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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.
- Yesterdaynarrative37 min6-min read
Zone Zero
This 99% Invisible episode, reported by producer Emmett Fitzgerald, tells the story of how Berkeley, California — a city whose beloved hillside gardens were deliberately engineered over more than a century — has been forced to confront the fact that its signature landscape is a fire trap, and how a bold local ordinance called the Ember Ordinance has divided a famously mellow community over whether beauty or survival should win.
- 6 days agonarrative34 min5-min read
100 Objects #22: AOL Disc
A richly reported history of the AOL CD, the marketing gimmick that introduced America to the internet, told through the story of Jan Brandt, the mastermind behind the campaign — and a cautionary account of how the same company that put half the world's CDs on Earth collapsed into a punchline after the disastrous Time Warner merger.
- 1 weeks agonarrative35 min5-min read
Doktoro Esperanto
Esperanto, a constructed language designed in the 1880s to foster global peace through mutual understanding, persists today not as a universal tongue but as a vibrant subculture rooted in community, idealism, and shared effort. Despite never achieving its grand political vision, the language endures through annual gatherings, grassroots learning, and quiet acts of linguistic solidarity.
- 1 weeks agonarrative37 min5-min read
100 Objects #21: Window from the House of D
The women's House of Detention in Greenwich Village, built to reform 'unfeminine' women, inadvertently became a crucible for queer community and resistance, its open windows allowing communication that helped shape one of America’s most iconic LGBTQ+ neighborhoods.
- 2 weeks agonarrative29 min6-min read
Audio Guide of the Imperfections of a Perfect Masterpiece
This audio tour of the Guggenheim Museum, hosted by Roman Mars, celebrates Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural masterpiece not as a static monument but as a living, evolving organism shaped by decades of adaptation, intervention, and human touch. It reveals how imperfections and modifications have become essential to the building’s enduring genius.
- 2 weeks agonarrative52 min5-min read
Tony Hawk's Real-Life Willy Wonka
Indy Austin is an experience designer who crafts deeply personal, often transgressive rituals—from funerals to serendipity interventions—that challenge societal norms and unlock emotional transformation. His work, likened to Willy Wonka’s whimsy by Tony Hawk, is less about spectacle and more about creating spaces where people confront truth, connection, and meaning.
- 3 weeks agonarrative43 min5-min read
The Problem With Football Helmets
The episode explores the fraught evolution of football helmets in America, revealing how safety innovations like the Guardian cap have become symbols of a deeper moral and cultural dilemma: whether a sport defined by violence can ever be made safe, especially as brain injuries like CTE devastate players’ lives. Despite growing awareness, football’s popularity remains undimmed, exposing a societal disconnect between spectatorship and responsibility.
- 4 weeks agonarrative28 min5-min read
(Not Just) Another Brick in the Wall
The episode explores the hidden history and cultural significance of bricks through the lens of Chicago’s architectural evolution, revealing how a humble material shaped a city and persists as a metaphor for permanence and craft. It lands because it transforms an overlooked building block into a symbol of resilience, identity, and urban connection.
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Explores the history and meaning of art through the lens of individual materials, from clay to jade to paper.
Imaginary Worlds
Explores the creative process behind sci-fi, fantasy, and speculative fiction across books, TV, film, games, and fandoms.
Stuff To Blow Your Mind
Explores the strange edges of science, consciousness, and reality through neuroscience, cosmology, evolution, and emerging technology.
Invisible Choir
Examines violent crimes through investigative storytelling, primary audio, and victim perspectives to honor those often overlooked.
The Honest Designers Show
A candid look at building a successful creative career, covering client work, personal style, branding, and fulfillment in design.
A History of the World in 100 Objects
A director of the British Museum explores human history through 100 artifacts.
Inquiring Minds
Explores the intersection of science and society through critical thinking and in-depth analysis.
Light Box
A musician explores how AI is transforming music and challenging the meaning of creativity and identity in the digital age.
It's Been a Minute
Brittany Luse explores the cultural, political, and social forces shaping identity, technology, health, and pop culture.
First of Kind
Stories of design and technology from the pioneers who shaped them.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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What topics does 99% Invisible cover?
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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