99% Invisible

Esperanto is what linguists call a “constructed language.” It isn’t attached to a region, and it didn’t evolve from another language over time. Instead, someone decided to sit down and design the whole thing from scratch. Listen now 👉 https://bit.ly/4zdTbPW

The Women's House of Detention in Greenwich Village has one unique feature originally meant to be a sort of kindness – a special kind of window that the women inside could open. Listen to A History of the United States in 100 Objects on the 99% Invisible feed 👉 https://bit.ly/4fNZhPW

Today, we're revisiting a special project: Our own audio tour of the Guggenheim museum. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4z10qdD

A desert train built for Tony Hawk leads into the strange and thoughtful world of N.D. Austin, a designer of real-life experiences. Listen to 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4hSeIY8

Football helmets can prevent devastating injuries, but they may also help make an inherently violent game feel safer than it really is. Listen to a new episode of 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/3UtN9eJ

Want to add to our list of 100 objects? We're looking for objects that can help us explore the history of labor struggles, The Great Depression, immigration, and American science. Have the perfect object? Send us an email at 100objects@99pi.org

A closer look at the messy, beautiful bricks hiding across Chicago 🧱 Listen to 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4jBvagA

@jamieloftus.bsky.social has always known about Alcoholics Anonymous. As a kid, she loved the album where her dad kept all his AA chips. Imbued in those little chips is a hidden history of America’s relationship to gender, religion, and morality. Listen now 👉 https://bit.ly/4fNZhPW

How a Swiss mountain call crossed the Atlantic and helped define the sound of country music. Listen to a new episode of 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4rDuCIU

The Western Electric 500 Series Telephone used to be everywhere. But why was this one phone so much better than everything that came before… or, in some ways, since? Listen to A History of the United States in 100 Objects on the 99% Invisible feed 👉 https://bit.ly/4fNZhPW

Turn your next walk into a walking tour. 99% Invisible is featured in Hidden Histories, a new series of podcast guides from Apple Podcasts and Apple Maps across 5 iconic cities https://apple.co/podcasts-on-maps

How a movie prop became one of Philadelphia’s most beloved monuments, and sparked a decades-long fight over where it belonged. Listen to a new episode of 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4iNOZkB

Somewhere between 85 to 95 percent of Black women in the United States have used a chemical hair relaxer at least once in their lifetime. And now research is revealing a physical cost... Listen to A History of the United States in 100 Objects on the 99% Invisible feed 👉 https://bit.ly/4fNZhPW

A legendary typeface, a spectacular friendship breakup, and one extremely committed act of revenge. Listent o 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4rb1f0u

How should the military outfit its soldiers to make them as safe and effective as possible? Listen to A History of the United States in 100 Objects on the 99% Invisible feed 👉 https://bit.ly/4fNZhPW

Every product has to be tested somehow, and sometimes that means finding increasingly creative ways to break it. Listen to a new episode of 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/46LmxZ4

This week, two stories about the strange power of the 1-800 number ☎️ Listen to a new episode of 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4yduYbp

In 1888, Willard Bundy created the first employee "time clock" — a souped-up grandfather clock that could, for the first time, produce a record of when workers arrived and left. Listen to A History of the United States in 100 Objects wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4fNZhPW

Spolia, from a Liverpool neighborhood to ancient Rome. Listen to a new episode of 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4gsaEf7

Why are so many NBA players wearing a compression sleeve on their arm? Listen to A History of the United States in 100 Objects wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4fNZhPW

Friend of the show Gillian Jacobs joins us for the tale of two rival paleontologists who turn a hunt for dinosaur bones into an all-out scientific war. Listen to a new episode of 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4cPNePN

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. Listen to A History of the United States in 100 Objects on the 99% Invisible feed 👉 https://link.podtrac.com/100_objects

Dinosaurs. Gillian Jacobs. What more could you want? Get early access to next week's episode when you subscribe to 99% Invisible on SiriusXM Podcasts+ 🎧

A devastating fire put one of Hong Kong's oldest building traditions on trial, but the real story runs much deeper. Listen to a new episode of 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4zdiwtC

In 1821, two Rhode Island brothers went looking for buyers for their woolen fabric, and stumbled into a lucrative, captive market: Southern slave plantations. Listen to A History of the United States in 100 Objects on the 99% Invisible feed 👉 https://bit.ly/4fNZhPW

Behind every perfect nature-inspired design is a far more complicated story. Listen to a new episode of 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4wKHcIq

The Brannock Device transformed the way we measure feet forever, and more than a century after its invention… it has barely changed. Listen to A History of the United States in 100 Objects on the 99% Invisible feed 👉 https://bit.ly/4fNZhPW

A simple cardboard box helped transform Finland into one of the best places in the world to raise a child. Listen to 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4vTqPrE

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. Listen to A History of the United States in 100 Objects on the 99% Invisible feed 👉 https://bit.ly/4fNZhPW

Neil MacGregor reflects on creating the landmark series that changed how people think about history. Then, revisit the Rosetta Stone, the artifact that unlocked ancient Egypt. Listen to 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://99percentinvisible.org

In 1982, a twelve-year-old paperboy, Johnny Gosch, vanished from a quiet Iowa street and sparked an unlikely campaign... Listen to A History of the United States in 100 Objects on the 99% Invisible feed, wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://link.podtrac.com/100_objects

A Louisiana man born into slavery designs an airship with hopes to take flight. Those plans are interrupted, but maybe not forever. Listen to 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉

In 1902, an American classic was born: the teddy bear. Named after President Theodore Roosevelt, it sparked an idea…maybe every president should have their own stuffed animal. Listen to A History of the United States in 100 Objects on the 99% Invisible feed 👉 https://bit.ly/4fNZhPW

We keep score of everything these days. But what happens when the numbers start changing what we actually care about? Listen to a new episode of 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4gndow5

Before the Declaration of Independence was even a twinkle in the founding fathers' eyes, there was James Otis. Listen to a new episode of A History of the United States in 100 Objects on the 99% Invisible feed 🎧

Before the internet went global, one undersea gamble made it possible. Listen to a new episode of 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4fdt0kw

How was a household tool reimagined as a deadly weapon…that never actually existed? Listen to a new episode of A History of the United States in 100 Objects on the 99% Invisible feed, wherever you get your podcasts👉 https://bit.ly/4fNZhPW

Billions of state quarters disappeared from circulation...and that was exactly the plan. Listen to a new episode of 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4gC8JGy

Why did an ordinary schoolbook become so treasured that enslaved people risked their lives to possess it? Listen to a new episode of A History of the United States in 100 Objects on the 99% Invisible feed, wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4fNZhPW

Love it or hate it, one buzzing horn changed the sound of the World Cup forever. Listen to 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/3S30Xvn

This is the story of Thaddeus Lowe — showman, scientist, and dreamer — whose balloon flight from Cincinnati went wildly off course and straight into the Civil War. Listen to a new episode of A History of the United States in 100 Objects on the 99% Invisible feed 👉 https://bit.ly/4fNZhPW

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the Minneapolis meetup this last weekend! You nerds are even more beautiful in person 💛

Behind every cheesy karaoke track was a surprisingly ambitious filmmaking experiment. Listen to a new episode of 99% Invisible wherever you get your podcasts 👉 https://bit.ly/4osEeEX

A stack of dusty paperwork, teeming with unheard voices. What do Civil War pension files reveal about one of the most successful slave rebellions in American history? Listen to a new episode of A History of the United States in 100 Objects on the 99% Invisible feed 👉 https://bit.ly/4fNZhPW