Podcast Corner: Marc Maron's grief laid bare as he mourns partner's death
Having run for over 1,120 episodes since beginning in September 2009, it's easy to take WTF with Marc Maron for granted.
The acerbic New York comedian helped define the genre, his in-depth, often emotionally wrought conversations paving the way for so many pretenders.
From humble beginnings of figuring out just what to do with the format to the highs of interviewing president Barack Obama in 2015 to newfound stardom as an actor in the likes of Netflix series Glow, it seemed like Maron was finally happy.
He's helped so many people over the past decade that it was about time he had some success of his own.
Which all made Monday's episode of WTF so shocking.
Director Lynn Shelton passed away over the weekend, unexpectedly, due to a blood disorder - she had directed episodes of Glow, acclaimed indie films, and helmed four episodes of Reese Withserspoon's latest series Little Fires Everywhere, which arrives on Prime Video on Friday.
She was also Maron's partner. There are no cold-read ads to begin the podcast as it sounds like he struggled just to press record.
"She was my partner, she was my girlfriend, she was my friend," he confides, just holding back the tears.
Marc pays loving tribute to Lynn Shelton and re-plays their first conversation on today's episode. Thank you to everyone for the love and support. (pic from August 3, 2015)https://t.co/FoHufZYkyL pic.twitter.com/eNiuuOhvsm
— WTF with Marc Maron (@WTFpod) May 18, 2020
"I don't know that I'd ever felt what I felt with her before. I do know, actually I did not, I have not.
"And I was getting used to love in a way of being able to accept it and show it properly."
Grief has become a feature of the WTF process and it is red raw here.
I'm not really that comfortable emotionally or otherwise, but I was I was able to exist in a state of self acceptance, because of her love for me.
It's become a sad part of WTF that when a person who has been on the podcast dies, their interview is rerun on the feed, pulling it back from happier times.
Robin Williams, Garry Shandling, John Prine, Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger, and Anthony Bourdain, interviewed in 2011, have all sadly made such appearances over the past few months and years.
Shelton's interview, from 2015, was basically the first meeting between the two.
With such tragic hindsight, you feel like the spark was there from the start.
Some may think it's crass, or a little much, of Maron to run back an interview like this - but like he says in the introduction, "that's what we do here".
