Post-Narco Urbanism

In 1925, the world saw the birth of what just might be the greatest gadget in American History: the Brannock Device. The metal contraption transformed the way we measure feet forever, and more than a century after its invention…it has barely changed. Roman Mars and journalist Pau ... Show More

A simple cardboard box helped transform Finland into one of the best places in the world to raise a child. 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.c ... Show More

In the early 1970s, Bruce Lee made nunchaku (nunchucks) cool — kids were building their own and buying them in record numbers. But the nunchucks craze coincided with something much bigger: the birth of a radical new Asian American identity. Roman Mars and historian Jeff Chang tra ... Show More

<p>By the early 1990s, the Colombian city of Medellín was at the centre of the world's largest drug empire. The fearsome Medellín Cartel, led by the notorious drug lord and narcoterrorist Pablo Escobar, brought murder and mayhem to the city and the world for nearly two decades.</ ... Show More

Pablo Escobar was one of the most powerful men in the world in the 1980s. Through terror and a network of corruption, he came to have almost total control over the police, the army and much of the Colombian government while operating a gigantic international cocaine trafficking n ... Show More

At the end of the 1980s, Colombia had become one of the epicenters of drug trafficking in the world. But a change of government in 1990 opened the possibility for peace and the Colombian government began telephone negotiations with Pablo Escobar for his surrender and an end to th ... Show More

As Colombia's cocaine industry exploded in the 1980's, Pablo Escobar's Medellin cartel became the dominant player, capturing headlines across the world. But there was a second cartel rising up, one that operated more in the shadows and would soon grow more powerful - and more pro ... Show More

In the early 1980s, Pablo Escobar reinvented himself. He was no longer just the man who could smuggle tonnes of cocaine into Miami - he was the successful businessman, the philanthropist, the proud family man. To the poor, he built homes and football fields. To the powerful, he o ... Show More

Two decades after the death of notorious drug baron Pablo Escobar in 1993, he still looms large in the Colombian psyche. In some quarters, there is an ambivalence towards this ruthless killer, an admiration for the man who made an estimated US $20 billion and built homes for the ... Show More

Colombia in the mid-20th century was a place of beauty and bloodshed - where jungle mountains sheltered rebels, the cities were ruled by oligarchs, and outlaw legends became folk heroes. Into this world stepped Pablo Escobar. Charming, calm, and calculating, he would become one o ... Show More

He was a modern day Robin Hood, with a vicious bite. Pablo Escobar dreamed of being a millionaire as a small child and with ruthlessness and determination, he killed his way to the top, becoming the Columbian Cartel Kingpin of the 1970-80s. Escobar had a saying, “silver or lead,” ... Show More