Архитектура

The history of taking plants that grow naturally in one place, and moving them halfway around the world to an entirely d...

The Octagonal House fad and self-improvement in the 1800s

The story of a long, skinny island east of Russia's mainland and the ethnic Koreans who have had no choice but to call i...

Wild Rice has long played an important role in Ojibwe cultures, but last year, it took on a new role: plaintiff in a cou...

No teenager in America in the 1980s could avoid the gravitational pull of the mall, not even author Alexandra Lange. In ...

Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag. At least, that's what we were taught in school. But when historians go searchi...

Priceless cultural artifacts have been plundered and sold for hundreds of years. You can find these relics in museums an...

The educational toys that changed the world

What zoning out middle-sized housing options does to a city

Some of the most ambitious, fascinating, and downright crazy trains that the world has ever seen.

Bonus episode: Roman Mars on Blank Check with Griffin and David talking about The Quick and The Dead (Sam Raimi, 1995)

Data is the lifeblood of public health, and has been since the beginning of the field. We take a look at data gathering ...

The evolution of the "international" section of the grocery store and how some products stay there forever and some brea...

We visit the site of one of the most infamous lost expeditions and the home of all the lost luggage.

Every year in the spring, small towns throughout New England host their annual town meeting. Town meetings take place in...

While urban parks are safe havens for birds, parks are often surrounded by condos and hotels and office buildings with f...

So why don't we have mouth Roombas? Is the universe full of chickens? What scientific advances are happening? What was t...

In February 2021, Texas suffered an intense winter storm and the state power grid had a catastrophic failure that lasted...

Natalie de Blois contributed to some of the most iconic Modernist works created for corporate America, all while raising...

We are two decades into the 21st century, yet when it comes to life online, large segments of America are still living i...

How eminent domain was used to enforce segregation in a suburb in St. Louis and beyond

The Columbia Journalism School recently announced the 16 winners of the 2022 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards...

There's a small neighborhood within Shenzhen, China that is known for mass-producing copies of the most celebrated works...

How an airport in a small town on the west coast of Ireland changed the world economy

People have been going back and forth about what makes a healthy and productive office since there have been offices. Th...

The most high stakes game of roshambo ever, plus a SF Muni bus driver breaks down the runaway bus fight scene in Shang-C...

Origin story and symbolism are two of the most important ingredients of any superhero universe. But what happens when bo...

This is the third and final episode of this batch of mini-stories and the 14th volume overall and it’s a good one- we ha...

We're kicking off the new year at 99pi with a fresh installment of mini-stories, including: a strange collision of munda...

It's that time of year again! When 99pi producers and friends of the show join Roman to tell shorter stories, many of wh...

Slovenia has just over 2 million people and is visited by, not one, not two, but three different "santas" every festive ...

How a team of community leaders used cold, sharp strategy, flipping the logic of Jim Crow housing segregation on its hea...

In much of the western world, alphabetical order is simply a default we take for granted. It’s often the one we try firs...

The French bulldog is now the second most popular breed in America. Their cute features, portable size, and physical fea...

How lifting weights became a core component to home fitness

Even if we think of the camera as a neutral technology, it is not. In the vast spectrum of human colors, photographic to...

Born in 1872, American architect and engineer Julia Morgan designed hundreds of buildings over her prolific career, famo...

At a glance, the border between the United States and Canada would seem to be at the friendlier end of the international...

Margarine is yellow, like butter, but it hasn't always been. At times and in places, it has been a bland white, or even ...

Rioters carried many familiar flags during the January 6th insurrection at the United States Capitol -- Confederate, MAG...