99% Invisible - A Few Choice Episodes

As mentioned on the show this week I have a great love of the podcast 99% Invisible, which is a 20 minute-ish podcast dedicated to design, engineering, and the stories behind them. It's a really impressive narrative lead podcast, and one that I have used, despite it's dissimilar style, as a template for my show - mostly it's professionalism, sound style, and Roman's style of engaging the listener.

I have slowly, over the past six months of doing my show, realised that I could probably do something similar about the things I enjoy, like mapping, roads, infrastructure, and maybe if my life was in a different phase (ie: not about to have my first child) I'd seriously consider starting work on one. I think that instead I might slip in a few features to the Monday Graveyard to test this - a back door pilot, if you will. I'll probably add them to the end of the show as a podcast extra.

Here are five of my favourite episodes of 99% Invisible, which you will find on their site here along with all their previous episodes. Seriously, it worth going back over them all, they're all brilliant.

EPISODE 97 - NUMBERS STATIONS
EPISODE 23 - YOU ARE LISTENING TO
This is the episode that I actually referred to this week's show - it has two of my favourite episodes. One about the Numbers Stations phenomenon, and the second episode which features You Are Listening To, the site that gave me the inspiration for the LAPD episode.


EPISODE 83 - HEYOON
This episode is one where I actually listened to it all the way through again after the first time - it's a wonderful story about a place, forbidden to the public, that was used by that same public, and a legend grew around it. It has a few twists, so I won't spoil them, but I love this episode a lot.

EPISODE 77 - GAME CHANGER
This actually links to a post I did on my own blog about Basketball (which you can find here) and details the changes made to the game through the implementation of the shot clock, something I dislike but which is adequately explained here. It is a very good episode.

EPISODE 43 - ACCIDENTAL MUSIC OF IMPERFECT ESCALATORS
Another episode mentioned in this week's show, this one focuses on the sounds and noises made by cities that are a part of what makes a city... a city. Or that city. It's a wonderful story too, featuring plenty of noices and squeaks that are amusing.

EPISODE 33: A CHEER FOR SAMUEL PLIMSOLE
This episode is one which I now use as an anecdote when seeing a ship - it is about a small design feature, found on all ships (that I've seen since) that shows whether or not it's over loaded. And yeah, it is a really good story too.

But seriously, just go and listen to them. As a short podcast that you can stream from the site or download to your Generic MP3 Device, go and have a listen. And yeah, Roman's music aligns with the music on my show, which is nice.