The Masters of Engineering Podcast

Jon Hirschtick founded both SOLIDWORKS and Onshape, two of the most influential CAD platforms in engineering history, and that pedigree makes him an unusually well-connected podcast host. Now serving as Executive Vice President at PTC (which acquired Onshape), Hirschtick holds bachelor's and master's degrees from MIT and has spent over 30 years working at the intersection of engineering software and product development. The Masters of Engineering Podcast focuses on the backstories behind cool products and the people who design them. Each episode features an interview with a product innovator -- automotive designers, robotics founders, special effects engineers, consumer product developers, and entrepreneurs building hardware companies -- who walks through the technical and creative process of bringing a product from concept to reality. Hirschtick asks about the specific tools, design decisions, and engineering tradeoffs that shaped each product, and his own experience building CAD software means he understands the design workflow from the inside out. The conversations reveal what product development actually looks like in practice: the prototyping failures, the manufacturing constraints, the moments where an elegant design had to bend to physical reality. Episodes run about 30 to 45 minutes and are available on YouTube in addition to standard podcast platforms, with the video versions sometimes including product demos and design walkthroughs. The show is produced in association with Onshape, so there is a natural connection to cloud-based CAD and collaborative design workflows. For mechanical engineers, product designers, and anyone interested in how things get made, the show offers a front-row seat to the engineering behind products you have probably used.