Sep 15, 2026 · 15 min · 9 segments
Bill Maher and his guests answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 9/11/26) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit…
Bill MaherHost
Max BrooksGuest
Sarah LongwellGuest
Does the panel have any reflections on the 25th anniversary of 9/11? Well, yeah, let's, let's hear from you folks.
You know, I was thinking when we were talking earlier, uh, the 9/11 Commission did a report, um, where they said one of the biggest failures, the biggest security failures, was a failure to imagine, uh-
... where nobody imagined that somebody could attack Americans on American soil-
And it feels like that with AI a little bit, that we are in a moment of a failure to imagine what could happen, and that we're at the very beginning of that.
Well, I would also say that, that sometimes the, the term failure of imagination is a term to absolve you of responsibility.
I would call it a failure of belief because every time there's something, there's Pearl Harbor, there's 9/11, there's COVID, there's always people sounding the alarm.
People do imagine it, but then there are people who say, "Well, I, I don't believe it.
It just wouldn't happen." And that's different because when you hear it and you choose not to believe it, you have a responsibility, and I think that's the problem.
In some ways, you know, well, you remember in the beginning of COVID, uh, and it came out later in, I think, uh, one of Woodward's book, uh, that Donald Trump was being told, "This is really bad.
It is coming for us." And he said, "Eh, it's the flu," told us not to worry about it.
Does the panel have any reflections on the 25th anniversary of 9/11? Well, yeah, let's, let's hear from you folks.
You know, I was thinking when we were talking earlier, uh, the 9/11 Commission did a report, um, where they said one of the biggest failures, the biggest security failures, was a failure to imagine, uh-
... where nobody imagined that somebody could attack Americans on American soil-
And it feels like that with AI a little bit, that we are in a moment of a failure to imagine what could happen, and that we're at the very beginning of that.
Well, I would also say that, that sometimes the, the term failure of imagination is a term to absolve you of responsibility.
I would call it a failure of belief because every time there's something, there's Pearl Harbor, there's 9/11, there's COVID, there's always people sounding the alarm.
People do imagine it, but then there are people who say, "Well, I, I don't believe it.
It just wouldn't happen." And that's different because when you hear it and you choose not to believe it, you have a responsibility, and I think that's the problem.
In some ways, you know, well, you remember in the beginning of COVID, uh, and it came out later in, I think, uh, one of Woodward's book, uh, that Donald Trump was being told, "This is really bad.
It is coming for us." And he said, "Eh, it's the flu," told us not to worry about it.
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