Mac Maron has decided to end his WTF podcast after 16 years. The actor made the announcement during Monday’s episode of the show, admitting that he and his producing partner, Brendan McDonald, are “burnt out” and confirming that the final episode would air “sometime in the fall.”
“Sixteen years we’ve been doing this, and we’ve decided that we had a great run. 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,” Maron said.
WTF, which will officially turn 16 in September and has over 1,600 episodes, has become one of the most influential shows in the podcasting world. Maron became known for his frank and honest conversations with a variety of influential guests, including Barack Obama, Carol Burnett, Chris Rock, Jay Leno, and more. Maron’s episode with Robin Williams became the first one-on-one podcast episode to enter America’s National Recording Registry. They were also the first to win the Governor’s Award from the Podcast Academy for Excellence in Audio at the Ambies in 2021.
“It really comes down to the fact that we’ve put up a new show every Monday and Thursday for almost 16 years and we’re tired. We’re burnt out. And we are utterly satisfied with the work we’ve done,” he continued. “This doesn’t mean I’m never going to do something like this again. Doesn’t mean I’ll never have talks like I do here, or some kind of podcast at some point in time. But for now, we’re just wrapping things up. It’s OK. It’s OK to end things. It’s OK to try to start some other chapter in your life.”
The show began in Maron’s garage during the early days of podcasting, before the medium blew up in popularity. Over the years, Maron and McDonald have continued to work on the show together as a two-man job. “This started, you know, the old garage… just no one knew what a podcast was,” Maron said. “I was coming out of a horrendous divorce. I was wanting to figure out how to continue living my life.”
The podcast will continue releasing new episodes through the fall, with Maron promising to feature “as many people on as possible,” including some who may want to appear “now that you know this is the sort of like home stretch.”
Maron stressed that the decision to end the show was mutual between him and McDonald. “It’s nice to be able to end things on our terms. We’ve always had that power to do that, and that’s what we’re going to do. We started the show on our terms, we grew it on our terms, and we’ll end it on our terms.”