I’m a neurotic, selfish man, and that requires a lot of time. What is the best part of not having kids? Right now, I’ve been on run with Kelly Reichardt’s movies, so I want to have her on. There’s people that I just haven’t gotten around to, like Elaine May. I think Nic Cage would be pretty great to talk to. There are just some people who don’t do that kind of stuff. I don’t know why Albert Brooks won’t talk to me. There are people I’ve always wanted to talk to, but it doesn’t seem like are going to happen. Are there any dream interviews that you’d still like to land? You’ve had amazing guests on “WTF With Marc Maron,” with everyone from Barack Obama to Robin Williams stopping by. What makes me optimistic is that I still might get out of this world before it gets really horrible. Is there anything you feel optimistic about? You also talk a lot about global warming and COVID and this crazy political time we’re living through. But there are a lot of people who are anti-woke and who believe that making jokes about marginalized people and using slang that is outdated just for effect is somehow pushing the line comedically. Does that mean you can’t do a joke about them? Not necessarily. Should you respect other people? Of course. Are there consequences to doing certain jokes? Yes. You make jokes about death, abortion, the Holocaust. Maybe you should pull back a little bit on discussing it publicly.” I had to understand that and respect that. That’s when a cousin of Lynn’s said, “Look, there’s other people grieving here. Right after she died, people were asking me to do interviews, and I did a piece in the New York Times. Was it therapeutic to talk about Lynn’s death on stage? We’re going to do this until it’s in our bones that we’ve lost this loved one.” We’re like, “We’re going to sit with this for a week. Jews are pretty good with this death thing. Everybody will eventually go through this at some point. How should people respond when someone experiences a loss like you did?Īll you’ve got to do is sit there and be there with them. Any laugh that anyone can get in the face of tragedy is welcome. It takes various shapes and intensities, but it can reactivate easily. The nature of grief is nebulous and ongoing. I’m still fucked up about it in a PTSD kind of way, but I believed there was a dialogue about loss that needed to happen. The whole thing was horrendous and tragic in so many ways, just the loss of Lynn and her dying at such a young age and being so vital.

Why did you decide to make Lynn Shelton’s death part of your show? It comes from personalizing the male experience. I needed to talk about abortion without sounding over-the-top lefty crazy. Wade was overturned, did you feel like you wanted to weigh in? In the show, you joke that most men are “desperately” pro-choice when they’re involved in an unwanted pregnancy. But as soon as other people started working, the race was on. I really felt like maybe I’m over it, maybe I’m all better and I don’t need this anymore. I didn’t do any of those weird outdoor drive-in Zoom shows.

Maron marc