99% Invisible

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 ...

460- Corpse, Corps, Horse and Worse

When it comes to English spelling and pronunciation, there is plenty of rhyme and very little reason. But what is the reason for that? Why among all European languages is English so uniquely chaotic today?

458- Real Fake Bridges

The great Jacob Goldstein, author of Money: The True Story of a Made Up Thing, stops by to tell us two stories about the design of paper currency around the world. First, the story of the making of the Euro ...

456- Full Spectrum

How the science of color made us modern

454- War, Famine, Pestilence, and Design

When Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt were promoting The 99% Invisible City in late 2020, one question came up over and over again in conversations and interviews about our built environment: in what ways will the COVID pandemic change cities ...

452- The Lows of High Tech

Britt Young, the author of the article "I have one of the most advanced prosthetic arms in the world — and I hate it" guides us through the highs and lows of high tech prosthetics.

450- Stuff the British Stole

Throughout its reign, the British Empire stole a lot of stuff. Today those objects are housed in genteel institutions across the UK and the world. They usually come with polite plaques. The Australian podcast Stuff the British Stole is a ...

448- Katie Mingle's Right to Roam

In the United Kingdom, the freedom to walk through private land is known as “the right to roam.” The movement to win this right was started in the 1930s by a rebellious group of young people who called themselves “ramblers” ...

446- Flag Days: Good Luck, True South

Good Luck Flags and the search for the perfect flag for Antarctica

444- Pipe Dreams

This week we talk to author Chelsea Wald about her book Pipe Dreams: The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet. Wald argues the modern toilet system is in desperate need of a redesign.

442- Tanz Tanz Revolution

308- Curb Cuts (Repeat)

If you live in an American city and you don’t personally use a wheelchair, it's easy to overlook the small ramp at most intersections, between the sidewalk and the street. Today, these curb cuts are everywhere.

439- Welcome to Jurassic Art Redux

The illustrated interpretation of dinosaur morphology and behavior has had a big impact on how the public views dinosaurs and it's gone through a couple of key turning points, including a more recent push for more speculative paleoart. Plus, we ...

437- Science Vs Snakes

More than 100,000 people die every year from snake bites. Part of the reason people are dying is because they're not getting antivenom - the medicine required to fight the horrible toxins in snake venom- fast enough.

435- The Megaplex!

Back in the early 1990s, movie theaters weren't that great. The auditoriums were cramped and narrow, and the screen was dim. But in 1995, the AMC Grand 24 in Dallas changed everything.

433- Florence Nightingale: Data Viz Pioneer

A story of data visualization and coercion that centers on a person not particularly well known for either one of these things: The founder of modern nursing Florence Nightingale

431- 12 Heads from the Garden of Perfect Brightness

The 12 bronze zodiac heads that are at the center of a fight over the repatriation of Chinese cultural heritage

430- The Doom Boom

There's a huge amount of subterranean space that we're not aware of around us all the time. For those of us who live in suburban and rural areas, it's not unlikely that one of your neighbors has a bunker underneath ...

429- Stuccoed in Time

The fight between historic preservation and allowing a city to evolve to house the working class and native population

427- Mini-Stories: Volume 11

Overheating, Lenin or Bust, Music Games

425- Mini-Stories: Volume 9

Movie novelizations, Central Park lampposts, Swiss defensive design, and ABBA

Chapter 5: Housing Finally

If homelessness is the problem, housing is the solution. But it’s not always that simple.

Chapter 3: Housing First

Sam Tsemberis radically rethinks how to solve homelessness

Chapter 1: Tulicia

Tulicia reaches out for help

According to Need coming December 1

Trailer for the new 99% Invisible limited series According to Need