Idaho was the first state to slap a slogan on a license plate, “Idaho Potatoes,” which may not seem like a big deal, but it turns out this idea would end up having outsized consequences, and not just for Idaho. Because what started in one state would soon spread. And when it did, the question of what should go on a license plate, and what shouldn't, would prove surprisingly contentious.
Artistic License
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Idaho was the first state to slap a slogan on a license plate, “Idaho Potatoes,” which may not seem like a big deal, but it turns out this idea would end up having outsized consequences, and not just for Idaho. Because what started in one state would soon spread. And when it did, the question of what should go on a license plate, and what shouldn't, would prove surprisingly contentious.
<a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/?p=36488&amp;post_type=episode" target="_blank">Artistic License</a>
Like 99pi? Get the 99pi book: <a href="http://99pi.org/book" target="_blank">The 99% Invisible City</a>

99% Invisible

434- Artistic License

Loved this 99% Invisible episode about license plates and the surprising legal battles that sometimes emerge around them. 

The story of how “Who Let The Dogs Out” ended up stuck in all of our brains goes back decades and spans continents. It tells us something about inspiration, and how creativity spreads, and about whether an idea can ever really belong to just one person. About ten years ago, Ben Sisto was reading the Wikipedia entry for the song when he noticed something strange. A hairdresser in England named “Keith” was credited with giving the song to the Baha Men, but Keith had no last name and the fact had no citation. This mystery sent Ben down a rabbit hole to uncover the true story.
Whomst Among Us Has Let The Dogs Out

The story of how “Who Let The Dogs Out” ended up stuck in all of our brains goes back decades and spans continents. It tells us something about inspiration, and how creativity spreads, and about whether an idea can ever really belong to just one person. About ten years ago, Ben Sisto was reading the Wikipedia entry for the song when he noticed something strange. A hairdresser in England named “Keith” was credited with giving the song to the Baha Men, but Keith had no last name and the fact had no citation. This mystery sent Ben down a rabbit hole to uncover the true story.
<a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/?post_type=episode&amp;p=31316" target="_blank">Whomst Among Us Has Let The Dogs Out</a>

389- Whomst Among Us Has Let The Dogs Out

Enron collapsed nearly 20 years ago, but chances are something you use today was affected by emails sent by 150 of the company's top employees. These emails — about meetings and energy markets but also affairs, divorces, and fraud — have helped create new technologies, fight terrorism, and added to our understanding of how we communicate.
You’ve Got Enron Mail!
Learn more and subscribe to Brought To You By…

Enron collapsed nearly 20 years ago, but chances are something you use today was affected by emails sent by 150 of the company's top employees. These emails — about meetings and energy markets but also affairs, divorces, and fraud — have helped create new technologies, fight terrorism, and added to our understanding of how we communicate.
<a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/?p=35029&amp;post_type=episode" target="_blank">You’ve Got Enron Mail!</a>
Learn more and subscribe to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/household-name" target="_blank">Brought To You By…</a>

421- You've Got Enron Mail!

The downfall of Enron is a fascinating case study in and of itself, but I have never explored it from this angle before! If you're interested in AI, communications, and ethics, I recommend this super interesting episode detailing the impact of the exposed Enron emails and how they've shaped modern tech. 

We're excited to celebrate the release of The 99% Invisible City book by host Roman Mars and producer Kurt Kohlstedt with a guided audio tour of beautiful downtown Oakland, California.
In this episode, we explain how anchor plates help hold up brick walls; why metal fire escapes are mostly found on older buildings; what impact camouflaging defensive designs has on public spaces; who benefits from those spray-painted markings on city streets, and much more.
Plus, At the end of the tour, stick around for a behind the scenes look at the book as we answer a series of fan-submitted questions about how it was created, offering a window into the writing, illustration and design processes.
Exploring The 99% Invisible City

We're excited to celebrate the release of <a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/book/" target="_blank">The 99% Invisible City</a> book by host Roman Mars and producer Kurt Kohlstedt with a guided audio tour of beautiful downtown Oakland, California.
In this episode, we explain how anchor plates help hold up brick walls; why metal fire escapes are mostly found on older buildings; what impact camouflaging defensive designs has on public spaces; who benefits from those spray-painted markings on city streets, and much more.
Plus, At the end of the tour, stick around for a behind the scenes look at the book as we answer a series of fan-submitted questions about how it was created, offering a window into the writing, illustration and design processes.
<a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/?p=34212&amp;post_type=episode" target="_blank">Exploring The 99% Invisible City</a>

416- Exploring The 99% Invisible City

I have four copies this this book! It’s amazing! Got two copies to give as gifts and signed one for myself and the audio version on audible

While urban parks are safe havens for birds, parks are often surrounded by condos and hotels and office buildings with floor-to-ceiling windows. And these all-glass building facades are the absolute worst for migrating birds. Because unlike people, birds don’t really understand glass.It’s believed that building collisions are one of the biggest causes of bird death. Birds crash into buildings during the day because they don’t see the glass, and they run into buildings at night because they are lured in by artificial lighting. Most of these collisions happen below 100 feet, because that’s where birds are used to landing in trees.Murder Most Fowl

While urban parks are safe havens for birds, parks are often surrounded by condos and hotels and office buildings with floor-to-ceiling windows. And these all-glass building facades are the absolute worst for migrating birds. Because unlike people, birds don’t really understand glass.It’s believed that building collisions are one of the biggest causes of bird death. Birds crash into buildings during the day because they don’t see the glass, and they run into buildings at night because they are lured in by artificial lighting. Most of these collisions happen below 100 feet, because that’s where birds are used to landing in trees.<a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/?post_type=episode&amp;p=39023">Murder Most Fowl</a>

485- Murder Most Fowl

As electronic news gathering was gaining prominence in the early 20th century, the American Bar Association began to fear its effect on court trials and adopted something called Canon 35. This condemned the use of photography, motion picture, and radio recording within the confines of the courtroom. It wasn't a law, per se, but a code of ethics that cautioned against recording technology in the trial process. Many state and federal courts followed suit...making way for illustrators. Cameras began to creep their way back into courtrooms over the decades, but courtroom artists are still constantly used in high profile cases.Courtroom Sketch

As electronic news gathering was gaining prominence in the early 20th century, the American Bar Association began to fear its effect on court trials and adopted something called Canon 35. This condemned the use of photography, motion picture, and radio recording within the confines of the courtroom. It wasn't a law, per se, but a code of ethics that cautioned against recording technology in the trial process. Many state and federal courts followed suit...making way for illustrators. Cameras began to creep their way back into courtrooms over the decades, but courtroom artists are still constantly used in high profile cases.<a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/?post_type=episode&amp;p=40741&amp;preview=true">Courtroom Sketch</a>

539- Courtroom Sketch

The unlikely battle between the creator of the New York Public Library children's reading room and the beloved children’s classic Goodnight Moon.Goodnight Nobody

The unlikely battle between the creator of the New York Public Library children's reading room and the beloved children’s classic Goodnight Moon.<a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/?p=40734&amp;post_type=episode" target="_blank">Goodnight Nobody</a>

415- Goodnight Nobody [rebroadcast]

Happy National Train Day, everyone – for those of you who missed it: that was May 13th this year. A year ago, we started down this path with Train Set: Track One, which gave way to Track Two …and now, here we are for the final part of our train-fecta.Slip coaches, the worlds shortest trains, private cars, torpedoes, and of course, Thomas.Train Set: Track Three

Happy National Train Day, everyone – for those of you who missed it: that was May 13th this year. A year ago, we started down this path with Train Set: Track One, which gave way to Track Two …and now, here we are for the final part of our train-fecta.Slip coaches, the worlds shortest trains, private cars, torpedoes, and of course, Thomas.<a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/?p=40715&amp;post_type=episode">Train Set: Track Three</a>

538- Train Set: Track Three

LA might be the most extreme parking city on the planet. Parking regulations have made it nearly impossible to build new affordable housing, or to renovate old buildings. And parking has a massive impact on how the city looks. LA is chock full of commercial strip malls, where buildings sit alone and isolated in a sea of asphalt. And all of this is the result of one policy decision that has reshaped American cities for the last eighty years.Henry Grabar's Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World, tells a mesmerizing story about the strange and wonderful super-organism that is the modern American city. In a beguiling and often absurdly hilarious mix of history, politics, and reportage, Grabar brilliantly surveys the pain points of the nation’s parking crisis, from Los Angeles to Disney World to New York, stopping at every major American city in between.Paved  Paradise

LA might be the most extreme parking city on the planet. Parking regulations have made it nearly impossible to build new affordable housing, or to renovate old buildings. And parking has a massive impact on how the city looks. LA is chock full of commercial strip malls, where buildings sit alone and isolated in a sea of asphalt. And all of this is the result of one policy decision that has reshaped American cities for the last eighty years.Henry Grabar's <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/634461/paved-paradise-by-henry-grabar/">Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World</a>, tells a mesmerizing story about the strange and wonderful super-organism that is the modern American city. In a beguiling and often absurdly hilarious mix of history, politics, and reportage, Grabar brilliantly surveys the pain points of the nation’s parking crisis, from Los Angeles to Disney World to New York, stopping at every major American city in between.<a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/?p=40628&amp;post_type=episode">Paved  Paradise</a>

537- Paved Paradise

In her new book Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way), structural engineer Roma Agrawal identifies and examines the seven of most basic building blocks of engineering that have shaped the modern world: the nail, the wheel, the spring, the lens, the magnet, the string, and the pump.Click here to get the book! Available for pre-order at W. W. Norton in the US and Bookshop.org in the UK.Nuts and Bolts

In her new book <a href="https://amzn.to/42IsgM1">Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way)</a>, structural engineer <a href="https://amzn.to/42IsgM1">Roma Agrawal</a> identifies and examines the seven of most basic building blocks of engineering that have shaped the modern world: the nail, the wheel, the spring, the lens, the magnet, the string, and the pump.<a href="https://amzn.to/42IsgM1">Click here to get the book!</a> Available for pre-order at <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/nuts-and-bolts">W. W. Norton in the US</a> and <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/nuts-and-bolts-seven-small-inventions-that-changed-the-world-in-a-big-way-roma-agrawal/7346779?ean=9781529340075">Bookshop.org in the UK</a>.<a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/?p=40247&amp;post_type=episode">Nuts and Bolts</a>

536- Nuts and Bolts

Bad closed captions can be entertaining, but  they can be serious, too, because captions are a critical tool for lots of lots of people. There are the people learning a new language and of course captions are essential for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. In the US, that’s about 15% of the adult population.Craptions

Bad closed captions can be entertaining, but  they can be serious, too, because captions are a critical tool for lots of lots of people. There are the people learning a new language and of course captions are essential for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. In the US, that’s about 15% of the adult population.<a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/?p=40566&amp;post_type=episode">Craptions</a>

535- Craptions

There's a new movie out called Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game. It’s a fun and extremely meta biopic telling the story of Roger Sharpe, who, with one perfect shot, helped legalize pinball in New York. That’s right – pinball was banned in many states up until the 1970s. We told that story and interviewed the REAL Roger about, oh, 400 episodes or so ago. So if you haven’t gone that far back in the catalog, we wanted to give you a free replay. After that, we’ve got a new segment with Keith Elwin, a tournament champion who made the move into designing pinball machines.For Amusement Only (Free Replay)

There's a new movie out called Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game. It’s a fun and extremely meta biopic telling the story of Roger Sharpe, who, with one perfect shot, helped legalize pinball in New York. That’s right – pinball was banned in many states up until the 1970s. We told that story and interviewed the REAL Roger about, oh, 400 episodes or so ago. So if you haven’t gone that far back in the catalog, we wanted to give you a free replay. After that, we’ve got a new segment with Keith Elwin, a tournament champion who made the move into designing pinball machines.<a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/?p=40516&amp;post_type=episode">For Amusement Only (Free Replay)</a>

534- For Amusement Only (Free Replay)

Last year, Roman Mars teamed up with Hank Green to guest host Dear Hank & John -- this year he's back on the Greens' show once again, but this time with Hank's brother John Green (Turtles All the Way Down, The Fault in Our Stars, The Anthropocene Reviewed).In their podcast Dear Hank & John, "hosts John and Hank Green (who are also best-selling authors and pioneering YouTubers) offer both humorous and heartfelt advice about life’s big and small questions. They bring their personal passions to each episode by sharing the week’s news from Mars (the planet) and AFC Wimbledon (the third-tier English football club)."This week, guest host Roman Mars joins the show to discuss things like: Are roaches a moral failing? How do they do surgery on a fish? Why do only old people like stinky cheese?

Last year, Roman Mars teamed up with Hank Green to guest host Dear Hank & John -- this year he's back on the Greens' show once again, but this time with Hank's brother John Green (Turtles All the Way Down, The Fault in Our Stars, The Anthropocene Reviewed).In their podcast <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6e4HNBdPvjDOHKVf82oMEk">Dear Hank</a><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dear-hank-john/id1002937870"> </a><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6e4HNBdPvjDOHKVf82oMEk">& John</a>, "hosts John and Hank Green (who are also best-selling authors and pioneering YouTubers) offer both humorous and heartfelt advice about life’s big and small questions. They bring their personal passions to each episode by sharing the week’s news from Mars (the planet) and AFC Wimbledon (the third-tier English football club)."This week, guest host Roman Mars joins the show to discuss things like: Are roaches a moral failing? How do they do surgery on a fish? Why do only old people like stinky cheese?

533- Dear John and Roman

From scratchers to the Powerball, the lottery is the most popular form of gambling in the United States, even though the odds of winning a big jackpot is infinitesimally small. Jonathan D. Cohen is a historian and the author of the book  For a Dollar and a Dream; State Lotteries in Modern America and he says it isn’t just the people playing the lottery who irrationally think the game will solve their financial woes, the states running the lotteries suffer from the same delusion.For a Dollar and a Dream

From scratchers to the Powerball, the lottery is the most popular form of gambling in the United States, even though the odds of winning a big jackpot is infinitesimally small. Jonathan D. Cohen is a historian and the author of the book  For a Dollar and a Dream; State Lotteries in Modern America and he says it isn’t just the people playing the lottery who irrationally think the game will solve their financial woes, the states running the lotteries suffer from the same delusion.<a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/?p=40231&amp;post_type=episode">For a Dollar and a Dream</a>

532- For a Dollar and a Dream

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 cycling paths. International policymakers make pilgrimages to the Netherlands to learn how to create good bike infrastructure.But none of that was inevitable. It wasn't something that magically emerged from Dutch culture.In fact, in the 1960s and 70s, it looked like the Netherlands would follow the same path as the United States. The Dutch had fallen in love with cars and they were rebuilding their cities to make room for them. It was only because of a multi-decade pro-cycling movement that cars didn't take over the country entirely.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 cycling paths. International policymakers make pilgrimages to the Netherlands to learn how to create good bike infrastructure.But none of that was inevitable. It wasn't something that magically emerged from Dutch culture.In fact, in the 1960s and 70s, it looked like the Netherlands would follow the same path as the United States. The Dutch had fallen in love with cars and they were rebuilding their cities to make room for them. It was only because of a multi-decade pro-cycling movement that cars didn't take over the country entirely.<a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/?p=40208&amp;post_type=episode">De Fiets is Niets</a>

531- De Fiets Is Niets

A collaboration between public radio and the American Institute of Architects in San Francisco, the 99% Invisible podcast seeks to expose the unseen aspects of design and architecture. Often including interviews with experts, the show opens your eyes to things you might tend to overlook or take for granted, like outdoor staircases and commemorative plaques, calling your attention to all of the thought and choices that go into the aspects of our everyday lives we don’t pay enough attention to. Pro tip: this one is a great choice to listen to on a walk.

Design is everywhere in our lives, perhaps most importantly in the places where we've just stopped noticing. 99% Invisible is a weekly exploration of the process and power of design and architecture. From award winning producer Roman Mars. Learn more at 99percentinvisible.org.

99% Invisible

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