[Podcast Club] September 2016 - 99 Percent Invisible

The Podcast Club is a monthly opportunity for us to share the podcasts we love with each other. Similar to a book club, you are encouraged to check out the episodes suggested and discuss them. If you wish to suggest a podcast, just post in this thread to sign up for an upcoming month!

Previous Podcast Clubs:

• August 2016: Risk! (Suggested by wnolan1992)
  

Okay, month 2 of Podcast Club. For my pick, I've gone with 99 Percent Invisible. It's a podcast focused mainly on design, but can from time to time delve into other stories too. Their motto is "Always read the plaque!".

First discovered this not too long ago actually, after watching a Ted Talk by the host (Roman Mars). It was about flags and flag design, and if you watch it it is essentially a visual episode of 99 PI. The video is here:


Once I started listening I ended up listening back to every single episode in the space of maybe 3-4 weeks, and it was great. The host is a bit of a public radio afficianado, so from time to time he will play a different show's episode, so it's a good way to find other interesting listens.

I will admit that from time to time some of the episodes are a bit dull, or could really benefit from having visuals in front of you (each episode has a corresponding page on their site to help with this though), but by and large it's a must-listen for me.

Some key episodes that I loved:

• Episode 42: Recognizably Anonymous: discussing the design behind anonymous's look
• Episode 52: Galloping Gertie discussing a bridge that swayed and bounced in the wind until breaking up and collapsing
• Episode 77: Game changer discussing how the introduction of the shot clock to basketball helped change the game.
• Episode 96: DIY Spacesuits discussing how some dude decided to build his own space suit at home...
• Episode 88: The broadcast clock discussing the concept of the broadcast clock within NPR. This is great episode!
• Episode 115: Cow tunnels investigating whether or not there were cow tunnels running underneath New York.
• Episode 126: Walk this way discussing the science of wayfaring (i.e. designing spaces so that people can find their way).
• Episode 152: Guerrilla Public Service a guy who decided to fix a bad highway sign by doing it himself.
• Episode 199: The Yin and Yang of basketball discussing how adding the 3 point line to basketball changed the game (another basketball episode investigating changing the game, and I don't like the sport!)

As I mentioned, the host will sometimes play other show's episodes in his stream. There are 3 in particular I want to highlight:

• Wild Ones Live. This is a live music show, based around a book. It's hard to explain but is oddly compelling and great entertainment.
• The sound of sports. This was a BBC Radio 4 broadcast in 2011, in the build up to the London Olympics, and discusses how sports broadcasting has changed with the addition of sound recording methods. Long listen, but fascinating.
• Sandhogs. Mini documentary about the sandhogs, who are the workers who build and maintain the various tunnels underneath New York. Keep an ear out for some Irish accents too in this.

I hope people enjoy this show as much as I do, and I'm looking forward to hearing people's opinions. A lot of the episodes are quite short (the more recent episodes have tended to be longer though) so it's quite easy to get through a lot of these.