Bill Maher talks new podcast and bonding with Aaron Rodgers

Bill Maher didn’t really have time to do another show. After all, he’s beenhost and executive producer of HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher for nearly 20years. And like he tells Yahoo! Entertainment, he works very hard on it.

“It takes a lot out of me every week,” Maher says.

Yet here he is, six months into his brand new podcast called _Club Random_which is recorded in “a little nightclub” that Maher built on his propertythat he also calls Club Random, and the concept is pretty simple.

“I do love to get high at Club Random,” Maher reveals. “And I love to talk tomy friends with a drink and a joint. And if you want to do that, and have somereally interesting people come over here, I’d be happy to do that.”

But when it comes to prepping for the show or the interviews, which haveincluded names like William Shatner, Quentin Tarantino, Leslie Jones, BellaThorne, Mike Tyson and Woody Harrelson, Maher is not having any of it.

“I’m just gonna show up. I barely know who the guest is. I’m not gonna preparefor it like I do for my show. It’s not that kind of show,” Maher explains.“Why would I do another kind of show unless it was very different? And it’svery different, except it’s still me. It’s just me that you would see out of asuit, smoking pot. The real me, in other words.”

One of those interviews he showed up for recently was with NFL quarterbackAaron Rodgers, who came under fire in 2021 after he claimed to have been“immunized” ahead of the football season when he instead underwent alternatetreatments. Maher says he reached out to Rodgers after hearing a lot of whathe had to say about vaccines.

“We kind of bonded over the fact that both of us believe in medical autonomyin a way that a lot of the country has dragged its feet on and, I think, a lotof the country is ignorant about it. I think people are just scared abouttheir health so they think there’s this priesthood in white lab coats who haveall the answers.”

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Maher went on to say that neither of them are an “anti-vaxxer” but that itshould be everyone’s personal decision.

“So we kind of bonded over that,” Maher says. “We talked about a millionthings, but certainly I admire his guts for standing by what he trulybelieves. Which is pretty much what I believe.”

Maher, whose TV career dates as far back as 1993 with Politically> Incorrect , had been hesitant to get into podcasting for quite a while. Not> only because he already had a show, but because he really didn’t understand> the appeal of the medium.

“It’s exactly like radio and radio was the most unhip thing in the world,”Maher says. “First of all, it blows my mind that the attention span of Americais either six seconds or three hours, and apparently nothing in between.”

Maher says that he comes from a world where you’re supposed to leave peoplewanting more, which is not the case with podcasts. Although he has come toappreciate the lack of a time limit, and has gone as long as two hours withsome of his guests.

“It’s amazing to me. I don’t know where these people are listening or wherethey get this time. But I’m happy because you know, I come from a radio line,my father was in radio,” Maher says. “I was sad to see radio go away and nowit’s kinda come back, but through the podcast.”

The host, who has made a name for himself in the political space through theyears, said that the conversations on his podcast will sometimes go in thatdirection but that he doesn’t push for it.

But, with another election cycle on the horizon, Maher is as energized as everabout covering politics. Even with the levels of divisiveness and vitriol thathave risen in the world.

“The messier it is, the better for me. The worse it is for the country, thebetter for me,” Maher says. “We’re doing better than ever because I feel likemost of the media is locked into their bubbles. Even comedy media, you know,they just pander to the people who are in the audience who are just gonna claplike seals at the things they already think they know and want to hear back.”

Maher said that while he does agree with points of view from other shows, hehas been much more willing to make fun of the left than he used to because, ashe says, “they’re a lot crazier than they used to be. ”

“Nobody else seems to be doing that,” Maher says about making fun of the left.“So I love having that all to myself. You guys want to pander? good. I’ll justkeep doing what I do. I think I’m generally left of center, but I thinkthere’s a lot. I go where the comedy is.”

He acknowledges that it is a very dangerous time in America and that he“frets” for what the country will go through at the next election.

“I don’t know what’s gonna happen in this country. So it’s a perilous time.But you know, I’m loving covering it. It’s not boring.”

Watch the trailer:

New episodes of ** Club Random drop weekly wherever you get your> podcasts, and also on YouTube .**