99% Invisible is a radio show and podcast produced and created by Roman Mars that focuses on design.[1] It began as a collaborative project between San Francisco public radio station KALW and the American Institute of Architects in San Francisco. PRX has distributed the show for broadcasting on a number of radio stations and as a podcast on the Radiotopia network.[2] On April 28, 2021, Roman Mars announced in an introduction of a re-released episode that 99% Invisible had been purchased by Sirius XM and marketed as part of its Stitcher Radio brand.[3]
The name of the show was derived from a quote by Buckminster Fuller that, "Ninety-nine percent of who you are is invisible and untouchable."[4]
In 2014, 99% Invisible began its fourth season, the first in which it had a weekly release schedule.[5]
As of 2024, show staff includes Executive Producer Kathy Tu; Design Director Kurt Kohlstedt; Senior Editor Delaney Hall; Director of Sound Swan Real; Senior Audio Engineer Martín Gonzalez; Supervising Producers Christopher Johnson and Vivan Le; as well as Producers Chris Berube, Emmett FitzGerald, Joe Rosenberg, and Lasha Madan as well associate producer Jeyca Medina Maldonado.[6] Former staff include Sam Greenspan, Katie Mingle, Sharif Yousseff[7][8][9] and Avery Trufelman. Trufleman left to host "Articles of Interest," "Nice Try!" and "The Cut" podcasts.[10]
In April 2021, the company that produces the show (99% Invisible Inc.) was acquired by SiriusXM.[11]
Reception
Critical reception has generally been very positive, with the show garnering acclaim from many notable radio producers and media outlets. Ira Glass of This American Life described the show as "completely wonderful and entertaining and beautifully produced,"[12] and Jad Abumrad has said the show "has a kind of rhythm and musicality that you don’t normally find in radio or podcast storytelling."[13] In 2013, Yahoo! News included 99% Invisible on its list of "best podcasts you aren't listening to but should be,"[14] and Miranda Sawyer of The Observer highlighted the show, saying "it's just great."[15]
The creator and host of 99% Invisible, Roman Mars, was included in Fast Company's Most Creative People list of 2013 for his work on 99% Invisible,[16] and included on the Most Creative People in Business 1000 in 2014.[17]
As of January 2014, the show was listed in the top fifty podcasts of the iTunes Top Podcasts chart.[18] In 2014, the show had greater than 4,000 listener ratings on iTunes and upwards of 97% gave the show five stars.[19] The show's 2014 episode Structural Integrity was one of nine award winners at the 2015 Third Coast International Audio Festival.[20]
In 2017, 99% Invisible was named as one of the "50 best podcasts" by Time magazine.[21]
99% Invisible has produced a variety of episodes in collaboration with other producers and radio shows. "The Political Stage", episode 63, was a collaboration with Andrea Seabrook and DecodeDC that focused on the production of campaign trail events.[30] Episode 84B, called "Trading Places with Planet Money," was made with NPR's Planet Money podcast and discusses commodity trading in the context of the 1983 film Trading Places.[31]
In September 2018, producer Avery Trufelman, released a six-episode series within the 99% Invisible feed focused on the design of clothes. Articles of Interest was initially published as part of the show before later being spun off under the ownership of its producer. Another six episodes were released in June 2020.[32][33]
According to Need
In December 2020, the show released a six-episode series According to Need about homelessness and solutions to homelessness produced by Katie Mingle. 99% Invisible received the duPont-Columbia Journalism Award for the series.[22][34][35]
Not Built for This
In August 2024, the show debuted a six-episode series titled Not Built for This, produced by Emmett FitzGerald and discussing how the dynamics of climate change are playing out around the United States, using specific real-world examples to highlight present and ongoing impacts.[36]
Adapt or Design
Starting in March 2025, 99% Invisible released a multimodal series dubbed Adapt or Design, produced by Kurt Kohlstedt, covering assistive designs and adaptive technologies for functionally one-handed persons. The project started with 12 articles (split across three mini-series) and culminated in a keystone audio episode.[37]
Hidden Levels
In October 2025, 99% Invisible and WBUR's "Endless Thread" produced Hidden Levels a six-part series about how video games left the arcade and started reshaping the real world. Roman Mars and Ben Brock Johnson host it.[38]
In October 2020, Kurt Kohlstedt and Roman Mars released The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the book reached The New York Times Best Seller list in its first week of release.[39]
The book received critical acclaim for its ability to make complex civil engineering, city planning, and architectural concepts accessible. Kenneth T. Jackson, reviewing for The New York Times, described it as "altogether fresh and imaginative when it comes to thinking about urban spaces,"[40] while a starred Kirkus Review praised it as a "bible for the urban curious."[41] It was further featured on NPR's Science Friday and named a best book of the year by the Financial Times.[42]
Following English-language rollouts in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, the book was translated into several languages, including Spanish, Czech, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.[43] Mars and Kohlstedt were unable to travel for a physical book tour due to COVID 19, but were interviewed remotely by Hank Green, Seth Godin, Alexis Madrigal, and Kristen Meinzer as part of an alternative virtual book tour.[44] Mars also recorded the audiobook version.[45]
Beyond its commercial success, The 99% Invisible City has been adopted into the permanent collections of major academic libraries, including those at UC Berkeley and Yale University.[46][47] It is utilized as a foundational text in university curricula across multiple disciplines, including Urban Planning and Geography at San Jose State University and Architecture at the University of Toronto's Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.[48] In a professional context, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has incorporated the book and its associated lectures into its Continuing Education Services (CES), allowing licensed architects to earn professional development credits through its study.[49]
↑Herman, Charlie; Press, Julia; Wyman, Sarah (November 4, 2020). "The House That Sears Built". Business Insider. Archived from the original on January 23, 2021. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
↑Sawyer, Miranda (May 25, 2013). "Rewind Radio: 99% Invisible". The Guardian. Guardian News & Media. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
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