The Musical Mind of Hrishikesh Hirway
Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
iHeartPodcasts
4.3 • 8.4K Ratings
🗓️ 17 March 2026
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Hrishikesh Hirway is an acclaimed musician, composer, podcast creator, producer, and television host. Hirway is best known as the creator and host of “Song Exploder”, a podcast where musicians break down their songs and tell the story of how they were made. Hirway is also the creator and co-host of podcasts “The West Wing Weekly” (with co-host Joshua Malina), “Home Cooking” (with co-host Samin Nosrat), and “Partners”. In addition to the podcast, Hirway is the executive producer and host of the Netflix television adaptation of “Song Exploder”. As a composer, Hirway scored the Netflix television show “Everything Sucks!” and the films “Our Nixon”, “Save the Date”, and “Companion”. As a musician, Hirway has made multiple albums under the name The One AM Radio and his music has appeared on TV shows such as “Gossip Girl” and “One Tree Hill”. Based in Los Angeles, Hirway and host Alec Baldwin sat down for a live conversation recorded at On-Air Fest in Brooklyn.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:02.3 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:06.2 | This is Alec Baldwin, |
| 0:08.0 | and you're listening to Here's the Thing from IHeart Radio. |
| 0:12.9 | Few people illuminate the art of music and storytelling like my guest today. |
| 0:18.4 | Rishi Kesh Hirwe didn't set out to become one of the biggest podcasters in the |
| 0:23.1 | world, but that's precisely what happened when he created the Song Exploder podcast in 2014. |
| 0:31.0 | In addition to podcast host, Hirway is a composer, record producer, and artist. His latest album, In the Last Hour of Light, |
| 0:40.7 | will be released April 24th. Along with Song Exploder, Hereway is the creator of the podcast |
| 0:47.6 | Partners, the West Wing Weekly, and the award-winning home cooking with chef and co-host Samin Nasratz. |
| 0:55.9 | As a composer, Hereway has penned the scores for feature films and documentaries, |
| 1:01.6 | a Netflix TV series, and a video game. |
| 1:05.2 | His music has appeared on hit TV shows like Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill. |
| 1:10.9 | Hereway has a gift for tapping into the cultural zeitgeist |
| 1:14.1 | and drawing out the creative spark from some of the world's best musicians. |
| 1:19.3 | I asked Rishi to be my guest for a live taping at the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn for On Air Fest. |
| 1:26.1 | Growing up in an Indian household, I was curious how Hereway's childhood |
| 1:30.6 | shaped his cultural worldview and how he first connected with music. Well, I have an older sister, Priya, |
| 1:38.1 | and she's five years older than me, so I really inherited so much of my taste from her. And that basically meant listening to Top 40 Radio. |
| 1:46.9 | She went to school and she found out what was cool from other friends. |
| 1:50.5 | And so we just listened to whatever she was listening to. |
| 1:53.6 | The first time that I got to actually make music choices of my own was when she got a Columbia |
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