Urban Exploration

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.

More than two centuries after World War III poisoned the planet, the final bastion of humanity lives on massive airships circling the globe in search of a habitable area to call home. Aging and outdated, most of the ships plummeted back to Earth long ago. The only thing keeping the two surviving lifeboats in the sky are Hell Divers - men and women who risk their lives by skydiving to the surface to scavenge for parts the ships desperately need.

The 13 chapters of The Art of War, each devoted to one aspect of warfare, were compiled by the high-ranking Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher Sun-Tzu. In spite of its battlefield specificity, The Art of War has found new life in the modern age, with leaders in fields as wide and far-reaching as world politics, human psychology, and corporate strategy finding valuable insight in its timeworn words.

Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap out of the audio, as skillfully animated as arcane revenants. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy. Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse.

Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel of the Cosmic Trilogy, considered to be C.S. Lewis' chief contribution to the science fiction genre.

For much of the 20th and 21st centuries, women’s sexuality was an uncharted territory in science, studied far less frequently - and far less seriously - than its male counterpart. That is, until Emily Nagoski’s Come As You Are, which used groundbreaking science and research to prove that the most important factor in creating and sustaining a sex life filled with confidence and joy is not what the parts are or how they’re organized but how you feel about them.

From a New York Times best-selling and Hugo award-winning author comes a modern masterwork of science fiction, introducing a captain, his crew, and a detective as they unravel a horrifying solar system wide conspiracy that begins with a single missing girl. Humanity has colonized the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach. Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt.

Why we think it’s a great listen: It’s easy to say that when it comes to sci-fi you either love it or you hate it. But with Ender’s Game, it seems to be you either love it or you love it.... The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Enter Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, the result of decades of genetic experimentation.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion.

John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army. The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce—and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding. Earth itself is a backwater.

His people ravaged by a deadly sickness, Tor is the last hunter of the Ulduuk. After desperately praying to his gods for help, Tor witnesses a light burning through the night sky. The shooting star that Tor thinks is the answer to his calls is actually an escape pod containing one passenger: Kaylee Mentz, a human from Earth. On the run from an abusive relationship, Kaylee was trying to start life anew on the off-world colonies when her shuttle got into a terrible accident, sending her hurtling down to the jungle covered surface of Tor’s planet. Kaylee is just a regular old girl with no ...

Terminal Lance Lucky Lee Savage likes his life. Sure, doing PT hungover is a pain, but no one can dodge responsibility like he can - or sweet-talk the cooks into giving out double rations.

Nothing is more inspiring than a big vision that becomes a triumphant, new reality. Think of how the Empire State Building went from a sketch to the jewel of New York's skyline in twenty-one months, or how Apple’s iPod went from a project with a single employee to a product launch in eleven months.

A chilling novel about our modern world, from the author of Empire of the Sun and Crash. An architect is driving home from his London offices when a blow-out sends his speeding Jaguar hurtling out of control. Smashing through a temporary barrier he finds himself, dazed and disorientated, on a traffic island below three converging motorways. But when he tries to climb the embankment or flag-down a passing car for help it proves impossible - and he finds himself marooned on the concrete island.

His people conquered humanity...but can he conquer her? Grahf Ven Diel is a master warrior of the Ezrok, the alien race who conquered humanity, and his home is on the battlefield. When he is condemned to a reassignment to the backwater human colony on Mars, Grahf feels he is facing a sentence of misery…until he meets her. He’s never desired a mate before in his life – his training prevents it – but this human girl is unlike any female he’s ever met. Casey Pearce never asked for this. Ordered to quarter this tall and mysterious alien soldier at her farm, Casey is reluctant to trust...

Ryn Tilley came to the desert to paint in solitude away from the city art scene she had come to despise, and to escape from the memory of the man who broke her heart and betrayed her trust. Remote, vast and quiet, Ryn’s refuge was perfect – but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing. That is until a mysterious stranger, dehydrated and lost in the desert, stumbled into her life. Daggen Trys shouldn’t be on Earth, and he especially shouldn’t be lying unconscious in the bed of this beautiful human female. Interaction with humans is strictly forbidden in his mission...

Netto was a Cyborg, a protector, and a contracted mercenary. His specialty was the water: shallows, salt water, and open oceans across the universe. He was also a freak forged from the DNA of a bull shark-blue-gray skin, a body built with power, and a double-set of razor-sharp teeth. His nomadic lifestyle came to a halt when his employer, the Earthian Planetary Exploration Division, offered him his old job back. Rylie was born and raised on the planet Kepler, on an agri-lot that farmed jewels from the sea. But something was happening to her family's lots and people were disappearing.

Welcome to the Carnival of Dreams, where nightmares come alive. YouTubers Seth and Kim are about to face their greatest challenge yet. Armed with cameras and courage, they step into an abandoned carnival that refuses to stay dead. As they explore, they'll soon discover that some attractions never stop running – and some audiences never leave. In this spine-chilling adventure: - Confront living shadows that hunger for more than just darkness - Follow a ghostly child whose smile holds secrets darker than the night - Unravel a twisted history hidden in every decaying ride and funhouse - Race...

Heather Clemens never thought that life would turn out like this. Single, alone, and stuck fortune telling out of her house for a meager living, Heather could really use some good news. So she does what she vowed never to do: Read her own fortune. What she sees is shocking and impossible… but that’s when the impossible happens, and Heather finds herself looking into the eyes of Rhys Vandell, a fierce and sexy warrior prince from another world. Heather is his fated prize, the key to completing his rite of passage and earning his royal birthright: the power of the dragon shift. Now, ...