Hrishikesh Hirway — a singer-songwriter, producer, podcaster, and television host — visited Brunswick in April to speak with parents and students about how he built an eclectic, successful career as a “maker” and how learning to listen well became key to his craft.

Hirway, the host of the award-winning podcast Sound Exploder and a flourishing musician in his own right, told Upper School students that he built his career by following his heart, working hard, and by finding opportunity in the moment he got stuck. It did not happen by having a plan.

Hirway attended Phillips Exeter and Yale University, where he majored in art. It was a path that alarmed his hard-working, immigrant parents.

“The idea of majoring in art was unfathomable to my parents,” Hirway said. “My parents would ask: ‘How are you going to make a living?’

“I didn’t have an answer,” he said. “But I loved my art classes.”

A sensible job doing graphic design followed, but bit by bit over the next 10 years he pursued his music career. He figured out how to connect his passion for music with a strong work ethic and a sense of self determination, releasing four albums by 2011. 

Then, at 30, writer’s block set in.

“The problem with following my heart was that my heart was actually still full of doubts,” he said. “These kinds of doubts led me right into the rocks, and I got stuck.”

“I could not figure out how to make music anymore,” he said. “Once again, I had to figure out what to do.”

Hirway returned to the same question — What do I love? — that had guided him since college. He combined talents. From his music career, he knew how to put audio together. From his art classes at Yale, he knew how to have conversations with artists about the creative process. These were the sparks that launched Hirway’s award-winning podcast, Sound Exploder. 

With more than 300 episodes featuring musicians like Billie Eilish, Selena Gomez, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show brings world-class artists to the microphone to talk about how their songs were made. According to an article in The Telegraph, the show offers “some of the finest explorations of the creative process you’ll ever hear.”

“That’s not something I had planned,” Hirway said. “It was an evolution of my original mission statement. By not having a plan, I was open to new possibilities.”

Hirway went on to create more podcasts, on cooking and other interests, as well as a Netflix series. He finally relaunched his own music career in a collaboration on grief with Yo-Yo Ma. Hirway’s TED Talk, What you discover when you really listen, has well over three million plays.

Hirway’s visit served as the fourth and final installment of the 2024–25 ’WICK Center Speaker Series, which brings leading health-and-wellness thinkers to campus.