After more than 15 years and 1,600 episodes later, Marc Maron announced earlier this month that he would be ending his namesake podcast. Now, he is giving more details on why he’s leaving WTF behind.
Marc Maron has famously been extremely transparent on WTF, be it discussing his addictions, mental health or loss of longtime partner Lynn Shelton. But with that, he found, came a lot of responsibility to his listeners who were going through similar things. As he revealed at the Tribeca Film Festival this week (via THR), “I do put a lot of it out there. And I can handle it, and I can be gracious about it. And I don’t know what it’s going to be like not to do that twice a week. And I don’t know what part of it is my own neediness or my own need to connect. But I can feel the weight of abandoning these people who have written over the years, ‘You saved my life,’ ‘I got sober because of you,’ ‘I didn’t kill myself.’ And there’s part of me that’s like ‘Are they going to be ok? Should I reach out to them personally?’” he added, “It’s a bit much… is what I’m saying, and I think I deserve to try to figure out how to live my life not with privacy, but without that responsibility a little bit.”
WTF with Marc Maron has played host to icons and luminaries ranging from Robin Williams to Barack Obama (with the occasional Gallagher . And while we don’t know who the final guest on the groundbreaking podcast will be – or whether Maron will even make a big deal out of it – it is slated to air this fall. That might end up being the best timing possible for Maron to wrap it up, as he could end up being in the perfect spot to win the inaugural Golden Globe for Best Podcast, which will be introduced at the 83rd event in January.
Do you listen to WTF with Marc Maron? Who was your favorite guest? Let us know in the comments section below.
