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.

716 episodes transcribed
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Arts

520- Mini-Stories: Volume 16

Episode Date: January 11, 2023

We’re kicking off the new year at 99pi with a fresh installment of mini-stories, including: what lies at the intersection of a street and a road; the...

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Arts

519- Balikbayan Boxes

Episode Date: December 21, 2022

This time of year, right in the middle of the holiday season, there's a beloved, frenzied tradition playing out in Filipino households all around the...

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518- Mini-Stories: Volume 15

Episode Date: December 14, 2022

The whole conceit of this show is that if look at the world in the right way, you’ll see stories everywhere. Some of the stories are epic power strugg...

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517- The Divided Dial

Episode Date: December 7, 2022

If you’ve ever flipped through the radio dial — not satellite, not podcasts, but good old-fashioned AM and FM radio — you may have noticed something....

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516- Cougar Town

Episode Date: November 30, 2022

Wildlife and urban development don’t usually go well together. Roads in particular fracture the habitats of wide-ranging animals. It restricts their m...

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515- Super Citizens

Episode Date: November 23, 2022

Los Angeles' El Peatonito is part of a subset of real life superheroes who are more focused on things like picking up trash and taking on civic issues...

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514- Train Set: Track Two

Episode Date: November 9, 2022

Funiculars are great, which is why the main image from our previous train episode featured one -- except we didn't actually talk about that one during...

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513- The Safety Bicycle

Episode Date: October 26, 2022

The basic mechanics of the bike are pretty simple --- it’s basically a triangle with wheels and a chain drive to propel it forward. No batteries or en...

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512- Walk of Fame

Episode Date: October 18, 2022

Even if you haven't made the pilgrimage to Southern California, you can probably already picture what the Walk of Fame looks like. It's a 1.3 mile wal...

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511- Vuvuzela

Episode Date: October 12, 2022

The vuvuzela is a two foot long injection-molded plastic horn. It only plays one note: a B flat. And it gradually became a regular feature of South Af...

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510- Wickedest Sound

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

Jamaica is famous around the world for its music, including genres like ska, dub, and reggae. It’s tempting to think that the powerful amplifiers and...

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509- Tale of the Jackalope

Episode Date: September 28, 2022

The magical mythical "jackalope" is a essentially a horned rabbit, with antlers of different sizes and shapes. The jackalope is a mascot of the Americ...

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507- Search and Ye Might Find

Episode Date: September 14, 2022

Adam Rogers has been thinking and writing about what’s known in the industry simply as "search." For the last decade, people have been grumbling about...

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506- Monumental Diplomacy

Episode Date: September 7, 2022

In downtown Windhoek, Namibia -- at the intersection of Fidel Castro Street and Robert Mugabe Avenue -- there's an imposing gold building with an affe...

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505- First Errand

Episode Date: August 31, 2022

Back in March, Netflix picked up a long running Japanese TV program based on a children’s book from the 1970s. The show is called Old Enough, but the...

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504- Bleep!

Episode Date: August 24, 2022

There's a particular one-kilohertz tone that is universally understood to be covering up inappropriate words on radio and TV. But there are other opti...