Overtime – Episode #680: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Donna Brazile, Andrew Sullivan

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Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO Late Night series, Real Time with Bill Maher. All right, here's our overtime panel.
The world's great astrophysicist and number one best-selling author of Merlin's Tour of the Universe, Neil deGrasse Tyson. He writes the weekly dish newsletter and the essay collection out on a limb, Andrew Sullivan.
And the great Democratic strategist and former DNC chair and ABC News contributor, Donna Brazell. Okay.
Here are the questions. First one is for you.
How serious are asteroid collision threats? Are we adequately prepared for a catastrophe if the Earth is hit? No. Great.
Wait, no to both? No to both questions? How serious are they? Yeah, well, so if one hits and it destroys the entire population of the world, that would be bad. And so you have to ask if there's any risk of that in the next thousand years.
It seems to me it's worth a little bit of insurance money to put in there to create a mission to deflect it. And it's not what Bruce Willis did.
In America, we're good at blowing stuff up and we're less good at knowing where the pieces go, so you want to deflect it. How do you do that? We have 20 ways that we've...
Name one. Name one.
You go up to it and nudge it. What do you mean you go up to it? Well, robots.
Not you, but spaceships. So if you nudge it early enough, then that little bit of vector you give it will accumulate so it can miss Earth completely.
That's why early detection, like with cancer, early detection of asteroids is what you need in order to make sure the future of Earth is safe. And I've spoken with the head of the Space Force, and I said, if you're going to defend us or the Earth, let's include defending us against asteroid strikes.
Oh, yeah. Right.
So I'm trying to make sure it's on their radar. And were they receptive to that? Yes, it was a receptive.
It was General Raymond at the beginning of the Space Force. Space Force? Yeah.
Wow. I have one in their jacket.
I just... You've got to be this badass.
You've got to admit it. I mean, I don't feel like I should wear it because I'm not in it, but I do.
Donna, are we more likely to see a conservative female president before a liberal one? That's an interesting question. I think we'll see a Democratic.
We've had three. We've had Geraldine Ferraro as a nominee.
Hillary Clinton as a nominee, Kamala Harris as a nominee. We will have a Democratic female president

in my lifetime.

I say...

And the asteroid will not hit her.

She will deflect it.

And with her superpowers,

things will be okay.

Can I make one suggestion?

What?

Not a vice president named Tim.

Okay. Enough with a lady and a Tim.
Okay. Remember Tim Kaine? Tim Kaine.
Okay. Tim Walz.
It is interesting how many global women leaders have come from the right. I mean, Britain's now had three conservative female prime ministers before it had a single Labour one.
The current conservative leader is a young black woman called Kemi Baden-Nocz. Right.
Now, that's pretty amazing, I think. And it's lovely that no one really makes a big deal out of it.
It could happen. Look at Merkel as a Christian Democrat.
Indira Gandhi. Golda Meir.
Meir. These are hard-ass women.
Hard-ass women. And there's something about that Iron Lady kind of,

I'm going to go to war with the whole feminine shtick that's kind of really potent in the human psyche.

Well, I think people think that a woman leader

has to kind of overcompensate a little towards strength,

and people are drawn to strength.

Look at Clowney, you know.

I mean, look at Trump.

Oh, sorry.

We're going to have to spell that out. I'm sorry.
It's late. You left out Shirley Chisholm.
She wasn't a nominee, but she ran for president. She ran for president.
Mexico just elected a female president. We've had female presidents in Africa.
It's time, folks. We know how to lead.
We can feel the peace of everybody. Yeah, you just got to.
Next time have an actual primary where a woman candidate can prove her worth and not just be stuck in and nominated at the very last minute because you had a dotard running that you wouldn't fess up to? Well, first of all... That's not fair.
First of all, we had a a primary. I know, but it doesn't sound just...
Joe and Kamala did win enough delegates. 14 million people participated in it, and we should not disenfranchise those Americans.
So, but look... By the way, she was on a ticket that got elected to the White House.
It's not like she was never voted for. But if you want to have a good candidate...
I just wanted to put that out there. That's all.
She was a strong good candidate. You know what? You're a terrible candidate.
If you can't see that now, when are you going to see it? Okay, but first of all, there's so many wrong... I can put my glasses on and I can still tell you I can see a leader when I see a leader.
I don't know. Excuse me.
There's been so many wrong things said here by everybody. I'd like to correct some of them.
She's not a dotard. Shirley Chisholm didn't get anywhere.
That's to our point. It takes a different kind.
It lays some groundwork for others later. 107 days was more than enough time.
That's a stupid excuse in my view that it wasn't enough time. If anything, our election should be like Britain and like other countries.
They don't need 100 days. She was actually doing fine after the first few months.
After won 81 million votes, Donald Trump never conceded the election. Correct.
He continued to lie. He continued to fabricate.
Kamala Harris and Joe Biden won the hearts and minds of the American people, as well as the Electoral College, yet they were never given a mandate to do anything. You mean Hillary.
Hillary won. No.
Hillary won the popular vote. So we actually have elected a woman.
It's just that our stupid system, the way we play the game, she didn't get elected. But we can't say that the country...
And also, the votes are now finally all in for this election. Kamala Harris lost by your mustache hair.
Like this much. It's so close.
Always. Right.
Bill, you said everyone at the table said something false. What did you say that was false? Nothing.
As ever. But the other false thing was that she ran a great campaign.
She did not run a great campaign and you're going to keep losing if you insist that she ran a great campaign. She did not run a great campaign.
And you're going to keep losing if you insist that she ran a great campaign.

I'm saying that, look, there was no model for the campaign that she had to run. Look, on July 21st at 1.41 p.m., when Joe Biden announced that he was not going to, he was going to step down,

Conal Harris had to step up.

Now, what other Democrat could have stepped up in that period of time?

We're not arguing about that.

We're arguing the campaign she ran.

They asked her what she would do differently. She said, I can't think of anything.
That's terrible. How do we trust a party that was telling us with a straight face that Joe Biden could be president for four more years without any problem whatsoever? That's what the Democrats were telling us.
It was a massive lie. We saw through it.
Everyone saw through it. Did you see him this week? Could you imagine if we were just starting on the next term? First of all, happy birthday, Joe Biden.
Happy birthday. Joe Biden turned 82 this week.
And Bill, I hope you're still kicking ass at 82. I will be.

Right here at this panel with you people specifically. I'm going to be right with you, honey.

I hope you will.

All right.

What does the panel think of Ellen leaving the country?

Oh.

This I find so fascinating because first, Ellen is canceled by the left.

I mean, she said, I was kicked out of show business.

That wasn't from the right.

That was because she had a toxic workplace and all the things that the people are... So then Trump gets...
So she's cancelled by the left in her country, but then she's leaving the country because the right got elected. I'm just asking about that.
I don't... It doesn't completely compute, right? Does she sell her house? Do you think she's really going to leave the country? Yes, she's already there.

Where?

And she announced it to England.

Cotswold, England.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know.

You know.

I know.

I've met her mother, and I don't think she would have agreed with that.

The mother is very down to earth.

Her mother.

She's always lived in L.A., right?

Yes.

And now she's in the Cotswolds.

I give it like four months. Why? Is it boring now? And by the way, you heard Fareed Zakaria report that the GDP per capita of the U.K., if it were a state of the United States, would be 51st.
And so there's a very big difference between living in the United States and living anywhere else in the world.

So I think she's overreacting.

But if you have money, every place is good.

Right? I don't know.

I'm not trying to do that. I think you're doing it.
I, you know, right. What's your speaking fee? It's when their normal salary is...
Maybe she'll come back home for the holidays. We don't know.
No. I'm just saying.
How soon could Elon Musk realistically send humans to Mars? Oh, another good question. I have strong views on that.
My read of the history of space exploration is such that we do big expensive things only when it's geopolitically expedient, such as we feel threatened by an enemy. And so for him to just say, let's go to Mars because it's the next thing to do.
What does that venture capitalist meeting look like? Hey, guys, have you heard of Gold Belly? It's this amazing site where they ship the most iconic famous foods from restaurants across the country anywhere nationwide. I've never found a more perfect gift than food.
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They leak a memo that they want to put military bases on Mars. Dan, we're on Mars in 10 months when NASA doesn't have its spacecraft, but Elon does.
Here's my spacecraft to Mars. And we end up paying him to use his spaceship to get to Mars.
And that'd be easy for China because Mars is already red, right? So that'd be an easy sell. That'd be an easy sell.
That's how. So I don't see it happening until governments judge that it's geopolitically in our interest.
Otherwise, I don't see it as just an exploration.

But I believe President-elect Trump has some interest in Mars. So you might have another conversation in a couple of months.
At some point, somebody has to pay for it. And just being interested in something is not the same thing as paying for it.
He believes there are people there. I mean, I listened to that podcast with Joe Rogan.
It took four hours and two bottles of wine. This is so...

Why do his comments

of what he thinks is alive on Mars

matter to you at all? He's president. I was wondering.
Maybe he might escape there for the holidays. You know you got me stuck on the damn holidays now.
The point is you can't live on Mars. I've said this so many times.
How badly would we have to rat-fuck Earth before it was worse than a place that's 200 below zero with no air, no water, with six months... Preach it.
Preach it. Go ahead.
You too. In addition, Eloy wants to terraform Mars.

And if you do that, you could then just walk off a spaceship and breathe the air.

But if that's Earth Plan B, what did you do to Earth that now you've got to go to Mars?

If you messed up Earth, but you're good enough to turn Mars into Earth,

then you can turn Earth back into Earth and never have to go to Earth.

Yes! And never have to go anywhere in the future. Exactly! Good Mars, right here.
Maybe Mars would be... Oh, yeah.
Come on, you're going to have that alignment party. I know you're going to...
It's going to be like a giddy freak-off. It's going to be great.
Oh, are you kidding when they align? So, okay, you guys, what do you think of the fact that the gays and the Jews stuck with the Democrats? Gays voted for Kamala 84% and Jews 79%. It's interesting because there was so much talk about defection from those groups and they came home.
Those two groups came home to the Democrats. Well, we don't really know how gays voted.
Well, they said 84%. No, that's how GLBTQIA plus people voted.
So that includes a whole bunch. The vast majority, 40% of that, are bisexual women, many of whom are in relationships with straight guys.
So we don't know. I'm sure it was a big majority.
I'm not sure including a big bunch of young women in that will distort it somewhat. I wish we could have polling of gay men and lesbians.
Why can't we? Why are we now forced into this bleh of all these other numbers? If we don't have polling of them, how do you present those statistics of who bisexual women sleep with? How do you even know that if you're saying we don't have polls of them? Well, they said they were bisexual, many of whom are in straight relationships because you actually had polling of the LGBTs. Oh, you did have polling.
Okay, you said there wasn't polling. I'm just trying to understand.
Well, as a subsexual, yes. There's a lot of polling in the gay community.
We'll take it. We'll take it.
Come, come, come, come. It's a gift.
It's a gift. Come on.
All right. We have a party to get to.
Can I make one more point here? Yes, please. You can make all the points you want.
Thank you. I've come to recognize that the human brain is not wired for thinking statistically or probabilistically about anything.
And then I looked at the history of math. Do you realize the first time anyone took an average of numbers and figured out that that was a good idea was after calculus had been invented? So that tells me that it is not natural to think that way anyway.
and there are entire industries that have risen up to exploit that

fact, and they're called casinos.

Because people say, yeah, it's due.

No, it's not due. You don't understand

probability and statistics.

So in that,

so that means we're incapable

as a species of truly

understanding risk.

And this goes to

vaccines, okay?

I don't want to, like, poke the bear

here, but

Thank you. understanding risk.
And this goes to vaccines, okay? I don't want to, like, poke the bear here, but... But what I'm saying is the bear believes in vaccines just being skeptical of all medical interventions, as everyone should.
Well, except... Except 99 out of 100 medical interventions, you're not saying, I need a second opinion.
If you have tuberculosis, you don't need a second opinion. If you have poids in your colon...
It's not close to 99%. It's easily 99%.
It is not. If you break a femur, you don't get a second opinion on that.
I agree, but that's not most things that happen to people. Lots of things that happen to people, and I'm thrilled that you don't ever have this happen in your life, and I hope you never do.
But trust me, most people at a certain point in their life will need a second opinion. The second opinion, yes, but that's after you've been through 99 other...
I'm trying to put credit back to doctors where our life expectancy is three times what it was 150 years ago. And everyone before 150 years ago ate organic.
And half of them died before they were 35. Science matters in this.
Of course it does. But sometimes you don't sound that way.
That's what worries me. Well, actually, you're the guy who doesn't understand why the NBA team can't beat the Lakers.
So I don't know. You're supposed to be the scientist and you couldn't even admit that.
And as far as medicine goes, I could talk to you about it all day, but again, we do have a party to get to. But, you know, this is not your field.
You're not a doctor. No, but I'm a scientist.
Excuse me. That's not a doctor.
I'm a scientist. When I get a goiter on Uranus, I'll call you.
No, don't call me. But when it's time to assess risk, that's something that comes out of the world of probability statistics and scientists are trained in that.
There's a documentary on PBS.org right now that talks about what it means to accept a risk. Like in a vaccine, if you don't want to get a vaccine, that's like walking around with a baseball bat.
Fine. But if you hit someone with it, that's bad.
There's a social contract to not infect other people. He's into the science moment.
I'm ready to drink wine. Thank you, everybody.
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