Twenty Thousand Hertz

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...