In 2015 and 2016, "The New York Times" and "The Washington Post" addressed changes in the show's direction, with an emphasis on celebrity interviews and change in tone. "The New York Times" wrote: "Scattered among the gleefully vulgar mainstays are now long, starkly intimate live exchanges — character excavations that have made Mr. Stern one of the most deft and engrossing celebrity interviewers in the business and a sought-after stop for stars selling a movie or setting the record straight." Amongst the changes to the show, some Wack Pack members have been given less offensive names; Wendy the Retard was renamed Wendy the Slow Adult. During an interview with Madonna, Stern said of his earlier years in radio, "I used to say bad things about everybody ... I was an angry young man." Former staff member Jackie Martling commented, "Howard has become a lot of the things that he always told people not to become", while John Melendez said, "There’s nothing wrong with change, but the old Howard would probably goof on the new Howard now."