99% Invisible

00:52:57

100 Objects #20: AA Sobriety Chip

99% Invisible ·

2026/10/02

Comedian, writer, and podcaster Jamie Loftus has always known about Alcoholics Anonymous. As a kid, she loved the album where her dad kept all his AA chips – that little piece of plastic that marks a day, a month, a year of sobriety. Now as an adult, Jamie has her own AA sobriety chip, and getting it made her wonder where it came from. What she found is that imbued in that little chip is a hidden history — from Prohibition to women’s suffrage — of America’s relationship to gender, religion, and

en-us

00:32:19

Tootle of a Devilish Song

99% Invisible ·

2026/09/29

How a Swiss mountain call crossed the Atlantic and helped define the sound of country music.Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

en-us

00:38:50

100 Objects #19: Western Electric 500 Series

99% Invisible ·

2026/09/25

This episode is sponsored by Claude. For problems worth solving, get started with Claude at Claude.ai.The Western Electric 500 Series Telephone used to be everywhere. For over 50 years, it was the default telephone for homes, offices and literally anywhere else you might need a phone… but how did that happen? Why was this one phone so much better than everything that came before… or, in some ways, since? Former MythBuster Adam Savage joins Roman Mars to explore the history of the 500 Series

en-us

00:32:34

The Rocky Statue

99% Invisible ·

2026/09/22

How a movie prop became one of Philadelphia’s most beloved monuments, and sparked a decades-long fight over where it belonged.Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

en-us

00:35:04

100 Objects #18: Hair Relaxer

99% Invisible ·

2026/09/18

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. It is a ubiquitous American product with a complicated legacy: it built Black wealth and opened economic doors, but also taught generations to see their hair as a problem to be solved. And now research is revealing a physical cost. Roman Mars and producer Priscilla Alabi explore how a single product became a mirror for all of America's contradictions.A History of

en-us

00:37:18

Doves Type

99% Invisible ·

2026/09/15

A legendary typeface, a spectacular friendship breakup, and one extremely committed act of revenge.Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

en-us

00:41:23

100 Objects #17: M43 Field Jacket

99% Invisible ·

2026/09/11

Articles of Interest host Avery Trufelman joins Roman to tell the incredible story of the American military’s jacket problem: How should the military outfit its soldiers to make them as safe and effective as possible? The answer was the M43 Field Jacket, which not only changed what it meant to be a soldier and look like a soldier, it changed what we all wear every day—in America, and around the world.A History of the United States in 100 Objects is a production of 99% Invisible and BBC

en-us

00:38:01

Kobuk the Destroyer

99% Invisible ·

2026/09/08

Every product has to be tested somehow, and sometimes that means finding increasingly creative ways to break it.Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

en-us

00:46:52

100 Objects #16: Wheel of Fortune Dalmatian

99% Invisible ·

2026/09/04

This episode is sponsored by Claude. For problems worth solving, get started with Claude at Claude.ai.If you watched Wheel of Fortune in the 1980s, you probably remember one prize more than all the others: the ceramic Dalmatian. For a brief moment, that prize—perhaps the ultimate useless object—became the mascot for one of America's most popular game shows, appearing on tens of millions of TV screens, night after night, all across the country. But…why? Game show historian Adam Nedeff and ceramic

en-us

00:43:08

1-800-PODCAST

99% Invisible ·

2026/09/01

This week, two stories about the strange power of the 1-800 number.Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

en-us

00:37:41

100 Objects #15: Bundy Clock

99% Invisible ·

2026/08/28

In 1888, Willard Bundy created the first employee "time clock" — essentially a souped-up grandfather clock that could, for the first time, produce an accurate record of when workers arrived and left. Though Bundy’s aim was simple, his invention soon sparked a change in American life far broader than he intended. Roman Mars and reporter Ellie Lightfoot trace how the time clock not only ignited a revolution in workplace efficiency and surveillance, but transformed our relationship to time itself.A

en-us

00:28:07

Spolia

99% Invisible ·

2026/08/25

Spolia, from a Liverpool neighborhood to ancient Rome.Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

en-us

00:41:50

100 Objects #14: Basketball Sleeve

99% Invisible ·

2026/08/21

Producer and reporter Ramtin Arablouei (co-creator of the NPR show, Throughline) has a simple question: why are so many NBA players wearing a compression sleeve on their arm? It seems like everyone has one. Do they all have elbow issues? The answer is really the story of Allen Iverson, an underdog player who went from a prison cell to international fame in just a few years. And through the story of him and his sleeve, you can see the whole history of basketball’s relationship with race, with

en-us

00:44:42

The Bone Wars

99% Invisible ·

2026/08/18

Two rival paleontologists turn a hunt for dinosaur bones into an all-out scientific war.Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

en-us

00:48:40

100 Objects #13: The Sand Letters

99% Invisible ·

2026/08/14

This episode is sponsored by Claude. For problems worth solving, get started with Claude at Claude.ai.On his deathbed, President Chester Arthur ordered that all of his personal and professional papers be burned. Three barrels of documents went up in flames. But 23 letters survived, initialed only "J.I.S." 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

en-us

00:32:02

Bamboo Is Innocent

99% Invisible ·

2026/08/11

A devastating fire put one of Hong Kong's oldest building traditions on trial, but the real story runs much deeper.Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

en-us

00:37:50

100 Objects #12: "Negro Cloth"

99% Invisible ·

2026/08/07

In 1821, two Rhode Island brothers went looking for buyers for their woolen fabric, and stumbled into a lucrative, captive market: Southern slave plantations. 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. Along the way, they uncover how enslaved people shaped the very cloth used to control them, and how New England manufacturers convinced themselves they were the good guys.A History of the

en-us

00:31:44

The Borrowed Nature of Biomimicry

99% Invisible ·

2026/08/04

Behind every perfect nature-inspired design is a far more complicated story.Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

en-us

00:27:42

100 Objects #11: Brannock Device

99% Invisible ·

2026/07/31

In 1925, the world saw the birth of what just might be the greatest gadget in American History: the Brannock Device. The metal contraption transformed the way we measure feet forever, and more than a century after its invention…it has barely changed. Roman Mars and journalist Paul Lukas trace the life of the Brannock Device, from its role outfitting WWII sailors to its surprising endurance into the modern era, even as the entire world changed around it.A History of the United States in 100 Objects

en-us

00:33:00

The Finnish Baby Box

99% Invisible ·

2026/07/28

A simple cardboard box helped transform Finland into one of the best places in the world to raise a child.Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

en-us

All Episodes

Similar Podcasts

Voice of the Arts

WQED Multimedia

Relic Radio Sci-Fi (old time radio)

RelicRadio.com

Wild West Tales - Old Time Radio Westerns

theaterofthemind-otr.com

Podcast Patapoe

0d0a

Play On Podcasts

Next Chapter Podcasts