Best Episodes of 99% Invisible

The House That Came in the Mail

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In early 1900s America, the Sears & Roebuck catalog was ubiquitous. By 1908, it reached 20% of the population, offering free delivery of over 100,000 items across 1,400 pages. This four-pound tome captured American life, featuring everything from farm tools to household luxuries. In 1908, Sears made its boldest move yet: selling entire homes by mail.

Structural Integrity

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Constructed in 1977, Citicorp Center (later known as Citigroup Center and currently named 601 Lexington) stood 59 stories tall, making it the seventh-highest skyscraper on the planet at the time. Its distinctive 45-degree angled roof allows it to be easily recognized within the New York City skyline.

Ten Thousand Years

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The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is the United States’ sole permanent underground facility for storing nuclear waste. It manages radioactive waste generated from the production of nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants. WIPP was engineered to handle not only different types of nuclear sludge but also everyday items that have come into contact with radioactive materials, such as tools and protective gloves.

Curb Cuts

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If you reside in an American city and don’t use a wheelchair yourself, you might not notice the small ramps found at most intersections, connecting the sidewalk to the street. Nowadays, these curb cuts are common, but fifty years ago — when activist Ed Roberts was growing up — most street corners had steep drop-offs, making it challenging for him and other wheelchair users to navigate from one block to another without help.

Raccoon Resistance

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When Toronto introduced its “raccoon-resistant” compost bins in 2016, some worried about starving the animals, while others praised the design. The new locked bins marked another chapter in the city’s ongoing “war on raccoons.” Journalist Amy Dempsey, researching the bins, found her own alley littered with trash. Had the raccoons outsmarted the city’s latest defense in this battle?

The Shipping Forecast

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Four times daily, radios throughout the British Isles broadcast a BBC announcer reciting what sounds like a baffling script. “And now the Shipping Forecast, issued by the Met Office for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency,” the calm voice declares. “Viking, North Utsire; southwesterly five to seven; occasionally gale eight; rain or showers; moderate or good, occasionally poor.” Both cryptic and captivating, this is the UK’s maritime weather report.

Thermal Delight

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Air conditioning was invented in 1902 by a young engineer, Willis Carrier, to remove humidity from the air, allowing printers to produce color magazines without paper warping. His system, which used cooled metal coils, also lowered air temperature. Carrier soon realized its potential beyond printing, and air conditioning went on to reshape where Americans lived and how buildings were designed.

Great Bitter Lake Association

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An obscure piece of world history involves a scrappy group of sailors who found themselves stranded in the Suez Canal for years, caught in the midst of a war.

Whomst Among Us Has Let The Dogs Out

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The tale of how “Who Let The Dogs Out” became ingrained in our minds stretches back decades and crosses continents. It reveals insights into the nature of inspiration, the spread of creativity, and whether an idea can truly belong to just one individual. About a decade ago, Ben Sisto stumbled upon a strange detail while reading the song’s Wikipedia page: an English hairdresser named “Keith” was credited with giving the song to the Baha Men, but there was no last name or source. This curious detail launched Ben on a quest to uncover the real story.

Reversal of Fortune

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A story about the Chicago River and how reversing the river was the third in a series of epic design projects spanning almost 50 years. 

Higher and Higher

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The story of two bitter rivals: William Van Alen and Craig Severance, business partners who engaged in an epic back and forth struggle for the glory of ruling the New York City skyline in the late 1920’s and 1930’s. 

Built on Sand

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Sand is so small and widespread that it’s easy to overlook. However, in his book *The World in a Grain*, author Vince Beiser delves into sand’s history, revealing how it has profoundly shaped the world we live in. “Sand is, in fact, the most essential solid material on Earth,” Beiser claims. “It’s the very foundation of modern civilization.”

The Batman and the Bridge Builder

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In the late 1970s, Texas engineer Mark Bloschock was hired by the Texas Department of Transportation to renovate Austin’s Congress Avenue Bridge, a concrete arch spanning Lady Bird Lake. The project involved adding modern “box beams” beneath the road, spaced between ¾ of an inch and 1½ inches apart. This spacing seemed insignificant—until bats made it their new home.

Matters of Time

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We generally take time for granted; while we may feel short on it, we assume we understand how it functions—most of the time. However, much of what we know about time is fairly modern, and some of what we take for granted isn’t as universal as it seems. This series of time-focused stories questions what you think you know about how time operates across the globe.

The Doom Boom

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Bradley Garrett, author of *Bunker*, explores the long-standing human tradition of building underground shelters to protect against disasters like plagues and hurricanes. However, in modern times, we’ve taken it to a whole new level. Garrett will lead us through the intriguing world of doomsday architecture, revealing why we’re currently experiencing a true resurgence of bunkers.

Reaction Offices and the Future of Work

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Debates over what constitutes a healthy and productive office environment have been ongoing since offices first existed. The 20th century introduced numerous misguided trends and productivity hacks, many of which still linger today, even as the pandemic has transformed the very concept of office life. In this first episode of our series, “The Future Of…,” we explore the past, present, and future of the office by examining the evolution of office furniture designed to address all our workplace challenges.

Corpse, Corps, Horse and Worse

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English spelling and pronunciation are full of inconsistencies, with little logic to explain the chaos. But why is English, unlike other European languages, so uniquely unpredictable? To help unravel this mystery, this episodes features a linguist and frequent guest Arika Okrent, author of a book that dives into the origins of these phonetic oddities. As it turns out, some of the reasons for this confusion are just as perplexing as the language itself.

The Pool and the Stream

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This is the tale of a curvy, kidney-shaped swimming pool that originated in Northern Europe and made a significant splash in Southern California’s pop culture, influenced landscape architecture in Northern California, and eventually left its mark worldwide.

Their Dark Materials

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Vantablack is a pigment so intensely dark that it’s almost unsettling, appearing like a void cut out of the universe. It seems surreal because Vantablack isn’t just a color; it’s a form of nanotechnology. Originally developed for the tech industry, this peculiar material later shook up the art world as well.

McMansion Hell

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Few architectural styles receive as much criticism as the McMansion, a type of sprawling, oversized house that many love to dislike. Typically exceeding 3,000 square feet, McMansions are known for lacking a unified aesthetic.

La Sagrada Familia

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Spain is home to many Gothic churches, but this one stands out. It doesn’t resemble a traditional Gothic cathedral; instead, it feels almost organic, as if made from bones or sand. But what really sets it apart is that it’s not actually ancient.Gaudí completed only a small portion of his famous church before his death in 1926. The majority of the structure has been built over the last 40 years, and it remains unfinished. Architects are still trying to interpret and carry out Gaudí’s vision for its construction.

Invisible Women

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Design often centers around men as the default subjects, which significantly affects key aspects of daily life. Caroline Criado Perez, in her book *Invisible Women*, explores how data from women is frequently overlooked, leading to bias and discrimination being built into the products and systems we create.

Fraktur

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If you’ve ever watched even a moment of the History Channel, you’ve likely encountered fraktur. It’s the font seen on Nazi posters, buildings, and road signs. Today, Neo-Nazi groups in Germany often use blackletter typefaces, which for many Germans evoke memories of the country’s fascist past. The irony, however, is that fraktur has a long and unusual history, including the fact that the Nazis themselves eventually banned it.

The Accidental Room

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A group of artists stumbles upon a hidden room inside a sprawling shopping center in Providence, RI, uncovering a new way to experience the mall. The episode also explores the origins of the first-ever mall and the intriguing visionary behind its design, Victor Gruen.

On Average

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In many respects, the world around you wasn’t built with your unique needs in mind—it was created for the “average” person. From standardized tests and building codes to insurance rates, clothing sizes, and even the Dow Jones, these systems are all designed around the idea of an “average.”

The Known Unknown

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The Tomb of the Unknowns, a tradition just a century old, is one of the most solemn monuments. In 1984, President Reagan added the remains of an unidentified Vietnam War soldier, the only one that couldn’t be identified. Thanks to advances in DNA technology, future soldiers are unlikely to remain unidentified, and even those currently buried in the tomb can now be positively identified.

The Many Deaths of a Painting

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When Barnett Newman’s painting *Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III* was exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum, it was intended to provoke. However, one reaction was so extreme and violent that it sparked a series of events that profoundly impacted the art world.

Mojave Phone Booth

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In the heart of the Mojave Desert, over a dozen miles from the closest paved road, a solitary phone booth stood by a dirt path, poised to become a global phenomenon. Known as the Mojave Phone Booth, its number was 760-733-9969.

Devil’s Rope

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In the mid-1800s, few Americans had ventured west of the Mississippi. When Frederick Law Olmstead visited, he described the plains as a “sea of grasses” swaying like waves after a storm. Buffalo roamed, and cowboys herded cattle across vast, untamed lands. But everything was about to change, thanks to a simple invention later called “the devil’s rope.”

Goodnight Nobody

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The unexpected conflict between the creator of the New York Public Library’s children’s reading room and the cherished children’s book *Goodnight Moon*.

In The Unlikely Event

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If you’ve ever flown, you’ve likely been instructed to review the safety briefing card in the seatback pocket. Every airplane, whether commercial or private, is required to have safety cards on board. Mo Laborde, a reporter who’s been collecting these cards for nearly a decade, eventually became curious about the origins of the modern safety card.

Nuts and Bolts

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In her latest book, structural engineer explores and analyzes seven fundamental engineering elements that have shaped the modern world: the nail, the wheel, the spring, the lens, the magnet, the string, and the pump.

Medellin, Revisited

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Medellin, once notorious for being the world’s most dangerous city due to drug cartel violence, had transformed itself by the early 2000s. However, gentrification is now enabling criminal gangs to profit significantly from an underground economy fueled by the surge in tourism.

Imitation Nation

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Artificial cities. Mock nations. Participants acting as civilians, spies, or enemies, complete with costumes and props. This is all part of a U.S. military effort to train soldiers for combat. These simulated villages, built for training, are scattered across the United States and beyond, with researchers identifying over 400 such sites worldwide.