
Twenty Thousand Hertz
The stories behind the world’s most iconic and fascinating sounds.
Latest episodes

Apr 8, 2019 • 30min
Bird Translation Guide: Decoding Tweets, Hoots, & Warbles
When was the last time you stopped and really listened to birdsong? Ever wonder what they’re singing about? We chat to Kenn Kaufman and Dr. Irene Pepperberg about the extraordinary complexity to the avian arias, how they’re produced, what they mean, and how vocal acrobatics can reveal a surprising hidden intelligence. Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced out of the studios of Defacto Sound, and hosted by Dallas Taylor. Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn.Join our community on Reddit and follow us on Facebook.Become a monthly contributor at 20k.org/donate. If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org. Check out The Growth Show wherever you get your podcasts. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/birdsong Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 25, 2019 • 28min
Phone Tones: The hidden language of phone number beeps
We unpack how touch tone dialing changed communication forever. Join us on a deep, quirky dive into telephone history. We’ll also deconstruct these sounds and reveal their hidden brilliance. Featuring author Annabel Dodd and telephone aficionado Jim Hebbeln of the Telecommunications History Group. 20K is produced out of the studios of Defacto Sound and hosted by Dallas Taylor. Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn.Join our community on Reddit and follow us on Facebook.Become a monthly contributor at 20k.org/donate. If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org. Check out Pessimists Archive wherever you get your podcasts. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/phonetones Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 11, 2019 • 28min
The Booj: The secret sound formula behind blockbuster trailers
Movie trailers have undergone a huge evolution. They’ve gone from those cheesy voice-of-God narrators in the ‘80s and ‘90s, to boojes and bwaas. Professor James Deaville delivers the history of trailers, and Youtuber Craven Moorhaus offers a hilarious takedown of the sounds and dialogue that are common in the modern trailer style. After you hear this episode, you’ll never be able to watch a blockbuster trailer the same way again. Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced out of the studios of Defacto Sound and hosted by Dallas Taylor. Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn.Join our community on Reddit and follow us on Facebook.Become a monthly contributor at 20k.org/donate. If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org. Check out more videos from the Auralnauts at youtube.com/Auralnauts. Check out Song Exploder wherever you get your podcasts. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/thebooj Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 25, 2019 • 27min
Dining on Decibels: Why are restaurants so noisy?
Have you noticed how loud it gets in restaurants these days? Have you found yourselves shouting just to keep a conversation going? Architecture critic Kate Wagner explains how changing design trends have led to dining experiences that aren’t just antisocial, but are negatively impacting our health as well. Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced at the studios of Defacto Sound and hosted by Dallas Taylor. Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn.Join our community on Reddit and follow us on Facebook.Become a monthly contributor at 20k.org/donate. If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org. Contribute your local restaurant noise to the SoundPrint app at soundprint.co Check out Hi-Phi Nation at hiphination.org or wherever you get your podcasts. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/diningondecibels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 11, 2019 • 30min
Do Not Disturb: The unseen impacts of alarms and alerts
Alarm sounds have been around almost as long as humans themselves. But as our world has transformed, so have they. Today’s alarms are having an unexpected effect on our minds and bodies, and can even be putting our lives at risk when we’re at our most vulnerable. Dr Judy Edworthy and Yoko Sen talk to us about our alarming sound environment, and how it can be improved. 20K is hosted by Dallas Taylor and made out of the studios of Defacto Sound. Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn.Join our community on Reddit and follow us on Facebook.Become a monthly contributor at 20k.org/donate. Visit mystery.20k.org to enter this week's mystery sound. You can find HowSound at transom.org/topics/howsound or wherever you listen to podcasts. Check out Moonshot at moonshot.audio or wherever you listen to podcasts. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/donotdisturb Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 28, 2019 • 29min
Blue! 42! How helmet radio changed the NFL
For decades, NFL strategy slowly evolved from each team running a dozen different plays, to rigid schemes with coaches sending in orders through codewords and secret signals. Then, one piece of audio technology revolutionized the game. Beginning in the early 1990's, the NFL allowed coaches to speak directly to their quarterbacks through radios in their helmets. What followed was an instant increase in excitement for the nation's most popular sport, spawning a high-scoring era of fast paced offenses. Featuring former Super Bowl winning coach, Dick Vermeil, current LA Rams Head Coach Sean McVay, Bose Senior Project Manager Matt Ruwe, and Bose Distinguished Engineer Dan Gauger.Twenty Thousand Hertz is hosted by Dallas Taylor and produced out of the studios of Defacto Sound.Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn.Join our community on Reddit and follow us on Facebook.Become a monthly contributor at 20k.org/donate.Visit mystery.20k.org to enter this weeks mystery sound.Subscribe to The Truth wherever you get your podcasts. Or go to the truthpodcast.com. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/blue42 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 14, 2019 • 27min
Silence: Dispatches from the quietest place on Earth
Our world is filled with sound. It exists in even the quietest corners of the planet. But what happens when all that sound is taken away? What is silence? There are very few places on Earth where silence actually exists, but in this episode, Dallas experiences it for himself thanks to a special room called an anechoic chamber. How do our brains process the complete nothingness of silence? Find out as Dallas locks himself alone inside the chamber. Featuring David Alvord and Nick Breen from the Georgia Tech Research Institute. 20k is produced out of the studios of Defacto Sound and hosted by Dallas Taylor. Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn.Join our community on Reddit and follow us on Facebook.Become a monthly contributor at 20k.org/donate. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/silence Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 26, 2018 • 25min
A sonic journey through the Solar System
What happens when we leave Earth's thin blanket of atmosphere, and what do other planets sound like? In this special episode, we have completely remixed one of our favorite shows! It's been re-written, re-edited, re-narrated, has new music, and even some new additional content. If you've heard the original, you'll definitely want to check out this remixed and remastered version. Featuring Dr. Lori Glaze, Dr. Keith Noll, Dr. Scott Guzewich from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. 20K is hosted by Dallas Taylor and made out of the studios of Defacto Sound. Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn.Join our community on Reddit and follow us on Facebook.Sign up for Musicbed Membership music.20k.org. Become a monthly contributor at 20k.org/donate. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/spaceremix Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 10, 2018 • 27min
Boots ’n Cats: The scientific secrets of beatboxing
Beatboxing began as an imitation of a drum machine, but over the decades it has evolved as a means to emulate any number of percussive sounds. Now beatboxing is being studied by scientists who are fascinated by the vocal dexterity of artists. By examining beatboxing scientists are hoping to unlock mysteries behind language formation, brain function, and the capacity of humans to recreate sound. Featuring Hip Hop Artist and Beat Boxer, Baba Israel and USC Engineering Professor, Shri Narayanan. Twenty Thousand Hertz is hosted by Dallas Taylor and produced out of the studios of Defacto Sound. Check out Shri Narayanan and his SPAN team’s MRI videos of beatboxers at sail.usc.edu/span/beatboxingproject Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn.Join our community on Reddit and follow us on Facebook.Set up a monthly, recurring donation at 20k.org/donate. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/bootsncats Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 26, 2018 • 36min
Being George Clooney: Dubbing Hollywood celebrities
Hollywood films are huge internationally. But how are these films adapted for foreign languages? We delve into the not so talked about process of dubbing. Featuring the world's most popular voice actors, directors, and producers. Featuring: Andre Sogliuzzo, John Ptak, Shaktee Singh, Debra Chinn, Martin Umbach, Tamer Karadagli, Francesco Pannofino, Detlef Bierstedt, Marco Antonio Costa, Paul Dergarabedian, Rajesh Khattar, Christian Brückner, Emanuela Rossi, Chiara Barzini, Irene Ranzato, Claudia Urbschat-Mingues, Alexandre Gillet, Ezra Weisz, Vanessa Beltran, Samuel Labarthe, Ashwin Mushran, Chuck Mitchell, Christoph Bregler, Gabrielle Pietermann, Luise Helm, Claudia Gvirtzman Dichter, Guilherme Briggs, Samuel Labarthe, Hester Wilcox, Malavika Shivpuri, Viraj Adhav, Mona Shetty, Sheila Dorfman. 20K is hosted by Dallas Taylor and made out of the studios of Defacto Sound. A huge thanks to Director Paul Mariano for allowing us to create this adaptation of documentary! Thanks to APM Music for all of the music in this episode. Find out more at apmmusic.com. Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn.Join our community on Reddit and follow us on Facebook.If you enjoyed this episode, you’ll love the full documentary. You can find it on iTunes or on Amazon. Become a monthly contributor at 20k.org/donate. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/beinggeorgeclooney Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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