Hello beautiful nerds. This week we're rebroadcasting one of my favorite

episodes of the last few years about Sears Homes. I liked it so much that I put it

as a piece of bonus content on the It peaked at number three on the New York Times Best Star List and we were really excited about that.

If you're into the show at all, I think you'll love the book. It's also a good gift for folks who are not into

podcasts yet, but like this kind of nerdy stuff. And if you're an audiobook person, you can listen to me, read it to you for 10 and a half hours, which people seem to dig. We're on our semi-annual retreat this week, where we look back at all the episodes we've made

and how we want to shape the show in the future. So thank you for affording us this time

to do that. We have a barn burner of a new episode next week. It's all about a flag. So we'll be right back in our wheelhouse in no time.

In the meantime, please enjoy this story for the first time or even listen again. It is worth it listening again. Thanks.

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

About eight weeks ago, one of the producers here at 99PI ordered a book.

Our office receives a lot of books, but this one, this one was special.

Everyone wanted to read it.

Okay, so first of all, this book is beautiful.

I know, it's very good.

Only it wasn't just any book.

That's the producer, Joe Rosenberg.

It was a catalog.

Oh my god, it's from 1908.

Catalog number 177 of The Great Pricemaker.

Oh, there's so much stuff.

The Sears and Roebuck Mail Order Catalog was nearly omnipresent in early 20th century American life.

In 1908, when this particular issue came out, one out of every five Americans were already

...