Sound Off: Siren calls, musical melodies & missing frequencies

Summary

Podcast Summary: Twenty Thousand Hertz – "Sound Off: Siren Calls, Musical Melodies & Missing Frequencies"

Release Date: June 18, 2025
Host: Dallas Taylor
Description: Exploring the stories behind the world’s most iconic and fascinating sounds, this episode delves into personal narratives, scientific explanations, historical insights, and creative interpretations that highlight the profound impact of sound in our lives.

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Introduction to the "Sound Off" Series

Timestamp: [00:00] – [02:00]

Dallas Taylor introduces a special segment titled "Sound Off," a competition inviting listeners to submit their own short stories about sound. Initially anticipating a modest number of entries, Taylor is pleasantly surprised by an overwhelming 57 submissions. This unexpected response leads to the creation of three full episodes, with the first set of stories dubbed the "Bronze Collection." Taylor expresses heartfelt gratitude to all participants and teases the upcoming "Silver" and "Gold" collections set to release later in the summer.

Notable Quote:

"I am beyond excited. Subscribe now and I'll see you soon." – Dallas Taylor [01:45]

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Story 1: Navigating Sound with a Hearing Loss

Timestamp: [03:45] – [08:39]
Narrators: Steve Wellhoff and Justin Laurent

Justin Laurent shares his personal journey with a subtle hearing loss, specifically around the 2000 Hz frequency range, which affects his perception of speech and music. Born with this condition, Justin remained unaware until second grade. His cousin, Steve Wellhoff, a musician, discusses the challenges Justin faced growing up without the advanced auditory technologies available today.

After receiving hearing aids at 37, Justin experiences a transformative improvement in his ability to hear and create music. The hearing aids not only enhance his musical performance by allowing him to perceive vibrations and differentiate guitar strings but also deepen his connection to everyday sounds, making him feel more alive and connected to the world.

Notable Quotes:

• "My hearing loss is unique in that it's primarily around the 2000 Hz range..." – Justin Laurent [04:55]
• "The brain actually develops a skill where we'll fill in words in an attempt to make things work for you on the fly." – Justin Laurent [05:13]
• "I have been a musician for over 15 years when I got my hearing aids... it allowed me to relax into the music in a way that I had never done before." – Justin Laurent [06:37]

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Story 2: The Science of Thunder – Firecrackers in the Sky

Timestamp: [08:39] – [12:04]
Narrator: Ralph Crew

Ralph Crew explores the phenomenon of thunder, comparing a distant lightning strike to a series of synchronized firecracker explosions. He explains how the immense temperature and rapid expansion of air caused by lightning result in the characteristic rumble of thunder. The length and shape of lightning bolts, along with environmental factors like echoes and multiple strikes, contribute to the prolonged and rolling sound of thunder.

Ralph ties historical anecdotes, such as a 477-mile-long lightning bolt crossing Mississippi to Texas in 2022, to illustrate the sheer scale and power of these natural events. The explanation highlights how thunder serves as an auditory reminder of the invisible force of lightning.

Notable Quote:

"From a sonic point of view, think of a lightning strike like a several mile long string of firecrackers all exploding at once." – Ralph Crew [11:05]

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Story 3: The Siren's Call – From Myth to Modern Soundscape

Timestamp: [12:04] – [22:57]
Narrator: Martin Mikulik

Martin Mikulik delves into the historical and cultural significance of sirens, tracing their origins from Homer's Odyssey to their modern-day applications. He recounts how the mythological sirens inspired Baron Charles Cagniard de la Tour in 1819 to invent a device that produces sound by blowing air through a slotted disc, creating the iconic wailing siren sound.

The evolution of sirens is explored through various historical contexts, including their use in ambulances, city alert systems during World War II, and their pervasive presence in contemporary emergency signals like police cars and tornado warnings. Martin discusses the dual nature of sirens: originally meant to warn and protect, but now raising concerns about auditory fatigue due to overuse in urban environments.

Notable Quote:

"The siren has shaped our communal soundscape. But unlike in Odysseus’ tale, sirens have helped us avoid life shipwrecks to find our way home safely." – Martin Mikulik [21:00]

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Story 4: The Age of Recording – Pablo Casals and the Evolution of Sound

Timestamp: [21:29] – [26:09]
Narrator: Matthew Quinlung

Matthew Quinlung explores the relatively short history of sound recording through the life of the renowned cellist Pablo Casals. He highlights Casals' discovery and lifelong dedication to Bach's Cello Suites, noting that Casals made only one complete recording of these pieces. This recording holds a legendary status, unmatched by subsequent performances.

Quinlung juxtaposes Casals' era with technological advancements, such as Thomas Edison's early recordings and space missions carrying Casals' music into orbit. The narrative underscores the rapid progression from the first recorded sounds to today's sophisticated audio technologies, emphasizing how each generation has witnessed monumental changes in how sound is captured and preserved.

Notable Quotes:

• "Casals played for Queen Victoria in 1899 and John F. Kennedy in 1961." – Matthew Quinlung [23:05]
• "When he was born, sound evaporated in the moment. And yet he heard voices across 240,000 miles of space." – Matthew Quinlung [23:50]

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Story 5: Melodic Medicine – The Therapeutic Power of Sound in Healthcare

Timestamp: [26:09] – [31:18]
Narrator: Erin Seibert

Erin Seibert, a medical music therapist, discusses the role of sound in healthcare settings. She contrasts the often overwhelming, artificial noises of hospitals—such as machine beeps, alarms, and staff chatter—with the calming influence of music therapy. Erin emphasizes the importance of using silence and gentle sounds to create a therapeutic environment that promotes healing and reduces patient anxiety.

By carefully managing the auditory environment, Erin can orchestrate a space where music supplants disruptive sounds, assisting patients and their families in finding peace amidst the chaos of medical treatments. Her approach highlights the nuanced interplay between sound and silence in fostering emotional well-being.

Notable Quotes:

"The auditory environment is another instrument I'm trained to play." – Erin Seibert [29:45]
"Honoring the musical rest affects the hospital experience and reveals our humanity." – Erin Seibert [30:55]

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Story 6: 52 Blue – The Enigmatic Song of the 52 Hz Whale

Timestamp: [31:18] – [34:29]
Narrator: Hannah Peck

Hannah Peck presents the haunting tale of the 52 Hz whale, an anomalous whale whose unique vocalization frequency sets it apart from other whales. This solitary call has persisted for over 35 years, raising questions about its loneliness and purpose. Hannah poetically speculates on the whale's intentions, suggesting that its song might be a form of curiosity or an attempt to communicate beyond perceived boundaries.

Her narrative captures the mystery and emotional depth surrounding this singular whale, inviting listeners to ponder the broader implications of communication and isolation in the natural world.

Notable Quote:

"Maybe he's not lonely. Maybe he's curious or patient. Or just different." – Hannah Peck [32:15]

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Production and Closing Remarks

Timestamp: [34:18] – [34:34]

Dallas Taylor acknowledges the contributions of the listeners and the production team, highlighting the collaborative effort in bringing the "Sound Off" stories to life. He reiterates the upcoming release of the Silver and Gold collections and promotes his new video series on YouTube, encouraging listeners to subscribe for exclusive behind-the-scenes content.

Notable Quote:

"Thank you for listening. Stay tuned later this summer for the silver and gold collections." – Dallas Taylor [34:34]

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Additional Information

• Sponsorships: The episode includes promotional segments for Sonos, OpenPhone, Shopify, and Indeed, offering listeners discounts and highlighting their services.

• Mystery Sound Contest: Listeners are invited to identify a mystery sound from a 1976 Mattel game called Auto Race, with winners eligible for a 20,000 Hertz T-shirt.

• Merchandise: The podcast has launched a merchandise store on Shopify, offering super soft T-shirts and other branded items.

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Conclusion

"Sound Off: Siren Calls, Musical Melodies & Missing Frequencies" is a compelling episode of Twenty Thousand Hertz that weaves together personal experiences, scientific exploration, historical context, and creative storytelling to celebrate and examine the multifaceted role of sound in our lives. From individual journeys with hearing loss to the profound impact of natural phenomena and technological advancements, the episode underscores the intrinsic connection between sound and human experience.

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Subscribe and Stay Connected

• YouTube: Dallas Taylor MP3 for video exclusives and behind-the-scenes content.
• Social Media: Follow Dallas on Instagram and TikTok @DallasTaylorMP3.
• Website: Visit defactosound.com to explore more productions.

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This summary encapsulates the key discussions, insights, and narratives presented in the "Sound Off: Siren Calls, Musical Melodies & Missing Frequencies" episode of Twenty Thousand Hertz, providing a comprehensive overview for both existing listeners and newcomers.

Transcript

[Dallas Taylor]

In the nine years since 20,000 Hertz began, I've told some of the most fascinating sound stories I could find, and doing it only with sound. But there have always been a few stories I've held back on. Not because they weren't amazing, but because these stories needed to be seen. Well, now's the time. Next week on June 25, 20,000 Hz is expanding into a brand new ongoing video series on my YouTube channel. These are rich, deep stories that bring you behind the scenes of the world's most iconic sounds with a level of access I've never seen before. I've been filming across the country in studios, theme parks, live events, and some unusual places you might not expect. And all of it is coming to my YouTube channel. Dallas Taylor MP3 now don't worry, 20,000Hz the podcast, this one that you know and love will still be right here telling highly crafted stories. But now there will be an entire series of video stories running alongside it. Sometimes these might share the same source material, but they go through entirely different pipelines that are designed for the platform they're in. So if you go and subscribe right now, you'll be the very first to see it. There's a direct link in the show notes. I've been working on this for years and we're only a few days away. I am beyond excited. Subscribe now and I'll see you soon. Actually, I guess you'll be seeing me soon, so don't be startled, but I have a face. This episode is sponsored by Sonos. I've been using Sonos speakers throughout my home for over a decade. I love the way that they wirelessly integrate with each other, creating a fluid, unified system. That sounds amazing. So when I first tried out the new Sonos Ace headphones, I had high expectations and fortunately they surpassed all of them. The clarity, the balance, the way every layer of a mix reveals itself. That's exactly what I look for in a pair of headphones. They're also super comfortable. I've worn them for hours at a time without even thinking about it. They also get up to 30 hours of battery life. Unlock the full potential of your music with the Sonos ace headphones. Visit sonos.com to hear the difference. You're listening to 20,000 Hz the stories behind the world's most iconic and fascinating sounds. I'm Dallas Taylor. A couple of months ago, we announced a competition called Sound off, where I invited listeners to submit a fully produced short story about sound. That's around five minutes or less. Essentially their own mini 20,000 Hz episodes produced entirely by our audience. Now, I was expecting maybe eight or ten submissions. The hope was to get enough to make one full episode out of the winning stories. And for a while, that's about how many we got. But right before the deadline, the submissions came flooding in and our whole team was shocked to see 57 entries. When I saw that response, I was so moved by how many people were willing to put themselves out there and share their story with us. It turns out there were so many incredible stories that we decided to make three entire episodes. And this still doesn't include every one we received. So I want to deeply thank everyone who submitted. Regardless of whether your story was chosen, we all enjoyed every second of every submission. So what you're about to hear is the first set of stories. We'll call these the bronze collection. The silver and gold collections will follow later in the summer. Enjoy. 2,000 hertz.

[Steve Wellhoff]

You're listening to 2,000 hertz. I'm Steve Wellhoff.

[Justin Laurent]

My name is Justin Laurent, and I was born with a hearing loss.

[Steve Wellhoff]

That's my cousin Justin, and I'm here to tell you his story.

[Justin Laurent]

My loss is subtle enough that for most people, communication between us probably seems fairly normal.

[Steve Wellhoff]

Justin was born with a hearing loss and didn't know it from for years.

[Justin Laurent]

We found out I had a loss in second grade, and if we hadn't found out then, I would have gone through life really struggling to recognize the challenges that I was facing.

[Steve Wellhoff]

As an audio guy and a musician myself. It was crazy to hear how Justin struggled with not being able to hear certain frequencies from the time he was born.

[Justin Laurent]

What I find to be really interesting about a hearing loss is how much of a mystery it is. Even from the subjective perspective, our language doesn't describe sounds very well, and so for us to even discuss thus what we're hearing, not hearing and hearing incorrectly is a humongous game.

[Steve Wellhoff]

So what exactly was he missing?

[Justin Laurent]

My hearing loss is unique in that it's primarily around the 2000 Hz range, which in human speech is the vowel to consonant change. So it's not that I do not hear people making noises when they're communicating, it's that I don't hear them clearly.

[Steve Wellhoff]

And this is where it gets pretty interesting.

[Justin Laurent]

The brain actually develops a skill where we'll fill in words in an attempt to make things work for you on the fly. So sometimes I'll hear people say things that I absolutely know they did not say, and I'm able to ask them then, hey, can you can you clarify this for me? But it's not that I didn't hear them. It's actually that I heard something completely wrong.

[Steve Wellhoff]

Now we're talking about this. In a time where cell phones didn't exist, where the Internet was still in its infancy, and the technologies of today's world, like voice to text and vice versa, simply did not exist. This makes growing up in a world full of sound incredibly difficult.

[Justin Laurent]

When I got my hearing AIDS at 37 years old.

[Steve Wellhoff]

Wait, did he just say 37 years old? Yeah, you heard that right.

[Justin Laurent]

When I got my hearing aids at 37 years old, the first thing that I noticed, the most apparent thing to me was the amount of energy that I had been spending to keep pace in a world absolutely brimming with sound. The cost of paying such fierce attention without even realizing you're doing it day in and day out is really quite extensive.

[Steve Wellhoff]

And this is where the story gets really interesting. What I didn't mention before is that Justin has been playing guitar and singing with this hearing loss for over 15 years.

[Justin Laurent]

I had been a musician for over 15 years when I got my hearing aids, so I was pretty excited to get home and plug in my guitar and do some singing. And I was not disappointed. I was able to hear so much more of the guitar work. The vibrations of my diaphragm, the changes that my tongue makes in my voice. I could even differentiate the strings of my chords better. And. And really, it allowed me to relax into the music in a way that I had never done before.

[Steve Wellhoff]

For those who don't know, 2000Hz is a pretty important frequency when it comes to speech and guitar. So for Justin to develop and fine tune these skills without being able to hear 2000 Hz is pretty incredible.

[Justin Laurent]

And on top of that, I was doing things that if I had been doing them before, I couldn't hear them. So I have no idea if I was doing them before. And to be able to experience them was like. It was like meeting myself for the first time.

[Steve Wellhoff]

Now, life isn't all about music. Well, for some of us, it is, but in Justin's case, his hearing aids changed. Changed his whole perspective on the world.

[Justin Laurent]

And the best part, though, is feeling more connected to the world around me. I can hear birds that I didn't know were chirping before, the leaves rustling underneath my feet, and the textures and the voices of the people that I love. These are little things that when you experience them all together, it actually makes me feel more alive because we truly do live in a world just completely filled with sound.

[Steve Wellhoff]

Justin's journey through hearing loss inspired me to create this. So thank you Justin for allowing me the opportunity to share your story with the world. My name is Steve Wellhaff and I recorded, edited, produced, mixed and mastered this episode. Check out my [e-mail] that's embrstudios.com Once again, my name is Steve and thanks for listening.

[Dallas Taylor]

Story two Firecrackers in the.

[Ralph Crew]

Sky have you ever been really close to a lightning strike? You know, so close you spill your drink or involuntarily yelp when a thunderclap happens. Really close. It's also really short, like a real clap. But most of the time when we hear thunder, it's from a lightning strike that's miles away, sometimes so far you don't even see the flash. In the case when the source lightning bolt is far away, we hear thunder as that familiar rumbling sound which is both quieter than the sound of a nearby thunderclap and lasts longer if the actual electric discharge is very fast. Why does the sound of thunder rumble on so long? First, it helps to be reminded what thunder actually is, just the sound of a lightning strike. Lightning is an incredibly high voltage discharge during a storm, and while the real mechanistic details of how it works are surprisingly poorly understood, only a few well understood facts are important to our story. Lightning bolts are long and skinny. The ionized channel of plasma carved in the air by lightning is about as wide as a ping pong ball, but it can be miles and miles long. In some extreme cases, they can get to be several hundred miles long. The World Meteorological Organization reported a lightning bolt that was over 477 miles long in 2022, crossing Mississippi all the way to Texas. Another extreme thing about lightning is its temperature. It's hot. Thousands of degrees in fact, often several times hotter than the surface of the sun. When you heat air, it expands, like how the flame in a hot air balloon expands the air inside the balloon, lowering its density and causing the whole thing to float. When you heat air to several times the temperature of the sun in a fraction of a second, it expands so fast and so hard it essentially explodes. So from a sonic point of view, think of a lightning strike like a several mile long string of firecrackers all exploding at once. The speed of sound seems fast, but when you're dealing with distances that long, it's actually quite audibly slow. If one end of our firecrackers is a mile away and the other end is three miles away, it'll take about five seconds for sound from the closest firecrackers to reach your ears, but it'll take 15 seconds for the most distant sound to get to you. With a bit of rough math, we can imagine this particular stroke to have thunder rumble on for about 10 seconds. Add to that fact that lightning bolts are oddly shaped, squiggling all over the place. Throw in some echoes off of cliffs or skyscrapers, toss in multiple lightning strikes happening over a wide area at various times, and thunder can smear from a sharp clap into a long rolling rumble. That was written and recorded by me, Ralph Crew, and I'm a writer and producer at practical engineering, a YouTube channel all about exploring and appreciating the large scale built world around us. I also do various little projects like sending in three minute podcasts to one of my favorite big podcasts, 20,000 Hz.

[Dallas Taylor]

Story three the Siren's Call.

[Martin Mikulik]

So listen, I will give you good instructions. Another God will make sure you remember first. You will reach the sirens who bewitch all passersby. If anyone goes near them in ignorance and listens to their voices, that man will never travel to his home and never make his wife and children happy to have him back with them again. The sirens who sit there in their meadow will seduce him with piercing songs. Hi, welcome. I'm Martin Mikulik. What we just heard was an excerpt of the famous conversation between Odysseus and the God Circe in the epic poem the Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson. Written around the 8th century BC by Homer, the book and the story about the sirens in particular has resonated deeply and sort of made a splash, if you will, with audiences everywhere. Since then, this half fish, half woman mythological creature has inspired many other works of art, from Disney to Pearl Jam songs and even the Starbucks logo. But it also inspired the French inventor and aristocrat Baron Charles Cargnard de la tour in the 19th century to christen a new sonic invention. In 1819, Cagniard published an article titled Sur la Sirenne, or Avow the Siren. In it he describes a mechanism that produces sound by blowing air through a moving slotted disc. The emblematic wailing is a consequence of the way sound is produced by, and a key feature of the siren since the very beginning. Another invention that produced sound in a similar way had been proposed 20 years before by the Scottish natural science professor John Robison, so the claim of the invention is disputed. The name, though, is certainly Cagniard's idea, and as he writes in the article, he comes up with it because when testing the device, he was able to prove that it could also produce sound underwater. In the Odyssey, our hero is urged to avoid the sirens when sailing close to them because their beautiful singing would otherwise enchant him and cause the ship to wreck. Indeed, one of the first known uses of the device was a long foghorn to prevent ships from getting too close to the coast when the normal operation of lighthouses was impaired by fog or inclement weather. It seems that someone took the story about the sirens and the name of the invention quite literally. By the Beginning of the 20th century, news articles reported that sirens were replacing gongs in ambulances in New York City. Their sound signaled people to stand still and wait for them to pass. During the Second World War, sirens had the particularly big task of alerting people of bombs being dropped on their cities. Like Circe Warren Odysseus, if you listened to the sirens chant, you were in danger. The wailing of sirens still plays a key role in our lives today as a soundtrack of our modern emergencies. Ambulances, police cars, tornado sirens, car alarms, and more. So much so that some studies are starting to, excuse me, raise the alarm about the overuse of its sound and the possible fatigue that city dwellers may be experiencing. In these 200 years since its invention, the siren has shaped our communal soundscape. But unlike in Odysseus tale, sirens have helped us avoid life shipwrecks to find our way home safely. This podcast was written and produced by Martin Mikulique. It was recorded in the city of Chicago in April 2025.

[Dallas Taylor]

After the break, medical melodies and a whale song unlike any other. As a business owner, I know that anytime we miss a call, we're potentially leaving money on the table. Because in a world of emails and text messages, phone calls are still really important. When every customer conversation matters, you need a phone system that lets you stay connected. 24. 7. That's where OpenPhone comes in. OpenPhone is the number one business phone system that streamlines and scales your customer communications. It works through an app on your phone or computer, so you never have to juggle two devices. Your whole team can share one number, meaning you can collaborate on calls and texts. You can even let OpenPhone's AI agent answer questions after hours, meaning you can capture leads while you sleep. OpenPhone is offering our listeners 20% off your first six months at openphone.com 20K that's O-P E N P H O-N-E.com 20K and if you have numbers with another service, OpenPhone will port them over at no extra charge. OpenPhone no missed calls. No missed customers. Congratulations to Tim Davies for getting last episode's Mystery Sound right. Those sounds came from a 1976 Mattel game called Auto Race. Auto Race is considered the first fully electronic handheld game, meaning it had no mechanical components other than the controls in the game. The cars are represented by red lights that flash by as you avoid collisions and try to earn a high score. And for sound, you get some good old fashioned beeps. And here's this episode's mystery Sound. If you know that sound, tell us at the web address mystery.2000 anyone who guesses it right will be entered to win super soft 20,000Hz T shirt when I started this show, I never imagined I'd also become a merch guy. But eventually we wanted a 20,000 Hz store and I had no idea how to make that happen. Thankfully, I found Shopify and soon enough we were pumping out super soft T shirts. Shopify is the platform behind millions of businesses around the world, including 10% of all E commerce in the US. Whether you're just getting started or growing fast, Shopify makes everything simpler, from stunning website templates to smart AI tools that help you write product descriptions and boost your photography. It's like having a whole creative team in your pocket. There are even built in marketing tools to help you find and keep new customers. They'll help you create email and social media campaigns so you can reach the ideal customers wherever they are. Turn your big business idea into With Shopify on your side, sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com 20k that's shopify.com 20k shopify.com 20k hiring used to mean juggling multiple job sites, digging through endless resumes, and emailing back and forth, sometimes for weeks. But with Indeed, your entire hiring process lives in one place. You can schedule interviews, message candidates, and make offers without ever switching tabs. Best of all, Indeed brings the right candidates to you with their Sponsored Jobs option. Your post jumps to the top of the page for relevant candidates, and if you want to take matters into your own hands, you can use their intelligent matching engine to find great candidates and invite them to apply. So how fast is it? According to Indeed's data, in the minute it takes you to Hear this ad, 23 hires will be made on Indeed around the world. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring Right now with Indeed, 20,000 Hertz listeners will get a $75 job credit to get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.com Hertz just go to Indeed.com Hertz right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.comHertz terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need. From the gramophone to Chapel Roan.

[Matthew Quinlung]

Just how long is the age of recording? How many generations have lived through it? We take it for granted that sounds can travel through time and space. Probably can't imagine a world otherwise, but maybe that hasn't been possible for as long as we might think. Let's take a few minutes to underline just how new recording is this is the first of Bach's cello suites. It's being played in the new Abbey Road Studios in 1936 by the Spanish born cellist Pablo or Pau Casals. Casals and his third wife Marta have a unique place in the history of record recording, one that reminds us just how early we are in our journey with sound. Casals discovered a battered copy of the Bach sheet music in a second hand store in 1890 when he was just 13 years old, and he practiced them every day until he was 26. He performed them all over the world, but this is the only recording he made of the full set. It's widely agreed that no other performance of the Sweets comes close. I first heard of Casals when talking to a NASA astronaut, Pinky Nelson, who flew three shuttle missions and took that recording into orbit. Casals was called the greatest musician ever to draw bow, but he withheld his talent to protest the fascist Franco regime in Spain and apply pressure to its supporters. This is a quote from him read by an AI trained on his voice.

[Dallas Taylor]

A musician is also a man, and more important than his music is his attitude to life. You hear when a note is false the same way you feel when you do something wrong in life.

[Matthew Quinlung]

Casals was born in 1876 before anyone on earth had recorded and replayed a sound. When he was born, sound evaporated in the moment. The human voice was as insubstantial as thought. A year later, Thomas Edison sang Mary had a Little Lamb and moments afterwards listened back as a younger version of himself, younger by a couple of minutes, recited the nursery rhyme. This is Edison recreating that moment in 1927 when Pablo Casals was already in his 50s.

[Justin Laurent]

The first words I spoke in the.

[Dallas Taylor]

Original a little piece of practical poetry, Mary had a little lamb, Its fleet.

[Justin Laurent]

Was white as snow, and everywhere that.

[Ralph Crew]

Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.

[Matthew Quinlung]

Casals played for Queen Victoria in 1899 and John F Kennedy in 1961. He was 39 when Frank Sinatra was born, 77 when 18 year old Elvis Presley walked into Memphis Sun Studios to make a record for his mother's birthday. And he was 93 when the Beatles split. He lived to hear men speak from the surface of the moon. Remember when Casals was born, sounds couldn't survive the here and now. And yet he heard voices across 240,000 miles of space. And we can hear them too, six decades later. But that's not the most amazing part of this story. Pablo casals married his third wife, Marta Montana Zimartanez, in 1957. Marta was artistic director of the John F. Kennedy center for the Performing Arts for a decade and served as president of the Manhattan School of music until 2005. As of April 2025, she's still alive. She still lives in Washington, DC. Our entire recorded history, from Edison to Elvis, the gramophone to Chapel Roan to an AI clone, fits inside the lifespans of one married couple, Pablo and Marta Casals. That's how new recording is this almost magic that's given us a common vocabulary of the Beatles, one Giant Leap, I have a Dream and Pablo Casal's extraordinary performance of Bach's Cello Suites. Thank you to Joe Bryant and Nova Shires of Mercer Island High School's award winning radio program for their production help. Thank you too to Asura Soleil at the Pablo Casale's Museum in Spain for help with audio rights. I write on sound, music and [e-mail].

[Dallas Taylor]

Story 5 Melodic Medicine.

[Erin Seibert]

My name is Erin Seibert and I'm a medical music therapist. I think about sound all day. As a music therapist, I usually play the guitar, sing, and use other portable instruments to do my job. In the medical setting, the music I play competes with a lot of other sounds. The hospital is made up of artificial sounds that aren't heard anywhere else. These sounds can include machines beeping loud, staff conversations, supply carts rolling by, trash cans being emptied, monitor alarms and emergency codes. Hospital noise isn't usually an issue for people until it impacts them personally. These sounds can be scary, jarring, and overstimulating. Hospital staff become immune to these noises, but for patients and families, these sounds impact their experience. Growing up, my musical training emphasized using silence to balance the emotional power of musical expression. I practiced using musical rests to make an audience lean in for the music to begin again and to use that pause to affect the listener's experience. I'm a quieter musician. I can't belt my voice with the power needed for the stage, and I could never effortlessly play the piano loudly. But by playing and singing quietly, I've learned how to draw people in to listen more closely and soften themselves in the process. I now use this musical quietness as part of my therapeutic presence. While the auditory environment isn't the only thing I think about when doing my job, it's an underlying factor that informs my music therapy decisions. When I walk into a hospital room, it's a quick assessment of the sounds that are necessary, like medical equipment and what can be removed. I might turn off the TV or sound machine, adjust my own voice volume, and non verbally shift everyone towards a cadence of calm. Only then can I begin to envelop the room with music in a therapeutic and healing way. In a way, the auditory environment is another instrument I'm trained to play. Often, medical music therapy can help mask sounds that are scary or traumatic. Music can help transition a hospital room from chaos to calm or fill it when the quiet is no longer peaceful but painful. Music can easily celebrate life, joy, and love, but it can also mirror grief, pain, and loss. The goal of healthcare is to promote healing and reduce suffering, and music therapy accompanies this purpose. But sometimes a healthcare journey can come to an end. It is during these times when my job shifts to support the absence of sound. The silence, the space where sound should be present but no longer is. Eventually a point comes when there is no longer anything more to say or play. Honoring the musical rest affects the hospital experience and reveals our humanity. In the moments where silence is more important than the sound, it is a privilege to honor how that piece of music was written. This podcast and accompanying music was written and performed by me, Aaron Seibert, with editing and production help by Nick Seibert. If you're interested in learning more about my work in music therapy, check out my website, musictherapytime.com thanks for listening.

[Dallas Taylor]

52 Blue.

[Hannah Peck]

They say the ocean has a voice. That somewhere deep below the waves, something is always calling. There is a whale. Only one we've ever heard like this. It sings at a frequency no other whale can hear. 52 hertz. A lonely tone. Too high. Too strange. Unanswered. Scientists call it the 52 Hz whale. But I wonder, what does he call us? Maybe he's not lonely. Maybe he's curious or patient. Or just different. He's been calling for over 35 years. Through storms, through silence, through time. Always there, singing his song no other whale can hear. Hi, my name is Hannah Peck. What you just heard was a short interpretation of the story of 52 Blue. This piece was written, produced, edited and recorded by me. A special thank you to my dad for letting me do this. You're truly the best and thank you so much for listening.

[Dallas Taylor]

20,000 Hz is produced out of my sound agency, Defacto Sound. Hear more by following Defacto Sound on Instagram or by visiting defactosound.com this episode.

[Ralph Crew]

Was written and produced by the incredible listeners of 20,000 hertz.

[Dallas Taylor]

It was story edited by Casey Emerling with help from Grace East. It was sound designed and mixed by Justin Hollis. Thanks to everyone who submitted a story for our Soundoff competition. I am so honored by how many people poured their hearts into these unique, thoughtful pieces. Stay tuned later this summer for the silver and gold collections. Subscribe to my YouTube channel Dallas Taylor MP3 for video exclusives including my behind the scenes trips to some of the most amazing audio locations around the country. You can also find me on Instagram and TikTok under that same name. DallasTaylor MP3. Thanks for listening. Before you go, next week is the big week. On June 25th, our brand new video series goes live on YouTube. Now this isn't two people sitting @ a table talking into microphones. This is me traveling the country going behind the scenes with talented people in incredible locations. These trips have been mind blowing and I'm living in this weird space where no one knows about it. So please take a moment right now to go subscribe. You can either tap the link in the show notes or pop open YouTube and search for Dallas Taylor MP3. I'll see you there. DC high volume Batman the Dark Knight's definitive DC comic stories adapted directly for audio for the very first time. Fear I have to Make Them Afraid. From this moment on, none of you are safe. New episodes every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts.