He has composed the music for a number of films including The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin, Chicken People, To Be Takei, Magic Camp, and House of Suh.

They include the album As Smart As We Are, featuring lyrics by Paul Auster, Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Lethem, A.M. Homes, Neil Gaiman, Rick Moody and Dave Eggers.

It is a collection of songs inspired by lesser-known animals, and includes works composed for Kronos Quartet, The Microscopic Septet, Margaret Leng Tan, and the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots.

The album features songs about Billie Jean King, Lawnchair Larry flight, Ibn Battuta, William Kamkwamba, Jeanne de Clisson, Roy Sullivan, and Marie Curie among others.

The six-song album features compositions about Coney Island's Parachute Jump, Coral Castle, El Pulpo Mecanico, Finca Bellavista, and various Paul Bunyan statues.

The album features a miniature songs for all 45 entries in the book, which include Bertha (tunnel boring machine), Lockheed XFV, E-Ship 1, LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, Hyperloop, De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle, and the Zamboni Ice resurfacer among others.

As a writer, Hearst's stories have appeared in literary journals such as McSweeney's Internet Tendency,[19] Post Road,[20] Parenthetical Note,[21] The Lifted Brow,[22] and The Muse Apprentice Guild.

[27] In April 2009, Hearst performed Terry Riley's Concert in C alongside the Kronos Quartet, Philip Glass, Dave Douglas, Osvaldo Golijov, Morton Subotnick, and many others at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

[28] Hearst began co-writing music with Tanya Donelly in 2010 for her album Swan Song Series, and in October 2011 performed with her at concerts in New York City and Boston, along with Rick Moody, Claudia Gonson, Hannah Marcus, Sam Davol, and Carrie Bradley.