How that Wasn't Ted | S2E4 "Ted Mosby: Architect"
How We Made Your Mother
Audacy & Josh Radnor and Craig Thomas
4.8 • 920 Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2025
⏱️ 65 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
In this episode of How We Made Your Mother, Josh Radnor and Craig Thomas revisit Season 2, Episode 4, “Ted Mosby: Architect,” which aired October 9, 2006. They reflect on the show’s use of music—like the Decemberists’ “Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect”—and how songs became part of Ted’s emotional language. They discuss the episode’s mystery structure, Robin and Ted’s first fight, and the episode’s emotional ending, where Ted shares his architectural dream with Robin. The two dive deep into the craft of storytelling, the symbolism of architecture, and the “HIMYM” balance between comedy and emotional truth. They also talk about Field of Dreams, music supervision, and fan letters that show how the series became a source of comfort and inspiration for viewers.
General Questions we Sort of Answer:
How did Spokane get chosen for the skyscraper site?
Was the Decemberists’ song chosen just because it had “architect” in the title, or for its lyrics?
Where do Carter and Craig’s real lives end and the fictional HIMYM characters begin?
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AND MORE:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | My name's Camma. I'm from Astero, Florida. What is how I made your mother mean to me? It means a lot, actually. I started watching it early high school. I fell in love with it, man. I've watched it ever since. I'm in college now. I really resonated with a lot of the characters in the show, but mostly Ted and his music choices. I noticed, you know, like a lot of the times when Ted falls in love, it's George Harrison will play. |
| 0:24.6 | And, you know, he loves Otis Redding, so sometimes like cigarettes and coffee will play. It's like he had this soundtrack to his life. And I remember I showed up to my entrepreneurship class. |
| 0:34.6 | They asked us, you know, what do you want to do with your life? |
| 0:38.3 | I knew in that moment that it was music. You know, I wanted to give people a soundtrack to their lives. I wanted to help people. You know, it's the reason I started a record label this year, you know, from the ground up, me and a bunch of people, a bunch of nerds about music. So I guess I love how I met your mother for a lot of reasons, but it definitely |
| 0:55.2 | taught me how to care about what you love and not be ashamed to nerd out about it. And if you surround |
| 1:00.9 | yourself with the right people, they'll support it. So hope this reaches you guys. Big fan of the show. |
| 1:07.0 | Have a great day. I'm alone. What a pity I won't be soon in New York City when I see you. |
| 1:20.4 | Please permit me to tell you everything in New York City. |
| 1:28.3 | Hello, and welcome to another episode of How We Made Your Mother, where I, Josh Radner, sit with my very good friend Craig Thomas. |
| 1:34.3 | Hi Craig. |
| 1:35.3 | Hey there, Josh. |
| 1:36.3 | And we talk about a TV show that we made, no, many years ago. |
| 1:40.3 | Yeah. |
| 1:41.3 | Together, it was called How I Met Your Mother. It ran on CBS from 2005 to 2014. I played |
| 1:47.0 | Ted Mosby on that show, The I and How I Met Your Mother. And Craig co-created the show with his |
| 1:51.8 | college bud, Carter Bays. And yeah, we just heard an awesome voice note from... I loved that. |
| 1:59.9 | That was so great. That was so great. |
| 2:01.1 | That was so great. |
| 2:02.6 | The music part is such a big part of the show and such a big part of our bond and |
| 2:07.1 | Carter's bond with you. |
| 2:08.3 | Like music really was, we all liked the same stuff, right? |
| 2:12.3 | It really put us on the same page right away music. |
... |
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