In part 2 of our series on HBO, we explore the tough questions that the company faced in the digital era: Are people still willing to sit through a 90-second theme song before they watch a movie? Does the sound of analog TV static even make sense to younger viewers? Could the company change with the times without losing the nostalgia they had built around their key sounds? Featuring composer Ferdinand Jay Smith, former HBO Executive Vice President Bruce Richmond, HBO and HBO Max Head of Brand Marketing Jason Mulderig, and Made Music Studio Creative Director Mickey Alexander.

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Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/hbo20
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HBO 2.0

A lovingly crafted podcast that reveals the stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds.

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Music

The sound of Late Night television is a complex beast with many moving parts. In this episode, we step inside the daily hustle of Broadcast Mixer Fred Hedemark as he and his team bring the sound of Late Night with Seth Meyers to life. Along the way, Fred reveals the highs and lows of working on a high-adrenaline, live-to-tape TV show, and shares some never-heard recordings from his years on the show.

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Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: www.20k.org/episodes/latenight
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Late Night

What do you call it when you’re homesick for a place you’ve never been? Is there a word for letting books pile up in your house without reading them? How about weather that looks beautiful out the window, but that you wouldn’t want to go out in? For this episode, we worked with Babbel to bring you our second annual Untranslatable Words challenge. In it, resident linguist Grace East pits the Twenty Thousand Hertz crew against each other in a hilarious and enlightening multilingual game show.

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Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/untranslatablewords
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Untranslatable Words

Hans Zimmer is responsible for some of the most iconic film scores of the last 35 years. So how does one person create so much amazing music? It turns out, he doesn’t do it alone. In this episode, Hans Zimmer’s incredible team pulls back the curtain to reveal their extraordinary creative process, and uncover the secrets behind the otherworldly music of Dune. Featuring Raul Vega, Taurees Habib, Suzanne Waters, Tina Guo, and Steve Mazarro.

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Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/hans-zimmers-remote-control
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Hans Zimmer's Remote Control

All over the world, there are unique and breathtaking sounds that you can only hear in one specific place. In this episode, we travel to two of the most astounding sonic wonders in the United States. The first is a hidden sound installation in Times Square that might be the most visited art exhibit on Earth. The second is an enormous organ built right into the rock of an ancient Virginian cave. These stories originally aired on the Atlas Obscura podcast.

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Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/auralobscura
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Aural Obscura

If you listen to vintage music, one of the first things you’ll notice is the complete lack of bass. But turn on a Top 40 station today, and you’ll hear song after song with deep, sub-ratting bass tones. So how and why did this change happen? For this episode, we worked with OnePlus to tell the story of our collective obsession with bass, and the one device that transformed the sound of popular music. Featuring hip-hop legend DJ Jazzy Jeff and Roland's Paul McCabe.

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Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/allaboutthatbass.
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HBO 2.0

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