Peace Lines

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

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 way ... Show More

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. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 9 ... Show More

Belfast is kaleidoscopic — a product born out of contested histories and the desire to break free from it. As Northern Ireland commemorates 100 years since partition, take a journey through a city that is shedding its historical sectarian binaries. 

The mental health implications of a divided society: at the time of the Peace Process, Belfast still carries a psychological burden which crosses generations, genders, and communities. 

With Donald Trump’s Mexican wall back in the news, Tom Holland and Iszi Lawrence follow history’s lines and linkages to discover how Britain’s borders have been used to separate communities.Tom travels to Offa’s Dyke to find out how the 176-mile-long, 8th century earthwork divide ... Show More

Today, the border that divides Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is "soft", in most places you could almost forget that it's there. But for decades it was a deadly flash point in the bitter conflict known as "The Troubles" . This week, we share an episode from Today, E ... Show More

How 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland have shaped the city of Belfast and the lives of some of its inhabitants. 

Just 3 per cent of residents on over 500 streets in Belfast are actively against dual Irish and English signs in the city while nine in ten support them. That’s according to new research from Conradh na Gaeilge. It comes as the PSNI are investigating “hate-motivated” damage to a ... Show More

On the border between the Western world and the Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall was a symbol of the Cold War. Starting out as a simple barbed wire fence, it would grow in scale and complexity to become a 27-mile concrete edifice, incorporating watchtowers, trenches, electric fences ... Show More

From the Great Wall of China to the Berlin Wall, history is littered with the building of barriers aimed at keeping people out, and sometimes in. Do they work? Are they ever a good thing? Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook climb walls and explore borders as they investigate the hi ... Show More