Service Request
A city is deceptively simple. You flip a switch, and the lights come on. You turn a faucet, and water flows. You tap “buy,” and a package lands at your door. Usually, we don’t think about how these systems work, who keeps them running, or how we interact with them…it all feels effortless. But behind each of those ordinary moments are invisible systems and the people who keep them running.
From 99% Invisible and Campside Media, Service Request is a new series that starts small: a call to 311, a traffic jam, a single flipped switch. We then zoom out, tracing that moment through the networks that keep a city running. Once you see the system, you’ll understand your city, and how to navigate it, in a whole new way.
Service Request is hosted by Delaney Hall. Listen to the series wherever you get 99% Invisible.
Episodes
What Happens When I Call 311? The surprising power of a simple phone number to connect a community.
Why Is This Red Light So Damn Long? What the world’s most advanced traffic system can—and can’t—do for the city that invented gridlock.
Why Is There So Much Litter in San Francisco? Why did it take nearly a decade to redesign a city trash can, and why haven’t more bins made the streets cleaner?
How Does the Grid in Phoenix Work? In a place where losing power can turn deadly, keeping the lights on is a high-stakes balancing act.
Dude, Where’s My Car? A missing car reveals the confusing rules, murky fees, and private actors behind modern towing.
Credits
Host: Delaney Hall
Producer: Julia Case-Levine
Editor: Shoshi Shmuluvitz
Mix: Yi-Wen Lai-Tremewan
Theme and Original Music: Swan Real
Executive Producers: Kathy Tu, Matt Shaer
Series Art: Aaron Nestor
Service Request is a production of 99% Invisible and Campside Media.