The dark history of nursery rhymes

Twenty Thousand Hertz

Dallas Taylor

Music, Design, Arts, Music Commentary

4.8 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2024

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Many of the songs we sing to our children are hundreds of years old, with their original meanings obscured by history. In this episode, producer Leila Battison takes Dallas on a dark, surprising journey through history’s most famous nursery rhymes and lullabies, and up through the “Baby Sharks” and “Happy Songs” of today. Along the way, they share the songs they’ve made up for their own children, and explore why this music is just as important to parents as it is to kids. 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. Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. Watch our video shorts on YouTube, and join the discussion on Reddit and Facebook. Find the right doctor, right now at zocdoc.com/20k. Claim your $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/hertz. Follow Leila’s channel Science Baby on TikTok, Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook. Enable episode notifications & automatic downloads on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Five Twenty Thousand Hertz episodes that kids would love: Space Remix (Apple/Spotify) Minecraft (Apple/Spotify) Sound 101 with Bill Nye (Apple/Spotify) Tyrannosaurus FX (Apple/Spotify) Songbugs (Apple/Spotify) Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/nurseryrhymes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to 20,000 Hertz.
0:03.7	I'm Dallas Taylor.
0:07.3	Recently, our producer Layla Bateson set up a recording session with me.
0:11.7	Hi, Dallas.
0:12.9	Hi, Layla.
0:13.9	How are you?
0:15.0	I'm doing great.
0:16.3	We're going to make a podcast about nursery rhymes.
0:19.8	That sounds lovely. So the reason I wanted to make this is about nursery rhymes. That sounds lovely.
0:21.5	So the reason I wanted to make this is because I've just had a tiny baby.
0:25.3	And I have found my world completely taken over by nursery rhymes, songs, child appropriate music.
0:33.6	And I thought it'd be good to chat to you about it because you are more than just the smooth voice of 20K.
0:41.0	I am more than the smooth voice of 20K. I also have three little ones and I have also been
0:47.9	taken over by many nursery rhymes for over a decade.
0:55.0	Just tell me a little bit about how your world changed when you first child arrived.
1:00.0	Oh my goodness, Leila, that's a big question.
1:03.0	I know, I like to start with the big ones.
1:05.0	Well, first of all, even asking that question, I had a full body wave of like tingles just from that being the most profound moment of my life.
1:17.8	It's hard to put into words.
1:20.2	And I remember when I saw my daughter's face for the first time going, I don't recognize this face, but I love this face more than
1:29.9	anything in the world.
1:32.6	And the new dimension of my wife turning from my partner, my best friend, to now she's that
	...

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