99% Invisible

By Roman Mars

Arts Design

What's 99% Invisible about?

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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508- President Clinton Inte...

09.20.2022

On this special feature episode, President Bill Clinton interviews 99% Invisible host and creator Roman Mars.

99% Invisible episodes:

09.20.2022 508- President Clinton Interviews Roman Mars On this special feature episode, President Bill Clinton interviews 99% Invisible host and creator Roman Mars.
09.14.2022 507- Search and Ye Might Find How did we get to a point where "search" is failing us?
09.06.2022 506- Monumental Diplomacy North Korea's state-run design studio has long been a prolific maker of statues around the world, particularly in Africa
08.30.2022 505- First Errand The infrastructure, zoning, and cultural factors that make the hit Japanese TV program Old Enough, where toddlers go on errands by themselves, possible
08.23.2022 504- Bleep! 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 options, too, like silence -- so why did this particular bleep sound become ubiquitous?
08.18.2022 What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law- The Longest Week We're sharing the latest episode of Roman's other show What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law, your guide to the US Constitution and the Supreme Court.
08.10.2022 503- Re:peat For the love of peat
08.03.2022 502- 99% Vernacular: Volume 3 In the final episode of our vernacular spectacular anniversary series, 99pi producers and friends of the show will be sharing more stories of regional architecture–some close to home, some on remote islands– that capture our imagination and inspire us to ...
07.26.2022 501- 99% Vernacular: Volume 2 The utilitarian and "ugly" architecture that is beautiful to us
07.19.2022 500- 99% Vernacular: Volume 1 We often tell stories about how people shape the built world, but on this milestone 500th episode, we're telling stories about how the built world has shaped us (with good history and facts thrown in, because we're us).
07.12.2022 499- Say Aloe to My Little Frond The history of taking plants that grow naturally in one place, and moving them halfway around the world to an entirely different place with a different, often inhospitable, climate-- and then keeping them alive by growing them in potting soil ...
07.05.2022 498- The Octagon House The Octagonal House fad and self-improvement in the 1800s
06.28.2022 497- Hometown Village The story of a long, skinny island east of Russia's mainland and the ethnic Koreans who have had no choice but to call it home for decades.
06.21.2022 496- The Rights of Rice and Future of Nature Wild Rice has long played an important role in Ojibwe cultures, but last year, it took on a new role: plaintiff in a court case.
06.14.2022 495- Meet Us by the Fountain No teenager in America in the 1980s could avoid the gravitational pull of the mall, not even author Alexandra Lange. In her new book, Meet Me by the Fountain, Lange writes about how malls were conceptually born out of a ...
06.07.2022 494- Flag Days: Unfolding a Moment Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag. At least, that's what we were taught in school. But when historians go searching…there’s no proof to be found.
06.01.2022 493- Divining Provenance Priceless cultural artifacts have been plundered and sold for hundreds of years. You can find these relics in museums and in private collections. In recent years, with the advent of online marketplaces, researchers have begun to find a lot of ...
05.24.2022 492- Inheriting Froebel's Gifts The educational toys that changed the world
05.18.2022 491- The Missing Middle What zoning out middle-sized housing options does to a city
05.10.2022 490- Train Set Some of the most ambitious, fascinating, and downright crazy trains that the world has ever seen.
05.06.2022 Roman Mars on Blank Check with Griffin and David Bonus episode: Roman Mars on Blank Check with Griffin and David talking about The Quick and The Dead (Sam Raimi, 1995)
05.04.2022 489- Pandemic Tracking and the Future of Data Data is the lifeblood of public health, and has been since the beginning of the field. We take a look at data gathering in regards to public health from the 1600s to today and how it might change in the ...
04.26.2022 488- It’s a Small Aisle After All The evolution of the "international" section of the grocery store and how some products stay there forever and some break out to blend in with similar products throughout the market
04.20.2022 487- Atlas Obscura We visit the site of one of the most infamous lost expeditions and the home of all the lost luggage.
04.13.2022 486- Rumble Strip Every year in the spring, small towns throughout New England host their annual town meeting. Town meetings take place in high school gyms or town halls, and anyone can come.
04.05.2022 485- Murder Most Fowl While urban parks are safe havens for birds, parks are often surrounded by condos and hotels and office buildings with floor-to-ceiling windows. And these all-glass building facades are the absolute worst for migrating birds. Because unlike people, birds don’t really ...
03.30.2022 484- Dear Hank and John and Roman So why don't we have mouth Roombas? Is the universe full of chickens? What scientific advances are happening? What was the first internet purchase? How do I convince my parents to let me check a bag? What is Twitter? What's ...
03.22.2022 483- Grid Locked In February 2021, Texas suffered an intense winter storm and the state power grid had a catastrophic failure that lasted many freezing cold days. To understand the situation, one has to look at the history of the grid, and how ...
03.15.2022 482- Natalie de Blois: To Tell the Truth Natalie de Blois contributed to some of the most iconic Modernist works created for corporate America, all while raising four children.
03.11.2022 481- The Future of the Final Mile We are two decades into the 21st century, yet when it comes to life online, large segments of America are still living in the 1900s.
03.08.2022 480- Broken Heart Park How eminent domain was used to enforce segregation in a suburb in St. Louis and beyond
03.01.2022 479-According to Need wins duPont-Columbia Award The Columbia Journalism School recently announced the 16 winners of the 2022 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, including According to Need, a project of 99% Invisible produced by Katie Mingle.
02.22.2022 478- Art Imitates Art There's a small neighborhood within Shenzhen, China that is known for mass-producing copies of the most celebrated works of Western art, all painted quickly and by hand. The place is called Dafen Village.
02.16.2022 477- Call of Duty: Free How an airport in a small town on the west coast of Ireland changed the world economy
02.09.2022 476- Reaction Offices and the Future of Work People have been going back and forth about what makes a healthy and productive office since there have been offices. The 20th century was full of misbegotten fads and productivity innovations that continue to this day, even when the whole ...
02.02.2022 475- Rock Paper Scissors Bus The most high stakes game of roshambo ever, plus a SF Muni bus driver breaks down the runaway bus fight scene in Shang-Chi.
01.25.2022 474- The Punisher Skull Origin story and symbolism are two of the most important ingredients of any superhero universe. But what happens when both of those pieces of a universe get flipped on their head?
01.19.2022 473- Mini-Stories : Volume 14 This is the third and final episode of this batch of mini-stories and the 14th volume overall and it’s a good one- we have surprisingly architectural sport commentary, Ben Franklin’s role in Daylight Saving Time, and the origin story of ...
01.12.2022 472- Mini-Stories : Volume 13 We're kicking off the new year at 99pi with a fresh installment of mini-stories, including: a strange collision of mundane infrastructure and political insurrection; a graphic design history mystery dating back to the 1980s; what may be the most hated ...
12.22.2021 471- Mini-Stories : Volume 12 It's that time of year again! When 99pi producers and friends of the show join Roman to tell shorter stories, many of which have been sitting on our idea shelves, just waiting for this moment. Our first set of minis ...
12.15.2021 470- The Three Santas of Slovenia Slovenia has just over 2 million people and is visited by, not one, not two, but three different "santas" every festive season. But it hasn't always been this way. Each Santa has had his moment in the spotlight—each in a ...
12.07.2021 469- The Epic of Collier Heights How a team of community leaders used cold, sharp strategy, flipping the logic of Jim Crow housing segregation on its head to build a suburban Black mecca
12.01.2021 468- Alphabetical Order In much of the western world, alphabetical order is simply a default we take for granted. It’s often the one we try first -- or the one we use as a last resort when all the other ordering methods fail. ...
11.23.2021 467- Cute Little Monstrosities of Nature The French bulldog is now the second most popular breed in America. Their cute features, portable size, and physical features make for a dog that can easily travel and doesn't require a lot of exercise. But these characteristics sometimes have ...
11.17.2021 466- The Weight How lifting weights became a core component to home fitness
11.10.2021 465- Shirley Cards Even if we think of the camera as a neutral technology, it is not. In the vast spectrum of human colors, photographic tools and practices tend to prioritize the lighter end of that range.
11.02.2021 464- Finding Julia Morgan Born in 1872, American architect and engineer Julia Morgan designed hundreds of buildings over her prolific career, famous for her work on incredible structures like the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California.
10.26.2021 463- Fifty-Four Forty or Fight At a glance, the border between the United States and Canada would seem to be at the friendlier end of the international boundary spectrum. But even though the US-Canada border is now pretty tame, when two countries touch each other ...
10.19.2021 462- I Can't Believe It's Pink Margarine Margarine is yellow, like butter, but it hasn't always been. At times and in places, it has been a bland white, or even a dull pink. These strange variations were a byproduct of 150-year war to destroy margarine, and everything ...
10.12.2021 461- Changing Stripes Rioters carried many familiar flags during the January 6th insurrection at the United States Capitol -- Confederate, MAGA, as well as some custom-made ones like a flag of Trump looking like Rambo. Except for onlookers who were already familiar with ...

Older episodes

99% Invisible

What's 99% Invisible about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

99% Invisible episodes:

508- President Clinton Interviews Roman Mars

507- Search and Ye Might Find

506- Monumental Diplomacy

505- First Errand

504- Bleep!

What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law- The Longest Week

503- Re:peat

502- 99% Vernacular: Volume 3

501- 99% Vernacular: Volume 2

500- 99% Vernacular: Volume 1

499- Say Aloe to My Little Frond

498- The Octagon House

497- Hometown Village

496- The Rights of Rice and Future of Nature

495- Meet Us by the Fountain

494- Flag Days: Unfolding a Moment

493- Divining Provenance

492- Inheriting Froebel's Gifts

491- The Missing Middle

490- Train Set

Roman Mars on Blank Check with Griffin and David

489- Pandemic Tracking and the Future of Data

488- It’s a Small Aisle After All

487- Atlas Obscura

486- Rumble Strip

485- Murder Most Fowl

484- Dear Hank and John and Roman

483- Grid Locked

482- Natalie de Blois: To Tell the Truth

481- The Future of the Final Mile

480- Broken Heart Park

479-According to Need wins duPont-Columbia Award

478- Art Imitates Art

477- Call of Duty: Free

476- Reaction Offices and the Future of Work

475- Rock Paper Scissors Bus

474- The Punisher Skull

473- Mini-Stories : Volume 14

472- Mini-Stories : Volume 13

471- Mini-Stories : Volume 12

470- The Three Santas of Slovenia

469- The Epic of Collier Heights

468- Alphabetical Order

467- Cute Little Monstrosities of Nature

466- The Weight

465- Shirley Cards

464- Finding Julia Morgan

463- Fifty-Four Forty or Fight

462- I Can't Believe It's Pink Margarine

461- Changing Stripes

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