99% Invisible

In the early 20th century, nothing quite fit — fire hoses couldn't connect to one another, football teams played with different balls, traffic lights meant different things in different states. Then World War II exposed the deadly cost of incompatibility, and the US quietly imposed a single solution on production lines across the world: the 60-degree screw. Roman Mars and historian Daniel Immerwahr tell the story of a hidden industrial empire, built one standard at a time.

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What started as a revolutionary treatment for river blindness became something far messier.

Listen to Drug Story wherever you get your podcasts!

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In 1876, Americans filled an iron safe with objects meant to tell their story — to be opened a century later. Roman Mars and historian Jill Lepore trace its long wait, from Reconstruction to Watergate, and the surprising, unsettling contents that emerged in 1976. What do the objects we choose to preserve — or forget — reveal about how we author our own history?

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As wild and random as they might seem, a lot of work—and even poetry—goes into coming up with today's catchiest, most unforgettable drug names.

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America’s 250th birthday calls for a history as sprawling and contradictory as the country itself. 

A History of the United States in 100 Objects — hosted by Roman Mars and produced by BBC Studios and 99% Invisible — tells that history one thing at a time. A gold coin from an 1857 shipwreck that triggered a financial panic. An antebellum schoolbook that became an instrument of Black liberation. A ceramic dalmatian from the set of Wheel of Fortune. Or a tiny screw that shows how the US created a hidden industrial empire.

Each week, an object opens the door into an extraordinary, often shocking story — about who we’ve been, what we’ve built, and what we’ve allowed ourselves to forget. Some of these objects are well-known. Many are not. But all of them carry the story of how we got to this moment. This is not one narrative. It’s a hundred of them — forming a kaleidoscope that reveals a country stranger and more fascinating than any single telling could capture.

Launching May 19, 2026, wherever you listen to 99% Invisible.

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.

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