99% Invisible (Director's Cut)

Series produced by Roman Mars

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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 #282-Oyster-tecture (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
New York was built at the mouth of the Hudson River, and that fertile estuary environment was filled with all kinds of marine life. But one creatur...

  • Added: Oct 31, 2017
  • Length: 22:54
99% Invisible #283-Dollhouses Of St. Louis (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
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Some buildings in the Ville are simply rundown or abandoned, but others are missing large chunks entirely. Walls have disappeared. The beautiful ol...

  • Added: Dec 19, 2017
  • Length: 23:45
99% Invisible #284-Hero Props: Graphic Design In Film And Television (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
When a new movie comes out, most of the plaudits go to people like the director, the producer and the lead actors. But graphic designers working be...

  • Added: Dec 19, 2017
  • Length: 24:12
99% Invisible #285-Money Makers (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
For a long time, anti-counterfeiting laws made it illegal to show US currency in movies. Now you can show real money, but fake money is often prefe...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Dec 19, 2017
  • Length: 16:30
  • Purchases: 1
99% Invisible #287-The Nut Behind The Wheel (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
The current culture of heavily regulated and data-driven auto safety engineering did not always exist. For decades, automakers tried to keep data a...

  • Added: Dec 19, 2017
  • Length: 26:14
99% Invisible #288-Guerilla Public Service REDUX (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
At some point in your life you’ve probably encountered a problem in the built world where the fix was obvious to you. Maybe a door that opened the ...

  • Added: Dec 19, 2017
  • Length: 12:59
99% Invisible #289-Mini-Stories Volume 3 (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
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Our last episode of 2017 is something special: four stories from four different 99pi producers - Project Habakkuk by Katie Mingle, The Green Coloss...

Bought by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation


  • Added: Feb 02, 2018
  • Length: 35:40
  • Purchases: 1
99% Invisible #290-Mini-Stories Volume 4 (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
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More great mini-stories for the new year by Delaney Hall (The Backward Index), Vivian Le (Auditory Icons), Sharif Youssef (Modern Alchemists) and A...

  • Added: Feb 02, 2018
  • Length: 35:45
99% Invisible #291-Thermal Delight (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
Air conditioning technology dramatically changed the design of homes, and helped drive mass migrations to hot states like Arizona and Florida. It a...

Bought by KHNS


  • Added: Feb 02, 2018
  • Length: 24:41
  • Purchases: 1
99% Invisible #292-Speech Bubbles: Understanding Comics With Scott McCloud (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
Roman talks with cartoonist and theorist Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Together, they explore the history, deve...

  • Added: Feb 05, 2018
  • Length: 26:42
99% Invisible #293-Managed Retreat (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
Sometimes, moving a building is about preserving historic architecture, cultural heritage or local businesses. But for one telecommunications struc...

  • Added: Feb 05, 2018
  • Length: 27:46
99% Invisible #296-Bijlmer (City Of The Future, Part 1) (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
After World War II, city planners in Amsterdam wanted to design a “City of the Future” - a perfect encapsulation of Modernist principles. The place...

Bought by ABC


  • Added: Mar 19, 2018
  • Length: 20:48
  • Purchases: 1
99% Invisible #297-Blood, Sweat, And Tears (City Of The Future, Part 2) (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
An influx of new residents, as well as a tragic accident, kick-started a redesign that managed to do what the Modernists neglected to do: listen to...

Bought by ABC


  • Added: Mar 19, 2018
  • Length: 25:51
  • Purchases: 1
99% Invisible #298-Fordlandia (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
In the late 1920s, the Ford Motor Company bought up millions of acres of land in Brazil. They loaded boats with machinery and supplies, and shipped...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Mar 19, 2018
  • Length: 22:30
  • Purchases: 1
99% Invisible #295- Making a Mark: Visual Identity with Tom Geismar (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
Host Roman Mars talks with legendary graphic designer Tom Geismar, who cites three key ingredients for a successful logo. It should be (1) Appropri...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Mar 19, 2018
  • Length: 20:10
  • Purchases: 1
99% Invisible #301-Making It Rain (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
The battlefield has always been at the mercy of the climate, but there was a time in U.S. military history when we did more than just pray for adva...

  • Added: May 08, 2018
  • Length: 22:42
99% Invisible #302-Lessons From Las Vegas (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
In Denise, Robert found a kindred spirit — they were both into Mannerism and other kinds of decorative architecture with fun and elaborate visual e...

  • Added: May 08, 2018
  • Length: 25:11
99% Invisible #303-The Hair Chart (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
Beyond Oprah’s hair, Andre Walker is know for a system that he created back in the 1990s that categorizes natural hair types, often referred to sim...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: May 08, 2018
  • Length: 19:37
  • Purchases: 1
99% Invisible #304-Gander International Airport (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
Anyone who was anyone stopped by this airport. The Beatles’ first steps on the North American continent weren’t in New York — they were in Gander, ...

  • Added: May 08, 2018
  • Length: 19:59
99% Invisible #306-Breaking Bad News (Director's Cut)
From: Roman Mars
Series: 99% Invisible (Director's Cut)
Piece image
It turns out that one of the first doctors to recognize the challenges of doctor-patient communication wasn’t just a physician — he was also a come...

Bought by WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass.


  • Added: May 09, 2018
  • Length: 29:43
  • Purchases: 1

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