A Whale-Oiled Machine – 99% Invisible
In the 1800s, whaling was a vast and brutal industry–sometimes as deadly for the sailors involved as it was for the whales. And the global epicenter of whaling could be…
One Year: The Day the Music Stopped – 99% Invisible
The problem seems not to be new technology but who owns the means of production.
Cougar Town – 99% Invisible
Mountain lions are classified as a “specially protected species”—not quite endangered, but close. There are somewhere between 2,000 and 6,000 of them spread across the foothills and mountains of California.…
The Octagon House – 99% Invisible
99 Percent Invisible producer emeritus Avery Trufelman traveled from New York to San Francisco recently, and took host Roman Mars to see an unusually shaped old building on the west…
The world is poorly designed. But copying nature helps.
Biomimicry design, explained with 99% Invisible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMtXqTmfta0
Dollhouses of St. Louis – 99% Invisible
driving around The Ville today, the neighborhood looks very different. Some buildings are simply rundown or abandoned, but others are missing large chunks entirely. Walls have disappeared. The bricks are…
Half Measures
No it’s not for complicated reasons that the US doesn’t use the metric system. It’s dumb reasons. Very dumb.
The Athletic Brassiere
Among the most important advances in sports technology, few can compete with the invention of the sports bra. Following the passage of Title IX in 1972, women’s interest in athletics…
The Stethoscope – 99% Invisible
In the early 1800s, an invention came along that changed everything. Suddenly the doctor could clearly hear what was happening inside the body. The heart, the lungs, the breath. This…
The Great Dismal Swamp – 99% Invisible
On the border of Virginia and North Carolina stretches a great, dismal swamp. The Great Dismal Swamp, actually — that’s the name British colonists gave it centuries ago. The swamp…