Song Exploder
Episodes
Book Exploder: Celeste Ng - Little Fires Everywhere
12 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Celeste Ng is an American writer and author of three novels. Her second novel, Little Fires Everywhere, was published in 2017 and became a #1 New York...
King Princess - Let Us Die
05 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
King Princess is the project of Mikaela Straus, a singer, songwriter, and producer from Brooklyn. She’s a platinum-selling artist, and she put out h...
Book Exploder: Tayari Jones - An American Marriage
28 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Tayari Jones is the author of four novels. She won the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Fine Arts from the...
Panic! At the Disco - Viva Las Vengeance
21 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Panic! At the Disco is the Grammy-nominated project of Brendon Urie, who originally started it as a band with his high school friends from Las Vegas i...
Book Exploder: Carmen Maria Machado - In the Dream House
14 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Carmen Maria Machado is the award-winning author of In the Dream House, a memoir where each chapter has its own vivid style of storytelling. It won th...
Björk - Stonemilker
07 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In January 2015, Björk released Vulnicura. She described it as "a complete heartbreak album." And in November, she released Vulnicura Strings, a comp...
Book Exploder: Michael Cunningham - The Hours
31 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Cunningham is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours. He’s the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Gugge...
Madonna - Hung Up
24 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Madonna is the best-selling female recording artist of all time. She has twelve albums that have gone multi-platinum. She’s won seven Grammys, and h...
Book Exploder: Min Jin Lee - Pachinko
17 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Min Jin Lee is the author of the best-selling novel Pachinko. She’s a Guggenheim Fellow, and the recipient of South Korea's Manhae Grand Prize for L...
Kae Tempest - Move
10 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Kae Tempest is a songwriter, rapper, an award-winning poet, and best-selling novelist. They’ve been nominated for the UK’s Mercury Prize and Brit ...
Book Exploder: Susan Orlean - The Library Book
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Introducing a new miniseries: Book Exploder, where authors break down a passage from one of their books, and discuss the creative process that went in...
Sudan Archives - Selfish Soul
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sudan Archives is a singer, songwriter, producer, and violinist. She grew up in Cincinnati before moving to LA. Her music has been called "viscerally ...
mxmtoon - Mona Lisa
13 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Maia from mxmtoon released her first EP in 2018. She was 18 years old, recorded it in her bedroom, and self-released it. It went on to be streamed ove...
Monica Martin - Go Easy, Kid
29 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Monica Martin is a singer and songwriter based in Los Angeles. Before that, she was based in Madison, Wisconsin, where she was part of the indie rock ...
Maren Morris - Humble Quest
15 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Maren Morris is a Grammy-winning, multi-platinum artist. She’s also won multiple country music awards, including CMAs for Female Vocalist of the Yea...
Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up
01 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Rick Astley is a singer and songwriter from England, whose debut single, "Never Gonna Give You Up," became an international smash hit. The song came o...
Kevin Morby - This Is a Photograph
18 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Kevin Morby is a singer and songwriter based in Kansas City. He’s put out seven albums since 2013, including his most recent one, This is a Photogra...
Arooj Aftab - Mohabbat
04 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Arooj Aftab is a singer and composer based in Brooklyn. She grew up in Saudi Arabia, but her family is from Pakistan. And earlier this year, she made ...
Partners: Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
20 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week, I want to introduce you to another podcast that I make, called Partners. It’s a show about partnerships that was born out of Song Explode...
Peaches - Boys Wanna Be Her
06 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Peaches is a musician, producer, and performance artist. She’s released six albums and in 2015, she won the Polaris Heritage Music Prize. Her four...
Steve Reich - Different Trains: America, Before the War
23 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Reich is a legendary composer who was one of the pioneers of minimalism. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music, and the New York Times cal...
Perfume Genius - Slip Away
09 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mike Hadreas has been making music under the name Perfume Genius since 2008. In May 2017, he put out his fourth album, No Shape, to widespread critica...
Sarah Kinsley - The King
23 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah Kinsley is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Her most recent release is an EP called The King, which came out in 2021. When she m...
Brandi Carlile - You and Me On the Rock (feat. Lucius)
09 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Brandi Carlile is a singer and songwriter from Washington State. She's released seven albums and won six Grammys. Her most recent album is In These ...
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
26 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The band Franz Ferdinand formed in 2002, in Glasgow, Scotland. They’ve won the Mercury Prize and two BRIT Awards, they have five Grammy nominations,...
Joy Oladokun - Look Up
12 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Joy Oladokun is a singer and songwriter from Arizona, now based in Nashville, who’s been releasing music since 2015. Last year, she was named an Art...
Danny Elfman - What’s This? (from “The Nightmare Before Christmas”)
15 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas came out in 1993. It’s a stop-motion animated musical, with music by legendary composer Danny Elfman. ...
Halsey - You Asked for This
01 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Halsey is an award-winning singer and songwriter from New Jersey. She's been nominated for two Grammys, and sold over a million records. In August, sh...
Hans Zimmer - Dune
17 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The movie Dune was released on October 21. It's the most recent adaptation of Frank Herbert's epic science fiction novel from 1965. The film was direc...
The War On Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore (feat. Lucius)
03 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The War on Drugs is a band from Philadelphia who formed in 2005. They won the Grammy for Best Rock Album in 2018. This year, they put out their fifth ...
Willow - Transparent Soul feat. Travis Barker
20 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Willow Smith is a singer and songwriter from Los Angeles. She’s also a member of one of the most famous families in the world. From a very young age...
Hrishikesh Hirway TED Talk - What You Learn When You Listen Closely
13 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This summer, I gave a TED Talk at the TED Conference. My talk was about what you discover when you really listen. It was based on how making Song Expl...
John Lennon - God
06 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this year, I got an amazing email—the estate of John Lennon said that they have a treasure trove of audio material from his life, and they w...
Lucy Dacus - Thumbs
22 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Lucy Dacus is a singer and songwriter from Richmond, Virginia. She put out her first album in 2016, and in 2018 she formed the band boygenius with Jul...
Mustafa - Air Forces
08 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mustafa is a singer, songwriter, and poet from Toronto. He gained national recognition in Canada for his poetry. in 2016, he served on Prime Minister ...
Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers
25 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Lykke Li is a singer and songwriter from Sweden. She started releasing music in 2007, and for much of her career, she’s worked with producer Björn ...
The Shins - New Slang
11 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Singer, songwriter, and producer James Mercer of The Shins wrote “New Slang” when he was living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It came out as a sing...
Cheap Trick - Surrender
28 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The song "Surrender" by Cheap Trick was released in 1978. Rolling Stone called it the ultimate 70s teen anthem, and included it in their list of the g...
Fousheé - Deep End
14 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The story of how the song "Deep End" came into existence and became a hit is kind of wild. One person who really didn’t see it coming is the person ...
AURORA - Runaway
30 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
AURORA is a singer and songwriter from Norway, who released her first EP in 2015, when she was 19 years old. It featured the song, "Runaway" and after...
Sparks - This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us
16 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sparks are the brothers Ron and Russell Mael, a legendary duo from Los Angeles. Over the last 50 years, they’ve released 25 albums. They’ve collab...
Arlo Parks - Black Dog
02 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Arlo Parks is a singer and songwriter from London. In January 2021, she released her debut album, Collapsed in Sunbeams. It hit number three on the UK...
Imagine Dragons - Follow You
19 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine Dragons are a Grammy-winning band from Las Vegas. They’ve sold over 20 millions albums so far, and they were the most streamed band on Spoti...
girl in red - Serotonin
05 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Marie Ulven is a singer, songwriter, and producer from Norway, who makes music under the name girl in red. She just released her debut album in April ...
Porter Robinson - Get Your Wish
21 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Porter Robinson is a Grammy-nominated electronic artist and DJ from North Carolina. In 2014, his first album hit #1 on Billboard’s Dance chart, and ...
Lianne La Havas - Can't Fight
07 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Lianne La Havas is a singer and songwriter from London. She’s been nominated for a Grammy and a Brit award, and in 2020, she released her third albu...
Jon Batiste - We Are
24 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jon Batiste is a pianist, songwriter, and composer from New Orleans. He’s been nominated for multiple Grammys, and just won the Golden Globe and got...
Glass Animals - Heat Waves
10 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Glass Animals is a band from Oxford, England. They’ve released three albums since forming back in 2010. One of their biggest hits is the song "Heat ...
Sasha Sloan - Until It Happens To You
24 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sasha Sloan is a singer and songwriter based in Nashville. She put out her debut album, Only Child, last year. Before that, she’d written songs for ...
PJ Morton - Say So (feat. JoJo)
10 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
PJ Morton is a singer, songwriter, and producer. He’s the first artist ever to be nominated for a Grammy for the Best R&B album three years in a...
HAIM - Summer Girl
27 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
HAIM is a band from Los Angeles, made up of the sisters Danielle, Este, and Alana Haim. They’ve released three albums, and they’ve been nominated ...
Yusuf / Cat Stevens - Father and Son
13 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The legendary singer/songwriter Yusuf / Cat Stevens released his first album in 1967. He’s a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and his alb...
Common - A Riot In My Mind
16 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Common is a Grammy- and Oscar-winning rapper, actor, and activist from Chicago. He’s been making records since 1992, and in October, he released his...
Jewel - You Were Meant For Me
02 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jewel is a singer-songwriter from Homer, Alaska, who’s received four Grammy nominations and sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Her debut album,...
Billie Eilish - Everything I Wanted
18 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Billie Eilish started releasing music when she was 14 years old. Her debut album came out last year, when she was 17. It debuted at Number 1 on Billbo...
Phoebe Bridgers - Scott Street
11 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is a little different. It’s a re-issue of Phoebe Bridgers’ Song Exploder episode from January 2019, along with a brand new segment wh...
Deftones - Ohms
04 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Deftones are a Grammy-winning band from Sacramento who’ve sold over ten million albums. Their ninth album, Ohms, came out this year, on September 25...
Run the Jewels - JU$T
21 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Rapper Killer Mike and rapper/producer El-P first met in 2011. They both had established rap careers, but they entered a new era when they started mak...
Dua Lipa - Levitating
07 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dua Lipa is a Grammy-winning singer and songwriter from London. Her second album, Future Nostalgia, came out in March 2020. It hit #1 on the charts in...
Selena Gomez - Lose You to Love Me
23 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Selena Gomez is a singer, songwriter, and actress, who’s spent most of her life in the public eye. She started her acting career as a child, and put...
Ludwig Göransson - Black Panther
16 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Marvel’s Black Panther was released in theaters on February 16, 2018, and in just a few weeks, it made over a billion dollars worldwide. It’s al...
Kelly Lee Owens - On
09 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Kelly Lee Owens is an electronic music producer and songwriter originally from Wales. She’s released two critically acclaimed albums and done remixe...
Black Pumas - Colors
26 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Black Pumas formed in Austin, Texas in 2017, when singer Eric Burton met producer Adrian Quesada. Their self-titled debut was released in June 2019, a...
The 1975 - The Birthday Party
12 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The 1975 are a band from Manchester, England, made up of Matty Healy, Adam Hann, Ross MacDonald, and George Daniel. They started playing music togethe...
Waxahatchee - Fire
29 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Katie Crutchfield is a singer and songwriter from Birmingham, Alabama. She’s been making music under the name Waxahatchee since 2010. Her fifth albu...
Khruangbin - So We Won't Forget
15 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Khruangbin is a band from Houston, Texas, who first formed in 2010. NME called them the "low key superstars" of psychedelic music. They’ve released ...
Apparat - Goodbye (Theme from "Dark")
01 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Netflix original series Dark debuted in December 2017. It’s a really mysterious, mind-bending German science fiction show with a unique tone. A ...
Mobb Deep - Shook Ones, Pt. II
17 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The rappers Prodigy and Havoc met when they were still in high school in New York. Havoc grew up in Queensbridge, the biggest public housing projects ...
Michael Kiwanuka - Black Man in a White World
04 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Instead of a new episode this week, revisiting this episode originally published in May 2017. Please consider donating to local and national organizat...
100 gecs - Money Machine
20 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
100 gecs is a duo, made up of Laura Les and Dylan Brady. In 2016, they put out an EP called 100 gecs, and three years later, they released their first...
Laura Marling - Song for Our Daughter
06 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Laura Marling is a singer and songwriter from London. She won the Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist—she’s been nominated five times f...
Tame Impala - It Might Be Time
22 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Tame Impala is the project of Kevin Parker, a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Perth, Australia. Since putting his first EP in 200...
FKA twigs - Mirrored Heart
08 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
FKA twigs is a singer, songwriter, and producer from London. She’s released three EPs and two albums. Her most album, Magdalene, came out in Novembe...
Nathaniel Rateliff - And It's Still Alright
25 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Nathaniel Rateliff is a singer and songwriter from Colorado. He’s released four solo albums, and two with his band, the Night Sweats. Those two Nig...
Eric Nam - Love Die Young
11 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Eric Nam is a Korean-American pop singer from Atlanta. He’s currently lives in Seoul, South Korea, where he found fame as a K-pop star. He was named...
Soccer Mommy - Circle the Drain
26 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sophie Allison makes music under the name Soccer Mommy. Her debut album came out in 2018, when she was 20 years old, and the New York Times named it o...
Caribou - Home
12 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dan Snaith has been making Caribou records since 2001. He won Canada’s Polaris music prize in 2007, and this month, he’s releasing the seventh Car...
Vagabon - Water Me Down
29 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Laetitia Tamko started making the second Vagabon album, she really wanted to produce the entire thing on her own. It would be a new sound, and pr...
Semisonic - Closing Time
15 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The song “Closing Time” by the American rock band Semisonic came out in March 1998. It hit #1 on the Alternative charts, and was nominated for a G...
Vampire Weekend - Harmony Hall
25 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The band Vampire Weekend started in 2006, in New York. Their third album came out in 2013, and was named one of the best albums of the year all over t...
Intro Theme and Thao's Farewell
17 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Thao Nguyen has been guest hosting Song Exploder this year, with Christian Koons producing, to give Hrishikesh a little room to daydream. That’s all...
Meek Mill - Trauma
11 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Meek Mill is a rapper from Philadelphia. He’s put out five albums. His most recent, Championships, debuted at #1 on the charts, and was nominated fo...
Bat for Lashes - Kids in the Dark
27 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Natasha Khan makes music under the name Bat for Lashes. She’s released five albums, including Lost Girls, which came out in September 2019. In this...
Jay Som - Tenderness
13 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Melina Duterte goes by the name Jay Som. She’s a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. She’s released three albums as Jay Som, and has pr...
Slipknot - Unsainted
30 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Slipknot is a Grammy-winning metal band from Des Moines, Iowa, who first formed in 1995. They’ve sold over 30 million records. In this episode, guit...
Raphael Saadiq - Kings Fall
16 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Raphael Saadiq is a Grammy-winning songwriter, producer, and artist from Oakland, California. He was the lead singer of the legendary ‘90s R&B g...
Clairo - Alewife
02 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Claire Cotrill is a singer, songwriter, and producer who goes by the name Clairo. She started releasing music in 2014 as a teenager. A few years later...
Brittany Howard - Stay High
18 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Brittany Howard is the guitarist and lead singer of the four-time Grammy-winning band Alabama Shakes. This month, she’s releasing her first solo alb...
Robyn - Honey
04 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Robyn is a Swedish singer and songwriter. Her first album came out in 1995, when she was 16 years old. It went platinum in the US, double-platinum in ...
Bon Iver - Holyfields,
21 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Justin Vernon founded the band Bon Iver in 2006. Bon Iver’s released four albums, and won two Grammys, including Best New Artist. The most recent a...
Sleater-Kinney - The Future Is Here
07 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sleater-Kinney was formed in 1994 by Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein. Drummer Janet Weiss was a member of the band from 1997 until 2019. In Time Ma...
Denzel Curry - RICKY
24 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Denzel Curry is a rapper from Miami. He started his career at age 16 as part of the hip hop collective Raider Klan. He released his first solo album w...
Jamila Woods - BALDWIN
10 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jamila Woods is a singer, songwriter, and poet from Chicago. She’s released two albums, and she’s collaborated with artists like Chance the Rapper...
Big Thief - Cattails
26 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Big Thief is a four piece folk-rock band from Brooklyn, New York. In May 2019, they released their third album, U.F.O.F., to critical acclaim. Pitchfo...
Sheryl Crow - Redemption Day (feat. Johnny Cash)
12 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sheryl Crow is a singer-songwriter from Missouri. She’s released ten studio albums, sold over 50 million records, and has won nine Grammys. In Apri...
Raleigh Ritchie - Time in a Tree
29 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Raleigh Ritchie is the musical alias of Jacob Anderson, a musician and actor who’s probably best known for playing the character Grey Worm on Game o...
The Mountain Goats - Cadaver Sniffing Dog
15 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
John Darnielle has been writing and recording songs as the Mountain Goats since 1991. He’s released 17 studio albums, and also written two books of ...
The Cranberries - All Over Now
01 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Cranberries formed in Limerick, Ireland in 1989. Singer Dolores O’Riordan joined a year later, and the group went on to become one of the defini...
Panda Bear - Dolphin
17 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Panda Bear is musician Noah Lennox. He’s a founding member of the experimental, genre-defying band Animal Collective, and as a solo artists, he’s ...
Sharon Van Etten - Seventeen
03 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sharon Van Etten is a singer and songwriter who’s put out five albums. She's also an actress—she’s in The OA and Twin Peaks. Her most recent alb...