Bill Maher sat down with Yahoo! Entertainment to discuss his new podcast, how he bonded with Aaron Rodgers, and why he is so excited to cover another presidential election.

Video transcript

BILL MAHER: I've been talking to all sorts of interesting and funny people in one-on-one conversations for the new podcast I'm dropping that I'm telling you about right now.

I had no time to do any of this. I said, but I do love to get high at Club Random on my property, a little nightclub I built here that you're looking at now. And I love to talk to my friends with a drink and a joint. And if you want to do that and have some really interesting people come over here, I'll be happy to do that.

But I'm just going to show up. I barely know who the guest is. I'm not going to prepare for it like I do for my show. It's not that kind of show. I said, why-- I already have a show. Why would I do another kind of show unless it was very different? And it is very different, except it's still me.

This is the me that you would see out of a suit, smoking pot-- the real me, in other words. I mean, people are loving this. That's-- they keep telling me they've never seen these comments that are so positive. And I think-- I've been on television a very long time, but people only see me in one way there. I mean, obviously, my show is funny, but it's-- I mean, HBO is a serious place, and I have very serious guests on.

Senator Klobuchar was on last week. She's one of the most powerful people in the country. She's a Senator. She ran for president. She's probably going to run for president again. I can't crack out the pot with her.

MIKE TYSON: You'd be surprised how many Muslims want to come in that think the way we think, but can't--

BILL MAHER: Oh, I'm sure they do.

MIKE TYSON: --show that.

BILL MAHER: Oh, I'm not surprised.

And I love the fact that so many of the people who have come through here are people who I knew but not well. But after an hour, I felt like our two hours or whatever we do, which another nice thing about a podcast is no time limit, I felt like I knew them very well. I mean, we can get to know each other really well. I've made so many, like, real friend-friends now. I'm just killing it with guys these days.

AARON RODGERS: I always appreciate your point of view. And I've always been someone, even if I don't agree with you, I can respect opinions if they're well thought out and intelligent. And that's what you've always been about.

BILL MAHER: I just loved him as a player. And then, of course, we kind of bonded over the fact that both of us believe in medical autonomy in a way that a lot of the country has dragged its feet on. And I think a lot of the country is ignorant about it. I think people are just scared about their health, so they think there's this priesthood in white lab coats who have all the answers.

And neither one of us is an anti-vaxxer. We just believe that every medical intervention-- and that's what a vaccine is; that's what any drug is-- is a medical intervention. And some of them are appropriate for some people and some for others. It should be everyone's personal decision. And he was kind of roasted for all that.

And I reached out and said, I heard you-- sorry, I forget where I heard him. But I said, it sounds a lot like what I've been saying. And so we kind of bonded over that. And then we talked about a million things. But certainly, I admire his guts for standing by what he truly believes, which is pretty much what I believe.

The main way to reduce that hate or, at least, the first step is everyone has to stop talking politics--

JAY LENO: Right.

BILL MAHER: --all the time. We didn't use to do this.

The messier it is, the better for me. The worse it is for the country, the better for me. And I mean, we're doing better than ever because I feel like most of media is locked into their bubbles, even comedy media. They just pander to the people who are in the audience, who are just going to clap like seals at the things they already think they know and want to hear back.

I agree with some of those points of view but not always, and I don't ever pander to an audience. And I will make fun of and I do make fun of the left a lot more than I used to because they're a lot crazier than they used to be. And nobody else seems to be doing that.

So I love it. I love having that all to myself. You guys want to pander? Good. I'll just keep doing what I do. I think I'm generally left of center, but I think there's a lot-- I go where the comedy is. And, yes, it is a very dangerous, horrible time in America. Absolutely.

I'm fretful what this country is going to go through at the next presidential election, when Trump will probably run. And if he doesn't win, he will not go away. And I don't know what's going to happen in this country. So it's a perilous time, but, yeah, I'm loving covering it. It's not boring.