Description
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
- 2024 / 4 / 16578- Anything's Pastable: Eat Sauté LoveThis week we're featuring an episode from The Sporkful's series on the creation of "Anything's Pastable," Dan Pashman's new pasta cookbook.Dan talks with Roman about how this massive project came to be and...
- 2024 / 4 / 9577- The Society of Ambiance Makers and Elegant PersonsHailing from central African cities of Brazzaville and Kinshasa, sapeurs have become increasingly recognizable around the world. Since the 1970s, sapeurs (from: le sape, short for "Société des Ambianceurs et...
- 2024 / 4 / 2576- Chambre de BonneA chambre de bonne is usually one small room, on the top floor of a five- or six-story apartment building, and itâs usually just big enough to fit a bed and a table. Itâs affordable housing in a city where...
- 2024 / 3 / 29Roman Mars Describes Athens GA As It IsThis is the third and final episode in a three-part series of Roman Mars recording on-location guides to the design features and interesting spots in cities he loves. Roman moved to Athens, Georgia, to pursue...
- 2024 / 3 / 27575- Autism PlesantvilleA few years back, journalist Lauren Ober was diagnosed with autism. She then made a podcast about her experience called The Loudest Girl in the World. And she found herself imagining a fantasy world where...
- 2024 / 3 / 27575- Autism PleasantvilleA few years back, journalist Lauren Ober was diagnosed with autism. She then made a podcast about her experience called The Loudest Girl in the World. And she found herself imagining a fantasy world where...
- 2024 / 3 / 19574- The Monster Under the SinkIn the middle of the 20th century, the small town of Jasper, Indiana did something that no other city had done before: they made garbage illegal. The city would still collect some things, like soup cans and...
- 2024 / 3 / 15The Power Broker #03: David SimsThis is the third official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. Blank Check podcast co-host and The Atlantic movie critic David Sims is our...
- 2024 / 3 / 13573- ToyeticThis year marks the 40th anniversary of a lot of landmarks in pop culture, especially sci-fi and fantasy. So many franchises were born in 1984. Some came to define the genre or invent new genres. The great...
- 2024 / 3 / 5572- WARNING: This Podcast Contains Chemicals Known to the State of California to Cause Cancer or Other Reproductive HarmIntimidating Proposition 65 warnings can be found on all kinds of products manufactured or distributed in the State of California. They can seem rather terrifying at first, but within the state, they are...
- 2024 / 3 / 2Roman Mars Describes Santa Fe As It IsRoman Mars is on a mission to describe the cities that shaped who he is and how he thinks about design. Next up, Santa Fe. Santa Fe wasnât always on the proverbial map â in fact, the Santa Fe railroad just...
- 2024 / 2 / 27438- The Real Book [rebroadcast]Since the mid-1970s, almost every jazz musician has owned a copy of the same book. It has a peach-colored cover, a chunky, 1970s-style logo, and a black plastic binding. Itâs delightfully...
- 2024 / 2 / 21571- You Are What You WatchWhat we see on screen has this way of influencing our perception of the world, which makes sense because the average American spends 2 hours and 51 minutes watching movies and TV each day. Thatâs a whopping...
- 2024 / 2 / 16The Power Broker #02: Jamelle BouieThis is the second official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. New York Times political columnist Jamelle Bouie is our book club guest.On...
- 2024 / 2 / 16The Power Broker #2: Jamelle BouieThis is the second official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. New York Times political columnist Jamelle Bouie is our book club guest.On...
- 2024 / 2 / 13570- The White Castle System of Eating HousesWhite Castle has its own take on fast food hamburgers. For starters, the patties are square, with five holes in each patty. And theyâre small, too â- two-and-a-half inch sliders. Just big enough to fit into...
- 2024 / 2 / 6569- Between the BlocksSeen from above, Sofia, Bulgaria, looks less like a city and more like a forest. Large "interblock park" green spaces between big apartment structures are a defining characteristic of the city. They're not so...
- 2024 / 1 / 30568- Don't Forget to RememberWhen a highway gets made, thereâs a clear and consistent process for doing so. Not so, public memorials. From the Vietnam Wall to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, itâs always different. Sometimes...
- 2024 / 1 / 26Roman Mars Describes Chicago As It IsA few years ago, at the very start of the pandemic, Roman Mars wrote an episode of 99pi in which he simply talked about design details in his house -- realizing that he, like the audience, didn't have many...
- 2024 / 1 / 24567- The Double KickWatch a skate video today, and you'll notice how similarly shaped the boards are. Itâs called the âpopsicleâ design, because the deck is narrow in the middle and rounded off at both ends, like a popsicle...
- 2024 / 1 / 19The Power Broker #01: Robert CaroWelcome to our first official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. Robert Caro happens to be our special guest for this episode and you do not...
- 2024 / 1 / 19Power Broker #01: Robert CaroWelcome to our first official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. Robert Caro happens to be our special guest for this episode and you do not...
- 2024 / 1 / 16566- Imitation NationFake cities. Imitation nations. People role-playing as civilians, spies, or enemies, complete with costumes and props. It's all part of an effort coordinated and constructed by the U.S. military to prepare...
- 2024 / 1 / 9565- Mini-Stories: Volume 18Our second and final set of mini-stories for the season: We'll be covering upside-down construction, the linguistics of filler and a fire that has been burning for decades.Check out Lizzie No's latest album...
- 2023 / 12 / 26470- Another Visit from the Three Santas of SloveniaWe're revisiting this Christmas classic from 2021. Happy Holidays!Slovenia is a small country in Central Europe nestled between Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary. It's a land of snowy white peaks, green...
- 2023 / 12 / 20564- Mini-Stories: Volume 17It's the most wonderful time of the year. It's mini-stories season! Gather the kids around the fire because We have a year-end mix of short stories about a rogue architect, spooky kitchens, a hundred year old...
- 2023 / 12 / 13563- Empire of the SumKeeping track of numbers has always been part of what makes us human. So at some point along the way, we created a tool to help us keep count, and then we gave that tool a name. We called it: a calculator....
- 2023 / 12 / 5562- Breaking Down The Power Broker (with Conan O'Brien)Today's episode features #1 Robert Caro superfan, Conan O'Brien.The Power Broker by Robert Caro is a biography of Robert Moses, who is said to have built more structures and moved more earth than anyone in...
- 2023 / 11 / 29344- The Known Unknown [rebroadcast]Roman note: This is one of my favorite episodes of all time. Should be a movie. Enjoy!The tradition of the Tomb of the Unknowns goes back only about a century, but it has become one of the most solemn and...
- 2023 / 11 / 22561- Long Strange TapeThe Cassette tape was great in so many ways, but letâs be honest, they never really sounded great. But because the cassette was so much cheaper and easier to use and portable, a lot of people didn't care so...
- 2023 / 11 / 15560- Home on the RangeIn a lot of ways, Lincoln Heights, Ohio, sounds just like any other suburb. If you walk around town, youâll hear kids playing outside the local elementary school. Youâll hear the highway that takes commuters...
- 2023 / 11 / 7559- The Six-Week CureIn the mid-1900s, people flocked to Reno, Nevada -- not for frontier gold or loose slots, but to get out of bad marries. The city became known as the "Divorce Capital of the World." For much of modern...
- 2023 / 10 / 31558- The Fever Tree HuntMost heists target gold, jewels or cash. This one targeted illegal seeds. As the British established their sprawling empire across the subcontinent and beyond, they encountered a formidable adversary â...
- 2023 / 10 / 24557- Model VillageFor decades, society has dealt with people with dementia and other forms of cognitive decline by storing them away in unstimulating, medicalized environments. But around the world, a new architectural...
- 2023 / 10 / 17328- Devolutionary RedesignItâs hard to overstate just how important record album art was to music in the days before people downloaded everything. Visuals were a key part of one's experience with a record or tape or CD. The design of...
- 2023 / 10 / 10556- You Ainât Nothin But a PostmarkOver a decade after Elvis Presleyâs death, the king of rock & roll took over headlines once again as Americans weighed in on which portrait of Elvis would be forever immortalized on a 29 cent US postage...
- 2023 / 10 / 3555- The Big DigOver its more than 40 year journey from conception to completion, Bostonâs Big Dig massive infrastructure project, which rerouted the central highway in the heart of the city, encountered every hurdle...
- 2023 / 9 / 26554- Devil in the DetailsThis week we have two stories featuring the devil.An infamous "training video" teaching cops how to spot and stop "satanic crimes." And a stretch of highway with the misfortune of being officially named US...
- 2023 / 9 / 19553- Cautionary Tales of the Sydney Opera HouseThe Sydney Opera House is one of the most iconic and distinctive buildings in the world. It took a relative newcomer and architectural outsider to dream it up, but the saga of making this world heritage...
- 2023 / 9 / 12552- Blood in the MachineBrian Merchant is a tech reporter, and he'd been covering the industry for years when he started to notice a term that kept coming up. When he wrote a story that was critical of tech, he'd be accused of being...
- 2023 / 9 / 5389- Whomst Among Us Let the Dogs Out AGAINAll kinds of songs get stuck in your head. Famous pop tunes from when you were a kid, album cuts you've listened to over and over again. And then there's a category of memorable songsâthe ones that we all...
- 2023 / 8 / 29551- Office SpaceIn most big cities, thereâs a housing crisis. And empty office buildings are creating a different crisis known to urbanists as a âdoom loop.â Converting an office into housing can solve both of these crises...
- 2023 / 8 / 22550- Melanie SpeaksThe story of a voice training VHS tape that helped trans women at a time when other resources were hard to access.The way a person's voice changes over time feels like a simple, and overlooked act of magic....
- 2023 / 8 / 15549- Trail Mix: Track TwoWelcome to our second episode of short stories all about what may be the original designed object: the trail. If you havenât heard the first episode yet you should totally go back and listen. Itâs a lot of...
- 2023 / 8 / 8548- Trail MixWe deconstruct and examine what might be the original designed object-- the humble trail. We discuss how park trails are designed, what makes a good trail, and...what even is a trail anyway?Trail Mix
- 2023 / 8 / 1547- Cooking with GasBack in January, Bloomberg News published a story quoting an obscure government official named Richard Trumka Jr. He works with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which regulates stuff like furniture and...
- 2023 / 7 / 25546- The Country of the BlindAndrew Leland grew up with full vision, but starting in his teenage years, his sight began to degrade from the outside in, such that he now sees the world as if through a narrow tube. Soonâbut without knowing...
- 2023 / 7 / 18545- Shade ReduxThis past May, the city of Los Angeles rolled out a brand new, state-of-the art feature for bus shelters. Itâs called La Sombrita. La Sombrita is a metal screen thatâs intended to provide shade for the...
- 2023 / 7 / 11544- Chick TractsIn the 1980s, the little Christian comic books known as Chick Tracts were EVERYWHERE. Youâd find them in movie theaters and bus station bathrooms, on subways, and all over shopping malls. People would slip...
- 2023 / 7 / 5543- In Proximity: Ryan Coogler and Roman MarsIn Proximity is a podcast from Proximity Media about craft, career, and creativity.Proximity founder Ryan Coogler talks all about podcasts with Roman Mars, host and creator of 99% Invisible, a sound-rich...