99% Invisible

Arlene Tech, a veteran pharmaceutical namer and poet credited with naming Viagra, shares craft and intuition behind memorable drug names. Scott Piergrosi, head of creative at Brand Institute, explains the multi-hundred-name process, FDA constraints, and visual letter choices. Sean Cole, a reporter and narrator, guides the investigation into how creativity, regulation, and language shape the names we remember.

A tour of American history told through 100 surprising objects. Short stories spotlight everyday artifacts and overlooked relics that open hidden narratives. Listeners are invited to rethink familiar landmarks alongside tiny items that reveal unexpected power, invention, and contradiction.

Cory Doctorow, sci-fi writer and digital rights advocate, joins Jared Wilson, a Missouri farmer fighting for right to repair. They dig into why smart gadgets make simple tasks harder. Tractors become locked software platforms. Repair delays can wreck a harvest. Phones, printers, and appliances get caught in the same trap, with parts pairing and anti-circumvention laws tightening the screws.

Gary Davis, a WWII veteran turned activist, and Scott Gurian, a journalist and producer, trace Davis’s astonishing break with national citizenship. They follow his passport protest in Paris, his camp at the UN, and his push for world government. The story also explores world passports, border standoffs, legal gray zones, and why refugees and exiles still seek these documents today.

Alondra Nelson, a scholar of technology and social inequality who helped shape the AI Bill of Rights, joins a lively look at Article VI and VII. They get into ratification, war debts, and the ban on religious tests. Then the conversation turns to the Supremacy Clause, preemption, and the state-versus-federal showdown over AI rules.

Joshua Freeman, a historian of New York labor and housing, and Diane Patrick, a longtime Co-op City resident, explore the rise of a massive housing co-op built for the middle class. They get into union-backed housing dreams, the tensions of urban renewal, a dramatic resident revolt over rising costs, and how the community endured as the city changed.

One study from 2018 found that Major League Baseball umpires blow about 14 calls every game. That’s 34,000 bad calls every year. And it makes a difference. A blown strike call can decide a win or a loss, a championship or six months at home, wondering what could have been. And while umpires are about 97% accurate in calling balls and strikes, Major League Baseball has been considering something drastic. Something to take us up to 100% accuracy. They have a plan to replace human umpires with robots. Now, with an update! Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Kelly Prime, an editor whose car vanished from a Brooklyn 7-Eleven lot, follows a baffling tow. Shane Nation, a veteran Detroit tow truck driver, shares life inside routine calls and aggressive private impounds. Tom Berry, a retired police lieutenant and fraud investigator, maps out murky fees, spotters, kickbacks, cash-only lots, and the strange world behind a missing car.

Angie Bond-Simpson, SRP resource planner, and Gretchen Bakke, anthropologist and grid author, unpack how Phoenix keeps power flowing when extreme heat makes outages dangerous. They trace electricity from plant to plug. They explore the Western Grid, real-time balancing at 60 hertz, day-ahead forecasting, and why balloons, crashes, and brutal heat can threaten a city’s fragile margin for error.

Rachel Gordon, policy and communications director at San Francisco Public Works, gets into San Francisco’s litter puzzle. She talks trash can placement and a 2017 experiment that flooded intersections with bins. Then the conversation turns to why more cans failed, how vandalism shaped a nine-year redesign, and why street cleanliness became a civic flashpoint.