Shows / 99% Invisible
99% Invisible
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. Learn more at 99percentinvisible.org.
Episodes
- 99% Invisible
The Great American Pyramid
In 1991, one of the strangest buildings in America opened — a 32-storey, stainless steel pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee. The Great American Pyramid Subscribe to…
- 99% Invisible
Secret Mall Apartment
A group of artists explored the back hallways of a mall in Providence, RI, and found the perfect place to build a private hangout. We interviewed the group's…
- 99% Invisible
Beautiful West Oakland, California
When global trade reshapes a city, who pays the price—and who fights back? Alexis Madrigal’s new book is called The Pacific Circuit: A Globalized Account of…
- 99% Invisible
What We're Reading
After we finished up The Power Broker, a bunch of people were asking us what other books we’d been reading. A group of us got together and presented some of…
- 99% Invisible
A Beetle By Any Other Name
A tiny, unremarkable beetle hiding in the caves of Slovenia has an infamously unfortunate name—one that has sparked heated debates in the scientific world. A…
- 99% Invisible
The Brutalists
A film about a struggling architect, a style the world loves to hate—The Brutalist and Brutalism itself share more than just a name. Is it bold vision or…
- 99% Invisible
The Nazi Block
In the heart of Berlin’s Tempelhof-Schöneberg district sits a hulking, crumbling concrete cylinder—an abandoned relic of a Nazi plan to rebuild the city as a…
99% InvisibleThe Power Broker Breakdown Wrap-Up
Join Roman and Elliott one last time as they reflect on their journey with you all through The Power Broker, exploring their favorite moments and answering…
- 99% Invisible
Your Own Personal Jesus
How did a simple painting transform into the world's most recognized depiction of Jesus? Head of Christ Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new…
- 99% Invisible
The Wide Open
Last week, we delved into story of how the Tennessee Valley Authority, which started out as a public institution, ended up acting like a private for-profit…
- 99% Invisible
Valley So Low
What went wrong in Kingston, Tennessee, and what does it reveal about the messy legacy of public utilities turned corporate giants? Valley So Low Subscribe to…
99% InvisibleThe Power Broker Breakdown Breakdown
The Power Broker Breakdown may have concluded, but if you're just tuning in (or if you just want a quick refresher), this episode is a compilation of the…
- 99% Invisible
Sanctuary
A deadly desert crossing leaves survivors seeking refuge—and sparks a movement that defied the law and redefined the idea of sanctuary in America. This is the…
- 99% Invisible
Ancient DMs
The story of an 2700 year old archive, its accidental preservation, and the unprecedented—and often funny—glimpse it gives us into the daily life of an ancient…
- 99% Invisible
Mini-Stories: Volume 20
Happy New Year! We're starting 2025 with four more mini stories about a sleepy button, electric signs, a very important sticker, and video you can smell…
99% InvisibleHyperfixed: Dylan's Supermarket Cold Case
We've all got problems. Sometimes your problem is a massive roadblock in your life, or maybe it's this little thing that quietly annoys you that you've learned…
99% InvisibleNew Year, New Neighborhood
The story of New Year's Eve in (2:46) Times Square, and how a quiet group of unelected Manhattan property owners used the holiday—and their own undemocratic…
99% InvisibleThe Power Broker #12: Robert Caro
This is the twelfth and final episode breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. We’ve waited until the…
- 99% Invisible
Mini-Stories: Volume 19
Cheeky highway signs, Jane Fonda’s surprising side hustle, a dynamite twist on legacy, and the Greeks’ ideal foot obsession—expect the unexpected…
99% InvisibleThe Flop House: Megalopolis, with Roman Mars
Roman Mars and the Flop House team dive into Francis Ford Coppola's intriguing and controversial film, Megalopolis, exploring its chaotic narrative, ambitious…
- 99% Invisible
The 15 Minute City
How did the “15 Minute City,” a simple urban planning idea, spark protests, conspiracy theories, and death threats? This week, we unravel how a concept for…
- 99% Invisible
Raccoon Thanksgiving
After Toronto unveiled its "raccoon-resistant" compost bins in 2016, some people feared the animals would be starved, but many more celebrated the innovative…
- 99% Invisible
Roman, Elliott, and Robert Caro: Live in Conversation
What makes The Power Broker endure 50 years on? Roman Mars and Elliott Kalan sit down with legendary author Robert Caro to explore the humanity, drama, and…
- 99% Invisible
The Power Broker #11: Brennan Lee Mulligan
This is the eleventh official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. This week, Roman Mars and…
- 99% Invisible
The Memory Palace…Book!
Roman talks with The Memory Palace creator Nate DiMeo, whose new book brings his poetic history podcast to life on the page. They explore how moments of wonder…
- 99% Invisible
Meet Me at Riis
As the last warmth of summer fades, Riis Beach—a hidden queer oasis behind a decaying hospital—faces a new reality. With its shadowy protector demolished, can…
- 99% Invisible
How the World Ran Out of Everything
Remember when grocery shelves went bare and cargo ships clogged the California coast? That chaos wasn’t just a pandemic hiccup—it was a symptom of a supply…
- 99% Invisible
Spirit Halloween
Every fall, a vacant Toronto storefront is possessed by Spirit Halloween, the pop-up shop haunting 1,500 empty spaces across North America. What does this…
- 99% Invisible
The Power Broker #10: Clara Jeffery
This is the tenth official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. This week, Roman Mars and…
- 99% Invisible
Trompe L'oeil
Today, we have three stories about designs meant to fool you. Camouflage meant to fool U-boats. Highways designed to fool your brain into going way faster than…
- 99% Invisible
Brilliantly Boring
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…
- 99% Invisible
Christiania
In the heart of Copenhagen, a former military base transformed into Christiania, a self-proclaimed anarchist commune where residents built a new way of living…
- 99% Invisible
The Infernal Machine
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. From…
- 99% Invisible
Cue the Sun!
What started as Emily Nussbaum’s “guilty pleasure” of watching Big Brother became a deeper dive into the world of reality TV, leading to her book, Cue the Sun…
- 99% Invisible
The Power Broker #9: Majora Carter
This is the ninth official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. This week, Roman Mars and…
99% InvisiblePlanet Money: Zombie 2nd Mortgages
Karen MacDonough had paid her mortgage for years, raised her family, and lived a quiet life in her Quincy, Massachusetts home—until one day, a group of…
- 99% Invisible
Medellin, Revisited
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…
99% InvisibleNot Built For This #6: Maximum Temperature
The impacts of climate disasters are often measured in terms of property damage. But in places like Phoenix, Arizona, and in hot places all over the world…
99% InvisibleNot Built For This #5: The Little Levee That Could
Most of the stories in this series have been about places that are ill-prepared for the extreme weather that is coming their way. But this story is about a…
99% InvisibleNot Built For This #4: Unbuilding the Terrace
All across the country thousands of people are living in locations that regularly flood, and many of these places will only get more flood-prone as the climate…
99% InvisibleNot Built For This #3: The Price is Wrong
Insurance companies are not climate activists, but they know more about climate risk than just about anyone. And as storms get more extreme and unpredictable a…
99% InvisibleNot Built For This #2: The Ripple Effect
In disasters where a lot of people lose their homes, the impacts are not confined to a single city or town. They ripple outward, cascading into the surrounding…
99% InvisibleNot Built For This #1: The Bottom of the Bowl
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…
- 99% Invisible
The Power Broker #8: Shiloh Frederick
This is the eighth official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. This week, Roman Mars and…
- 99% Invisible
Side Projects
This week we're highlighting a couple of series that live inside the 99pi production tent. We’ve got a preview of a new miniseries for you called Not Built for…
- 99% Invisible
Top Billing
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…
- 99% Invisible
The Art of the Olympics
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. First up…
- 99% Invisible
The 2024 Olympics Spectacular
From TV commercials and branded soda cans to Emily in Paris spon-con, the Olympics are once again everywhere. In the Olympic spirit, we’re bringing you four…
- 99% Invisible
The Power Broker #7: Sec. Pete Buttigieg
This is the seventh official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. This week, Roman Mars and…
- 99% Invisible
A River Runs Through Los Angeles
When you hear the word "river," you probably picture a majestic body of water flowing through a natural habitat. Well, the LA River looks nothing like that…
- 99% Invisible
As Slow As Possible
When you go to a concert, you might try to get there right when the doors open. Or perhaps you take your time and skip the opening act. But generally, you want…
- 99% Invisible
The Containment Plan (rebroadcast)
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…
99% InvisibleBackfired: The Vaping Wars
When two Stanford graduate students set out to create a new kind of cigarette that wouldn’t kill them, they didn’t foresee all the obstacles that lay ahead—or…
99% InvisibleThe Power Broker #6: Mike Schur
This is the sixth official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. This week, Roman Mars and…
- 99% Invisible
Category 6
After Hurricane Camille caused widespread death and destruction along the US Gulf Coast in 1969, two scientists created the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale…
- 99% Invisible
The Los Angeles Leaf Blower Wars
The leaf blower is one of the most hated objects in the modern world. They’re loud, they pollute, and… how important is a leafless lawn anyway? In a lot of…
- 99% Invisible
Fact Checking the Supreme Court
For a long time, the Court operated under what was called Legal Formalism. Legal formalism said that the job of any judge or justice was incredibly narrow. It…
- 99% Invisible
Uptown Squirrel [update]
In late 2018, two hundred people gathered at The Explorer’s Club in New York City. The building was once a clubhouse for famed naturalists and explorers. Now…
- 99% Invisible
The Lost Subways of North America
Los Angeles actually used to have a massive electric railway system in the early 1900s, called the Red Car. Jake Berman, the author of The Lost Subways of…
99% InvisibleThe Power Broker #5: Brandy Zadrozny
This is the fifth official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. This week, Roman Mars and…