Marc Maron To End Pioneering Podcast Recorded Out Of His LA Garage

LOS ANGELES, CA — Comedian Marc Maron announced on Monday that he's ending his "WTF" podcast after 16 years, marking the conclusion of a show that helped usher in the podcasting era itself.

Shortly after launching the podcast in 2009, Maron moved from New York to Los Angeles. He recorded most of the episodes up until 2018 in the garage of his Highland Park home — nicknamed "the cat ranch — including a famous sit-down with then-President Barack Obama. He later lived — and recorded his podcast — in another house nearby, the New York Times reported.

Maron announced that he would end the podcast this fall during Monday's episode, which featured guest John Mulaney.

"Sixteen years we've been doing this, and we've decided that we had a great run," Maron said. "Now, basically, it's time, folks. It's time. 'WTF' is coming to an end. It’s our decision. We’ll have our final episode sometime in the fall."

The podcast's nearly 2,000 episodes have been downloaded or listened to over 1.1 billion times, Deadline reported.

When Maron launched "WTF" in 2009, podcasting was still a niche medium — more akin to amateur radio than the polished, highly lucrative shows that dominate culture today.

His raw, often vulnerable interviews helped turn the show into appointment listening and demonstrated how podcasts could offer the kind of intimate, authentic conversations that traditional media often struggled to capture.