Marc Maron – [Album]

Marc Maron
WTF: The First 100 Episodes
(A Special Thing)

They say everything old is new again, and as far as our entertainment is concerned, that certainly seems to be the case. Sure, big budget productions are more plentiful than ever, but people are also “doing it for themselves” and using the older and easier forms of media to broadcast their programming. In that sense, radio has had a resurgence in the form of Podcasting. At the top of the heap probably sits Marc Maron and his WTF Podcast. You know him: he’s the guy who interviewed the president.

There’s no doubt that the man is good at what he does. And if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be listening to Podcasts in the first place. The thing about WTF is that it does so many things right. When Maron conducts an interview we don’t just learn about the things his guests do, we also get to poke their brain a little bit. Throughout an hour-long interview Maron seeks to connect with his subject and to reach some sort of middle ground where they can see each other eye to eye and evolve together. He’s not afraid to ask the tough or uncomfortable questions and challenge the interviewee if he’s sensing some bullshit being thrown. We can trust him on our headphones, because Maron knows how to make a rich conversation (an art form a lot of other podcasts could take a note from) where we end up learning a bit about ourselves and become richer people too.

A Special Thing has gone and collected the first 100 episodes of his now 600+ episode podcast where we get to hear the beginnings of his show. Maron is definitely more frazzled in these episodes. As he said himself he’s just trying to work out some shit through these early interviews. It’s different, yes but still quite brilliant. 100 Mp3s spanning 2 DVDs (and a video file with a live taping of a later episode) in a wonderful elegant and slick package: just check out that black on black cover. To quote Maron himself: DO IT. WTF Lives!

Comments are closed.