Twenty Thousand Hertz

The stories behind the world’s most iconic and fascinating sounds.

Design
Arts
Music Commentary
101
Inside the Foley Prop Room: Frozen, Jurassic Pa...
The secret tools of Foley Artists.
21 min
102
The Art of Foley: Bringing Slimer & Batman to life
The secrets behind the subtle art of Foley.
20 min
103
Leaky Pipeline: The fight that revolutionized c...
A story within a story about pioneering women in audio.
25 min
104
Auditory Icons: Credit card beeps to driverless...
Why are some device sounds pleasing, while others stress us out?
16 min
105
Progression Obsession: Pop music’s most used ch...
From Pachelbel's Canon, to the Ice Cream Changes, to the Four Chords, we examine the most-used chord changes in pop music.
25 min
106
SM7: The mic that shaped sound and culture
How the Shure SM7 became one of the most game-changing vocal microphones of all time.
22 min
107
The Sound of Minecraft: A melancholy masterpiec...
Crafting the music and sounds of Minecraft.
24 min
108
20th Century Fox Fanfare: A family legacy
The history and future of the 20th Century Fox fanfare.
24 min
109
Sonic Weapons: How “sound cannons” are used for...
What happens when you get hit with a “sound cannon?”
20 min
110
I'm Lovin’ It: How “Ba da ba ba ba” took over t...
Ba da ba ba ba.
23 min
111
The Physics of Sound w/ Bill Nye the Science Guy
Listen up! It’s time to go back to basics on the physics of sound.
22 min
112
Seeing Sounds, Tasting Names: The world of syne...
What’s it like to see sounds and taste names?
25 min
113
Sing Gently: Singing together, even when apart
How an internet choir connects singers around the world at a time when they can't sing together.
33 min
114
The Song Hunter: How Alan Lomax saved the sound...
Legendary music archivist Alan Lomax made it his life's work to preserve and promote the sounds of local culture.
24 min
115
From Klingon to Dothraki: How sci-fi languages ...
From Klingon to Elvish, what makes a good constructed language?
26 min
116
Space Audity: The challenges of space communica...
The mind-boggling technology behind space communication.
21 min
117
Sonic Utopia: Can we build a better sounding wo...
What can we expect the future to sound like, and how can we build a sonic utopia?
25 min
118
The Cyborg, The Scientist, and the Death of Sil...
The way we each experience sound depends on so many unique factors, from tiny receptors in our ears to the way we were taught to communicate.
48 min
119
Dies Irae: The death melody haunting Hollywood
How a four-note melody from the 13th century became a movie soundtrack superstar.
26 min
120
Perfect Pitch: Unlocking Jacob Collier’s musica...
What's it like when every sound you hear—from the whir of the coffee grinder to the beep of the microwave—all sound like musical notes?
27 min
121
Tyrannosaurus FX: What dinosaurs really sounded...
The sound design wizardry behind the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park, and how these sounds compare to what dinos REALLY sounded like.
23 min
122
Napster: How free music broke the industry
The stunning rise and fall of Napster, and how it transformed the music industry in a few short years.
36 min
123
Vocal Discords: When nodules silence singers
A diagnosis of vocal nodes is every singer's worst nightmare. But when nodes develop, is all hope truly lost?
21 min
124
Deepfake Dallas: How AI learned to speak like me
Is your voice your own? Maybe not anymore.
22 min
125
The Weight of Noise: One writer’s struggle in N...
The link between chronic noise and chronic anxiety may be closer than we realize.
23 min