Design is everywhere in our lives, perhaps most importantly in the places where we've just stopped noticing. 99% Invisible is a weekly... more
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... more
As storms get more extreme and unpredictable, insurance companies are running the numbers on Florida and realizing that the math... more
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,... more
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... more
When you’re watching the opening credits to a movie, it’s not just a list of names. What you’re actually seeing... more
The 2024 Paris Olympics are currently under way, and we thought we’d play two stories from the 99% Invisible archives... more
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... more
Decades ago, the city of Los Angeles buried its natural river in concrete and turned it into infrastructure. And understanding... more
One intrepid reporter travels to Germany to witness a chord change for an organ concert designed to last 639 years,... more
It’s hard to overstate the vastness of the Skid Row neighborhood in Los Angeles. It spans roughly 50 blocks, which... more
Nearly 10 years after the launch of the JUUL, Backfired: The Vaping Wars asks: Could e-cigarettes have been the solution... more
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... more
The leaf blower is one of the most hated objects in the modern world, but the reality of banning them... more
Whose job is it to fact check the Supreme Court? As it turns out, no one. So why is it... more
Squirrels were purposefully introduced into our cities in the 1800s, and when their population exploded, we lost track of how... more
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... more
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... more
Our pal Gillian Jacobs takes us through the history of poison control and the yucky face meant to warn children... more
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,... more
Dan Pashman embarks on an epic trip across Italy in search of lesser-known pasta dishes — and to learn about... more
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... more
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... more
It’s been said that history is written by the person at the typewriter. But who did the person who made... more
How much film and television shapes us as individuals and as a society, far beyond what we give it credit... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
The tradition of the Tomb of the Unknown goes back only about a century, but it has become one of... more
A band that was never meant to be recorded and a personal recorder that was never designed to capture music... more
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... more
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... more
Solving the housing crisis and the office vacancy crisis with one obvious and elegant idea: office to housing conversion. If... more
The story of a voice training VHS tape that helped trans women at a time when other resources were hard... more
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... more
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... more
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... more
Today the Netherlands has a reputation as a kind of bicycling paradise, but that was far from inevitable
The “panopticon” might be the best known prison concept in the world. It’s become the metaphor for the surveillance... more
The rise, fall, and unexpected second life of the crosscut saw is also the story of how America created the... more
Two stories about the transformative power of silence from our friends at Twenty Thousand Hertz
Friction, tribology, and the complex art and science of lubrication
When online worlds end
The surprisingly long history of trying to use robots to call balls and strikes in baseball
The importance of humor and art in protesting (and ousting!) oppressive regimes
When LA punks were looking for a place to play in the late 1970s, Chinatown welcomed the unruly scene. But... more
On Aug. 1, 1942, the nation’s recording studios went silent. Musicians were fed up with the new technologies threatening their... more
In the 20th century, Iowa high school girls basketball was HUGE but it was not the game we know today
How an ultra-marathon called The Comrades became a national obsession in South Africa and a model for inclusion during some... more
The shifting symbolism of Brazil's iconic yellow soccer jersey
We’re kicking off the new year at 99pi with a fresh installment of mini-stories, including: what lies at the intersection... more
A Balikbayan box is a huge cardboard box (often weighing over 100 pounds) that Filipinos living all over the world... more
It's Mini-Story Season! You’ll hear about a very, very long escalator! Beavers dropping from the sky! We’ll hear from Janet,... more
If you’ve ever flipped through the radio dial — not satellite, not podcasts, but good old-fashioned AM and FM radio... more
The epic tale of the Hollywood celebrity mountain lion known as P-22
There is a subset of real life superheroes who are more focused on things like picking up trash and taking... more
The incredible story of the black men who became America's first paramedics
Roman and Kurt are back with another series of railroad tales. All aboard!
Avery Trufelman's Articles of Interest is back!
Jody Rosen joins us to talk about the evolution of the bicycle, how it became a cultural phenomenon in the... more
Reporter/producer Gillian Jacobs (Community, Winning Time) takes us on a stroll on the Walk of Fame, a 1.3 mile monument... more
The history and significance and of the much maligned vuvuzela
Jamaica is famous around the world for its music, including genres like ska, dub, and reggae. It’s tempting to think... more
The jackalope is a mythical mascot of the American West – inspiring an absolute river of trinkets and songs and... more
On this special feature episode, President Bill Clinton interviews 99% Invisible host and creator Roman Mars.
How did we get to a point where "search" is failing us?
North Korea's state-run design studio has long been a prolific maker of statues around the world, particularly in Africa
The infrastructure, zoning, and cultural factors that make the hit Japanese TV program Old Enough, where toddlers go on errands... more
Jody Rosen joins us to talk about the evolution of the bicycle, how it became a cultural phenomenon in the late 1800s,... more