Twenty Thousand Hertz

By Dallas Taylor

Arts Music Design

What's Twenty Thousand Hertz about?

The stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds.

4.8

2,885 ratings

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HBO 2.0

12.01.2021

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 ...

Twenty Thousand Hertz episodes:

12.01.2021 HBO 2.0 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 ...
11.17.2021 It's Not TV. It's HBO. In the 1980s, every movie that aired on HBO began with a truly epic theme song—a sweeping orchestral piece that triggers instant nostalgia for anyone who grew up with it. Then in the 90s, HBO introduced a 5-second audio logo ...
11.10.2021 Zzzzzzzzzzzrr... If you’re a human being, chances are, you know someone who is a big time snorer. You're falling asleep to the gentle sounds of crickets, and then BAM, you hear a snore that sounds like an angry troll. So who ...
10.27.2021 Creature Speakers To give voices to the frightening monsters in movies, TV shows, and video games, sound designers often start with animal noises, then apply all kinds of creative processing. But other times, these sounds begin with human voice actors, who absolutely ...
10.13.2021 Video(less) Games In the past, video games were largely inaccessible to people with visual impairments. But these days, game makers are adding all kinds of innovative options to make their games more accessible. And some developers are creating entire virtual worlds using ...
09.29.2021 Blind Sports Playing a sport without sight might sound impossible. But it turns out, there are blind athletes all around the world doing exactly that. Instead of using their eyes, these players rely on their ears to hit a pitch, block a ...
09.15.2021 Listening to the Movies When Matthew Shifrin was growing up, his blindness meant that trying to enjoy a movie or TV show was often a confusing and frustrating experience. But then, Matthew discovered something called video description—an extra audio track where a narrator describes ...
09.01.2021 Sonic Bubbles For over a century, humans have been using technology to shape our sonic environment. White noise machines, nature recordings, noise canceling headphones and high-tech hearables all allow us to create an auditory safe space we can escape into. But is ...
08.18.2021 Domestic Symphony Not long ago, our home appliances made nothing but abrasive beeps and harsh buzzes. In recent years though, these devices have started to chirp and sing with carefully designed tones and melodies. But crafting the "perfect" device sound takes skill, ...
08.04.2021 The Windsor Hum In 2011, residents of Windsor, Ontario started experiencing a strange rumbling hum that rattled dishes and kept people awake at night. Then, after years of getting nowhere, the mystery of the Windsor Hum was finally solved... Or was it? This ...
07.21.2021 The Buzzer Since World War I, countries around the world have been broadcasting mysterious numerical messages via shortwave radio. Though concrete evidence is hard to come by, the general consensus is that these coded messages are meant for undercover agents operating abroad. ...
07.07.2021 Stay Tuned Nearly a century after they first appeared, the Looney Tunes are back in an all-new series. To bring this iconic franchise into the present, the creators are looking to its past, taking it back to the look and feel of ...
06.23.2021 Prop 'til You Drop In part 2 of our exploration of Foley, the Warner Brothers Foley team takes us into the all-important prop room. Along the way, they demonstrate how they make the sounds for flapping birds, breaking bones, cracking ice, handling guns, and ...
06.09.2021 Foley Artists When it comes to film sound, "Foley Artist" might be the most important job you've never heard of. These performers record custom, synchronized sound effects to create the sounds for characters' footsteps, movements, and much more. It's exhausting and delicate ...
05.26.2021 The Leaky Pipeline In the late 80s, a small French company found a way to pair analog film with pristine digital audio. But getting their system into theaters would involve a long legal battle, hiding out in a Vegas bathroom, and a last-ditch ...
05.19.2021 Auditory Icons We live in a designed world, and alert tones are no exception. Every beep and ping that your phone or laptop makes probably went through multiple rounds of revisions and approvals. So what separates a good device sound from a ...
05.12.2021 Progression Obsession There are a few specific chord progressions that show up again and again in popular music. Across hundreds of hit songs, the same basic musical formulas have been used by artists ranging from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Lady Gaga, and from ...
04.28.2021 SM7 Since their founding almost a century ago, Shure has created some of the most iconic microphones ever made. In this episode, we worked with Shure to tell the story of the SM7 dynamic microphone: from its humble beginnings in voiceover ...
04.14.2021 Minecraft Since its official release in 2011, Minecraft has grown from a small, experimental indie game into the best-selling video game of all time. Today, the game's haunting music and quirky sound effects are just as iconic as its blocky visuals. ...
03.24.2021 20th Century Fox The melodic fanfare that introduces every 20th Century Fox movie was first composed almost a hundred years ago. Since then, it's become one of the most enduring and recognizable pieces of music in modern history. It's survived company acquisitions, competition ...
03.10.2021 The Deterrent Tone The Long-Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, was developed for the military for long-range communication at sea. But this ear-splitting device has also been fired on protesters across America, resulting in lawsuits and permanent hearing loss. In this episode, we explore ...
02.24.2021 I'm Lovin' It Since its introduction in 2003, the McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It” jingle has become one of the most recognizable melodies in the world. This is the story of how a catchy five-note jingle conquered the planet, from its humble beginnings at ...
01.27.2021 Sound 101 with Bill Nye What is sound, on a fundamental level? How did animals evolve to hear? And what happens when you go faster than sound itself? In this episode, we explore the physics of sound with the legendary Bill Nye. Follow the show ...
01.13.2021 Synesthesia Synesthesia is a neurological condition where one sensory experience gets combined with another, meaning someone might hear sounds when they eat, or see colors when they listen to music. So what exactly is synesthesia? And what’s it like to go ...
01.08.2021 Introducing Twenty Thousand Hertz A lovingly crafted podcast that reveals the stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds. Subscribe now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
12.16.2020 Sing Gently After composer Eric Whitacre finished Virtual Choir number 5 in 2018, he thought the project might be done for good. But 2020 was just around the corner, and the Virtual Choir was far from over. For our last episode of ...
12.09.2020 Sounds Worth Saving Alan Lomax believed that the culture of poor Americans was important and worthy of saving. So he spent decades traveling the American South and recording obscure musicians on their front porches, in churches, even in prisons. Today, he's considered an ...
12.02.2020 Conlang Sci-fi and fantasy creators often use constructed languages (or conlangs) to help us believe that the characters come from ancient times or distant galaxies. But what happens when a fictional language jumps off the screen and into the real world? ...
11.18.2020 Space Audity We've all heard the iconic recordings from the Apollo missions. But how exactly does NASA manage to run live audio between Earth and the moon? And how might we chat with astronauts on Mars and beyond? Featuring Astronaut Peggy Whitson, ...
11.11.2020 Sonic Utopia Technology has the power to transform the way our world sounds. It could even give us entirely new ways to experience our surroundings. In this episode, we explore the sounds of the future, and how can we use the tools ...
10.28.2020 Sound and Silence Sound surrounds us, even in the quietest moments. But depending on how we hear, the world can be a different auditory experience for each of us. This episode features four stories from the TED Radio Hour. Twenty Thousand Hertz is ...
10.21.2020 Dies Irae For hundreds of years, composers have been using a specific four-note melody to evoke death. It's appeared in dozens of famous movies, and you probably never even realized it. But once you hear it, you'll start noticing it everywhere. Featuring ...
10.14.2020 Perfect Pitch People with perfect or "absolute" pitch hear every single sound as precise musical notes. Is this extraordinary talent a blessing or a curse? In this episode, we dive into the neuroscience, pluses and pitfalls of absolute pitch. Featuring neuroscientist Daniel ...
10.07.2020 Tyrannosaurus FX When you imagine the sound of a dinosaur, you probably think of a scene from the Jurassic Park movies. How do sound designers make these extinct creatures sound so believably alive? And what does modern paleontology tell us about what ...
09.30.2020 Napster In less than two years, Napster became a global sensation... and then record labels and multi-platinum artists brought it crashing down. But in its short lifespan, Napster transformed our ideas about how we consume music, and how much we're willing ...
09.16.2020 Vocal Discords Musicians like Justin Timberlake, Adele, Björk and Rod Stewart have all had surgery to treat vocal nodes. Nodes are so widely discussed, they've almost become a boogeyman in the singing community. But is this condition really as common as people ...
09.02.2020 Deepfake Dallas Using artificial intelligence, someone can make an algorithm that sounds just like you. And then they can say... whatever they want you to say. We're entering a brand new era: One where you can no longer trust your ears. Welcome ...
08.19.2020 The City That Never Sleeps When writer Paige Towers moved to one of the loudest cities in the world, she found herself overcome with anxiety and depression. She came to realize that the noise of the city itself, and the inability to escape from it, ...
08.05.2020 Ta-dum! It's Netflix The Netflix ta-dum sound has quickly become one of the most iconic sound logos of our generation. I bet you can hear it in your head right now. This sound is heard countless times, every single day, all over the ...
07.22.2020 McElroys, Mysteries and Me Join Dallas and the McElroy brothers (hosts of My Brother, My Brother and Me) as they compete to see which brother has the best ear. We dust off our old mystery sounds to test the McElroy's on their knowledge of ...
07.08.2020 Hamilton Remix Broadway’s award-winning, record-breaking, smash hit, Hamilton, is a musical unlike any other. In this special episode, we have re-voiced, remixed, and remastered one of our shows about our favorite broadway musical! Featuring Nevin Steinberg, Hamilton’s Tony-nominated sound designer, Benny Reiner, ...
06.24.2020 Stop... Collaborate & Listen Can you steal from yourself? Can you copyright a mood? We look back on some important copyright cases that could have an impact on the entire future of music making. Featuring Adam Neely and Sandra Aistars. Twenty Thousand Hertz is ...
06.10.2020 Copyrights & Wrongs Most western music is built on the same 12 notes. Sometimes the arrangement of those notes sounds similar, which raises the question: Theft or Inspiration? We listen to some famous copyright disputes and try to decode them. Featuring Adam Neely ...
05.27.2020 Makin' Whoopee! Farts have been funny to humans for thousands of years. This basic bodily function has countless nicknames around the world, but our fascination with farts is probably best illustrated by the simple whoopee cushion. In this episode from the podcast ...
05.13.2020 Pew Pew When you think about Star Wars, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Lightsabers? Spaceships? Alien creatures? What about all of the sounds that go with those things? How were those sounds made, and what makes them so good? ...
04.29.2020 That's All Folks! Mel Blanc is a legendary voice actor who voiced more than 400 distinct characters. But in 1961, Mel was involved in a potentially fatal car accident. In this episode, we discover the unlikely source that saved him and hear how ...
04.15.2020 Ehh... What's Up, Doc? Bugs Bunny, Barney Rubble, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, and many more were all voiced by one man, Mel Blanc. Discover the incredible life and talent that helped to elevate the animation industry into big business. Featuring interviews with ...
04.01.2020 Twenty Parts Per Thousand The stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting smells. Throughout history, humans have gone to great lengths to indulge their sense of smell. We explore the contemporary scent industry to see how modern creatives are utilizing works of olfactory ...
03.18.2020 Cremona There’s a town in northern Italy that’s home to the most famous violin makers in history. The museum there holds some of the most unique and prized violins in the world - but we’re in danger of losing their sounds ...
03.04.2020 Satanic Panic! From the sixties to the nineties parents worried messages hidden in rock albums would make their children do drugs and worship the devil. The truth could only be revealed if these records were played backwards. Bryan Gardiner unveils the history ...

Older episodes

Twenty Thousand Hertz

What's Twenty Thousand Hertz about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Twenty Thousand Hertz episodes:

HBO 2.0

It's Not TV. It's HBO.

Zzzzzzzzzzzrr...

Creature Speakers

Video(less) Games

Blind Sports

Listening to the Movies

Sonic Bubbles

Domestic Symphony

The Windsor Hum

The Buzzer

Stay Tuned

Prop 'til You Drop

Foley Artists

The Leaky Pipeline

Auditory Icons

Progression Obsession

SM7

Minecraft

20th Century Fox

The Deterrent Tone

I'm Lovin' It

Sound 101 with Bill Nye

Synesthesia

Introducing Twenty Thousand Hertz

Sing Gently

Sounds Worth Saving

Conlang

Space Audity

Sonic Utopia

Sound and Silence

Dies Irae

Perfect Pitch

Tyrannosaurus FX

Napster

Vocal Discords

Deepfake Dallas

The City That Never Sleeps

Ta-dum! It's Netflix

McElroys, Mysteries and Me

Hamilton Remix

Stop... Collaborate & Listen

Copyrights & Wrongs

Makin' Whoopee!

Pew Pew

That's All Folks!

Ehh... What's Up, Doc?

Twenty Parts Per Thousand

Cremona

Satanic Panic!

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