LISTEN – Podcasts are next to godliness –
Oct. 22, 2020 – There was nothing funny, of course, about the death that motivated Wachs’ podcast, “Last Day,” which premiered its second season Wednesday. Her little brother, Harris Wittels — a comedian, writer and guest performer on “Parks and Recreation” — died from an accidental heroin overdose on Feb. 19, 2015. He was 30.
Wittels’ death shocked and rattled the Los Angeles comedy community. His entertainment tenure was short but indelible: He coined the term “humblebrag,” and his chill, off-color, Phish-loving persona endeared him to podcast listeners as well as mentors and colleagues such as Sarah Silverman and “Comedy Bang! Bang!” host Scott Aukerman. He was set to play Aziz Ansari’s best friend in the Netflix series “Master of None” (the role was instead assumed by Eric Wareheim), and many of his famous friends grieved publicly and poignantly. But it was a much deeper, more intimate loss for Wachs, who wrote her 2018 memoir, “Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful,” purely as an act of survival, says the 39-year-old mom of two. “I felt like I was dying of grief and pain.” She heard from many grateful, grieving people who told her they devoured the book in a single day — including Jessica Cordova Kramer, executive producer of the activist podcast “Pod Save the People.”
