Beyond the 99% Invisible City

99% Invisible

SiriusXM Podcasts and Roman Mars

Arts, Design

4.8 • 28.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From rogue stop signs to rooftop mini golf, discover how chaos and creativity quietly shape the urban world.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is 99% invisible.
0:03.2	I'm Kurt Kolstead.
0:04.7	Okay, so like, what I want you to do is I want you to take a breath, take a breath, okay?
0:11.6	And just like, you know, just get into your voice a little bit and go, this is 99% invisible.
0:18.5	I'm Kurt Kolstad.
0:19.9	This is 99% invisible. I'm Kurt Colstead. This is 99% invisible. I'm Kurt Colstead.
0:24.3	Okay. Now I want you to do it again. I want you to do it. Now this time, like,
0:32.7	the gravitas is there. Like you're getting like that part of the tone. But I want you to add, once now that you have that, I want you to add like a little bit of smile on your voice.
0:43.1	Okay.
0:43.4	Okay.
0:43.9	So you're going to go, this is 99% invisible.
0:47.5	I'm Kurt Kohlstead.
0:49.0	This is 99% invisible.
0:51.4	I'm Kurt Kohlstead.
0:53.2	That's great.
0:54.0	I love it. Print it.
1:00.0	In 2020, my co-author, Roman Mars and I put out a hit book about the built environment. It's an illustrated hardcover we called a field guide to the hidden world of everyday design.
1:12.3	The 99% Invisible City was an instant New York Times bestseller and top the charts in the
1:17.1	UK, Canada, and Australia.
1:19.2	Versions of the book were also released in other countries as well, translated into languages
1:23.5	including Spanish, Czech, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.
1:28.1	In the years since these first edition releases, Kurt and I have worked together on a number
	...

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