Person in Lotus Position

A closer look at the messy, beautiful bricks hiding across Chicago. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, ...  Show more

Comedian, writer, and podcaster Jamie Loftus has always known about Alcoholics Anonymous. As a kid, she loved the album where her dad kept all his AA chips — that little piece of plastic that marks a day, a month, a year of sobriety. Now as an adult, Jamie wanted to understand wh ...  Show more

We send 10 billion of them every day. Where do they come from? Zachary Crockett hearts this topic.

We dig into the unexpected origin story of the universal screen language… emoji! We talk to the designers behind emoji, and the steps (and missteps) emoji design took before the icons found their way to our screens. Read the PDF transcript of this episode. 

In 1999, Japanese software developer Shigetaka Kurita created the first emoji. The umbrella was one of 176 original images, featuring weather, transport signs, numbers and emotions.He was inspired after noticing the popularity of a pager, aimed at teenagers, that used a heart sym ...  Show more

Entrepreneur and attorney Tracey Pickett explores the emoji as a legitimate and important tool for communication. This talk was filmed at TEDxGreenville. All TEDx events are organized independently by volunteers in the spirit of TED's mission of ideas worth spreading. To learn mo ...  Show more