Transcript
Marc Maron (0:00)
Lock the gate. All right, let's do this. How are you? What the. What the Buddies. What the fuck Sticks? What's happening? I'm Marc Maron. This is my podcast. Welcome to it. How's it going out there? It's so hot here. So fucking hot. I'm not complaining, I'm just telling you. I'm stating a fact. It's fucking hot. I'm one of these people, though. I don't. I don't really mind the heat. I don't mind it. I prefer it dry. I'll take it dry, as opposed to mushy and wet and sticky. I'll take it dry. It's about 100, 101, something like that. But I don't know, man. There's something about this type of heat that it's so intense that it relaxes me. I think that's another word for dehydrated. I feel woozy. I feel kind of like I'm just sludging along. But I guess what it is is that it makes me feel kind of buzzed. It's nice sometimes to, when you're sober like I am, to kind of feel like you're almost gonna pass out for a few minutes. That's what you're looking for, that nice little sweet spot of not quite passed out. And you spend a little time on the porch or even just going down the street in heat like this, it's like, whoa, man, I'm about to go down. That ain't bad. It's too hot. Maybe that's what I'm trying to say. So today on the show, I talked to Spike Lee. Look, he's done a lot of big, amazing movies. Do the Right Thing, Bamboozled, Malcolm X, Jungle Fever, She's Gotta have It. I'm just naming them off the top of my head right now. Spike has made a lot of movies, and his latest movie with Denzel Washington is highest to lowest, and it's going to be on Apple TV. Plus, starting tomorrow, 25th hour was another one. That was a good one. There's a lot of movies. Crooklyn is actually one of my favorite. Spike Lee movies with Spike will be here. He's on this show today. Couple of things, big things to announce today. I told you about the new book we're working on with writer and illustrator Box Brown. It's called WTF Is a Podcast, a Graphic novel History of the show, published by Z2. Starting today, you can pre order for the book on Kickstarter. The book is already funded, but we're using Kickstarter So you can get more than just the book. You can order just the book or. Or limited edition versions of the book. But there are also tiers for you to get signed merchandise from me and Box Brown or get yourself drawn into the book or get a signed wind guard from my microphone, huh? And one person can get their own episode of wtf. We'll record a private episode with you and edit it like every other WTF episode. And you'll have something that no one else has. Go to Z2Comics.com WTF that's Z. And the number two comics.com WTF also, the documentary about me, Are We Good? Will be in theaters Friday, October 3rd in New York and Los Angeles with nationwide screening Sunday, October 5th and Wednesday, October 8th. Get tickets now at arewegoodmaren.com and you can watch the trailer on Rolling Stones website. What do you think of that, huh? And also, also, I'll be at Largo with the band next Wednesday, September 10th. You can go to wtfpod.com tour for tickets. Sorry, that was a lot of business. A lot of business. I think my who Wants to Be a Millionaire is gonna be on. I don't know when, maybe. I don't know, maybe tonight I should know, but I don't. I just remembered that. But it's me and Sarah Silverman and I can't. I guess I can't tell you anything else. I can't tell you anything else, but. But no, I can't say anything. Look, you guys, I'm becoming an older fella and, well, this is kind of twofold, I guess, what I've gone through, what I've put myself through over the last few weeks, it seems to me that when I have a lot of good things going on and that my life, from all appearances, is pretty good, I will find something to focus on that will make it bad for me, that I can acknowledge all the good things. And, you know, I would say 45% of me is like, you know, feeling pretty grounded in that. But then there's about 55% that's sort of like, I don't know, man. Something's. Something's fucked up. And the last few weeks it's been. I decided I had cancer and it wasn't based on much. I don't want to go into specifics because I don't want to open the floodgates to people emailing me about what I should have done, what it might be like. I don't want them to disregard the story and get specific with me. And share their stories about something like mine, and yet they still had cancer. So I want to enforce some denial here that I can maintain by holding back a little bit of information. But I thought I had cancer. I was pretty focused on this one thing, and I kind of rolled it around in my mind for a bit and hyper focused on it and then decided, I'll go to the doc. And I go to the doctor. I go to the doctor. I usually go to the same practice, but I saw a different doctor and this guy. Look, seemed a little young to me. That's already an old guy thing. But I was like, I don't know this guy. Where's my guy? Okay, I gotta get in there. I gotta get in there today because I'm spiraling. I'm sure I'm dying. He checks me out pretty thoroughly for the thing, and he says, I'm not concerned about this. I'm like, okay, does that mean I'm good? He goes, well, I'm not concerned. What does that mean? Well, come back in three months. We'll check it out. Then I'm like, so. But it looks all right, right? I'm not concerned about it. Like, I think this might be kind of an issue with modern medicine. Well, I don't know. With medicine in general, maybe it's not. Maybe there are specific types of doctors that can only say, I'm 90%. I'm pretty damn sure. I'm very confident. I'm not concerned, as opposed to no. Because I guess there's a barrage of tests that one needs to go through, and if you want to make doubly sure. So they're basically saying, like, I don't think you need the tests, and God knows I would make money if you got the test, so maybe you should believe me. Fine. So I get that done, but I'm still obsessing about it. And I wait about a week or so, and I can't. I'm looking at it. I think it's growing. I think it's, you know, changing this. Changing colors, changing shape, whatever. So I call another guy who I know, another doc, the correct kind of doc for this kind of thing, who I've seen before. And I go into him, and he gets it under the microscope. He thoroughly checks it out. I ask him questions. He goes, I think you're fine. I think you're fine. I'm like, fine. Okay, well, that's two. And then I go home for another two weeks, and I'm like, oh, fuck. It's like totally cancer. And then I Go back to the original place to see my original doctor. And this is after I texted the second doctor a few times. Like, I'm not sure, dude. I'm looking at this thing. Doesn't look right. He's like, I've been doing this 20 years, and I am beyond extremely confident, which is better than I'm not concerned. Beyond extremely confident that it's not a problem. That's pretty good. That's about as good as you're gonna get from a doctor without testing. But that didn't stop me. I went back to the first place I saw the other. The doc that I usually see, he looked at it. He said, look, I think it's fine, 90% sure. And, you know, you can get further tests, but that's going to be intrusive and, I believe, unnecessary. But I'll do them. But I think you should just come back in two months and we'll see what happens. I'm like, two months? He's like, but it doesn't look like cancer, right? So he goes, two months. Two months is not long for this type of thing. And we'll just do that. And I was waiting to see that doctor. And this is the old guy part where I said, what was the name of that guy I came to saw here before? And he told me the guy's name. Like, how old is that guy? Like, how old do you think he is? And the guy says, probably his mid-30s. I'm like, so he's been doing it a while. He goes, I don't know. But it's such an old guy thing to be like, wait, I don't want to see the young doctor. Where's the guy I usually see? He's not old, but he's older than you. I don't want to. I don't want the kid. I don't want to see the kids. Send in the grownup doctor. I was not proud of that. I was not proud that I thought that way, But I don't think it's that unusual. Now the big question is, can I sit with it for two months and not go see a fourth doctor? I don't know. Only time will tell, I guess. As Kit pointed out, there is something about me going into these spirals, whatever they're about, whether they're about cats or something that needs to be done in the house. And there's an urgency to it. Like, when I freak out, I'm like, we gotta get this done now. Whatever it is, even if it's not medical, even if it's just, you know, I panic about trees in my yard. It doesn't matter. But whatever it is, there's an urgency attached to it that is bad. And it makes me think that maybe the medicine I'm on is working, maybe it's not. And maybe I just have these neural pathways in my head that just drive me this way. And the thing was, even after the third doctor, kind of confirming what the other two said that they didn't believe it was something to be concerned about, there was a bit of disappointment. It's almost like, let's do a fucking biopsy or whatever needs to be done. And then when that's confirmed, then I can just sit there and wonder why I've got this hole in my body and what did I do that was stupid? Like, there's. My brain is just wired to be panicky, to look for the worst, and then when the worst doesn't happen, to question that, and then maybe to take more steps that make it worse in a different way. So I never get out of that. And I don't know why I'm sharing this with you. Maybe it's helpful, I don't know. But I just can't give myself a break. And I better learn to, because I'm going to have a bit of time here, and I like to enjoy that time. Is that possible? I got a buddy who's going through his own health issues. This is just a stage of life I'm entering. But isn't there a way. Should I just go out and buy some stuff? Give some more money to charity? That's about the best thing I could do to make me feel like I'm doing something. But, yeah, I'm okay right now. All right. I think I should tell you that after talking to Jackson Galaxy again. This is another example, because I'm having this trouble with Charlie beating up Buster. I've had him separated for, like, two and a half weeks because Jackson told me to do that. But I'm pestering Jackson. I'm like, I'm not optimistic about this. What do we do next? And Jackson Galaxy came to my house and hung out with me and the cats for, like, two hours and told me, like, look, I have not seen a cat like Charlie. I've not seen a cat Charlie's age.