Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on a new "Real Time With Bill Maher."

Last month on Real Time With Bill Maher, both Maher and former Senator Joe Manchin discussed how great it would be if actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on the show. Apparently that set something in motion, as the bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned politician was the first guest on this week's episode. Quoth Maher: "I thought you'd be bigger." Schwarzenegger's response? "I thought you'd have better abs."

Schwarzenegger was there to discuss a political matter he was very invested in: gerrymandering. That's because California voters will be determining whether or not Proposition 50 -- which would undo his work in creating a nonpartisan redistricting effort -- will be law. Maher said that he felt that Schwarzenegger's support of nonpartisan districts was "the right thing to do in the macro." Still, he also felt that, in light of Republicans' efforts to redistrict other states, Proposition 50 made sense "because we can't unilaterally disarm."

The conversation took on a broader context as Maher revisited Schwarzenegger's speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention, where Schwarzenegger spoke about what attracted him to the GOP. Maher asked him if that aspect of the party was still present.

"Bill. Things change," Schwarzenegger replied. He described himself as a "traditional Republican, invoking Abraham Lincoln and mentioning Richard Nixon's role creating the EPA. He described his ethos as, "Serve the people, not the party." He went on to express optimism about what bipartisan efforts can do. Maher pushed back, pointing out that what works in California with a moderate Republican might not work elsewhere.

Andrew Ross Sorkin -- author of 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History -- and How It Shattered a Nation -- and Mark Cuban joined Maher for a broader political discussion, covering the Trump administration, foreign policy and the state of a certain ceasefire in the Middle East. Soon, Maher changed direction to the subject of Sorkin's book. "I got a little scared reading your book," Maher said.

"I'm not here to panic people," Sorkin replied. Then he veered somewhat into alarming territory, stating that he did see some parallels between 1929 and the present day, including the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930. Sorkin also noted that there were some stock market parallels between then and now, declaring that "RCA was the Nvidia of 1929."

Cuban raised a point of his own, pointing to another tech giant as potentially less stable than one might think. "Amazon can be replaced," he said, and discussed its impact on small businesses. "All my Shark Tank companies hate working with Amazon," he said -- and pointed to developments in AI that could help smaller businesses compete with bigger ones.

To close out the episode, Maher got somewhat meta. He criticized articles about the show that omit a larger context -- such as Fox News highlighting Maher's critiques of the left but leaving out any mention of his criticism of the right. "If a truth falls in the algorithm, does it make a sound?" he asked.

He returned to a larger point that he's made a lot this year: that algorithms are designed to feed you what you already like. This, for Maher, helps explain some of the nation's partisan divide: "Algorithms are, as much as anything, what keeps this country so fucked up."