Dawkins, deGrasse Tyson Topline Real Time With Bill Maher Oct. 2

[rug]

2nd October 2015
by April Neale

TV Picks: Friday night on HBO sees noted atheist scientists Richard Dawkins and Neil deGrasse Tyson headline the bookings on Real Time With Bill Maher Oct. 2.

The show airs Oct. 2 (10:00-11:00 p.m. live ET/tape-delayed PT), with a replay at 11:00 p.m., exclusively on HBO. Allowing Maher to offer his unique perspective on contemporary issues, the show includes an opening monologue, roundtable discussions with panelists, and interviews with guests.

This week, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins is the top-of-show interview guest. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is the mid-show interview guest. The roundtable guests are writer Adam Gopnik, political strategist Angela Rye and editor Matt Welch.

deGrasse Tyson is a shooting star on TV himself, as he is considered America’s foremost science communicator, the heir to Carl Sagan at the helm of the Seth MacFarlane produced TV show “Cosmos.” Tyson has written columns and books, hosted podcasts, radio and TV shows. He has millions followers on Twitter and is generally viewed as the most sage scientific mind when TV news needs an expert to talk all things universal

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/dawkins-degrasse-tyson-topline-real-time-with-bill-maher-oct-2/

Thirty minutes into live show now.. Complete replay in half hour.

[Jim__]

1. Adam Gopnik did well.

I wasn't sure that he would. Maher's panel is pretty much a free-for-all - you have to shout your way in whenever you want to say something. But Gopnik stayed in the conversation throughout the show. He made at least 2 good points:

• The thought that guns are the solution to problems is a societal belief. We may condemn individuals who use guns to attack society, but we do believe that, used properly, they are the solution to whatever is wrong. Also, that Scalia's reading of the second amendment is radically different from its historical reading. And he pointed out that Matt Welch's (editor of Reason magazine) claim that there is essentially nothing we can do is a counsel of despair.
  
  
• Under Eisenhower the highest tax rate was about 90% and yet society prospered. He also rebutted Welch's claim that everyone in the 60s and 70s complained about life under Eisenhower by pointing out that those complaints had to do with social conformity, no one questioned that there was tremendous prosperity.
  

[rug]

2. I was impressed too.

I would have liked to watch the overtime segment but I think there's a subscription fee for that.