podcast image for WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Description

Marc Maron welcomes comedians, actors, directors, writers, authors, musicians and folks from all walks of life to his home for amazingly revealing conversations. Marc's probing, comprehensive interview style allows guests to express themselves in ways listeners have never heard.

Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast.



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Episodes
  • 2023 / 6 / 1
    Episode 1440 - William Shatner

    William Shatner has lived long and continues to prosper. At 92 years old, he has dozens of projects in the works, including the Fox reality show Stars on Mars, a new watch he designed, two documentaries, and...

  • 2023 / 5 / 29
    Episode 1439 - Vir Das

    Vir Das doesn’t worry about fitting in. He was born in India, grew up in Nigeria, went to school in America, lived and worked in Europe, and now lives back in his country of origin. Vir talks with Marc about...

  • 2023 / 5 / 25
    Episode 1438 - Amy Sherman-Palladino

    Amy Sherman-Palladino says working on a TV show takes over your whole life. This is why Amy went from being a hired gun on sitcoms that made her miserable to her own creatively fulfilling shows like Gilmore...

  • 2023 / 5 / 22
    Episode 1437 - Smokey Robinson

    Smokey Robinson just released his 26th studio album, but he’s been writing songs since the age of six. Smokey talks with Marc about his lifelong friendships with Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross and Berry Gordy,...

  • 2023 / 5 / 18
    Episode 1436 - Warren Zanes

    For Warren Zanes, music has been a salvation. In his troubled teen years, his brother put him in the band The Del Fuegos. Then music was the conduit to his PhD. And now, after a lifetime of seeing himself as...

  • 2023 / 5 / 15
    Episode 1435 - Paul Schrader

    Paul Schrader’s upbringing was steeped in the contradictions of religion, which helped him explore the contradictory characters in his screenplays, like Travis Bickle, Jake LaMotta and the protagonists of his...

  • 2023 / 5 / 11
    Episode 1434 - Ice Cube

    Ice Cube never stopped thinking about making music, from the moment he started writing raps in typewriting class to sitting in his recording studio today making a new album. But he never expected his life to...

  • 2023 / 5 / 8
    Episode 1433 - Rachel Weisz

    Rachel Weisz and her collaborators totally knocked Marc for a loop with the new series Dead Ringers, a show that’s still haunting him long after he watched it. Rachel and Marc talk about her dual performance...

  • 2023 / 5 / 4
    Episode 1432 - Shane Mauss

    When comedian Shane Mauss was on the show in 2016, he and Marc talked about the new trajectory in his life that involved psychedelic studies. A year later, he lost his mind doing lots of hands-on experiments...

  • 2023 / 5 / 1
    Episode 1431 - Tituss Burgess

    Tituss Burgess was in the movie Respect alongside Marc, playing gospel singer James Cleveland. But it was Tituss’s own original gospel recordings that provided Marc with a fuller understanding of the Real...

  • 2023 / 4 / 27
    Episode 1430 - David Mandel

    Both David Mandel and Marc were obsessed with the early years of Saturday Night Live, in large part because of a book they both had. It was the 1977 SNL Script Book and it actually set David on a path to...

  • 2023 / 4 / 24
    Episode 1429 - J. Smith-Cameron

    J. Smith-Cameron gets just as surprised while watching Succession as you do. With all the footage they shoot, she’s never sure exactly how any given episode is going to turn out, as she waits to see what will...

  • 2023 / 4 / 20
    Episode 1428 - Lily Rabe

    As the daughter of Jill Clayburgh and playwright David Rabe, Lily Rabe felt a lot of pressure not to become an actor, believing she had to stake out her own artistic ground. But while dance was her passion,...

  • 2023 / 4 / 19
    Darryl Lenox from 2013

    From February 2013, Marc talks with comedian Darryl Lenox about the struggles he faced throughout his life and how he overcame the challenges in front of him. Darryl died on April 16, 2023. Sign up here for...

  • 2023 / 4 / 17
    Episode 1427 - Ray Romano

    The last time Ray Romano was on the podcast, he was making the show Men of a Certain Age. Now Ray and Marc are both men of a certain age with a lot of the same concerns about their health and well-being at...

  • 2023 / 4 / 13
    Episode 1426 - Alex Borstein

    It's a series of firsts for Alex Borstein: The release of her first comedy special, her first podcast interview done during a power outage, and her first time meeting Marc, despite co-starring with him in The...

  • 2023 / 4 / 10
    Episode 1425 - Steven Yeun

    Three episodes into the Netflix series Beef, Steven Yeun's character is emotionally overwhelmed in a Korean church. As the former leader of a praise band and the son of devout immigrant parents, it isn't...

  • 2023 / 4 / 6
    Episode 1424 - Kelly Reichardt

    Kelly Reichardt’s latest movie Showing Up is about the life of artists, but Kelly had no experience with art while growing up in a Miami law enforcement family other than crime scene photos. Kelly talks to...

  • 2023 / 4 / 3
    Episode 1423 - Brooke Shields

    Brooke Shields is able to look back critically on the toxic culture and misogynistic power structure that pervaded her early career while remaining grateful for the life she lived and the person she became....

  • 2023 / 3 / 30
    Episode 1422 - Cathy Ladman

    Cathy Ladman just made her tenth appearance on The Tonight Show, a milestone in a career that started back when Johnny Carson was the host. But something she dealt with throughout that career was an ongoing...

  • 2023 / 3 / 27
    Episode 1421 - Karina Longworth

    Karina Longworth grew up in Los Angeles and was fascinated by the haunted memories of Old Hollywood. Later in life, her writing and research led her to creating the podcast that explores these forgotten...

  • 2023 / 3 / 23
    Episode 1420 - Nick Youssef

    Nick Youssef found himself on the receiving end of anti-Arab hate when he took the standup stage shortly after 9/11, right at the start of his comedy career. It was that moment when Nick knew he was never...

  • 2023 / 3 / 20
    Episode 1419 - Laurie Anderson

    Laurie Anderson says she never made art to express herself, she didn’t care about having a “style,” and she sure didn’t think about building a “brand.” Laurie and Marc talk about her time in New York City as...

  • 2023 / 3 / 16
    Episode 1418 - Jason Woliner / Ashley Barnhill

    First up in this two-for-one episode, Marc talks with comedian Ashely Barnhill, who used to work for WTF while she was building her comedy career. Suddenly, a tragic accident had her fighting for her life....

  • 2023 / 3 / 13
    Episode 1417 - O'Shea Jackson Jr.

    O’Shea Jackson Jr. grew up around music with Ice Cube as a father. But it was a school teacher who set his mind toward making movies. O’Shea and Marc talk about the idea of Ice Cube versus the reality of Ice...

  • 2023 / 3 / 10
    "The Nominees Are..." - A WTF Compilation

    A special compilation of this year's Oscar nominees talking about their nominated works. Hear excerpts from Marc's interviews with Michelle Yeoh, Daniels, Brendan Fraser, Hong Chau, Austin Butler, Andrea...

  • 2023 / 3 / 9
    Episode 1416 - Bobby Farrelly

    Bobby Farrelly knows he was lucky to grow up in small town Rhode Island, which was, in his words, marinating in characters. Bobby and his brother Peter were able to take those real life characters and put...

  • 2023 / 3 / 6
    Episode 1415 - Ronny Chieng

    Ronny Chieng has been in America for less than a decade and he’s cementing himself as a prolific force in comedy. With two Netflix specials, a regular spot on The Daily Show, and multiple roles in high...

  • 2023 / 3 / 2
    Episode 1414 - Hong Chau

    Hong Chau owes her acting career to social anxiety and a fear of performing in public. It was the desire to overcome those obstacles that led her to improv and acting classes. Hong and Marc talk about the...

  • 2023 / 2 / 27
    Episode 1413 - Austin Butler

    Austin Butler devoted the past four years of his life to Elvis, the last year of which has been spent promoting and talking about Elvis. So it’s a little bit of a break for him to talk with Marc about his...

  • 2023 / 2 / 23
    Episode 1412 - Daniels (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert)

    Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert share a first name, a passion for filmmaking and now awards for Best Director. But the duo known as Daniels have backgrounds that are as divergent as the multiverse they...

  • 2023 / 2 / 20
    Episode 1411 - Michelle Yeoh

    Michelle Yeoh travels through the multiverse in Everything Everywhere All At Once. But when she was growing up in Malaysia, there was a universe where she continued her dance training and opened her own dance...

  • 2023 / 2 / 16
    Episode 1410 - Tim Blake Nelson

    Tim Blake Nelson always impresses Marc with his acting and, since the last time he was on the show, he’s made more stuff Marc loved, like Old Henry and Nightmare Alley. But now Tim has also impressed Marc as...

  • 2023 / 2 / 13
    Episode 1409 - Marc Summers

    Most people know Marc Summers as the host of Double Dare on Nickelodeon and Unwrapped on Food Network. But his background makes him an ideal WTF guest. A Jewish kid from the Midwest who wanted to get into...

  • 2023 / 2 / 9
    Episode 1408 - AEW (Chris Jericho, Tony Khan, Colt Cabana, Bryce Remsberg, MJF, Eddie Kingston)

    As documented in the Wrestling With Marc series on The Full Maron, Marc undergoes a full immersion into the world of professional wrestling when his producer Brendan suggests Marc explore something totally...

  • 2023 / 2 / 6
    Episode 1407 - Wayne Brady

    Wayne Brady is making himself happy again when he’s performing. He makes other people happy hosting Let’s Make a Deal and being part of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, but only in recent years does Wayne feel like...

  • 2023 / 2 / 2
    Episode 1406 - Dave Franco

    Dave Franco is a successful actor but that doesn’t mean he was full of confidence when he began directing his first feature. Dave tells Marc how he overcame the fear of the unknown once he stepped on set to...

  • 2023 / 1 / 30
    Episode 1405 - Radhika Jones

    Radhika Jones just celebrated her fifth year as Editor-in-Chief of Vanity Fair and, as far as Marc is concerned, she plays a major role on the front lines of the American culture war. Radhika tells Marc why...

  • 2023 / 1 / 26
    Episode 1404 - Brendan Fraser

    Brendan Fraser is receiving awards and accolades for his performance in The Whale but his reasons for taking on the role go much deeper than wanting to earn well-deserved praise. Brendan and Marc talk about...

  • 2023 / 1 / 23
    Episode 1403 - Sarah Polley

    Sarah Polley has a lot to say about memory, narratives and the stories we tell. That’s because she believes they’re all fluid, which creates a sort of moving target for a writer and director of films, as she...

  • 2023 / 1 / 19
    Episode 1402 - Octavia Spencer

    Octavia Spencer’s career started behind the scenes, as she worked in casting departments on film sets. Director Joel Schumacher said she should read for the role of Sandra Bullock’s nurse in A Time To Kill...

  • 2023 / 1 / 16
    Episode 1401 - Todd Field

    Todd Field toyed with many pursuits before he ever directed a film. First there was close-up magic. Then he went to school on a music scholarship. He also hoped to become a baseball player, working as a...

  • 2023 / 1 / 12
    Episode 1400 - Andrea Riseborough

    Andrea Riseborough can't lie. She's terrible at it. But she believes that trait helps her as an actor because there's no hiding her emotions. Marc can attest to this, having acted opposite Andrea in To...

  • 2023 / 1 / 9
    Episode 1399 - Katt Williams

    Katt Williams is a one-of-a-kind comic performer, so it’s only natural he should have a one-of-a-kind backstory. Katt tells Marc about his travels as a teenager, trying to make it on his own in Florida, then...

  • 2023 / 1 / 5
    Episode 1398 - Colin Hanks

    Colin Hanks knows there are public perceptions of him that are tricky to navigate. For one, the man known as America’s Dad is his actual dad. There’s also the fact that people have a hard time seeing him in...

  • 2023 / 1 / 2
    Episode 1397 - Ben Foster

    Ben Foster was 14 years old and when he had what he calls a breakdown. Ben had a moment while acting where he completely lost himself and he needed to get back to that place at all costs. Marc talks with Ben...

  • 2022 / 12 / 29
    Episode 1396 - Eric McFadden

    Guitarist and singer-songwriter Eric McFadden is a blast from Marc's past. They knew each other when they were teenagers growing up in Albuquerque, fostering their creative passions in art studios,...

  • 2022 / 12 / 26
    Episode 1395 - Courtney Love

    Courtney Love is finishing up her first record in more than a decade while she lives in London, perhaps permanently. Courtney fled LA because, as she tells Marc, she needed to get out of the “overculture.”...

  • 2022 / 12 / 22
    Episode 1394 - Scott Cooper

    Writer-director Scott Cooper says the best thing to came out of his acting career was the friendship he struck up with Robert Duvall. At Robert’s suggestion, Scott started writing his own films, including one...

  • 2022 / 12 / 19
    Episode 1393 - Rian Johnson

    Rian Johnson revived the mystery genre with his movie Knives Out and now he’s seeing what other places he can take it, both with the sequel Glass Onion and his new detective series Poker Face. But that’s the...

  • 2022 / 12 / 15
    Episode 1392 - James Austin Johnson

    James Austin Johnson figured out at a very young age that he could do impressions. When he got older and started doing comedy, he wanted to figure out a way to do them that didn’t feel like a Las Vegas lounge...

  • 2022 / 12 / 12
    Episode 1391 - Tommy Tiernan

    Comedian Tommy Tiernan knows a fellow traveler when he sees one. Ever since he saw Marc perform, he recognized a kinship, which is something Marc notices himself when he’s in Tommy’s home country of Ireland....

  • 2022 / 12 / 8
    Episode 1390 - Elvis Mitchell

    Elvis Mitchell waited his entire life to make the new documentary Is That Black Enough For You?!? As a film critic, professor, chronicler of the entertainment business on his show The Treatment and, most...

  • 2022 / 12 / 5
    Episode 1389 - Clea DuVall

    It’s the holidays, which means Clea DuVall’s movie the Happiest Season is once again part of a new tradition for people everywhere. That’s still taking time to sink in for Clea because it’s a film she wrote...

  • 2022 / 12 / 1
    Episode 1388 - James Gray

    Filmmaker James Gray had crisis of confidence after watching a rough cut of his first movie, Little Odessa. Now that he’s made his most personal film yet, Armageddon Time, James and Marc talk about what it...

  • 2022 / 11 / 28
    Episode 1387 - Rob Delaney / Sam Lipsyte

    Rob Delaney says the last time he was on the show, he didn’t have two coins to rub together. After that, he started a family, moved to London, created the hit show Catastrophe and saw his career take off....

  • 2022 / 11 / 24
    Episode 1386 - Live with David Baddiel

    Live from The Bloomsbury Theatre in London, Marc welcomes comedian and writer David Baddiel to the stage. In light of David’s new book and accompanying documentary, Jews Don’t Count, Marc and David talk about...

  • 2022 / 11 / 21
    Episode 1385 - Robert Siegel

    Writer-director Robert Siegel wanted to explore a career in either comedy or journalism. It turns out he got to do both as Editor-in-Chief of The Onion. But while The Onion was mostly comedy tinged with...

  • 2022 / 11 / 17
    Episode 1384 - Bruce Wagner

    When Marc reads the works of author and screenwriter Bruce Wagner, he starts to question reality. Bruce’s depictions of Hollywood personalities and show business darkness cut close to the bone and leave Marc...

  • 2022 / 11 / 14
    Episode 1383 - Wes Bentley

    American Beauty completely changed Wes Bentley’s life and is still doing so today, considering he got his current role in Yellowstone because of his performance as Ricky Fitts. But the sudden exposure to fame...

  • 2022 / 11 / 13
    Budd Friedman from 2012

    From November 2012, Marc talks with Budd Friedman, the man behind the comedy club boom in America. Budd died on November 12, 2022 at the age of 90. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and...

  • 2022 / 11 / 11
    Gallagher

    Marc revisits his 2011 interview with comedian Gallagher, recorded in Portland, Oregon on January 27, 2011. Their conversation about comedy, language and cultural tolerance led to Gallagher walking out on the...

  • 2022 / 11 / 10
    Episode 1382 - Quinta Brunson

    Quinta Brunson didn’t pave the traditional path to a hit network sitcom. In fact, she paved a path that didn’t really exist. Quinta and Marc talk about how she was one of the first people on Instagram to hit...

  • 2022 / 11 / 7
    Episode 1381 - Elizabeth Banks

    Elizabeth Banks says she’s the kind of person who likes to get ‘A’s on tests. And in show business, directing feature films for Hollywood studios is the ultimate test. Elizabeth and Marc talk about how her...

  • 2022 / 11 / 3
    Episode 1380 - Chris Redd

    Chris Redd knows what it’s like to have dreams and then watch them shift in the face of reality. It happened first with the dream of being a rapper, but then Chris realized he had a knack for this comedy...

  • 2022 / 10 / 31
    Episode 1379 - Armando Iannucci

    Veep creator Armando Iannucci knows his job as a purveyor of political satire becomes more difficult as politicians become more absurd and cartoonish. In fact, just hours before recording this episode, the...

  • 2022 / 10 / 27
    Episode 1378 - Ron Carter

    Ron Carter is one of the architects of modern jazz. The Guinness Book of World Records cites him as the most recorded bassist in history and his influence has stretched well beyond jazz to a host of musical...

  • 2022 / 10 / 24
    Episode 1377 - Jeremy Strong

    Jeremy Strong can’t help being honest. His honesty around his job as an actor is what leads to magazine profiles where he’s portrayed as “intense” and “serious.” His honesty also allows him to admit that he...

  • 2022 / 10 / 20
    Episode 1376 - Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

    Henry Louis Gates, Jr. believes we must understand who we were in order to understand who we are. That goes for individuals, which is at the core of his PBS series Finding Your Roots, as well as society,...

  • 2022 / 10 / 17
    Episode 1375 - Ralph Macchio

    Everyone knows Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso from The Karate Kid. In fact, so many people know him as Daniel LaRusso, he wrote a book about spending his life as that character. Ralph and Marc talk about his...

  • 2022 / 10 / 13
    Episode 1374 - Béla Fleck / Michael Morris

    Béla Fleck is more than a virtuoso banjo player. He’s also a banjo missionary, an evangelist for an instrument he feels is often misunderstood and pigeonholed. Béla talks with Marc about how he wanted to move...

  • 2022 / 10 / 10
    Episode 1373 - Zahn McClarnon

    Zahn McClarnon’s early experiences with reservation life helped him add some personal touches as a cast member of Reservation Dogs. But it was actually his experience with the musical Jesus Christ Superstar...

  • 2022 / 10 / 6
    Episode 1372 - Jann Wenner

    Jann Wenner’s life as the co-founder and publisher of Rolling Stone Magazine has been chronicled in other books, but Jann says he needed to write a memoir to declare what his generation actually stood for....

  • 2022 / 10 / 3
    Episode 1371 - Tony Gilroy

    Writer-director Tony Gilroy is the man behind one of Marc’s favorite movies of all time, Michael Clayton. They get into everything it took to get that movie made and its surprising legacy. But the rest of...

  • 2022 / 9 / 29
    Episode 1370 - Abigail Disney

    Abigail Disney feels the burden of her last name, particularly due to the practices of the global company that was founded by her grandfather Roy and grand uncle Walt. Marc talks with Abigail about her social...

  • 2022 / 9 / 26
    Episode 1369 - Sigourney Weaver

    Multiple generations of audiences love Sigourney Weaver, whether it’s because of Ghostbusters or Avatar or Working Girl or the Alien franchise or all of the above. But Sigourney tells Marc she never imagined...

  • 2022 / 9 / 22
    Episode 1368 - Sam Rockwell

    Sam Rockwell and Marc have talked with each other a lot since Sam was last on the show. Granted, during a lot of those conversations they were pretending to be a wolf and a snake, respectively. The Bad Guys...

  • 2022 / 9 / 19
    Episode 1367 - Adrian Belew

    Adrian Belew’s career in music was influenced by many and has influenced many more. As a completely self-taught guitarist, Adrian absorbed as much music as possible on the way to establishing his own sound...

  • 2022 / 9 / 15
    Episode 1366 - Bradley Whitford

    Since the last time he was on WTF, Bradley Whitford spent a lot of time listening to the show while taking walks. So he’s primed and ready to take his ongoing one-sided conversation with Marc back to the...

  • 2022 / 9 / 12
    Episode 1365 - Brett Morgen

    Documentary filmmaker Brett Morgen likes to go into the deep end with his films. He never wants to repeat himself, or repeat any other docs for that matter. He wants his films to be an experiential,...

  • 2022 / 9 / 8
    Episode 1364 - Sharon Van Etten

    Singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten creates personal, deeply felt songs that also provide her with relief. Sharon talks with Marc about her stream of consciousness writing style and how it helps her process...

  • 2022 / 9 / 5
    Episode 1363 - Al Ruddy

    Al Ruddy's life as a producer taught him one major lesson: The making of every movie is itself worthy of a movie. That's why there's a limited series called The Offer about Al's experiences making The...

  • 2022 / 9 / 1
    Episode 1362 - Whitney Cummings

    Whitney Cummings left the garage twelve years ago after a conversation with Marc and couldn’t shake something he said to her. It bothered her for years until she finally decided to own it and turn it into the...

  • 2022 / 8 / 29
    Episode 1361 - Simu Liu

    Simu Liu is now an entrenched member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, thanks to his portrayal of superhero Shang Chi. But Simu has his own origin story worthy of a comic book arc. Simu tells Marc how he left...

  • 2022 / 8 / 25
    Episode 1360 - S.G. Goodman

    Singer-songwriter S.G. Goodman creates songs about complex people and conflicting ideas. She sings about complications that are close to her heart because she has lived them. Raised on a farm in rural Western...

  • 2022 / 8 / 22
    Episode 1359 - Andrew Garfield

    Andrew Garfield was terrified of being Spider-Man. As a 27-year-old who was not yet known to the world, he knew his life would immediately change once he became that beloved character. Andrew tells...

  • 2022 / 8 / 18
    Episode 1358 - Jerrod Carmichael

    Jerrod Carmichael has been busy since the last time he talked with Marc in the garage. He directed his first movie, On The Count Of Three. He put out his third standup special, Rothaniel, and hosted SNL,...

  • 2022 / 8 / 15
    Episode 1357 - Christina Ricci

    Christina Ricci grew up around enough chaos to make her want constant control. Which is why the show Yellowjackets is such a different experience for her. As Christina tells Marc, she decided to surrender...

  • 2022 / 8 / 11
    Episode 1356 - Patton Oswalt

    Patton Oswalt returns to the garage more than a decade since his last appearance, but he and Marc have so much shared history that it’s always easy to pick up right where they left off. Patton and Marc talk...

  • 2022 / 8 / 8
    Episode 1355 - Sam Quinones

    Journalist Sam Quinones blew Marc’s mind six years ago with his book Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic. More recently, he devoted his research and reporting to understanding how America...

  • 2022 / 8 / 4
    Episode 1354 - James Acaster

    Comedian James Acaster caught Marc’s attention when he released four hour-long Netflix standup specials simultaneously. But in watching the specials, Marc quickly recognized a likeminded comic with a...

  • 2022 / 8 / 1
    Episode 1353 - Neil Gaiman

    Neil Gaiman’s writing - from The Sandman to American Gods to Good Omens to hundreds of comics, novels and screenplays - uses fantasy to help explain modern reality. Marc talks with Neil about how his early...

  • 2022 / 7 / 28
    Episode 1352 - Zainab Johnson

    Comedian Zainab Johnson can survive anything in the comedy world after she survived growing up with twelve siblings in a New York City apartment, substitute teaching in juvenile detention centers, and being...

  • 2022 / 7 / 25
    Episode 1351 - Jerry Harrison

    Talking Heads and The Modern Lovers are two of the most influential bands of the ’70s and many would argue two of the best bands ever. And Jerry Harrison was in them both. Jerry and Marc talk about the...

  • 2022 / 7 / 21
    Episode 1350 - Nikki Glaser

    Nikki Glaser returns to the show because Marc finds her so easy to talk with, probably because they share so many similarities. They have kindred stand-up processes, they both get stressed out by writing,...

  • 2022 / 7 / 18
    Episode 1349 - Michael Mann

    When Michael Mann talks with Marc about his 1995 crime epic Heat, he has such command of the deep backstory and destinies of all the film’s characters, it seems like he has a whole Heat Universe in his head....

  • 2022 / 7 / 14
    Episode 1348 - Orny Adams

    Orny Adams says that being a comedian is the one thing he knows he’s good at. He also says that being in the documentary Comedian is something that will weigh on him for the rest of his life. Orny talks with...

  • 2022 / 7 / 11
    Episode 1347 - Naomi Ekperigin

    Comedian and writer Naomi Ekperigin is a cheerful person who also finds herself paralyzed with rage. It’s a balancing act she has to manage, just like she balanced her time in writers’ rooms with getting on...

  • 2022 / 7 / 7
    Episode 1346 - Jerry Stahl

    Jerry Stahl is one of Marc’s best friends. But sometimes you have no idea your best friend lived in a cave at one point. And that’s why you sit down with him in the garage. Jerry talks with Marc about his...

  • 2022 / 7 / 4
    Episode 1345 - Jason Kander

    Jason Kander was a rising star in national politics. In fact, he was staging a run for the Presidency and got the thumbs up from none other than Barack Obama himself. Then the roof caved in. Jason tells Marc...

  • 2022 / 6 / 30
    Episode 1344 - Laura Veirs

    Singer-songwriter Laura Veirs has something to prove with her latest album, Found Light. After divorce ended her 20-years-long collaborative relationship with her producer husband, Laura not only needed to...

  • 2022 / 6 / 27
    Episode 1343 - Atsuko Okatsuka

    Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka has familiarity with garages. But unlike Marc, she didn’t start a podcast in one. She lived in one with her mother and grandmother for seven years, as three generations of immigrant...

  • 2022 / 6 / 23
    Episode 1342 - Dana Gould

    Dana Gould is in his 40th year of doing standup. He and Marc talk about what they’ve learned in their decades of comedy, how they came to accept their limitations, and how they see themselves in today’s...

  • 2022 / 6 / 20
    Episode 1341 - Kate Berlant

    Kate Berlant’s comedy defies easy categorization. That’s okay with Kate, who thinks people use a lot of empty terms to pin down comedy. Kate and Marc talk about how growing up in the art world helped Kate...

  • 2022 / 6 / 16
    Episode 1340 - Jen Statsky

    When Jen Statsky and her collaborators were creating the show Hacks, they knew they needed to nail the portrayal of life in standup comedy because comics will quickly know if they got it wrong. Marc talks...

  • 2022 / 6 / 13
    Episode 1339 - Greg Proops

    Marc has a very direct question for his old friend Greg Proops: “Did we lose?” In the fight for the heart and soul of comedy, there is real uncertainty about the current trajectory. What legacy did the...

  • 2022 / 6 / 9
    Episode 1338 - Lara Beitz

    For a while, Lara Beitz could only get on stage to do comedy if she was hammered. She'd drink to feel less nervous but then there wasn't a time when she didn't feel nervous, so she was just always drinking....

  • 2022 / 6 / 6
    Episode 1337 - Phil Tippett

    Oscar and Emmy-winning visual effects artist Phil Tippett is responsible for some of the most memorable effects in movies history, like the alien chess match in Star Wars, the giant robot walkers in The...

  • 2022 / 6 / 2
    Episode 1336 - Jesus Trejo

    Jesus Trejo knows he put in the work to become a paid regular at The Comedy Store, spending years doing open mic spots and performing at 1am for a handful of people. Not to mention paying his dues unclogging...

  • 2022 / 5 / 30
    Episode 1335 - Rosie Perez

    Rosie Perez initially thought success would paper over her trauma. But the emotional ramifications from the abuse she went through as a child were never going to stay hidden for long. Rosie and Marc talk...

  • 2022 / 5 / 27
    Ray Liotta from 2018

    From 2018, Ray Liotta talks with Marc about getting his start in soap operas, the debt he owes to Melanie Griffith, and the emotional filming of Goodfellas. Ray died on May 26, 2022 at age 67. Sign up here...

  • 2022 / 5 / 26
    Episode 1334 - Joey Camen

    Joey Camen left a dysfunctional home in Detroit as a teenager and, thanks to an ad he saw in a Playboy, knew exactly where he needed to go. He went straight to the brand new club on the Sunset Strip, The...

  • 2022 / 5 / 23
    Episode 1333 - Marc Goes To Washington w/ Dr. Dwandalyn Reece and Lance Mion

    This is an episode about history. Collective history and personal history. Marc finds himself in Washington, DC on the latest leg of his standup tour, a place imbued with symbolism, both for what we want...

  • 2022 / 5 / 19
    Episode 1332 - Michael Che

    Michael Che wanted out his life on the Lower East Side, but his initial path was not comedy. It was painting and fine art. Michael tells Marc how he became enamored with standup while living in his brother's...

  • 2022 / 5 / 16
    Episode 1331 - Sandra Oh

    Sandra Oh spent much of her career believing certain opportunities weren't going to come her way because they're just not afforded to Asian actors. Sandra and Marc talk about what she found in herself to...

  • 2022 / 5 / 12
    Episode 1330 - The Doobie Brothers / Steven Jenkins

    The Doobie Brothers is a band with almost twenty official members throughout its five decades of existence. But Tom Johnston and Pat Simmons have been playing guitar and performing vocals for the band since...

  • 2022 / 5 / 9
    Episode 1329 - A Tribute to Dan Vitale

    Marc remembers the life and comedy of Dan Vitale, a comedian whose raw and unapologetically personal style of stand-up was a big influence on a young Marc Maron. Marc talks about how his perception of what it...

  • 2022 / 5 / 5
    Episode 1328 - Nicole Holofcener

    Nicole Holofcener has trouble breathing. She finds herself holding her breath for too long, which could be a result of allergies or a byproduct of sleep apnea. But it's also an apt metaphor for the life of an...

  • 2022 / 5 / 2
    Episode 1327 - Tony Hawk

    Tony Hawk walked into Marc's garage on a broken leg, the result of a recent skateboarding trick gone wrong. It's everything about Tony that's on display in the new documentary Tony Hawk: Until The Wheels Fall...

  • 2022 / 4 / 28
    Episode 1326 - Trombone Shorty

    It's normal for everyone to call Troy Andrews by his stage name, Trombone Shorty, because he's been playing the trombone since he was a tiny, four-year-old boy. Troy and Marc talk about the musical culture of...

  • 2022 / 4 / 25
    Episode 1325 - Vanessa Bayer

    Vanessa Bayer knows her comedic talent comes from a decidedly unfunny place. Vanessa's teenage cancer diagnosis focused her comedy skills, which in turn allowed her to help people process, understand and...

  • 2022 / 4 / 21
    Episode 1324 - Aaron Blabey

    Children's book author Aaron Blabey can measure success by the more than 30 million books he's sold. But that success was a long time coming and in many ways felt like it was never in reach. Aaron tells Marc...

  • 2022 / 4 / 18
    Episode 1323 - Robert Eggers

    Robert Eggers was never into Vikings or hand-to-hand combat or macho stuff. And yet he just made the Viking movie to end all Viking movies, filled with brutal violence and macho posturing. But as he tells...

  • 2022 / 4 / 14
    Episode 1322 - Harvey Fierstein

    The guiding philosophy in the life of Harvey Fierstein is simple: Say yes. As he put together his new memoir, I Was Better Last Night, it was clear to Harvey his extraordinary life relied on saying yes to...

  • 2022 / 4 / 13
    Gilbert Gottfried from 2012

    From 2012, Gilbert Gottfried talks to Marc about his comedy peers, his one-year stint on SNL, the times his jokes got him in trouble, and more. Gilbert died on April 12, 2022, at age 67. Sign up here for WTF+...

  • 2022 / 4 / 11
    Episode 1321 - Bonnie Raitt

    Bonnie Raitt doesn't feel the need to slow down. With the release of her 18th studio album and the start of an eight-month world tour, the prolific singer-songwriter knows what it's like to make the most of...

  • 2022 / 4 / 7
    Episode 1320 - Zazie Beetz

    Zazie Beetz and Marc were in three things together - Joker, the Netflix series Easy, and the new animated film The Bad Guys - but they're only now meeting each other for real. That makes for a good...

  • 2022 / 4 / 4
    Episode 1319 - Adam Ray

    Comedian Adam Ray was a high school athlete, a musical theater performer, and an acting student with his eyes on Hollywood. But one thing he never could shake was the feeling of being an overweight kid when...

  • 2022 / 3 / 31
    Episode 1318 - Guy Torry

    Comedian Guy Torry spent 13 years creating and running the most famous all-black comedy night in America at The Comedy Store. And now Guy just spent another 13 years making a documentary about that...

  • 2022 / 3 / 28
    Episode 1317 - Flea

    The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been around for almost 40 years and Flea has been there for every minute of it. He and Marc talk about Flea's jazz-based upbringing that made him the bassist he is today, the...

  • 2022 / 3 / 24
    Episode 1316 - Sam Jay

    Sam Jay has a lot of irons in the fire. She's on the comedy series Bust Down, she has her own HBO late night show Pause, and she never stops doing standup. Sam tells Marc that standup is the one thing that's...

  • 2022 / 3 / 21
    Episode 1315 - Jeff Foxworthy

    Jeff Foxworthy still cringes when he knows other comics are watching his work. That persistent insecurity and the desire to always stay funny is why Jeff has a new Netflix special and a whole new act. Jeff...

  • 2022 / 3 / 17
    Episode 1314 - Ariana DeBose

    Ariana DeBose knows there was no way for her to prepare for what's happening right now. There's no instruction booklet for being a professional dancer at age 18 and suddenly becoming an Academy...

  • 2022 / 3 / 14
    Episode 1313 - Keith Richards

    It's been almost seven years since Marc smoked a cigarette with Keith Richards in a radio studio in New York City. Since then, Keith gave up smoking, continued to tour with the Rolling Stones, released...

  • 2022 / 3 / 10
    Episode 1312 - Mike O'Brien

    Mike O'Brien has the distinction of being responsible for Marc Maron crossing over into the world of improv. With a background in the Chicago improv and sketch scene and seven seasons writing for Saturday...

  • 2022 / 3 / 7
    Episode 1311 - Caroline Rhea

    Not many people know Marc the way Caroline Rhea does. They have a history that runs through the many different stages of each of their lives and careers. Caroline and Marc sit down for a conversation about...

  • 2022 / 3 / 3
    Episode 1310 - Mira Sorvino

    Mira Sorvino has a lot of talents beyond acting. She speaks Mandarin Chinese, she dances ballet, she plays guitar. But acting is what Mira believes she was born to do. And then for almost 20 years, she was...

  • 2022 / 2 / 28
    Episode 1309 - Sam Elliott

    Sam Elliott plays a lot of tough guys - cowboys, bikers, soldiers - who can (and often do) beat people up. But in reality, Sam says the only guy he beats up is himself. Sam and Marc talk about how he came to...

  • 2022 / 2 / 25
    Sally Kellerman from 2013

    From 2013, Sally Kellerman talks with Marc about being his TV mom, embracing Hot Lips, and working with Robert Altman, Marlon Brando, Rodney Dangerfield and more. Sally died on February 24, 2022 at age 84....

  • 2022 / 2 / 24
    Episode 1308 - W. Kamau Bell

    W. Kamau Bell has talked with Marc before about his life, his comedy and his thoughts about the world. But this time there's a single topic that needs to be addressed: Bill Cosby. Kamau tells Marc why he...

  • 2022 / 2 / 23
    The Amazing Johnathan from 2014

    From 2014, Marc talks with John Szeles, better known as The Amazing Johnathan, about his life doing comedy and magic, often at the same time. John died on February 22, 2022 at age 63 Sign up here for WTF+ to...

  • 2022 / 2 / 23
    Mark Lanegan from 2017

    From 2017, Marc talks with Mark Lanegan, the former frontman of Screaming Trees, about the '90s grunge scene and his collaborations with various artists. Mark died on February 22, 2022 at age 57. Sign up here...

  • 2022 / 2 / 21
    Episode 1307 - Andy Garcia

    Andy Garcia says it's surreal to look back on his early life as a shy Cuban exile who was idolizing famous actors and filmmakers, only to be reminiscing now about the work he's done with Sean Connery, Al...

  • 2022 / 2 / 17
    Episode 1306 - Roy Wood Jr

    Roy Wood Jr can't be angry on stage. He wants to be angry. But he believes his face is too round to be angry. Now, whenever Roy wants to say something mean in his act, he knows he has to smile while he does...

  • 2022 / 2 / 14
    Episode 1305 - Ana Gasteyer

    Ana Gasteyer learned a major life lesson from Will Ferrell and it has nothing to do with their time together on Saturday Night Live. It was about making choices, square dancing and knowing how to have fun....

  • 2022 / 2 / 14
    Ivan Reitman from 2014

    From 2014, Marc talks with filmmaker Ivan Reitman about his career, his movies and his relationship with his writer-director son, Jason. Ivan died on February 12, 2022 at age 75. Sign up here for WTF+ to get...

  • 2022 / 2 / 10
    Episode 1304 - Chris Spencer

    Chris Spencer is the kind of guy the White House calls when they need a show business favor. How did he become so connected? In Chris's words, Black Hollywood is a small place. Chris talks with Marc about how...

  • 2022 / 2 / 7
    Episode 1303 - Judd Hirsch

    Judd Hirsch is interested in the pursuit of truth. That's why he loved math as a student, that's why he got a physics degree, and that's why he has a civil engineering background. But he also learned to apply...

  • 2022 / 2 / 3
    Episode 1302 - Sam Richardson

    Sam Richardson thinks desperation is the key to comedy. His characters from shows like Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave are a testament to that philosophy. Sam and Marc talk about his childhood being...

  • 2022 / 1 / 31
    Episode 1301 - Tony Kushner

    Tony Kushner is one of the most important American playwrights of the past 50 years who is now a creative partner of one of the most important American filmmakers of the last 50 years. Tony talks with Marc...

  • 2022 / 1 / 27
    Episode 1300 - Dana Stevens

    Film critic Dana Stevens took her love for Silent Movie Era star Buster Keaton and told the story of the 20th century film industry as it evolved alongside Buster's own life. Marc talks with Dana about her...

  • 2022 / 1 / 24
    Episode 1299 - Peter Dinklage

    Peter Dinklage spent a good portion of his life trying to come to terms with ambition. It's something he's had an adversarial relationship with, going back to the days when he started a theater company that...

  • 2022 / 1 / 21
    Remembering Louie Anderson

    Hear Marc's two conversations with comedian and actor Louie Anderson from June 2016 and April 2018. Louie died on January 21, 2022 at age 68. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly...

  • 2022 / 1 / 20
    Episode 1298 - John Mellencamp

    John Mellencamp considers his whole career to be a total fluke. Maybe that's because he never planned for anything in his life and just let the chips fall where they may. As he releases his twenty-fifth...

  • 2022 / 1 / 17
    Episode 1297 - Nicole Byer

    Nicole Byer hosts the hit shows Nailed It! and Wipeout, is working on her new standup hour, hosts four different podcasts and is starring in the new primetime NBC series Grand Crew. But she still had time to...

  • 2022 / 1 / 13
    Episode 1296 - Drew Michael

    Drew Michael wants his comedy to feel different. He wants the audience to have a unique experience. This mindset actually reminds Marc of his own style of comedy, as well as a few other iconoclastic stand-ups...

  • 2022 / 1 / 10
    Episode 1295 - Javier Bardem

    Javier Bardem finds lots of inspiration in his native Spain: the art, the creativity, the history, the ham. Marc talks with Javier about the importance of being raised in a creative family, including his...

  • 2022 / 1 / 10
    Remembering Bob Saget

    Marc pays tribute to comedian Bob Saget and revisits his three WTF appearances from September 2010, April 2014 and November 2017. Bob died on January 9, 2022 at age 65. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full...

  • 2022 / 1 / 7
    Peter Bogdanovich from 2015

    From 2015, Marc talks with director Peter Bogdanovich about his life as a filmmaker, his days in the theater and his friendship with Orson Welles. Peter died on January 6, 2022 at age 82. Sign up here for...

  • 2022 / 1 / 6
    Episode 1294 - David Manheim

    Most people who know David Manheim don't know him as David Manheim. To fans of the Dopey podcast, he's just Dave (no last name given), a recovering drug addict who built a tight-knit digital community around...

  • 2022 / 1 / 3
    Episode 1293 - The Smothers Brothers

    Recently, Marc talked with television historian David Bianculli about The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and the important place it holds in American culture. Talking with Tom and Dick Smothers themselves,...

  • 2021 / 12 / 30
    Episode 1292 - Rory Cochrane

    When Rory Cochrane started acting, he knew he didn't want to be a movie star. He wanted to be a freight train that keeps on moving. Rory tells Marc about the practices and measures he put in place to attain...

  • 2021 / 12 / 27
    Episode 1291 - Aida Rodriguez

    Aida Rodriguez wanted her first HBO special to be more than a comedy show. She wanted to depict the parts of her past that are foundational to her comedy. So that's why she filmed a short documentary about...

  • 2021 / 12 / 23
    Episode 1290 - Guillermo del Toro

    Guillermo del Toro believes in one universal truth: We all get to a moment in our lives when we see ourselves for who we really are. That belief not only guides his own life, it guides the characters through...

  • 2021 / 12 / 20
    Episode 1289 - Peter Jackson

    Despite multiple Oscars and billions of dollars in box office returns, Peter Jackson still has the same interests he had when he was 10 years old: First World War airplanes, monster movies, using his Super 8...

  • 2021 / 12 / 16
    Episode 1288 - Cat Power

    At one point, Chan Marshall was in a band called Cat Power. But it's appropriate for someone like Chan, who had to be self-reliant almost from birth, that she'd adopt the name as her own once the band...

  • 2021 / 12 / 13
    Episode 1287 - Halle Berry

    Halle Berry wasn't supposed to be in the movie Bruised. And she definitely wasn't supposed to direct the movie Bruised. Then she wound up being in it and directing it, but no one wanted to take a chance on...

  • 2021 / 12 / 9
    Episode 1286 - Jesse Plemons

    Still only in his early 30s, Jesse Plemons has already delivered a laundry list of indelible performances in everything from Breaking Bad to Friday Night Lights to Black Mass, working with directors like Paul...

  • 2021 / 12 / 6
    Episode 1285 - Jennifer Hudson

    Jennifer Hudson didn't start singing with her eyes open until she was 19 years old. That's not a metaphor. Jennifer tells Marc how she was so afraid to sing in public, the only way she could do it was by...

  • 2021 / 12 / 2
    Episode 1284 - Benedict Cumberbatch

    Benedict Cumberbatch is a busy man. When he's not holding the Marvel Universe together as Doctor Strange or making prestige dramas with celebrated directors, he's flying between the U.S. and the U.K. to raise...

  • 2021 / 11 / 29
    Episode 1283 - Bill Pullman

    Bill Pullman's upbringing in rural Western New York prepared him for a multifaceted life, since he always had to keep his options open. So aside from being an actor, Bill's also been a theater teacher, a...

  • 2021 / 11 / 25
    Episode 1282 - Jason Bailey / Fun City Cinema

    WTF takes over the historic Paris Theater in New York City for the first live audience episode of the show in more than six years. Marc is joined by film critic and historian Jason Bailey, author of the new...

  • 2021 / 11 / 22
    Episode 1281 - Ridley Scott

    Ridley Scott has a secret weapon as a filmmaker and it probably has a lot to do with his career longevity and versatility. As a young boy, he would draw everything, and to this day he still storyboards every...

  • 2021 / 11 / 18
    Episode 1280 - Kenneth Branagh

    Kenneth Branagh had a lot on his mind when making the movie Belfast, a film based on his own childhood. He thought mostly about loss. Loss of family, loss of where you come from, loss of innocence. As Kenneth...

  • 2021 / 11 / 15
    Episode 1279 - George Clooney

    George Clooney is 60. Which means, much like Marc, he's always reminding himself that he doesn't know how much time he has left. George tells Marc how this mindset affects all his decisions, whether it's the...

  • 2021 / 11 / 11
    Episode 1278 - "Canceled Comedy" w/ Kliph Nesteroff and David Bianculli

    Marc is trying to get to the bottom of something. What does it really mean to be 'canceled' in comedy? Is it something comedians have always worried about? What does actual censorship in comedy look like? And...

  • 2021 / 11 / 8
    Episode 1277 - Felipe Esparza

    The challenges of standup comedy were nothing compared to the obstacles Felipe Esparza faced throughout his childhood. His family was caught crossing the border and sent back to Mexico. When he finally made...

  • 2021 / 11 / 4
    Episode 1276 - Bob Spitz

    How did Bob Spitz become the preeminent biographer of the most important and influential names in rock and roll? Before he wrote the definitive narratives of Bob Dylan, The Beatles and now Led Zeppelin, Bob...

  • 2021 / 11 / 1
    Episode 1275 - Ricky Velez

    Being from Queens is as much a part of Ricky Velez's personality as his humor, his dyslexia and his depression. Ricky tells Marc how he put it all together when he started doing standup in New York City as a...

  • 2021 / 10 / 28
    Episode 1274 - Jennifer Lee Pryor

    Jennifer Lee Pryor was there for Richard Pryor's highest highs and his lowest lows. She experienced so much with Richard that she married him twice. Jennifer and Marc talk about the brilliant, complicated,...

  • 2021 / 10 / 25
    Episode 1273 - Hasan Minhaj

    Hasan Minhaj took the pressures put on him to become a lawyer and channeled them into the ambition necessary to start a standup career, become a Daily Show correspondent, host his own show (Patriot Act), get...

  • 2021 / 10 / 21
    Episode 1272 - David Chang

    David Chang wouldn't have opened his first restaurant if he wasn't depressed. Now, with his Momofuku empire that brings joy to foodies everywhere, David still finds himself struggling to find joy. Marc talks...

  • 2021 / 10 / 18
    Episode 1271 - Jane Goodall

    Jane Goodall has hope. Yes, even in these times. That doesn't mean the good doctor looks at the world with rose-colored glasses. It means she knows hope is a necessary part of our survival as a species. Marc...

  • 2021 / 10 / 14
    Episode 1270 - Alan Ruck

    As Connor Roy on Succession, Alan Ruck finally has the kind of role he's been waiting to get for more than 30 years. And as Alan tells Marc, some of those years weren't very fun. There was the time after...

  • 2021 / 10 / 11
    Episode 1269 - Taraji P. Henson

    Taraji P. Henson says all her f***s are behind her now. But after three decades in show business, Taraji admits she only feels freedom from her f***s because of her openness around mental health. Taraji and...

  • 2021 / 10 / 7
    Episode 1268 - Kelefa Sanneh

    Kelefa Sanneh has been writing about music for his entire career. Drawing on his experience as the music critic at The New York Times, a staff writer for The New Yorker, and a lifelong music obsessive, Kelefa...

  • 2021 / 10 / 4
    Episode 1267 - Julie Delpy

    American audiences fell in love with Julie Delpy as the romantic French traveler Celine in Before Sunrise and its two sequels. But Julie didn't have an equal love affair with the making of Hollywood films....

  • 2021 / 9 / 30
    Episode 1266 - Rosebud Baker

    Rosebud Baker knows all about the fine line between sadness and funny. She's learned how to get laughs out of the tragedy that befell her family, her alcohol addiction, her co-dependent and abusive...

  • 2021 / 9 / 27
    Episode 1265 - B.J. Novak

    Even when he was a kid, B.J. Novak wanted to achieve greatness. His hard work and ambition brought him to Harvard, to the Lampoon, to doing standup, to getting on The Office, to writing a massively successful...

  • 2021 / 9 / 23
    Episode 1264 - Franklin Leonard

    Franklin Leonard helped change the way movies get made in Hollywood. It's not what he expected as a young Black math wiz growing up in Georgia. But after a love affair with movies that started at Kim's Video...

  • 2021 / 9 / 20
    Episode 1263 - David Chase

    No one is harder on David Chase than David Chase. Even after a successful career as a screenwriter, show creator and director, after changing the face of television with The Sopranos, after putting HBO on the...

  • 2021 / 9 / 16
    Episode 1262 - Melanie Vesey

    Melanie Vesey has a dividing line in her life: Before and after she got shot. The before part includes being a Juilliard and Alvin Ailey trained dancer, a Stella Adler trained actor, a party girl, a person in...

  • 2021 / 9 / 14
    Norm Macdonald from 2011

    From October 2011, Marc's revelatory conversation with Norm Macdonald about life, comedy, gambling, death and Rodney. Norm died on September 14, 2021 at age 61. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show...

  • 2021 / 9 / 13
    Episode 1261 - Tim Reid

    Tim Reid's life changed on a New Year's Eve in the 1960s when he lucked his way into a club to see a hot young comedian. That club was Mister Kelly's, that comedian was Richard Pryor and nothing has been the...

  • 2021 / 9 / 9
    Episode 1260 - Steve Buscemi

    Steve Buscemi has covered a lot of ground in New York City: standup comedy, experimental theater, independent film, even firefighting. Marc talks with Steve about his career beginnings and some of his most...

  • 2021 / 9 / 7
    Remembering Michael K. Williams

    Marc revisits his conversation from earlier this year with actor Michael K. Williams. Michael died at age 54 on September 6, 2021. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus...

  • 2021 / 9 / 6
    Episode 1259 - Sasheer Zamata

    Sasheer Zamata doesn't have a ton of free time. She's on the Hulu series Woke, the ABC sitcom Home Economics, a voice actor, a standup, a podcast host and an ambassador for the ACLU. This all happened in the...

  • 2021 / 9 / 4
    Ed Asner from 2015

    From 2015, Marc talks with actor Ed Asner about his legendary career, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the time he played Marc's dad, and more. Ed died on August 29, 2021 at age 91. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the...

  • 2021 / 9 / 2
    Episode 1258 - Zoe Lister-Jones

    When Zoe Lister-Jones found herself dealing with the anxiety and uncertainty we all encountered during the pandemic, she made a movie about the end of the world. Marc talks with Zoe about how she often finds...

  • 2021 / 8 / 30
    Episode 1257 - Billie Jean King

    Billie Jean King is forever remembered as the winner of the Battle of the Sexes, but the battles she fought for equal pay and non-discrimination are still reverberating today. Billie talks with Marc about her...

  • 2021 / 8 / 26
    Episode 1256 - Kimmy Gatewood

    Ever since Marc and Kimmy Gatewood said goodbye to each other and their fellow castmates on the set of GLOW, the world has been in a constant state of flux. Marc and Kimmy spend some time catching up...

  • 2021 / 8 / 23
    Episode 1255 - Barry Jenkins

    Barry Jenkins is grateful that he's been able to harness the tools of filmmaking in order to tell the stories of his ancestors. Barry and Marc get into all the details of making the ten-part series The...

  • 2021 / 8 / 19
    Episode 1254 - Liesl Tommy

    When Liesl Tommy got hired as a first-time feature film director to make the new Aretha Franklin movie Respect, she knew there were 100 reasons why she couldn't screw it up. Marc and Liesl talk about their...

  • 2021 / 8 / 16
    Episode 1253 - Marlon Wayans

    Marlon Wayans and Marc spent their time on the set of the movie Respect cracking each other up and that dynamic continues in the garage. It's a situation that's familiar to Marlon, growing up with nine funny...

  • 2021 / 8 / 12
    Episode 1252 - Sterlin Harjo

    Sterlin Harjo is relishing the opportunity to depict Native lives and stories on mainstream television with his new FX comedy series Reservation Dogs. But it's not like entertainment industry was a wide open...

  • 2021 / 8 / 9
    Episode 1251 - Tom McCarthy

    Tom McCarthy approaches his films like a journalist, even when he's creating a work of fiction. Just as a reporter discovers facts about their stories, Tom's years of research help him unearth truths about...

  • 2021 / 8 / 5
    Episode 1250 - A.O. Scott

    Marc is concerned about the erosion of critical thinking as a broad part of American society. So who better to talk criticism than a person who makes his living doing just that? A.O. Scott brings his...

  • 2021 / 8 / 2
    Episode 1249 - Joseph Gordon-Levitt

    Joseph Gordon-Levitt's long career in show business has left him with a keen sense of the problems caused by the constant bombardment of media and technology in our lives. Joseph tells Marc how he was able to...

  • 2021 / 7 / 29
    Episode 1248 - Lindsey Buckingham

    Lindsey Buckingham wasn't going to let anything - from the pandemic to major heart surgery - stand in the way of finishing his new self-titled solo album. But it was in part his work on the album and the...

  • 2021 / 7 / 26
    Episode 1247 - Matt Damon

    Matt Damon's continuing presence and popularity in American films can be summed up in four words: He loves to act. Matt tells Marc how he made the most out of working with icons like Clint Eastwood, Francis...

  • 2021 / 7 / 22
    Episode 1246 - Sovereign Syre

    Sovereign Syre and Marc have been friends for several years, sharing career paths in comedy, podcasting and writing. Now, as she ventures for the first time into the fraught process of pitching and selling a...

  • 2021 / 7 / 19
    Episode 1245 - Rick Rubin

    Rick Rubin's love of music led him to help popularize hip-hop, rejuvenate artists' careers, and leave his mark on literally thousands of popular songs. But there was a point in his youth where Rick put music...

  • 2021 / 7 / 15
    Episode 1244 - Rick Ingraham

    Comedian Rick Ingraham is a Comedy Store institution. But he's also the last of a system that was in place going back to the ‘70s, where young comics were baptized and raised in the rites and rituals of...

  • 2021 / 7 / 12
    Episode 1243 - James Murphy

    LCD Soundsystem is one of the hippest, most beloved bands of the early 21st century, but its frontman says he's spent a lifetime being uncool and no fun. James Murphy talks with Marc about the personal and...

  • 2021 / 7 / 8
    Episode 1242 - John Swab

    John Swab could have been a real world version of the characters from his films who are casualties of addiction and criminality. But his desire to create art and his natural talents won out and set him on the...

  • 2021 / 7 / 5
    Episode 1241 - Danny Trejo

    There are Hollywood tough guys and then there's Danny Trejo. No need to front when you've lived a life of crime, drugs, and prison as explicitly as Danny has. But as his new memoir highlights, Danny went from...

  • 2021 / 7 / 1
    Episode 1240 - Steven Soderbergh

    There's a reason Steven Soderbergh's movies are always so unlike whatever movies he's made before. He tells Marc his goal is to take things that have worked in other contexts and turn them into something that...

  • 2021 / 6 / 28
    Episode 1239 - Quentin Tarantino

    The pandemic forced a lot of changes on all of us, but for Quentin Tarantino, he was already undergoing a huge change right as the pandemic started: He became a first-time father. Now with the release of his...

  • 2021 / 6 / 24
    Episode 1238 - Erik Griffin

    If he hadn't been getting laughs as a high school basketball coach, Erik Griffin may never have gone back to comedy. He tells Marc the story of his comedy beginnings, his self-imposed exile, and his stand-up...

  • 2021 / 6 / 21
    Episode 1237 - Ellen Burstyn

    Ellen Burstyn doesn't stop working. She's an Emmy, Oscar, and Tony winner with iconic performances in everything from The Last Picture Show and Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore to The Exorcist and Requiem for...

  • 2021 / 6 / 17
    Episode 1236 - David Hidalgo

    David Hidalgo has been making music and touring the world with his bandmates in Los Lobos for almost 50 years. From their start playing in schools, in restaurants and at weddings to their crossover into the...

  • 2021 / 6 / 14
    Episode 1235 - Anthony Carrigan

    Anthony Carrigan set out to become an actor despite growing up with alopecia, an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss. When he finally went completely bald while on a major network TV show, people in the...

  • 2021 / 6 / 10
    Episode 1234 - Jackson Browne

    Jackson Browne is one of the most prolific singer-songwriters in modern music. He talks to Marc about how a lot of his aptitude comes from his enjoyment of being a solitary player. But that doesn't mean...

  • 2021 / 6 / 7
    Episode 1233 - Helen Hunt

    Helen Hunt: Oscar winner, Emmy winner, filmmaker, mother, and self-proclaimed “worst celebrity in the world.” Helen sits down with Marc to talk about how, despite her many accomplishments, she was...

  • 2021 / 6 / 3
    Episode 1232 - Danny Elfman

    Danny Elfman did not set out to become one of the most prolific film composers in history. He was a distractible kid who couldn't focus on much of anything except music, loved jazz, loved Stravinsky, taught...

  • 2021 / 5 / 31
    Episode 1231 - William Zabka

    William Zabka spent the ‘80s playing a variety of bullies all seemingly modeled after his star-making performance in his first movie, The Karate Kid. But by the time he was in Back to School, William...

  • 2021 / 5 / 27
    Episode 1230 - Andrew Santino

    Andrew Santino and Marc didn't know much about each other, aside from both being Comedy Store regulars and comedians from different ends of a generational divide. But in this conversation, they discover the...

  • 2021 / 5 / 24
    Episode 1229 - Gabe Kaplan

    Whether he was getting booked on The Tonight Show or becoming the first standup to have a hit sitcom based on his act or finding success as a professional poker player, Gabe Kaplan says it all happened in...

  • 2021 / 5 / 20
    Episode 1228 - Rickie Lee Jones

    Rickie Lee Jones is, first and foremost, a storyteller. She realized at a young age that she could process her feelings and tell her own story through the fiction of songs. As she tells Marc, that same...

  • 2021 / 5 / 17
    Episode 1227 - Eric Bana

    American audiences know Eric Bana from his complex performances in movies like Munich, Black Hawk Down and Ang Lee's Hulk. But in his native Australia, Eric got his start doing standup and sketch comedy. Eric...

  • 2021 / 5 / 13
    Episode 1226 - Kristin Hersh

    Kristin Hersh needs to make music. Whether it's with her bands Throwing Muses and 50FOOTWAVE or in her solo albums, making music is a compulsion. But she only recently figured out that music was her way of...

  • 2021 / 5 / 10
    Episode 1225 - Steve Miller

    Steve Miller didn't expect to become a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer with hit songs that stand the test of time, like The Joker and Fly Like An Eagle. He was just a kid from Wisconsin who loved the Blues and...

  • 2021 / 5 / 6
    Episode 1224 - Mark Normand

    Mark Normand is relieved to get back to the comedy clubs after a year of doing outdoor shows and other compromised sets during the pandemic. But Mark never considered stopping because comedy is something he...

  • 2021 / 5 / 3
    Episode 1223 - Nancy Wilson

    Nancy Wilson is one of the world's great guitarists, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and creator, along with her sister Ann, of one of the great American rock bands, Heart. But after more than 40 years...

  • 2021 / 4 / 29
    Episode 1222 - Robert Smigel

    Robert Smigel became best known for having a foul-mouthed dog puppet on his hand, but the truth is he's a defining force in popular comedy for the past 35 years. Robert tells Marc how he was on the path to...

  • 2021 / 4 / 26
    Episode 1221 - Richard Kind

    Richard Kind knows his face is memorable, but he still thinks he uses it too much. He knows his characters often exude warmth and joy, even though he is personally powered by dread and anxiety. He wants to be...

  • 2021 / 4 / 22
    Episode 1220 - John Waters

    On the day this episode is released, John Waters is celebrating his 75th birthday. But he's still doing the same things that brought him cultural notoriety when he started making movies in the ‘60s:...

  • 2021 / 4 / 19
    Episode 1219 - Tom Jones

    Tom Jones doesn't feel like resting on his laurels. He tells Marc there's one main reason he's going strong, recording new music and performing live at the age of 80: Because he still has a point to prove....

  • 2021 / 4 / 15
    Episode 1218 - Yo-Yo Ma

    Yo-Yo Ma remembers a moment in his childhood where it all began to make sense. As a seven-year-old prodigy, he was playing cello in front of an audience that included two U.S. Presidents. But it was an act of...

  • 2021 / 4 / 12
    Episode 1217 - Sally Struthers

    Sally Struthers is thinking a lot about the passage of time these days. For one, this year is the 50th anniversary of All In The Family premiering on CBS. She's also thinking that so many people she worked...

  • 2021 / 4 / 8
    Episode 1216 - Katey Sagal

    Katey Sagal is known by the public in ways she doesn't see herself. She's known as an actor, but always thought of herself primarily as a singer. She's known as a seminal comedic TV character, even though she...

  • 2021 / 4 / 5
    Episode 1215 - Hunter Biden

    Marc only knew Hunter Biden from what he saw in the news. He never heard him speak, he had no sense of who he really was, and he wasn't sure he cared much about the troubled son of a President. Then he read...

  • 2021 / 4 / 1
    Episode 1214 - Daniel Kaluuya

    Daniel Kaluuya doesn't want to stop the journey. Getting nominated for Oscars, winning a Golden Globe, hosting Saturday Night Live. These are moments within the journey, but he doesn't want any of them to...

  • 2021 / 3 / 29
    Episode 1213 - Azazel Jacobs

    Writer-director Azazel Jacobs was born into the world of experimental film. But it was a combination of comic books, old radio shows, Mad Magazine and The Clash that helped him develop the sensibility he...

  • 2021 / 3 / 25
    Episode 1212 - Eddie Huang

    Eddie Huang has been fighting for things his whole life. Whether fighting for respect from a culture that is unwelcoming, or fighting for normalcy amidst a chaotic upbringing, or fighting for approval from...

  • 2021 / 3 / 22
    Episode 1211 - Christopher Lloyd

    Christopher Lloyd has a career spanning more than 60 years on stage, TV and film. But Marc was enamored with stories about the first movie Christopher ever made, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Christopher...

  • 2021 / 3 / 18
    Episode 1210 - Serj Tankian

    Serj Tankian from System of a Down says he is dedicated to the truth in a very naive way. That basic need to tell the truth and be honest with himself comes through in his art, his activism and his personal...

  • 2021 / 3 / 15
    Episode 1209 - Laraine Newman

    Laraine Newman titled her memoir May You Live in Interesting Times, a phrase many people believe to be a curse. But Laraine thinks it's an appropriate framework for her life and career. She tells Marc what it...

  • 2021 / 3 / 11
    Episode 1208 - Hugh Grant

    Hugh Grant thinks he's only getting better as an actor now. The work he's done for the past few years feels real to him, as opposed to felling like he was faking it when he made all those romantic comedies....

  • 2021 / 3 / 8
    Episode 1207 - Eddie Murphy

    In order for Eddie Murphy to become “Eddie Murphy” he had to become a comedian. Eddie tells Marc, comic-to-comic, what it was like being a Black teenager on Long Island building a standup act...

  • 2021 / 3 / 4
    Episode 1206 - Jake Gyllenhaal

    Jake Gyllenhaal knows he has a great job as a celebrated film actor. But the thing that brings him true joy is bursting into song as part of a stage musical. Jake talks with Marc about his love of theater,...

  • 2021 / 3 / 1
    Episode 1205 - Tim Allen

    Tim Allen has embodied enough different personas - Tim Taylor, Mike Baxter, Buzz Lightyear, Santa Claus - that he often doesn't know which guy he actually is. But at least he's no longer the directionless...

  • 2021 / 2 / 25
    Episode 1204 - Michael K. Williams

    Michael K. Williams knows that a lot of people consider his character, Omar Little, to be the best character on The Wire. But he has a different opinion about the show's best character. Michael tells Marc...

  • 2021 / 2 / 22
    Episode 1203 - Melissa Leo

    Melissa Leo's acting style is a combination of gut instincts and a compulsive need to ask questions. It's a style that already earned her an Oscar and continual employment, but also keeps her from falling...

  • 2021 / 2 / 18
    Episode 1202 - Sam Neill

    Sam Neill never had any ambitions as an actor, which is not true about his ambitions as a wine maker. Speaking to Marc from one of his vineyards in New Zealand, Sam talks about how he's still striving to make...

  • 2021 / 2 / 15
    Episode 1201 - Jodie Foster

    Jodie Foster came out on the other side of being a child actor as a two-time Oscar winner, a celebrated director, a producer and someone who is content with her life. She tells Marc how she did it, which has...

  • 2021 / 2 / 11
    Episode 1200 - Mark Harris

    Mark Harris is a writer, journalist, critic and lover of film, which is why Marc wanted to talk with him. After months of at-home movie watching, Marc is convinced that artistic appreciation and critical...

  • 2021 / 2 / 8
    Episode 1199 - Salma Hayek

    Salma Hayek says she survived in Hollywood because she didn't let anger get the better of her. And she'd have good reasons to be angry, facing a barrage of sexism, discrimination, typecasting, and a general...

  • 2021 / 2 / 4
    Episode 1198 - Stanley Tucci

    Stanley Tucci is fortunate that he broke into the mainstream with his movie Big Night because it combined two of the things he loves the most: acting and food. Stanley talks with Marc about the comfort he...

  • 2021 / 2 / 1
    Episode 1197 - David Duchovny

    David Duchovny knows you know him from The X-Files. He knows you know him from Californication. But that's not going to stop him from wanting to be taken seriously as a novelist and a recording artist. David...

  • 2021 / 1 / 28
    Episode 1196 - Rick Glassman

    Not unlike a lot of comedians, Marc's relationship with Rick Glassman started out with an apology. But that apology led to both of them liking each other more than they expected. Rick explains how a recent...

  • 2021 / 1 / 25
    Episode 1195 - George Wallace

    For a guy who's been working at the top of the comedy scene since the 1970s, George Wallace has held a lot of other identities too. He was a computer engineer, a rag salesmen, an ad executive, and a real...

  • 2021 / 1 / 23
    Larry King from 2013

    From 2013, Marc talks with talk show icon Larry King about his start in the business, how he got over being nervous on the mic, and the interview subjects who left the biggest impression on him. Larry died on...

  • 2021 / 1 / 21
    Episode 1194 - Andy Zaltzman

    When Marc first met Andy Zaltzman, Andy was in his element at the Edinburgh Fringe. They talk about why the festival circuit was important for Andy and other comics working their way up in the UK. They also...

  • 2021 / 1 / 18
    Episode 1193 - Daniel Lanois

    There's a good chance Daniel Lanois is responsible for some of your favorite music ever and it's all thanks to a penny whistle he bought with his allowance when he was growing up in Canada. Daniel tells Marc...

  • 2021 / 1 / 14
    Episode 1192 - Kate Winslet

    Kate Winslet is all about learning on the job. She never trained to be an actor, she just observed her talented co-stars on set. She used her work in Contagion to prepare herself and her family at the onset...

  • 2021 / 1 / 11
    Episode 1191 - Nicole Kidman

    Nicole Kidman keeps going for a very simple reason: She feels like her job helps her understand the meaning of life. After winning pretty all the major film and television acting awards, after being one of...

  • 2021 / 1 / 7
    Episode 1190 - Thundercat

    Thundercat thinks bass players run the world and not just because he's a great one. The multi-talented singer-songwriter talks with Marc about growing up with music all around him, learning at the feet of his...

  • 2021 / 1 / 4
    Episode 1189 - Mandy Patinkin

    Mandy Patinkin is a renowned star of stage and screen, beloved for his roles in The Princess Bride and Homeland, admired for his mellifluous voice and impressive vocal range. But Mandy and Marc barely talk...

  • 2020 / 12 / 31
    Episode 1188 - David Ritz

    David Ritz is one of the most prolific biographers of music industry titans, writing about the lives of artists from BB King to Willie Nelson to Janet Jackson. David tells Marc about his obsessive pursuit of...

  • 2020 / 12 / 28
    Episode 1187 - Patty Jenkins

    Patty Jenkins's connection to superheroes runs deep. Long before she became the first woman to direct a major superhero film, Patty was relying on Superman to help her process the loss of her father. Marc...

  • 2020 / 12 / 24
    Episode 1186 - Sam Tallent

    Sam Tallent felt compelled to write a book about the guy he was afraid to turn into. As a comedian plying his trade on the road, Sam did enough one-nighters and heard enough horror stories from other comics...

  • 2020 / 12 / 21
    Episode 1185 - Andrew Bird

    Andrew Bird's music defies categorization, so much so that he's not even sure how to categorize it himself. Andrew walks Marc through the process by which he developed his sound, from youthful obsessions with...

  • 2020 / 12 / 17
    Episode 1184 - Bootsy Collins

    Bootsy Collins is one of the world's preeminent practitioners of The Funk, although that might not be the case if he hadn't snuck his brother's guitar out of the closet when no one was around. Bootsy tells...

  • 2020 / 12 / 14
    Episode 1183 - Scott Glenn

    Scott Glenn is convinced that every good thing that's ever happened to him has been an accident. That includes serving in the Marines, getting his start in acting, meeting his wife, finding religion, gaining...

  • 2020 / 12 / 10
    Episode 1182 - Brad Williams

    The first time Brad Williams got on a stand-up stage, he was just an audience member. Brought up on stage by a comedian who was telling little people jokes, Brad realized the power that comes with making...

  • 2020 / 12 / 7
    Episode 1181 - Zach Braff

    Zach Braff and Marc both dealt with a lot of loss in the past year. For Zach, keeping it all in perspective is helping him get through the daily stress of pandemic life, as he fires up his creative impulses....

  • 2020 / 12 / 3
    Episode 1180 - John Densmore

    John Densmore was the drummer for one of the most influential bands of the ‘60s, The Doors, but he's always been on a quest to find truth through art and creativity. John explains to Marc that his love...

  • 2020 / 11 / 30
    Episode 1179 - James Caan

    It may not surprise you that James Caan has been in a few fights. He also played football, boxed and was in rodeo competitions, among other “non-Jewish activities,” as he calls them. James and...

  • 2020 / 11 / 26
    Episode 1178 - Mike Campbell

    Mike Campbell was more than Tom Petty's bandmate. He was more than a friend, too. He was a partner who had an almost telepathic writing relationship with his famed frontman. Mike talks with Marc about...

  • 2020 / 11 / 23
    Episode 1177 - Johnny Flynn

    Johnny Flynn and Marc already developed a rapport while they were road-tripping through Canada. They were playing David Bowie and Bowie's publicist at the time, but they still got to enjoy each other's...

  • 2020 / 11 / 19
    Episode 1176 - Michael J. Fox

    Michael J. Fox didn't intend to be an inspiration but he's glad he can help out. As Marc learned from talking with him, Michael maintains a perspective on life filled with gratitude and optimism as he lives...

  • 2020 / 11 / 16
    Episode 1175 - Glenn Close

    It took Glenn Close a long time to open up about some aspects of her past. Shame was stubbornly in the way. But Glenn tells Marc she was able to discover her inner rebel and push past that shame, many years...

  • 2020 / 11 / 12
    Episode 1174 - Rhea Seehorn

    Better Call Saul features characters who are not honest about their lives and identities, so it's appropriate that one of the show's stars, Rhea Seehorn, suffers from imposter syndrome in real life. Rhea and...

  • 2020 / 11 / 9
    Episode 1173 - Frank Langella

    Mel Brooks once told Frank Langella, “Nobody would believe you're from Bayonne. You look like a prince without a country.” But whether he's playing Dracula or Richard Nixon or King Lear, Frank is...

  • 2020 / 11 / 5
    Episode 1172 - Heidi Schreck

    With the world still wondering what this year's Presidential election really means, it's the right time for Marc to talk with actor and playwright Heidi Schreck, who knows a thing or two about power...

  • 2020 / 11 / 2
    Episode 1171 - David Cross

    David Cross is one of Marc's oldest friends in show business. And right now is a good time for them to catch up, as David balances his life as the dad to a three-year-old with the demands of going back to...

  • 2020 / 10 / 29
    Episode 1170 - Melinda Hill

    If comedy equals tragedy plus time, comedian Melinda Hill has reached the point where she can make some funny out of the traumas from her past. Melinda and Marc talk about processing the pain, particularly...

  • 2020 / 10 / 26
    Episode 1169 - Hari Kondabolu

    When Hari Kondabolu was a college student, he interviewed Marc for a research paper about standup comedy. Twenty years later, they're talking to each other as peers whose lives have changed considerably in...

  • 2020 / 10 / 22
    Episode 1168 - Matthew McConaughey

    These are appropriate times for reflection and Matthew McConaughey just went through the process of reflecting on his whole life while writing his memoir, Greenlights. Marc talks with Matthew about the...

  • 2020 / 10 / 19
    Episode 1167 - Patti Smith

    Patti Smith has been at the vanguard of art, poetry, rock and roll, and other forms of self-expression since the 1960s. But this talk with Marc happens to be her very first one-on-one conversation done over...

  • 2020 / 10 / 15
    Episode 1166 - Lewis Black

    Everyone needs to let off some steam these days and there are few people better who do it better than Lewis Black. Marc welcomes his old friend back to the show for a talk about pandemic comedy, going stir...

  • 2020 / 10 / 12
    Episode 1165 - Wayne Coyne

    Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne was in Los Angeles and decided to stop by the garage for a rare pandemic-era in-person chat. It's been a long time since Wayne and Marc hung out last. Since then both dealt...

  • 2020 / 10 / 8
    Episode 1164 - Wynton Marsalis

    Wynton Marsalis created a profound examination of America, race, class, politics and human impulses with his latest epic composition, The Ever Fonky Lowdown. He explains to Marc how his perspective for the...

  • 2020 / 10 / 5
    Episode 1163 - John Cusack

    John Cusack is always trying to stay engaged with the world. From a young age when activist priests used to visit his parents to the Reagan years when he underwent a political awakening to present day, John...

  • 2020 / 10 / 1
    Episode 1162 - Barbara Kopple

    Barbara Kopple is known for her acclaimed documentary films, but for Marc the most memorable time Barbara spent behind the camera is the day she directed him in a phone commercial. Marc and Barbara reminisce...

  • 2020 / 9 / 28
    Episode 1161 - Cecily Strong

    The adage “you can never go home again” didn't apply to Cecily Strong. She did, and it's what got her on Saturday Night Live. Cecily tells Marc why she didn't stick around in Los Angeles after...

  • 2020 / 9 / 24
    Episode 1160 - Barry Levinson

    Barry Levinson finds himself waking up in disbelief to every outlandish and shocking item in the day's news. It's a different mode for a filmmaker who spent his career focused on the natural, quiet moments...

  • 2020 / 9 / 21
    Episode 1159 - Alicia Keys / John Leguizamo

    It's a New York City doubleheader! First up, Marc talks with the woman behind the modern day New York anthem, Alicia Keys. On the release of her seventh studio album, Alicia looks back on what it was like to...

  • 2020 / 9 / 17
    Episode 1158 - Wendell Pierce

    Wendell Pierce isn't doing a lot of acting during the pandemic, but he's keeping busy. He's spending more time with his 95-year-old father in New Orleans, he's hosting radio shows on a local station he...

  • 2020 / 9 / 14
    Episode 1157 - Toni Collette

    Toni Collette might be the first actor to tell Marc that, yes, she does learn about herself through the characters she plays. That's a lot of learning, considering the wide range of characters Toni has played...

  • 2020 / 9 / 10
    Episode 1156 - Martin Short

    Even in the face this year, Martin Short remains an optimistic guy. Maybe it's because he's had a career he loves, or maybe it's his mild-mannered Canadian disposition, or maybe it's because he suffered...

  • 2020 / 9 / 7
    Episode 1155 - Bad Internet w/ Matt Furie, Arthur Jones & Andrew Marantz

    One year ago, Marc used the Labor Day episode of WTF to find out why so much bad stuff in the world gets birthed in the darkest corners of the internet. A year later, it's only gotten worse. Marc talks with...

  • 2020 / 9 / 3
    Episode 1154 - J.K. Simmons

    J.K. Simmons faced a tough balancing act when his lifelong nonchalance about awards for acting came up against him becoming the runaway favorite to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. J.K. and Marc talk...

  • 2020 / 8 / 31
    Episode 1153 - Chelsea Peretti

    Chelsea Peretti joined Marc in the garage more than ten years ago on a very early episode of WTF. Since then she became a writer for Parks and Rec, played Gina on Brooklyn 99, got married to Jordan Peele, and...

  • 2020 / 8 / 27
    Episode 1152 - Billy Crudup

    It's been 20 years since Marc demanded that someone “lock the gates” on Billy Crudup and the rest of the band in Almost Famous. Now that both of them are older and wiser, Billy and Marc discuss...

  • 2020 / 8 / 24
    Episode 1151 - Giancarlo Esposito

    Whether it's Gus from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul or Buggin' Out from Do The Right Thing or Moff Gideon from The Mandalorian, Giancarlo Esposito's characters always leave an indelible impression....

  • 2020 / 8 / 20
    Episode 1150 - Kieran Culkin

    A lot is going on for Kieran Culkin right now. He's a new dad, he has an Emmy nomination, he's dealing with life during the pandemic like the rest of us. But chaos is familiar to Kieran, who grew up in a...

  • 2020 / 8 / 17
    Episode 1149 - Kerry Washington

    Kerry Washington has a lot to talk about with Marc, but it's appropriate that they spend the first portion of their conversation singing the praises of Lynn Shelton. Kerry talks about what Lynn brought to...

  • 2020 / 8 / 13
    Episode 1148 - Ellen Page

    At the time when Juno became an award-winning hit film, Ellen Page experienced two things she never experienced before in her young life: She was now instantly famous and she fell in love. Unfortunately, the...

  • 2020 / 8 / 10
    Episode 1147 - Sarah Snook

    Sarah Snook plays a character on Succession who exists in the center of the American power structure. But in real life, she's riding out the pandemic on the other side of the world, from her homeland of...

  • 2020 / 8 / 6
    Episode 1146 - Joe List

    Joe List shot his new standup special a week before everything shut down, but that doesn't mean he's given up on comedy. He's been performing in parks, at drive-ins and even on Zoom. Marc talks with Joe about...

  • 2020 / 8 / 3
    Episode 1145 - Ice-T

    Tumultuous times call for sensible comments from voices of reason. Who better to speak to the issues of the day than Ice-T? The legendary rapper, rocker and actor talks about his personal experiences with...

  • 2020 / 7 / 30
    Episode 1144 - Marsha Warfield

    Not only is Marsha Warfield one of the early pioneers of the Comedy Store scene, she was also there at the start of standup comedy as we know it in Chicago. Marsha tells Marc what it was like to compete for...

  • 2020 / 7 / 27
    Episode 1143 - Seth Rogen

    Trigger warning if you are an anti-Semite: First of all, why are you listening to this show? Get lost! Secondly, you are REALLY not going to like this episode. Seth Rogen returns to WTF for the first time in...

  • 2020 / 7 / 23
    Episode 1142 - Chris Fairbanks

    Chris Fairbanks lives the life of a comic, which means a lot of his life is on hold right now. Chris and Marc compare notes on what it's like to live alone during Covid, a non-ideal situation that is...

  • 2020 / 7 / 20
    Episode 1141 - Marc and Tom's Normal Things

    Tom Scharpling and Marc spend some time talking about the kind of things we all cared about when life was normal: music, coffee, comedy, live performances, and other things that make us feel alive. Leave your...

  • 2020 / 7 / 16
    Episode 1140 - Jim Carrey

    Jim Carrey just wrote his first novel, a semi-autobiographical look at show business and an examination of persona. It makes sense because Jim has been playing with persona during his entire career in show...

  • 2020 / 7 / 13
    Episode 1139 - Colin Jost

    Colin Jost has 15 years of Saturday Night Live under his belt but the time in his life he feels he's still running away from is his upbringing on Staten Island. Colin tells Marc why his Outer Borough roots...

  • 2020 / 7 / 9
    Episode 1138 - Helen Mirren

    Dame Helen Mirren is a winner of the Oscar, the Tony, the Emmy, and the BAFTA, and is in the middle of an illustrious career in which she played the great roles of Shakespeare, Catherine the Great and Queen...

  • 2020 / 7 / 6
    Episode 1137 - John Legend

    John Legend is a multiplatinum recording artist, a winner of the coveted EGOT, a loving family man and, as Marc found out in this conversation, a tremendously nice guy. The combination of John's talent and...

  • 2020 / 7 / 2
    Episode 1136 - George Lopez

    George Lopez says much of his career is driven by spite. He talks with Marc about how the people who told him he wasn't going to make it served as fuel for his ambitions, especially coming from a background...

  • 2020 / 6 / 30
    Carl Reiner from 2013

    From 2013, Marc talks with Carl Reiner about his journey from writing to acting to directing, as well as his collaborative relationships with Sid Ceasar, Dick Van Dyke, Steve Martin and, of course, Mel...

  • 2020 / 6 / 29
    Episode 1135 - Alan Zweibel

    One thing Alan Zweibel learned by being a writer for so many funny people is you have to set your ego aside. In doing so, Alan was able to have a career spanning decades and criss-crossing with multiple...

  • 2020 / 6 / 25
    Episode 1134 - Nora McInerny

    As Marc dealt with personal grief, he looked around the Internet for some guidance on coping with loss. He found a TED Talk by Nora McInerny, who spoke about losing her father, her husband and her unborn...

  • 2020 / 6 / 22
    Episode 1133 - Janelle Monáe

    Janelle Monáe is not going to stop creating, but right now she feels the urge to use her creativity in the service of action. Marc talks with Janelle about the social and political unrest in the...

  • 2020 / 6 / 18
    Episode 1132 - Amber Preston / J-L Cauvin

    It's been five years since President Obama joined Marc in the garage and WTF is marking the occasion not with Donald Trump, but with comedian J-L Cauvin, who talks to Marc about his Trump impression going...

  • 2020 / 6 / 15
    Episode 1131 - Joe Pantoliano

    Joe Pantoliano is widely known for playing bad guys, lowlifes and disreputable characters. He even has his own pseudo-Mafioso nickname: Joey Pants. But Joe tells Marc the reason he got so good at playing bad...

  • 2020 / 6 / 11
    Episode 1130 - Stacey Abrams

    Stacey Abrams believes deeply that the problems facing America today - police brutality, racial discrimination, economic inequality, Covid-19, creeping authoritarianism - all require the same solution: Free...

  • 2020 / 6 / 8
    Episode 1129 - Jerry Seinfeld

    WTF started as a comedy podcast. It’s a show made by a comedian who wanted to talk to other comedians about comedy. Finally, after more than 10 years, Marc talks with the most well-known, most successful, and...

  • 2020 / 6 / 5
    Episode 1128 - Chris Cooper

    Chris Cooper was a guy who worked with his hands. He was raised to be a cowboy on his father’s ranch, spent time building Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, and worked as a jack-of-all-trades when he was...

  • 2020 / 6 / 3
    Episode 1127 - G.E. Smith

    G.E. Smith started playing guitar when he was four. As he grew up, he liked The Beatles fine but it was really the Kinks and the Stones that grabbed him. Cut to many years later and G.E.’s had the opportunity...

  • 2020 / 6 / 1
    Episode 1126 - Jeffrey Wright

    Film and television production is on hold, but Jeffrey Wright is using the time to focus on his community. Jeffrey tells Marc how his attempt to help out a friend led him to a Brooklyn-wide effort to keep...

  • 2020 / 5 / 28
    Episode 1125 - Kenya Barris

    Kenya Barris retreated from the abusive situation in his childhood home by listening to party records and reading comic books. Those early influences shaped his understanding of who he is and prompted the...

  • 2020 / 5 / 25
    Episode 1124 - Samantha Bee

    Samantha Bee says there was a point in her teenage years when she was clearly headed toward a life of crime. Thankfully, that was also the point when she realized she was being an a-hole and things needed to...

  • 2020 / 5 / 21
    Remembering Fred Willard

    Marc revisits his 2012 conversation with comedic actor Fred Willard, in which they discuss Fred’s career in improv-heavy films and beloved television projects. Fred passed away at age 86 on May 15, 2020. Sign...

  • 2020 / 5 / 18
    Remembering Lynn Shelton

    Marc pays tribute to his creative collaborator and romantic partner Lynn Shelton, who passed away at age 54 on May 16, 2020. This episode includes her August 2015 interview on WTF. Sign up here for WTF+ to...

  • 2020 / 5 / 14
    Episode 1123 - Eliza Hittman / Dan Savage

    Filmmaker Eliza Hittman talks with Marc about telling the stories of teenagers in ways that feel like the lived experiences of actual teenagers. That’s partly achieved by the naturalistic performances she...

  • 2020 / 5 / 11
    Episode 1122 - Cate Blanchett

    Conventional wisdom holds that Cate Blanchett is one of the world’s greatest living performers, but one person who disagrees with that is Cate Blanchett, who thinks she’s pretty terrible most of the time (her...

  • 2020 / 5 / 7
    Episode 1121 - Liz Garbus / Andy Kindler

    Filmmaker Liz Garbus knows the importance of telling stories. Her father is one of America’s preeminent First Amendment lawyers, defending people with important stories to tell like Daniel Ellsberg and Lenny...

  • 2020 / 5 / 4
    Episode 1120 - Dan Levy

    The OTHER Dan Levy joins Marc to talk about the Canadian perspective of America, the rite of passage for all Canadians that is Degrassi, and having Eugene Levy as a dad. Dan reminisces about his first big...

  • 2020 / 4 / 30
    Episode 1119 - Whitmer Thomas

    Comedian Whitmer Thomas and Marc made a movie together in Alabama. But while Marc was just a visitor, Whitmer knows Alabama to the core. Growing up in Gulf Shores and living the life of a disaffected Southern...

  • 2020 / 4 / 27
    Episode 1118 - Laura Linney

    Laura Linney thinks about mortality a lot and not just because of the current global predicament. Her thoughts are driven mostly by late-in-life parenthood and how her six-year-old is a constant reminder of...

  • 2020 / 4 / 23
    Episode 1117 - Barry Sonnenfeld

    Director Barry Sonnenfeld had zero interest in film and went to college mainly to get away from his parents. His obsession with lenses and f-stops put him on the path to becoming a cinematographer and soon he...

  • 2020 / 4 / 20
    Episode 1116 - Rosie O'Donnell

    In a first for WTF, Rosie O’Donnell joins Marc over video chat for a bicoastal conversation about her standup career, musical theater and life during coronavirus. Rosie recalls what it was like to become a...

  • 2020 / 4 / 16
    Episode 1115 - Sam Morril

    The other half of a quarantined comedy couple, Sam Morril joins Marc in the garage at a six-foot distance to talk about the circumstances keeping him away from his home in New York and living with Taylor...

  • 2020 / 4 / 13
    Episode 1114 - Taylor Tomlinson

    Taylor Tomlinson is possibly the first guest who grew up listening to WTF and learned the comic trade from comedians on the podcast. At the time, she was a teenager doing standup in churches and she was soon...

  • 2020 / 4 / 9
    Episode 1113 - Fran Drescher

    Fran Drescher has a distinctive personality, but she says it wasn’t until her forties that she truly figured out who she is. Fran talks with Marc about growing up in Queens, being very close to her parents,...

  • 2020 / 4 / 8
    John Prine from 2016

    From Episode 746, Marc's conversation with John Prine about Kris Kristofferson, Steve Goodman, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt and delivering the mail. John passed away on April 7, 2020. Sign up here for WTF+ to get...

  • 2020 / 4 / 6
    Episode 1112 - Jeff Dunham

    A lot of comedians spend years or decades finding their voice on stage, but Jeff Dunham was very young when he settled on his comic voice. He then proceeded to throw that voice, to great success. Jeff tells...

  • 2020 / 4 / 2
    Episode 1111 - Byron Bowers

    One thing Byron Bowers knows for sure is that comedy taught him who he is. He needed it after a childhood filled with parental discord and moving around Georgia. That was followed by a period where Byron was...

  • 2020 / 4 / 1
    Adam Schlesinger from 2012

    From Episode 348, Marc's conversation with songwriter and musician Adam Schlesinger about Fountains of Wayne, That Thing You Do, Broadway and more. Adam passed away on March 31, 2020. Sign up here for WTF+ to...

  • 2020 / 3 / 30
    Episode 1110 - Ben Sinclair

    Even with the popularity of his HBO series High Maintenance, Ben Sinclair is still not great at taking compliments. He gets a lot of them, considering the show is one of the early success stories from the...

  • 2020 / 3 / 26
    Episode 1109 - Kathy Valentine

    Kathy Valentine is in one of the most famous and profitable female rock bands ever but she’s really taken to becoming a writer. That's because she’s got a lot of stories to tell. Kathy talks with Marc about...

  • 2020 / 3 / 23
    Episode 1108 - Dan Aykroyd

    Dan Aykroyd has thrived in show business but he’s always been in tune with the business part as much as the show part. Whether it was running his own radio ad company or an after-hours speakeasy, or his House...

  • 2020 / 3 / 19
    Episode 1107 - Utkarsh Ambudkar

    The world took notice of Utkarsh Ambudkar with his freestyle performance on the Oscar telecast but he was almost a classic cautionary character: The guy who blows his big break because of struggles with...

  • 2020 / 3 / 16
    Episode 1106 - Thandie Newton

    When Thandie Newton took the part of Maeve on Westworld, she had no idea the character would wind up being a perfect metaphor for her life. As Thandie tells Marc, she didn’t really understand her outsider...

  • 2020 / 3 / 12
    Episode 1105 - Don Gavin

    Don Gavin has Boston in his bones, so much so that he’s still cold even after moving to Florida. Marc reminisces with Don about their stand-up days in New England, where Don’s kindness and encouragement of...

  • 2020 / 3 / 9
    Episode 1104 - Don Cheadle

    It’s a good thing Marc cleaned the garage before Don Cheadle came over, otherwise Don might not have lived through this episode due to his life-threatening cat allergy. With no airborne irritants to cause...

  • 2020 / 3 / 5
    Episode 1103 - Thora Birch

    Being sixteen is tough for almost everyone. But when Thora Birch was sixteen, she went from being a familiar child actor to the girl from an Oscar-winning phenomenon, American Beauty. That movie changed her...

  • 2020 / 3 / 2
    Episode 1102 - Peter Berg

    Filmmaker Peter Berg and Marc never would have predicted their respective futures when they were living together in a shared apartment back when both of them were just starting out in Hollywood. Now, after...

  • 2020 / 2 / 27
    Episode 1101 - Carol Kane

    Show business paid off early for Carol Kane. She was in her first movie at age 17 and got an unexpected Academy Award nomination for Best Actress when she was 23. Carol tells Marc what it was like to break...

  • 2020 / 2 / 24
    Episode 1100 - Juliette Lewis

    Juliette Lewis spent much of her life facing her fears. She was a natural introvert who was suddenly thrust into the spotlight as a teenager. She had anxiety about going to public places. She saw herself...

  • 2020 / 2 / 20
    Episode 1099 - Adam Pally

    Adam Pally watched his dad put his own show business ambitions aside while he personally washed out of a high school band and quit the basketball team. So Adam was used to the idea of things not going the way...

  • 2020 / 2 / 17
    Episode 1098 - Ronan Farrow

    Ronan Farrow needed to come to terms with a lot of things. He processed the pain and trauma that existed in his family during his upbringing. He came to an understanding with his own ambition and drive. And...

  • 2020 / 2 / 13
    Episode 1097 - Brett Smrz

    Some people are born into stunt performing, some achieve it, and some have it thrust upon them. For Brett Smrz, it’s all three. He was born into a family of stuntmen, including his uncle who died doing a...

  • 2020 / 2 / 10
    Episode 1096 - Ben Schwartz

    Ben Schwartz was afraid to do plays in high school. In fact, if it wasn’t for his college girlfriend pushing him to audition for the school improv group, his life would be dramatically different. Ben talks...

  • 2020 / 2 / 6
    Episode 1095 - Dan Levy

    Once Marc gets over the confusion around Dan Levy’s name (he pronounces it differently than the Dan Levy from Schitt’s Creek), he tries to figure out how Dan went from being a guy opening at comedy clubs to a...

  • 2020 / 2 / 3
    Episode 1094 - Ashton Kutcher

    Ashton Kutcher is still close with the modeling agent who discovered him in a bar in Iowa. He’s also still with the manager who got him his first acting work. Ashton talks with Marc about why he feels such a...

  • 2020 / 1 / 30
    Episode 1093 - Ben Bailey

    Ben Bailey and Marc share a particular gripe as comics. Both of them became widely known for beloved projects they started doing on a whim. For Ben it was Cash Cab, for Marc it was this podcast. And as much...

  • 2020 / 1 / 27
    Episode 1092 - Terry Crews

    Terry Crews survived a lot. He survived a tumultuous upbringing in an alcoholic household. He survived the destruction of his hometown, Flint, Michigan. He survived playing in the NFL. He survived a...

  • 2020 / 1 / 23
    Episode 1091 - Josh Klinghoffer

    Josh Klinghoffer came over to Marc’s house just days after receiving the surprising news from the Red Hot Chili Peppers that his time with the band was over. He talks with Marc about John Frusciante’s sudden...

  • 2020 / 1 / 20
    Episode 1090 - Brian Cox

    When listening to actor Brian Cox talk with Marc, it’s hard to see how this pleasant man is anything like the despotic, cold-blooded patriarch Logan Roy, who he plays on HBO’s Succession. Except there is one...

  • 2020 / 1 / 16
    Episode 1089 - Randall Park

    Randall Park’s Korean immigrant parents were skeptical about their son’s career path. But that all changed when Randall played the actual dictator of North Korea in The Interview, a movie that caused an...

  • 2020 / 1 / 13
    Episode 1088 - Lily Tomlin

    Lily Tomlin received a bit of advice early in her life that she really took to heart: If you can’t be direct, why be? Lily’s direct approach to performing, exemplified by her creation of original characters,...

  • 2020 / 1 / 9
    Episode 1087 - Joe Mantegna

    Joe Mantegna is about as Chicago as they come. He grew up in Chicago, he talks like he’s from Chicago, he got his acting start in Chicago, he even used to play with the band Chicago. That might explain why he...

  • 2020 / 1 / 6
    Episode 1086 - Brad Pitt & Leonardo DiCaprio

    During a victory lap for their movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio put movie stardom on hold for an hour to have a chat with Marc. They talk about their early days as show...

  • 2020 / 1 / 2
    Episode 1085 - Scott Caan

    Scott Caan stars in major movies, is on a long running television series, published his own photography, wrote more than 20 plays, and yet he’s still not sure what he wants to do when he grows up. Scott and...

  • 2019 / 12 / 30
    Episode 1084 - Shauna Duggins

    Shauna Duggins does stunts for blockbuster movies and TV series, but at first she just wanted to entertain. She went to Los Angeles fresh out of college with a business degree and a lifetime of gymnastics...

  • 2019 / 12 / 26
    Episode 1083 - Brittany Howard

    Brittany Howard always needs to keep moving forward. That’s part of the reason she made the difficult decision to take a break from her band Alabama Shakes and go out on her own. Now, for the first time as a...

  • 2019 / 12 / 23
    Episode 1082 - Jimmy Tingle

    Jimmy Tingle has a lot in common with Marc and many other Boston-based WTF guests. But what sets Jimmy apart is the merger of his comedy with politics and civic engagement. Jimmy tells Marc about his...

  • 2019 / 12 / 19
    Episode 1081 - Alex Gibney

    Academy Award-winning documentarian Alex Gibney is always trying to understand why things are the way they are. He’s done so with Enron, Scientology, the War on Terror, Donald Trump and other topics where he...

  • 2019 / 12 / 16
    Episode 1080 - Jay Roach

    Jay Roach went from directing major comedies like the Austin Powers series and Meet the Parents to making timely political films like Recount, Game Change and his new movie Bombshell. The transition makes...

  • 2019 / 12 / 12
    Episode 1079 - Paul Walter Hauser

    To play Richard Jewell, Paul Walter Hauser knew he needed to tap into a part of himself he thought he left behind in Saginaw, Michigan. Paul and Marc talk about his Christian upbringing as the son of a...

  • 2019 / 12 / 9
    Episode 1078 - Cedric the Entertainer

    Before he was a King of Comedy, before he was even an entertainer, he was Cedric the Insurance Claims Adjuster. Cedric and Marc talk about his emergence in the St. Louis-area comedy scene and how the business...

  • 2019 / 12 / 5
    Episode 1077 - Ethan Russell

    Photographer Ethan Russell is the only person to shoot album covers for The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who, which is quite an achievement considering he didn’t even want a career as a photographer....

  • 2019 / 12 / 2
    Episode 1076 - Jessica Kirson

    There was a point in Jessica Kirson’s life where she was living with too many secrets. She was a pot dealer, she had a hidden cocaine habit, and she was deeply in the closet. Jessica worked to unburden...

  • 2019 / 11 / 28
    Episode 1075 - Keith Wager

    Keith Wager is a recovery friend of Marc’s who has a lot to be thankful for. Instead of doing drugs and getting arrested, like he did in the past, now he’s telling stories about his addiction and recovery on...

  • 2019 / 11 / 25
    Episode 1074 - Mike Sweeney

    Mike Sweeney tried on several different careers before becoming the head writer for Conan O’Brien: trial lawyer, standup comedian, warm-up comic. But it’s a miracle he was able to do any of them after growing...

  • 2019 / 11 / 21
    Episode 1073 - Louis Katz

    Comic Louis Katz was working with Marc just before the launch of WTF. In the ten years since, Louis and Marc have taken paths that are both similar and completely different. They share their experiences on...

  • 2019 / 11 / 18
    Episode 1072 - Nathan Lane

    When a very complementary newspaper profile called Nathan Lane “the last of the great entertainers,” Nathan couldn’t help but wonder, “Is that all there is?” Nathan talks with Marc about the subsequent steps...

  • 2019 / 11 / 14
    Episode 1071 - Lili Taylor

    Actress Lili Taylor and Marc quickly realize how much they have in common, like their nearly 50 combined years of sobriety, their similar stories about parents struggling with mental illness, and their search...

  • 2019 / 11 / 11
    Episode 1070 - Tony Hale

    Tony Hale is trying to be more present. He’s motivated by the fact that some of the biggest moments of his career on shows like Arrested Development and Veep are lost down the memory hole. Tony and Marc trace...

  • 2019 / 11 / 7
    Episode 1069 - Kate Nash

    Kate Nash says getting cast on GLOW saved her life and, when you hear about the emotional roller coaster she was on before landing the gig, that might literally be true. Kate tells Marc what it was like to...

  • 2019 / 11 / 4
    Episode 1068 - John Goodman

    John Goodman has more than four decades of experience on stage, in movies, and on television, but he’s just now learning to trust himself. After a lifetime of trying to please everyone and beating himself up...

  • 2019 / 10 / 31
    Episode 1067 - Joan Shelley

    Marc doesn’t consider himself a “folk music guy” but he cannot deny how strongly he responds to singer-songwriter Joan Shelley’s work. Joan talks with Marc about her Kentucky upbringing and how she’s careful...

  • 2019 / 10 / 28
    Episode 1066 - Edward Norton

    Edward Norton knows the importance of slowing things down. While many entertainers feel the need to move immediately from project to project, Edward has learned from his peers, his idols, and his own...

  • 2019 / 10 / 24
    Episode 1065 - Pamela Des Barres

    No one can doubt Pamela Des Barres’s commitment to the life of rock and roll. She’s known as THE rock groupie, but further distinguished herself as a writer, educator, tour guide and interviewer, all...

  • 2019 / 10 / 21
    Episode 1064 - Rick Baker

    It’s very likely Rick Baker created something that made you smile, laugh, cringe, scream, or all of the above, as one of the most innovative and memorable creators of makeup effects in movie history. Rick...

  • 2019 / 10 / 17
    Episode 1063 - Woody Harrelson

    Living in Hawaii gives Woody Harrelson a pretty good perspective of what life should really be about. It’s a mentality that influences the way he chooses projects, the way he engages in activism, and the way...

  • 2019 / 10 / 14
    Episode 1062 - Rachel Maddow

    Marc sees Rachel Maddow on TV almost every night. But there was a time when they saw each other every day, back when they worked together at Air America Radio. Rachel and Marc talk about those early radio...

  • 2019 / 10 / 10
    Episode 1061 - Jackie Tohn

    Jackie Tohn is the co-star on GLOW who Marc feels he knows the most. Not because they knew each other before making the show, but because they share backgrounds and upbringings that make them very familiar to...

  • 2019 / 10 / 7
    Episode 1060 - Argus Hamilton

    Argus Hamilton is the human embodiment of The Comedy Store, with the distinction of being one of the original Comedy Store comics and the only person of his generation who still works there today. In other...

  • 2019 / 10 / 3
    Episode 1059 - Danny DeVito

    Danny DeVito is one of America’s most beloved actors and that’s true across multiple generations. Whether it’s because you came of age with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or watched Taxi every week or...

  • 2019 / 9 / 30
    Episode 1058 - Marilu Henner

    Marilu Henner will not forget what was said in this conversation. That’s mostly because she has a rare condition that allows her to remember virtually everything that ever happened to her. But it’s also...

  • 2019 / 9 / 26
    Episode 1057 - Jeannie Gaffigan

    Jeannie Gaffigan had a lot on her plate. She was raising five kids, writing comedy with her husband Jim, and producing a television sitcom. She was so busy taking care of others that she forgot to take care...

  • 2019 / 9 / 23
    Episode 1056 - Byron Allen

    How did Byron Allen go from teenage stand-up to highly successful media mogul and entrepreneur? Byron thinks it has everything to do with growing up in Detroit, watching his dad working at Ford and...

  • 2019 / 9 / 19
    Episode 1055 - Chaunté Wayans

    Chaunté Wayans has a last name that adds a lot of pressure to a comedy career. She also happens to be the niece and cousin of many famous comedians with that last name. That’s one reason she stayed away from...

  • 2019 / 9 / 16
    Episode 1054 - June Diane Raphael

    June Diane Raphael knows people are likely to mispronounce her last name (it’s RAY-feel) but she’s ok with it. She has other things on her mind right now, like being a working mom in Hollywood, getting more...

  • 2019 / 9 / 12
    Episode 1053 - Danny Huston

    Danny Huston felt somewhat doomed when it came to show business. His father John and grandfather Walter were legendary Hollywood figures and his half-sister Anjelica seemed like the coolest person in the...

  • 2019 / 9 / 9
    Episode 1052 - Bruce Dern

    When Bruce Dern showed up at The Actors Studio, Lee Strasberg told him he was going to be their Frankenstein Monster and Elia Kazan told him “you’re not into acting, you’re just into being.” But they also...

  • 2019 / 9 / 5
    Episode 1051 - Edi Patterson

    When Marc first saw Edi Patterson on Vice Principals, he knew she was the kind of performer who can’t possibly stifle who she is. It turns out her raw, comedic intensity was born in Texas oil-refining...

  • 2019 / 9 / 2
    Episode 1050 - Dale Beran

    Unlike Marc, Dale Beran was immersed in internet culture for most of his life. He considered himself an artistic, creative person with aspirations to become a writer. But what Dale discovered in the online...

  • 2019 / 8 / 29
    Episode 1049 - Buddy Guy

    Legendary blues guitarist Buddy Guy had many insecurities about performing and they didn’t really subside until musicians like Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck would tell him how big of an influence he was on them....

  • 2019 / 8 / 26
    Episode 1048 - Betty Gilpin

    Betty Gilpin’s performance on GLOW has brought her critical accolades, Emmy nominations, and personal fulfillment. So why does she feel like she’s constantly running from a monster that is snapping at her...

  • 2019 / 8 / 22
    Episode 1047 - David Shields

    David Shields is always looking to push the form forward, whether it’s by way of his writing, his filmmaking or his thinking. Using collage-style prose and film techniques to help draw connections, David...

  • 2019 / 8 / 19
    Episode 1046 - Patricia Clarkson

    Patricia Clarkson came to show business by way of New Orleans, where exposure to all manner of public figures who were equal parts good and bad may explain why she never judges the characters she plays, even...

  • 2019 / 8 / 17
    Peter Fonda from 2018

    From Episode 930, Marc's conversation with actor Peter Fonda about childhood trauma, Easy Rider, and talking George Harrison down from a bad trip. Peter passed away on August 16, 2019. Sign up here for WTF+...

  • 2019 / 8 / 15
    Episode 1045 - Stephen Root

    Stephen Root grew up moving all over the country because of his dad’s job. Being uprooted all the time meant he was shy and quiet without too many friends. Fortunately, shy, quiet people are good observers....

  • 2019 / 8 / 12
    Episode 1044 - Bashir Salahuddin

    Bashir Salahuddin is having a moment. He has two new shows out that he co-created and stars in, South Side and Sherman’s Showcase. He’s back in the third season of GLOW. And he’ll be in Top Gun: Maverick next...

  • 2019 / 8 / 8
    Episode 1043 - Greg Kinnear

    Greg Kinnear actually bailed on being an actor. Even though he performed in high school plays and hosted his own radio show as a teenager, when he started acting in college he decided it wasn’t for him. As...

  • 2019 / 8 / 5
    Episode 1042 - Walton Goggins

    Walton Goggins has played tough guys, weird guys and guys who completely defy description, but to him it’s all just playing pretend. Walton found himself as the center of attention at a young age while he was...

  • 2019 / 8 / 1
    Episode 1041 - Juston McKinney

    Juston McKinney’s story keeps coming back to New Hampshire. It’s where he grew up, where he lost his mother at age six, where his father was a homeless alcoholic, and where Juston became a cop. He tells Marc...

  • 2019 / 7 / 29
    Episode 1040 - Kurt Andersen

    At some point in the past decade, Kurt Andersen felt like he had to figure out America. Coming from a professional career rooted in satire and troublemaking, Kurt had a pretty good vantage point to examine...

  • 2019 / 7 / 25
    Episode 1039 - Tom Dreesen

    Now that Tom Dreesen has 50 years in show business under his belt, he wants to enjoy life. He’s earned it because he’s already experienced enough for five lifetimes. Tom takes Marc all the way back to when he...

  • 2019 / 7 / 22
    Episode 1038 - Geena Davis

    Geena Davis says the biggest thing she had to learn as she made her way through show business was how to speak up for herself. This was particularly difficult because she was taught at a very young age that...

  • 2019 / 7 / 18
    Episode 1037 - Alex Ross Perry

    Not only did director and writer Alex Ross Perry work in a video store while he was learning to become a filmmaker, his first film crew was made up of his friends and co-workers at the video store and they...

  • 2019 / 7 / 15
    Episode 1036 - Sean Lennon

    Sean Lennon admits that he was naïve about his family legacy when he began a career in music. He also admits that when he received bad reviews for his first solo record, deep down he agreed with them. Sean...

  • 2019 / 7 / 11
    Episode 1035 - Nahnatchka Khan

    When Nahnatchka Khan started developing Fresh Off The Boat for TV, she knew it was an undertaking that no one had tried for more than 20 years: A network sitcom with an Asian-American cast. And it was a...

  • 2019 / 7 / 8
    Episode 1034 - David Lee Roth

    You only need to hear David Lee Roth talk for a few seconds to understand why he is the consummate rock and roll frontman. Diamond Dave takes Marc on a stream of consciousness ride through his past, present,...

  • 2019 / 7 / 4
    Episode 1033 - Jamie Lee

    Jamie Lee started her career in close proximity to comedy, but not actually doing it. She was working in PR at Comedy Central and found herself around a lot of comics in a professional capacity. It wasn’t...

  • 2019 / 7 / 1
    Episode 1032 - Stephen Dorff

    Stephen Dorff started acting in movies before he was a teenager, but the sudden and tragic death of his brother made him contemplate leaving the business altogether. Stephen tells Marc why he stuck it out and...

  • 2019 / 6 / 27
    Episode 1031 - Brent Butt

    Even though Brent Butt grew up in rural Saskatchewan, his path to comedy is similar to American comics, except it was exclusively Canadian. He was a directionless youth who was taken in by comedy on Canadian...

  • 2019 / 6 / 24
    Episode 1030 - Stephen Colbert

    Before Stephen Colbert knew what he wanted to do with his life, all he wanted was to be Hamlet. Not to play Hamlet, but to be Hamlet. That’s how he felt as an outsider teen dealing with family tragedy and...

  • 2019 / 6 / 20
    Episode 1029 - Steve Sweeney

    When Steve Sweeney was growing up in Boston, the last thing he expected to become was an entertainer. He rubbed elbows with career criminals in Charlestown but somehow wound up doing summertime productions of...

  • 2019 / 6 / 17
    Episode 1028 - Eve Ensler

    When Marc read Eve Ensler’s new book The Apology, he knew he had to speak with her right away. Not just because it was a harrowing, beautifully written, courageous book, but because Marc believes the book...

  • 2019 / 6 / 13
    Episode 1027 - Jamie Denbo

    Jamie Denbo’s life and career would not be the same were it not for her job at a Renaissance fair. Her future in comedy, improv, acting, and now writing and producing might not have taken shape if she didn’t...

  • 2019 / 6 / 10
    Episode 1026 - Mavis Staples

    As Mavis Staples turns 80 years old, she continues to perform and record with young musicians and producers across musical genres, just as she’s done her whole life. Mavis talks with Marc about her early...

  • 2019 / 6 / 6
    Episode 1025 - Perry Farrell

    Perry Farrell is the creative force behind Jane’s Addiction, Porno for Pyros, and the Lollapalooza festival, but while talking with Marc, it’s clear a lot of Perry's focus these days is on being a dad. Perry...

  • 2019 / 6 / 3
    Episode 1024 - John Turturro

    When you talk with John Turturro, it’s quickly apparent that he’s a student of history. But John says that type of education really only happened for him once he left school and engaged with the world. His...

  • 2019 / 5 / 30
    Episode 1023 - David Letterman

    David Letterman started out doing the very thing that scared him to death - getting up in front of strangers and trying to make them laugh. Now after wrapping up a legendary and influential career as late...

  • 2019 / 5 / 27
    Episode 1022 - Timothy Olyphant

    In the last decade or so, Timothy Olyphant realized that a lot of his interests when he was younger were either impractical, ill-fitting or not very cool. He found himself going in many different directions...

  • 2019 / 5 / 23
    Episode 1021 - Duff McKagan

    Duff McKagan weathered the storm of rock and roll excess and now finds himself with a loving family, sobriety, a reunited band, and a new solo album. Duff takes Marc back to the days when he first met Axl...

  • 2019 / 5 / 20
    Episode 1020 - Lisa Kudrow

    Of course Lisa Kudrow talks with Marc about Friends. But first they discuss several other topics Lisa knows well, including genealogy, global migration patterns, evolutionary biology, and headaches. Lisa also...

  • 2019 / 5 / 16
    Episode 1019 - Kyle Mooney

    A fateful moment in Kyle Mooney’s life was when his high school hip hop group went up in flames. Quite literally. All his equipment was destroyed in a fire. Lacking an outlet for his creativity, Kyle...

  • 2019 / 5 / 13
    Episode 1018 - Anjelica Huston

    If there was one constant in Anjelica Huston’s early life and career, it was the pressure to prove herself. Anjelica tells Marc about the benefits and drawbacks of being part of a Hollywood dynasty, the...

  • 2019 / 5 / 9
    Episode 1017 - Anna Konkle & Maya Erskine

    Anna Konkle and Maya Erskine, co-creators and stars of the middle school-based comedy PEN15, met and bonded in college. But they knew their most authentic collaboration would come from playing themselves as...

  • 2019 / 5 / 6
    Episode 1016 - Dennis Quaid

    Dennis Quaid believes in the benefits of familiarity. In fact, he attributes his career to it. Multiple generations of audiences know him for different films, be it Breaking Away or Dreamscape or The Parent...

  • 2019 / 5 / 2
    Episode 1015 - Irwin Winkler

    After fifty years in Hollywood producing some of the most popular movies of all time, Irwin Winkler says the question he still gets asked the most is, What does a producer do? To get the answer, Irwin tells...

  • 2019 / 4 / 29
    Episode 1014 - Jane Fonda

    Jane Fonda is still acting and is still an activist, two constants in her entire adult life. But as she tells Marc, Jane spent a lot of her life thinking she was a worthless person. Carrying the twin burdens...

  • 2019 / 4 / 25
    Episode 1013 - Bryan Callen

    Bryan Callen always wished he could be a tough guy. Maybe it was the influence of his Marine father or maybe it was the snippets of American culture he was taking in as he grew up all over the world. Whatever...

  • 2019 / 4 / 22
    Episode 1012 - Brené Brown

    Brené Brown’s degree in social work and her research into conditions like empathy and vulnerability led to one of the most viewed TED Talks of all time, millions of readers of her books, and celebrity...

  • 2019 / 4 / 18
    Episode 1011 - Mark Arm / The Pashman Cometh

    Mark Arm was there at the beginning of a Seattle music scene that became a national phenomenon. But all Mark ever thought he and his bandmates were doing was entertaining themselves. Mark talks about how he...

  • 2019 / 4 / 15
    Episode 1010 - Christina Hendricks

    Christina Hendricks can relate if you had a lousy time in high school. Between moving around a lot to her goth fashion style and music choices to her time spent with the school theater crew, Christina was a...

  • 2019 / 4 / 11
    Episode 1009 - Bruce McCulloch

    Bruce McCulloch’s characters and disposition on The Kids in the Hall would lead you to conclude he’s somewhat shy, sensitive and kind. And while that may be true now, Bruce says he was an angry young man, a...

  • 2019 / 4 / 8
    Episode 1008 - Vincent D'Onofrio

    The last time Vincent D’Onofrio saw Marc it was at a standup show where Marc got tackled on stage by a disgruntled audience member. A lot has changed for both of them since then. You know Marc's story. But...

  • 2019 / 4 / 4
    Episode 1007 - T Bone Burnett

    Growing up in Texas, young Joseph Henry Burnett first experienced musical transportation while listening to records of Cole Porter and Ella Fitzgerald. He developed into not just a versatile musician and...

  • 2019 / 4 / 1
    Episode 1006 - John Lithgow

    John Lithgow can go from playing the sweetest characters you’ll ever see to truly deranged psychopaths, sometimes within the same movie. He’s good at playing kind and evil in equal measure partly because he...

  • 2019 / 3 / 28
    Episode 1005 - Phoebe Robinson

    Phoebe Robinson knows too well the feeling of being “the only one.” Whether it was being the only black person in her grade, the only woman or person of color on a standup show, or the only person being asked...

  • 2019 / 3 / 25
    Episode 1004 - Rob Lowe

    Rob Lowe had several revelations over the course of his life. One is that there’s more fun in sobriety than in being under the influence. Another is that he should have had a sex tape scandal later in life...

  • 2019 / 3 / 21
    Episode 1003 - Tal Wilkenfeld

    The word prodigy gets thrown around a lot, but if Tal Wilkenfeld isn’t one then the word has no meaning. Tal tells Marc how she never even saw a person play guitar until she was 14 years old. Thanks to...

  • 2019 / 3 / 18
    Episode 1002 - Amy Sedaris

    Amy Sedaris had no plan of action for her career other than going to Chicago to do sketch comedy and going to New York to do plays with her brother David. And as she tells Marc, she still has no plan except...

  • 2019 / 3 / 14
    Episode 1001 - Aidy Bryant

    Aidy Bryant only recently felt like she could tap into her inner rage. She remains a wonderfully nice person and hilarious performer, but with things like her new show Shrill and other mental adjustments,...

  • 2019 / 3 / 11
    Episode 1000 - Episode 1000

    To celebrate the milestone of 1000 episodes, Marc and WTF producer Brendan McDonald reflect on how they got here, why they created the show in the first place, and what the future holds for them and WTF. They...

  • 2019 / 3 / 7
    The Marc and Tom Show #5

    Media juggernauts Marc Maron and Tom Scharpling join forces once again, this time to save not only themselves but the world as well. Along the way, they talk about Howard Stern, movie theater food, falling...

  • 2019 / 3 / 4
    Episode 999 - Alfred Molina

    Alfred Molina was told early on that he was a “dreadful actor but a marvelous show off.” Thankfully, he took that assessment as a positive and became one of our great actors, working in experimental British...

  • 2019 / 2 / 28
    Episode 998 - Gary Clark Jr.

    Gary Clark Jr. tries not to put too much pressure on himself. That’s not surprising since outside forces seem to put a lot of pressure on Gary, with guys like Eric Clapton asking him to go on tour and outlets...

  • 2019 / 2 / 25
    Episode 997 - Andrea Savage

    Andrea Savage didn't really know Marc but thought he was a little scary. Marc didn't know Andrea but found her to be intimidating. What was it about these two funny people that had them keeping a distance...

  • 2019 / 2 / 21
    Episode 996 - Jon Bernthal

    Jon Bernthal’s path to becoming an actor was less about following a dream than about getting out of a nightmare. Before he was The Punisher or other streetwise characters in The Wolf of Wall Street and The...

  • 2019 / 2 / 18
    Episode 995 - Mandy Moore

    Mandy Moore has already gone through several career phases in her young life, from teenage pop star to animated voice artist to dramatic actress. But her latest phase, as matriarch Rebecca Pearson on This Is...

  • 2019 / 2 / 14
    Episode 994 - Yeardley Smith / Krusty the Clown

    Yeardley Smith knows that Lisa Simpson gets people through tough times. She knows because strangers come up to her in public and tell her how much Lisa helped them. And yet, despite portraying this iconic...

  • 2019 / 2 / 11
    Episode 993 - Tony Shalhoub

    Tony Shalhoub grew up with nine siblings so it’s no surprise he developed a way to stand out. Tony and Marc talk about his upbringing in Green Bay, Wisconsin, worshiping at the Church of Lombardi, aka Lambeau...

  • 2019 / 2 / 7
    Episode 992 - Yorgos Lanthimos

    Yorgos Lanthimos makes films that pose a lot of questions and Marc wants answers. But it turns out the question Yorgos finds the least interesting is “Why?” Perhaps his disinterest in simple answers stems...

  • 2019 / 2 / 4
    Episode 991 - Anderson .Paak

    Long before Anderson .Paak was getting nominated for Grammy Awards, well before his collaborations with Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg and Q-Tip, before he was releasing solo albums to critical acclaim, he had...

  • 2019 / 1 / 31
    Episode 990 - Allan MacDonell

    Writer Allan MacDonell shaped his writing style at the punk magazine Slash, refined it while working for Larry Flint at Hustler, and turned it all on its ear with his trilogy of memoirs. Allan tells Marc how...

  • 2019 / 1 / 28
    Episode 989 - Allison Janney

    Allison Janney won an Oscar playing the mother of a figure skater, but when she was younger she actually wanted to be a figure skater. That dream was cut short by a freak accident as a teenager and her acting...

  • 2019 / 1 / 24
    Episode 988 - Brad Garrett

    If Brad Garrett had to bet on it - and he likes to bet - he’s pretty sure he’ll die in Las Vegas. Which is appropriate because he grew up with an abiding love of Vegas and got his comedy start at the famous...

  • 2019 / 1 / 21
    Episode 987 - Aaron Sorkin

    It's very possible the only reason Aaron Sorkin became a writer is because he spent a lonely night in a friend's apartment where the only thing working was an electric typewriter. Aaron tells Marc how that...

  • 2019 / 1 / 17
    Episode 986 - Linda Cardellini

    For Linda Cardellini, a person whose spiritual crisis took her all the way to the Vatican, it's appropriate that the pivotal moment in her career happened when she took a leap of faith on a little TV pilot...

  • 2019 / 1 / 14
    Episode 985 - Howie Mandel

    Howie Mandel went to Hollywood and tried to make a living by putting a latex glove on his head. He never thought he’d be able to maintain it, so he always made other plans: Investor, entrepreneur, actor,...

  • 2019 / 1 / 10
    Episode 984 - Sam Lipsyte

    Not only is Sam Lipsyte one of the funniest modern fiction authors, he’s also one of Marc’s best friends, a kindred spirit with whom Marc shares a deep mutual respect and understanding. Whenever Marc is in...

  • 2019 / 1 / 7
    Episode 983 - Steve Coogan

    When Steve Coogan realized he was good at doing impressions, he also realized it was a really good way to get attention. But Steve also knew he had to deliver beyond the impressions if he wanted to get...

  • 2019 / 1 / 3
    Episode 982 - Seth MacFarlane

    Seth MacFarlane can host award shows, create button-pushing animated shows, and sing standards in symphony halls, but nothing changes the fact that he’s an introvert by nature. Seth tells Marc why he’s always...

  • 2018 / 12 / 31
    Episode 981 - Reinaldo Marcus Green

    Before directing his first feature film, Reinaldo Marcus Green's life could have gone down multiple paths. There was baseball in his teen years, then teaching elementary school students, then going to work on...

  • 2018 / 12 / 27
    Episode 980 - Kyle Dunnigan

    Kyle Dunnigan was saved from a midlife crisis by Instagram. He explains to Marc how he bent the social media platform to suit his comedy as they both discuss the challenges of facing down middle age. Kyle...

  • 2018 / 12 / 24
    Episode 979 - Topher Grace

    Topher Grace is at a point where he’s only going to make what he wants to make. Not all actors can afford that luxury, but Topher tells Marc that working on That '70s Show for seven years taught him more...

  • 2018 / 12 / 20
    Episode 978 - Fahim Anwar

    Fahim Anwar's path to show business went through Boeing. It's not the most traditional route to Hollywood success, but it was necessary for a son of immigrant parents who did not approve of his standup comedy...

  • 2018 / 12 / 17
    Episode 977 - The Beastie Boys

    Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz deal with many of the typical challenges of middle age, but they’re still deeply in touch with the alter egos they created four decades ago: Mike D and Ad-Rock. They tell...

  • 2018 / 12 / 13
    Episode 976 - Maggie Gyllenhaal

    Maggie Gyllenhaal grew up with filmmaker parents but didn't really feel like her family was in show business. That disconnect has helped her in her work and life, like when she performs with her...

  • 2018 / 12 / 10
    Episode 975 - Jeff Daniels

    Jeff Daniels has delivered great performances in films, plays and TV shows for more than 40 years but he thought a true “dream role” had eluded him. Until now. Marc talks with Jeff in the midst of rehearsals...

  • 2018 / 12 / 6
    Episode 974 - Ted Alexandro

    Ted Alexandro is a comic who believes deeply in social responsibility. Whether it’s responsibility to his fellow comics as he fought for better pay from clubs, or to his fellow citizens as part of the Occupy...

  • 2018 / 12 / 3
    Episode 973 - Tim Blake Nelson

    Tim Blake Nelson might be a familiar face due to his indelible character roles in many films, but that didn’t stop him from defying just about all of Marc’s preconceptions about him. Marc had no idea, for...

  • 2018 / 11 / 29
    Episode 972 - Jeff Tweedy

    Jeff Tweedy doesn’t spend a lot of time reflecting on the past. But he awakened a whole lot of it while writing his new memoir. That means he has fresh thoughts on his mind about Jay Farrar, Uncle Tupelo, the...

  • 2018 / 11 / 26
    Episode 971 - Martin Mull

    Martin Mull has many job titles in front of his name: Actor, musician, painter, writer, comedian. But when he was younger, struggling to make it as any of those things, he couldn't afford heat for his...

  • 2018 / 11 / 22
    Episode 970 - Annie Lederman

    Comedian and writer Annie Lederman saw her adolescence take a turn for the worse after a childhood car crash. She was growing up with learning disabilities and attending a Quaker school. Then after the crash...

  • 2018 / 11 / 19
    Episode 969 - Kenneth Lonergan

    Kenneth Lonergan doesn’t think there’s a real difference between comedy and drama, at least not in the way he writes and directs. The playwright-screenwriter-director talks with Marc about the lie of...

  • 2018 / 11 / 15
    Episode 968 - Michael Douglas

    Michael Douglas produced an Academy Award-winner for Best Picture, was the star of a successful television series, and was compiling a notable filmography both in front of and behind the camera. But he still...

  • 2018 / 11 / 12
    Episode 967 - D.L. Hughley

    "The most dangerous place for black people to live is in white people’s imaginations." That idea has allowed D.L. Hughley to organize a lot of his thoughts on what we're dealing with as a country, and he...

  • 2018 / 11 / 8
    Episode 966 - Sandy Hackett

    Sandy Hackett learned from the best, but not just because Buddy Hackett was his dad. But also because Buddy was his best friend, his road companion, and the guy he opened for night after night. Sandy tells...

  • 2018 / 11 / 5
    Episode 965 - Rita Rudner

    Rita Rudner is very likely the only person to start a comedy career because of an article in the New York Times business section on soft soap. It was quite the turn of events for Rita, who was dancing...

  • 2018 / 11 / 1
    Episode 964 - Roger Daltrey

    Roger Daltrey believes you can't retire from rock and roll, rock and roll retires you. But for now, as long as Pete can still play and Roger can "sing the s--- out of the songs," The Who will go on. On the...

  • 2018 / 10 / 29
    Episode 963 - Zoe Kazan

    Zoe Kazan doesn't think much about the concept of "Hollywood royalty." Yes, her parents are in show business, but she still had to run the gauntlet of failed auditions and odd jobs. Yes, her grandfather's...

  • 2018 / 10 / 25
    Episode 962 - Eric Idle

    Python Week continues on WTF as Eric Idle gives Marc his perspective on the creation of the legendary British comedy group, talks about the making of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Rutles, and Spamalot,...

  • 2018 / 10 / 22
    Episode 961 - John Cleese

    John Cleese says there's one constant throughout his life, from Monty Python through today. He still has a very strong childish side and it has done him well. John talks to Marc about putting that childish...

  • 2018 / 10 / 18
    Episode 960 - Richard E. Grant / Brian Posehn

    Actor Richard E. Grant keeps a daily diary and has done so since he was ten years old. Having immediate access to his past experiences has no doubt helped his performances as a wide variety of characters...

  • 2018 / 10 / 15
    Episode 959 - Busy Philipps

    Busy Philipps is on the cusp of becoming a late night talk show host, so it's appropriate for her and Marc to talk about anything and everything during an afternoon in the garage. Busy explains what it's...

  • 2018 / 10 / 11
    Episode 958 - Kurt Vile

    Recording artist Kurt Vile and Marc like a lot of the same stuff: Tom Scharpling, the blues, Randy Newman, Neil Young, flat driveways. They get to share their mutual admiration of these things while also...

  • 2018 / 10 / 8
    Episode 957 - Charles Demers

    Writer and comedian Charles Demers has a lot of thoughts on the differences between the United States and his home country, Canada. Differences that are political, social and professional. But he also tells...

  • 2018 / 10 / 4
    Episode 956 - Sissy Spacek

    Sissy Spacek was a girl from Texas with a guitar who just wanted to sing. But after spending some time as a teenager living in New York City with her relatives, Rip Torn and Geraldine Page, Sissy got the...

  • 2018 / 10 / 1
    Episode 955 - Anna Faris

    Anna Faris had Marc on her podcast once. They both agree it got a little weird. They try to navigate that weirdness in the garage for Round Two, while also discussing Anna's painful insecurity as a teen, the...

  • 2018 / 9 / 26
    Episode 954 - Gale Anne Hurd

    Gale Anne Hurd is one of Hollywood’s most successful producers, with films like The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss and Armageddon under her belt. She tells Marc how her first job out of college, working as an...

  • 2018 / 9 / 23
    Episode 953 - Joan Jett

    Joan Jett wanted to be a rocker ever since she got a hold of a guitar, even though she was told girls don’t play rock and roll. That didn't stop her from forming The Runaways despite the sexist roadblocks the...

  • 2018 / 9 / 19
    Episode 952 - Slash

    Slash is known for guitar wizardry, the top hat, and a prolific career across several major rock acts. But he's less known as Saul Hudson, a British, biracial son of a costume designer who was into drawing...

  • 2018 / 9 / 16
    Episode 951 - Kristen Bell

    Kristen Bell had an experience as a guest on WTF that not many others get to enjoy: Marc made her a meal beforehand. So with a full stomach, Kristen and Marc talk about why Dax Shepard is pushing her to have...

  • 2018 / 9 / 12
    Episode 950 - Adam Cayton-Holland

    Comedian, actor and writer Adam Cayton-Holland didn't plan on having a memoir in his 30s. But Adam's life took a stunning turn when his sister took her life six years ago and the grief process ran through the...

  • 2018 / 9 / 9
    Episode 949 - Billy Eichner

    Billy Eichner was singing before he was yelling. The star of Billy on the Street had an early love of Broadway and musical theater but, as he tells Marc, comedy didn’t come quickly. No stand-up, no improv, no...

  • 2018 / 9 / 5
    Episode 948 - Sir Paul McCartney

    Marc talks with Paul McCartney about, well, a lot: The Beatles and Stones rivalry that wasn’t, his current relationship with Ringo, the influence of Little Richard, The Who, The Beach Boys, how he needs to...

  • 2018 / 9 / 2
    Episode 947 - ​Dan Schlissel

    Dan Schlissel died recently. He tells Marc all about it, along with the less harrowing tale of how an isolated Jewish kid from Nebraska got into producing records. Dan turned his production know-how into a...

  • 2018 / 8 / 29
    Episode 946 - Ian Bagg / Bert Kreischer

    If there was a competition for WTF guest who comes from the most far-flung, middle-of-nowhere place, comedian Ian Bagg would probably win by a lot. Ian tells Marc about growing up in Northern British...

  • 2018 / 8 / 26
    Episode 945 - Jo Koy

    Jo Koy is one of the biggest headlining comedians in the world and it might not have turned out that way if he hadn't become a vigorous self-promoter. Jo tells Marc how moving around a lot as part of a...

  • 2018 / 8 / 22
    Episode 944 - Tanya Donnelly / Jason Bateman

    A lot has changed in the 30 years since Marc and Tanya Donnelly worked together at a luncheonette in Boston. Tanya saw her emerging music career take off in the early '90s, thanks to her bands Throwing Muses,...

  • 2018 / 8 / 19
    Episode 943 - Shooter Jennings / Rob Riggle

    Shooter Jennings was born into Nashville royalty, the son of Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter. But he didn't exactly fit the Outlaw Country archetype. In fact, he was a computer nerd whose real influence was...

  • 2018 / 8 / 15
    Episode 942 - Joe Walsh

    There were two times Joe Walsh felt part of a community. The first was as a student at Kent State, but that all went away after the National Guard shooting. The second was when he got to LA and met a bunch of...

  • 2018 / 8 / 12
    Episode 941 - Jimmy O. Yang

    Jimmy O. Yang felt like an outsider growing up in Hong Kong and then felt like he didn't fit in studying economics in America. It was only once he starting paying five bucks to do an open mic night in...

  • 2018 / 8 / 8
    Episode 940 - Chris O'Dowd

    Chris O'Dowd charmed and amused audiences in things like Bridesmaids, The IT Crowd, and recently the Get Shorty TV series, but things could have gone differently if he had followed through on his political...

  • 2018 / 8 / 5
    Episode 939 - Jay Leno

    Jay Leno came up as a comic's comic, a performer recognized by other comedians as one of the best in the game. He also became one of the most successful late night television hosts in history, not once but...

  • 2018 / 8 / 1
    Episode 938 - Luzer Twersky

    Luzer Twersky is an actor who has been seen on shows like Transparent and High Maintenance. But prior to 2008, he wasn't seen by anyone outside of his Hasidic Jewish community. Luzer tells Marc about his...

  • 2018 / 7 / 29
    Episode 937 - Mila Kunis / Iliza Shlesinger

    Mila Kunis says she's had a most fortunate trajectory in show business. That's because she got to experience it as a hobby and as a career. She explains to Marc what that means, along with telling him what it...

  • 2018 / 7 / 25
    Episode 936 - Sue Costello / Jim Gaffigan

    Marc welcomes back to the show two comedian friends from the early years of WTF, both of whom have experienced a lot of changes in their lives since their previous visits. First, Sue Costello talks with Marc...

  • 2018 / 7 / 22
    Episode 935 - Bo Burnham / David Sedaris

    It’s a summertime double-header of returning guests. First, David Sedaris takes a break from his months-long 'Calypso' book tour to tell Marc about his visit to Buckingham Palace, how he's navigating life...

  • 2018 / 7 / 18
    Episode 934 - Daveed Diggs / Bob Newhart

    Before he was in Hamilton, Daveed Diggs was an aspiring actor, rapper and spoken word performer creating "a rap curriculum" for Bay Area schools. Marc talks with Daveed about how that was the perfect starting...

  • 2018 / 7 / 15
    Episode 933 - Gus Van Sant

    Filmmaker and kindred guitar noodler Gus Van Sant meets Marc in the garage and jumps in for a deep dive on his movies, including Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, To Die For, Gerry, Elephant, Last Days,...

  • 2018 / 7 / 11
    Episode 932 - Ray Liotta / Jim Jefferies

    Ray Liotta had no intention of getting into acting but his fearless disposition led him to performing in school musicals, and the rest was history. Ray tells Marc about why being on a soap opera was great...

  • 2018 / 7 / 8
    Episode 931 - Boots Riley / Bobcat Goldthwait

    Filmmaker and hip hop artist Boots Riley wants his audiences to be radically engaged. He grew up with parents who were organizers and he believes political radicalism prompts cultural change. Boots and Marc...

  • 2018 / 7 / 4
    Episode 930 - Peter Fonda / Andy Kindler & J. Elvis Weinstein

    Peter Fonda is happy to be figuring things out, no matter how long it took. Childhood traumas and an emotionally distant father affected his life and career, and he finally has some missing pieces of the...

  • 2018 / 7 / 1
    Episode 929 - Paul Rudd

    One constant for Paul Rudd as he spent a large portion of his childhood moving around the country, chasing an identity, is that he loved watching adults be silly. Even when he was in acting school and...

  • 2018 / 6 / 27
    Episode 928 - Eleanor Kerrigan

    Comedian Eleanor Kerrigan knows a lot about The Comedy Store. Not only did she become the club's head waitress, she also became a confidant and sometime-assistant to the owner, Mitzi Shore. After a stint as a...

  • 2018 / 6 / 24
    Episode 927 - Lil Rel Howery

    Lil Rel Howery burst into the mainstream as a hero. Playing the character who saves the day in Get Out, Lil Rel can see how that role changed everything for him, as he's now the lead in the new movie Uncle...

  • 2018 / 6 / 20
    Episode 926 - Dave Itzkoff / Robin Williams from 2010

    New York Times culture reporter Dave Itzkoff came into Robin Williams's life right around the same time Marc talked to Robin for WTF. Dave and Marc share notes on what they learned about this one-of-a-kind...

  • 2018 / 6 / 17
    Episode 925 - Billy Bob Thornton

    Billy Bob Thornton sees himself in a certain way and feels as though the world sees him differently. That's why he feels uncomfortable at parties, uneasy about being a celebrity, and most relaxed when he can...

  • 2018 / 6 / 13
    Episode 924 - Holly Hunter / Amber Tamblyn

    Holly Hunter left the family farm in Georgia to become an actor. She talks with Marc about her early days in New York, catching the attention of the Coen Brothers as they were on the verge of making their...

  • 2018 / 6 / 10
    Episode 923 - Bob Balaban

    Bob Balaban was born into show business and he didn't even know it until he was 10. The ubiquitous actor tells Marc how his immigrant family came to Chicago at the turn of the century and broke into the movie...

  • 2018 / 6 / 7
    Anthony Bourdain From 2011

    From Episode 233, this is Marc's conversation with Anthony Bourdain, conducted in 2011. Anthony died on June 8, 2018, at age 61. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! ...

  • 2018 / 6 / 6
    Episode 922 - ​Vanessa Hollingshead

    Vanessa Hollingshead can honestly say that a cruise ship saved her life. She tells Marc what led to a comedy career in the first place after a childhood spent in communes, foster homes, and around lots of...

  • 2018 / 6 / 3
    Episode 921 - David Harbour

    David Harbour became pretty cynical about the acting profession before landing the star-making role of Jim Hopper on Stranger Things. But he and Marc are in agreement that it was probably better for David to...

  • 2018 / 5 / 30
    Episode 920 - Rachel Brosnahan

    Rachel Brosnahan related to the pressures and insecurities of standup comics when she got the lead role of a 1950s standup in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. That's because she feels constant dread as an actor,...

  • 2018 / 5 / 27
    Episode 919 - Tom Papa

    Tom Papa got the comedy bug early in life but his unconventional path went from football to live theater to standup. Once Tom started writing jokes while working as a security guard, there was no turning...

  • 2018 / 5 / 23
    Episode 918 - ​Paul Rodriguez

    Paul Rodriguez has always been paying his dues. Even before he paid his dues doing open mics and parking cars at The Comedy Store, he paid his dues growing up in Compton, serving in the Air Force, and...

  • 2018 / 5 / 20
    Episode 917 - Neal Brennan

    Nearly seven years after doing an episode of WTF that never aired, Neal Brennan sits down with Marc for a conversation that is probably the one they should have had all those years ago. Neal and Marc talk...

  • 2018 / 5 / 16
    Episode 916 - Mary Steenburgen

    Mary Steenburgen started out pretty far away from Hollywood, as a young girl in Little Rock, Arkansas, growing up during the era of school desegregation. She fortified herself in that environment before...

  • 2018 / 5 / 13
    Episode 915 - Josh Brolin

    Josh Brolin knows that time and maturity saved his life. Going back to his rebellious youth, Josh can point to many times where he could have been done in, even after he was already a successful actor. Josh...

  • 2018 / 5 / 9
    Episode 914 - Melissa McCarthy

    Before comedy and acting were ever on Melissa McCarthy's radar, she was like a lot midwestern teens trying to find herself. She tells Marc how her cheerleading years were followed by a partially-shaved head...

  • 2018 / 5 / 6
    Episode 913 - Rachel Bloom

    Rachel Bloom is a self-described show pony, a people-pleaser with a lifelong desire to perform as a means of keeping her anxieties at bay. She tells Marc how those impulses pushed her toward musical theater,...

  • 2018 / 5 / 2
    Episode 912 - Drew Carey

    Drew Carey was in a bad place. After losing his dad at a young age, suffering through anxiety and depression in high school, confused by the pressures of religion, Drew made a rash decision when he was in...

  • 2018 / 4 / 29
    Episode 911 - Scott Thomson / Tom Rhodes

    Scott Thompson from The Kids in the Hall isn't too worried about the way of the world these days, mostly because he's been through so much that it all seems like gravy from here out. Scott tells Marc about...

  • 2018 / 4 / 25
    Episode 910 - Mandy Stadtmiller

    Writer Mandy Stadtmiller's career as a dating columnist was taking off as her post-divorce social life was filled with late-night excitement and famous hookups. But she also couldn't get off the hamster wheel...

  • 2018 / 4 / 22
    Episode 909 - Bradley Whitford

    Bradley Whitford was a huge Key and Peele fanboy who was desperate to work with them. But he didn't know what to think when Jordan Peele asked him if he liked horror movies. It turns out Bradley wound up...

  • 2018 / 4 / 18
    Episode 908 - Sam Tripoli

    Sam Tripoli never doubted he would become a comic, so his decision to study psychology was not an attempt to craft a backup plan. Instead he used his psych background to wage mental warfare with his demanding...

  • 2018 / 4 / 15
    Episode 907 - Aisha Tyler / Louie Anderson

    Aisha Tyler's directorial debut is a film called Axis about a guy who has hit the wall. That's appropriate for Aisha, following several years of big changes in her life. She ended a long marriage, walked away...

  • 2018 / 4 / 11
    Episode 906 - Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite / E of Eels

    Charlie Musselwhite and Ben Harper are musicians with wildly different backgrounds but a unifying love of the blues. Charlie was there at the birth of rock and roll. Ben grew up immersed in music while his...

  • 2018 / 4 / 8
    Episode 905 - Bill Simmons

    Writer, producer and podcast pioneer Bill Simmons is a man whose life, career and worldview have changed in real time with the evolution of Internet. Bill talks with Marc about some of the checkpoints in that...

  • 2018 / 4 / 4
    Episode 904 - Jason Alexander

    Jason Alexander was one of countless New Jersey kids who couldn't resist the lights of Broadway on the other side of the river. When he became a steady working actor on the New York stage, Jason was totally...

  • 2018 / 4 / 1
    Episode 903 - Neil Patrick Harris / Michael Imperioli

    Neil Patrick Harris credits his New Mexico upbringing with helping him weather the ups and downs of being a child star. It's also something he has in common with Marc. In addition to their memories of being...

  • 2018 / 3 / 28
    Episode 902 - They Might Be Giants

    John Flansburgh and John Linnell tell Marc the unlikely story of how a couple high school friends became a two-man band at the height of the New Wave performance art era in crime-ridden New York City and...

  • 2018 / 3 / 25
    Episode 901 - Sean Penn / Lynn Shelton

    Sean Penn wrote a novel to slow things down. He fell out of love with making movies, he is disillusioned by the culture, and he finds it hard to draw hope from current events. Sean explains to Marc how...

  • 2018 / 3 / 21
    Episode 900 - Nick Nolte

    Nick Nolte makes an appropriate guest for the 900th episode of WTF because he clearly has about 900 episodes worth of stories to tell. They can't get to all of them, so Nick tells Marc the ones about...

  • 2018 / 3 / 18
    Episode 899 - Nell Scovell

    Nell Scovell has written for a Murderers' Row of television comedies - including The Simpsons, It's Garry Shandling's Show, Murphy Brown, and Newhart - created Sabrina the Teenage Witch, wrote for Vanity Fair...

  • 2018 / 3 / 14
    Episode 898 - David Mamet

    David Mamet's love for Chicago shows up all the time in his works, including his new novel which is called, yup, Chicago. The prolific playwright-director-novelist-screenwriter talks with Marc about his...

  • 2018 / 3 / 11
    Episode 897 - Ted Danson

    Ted Danson is one of the most visible and familiar actors of the past four decades, and yet he still describes himself to Marc as "a phony," "a fraud," "an outsider," someone with "no real talent," and "too...

  • 2018 / 3 / 7
    Episode 896 - David Oyelowo

    David Oyelowo got America’s attention with his instantly-iconic portrayal of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the film Selma. But this classically trained actor was making history on stage years prior, becoming...

  • 2018 / 3 / 4
    Episode 895 - Sharon Stone

    Sharon Stone made a decision after she achieved fame with Basic Instinct. She wanted to build a way forward in Hollywood without being typecast. Sharon tells Marc how she navigated that part of her career,...

  • 2018 / 2 / 28
    Episode 894 - Bill Janovitz / Danny Lobell

    When Marc was a young comic living in Boston, Buffalo Tom was one of his favorite bands. Buffalo Tom frontman Bill Janovitz joins Marc in the garage to talk about the band's rise from the pre-Nirvana days of...

  • 2018 / 2 / 25
    Episode 893 - Jennifer Lawrence

    Jennifer Lawrence takes a break from being one of the biggest movie stars in the world to stop by the garage and talk with Marc about Kentucky, cats vs. dogs, older brothers, Winter's Bone, The Hunger Games,...

  • 2018 / 2 / 21
    Episode 892 - Duncan Jones / Brendon Small

    Filmmaker Duncan Jones put his philosophy degree to good use when he started making science fiction films. Now on his fourth one, Duncan tells Marc how he tries to crack life's big questions through sci-fi...

  • 2018 / 2 / 18
    Episode 891 - ​Heather Graham / Sebastian Maniscalco

    Heather Graham had stories she wanted to see made and roles she wanted to play, so she took them into her own hands. As she releases her directorial debut, Half Magic, which she also wrote, Heather talks with...

  • 2018 / 2 / 14
    Episode 890 - Gina Rodriguez

    Gina Rodriguez is living the dream with her Golden Globe-winning performance as Jane the Virgin, roles in big Hollywood movies like Annihilation, and new opportunities as both a director and a producer. But...

  • 2018 / 2 / 11
    Episode 889 - Esther Povitsky

    Almost a decade ago, a down-on-his-luck Marc Maron told 20-year-old aspiring comic Esther Povitsky to run far away from The Comedy Store because it would be the death of her. Thankfully, she did not take his...

  • 2018 / 2 / 7
    Episode 888 - Tracy Letts

    Tracy Letts is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, a Tony Award-winning actor, and someone Marc is nervous about saying hello to when he sees him out in the world. Tracy tries to disabuse Marc of that...

  • 2018 / 2 / 4
    Episode 887 - Riki Lindhome / Laurie Kilmartin

    Show business finally clicked for Riki Lindhome when she started the comedy music duo Garfunkel and Oates with her friend Kate Micucci. It makes sense because, as she tells Marc, she always wanted to perform...

  • 2018 / 1 / 31
    Episode 886 - ​Ezra Furman / David Wain

    Ezra Furman started writing songs when he was 14 years old after hearing Bob Dylan but while still wanting to be a member of Green Day. Ezra tells Marc how those seemingly contradictory preferences took hold...

  • 2018 / 1 / 28
    Episode 885 - Rita Moreno

    Rita Moreno is a show business legend with an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony to her name, as well as several lifetime achievement awards and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She tells Marc about the...

  • 2018 / 1 / 24
    Episode 884 - Don Was

    Bass player and record producer Don Was is a Renaissance man in the music world. Whether he's producing albums for bands like the Rolling Stones or running the jazz label Blue Note Records or playing in his...

  • 2018 / 1 / 21
    Episode 883 - Macaulay Culkin / Cameron Esposito

    Macaulay Culkin considers himself retired, dabbling in whatever he chooses at any given time. It's understandable he would want to settle down, considering he was one of the most famous people on the planet...

  • 2018 / 1 / 17
    Episode 882 - Derek Waters

    Derek Waters created Drunk History, but he really doesn't want to know about the darkness that lies in his family history. And while he doesn't have a drinking problem, he's long been plagued by sleep...

  • 2018 / 1 / 14
    Episode 881 - ​Laurie Metcalf / Tom Segura

    Laurie Metcalf has never been through anything in her acting career like what she's going through now. After four decades of performances on stage and screen, she tells Marc why everything feels different...

  • 2018 / 1 / 10
    Episode 880 - Richard Jenkins

    Richard Jenkins is one of the great character actors working today but he was a late starter in show business. As he continues to rack up awards and accolades for his performances, including his latest in The...

  • 2018 / 1 / 7
    Episode 879 - Fortune Feimster

    Comedian and actor Fortune Feimster joins Marc in the garage fresh off getting engaged to her girlfriend, which feels pretty far away from the young Southern girl who didn't come out as a lesbian or perform...

  • 2018 / 1 / 3
    Episode 878 - Ta-Nehisi Coates

    Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of America's most celebrated and insightful writers. But there's part of him that would be fine with it all going away. Marc and Ta-Nehisi talk about the impulse to pull back when...

  • 2017 / 12 / 31
    Episode 877 - Marc's Family

    Ring in the New Year with the Maron Family. Marc takes a trip back to some of the earliest episodes of WTF to hear classic interactions with his father, mother, and brother, all of whom help explain how and...

  • 2017 / 12 / 27
    Episode 876 - Michael Marcus / Dr. Steve Read

    Marc closes out 2017 with some old friends. Author Michael Marcus might not have made it to the garage if his life had continued the way it was going. He talks with Marc about his days of criminal behavior,...

  • 2017 / 12 / 24
    Episode 875 - WTF Shows of Christmas Past

    For Christmas Day, Marc presents a look back at some holiday moments from the earliest years of WTF. First, hear Todd Glass and Marc talk about the perils of going home for the holidays. Then some highlights...

  • 2017 / 12 / 20
    Episode 874 - Neal Preston

    Photographer Neal Preston is known for taking some of the most iconic shots of the world's most famous rock musicians. Neal tells Marc how his love of music and love of photography merged when he was in high...

  • 2017 / 12 / 17
    Episode 873 - Steven Van Zandt

    Steven Van Zandt, a.k.a. Little Steven, is an encyclopedia of rock and roll history. Steven talks with Marc about learning to play music by watching the Beatles, learning to be a performer by watching the...

  • 2017 / 12 / 13
    Episode 872 - Darren Aronofsky

    Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky knows his films are not always crowd pleasers but he also knows exactly what he wants to say. Darren talks with Marc about the universal mysteries that inspire him - from numerology...

  • 2017 / 12 / 10
    Episode 871 - Loudon Wainwright III / Judd Apatow

    Singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III talks life, love and Roman numerals. The prolific musician tells Marc about the heyday of the folk music scene, the late-in-life acting career he didn't expect, and the...

  • 2017 / 12 / 6
    Episode 870 - James Franco

    At some point after James Franco became a high-profile movie star, he found himself asking, "What if you get everything you want and nothing changes?" As James explains to Marc, that led to a re-engagement...

  • 2017 / 12 / 3
    Episode 869 - Greta Gerwig

    Like the protagonist of her new film Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig grew up in Sacramento, spent the summer going to the state fair, had a complicated relationship with her mother, and escaped to institutes of...

  • 2017 / 11 / 29
    Episode 868 - Sam Beam / Bob Saget

    His given name is Sam Beam but he's known in music as Iron & Wine, maker of soulful folk rock. Marc finds Sam to be a thoughtful son of the South who let his early interests in avant-garde photography,...

  • 2017 / 11 / 26
    Episode 867 - Rob Huebel

    Rob Huebel and Marc start a new podcast within this podcast. It's a show called Contact List and they're pretty sure it makes them sound like jerks. But before that, Rob tells Marc about getting started in...

  • 2017 / 11 / 22
    Episode 866 - Jimmie Vaughan / Kasper Collin & Bennie Maupin

    It's an extra helping of music talk for Thanksgiving. First Marc sits down with filmmaker Kasper Collin and jazz musician Bennie Maupin to talk about the documentary I Called Him Morgan, which deals with the...