99% Invisible (Director's Cut)

Series produced by Roman Mars

Series image

Trying to comprehend the 99% invisible activity that shapes the design of our world.

A tiny radio show about design, architecture & the 99% invisible activity that shapes our world. From producer Roman Mars and KALW in San Francisco.

In August 2012, 99% Invisible became the highest-funded journalism project in Kickstarter history, raising over $170,000 from 5661 backers.

With over 4 million downloads online, 99% Invisible recently peaked at #2 in iTunes ranking for all podcasts in the US, and had occupied the #1 spot in both the Arts and Design categories.

"Roman Mars lights the radio. His pieces conjure other worlds, grapple with big ideas, make sound three dimensional. They are smart and funny and original. The Kitchen Sisters would like to be Presidents of his Fan Club."
-The Kitchen Sisters, Peabody Award-winning producers for NPR

"We think what he’s doing is inspiring. It has a kind of rhythm and musicality that you don’t normally find in radio or podcast storytelling."
-Jad Abumrad, Radiolab

"I love the show. It's wonderful. [It] actually reminded me of why I love radio."
-Jonathan Goldstein, CBC's WireTap

"Mars is the Ira Glass of design."
-Allison Arieff, The New York Times Opinionator design columnist

Learn more: http://99percentinvisible.org Hide full description

A tiny radio show about design, architecture & the 99% invisible activity that shapes our world. From producer Roman Mars and KALW in San Francisco.

In August 2012, 99% Invisible became the highest-funded journalism project in Kickstarter history, raising over $170,000 from 5661 backers.

With over 4 million downloads online, 99% Invisible recently peaked at #2 in iTunes ranking for all podcasts in the US, and had occupied the #1 spot in both the Arts and Design categories. "Roman Mars lights the radio. His pieces conjure other worlds, grapple with big ideas, make sound three dimensional. They are smart and funny and original. The Kitchen Sisters would like to be Presidents of his Fan Club." -The Kitchen Sisters, Peabody Award-winning producers for NPR "We think what he’s doing... Show full description


197 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
99% Invisible #260- New Jersey (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
The Brazilian soccer shirt is iconic. Its bright canary yellow with green trim (worn with blue shorts and white socks) is known worldwide. But the ...

  • Added: Jun 01, 2017
  • Length: 19:11
99% Invisible #258-The Modern Necropolis (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
In the town of Colma, the dead outnumber the living 1,000 to 1. Located just south of San Francisco, it is filled with rolling green hills and mani...

Bought by WDBM


  • Added: Jun 02, 2017
  • Length: 17:36
  • Purchases: 1
99% Invisible #259-This Is Chance (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
As the built environment gave way, a kind of alternate human infrastructure snapped into place. And at the heart of it was reporter Genie Chance. T...

  • Added: Jun 05, 2017
  • Length: 27:14
99% Invisible #261- Squatters Of The Lower East Side (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
The building had been abandoned and was now owned by the city, but it remained empty and unmaintained. It was full of rubble. Some of the walls wer...

Bought by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation


  • Added: Jun 05, 2017
  • Length: 22:51
  • Purchases: 1
99% Invisible #262- In The Same Ballpark (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
The construction of Oriole Park at Camden Yards was the beginning of the end for generic multipurpose stadiums. Producer Emmett FitzGerald has the ...

Bought by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation


  • Added: Jun 27, 2017
  • Length: 21:14
  • Purchases: 1
99% Invisible #263- You Should Do A Story (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
This week’s all request episode starts with story ideas from #99pi fans and explores where that path leads us (aptly including "desire paths," one ...

  • Added: Jun 27, 2017
  • Length: 25:35
99% Invisible #264- Mexico 68 (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
Among other groundbreaking aspects of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, the graphic design campaign would become one of the most famous in the hist...

  • Added: Jun 29, 2017
  • Length: 21:58
99% Invisible #265-The Pool And The Stream (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
This is the story of a distinctively curved swimming pool born in Northern Europe that went on to shape popular culture in Southern California as w...

  • Added: Jul 06, 2017
  • Length: 30:34
99% Invisible #266- Repackaging The Pill (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
Over the decades since its invention, the birth control pill has traveled from nondescript prescription bottles into some of the most heavily desig...

Bought by Prairie Public


  • Added: Jul 17, 2017
  • Length: 17:52
  • Purchases: 1
99% Invisible #268-El Gordo (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
When Spain became concerned that too many poor people were spending money they didn't have to play the lottery, they redesigned the game to make it...

  • Added: Jul 28, 2017
  • Length: 22:58
99% Invisible #272-Person In Lotus Position (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
Tech analysts estimate that over six billion emojis are sent each day. But who decides which ones are available to users on their various devices a...

  • Added: Aug 25, 2017
  • Length: 26:51
99% Invisible #271-The Great Dismal Swamp (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
Hundreds of years ago, the natural dangers of the Great Dismal Swamp were detested by British colonists -- but these same harsh conditions also att...

  • Added: Aug 25, 2017
  • Length: 22:03
99% Invisible #270-The Stethescope (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
In the early 1800s, the human body was like a black box when it came to illness, its inner workings a mystery. The arrival of the stethoscope trans...

  • Added: Aug 25, 2017
  • Length: 17:37
99% Invisible #274-The Age of the Algorithm (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
Computer algorithms shape our world in profound and mostly invisible ways. And their creators often like to talk about how objective they are, clai...

  • Added: Sep 26, 2017
  • Length: 19:45
99% Invisible #275-Coal Hogs Work Safe (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
Coal mining stickers evolved from little industry advertisements into something bigger and more personal. They began helping miners stay safe while...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 26, 2017
  • Length: 15:09
  • Purchases: 1
99% Invisible #276-The Finnish Experiment (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
There’s been a lot of excitement lately around universal basic income, especially due to one particular experiment launched earlier this year. Aver...

Bought by WUTC and MPR News Stations


  • Added: Sep 26, 2017
  • Length: 22:01
  • Purchases: 2
99% Invisible #277-Ponte City Tower (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
Ponte City has towered over Johannesburg for decades, but over time it has gone from a symbol of white opulence to something far more complicated. ...

Bought by KALW


  • Added: Sep 27, 2017
  • Length: 24:15
  • Purchases: 1
99% Invisible #281-La Sagrada Familia (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
There are a lot of old Gothic churches in Spain, but this one is different. It looks organic, like it was built out of bones or sand, and it is sti...

Bought by ABC


  • Added: Oct 25, 2017
  • Length: 27:11
  • Purchases: 1
99% Invisible #280-Half Measures (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
With so many industries and people crossing borders with so much fluidity, why has the U.S. not fully committed to the metric system the rest of th...

  • Added: Oct 25, 2017
  • Length: 24:02
99% Invisible #279-The Containment Plan (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
The edge of Skid Row is clearly defined and it wasn’t drawn by accident. It’s the result of a very specific plan to keep homeless people on one sid...

  • Added: Oct 26, 2017
  • Length: 22:33

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