Marc Maron to end his 'WTF' podcast this fall
Marc Maron announced on Monday that he would end his acclaimed podcast, "WTF With Marc Maron," after nearly 16 years.
In the latest episode of the popular show, Maron said he and producer Brendan McDonald made the decision to end the podcast sometime this fall.
'It was not some kind of difficult decision, necessarily,' Maron told comedian John Mulaney, who was his guest on the June 2 episode. 'Neither me nor Brendan, who are the only people in charge of this operation on every level… we both realized together that we were done.'
Maron's show, which celebrates its anniversary on September 1, broke ground while the medium of podcasting was still in its infancy.
Since its launch in 2009, Maron has recorded more than 1,600 episodes, with guests such as former President Barack Obama, rockstar Keith Richards and comedian Carol Burnett. An episode he did with Robin Williams was entered into America's National Recording Registry as the first one-on-one podcast episode.
Maron's decision to end the "WTF" podcast comes as podcasts are taking over TV screens as video formats grow increasingly popular.
The medium first emerged in the mid-2000s and remained a small, niche market for years before several hits, including 'Serial,' gave the medium a jolt of attention and gravitas. While 2023 was a tough year for podcasts as a whole, popular podcasts retained — and in some instances grew — their audiences in 2024.
'We're tired, we're burnt out, and we are utterly satisfied with the work we've done,' Maron said during Monday's episode. 'We've done great work.'
However, Maron said that he is not necessarily retiring from podcasting.
"This doesn't mean I'm never going to do something like this again," he said. "It doesn't mean I'll never, you know, have talks like I do here, or or some kind of podcast at some point in time. But for now, we're just, uh, we're wrapping things up. It's OK. It's OK to end things."
"And thankfully," he said, while talking about McDonald, "we both realized together that we were done."
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This scrappy, confrontational, neurotic, angry, worn-out, misanthropic Jewish comedian found himself unloading all his problems, including his drug and alcohol addictions, to the listener. His honesty was not just bracing, it was inspiring. His listeners bonded with him. 'I think the first hundred episodes are me asking celebrities to come over and help me with my problems,' he said. Crucially, this defenceless approach caused his interviewees to open up. The show threw out the traditional conventions of the interview. Maron does little or no research into his guests, rarely plans any questions in advance and talks as much as, and sometimes more than his guests. 'I just want to have conversations,' he has said. Refreshingly, Maron never flatters his guests and, at times, is openly hostile towards them (the show features a lot of score-settling from the world of US stand-up comedy). 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