This is 99% Invisible.

I'm Roman Mars.

I have a couple announcements before we get started.

We're currently reconfiguring all the different moving parts of the show so that we can start

producing weekly episodes starting on February 4th, 2014.

That involves moving the office to downtown Oakland, getting our new producer, Katie Mingle,

out here to the West Coast, and attending all the various Kickstarter fulfillment details

of which there are many.

Thanks again for that Kickstarter.

That was pretty awesome.

But even though we're up to our eyeballs and back office stuff, I still want to play

some great radio for you.

And this week we have a story from our friend Nate Dimaio of the Memory Palace.

The subject is right in our wheelhouse, so I thought you'd like it.

Enjoy.

Elevators are old.

They would have to be because it is in our nature, right?

To rise.

So history, even ancient history, is thick with things that lift other things.

Roaps and platforms and weights and pulleys with people to pull them.

When the slaves of Rome were served up to the wild beasts at the Colosseum, other slaves

pushed the wheels that pulled the ropes that lifted the platforms that sent them up from

...