Twenty Thousand Hertz

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

Design
Arts
Music Commentary
1
Mix Notes: Dumb Farts, Alien Crickets & Junkyar...
Hollywood’s sound masters share their best sonic stories.
26 min
2
The Deaf Composer: How Beethoven wrote music he...
The fact and fiction around one of the greatest composers in history.
26 min
3
The Sonic Brand Makeover We Didn’t Know We Needed
How Switched on Pop changed their theme music after 400 episodes.
39 min
4
Inside Apple: Sonic Accessibility
How accessible design benefits everyone.
30 min
5
“In a World…” The epic evolution of movie trailers
The trends and tropes of movie marketing.
21 min
6
“The Autumn, She’s Been Hit!” The wish that cha...
The incredible story behind a single line of dialogue in Halo.
41 min
7
Solar Symphony: Listening to the Sun’s hidden “...
Hearing the universe through data sonification.
32 min
8
Speaker Terror Upper: When Bass Tapes shook the...
The rise and fall of the Boom Car phenomenon.
26 min
9
Radio Station Jingles: 80 Years of Earworms
How to keep radio listeners hooked.
32 min
10
Sound Pro Smackdown: Guess That Sound! w/ 3 ind...
Three audio pros go head to head in our annual Mystery Sound game.
41 min
11
Dog Translation Guide: Decoding Barks, Howls, &...
How to decode your dog’s barks, growls, and wags.
37 min
12
Cat Translation Guide: Decoding Meows, Purrs, &...
How to decode your cat’s meows, chirrups, and chitters.
36 min
13
The Voices of Bluey w/ Uncle Stripe
The voices and real-life inspiration behind the hit series.
25 min
14
The Organic Sound of Bluey w/ Sound Designer Da...
The organic sound design of the hit series.
27 min
15
"Blah, blah, blah" and the Ungooglable Phrase
A linguistic deep dive into nonsensical phrases.
24 min
16
Lofi Girl: The story behind 📚 beats to relax/st...
How Lofi became the go-to genre for studying and relaxing.
28 min
17
How Doctors Listen: A sonic journey through the...
What sound can tell doctors about our health.
23 min
18
The Sound of Apple: Marimbas, Radars & Reflections
The design genius behind Apple’s ringtones, alarms, and more.
23 min
19
The Sound of Apple: Tritones, Chords & Origins
The design secrets behind Apple’s iconic sounds.
24 min
20
Listener Stories: Auditory hallucinations & fam...
A collection of six audience tales.
20 min
21
The dark history of nursery rhymes
Once you listen, you’ll never hear nursery rhymes the same way again.
41 min
22
Sounds of the Deep: Mysteries and threats benea...
The mysteries of aquatic sound, and the fight against underwater noise pollution.
22 min
23
Boom Bling: TikTok's sonic guerrilla marketing
The dog bark was a mistake.
20 min
24
Mixing Seth Meyers: Behind the sound of late ni...
Mixing Seth Meyers
24 min
25
Untranslatable Words: Guess That Meaning!
Je ne say what?
26 min