The Best of 99 Percent Invisible
10 most popular 99 Percent Invisible articles, as voted by our community.
A radio show about design with host @romanmars + @kurtkohlstedt, @daphall, @vivianhle, @action__johnson & more! NYT Best Seller: The 99pi City (http://99pi.org/book)
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De Fiets is Niets
Today the Netherlands has a reputation as a kind of bicycling paradise. Dutch people own more bicycles per capita than any other place in the world. The country has more than 20,000 miles of dedicated…
99 Percent Invisible on Architecture
Ghost Plants: Reusing Huge Abandoned Sears Buildings Across Urban America
A few years back, I moved into a Sears building — no, not that famous skyscraper in Chicago, or one of those department stores in the suburbs, but a city block-sized brick behemoth just south of…
99 Percent Invisible on Pets
Swiss Cat Ladders: Documenting & Deconstructing Feline-Friendly Infrastructure
Cat ladders, shelves and other feline-oriented designs are commonplace features inside domestic spaces, but in places like Bern, Switzerland, they reach out into the public sphere as as well, merging…
99 Percent Invisible on Plants
Say Aloe to My Little Frond
Houseplants are having a moment right now. In 2020, 66% of people in the US owned at least one plant, and sales have skyrocketed during the pandemic. Meanwhile, Instagram accounts like House Plant…
99 Percent Invisible on Technology
Streaming in the Victorian Era: Early Synthesizer Sent Out Tunes by Telephone
In the late 1800s, lawyer and inventor Thaddeus Cahill patented his “telharmonium,” a machine which would make music and pipe it across Manhattan along phone lines — a century before Rhapsody and…
Popular
These are some all-time favorites with Refind users.
Ketchup & Mustard Theory: How Marketers Use Colors to Convince Consumers
These days, it is easy to go to art stores and buy a variety of paint colors and without needing to understand they come from. But according to The Harvard Art Museums, some of the world’s rarest…
Bleep!
Note: This episode contains references to adult language, and might not be suitable for younger listeners. You’ll likely know within the first fifteen seconds if this episode is appropriate for your…
The Sound of Sports
When we think of the sound of sports on TV or radio, it’s generally commentary. But sports broadcasts would be nothing without all the sounds that are behind the commentary — the crowds, the kicks, the thwacks, and the grunts. During the World Cup of 2010, the constant noise of Vuvuzelas made many people realize that the
That 70s Floor: The Designers Behind a Familiar Vintage Kitchen Pattern
Like its nondescript official name, Armstrong Flooring’s “Pattern #5253” fades easily into the background of memory — a linoleum floor design consisting of zig-zagging faux bricks that squeaks…
For the Love of Peat
In an era of constant bad news about the climate crisis, it can be tough to find something to be optimistic about. So in 2019 when articles started circulating declaring that tree planting had “mind…
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