Comic and actor Marc Maron can't stop ruminating. "The reality of my life is pretty good, but for some reason … my comfort zone is that state of anxiety and self-questioning and dread," he says. "I have these psychic tendrils that are just latching onto things that'll just drag me through panic."
Maron unpacks some of his obsessions — from wildfires, to life with three cats — in his new HBO comedy special, Panicked. He also opens up about his anxiety (among a host of other things) on the podcast WTF, which he launched with producer Brendan McDonald in 2009.
In June 2025 Maron announced that he and McDonald would be ending the podcast in the fall. It was a tough decision, but he says it felt like the time had come: "If you're burnt out and you're concerned about your engagement with it, or whether the quality will start to diminish, or whether you're just doing it because why not — it really became a decision about if we stop, we stop with a body of work."
Still, Maron says it's hard to separate from a project that has been such a significant part of his life for 16 years. "These conversations [on WTF] are very real conversations for me, and they happen in real time, and I'm with a person really getting to know them and connecting with them, and that is kind of nourishing for the spirit and the soul as human beings," he says.
"I do believe we're making the right decision [to end the podcast], but I need to get some support system involved, or some sort of expansion of my social life, where I ... spend quality time with individuals having the kind of conversations I had in the studio," he says.
Even with the podcast going away Maron remains busy; he's the subject of an upcoming documentary, Are We Good?, and he co-stars with Owen Wilson in the Apple TV+ comedy series Stick.
Interview highlights
On being reluctant to be the subject of the documentary, Are We Good?
Initially the focus was going to be me coming back into comedy, post-COVID, post the loss of my partner Lynn Shelton and kind of the arc being moving towards that HBO special From Bleak to Dark. That was initially the idea of it. So this guy, Steven Feinartz, who I knew, he started following me around with cameras. … I'm not worried about me talking or being able to be honest with the documentary, but it's just that you got a guy following you with a camera or two guys or, and they're always around. So it was really that reluctance to have that in my life. …
What I realized after watching the documentary is there's a tone I have that when he's just shooting me that isn't really in some parts like a natural, comfortable tone, it's me being annoyed with Steven. So I said to him, "I look cranky through this whole thing because you were kind of annoying." He goes, "Well, yeah, maybe, but I think that's kind of who you are." I'm like, "Really? Alright."
On how seeing himself in the documentary Are We Good? helped him
When I watch it as an outsider, as if I weren't me, it seems to be the portrait of a cranky, sensitive guy who, despite himself, succeeded somehow. And Steven was like, yeah, that's exactly the movie. I'm like, I guess that's OK. I don't think that's exactly me. It was very helpful, me seeing myself. ... To see how one moves through the world, really from the outside and through another person's point of view, is very revealing and a bit humbling, to see just how kind of nutty I am and self-possessed in a lot of strange ways and compulsive in my relationship with my cats and also my relationship to how I work and how I create. It was very interesting to see that from the outside, because it is a bit more strained and tormented than I perceive it to be.
On revisiting his comedy from when he first started
That's the cringiest stuff for me in that doc. Everything else is pretty intense and pretty deep and can be a little uncomfortable. But for me watching it, seeing those clips of me in the late '80s, starting comedy, seeing some of the stuff of me, like some of that stuff might've been right after college. So I'm in my early 20s, But what I saw was a guy that was full of this very shallow, transparent swagger trying to be something that he really wasn't, that I aspired to. It was uncomfortable for me to watch that stuff. …
I was fueled by aggravated insecurity and anger for a long time. And I think that the style of comedy that I wanted to do was in-your-face, provocative, not shock for shock's sake, but definitely pushing the envelope on what could and couldn't be said. I've been doing this for almost 40 years. And I've done all the jokes. I've taken all the chances. I've said all the wrong things. I've lived this life thoroughly taking many risks and I've evolved as a person and as a comic into what I am now.
On the underlying grief he still feels about the loss of his partner Lynn Shelton in May 2020
There is sort of an emptiness of possibility, there's an emptiness of her presence in my life and the way that impacted me. And also there's this kind of belief that I've gotten, I wouldn't call it cynical, but a little bit callous to the possibility of opening my heart again — because she pried it open. I'm not real easy with that. When I have moments of overwhelming connection to the grief, it's that feeling of having that open-heartedness and having that love in my life. It took a long time for it to come for me and so when I feel that it's kind of overwhelming and it's a feeling of absence of that type of love that gets me. … It's kind of there daily, but it gets to a point where it's not and then it just all of a sudden it is.
On having dreams of Lynn, which feel like visitations
In the early stages of the loss and the grief, I had very visceral, very real dreams. And she would say things. Like one time she said, "This is real." And that's kind of poetic, cause you know it could have meant our feelings for each other or it could've meant that she's gone. But … I think you should appreciate the visit. Why read into it? ...
I think that that feeling you have when you wake up after having a dream like that, it's kind of brutal, but it's also kind of beautiful to be able to check in. It's OK, and for whatever reason, I've just grown to appreciate it, but you do wake up pretty sad.
On finding a note Lynn wrote that said "If I could get Marc to love himself, maybe I can get him to love me"
I'm kind of a tough customer, emotionally. And yeah, that's in the documentary. And it was in a notebook. And it's heartbreaking on one level. On another level, I think she succeeded. But yeah, I think generally I am kind of insulated emotionally. But what's interesting in talking about the podcast and also talking about stand up, I've been very openhearted when people are going to leave. …
I can be all in in a conversation with somebody who's on the podcast for now where I can open up and feel the emotions and not feel threatened in any way. … I can really engage it fully because you know, there is a boundary, there's a context. ... But when it comes to inter-personal relationships or relationships that are ongoing, I'm a little guarded, I'm little defensive because I feel like I could get hurt or I could be diminished somehow or I'm being manipulated. There's a lot of weird triggers I have — impersonal relationships that kept me kind of lonely within them for a long time.
Thea Chaloner and Anna Bauman produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Meghan Sullivan adapted it for the web.
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