Wtf With Marc Maron Podcast

As AJ Lee, she was a larger than life superhero who won the WWE women's wrestling championship three times. But as AJ Mendez Brooks, she spent most of her life coping with mental illness. AJ tells Marc why she decided to open up about her struggles now that she's retired from wrestling. Also, Fred Stoller stops by again, this time with some insecurity over the interviews he did for his new book. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joel Hodgson took his Midwestern sensibility, his interest in theater of the absurd, his standup comedy experience, and his robot assembly skills, put them together and created the beloved comedy institution Mystery Science Theater 3000. Joel takes Marc through the process of making MST3K, from its start on a local UHF station to its revival on Netflix. The new MST3K stars Marc's neighbor Jonah Ray, who also stops by to talk about being in one of his all-time favorite shows and doing the new season of his own show Hidden America. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kevin Bacon started his career with an awkward experience on the set of Animal House. Then his fear of becoming a major star after Footloose led him to self-sabotage. It wasn't until he rejected Hollywood's idea of being a leading man and embraced being a character actor that everything flourished. Kevin also tells Marc stories about Diner, JFK, A Few Good Men, Sleepers, Apollo 13, Mystic River and the new series I Love Dick, which has him doing things he'd never done before as an actor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Michael Higgins is instantly familiar to audiences after seeing him in the Christopher Guest movies and Pitch Perfect and so many other films and TV shows. But he and Marc discover in the middle of their conversation that they actually share a comedy connection going back decades. They also talk about his Broadway career and his big break playing David Letterman. Plus, Maria Bamford stops by to talk about her new Netflix special and explain why she's taking Improv 101 classes at the UCB. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wendi McLendon-Covey may have found success with The Goldbergs and Bridesmaids but the Hollywood lifestyle was never her thing. As she tells Marc, Wendi lived at home with her parents until she was 26, worked at a hotel in Anaheim while she was in the Groundlings, and kept a job on the side even when she was starring in shows like Reno 911. Marc's friend Al Madrigal also stops by to talk about his new special and to smooth over some rough patches in their friendship. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Although Mark Mothersbaugh co-founded Devo, he didn't think it was a band at first. To Mark and his bandmates, Devo was an art movement. Mark sits down in the garage to talk about his upbringing in Akron, attending Kent State University when the National Guard shooting happened, the unexpected success of Whip It, and the unforeseen creative rejuvenation he experienced while scoring television shows, films and animation, beginning with Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Lanegan is the soft-spoken elder statesman of the '90s Seattle grunge scene. Marc Maron talks with the former frontman of Screaming Trees and finds out how Mark went on to collaborate with a wide variety of artists, from Guns N' Roses to Belle and Sebastian. But first, singer-songwriter Mac DeMarco brings his laid-back Canadian rock vibe to the garage as he releases his third studio album and helps answer a puzzling question: Why does Marc like his music so much? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Poor health kept Walter Hill out of the Army in the '60s, but that twist of fate led him into filmmaking during the tumultuous end of that decade. Walter tells Marc about being there for the major shift in cinema during the '70s, making his own influential films like The Driver, The Warriors and 48 Hours, and working closely with actors like Steve McQueen, Eddie Murphy, and Richard Pryor. Walter also explains how he helped kick off the Alien franchise. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marc is a fan of Amanda Peet when she's playing funny, quirky characters, like in Togetherness or Brockmire, and when she's cold-hearted and mean, like in Changing Lanes or Syriana. He finds out in person if those two sides of Amanda come to the surface in real life. Also, W. Kamau Bell stops by to talk about some of his projects and winds up talking with Marc about pretty much everything going on in the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Baron Vaughn knows that growing up without a father and sharing a bunk bed with grandma can ignite the comedy spark. He tells Marc about being a latchkey kid watching cable TV and drawing inspiration from the black comedians of the early '90s. With a successful comedy and acting career to his name, Baron was also able to document his search for the father he never knew. Plus, Moshe Kasher returns to the garage to explain why he wants to get to the bottom of the trickiest stuff in his new show Problematic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It turns out Michael Chiklis and Marc went to Boston University at the same time, but soon after school Michael got cast as John Belushi in the movie Wired, which almost ended his career on the spot. Michael talks about how he bounced back with The Commish, transformed himself with The Shield, and finally got to engage his passion for music with his debut album Influence. Plus, Kurt Braunohler and Lauren Cook are in the garage to talk about their new podcast Wedlock, with Lauren on the verge of giving birth at any minute. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marc tries not to fanboy out too much with Anne Hathaway in the garage. While he attempts to keep it together, they talk about her path from party girl to motherhood, the lessons gleaned from messed up relationships, dealing with the aggressive anonymity of the Internet, and the real monsters in her new movie Colossal. Plus, Aimee Mann just released what Marc thinks is her best album, so she stops by to play one of the songs from it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the 800th episode of WTF, Marc welcomes back the show's very first guest, Jeff Ross. Just as WTF evolved since that first episode in 2009, Jeff evolved from the Roastmaster General to a comedian using his talent as a put-down artist in order to help us all better understand each other. He also talks about the unique relationships he built along the way with people like Buddy Hackett, Billy Crystal, Sid Caesar, Mel Brooks and, yes, Donald Trump. This episode is sponsored by Louis CK 2017 on Netflix, 2 Dope Queens on Spotify, and Kabbage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman is the one person analyzing comedy from the most prominent journalistic platform in the world. So naturally Jason and Marc would want to talk about the nuts and bolts of creating comedy and, very specifically, the origin of David Letterman's influential brand of comedy, which is the subject of Jason's new book. Plus, Hank Azaria is back in the garage to talk about bringing a gleefully drunk sportscaster to your televisions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marc was blown away by author Paul Beatty's celebrated novel The Sellout and wanted to know how a writer can turn a stew of ideas about identity, race, pride, language and representation into a provocative and hilarious book. Paul visits the garage to provide some answers and reflection. Plus, Marc's friend Jackie Kashian stops by to talk possums, iguanas, sci-fi, and her new comedy album. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paul Shaffer takes Marc down the path that turned a piano-playing kid from Canada into a keyboard-for-hire who became the bandleader for the famous Toronto production of Godspell. And from there, the dominoes fell, as Paul joined the SNL band, the Blues Brothers band, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame house band, and the band for David Letterman's show, which turned into a relationship that lasted for 33 years. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Religious scholar Reza Aslan has spent his life studying the facts and misconceptions about belief and the evolutionary reasons people need to believe in something larger than themselves. Beginning with his family fleeing a religious revolution in Iran, then landing in Oklahoma as a child and growing up in a Latino community in San Jose, Reza talks with Marc about his lifelong exploration of faith, including the findings of his new documentary series, Believer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Actor and writer Paul Rust knew how to be funny as a kid growing up in Iowa and struggling with OCD. But he tells Marc it was his knack for taking intense, borderline-unspeakable risks on stage when he got to LA that caught the attention of people like Scott Aukerman, Paul Reubens and Judd Apatow, which led to his Netflix show Love. Also, Dax Shepard returns to the garage to talk about CHiPs, the movie he wrote, directed and stars in. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Filmmaker Louis Theroux once tried to make a documentary featuring Marc but he never used the footage. Marc's been puzzled by that ever since, but when you look at the subjects of many Louis docs - addicts, criminals, hate mongers, pornographers - Marc might be lucky Louis never made that movie. Marc talks with Louis about evolving as a filmmaker, learning from Michael Moore, and what went into Louis's latest film, My Scientology Movie. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kevin Nealon is trying a new approach to life in order to be less of a people pleaser and to allow himself some anger from time to time. But Kevin is able to keep that anger at bay while he tells Marc about heading to LA during the '70s comedy boom, working as a bartender at the Improv, getting onto The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and unexpectedly landing on SNL. Kevin also talks about the importance of his friendship with the late Garry Shandling. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.