The 99% Invisible City

A Field Guide to the Wonders of the Modern Metropolis

By: Roman Mars, 99% Invisible, Kurt Kohlstedt

Narrated by: Roman Mars

An entertaining guide to the unnoticed yet essential elements of our cities, featuring new and exclusive material from the creators of the wildly popular 99% Invisible podcast.

Have you ever wondered what those bright, squiggly graffiti marks on the sidewalk mean?

Or stopped to ponder who gets to name the streets we walk along?

Or what the story is behind those dancing inflatable figures in car dealerships?

99% Invisible is a big-ideas podcast about small-seeming things, revealing stories baked into the buildings we inhabit, the streets we drive and the sidewalks we traverse. The show celebrates design and architecture in all of its functional glory and accidental absurdity, with intriguing tales of both designers and the people impacted by their designs.

Now, in The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to Hidden World of Everyday Design, host Roman Mars and co-author Kurt Kohlstedt zoom in on the various elements that make our cities work, exploring the origins and other fascinating stories behind everything from power grids and fire escapes to drinking fountains and street signs. With deeply researched entries and beautiful line drawings throughout, The 99% Invisible City will captivate devoted fans of the show and anyone curious about design, urban environments and the unsung marvels of the world around them.

You are about to see stories everywhere, you beautiful nerd. Now get out there.

©2020 Roman Mars (P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

Great book, but not the podcast

The book has great topics and a very well structured set of chapters, but don't expect it to be the podcast: it lacks humanity in the stories - which is not a demerit in itself, just a subproduct of the medium and chosen topical format - what is turned me off from it. Turns out most of what I like about the podcast is the lomgform story on a given subject.