DJ Shadow - Mutual Slump
30 years ago, DJ Shadow released his debut album, Entroducing… and it changed my life. I listened to it so much. And when I first started So...
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Song Exploder
Song Exploder is a podcast where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. Each episode features an artist discussing a song of theirs, brea...
Episodes
20 of 379 episodes
Elvis Costello - Alison
Elvis Costello is a singer and songwriter whose career spans five decades and over 30 albums. He’s a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fam...
Olivia Rodrigo - The Cure
Olivia Rodrigo is a Grammy-winning singer and songwriter. In June 2026, she released her third album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in L...
Natalie Merchant - Sister Tilly
Donate to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library here: https://donate.imaginationlibrary.com/ Donate to Women's Media Center, co-founded by Glor...
Paula Cole - I Don't Want to Wait
Paula Cole is a singer, songwriter and producer from Massachusetts. She put out her first solo album, Harbinger , in 1994. Her second album,...
Charli XCX - Camera
Charli XCX is a Grammy-winning artist who has been making music since she was a teenager. In July 2026, she released her eighth album, Music...
Mitski - Your Best American Girl
In 2016, Mitski did an episode of Song Exploder about her song “Your Best American Girl.” She had just released her second album, Puberty 2...
Suki Waterhouse - Back in Love
Suki Waterhouse is a singer-songwriter, actress, and model from London. She released her first single in 2016, and her first album, I Can’t...
Key Change: Questlove on Prince
My guest today is Ahmir Thompson, aka Questlove, the drummer and founding member of The Roots, as well as an author, a DJ, and an Oscar-winn...
Metric - Victim of Luck
Metric is a band from Canada that was formed in 1998. They’ve won four Juno Awards, including Group of the Year. Rolling Stone included them...
Hayley Kiyoko - Girls Like Girls
Hayley Kiyoko is a singer, songwriter, author, and director from Los Angeles. She was a child actor on Disney and Nickelodeon, and briefly i...
Key Change: Tatiana Maslany on "Faceshopping" by Sophie
My guest today is the actor Tatiana Maslany. One of the things I find so compelling about Tatiana and her career is that the roles that she...
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 Bea...
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 Warni...
Key Change: Emma Straub on ‘69 Love Songs’ by The Magnetic Fields
My guest today is the bestselling author Emma Straub. Her books include 'This Time Tomorrow,' 'Modern Lovers,' 'The Vacationers,' and more....
The xx - Crystalised
The xx formed in 2005, when they were still in high school. They signed to the UK label Young, and put out their first album in 2009. It won...
Yusuf / Cat Stevens - Father and Son
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...
The Memory Palace: The Thundering Herd, The Vanishing American
Today, we're sharing an episode of Nate DiMeo's wonderful podcast, The Memory Palace, which helped inspire both Song Exploder, and a song on...
Hurray for the Riff Raff - Alibi
Alynda Segarra is a singer songwriter from the Bronx. They formed Hurray for the Riff Raff in 2007, and since then, they’ve released 8 album...
Jack Harlow - Say Hello
Jack Harlow is from Louisville, Kentucky, and started performing and releasing music in 2015, when he was in high school. In 2020, he releas...