99% Invisible

Latest Episodes:

Doktoro Esperanto Oct 27, 2026

Show notes

Esperanto is what linguists call a “constructed language.” It isn’t attached to a nation or a region, and it didn’t evolve from another language over time. Instead, nearly 150 years ago, someone decided to sit down and design the whole thing from scratch.

That someone was L. L. Zamenhof, also known as Doktoro Esperanto. He created this language with the hope that it would unite the world under one shared tongue. Today, reporter Katie Thornton tells the story of Doktoro Esperanto’s dream, and what we can all still learn from Esperanto right now.

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100 Objects #21: Window from the House of D Oct 23, 2026

Show notes

In 1932, the Women's House of Detention—New York City's first women's prison—opened in the heart of Greenwich Village. It was opened to make "wayward" women quiet, private, and properly feminine. And the building had one unique feature originally meant to be a sort of kindness—a special kind of window that the women inside could open. Roman Mars and historian Hugh Ryan trace how those special windows had an impact that nobody could have predicted—helping to build a mecca of gay America and, ultimately, a movement.

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Audio Guide of the Imperfections of a Perfect Masterpiece Oct 21, 2026

Show notes

This episode is sponsored by Acura.

From the outside, the building is a light gray spiral, and from the inside, the art is displayed on one long ramp that curves up towards a glass skylight in the ceiling. We’re going to take the greatness of this building as a given. What we’re going to focus on are the oddities, the accretions, the interventions that reveal a different kind of genius. Not just the genius of Frank Lloyd Wright, and his bold, original vision, but the genius of all the people that made this building function, adapt, and grow over the decades.

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Tony Hawk's Real-Life Willy Wonka Oct 20, 2026

Show notes

A desert train built for Tony Hawk leads into the strange and thoughtful world of N.D. Austin, a designer of real-life experiences.

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The Problem With Football Helmets Oct 13, 2026

Show notes

Football helmets can prevent devastating injuries, but they may also help make an inherently violent game feel safer than it really is.

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(Not Just) Another Brick in the Wall Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

A closer look at the messy, beautiful bricks hiding across Chicago.

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100 Objects #20: AA Sobriety Chip Oct 02, 2026

Show notes

Comedian, writer, and podcaster Jamie Loftus has always known about Alcoholics Anonymous. As a kid, she loved the album where her dad kept all his AA chips — that little piece of plastic that marks a day, a month, a year of sobriety. Now as an adult, Jamie wanted to understand where that little chip came from. What she found is that imbued in that little chip is a hidden history — from Prohibition to women’s suffrage — of America’s relationship to gender, religion, and morality.

A History of the United States in 100 Objects is a production of 99% Invisible and BBC Studios.

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Tootle of a Devilish Song Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

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 Sep 25, 2026

Show notes

This episode is sponsored by Claude. For problems worth solving, get started with Claude at Claude.ai.

The Western Electric 500 Series Telephone used to be everywhere. For over 50 years, it was the default telephone for homes, offices and literally anywhere else you might need a phone… but how did that happen? Why was this one phone so much better than everything that came before… or, in some ways, since? 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.

A History of the United States in 100 Objects is a production of 99% Invisible and BBC Studios.

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The Rocky Statue Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

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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