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Much has been written about John Oliver’s stellar transition over to HBO in the past year. His weekly show has gotten great ratings and wide critical acclaim. He’s borrowed some stuff from The Daily Show format and added some new stuff, including the ability to spend ten minutes or more doing deeper analysis on more difficult subjects like net neutrality or the death penalty. Well, Oliver is making headlines today because he secretly flew to Russia last week to do a sit-down interview with Edward Snowden. The interview is not softball at all, but yet manages to be funny, interesting and informative. And in case you don’t believe this isn’t celebrity-oriented enough… much like Julian Assange, Snowden is literally a cause célèbre in many circles, and Oliver Stone’s Snowden bio-pic – starring Joseph Gorden Levitt as Snowden – will be out later this year.

Skip ahead to the 14-minute mark to watch the Snowden piece from the beginning. Snowden was more than an hour late to meet Oliver. The interview took place in a building across from the old KGB building in Moscow. (Beware: some NSFW language.)

Many news outlets are picking apart Snowden’s admission – prompted brilliantly by Oliver – that he knowingly gave out information that could harm American interests or worst-case scenario, threaten American lives. Snowden is now on the record “owning” that. Which… I mean, if Snowden ever comes back to America and gets put on trial for treason, this interview could be used as evidence. But then in the last half of the interview – the “dick pic” scenario – is actually quite brilliant. John Oliver is absolutely right, using the “naked photo” example to explain what our government is doing with our electronic communications is an effective and powerful way of explaining this situation. It actually seems like Snowden is kicking himself for not realizing that he could have been explaining it this way the whole time.

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Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN.
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