582- Rocket Man

From99% Invisible

Start listening View podcast show

582- Rocket Man

From99% Invisible

ratings:

Length:

40 minutes

Released:

May 14, 2024

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

In the twentieth century, the jetpack became synonymous with the idea of a ‘futuristic society.’ Appearing in cartoons and magazines, it felt like a matter of time before people could ride a jetpack to work. But jetpacks never became a mainstream technology, leaving many to wonder... why did they fall off the radar? 582- Rocket Man

Released:

May 14, 2024

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Design is everywhere in our lives, perhaps most importantly in the places where we've just stopped noticing. 99% Invisible is a weekly exploration of the process and power of design and architecture. From award winning producer Roman Mars. Learn more at 99percentinvisible.org.

Skip carousel

99% Invisible-09- 99% Private: Privately Owned Public Open Spaces, or POPOS, are these little gardens, terraces, plazas, and seating areas that are private property, but are mandated for public use. City planners require developers to add these little “parks” to their buildings to m... by 99% Invisible
5 min listen
99% Invisible-13- Maps: I’m sorry, but if you don’t love maps, I don’t think we can be friends anymore. Maps are amazing. They are art and story. A representation of where we are and where we wish we could be. They’ve always had … Continue reading → by 99% Invisible
5 min listen
99% Invisible-11- 99% Undesigned: Almost everything in modern life is designed to waste energy. The whole system evolved on a false premise that petroleum is cheap and plentiful and will be that way forever. The awesome Lisa Margonelli, author of Oil on The Brain … Continue reading → by 99% Invisible
5 min listen
99% Invisible-03- 99% Reality (only): There’s not much that we can do about all the physical matter that’s been designed and built by someone else. It is the way it is. But with the advent of portable devices with GPS, a compass, and a network, … Continue reading → by 99% Invisible
5 min listen
99% Invisible-05- 99% Forgotten: At the top of Mt. Olympus in San Francisco, on what was once thought to be the geographic center of the city, is a pedestal for a statue that isn’t there. There’s no marker. You can just make out the … Continue reading → by 99% Invisible
5 min listen
99% Invisible-01- 99% Noise: This episode of 99% Invisible is all about acoustic design, the city soundscape, and how to make listening in shared spaces pleasant (or at the very least, possible). It features an interview with Dennis Paoletti from Shen Milsom & Wilke. by 99% Invisible
5 min listen
99% Invisible-10- 99% Sound and Feel: Chris Downey explains it like this, “Beethoven continued to write music, even some of his best music, after he lost his hearing…What’s more preposterous, composing music you can’t hear, or designing architecture you can’t see? by 99% Invisible
5 min listen
99% Invisible-04- 99% Details: It’s a stick with bristles poking out of it. It doesn’t even qualify as a simple machine, but the careful thought and design that went into the creation of the modern, angled bristle, fat handled toothbrush shows just how much … Continue reading → by 99% Invisible
5 min listen
99% Invisible-27- Bridge to the Sky: There are rules that dicate what you can build and how. Rules of physics and rules of men who sit on various bureaucratic boards and bodies. These rules dictated that if silk magnate John Noble Stearns wanted to build one … Continue reading → by 99% Invisible
5 min listen
99% Invisible-17- Concrete Furniture: The New City Hall, designed by Finnish architect Viljo Revell, was the first modern, concrete, civic building in Toronto. When it opened in 1965, it stood out very prominently in the traditional Victorian fabric of the city. by 99% Invisible
7 min listen
99% Invisible-32- Design for Airports: When I spoke with Allison Arieff about the design of airports, she said to me, if all airports simply played Brian Eno’s album Ambient 1: Music for Airports over the speakers, every airport would be better. I say this to … Continue reading → by 99% Invisible
9 min listen
99% Invisible-06- 99% Symbolic: Before I moved to Chicago in 2005, I didn’t even know cities had their own flags. In Chicago, the city flag is everywhere. It’s incorporated into all different aspects of city life and the design elements are used on businesses, … Continue reading → by 99% Invisible
5 min listen
99% Invisible-07- 99% Alien: Humans need a few basic things to survive- air, water, food, heat, shelter- but just surviving isn’t really enough. We also need familiarity, a little comfort, interaction, a small place of our own. When it comes to designing space habitat … Continue r... by 99% Invisible
5 min listen
99% Invisible-02- 99% 180: In the beginning, former AIA-SF president Henrik Bull and the Transamerica Pyramid did not get along. The building was an affront to late 1960’s modernist ideals. It was silly. It looked like a dunce cap. Its large scale had no … Continue reading → by 99% Invisible
5 min listen
99% Invisible-15- Sounds of the Artificial World: Without all the beeps and chimes, without sonic feedback, all of your modern conveniences would be very hard to use. If a device and its sounds are designed correctly, it creates a special “theater of the mind” that users completely … Continue reading → by 99% Invisible
5 min listen
99% Invisible-08- 99% Free Parking: It’s weird how much anxiety comes from parking in a city. Beyond the stress of looking for parking, you must contend with the frequently unreliable meters. The signage can be indecipherable. As a point of interaction with your municipality, by 99% Invisible
5 min listen
99% Invisible-34- The Speed of Light for Building Pyramids: Last year, Steve Burrows CBE (Principle at the engineering consulting firm Arup) spent several weeks in Egypt studying the pyramids through the eyes of a modern day structural engineer. The result, which was presented in a documentary for the Discovery... by 99% Invisible
10 min listen
99% Invisible-18- Check Cashing Stores: A few years ago, journalist Douglas McGray learned that the largest chain of check cashing stores in Southern California, Nix Check Cashing, was being bought by the nation’s largest credit union, Kinecta. The credit union thought it had something to … ... by 99% Invisible
6 min listen
99% Invisible-12- 99% Guilt Free: “Sustainable Design is a design philosophy that seeks to maximize the quality of the built environment, while minimizing or eliminating the negative impact to the natural environment.” -Jason F. McLennan, The Philosophy of Sustainable Design I like McL... by 99% Invisible
5 min listen
99% Invisible-19X- RJDJ Reactive Music: This week, the radio audience heard episode #10, but for you web and podcast listeners, I have a story I did about a year and a half ago, about the reactive music app called RJDJ. I did this piece for … Continue reading → by 99% Invisible
10 min listen
99% Invisible-13x-Game Over (Snap Judgment): 99% Invisible Extra! The tape rolls as we witness the tearful end of a perfect online world. This is a piece I did for Snap Judgment, based on a story from Robert Ashley’s brilliant A Life Well Wasted internet radio … Continue reading → by 99% Invisible
12 min listen
99% Invisible-22- Free Speech Monument: In 1989, a group called the Berkeley Art Project decided to hold a national public art competition to create a monument that would commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement, which began on the University of California Berkeley … Cont... by 99% Invisible
8 min listen
99% Invisible-14- Periodic Table: Everyone knows it when they see it. The classic “castle with turrets” periodic table is a beautiful and concise icon that contains a great deal of amazing information, if you only know how to read it. And even if you … Continue reading → by 99% Invisible
6 min listen
99% Invisible-16- A Designed Language: The idea is simple and quite beautiful: if we all shared a second, politically neutral language, people of all different nations and cultures could communicate freely and easily, and it would foster international understanding and peace. by 99% Invisible
6 min listen
99% Invisible-09X-99% Doomed: 99% Invisible Extra! NASA is figuring out how to take the next great leap into space. The difficulty is, if we leap to Mars, we might not make it back. This is a story I produced last year (Summer 2009) … Continue reading → by 99% Invisible
12 min listen
99% Invisible-19- Liberation Squares plus NY Dick: In a recent piece from Urban Omnibus, Vishaan Chakrabarti (Professor at the Graduate School for Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University), wrote about how urban open spaces contribute to political change, by 99% Invisible
11 min listen
99% Invisible-36- Super Bon Bonn: Cities are pretty robust organisms, they tend to survive even when put under tremendous stress and strain. Local industries rise and fall, people immigrate and emigrate, but most of these changes happen over decades. by 99% Invisible
10 min listen
99% Invisible-44- The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: The Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis became most famous at the moment of its demise. The thirty-three high-rise towers built in the 1950’s were supposed to solve the impending population crisis in inner city St. Louis. by 99% Invisible
12 min listen
99% Invisible-25- Unsung Icons of Soviet Design: There’s something that links most of the everyday objects presented in “Made in Russia: Unsung Icons of Soviet Design.” But it’s hard to tell exactly what that is just by looking at this collection of wobbly dolls, drinking glasses, by 99% Invisible
8 min listen
99% Invisible-20- Nikko Concrete Commando: In 2001, Delfin Vigil was walking the streets of San Francisco and ran across the name “Nikko” carved into the concrete sidewalk. After seeing Nikko once, Delfin began to see the name everywhere. One block after another, there he was … Continue reading → by 99% Invisible
7 min listen

More Episodes from 99% Invisible

Skip carousel

352- Uptown Squirrel [update]: Squirrels were purposefully introduced into our cities in the 1800s, and when their population exploded, we lost track of how many there are. by 99% Invisible
30 min listen
583- The Lost Subways of North America: Roman talks to Jake Berman, author of "The Lost Subways of North America." by 99% Invisible
26 min listen
The Power Broker #05: Brandy Zadrozny: Featuring Brandy Zadrozny, senior reporter for NBC News who covers misinformation, conspiracy theories, and the internet, and covering the last section of Part 4, chapters 21-24. by 99% Invisible
132 min listen
581- It's Howdy Doody Time!: How an ugly puppet created television as we know it by 99% Invisible
37 min listen
579 BONUS- Towers of Silence: Vulture Conservation: In this bonus episode, Lasha talks about extra reporting she did for Towers of Silence on the current state of vulture conservation. by 99% Invisible
32 min listen
580- Mr Yuk: Our pal Gillian Jacobs takes us through the history of poison control and the yucky face meant to warn children about the dangers lurking in their kitchen cabinets by 99% Invisible
56 min listen
579- Towers of Silence: How the loss of vultures in India has put an ancient burial tradition in crisis by 99% Invisible
71 min listen
The Power Broker #04: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Featuring the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and covering the second section of Part 4, chapters 16-20. by 99% Invisible
160 min listen
578- Anything's Pastable: Eat Sauté Love: Dan Pashman embarks on an epic trip across Italy in search of lesser-known pasta dishes — and to learn about the evolution of pasta more broadly. by 99% Invisible
45 min listen
577- The Society of Ambiance Makers and Elegant Persons: Bright, flamboyant central African fashion by 99% Invisible
35 min listen
576- Chambre de Bonne: The history of the chambre de bonne, the tiny French apartment type that may be, finally, on the way out. by 99% Invisible
33 min listen
Roman Mars Describes Athens GA As It Is: A 99pi guide to some of our favorite design features of Athens, Georgia. by 99% Invisible
37 min listen
575- Autism Plesantville: How to accommodate autism in the built world by 99% Invisible
33 min listen
574- The Monster Under the Sink: The garbage disposer and the dream of a garbage-free city by 99% Invisible
27 min listen
The Power Broker #03: David Sims: Featuring Blank Check co-host and The Atlantic movie critic David Sims covering the first section of Part 4, chapters 11-15 by 99% Invisible
127 min listen
573- Toyetic: The constant and sometimes fraught back and forth between cartoons and toys, as exemplified by Transformers and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by 99% Invisible
39 min listen
572- WARNING: This Podcast Contains Chemicals Known to the State of California to Cause Cancer or Other Reproductive Harm: Understanding the clunky Prop 65 warnings on products by 99% Invisible
43 min listen
Roman Mars Describes Santa Fe As It Is: A 99pi guide to some of our favorite design features of Santa Fe. by 99% Invisible
33 min listen
438- The Real Book [rebroadcast]: Since the mid-1970s, almost every jazz musician has owned a copy of the same book and originally it was a totally unlicensed publication by 99% Invisible
42 min listen
Significant Others: A Sneak Peek at the Woman Behind Benedict Arnold’s Betrayal: It’s been said that history is written by the person at the typewriter. But who did the person who made history depend on? by 99% Invisible
7 min listen
571- You Are What You Watch: How much film and television shapes us as individuals and as a society, far beyond what we give it credit for by 99% Invisible
31 min listen
The Power Broker #2: Jamelle Bouie: Featuring New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie covering Part 3. by 99% Invisible
105 min listen
570- The White Castle System of Eating Houses: How White Castle invented fast food by 99% Invisible
43 min listen
569- Between the Blocks: The interblock parks of Sofia, Bulgaria that are caught between old failed communism and new hyper capitalism by 99% Invisible
34 min listen
568- Don't Forget to Remember: There are memorials to lost fishermen, lost astronauts, even lost members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. What should a COVID pandemic memorial look like? by 99% Invisible
40 min listen
Roman Mars Describes Chicago As It Is: A 99pi guide to some of our favorite design features of Chicago by 99% Invisible
37 min listen
567- The Double Kick: The design evolution of the seemingly simple, but not all that simple, skateboard by 99% Invisible
52 min listen
Power Broker #01: Robert Caro: Featuring author Robert Caro covering The Introduction, Part 1, and Part 2. by 99% Invisible
93 min listen
566- Imitation Nation: The fake villages and role players used to train US soldiers by 99% Invisible
35 min listen
565- Mini-Stories: Volume 18: Upside-down construction, the linguistics of filler, and a fire that has been burning...and will burn... for decades. by 99% Invisible
35 min listen

Related podcast episodes

Skip carousel

Ep098: China's Moon Rocks, Antikythera Revelations, Creality vs Octoprint, and RC Starship: Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi contemplate a few of the most interesting stories that made their way through the tubes this week. We'll learn how old VHS tapes can be turned into a unique filament for your 3D printer, and realize that... by Hackaday Podcast
58 min listen
12 Sci-Fi Movie Technologies That Went Stupidly Backwards by The Cracked Podcast
53 min listen
Ep 185: A 2022 Rotary Phone, How AI Imagines Zepplin, Are We Alone in the Universe: This week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Managing Editor Tom Nardi start off by talking about the chip shortage...but not how you think. With a list that supposedly breaks down all of the electronic components that the Russian military are... by Hackaday Podcast
61 min listen
2023 — The Year in Review: Veteran cartoonists Dave Kellett and Brad Guigar look back on their predictions for 2023. They nailed a few and failed a few! by Comic Lab
64 min listen
Ep040: 3D Printed Everything, Strength v Toughness, Blades of Fiber, and What Can't Coffee Do?: Hackaday Editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams … by Hackaday Podcast
55 min listen
Ep081: Mask-apult, Beef Tallow, Grinding Melted Plastic, and Stretching Flowing Metal: Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Tom Nardi chew t… by Hackaday Podcast
54 min listen
Retroist Kodak Disc Podcast: The Kodak Disc was a technological marvel. It excelled at capturing the imagination and money of a whole lot of people. Sadly it didn't excel at taking photos. Nowadays people look back on it as an icon of the eighties, by Retroist Retro Podcast
19 min listen
Where's My... Jetpack? by Where's My Jetpack?
38 min listen
The Birth of the Electric Chair by TechStuff
44 min listen
Trailer: Where's My Jetpack? | Launching Thursday 24th Feb by Where's My Jetpack?
2 min listen
592: Ok, Doomer! by Grumpy Old Geeks
66 min listen
Ep 139: Furter Burner, Glowing Potato Peeler, Hacked Smartwatch, and The Last Atlas: Hackaday editors Tom Nardi and Elliot Williams bring you up to speed on the most interesting stories of the week. Hackaday's Remoticon and Germany's Chaos Communication Congress are virtual again this year, but the Vintage Computer Festival will be... by Hackaday Podcast
50 min listen
Ep042: Capacitive Earthquakes, GRBL on ESP32, Solenoid Engines, and the TI-99 Space Program: Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Mike Szczys … by Hackaday Podcast
54 min listen
Ep055: Most Cyberpunk Synthesizer, Data in Your Cells, Bubbly in Your Printer, & Dystopian Peepshow: Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams … by Hackaday Podcast
50 min listen
What is a Mold-A-Rama?: In the 1960s, a very cool machine debuted at the Seattle World's Fair - the Mold-A-Rama. It made real plastic toys on-demand from melted plastic pellets, to the delight of children and adults alike. They didn't last too long, but can still be found at var by Stuff You Should Know
39 min listen
Mousetalgia Episode 253: Bird's 'Tomorrowland' and 'The Optimist': "The Optimist" takes center stage in this third episode in Mousetalgia's coverage of the D23 Expo. As part of the promotional machine behind Brad Bird's upcoming film "Tomorrowland," "The Optimist," an alternate reality game, has captured the... by Mousetalgia! - Your Disneyland Podcast
88 min listen
Blade Runner 2049: The future holds many things unforeseen, especially in the world of human evolution. Today we discuss a film that breaks that barrier while showing there can be a fantastic sequel to a cult classic. We follow a blade runner named K who is tracking a myst... by Roll The Credits
27 min listen
Ep 270: A Cluster of Microcontrollers, a rocket engine from scratch, and a look inside Voyager: Join Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi as they get excited over the pocket-sized possibilities of the recently announced 2024 Business Card Challenge, and once again discuss their picks for the most interesting stories and hacks from the... by Hackaday Podcast
68 min listen
Ep010: XKCD Graphs, Turing Complete Meta Computers, False Finger Printing 3D Printers, and Jargon: Elliot Williams and Mike Szczys walk through the … by Hackaday Podcast
53 min listen
Ep 203: Flashlight Fuel Fails, Weird DMA Machines, and a 3D Printed Prosthetic Hand Flex: This week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Managing Editor Tom Nardi meet up virtually to talk about all the hacks that are fit to print. This week's episode starts off with a discussion about the recently unveiled 2023 Hackaday.io Low-Power... by Hackaday Podcast
72 min listen
535: Consider Your Risk Appetite by Grumpy Old Geeks
71 min listen
Where's My... Reusable Rocket? by Where's My Jetpack?
38 min listen
561: Blade Runner by Retronauts
100 min listen
VALE: Vernor Vinge - creator of a "Technological Singularity" by Mark Pesce - The Next Billion Seconds
44 min listen
Episode 116: On 'Blade Runner' by Weird Studies
89 min listen
Ep. 119 Who Needs Electricity When You Have Steampunk: Steampunk is a retro science fiction genre taking place in the steam powered world of the Victorian Era. It is known for gear-based robots, hydrogen airships, and of course a reliance on steam engines to power their society. by Fascinating Gadgets, Gizmos, and Gear Based Technologies
53 min listen
#71 | Metroid + Metroid II: When it comes to Nintendo franchises, Metroid sti… by KnockBack: The Retro and Nostalgia Podcast
103 min listen
Side Kirk (SNW S2E3) by Greatest Trek: New Star Trek Reviewed
68 min listen
Ep 236: The Car Episode, Building Leonardo's Water Mill, Reviving Radio Shack: Elliot and Dan got together this time around to recap the week in hacks, and it looks like the Hackaday writing crew very much had cars on their minds. We both took the bait, with tales of privacy-violating cars and taillights that can both cripple a... by Hackaday Podcast
63 min listen
Ep 217: The Unintentional Space and 3D Printing Episode by Hackaday Podcast
76 min listen

Discover this podcast and so much more

582- Rocket Man

582- Rocket Man

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from 99% Invisible

Related podcast episodes