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99% Invisible

Roman Mars

#5 in Arts this week

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.

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  • 32 episodes
  • a few times a week
  • Avg 38 min
  • English

Episodes 32

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  • #683
    Yesterday · 37 min

    Doves Type

    A legendary typeface, a spectacular friendship breakup, and one extremely committed act of revenge.

  • #682
    September 8 · 38 min

    Kobuk the Destroyer

    Every product has to be tested somehow, and sometimes that means finding increasingly creative ways to break it.

  • #681
    September 1 · 43 min

    1-800-PODCAST

    This week, two stories about the strange power of the 1-800 number.

  • August 28 · 37 min

    100 Objects #15: Bundy Clock

    How the time clock not only ignited a revolution in workplace efficiency and surveillance, but transformed our relationship to time itself.

  • #680
    August 25 · 28 min

    Spolia

    Spolia, from a Liverpool neighborhood to ancient Rome.

  • August 21 · 41 min

    100 Objects #14: Basketball Sleeve

    Producer and reporter Ramtin Arablouei has a simple question: Why are so many NBA players wearing a compression sleeve on their arm?

  • #679
    August 18 · 44 min

    The Bone Wars

    Two rival paleontologists turn a hunt for dinosaur bones into an all-out scientific war.

  • August 14 · 48 min

    100 Objects #13: The Sand Letters

    Comedian Elliott Kalan joins Roman Mars to tell the story of how a politician who owed so much to a corrupt government system became the one to dismantle it, thanks to one woman: Julia Isabella Sand.

  • #678
    August 11 · 32 min

    Bamboo Is Innocent

    A devastating fire put one of Hong Kong's oldest building traditions on trial, but the real story runs much deeper.

  • August 7 · 37 min

    100 Objects #12: "Negro Cloth"

    Roman Mars and historian Seth Rockman trace the strange life of so-called "Negro cloth" — a textile category defined by nothing but who it was worn by.

  • July 31 · 27 min

    100 Objects #11: Brannock Device

    In 1925, the world saw the birth of what just might be the greatest gadget in American History: the Brannock Device.

  • #676
    July 28 · 33 min

    The Finnish Baby Box

    A simple cardboard box helped transform Finland into one of the best places in the world to raise a child.

  • July 24 · 36 min

    100 Objects #10: Nunchaku

    In the early 1970s, Bruce Lee made nunchaku (nunchucks) cool, but the nunchucks craze coincided with something much bigger: the birth of a radical new Asian American identity.

  • #675
    July 21 · 44 min

    The Original 100 Objects

    Neil MacGregor reflects on creating the landmark series that changed how people think about history. Then, revisit the Rosetta Stone, the artifact that unlocked ancient Egypt.

  • July 17 · 33 min

    100 Objects #9: Missing Children Milk Carton

    In 1982, a twelve-year-old paperboy, Johnny Gosch, vanished from a quiet Iowa street and sparked an unlikely campaign: the faces of missing children printed on milk cartons by the billions.

  • #674
    July 14 · 41 min

    If Mosquito Hawks Can Fly

    A Louisiana man born into slavery designs an airship with hopes to take flight. Those plans are interrupted, but maybe not forever.

  • July 10 · 36 min

    100 Objects #8: Billy Possum

    The teddy bear was a huge hit, and sparked an idea…maybe every president from then on should have their own viral stuffed animal.

Showing 1–20 of 32 episodes