Marc Maron Ending Popular Podcast After 16 Years

Even though it seems like everybody on planet Earth has one, podcasting is still a very nascent medium.

The genre only began in the early 2000’s and became part of the media space when Apple’s iTunes version 4.9 added the ability to listen to them on iPods. That was 2005. 

In 2006, one of the first podcasts – “Never Not Funny” – entered the scene and has been running since. 2009 saw Marc Maron’s show, “WTF,” that would go on to become one of the most popular shows for a time.

Even still, it took until 2014 for the show “Serial” to blow up the medium, entering it into the mainstream. 

End of an Era

Now, Maron is deciding to end the show that gave his comedy a bigger platform.

The host announced during the June 2 episode that the show would come to an end sometime in the fall of 2025. This would coincide with “WTF’s” 16 year anniversary.

“It really comes down to the fact that we’ve put up a new show every Monday and Thursday for almost sixteen years and we’re tired. We’re burnt out. And we are utterly satisfied with the work we’ve done. We’ve done great work,” the comedian admits. 

Maron is referring to the only other person to have worked on the show (that listeners know of) Brendan McDonald, his longtime producer.

“This doesn’t mean I’m never going to do something like this again. Doesn’t mean I’ll never have talks like I do here, or some kind of podcast at some point in time. But for now, we’re just wrapping things up. It’s okay. It’s okay to end things. It’s okay to try to start some other chapter in your life.”

“WTF” reached incredible heights after its 2015 interview with then President Barack Obama. That episode broke podcast hosting service Libsyn’s record for most downloads in a 24 period by double.

A 2010 episode with Robin Williams was also entered into the United States National Recording Registry in 2022 by the Library of Congress.

Ending Their Story But Not Others

Maron has been consistently working since the podcast took off. He’s put out five specials since 2013, starred in his own IFC show, and toplined a few movies.

“It’s nice to be able to end things on our terms. We’ve always had that power to do that and that’s what we’re going to do. We started the show on our terms, we grew it on our terms, and we’ll end it on our terms,” Maron adds. 

“Look, we’ve had great partners who have helped us do the show over the years. Acast has been our partner for the past three years and we’ve been able to do things on our terms with them. We always had that and it’s always been the way we’ve done it and that’s been great. We’ve been very fortunate to be able to do things the way we want to do them and now this is part of it. Ending it the way we want it to end,” he concedes.

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