May 2012
4 posts
Episode 54- The Colour of Money
US paper currency is so ubiquitous that to really look at its graphic design with fresh eyes requires some deliberate and focused attention. So pull out a greenback from your wallet (or look at a picture online) and really take it in. All the fonts, the busy filigree, the micro patterns…it’s just dreadful.
Even though paper currency itself, just idea of money, is a massive, world changing...
April 2012
3 posts
Possibly more Roman Mars than you require
Hi Team! A bunch of interviews I did over the past couple months all came out at once last week, so if you want to hear all about me and the show go listen.
Hear how Ray Suarez inadvertently got me started in radio (twice)! Hear about my early days in plant genetics! Hear about how I’m basically nonfunctional in real life and require radio to be a complete person!
Design Matters with...
March 2012
3 posts
UPDATE: Podcast/RSS feed back up, for now
After 15 hours of downtime, the podcast is available again.
I’ve talked to PRX and we’re working on getting the show moved over to a more reliable host. It may be a painful transition, but I’d hate to keep growing the program and have it not be available for long stretches like this. I’ll let you know what happens.
Thanks for your patience, everyone!
February 2012
3 posts
Monday on 99% Invisible...
A mystery guest leads our own Sam Greenspan on an unsanctioned, exploratory mission through the depths of the US Capitol Building.
“I have this habit of walking into any door that’s unlocked…You start poking around, going into doors…you find the coolest things…”
January 2012
4 posts
99% Invisible featured on How Sound
Rob Rosenthal does a really fantastic program called How Sound (nee Saltcast) about the “backstory to great radio storytelling” and I am this week’s guest. If you want to make radio stories like mine, (or Ira, or Joe Richman, or The Kitchen Sisters) go download & listen to all of Rob’s episodes. Each episode is a fascinating DVD commentary/master class for public radio...
December 2011
6 posts
Radiolab presents 99% Invisible
I’m totally honored to be on Radiolab this week! Jad and Robert are presenting three full, uncut episodes of 99% Invisible along with an interview with yours truly.
Here are the original entries to each of the stories Radiolab featured:
Sounds of the Artificial World
Nikko: Concrete Commando (Hear the original Nikko radio piece by Stephanie Foo for Snap Judgment. Buy Delfin...
Sam ID's himself, others wish to remain Anonymous
Greetings 99th Percentile! My name is Sam Greenspan (Ed note: See photo, center background. Not really.), and I’m the new guy helping out with the show. I’ll be contributing to the blog, occasionally telling stories on the show, and pulling all kinds of levers and knobs behind the scenes. Roman is hard at work putting together this Friday’s episode—the story of how...
November 2011
2 posts
October 2011
2 posts
September 2011
5 posts
Thanks, The Atlantic Cities...
The awesome, alliterative Allison Arieff posted a short Q&A with me about the show over at the new The Atlantic Cities design page. Go read it!
August 2011
3 posts
July 2011
4 posts
One Way Ticket to Mars
99% Invisible-09X-99% Doomed by Roman Mars
With the final launch in the Space Shuttle program there’s been a lot of talk about the “next step” in space exploration. Mars is the natural destination and some say the fastest way to get there is to dispense with the whole notion of bringing our Martian explorer back to Earth: one way to Mars. I explored this movement a while ago in a story I...
June 2011
6 posts
"Its light is simultaneously feeble and ugly..."
A very fine product review from Rob Beschizza at Boing Boing. (contains some NSFW language)
Energizer LED Candle Review by beschizza
Go download all the early episodes!
I fixed the RSS feed so you can now download all the 99% Invisible episodes in extant. The first few episodes had dropped off the feed the last several weeks. There are 29 total.
So if you’re new here, subscribe in iTunes or not iTunes and download my early acoustic stuff, before I sold out.
BTW, it looks like all the new reviews and new folks from Slate kicked the iTunes rankings up a notch....
May 2011
8 posts
99% Invisible mentioned in Slate
The great Rob Walker from Consumed asked for my input for an article about design crowdsourcing for Slate. It’s a subject I just grappled with recently and was even considering doing a story about, so I’m psyched Rob covered it, him being a real journalist and all. He did a bang-up job. Go read it.
And, if you came here because of the Slate article. Welcome! Subscribe to the...
Notes + Action Items
Above: Thank you card from my visit to Ms. Daniel’s Media Arts class at Roosevelt Middle School in SF.
Recent Contributor Round-up:
Julia Barton (from episode #25) has a podcast called DTFD, where she loads the dishwasher and talks about radio stories she could be doing if she weren’t busy doing the dishes. Can you guess what the “F” stands for?
Michael Idov (also from...
