List of 99% Invisible episodes
 | This article relies too much on references to primary sources. (October 2020) |
This is a list of 99% Invisible podcast episodes hosted by Roman Mars. From its inception in 2010 until April, 2021, 99% Invisible was produced and distributed by Radiotopia. In April, 2021, the company that produces the show (99% Invisible Inc.) was acquired by SiriusXM, with 99% Invisible moving to the Stitcher Radio network.[1]
List of episodes[]
2010[]
| No. | Title | Original air date | Running time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "99% Noise" | September 3, 2010 | 4:21 | |
| Acoustic design, city soundscapes, and how to make listening in shared spaces pleasant. | ||||
| 2 | "99% 180" | September 9, 2010 | 4:30 | |
| History of the perception of the Transamerica Pyramid within the architecture community. | ||||
| 3 | "99% Reality (only)" | September 17, 2010 | 4:30 | |
| Description of the app RJDJ and the implications of environment-aware, adaptable sound. | ||||
| 4 | "99% Details" | September 24, 2010 | 4:33 | |
| 5 | "99% Forgotten" | October 1, 2010 | 4:30 | |
| 6 | "99% Symbolic" | October 8, 2010 | 4:29 | |
| 7 | "99% Alien" | October 14, 2010 | 4:30 | |
| 8 | "99% Free Parking" | October 29, 2010 | 4:51 | |
| 9x | "99% Doomed" | November 1, 2010 | 11:31 | |
| 9 | "99% Private" | November 5, 2010 | 4:29 | |
| 10 | "99% Sound and Feel" | November 19, 2010 | 4:51 | |
| 11 | "99% Undesigned" | November 24, 2010 | 4:31 | |
| 12 | "99% Guilt Free" | December 3, 2010 | 4:29 | |
| 13 | "Maps" | December 17, 2010 | 4:30 | |
| 13x | "Game Over (Snap Judgment)" | December 30, 2010 | 11:06 | |
2011[]
| No. | Title | Original air date | Running time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | "Periodic Table" | February 4, 2011 | 6:00 | |
| 15 | "Sounds of the Artificial World" | February 11, 2011 | 4:51 | |
| 16 | "A Designed Language" | February 18, 2011 | 5:54 | |
| 17 | "Concrete Furniture" | February 25, 2011 | 6:33 | |
| 18 | "Check Cashing Stores" | March 4, 2011 | 5:05 | |
| 19 | "Liberation Squares plus NY Dick" | March 11, 2011 | 10:46 | |
| 19x | "RJDJ Reactive Music" | March 21, 2011 | 9:29 | |
| 20 | "Nikko Concrete Commando" | March 25, 2011 | 6:53 | |
| 21 | "BLDGBLOG: On Sound" | April 1, 2011 | 5:22 | |
| 22 | "Free Speech Monument" | April 15, 2011 | 7:32 | |
| 23 | "You Are Listening To + Radio Net" | April 22, 2011 | 19:46 | |
| 24 | "The Capitol Columns" | May 6, 2011 | 6:29 | |
| History and Status of the Original Columns of the US Capitol | ||||
| 25 | "Unsung Icons of Soviet Design" | May 13, 2011 | 8:00 | |
| 1950s era Soviet Consumer Goods Compared to Western Goods | ||||
| 26 | "Chicago's Jailhouse Skyscraper" | May 20, 2011 | 7:21 | |
| 27 | "Bridge to the Sky" | June 3, 2011 | 4:44 | |
| 28 | "Movie Title Sequences" | June 9, 2011 | 9:10 | |
| 29 | "Cul de Sac" | June 17, 2011 | 11:46 | |
| 30 | "The Blue Yarn" | July 1, 2011 | 10:19 | |
| Efficiency of a Toyota Plant Translated to American Hospitals | ||||
| 31 | "Feltron Annual Report" | July 14, 2011 | 9:55 | |
| 32 | "Design for Airports" | July 28, 2011 | 8:07 | |
| 33 | "A Cheer for Samuel Plimsoll" | August 4, 2011 | 6:56 | |
| 34 | "The Speed of Light for Building Pyramids" | August 19, 2011 | 9:59 | |
| 35 | "Elegy for WTC" | September 1, 2011 | 6:21 | |
| 36 | "Super Bon Bonn" | September 16, 2011 | 9:55 | |
| 37 | "The Steering Wheel" | September 29, 2011 | 7:19 | |
| 38 | "Sound of Sport" | October 13, 2011 | 5:29 | |
| 39 | "Darth Vader Family Courthouse" | October 28, 2011 | 7:33 | |
| 39x | "The Biography of 100,000 Square Feet" | November 18, 2011 | 31:17 | |
| 40 | "Billy Possum" | November 23, 2011 | 12:05 | |
| 41 | "The Human-Human Interface" | December 3, 2011 | 5:10 | |
| 42 | "Recognizably Anonymous" | December 9, 2011 | 10:36 | |
| 43 | "The Accidental Music of Imperfect Escalators" | December 19, 2011 | 7:20 | |
2012[]
| No. | Title | Original air date | Running time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | "The Pruitt-Igoe Myth" | January 6, 2012 | 11:27 |
| 45 | "Immersive Ideal" | January 18, 2012 | 12:05 |
| 46 | "Vulcanite Dentures" | January 27, 2012 | 9:26 |
| 47 | "US Postal Service Stamps" | February 10, 2012 | 12:26 |
| 48 | "The Bathtubs or the Boiler Room" | February 27, 2012 | 11:07 |
| 49 | "Queue Theory and Design" | March 9, 2012 | 9:54 |
| 50 | "DeafSpace" | March 23, 2012 | 11:42 |
| 51 | "The Arsenal of Exclusion" | April 4, 2012 | 10:47 |
| 52 | "Galloping Gertie" | April 18, 2012 | 12:27 |
| 53 | "The Xanadu Effect" | May 1, 2012 | 11:21 |
| 54 | "The Colour of Money" | May 16, 2012 | 16:41 |
| 55 | "The Best Beer in the World" | May 31, 2012 | 13:21 |
| 56 | "Frozen Music" | June 14, 2012 | 10:24 |
| 57 | "What Gave You That Idea?" | June 28, 2012 | 14:29 |
| 58 | "Purple Reign" | July 13, 2012 | 14:59 |
| 59 | "Some Other Sign that People Do Not Totally Regret Life" | July 25, 2012 | 16:37 |
| 60 | "Names vs The Nothing" | August 6, 2012 | 14:13 |
| 60a | "Two Storeys" | August 22, 2012 | 8:36 |
| 60b | "BackStory: Heyward Shepherd Memorial" | September 10, 2012 | 12:41 |
| 61 | "A Series of Tubes" | September 20, 2012 | 17:25 |
| 62 | "Q2" | October 2, 2012 | 15:18 |
| 63 | "The Political Stage" | October 12, 2012 | 15:16 |
| 64 | "Derelict Dome" | October 25, 2012 | 14:35 |
| 65 | "Razzle Dazzle" | November 5, 2012 | 12:44 |
| 66 | "Kowloon Walled City" | November 19, 2012 | 15:41 |
| 67 | "Broken Window" | November 29, 2012 | 11:43 |
| 68 | "Built for Speed" | December 12, 2012 | 12:35 |
| 69 | "The Brief and Tumultuous Life of the New UC Logo" | December 31, 2012 | 24:55 |
2013[]
| No. | Title | Original air date | Running time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 70 | "The Great Red Car Conspiracy" | January 11, 2013 | 13:47 | |
| 71 | "In and Out of LOVE" | January 23, 2013 | 16:39 | |
| 72 | "New Old Town" | February 5, 2013 | 20:35 | |
| 73 | "The Zanzibar and Other Building Poems" | February 18, 2013 | 11:59 | |
| 74 | "Hand Painted Signs" | March 8, 2013 | 12:49 | |
| 75 | "Secret Staircases" | March 21, 2013 | 11:58 | |
| The exploration of hidden public outdoor staircases in California as mapped by Charles Fleming. | ||||
| 76 | "The Modern Moloch" | April 4, 2013 | 24:21 | |
| The invention of the car and the resulting rise of automobile fatalities, and how the concept of jaywalking came to be. | ||||
| 77 | "Game Changer" | April 15, 2013 | 12:32 | |
| The design of the sport of basketball, from the amusing history of the basketball hoop and net to the addition of a nearly-invisible element which redefined and changed the game: the shot clock. | ||||
| 78 | "No Armed Bandit" | April 30, 2013 | 19:28 | |
| The history and design of slot machines, the concept and mental state of uninterrupted play (flow), and why and how people gamble. | ||||
| 79 | "Symphony of Sirens, Revisited" | May 8, 2013 | 24:28 | |
| Arseny Avraamov's "Symphony of Factory Sirens," a musical performance by the city of Moscow itself, featuring factory sirens, foghorns, soldiers' footsteps, guns, whistles, and proletarian shouts. | ||||
| 80 | "An Architect's Code" | May 28, 2013 | 18:11 | |
| The ethics of designing and constructing buildings intended for solitary confinement such as Pelican Bay State Prison. | ||||
| 81 | "Rebar and the Alvord Lake Bridge" | June 7, 2013 | 11:57 | |
| The invention of rebar, or steel-reinforced concrete, and its use in the Alvord Lake Bridge in Golden Gate Park. | ||||
| 82 | "The Man of Tomorrow" | June 20, 2013 | 12:56 | |
| The design of Superman, and how the character has managed to stay relevant, and popular, for over 75 years. | ||||
| 83 | "Heyoon" | July 2, 2013 | 28:24 | |
| A group of teenagers' secret hangout at what they called "Heyoon," a pavilion on a piece of private property in Ann Arbor, Michigan. | ||||
| 84a | "Ladislav Sutnar" | July 15, 2013 | 2:26 | |
| One of Ladislav Sutnar's most important contributions to the world: the design of parenthetical area codes. | ||||
| 84b | "Trading Places with Planet Money" | July 16, 2013 | 28:08 | |
| A joint episode with NPR's Planet Money on the economics of the end of the 1983 film Trading Places. | ||||
| 85 | "Noble Effort" | July 29, 2013 | 17:43 | |
| Maurice Noble's work as a layout artist with Warner Brothers and his lasting impact on the art of animation. | ||||
| 86 | "Reversal of Fortune" | August 8, 2013 | 20:22 | |
| Reversing the flow of the Chicago River. | ||||
| 87 | "I Heart NY, TM" | August 21, 2013 | 19:44 | |
| Milton Glaser's ubiquitous I Love New York design, and its popularity, effects, and influences. | ||||
| 88 | "The Broadcast Clock" | September 3, 2013 | 16:50 | |
| The use broadcast clocks—diagrams depicting specific programming element times—in radio, specifically on NPR. | ||||
| 89 | "Bubble Houses" | September 17, 2013 | 25:14 | |
| Wallace Neff's airform "bubble" houses made of shotcrete. | ||||
| 90a | "Strowger Switch" | October 2, 2013 | 3:45 | |
| The design of the modern telephone exchange and history of the telephone switchboard. | ||||
| 90b | "Purple Reign Redux" | October 2, 2013 | 20:25 | |
| An update to Episode 58, reporting on the destruction of the Purple Hotel. | ||||
| 91 | "Wild Ones Live" | October 14, 2013 | 32:52 | |
| A live performance of a segment from Jon Mooalem's book Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America, featuring music by the band Black Prairie. | ||||
| 91x | "Kickstarter Announcement - Always Read the Plaque" | October 26, 2013 | 3:25 | |
| Announcement of the Kickstarter project for Season 4 of 99% Invisible and a short story about the importance of reading commemorative plaques. | ||||
| 92 | "All The Buildings" | October 28, 2013 | 21:21 | |
| James Gulliver Hancock's project of drawing every building in New York City. | ||||
| 93 | "Revolving Doors" | November 6, 2013 | 18:14 | |
| The history and design of revolving doors, including their energy-saving potential and reasons behind their use or lack thereof. | ||||
| 94 | "Unbuilt" | November 12, 2013 | 25:39 | |
| Maps and designs of unbuilt structures and communities, from Oakland to Manhattan to the Marin Headlands. | ||||
| 95 | "Future Screens Are Mostly Blue" | November 20, 2013 | 24:48 | |
| 96 | "DIY Space Suits" | December 2, 2013 | 15:44 | |
| The story of Cameron Smith's efforts to build his own space suit. | ||||
| 97 | "Numbers Stations" | December 20, 2013 | 23:36 | |
| Shortwave radio stations that only broadcast numbers. | ||||
2014[]
| No. | Title | Original air date | Running time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 98 | "Six Stories" | January 2, 2014 | 21:11 | |
| The history of the safety elevator and Elisha Otis. | ||||
| 99 | "The View From The 79th Floor" | January 14, 2014 | 16:39 | |
| The 1945 B-25 Empire State Building crash and Betty Lou Oliver's 79-floor fall—and survival. | ||||
| 100 | "Higher and Higher" | February 3, 2014 | 18:53 | |
| The origins of the Chrysler Building and the Manhattan Company Building, and the stories of their architects. | ||||
| 101 | "Cover Story" | February 11, 2014 | 20:15 | |
| The long, surprising history of magazine cover design, featuring various iconic covers and design directors. | ||||
| 102 | "Icon For Access" | February 18, 2014 | 16:41 | |
| A history and design of the International Symbol of Access (or Wheelchair Symbol) and a grassroots movement promoting its redesign to better serve and represent the disabled community. | ||||
| 103 | "UTBAPH" | February 25, 2014 | 17:11 | |
| The architecture and history behind Pizza Hut's ever-recognizable building design and a blog dedicated to cataloguing restaurants that "Used To Be A Pizza Hut." | ||||
| 104 | "Tunnel 57" | March 4, 2014 | 21:54 | |
| The story and design of a tunnel running underneath the Berlin Wall constructed by a university student and his friends, the lives it saved, and its creator. | ||||
| 105 | "One Man Is An Island" | March 11, 2014 | 20:50 | |
| A story of a peculiar landmass named Busta Rhymes Island and naming conventions set by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. | ||||
| 106 | "The Fancy Shape" | March 17, 2014 | 17:12 | |
| 107 | "Call Now!" | March 25, 2014 | 21:04 | |
| 108 | "Barcodes" | April 1, 2014 | 19:13 | |
| 109 | "Title TK" | April 8, 2014 | 17:52 | |
| 110 | "Structural Integrity" | April 15, 2014 | 24:34 | |
| 111 | "Masters of the Uni-verse" | April 22, 2014 | 18:01 | |
| 112 | "Young Ruin" | April 29, 2014 | 20:06 | |
| 113 | "Monumental Dilemma" | May 6, 2014 | 25:06 | |
| 114 | "Ten Thousand Years" | May 13, 2014 | 30:54 | |
| 115 | "Cow Tunnels" | May 20, 2014 | 23:22 | |
| 116 | "Breaking the Bank" | May 27, 2014 | 20:45 | |
| 117 | "Clean Trains" | June 3, 2014 | 20:59 | |
| 118 | "Song Exploder" | June 10, 2014 | 20:46 | |
| 119 | "Feet of Engineering" | June 17, 2014 | 15:46 | |
| 120 | "Skyjacking" | June 23, 2014 | 16:54 | |
| 121 | "Cold War Kids" | July 1, 2014 | 23:31 | |
| 122 | "Good Egress" | July 8, 2014 | 19:26 | |
| 123 | "Snowflake" | July 15, 2014 | 18:08 | |
| 124 | "Longbox" | July 22, 2014 | 18:37 | |
| 125 | "Duplitecture" | July 29, 2014 | 12:28 | |
| 126 | "Walk This Way" | August 4, 2014 | 17:10 | |
| 127 | "The Sound of Sports" | August 14, 2014 | 61:48 | |
| 128 | "Hacking Ikea" | August 19, 2014 | 20:19 | |
| 129 | "Thomassons" | August 26, 2014 | 16:18 | |
| 130 | "Holdout" | September 2, 2014 | 18:54 | |
| 131 | "Genesis Object" | September 10, 2014 | 13:42 | |
| 132 | "Castle On The Park" | September 16, 2014 | 18:45 | |
| 133 | "Port of Dallas" | September 23, 2014 | 20:21 | |
| 134 | "The Straight Line is a Godless Line" | September 30, 2014 | 17:51 | |
| 135 | "For Amusement Only" | October 7, 2014 | 15:01 | |
| 136 | "Lights Out" | October 14, 2014 | 19:09 | |
| 137 | "Good Bread" | October 22, 2014 | 18:52 | |
| 138 | "O-U-I-J-A" | October 28, 2014 | 22:06 | |
| This Halloween episode covers the history and psychology of the ouija board game. | ||||
| 139 | "Edge Of Your Seat" | November 4, 2014 | 18:16 | |
| 140 | "Vexillonaire" | November 11, 2014 | 14:18 | |
| 141 | "Three Records From Sundown" | November 18, 2014 | 31:54 | |
| 142 | "And the winner Is" | November 25, 2014 | 15:39 | |
| 143 | "Inflatable Men" | December 2, 2014 | 16:48 | |
| Giant inflatable tube men known as Airdancers often promote sales events. This episode interviews the creator of these waving and flailing tube men. | ||||
| 144 | "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" | December 9, 2014 | 15:58 | |
| The story of the Centennial Light in Livermore, California, that has been burning almost non-stop for 113 years. | ||||
| 145 | "Octothorpe" | December 16, 2014 | 16:29 | |
| 146 | "Mooallempalooza" | December 30, 2014 | 45:58 | |
2015[]
| No. | Title | Original air date | Running time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 147 | "Penn Station Sucks" | January 6, 2015 | 18:22 | |
| 148 | "The Sizzle" | January 13, 2015 | 16:00 | |
| 149 | "Of Mice And Men" | January 20, 2015 | 19:15 | |
| 150 | "Under The Moonlight" | January 27, 2015 | 17:35 | |
| 151 | "La Mascotte" | February 3, 2015 | 18:44 | |
| 152 | "Guerrilla Public Service" | February 10, 2015 | 15:51 | |
| 153 | "Game Over" | February 17, 2015 | 11:56 | |
| About the end of The Sims Online. | ||||
| 154 | "PDX Carpet" | February 24, 2015 | 16:47 | |
| 155 | "Palm Reading" | March 3, 2015 | 16:42 | |
| 156 | "Coin Check" | March 10, 2015 | 17:40 | |
| 157 | "Devil's Rope" | March 17, 2015 | 23:00 | |
| 158 | "Sandhogs" | March 31, 2015 | 26:23 | |
| 159 | "The Calendar" | April 8, 2015 | 19:44 | |
| 160 | "Perfect Security" | April 14, 2015 | 18:03 | |
| 161 | "Show of Force" | April 21, 2015 | 22:25 | |
| 162 | "Mystery House" | April 28, 2015 | 19:36 | |
| 163 | "The Gruen Effect" | May 5, 2015 | 18:24 | |
| 164 | "The Post-Billiards Age" | May 12, 2015 | 15:30 | |
| 165 | "The Nutshell Studies" | May 19, 2015 | 26:11 | |
| 166 | "Viva La Arquitectura!" | May 26, 2015 | 21:32 | |
| 167 | "Voices in the Wire" | June 2, 2015 | 40:44 | |
| 168 | "All In Your Head" | June 10, 2015 | 32:48 | |
| 169 | "Freud's Couch" | June 16, 2015 | 15:47 | |
| 170 | "Children of the Magenta (Automation Paradox, pt. 1)" | June 23, 2015 | 32:24 | |
| 171 | "Johnnycab (Automation Paradox, pt.2)" | June 30, 2015 | 24:02 | |
| 172 | "On Location" | July 14, 2015 | 16:50 | |
| 173 | "Awareness" | July 21, 2015 | 19:32 | |
| 174 | "From the Sea, Freedom" | July 28, 2015 | 20:26 | |
| 175 | "The Sunshine Hotel" | August 4, 2015 | 30:52 | |
| An NPR documentary about the Sunshine Hotel, a flophouse in New York City. | ||||
| 176 | "Hard to Love a Brute" | August 11, 2015 | 20:21 | |
| 177 | "Lawn Order" | August 18, 2015 | 18:33 | |
| 178 | "The Great Restoration" | August 25, 2015 | 31:30 | |
| 179 | "Bathysphere" | September 1, 2015 | 23:58 | |
| 180 | "Reefer Madness" | September 8, 2015 | 18:00 | |
| 181 | "Milk Carton Kids" | September 15, 2015 | 19:42 | |
| 182 | "A Sweet Surprise Awaits You" | September 22, 2015 | 18:10 | |
| 183 | "Dead Letter Office" | September 29, 2015 | 19:11 | |
| 184 | "Rajneeshpuram" | October 1, 2015 | 31:14 | |
| 185 | "Atmospherians" | October 19, 2015 | 24:02 | |
| 186 | "War and Pizza" | October 27, 2015 | 20:28 | |
| 187 | "Butterfly Effects" | November 1, 2015 | 20:06 | |
| 188 | "Fountain Drinks" | November 10, 2015 | 35:05 | |
| 189 | "The Landlord's Game" | November 17, 2015 | 18:15 | |
| 190 | "Fixing the Hobo Suit" | November 24, 2015 | 21:13 | |
| 191 | "Worst Smell in the World" | December 2, 2015 | 14:54 | |
| 192 | "Pagodas and Dragon Gates" | December 8, 2015 | 24:26 | |
| 193 | "Tube Benders" | December 13, 2015 | 16:31 | |
| 194 | "Bone Music" | December 22, 2015 | 14:21 | |
2016[]
| No. | Title | Original air date | Running time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 195 | "Best Enjoyed By" | January 12, 2016 | 17:19 | |
| 196 | "The Fresno Drop" | January 19, 2016 | 15:46 | |
| 197 | "Fish Cannon" | January 26, 2016 | 18:15 | |
| 198 | "The Ice King" | February 2, 2016 | 18:23 | |
| 199 | "The Yin and Yang of Basketball" | February 9, 2016 | 21:52 | |
| 200 | "Miss Manhattan" | February 15, 2016 | 19:01 | |
| 201 | "The Green Book" | February 23, 2016 | 22:51 | |
| 202 | "Mojave Phone Book" | March 1, 2016 | 20:48 | |
| 203 | "The Giftschrank" | March 8, 2016 | 21:43 | |
| 204 | "The SoHo Effect" | March 15, 2016 | 19:39 | |
| 205 | "Flying Food" | March 22, 2016 | 18:18 | |
| 206 | "The White Elephant of Tel Aviv" | March 29, 2016 | 21:44 | |
| 207 | "Soul City" | April 5, 2016 | 34:04 | |
| 208 | "Vox Ex Machina" | April 12, 2016 | 24:46 | |
| 209 | "Supertall 101" | April 19, 2016 | 19:26 | |
| 210 | "Unseen City: Wonders of the Urban Wilderness" | April 26, 2016 | 28:57 | |
| 211 | "The Grand Dame of Broad Street" | May 3, 2016 | 22:12 | |
| 212 | "TurfWars of East New York" | May 10, 2016 | 29:51 | |
| 213 | "Separation Anxiety" | May 17, 2016 | 18:30 | |
| 214 | "Loud and Clear" | May 24, 2016 | 21:44 | |
| 215 | "H-Day" | June 7, 2016 | 18:59 | |
| 216 | "The Blazer Experiment" | June 14, 2016 | 24:17 | |
| 217 | "Home on Lagrange" | June 21, 2016 | 29:04 | |
| 218 | "Remembering Stonewall" | June 28, 2016 | 29:08 | |
| 219 | "Unpleasant Design & Hostile Urban Architecture" | July 5, 2016 | 16:34 | |
| 220 | "The Mind of an Architect" | July 12, 2016 | 24:04 | |
| 221 | "America's Last Top Model" | July 19, 2016 | 22:19 | |
| 222 | "Combat Hearing Loss" | July 26, 2016 | 19:26 | |
| 223 | "The Magic Bureaucrat and His Riverside Miracle" | August 2, 2016 | 34:23 | |
| Interviews the bureaucrat and welfare worker Larry Townsend, who organized a welfare program in Riverside County, California in the early 1990s. | ||||
| 224 | "A Sea Worth its Salt" | August 9, 2016 | 19:42 | |
| The environmental history of Southern California's Salton Sea, a high salinity lake which was created by accident and is slowly evaporating. | ||||
| 225 | "Photo Credit" | August 16, 2016 | 20:32 | |
| A brief history of Lucia Moholy, a lesser known Bauhaus photographer, and the impact of her work. | ||||
| 226 | "On Average" | August 23, 2016 | 20:02 | |
| Much of the world is designed for the "average" human, a person who doesn't exist. Todd Rose re-evaluates what that means and how we can better create for the non-average. | ||||
| 227 | "Public Works" | September 6, 2016 | 16:09 | |
| American infrastructure is in trouble. By discussing the United States' road system, civil engineering professor Henry Petroski explains what is needed to get it back on track. | ||||
| 228 | "Making Up Ground" | September 16, 2016 | 20:39 | |
| Developing societies sometimes have to rely on land reclamation to make the land more suitable for human activities. | ||||
| 229 | "The Trend Forecast" | September 20, 2016 | 17:41 | |
| The clothing industry is constantly, and fashion experts such as WGSN attempt to forecast upcoming fashion trends. | ||||
| 230 | "Project Cybersyn" | October 4, 2016 | 23:53 | |
| On Project Cybersyn, a cybernetics project developed in Chile under the presidency of Salvador Allende aimed at monitoring and controlling the Chilean economy. | ||||
| 231 | "Half a House" | October 11, 2016 | 22:32 | |
| On incremental building created by Alejandro Aravena and its application by his architecture firm Elemental S.A. | ||||
| 232 | "McMansion Hell: The Devil is in the Details" | October 18, 2016 | 16:36 | |
| The design of the McMansion is discussed with Kate Wagner, the creator of the blog McMansion Hell. | ||||
| 233 | "Space Trash, Space Treasure" | October 25, 2016 | 22:59 | |
| Space debris has been accumulating since humans have been sending satellites into space. This episodes explores possible means for cleaning up this debris and future opportunities for space tourism. | ||||
| 234 | "The Shift: Redesigning Baseball's Defense" | November 1, 2016 | 20:48 | |
| Baseball statistics changed the way players and coaches approach the game. This has, to some extent, led to the development of the infield shift. | ||||
| 235 | "Ten Letters for the President" | November 8, 2016 | 18:46 | |
| During the presidency of Barack Obama, the White House Office of Presidential Correspondence would sort through all communications sent to the President Obama and choose ten messages for him to read. | ||||
| 236 | "Reverb: The Evolution of Architectural Acoustics" | November 15, 2016 | 23:44 | |
| The history of architectural acoustics and reverberation. | ||||
| 237 | "Dollar Store Town: Inside the World's Biggest Wholesale Market" | November 22, 2016 | 17:43 | |
| 238 | "NBC Chimes: Behind the Scenes with the First Trademarked Sound" | November 29, 2016 | 15:09 | |
| How the NBC chimes became one of the most iconic sounds in radio history. | ||||
| 239 | "Guano Mania" | December 6, 2016 | 20:51 | |
| The history of the Guano Islands Act. | ||||
| 240 | "Plat of Zion" | December 12, 2016 | 19:46 | |
| Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, produced a city plan for the utopian city Zion. This plan, which uses the grid system, was later adapted by Brigham Young to design Salt Lake City, Utah. | ||||
| 241 | "Mini-Stories: Volume 1" | December 20, 2016 | 28:54 | |
| Members of the 99% Invisible production team share short stories that they have gathered while researching for the show. These stories include the "squaring" of the circular grid of Circleville, Ohio, the "Dutch reach" method of opening a car door near a bike lane, the Estádio Milton Corrêa stadium on the Equator, and the design of the LIGO experiment. | ||||
2017[]
| No. | Title | Original air date | Running time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 242 | "Mini-Stories: Volume 2" | January 10, 2017 | 31:36 | |
| The second installment in which the 99% Invisible staff share short stories of interest that weren't suitable for a standalone episode. These stories include the reversed American flag, Beatrix Campbell colorfully describing the history of The Byker Wall, entries of fake "paper towns" in maps as copyright traps, knox boxes, and a design comparison of the Snellen and LogMAR eyesight charts. | ||||
| 243 | "Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle" | January 17, 2017 | 22:08 | |
| The history of police reform after the shooting of Eulia Love and the development of the Taser. | ||||
| 244 | "The Revolutionary Post" | January 24, 2017 | 19:57 | |
| The author Winifred Gallagher has argued that the United States Postal Service created America. This episode examines this claim, from its origins with Benjamin Franklin, and its history with the Pony Express, to more modern developments. | ||||
| 245 | "The Eponymist" | January 31, 2017 | 29:18 | |
| 246 | "Usonia 1" | February 7, 2017 | 26:30 | |
| This episode examines the history of Frank Lloyd Wright's ambitious housing project Usonia. The project was meant to be inexpensive and customizable, fitting into its environment. | ||||
| 247 | "Usonia the Beautiful" | February 14, 2017 | 21:32 | |
| The second part of 99% Invisible's episode series on Frank Lloyd Wright's housing project Usonia. This episode focuses on the project's legacy, including Usonian houses still used in modern times, and its influence on modern architecture. | ||||
| 248 | "Atom in the Garden of Eden" | February 21, 2017 | 20:47 | |
| In 1953, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his famous speech "Atoms for Peace" and set up a program for the peaceful use of atomic energy. One of the projects of this program was atomic gardening, which involved using radiation to produce mutated crops. | ||||
| 249 | "Church (Sanctuary, Part 1)" | February 28, 2017 | 30:29 | |
| The modern sanctuary movement started after the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979. Migrants fleeing the revolution sought refuge in the United States, but many were turned down under the 1980 Refugee Act. John Fife, a Presbyterian minister in Tucson, Arizona decided that it was their duty to shelter these immigrants, starting the sanctuary movement. | ||||
| 250 | "State (Sanctuary, Part 2)" | March 7, 2017 | 30:29 | |
| After a group of churches in the 1980s decided that they would defy the law and shelter illegal immigrants fleeing civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala, the Immigration and Naturalization Service started examining this new sanctuary movement by sending out undercover agents. Some participants in the movement, including Rev. John Fife were found guilty of breaking immigration laws. Some churches sued the government in a case which was settled in 1990 giving immigrants work permits. | ||||
| 251 | "Negative Space: Logo Design with Michael Bierut" | March 14, 2017 | 30:44 | |
| Roman Mars interviews graphic designer Michael Bierut. They discuss logo design in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, how people react to changes in logos, and logo criticism in general. | ||||
| 252 | "The Falling of the Lenins" | March 21, 2017 | 25:00 | |
| After the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukrainian citizens started tearing down monuments of Vladimir Lenin. This episode describes the debate behind these removals and their historical significance. | ||||
| 253 | "Manzanar" | March 28, 2017 | 27:04 | |
| During World War II, thousands of Japanese Americans were interned in camps such as Manzanar. In the 1970s, activists such as Warren Furutani and Sue Kunitomi Embrey formed the Manzanar Committee to lobby for the site to be recognized as a historic landmark. | ||||
| 254 | "Containers: The Ships, the Tugs and the Port" | April 4, 2017 | 33:39 | |
| An excerpt from Alexis Madrigal’s audio documentary "Containers" about the history of container ships. | ||||
| 255 | "The Architect of Hollywood" | April 10, 2017 | 23:23 | |
| The life and works of the Los Angeles-based African American architect Paul Williams. | ||||
| 256 | "Sounds Natural" | April 18, 2017 | 25:51 | |
| Footage shot for documentary films often does not come with adequate sound, so the film crew has sound recordists and Foley artists add sounds to "fix" this. Includes interviews with Chris Palmer, Richard Hinton, and Chris Watson. | ||||
| 257 | "Reversing the Grid" | April 2, 2017 | 28:57 | |
| Electricity meters were designed to measure the amount of electric energy consumed by a household. However, when electricity leaves a house, the dial turns backward. While this presented little to no problems at first, the rise of solar power has brought this feature back into the spotlight. | ||||
| 258 | "The Modern Necropolis" | May 9, 2017 | 20:11 | |
| The history of Colma, California, a necropolis where the dead far outnumber the living. | ||||
| 259 | "This Is Chance: Anchorwoman of the Great Alaska Earthquake" | May 16, 2017 | 28:40 | |
| When the 1964 Alaska earthquake shook Anchorage, Alaska and killed 115 people, the survivors and the outside world relied on the reporting of Genie Chance to understand the situation. | ||||
| 260 | "New Jersey" | May 23, 2017 | 20:30 | |
| After Brazil lost the 1950 FIFA World Cup, the team held a contest to redesign their jerseys. The winner of this contest, Aldyr Schlee, describes his inspiration for and views of the jersey design. | ||||
| 261 | "Squatters of the Lower East Side" | May 30, 2017 | 28:07 | |
| As a result of gentrification in Manhattan in the 1960s and '70s, some residents of Lower East Side resorted to squatting in abandoned buildings. In 2002, these squatters finally bought their homes with the help of the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board. | ||||
| 262 | "In the Same Ballpark" | June 13, 2017 | 27:09 | |
| After the Baltimore Orioles opened their new stadium in 1992, many other baseball teams followed suit, creating smaller stadiums that fit into the existing geography of their cities. | ||||
| 263 | "You Should Do a Story" | June 20, 2017 | 28:11 | |
| This episode features many short stories. Chevron operates some gas stations with a Standard awning, to keep the trademark. Desire paths are shortcuts bicyclists and pedestrians take to navigate more smoothly. In the late 1800s, the Los Angeles Area had to switch the frequency of its electricity from 50 Hz to 60 Hz, to match the rest of the country. Many designs are used only locally, such as European tilt-and-turn windows, Finnish dish draining closets, Japanese Kotatsu tables, and the Australian Hills Hoist. A town in Saskatchewan, unable to afford its own streets signs, may have taken Calgary's old signs, and just renamed their roads. | ||||
| 264 | "Mexico 68" | June 27, 2017 | 23:46 | |
| The 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City used a graphic design campaign across the entire city, created by Lance Wyman and . On October 2, 1968, the peaceful Mexico 68 student movement was massacred by the Mexican government. Both sides used a version of Wyman's design to promote their ideologies—the status quo, or change. The iconography was also used in the Mexico City Metro map. | ||||
| 265 | "The Pool and the Stream" | July 4, 2017 | 32:21 | |
| The Donnell Garden's pool's shape, like a kidney bean, became famous, inspired by Alvar Aalto's functionalist design in the Villa Mairea. These pools sprawled across Southern California, and a drought in the 1970s let Aalto's shape become the basis for skateparks around the world. | ||||
| 266 | "Repackaging the Pill" | July 11, 2017 | 19:57 | |
| The history of the birth control pill and its packaging. | ||||
| 267 | "The Trials of Dan and Dave" | July 18, 2017 | 54:37 | |
| The first episode of ESPN's recently debuted 30 for 30 Podcasts. In 1992, Reebok launched the Dan & Dave advertising campaign, marketed as an attempted to decide whether Dan O'Brien or Dave Johnson was "the world's greatest athlete." The campaign was altered after O'Brien failed to qualify for the 1992 Summer Olympics. | ||||
| 268 | "El Gordo" | July 25, 2017 | 26:28 | |
| In late 2011, the Spanish village Sodeto won the largest prize to date in the Spanish Christmas Lottery drawing, a sum of about 750 million euros. Every resident had purchased at least one share of the winning ticket except one, a Greek filmmaker who has chronicled the villager's experience with their newfound wealth. | ||||
| 269 | "Ways of Hearing" | August 1, 2017 | 39:36 | |
| The first episode of Radiotopia's new podcast Showcase, which explains how the music world transformed when recording methods transitioned from analog to digital. | ||||
| 270 | "The Stethoscope" | August 6, 2017 | 21:41 | |
| The impact of the stethoscope on medical history in the late modern and contemporary periods. | ||||
| 271 | "The Great Dismal Swamp" | August 15, 2017 | 26:09 | |
| The history of the Great Dismal Swamp which borders Virginia and North Carolina, and the maroons who inhabited it in the 18th and early 19th centuries after escaping slavery. | ||||
| 272 | "Person in Lotus Position" | August 17, 2017 | 30:44 | |
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This episode explains how the film producer Mark Bramhill came up with the "Person in Lotus Position" (
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