99% Invisible
Design is everywhere in our lives, perhaps most importantly in the places where we've just stopped noticing. 99% Invisible is a weekly exploration of the process and power of design and architecture. From award winning producer Roman Mars. Learn more at 99percentinvisible.org.
Episodes
Love it or hate it, one buzzing horn changed the sound of the World Cup forever.
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In 1861, one man and a “gas bag” filled with hydrogen sparked America's obsession with going higher, farther, into the unknown. In this episode, Roman and journalist Jack Hitt tell the story of Thaddeus Lowe — showman, scientist, and dreamer — whose balloon flight from Cincinnati went wildly off course and straight into the Civil War. Lowe pivoted to create the US military's first aerial reconnaissance unit,...
Behind every cheesy karaoke track was a surprisingly ambitious filmmaking experiment.
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What do Civil War pension files reveal about one of history's most successful slave rebellions? Historian Edda Fields-Black joins Roman to trace a story of fire, flight, and freedom — beginning on a South Carolina rice plantation in 1863, where a Union raid liberated over 700 people in a single night. By unearthing Black soldiers' testimonies buried in military pension applications, they resurrect not just the raid, but the l...
Canada reshaped its music industry with a quirky radio rule that changed who got heard.
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In the early 20th century, nothing quite fit — fire hoses couldn't connect to one another, football teams played with different balls, traffic lights meant different things in different states. Then World War II exposed the deadly cost of incompatibility, and the US quietly imposed a single solution on production lines across the world: the 60-degree screw. Roman Mars and historian Daniel Immerwahr tell the story of a hidden ...
What started as a revolutionary treatment for river blindness became something far messier.
Listen to Drug Story wherever you get your podcasts!
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In 1876, Americans filled an iron safe with objects meant to tell their story — to be opened a century later. Roman Mars and historian Jill Lepore trace its long wait, from Reconstruction to Watergate, and the surprising, unsettling contents that emerged in 1976. What do the objects we choose to preserve — or forget — reveal about how we author our own history?
As wild and random as they might seem, a lot of work—and even poetry—goes into coming up with today's catchiest, most unforgettable drug names.
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America’s 250th birthday calls for a history as sprawling and contradictory as the country itself.
A History of the United States in 100 Objects — hosted by Roman Mars and produced by BBC Studios and 99% Invisible — tells that history one thing at a time. A gold coin from an 1857 shipwreck that triggered a financial panic. An antebellum schoolbook that became an instrument of Black liberation. A ceramic dalm...
Why is it suddenly so hard to fix the stuff we depend on most?
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One man rejected nationality and dared the world to recognize him anyway.
Listen to Far From Home wherever you get your podcasts.
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This is the ninth episode of our ongoing series breaking down the U.S. Constitution.
This month, Roman and Elizabeth discuss Article VI and VII, which include some odds and ends like the Debts Clause, the No Religious Test Clause, and the process for ratification. But tucked into Article VI is the all-important Supremacy Clause, which states that the Constitution is the “supreme Law of the Land,” and is probably the mos...
The world’s largest housing co-op—built to save New York City’s middle class—became the unlikely site of a resident revolt
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One study from 2018 found that Major League Baseball umpires blow about 14 calls every game. That’s 34,000 bad calls every year. And it makes a difference. A blown strike call can decide a win or a loss, a championship or six months at home, wondering what could have been. And while umpires are about 97% accurate in calling balls and strikes, Major League Baseball has been considering something drastic. Something to take us u...
A missing car reveals the confusing rules, murky fees, and private actors behind modern towing.
What infrastructure mystery keeps you up at night? Submit your Service Request by recording a voice memo with your question and emailing it to servicerequest@99pi.org.
Service Request is a production of 99% Invisible and Campside Media.
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In a place where losing power can turn deadly, keeping the lights on is a high-stakes balancing act.
What infrastructure mystery keeps you up at night? Submit your Service Request by recording a voice memo with your question and emailing it to servicerequest@99pi.org.
Service Request is a production of 99% Invisible and Campside Media.
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Why did it take nearly a decade to redesign a city trash can, and why haven't more bins made the streets cleaner?
What infrastructure mystery keeps you up at night? Submit your Service Request by recording a voice memo with your question and emailing it to servicerequest@99pi.org.
Service Request is a production of 99% Invisible and Campside Media.
Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-f...
This is the eighth episode of our ongoing series breaking down the U.S. Constitution.
This month, Roman and Elizabeth discuss Article V, which lays out the process to amend the Constitution.
Then, Jill Lepore lays out her thesis that the Constitution is truly meant to be amended, explains why Article V amendments have become functionally impossible, and tells some fascinating stories about the people who have championed amendments.
...What the world's most advanced traffic system can—and can't—do for the city that invented gridlock.
What infrastructure mystery keeps you up at night? Submit your Service Request by recording a voice memo with your question and emailing it to servicerequest@99pi.org.
Service Request is a production of 99% Invisible and Campside Media.
Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-fre...
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