Python 3.3 IRC bot stalls on s.recv(bytes) step, does not progress timers

Question

I'm creating an IRC bot in Python 3.3 which uses timers for several functions, including hangman and a TwitchPlaysPokemon-esqe button-pressing script. The problem is, while the bot is waiting for new server messages (line=s.recv(4096)), it completely ignores all timers. This would be fine if the bot were on a busy channel, however it's quite annoying when the channel is occupied by just the bot and myself, and maybe a few others idling, as it delays hangman and the democracy mode voting timers. How do I get the bot to move on when there is no message to receive, i.e. have the recv command return None?