In this bonus episode, Roman unearths the surprising story behind the 99% Invisible's name and delves into the unnoticed brilliance of everyday design—from the origins of reinforced concrete to the artistry of Japan’s manhole covers.
Today's bonus episode of 99% invisible is proudly sponsored by PNC Bank.
The world's most remarkable designs are often the ones that are the most overlooked.
In fact, a hallmark of great design is that you don't notice it.
So it's important to take time to recognize how the boring things spearhead the brilliance all around us.
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PNC bank calls their philosophy brilliantly boring, which is a mindset I completely relate to and in an alternate reality could have been the name of the show 99% invisible.
But we will get to that.
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I'm Roman Mars.
I'm going to take you back into the room where it all began.
It was 2010 and the San Francisco chapter of the American Institute of Architects approached the radio station where I was working, KALW 91.7 about co producing a series of short one to two minute stories about local architecture.
I was working on several different public radio shows as a freelancer, but this idea was immediately compelling to me.
My first instinct was to modify the pitch in two key ways.
First off, I felt that the scope should be all kinds of urban design, not just buildings.
And secondly, I knew the stories would need to be a little bit longer than two minutes to be compelling and for the audience to really fall in love with these tiny mundane details.
So I advocated for the stories to be four and a half minutes long.
That's what I felt was the difference between like a story and love a story.