99% Invisible

Spirit Halloween takes over empty stores every fall—explore the eerie allure behind these spooky pop-ups and what they say about the decline of retail.

Featuring Clara Jeffery, the editor-in-chief of Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting, and covering the last section of Part 6 and the first section of Part 7, chapters 39-41.

Three stories about designs meant to fool you.

In this bonus episode, Roman unearths the surprising story behind the 99% Invisible's name and delves into the unnoticed brilliance of everyday design—from the origins of reinforced concrete to the artistry of Japan’s manhole covers.

In Copenhagen, Christiania—a commune born from rebellion—now faces mounting pressures that could force it to choose between its radical ideals and survival.

The unexpected story of how Alfred Nobel’s invention of dynamite—designed to build the world—was co-opted by anarchists to bring about its destruction.

The decades-long creation of possibly the most controversial form of entertainment: reality television. How does it shape our world and why–love it or hate it–you should probably understand it.

Featuring Majora Carter, an urban revitalization strategist and real estate developer from the South Bronx, and covering the third section of Part 6, chapters 35-38.

Zombie mortgages—decades-old debts—are suddenly coming back to life and threatening to take everything away.

Once considered the most dangerous city in the world due to drug cartel violence, by the early 2000s Medellin had reinvented itself. But gentrification is allowing criminal gangs to reap large profits from a shadow economy powered by the tourist boom.

In the final episode of Not Built for This, we reckon with the biological limits of climate adaptation.

How the residents of Hamilton City, California finally got the levee they deserved.

What’s it like for residents to fight like hell for help, but the help on offer means leaving the place they love?

As storms get more extreme and unpredictable, insurance companies are running the numbers on Florida and realizing that the math just isn’t working anymore.

How a wildfire in California exacerbated a housing crisis.

Reporter Emmett Fitzgerald was used to hearing people call his home state of Vermont a “climate haven.” But last summer, he got a wake up call in the form of a devastating flood.

Featuring writer and influencer, Shiloh Frederick, and covering the second section of Part 6, chapters 33-34.

A preview of our new mini-series Not Built For This and couple stories from the relaunched What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law

When you’re watching the opening credits to a movie, it’s not just a list of names. What you’re actually seeing is intense negotiations by Hollywood stars and their agents playing out in text form.

The 2024 Paris Olympics are currently under way, and we thought we’d play two stories from the 99% Invisible archives about the art of the Olympics.

Weird Sports, White Elephants, and When Doves Cry

Featuring Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, and covering the second half of Part 5 and the first section of Part 6, chapters 27-32.

Decades ago, the city of Los Angeles buried its natural river in concrete and turned it into infrastructure. And understanding why it actively disappeared is key to understanding Los Angeles, California, and our relationship to water. Reported by actor and director, Gillian Jacobs.

One intrepid reporter travels to Germany to witness a chord change for an organ concert designed to last 639 years, and to discover why such a concert is even happening in the first place.

It’s hard to overstate the vastness of the Skid Row neighborhood in Los Angeles. It spans roughly 50 blocks, which is about a fifth of the entire downtown area of Los Angeles. It’s very clear when you’ve entered Skid Row.

Nearly 10 years after the launch of the JUUL, Backfired: The Vaping Wars asks: Could e-cigarettes have been the solution to one of the world’s most pressing public health problems—or was this technology doomed to introduce a whole new generation to nicotine, and end up perpetuating an intractable addiction?

Featuring television producer, writer, director, and actor Mike Schur, and covering the first half of Part 5, chapters 25-26.

In the 55 years since the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale was created to warn us about hurricanes, hurricanes have become bigger, faster, and more devastating. There's now debate about whether it may be time for something new.

The leaf blower is one of the most hated objects in the modern world, but the reality of banning them is very complicated.

Whose job is it to fact check the Supreme Court? As it turns out, no one. So why is it like that, and what even happens when you prove them wrong?

Squirrels were purposefully introduced into our cities in the 1800s, and when their population exploded, we lost track of how many there are.

Roman talks to Jake Berman, author of "The Lost Subways of North America."

Featuring Brandy Zadrozny, senior reporter for NBC News who covers misinformation, conspiracy theories, and the internet, and covering the last section of Part 4, chapters 21-24.

Where's my jetpack?

How an ugly puppet created television as we know it.

In this bonus episode, Lasha talks about extra reporting she did for Towers of Silence on the current state of vulture conservation.

Our pal Gillian Jacobs takes us through the history of poison control and the yucky face meant to warn children about the dangers lurking in their kitchen cabinets.

How the loss of vultures in India has put an ancient burial tradition in crisis.

Featuring the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and covering the second section of Part 4, chapters 16-20.

Dan Pashman embarks on an epic trip across Italy in search of lesser-known pasta dishes — and to learn about the evolution of pasta more broadly.

Bright, flamboyant central African fashion

The history of the chambre de bonne, the tiny French apartment type that may be, finally, on the way out.

A 99pi guide to some of our favorite design features of Athens, Georgia.

How to accommodate autism in the built world

The garbage disposer and the dream of a garbage-free city

Featuring Blank Check co-host and The Atlantic movie critic David Sims covering the first section of Part 4, chapters 11-15.

The constant and sometimes fraught back and forth between cartoons and toys, as exemplified by Transformers and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Understanding the clunky Prop 65 warnings on products

A 99pi guide to some of our favorite design features of Santa Fe.

Since the mid-1970s, almost every jazz musician has owned a copy of the same book and originally it was a totally unlicensed publication

It’s been said that history is written by the person at the typewriter. But who did the person who made history depend on?

How much film and television shapes us as individuals and as a society, far beyond what we give it credit for

Featuring New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie, covering Part 3, chapters 6-10.

How White Castle invented fast food

The interblock parks of Sofia, Bulgaria that are caught between old failed communism and new hyper capitalism

There are memorials to lost fishermen, lost astronauts, even lost members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. What should a COVID pandemic memorial look like?

A 99pi guide to some of our favorite design features of Chicago

The design evolution of the seemingly simple, but not all that simple, skateboard

Featuring author Robert Caro covering The Introduction, Part 1, and Part 2 (intro through chapter 5).

The fake villages and role players used to train US soldiers

Upside-down construction, the linguistics of filler, and a fire that has been burning...and will burn... for decades.

Mapping the long history of Slovenia onto the three "Santas' that visit each year

We have a year-end mix of short stories about a rogue architect, spooky kitchens, a hundred year old music streaming service, and the crazy way the French tried to make telling time less crazy

The storied evolution of pocket calculation

Roman Mars and Elliott Kalan are starting The Power Broker book club that will run through all of 2024 as bonus episodes. This introductory episode features Conan O'Brien.

The tradition of the Tomb of the Unknown goes back only about a century, but it has become one of the most solemn and reverential monuments.

A band that was never meant to be recorded and a personal recorder that was never designed to capture music came together and were somehow perfect for each other

A town's fight to be free from the noise and trauma of the Cincinnati Police Department's open-air gun range

How Reno became the go-to place to get a quick divorce and how divorce laws have changed over time

The hunt to cultivate the cure for malaria

Designing environments for people with dementia

Devo’s first record and the fight over the arresting image of a flashy, handsome golf legend on the cover.

The historic vote over which version of Elvis should be immortalized on a postage stamp

Over its more than 40 year journey from conception to completion, Boston’s Big Dig massive infrastructure project, which rerouted the central highway in the heart of the city, encountered every hurdle imaginable: ruthless politics, engineering challenges, secretive contractors, outright fraud and even the death of one motorist. It became a kind of poster child for big government ‘boondoggles.’ But the full story is of course much more complicated – and really represents a turning point in how America builds infrastructure.

Two stories where the devil is in the details

The triumph and tragedy of the Sydney Opera House

Who were the real Luddites?

The story of how "Who Let The Dogs Out" ended up stuck in all of our brains. A story that goes back over 50 years and spans continents.

Solving the housing crisis and the office vacancy crisis with one obvious and elegant idea: office to housing conversion. If it were only that simple.

The story of a voice training VHS tape that helped trans women at a time when other resources were hard to access

More about the trails as an object and an idea

We take the humble trail, what might be the original designed object, and deconstruct it

The decades-long campaign to get us to love our gas stoves

Andrew Leland takes us through the fascinating history of alternative reading technologies designed for blind people and discusses his fantastic new book The Country of the Blind, which is out today!

La Sombrita and the politics of shade

The ubiquity and cultural legacy of the shocking little Christian comics books called Chick Tracts

Proximity founder Ryan Coogler talks all about podcasts with Roman Mars

Composer Raymond Scott’s lifelong quest to build an automatic songwriting machine, and what it means for our own AI-addled, ChatGPT world

Many consider Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky's Frankfurt Kitchen to be nothing less than the first modern kitchen.

The pregones of Mexico City and the one call that stands out from the cacophony

How courtroom artists became the preferred way to document trials

The unlikely battle between the creator of the New York Public Library's children's reading room and Goodnight Moon

Slip coaches, the worlds shortest trains, private cars, torpedoes, and of course, Thomas.

The massive consequence of parking minimums

Seven small inventions that changed the world in a big way

The scourge of bad closed captioning

The strange design history and modern resurgence of pinball

Best-selling author John Green and Roman Mars answer questions and give dubious advice

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 is infinitesimally small.