Twenty Thousand Hertz Caps Landmark Year with 15 Million Lifetime Downloads, Webby Awards & Its Most Invaluable Episodes to Date

This month, Twenty Thousand Hertz will release the final episode in a year that's seen the podcast deliver its most inspiring, imaginative audio productions to its highest number of listeners to date. Surpassing 15 million lifetime downloads, the series has remained dedicated to uncovering the stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds. In 2020, host Dallas Taylor and his team revealed the origins of Netflix's "Ta-dum" sound for the first time ever, won their third consecutive Webby Award, and furthered their mission of elevating our sense of hearing to the same level of appreciation and attention as our other senses. 

Dallas Taylor's TED Talk on John Cage's 4' 33" and the sounds we hear in silence garnered millions of views and was featured in a special collaboration with TED Radio Hour, while Twenty Thousand Hertz's insight on the sociopolitical implications of audio deepfakes brought Taylor to a timely appearance on NPR's Here & Now. In shifting to a weekly format this fall, the series entered its most active period since its inception, with episodes focusing on the future of space communication, how a medieval funeral chant called "Dies Irae" became a movie soundtrack staple, the misconceptions around perfect pitch (featuring Grammy-winner Jacob Collier), the real sounds of dinosaurs, and beyond. Earlier this year, the show explored the sonic world of Star Wars, the iconic Seinfeld theme song, and the hundreds of voices created by Looney Tunes legend Mel Blanc. 

Today, Twenty Thousand Hertz shares its penultimate episode of 2020, "Sounds Worth Saving," which celebrates the legacy of America's most famous music archivist, Alan Lomax. Listen here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/soundsworthsaving 

Next week, the podcast will release a remix of their beloved "Virtual Choir" episode with an all-new section about the recent Virtual Choir 6. In 2021, they will continue their streak, exploring the science of sound with Bill Nye, and diving into topics like synesthesia, blind sports, Minecraft, McDonald's "I'm Lovin' It" jingle, the 20th Century Fox fanfare, and so much more. 

Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced out of the studios of Defacto Sound, the go-to sound designers for brands like Disney, Google, National Geographic, Netflix, Nike, Ford and more. As Creative Director of Defacto Sound and host of Twenty Thousand Hertz, Dallas Taylor remains one of the foremost experts on all things sound. The Guardian says, "his love of everyday noises knows no bounds."

Throughout 2020, Taylor contributed to audio-centric conversations at the LA Times, Salon, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, while Twenty Thousand Hertz's reporting was covered by Entertainment Weekly, Hollywood Reporter, IFLScience, IGN, Mashable, Popular Science, The Verge and many others. In naming Twenty Thousand Hertz in the Best Podcasts of 2020, Esquire UK adds, "given podcasting is an aural medium, you'd think more of them would be a bit more curious about the specifics of the sounds that they pipe into your brain."