WTF with Marc Maron Podcast

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 struggling with the religious devotion of his family. Paul and Marc talk about those early days, as well as his first appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, his infamous comedy special i...

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 about how the two of them have changed since then, especially in light of Neal’s recent comedy special 3 Mics, which mixed heavy personal stories with jokes. Now that they feel better about thems...

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 heading out to become an actor, working directly with legendary acting teacher Sanford Meisner and getting her big break thanks to Jack Nicholson. Mary and Marc also talk about parenting, fame, div...

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 and Marc talk about addictive behavior, self-destruction, and why sobriety finally stuck. They also talk about Sam Shepard, Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, the Coen Brothers, Denzel Washington, and the...

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 and goth makeup. The search for an identity led to acting, which led to New York, which led to LA, which led to an all-star class at the Groundlings. They also talk about how she met her husban...

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, which in turn led to self-produced music videos on YouTube, which eventually led to the creation of her hit show, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Rachel and Marc also discuss Jewish grandmothers, gender...

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 college. But it was comedy that pulled him out of the abyss. Drew tells Marc how he figured it all out, plus some talk about Cleveland (The Indians! Ghoulardi! The Cuyahoga River Fire!) and why h...

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 his recent battle with cancer, his family's tragic encounter with mental illness, and his house being firebombed by Islamic fundamentalists. Also, Marc welcomes back to the show his old friend c...

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 of trauma and feel better about herself. Mandy talks with Marc about how she came to terms with the compromises she made writing for a tabloid newspaper and the trouble she encountered when p...

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 starring in one of the most talked about movies of the last decade. Bradley tells Marc about the making of Get Out, as well as his experiences on Transparent, The West Wing, Studio 60, and what it...

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 family, temperamental comedy club owners, paying audiences, and his own demons. Sam and Marc also talk about the danger, the intrigue, and the excitement of engaging in conspiracy theories, s...

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 from a comfortable gig on The Talk, and got rid of most of her possessions. Aisha and Marc talk about what prompted these changes, what's happening now, and what's her next act. Plus, Louie A...

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 family ran a landmark music store. They tell Marc how their shared interests led to their musical collaboration and their new joint album. Plus, Mark Oliver Everett, also known as E from the ban...

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 evolution, including why he walked away from a big break in TV when he was writing for Jimmy Kimmel, why he thinks he was considered ‘difficult’ at ESPN, and why his HBO show wasn't what he t...

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 content with how things turned out. But then he just so happened to get cast on a show that became the most successful sitcom of all time. Jason talks with Marc about Seinfeld, life after Seinf...

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 teens in Albuquerque, Neil and Marc talk about Doogie Howser, How I Met Your Mother, Broadway, the secrets of hosting award shows, and magic. Also, Michael Imperioli returns to talk about his d...

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 somehow carved out four decades of mainstream success as They Might Be Giants. The Johns also talk with Marc about children’s music, selling out, the early days of MTV, Malcolm in the Middle, and...

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 writing makes him feel like he's not part of the noise, how he finds strength from the Parkland students, and how an upcoming movie made him feel like he could actually rekindle his love of filmmaki...

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 football, farming, irrigation, Martin Scorsese, getting arrested, Marlon Brando, Tropic Thunder, Danny McBride, The Thin Red Line, and an epic prank involving Sean Penn and Woody Harrelson. Also, for...

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 and Spy Magazine, and co-wrote the mega-hit book Lean In. But as she tells Marc, and outlines in her new memoir, Nell also worked hard to change attitudes in male-dominated writers rooms and...

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 Chicago roots and how he learned a lot about drama by watching the improv actors at Second City. They also talk about David's theories on acting (very few are good at it), William H. Macy (one of t...

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 chicken" to do theater. Ted explains why such insecurities still exist for him, even after a lifetime of doing a job he loves. Ted also tells Marc about the quirks of being Larry David's friend...

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 the first black actor in the U.K. to play an English king in a major Shakespearean production. David talks with Marc about the importance of bringing his cultural background and life experienc...

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, leading to projects like her recent multimedia mystery series Mosaic and collaborations with artists she always admired. Sharon also talks about the family incident that forced her to mature at...

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 indie rock to a point where huge mainstream success remained just out of reach. What happened after that? Also, Marc's buddy Danny Lobell returns to talk about turning his life and standup rou...