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99% Invisible

Roman Mars

All the thought that goes into the things we don't think about.

822 EpisodesFortnightly12+Since 2010

Episodes

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The earliest episodes still in this feed, from 2026. Publishers rotate older episodes out.

  1. 1. 100 Objects #10: Nunchaku · 24 Jul 2026
  2. 2. The Finnish Baby Box · 28 Jul 2026
  3. 3. 100 Objects #11: Brannock Device · 31 Jul 2026
  • Bamboo Is Innocent

    11 Aug 2026 · 32 min

    A devastating fire put one of Hong Kong's oldest building traditions on trial, but the real story runs much deeper.

  • 100 Objects #12: "Negro Cloth"

    7 Aug 2026 · 37 min

    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.

  • The Borrowed Nature of Biomimicry

    4 Aug 2026 · 31 min

    Behind every perfect nature-inspired design is a far more complicated story.

  • 100 Objects #11: Brannock Device

    31 Jul 2026 · 27 min

    In 1925, the world saw the birth of what just might be the greatest gadget in American History: the Brannock Device.

  • The Finnish Baby Box

    28 Jul 2026 · 33 min

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

  • 100 Objects #10: Nunchaku

    24 Jul 2026 · 36 min

    In the early 1970s, Bruce Lee made nunchaku (nunchucks) cool, but the nunchucks craze coincided with something much bigger: the birth of a radical new Asian American identity.

Where this form starts

The broadcast desk

Wartime correspondence and Cavalcade of America established the daily explainer and the narrated history hour long before either had a feed.

Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.

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The Golden Age behind 99% Invisible

Surviving broadcasts from the years this form was invented.

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