Hrishikesh Hirway


Hrishikesh Chandra Hirway is an American musician, composer, and podcaster. He has made records as The One AM Radio, and scored the television show Everything Sucks!, and the films Our Nixon and Save the Date. He is the creator and host of the podcasts Song Exploder, The West Wing Weekly, and Partners.

Early life

Hirway was born in Massachusetts to Kanta Hirway and Sumesh C. Hirway of Peabody, Massachusetts. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy for high school and went on to attend Yale University from 1996 to 2000 where he majored in Art and studied graphic design, photography, and film studies.

Podcasting career

In 2014, Hirway created the podcast Song Exploder, which features musicians breaking down well-known songs. Artists that have featured on the podcast include Björk, Weezer, and Mumford & Sons. Hirway hosted the show from its inception to January 2019, when he handed hosting duties over to Thao Nguyen. Hirway returned to host in December 2019.
Hirway also co-created the podcast The West Wing Weekly, a retrospective of the TV series The West Wing. Releasing episodes from March 2016, the show took an episode-by-episode look at the TV series, co-hosted by Joshua Malina and featuring interviews from many cast members and real-life political figures including Martin Sheen, Aaron Sorkin, and Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau.
In February 2020 Radiotopia and Mailchimp announced a new podcast from Hirway called Partners. Each episode of the show will feature interviews from a pair of creators, business owners, and spouses.
In March 2020, Hirway and Samin Nosrat started the podcast Home Cooking, which set out to help people cook for themselves in the midst of the COVID-19 global health crisis.

Personal life

Hirway lives in Los Angeles and is married to Lindsey Mortensen, a fashion designer.