Twenty Thousand Hertz
25 stories
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesI'm (Still) Lovin' It: The McDonald's Jingle Saga Continues The “I’m Lovin’ It” jingle is one of the most recognizable melodies on Earth. But the story behind it involves a global competition, thousands of mixes, a Trojan Horse pop song, and a surprising amount of celebrity beef.
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesListener Stories 2026 (Silver): Keyboard Clicks & Singing Forests Our 2026 Listener Story competition continues with five more incredible listener-made pieces. In this Silver collection, you’ll hear the surprising craft behind mechanical keyboards, the natural sounds hidden in Indian r
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesColbert & Fallon: Mixing Music for Late Night TV Mixing music for Late Night television means working fast, putting artists at ease, and delivering polished mixes under immense pressure. In this episode, the Music Mixers of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The To
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesListener Stories 2026 (Bronze): AI Music & Coral Crackles Twenty Thousand Hertz proudly presents the first five selections from our 2026 Listener Story competition. From AI-generated music, to the hidden crackle of coral reefs, to historic birdsong recordings, these bite-sized
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesEurovision Song Contest: Inside the Gimmicks & Glamour For millions of people, Eurovision is a cultural institution, and one of the biggest live television events on Earth. But for many Americans, it remains a complete mystery. In this episode, producer Andrew Anderson takes
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesJohn Williams: A Composer’s Legacy In our last episode, we followed composer John Williams from his childhood to his 1970s run with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Now, we pick up the story as John enters an era of seemingly impossible success… from Ra
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesJohn Williams: A Composer’s Life John Williams has written some of the most famous film scores ever, from Star Wars to Indiana Jones to Jurassic Park . But before the blockbuster success, there was a kid growing up around jazz musicians in New York, and
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesAge of Audio: The Future of Podcasting (and 20k) After making Age of Audio , a feature documentary about the history of podcasting, filmmaker Shaun Michael Colón sat down with Dallas for a revealing conversation about the state and future of this industry. Together, Da
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesAge of Audio: The Inside Story of Podcasting The history of podcasting has rarely been told. But in this episode, the brightest minds in podcasting reveal the inside story of this medium: from the invention of RSS feeds, through the Gold Rush era of corporate inves
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesThe Poop Song Conspiracy One day, Ethan had an unfortunate bathroom incident. Then, he found an entire collection of songs online with his name in the title… and they all seemed to be about that embarrassing moment. That experience sent Ethan an
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesThe Heartfelt Music of Bluey w/ Composer Joff Bush What makes the music of Bluey feel so warm and alive? In this episode, Dallas travels to Brisbane, Australia to visit the studio of Bluey’s composer Joff Bush . There, Joff reveals the quirky instruments, musical easter
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesThe Acoustic Worlds of Radiolab Creator Jad Abumrad Before Radiolab became a cultural phenomenon, it was an experiment… one that Jad Abumrad built voice by voice, sound by sound. In this episode, Jad walks Dallas through his journey with the show, from its scrappy beginni
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesHe was deaf for 35 years + Listener Stories kickoff Last year, we ran three full episodes of listener-produced stories. But one beautiful story was just a little too long for the final cut… and we couldn’t leave it behind. In this episode, sound designer Jesse Herrera tel
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesHarry Potter and the Sound Designer’s Stone Harry Potter has been brought to life on page and screen. But what would it take to make the wizarding world come alive using sound alone? In this episode, we go behind the scenes of the new full-cast editions of the Har
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesWhen Everything Stopped, He Started Listening David Jeffers has always understood the world through sound. As a kid, he bounced beats between tape decks and built speaker boxes from spare parts. After college, he founded an underground hip hop label. Then came the d
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesThe State of the 20K Multiverse™ What happens when a podcast about sound gets into video? In this special behind-the-scenes episode, producer Grace East flips the script and interviews Dallas about his leap into visual storytelling, and how the differen
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesDoctor Who & The BBC Radiophonic Workshop What does a time machine sound like? Or a magic carpet? For the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, that was just another day at the office. For 40 years, this oddball collective of engineers and composers pushed the boundaries of
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesButterfly in the Synth: Reading Rainbow’s Magical Theme Song The theme song to Reading Rainbow has been delighting kids (and nostalgic grown-ups) for over 40 years. But how did this instantly iconic track come to be? In this episode, composer Steve Horelick reveals the unlikely st
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesAuld Lang What? The surprising origins of the New Year’s song Every New Year’s at midnight, we raise our voices to sing a song that few of us understand: “Auld Lang Syne.” So when and why did this become the anthem of the holiday? In this episode, our friends at the Smithsonian’s S
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesGuess That Sound 2025: Youtube Channel Champs For our sixth annual Mystery Sound game show, we’ve invited three guests from our video series to test their sonic knowledge on 18 sounds, including production logos, video game FX, bird calls, strange instruments, and m
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesThe Sound of Fallout: From Iconic Games to Prestige TV Behind Fallout’s apocalyptic sci-fi and retro nostalgia is a masterclass in sound design. In this episode, we explore how the audio teams behind both the video games and the TV series built Fallout’s signature sonic iden
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesDefying Gravity: The Audio Wizardry of Wicked's Live Vocals In movie musicals, the vocals are almost never recorded live on-set. Instead, the actors pre-record their songs, then lip sync to those recordings while filming. But on Wicked, they threw out the rulebook, and recorded a
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesThe Secret Soundtracks of Movies & TV In the ‘60s and ‘70s, world-class musicians gathered in smoky studios to record tracks that you couldn’t buy in a store… but ended up everywhere. In this episode, Dallas and the TTH crew dive into the golden age of produ
Twenty Thousand HertzVoicesInside Imagineering: How Sound Powers Disney Magic Sound is a crucial part of what makes Disney parks feel magical… and it all starts inside the closely-guarded rooms of Walt Disney Imagineering. In this episode, Imagineers John Dennis and Greg Lhotka break down how they
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