WTF with Marc Maron


WTF with Marc Maron is a podcast and syndicated radio show that was hosted by the American stand-up comedian Marc Maron. It was launched on September 1, 2009 and ended on October 13, 2025 after 1,686 episodes, and aired weekly on Mondays and Thursdays. The show was produced by Maron's former Air America colleague Brendan McDonald.

Background

The show's title stems from the slang abbreviation WTF. WTF launched in September 2009 following the cancellation of Maron's Air America terrestrial radio program Breakroom Live with Maron & Seder. Maron retained his Air America building keycard and, without permission, used their studios to record the first several episodes of WTF.
After the first episodes, Maron moved from New York to California. Most episodes are generally recorded in Maron's home garage, nicknamed "the Cat Ranch", in Los Angeles. He ends most podcasts with the phrase "Boomer lives" in honor of a cat he brought from New York who went missing. The phrase became a hashtag and his production company name.
Occasionally shows are recorded in Maron's various hotel rooms, the offices of his guests, or other locations. Every show opens with an audio sample of one of Maron's lines from the film Almost Famous: "Lock the gates!"
WTF began being distributed to radio by Public Radio Exchange in 2012. On the episode released on June 2, 2025, Maron announced that WTF would end later that year. Maron interviewed Barack Obama again for the final episode, released on October 13, 2025.

Reception

WTF has received generally positive reviews, including positive write-ups in The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly. On average, it receives over 443,000 downloads per episode, with the show purportedly surpassing 600 million downloads by July 2022. In 2014, Rolling Stone listed WTF #1 on their list of The 20 Best Comedy Podcasts Right Now. In 2022, the episode featuring Robin Williams from April 26, 2010, was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," becoming the first recording from the 2010s to be inducted.