
182 episodes

Twenty Thousand Hertz Twenty Thousand Hertz
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- Arts
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4.9 • 439 Ratings
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A lovingly crafted podcast that reveals the stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds.
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Vocal Stratosphere
Our vocal system is incredibly complex. What we call “the voice” starts with very precise movements of our vocal cords, and then goes through an entire “resonation system” that includes our throat, mouth, lips, tongue, and teeth. With enough control over these components, people can do some truly mind-bending things with their voices, creating sounds that feel out of this world—from rumbling lows to piercing highs, and even two notes sung at once. This episode features vocal coach Matt Ramsey and Tuvan musician and throat singer Albert Kuvezin.
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Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/vocalstratosphere
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Songbugs
Why do bugs make the sounds they do? And how do they make them? In this episode, we explore the un-bee-lievable world of insect sounds, including crickets who craft tools to make themselves louder, and moths who can jam the natural sonar of bats. By the time it’s over, you’ll never hear these buzzes and chirps the same way again. Featuring entomologists Natasha Mhatre and Nancy Mioreli.
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Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/songbugs
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Breathe Deep
In honor of Mental Health Awareness month, we’ve revamped one of the most personal episodes we’ve ever worked on. To create it, Dallas worked with the team from Meditative Story to tell a story from his former life as a musician. It’s about losing the thing that had defined his life for more than a decade, and finding something entirely different in the process. This remix concludes with an all-new segment where Dallas reflects on what it was like to finally share this story.
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Watch our video shorts on Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok.
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Subscribe to Meditative Story wherever you get your podcasts.
Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/breathedeep
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The Spatial Race
In the 1960s, stereo sound revolutionized the music industry. But it turns out, a pioneering engineer named Alan Blumlein had actually invented stereo a full three decades earlier. Due to tragic events in World War II, his innovations were forgotten for decades. In this episode, we worked with OnePlus to tell the story of how audio has evolved from mono, to stereo, to quadraphonic, to surround sound and beyond. Today, we even have immersive, three-dimensional systems that can simulate 128 speakers using just two. Featuring Alan Blumlein’s son Simon Blumlein, and sound engineer Robin Reumers from the Abbey Road Institute.
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Improve your personal sound world at oneplus.com.
Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/thespatialrace
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Found In Translation
Have you ever seen something so cute that you just wanted to squeeze it? Have you ever felt sleepy after a big meal? Or enjoyed bouncing on a puffy cushion? There are words for all of these, just not in English. In this game show episode, 20K producer and resident linguist Grace East cooks up an “untranslatable” words quiz for Dallas and fellow producer Andrew Anderson. How many words can you guess?
Watch our video shorts on Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok.
Follow us on Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook.
Sign up for Twenty Thousand Hertz+ to get our entire catalog ad-free.
If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org
Improve your personal sound world at oneplus.com.
Check out headspace.com/20KHERTZ and use promo code 20KHERTZ to try Headspace free for 30 days.
Visit shopify.com/20k and sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period.
Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/foundintranslation
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Insurance Jingles... Why?
For decades, the jingle was king. But in the last twenty years, jingles have nearly gone extinct. Many brands have now dropped their melodic earworms in favor of spoken word slogans. Today, there’s just one industry where jingles are still as common as ever: insurance. The question is, why? Featuring Jeanna Isham of the Sound in Marketing podcast, audio branding expert Colleen Fahey, and Brand Manager Sergio Trujillo.
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Watch our video shorts on Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok.
Follow us on Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook.
Sign up for Twenty Thousand Hertz+ to get our entire catalog ad-free.
If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org
To learn more about sonic branding, subscribe to Jeanna’s podcast, Sound in Marketing, and buy Colleen’s book, Audio Branding: Using Sound to Build your Brand.
Go to indeed.com/hertz to start hiring today.
Find the right doctor, right now with at zocdoc.com/20k.
Visit shopify.com/20k and sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period.
Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/insurancejingles
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Customer Reviews
Awesome show!
Always really interesting content
20k podcast
Look forward to this show every week. Always a great listen with well told stories about sounds you might never think about.
Awesome!
I love this show because I stumbled upon it out of the corner of my eye and it has become a staple in my nighttime routine. The episodes are educational and funny, yet so relaxing to listen to. Dallas is a mad genius, keep it up! - my 12yo