This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

If you hear these footsteps, you can get some idea about who is walking towards you.

It's probably a woman, but it doesn't have to be. She could be a

supermodel, a CEO, a drag queen, a bridesmaid, just to name a few. As a fashion

object and symbol, the high heel is weighted with meaning.

It is also weighted with the wearer's entire body weight.

The high-heeled shoe might be one of the only designs that is physically painful and yet somehow persists

Avery Truffleman doesn't tend to wear heels. I really like the way heels look and I've tried

wearing them but I just cannot do it so I talk to

someone who actually wears them every day and I have a standing desk so I'm

even a bigger dummy right like I'm in these heels all day and standing and when

Aughty does her job you can't even tell she's doing it in heels.

This is all things considered from NPR News I'm Audie Cornish.

Believe it or not, we radio folk actually bother to get dressed.

Sometimes.

For Audie Cornish, like a lot of professionals, high heels are strictly for the office.

Commuting to work, it's flats.

After work, back in flats.

Because it is impossible, I feel like to find a shoe that is a high heel that's really gorgeous and

fundamentally comfortable. She's tried high heels that claim to use comfort

technology, but it's like a three and a half inch four inch pump like it's only going to be so comfortable

There shoes that are wearable and I can wear them for hours but I wouldn't call it comfortable

...