Liberal comic who helped popularize podcasting explains why he turned down Hillary Clinton interview
Maron, a podcasting pioneer and host of the popular "WTF with Marc Maron" podcast, interviewed former President Barack Obama in 2015, which helped open the door to high-level politicians willing to appear on his show, such as Hillary Clinton.
When Maron's longtime producer Brendan McDonald pitched Clinton, fresh off her loss to President Donald Trump in the 2016 election, the comedian decided against interviewing the former Secretary of State.
"'You're the guy to do this,'" McDonald recalled telling Maron. "He adamantly disagreed."
Maron told The Hollywood Reporter that "the success rate of getting to a candid place with politicians is very small," and that his successful interview with Obama was an exception.
"And this is somebody who's divisive and controversial and has a history that's somewhat sordid, not by any fault of her own, but I just didn't see where I could go with that," he said of the prospect of interviewing Clinton.
Although his "WTF" podcast continues to maintain cultural relevance, Maron announced in June that he will be ending the long-running show. He told CNN on Thursday that he's just over the medium and noted that the podcast space has become oversaturated.
"I don't want to chase the cultural conversation through clickbait and garbage. You know, I don't want to be tethered," Maron said.
"And now you're getting out just when everyone's 100% convinced that podcasts are deciding American elections and the future of mankind. Right? So why get out just when everyone catches up to you?" CNN anchor John Berman asked the comedian.
Maron told the anchor that he never intended for the show to be about politics, and felt that it had run its course.
"And we really chose not to do politics and just do kind of profiles and sort of candid conversation," he said, describing how he originally set up the show. "And we were audio, and we remained audio because we believe that's the most intimate, you know, form."
He continued, noting that he's satisfied with how much content the show has produced and that he wants to get out with so many other podcasters competing on the scene.
"And also, if we stop and at this point, you know, we have a body of work that stands on its own. And in terms of, yeah, podcasts being the new medium, that means there's 10,000 podcasts. Everyone's doing one, and it's just, the environment is a little cluttered and oversaturated."
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