99% Invisible

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter took to the roof of the White House to announce the installation of 32 solar panels. In that speech, he outlined all the things that they could become: a curiosity, a museum piece, one of our nation's most potent and enduring symbols of a road not taken, or the start of a great adventure. They would become all but the last of those things…but why? Journalist and environmental activist Bill McKibben takes Roman Mars through the story of how a president showed the American people a powerful new technology promising abundant cheap energy and why Americans shrugged.
A History of the United States in 100 Objects is a production of 99% Invisible and BBC Studios.

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Jan Todd was considered by many to be the strongest woman in the world back in the 1970s. She set world records, lifted the Dinnie Stones in Scotland, and wrote the first rulebook for women's powerlifting. Then she became a historian, and uncovered a lost generation of strong women who came before her.
For more, check out Bonnie Tsui's book, On Muscle.

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On August 20th, 1857 a ship set sail from the Port of San Francisco with 600 people and thousands of pounds of gold. That gold was destined for the vaults of New York City banks, but it never made it. Instead, the ship sank to the bottom of the ocean, taking all that gold with it. Executive Producer Annie Brown sits down with Roman Mars to tell the story of the sinking of the SS Central America and the gold that sparked the first global financial panic, helped fuel the Civil War, and—over a century later—ruined one man’s life.
A History of the United States in 100 Objects is a production of 99% Invisible and BBC Studios.

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.

Across the West, there's a contentious debate playing out over how to adapt homes and neighborhoods to this era of increasingly extreme wildfire risk. In Berkeley, California, it's become a particularly emotional fight because of a very specific architectural history that began all the way back in the 1890s. Emmett Fitzgerald reports on the new rules about what plants you can grow around your house.
Check out our previous episode on defensible space: Built to Burn

Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early.

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In 1998, the recording industry was thriving. But the company pressing more compact discs than anyone else in America wasn't a record label…it was an internet company: America Online. The AOL Disc was a marketing coup—hugely successful. It’s not an overstatement to say that it’s the campaign that introduced America to the internet. Because of how well it worked, for a while the internet was AOL. And then… it felt like AOL just disappeared. So what happened? Alex Goldman (Reply All, Hyperfixed) finds out.
A History of the United States in 100 Objects is a production of 99% Invisible and BBC Studios.

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.