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99% Invisible: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Roman Mars
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.
Latest Episodes
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- Yesterdaynarrative52 min5-min read
100 Objects #20: AA Sobriety Chip
The Alcoholics Anonymous sobriety chip, a seemingly small piece of plastic, carries the weight of America’s fraught relationship with morality, religion, gender, and systemic exclusion. This episode reveals how AA emerged from the ashes of Prohibition and reflects deep cultural currents that continue to shape recovery, addiction treatment, and access to care in the U.S.
- 4 days agonarrative32 min6-min read
Tootle of a Devilish Song
Yodeling, a traditional Swiss Alpine folk practice, evolved from a herders' communication tool into a global musical phenomenon, profoundly shaping American country music and now experiencing a creative revival in Switzerland through genre-blending young artists. The episode reveals how cultural exchange, commercialization, and identity politics transformed a regional sound into a worldwide influence.
- 1 weeks agonarrative38 min5-min read
100 Objects #19: Western Electric 500 Series
The Western Electric 500 series telephone, a ubiquitous and meticulously designed device, redefined human connection in mid-20th century America by enabling intimate, frictionless long-distance conversation. Its legacy endures not in modern smartphones, but in the subtle echoes of its design philosophy and sound.
- 1 weeks agonarrative32 min5-min read
The Rocky Statue
The Rocky statue in Philadelphia, born as a movie prop, became a cultural lightning rod and enduring monument, embodying a decades-long struggle over class, race, public art, and who gets to define a city’s identity. Its journey from rejection to reverence reflects how popular culture can challenge elite institutions and evolve into a shared civic symbol.
- 2 weeks agonarrative35 min7-min read
100 Objects #18: Hair Relaxer
The chemical hair relaxer, a product deeply embedded in Black American life, symbolizes both economic empowerment and the painful legacy of assimilation under white supremacy. While it built Black wealth and offered social mobility, new research reveals its potential health costs — particularly reproductive cancers — raising urgent questions about risk, choice, and systemic racism.
- 2 weeks agonarrative37 min6-min read
Doves Type
The story of Thomas Cobden-Sanderson and Emery Walker is a tragic tale of artistic obsession, friendship, and destruction, centered on the Doves Press and its exquisite typeface. What began as a shared vision for beautiful printing ended in a seven-year feud and the deliberate drowning of 2,600 pounds of metal type into the River Thames.
- 3 weeks agonarrative41 min6-min read
100 Objects #17: M43 Field Jacket
The M43 field jacket, born from scientific rigor and democratic ideals, revolutionized military clothing and reshaped global fashion, despite bureaucratic resistance, becoming a ubiquitous civilian staple divorced from its wartime origins.
- 3 weeks agonarrative38 min6-min read
Kobuk the Destroyer
The episode explores the hidden world of test engineering, revealing how products, infrastructure, and technologies are rigorously tested to withstand real-world conditions — from bears destroying canisters to chickens shot into jet engines — and argues that understanding these tests is essential as we increasingly live inside real-time experiments like AI and self-driving cars.
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A History of the World in 100 Objects
A director of the British Museum explores human history through 100 artifacts.
Stuff To Blow Your Mind
Explores the strange edges of science, consciousness, and reality through neuroscience, cosmology, evolution, and emerging technology.
The Honest Designers Show
A candid look at building a successful creative career, covering client work, personal style, branding, and fulfillment in design.
The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week
Three science journalists share bizarre and little-known facts they’ve recently discovered.
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Explores how human inventions from agriculture to the X-ray shaped society and transformed the way we live.
The World and Everything In It
Delivers news, cultural analysis, and Supreme Court coverage from a Christian worldview.
Unexpected Elements
Explores hidden scientific connections behind global news and everyday phenomena.
Endless Thread
Untold histories and unsolved mysteries from online and real life, explored through investigative storytelling.
Radiolab
Explores complex questions through investigative journalism, blending science, history, and human stories with innovative sound design.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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99% Invisible covers topics including Arts, Design. Our AI identifies the specific themes in each episode and highlights what matters most to you.
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