not always you could get away being a serial killer. They have, usually they find them after a while. Now they never really have them anymore because the forensics are so great. It's pretty good that they really have. It's a shame. Please give to the serial killer foundation. Give whatever you can. Because there are so many serial killers who'd like to be doing it, but they just can't do it anymore.

[Lewis Howes]

You think atheists live with more integrity or because of logic versus Yes.

[Bill Maher]

I mean all we have is morality. We don't have the bells and whistles and the nonsense about who's the God. I mean it's not about faith. And the definition of faith is the purposeful suspension of critical thinking. That's what you do when you are a Person of faith. They brag about it like it's a good thing. It's not a good thing, stupid. You're a human being. You have the ability to reason, use it. But it's.

[Lewis Howes]

Can't you do both, though, if you have critical thinking?

[Bill Maher]

Not really. Not really.

[Lewis Howes]

And then if you can't find a solution in your mind and there's no research or science to a solution to something that you're trying to solve, well, what solution?

[Bill Maher]

Like, to what?

[Lewis Howes]

I don't know. Healing. You know, if you feel like, oh, there's a disease and no doctor can help me cure, and then.

[Bill Maher]

Right. Neither will Christian Science.

[Lewis Howes]

Well, it might. Faith might.

[Bill Maher]

Faith might heal you.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah. Belief.

[Bill Maher]

Wow. And people listen to you. I'm kidding.

[Lewis Howes]

People have miracle healings all the time. Of their body, their sickness, their vein.

[Bill Maher]

Well, first of all, we don't know that. What we do know, I mean, I think people heal all the time. I think there's a place here where we are going to agree. But I wouldn't necessarily call it faith. Although. Yes, you're correct, some of it is that. Which is that there is a mind body connection.

[Lewis Howes]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

That I think is another reason why I'm skeptical of Western medicine, because I don't. Yes. I don't think they take that into account as nearly as much as they should.

[Lewis Howes]

They don't.

[Bill Maher]

It's why placebos work very often at the same rate as the pharmaceutical drug or better.

[Lewis Howes]

Sometimes. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Sometimes better, yeah. You know, somewhere I read this, some guy made a great point. He said, you know, 200 years ago, all they had was placebo. Because the doctors, of course, doctors, you know, these fucking.

[Lewis Howes]

Here's an herb. It's gonna help you.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, an herb. You were lucky. I mean, they would do things that were like water, they would put dirt on things and, you know, they would do the opposite of what would help very often, but because the person thought that it was helping.

[Lewis Howes]

Isn't that interesting?

[Bill Maher]

So in that sense, you are correct.

[Lewis Howes]

The way we think something influences the body to heal.

[Bill Maher]

Right. Unfortunately, I can't.

[Lewis Howes]

And where's the thought come from?

[Bill Maher]

Right.

[Lewis Howes]

Where's mine? Where is our mind? You know, when we're thinking, we have a brain and then we have a mind. Where is that all happening? Are we able to, with science, discover and understand all of it 100% yet? No.

[Bill Maher]

This is what neuroscientists are always working on.

[Lewis Howes]

Exactly.

[Bill Maher]

Where does that.

[Lewis Howes]

What I'm fascinated by.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, really?

[Lewis Howes]

I love having neuroscientists on to understand the emotional charge the physical charge in the body, the mind, the way we're thinking, influencing the brain chemistry, influencing the body to either be healthy or be out of alignment and create more cancer cells? And how can we create a thought process, a thinking environment that is more elevated, that is more in harmony with health versus out of harmony with health? And I think if you're thinking in faith or if you're thinking whatever else that's allowing you to think in harmony and to be more peaceful thinking rather than chaos thinking, your body typically is going to align to that. Not always. You know, it's not like it's 100%, but there's definitely been so many instances in my life where I'm thinking negatively and I'm thinking chaotically and my body responds in a similar fashion. And then I think more harmoniously, I think more peacefully, I think more forgiveness and the body feels better. And so where's that coming from? You know, why is that happening? And it's just, you know, I don't have all the answers. And I think that's where. Critical thinking. But you can also be a critical thinker and search.

[Bill Maher]

But are you suggesting that comes from a God?

[Lewis Howes]

I'm suggesting that it could. It could.

[Bill Maher]

We don't know. I mean, it could. Yeah. People think. Atheists believe dogmatically. There is no. All we're saying is we don't know and we don't believe in it. It's just atheism. We don't believe in it.

[Lewis Howes]

You don't believe it also. I mean, it could be a possible.

[Bill Maher]

The truth is we're apathetic about it. Our view is we don't know. We can never know. So we're not gonna just waste time, like, worrying about it or thinking about it. Just we don't know. And you just have to accept that. Yeah, but it seems unlikely. The virgin birth and whatever.

[Lewis Howes]

All the, you know, a lot of things seem unlikely. But I mean, it's like.

[Bill Maher]

Well, not to that degree.

[Lewis Howes]

Sure. Well, I mean, how did the world get here? You know, do we really know the answer to how we're here?

[Bill Maher]

Well, we know how the world got here. We don't know how the universe started. We know when. We know when the big.

[Lewis Howes]

Do we know exact day time?

[Bill Maher]

Like, we don't know. We know generally, yes, we know the Big Bang was.

[Lewis Howes]

We think we know.

[Bill Maher]

No, no, no, no. That they know. That they know. And that's not even the key question. We know that there was a big bang about 14 billion years ago. What we don't know Is why? What was before then? If there's some sort of universal mover, why did he choose this way to start the universe? You know, it just seems weird. But of course, it's on a level that we could never quite understand. But, yeah, there are lots of questions like that. We certainly know when our world came here. It's about. I mean, our sun is about 4 billion years old. We're about, I think, 3 1/2 billion. You know, the moon was a piece of the Earth that broke off. These are not hard things. What's hard is like, why did it all begin? Exactly. Why? Is there anything?

[Lewis Howes]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

And if there was nothing, wouldn't that be something? These are the kind of questions that just hurt your head 100%.

[Lewis Howes]

But that's also you can have. I like to think about and try to explore those conversations. And when I don't have an answer, I try to keep going deeper. And at the end of the day for me, whether it's 4 billion or 10 years ago or 20 billion years ago, that doesn't actually matter to me. What matters to me is can I live a peaceful, harmonious life? Can I live a life full of love, joy, abundance, inner freedom and have great experiences?

[Bill Maher]

But isn't that what I said? Just do it for the sake 100%, not because you're worried about a punishment or a reward, which is just something they made up.

[Lewis Howes]

I think you should do it for the sake no matter what. It doesn't mean there's not a God that we can still be grateful for our existence and.

[Bill Maher]

Grateful.

[Lewis Howes]

Are you grateful you're here?

[Bill Maher]

I am, but I've got a cushy life. I know a lot of people who aren't so grateful. Right. You know what? What? Where's God there?

[Lewis Howes]

Do you feel like it's a responsibility if we do have a cushy life to give and serve in greater levels?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

To try to lift others up who are struggling.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. And by the way, some of that is forced upon us, which is. Which I'm okay with. But when I say forced upon us, taxes or. Yes, I mean that. I don't remember the last year when I paid less than. I mean, what I'm trying to say is I pay more than half, they take more than half.

[Lewis Howes]

Especially here in California, I'm told I'm.

[Bill Maher]

Like, you know, if you were like a billionaire, it would be way better because they have ways of getting away from it and corporations.

[Lewis Howes]

But if you're just a mega millionaire, you're screwed. Here it's life it's horrible.

[Bill Maher]

It's not horrible. But don't tell me I don't pay taxes.

[Lewis Howes]

I'm not saying anything. No, no, but people do.

[Bill Maher]

You know, like the rich don't pay, don't pay taxes.

[Lewis Howes]

You pay a lot of taxes?

[Bill Maher]

More than half. Okay, that's between the state and. I live federal, trade everything. But if you just add up state and federal, it's already over 50. And then there's sales tax and it doesn't feel good. Yeah, but don't tell me that I'm not already contributing. Yes, there are lots of people going to the free clinic and places and Good. I'm not. Again, I'm not complaining about it. Just don't tell me it's not happening. And beyond that, of course, I also give to charities. The ones that, I mean, you care about? Yeah, of course. A lot of it. It's animals.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

People like really hate that. They're like, you know, the humans. I do, I like humans too, but I like animals more. I'm sorry. And they're more innocent and I don't know, it just pulls on my heartstrings and that's that. And you know it.

[Lewis Howes]

Do you have a lot of pets?

[Bill Maher]

Well, I have two dogs and somebody offered me a tortoise the other day. 98 years old.

[Lewis Howes]

You got the land for it?

[Bill Maher]

I do. I'm thinking about it strongly. I'll have a 98 year old tortoise.

[Lewis Howes]

That'd be cool.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, can you believe. 98 years old?

[Lewis Howes]

Incredible.

[Bill Maher]

I know. No, I, I, I wonder if he's.

[Lewis Howes]

Lived a good life.

[Bill Maher]

98. I wonder.

[Lewis Howes]

I, he's seen a lot, probably. I wonder what it's like.

[Bill Maher]

Well, I mean, they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but I, I'm hoping to get him out of his shell. Good night, everybody. No, but wouldn't that be cool to have, I mean, 90, 98 years old, this.

[Lewis Howes]

You should adopt it.

[Bill Maher]

No, I'm thinking about it. Seriously, you should.

[Lewis Howes]

I mean, what's holding you back from.

[Bill Maher]

I just got the message yesterday.

[Lewis Howes]

Okay.

[Bill Maher]

It's like it, it comes with his own house and his own heat lamp.

[Lewis Howes]

That, that turtle lived like a king back here. You know, you got the gardens back there. It's got grass, it's got carrots or whatever. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

I have two ducks that.

[Lewis Howes]

Incredible.

[Bill Maher]

They used to go in the pool. I let them for a while, which was a big mistake. Now I've trained them.

[Lewis Howes]

You train ducks?

[Bill Maher]

Sort of. They walk around the pool and they never go In.

[Lewis Howes]

How did you train a duck not.

[Bill Maher]

To swim when they, when they get. Because for a while when they were getting back in the pool, I would take one of the lemon, I would pickle the lemons off the lemon tree and I would throw it right near them. I never hit them. And of course it would scare them the fuck off.

[Lewis Howes]

Please stop.

[Bill Maher]

And they would fly away. And then after a while I hit it and I threw the thing in the water and they just, they didn't fly away. They just got out of the pool and they were like, okay, I get it. And now I never see them go in the pool. But they live, they have learned, do they? They don't live here, but they come here every day. They like to walk around there. It must be a safe place. It's a safe space.

[Lewis Howes]

Got a lot of acres here.

[Bill Maher]

Watch the turtle, kill them.

[Lewis Howes]

Be sweet if they had the ducks, rode the turtle, you know, and stood up.

[Bill Maher]

I got to get that picture.

[Lewis Howes]

That'd be amazing. That's cool. What would it take to get the turtle then? When, what makes you decide to do something or not?

[Bill Maher]

I don't know. Well, first of all, you got to live with it for a minute, you know, you don't just get a 98 year old turtle always. Come on, why not? You gotta think about it.

[Lewis Howes]

Come on, what's, what's I think about? It seems like an amazing experience, life experience.

[Bill Maher]

It does.

[Lewis Howes]

You care about animals.

[Bill Maher]

It's a big responsibility.

[Lewis Howes]

It's just gonna sit back there.

[Bill Maher]

I know, but like you got a.

[Lewis Howes]

Team, you got staff, you got people going to help out, right?

[Bill Maher]

I mean, I don't want it to die on my watch.

[Lewis Howes]

Oh my gosh.

[Bill Maher]

You know, I mean, no, I, I will give him, I mean, I was going to say, doesn't he need a mate? But I'm like, oh, 98, no, he's.

[Lewis Howes]

Not getting that thing up. He's, I don't know anything about turtles. Maybe, maybe he made for life tortoise.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, I mean, I don't know all.

[Lewis Howes]

Thing is this thing, it's like a massive.

[Bill Maher]

I, I, I saw the picture, it was not that big. But all I know is it's a big decision and when you're going to get a tortoise, you got to think about it slowly. Okay, that's, yeah, but I love, I mean, I see butterflies here. I mean when I was a kid, the world was teeming with nature, like butterflies. And now it's like, oh, if you see one, you're so excited. I know, I mean we're just killing everything. It's horrible.

[Lewis Howes]

Wolf, in the face of that, what excites you at this season of life, then, the most? Again, you've achieved and accomplished so much.

[Bill Maher]

You've met everyone.

[Lewis Howes]

Now that you've met Trump, you've met everyone. You've been invited to the White House. Isn't that interesting that you were never invited to the White House?

[Bill Maher]

I saw you. I was there. But I was there because I was doing the correspondence dinner in the 90s. It's not the same, but I do remember being in the White House because I have the picture of me and my mother and Clinton. That was exciting.

[Lewis Howes]

But none of them invited you.

[Bill Maher]

No, exactly.

[Lewis Howes]

Isn't that weird that you're in this world for so long and they never invited you?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, well, Obama, who is my basically favorite president, but he was not very helpful as far as, like, he never did my show when he did every other show. Why not? I had to. Well, I had to go on the air and beg him on my 60th birthday in his eighth year in office and shame him into it, basically. He did, and he finally did. But, you know, it was at the White House. It was in the interview room. It wasn't fun.

[Lewis Howes]

It wasn't a real.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, it wasn't in front of an audience. I mean, it could have been fun and funny if he came and did my show in the studio like he did many other shows. But he must have had someone around him saying, you know, I'm a very dangerous person, Louis. That's the thing. I'm a dangerous person who nobody can trust because I might tell the truth about something or ask a hard question.

[Lewis Howes]

Interesting.

[Bill Maher]

So, you know, they avoided me for all that time. So you're right. And I said that in the piece when I did it about, you know, and I know liberals, again, they don't like the truth, but that's the truth. It's like, as far as, like, just feeling free to just speak exactly how I feel. Yes. I felt freer to do that with Trump than Obama or Clinton.

[Lewis Howes]

You think Trump.

[Bill Maher]

And that's emblematic of the way the two parties have kind of switched as far as which one has the stick up their ass. Now, this doesn't say that the Democrats don't have better policy ideas. They do, but just on that level. And people vote on this level all the time. Like it used to be when I started in the 90s on that show Politically Incorrect, it was always the Pat Robertsons and the. And the, you know, the Reagan's and these kind of people who had the stick up their ass, the Moral Majority and the Jerry Falwells. And then it switched, and the people with the stick up their ass became the left. They're the ones who were the police on language and the police on how dare you not. You know, and so.

[Lewis Howes]

And you're all about.

[Bill Maher]

Trump is a kind of. I'm sorry, but in person, he's definitely the kind of guy, you know, you just feel like you can say anything and you don't have to, like, censor it. And I didn't. I didn't.

[Lewis Howes]

Would he let you interview him here on another show?

[Bill Maher]

He definitely wouldn't hear because I smoke pot, and he's just like you.

[Lewis Howes]

He had a brother drunk, right?

[Bill Maher]

He's never had a drink because. Also a brother.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah. That's interesting.

[Bill Maher]

Also a brother. The brother died of alcoholism.

[Lewis Howes]

That's interesting. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

Would you ever interview him on tv, you think, if he met you.

[Bill Maher]

Of course. He's the President of the United States. Are you crazy? I mean, he. Of course.

[Lewis Howes]

Did you ask him if he. If he.

[Bill Maher]

Well, no, but, you know, now you have his team.

[Lewis Howes]

You can talk to his team and ask him.

[Bill Maher]

I'll talk to him. Wow.

[Lewis Howes]

There you go. You have a cell.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

Has he been friendly since then? Even though you've kind of, like, attacked him a little here and there, or has he been.

[Bill Maher]

Look, we're not having a bromance here.

[Lewis Howes]

You're not?

[Bill Maher]

No. It's funny. Kid Rock brought me there.

[Lewis Howes]

I know.

[Bill Maher]

I heard that.

[Lewis Howes]

I saw that.

[Bill Maher]

He's the one who brought me. Okay, so like, a week before.

[Lewis Howes]

Seems like a nice guy.

[Bill Maher]

He's. I love him. You know what? I have no patience for people who just can't find friendship with people who don't agree with them. It's just. It's just. It's just a way to civil war, and I'm not going down that road. But like, a week before we were going, he. He texts me, Kid Rock. And he says. He shows me this picture. I may have told this story, but he shows this picture of a vintage guitar, kind of like that thing. And he's like, I got this for potus. Why don't we give it to him as a gift? And I texted back, bob, I'm not at the gift giving stage yet. Okay, let's see how the first. Let's see how the first date goes.

[Lewis Howes]

The first five minutes.

[Bill Maher]

And like, that's. No. And. But, you know, to their credit, they both understood that. Yeah, we're going to have this dinner. Partly the perfect choice because I was the hardest one on him and I was the one who said he was never going to leave office. So like I had this standing. But they both understood.

[Chumba Casino Ad]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

When the dinner's over, Bill goes back to his day job and he is. What they, I think they like about me is that what other people like and some people don't, is that I don't pull my punches. I'm going to call it as I see it and I do it without malice.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know, but you're not going to like turn me into something, you know, I went to that dinner, had a good time and then I kept my honor. That's the truth. I kept my honor. That's right. And you know, I'm kind of over it now. But he is a guy who like everything with him, I think, especially from his upbringing and his work in New York and real estate and stuff. It's really always a lot about personal relationships. Right. I mean to, to a degree, every president or leader. I guess that's true. You know, if, if, you know, I remember George Bush used to love, or Reagan was it loved late Margaret Thatcher in England and you know, okay, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton were buddies and you can be buddies and. But this guy, I think more than most like you, you gotta, it's in.

[Lewis Howes]

His DNA to be about relationships.

[Bill Maher]

So I just feel like it's better to have relationships with people than not. And some people, you know, just think, you know, well, let's just run out of the room screaming, I'm not talking to you.

[Lewis Howes]

That doesn't solve anything.

[Bill Maher]

It really doesn't. I mean, I'm sure you get lots of inter family issues. I mean, do you ever get people asking you about, my husband voted for Trump and I didn't and we can't get along. We can't get over that.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah, I mean, I'm not a therapist.

[Bill Maher]

Or anything, but it's like, does that come up?

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah, I mean, people ask, well, I'll bring an expert in to kind of talk about that. And I'm more about how can we be our most authentic selves and come from a loving, compassionate way. And so I, and say, listen, I want to hear what you're talking about, what your political views are, whatever. And I don't even talk politics because I don't understand it. I'm thinking about how can I live the most free, harmonious life and create that within my community? How can I set my health up? How can I set my Mind up to feel free on a daily basis and not be worried about what is happening or what the latest drama is. Things I can't control today. But I do know I can wake up and I can eat well and I can move my body and I can go to bed at a good time and I can say nice things and I can do things.

[Bill Maher]

You must concede that politics is always going to intrude on some of this because this is if you allow it. But a lot of this country, everything is politics. I mean there are people hearing this now who are saying, well, that's easier for you, you're white. That's politics. That gets into politics.

[Lewis Howes]

There's always going to be people that are going to attack you for whatever reason. They don't like you or say you have money, you don't understand what it's like. You know, I was that too.

[Bill Maher]

Yes.

[Lewis Howes]

Whatever it might be, you have money, you have a TV show, you should have nothing to complain about, whatever it is. But I dealt with sexual abuse when I was a kid. You know, I experienced. That was one of my first memories is being abused by a man that I didn't know sexually. My brother went to prison.

[Bill Maher]

How old were you?

[Lewis Howes]

It's five. Five year old, my brother.

[Bill Maher]

You have that memory every day.

[Lewis Howes]

Since that day I've had that memory in my mind. I could relive that moment.

[Bill Maher]

How long did it go on for?

[Lewis Howes]

It's probably 20 minutes.

[Bill Maher]

I mean over time.

[Lewis Howes]

It's just one time.

[Bill Maher]

Just one time.

[Lewis Howes]

It's one time probably like a 20 minute experience over one time.

[Bill Maher]

An uncle, but it was.

[Lewis Howes]

No. As a babysitter's son. It's probably about 16, 17 year old. I was 5.

[Bill Maher]

Really.

[Lewis Howes]

And do stuff. Yeah, stuff that, I mean, I don't want to talk about it publicly. I, I just, I, I've shared that I've been sexually abused, but I don't want to relive the whole story. But that was my, one of my first memories as a child, no matter how much success in sports I gained was like, huh? But why is something still off? And when I started to turn around and face, you know, those dark parts of me and start to heal through workshops and therapy and processes and meditation and just anything I could find, I started to create harmony through healing. And it took a long time and it's a journey. But that harmony is something that I think I was always seeking. And it doesn't mean every day I'm perfect and I don't go through challenges and I don't get stressed and, you know, get angry still. But it is a more consistent baseline of peace. And I think that's what most people want, whether they're broken and have no resources. They want to feel free, abundant and peaceful. And you probably know a lot of millionaires, billionaires, people in political power, athletes, celebrities who have it all but are miserable or still are not free.

[Bill Maher]

The guy on. Did you ever watch Succession on hbo?

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah, it was so great, great show.

[Bill Maher]

Logan Roy.

[Lewis Howes]

Great show.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. The Patriot.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah, of course.

[Bill Maher]

Who they're trying to succeed and he's a billionaire and he's got everything, every single. Just so angry. How long are we going to be circling? You know, he's in a private plane and they're circling and his blood pressure is going through the roof. And it's like these. I've. You asked me, you know, a lot.

[Lewis Howes]

Of these people truths.

[Bill Maher]

I maybe never got to the third one. Yeah, I'm sure I could.

[Lewis Howes]

What is the third one?

[Bill Maher]

Many more. But one of them would be. I don't know if it would be three, but if you have 99% of what you could possibly want, don't obsess about the 1%. You don't.

[Lewis Howes]

That's good. That's good.

[Bill Maher]

And there are so many people. There are so many Logan Roy's and I've met them. Did you know them that you know? And there are other ones who are not, you know, I know Jeff Bezos a bit. He's a happy warrior.

[Lewis Howes]

Seems pretty peaceful.

[Bill Maher]

Not just peaceful. He like, loves his girl, you know, that's a real thing. And you know, he's just, just. He's like the nerd who got a hot chick and now and worked like, you know, very hard. And he still works a lot, like she tells me, but like he's just. But that's the way to do it. Yeah, but there's a lot of people we know. But there are Logan Roy who just.

[Lewis Howes]

It's never enough.

[Bill Maher]

It's. It's the. They seem to be only happy when they're unhappy. That's it. And because that's familiar, that's sort of also what I always thought about. To go back to what we were talking about in New York and la. I always thought that that was kind of very characteristic of New Yorkers. You're not really happy unless you're unhappy. You know, when you think about.

[Lewis Howes]

And it's what's familiar. And when we go into. Even when we go into peace, it's so unfamiliar. If we go from chaotic relationship to chaotic relationship into a healthy relationship. It almost feels like something's wrong because you've never felt health, you've never felt peace. You've never felt someone accepting you or just being okay with your flaws and not making you change or not getting angry at you if you're not doing something for them all the time. And you're like, wait, something wrong. Because it's peaceful.

[Bill Maher]

I gotta send you a song. I'm sure you're too young to know, but you know who Paul Simon is.

[Lewis Howes]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

Simon and Garfunkel.

[Lewis Howes]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

Amazing solo career. He wrote a song called Something so Right. He recorded it. Barbra Streisand recorded it. If something goes wrong I'm the first to admit it the first one to admit it and the last one to know. If something goes right it's liable to lose me Apt to confuse me it's such an unusual sight.

[Lewis Howes]

Interesting.

[Bill Maher]

It's a great song. About this exact subject.

[Lewis Howes]

You know, that's a guy who's dealt with trauma, you know, or confusion or struggle or stress or. It doesn't mean you're not living in a nice home. You can still have inner struggle and inner trauma, even though you're provided for and even though you have money and you have nice things, you could be living in a psychological war.

[Bill Maher]

That's a conundrum a lot of people have who are enjoying a good life, and then they're unhappy for some reason, and they feel guilty about feeling unhappy because they know there are people who have it even worse.

[Lewis Howes]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

And you have to find a middle ground there between. Yes. People have it worse. And also, your pain is real, too.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

If you feel like shit. Yeah. Does it help to have money when you feel like shit? Yes. I can absolutely throw the flag on this one, because I've lived both. I've been poor and unhappy, and I've been rich and unhappy. And being rich and unhappy is better than being poor and just is. It just is.

[Lewis Howes]

But it also amplifies things. It amplifies challenges, stress, problems by having more.

[Bill Maher]

Well, yeah, but you, like. You can go out to dinner and of course, you know, go, reach. I'm not a retail therapy person, really, but people do that.

[Lewis Howes]

But at the end of the day, no matter how much you spend or buy, it still doesn't make you happy with what's going on. So it's almost like a bigger mind. Because you're like, I should be happier with this money, and I'm still not.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. But while you're going through something like a breakup or Something, Yes.

[Lewis Howes]

It's just better to have money than not to.

[Bill Maher]

It's better to have money for everything.

[Lewis Howes]

But unless you abuse it and you're like, I'm gonna go buy drugs and alcohol and just destroy myself. Then you're like, what am I doing? So it depends on how you learn to manage your stress.

[Bill Maher]

But we're back to that. That you can't really organize life around what the dumbest people will do with something. That's true. Yes, there are people who will abuse anything. But that doesn't mean you should prohibit it from the people who know how to use Free world.

[Lewis Howes]

Do what you want, you know? But it's like, how can we. And my whole thing goes back to how can we create inner harmony, inner freedom, inner peace of mind. When we're dealt with stress, chaos, overwhelm, breakups, trauma, bankruptcies, whatever, it might be like we're all going to go through different stuff, but how do we get back to a centered, grounded place of harmony? Well, and how do we influence that in the people we love and care about the best way we can?

[Bill Maher]

A lot of people work on your side of the street, say meditation.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Like, that's a big thing.

[Lewis Howes]

I love meditation. I love prayer, meditation, whatever allows you to get back into center peace.

[Bill Maher]

Prayer and meditation, you say they're in the same breath.

[Lewis Howes]

I love prayer and meditation. I've been meditating for a long time and I've been praying for a long time. They're different. But I look at meditation. I don't know what you say prayer is. I look at prayer as more of gratitude. For me, it's not about like, help me, God, fix some problem. It's that for me, prayer is not solve my problem. For me, prayer is I'm grateful and I trust. I'm grateful and I trust. And I'm gonna be taking the action steps to see what unfolds to get back to a place of harmony or figure out the problem that I'm dealing with in the material or my inner world. I'm going to get back to a place. And meditation is more about not thinking about really God or anything. For me, it's more about breathing and being connected to self and kind of calming nervous system and really allowing myself to feel peace so that I can make a clear decision in my life or just feel more peaceful because I think a lot of people don't feel peace. And meditation is a place where I think it can support the process.

[Bill Maher]

Are you able to, when you meditate, like, clear your mind of all thoughts.

[Lewis Howes]

Not every time, but I think there's, you know, times where I can do that for moments, but then thoughts come back in. And it's not about clearing of all thoughts. I think it's really about calming thoughts, like calming the chaotic thoughts and feeling more peace. That's what it is. And I think when we can make decisions from a more peaceful place or a calmer place, as opposed to angry, resentful, scarce place, we tend to make better decisions. And if we make better decisions, we live a better life.

[Bill Maher]

Well, maybe I'm meditating wrong. I don't know. I don't really meditate, but sometimes a.

[Lewis Howes]

Lot of atheists meditate.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, I. I think it's a great thing, but I just think.

[Lewis Howes]

Sam Harris has got a great podcast. Meditation.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, no, no, meditation's a real thing. I just think some people are easier.

[Lewis Howes]

It's a practice. It didn't happen naturally.

[Bill Maher]

Practitioners of it.

[Lewis Howes]

I mean, I wasn't like, oh, I'm.

[Bill Maher]

Gifted, but some people's minds. I think it has. It's connected to the. The way some people can be hypnotized and some people cannot. I was once.

[Lewis Howes]

Have you been hypnotized? Well, I've never been hypnotized.

[Bill Maher]

When we were. I was making this movie, Religionless in 2007, and one of the bits we were going to put in the movie but did not was I really. They had a guy that hypnotized me and I really wanted to be hypnotized. He couldn't do it. Some people just can't. They just have a mind that doesn't go there.

[Lewis Howes]

I've had. Yeah, I've never been able to do it either. But I think you could be self hypnotized. I think you can hypnotize yourself more.

[Bill Maher]

Really?

[Lewis Howes]

Yes, I've done. And I think it's not the way it looks where it's like, oh, I'm going to go to sleep. And, you know, the hypnotist shtick, it's more of a. I'm going to visualize and become more hypnotic towards a belief that I have a vision that I have something I want to create in my life.

[Bill Maher]

And I've created different manifesting.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah, just creating what you want.

[Bill Maher]

Believe in that.

[Lewis Howes]

I believe in manifesting.

[Bill Maher]

And I really.

[Lewis Howes]

I mean, it depends what your term. You know, what the definition of manifesting.

[Bill Maher]

Is, but I don't know. I always thought it was just something chicks say.

[Lewis Howes]

Well, I think you've manifested everything in your life.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, but I mean, Everything in this.

[Lewis Howes]

This building is a manifestation of a thought that you've had. You thought, I want to have a home one day. And you were once in New York, and then you moved to la. And then you and said, I want to look at something. And I have a vision. I wanted to have space, and it would like to be five acres, and I'd like to have property where there's no noise. And, you know, and you said, oh. And then you found this place based on a thought and an intention. And you showed up and the realtor showed it to you or whatever it was, and you said, this is mine. And you worked hard for the money you made to get this physical space. That's a manifestation of an idea.

[Bill Maher]

I don't know about that. It could be. I don't remember ever picturing anything like this. This property came to me because somebody was moving because the husband had gotten too old to take the stairs. And they knew my manager and said, this place would be perfect for Bill. I think they manifested it. Well, I don't think it was me. They did because it was a house that was perfect for one person. It was a nice house. But, you know, I mean, but you manifest.

[Lewis Howes]

You've done tons of movies and your TV shows.

[Bill Maher]

You had a vision done to movies, but you've had. All the movie posters around here are fake.

[Lewis Howes]

But you've had a vision for your show. You've got a vision for the guest you want to have on and what you want to ask them and any moments you want to create in the segments. And you think about it.

[Bill Maher]

I've always.

[Lewis Howes]

You intend it and then you create it. That's manifesting in my mind.

[Bill Maher]

I never got married because I'm married to my work.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And, you know, that's okay. You know, that's. That's not for everybody. But. But I also must say I've read a number of health books where they're listing all the things that are good for your health, and I kind of resent it. Being married or not being married, when number 47 is, you know, get married and find the. It's like, for you, for you, that would make you happier and healthier. It's like, don't put it in the fucking book on how everybody can be happier and healthy. I'm not saying, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. I'm yelling at you. You're not the guy who did this. But I've read that in more than one place. You know, like, okay, that's for you. We're all so Different, Absolutely. We are all very idiosyncratic human beings.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

That's why I don't want one for all vaccines or one for all anything.

[Lewis Howes]

I agree with you.

[Bill Maher]

Okay.

[Lewis Howes]

I agree with you there. Yeah. I mean, for me, it's.

[Bill Maher]

Do you get shit about that? About what vaccines?

[Lewis Howes]

I don't really talk about it myself. I mean, I have different doctors on and experts on to talk about those things. For me, it's more about what makes sense. For me, you know, I grew up not getting vaccinated through my religion, Christian Science. I didn't have any shots until I was like 24. And I went to Mexico and got like a shot to go, you know, and I've been to Ghana and I've had to take different shots and things like that.

[Bill Maher]

But how'd you live?

[Lewis Howes]

How did you survive effortlessly, you know?

[Bill Maher]

And how can you still be here?

[Lewis Howes]

You know?

[Bill Maher]

Oh, my God.

[Lewis Howes]

I had no medication.

[Bill Maher]

You must be the luckiest person in the world. World.

[Lewis Howes]

I had no medications. I had no shots.

[Bill Maher]

Oh, no. And I. You mean you use the human immune system.

[Lewis Howes]

Just developed it, you know, And I also. I also got chicken pox. Like there was a chicken pox or measles outbreak.

[Bill Maher]

So did I.

[Lewis Howes]

And we all needed them.

[Bill Maher]

When I was a kid, they used to try to give them to the kids, right?

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah, My sister got them. They gave it to me. They had me sitting there with them.

[Bill Maher]

And I understand that there can be harmful effects from getting the measles.

[Lewis Howes]

I understand. Yeah. I'm not. I. I think whatever's been tested for a long time and if it's, something that's, you know, recommended, like, for me, I wasn't going to go to Africa and not get a shot or just don't go. But I wanted to go. I was building schools for kids and I wanted to be there. And it was like I knew the risks that I could get sick, so I needed to take the shots and.

[Bill Maher]

Hopefully prevent that, you know, as long as we're on this. My view on measles, for example, is because people get very upset about the measles issue, is, you know, when I was a kid, we all got the measles and nobody worried about it. And that's because when I was a kid, we didn't eat processed foods and we weren't basically unhealthy. So everybody got through the measles. It just wasn't a thing. Fast forward to today. I get it, why parents are worried that kids aren't going to get the measles and have Some deleterious effect because you're unhealthy to begin with.

[Lewis Howes]

Yes.

[Bill Maher]

Because you've had too much processed foods and possibly too many vaccines and you don't have a robust immune system. I don't know. I'm not saying that for sure. I'm saying it's a possibility. And don't try to ward me off saying that that's a possibility, because it is. Everything's a possibility. And we are just basically more unhealthy than we used to be. A lot. Everything that's in the air and the water, what we breathe, the plastics, the fucking fungus, every fucking thing is worse than it used to be. So something like meas comes along and you're already compromised, or Covid, you know, when you're already compromised. This is just common sense kind of medicine, then things like that are opportunistic. They want to win. And in a normal human immune system they don't. But the way we are today. Yeah, but what's the answer to that? To go more down the road?

[Lewis Howes]

To get healthier first?

[Bill Maher]

I think so. To get healthier first, what's your health program like? Your physical health? Because I just had dinner two nights ago with Brian Johnson.

[Lewis Howes]

Oh, how was that?

[Bill Maher]

Who also was here. And I like Brian a lot and it was a very fascinating dinner. More of what we talked about here, if you don't know. Brian's the guy who's 47, but he's.

[Lewis Howes]

Wants to live to a 200 or never die.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, he claims to be, and I don't think he's lying. I think he's a very smart and honest guy. Certainly about this, there's some.

[Lewis Howes]

He's studying it.

[Bill Maher]

The most shit about his personal life, but that's his personal life. But he wants to, you know, be the healthiest person ever. And so he lives in incredibly regimented, what I would find to be a ridiculous kind of unreachable life, but he does it. Goes to bed at 8:00 at night. It only eats one meal or whatever and it's only lentils. And I mean, it's just crazy. And monitors his health 24 7. I mean, this guy. And I said to him, how was the dinner?

[Lewis Howes]

Was it good?

[Bill Maher]

It was awesome. And I like Brian. I said to him here and I said to him there, look, we can't do this. But I'm glad you're doing it because you're on the forefront of finding out what we can do with the human body. And what if we did do? We could live More and longer and better and more healthy. And he monitors himself at an incredible level. He was telling us, you know, my liver is 18 years old and my dick is 12 and my heart is 19. And I'm sure he's right, you know, but who could live that well? Brian, he can very sure can do that. I'm glad he can.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah. I mean again I keep going back to, I keep interviewing these people, people like Brian as well. And I keep trying to seek more information to find ways to stay in a beautiful relationship with the world. And that starts with a beautiful relationship with myself. Feeling good about myself. A beautiful. Learning how to be in relationship with others I think makes me healthier as opposed to horrible relationships doesn't help my health. And so relationship is an important thing. My relationship to money, relationship to my wife, relationship to my body, relationship to food, like relationship is important and having a healthy interaction with those relationships. So I think about, for me, I'm more of an 8020 guy. You know, I think I'm probably, you know, not with like weed or whatever, but I'm more like in moderation of food and things like this. I still want to travel and adventure and try things, but I really like getting seven, eight hours of sleep. I think sleep is the greatest way to heal your body.

[Bill Maher]

It is to sleep. That's not an opinion.

[Lewis Howes]

And I'm, I'm all about trying to eat 80% of whole foods, healthy foods, non processed, minimally processed foods. I just think that's the way to go. My vice has always been sugar. So it's like I still have sugar and I eat candy and things like that.

[Bill Maher]

Worst.

[Lewis Howes]

But it's one of the worst things for me.

[Bill Maher]

So it's really.

[Lewis Howes]

I'm never going to be perfect, but it's like an 8020 type of thing. And I don't drink.

[Bill Maher]

You got to live.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah. So I mean I don't drink alcohol, I don't smoke, I don't do drugs, I don't do these things.

[Bill Maher]

I'm glad Brian's doing what he's doing. Yeah, he's doing great, but it's just not, I mean he must have what I said earlier in the day, earlier in the show about like develop what your, your natural big thing is.

[Lewis Howes]

He's great at that.

[Bill Maher]

His natural big thing is self discipline. He obviously has, somebody asked him at the dinner like, you know, you only eat this meal like, like maybe he has two. But like he gets up at 4:30 in the morning. Probably the LA. Because you're healthier the less you eat later.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

So he probably has, like, you know, his last meal. So many hours.

[Lewis Howes]

Noon or something.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, Ex. And they said, what do you do when you get hungry? And his answer was, I feel good about it. You know, I feel good about being hungry because I know I'm doing the right thing. And I'm like, most people are not born with that level of discipline. And, you know, again, I don't even want to be. When he was here, I said, brian, like, how many years have you shaved off your life living like this? And I think he said six. And I was like, I've saved three, and I'm smoking pot all day. No, I'm not doing it all day. But, you know, it's like, what good is a Ferrari if it's always in the garage? It's interesting, you know, I mean, your body is a Ferrari, but what the fuck?

[Lewis Howes]

But if you can't run it, you can't, like, rev it up and let.

[Bill Maher]

It go, let it take it out. And of course, I saw that he.

[Lewis Howes]

Went to, like, he, like, went to a dance party or something and hurt himself. And now he's like, I don't dance anymore. Something like that. But it's like, if you can't enjoy it at the highest level, I mean.

[Bill Maher]

He does enjoy his life because he gets up in the morning and does a lot of physical activities with his kid.

[Lewis Howes]

It's enjoyable for him.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, for him, exactly. You know, just let us all be us.

[Lewis Howes]

And it's. I can also learn from him. There's a lot of wisdom in the kingdom.

[Bill Maher]

That's what I mostly love about Brian Johnson is that, like, he is a font of wisdom. And, you know, it's, again, a personal relationship I have now. I can call. I can text him and say, you know, Brian, is this really true about Hyperbaric Chambers? I hear they're really good. I know Michael Jackson had one, and one is he made a bad decision.

[Lewis Howes]

Oh, man. This is. Speaking of all the people you've met over the years, if you could put three people in a room, three of, like, the most interesting people in a room.

[Bill Maher]

I can't answer this question.

[Lewis Howes]

Who would you put in a room?

[Bill Maher]

I can't.

[Lewis Howes]

Just to see what the conversation is going to be.

[Bill Maher]

Louis, that's like the ultimate.

[Lewis Howes]

Like, the three most unique people are five.

[Bill Maher]

I can't.

[Lewis Howes]

Come on.

[Bill Maher]

I can't.

[Lewis Howes]

It's got to be.

[Bill Maher]

I can't answer that question. If you name some people, I'll give you my opinion on it, but I'm not Going to say, okay, Jesus, no.

[Lewis Howes]

People you've never met, people you know, people on your phone. Let's say people you've met or hung out with.

[Bill Maher]

Well, first of all, I'm never going to answer that question. Question. Because the people I don't mention call me the next day and say, why aren't I on the list? That's that, that, that's a trap question. Oh, man. But you know, more for like, what.

[Lewis Howes]

Would be the most crazy conversation to have? Not the most like, fun conversation of like, oh, my three friends that all think the same, but like Trump and then someone else and you know, who would it be?

[Bill Maher]

That's what I do for a living, bro.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah, I mean, why you want to get Trump on this?

[Bill Maher]

You know, I mean, look, I, I don't even think it's that interesting anymore because, I mean, he's the headline in the news every day, whatever he does. I mean, that was, you know, again, one of my arguments against the crazy people who thought, don't go there. I'm like, really? This guy has dominated, dominated, whether you like him or hate him, dominated American life for 10 years in a way. I don't remember anybody ever dominating the life. You wouldn't want to have dinner with him. You wouldn't want to see that up close. Really? Really. Then you're just not a curious person.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

And so, you know, it wouldn't be him. We know what he's up to. Look, the reason I love this podcast is because I get to talk to you. Who I never would have been able to do that probably. It just happens that I have a day job at hbo. I don't have time to work on this. I just told them I will show up here at 5:30 on Wednesday and have somebody interesting for me to talk to. And God bless them, they almost never fail. Now also, I can talk to anybody. I mean, I've done shows with children. I can talk to 10 year olds and have a good time. You get a joint in me and a couple of drinks. I really could.

[Lewis Howes]

I'd done to anyone.

[Bill Maher]

But I also like to talk to somebody like you who I can have an intellectual conversation. It's just on a different level. Can I talk to the hawk? To a girl? Yes. And I did, and it was great and fun and funny. But this is, you know, I obviously, you know, the more you get on in life, the more you can have interesting intellectual conversations. And I think that's mostly what my audience wants to hear.

[Lewis Howes]

I got a question for you. I don't Know if you've ever thought something like this, you probably have because you think about everything, everything. But how old are you about to be? Are you just turned, you had a birthday party?

[Bill Maher]

I'm gonna be 70. So I, I'm saying, I'm saying now I am because I feel like it takes a year to get used to a new decade.

[Lewis Howes]

Wow, okay, so this is, this is I'm interested in, but I really don't.

[Bill Maher]

Give a anymore because it's not how old you are, it's how old you act and hold how old the people you're with. I'll just leave that out there.

[Lewis Howes]

Okay.

[Bill Maher]

You know.

[Lewis Howes]

Well, here's my question for you. That's what I'm curious about. You know, you've got a wisdom and tons of experience. I'm curious if you ever think about like when you hit 70, if you ever think about what you'll think at 80, like what your 80 year old self will think about or what advice your 80 year old self would give you if you can think about now. If when you turned 60, you know, almost 10 years ago, where you were then and where you are now, would you have given yourself advice with the wisdom you have now from 70 to 60 versus what 80 year old you would give at 70?

[Bill Maher]

I mean, you know, life is walking down a very dark tunnel where everything behind you is well lit because you've been there and everything ahead of you is pretty dark and you're walking like this because you can't see it. And then, oh yeah, that's well lit. I know what happened. So I feel like each decade you get a little better at that. You get a little better at seeing what's ahead, but you still just don't know, really, you don't know.

[Lewis Howes]

What excites you about the new decade though.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, again, I live day by day.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah, you're not thinking that far ahead.

[Bill Maher]

I really don't. Because we could be here. I could not be here. I mean really, I mean, the world could not be here. We just. Or it could be all solved. You know, AI could, the robots could take over and we were all so afraid of them, but they're really very benign. They keep me living forever and they solved all the problems and you know, I mean, what I've learned is that it's almost a fool's errand to predict 10 years ahead because no human can. And almost all those predictions are wrong. Very few. The one guy who got a few things right, Ray Kurzweil, you know him, Ray Kurzweil he wrote the book the Singularity about and he predicted that humans and machines would become sort of interdependent in 2028. He looks like he's almost right on the money.

[Lewis Howes]

It's getting close.

[Bill Maher]

Predicted when the Soviet Union would fall. I mean, this is a really smart guy.

[Lewis Howes]

And is there anything you predicted when you hit 60 in the last decade, like things you wanted to create for your life? Not talking about the world, but like, I want to create this and I'm.

[Bill Maher]

Going to create this. I already had what I wanted at 60, which was the best job in the world, the doing what I do on hbo. Best job in the world that I can every week talk exactly how I feel to a very loyal audience. Get well paid for it, make it funny, I mean, enjoy it. And I love the process of putting the show together. I'm a process person, you know, so I love Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you know, that it gets better, better, better until I go out there and deliver it. And I love making my audience happy. I love them expecting me to do a certain thing and me producing and giving that to them, that is, that is my ultimate joy probably in life. So like, I just want to keep doing that. I mean, I don't really have ambitions. I was on the road for 40 years and just this year stopped doing that. Really haven't missed it that much, you know, because you do change when you, when you go through life. And I miss performing, I miss being on stage, I miss getting the laughs for the real live audience. But I have a show every week I get, I do a monologue every week I get that fix anyway. It's, it wasn't worth the travel and you. And it takes a lot to maintain an act. So, you know, I just, I just. When you're 70, mostly what you're thinking about is how do I keep my health? Because life is better than it was when, when I was young. When I was young I was stupid and like poor and lots of bad things. Night life is better. But of course you have to worry more than you did when you were 20.

[Lewis Howes]

Your health. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know, that something shit's gonna happen.

[Lewis Howes]

What's, what's missing for you at this age?

[Bill Maher]

Nothing.

[Lewis Howes]

Nothing's missing. Nothing you want or no, like relationship or this?

[Bill Maher]

No, I've got, I mean, you got.

[Lewis Howes]

The properties, you got the career properties.

[Bill Maher]

I don't care about properties.

[Lewis Howes]

But you got the turtle coming maybe, you know, the 98 year old. You left something older than you here, you know, to be great.

[Bill Maher]

No I mean, I don't want to.

[Lewis Howes]

There's nothing that's missing in your life.

[Bill Maher]

No, I don't. You know, let's not knock. Let's knock wood and not say, there's a movie you probably also haven't seen called Broadcast News. It's great. James Brooks did it, and the news guy in it, William Hurd, he says at one point, what do you do when your dreams exceed your expectations? And Albert Brooks says, shut up about it. You know, don't tempt fate. You know, things are going good. I've seen it too many times where it turns the Ferris wheel, always comes around to the bottom, you know, so just don't like. I'm not greedy. I'm not a greedy person. You know, I don't need more than I have. I have a good lot. I'm super lucky. I'm very philosophical about what I have. Some people say, well, you worked for it. I did. But I'm also born the person who would work for it. Some person. People are just not born that way. So when you say, I worked for it. Yes, but it's also sort of. It was in your DNA. It was built into the cake to begin with. And I was lucky to get that.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know, not everybody is. Not everybody can. Not everybody, as we were saying before, has some great thing they can develop. Like, I did know when I was less than 10 years old that I was going to be a comedian. Interesting. You know, I knew this is what I wanted to do. That's lucky. Most I know kids who are in their 20s and still can't, they're not stupid. They have talents, but they just don't know where to direct them.

[Lewis Howes]

Right.

[Bill Maher]

I was lucky. I was always going to. Like, even when I was in college, I was like, what the fuck am I doing here? What the fuck am I doing here? I'm gonna be a comedian. This is not helping me. I remember having that anxiety a lot, sitting in my dorm room at Cornell, like, what the fuck? I'm taking Greek history. It's great. I'm enjoying it. You know, I like academia. And of course, as it turned out, it was great to get a good education because it did help me ultimately with my job. But at the time, I was like, no, I know what I want to do.

[Lewis Howes]

That's interesting.

[Bill Maher]

That's a key thing.

[Lewis Howes]

Is there anything you regret from the last few decades that you missed out.

[Bill Maher]

On or you did a thousand things, really. I never understand these people who say, I have no regrets.

[Lewis Howes]

What is your big. What's your top two that you think of off the top.

[Bill Maher]

I mean, we could spend all night talking about this.

[Lewis Howes]

Just one or two then from.

[Bill Maher]

From how long ago?

[Lewis Howes]

Last couple decades. Yeah. From 50 to 69.

[Bill Maher]

I'm not going to get specific about this.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

But the life I started to live at 60, I wish I lived. Started to live at 50, and I'm just gonna leave it at that.

[Lewis Howes]

Okay.

[Bill Maher]

But, like, I do beat myself up about that. Like, I could have enjoyed my 50s a lot more if I had just realized, oh, I could live like this now. But you can't beat yourself up about how dumb you were before you got smart. You just were. And it just is. You know, I'm not the smartest person in the world. I'd be the first to admit it. And I'm also someone who, like, often it takes a while to get me there. Like, I'm not the quickest study, slow learner, but once I get there, boy, do I get it.

[Lewis Howes]

You're all in. Now you're like, let's go.

[Bill Maher]

Once I have it locked in.

[Lewis Howes]

So would you never get married?

[Bill Maher]

Well, come on, why would you at 70? I mean, that's kind of crazy.

[Lewis Howes]

Why would you never have a life partner and say, like, hey, we are in a union and we're living, you know, we're living together. Like, we're married. Maybe not. Not legally married, but would you have a life partner?

[Bill Maher]

I'm in love. I believe in love. That's all. Everything else is just bureaucratic.

[Lewis Howes]

What does that mean? Would you have a partner, though? A life partner, like a. A relationship long term that you'd be in.

[Bill Maher]

You think I'm good right now. I'm good right now.

[Lewis Howes]

Would you be open to possibility if it was like, it felt like the right thing for you?

[Bill Maher]

I'm open to the reality. I'm good with the reality. It's just like, why. Why are we bringing the government into my private life?

[Lewis Howes]

I understand the government. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

You know, now if I wanted to have kids, but, you know, would you have kids at 70? What? That's.

[Lewis Howes]

First of all, De Niro or who had kid recently.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. Dero and Pacino.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Why wouldn't you? Well, first of all, I haven't been in any of the Godfathers.

[Lewis Howes]

Also, you have no desire for kids.

[Bill Maher]

I've never had a desire for kids. And so I don't think that's going to change. Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

And what if you got someone pregnant?

[Bill Maher]

Well, I text everybody I know.

[Lewis Howes]

No, what if that was somebody you were dating, was like, oh, I'm pregnant. What would you say? And you were like, we're about. You're better be a father whether you like it or not.

[Bill Maher]

Well, now you've really thrown the gauntlet down.

[Lewis Howes]

I got her to chuckle in the back. There's someone like, laughing in the background, listening.

[Bill Maher]

People from all over the world are laughing right now.

[Lewis Howes]

What would happen if someone's like, oh, I'm gonna have a child in six months?

[Bill Maher]

Well, first of all, it's not going to happen because I wouldn't. That wouldn't.

[Lewis Howes]

I mean, anything's possible, you know, if you're having. If you're having relationships.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, I guess that's true. I mean, you know, hypothetically. Careful.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah, of course.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah, but you're right. I mean, condoms are 99. Yeah. You know. Well, it's interesting. I don't think it would be. Be an issue, but, you know, what would you. I, I certainly, you know, you can't. If, if someone wants to have a. It's just not gonna happen.

[Lewis Howes]

Come on, what do you think? How would you respond?

[Bill Maher]

Do you think, I'll cross that baby when I get to it? But I'm. It just. It's just not going to happen.

[Lewis Howes]

But if it did, do you think. What type of father do you think.

[Bill Maher]

I'm not going to strangle it in the crib. Yes. I mean, if I had to have a baby, of course I'd hire ten nannies and, and, you know, see it like Nick Cannon. I, I don't know what the fuck I do. It's just like, it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen.

[Lewis Howes]

I'm going to, I'm going to get this clip in a year and a half and then you say, you say.

[Bill Maher]

It'S not going to happen.

[Lewis Howes]

It's not going to happen. And just having a rep. Someone's gonna make a techno song.

[Bill Maher]

Hold on a second. I just gotta get the bottle in the mouth. No.

[Lewis Howes]

What type of dad do you think you would be?

[Bill Maher]

Terrible. I mean, I don't want to be a dad. I want to be a daddy.

[Lewis Howes]

Goodness.

[Bill Maher]

I was.

[Lewis Howes]

That's why you have five properties next to you.

[Bill Maher]

I'm just saying I was never really cast right when I was a boyfriend. I was never. Because I never really wanted to be married or have kids or, you know, go down that path of, you know, occasionally I would meet somebody who was so amazing that I would like, you know, get serious with them. And then I have had many girlfriends, but, you know, never really. It never obviously resulted in Marriage because it just wasn't who I was. And I'm glad it didn't because it would have been ended in more tears than it did. And that's okay. You know, you can be that person. I feel like that was, I feel like that was a sign. That was a sign from God. But you know, kids, I, I, I, I totally understand how people feel about their kids because of course I know everybody and most of people I know have kids. You don't get to 70 without most of the people you grew up with having kids.

[Lewis Howes]

But all these parents that you know who are in their 60s and 70s who have kids, what are their views?

[Bill Maher]

My 50s and 40s.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah. What are their views on having kids that they share with you? What do you see? Is there a benefit or you just don't see the benefit?

[Bill Maher]

I mean, the ones who have kids who are teenagers and in their 20s do nothing but bitch to me about how their life is miserable because their kids are super woke and they're driving them insane with their out of control uber wokeness. Everything is like, mom, you don't get it, mom, that's old thinking, you know, and the parents are like, and these are liberal people, you know, these are not like conservatives and they can't deal with their own kids. And I'm like, it's your own fault. You spoiled them the way you raised them. You know, they're not well educated. They're America hating ahistorical hysterics who don't know how lucky they are. Their whole life is based on how terrible privilege is while it's supported by ultimate privilege.

[Lewis Howes]

Why do you think so many kids are hating America?

[Bill Maher]

Because they're not educated. Because we don't teach them anything that would give them any perspective about America. So they don't. They think they live at the worst time in history in the worst country, when they actually live at the best time in history, undoubtedly the best time in history and probably still the best country.

[Lewis Howes]

How could you explain it to someone in simple terms where they would actually understand that when they think you're completely. Or they're like, you can't.

[Bill Maher]

You have to have a more broad education. You have to understand Western civilization and Western history as well as if you want to throw in the history of the other parts of the world. And they probably didn't teach that to people in my generation as much. But I'm sorry, the most important things didn't happen there. They happened where people developed ideas like the rule of law and democracy and scientific inquiry. These Things are not inconsequential. They're what make our lives valuable today. I wish they had happened all over the world in equal measure. They didn't.

[Lewis Howes]

What about capitalism?

[Bill Maher]

They happened in Athens and Rome and Philadelphia and London and Paris. Yeah, that's where they happened.

[Lewis Howes]

What about capitalism? You know, a lot of kids don't like capitalism, right?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. Because they're stupid and they don't understand what communism was. If they had the slightest idea how horrible life was under communism, they would run screaming and begging to live in a capitalist society. Please go live in East Germany in the 1970s. See how you like it where every third citizen is informing on the other two and no one can get ahead in life because the government takes 90% of your earnings. It's ridiculous. Communism was an enormous failure. And the fact that we don't teach that, that we leave that as an open question. Good luck. I mean, we already. They think we, you know, we should be socialist. We already have a very socialist society. I'm not even complaining about it. But when they take that much of your taxes, that's socialism. When they redistribute wealth, Medicare, Social Security, the Marine Corps. These are socialist programs. This is the government doing things that private enterprise doesn't do. And they should to a degree. We're just talking about what that degree is. But to think that we're not socialist is just. They just don't know things. They don't know things.

[Lewis Howes]

Is that the schooling system? Is that colleges?

[Bill Maher]

Yes.

[Lewis Howes]

What is that?

[Bill Maher]

That's schools.

[Lewis Howes]

Really?

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. Well, I mean, you're gonna have kids soon, right?

[Lewis Howes]

That's the plan. That's the hope, you know?

[Bill Maher]

Well, we know. We. Science knows what causes it now.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Are you trying right away?

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah, yeah, we're trying.

[Bill Maher]

Yeah. So hopefully it's fun to try.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah. I mean, that's the intention. Yeah, that's the intention.

[Bill Maher]

All right. That was fun. I really appreciate doing this.

[Lewis Howes]

Thanks, man.

[Bill Maher]

Thank you. I'm glad I got to know you.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Bill Maher]

Appreciate you the beginning and at the end.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah, we connected now. Thanks, man.

[Bill Maher]

Thank you.

[Lewis Howes]

Appreciate it.

[Bill Maher]

That's what I love about this club Random.

[Lewis Howes]

Good to connect. Congrats on everything.

[Bill Maher]

Thank you. You too. Oh, my God, you're killing it out there.

[Lewis Howes]

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[Bill Maher]

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[Bill Maher]

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