Bill Maher Talks Electric Vehicles with Ewan McGregor

“Are we making historical past?” Invoice Maher requested — and the (very small) studio viewers current applauded. This was the scene for the newest episode of Actual Time With Invoice Maher, which discovered Maher returning to the studio, the place the episode performed out with a small however vocal group of individuals within the viewers, all masked and socially distanced. (Maher talked about that they’d additionally been examined for COVID-19.) And whereas it borders on stating the plain, having an viewers there — quite than the canned laughter and repurposed crowd footage of previous episodes — made Maher just a little sharper in his supply than standard.

The wildfires devastating the west coast offered Maher with a lot to riff on, together with one bit that invoked the ash falling because of this. “It’s just like the 80s over again — my nostril is working and there’s white powder in my automobile,” Maher quipped. 

The presence of a reside viewers additionally meant that some (although not, for this episode, all) of Maher’s company have been additionally current within the studio. The primary interviewee appeared by way of video — former FBI agent Peter Strzok, writer of the brand new e book Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump. Maher’s interview with Strzok coated a whole lot of floor, from the intelligence investigation of the Trump marketing campaign a number of years in the past to the ideological shift that’s left many on the political proper extra suspicious of establishments just like the FBI than they as soon as have been. 

Strzok and Maher additionally mentioned some currently-classified data which Strzok has advised may have an opposed impact on the Trump re-election marketing campaign. That led to a bigger dialogue of what data had and had not been declassified — and what bearing this might need on the determine of the nation.

Strzok appeared over Zoom, however Maher’s subsequent two company remained at a protected distance on the set itself. These have been Good Luck America host Peter Hamby and former CNN Chief White Home Correspondent Jessica Yellin. Up for dialogue: whether or not or not Donald Trump’s defiance of norms will apply for future presidents, and the gulf between the nationwide in style and electoral votes. Each Hamby and Yellin appeared optimistic about Joe Biden’s possibilities; Maher appeared extra unnerved.

Maher additionally introduced up his considerations that Trump would acquire floor over Biden by way of protests and social unrest. Yellin took a extra tempered view, noting that media protection of many protests had minimized the problems at hand in favor of a extra sensationalized strategy. From there, the dialogue turned to the topic of Jessica Krug, the white tutorial who revealed just lately that she was not, as she had previously stated, a Black writer. Right here, the identical dynamic continued, with Maher and Hamby taking a extra alarmist view and Yellin providing a extra nuanced tackle issues.

The final interviewee of the episode? Ewan McGregor, there to advertise his new docuseries Long Way Up. McGregor spoke about his penchant for expansive journeys by bike. Lengthy Means Up is the third mission he’s made documenting such a visit, every along with his good friend Charley Boorman. Lengthy Means Up paperwork a journey made by the duo from the southern tip of South America to Los Angeles, utilizing electrical bikes to get themselves there. The logistics of this — and the difficultly of charging electrical automobiles within the Americas — was one of many interview’s focal factors.

Their dialog shifted from there to McGregor’s stance on Scottish independence. McGregor famous that, whereas he’d been in favor of a union till just lately, the Brexit vote (and what it revealed) modified his thoughts — particularly, by way of making it very clear that Scotland and the remainder of the UK have been headed in very completely different instructions. “I feel it’s time,” McGregor mentioned.

Maher’s “New Guidelines” section introduced the episode to a detailed. Lots of his targets have been pretty broad — gender reveal events inflicting wildfires are the equal of fish in a barrel for a satirist, in any case — nevertheless it resulted in an surprising place, with Maher testifying to the significance of the work that academics do. That, in flip, led to an intensive critique of helicopter parenting, which Maher delivered to a grander sociological degree. Just like the episode itself, it was a wide-ranging argument, however not with out some stable factors being made. 

Subscribe here for our free day by day e-newsletter.