Podcast Corner: WTF with Marc Maron is coming to an end — here's why

WTF came out every Monday and Thursday since 2009 and there has never been a break in the schedule. That’s a lot of time — at least two hours a week — to spend with somebody

Marc Maron: 'It's OK for things to end. It's just time, folks.' File picture: Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images

WTF with Marc Maron started in September 2009 as the alternative/cult comic chatted to his fellow comedian Jeff Ross. Some 1,647 episodes later, Maron is chatting to another comedian, John Mulaney, after announcing in the introduction on Monday's episode that the podcast is going to be coming to an end sometime in the autumn.

To some listeners, it will feel like a gut-punch; we’ve gone through our own ups and downs in life, just like Maron has — most wrenchingly with the death of his girlfriend Lynn Shelton in May 2020. He podcasted just days later (the episode is titled Remembering Lynn Shelton), a raw, tear-filled 90 minutes. To media observers, the end of WTF will come amid a much-changed podcast ecosystem that favours what we call bantercasts — two famous ‘friends’ yakking it up in a TMI hour-long session, filmed for YouTube and social clips. When Maron started 16 years ago, the medium was relatively new. The Adam Carolla Show, Bill Simmons’ BS Report, and the likes of Radiolab and The Moth were the ‘big’ shows at the time; The Joe Rogan Experience wouldn’t start until December 2009.