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99% Invisible
Roman Mars · Culture
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.
More from this show
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100 Objects #20: AA Sobriety Chip
Imbued in the Alcoholics Anonymous sobriety chip is a hidden history of America’s relationship to gender, religion, and morality.
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Tootle of a Devilish Song
How a Swiss mountain call crossed the Atlantic and helped define the sound of country music.
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100 Objects #19: Western Electric 500 Series
Former MythBuster Adam Savage joins Roman Mars to explore the history of the 500 Series Telephone and what we lost when we eventually decided to leave it behind.
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The Rocky Statue
How a movie prop became one of Philadelphia’s most beloved monuments, and sparked a decades-long fight over where it belonged.
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100 Objects #18: Hair Relaxer
How a single product—the hair relaxer—became a mirror for all of America's contradictions.
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Doves Type
A legendary typeface, a spectacular friendship breakup, and one extremely committed act of revenge.
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100 Objects #17: M43 Field Jacket
How should the military outfit its soldiers to make them as safe and effective as possible?
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Kobuk the Destroyer
Every product has to be tested somehow, and sometimes that means finding increasingly creative ways to break it.
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100 Objects #16: Wheel of Fortune Dalmatian
How the ceramic Dalmatian became the mascot for one of America's most popular game shows.
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1-800-PODCAST
This week, two stories about the strange power of the 1-800 number.
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100 Objects #15: Bundy Clock
How the time clock not only ignited a revolution in workplace efficiency and surveillance, but transformed our relationship to time itself.
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100 Objects #14: Basketball Sleeve
Producer and reporter Ramtin Arablouei has a simple question: Why are so many NBA players wearing a compression sleeve on their arm?
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The Bone Wars
Two rival paleontologists turn a hunt for dinosaur bones into an all-out scientific war.
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100 Objects #13: The Sand Letters
Comedian Elliott Kalan joins Roman Mars to tell the story of how a politician who owed so much to a corrupt government system became the one to dismantle it, thanks to one woman: Julia Isabella Sand.
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Bamboo Is Innocent
A devastating fire put one of Hong Kong's oldest building traditions on trial, but the real story runs much deeper.
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100 Objects #12: "Negro Cloth"
Roman Mars and historian Seth Rockman trace the strange life of so-called "Negro cloth" — a textile category defined by nothing but who it was worn by.
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The Borrowed Nature of Biomimicry
Behind every perfect nature-inspired design is a far more complicated story.
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100 Objects #11: Brannock Device
In 1925, the world saw the birth of what just might be the greatest gadget in American History: the Brannock Device.
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The Finnish Baby Box
A simple cardboard box helped transform Finland into one of the best places in the world to raise a child.
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100 Objects #10: Nunchaku
In the early 1970s, Bruce Lee made nunchaku (nunchucks) cool, but the nunchucks craze coincided with something much bigger: the birth of a radical new Asian American identity.
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The Original 100 Objects
Neil MacGregor reflects on creating the landmark series that changed how people think about history. Then, revisit the Rosetta Stone, the artifact that unlocked ancient Egypt.
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100 Objects #9: Missing Children Milk Carton
In 1982, a twelve-year-old paperboy, Johnny Gosch, vanished from a quiet Iowa street and sparked an unlikely campaign: the faces of missing children printed on milk cartons by the billions.
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If Mosquito Hawks Can Fly
A Louisiana man born into slavery designs an airship with hopes to take flight. Those plans are interrupted, but maybe not forever.
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100 Objects #8: Billy Possum
The teddy bear was a huge hit, and sparked an idea…maybe every president from then on should have their own viral stuffed animal.
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The Score
We keep score of everything these days. But what happens when the numbers start changing what we actually care about?
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100 Objects #7: The Otis Pamphlet
Journalist Jack Hitt returns to tell the wild, tragic story of America’s forgotten proto-founding father and his inflammatory 1764 pamphlet.
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Transatlantic Fiber-Optic Expialidocious
Before the internet went global, one undersea gamble made it possible.
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100 Objects #6: "Sharpened Screwdriver"
How was a household tool reimagined as a deadly weapon…that never actually existed?
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The Most Exciting Change America Has Ever Seen
Billions of state quarters disappeared from circulation...and that was exactly the plan.
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