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.

682 episodes transcribed
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Arts

542- Player Piano

Episode Date: June 27, 2023

This week we're featuring an episode of The Last ArchiveThe Last Archive is a history show. Our evidence is the evidence of history, the evidence of a...

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Arts

541- The Frankfurt Kitchen

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

After World War I, in Frankfurt, Germany, the city government was taking on a big project. A lot of residents were in dire straits, and in the second...

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Arts

540- The Siren of Scrap Metal

Episode Date: June 14, 2023

Amid the noisy bustle of Mexico City, there is a particularly iconic sound echoing on repeat in the background. This recording blares from trucks that...

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Arts

539- Courtroom Sketch

Episode Date: June 7, 2023

As electronic news gathering was gaining prominence in the early 20th century, the American Bar Association began to fear its effect on court trials a...

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Arts

538- Train Set: Track Three

Episode Date: May 24, 2023

Happy National Train Day, everyone – for those of you who missed it: that was May 13th this year. A year ago, we started down this path with Train Set...

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537- Paved Paradise

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

LA might be the most extreme parking city on the planet. Parking regulations have made it nearly impossible to build new affordable housing, or to ren...

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Arts

536- Nuts and Bolts

Episode Date: May 10, 2023

In her new book Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way), structural engineer Roma Agrawal identifies and examines...

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535- Craptions

Episode Date: May 3, 2023

Bad closed captions can be entertaining, but  they can be serious, too, because captions are a critical tool for lots of lots of people. There are the...

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533- Dear John and Roman

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

Last year, Roman Mars teamed up with Hank Green to guest host Dear Hank & John -- this year he's back on the Greens' show once again, but this time wi...

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Arts

532- For a Dollar and a Dream

Episode Date: April 12, 2023

From scratchers to the Powerball, the lottery is the most popular form of gambling in the United States, even though the odds of winning a big jackpot...

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Arts

531- De Fiets Is Niets

Episode Date: April 5, 2023

Today the Netherlands has a reputation as a kind of bicycling paradise. Dutch people own more bicycles per capita than any other place in the world. T...

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530- The Panopticon Effect

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

The “panopticon” might be the best known prison concept in the world. In the original design, all the cells are built around a central guard tower, de...

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Arts

529- The Wilderness Tool

Episode Date: March 22, 2023

Vintage crosscuts that were made between 1880 and 1930 are often the tool of choice for trail workers who maintain the country’s roughly 112 million a...

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Arts

Twenty Thousand Hertz- Golden

Episode Date: March 18, 2023

The podcast Twenty Thousand Hertz is a show about the world's most interesting and recognizable sounds. I think of it as almost a sibling of 99% Invis...

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Arts

528- A Whale-Oiled Machine

Episode Date: March 15, 2023

Back when whale oil was mainly used as a fuel to burn in lanterns and streetlights, an enterprising man named William F. Nye found a new way to sell w...

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Arts

527- RoboUmp

Episode Date: March 1, 2023

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 differ...