WTF with Marc Maron: Episode 613 - President Barack Obama

June 22, 2015 12:24 PM

Marc welcomes the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, to the garage for conversation about college, fitting in, race relations, gun violence, changing the status quo, disappointing your fans, comedians, fatherhood and overcoming fear. And yes, this really happened. This episode is presented without commercial interruption courtesy of Squarespace. Go to MarcMeetsObama.com to see behind-the-scenes photos and captions.
posted by cazoo (21 comments total)

Let's be honest. Obama is the 44th president. He's also probably the 44th president to use the term in question.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 12:55 PM on June 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

I'm always disappointed when Marc doesn't have old business to work out with the guest.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 1:14 PM on June 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

At least we got a "Who are your guys?"
posted by entropicamericana at 2:04 PM on June 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

It's really something the number of places where Obama has roots or has spent time. Hawaii, California, Kansas, Boston, NYC, Chicago.

I liked his line about his response to Malia chaffing under SS protection. You'd expect it to be all about keeping her safe and how it's a privilege to be where they are, but he boils it down to "hey, you're only getting to go out so much because they're giving you a ride."

Also, it's a small thing, but I hate the way Obama throws around the word "folks." It led to "we tortured some folks", which for me was the biggest facepalm moment of his presidency.
posted by dry white toast at 3:11 PM on June 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

I think my favorite reaction to this was the Slate interview with Maron afterward where they asked him why he didn't ask Obama about whether he'd met Lorne Michaels.
posted by Kosh at 3:18 PM on June 22, 2015 [6 favorites]

If anybody is on the fence about making time in their day to listen to this... I'd say you can probably get by reading the excerpts in various news stories. I'm a big Obama fan and I like Maron, but this wasn't a revelatory interview. I think Maron did a fine job, but he's obviously nervous (and he wants Obama to look good) and after the initial weirdness of Obama arriving in Marc Marcon's garage, it settles down into a pleasant if inessential chat.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:12 PM on June 22, 2015

I think my favorite reaction to this was the Slate interview with Maron afterward where they asked him why he didn't ask Obama about whether he'd met Lorne Michaels.

Aw, and that was the part I was looking forward to the most! My partner and I have been coming up with ways he could segue into it all week. "So, you've been on SNL a few times ... ... ... you ever meet Lorne?"
posted by dialetheia at 4:50 PM on June 22, 2015

Beautiful Maron moment: "I gotta write that down. You can just forgive yourself?"
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 6:57 PM on June 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

I thought Obama's metaphor, "you can't steer a ship 50 degrees" really illuminated his whole philosophy of governance in a way I'd never thought of before. In a way, his presidency was all about taking a ship that was going full speed in the wrong direction and trying to just slightly offset the course. It's an interesting thought.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 7:51 PM on June 22, 2015 [8 favorites]

I thought it was a good interview and I'm happy for Maron. Sure, he can be annoying when he does his pre-show talk but he's worked hard building up his show, he's a good interviewer, and he deserved this.

I loved at the beginning it was very obvious that Maron was nervous and it felt like Obama was purposely being casual to put him at ease. Once they settled into the interview it just felt like two guys talking in a garage. I wasn't expecting any great revelations or hard-hitting questions.

It's a shame that all anyone is talking about is the fact that he said the n-word, with no context about how he used it or anything else he said about racism.

All-in-all I enjoyed it.
posted by bondcliff at 6:14 AM on June 23, 2015

This was a great interview which shows Barack the person not just Obama the president. Marc did a great job getting the President to open up about himself and not just about the job. I really think Barack is someone who I would enjoy sitting down with over a few beers (me with my ginger beer) and it would probably be more interesting if we stayed mostly away from politics. Listening to this was an enjoyable way to spend an hour.
posted by caddis at 8:19 AM on June 23, 2015

I think my favorite reaction to this was the Slate interview with Maron afterward where they asked him why he didn't ask Obama about whether he'd met Lorne Michaels.

I kept waiting for him to ask "Have I ever been a dick to you?"
posted by lumpenprole at 9:23 AM on June 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

Let's be honest. Obama is the 44th president. He's also probably the 44th president to use the term in question.

Assuming Grover Cleveland used it on two non-consecutive occasions.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:09 AM on June 24, 2015 [5 favorites]

I think Marc Maron always sounds like a sort of anxious dude (not just in this interview), and it tends to come out in his habit of interrupting his guests or finishing their sentences (often in a wildly different direction from where the guest was actually trying to go). That said, I thought he did a solid job here, and Obama (for all my frustrations with him as president) came off as a sincerely thoughtful and fundamentally decent person.
posted by naoko at 8:30 AM on June 24, 2015

Obama is the 44th president. He's also probably the 44th president to use the term in question

It was used (on the record, at least) as recently as Clinton, at a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (video):

We can say all we want about all the peace and prosperity that is coming to the world and how democracy is sweeping the world, but in every country, forces of extremism have a stronger voice than they have had in years. And organized groups, committed to destruction, based on racial or ethnic or religious or political extremism, have enormous capacity to do that destruction. You see it in a school bus blowing up in the Middle East. You see it when a fanatic breaks open a little vial of sarin gas in a subway in Japan. You see it in a bomb blowing up the Federal building in Oklahoma City. And you see it in more subtle ways, yes, even in America.

Like when five children in an upper class suburb in this country write the hated word "n*****" in code word in their school album.

h/t AskHistorians
posted by Panjandrum at 11:38 AM on June 25, 2015

you can't steer a ship 50 degrees

Weirdly, this how I thought about his presidency from the start, as a turn towards more sensible governance. I knew a lot of friends and colleagues who were hoping for a grand era of radical progressive policy, and that was how his candidacy was sold. His Senate record and campaign positions though (and subsequent governance) were fairly establishment liberal. After Dubya though, that was radical shift.
posted by Panjandrum at 11:45 AM on June 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm disappointed. After looking at the photos I noticed his garage is way nicer than I pictured in my mind. I was expecting a grungy garage with stuff stacked everywhere. It's actually nicer than some of the apartments I've lived in.

The magic is gone.
posted by beowulf573 at 2:18 PM on June 26, 2015

The magic is gone.

If it makes you feel any better, Maron did say something about how he had cleaned up by relocating "the piles" to inside the house.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:36 PM on June 26, 2015

Only if they also added drywall, carpet, and paint. :-)

I would have preferred a longer interview, but realize that probably wasn't in the cards. I really enjoy when he goes back to the interviewers beginnings and work forward.
posted by beowulf573 at 6:40 PM on June 27, 2015

Serious question: What is interesting about whether Obama has met Lorne Michaels?
posted by bq at 1:40 PM on July 11, 2015

Maron has a longstanding fascination with/grudge against SNL. Apparently he auditioned years ago and it went badly and he's never gotten over it. He has a habit of asking people about Michaels, even when their connection is pretty tenuous, so the joke that he would ask Obama about Michaels was referencing that.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:31 PM on July 11, 2015