
Song Exploder
by Hrishikesh Hirway
Is this your podcast?Hrishikesh Hirway is an independent podcast creator and musician known for his insightful approach to storytelling in music. He has garnered acclaim for his ability to engage artists in meaningful conversations about their creative processe…
Insights from recent episode analysis
Audience Interest
Podcast Focus
Publishing Consistency
Platform Reach
Insights are generated by CastFox AI using publicly available data, episode content, and proprietary models.
Most discussed topics
Brands & references
Total monthly reach
Estimated from 36 chart positions in 36 markets.
By chart position
- 🇨🇦CA · Music#51M to 3M
- 🇬🇧GB · Music#10300K to 1M
- 🇦🇺AU · Music#13300K to 1M
- 🇺🇸US · Music#20300K to 1M
- 🇩🇪DE · Music#5830K to 100K
- Per-Episode Audience
Est. listeners per new episode within ~30 days
732K to 2.3M🎙 Daily cadence·362 episodes·Last published 2d ago - Monthly Reach
Unique listeners across all episodes (30 days)
2.4M to 7.7M🇨🇦39%🇬🇧13%🇦🇺13%+33 more - Active Followers
Loyal subscribers who consistently listen
976K to 3.1M27M real followers tracked across platforms
Market Insights
Platform Distribution
Reach across major podcast platforms, updated hourly
Total Followers
—
Total Plays
—
Total Reviews
—
* Data sourced directly from platform APIs and aggregated hourly across all major podcast directories.
On the show
From 11 epsHost
Recent guests
Recent episodes
Paul McCartney - Ripples in a Pond
Jun 10, 2026
Unknown duration
Hot Chip - Boy From School
May 20, 2026
Unknown duration
Key Change: Emma Straub
May 13, 2026
Unknown duration
The xx - Crystalised
May 6, 2026
25m 46s
Yusuf / Cat Stevens - Father and Son
Apr 22, 2026
19m 27s
Social Links & Contact
Official channels & resources
Official Website
Login
RSS Feed
Login
| Date | Episode | Topics | Guests | Brands | Places | Keywords | Sponsor | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/10/26 | ![]() Paul McCartney - Ripples in a Pond | Paul McCartney is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer whose career spans more than six decades. As a member of The Beatles and later Wings and then with his own solo albums, he’s simply one of the most influential artists of all time. He has more accolades than I have time to list in this intro. But if you’re listening to this, you already know all that. In May 2026, he released his twentieth solo album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane. He co-produced it with Andrew Watt, who won the 2021 Grammy for Producer of the Year, and whose credits include working with Lady Gaga, The Rolling Stones, Justin Bieber, and Elton John. For this episode, I spoke to Paul McCartney about how he wrote and recorded his song "Ripples in a Pond." For more info, visit songexploder.net/paul-mccartney. | — | ||||||
| 5/20/26 | ![]() Hot Chip - Boy From School | Hot Chip is a band from London made up of Alexis Taylor, Joe Goddard, Al Doyle, Owen Clarke, and Felix Martin. Their second album, The Warning, came out in 2006. It was nominated for a Mercury Prize, and named one of the best albums of the year by NME and Pitchfork. And later, NME would include it in their list of best albums of all time. For this episode, I talked to them about one of the songs from The Warning called “Boy From School.” You might have heard it in the second season of the show Beef on Netflix—the band’s also in the show—or you might have heard it on The Simpsons. You could have also heard the song in my car all the time in 2006. So I was very excited to talk to Alexis and Joe from Hot Chip about how “Boy from School” was made.For more info, visit songexploder.net/hot-chip. | — | ||||||
| 5/13/26 | ![]() Key Change: Emma Straub | My guest today is the bestselling author Emma Straub. Her books include 'This Time Tomorrow,' 'Modern Lovers,' 'The Vacationers,' and more. And with her husband, Michael Fusco, she co-owns the beautiful Brooklyn bookstore Books Are Magic.I'm so thrilled to have her on because, not only is she a wonderful writer, but Key Change is a series about music fandom and identity. And Emma's newest novel 'American Fantasy' is also about music fandom and identity. That story is set on a cruise ship centered around a nineties boy band and their fans.But today, Emma's going to tell me her story about her own relationship with the music of The Magnetic Fields. Stephin Merritt from the Magnetic Fields was just named one of the greatest living American songwriters by the New York Times, and Emma’s introduction to their music was their 1999 triple album, '69 Love Songs.' For more info, visit songexploder.net/emma-straub. | — | ||||||
| 5/6/26 | ![]() The xx - Crystalised✨ | The xxmusic history+3 | Romy CroftOliver Sim+1 | The xxYoung+6 | — | The xxCrystalised+6 | — | 25m 46s | |
| 4/22/26 | ![]() Yusuf / Cat Stevens - Father and Son✨ | musicsongwriting+4 | Yusuf / Cat Stevens | Rock & Roll Hall of FameTea for the Tillerman²+2 | The TroubadourLos Angeles | YusufCat Stevens+8 | — | 19m 27s | |
| 4/15/26 | ![]() The Memory Palace: The Thundering Herd, The Vanishing American✨ | storytellingmusic inspiration+3 | — | The Memory PalaceKeeled Scales+1 | — | The Memory PalaceNate DiMeo+3 | — | 24m 52s | |
| 4/8/26 | ![]() Hurray for the Riff Raff - Alibi✨ | musicsongwriting+3 | Alynda Segarra | Hurray for the Riff RaffNew York Times+6 | — | Hurray for the Riff RaffAlynda Segarra+3 | — | 22m 43s | |
| 3/25/26 | ![]() Jack Harlow - Say Hello✨ | Jack Harlowmusic production+3 | Jack Harlow | MonicaSay Hello | Louisville, Kentucky | Jack HarlowSay Hello+5 | — | 25m 35s | |
| 3/18/26 | ![]() Key Change: Baz Luhrmann on "Time After Time."✨ | film directionmusic in film+4 | Baz Luhrmann | Time After TimeMoulin Rouge!+5 | Australia | Baz LuhrmannTime After Time+5 | — | 22m 09s | |
| 3/11/26 | ![]() Thompson Twins - Hold Me Now✨ | music historysongwriting+4 | Tom Bailey | Thompson TwinsInto the Gap | Sheffield | Thompson TwinsHold Me Now+5 | — | 24m 26s | |
Want analysis for the episodes below?Free for Pro Submit a request, we'll have your selected episodes analyzed within an hour. Free, at no cost to you, for Pro users. | |||||||||
| 2/25/26 | ![]() Silvana Estrada - Como Un Pájaro✨ | musicsongwriting+3 | Silvana Estrada | Latin GrammyComo Un Pájaro | Veracruz, Mexico | Silvana EstradaComo Un Pájaro+3 | — | 25m 39s | |
| 2/18/26 | ![]() Iron & Wine - Flightless Bird, American Mouth✨ | Iron & Winemusic collaboration+3 | Sam Beam | Hen’s TeethStray Dogs+2 | Wimberly, TexasBlue Rock Artist Ranch and Studio | Iron & WineFlightless Bird, American Mouth+3 | — | 28m 57s | |
| 2/11/26 | ![]() The Marías - No One Noticed✨ | band historymusic production+3 | María ZardoyaGianluca Buccellati | The MaríasStereogum+1 | — | The MaríasNo One Noticed+3 | — | 25m 04s | |
| 1/28/26 | ![]() Leon Thomas - Mutt✨ | musicGrammy Awards+4 | Leon Thomas | Grammy AwardsMutt+3 | — | Leon ThomasMutt+4 | — | 24m 53s | |
| 1/21/26 | ![]() Key Change: John Green on "You'll Never Walk Alone." | My guest today is John Green. John is the award-winning, #1 bestselling author of books including 'Looking for Alaska,' 'The Fault in Our Stars,' 'Turtles All the Way Down,' 'The Anthropocene Reviewed,' and 'Everything is Tuberculosis.' John and his brother Hank Green have co-created a lot of projects together, including their massive YouTube channel, Vlogbrothers, and their podcast, 'Dear Hank and John.' He also serves on the Board of Trustees for global health nonprofit Partners in Health. And when I asked John if there was a piece of music that changed his life, he knew the answer right away: "You'll Never Walk Alone" by Gerry and the Pacemakers.For more info, visit songexploder.net/john-green. | — | ||||||
| 1/14/26 | ![]() Hit-Boy and Nipsey Hussle - Racks In the Middle (feat. Roddy Ricch and Hit-Boy) | Hit-Boy is an award-winning producer and rapper from LA. He’s one of my all-time favorite producers, from “Backseat Freestyle” by Kendrick Lamar, to “Sicko Mode” by Travis Scott, to tracks he’s made for Beyonce, Nas, and the Jay-Z & Kanye album Watch the Throne. So I was really excited to talk to him, and when I asked him which song from his incredible catalog he wanted to talk about, I was really moved by his choice. He picked “Racks in the Middle” by Nipsey Hussle, featuring Roddy Ricch. Nipsey Hussle was a rapper and community activist from LA whose career was cut short, tragically, when he was murdered in 2019. He’d released just one album, Victory Lap. “Racks in the Middle” was the last song released in Nipsey’s lifetime. It went platinum, and a year after his death, it won the Grammy for Best Rap Performance, in 2020. This episode features a few short clips from a video that Nipsey Hussle made for the website Genius, back in 2019. There’s a link to the full video that he made in the shownotes. But here in the studio, to tell the story, I spoke to Hit-Boy about how “Racks in the Middle” came together.To learn more, visit songexploder.net/hit-boy. | — | ||||||
| 12/17/25 | ![]() Air - Playground Love (feat. Gordon Tracks) | The band Air is a duo from Versailles, France. Their first EP came out in 1995, followed by their critically acclaimed debut album, ‘Moon Safari,' which was an international hit. Then they made the music for the film ‘The Virgin Suicides,‘ which was written and directed by Oscar-winner Sofia Coppola, based on the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides. The movie came out in 1999, and it was Sofia Coppola’s first film. An album version of Air’s score came out in 2000, and it was nominated for a Brit award. Pitchfork put it at number four on their list of the best film scores of all time. In addition to the instrumental music that appears in the movie, Air also wrote a song for the end credits called “Playground Love.” That song featured Sofia Coppola’s future husband, Thomas Mars, from the French band Phoenix, on vocals. Phoenix was still a very new band, and he and Sofia hadn’t even met yet. Thomas appears on the song under the name Gordon Tracks. So for this episode, I spoke to all of them: Nicolas and JB from Air; Sofia Coppola; Thomas Mars; as well as Brian Reitzell, the music supervisor of the film.For more info, visit songexploder.net/air. | — | ||||||
| 12/10/25 | ![]() Key Change: Rian Johnson on Wagner's 'Das Rheingold' | My guest today is director Rian Johnson, which is exciting for me, because I’ve been a huge fan of his ever since seeing his first feature film, ‘Brick,' in 2006. Since then, he’s made six more feature films, including ‘Looper‘ in 2012; ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi‘ in 2017; the murder mystery ‘Knives Out‘ in 2019; and his most recent movie, another in the 'Knives Out' series, ‘Wake Up Dead Man,‘ which is already out in theaters, and comes to Netflix on December 12. I talked to Rian about a piece of music that had a profound impact on him, which was the overture to ‘Das Rheingold‘ by Richard Wagner. For more info, visit songexploder.net/rian-johnson. | — | ||||||
| 12/3/25 | ![]() Jessie Reyez - Goliath | Jessie Reyez is a singer and songwriter originally from Toronto. She's won two of Canada's Juno awards, and she's been nominated for a Grammy. In addition to writing her own music, Jessie's been a songwriter on tracks by Calvin Harris, Dua Lipa, Sam Smith, Eminem, and many others. You're probably aware that there are songwriters and producers whose names you'll find over and over again in the credits for big hits; Jessie is one of them. But for this episode, I talked to her about her own song "Goliath." And the day that she wrote that song, she happened to be in the studio with a bunch of other songwriters and producers. So I also talked to Jordan and Stefan Johnson, from the production team Monsters & Strangerz, and Jeff Gitelman, AKA Gitty. Between the three of them, their credits also include songs by Selena Gomez, Maroon 5, Alicia Keys, Mac Miller, and again, tons more.When a group like this gets together to write music, they don't always know if they're going to be making a song that's going to get recorded and released by an artist somewhere down the line, or if the song's going to get recorded at all. But in the case of "Goliath," what came out was a song that was very personal to Jessie Reyez.For more info, visit songexploder.net/jessie-reyez. | — | ||||||
| 11/19/25 | ![]() Key Change: Demi Adejuyigbe on The Strokes | My guest today is Demi Adejuyigbe. One of the things that makes Demi so special is how hard it is to summarize him in an intro like this, because he has so many talents and applies them in so many different ways. He is a standup comedian, with a brand new one-hour special out on Dropout TV. He co-hosted the podcasts Gilmore Guys and Punch Up the Jam. He’s a screenwriter, who wrote on TV shows like The Good Place. He’s famous on the internet for his parody songs, spoofing artists like Will Smith and Lana Del Rey; and for his September videos, where, for years, he made increasingly elaborate videos of himself, dancing to the Earth, Wind & Fire song. And he used the popularity of those videos to raise over a million dollars for charity. He’s also directed several music videos, including one that he made for one of my songs, back in 2022. And for this episode, we’re talking as much about a music video as the song within it. And that song is "You Only Live Once" by The Strokes.Demi's new special, Demi Adejuyigbe is Going to do One (1) Backflip, is on Dropout TV. For more info, visit songexploder.net/demi-adejuyigbe. | — | ||||||
| 11/12/25 | ![]() Clipse - The Birds Don't Sing | Clipse was formed in 1994 by two brothers: Gene Thornton Jr, aka Malice, and his younger brother Terrence Thornton, aka Pusha T. From the beginning, they’ve worked with producer Pharrell Williams, originally as part of the acclaimed production duo, The Neptunes. But then, there was a 16 year gap between the third Clipse album, which came out in 2009, and their most recent album, Let God Sort Em Out, which came out in July 2025. This November, they were nominated for 5 Grammys, including Album of the Year. They were also nominated for Best Rap Song, for “The Birds Don’t Sing.” It’s a song that they made after the death of both of their parents in the span of just a few months. For this episode, I asked Pusha T, Malice, and Pharrell about the making of that song, which also features contributions from John Legend and Stevie Wonder. For more info, visit songexploder.net/clipse. | — | ||||||
| 10/29/25 | ![]() Buckingham Nicks - Frozen Love | On September 5, 1973, the first and only Buckingham Nicks album was released. It wasn’t a huge hit, but it was how the world was first introduced to the music of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, before they went on to become members of Fleetwood Mac. Their time together in Fleetwood Mac led to some of the best-selling, most critically acclaimed, and most influential albums of all time. Their individual talents, their musical chemistry together, and the ups and downs of their romantic relationship all eventually became legendary. And yet, despite all that, the Buckingham Nicks album went out of print not long after it came out. For over 50 years, it wasn’t available, until it finally got re-mastered and re-released in September 2025. So for this episode, I spoke to both Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham about the making of one of the songs from that album, called “Frozen Love.” It’s the only song on the album where they’re credited as co-writers, and it’s the song that led Mick Fleetwood to invite Lindsey Buckingham to join Fleetwood Mac. But Lindsey would only join if Stevie could, too, and that’s how that story began. So this episode is about a beginning and an ending. It’s the story of how Stevie and Lindsey first met, and how they made "Frozen Love," and how that song really led to the end of their band. I also want to mention that not only was Buckingham Nicks out of print for all those decades, no one has heard the isolated tracks that you’re about to hear. To make this episode, there was an epic search for the original master tape from Sound City, the studio where they recorded the album with producer Keith Olsen. It took months, but the tape was finally tracked down and digitized, and it feels very special to be able to present this for the first time here, along with the memories and stories from Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. For more info, visit songexploder.net/buckingham-nicks. | — | ||||||
| 10/22/25 | ![]() Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way | Next week, I’m going to be publishing an episode with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham about the making of the song “Frozen Love,” from their only album as the duo Buckingham Nicks. That song is what eventually led to them joining Fleetwood Mac. So in anticipation of next week’s episode, I thought it would be great to go back seven years and revisit this Fleetwood Mac episode from 2018, about the making of “Go Your Own Way.” I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you’ll come back to hear the Buckingham Nicks episode.-Lindsey Buckingham is a singer-songwriter, a guitarist, and a producer. In 1974, he joined the band Fleetwood Mac, along with Stevie Nicks, his girlfriend at the time. A few year later, in 1977, Fleetwood Mac released the album Rumours, which would go on to sell over 40 million copies and become the eighth highest-selling album in history. In this episode, Lindsey Buckingham breaks down “Go Your Own Way," a song he wrote for that album about his relationship with Stevie Nicks.For more, visit songexploder.net/fleetwood-mac. | — | ||||||
| 10/15/25 | ![]() A-ha - Take On Me | "Take On Me" by A-ha is an iconic hit of the 1980s. It came out in October 1985 with an equally iconic music video that helped define the age of MTV. It hit #1 in the US and in countries all over the world. And it's still massively popular today. It currently has over two and a half billion streams on Spotify. So, with all of that, it's easy to imagine that this was all inevitable. But actually, the song took so many steps and missteps before it became the hit that everybody knows. I talked to Paul Waaktaar-Savoy from A-ha, who wrote the original bones of the song back when he was a teenager in Norway, years before it came out. The song actually came out and flopped TWICE in the UK, before it found a foothold in the US. So for this episode, Paul took me through the whole history of the song, and all the different versions that existed. And he told me how he and his bandmates, Magne Furuholmen and Morten Harket, pushed and pushed and persevered. "Take On Me" was their first single as a band, and it made them the most successful Norwegian pop group of all time.For more info, visit songexploder.net/a-ha. | — | ||||||
| 10/1/25 | ![]() Lady Gaga - Abracadabra | Lady Gaga is a singer, songwriter, producer, and actress from New York. She’s one of the biggest artists in the world. She’s also won 14 Grammys, 2 Golden Globes, and an Oscar. And in March 2025, she released her sixth album, Mayhem. For this episode, I talked to her about a song from that album called “Abracadabra.” She co-wrote it and co-produced it with Andrew Watt and Cirkut, and they recorded it in Rick Rubin’s studio, Shangri-La. That’s also where we recorded the interview for this episode.For more info, visit songexploder.net/lady-gaga. | — | ||||||
Showing 25 of 367
Sponsor Intelligence
Sign in to see which brands sponsor this podcast, their ad offers, and promo codes.
Similar Audience Demographics
Podcasts that attract a similar listener profile
Chart Positions
36 placements across 36 markets.
Chart Positions
36 placements across 36 markets.

























