Episode 614 - The President Was Here
Guest:Lock the gates!
Marc:Alright, let's do this.
Marc:How are you, what-the-fuckers?
Marc:What-the-fuck buddies?
Marc:What-the-fuckineers?
Marc:What-the-fucksters?
Marc:It's Marc Maron.
Marc:It's still Friday.
Marc:I'm recording this on Friday.
Marc:I just finished with the president.
Marc:Everyone just left.
Marc:It was crazy.
Marc:It was crazy.
Marc:I, uh...
Marc:You know, there's so much you want to cover.
Marc:There's so much you expect.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:It was great.
Marc:You know, he came in.
Marc:We kind of chit chatted a bit.
Marc:The biggest challenge is that you have there's 50 people here.
Marc:There's Secret Service people here.
Marc:There's snipers everywhere.
Marc:The house is, you know, surrounded.
Marc:It's tented.
Marc:The streets are lined with people who I didn't even get to see.
Marc:All I was thinking was, like, I just need to make it about him and me and me and the president.
Marc:And it was great.
Marc:He was a person and he was comfortable and he was casual and he was charming and intelligent.
Marc:And he was sitting right there in my garage.
Marc:And I think that there is part of me, as you know, from listening to me that seeks to connect in a very emotional way.
Marc:And I was seeking that.
Marc:We you know, we talked about a lot of things.
Marc:It felt personal.
Marc:But then you then you just I was just fighting with this.
Marc:The idea that like I'm talking to the president and there's Secret Service guy standing behind me and he's going to have to leave soon.
Marc:And did I get to that?
Marc:Did I get to, you know, and then there's sort of like, should I have done that?
Marc:Should I have done this?
Marc:But I'll tell you honestly.
Marc:You know, they left and, you know, like I just started like I felt like crying a little bit.
Marc:I cried a little bit because it was just so overwhelming.
Marc:Like I put it into this perspective where I'm like, I can handle this.
Marc:I can handle this.
Marc:I wasn't afraid, but there's a lot of things going on in your brain when you're doing that.
Marc:Barack Obama was just here.
Marc:I think Barry Obama was here.
Marc:I think the president was here.
Marc:I think they were all represented.
Marc:And my feeling is it's hard to believe that over the course of the five years of me doing this show that this could happen.
Marc:It's just unbelievable to me that this could happen.
Marc:I mean, years ago, I'd thrown the towel in and just, and that I was able to handle it.
Marc:Part of my brain before was like, I don't know, man.
Marc:I don't know if I can, you know, I was a little freaked out.
Marc:You know, it was not as personal as I might've wanted to be, but it was personal enough.
Marc:I just have to let it go, but it was an amazing experience and he was a sweet guy and he was very human.
Marc:And it was good to talk to him.
Marc:And I didn't get to say everything I wanted or talk about everything I wanted.
Marc:But I got to have that experience.
Marc:My neighborhood, I got to have that experience.
Marc:My house, my cats were actually locked in the bedroom.
Marc:So the cats, I don't think it had any effect on them whatsoever.
Marc:They just want their house back.
Marc:I guess they're gonna pull the tent down and then tomorrow's just another day.
Marc:There's the helicopters.
Marc:Oh my God, that's them.
Marc:They're leaving.
Marc:They flew into the Rose Bowl.
Marc:And now they're leaving.
Marc:It's another stop.
Marc:He goes on with his day.
Marc:He goes on with his job, with his life as president.
Marc:Now I'm the guy where the president came over that one time.
Marc:We talked for an hour about stuff.
Oh, man.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I think I did good.
Marc:It was an amazing experience, and it was one I'll never forget.
Marc:I'm glad I could share it with you.
Marc:All right, I gotta pull it together.
Marc:I gotta do some stuff.
Marc:I gotta feed the cats.
Marc:I gotta put my stuff back in the garage.
Marc:Do some press.
Marc:I don't want to do anything.
Marc:I just... I want to let the experience be a good one.
Marc:Not second guess everything.
Marc:It was an amazing honor to talk to the president.
Guest:In my garage!
Guest:In my garage!
Guest:Are you fucking kidding me?
... ... ...
Marc:Can I have the president's water?
Marc:I think I should drink the president's water.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So I am drinking the president's water.
Marc:The president, I should say that this is hours after.
Marc:the departure of President Barack Obama from my driveway, from my garage.
Marc:It is now 7.38 Pacific Time on Friday, June 19th.
Marc:It is about, what is it?
Marc:So he left at 11.10, so it's about eight hours ago, eight and a half hours ago.
Marc:Brendan McDonald, my producer,
Marc:And partner in this venture of WTF is here.
Marc:He flew out from Brooklyn to do the job.
Marc:Yeah, hi.
Marc:And now we're coming down.
Marc:It's been a hell of a day.
Marc:It's been a hell of a day.
Marc:We just got done doing follow-up press, talking to people, putting together.
Marc:I didn't do anything.
Marc:I did a bunch of interviews.
Marc:You were on the computer hammering away.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, I mean, we were both doing the thing that we do.
Guest:You have to keep talking and you talked for like just seven hours straight.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And you were cutting things up and doing things.
Guest:Cutting things, talking to people who needed things.
Guest:I've come to realize that's actually the job.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Just, oh, people need things and they got to get those things.
Marc:I was very surprised at the emails I got when people knew I was going to be talking to the president.
Marc:People were like, hey, you remember that thing I sent you?
Marc:Maybe he could pick it up.
Marc:The president could pick it up and you just take a picture.
Marc:It'd be very helpful for me.
Marc:I have a child now.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I'm not going to mention any names.
Marc:But I think that one thing we didn't get to talk about when we presented the show on Monday or even me leading up to it, because I wasn't even aware of it really, was exactly how this came to be.
Marc:That seems what a lot of interviewers were asking me.
Marc:And I remember months ago, this weird thing, you know, you said, yeah, the White House reached out about doing something with the show.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, they actually contacted us through the website, which immediately made me think it was fake.
Guest:Through wtfpod.com?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I didn't know that.
Guest:Yeah, they contacted us through the website.
Guest:The White House.
Guest:The White House.
Guest:Sure, you're the White House.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:Because we've had that happen before.
Guest:I represent Robert Downey Jr., you know, and it's like- Some guy.
Guest:Yeah, at yahoo.com.
Guest:Yeah, by the way, could you give me his email?
Guest:Right.
Guest:So it was a definite like sense of like, let's check this out.
Guest:Let's see if this is real, but let's contact them.
Guest:And that was like about a little over a year ago.
Guest:Really?
Guest:June of last year.
Guest:Is that long ago?
Guest:And maybe even May of last year, but it was definitely in that time of year.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, it's interesting because I've seen since this was announced that this interview would happen, people have said, you know, we heard that the White House reached out to have President Obama on.
Guest:And it's not that simple, actually, because it's like...
Guest:Just because you're in contact doesn't mean that something's happening.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Well, I completely put it in the back of my brain.
Guest:It was a vague thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So that was June.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It wasn't until September of last year that there was ever the mention of the president's name.
Guest:And it was like, what would you think about him doing the show?
Right.
Guest:And, you know, it's like a joke to us.
Guest:People have said all the time, when are you going to get Obama?
Guest:Of course we would have him on.
Guest:I think they wanted to make sure, though, that having someone on, if you look at our guest list, in 612 episodes, there's not a politician on there.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:Intentionally.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And I think that was what they were saying was would Mark want to even do that because it's a politician.
Guest:And I said, as I've said all along to anyone we've ever talked to, we would have any guest on as long as they can do the type of interview that we do, which is talk about life and talk about other things and not have a specific promotional agenda.
Marc:And I think I remember you telling me this.
Marc:I'm like, this is crazy.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, what I mean, of course, I'll interview the president.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Well, I remember when we were first talking to them, I said, you know, this was a good conversation I had with the White House.
Guest:And you said, maybe someday we could get Obama on.
Guest:And I said, yeah, probably when he's not president anymore.
Guest:Right.
Guest:There's no way he would do it when he's president.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And, you know, I also just think it's like a little bit of a lesson there, especially for people who are doing podcasts, that...
Guest:That's like old media.
Guest:Even though they came to us specifically because we're new media, I believe the reason this came to pass was just because lines of communication were kept open and there was a constant cordial discussion.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And comfort level achieved on both sides of everybody thinking...
Guest:this would be a good thing to do.
Guest:And that only happens, like, with time and with diligence, you know?
Guest:And so it's just, to me, it's a good lesson for people.
Guest:Like, if you want something, it doesn't have to happen right away.
Guest:Just make sure you keep the work up.
Guest:Like, put that in the little file there and keep it as a to-do list.
Marc:Right, if it's something like that.
Marc:You know, like, oh, shit, I forgot the president wanted to...
Marc:Do you know?
Marc:Don't be like, do we call back the president?
Marc:We were not pushy about it.
Guest:Right.
Marc:No, I don't remember pursuing it that hard at all.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:It wasn't until earlier this spring, late winter, early spring, that I got a call on my phone.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I let it go to voicemail because it was an unknown number.
Guest:Right.
Guest:202.
Guest:No, it just said unknown.
Guest:It was blocked.
Guest:Wow.
Wow.
Guest:And that went to voicemail was a person at the White House that said, you know, wanted to get back in touch with you thinking about doing something or other, maybe with the president.
Guest:Very casual.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Slipped it in.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so obviously I got in touch.
Guest:And and then all of a sudden, maybe three or four weeks later, we got dates.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Is that when I said, where am I going to Washington?
Guest:Right.
Guest:Well, there were dates proposed that would have been your tour dates that are going on right now as this episode is posting.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It would have been your BAM tour dates.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And you were going to have to cancel if they did it then.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:And we made the call that if they needed to do it then, you would cancel your tour.
Marc:Of course, yeah.
Guest:And so there was a lot of waiting for that.
Guest:Like, okay, let's, you know...
Guest:But then wasn't there the first set of dates and why did I change my vacation?
Guest:I'll get to that.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:What was interesting though is because you're going to be on the East Coast, right?
Guest:Like as we're speaking, you're a few days away from going.
Guest:But when this episode posts, this is the time when they wanted the interview to happen and you're in New York, right?
Guest:And so you said, well, just tell them I'm there.
Guest:I can come down.
Guest:It's easy.
Guest:And that was not on the table.
Marc:Going to the Oval Office was not on the table.
Guest:Off the table.
Marc:And you explained to me why.
Marc:Can we talk about that?
Guest:It is my estimation, based on how they work, that they need whatever they're doing, promotionally or publicity-wise, media-wise, to be in the context, in the idiom of that thing.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It would not have probably looked good.
Guest:This is my guess.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But it would probably not have looked good for them to grant a one hour interview in the East Room or the Oval Office to you.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Some non-credentialed guy, comedian.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Non-journalist.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, when they have a press corps.
Guest:Right.
Guest:That doesn't get that type of access.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:It's one thing when Bill Simmons went to the White House and did an interview with him.
Guest:They spoke very specifically about sports, 20 minutes, I think, or 10 minutes.
Guest:This is a lot different to say, we want him to do an hour, and we want it to be a free-ranging conversation that we're not going to vet.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So they were insistent.
Guest:It has to be.
Guest:They were insistent ever since we first started talking to them.
Guest:To do it in the garage.
Guest:They were saying, if we did something with you guys, what could we do?
Guest:That is what you do.
Guest:Meaning a long form interview in L.A.
Guest:in the garage.
Guest:I know.
Guest:And then I was like, that's insane.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You were not believing it.
Marc:I still don't believe it.
Marc:And it happened today.
Yeah.
Marc:So like, yeah, but I remember there's all this like because for me in those moments where like, OK, this is happening.
Marc:It throws me back to the Air America days.
Marc:It throws me immediately into like, I don't know what I'm going to talk about.
Marc:I got to get up to speed on policy.
Marc:I have to read the history of the world.
Guest:This is the man who showed up to the first day at Air America with a book of the American government for dummies.
Guest:I still have that book.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I was like, I didn't pay attention in school.
Marc:There's three branches, right?
Marc:The Senate does what?
Marc:The judicial who?
Marc:I wouldn't say that I'm a fraud.
Marc:I learned as I went along, but I was insecure about that.
Marc:But you get that way with just artists, too.
Guest:No, no, I know.
Guest:You'll say, like, somebody's coming in here to talk, and you're like, I don't know any of their music.
Guest:I'm like, you've heard these four albums.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And you're like...
Guest:They have a lot.
Guest:But that doesn't matter at that point.
Guest:You're not expected to know everything.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So I think you put that pressure on yourself partially because I think it motivates you to do better at the interview.
Marc:Oddly.
Marc:I think that when I stress myself out, that's my way of getting grounded.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:Can I do a little sidebar here?
What?
Guest:Last night, I left this property.
Guest:Everything was done.
Guest:Tenting was done.
Guest:We'll explain what that means, but they were done doing what they needed to do here.
Guest:I left this house.
Guest:I went back to where I was staying.
Guest:I get a text.
Guest:I'm going to pull it up.
Guest:No.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Well, I was just here alone.
Guest:But this is explanatory.
Marc:Last night.
Marc:This is last night.
Marc:This is last night.
Guest:The president was coming today.
Guest:So you said, here it is.
Guest:Got the creeps.
Guest:News crew tried to corner me.
Guest:Then you wrote, a little while later.
Guest:This went a little while later.
Guest:Nervous in the house.
Guest:Space.
Guest:Alone.
Guest:Space.
Guest:Weird.
Guest:I wrote, you know, if I call LAPD, they'll send a detail over to stay overnight.
Guest:I mean, we could do that.
Guest:It's been announced now that the president's going to be here.
Guest:No answer to that.
Guest:It was about 20 minutes.
Guest:Because I was sitting there going like, I can do it.
Guest:Yeah, you want to tough it out?
Guest:Yeah, you're going to tough it out.
Guest:Well, this is where toughing it out got you.
Guest:Send me this 20 minutes later.
Guest:You don't think someone's going to come over here and fuck with the electrical box or something weird, do you?
Guest:I said, wow, that's very specific.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I say, again, if it will help you sleep, let's call the cops.
Guest:And this was like a key to Marc Maron that I've worked with you for 11 years.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And this text was so helpful.
Guest:Oh, come on.
Guest:No, I'm not joking.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You wrote, I'm just worrying.
Guest:It's how I ground myself.
Guest:I responded, oh, sorry, carry on then.
Guest:It was a very clarifying moment.
Guest:And so, you know, when you're saying that you panic knowing that you're going to have to plow your head with information, I do understand what that is.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, right.
Marc:Well, I mean, well, that was the thing.
Marc:And when this was starting to happen, and then it was, you know, we had to...
Marc:I was looking for a way out.
Marc:I don't do it full on anymore.
Marc:It's sort of half-hearted.
Marc:But when you're like, we've got to make these dates available.
Marc:And I'm like, that's the only time I can take a vacation.
Marc:And I'm about to lose my mind.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So let's get to that.
Marc:What?
Guest:Well, we haven't explained why that happened.
Guest:So we were holding those dates that your tour was going to be on.
Guest:Oh, that's right.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And I'd agreed I will cancel dates to interview the president in my home.
Guest:That's right.
Marc:Right.
Guest:So I was sitting at a bar and I got an email from the White House that said, we're looking close in terms of confirming, but what about the week before?
Yeah.
Guest:Now, you've got to understand something.
Guest:They're planning this in relation to an L.A.
Guest:trip for the president.
Guest:They're not saying, what about these dates so that he can take a trip and go see Marc Maron?
Guest:They're saying, we're getting a trip together for money, right?
Guest:For large fundraisers.
Guest:And we can, while you're on that fundraising trip and doing other things, he saw the governor today and spoke at the U.S.
Guest:Conference of Mayors, but...
Guest:you know, other than that for my show, no, after, Oh, you don't even remember.
Guest:He said that to you as he was leaving.
Guest:You're like, what do you do now?
Guest:And he was like, I'm going to go talk to governor Brown and about the, Oh, that's right.
Guest:It's San Francisco.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then I'm going to go up to San Francisco.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Uh,
Guest:But so this is not for us to say, those dates aren't as good as the other dates.
Guest:Like we'd rather actually do it the dates you first said.
Guest:Like if they say, no, it's now it's these dates.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Those are the dates.
Marc:You tried to explain that to me.
Guest:Well, before I even tried to explain it to you, I thought, great.
Guest:He's not on tour.
Guest:Right.
Guest:He's not going to have to cancel his tour dates.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I looked at the calendar.
Guest:The only thing that was happening was you were on vacation in Hawaii.
Guest:But I looked at the calendar and said, oh, he could just bump it up a week.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Take the vacation earlier.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it'll be great.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I call Mark.
Guest:I love it.
Guest:That's the greatest story.
Guest:Come on.
Guest:I call Mark.
Guest:Come on.
Guest:And I say, look, good news.
Guest:We're not going to have to cancel your tour dates if this thing happens.
Guest:They're giving us new dates.
Guest:It's the week before.
Guest:Now, the only thing about that is you're on vacation those dates.
Guest:Now, did you book that trip already?
Guest:Yeah, dude, that's over.
Yeah.
Guest:It's over.
Guest:What do you mean?
Guest:That's long gone.
Guest:That's long done.
Guest:We can't do those dates.
Guest:You're on vacation, right?
Guest:Yeah, I booked it.
Guest:I used all my points.
Guest:I've been saving up these points forever.
Guest:I got a great hotel.
Guest:I got good airfare.
Guest:There's no moving it.
Guest:so i said okay i'm in my mind i'm thinking i gotta let him feel like this is this is he can it's valid for i validate his feelings it is valid for him to feel like this is a hassle so i said i that is a big pain in the butt right i get it so how about if
Guest:Someone else.
Guest:You just said whenever you want to go on vacation.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And someone else in the world.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Handles all the details.
Guest:Right.
Guest:How's that going to happen?
Guest:Who's going to do that?
Guest:No, you don't worry about that.
Guest:You don't have to worry about any of that anymore.
Guest:That's done.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Dude, I just don't.
Guest:I saved these points for a reason.
Right.
Guest:The reason I saved all my credit card points is to take a trip like this.
Guest:I don't even know why I'm going to interview the president.
Guest:What's he even going to say?
Guest:Right.
Guest:Well, he could say a lot of things.
Guest:He's already done his podcast.
Guest:He did Bill Simmons' podcast.
Guest:I don't think we need to do the president.
Guest:Oh, boy.
Guest:I said, all right.
Guest:Is this a real point that you're making?
Guest:Right.
Guest:You said yes.
Guest:But I could sense in that yes was you saying, oh, no.
Guest:Like that I was about to give you reality.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:It was like a very half-hearted yes.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It was like, yes?
Guest:Like a question.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I said, all right.
Guest:After this interview happens, everyone who didn't know you, now they'll know you.
Guest:And people you're in business with, they're gonna be really happy they're in business with you.
Guest:And people you wanna talk to, dream of talking to, they're gonna be easier to talk to now.
Guest:I said, so if that's scary, that's a good reason not to do it.
Guest:But if it's because of your credit card points, you could take the credit card and shove it up your ass.
Guest:Because that is not why I'm going to go back to the White House and say we're canceling this interview.
Guest:So Mark said, okay, all right.
Guest:If you got to put it to me like that, well.
Guest:Then you said, I'm sorry, I don't have Jesus.
Guest:So this is what I hang on to, these things.
Guest:And I understood that too.
Guest:Again, it was a clarifying moment.
Guest:And part of me, as I was saying that to you, was like, I hope I'm not pushing him too hard here, but I need to stop this right now.
Guest:I can't ever allow for the possibility that this snowballs downhill to the point where he makes a reality in his head that the credit card points are insurmountable and we cannot get over this as an issue.
Guest:The other thing you said, though, was like...
Guest:We'll pay for it.
Marc:That was the thing that killed me.
Marc:It's like, here, I got an idea.
Marc:We're making money.
Marc:Let's just pay for it through the business.
Marc:Whatever hotel you want.
Guest:And you said, that's still money.
Guest:I said, but it's made.
Guest:We make money.
Guest:That's what you make it for.
Guest:It's a business expense.
Guest:And then I was like, no, but I remember it happening.
Guest:It's like, but you don't understand.
Guest:I can't just lose the points.
Yeah.
Guest:I love that it's real.
Guest:I love that I didn't imagine it.
Guest:You still remember that it was really that.
Marc:No, because it takes a long time to get all these points.
Marc:And just on principle, I couldn't get through it.
Marc:You're like, you can stay wherever you want.
Marc:We'll pay for it.
Marc:We'll pay for the tickets.
Marc:I'm like, that's a lot of money.
Marc:I can't.
Marc:Why would we do that?
Marc:I have these points.
Marc:And I couldn't.
Marc:and then like somehow or another you talked me into like just like letting someone else like letting kelly like the management letting kelly deal with it yeah and we used the points and we changed the reservation just move it i don't know things happen they just move every part of my brain was like this is sacred time yeah like we wanted to protect it and we protected it as much as we could while you were away
Guest:There was no one that was going to mess with your time, especially with the tour you've been on.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But it was so crazy because I was sort of exhausted.
Marc:And I think that part of me was like looking for a way out.
Guest:I think that might be it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because also once dates happened, it started to get more real.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And I knew like, okay, I'm going to be pulled back into that world in my head.
Marc:Because Air America was relatively traumatizing for me.
Marc:And in some ways.
Marc:Well, what ways?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, just like I always felt a little over my head.
Marc:And until I, you know, sort of found my voice on the radio, you know, and we were having a good time, it was traumatizing.
Guest:Do you know you've never said that on here, on this podcast, what that moment was?
Marc:What moment?
Guest:That you found your voice.
Marc:It's about lentils.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, I remember it.
Guest:It was like you were talking about cooking lentils.
Marc:And I forgot about them or I fell asleep and they just kept cooking.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then when I finally realized it from the smell that something was amiss and burning, I went in there and they had formed some sort of pasty tar, like this burnt carbonized lentil tar.
Marc:And then I went on some riff about how you could use it for paste or arrowheads or this is how things, like I went on some weird riff about the use of that.
Guest:This is at like 630 in the morning.
Marc:Yeah, the day after it happened.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And the funny thing is, the show was still very much a political show.
Marc:Right.
Guest:But the response to that was as much as any political topic.
Guest:Right.
Marc:People went crazy.
Marc:Like, I didn't even know what you were talking about.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But that was great.
Marc:And that was it.
Marc:That was the moment.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:It's like a thing clicked where you heard yourself in your own head as a separate entity.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:That was a big moment.
Marc:But my point was is that, like, with the president, like, I got nervous because I always felt insecure about my knowledge of politics and my through line.
Guest:I didn't like arguing.
Guest:Well, you covered up for it, I think, a lot by being strident.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And now you fear that as well.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So, you know, that was part of the reason why, you know, I got out of the dialogue.
Marc:I thought that there were people better suited for it and more committed to it.
Marc:So I think part of the idea of interviewing Obama was like, oh, that's going to come at me from both sides.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It took a lot for me to wrangle a certain amount of confidence in and sort of the idea that, like, it's going to be my interview with him and it's going to be what it's going to be.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And and, you know, I'm not a political pundit and I'm not and I wasn't there to confront him on policy.
Marc:But but nonetheless, so so we we we talked to me down from the point situation when I was able to use all the points.
Marc:We spent no company money.
Guest:I think that's accurate, too.
Guest:We talked you down like me and yourself.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:You down.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Well, that's always the way it is.
Marc:You start the conversation with me and I follow up with me later.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But so I was able to take the vacation.
Marc:So the plan now being that.
Marc:We had those two days and we weren't sure what day it was going to be.
Marc:And then it became clear.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Friday.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Friday the 19th.
Guest:And so I came out here.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, after being in full contact with the White House with planning and everything.
Guest:And I mean, it just could not have been smoother with them.
Guest:They were so accommodating.
Guest:I like it.
Guest:It was a dream.
Guest:I mean, we work with people.
Guest:I'm not saying we ever have a really terrible experience, but we work with situations where people are prickly in that or particular or have strange demands and that.
Guest:It was none of that.
Guest:They were so smooth and easy to work with and efficient, very efficient.
Guest:Like, ask a question, get an answer.
Guest:It was very, very encouraging and helpful in a situation like this that was so filled with stress.
Marc:And I was going to be gone.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So that's a whole other level of panic for me.
Guest:For you.
Guest:But I got to tell you, man, it was really fortunate you weren't here.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like the amount of stuff that was going on while you were gone.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like just seeing how you were this morning and yesterday with just a little bit of that stuff with people here checking that.
Guest:I mean, today was intense.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But, you know, I could sense like a little nervousness from you.
Guest:Just this amount of people doing all these things.
Guest:You don't know...
Guest:There's no way to keep your eye on everybody at once and they're just all over your house and property and that.
Guest:I mean, that's what it was for five days.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And not in like, you know, from dawn to dusk, like, you know, at an hour clip, there'd be a barrage of people would show up.
Marc:Well, I mean, I was in Hawaii, so I went to Hawaii and everyone's sort of like, we're going to leave you be, you're going to have a vacation.
Marc:And all I'm doing is I'm going to read Barack Obama's first book and that's going to be my portal in.
Marc:I'm going to read dreams from my father on vacation and relax and panic about other things.
Marc:I have a first spending this much time with Sarah for the first time and all that.
Marc:But it was lovely.
Marc:We got down there and everything was beautiful.
Marc:And I'm reading the book and I'm still like not figuring out a way I can comfortably approach the president.
Marc:And then you get here Sunday.
Guest:Sunday.
Guest:And I came here to the house Monday morning.
Marc:What happened?
Marc:I don't even know what fully happened.
Guest:Monday morning was, I mean, they'd already checked the house out Sunday, but Monday morning was, that was it.
Guest:They came here and started everything.
Guest:And it is an amazing operation.
Guest:Watching that happen, just a small piece of property like this.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, these are the top of their game professionals.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, the people leading the charge are, you know, cordial and but very matter of fact and direct.
Guest:It's just it's like the dream that you want to work with those type of people.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because like you feel like everything's taken care of and then anything they're asking of you, you want to just jump right in and do it.
Yeah.
Guest:You can sense that a lot of them are ex-military and that that is where a lot of the discipline comes from.
Guest:But it's very impressive.
Guest:I feel like a total kinship to the Secret Service, not because I do anything remotely close to what they do in terms of putting their necks on the line, but just in terms of efficiency and the way I like to work.
Guest:I was like, oh, these are my people.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I love this.
Guest:Complete control freaks on top of the situation.
Guest:That's it.
Guest:To find somebody that's more on top of it than I am, I'm like, ha, show me everything.
Marc:The one time in your life you're like, they're doing a really good job.
Marc:I don't have to do much of anything here.
Guest:Yeah, and it was like that for several days with like crazy things like snipers going on roofs.
Marc:Walk me through that process.
Marc:So like they're in the house.
Marc:They set up those two banks, those communication banks in my spare bedroom.
Guest:Yeah, that wasn't for them to communicate actually.
Guest:That's just there for emergencies.
Marc:So isolated lines.
Guest:Isolated lines.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:They weren't like on comms.
Marc:No, no, no, I know.
Marc:But they were alien pieces of equipment.
Marc:Yeah, making buzzes.
Marc:Yeah, noises.
Marc:The people that were involved, they told you that we're going to be the LAPD, the Secret Service.
Guest:Basically, they came up to me with about 15 people.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they said, this is the whole team.
Guest:They're going to pepper you with questions, answer them to the best of your ability.
Guest:They all have a specialty.
Guest:They all were in charge of something.
Guest:One guy's asking about the foundation of the house, how old the house is.
Guest:And one woman who was in charge of, you know, communications within the house asking me like, do you have emergency lines and things like that?
Guest:What kind of, you know, Internet, those kind of things.
Guest:And then a guy just grabbed a ladder and he climbed right up on this garage that we're sitting in.
Guest:He's on top.
Guest:and that was where he was going to patrol.
Marc:Wait, that was the sniper?
Guest:That was the sniper, yeah.
Guest:He was excited, right?
Guest:He thought it was a good spot.
Guest:It's a good spot with clear vision around the whole property.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But it made noise.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So, you know, you hear him like... Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right on top.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And he says, can I ask you something?
Guest:Can you go down there and tell me if you hear this?
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:I was like, yeah, I hear it.
Guest:And then he's, like, jumping, and that ceiling is buckling.
Guest:Oh, no.
Guest:So, like, that, my first time, I was like, you're going to come in on the president.
Guest:Like, he's going to be sitting here.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And another guy came over.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he says...
Guest:No go.
Guest:No.
Guest:And the sniper is like, no, this is where I got to be.
Guest:It's a clear shot.
Guest:And he says, look, what's going to go on in there that 60 minutes is the whole reason we're here.
Guest:So if that's going to interfere with that, if that's going to sound bad, we can't do that.
Guest:And the sniper got like right away.
Guest:He was like, yeah, I don't want staff to.
Guest:Meaning White House staff.
Guest:I don't want them to say that it's not working.
Guest:I get it.
Guest:And they had initially decided he was just going to sit on the side over here and make no noise.
Guest:But I think later they discovered your neighbor Dennis, his house would work fine if they could get him up.
Guest:And he's retired.
Guest:And he was thrilled.
Guest:They gave him a patch.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Oh, that's awesome.
Guest:Yeah, he loves it.
Guest:Well, that was the moment, though.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because before that, I got here.
Guest:You weren't here for a week.
Guest:Outside the house was a mess from weather, right?
Guest:There's just leaves and crap from the trees all on the ground, and things out here had fallen over.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Just little things, the things that happen when you go away for a week.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Your car is full of garbage on it, you know, pollen and stuff.
Marc:This is a gradual buildup over months.
Marc:Yeah, right.
Marc:Not a week, but I appreciate it.
Guest:Well, you haven't been here also.
Guest:That's true.
Guest:You've been on tour.
Marc:That's true.
Guest:And I'm thinking like, what are these people thinking?
Guest:They were at Tyler Perry's house last night.
Guest:He's a 28-acre estate.
Guest:I'm like, this is kind of embarrassing.
Yeah.
Guest:oh no i wasn't embarrassed for your house i was just embarrassed of the choice right that they chose to like to do the thing right like this is this is a great house for a person yeah and a place where you can work right but i do is it fit for kings and queens and presidents you know and so i was like oh boy what are these people thinking yeah
Guest:And when the guy said that, I was like, oh, they're not judging this at all.
Guest:In fact, this is what most of these people, if they're military, have been trained to do.
Guest:You have a mission, here's your mission, and you execute it.
Guest:And it's also like it's a challenge.
Guest:Sure.
Marc:It's got to be engaging work to secure an environment.
Guest:Look, like I said, everyone was great.
Guest:They said it was easier than Tyler Perry's.
Guest:Well, of course it was, because that's probably like securing a mall.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But they were all very polite and very... So maybe they were blowing a little smoke and just being nice to us.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But they... Be nice to the guys with the shitty house.
Marc:Part of our mission is to make the guy with the shitty house, the poor president's got to sit in there.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:Let's make him feel good.
Guest:Yeah, it's going to be hard for him.
Guest:Then I went around the house for several times putting away things that I thought might be questionable.
Guest:You had a pruner out in the yard.
Guest:I put the pruner in a secure shed.
Marc:Well, you said when they walked in here, I had that half a hammer and the pocket knife.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:And then right away they were like- You're like, nope, lose the hammer, lose the pocket knife.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They had a box of shotgun shells that were on the shelf.
Guest:It was an empty box.
Guest:Well, they said, no, you can't have that anywhere.
Marc:Where is that thing?
Guest:I put everything in a box.
Guest:It's in your house.
Marc:Well, thank you for doing all that.
Marc:It was so funny because they cleared out all these boxes and stacks of things here, primarily because they didn't want him to trip, they said?
Marc:That's right.
Guest:They said, well, I mean, maybe there's other reasons.
Guest:That's the reason they gave me.
Guest:They said, we want this all to be clear.
Guest:We want anything to risk him tripping over and that.
Guest:I think they just, it makes sense for their job to have clear pathways, right?
Guest:Like you don't want clutter to impede your way through if you need to get to the president, you know?
Guest:Right.
Guest:I mean, they brought some crazy contraption in here.
Guest:The guy kept calling it a yoga mat, but it was like a thick Kevlar flack thing.
Marc:Yeah, that thing, I didn't know what it did.
Marc:Because I was like, he kept, like, he wouldn't tell me what it was.
Marc:I'm like, what is it?
Marc:He's like, don't worry about it.
Marc:It looks like a yoga mat.
Marc:I'm like...
Marc:The magic carpet.
Marc:And then when I get here, the tenting.
Guest:Right.
Guest:The tenting is because they do not want open air for where the president is walking.
Marc:When I get in on Wednesday night, you pick me up.
Marc:We take Sarah home.
Marc:And we come here.
Marc:And tomorrow they're going to start tenting.
Marc:And I'm like, what is that?
Marc:They're going to cover the entire driveway with the tent.
Marc:And then the part of the road.
Marc:So there's no sight line to him.
Guest:Right.
Right.
Marc:And then you told me that they had secured the entire streets and everything's gonna been closed up.
Marc:There were signs all over the neighborhood.
Guest:No stopping.
Guest:It didn't even say no parking.
Marc:For that half a day, for that morning.
Marc:And this is what I come home to.
Marc:And you show me the weird humming machines and all the stuff that you put away.
Marc:And you cleared off the entire driveway and put that all on the deck so there could be a clean access leading up to the garage.
Marc:So in my mind, I'm like, oh my God.
Marc:This is really happening.
Marc:You know, and I'm like, I finished the book.
Marc:I got a good idea of what he was like when he was 30.
Marc:Now we got to get me up to speed.
Marc:You got to cover the other 24 years.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And that was the plan.
Marc:And then you leave the house and someone tweets.
Marc:I don't think it's after we release do the press release.
Marc:That was the big thing on Wednesday.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:We got that press release out on Wednesday.
Marc:The White House said, tell the world it's happening because we're
Marc:We're going to post a schedule.
Guest:And then the episode that we put up last Thursday with Judd was intended to coincide with the announcement.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And so we do all that and it's starting to get some traction.
Marc:People are talking about it.
Marc:Is this real?
Marc:Is it not real?
Marc:And then you leave and I see some guy tweet.
Marc:Sorry, man.
Marc:I don't think it's going to happen.
Marc:Check the news.
Marc:And I go on the news and the horrible shooting in Charleston had just been reported was happening.
Marc:It was unfolding.
Marc:So I text you, dude, check the news out.
Marc:I don't think it's going to happen.
Marc:This is bad.
Marc:And, you know, it would be understandable.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, we had said that before.
Marc:That's what you kept saying.
Marc:You kept saying, like, it's going to happen.
Marc:Now, if it doesn't happen, it's because it's because something's so bad that we would not want it to happen.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And also, it's going to be bad.
Marc:It's something so bad the country is going to stop.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Or the world is in trouble.
Guest:Something that you understand it's not going to happen because everybody's sad.
Guest:Or something is scary.
Marc:Or the last fire has started.
Guest:I felt that in not knowing that news and then going to the news and seeing it and being hit with it and how horrible it was.
Guest:I just sat there in the dark because I got your text and walked in the house and I didn't turn any lights on yet.
Guest:I saw your text and I looked at the news.
Guest:I sat in the dark for like 20 minutes just having had read that story and was like, that is just the worst.
Guest:Like the details of that story were so bad that I immediately was like, well, this is just not happened.
Guest:And you were like, you literally like it shouldn't happen.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I think you were feeling that the same thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's like, how could he?
Guest:Right.
Guest:And.
Guest:We went to sleep, obviously, and we had canceled any promotion that we were going to do of it the next day.
Marc:We told the White House we weren't going to tweet.
Guest:Yeah, we said it's all... Because they didn't know.
Guest:They didn't contact us yet because they were still formulating their... The statement.
Guest:What their response was going to be.
Guest:But I didn't hear anything else.
Guest:And I went to sleep and I woke up the next day fully expecting to look at my phone and see a message, official message from the White House that said, we're sorry, but obviously the circumstances don't allow us to do this event.
Guest:And I didn't see anything.
Guest:There was no, it's still on or it's not on.
Guest:And then I saw that the president was going to speak around like nine o'clock our time here.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I said, all right, we'll watch that.
Guest:We'll see.
Guest:We might get a clue or two for that.
Guest:And I really think the way he spoke, the White House didn't just release an official statement.
Guest:He came out in front of the cameras and spoke and spoke in a way that we both, while we were watching it, were like, oh, he's angry.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I think that that probably kind of made it okay.
Guest:In my mind, I don't want to sound like crass about it because I'm not saying just words blanketed over a horrible event.
Guest:But I do think the president has a power as a guidepost for America as to how you can react to things.
Guest:And I at least got the feeling when he did that, that he was, and at this point, the suspected killer had been captured.
Guest:And then he addressed it and I did get a kind of feeling of like, I think he's just going to move to the next thing because he is the president.
Guest:He does have to keep going and he will get to Charleston.
Guest:It doesn't make a huge difference if he goes to Charleston right this minute or if he goes when there's a memorial service for this man he knew who died, this pastor who was murdered.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I kind of felt like the thing was still going to happen.
Guest:It was in the back of my mind all day long that it was still a possibility to get canceled.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:Well, then when we heard that he was in the air, that he had taken off, that's how we knew that he was coming.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:But I just fully still had it in my head that he could be here in LA.
Guest:And not do it.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:And they would say, you know, it's still not the time for us to do a podcast.
Guest:Obviously understandable.
Guest:But in the meantime, we went ahead and continued our plans.
Guest:And that became something we really had to address.
Marc:Well, that's what I said to you.
Marc:I said, look, you know, I can manage engaging that.
Marc:And I think we need to to put into context that we're going to we're going to do this thing on Friday.
Marc:It's going to post on Monday.
Marc:We don't know what he's going to do in relation to that.
Marc:that tragedy over the weekend, there were a couple of things that we had to sort of put in because of what might be happening Monday, so at least the podcast would integrate into the day.
Marc:And that was address and pay our respect to the loss
Marc:Of the guy he knew to his face and engaged.
Guest:Just that whole community has been torn.
Guest:And the nation has another huge, horrible mark.
Marc:And also engage the emotion that he felt about that.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And also deal with the Supreme Court ruling that's going to happen.
Guest:Yeah, it might have happened by the time you're listening to this.
Marc:Right.
Right.
Marc:So I felt confident about doing that, but it did change the tone of our plan a little.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:There was a little less room, we felt, for frivolity.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I mean, the way the morning developed, it was still a lot of stuff going on here, Secret Service-wise.
Marc:Well, at 6 o'clock, I woke up to let the guys who were going to build the rest of the tent in.
Marc:oh yeah so they they started doing the street and then everyone was leaving the street and like that night that i texted you you know i was walking around you know talking to my neighbors people were out in the streets like the fourth of july around here and then at seven o'clock you came then the secret service started to come and we were told that you know he's gonna you know he's gonna fly right from santa monica in a chopper to the rose bowl that's right
Marc:And which was a good thing to do.
Marc:Because like if he chose to drive the motorcade all through Los Angeles, it would have stopped everything.
Guest:You were already being called out by name on the radio.
Marc:Yeah, Marin caused a traffic jam talking to the president.
Marc:And I felt kind of bad about that.
Marc:And I was apologetic to my neighbors.
Marc:But everybody around here was very excited that the president was coming.
Marc:But the countdown begins.
Marc:You know, I'm going over the notes.
Marc:We're setting things up.
Marc:We're trying to cool the place down.
Marc:Secret Service is doing their things.
Marc:It was wild when all the Secret Service was here.
Marc:And then like an hour or so after they all showed up, the two snipers come.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Like, I don't know if they came in a special car, but I just saw two dudes walk up and I'm like, those are the guys.
Guest:Yeah, one of those guys was the guy who was on the roof the other day, on the roof of this garage.
Guest:And yeah, there were two of them.
Marc:So in the, my restroom was the only restroom for all the secret service, which was, which I always feel bad about because the door is broken.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That sniper brought all his gear into your bathroom.
Marc:The gun and everything went right in with him.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Not going to lose that thing.
Marc:So, so that starts happening.
Marc:And then they start telling us that, you know, they tell me where I need to be when he pulls up.
Marc:At five minutes, you guys should, me and you should be out in the garage and I should be standing in front of the garage.
Marc:We should get the tape started if we're going to start it.
Marc:And they tell us like, all right, so he's leaving the hotel in Beverly Hills.
Marc:Then they tell us he's at Santa Monica, he's getting on the chopper.
Marc:And I'm like, how long of a flight is that?
Marc:He's like, probably eight minutes, nine minutes.
Marc:and then and then we'll tell you when you have five but the funny thing was we hear the sound because we're right in the flight path yeah to the rose bowl yeah we're right so we hear those first two what are they called ospreys the osprey there were three of them yeah and the guy said there are always three and so we have one two and there's the third one right by and then we're like what's next and they're like that'll be it yeah marine one yeah
Marc:And how long?
Marc:It should be pretty close.
Guest:Yeah, it's coming right by, yeah.
Marc:And then we saw him.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:We saw the helicopter.
Marc:So we saw them fly in.
Marc:So then they told us when he landed and when he was in the car, and then we had six minutes.
Marc:Then all of a sudden it's like, oh, it's going to happen.
Marc:Yeah, we got to better turn the air off in there.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, we're freaking out.
Marc:And you're like, come on, man, come on.
Marc:I'm like, I'm starting to think.
Marc:And in a way, did you think I was freaking out?
Marc:Cause I was really trying to portray like a calm demeanor.
Marc:No, you weren't.
Marc:I didn't see any freaking out until like, cause we, we had some time cause they hadn't given us five yet.
Marc:But then when they said, you know, he's in the car and it's about seven minutes out.
Marc:And then they said it's five minutes.
Marc:And I'm like, you know, the,
Marc:I was supposed to be waiting out in front of the garage door, and you weren't supposed to be in here at all.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And you were turning the thing off, and I'm fucking around with this.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:With the recorder.
Marc:And you're like, come on, man.
Marc:You got it.
Marc:And I'm like, I'm just turning the recorder.
Guest:Well, what happened was I walked out the door here of the garage.
Guest:I could see down the hill of your driveway.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I saw a car come up with the presidential seal on the side.
Guest:Yeah, that's why I started screaming at you.
Guest:What Marin was doing was trying to set up his recordings so that he could hit record, walk out of the garage, but not have too much dead space on it.
Guest:And that way he wouldn't have to play him.
Guest:He wouldn't have to hit play when he came in because I wasn't supposed to be in here.
Guest:Nobody's supposed to be in here but the two of them.
Guest:So I walk out of this garage and I see the car come up.
Guest:Down the tunnel?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I'm like, you got to get out here now.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because he's supposed to see you when you walk.
Guest:That was the plan.
Guest:That's how we were told it was going to be.
Guest:You got out here in time though.
Guest:You saw what?
Guest:Staffers coming out?
Marc:Well, no, I saw the first car go by, and then I saw the next.
Marc:I said, how many are there?
Marc:You said, there's two, and then they'll stop.
Marc:And then I ran in, and I did the thing, and I came back out.
Marc:And then all of a sudden, there was a lot of people coming up the way.
Marc:There was Secret Service and staffers.
Marc:And then just a lot of people.
Marc:I couldn't make out anybody.
Marc:And then right here, right at the end of this part of the drive, right at the gate,
Marc:I hear like, Mark, Mark, how you doing?
Guest:It was the wildest thing to hear that.
Guest:Because I was right behind this tarp that's next to your garage that they put up.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And to hear him and to hear that in his voice right from the get go.
Guest:Right.
Guest:He was like- We're going to have fun.
Guest:It was gregarious.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he did something to you.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You usually are the one that has to disarm people, this weird setup of coming into your garage.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:I go, Mr. President-
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You know, like, hey, he's like, how you doing?
Marc:Glad to be here.
Marc:We're going to let's go in there.
Marc:We're going to have fun.
Marc:This is going to be fun.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And I'm like, OK, yeah, I guess so.
Marc:And then we walk in and, you know, he walked in in front of me.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And the Secret Service was behind me.
Marc:And he's looking around.
Marc:I'm like, I think you go over to that chair.
Marc:But there was a moment where I'm like, I just want to sit there, I guess.
Marc:Did you really?
Marc:Because he did.
Marc:He came right to this chair.
Guest:And I'm like, no, no, no.
Guest:You can't let him sit there.
Marc:It's your control.
Marc:You can run it.
Marc:Make sure the lines are... So then I show him the orange chair and he walks around to your chair where you are.
Marc:And then the Secret Service guy plants himself here and he's like right out of the gate.
Marc:But what I felt was like, oh my God, because my big fear was like,
Marc:I got so much in my mind.
Marc:I was afraid of the weight of the conversation we were going to have.
Marc:I didn't want it to be fluff.
Marc:I wanted it to be rich.
Marc:I wanted to have some fun, but I was so nervous and intense.
Marc:But he was sort of like, he was like, everything's good.
Marc:He made me feel comfortable.
Marc:The presidents just aren't making me lighten the fuck up.
Marc:Right.
Marc:but that's sort of what he does he should do i mean like he's got to do well i mean you you then talked to him about that about how he has to go from something where he's consoling people right then he has to go perform at a fundraiser basically yeah we talked about that later on but then like all of a sudden i was in yeah and right out of the gate i'm like this didn't start the way we planned you know what i mean like like right that's so much about plans with you you know i had to go with the flow yeah and then there was a point there i'm like i don't even think i should bring those you know
Guest:I thought to myself while I was listening, because I was sitting right outside the wall here.
Guest:Who was listening out there?
Guest:Staff, White House staff.
Guest:It was five people from the White House and me on this table that I set up right outside the garage.
Guest:While I was listening, there was a moment where I thought, maybe he just shouldn't talk about Charleston.
Guest:You guys were vibing about his days in Hawaii and in Pasadena.
Guest:I thought, well, it'll be okay if he doesn't bring it up.
Guest:But you did then bring it up and got him to talk pretty directly about guns, gun safety, the power of the NRA.
Guest:Talked about race very candidly, enough to shock me.
Guest:I'm a guy who worked in news and I was shocked by what he said.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:The whole thing was wild.
Marc:And I was and I was so excited that he was so present.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, also, this was interesting to me as a audio guy, no headphones.
Guest:And he was on top of this mic the whole time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like he never wavered.
Marc:I was riding the knob a little bit.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Well, then you're good at your job.
Guest:But people, a lot of times, that come in here that decide not to wear headphones, they then wind up being the ones who do this, and then they lean back and talk over here.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:Like he was right on top of it.
Guest:They stay pretty steady.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was just like, yeah, I could see him fleshing blood right there.
Guest:That's funny.
Guest:Well, you know what?
Guest:I meant to ask you that.
Guest:There was a moment when you were on Howard Stern.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Where you were waiting in the green room.
Guest:I think you were, you know, nervous.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You said you could see him on the feed.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he was eating during a commercial break.
Guest:He was just eating melon.
Guest:And you were like, oh, it's just a guy eating melon.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Did you have that at all with him ever sitting here?
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Marc:I had it the whole time.
Marc:I couldn't believe how present and human he was.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I had that when I shook hands with him.
Marc:I kept looking at him.
Marc:I'm like, you're just a guy, man.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:I'm looking at his mouth.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I'm looking at his eyes.
Guest:When he was shaking my hand, he was making a joke about that I was wearing a suit and that you were wearing plaid.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he was looking at you and talking while he was shaking my hand.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:doing that thing where he wasn't letting go because it wasn't in his mind yet to move on.
Guest:So he's shaking my hand, shaking, and he's talking and joking at you about wearing a plaid and not wearing a suit.
Guest:You got to look nice or whatever.
Guest:And all I was thinking was like, when's he going to let go?
Guest:i'm holding his hand this whole time we're still holding hands well there's a lot of touching afterwards like you know it was weird because i found myself like you know like why am i still holding the president's back yeah i i did i went for the posed picture they were very generous and nice to give me a posed picture with him uh that pete susa white house photographer took as a thing i'll cherish for the rest of my life
Guest:And I went in to take the picture and I just instinctively put my arm around him, like around his side.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, right.
Guest:And I jerked my arm back like as I was doing it.
Guest:And he goes, that's okay.
Guest:You can do that.
Guest:We're comfortable here.
Guest:I was like, what the hell?
Guest:What's happening?
Guest:Right?
Guest:If you see my face, I put that picture up on my Twitter.
Guest:That is like the happiest face of mine you'll ever see.
Guest:That's great.
Guest:Just a pure happiness.
Guest:And I also got this.
Guest:This is pretty great.
Guest:White House Communications Agency Certificate of Appreciation presented to Brendan McDonald.
Guest:That's the part I like.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:enabled us to provide critical communications for the president the white house staff and the united states secret service patricia golden presidential communications she was great that's amazing buddy that congratulations you know what's so amazing about that is that we talk about sometimes like we you know we have nothing to complain about right show we got away with murder yeah i mean that for six years yeah uh
Guest:But sometimes we're like, I feel like we should get something, like Peabody, be nice.
Guest:Get rejected for those every year.
Guest:And this whole situation to me was like, I don't need anything anymore, ever.
Guest:This was extremely validating for so many reasons.
Guest:That what we do podcasting and just the general idea of a taped conversation that people are just going to listen to.
Guest:Right.
Guest:There's no bells and whistles to it.
Guest:That that's good enough for the president who communicates to the world.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I was so validated by that.
Marc:Well, I was just so proud of you, man, and so excited that having known what we went through and having you working in and around politics for so long, and I know your fundamental respect for democracy and for the president and your education and your knowledge about it, that to be the guy on point
Marc:to deal directly with the president's people and to facilitate the situation for the president of the United States to have this happen.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:This is your show as much as it's my show.
Marc:Well, thanks.
Marc:And, you know, I knew it was a big thing for you.
Marc:And I was very excited for you.
Guest:Thanks, man.
Guest:I hope that that excitement helped you get over some of the nerves and some of the difficulty.
Marc:Well, it's very funny that when we were sitting there working...
Guest:All the way back to when we were at Air America, like that first week, and Pashman gave me that package.
Guest:Dan Pashman, who was the editorial producer, came by and gave you a packet of notes of things.
Guest:Of the day's news.
Guest:Yeah, day's news.
Guest:That we were going to get into.
Guest:And you were like, what is this?
Guest:I can't read this.
Guest:It's too much.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Why would, no!
Guest:It's too much.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It was too much.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But then, like, as things went on and, you know, I got used to that.
Marc:But then by the time we'd gotten to break room and you were working with me, like, you managed to do this thing where I know you're clearly just working on something else.
Guest:And you just know how to manage whatever this thing is.
Marc:Like, I'm just this weird fluttering thing over here.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You're sort of like, what?
Marc:Okay, yeah, yeah.
Marc:No, that's fine.
Marc:And then I'm like, oh, yeah.
Marc:And that happened when we were working in the house again.
Marc:And I'm just sweating and worrying about something.
Marc:And you're in something else.
Marc:And I'd be like, how am I going to do the thing?
Marc:It's like, we're just going to do it.
Guest:And then he's just back to work.
Guest:Yeah, I just find that it's best to not, in those moments, it's best to not try to talk you out of something.
Guest:Let you have that moment.
Guest:And yeah, maybe you'll see.
Guest:Although I did feel like I needed to show you a clip from Hoosiers.
Marc:That was hilarious.
Marc:Because I was like, that's the president, man.
Marc:I mean, I'm way out of my, I'm over my head on all levels.
Marc:And you show me that there's a clip from Hoosiers where the team shows up at the big state stadium.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Indianapolis.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And he measures the net in the same size.
Guest:I said, I'm like, I know you don't like sports, but you like Gene Hackman.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:We had that moment where I'm like, I know what you're doing.
Yeah.
Guest:Well, we've been doing it for a long time, man, so I think this was a good culmination of it.
Guest:And especially because it makes me think back to before Air America started, before it actually launched, we had done like test shows.
Guest:Do you remember that?
Guest:Like rehearsals.
Guest:And I remember our producer, Jonathan Larson, took me and Dan Pashman and we sat out in the hallway.
Guest:And I was the first to speak.
Guest:I said, well, I could tell you what works.
Guest:And at the time, it was a three host situation.
Guest:There was a host that was supposed to handle the interviews.
Guest:There was a host that was supposed to handle the news.
Guest:And you were there to basically pepper in jokes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I said, I could tell you what works, Marc Maron.
Guest:What doesn't work is there's not enough Marc Maron.
Guest:Like the show should be that guy.
Guest:Like that guy could be like Howard Stern.
Guest:And Dan Pashman was like, absolutely.
Guest:I agree.
Guest:That's what I would say the same thing.
Guest:And Jonathan Larson said, yeah, that's true.
Guest:You guys are right.
Guest:And...
Guest:I just felt from that moment and then what we did at Air America, I was always like, this is right.
Guest:This feels right.
Guest:No matter how bad that place got or what we felt were the limitations of the format in that, I felt we could do good work.
Guest:It's why I came out here.
Guest:Right.
Guest:After we got fired.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I just always had that feeling, even when I went and did other jobs, other jobs in radio, and I was always like, well, I'm gonna work with Maren again, because we did that well.
Guest:And I got what he did, and I think he respected what I did.
Guest:And I just knew we were gonna do that again.
Guest:And when it came time to do this podcast,
Guest:it just made sense to be like, well, we do this.
Guest:There was never a hesitation that we should do it.
Guest:We didn't know what it was going to be.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But it was like, well, yeah, let's do this.
Guest:Let's try it.
Guest:We want to do this stuff on our own.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We like this work.
Guest:And you were doing that other job.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I just thank you, man.
Guest:I thank you for having the faith in me this whole time to kind of do this with you because it's been a special thing.
Guest:And this was a crazy, crazy way to culminate it.
Marc:Yeah, and you're welcome.
Marc:And I couldn't do it without you, man.
Marc:Thanks.
Marc:I trust you 100% with everything.
Marc:It's just so weird because we've worked together for a decade or more than a decade.
Marc:And, you know, we just work.
Marc:We don't yell.
Marc:There's no yelling.
Marc:We understand each other.
Marc:Like you're going to do that thing.
Marc:I'm going to do this thing.
Marc:Like that whole thing with Hawaii.
Guest:I mean, there's never fighting.
Guest:No, there's actually there's one time I was in my car and you called me about something you were unhappy with.
Guest:And I was explaining it to you or saying something.
Guest:And you're like, well, stop yelling at me.
Guest:And I realized like because I was in my car and I'm like talking on speaker.
Guest:I'm like, I'm going to pull over.
Guest:So you don't think I'm yelling at you.
Guest:Because I kind of pride myself on that.
Guest:They're like, no, I don't have fights with marriage.
Guest:We don't yell at each other.
Guest:So I was not going to get in a situation where we were fighting by accident.
Guest:My voice was getting raised.
Marc:Oh, that's hilarious.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:No, I thank you, too, because it's been an amazing journey, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for your skill and your mind and your capacity to work, and I've never met a smarter person, and I trust you to guide me through things I don't understand and to manage my output, and I respect your opinion above almost, really, actually above anybody else.
Guest:Thanks, man.
Guest:I respect your talent more than anybody else, and I really honestly mean that.
Guest:Thanks, buddy.
Guest:I've never met anybody more talented.
Marc:Oh, that's very nice.
Guest:And you have met someone smarter than me.
Guest:He was here today.
Marc:Oh yeah.
Marc:The president.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You can tell yourself that, but I mean, I think you're, you know, you're right up there.
Marc:I mean, you know, if you want to run for office, is that what you're trying to tell me?
Marc:I got to go.
Marc:I'm running.
Guest:I'm going to go to the Hawaii of the mind before I do that.
Marc:No, it was an amazing day.
Marc:And, and, uh, and, and, you know, we did it, man.
Marc:All right.
Marc:So when we put in rich Voss up, that'll be soon.
Marc:okay folks today the day i'm recording this is tuesday tuesday late afternoon early evening the podcast featuring me talking to president barack obama dropped yesterday
Marc:Since then, it's got almost a million downloads.
Marc:Amazing.
Marc:Did not know how it would all pan out.
Marc:But I'd like to share some reflections about how I feel today.
Marc:This is Tuesday.
Marc:This is Saturday, Sunday, Monday, almost four days after I talked to the president and a day after the world heard the... And I'm not trying to be grandiose by saying the world, but there was a reaction.
Marc:There was a reaction.
Marc:There was a reaction that rippled through the media in this country about the president's use of the N-word.
Marc:But see, I don't see it that way.
Marc:He said the N-word to talk about the use of the N-word.
Marc:But I'm not even going to parse.
Marc:I'm not even going to get into that.
Marc:I barely watched.
Marc:To be honest with you, I watched no television.
Marc:After the interview, I watched nothing yesterday.
Marc:I heard things.
Marc:My producer, Brendan McDonald, told me what was happening.
Marc:I read things.
Marc:I did a lot of press myself.
Marc:I tried to keep it away from just answering that question.
Marc:What do you think of of the president saying the N word?
Marc:I mean, there was so much there.
Marc:And the context of it was very clear.
Marc:He was talking about the broader problem of racism.
Marc:He didn't use the N-word.
Marc:He said it to make a point about using the N-word.
Marc:But it doesn't matter.
Marc:It doesn't matter.
Marc:The thing is, is that the response has been unbelievable.
Marc:99% of the feedback I've gotten, it was just wonderful.
Marc:And it was very humbling and it was great to hear it because I was nervous.
Marc:I was nervous how it would come off.
Marc:I didn't know after I talked to him, how was it?
Marc:How did I do?
Marc:What did he think?
Marc:I guess I'll never know that, but I get the feeling, the sense that they were happy.
Marc:They being the White House, he being the president.
Marc:It was baffling to me that there was a press conference around the issue of the N-word.
Marc:And I'm so happy I did not engage in it.
Marc:start watching TV or festering.
Marc:I've been really pretty holed up here.
Marc:I did some press.
Marc:I did very little press, really.
Marc:I did a bunch of print articles, some local TV.
Marc:I did Chris Hayes' show.
Marc:I called into The View.
Marc:But I really just talked about the experience because the experience for me is what it was really about.
Marc:And I feel pretty great about it.
Marc:And I don't think I've really...
Marc:I don't think I've really processed it because I didn't let in the public sort of barrage of what the president himself called the echo chamber.
Marc:I just didn't do it to myself.
Marc:I just got caught up with some emails, thanked a lot of friends who responded to it and congratulated me and told me what a great job I did.
Marc:My parents...
Marc:I talked to Louis for like an hour yesterday.
Marc:He was thrilled.
Marc:He was thrilled that the president said the N-word as well.
Marc:He felt that that was important.
Marc:But the bottom line for me is that
Marc:I've not talked about politics much on this program.
Marc:There was a time where I talked about politics every day publicly, made a very conscious choice not to talk about politics because it's just not my wheelhouse.
Marc:When I got the opportunity to talk to the president, and first of all,
Marc:I don't really care how cynical you are or what side you're on or how you feel anything is in the country or where you want to dump your anger or hang your hate.
Marc:As an American person, when the president of the United States of America requests an audience with you because of your show, wants to talk to you, it's an honor and a privilege.
Marc:And I felt that.
Marc:And I've never had a politician on this show.
Marc:And I did have a politician on this show, but it was the president of the United States of America.
Marc:And I just, I can't even believe it happened.
Marc:There are moments where for the few days after, you know, now where like it just dawns on me that the president of the United States was here because I was so focused, intently focused on having a one-on-one experience with him that like I just, all I wanted to do was connect with the guy.
Marc:And then as days go on, I have these flashes where I'm like, oh my God, I just, I talked to the fucking president.
Marc:The president was at my house.
Marc:What kind of world do we live in?
Marc:It's amazing.
Marc:Most people never get to meet the president or see the president in person.
Marc:Maybe they see a cargo buyer.
Marc:They were at a place where he was.
Marc:I was able not only to meet him, but to have an audience with him and and talk to him personally.
Marc:And it was mind blowing.
Marc:And I'm proud of it.
Marc:It was an amazing experience for me.
Marc:I had no preconceptions other than this might be difficult.
Marc:I'm not really that political anymore.
Marc:And, you know, in retrospect, what he said, he used my podcast where he was speaking directly to me to try and provoke people to get involved with politics, to be conscious, to engage.
Marc:That spoke to me directly.
Marc:But more than anything else, it was really just personally an amazing experience.
Marc:And it was an amazing experience that I was able to share with hundreds of thousands of people.
Marc:And and like I said, I've gotten nothing but beautiful feedback, which is important because because I don't I felt insecure about it.
Marc:And it seemed to move people in the right direction.
Marc:Got a lot of feedback from people who saying like, you know, I'm not I'm not not a fan of the president, but that was a great talk.
Marc:Don't like him.
Marc:Great talk on the other side.
Marc:Great talk.
Marc:And then a lot of people who were like, you know, I'd forgotten how he made me feel.
Marc:Great talk.
Marc:Really some poignant stuff he said and important stuff.
Marc:Great talk.
Marc:Then occasionally there's like, you talk to Satan.
Marc:Not a plus.
Marc:That's not in the plus column.
Marc:There were a few profoundly disturbing emails, but I expected that.
Marc:And I'm sort of surprised that I'm not really affected by it.
Marc:I haven't even tweeted hardly anything since it happened.
Marc:I don't even know how to re-engage with society right now and with what I have to do.
Marc:It's sort of like as it goes further away, because I don't listen to the episodes again, and I haven't been paying attention to TV.
Marc:I've been paying attention to my little sphere here.
Marc:but you know sadly you know the experience as each day goes by we'll get further into the past and i'll just have those flashes of like that was amazing you know what you know what's amazing about it is like there's the flash of like oh my god i talked to the president and it feels so huge but what what really sticks with me is how thoughtful he was and what a grounded human being he was and what uh you know what i taught i was talking to a guy who did a job that uh
Marc:that I was completely unfamiliar with on a day-to-day basis.
Marc:And he sat right across from me.
Marc:He grounded himself here.
Marc:He looked around my garage, connected with me.
Marc:And he is the president.
Marc:And he's a guy.
Marc:And unforgettable.
Marc:It was definitely a high point in my life for a lot of reasons.
Marc:And I'm glad that it happened.
Marc:And I'm glad that so many people got so much out of it.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:I just don't know when it's really going to sink in.
Marc:Unreal.
Marc:Never would have expected beyond my wildest dreams or imagination.
Marc:I talked to the president of the United States in my, in my house, my garage.
Marc:You guys, I don't, you guys, I'm not lying.
Marc:You guys heard it.
Marc:You heard it, right?
Marc:Am I awake?
Marc:Am I awake now?
Guest:God, I hope this isn't all just a fucking dream.
Marc:All right, wait, Brendan is still here, and what is it?
Marc:Do you want to do something?
Guest:I did, because I did have a little concern about this whole experience, that maybe you're going to get a little bit inflated.
Guest:You might get a big head or something about it.
Guest:There's a lot of people telling you how great a job you did, and, you know,
Guest:I thought maybe it's a useful time to go on the internet comments and see if there is any alternative opinion about your great opportunity and great success at interviewing the president.
Guest:And I did find some ones that had a counter opinion to the people who thought it was a great thing.
Guest:I won't say who they're from because these people put themselves up there anonymously anyway, so I'm not going to give this...
Guest:Just any sites that I saw, you know, the stories posted.
Guest:These were people leaving comments about Marc Maron interviewing the president.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Can't wait to hear Marc Maron complain about his miserable life to the president.
Guest:I hope he cancels on him.
Guest:Maron is the worst.
Guest:Did that really happen?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I didn't write these.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Marc Maron is proof that it pays to be the first to do something, even if you're terrible at it.
Guest:Oh, good.
Guest:I assume Barack Obama didn't piss off Marc Maron in the early 90s, so I guess this episode will be Marc Maron interrogating Obama about why he had the gall to become a two-term president just to stick it to him.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Is Marc Maron resentful of Obama's success?
Guest:Great.
Guest:Now I have to explain Marc Maron to my grandfather.
Guest:Thanks, Obama.
Guest:Now, this one, you know, is somebody who's praising you, but there's a little edge to it because he says, when I heard Marc Maron was interviewing the president, I thought, cool, he deserves it.
Guest:And a guy who told me to fuck off once is interviewing the president.
Guest:I know that guy.
Marc:I know that is.
Guest:And then this guy was actually very helpful, I thought.
Guest:This is a good one to go out on because it has to do with your insecurity about having caused a lot of traffic and disrupting your neighbors.
Guest:He said, citizens of Los Angeles, try not to blame Marc Maron for the traffic today.
Guest:I've heard he's a nice guy, although I have no idea who he is.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But right, good stick at the end.
Marc:All right.
Marc:I can handle that.
Marc:Good.
Marc:That's as bad as it gets.
Marc:I'm okay.
Marc:Well, I've kept a really bad one.
Marc:Oh, God damn it.
Marc:Okay, well, that's our show.
Marc:I hope that gives you enough backstory and enough reaction and enough sort of well-rounded picture of what happened around the interview with President Obama here in my garage.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Marc:All right, so now I guess it's back to business as usual.
Marc:I got dates coming up.
Marc:The Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York on June 25th.
Marc:I'll be at BAM at the Howard Opera House.
Marc:That is sold out.
Marc:I will be at the Paramount Theater in Huntington, New York on June 27th and the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey on June 28th.
Marc:Go to wtfpod.com.
Marc:Check the calendar.
Marc:I've got dates coming up in Portland and in Boulder and Denver.
Marc:Oh, man.
Guest:Boomer lives!