Many 99% Invisible stories are long and in-depth, featuring multiple characters and expansive arcs, but sometimes less is more. For fans who have listened to shorter classic episodes of the show or read The 99% Invisible City book, these should sound satisfyingly familiar:
An episode titled Peace, Power, and Happiness launched an ongoing “Ubiquitous Icons” series about things we see everywhere, but often overlook, like the peace symbol, power icon and smiley face. The above sequel goes over iconic road-related designs include the stop sign, blue exit billboards, red-flagged mailboxes and retroreflective markers.
We get story ideas from all kinds of places, including listeners and readers. These get put into an internal channel called “You Should Do a Story,” hence the name of this tip-based story collection about gas stations, desire paths, electrical grids and regional designs.
Nearly five years ago, we started a tradition with our first set of end-of-year “Mini-Stories.” These conversational pieces also offer insight into our storytelling process. The first set includes four tales: The Squaring of Circleville, The Dutch Reach, The Big Zero and The Little Chirp.
Paired with the first volume of Mini-Stories, this set includes the story of a strange estate, a misleading map entry, an emergency access box and an eye test chart. Below are six more mini-story collections from the years that followed told by a wide range of 99pi producers:
Fans seem to really enjoy these story collections as well as the ways they offer insights into our pitching, producing, scoring, and storytelling processes, so stay tuned for the next round round later this year! And if you enjoy these sorts of stories, be sure to check out our book, too:
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