INTERVIEW: Controversial Comedian Bill Maher
For his decades-long career, comedian and commentator Bill Maher has skewered cherished customs and beliefs. Whether on his HBO show “Real Time with Bill Maher,” in his documentary film “Religulous,” or doing stand-up, he doesn’t shy away from controversy. Politics, drugs, faith — nothing is sacred. He’ll be performing in Birmingham this Sunday, but WBHM’s Dan Carsen caught up with him first. It’s a serious conversation, but it starts out on a light note, and ranges far and wide from there. The on-air five-minute version is above. An extended web-only 18-minute version is below.
Subject and time pegs for the extended interview are below:
0:23 — The theological question of whether the Devil is in charge of the Anti-Christ, or vice-versa.
1:04 — Is Bill Maher preaching to the (secular) choir?
1:45 — Most Democrats are believers, too.
2:15 — The question of safety from fundamentalist extremists.
3:02 — Carsen asks whether Maher can see the good religion can do.
3:51 — Maher objects to the question of whether he’s an atheist or an agnostic.
4:44 — “The Gospel of ‘I Don’t Know.'”
5:15 — “We used to believe in Zeus and Thor…”
5:28 — Carsen asks Maher why he’s so anti-religion.
5:49 — “9-11 was a faith-based initiative.”
7:03 — Carsen asks Maher about his role models.
8:02 — A decades-old quote from Maher on why he won’t run for office.
9:54 — Maher’s thoughts on future elections.
10:00 — Carsen asks about creative freedom at HBO.
10:50 — “9-11 changed everything, made people a little crazy.”
12:25 — Maher’s opinions on teaching religion in public schools as history or sociology.
14:15 — If Maher were king, he/we would address climate change and punish polluters with jail time.
15:05 — Carsen asks Maher if he smokes marijuana — which Maher believes should be legal — before shows.
16:53 — What to expect at Maher’s show at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex on Sunday.
YouTube agrees to pay Trump $24 million to settle lawsuit over Jan. 6 suspension
YouTube is the latest social media company to pay Trump tens of millions of dollars to resolve lawsuits brought before he returned to power. The money will fund a new ballroom at the White House.
From painting to producing: Birmingham DJ Andrea Really releases first album
Birmingham DJ Andrea Really wasn't always a music producer. She used to be a prolific painter. But when her art studio burned down in 2017, she pivoted careers. Really spoke with WBHM about that journey upon the release of her first album this summer, called Zeitgeist.
A year after Helene, a group of raft guides embarks on a river clean-up mission
A popular rafting river in the Appalachian mountains is still closed a year after Hurricane Helene, because there's just too much debris. Now, rafting guides have come together to help clean it up.
Lesotho’s Famo music: from shepherd songs to gang wars
In Lesotho, a style of traditional accordion music called Famo has become entangled with deadly gang rivalries. Once the soundtrack of shepherds and migrant workers, today it's linked to killings, government bans — and a fight over cultural identity.
Comic Cristela Alonzo grew up in fear of border patrol. ICE has ‘brought it all back’
For the first seven years of her life, Alonzo lived in an abandoned diner in a south Texas border town. Her new Netflix stand-up special is called Upper Classy.
Compass-Anywhere real estate merger could squeeze small brokerages
The deal, announced earlier this week, would combine the two largest U.S. residential brokerages by sales volume.
