99% Invisible

99% Invisible is a podcast about all the thought that goes into the things we don’t think about — the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world — from award-winning producer Roman Mars and Radiotopia from PRX.  

Holdout 

Seattle developers offered a woman named Edith Macefield $750,000 dollars for her house, which was appraised at around $120,000. They wanted to build a shopping mall. Macefield turned down the money, but they built it anyway. The mall enveloped her house on three sides.

Structural Integrity

When it was built in 1977, Citicorp Center was, at 59 stories, the seventh-tallest building in the world. You can pick it out of the New York City skyline by its 45-degree angled top. But it's the base of the building that really makes the tower so unique. The bottom nine of its 59 stories are stilts.

Coin Check

 The United States military is not known for being touchy-feely. There's not much hugging or head-patting, and superiors don't always have the authority to offer a serviceman a raise or promotion. But when a member wants to show appreciation, they can use challenge coins. 

"Mars' curious interludes can seem like digressions, but by the end of each episode the scattered bits of trivia and insight always snap into satisfying focus. One recent episode took listeners on an exploration of the secret public staircases of Los Angeles; another examined the iconography of Superman. With his plainspoken delivery and infectious enthusiasm, Mars offers mini master classes to tell big stories unlike anything else in design media."

        — WIRED