The Best Little Tiny Radio Show About Design

San Francisco public radio show 99% Invisible is described by its creator, Roman Mars, as “a short, highly produced, story-driven audio exploration into some cool, but quite possibly, outwardly mundane piece of human ingenuity.” Mars took the name from an R. Buckminster Fuller quote about the “99 percent invisible” activity that shapes the world, and explains that through this wide lens, he can cover just about anything.

When I first heard the program, I had one of those can’t-leave-the-car-until-it’s-over moments, usually reserved for segments of This American Life. Indeed, Mars may be on his way to becoming the Ira Glass of design. After he and I recently finished taping a segment on the design of airports, I turned the tape recorder around to ask him a few questions about his “tiny radio show about design.”