Bill Maher Featured Breathing Exercises and Academic Critiques

When beginning the panel discussion phase of this week’s Real Time With Bill Maher, the host made a candid comment about the nature of political talk shows in 2025. “I wish every week was not Donald Trump week, but it is,” he said. It’s something of a paradox: the current administration’s actions mean Maher and his guests aren’t short on subjects to discuss, but there’s also a familiarity to some of those discussions.

Though the Trump administration did come up during the initial interview segment, Maher and podcast host Dr. Andrew Huberman — a man who hasn’t been without some controversy in recent years — had other things to talk about. Huberman’s advice was largely uncontroversial; he recommended people spend time outside, but in a way that minimized their exposure to UV rays, for instance.

Both men discussed the importance of the mind-body connection and the use of breathing exercises to calm down. This included discussion of Wim Hof, including a moment when Maher did one of his exercises.

Things took a more political turn late in the conversation when Maher asked Huberman for his take on what Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has been doing with the Department of Health and Human Services. Huberman had good things to say about Kennedy’s emphasis on funding younger scientists, but wasn’t a fan of the agency cutting research into mRNA vaccines. “I like Bobby, too, but I’m not down with him cutting that shit,” Maher said.

Huberman was also emphatic here, saying that “e would be absolutely foolish to ignore the technology” with respect to mRNA vaccines. And he stressed something else: “We can’t just throw things out because of what they’re called.”

The panel paired two very different guests: The Age of Grievance author Frank Bruni and conservative activist Christopher Rufo. Early in the conversation, Maher returned to his concept of a “slow-moving coup.” And he offered a chilling take on where this would go: “I’m going to pretend for the rest of the duration that the Democrats do have a chance of winning, and they might win the next election — I just don’t think they’re ever going to take power.”

That led to a more specific discussion of the current state of Washington, D.C., with Rufo defending the growing deployment of National Guard troops there. Bruni was more skeptical of declaring Trump’s actions as a success. “I don’t think one week proves anything,” he said. From there, Bruni expanded on his point: “I would love to meet the statistician who would extrapolate from one week and say that this is a sustainable solution.”

From there, the panel discussed different political controversies more broadly. “Social media is driven on negative media cycles,” Rufo said. “It’s driven on rallying up a passionate base of people.” He sounded somewhat critical of this practice, which does not mesh with his actual behavior.

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Bruni now teaches at Duke University, while Rufo has been sharply critical of American higher education — including defending the Trump administration withholding funding from Harvard University. Bruni stated that he “[didn’t] understand how holding up to $2.6 billion to research money to Harvard” connected to the points Rufo was making.

He went on to take issue with Rufo’s description of the nation’s colleges and universities, saying that Rufo’s rhetoric “amounts to a caricature.” He stated that he’s brought in conservatives to speak in his course, without any pushback.

While Rufo had some supporters in the audience, it was Bruni who seemed to get a more positive response. There was one especially notable moment late in the discussion when conversation turned to Oklahoma’s proposed tests for out-of-state teachers looking to work there. “They’re saying that they want to have Oklahoma schools that reflect the values of the people in the state,” Rufo said, to muted laughter from a few people in the audience.

Maher returned to the current president in his final segment, pointing out that Trump was poised to get a big political win on reclassifying marijuana. “Trump never forgets: it’s only hypocrisy if you had other beliefs to begin with,” Maher observed, citing the president’s 180-degree turns on things like TikTok and cryptocurrency. “Elections are won on the margins,” he said — a good reminder for candidates everywhere.

Other notable moments from this week’s episode:

Maher on recent extreme weather: “Not even the hurricanes want to come to America anymore.”
Maher on how history will view this moment: “In the future, historians will say this was a very dark time in American history. They won’t say it publicly or put it in a book. They’ll whisper it to each other when the cellphones are off.”
Maher on RFK Jr.: “It may sound like snake oil to you, but remember — Bobby Kennedy cooks with snake oil.”
Maher on a recent Swatch ad controversy: “I haven’t thought about Swatch in years. And I hadn’t thought about American Eagle jeans ever.”
Real Time is off next week and will be back on September 5.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…