After nearly sixteen years and more than 1,500 episodes, the influential podcast “WTF with Marc Maron” will conclude this fall. Over its run, the show has featured a vast spectrum of guests, from RuPaul and Robin Williams to Barack Obama. A memorable 2015 interview with Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, who had once rejected Maron for a job, highlighted how the apparent loss ultimately allowed Maron to find his niche as an “unhinged garage-podcast messiah.” With the end of “WTF,” Maron plans to focus more on acting and stand-up comedy, with his new special, “Panicked,” recently premiering on HBO.
Maron, who describes his reading habits as purposeful, recently shared a few books that have captured his interest. “I wouldn’t say I’m an avid reader, and when I read, I mean business,” he stated. “If I’m going to read a book, it better do its job.”
His first recommendation is Sam Lipsyte’s novel, No One Left to Come Looking for You. The book captures a pivotal moment of transition, exploring the gentrification of both the Lower East Side and its associated music scene. Maron describes the characters as people for whom the term “sellout” still has weight and who view mass appeal as a corrupting force. The plot follows a pulpy, detective-style narrative centered on Jack Shit, a member of a noise-rock band who must find his lost bass and drug-addicted lead singer before an upcoming gig. While on his search, Jack discovers larger forces at play, realizing that both the music he cherishes and New York City itself are being reshaped by real-estate developers. While disclosing that Lipsyte is a close friend, Maron notes he has long admired his work, calling him “one of the great humorists of our time.” He praises the novel’s touching conclusion, in which the world around the protagonist has been transformed, yet he remains unchanged.
Maron also recommends Al Pacino’s memoir, Sonny Boy, finding the actor’s story fascinating. He was struck by Pacino’s profound and early investment in acting as an art form, driven by a genuine “pursuit of truth.” Maron notes that while many actors are just “hustlers… riding on natural gifts,” Pacino’s beginnings in a fringe theater company reveal an all-in commitment. The book also offered a surprising look at the man behind the public persona. Contrary to his often swaggering on-screen roles, Maron discovered Pacino to be a “vulnerable, sensitive, neurotic artist.” He also appreciated Pacino’s honesty about taking roles for financial reasons, a consequence of his lifelong struggles with money management.
Finally, Maron highlighted Olivier Roy’s challenging academic text, The Crisis of Culture. Admitting he is not an intellectual and has to work to grasp such material, Maron explained that he turns to cultural criticism to help form his own perceptions of the world. The book’s central thesis, as he sees it, is that society is fragmenting due to a loss of shared cultural understanding, a decline accelerated by social media. Roy compellingly links the structure of digital platforms to neoliberalism, showing how this merger can render personal values and creative expression meaningless.
The book prompted Maron to reflect on the modern comedy industry. He questions the nature of creative freedom when a comedian’s career can be tethered to a one-minute clip, its reach dictated by corporate algorithms designed to capture attention and sell products. When these platforms are also actively “chipping away at people’s attention spans,” Maron wonders what becomes of true artistic liberty. “If you’re operating in that world, which is not the real world,” he concluded, “then maybe you don’t have any real freedom.”
