Confessor. Feminist. Adult. What the Hell Happened to Howard Stern?

Near the end of his interview with Bill Murray, Howard Stern turned an already somber discussion about missed career opportunities into an existential grilling.

“Is there something that you question in your own life,” Mr. Stern asked, “like why haven’t I found that great love of my life?”

Mr. Murray audibly exhaled and let a pensive moment of silence pass. “Well, I think about that, I do think about that, that um, you know. I’m not sure what my — what I’m getting done here,” he said, sounding like a man questioning his ultimate purpose. Dating seemed like a bad idea, he went on, given that he was such a mystery to himself, and a mystery that he was not very eager to solve.

“What has stopped you from getting in touch with you?” asked Robin Quivers, Mr. Stern’s longtime co-host.

“What stops us from looking at ourselves and seeing ourselves is that we’re kind of ugly, if we really, if we look really hard,” Mr. Murray replied. “We’re not who we think we are. We’re not, uh we’re not as wonderful as we think we are.”