WTF with Marc Maron Podcast

Music industry biographer David Ritz talks with Marc about Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, BB King, and what it was like to tell their stories.

David Ritz is one of the most prolific biographers of music industry titans, writing about the lives of artists from BB King to Willie Nelson to Janet Jackson. David tells Marc about his obsessive pursuit of Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin and how chronicling their lives changed his. He also explains why he often enjoys ghost writing for a musician more than writing in his own voice...

Director Patty Jenkins talks with Marc about Wonder Woman, punk music, Monster, fighter pilots, the Beatniks, and Superman.

Patty Jenkins's connection to superheroes runs deep. Long before she became the first woman to direct a major superhero film, Patty was relying on Superman to help her process the loss of her father. Marc talks with Patty about how she was intrigued by the romance of tragedy, as filtered through the type of mythic storytelling depicted in her two Wonder Woman movies...

Comedian Sam Tallent tells Marc why he wrote a book about the type of guy he was afraid to turn into. They both share road stories and confront the demons found in stand-up comedy clubs.

Sam Tallent felt compelled to write a book about the guy he was afraid to turn into. As a comedian plying his trade on the road, Sam did enough one-nighters and heard enough horror stories from other comics to know there's a path to ruin while going from club to club. Marc is also familiar with that path, which is why he connected so strongly with Sam's book, Running the Light...

Musical virtuoso Andrew Bird talks with Marc about whistling, The Muppets, Old-Time music, and his new, slightly dark holiday album.

Andrew Bird's music defies categorization, so much so that he's not even sure how to categorize it himself. Andrew walks Marc through the process by which he developed his sound, from youthful obsessions with classical music and jazz to his days on the road doing Old-Time music in bars to the period of isolation and deprivation he put himself through in order to experience a musical breakthrough. They also talk about his love of whistling, which he did in a recent Muppet movie...

Bootsy Collins talks with Marc about The Funk, his homemade bass, James Brown, Parliament Funkadelic and The Power of the One.

Bootsy Collins is one of the world's preeminent practitioners of The Funk, although that might not be the case if he hadn't snuck his brother's guitar out of the closet when no one was around. Bootsy tells Marc about starting out with a homemade bass and graduating from the James Brown School of Hard Knocks as part of the Godfather of Soul's band...