I hadn’t listened to anything from Maher for something like a decade by the time I heard the podcast. He wasn’t really all that funny then, and really seems to have slid into the blue conservative space since. He has to be running on momentum or blackmail at this point. I don’t think he could get a laugh at a comedy club if no one knew his name.

One of the things I’m seeing a lot of is difficulty in the process of hiring. From people I’ve spoken to who were seeking jobs, they expressed a struggle to get even a response, despite following all the best practices. From people I’ve spoken to who were looking for people to hire, there is a frequent complaint about being inundated with unqualified applicants, non-communicative applicants, and people who, to me, read like people burned by corporate BS at previous positions.
The systems we have for filling jobs are terrible, and the solutions people are coming up with are only making it worse. AI HR is being flooded by AI applications. People are using old school SEO tricks to try to get their applications seen by a human. Applicants are being asked to show up for multiple interviews and do make-work to compensate for the fact interviews are a terrible method of vetting applicants. And despite all the time, money, and systems developed to handle HR, ‘knowing a guy’ is still the best shortcut to a position.

I swear I saw a little documentary piece back in early 2025 about members of the DNC essentially hiring consultants who then came in and told them, more or less, they were listening too much to consultants and not enough to the electorate and it had cost them the election.

Just found out about the ‘I Hate Bill Maher’ Podcast, where some comedian hate-watches Maher’s show and then mocks him on a podcast. The roasting was so much funnier than Maher’s attempts at jokes, though I slightly worry that it’s a bit like The Necessary Conversation in that it might just be mocking a senile old person for being senile.