99% Invisible

We keep score of everything these days. But what happens when the numbers start changing what we actually care about?

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Before the Declaration of Independence was even a twinkle in the founding fathers' eyes, there was James Otis. Journalist Jack Hitt returns to tell the wild, tragic story of America’s forgotten proto-founding father and his inflammatory 1764 pamphlet. A story that is, in many ways, the story of the founding document of the United States of America.

A History of the United States in 100 Objects is a production of 99% Invisible and BBC Studios.

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Before the internet went global, one undersea gamble made it possible. 

Jane Ruffino’s story, "Say Goodbye to the Undersea Cable That Made the Global Internet Possible," appears in the May-June issue of Wired magazine.

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In this episode, Roman and historians Heather Ann Thompson and Elliot Williams tell the story of the sharpened screwdriver: the object at the heart of the 1984 Bernhard Goetz subway shooting. In a difficult moment in New York City, four Black teenagers were transformed in the public imagination into armed criminals. What follows is a gripping account of how misinformation takes hold, how fear shapes public opinion, and how one narrative can ripple outward – echoing through decades of similar cases that continue to unfold today.

A History of the United States in 100 Objects is a production of 99% Invisible and BBC Studios.

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Billions of state quarters disappeared from circulation...and that was exactly the plan.

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