I was raised on that, which I’m sure that’s why I am the way I am. ROMAN MARS: That and Connections and all these sorts of things. IRA FLATOW: Do you remember David Macaulay’s The Way Things Work books? Were you influenced by them at all? They were terrific. And in that sense, it’s a really good artifact to talk about who we are as humans. And a city is this partly designed, partly kludgy ad hoc collection of all the things that we do and value when we’re trying to live together. So I use the built world as a lens to talk about who we are as people, and what our values are, and what we’re prioritizing in a given moment. ROMAN MARS: Well, I like cities because they’re what brings us together. So let me begin with you, Roman, and ask you– in your podcast and your book, you unearth all these little, unseen details. Or has there been a detail or a feature of your city that you’ve noticed and wondered why it was there? You can give us a little bit of what you think in our live Zoom audience, and we will try to answer some of those questions, as many as we can get to in conversation. We want to know from you what hidden parts of your city have you discovered that you think people have overlooked. Just a reminder that this conversation is being recorded in front of a live Zoom audience. So here to talk about some of these unseen clues built right into our cities, and how those environments adapt to change, Roman Mars, host of the 99% Invisible podcast, co-author of the book The 99% Invisible City, a field guide to the hidden world of everyday design. But my next guest says, to really decode the history, and what really is going on in the city, you need to look at the smaller, almost invisible details, like the manhole covers, the cryptic markings on the pavement where to dig, and, well, where not to dig. The big buildings, the parks, the patches of green space, the people buzzing around. If you take a walk through your city, your town, you probably take in what’s going on around you. IRA FLATOW: This is Science Friday, I’m Ira Flatow. Learn more about hidden infrastructures and spotting telecom lines in New York City in Ingrid Burrington’s Seeing Networksproject and illustrated guide.Listen to episodes and read stories on 99% Invisible.
Read the new book, The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design.Ira chats with Mars about the overlooked details built into our cities and how our urban environments are adapting to the pandemic. These signs and structures can tell stories about a city’s past and present. There’s meaning behind the etchings on the covers of maintenance holes and water lines, and the cryptic spray painted symbols on the street that signify network and telecommunication cables. In the new book The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design, co-authors Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt show that you can learn a lot about the place you live in by taking a closer look at tucked-away architecture and pavement markings. But according to Roman Mars, host of the 99% Invisible podcast, you need to look at the smaller, often unseen details to decode what’s really going on in the city. On a walk through your city or town, there are all sorts of sights and sounds to take in-big buildings, parks and patches of green space, roaring vehicles, and people strolling around.
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