99% Invisible

How did the “15 Minute City,” a simple urban planning idea, spark protests, conspiracy theories, and death threats? This week, we unravel how a concept for livable cities became a global flashpoint.

The 15 Minute City

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After Toronto unveiled its "raccoon-resistant" compost bins in 2016, some people feared the animals would be starved, but many more celebrated the innovative design. Rolling out this novel locked bin opened a new battlefront in city's ongoing "war on raccoons."

Journalist Amy Dempsey was researching the bins and raccoon behavior when her reporting took an unexpected turn down her own garbage-strewn alleyway. Had local raccoons finally figured out how to defeat the greatest human effort in our “war” against their kind?

This episode original aired in 2018.

Raccoon Resistance

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What makes The Power Broker endure 50 years on? Roman Mars and Elliott Kalan sit down with legendary author Robert Caro to explore the humanity, drama, and untold stories behind his iconic book. Recorded live from the New York Historical Society.

Roman, Elliott, and Robert Caro: Live in Conversation

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This is the eleventh official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. 

This week, Roman Mars and Elliott Kalan sit down with Brennan Lee Mulligan, a comedian and host with Dropout TV, where he’s the creator of Dimension 20 — a Dungeons & Dragons show that features incredibly complex and campaigns, with improv actors and special effects. And as the Dungeon Master, Brennan leads these stories. Season three of Dimension 20 takes place in a magical New York City, where the main villain is a fictionalized, undead Robert Moses, who shares the real Robert Moses’s passion for building roads and destroying lives through bureaucracy.

Elliott and Roman also cover the second section of Part 7 (Chapter 42 through Chapter 46), discussing the major story beats and themes.

The Power Broker #11: Brennan Lee Mulligan

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Roman talks with The Memory Palace creator Nate DiMeo, whose new book brings his poetic history podcast to life on the page. They explore how moments of wonder and empathy shape Nate’s stories, turning forgotten history into something intensely personal. Plus, Roman shares two beautifully haunting tales from The Memory Palace that remind us just how close the past really is.

The Memory Palace: True Short Stories of the Past comes out November 19th and will be available everywhere books are sold. We highly recommend you check it out!

The Memory Palace...Book!

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As the last warmth of summer fades, Riis Beach—a hidden queer oasis behind a decaying hospital—faces a new reality. With its shadowy protector demolished, can this haven survive in the open, or will its magic disappear with the ruins?

Meet Me at Riis

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Remember when grocery shelves went bare and cargo ships clogged the California coast? That chaos wasn’t just a pandemic hiccup—it was a symptom of a supply chain stretched to its limits. With insights from Peter Goodman’s new book, discover the unlikely invention that made the modern supply chain possible—and why it’s now at risk of collapsing.

How the World Ran Out of Everything

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Every fall, a vacant Toronto storefront is possessed by Spirit Halloween, the pop-up shop haunting 1,500 empty spaces across North America. What does this seasonal invasion say about the retail apocalypse? And why are people so drawn to its eerie aisles? Explore the spooky rise of Spirit Halloween—where the scares are temporary, but the obsession is real.

Spirit Halloween

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This is the tenth official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. 

This week, Roman Mars and Elliott Kalan sit down with Clara Jeffery, the editor-in-chief of Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting. She’s had a long and storied career editing works of investigative journalism that speaks truth to power and afflicts the comfortable, including so she brings that perspective to her understanding of The Power Broker. Clara hadn’t read The Power Broker before and this podcast inspired her to pick it up and read along with us.

Elliott and Roman also cover the last section of Part 6 and the first section of Part 7 (Chapter 39 through Chapter 41), discussing the major story beats and themes.

The Power Broker #10: Clara Jeffery

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Today, we have three stories about designs meant to fool you. Camouflage meant to fool U-boats. Highways designed to fool your brain into going way faster than it should want to. And impeccably made fake signs meant to guide you to the right freeway. Three classic, favorite 99PI's completely updated, remixed, and rescored.

Trompe L'oeil

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