TED Talks Daily
What you discover when you really listen | Hrishikesh Hirway (re-release and interview)
25 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. When was the last time you really listened to someone? Not while checking your phone, not while waiting for your turn to talk, but actually let their words land. It's harder than it sounds, and it might be the most important thing we've stopped doing.
It's easy to get distracted, and we tend to listen to other people that way, too. But you can't really get immersed if that's the case. Imagine trying to listen to a song while singing a different song in your head. You can't do it, or you can't do it well, and you can't fully appreciate what someone else is saying if you're thinking about something else.
That's Rishikesh Hirwe, creator and host of Song Exploder, the beloved podcast and Netflix show where musicians break down how a song was made layer by layer.
Chapter 2: What is the importance of truly listening to others?
In 2021, he gave a TED Talk about what happens when you take that same kind of listening and turn it toward people.
I started to wonder, could I try listening to people the way that I was trying to listen to music? Because when someone tells you something, just like with a song, there can be all these layers within it. There can be all this context that you're missing.
It's a talk that stays with you, partly because of what he teaches and partly because of what he shares, including a beautiful song about his mom called Between Here and There featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma. After more than a decade helping other artists tell their stories and helping us think about listening, he's made his most personal work yet. a solo album called In the Last Hour of Light.
He describes it as a sort of memoir about losing his mother, nearly losing his father, and learning to let go. We caught up with him earlier this month to talk about his ideas about listening and how they've evolved, what he's learned from hundreds of conversations with artists, and what it feels like to finally turn the key and welcome us into his own house.
Plus, we did something we couldn't resist, a mini song exploder of sorts, breaking down one of the new songs on this album, which we then share in full at the end of the episode. This is an episode with a lot of music, which you don't hear every day on this show. The talk is first and then the conversation coming up after a short break.
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I've been in love with music my whole life, both as a musician and as a listener. But as a listener, sometimes songs feel a little like houses to me. Houses that you can only see from the street. You can stop and admire them from the outside. You can say, wow, look, the architecture is amazing. you might be able to get a little peek inside through one of the windows.
But it's this thing of beauty that you have to appreciate from a distance, because it's not yours. And as a musician, when you put a song out into the world, it can sometimes feel like you're trapped in the backyard of this house that you built. There might be people looking at it, but you never get the chance to show them anything inside.
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Chapter 3: How did Hrishikesh Hirway's experiences shape his new album?
Imagine trying to listen to a song while singing a different song in your head. You can't do it, or you can't do it well, and you can't fully appreciate what someone else is saying if you're thinking about something else. I'm also a big believer in the power of nonverbal communication. Like, just a simple act of a nod is a way to let the other person know that you're engaged.
and also invites them to keep going and say more. That kind of intentional, engaged silence makes space for them. Sometimes, though, you do have to actually ask for more. You have to draw them out. But if you can ask for what's below the surface of what they just said, you might unlock some door for them and invite them to go through it with you.
That also means turning off the instinct to talk about yourself. I used to think that this was actually the best way to show that I was really listening. Someone would tell me something and I'd say, oh man, you know, that reminds me of this thing that happened to me. And then I would tell a whole story of my own.
But it's kind of like listening to half a song and then saying, oh, you know, this part reminds me of this other song. And then turning that first song off and going and putting on some other song, which is also something I've done. But you can't get deeper if you lose the moment like that. So it's a challenge to your impatience and to your selfishness to be engaged without making it about you.
Okay, and so now to ignore the advice about talking about yourself, I would like to talk about myself and tell you a little bit about me and that song that I played you a part of to hopefully illustrate what I'm talking about. Years ago, when I was making my first recordings, I would play my songs over and over and over again in my bedroom.
My music career wasn't really something I could talk about with my parents. They were hardworking immigrants whose dream for me had been to become a doctor or a lawyer. But every now and then, I would hear my mom humming one of my songs just to herself in the kitchen. And that felt like some kind of unspoken approval.
And over the years, whenever I would hear my mom humming one of my songs, it made me so happy. Last fall, my mom passed away. And a few weeks after her funeral, I had a dream where I got to see her and talk to her and visit with her for a little bit. And I woke up filled with longing and sadness, but also gratitude for this moment and this dream. And I ended up writing a song about it.
But it's so good to see you It's so good to see you See you again In the bridge, I stopped singing for a little bit, and I just hummed a melody. I was thinking about my mom, and I wanted to try and represent her in the music in some way. One of the people who I talked to about the song while I was making it was Yoyoma.
I told him, this is what this song is about, and this is what the music is supposed to do in this part. And I asked him, do you think that the cello could represent my mom's voice? And he listened to everything that I said, and then he played those notes. Okay, here's everything together again. So now, what's your experience when you listen to that from inside the house?
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Chapter 4: What principles guide deeper listening according to Hrishikesh?
My dream for what a relationship with anybody, but especially with a parent, with a family member, my dad and I have just never had that. And I've never been able to figure out why, like how it is that we can be related and be so, so different. I mean, I think he would say it himself. He doesn't really understand my work, my life, my existence as an artist, like what motivates that.
And I'd gone to see a friend's memorial for his father. And he read the text that his dad had sent. My friend, who's a musician and a composer. His dad said, you know, your mother and I went to see the movie that you scored. It was so beautiful. And from the first note, it was so clearly you. We're so proud of you."
And it was just a really beautiful, eloquent, articulate message that made me feel like, wow, what must it be like to have a parent who understands you so well and understands what to say? I've just never had that. And I was thinking about all of that in that hospital room. And so that's where this song began. Air hangs in the room.
hoping you'll say something soon i've learned by now you tried but you never knew how so i went without
In the liner notes, you write about the memory of some of the sounds of the machines in your dad's hospital room, which you then explore in a steady piano part that you can hear throughout the song. Tell us a little bit more about this choice.
Yeah, I was mostly accompanied by just the heart rate monitor. And when it came time to record and we were figuring out the arrangement, we dropped down at times to just the piano and the voice while we were figuring it out. And you can hear it in the second chorus. Everything goes away and it's just the piano.
And the chords are changing while I'm singing, but this one note is just playing throughout. Words you never managed. Time I spent away. We did a lot of damage. Still.
highway and we set the tempo to be at around you know like a heartbeat speed and it wasn't something that i had planned it was something that we sort of discovered in the recording studio while we were working and it was one of those like beautiful serendipitous moments that just kind of came through collaborating
You mentioned we. Talk a little bit about the collaboration involved and what other collaborators brought to this song that you wouldn't have brought on your own.
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