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

At their peak in the mid 90s, there were about 2.5 million payphones in the US.

The adoption of cell phones has brought that number down further and further every year. The fully enclosed outdoor telephone box, you know the one that Superman changes in,

that is exceptionally rare. Only four of those are left in New York City.

After several decades, these little pieces of single-use architecture just disappeared from the landscape.

They simply weren't popular enough to justify their existence.

But there's always an exception to the rule. 20 years ago a man discovered a phone

booth in the middle of the desert that became his obsession, an obsession that he then

passed on to the world at large.

From the great radio program, Snap Judgment of Oakland, California, producer Joe Rosenberg

tells the story of a very special phone booth in the middle of nowhere.

Did you call me on the phone? Okay, so this story starts out back in the mid 90s in Phoenix.

Where Godfrey Daniels...

I give a name it's Godfrey Daniels, but I go by Doc.

He's heading back home after seeing this band, Girl Trouble.

And after the concert, someone hands him a copy of their Zeen. Remember Zines? If not, don't worry. They're kind of like a pre-internet

miniature magazine. So as I was walking home, I was kind of flipping through it, and on about the third or fourth page,

there were a couple of letters to the editor, and one of them mentioned that there was a phone booth

in the Mojave desert, miles and miles from any pavement just sitting by itself.

And this for Doc just made no sense.

I wasn't sure that I believed it.

Why, why not? Well, I didn't sure that I believed it. Why not?

...