Depave Paradise

Football helmets can prevent devastating injuries, but they may also help make an inherently violent game feel safer than it really is. 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 Podca ... Show More

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

Mexico's capital often floods during the rainy season, but paradoxically, it's also running out of water. A large and growing population, along with crumbling infrastructure and the effects of climate change - are increasingly putting a strain on the city. We meet the army of sci ... Show More

Industrial designer Enrique Lomnitz wanted to use his creativity for good. When he learned that climate change was making water scarcity even worse for Mexico City’s low income residents, he tried to harness a natural resource: rain. A transcript of this episode is available at h ... Show More

Giant engineering projects didn’t solve all of Chicago’s water woes. Intense rainfalls are dumping more water on the city, resulting in more flooding. This despite about $4 billion in spending on one of the most expensive public works projects in the nation’s history. So what can ... Show More

Older American cities have a dirty problem — outdated sewer systems that use a single pipe to carry both sewage and stormwater to treatment facilities. As population growth and climate change have increased both sewage and stormwater, those pipes can get filled to capacity, and t ... Show More

When María Elena Paz moved to a plot of land on the outskirts of Mexico City, she was shocked to find no water, electricity, or roads. She and her neighbors weren't even supposed to live in the ecologically protected zone. But María Elena was ready to move mountains to show her c ... Show More

From London to Tokyo, climate change is causing cities to sink -- and our modern concrete infrastructure is making us even more vulnerable to severe flooding, says landscape architect and TED Fellow Kotchakorn Voraakhom. But what if we could design cities to help fight floods? In ... Show More

A historic drought plagues the American Southwest, threatening energy supplies and farms, and causing cities to take drastic water conservation measures. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information ... Show More