99% Invisible

Episodes

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  100 Objects #20: AA Sobriety Chip 02.10.2026 52m

  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 29.09.2026 32m

  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 25.09.2026 38m

  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 22.09.2026 32m

  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 18.09.2026 35m

  How a single product—the hair relaxer—became a mirror for all of America's contradictions.
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  Doves Type 15.09.2026 37m

  A legendary typeface, a spectacular friendship breakup, and one extremely committed act of revenge.
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  100 Objects #17: M43 Field Jacket 11.09.2026 41m

  How should the military outfit its soldiers to make them as safe and effective as possible?
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  Kobuk the Destroyer 08.09.2026 38m

  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 04.09.2026 46m

  How the ceramic Dalmatian became the mascot for one of America's most popular game shows.
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  1-800-PODCAST 01.09.2026 43m

  This week, two stories about the strange power of the 1-800 number.
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  100 Objects #15: Bundy Clock 28.08.2026 37m

  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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  Spolia 25.08.2026 28m

  Spolia, from a Liverpool neighborhood to ancient Rome.
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  100 Objects #14: Basketball Sleeve 21.08.2026 41m

  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 18.08.2026 44m

  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 14.08.2026 48m

  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 11.08.2026 32m

  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" 07.08.2026 37m

  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 04.08.2026 31m

  Behind every perfect nature-inspired design is a far more complicated story.
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  100 Objects #11: Brannock Device 31.07.2026 27m

  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 28.07.2026 33m

  A simple cardboard box helped transform Finland into one of the best places in the world to raise a child.