Marc Maron has explained to The Hollywood Reporter why he decided not to interview Hillary Clinton in 2017. The stand-up comedian and host of the long-running podcast WTF with Marc Maron had previously helped usher in a new era of political conversations after his 2015 interview with Barack Obama, which opened doors for other high-profile politicians to appear on his show.
When Maron’s longtime producer Brendan McDonald suggested Clinton—who had just lost the 2016 election to Donald Trump—Maron chose not to pursue the interview. McDonald recalled telling Maron, “You’re the guy to do this,” but Maron disagreeing.
Maron said the odds of getting a politician to be candid are very small, and Clinton’s complex, polarizing history left him unsure about the potential direction of such a conversation. “And this is somebody who’s divisive and controversial and has a history that’s somewhat sordid, not by any fault of her own, but I just didn’t see where I could go with that,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
Despite WTF’s ongoing cultural relevance, Maron announced in June that he would be ending the show. In remarks to CNN, he explained that he’s “just over the medium” and noted that the podcast space has become oversaturated. He said he doesn’t want to chase culture with clickbait or be tethered to trends, and he emphasized that the show was never meant to be primarily political. He described WTF as an intimate, audio-only format designed for candid conversations and profiles, a format he felt could stand on its own amid the crowded landscape of roughly 10,000 podcasts.
Maron added that the Obama interview remains a rare exception—the example of how a political figure can speak more openly in the right context. He now feels content with the body of work he has produced and is ready to step away while acknowledging the evolving nature of podcasting as a medium and the competitive environment for new voices.
Overall, the decision to pass on a Clinton interview underscores Maron’s cautious approach to politics on his platform and highlights a broader conversation about how podcasts navigate political content while maintaining a trusted, intimate listening experience. As he moves away from WTF, his influence on the podcasting world—particularly in normalizing long-form, candid conversations with public figures—will likely be remembered as a formative chapter in the medium’s development.