Richard Dawkins | Club Random with Bill Maher

love random I can't tell you what a great pleasure it always is to talk to you well especially in this setting because like you know we've we've had dinner I mean we've been out we've done shows but I I will if I really want to talk to somebody I want to talk to them right here smoking pot drinking breaking down whatever barrier so I'm going to try to get you very [ __ ] up I know you I know you taught at Berkeley in the 60s so you must have I never did weird no never even in the Berkeley in the 60s he's never even offered it actually well you know what there's no time like the present no I know but I'm gonna do not not in in public not in I see well you won't mind if I do of course not okay now what about a drink no thanks you don't drink either I do drink but but only with food oh but doesn't that I see I'm the opposite because food is a buzz kill okay you know what I mean yeah food kind of like absorbs the high or kills or kills it yes okay I mean whenever I eat it's always like when the fun is over sex drinking drugs it's like that has to go because once you eat then all you want to do is like something passive or me I mean I'm like a a wolf or some some animal that must be in your books about like why did why did we develop that way where we eat and then sleep yes I think many animals do that I know but why it must be part of evolution yeah didn't you ever come across that I've never thought about it really oh does it help help us uh survive it doesn't seem like napping is like the greatest tool to like help people survive but we do it I mean like I mean Lions you see them they they sleep much of the time right for I guess they I guess when you're an animal you sleep with one eye open all the time right since night is a very different environment from day and no animal can be perfectly adapted to live in either of those things if you're good at Living by night or bad by day and vice versa and so sleeping is a good way of keeping out of Mischief during the off period and you say it works the opposite way for a nocturnal animal yes they're not really that comfortable in the day hmm must be hard to be that I mean when you're asleep you're like the most vulnerable right yes but you're going to be vulnerable anyway so it's best it's better to be passive and not moving around right um but it's also got to be kind of a detriment to be at your most vulnerable asleep when it's bright out because that people can see you sleeping but but there is a living to be made at night and so and so um yes I mean it's true and most yeah a very large number of mammals are nocturnal I see a possum around here yes sometimes like he yeah and he's very uh chill he does not he crawls outside the living room I can watch him he sometimes he looks up and sees me it does not freak him out at all he's not scared he doesn't move faster he just sniffs around and then goes back up wherever just by day on online right yes night always at night we started by the way what have we started oh yes okay fine I'm sorry I'm sorry I know I should explain this is a different kind of yeah yeah yeah I mean and that's the whole point is like have we what Universe are we really in but um no we've started and uh hopefully we're gone for quite a long time I uh I know you have a new book what is it called the flights event Flights of Fancy yeah I mean it seemed like something that is not right in your wait I mean I have so many books of yours about evolutionary biology but this is really not that well it is sort of I figured it was partly about how animals fly but also how humans do as well so it's part of the physics of flight and it's partly um the evolution of flight So True Flight has Evolved four times in Birds bats pterosaurs and insects really um you mean it got better like better flying capabilities yes I mean they they fly properly in the sense that they stay up indefinitely there are plenty of other animals that Glide so they they just referred in a controlled way lots of I mean Flying Squirrels some birds can't get off the ground at all right that's true yes yeah it's a lovely line in Douglas Adams's last chance to see about this New Zealand bird the kakapo which um um it's it's flightless it's Douglas says it's forgotten how to fly but it's forgotten that it's forgotten how to flies it it climbs to the top of a tree launches itself off and plummets to the ground so the oh it's evolved an inability to fly and this nervous system hasn't yet caught up with that wow that's that's his interpretation how does it still live doesn't it wind up going that's on the way out I'm sorry to say yeah that's why he went and started it it's a book about animals that are vulnerable to Extinction and him Jack Parr who was the uh host of The Tonight Show before Johnny Carson way back before my time but I heard about him and one of his favorite things I heard was he would he got this film of animals drunk yes and you can you know birds like trying to take off and [ __ ] it up yeah you know that and I guess they do get drunk on well they get drunk on berries fruits that have gone bad and um oh right sure specifically how we discovered alcohol as well I imagine was was right it just there's no grapes are fermented or I mean but you're right it's really they've gone back anything a little ferment and so right well that certainly was uh a banner day in human history because it changed a lot really yeah it does yes I mean not all bad no right yeah I mean Romans certainly had back in Alias and really worshiped being drunk yes you know they I think they understood that it was sort of part something that was more important than just having fun there's some sort of release there that I don't know if everyone needs it you don't plainly I do well but I enjoy it with food as I say right but you know but I'm talking about people who get [ __ ] Blitz you know there's something about people well people are always trying to not be themselves what is acting what is you know I mean yeah they're trying to escape reality and who they do you try to not be yourself I died no I'm but you know I'm I'm not typical in many ways I also you know never got married never had kids I I'm not sure I do a lot of things that um it would be considered normal but we all have masks don't you think yes I mean that's right some of them are more profound but I think everybody has sometimes it's defenses but sometimes it's just I don't want you to know who I really am or I'm playing a part that I would rather be than me I I know people who literally don't know their own age they've lied about it for so long oh yes yeah and they must know the Year yes they could they just don't go there yes I don't think they're faking it either yes yeah no that's kind of fascinating isn't it well I'm pretty comfortable being who I am I think I didn't I didn't think I'd trust you yes you and me we're comfortable but I'm talking about others yes yes you know that's there's a lot of that I mean I you're what 81 yes wow you look great thank you yeah you don't look at that's that's it's nice if you don't I mean I'm 66 so like I'm be very curious as to what you have to say about age and aging because like yours obviously is what I'm looking at in my you know not tomorrow but next phase I mean let's be honest it only goes One Way time I've tried to move it yes it's the most irrecoverable thing isn't it somebody said the trouble with prolonging lives it all comes at the end meaning that it's good at the end no oh meaning the reverse that's funny because I like my life so much better now yes than when I was young even though I'm aware of that little detriment of I'll be deader sooner yeah that little thing is obviously you know the monster that's always chasing us us but as far as the life itself I wouldn't go back even if I could be younger if I still had the brain I had then I would hate to go back in and I couldn't bear to write all those books again I mean and struggling through life or again I couldn't bear that I'm looking forward to writing books in the future but I wouldn't go back and go through all that stuff about being an Oxford professor and things but at the time you enjoyed it enjoyed it at the time yes right yeah now I mean I I just know that if I if somebody said you know if the genie said you could be 30 again but you have to have the 30 year old brain that I knew I had I just know I'm in for so much unnecessary pain and stupid things I'm gonna do and I that I don't do anymore I'm so much more like comfortable and there are very few days that are [ __ ] the only thing that can really cause a [ __ ] day uh is health issues yes which become obviously the thing that we care more than anything else about in a way that I never even thought about that [ __ ] when I was 30. yes well I had a stroke about six years ago it was fairly mind well it was it didn't feel minor at the time but but right I seemed to have recovered totally from it totally um yeah oh you know John Federman do you know I've heard I just started reading about that yeah yeah it's the uh he's the Senate candidate uh he's a senator Governor I think Senate in Pennsylvania which is a very important state for our upcoming midterm elections yes um swing status where Biden is from yes or uh originally he's boats in Delaware but Pennsylvania is huge and so one of the candidates is Dr Oz He was a doctor on TV Who Sold sometimes very questionable is he a real doctor that is the question all of America is asking doctor is he a realtor I happen to look I am a a medical skeptic uh meaning I just question everything you know I think it's somebody a scientist like you I know it was the only bad thing about you why you think there's only one answer about it no I don't I don't I don't think that but I mean you're such a a hero of Science in all others exactly which is why I have this point of view yeah I don't know if you know exactly what my point of view is I remember you're just going by things other people I kind of like that kind of do okay well I'm not an anti-back sir okay I believe vaccines are a medical intervention like every other drug which has some drawbacks benefits um I don't believe that everybody has the same Health profile so every medical intervention just like any other drug isn't appropriate for everybody yes that's true that's not and I think there is something about vaccination though which isn't which it makes it different which is that um it's not just for you it's for it's for well that's a surprise sorry that's not right with covid because we found out the vaccine does not prevent transmission or or getting it so that argument is at best out of date well it's certainly right for measles mumps and rubella um well I already had measles Munch and rubella so what the disease or the or the vaccine both probably okay yeah when I was a kid that's yeah I I had I've had measles as a child before the vaccine was invented um I think I've had mumps too because I'm not sure about that well you know I'm not an anti-measal vaccine Crusader I mean do do your thing but um the issue now is covered and that is an outdated argument it does it's all it's only for you and there's 16 000 doctors and scientists signed something called the Barrington letter did you hear about this okay well see stuff doesn't get in other people's silos but that's an awful lot and that's just the ones who are uh brave enough to sign it because anytime you go against the prevailing pharmaceutical medical view um you're intimidated as many doctors are so the fact that sixteen thousand doctors would sign this letter it was a dissent about how we were dealing with covet and some basic things like thinking natural immunity is superior to pharmaceutical immunity it wasn't anti-vax it was just uh why are those doctors quacks or wrong and the the CDC and the Western medicine who said the vaccine no look I the vaccine obviously saved a lot of lives but they were wrong about the transmission they were wrong about um getting it why why are those 16 000 doctors why why are your doctors sixteen thousand dollars I just I just know um that that um the the covid pandemic has has been a Triumph of Science in the in the the the the speed with which these vaccines were developed and it's a beautiful Story the the um agreed as soon as as soon as part of the story as soon as the virus was sequenced as soon as the RNA the virus was sequenced immediately they got to work and by the way the um the technique of which they've developed the MRNA technique technique is then going to be adapted to other viruses when these come along as soon as it's sequenced they'll they'll be able to produce it all that a vaccine is doing is just is just doing the same as the immune system but but doing it in a it's a harmless way well at best yes that's how it's supposed to work it's also like any medical intervention in every medical intervention every drug is supposed to do that mimic something that your body should do naturally but is not but as we know every medical intervention including vaccines you can read the literature for all of them will say they have side effects so it's not exactly mimicking what your body does and it should be anyone's personal right to say you know what I know has always worked for me my immune system no would I say that about every pathogen of questionna I've said it many times there are vaccines I would fight you for but covid was not one of them I I think it and we know from the literature from the facts it killed mostly elderly people and obese people that's who mostly died now you there are many other reasons why you could have a compromise Health situation we don't know everything about it but I certainly should have the right to judge how I want to treat my own body yes well we disagreed about them and I was surprised with Tahir you say you thought that the herd immunity thing didn't work I mean I think that's just I never mentioned hurt well I I did and then I thought you said the argument for her immunity was not important the idea that provided enough people get vaccinated then the the epidemic has nowhere to go the head of the CDC just got like her fourth shot I think and then got covered three weeks later well that's an anecdote we don't it's not an anecdote but it's an anecdote that is very typical yeah the I remember when I I got I was fine for 14 months without it I got the vaccine then like a month later I got it okay okay but I'm just I'm getting to a point yeah when it happened um people said oh wow that's weird that's a a breakthrough case and then it became the story changed the news changed the facts changed and the facts changed to that's actually very typical when it happened to me people were surprised in six months they weren't surprised because that was a more typical I'm not again yes you're right the the it was a heroic scientific moment when they came up with this vaccine so quickly faster than they thought and it's a it is a different technology than the old vaccines it is a completely different way to do a vaccine we're calling it a vaccine because it's a shot but it's a very different way to do it okay so I think it's a superior way to do it yeah I'm glad they came up with that technology because there could be something around the corner that maybe making it in the lab in Boston right now because they've been [ __ ] with that making a worse version of covid where again I would be first online but you know I just didn't think this one merited that for me and I think I was right okay well I I think we we both agree we're both we both love science and I do um right I think that the um the the DNA technology that that it had incidentally gave rise to these vaccines it's just marvelous the fact that we can actually sequence right the get get the sequence of anything any animal any plant any fungus any bacterium and it's a gosh darling what do you think that the implications of that are for cancer well um this same mRNA technique can be probably can be used to develop vaccines against certain kinds of cancer um cancers are as you know somatic mutations that you say you get Evolution natural selection going on in the body so a cancer is evolving to get better at being a cancer right and so from a darwinian point of view it's it's it's Grim but it's it's fascinating as well it is it's natural selection in action why do you think we have not been able to crack that one why why can't you go to a doctor and the doctors say oh you have cancer we know exactly what caused it oh and we know exactly I think I think it's because the cancer cells are your own cells and so although it's easy to kill relatively easier to kill um Invaders Invaders because the cancer cells are your own cells right with just maybe one mutation right um it's that and so when they give you chemotherapy or something it it it kills the cancer but it almost kills you at the same time because it because it's um right your own cells I mean that seems like I mean that's what we have we're getting better with therapies for cancer but we still a lot of what we have is um it reminds me of the Russian army let's just [ __ ] kill everything and then maybe a city will grow back but like first and you know see this is again my thing with vaccines like I don't think vaccines are evil I just until they figure out basic things like what causes cancer and there are so many influences inside my body going on and we don't know how they mix together and they don't ask they don't study how many what kind of metals are in your body these things really affect your health well I know you can't quantify them usually on a chart at a regular doctor's office they don't even ask you what you eat what are you putting in your body do you live near a lot of electromagnetic energy there's lots of stuff that isn't crazy it's scientific and we don't again we don't know what is causing cancer so like I'd like to keep it as natural as I can unless it's an emergency I have the same basic philosophy about vaccines as I do about antibiotics am I glad they exist yes would I like to avoid them if at all possible yes because I know I'd rather handle it naturally that's not unscientific no I I like to encourage science to proceed and to improve and to work further in the case of covid it was a case of working extremely fast it was a brand new thing nobody knew about it right learning on the job naturally they made mistakes you're learning on the job plenty of mistakes to begin with um and was I still learning and and it probably have to go on learning and there's as new Mutant strains pop up I have to learn again we are brought to you by signal wire signal wire Powers the future of cloud Communications built by the tech ogs the original Geeks of software-defined Telecom their mission is to make it simple for you to build whatever you can imagine 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signowire.com random you did hear about this thing in the lab in Boston right that they've made a a worse version of covid I didn't hear that oh yeah well I mean it's this you know gain of function is that what they call it where you're they think that that's maybe how covet started in in the lab in Wuhan to begin with is that there were there was this gain of function I think that's the term that's phrase I've I've heard the theory which is which my friend Matt Ridley is is Keen on that that have you ever had Matt Ridley on YouTube okay he's um well anybody you recommend he's a um great science writer um he's um uh he's the president pushing that he's written a book together with a woman pushing the idea which is an unfashionable idea but he's pushing it that it that it did indeed um leak from a lab in China well of course see this is again why this whole issue should never become political in this country it became hyper political if you thought the LA the virus started in the lab you're a republican somehow and if you thought it started in the wet markets with bats you were a liberal that's insane it did insane it is insane um it's a very depressing fact that and Stephen Pinker goes on even I'm sure you've had him and love him yeah I love him too um the he's very keen on the idea well he's depressed by the idea that what we believe depends upon our what our tribe our political tribe our religious tribe if you're a republican you believe sir yes democratically something else um what matters is evidence never mind works exactly and and so okay we agree about that now did you read recently um that they discovered for the first time a bacteria that is visible to the naked eye I'm not totally surprised uh really um they said it would be like finding a human the size of Mount Everest yes yes that's right yes okay go ahead no I I don't I well when I hear something like that again it just says to me all the people who are saying the science you know we have the science you don't know [ __ ] we know a lot more than we used to we just don't know very much like how to cure cancer and that there could be a bacteria the size of Mount Everest they just found out all that they were doing therapy-wise with serotonin thinking that that was causing depressed wrong there was one paper in 2006 it had wrong information they knew it at the time they didn't care um what a metabolism they found out does not slow in age like they thought it did we just don't know science progresses for me from ignorance right so and so it's important to recognize what we don't know thank you also what we do know and yes there are things yes you know and um and way more than we used to I mean can you um can you imagine being somebody in the Middle Ages or even you know up only up really up until 100 years ago and the things that doctors did to you made made it so much worse leading you and well putting dirt like I mean one of the things that that um I've found when the CFI is a center for in for inquiry which I know yes great um one of the things we're doing at the moment is lawsuits against um selling homeopathic remedies as um on the same shelf as other other things and that can't be right because homeopathic remedies contain no active ingredient yeah but the reason why because you just I'm so sorry but I always want to know about this and I need you to explain it homeopathic just go back and tell me what that is okay very vague it comes from the idea that that it that same yes so you you you take um what might be a poison what might be a something that makes you ill and you dilute it and diluted and diluted and diluted and then you so it's the same stuff right and that hence the word homeo from the Greek right um and they believe that they believe that a tiny tiny tiny amount they believe that the more dilute it is the better it is and so sometimes the approved level of dilution is such that it's equivalent to one molecule in a volume the size of the Universe I mean the size of the solar system um so it it if you imagine doing a double-blind control trial to test experimental against control there's there can be no difference between experimental and control they're both water because so um so we've got this lawsuit going against um that how do I get into this because oh yes yeah go ahead um uh no I'm sorry I'm interested sorry I needed to know what homeopathic was before you I think it's something with homeopathic because you said homeopathic and I was like yes before you go on just tell me what too yeah it'll come to me okay well you know are you are you on a book tour right now are you on this no I'm part of the book tool um when is the when is the book tour for for a flight look so there won't be one and so really I'm I'm here for um the conference of the um of the charity that I'm involved in um it's called the scicon conference and we had it in Las Vegas because hotels are cheap in Las Vegas because yeah yeah and you can go to the titty bar after you can go see a show ah the Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil one I recommend it highly yeah forget about the kid stuff just enjoy the music yes it's been it was it's been a great conference um I I honor no way I gave you the Richard Dawkins award a few years ago yes you did I still have it it was actually I hate to tell you it's a lot more than a few years 2009. okay yes okay well that was a high spot for me I I celebrate that I know it's that that great fossil well this year we had um Neil deGrasse Tyson of course um who I love I just had him on my show Friday yeah I think he's terrific he's always a warm character oh my God yeah and what a communicator you know no I mean the world is lucky to have you him Sam Harris he's just coming yes three year and a half hour I mean there are some great scientific communicators I mean I think it's very important I mean the night I we went to that award show you may recall my girlfriend at the time yes was a scientist yes a young beautiful one working in a James Bond movie but a real scientist and I I mean I found that immensely attractive you know I just thought it was so cool um and anytime I had like fuzzy scientific Notions in my head you know I'd ask her and you know she would like straighten me out um you know I mean just like you and I just had a discussion people don't always see exactly eye to eye right no that's the beauty of science you wouldn't do exactly yeah that's yes yeah well um we enjoyed having you with that yeah very much and we would like to get you involved in our in our setup again you mean it's an event out here like it was every year every year every year yes so what do you want me to do like 10 minutes you want me to do some God material I'm gonna write to you um and that you know that is so funny about you people when they hear the name Richard Dawkins like I'm sure when uh you know just the man in the street who knows that name the thing that comes to their mind first atheist yes which really is like not the main part of your Uber thank you for that I I agree thank you right yes it's not no no you're almost like a you know a guy who got a sick up you know he got known as the office creep or something but he's really a great actor not that your God book was the office creep I played the office creep but it's like you got known for something that isn't the main thing although that book is is just a [ __ ] awesome book I mean I will always swear by that's my Bible on my bed oh nothing is The God Delusion well you know that I love that well I mean I interviewed you back in we walked around on that windy cold day in 2006 that was for religious do you remember oh yes but I think I was cut out of the of the final show I I think we just agreed too much it was a comedy yes and this and you were just so original we were it was in April was it yes yes it was a stone circle yes yes I I mean I still love have treasure the memory but yes for a movie that was aiming to be funny it was much better have the guy who thought he was Jesus Christ and you know so you know when you make a documentary like that you just don't know what is that still available is that something oh absolutely and I'm still doing well yeah so great you know it was so embraced I I because it's funny you know it was never mean-spirited that movie we weren't like laughing at religious people oh who am I kidding we were laughing very much at religious people they were doing it in a very nice way yes but so you're not going to do a a book tour for this no I well I don't mind doing a book tour for it but but the Publishers don't seem to be very active In America which is a Pity um it's I don't know oh is that right oh I think I do know I think I was I think I was being canceled or something American publishers were scared of the young people in their in their organization who are all well woke to a fault right and and so they did they didn't dare um take me on oh for [ __ ] sake oh I just [ __ ] hate this world so do I yeah oh [ __ ] man really is that what you're that that is my God you know I was listening to Sam's podcast today and it's all about this woman who made this movie called um Jihad rehab and it's and then he tells the story magnificently of course you should talk to him about it uh you know this brilliant documentary that was really apolitical trying to understand one of those uh Guantanamo Bay detainees who we captured in Afghanistan and then they would release them back to Saudi Arabia where they went to terrorist rehab not that some of them were terrorists to begin with really but she's just you know it's a very human story and of course the usual suspects just you know islamophobia they probably they wouldn't even have to see it it's just you know they're just we've come to this place where you can't even go near a topic certain topics without the mob coming after you yes well I was counseled by kpfa which is a radio station in Berkeley California a few years ago for islamophobia right um because I object to zoning gays to death so insane how backward their thinking is in the people who who are purporting to uphold liberalism and then they can't condemn just just the women thing if it was just and it's way more than the women it's free speech it's separation of church and state it's homophobia like you say but if it was just the women if there was just a society that decided tomorrow to throw a [ __ ] burlap bag over every woman like head to toe like a tarp on a motorboat and and the Liberals what would you say about that liberals if it was the news in the paper tomorrow uh you know Iran to begin covering women completely would we just oh okay well you know well they're terrified of being thought racist that's it yeah it's just this what do you make of that this I I guess we need to have a psychiatrist here to answer that but I feel like especially this country there is a segment of white people that liberal white people for them it's almost like a a kink like like sadomasochism like this white loathing it's it's it's it's it's it's original sin it's this yes yeah right but it's a crazy I mean religion is a crazy thing to begin with I know we agree on that but it's a crazy thing just psychologically to want to create either like a god who's always disappointed in you aren't there enough people in your life or disappointed in you for real do you really have to create a new person who's disappointed in you you know but also to [ __ ] hate on yourself so much for stuff you didn't do like I acknowledge my race the white people we're bad in this country to the black people but I mean my people didn't get here till after the Civil War the Irish they weren't themselves exactly welcomed you know they didn't have it as bad no nobody had it as bad even if it was your people you as an individual right that's the thing yeah so there has to wait I think we're always trying to find some balance between How can I acknowledge my Race's guilt and recompense people in some way for forcing them to live in a lesser version of this country well I didn't have to live there I mean I acknowledge being my age when I was a kid you know it was just very different than it is now and there was way more racism there's still racism for sure but it was just a very different world England I know is different because I was there in 1984 and it was a complete London was a completely White City I remember walking through the Streets of London it was now it looks like New York for the better yes yes indeed and you have a new uh prime minister yes who's the first Indian that's correct yes that's kind of exciting yes well he's not my party but but um at least we've got somebody who's we've got a grown-up who understands how the world works right what the [ __ ] uh where was that that lady for six weeks well that's a well the reason for that was that the Tory party handed over the decision to 170 000 party members around the country I mean what a crazy thing to do you were going to get um they're all crazy right-wingers um and of course they elected her and but you see England has crazy right Wingers I I feel I maybe I haven't got it it only takes 170 000 of them um all around the country oh the decision to choose the next prime minister was handed over to this minute minority of people the the party members that's the Victoria but I mean I know I'm sure there are crazy right-wingers among the population I meant like of the the members of parliament do you have people like Marjorie Taylor green no um but Liz truss um oh economically was is the nearest approach and so she was the favorite of the party members I mean constitutionally it's it should be the members of its Constitution is anybody who can command a majority of the House of Commons and and so um theoretically the king summons whoever can right can command a majority in the House of Commons but the Tory party and the labor party too actually hands over the decision to the party members who are just people who paid their subscription they just um and and not that many of them but don't you think your system is still better than ours like the fact that with a parliamentary system that these changes take place so quickly whereas in our country it's lumbering it's every four years like on a certain day as opposed to calling an election I think it's an unfortunate to have it on a certain day because then they start electioneering they never stop two years right and but also if a guy has if you've lost faith in a guy in your system they go in our system he's the guy's still around yes now of course that can work in a in a bad way too because maybe somebody just needs a little time I mean they didn't give that lady much time to get out of the holes she quotes she calls such utter chaos I mean right um I know but I think I think the American system would be would be better if you got rid of the electoral college right uh and um I know I would think probably get rid of the primary elections as well no no and gerrymandering I mean the whole thing is is a complete [ __ ] show and it's you know very very likely Trump will be president again either he cannot believe that either he will he's definitely going to run he will either win or even if he doesn't I promise you he's going to show up on inauguration day yes well I mean if if of course if if it's rigged if if if if his supporters in in individual states can just simply decide and that is there's a lot of that going on we're about to elect a Congress that is going to be majority election deniers that is terrible and that I cannot understand how this has happened I cannot understand how right obvious lie it's but it is it's not exactly unprecedented when Germany not that we're Germany we're not Nazis not yet not quite okay when Germany went down the Hitler rabbit hole there was a lot written about how could the nation of Schiller and schopenhauer and Beethoven how could this because it was not like it was a bunch of dummies how could they so well they would they'd been hit by Draconian reparations for the first world war um there was inflation such that yeah people were carrying wheelbarrow for the worthless marks right to buy a loaf of bread right um under those conditions it in a way it's not surprising that that some some there's a Hitler who's the full horror of Hitler was not then known and the cost of wheelbarrows because she couldn't even get the [ __ ] big pile of money there without or whatever yeah so wheelbarrows yeah but first thing it is before he even got a car he got a wheelbarrow that's not America today I mean America is not suffering from rampant inflation like that well they think they are no that's exactly what the issue is in this election they think they are yes yeah well they are but it's not no it's not like wheelbarrow inflation or what they're going through in Venezuela but you know we're such babies yes any um and of course I you know I I shouldn't talk because I'm well off now so I don't feel inflation I certainly had times in my life when I did when I was poor we ever poor oh no I couldn't I couldn't really we've never pour no I don't think so middle class yes oh yeah and where did you were you uh where'd you go to college I mean University whatever Oxford Oxford is that the Harry Potter one everywhere you go in England is is Harry Potter Harry Potter Harry Potter and I mean mind you I love JK Rowling but but um um but uh well she's in big trouble yes she's another she's Brave exactly like you but another person canceled or like certainly put on this in this like not just canceled but death threats and yes and uh unbelievable hostility and not because she believes that there's sort of like a default setting for humans which would be man and woman and we you know liberal people acknowledge yes it's not always that way of course there's homosexuality of course sometimes there's a mix up at the factory and the the you know genitalia don't match the you know usual use of them uh but I've never met a met I've never witnessed a generation that was so anxious to sort of just um abrogate the whole thing like when you have a baby it's just like we don't know could be anything I mean there's a penis there but that's it really tells you that's a social construct right that tells you very little yes penis it's uh yeah yeah you know it's like a sixth toe yes it's a vestigial appendage of not much use yes no but that's isn't that her whole thing I think she objects to um the debauching language and saying you know um somebody just says they're a woman they are a woman right right well but she and I are sympathetic towards people with gender dysphoria of course dislikely of course and this is this is always my gripe is when people say um well aren't awoke and liberals the same thing no they're very often opposites like you say this is the liberal position we are very uh I think you know compassion is our byword exactly so it's not that we're lacking compassion yeah but yeah I mean boy the people who go um they don't believe in science yeah we used to say that about the right Wingers in global warming which is still true about them but the left is catching up in their ways too especially I mean there are things going on at medical schools in this country that are pretty crazy I mean doctors apologizing for saying the phrase pregnant woman oh yes yes I mean it's got a bug you it's going to change yeah I don't know I don't I mean colleges are what was your experience in Academia did you find it too um you know a Serial a little too um Pie in the Sky where people were in their Ivory Towers they weren't realistic enough that's the reputation yes um probably true I like um advertise I mean of course you do I like I'm I'm fascinated by things that are Foot Right for all the whole universe and for all time I mean I'm not interested in parochial little no frivolous things that could concern Humanity no you're probably John McWhorter always says you know I'll I'll do your interview I love doing your show but I just know I'd always really rather be sitting in my chair reading a book yes and I've never met him admire him very much oh he's fantastic yeah I mean no it's not like the world and the country even even dumbled Americans it's not like we don't have a nice like group of thinkers and and smart thinkers and Common Sense thinkers it's just that everything is so polarized that if you're if you're the person in the middle without a team you know you are really you know going into battle ungirted yes and and yeah I can see why you would not want to go on a book Tour by the way I know you said you would no I don't mind going on booktubers I enjoyed um I used to enjoy going to the Deep South as well and on Jordan Hitchens yes Hitchens loved the Deep South and said you that atheist got huge crowds yes yeah I I got no they they come because they're beleaguered they come because they um right they get a chance to see who is there in their own training that's why I love doing stand-up comedy in in the South and places like that and that's most of the country yes you know and they don't have a stick up their ass about political correctness yeah there's lots of liberals in Oklahoma yes but you're right that you come to town they come out of the woodwork yes yeah otherwise they you know they're quiet because they're surrounded by a bunch of rednecks yes drunk person you know we've we've gotten to this place in this country where you know you can't really mix with the people who are not in your tribe like if you wore a trump Mega hat in in Beverly Hills they check at you or something you know I mean that's a sad State of Affairs a country yes um you know do you think I mean we're not surely not talking about a second Civil War but there's such a polarization there's much talk about it there's much talk about it and there's lots of people rooting for it there's many people who think that we are so divided and they hate the other side the term that both sides use one against the other but they have this in common is existential threat yes the other side is they're not just somebody I disagree with it's just not the distinguished gentleman from across the aisle no no no it's existential threat hates America yeah and that's a bet that's that couldn't really be I mean in the the first Civil War in America it was between states and so each state picked aside and this state had its own militia and also there was a border between one side and the other so if you captured the other sides yes you know but in America now the the armed forces are federal um yeah and so well you couldn't imagine having a civil war um you could you absolutely could imagine that part of it the part that you can't imagine is the part you were just alluding to in this in our first Civil War we was the northern states and then the southern states so you know there were four rays of each Army into the other's territory but we got it if if they captured Washington they'd win the war and if we captured the Southern Capital we would we're all marbled together now this four million Trump voters in California The Bluest state in the country so we can't have a battle there but could you have a battle as many countries have within the Armed Forces absolutely you could you could have factions Trump has factions also in police FBI yes I never know how that works because would would they obey their officers or would they do would they each um that's what you find out when the [ __ ] hits the fan and it's we've seen them play out in many other countries you know this some Colonel takes over yes you know that kind of [ __ ] where it's a colonel now um everything that they say can happen here of course it can they used to say terrorism couldn't happen here and then that happened big time here you know and we're we're not exempt you know we're Americans they think their their [ __ ] don't stink and they think that they somehow live in this gilded cage where the stuff that other countries endure well no we'll endure it too and that could include authoritarianism and I don't know you know well I wish the Russian army would turn on I mean which they they'd Mutiny and turn on Putin that would be that could very well happen I wish it would because the Russian army I mean there are reports of no shoes I mean like really bad [ __ ] yes yeah I mean we give our soldiers pretty good equipment yes yeah well so if you were doing a book tour and we were and you were on a normal show unlike this crazy show where we just ramble but I think it's much more interesting and I'm loving being able to talk to you like this but what would you what's your thing with this how do you what when the guy says how are you going to sell this book what do you what do you say oh I see I'm trying to help you with it yes um well it's it's a book for young people oh it is um it yes it kind of grew out if I did an earlier book for young people called The Magic of reality I know you know that one yeah it's perfect for my level well as you know each chapter in that asks the question and then it has a mythological answers and then scientific answers so this is for what ages are we talking about about um 12 13 14 15 and and then up um yeah and so I thought of this as a starting a new a new version of the magical reality and it it kind of grew this oh this was going to be one chapter of that new volume and then it grew into a whole book so like the kids who are like um playing twitch do you know what twitch is no um now you put me on the spot I have to [ __ ] explain it to you it's a game you know what it's not a game it's people watching people play a game it's a it's I yeah that's what it basically is yes that's like a sport to them watching other people play a video game can you believe that I cannot so like how do you get someone away from twitch to read a book that's my question I feel like we are devolving into a completely brain rewired Society because of the phone the phone is the portal to evil I really believe that I must say I I I'm delighted to meet somebody who called himself a fan but I'm a little bit disappointed when they say I've seen your videos I've seen you on YouTube um rather than read my books I say well please go read my books they're much better right but that's the world we live in yeah you can't I mean we can't come back I mean it's like going back to the you know but I I really slave away at getting every sentence right you can't do that when you're when you're just um no um oh I know doing a film one oh I know I luckily get to do both because I slave away getting every word right for the ending piece yeah oh thank you and but then I get to actually perform it so I kind of have the best of both worlds because the people who would never read it can see it but there the pleasure of of taking something and getting it you know what perfect word perfect exactly which I think the name of the uh the software I had when I yeah but exactly and you know that's why I like doing a show once a week because I can take you know for Monday first draft Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday you know like each day gets better and then you know yeah I I suppose there are some people who can think in a way that I can't I mean rappers can write songs as they speak they can rhyme as they speak that's an amazing talent to me some people can speak almost in Marble prose whereas I have to go over it Shakespeare must have done actually because he produced so much and it all in in blank verse it must have come totally naturally to him I think well I mean he lived to be 64. he wrote 37 plays okay so let's say you started at 20 that's that's less than a play a year I don't okay yes okay put it in person it's quite it's quite done but it's not all inverse mostly well no not the plays the the ACT uh ends with a couplet no no no um the it's it's blank verse it's it's not rhyming it's only the Coptic Rhymes but but but but the rest of it I assume the meter yes yes yeah yeah I can't do that well I bet you you could maybe yeah um do you write your own stuff well I mean I certainly am the head writer yes as far as that part of it goes yeah um because I like to you know I have to has to be my voice exactly let's get word perfect but I have a wonderful incredible staff who are amazingly supportive um you know it should I usually come up with whatever notion I want to do but sometimes they do um and then we all they all submit a draft and I go through and find stuff theirs that's brilliant and steal it it's one of the great things about having a writing step it's like you're you're a legal thief of other people's ideas and Brilliance um so it's not really right but I'm not giving it up but okay so it's so this book is for kids tweens yes but adults too and um I think oh a lot of adults seem to enjoy it you don't have to sell this country on the idea of adults acting like kids yes well that must be a fascinating topic for kids Air air travel because they like kids that's automatically love planes or anything they're kites anything that flies you know yes so um and and the physics of it is the same for birds and I mean after all physics is just physics and so it says you want to stay up there you've got to obey the laws of physics but they do it in a rather different way I mean planes have fixed wings and birds have mobile Wings is much more complicated actually well I hope this is a huge hit for you um there's a lot I want to prepare you there's a lot of kids in this country who are just really dumb so you are not going to be able to hit the entire Market but I always think that the the people who are really smart like the top one percent there's nothing you can do to kill it like you could have the worst education system in the world somehow they will that top one percent always finds a way to learn it's almost like osmosis stuff either sticks and gets on their radar some people just lots of stuff sticks in there and some it all bounces off yes there's a lot of bouncing off here but hopefully yeah and adults too I can't wait to get my hands on it I have all your books oh I wish I do we have a copy of it I should have brought one I don't think I have one with me yeah I'd love to give you one that's so perfect for you you're a terrible salesman as you should be you're a terrible you're a genius you're a intellectual and you're a bad man and I mean that in the best way thank you I gotta do Sam now okay so great to see you and yeah great fun with Sam he's great I hope you enjoyed yourself and this wasn't too crazy all right so very much all right always a pleasure to meet you [Music] what's the pool table for that's for pool Recreation of course

Channel: Club Random Podcast

Views: 337,801

Keywords: club random podcast, club random, podcast, bill maher, bill, maher, club random with bill maher, real time, real time with bill maher, Richard Dawkins, Richard Dawkins The Selfish Gene, The Selfish Gene, Evolutionary Biologist, Richard Dawkins Foundation, UK Biologist, Flights Of Fancy, richard dawkins interview, atheism, richard dawkins debate, religion, richard dawkins atheist, science, the god delusion, evolution, debate, richard dawkins god delusion, richard dawkins evolution

Id: OUQ_E7pDoEI

Length: 60min 25sec (3625 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 11 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/NucleicAcidTrip]

“Until they figure out basic things, like what causes cancer…”

A basic thing, is it? God, what a dumb fucking cunt. Maher couldn’t pass a middle school biology class; he knows less than nothing. I’m so done hearing him say anything about medicine or science at all.

Another thing: he’s so blasted in this interview that it’s painful to listen to it.

[u/boner79]

Richard Dawkins, and evolutionary biologist, never heard of “gain of function”? 🤨

[u/please_trade_marner]

Richard Dawkins didn't know the show had started when he first sat down. He thought Bill was offering him pot "off the record" and replied that he won't smoke it in public. When he found out it was all live a few minutes later, he seemed pissed off. And it took him like 20 minutes to get over it before he lightened up a bit.

Maher's first sentence to Dawkins was literally slurred at him. He didn't want to "join" Maher and drink and shoot the shit with him, but also looked disinterested in "intellectual" conversations with someone clearly high and drunk. Just a bad match up. Dawkins is the kind of guy that's a great Real Time guest, but not for this more casual podcast.

[u/oomchu]

The first half of this episode is pretty cringe.

Bill: I prefer to let my immune system handle viruses.

What I wish Dawkins would've said: A vaccine boosts your immune system so it will handle the virus better.

[u/jakedeighan]

he kinda looks like Jimmy McGill in that thumbnail

[u/Witka]

I feel like Dawkins is doing this on Sam Harris' recommendation because it appears they were at Bill's together and he interviewed them back to back. Bill and Sam certainly have a better rapport than Bill and Richard. It really seems like Richard isn't having a very good time at all!

[u/Throwawayhelp111521]

I just started. It's fun listening to Bill talk to someone who not only is really smart but a trained scholar. Dawkins doesn't play up to Bill and he doesn't make exaggerated statements. He's cautious.

Finished.

Bill's an idiot. Scientists know what they don't know. Maybe to a layperson they sound certain, but they're well aware of which theories may require revision.

[u/TriFolk]

Maher: I still have fond memories of us walking and discussing religion for my movie religious Dawkins: oh yeah me too, you ended up cutting out it all out of the movie right Maher: oh yes I did

[u/aurelorba]

He keeps saying they were 'wrong' because the facts changed about covid.

Bill, the facts didn't change, the virus did. I never thought of Bill as a creationist but he seems to have a problem with viruses evolving.