On paper, Dan + Shay should never have existed. Dan Smyers studied finance at Carnegie Mellon and fronted an emo band on the Vans Warped Tour; Shay Mooney was a homeschooled kid from Natural Dam, Arkansas who dropped out of a Christian college and signed with the rapper T-Pain. Two wildly different paths collided in Nashville to create one of country’s biggest duos.

This episode follows that improbable partnership from its punk-rock and hip-hop roots to the brink of breaking up, and back. We trace the methodical, analytical drive behind their songwriting, the pressures that nearly ended the duo, and how they rebuilt into a stadium-filling, Grammy-winning act.

• Dan’s double life: finance at Carnegie Mellon and an emo band on the Warped Tour
• Shay’s road from rural Arkansas and a T-Pain record deal to Nashville
• The pressures that pushed the duo to the edge of quitting
• How they regrouped to become one of country’s biggest acts