Standards

39 episodes

Curated by:
User profile picepekilis

Standards are the unsung heroes that supporting modern product design and global trade. Why is a kg exactly the same everywhere? Why are sidewalks shaved at intersections for wheelchair users? How do you communicate the colour “blue” to 400 parts suppliers in 22 countries so that the final product is one shade of blue? Standards. Why can you use a US issued credit card in a bank machine in the Czech Republic or China? Because there are standards about the size of the card, how the magnetic strip works, how the data gets exchanged behind the scenes. Listen on . . .


  • 1

    360- The Universal Page

    99% Invisible

    38:26 | Jul 2nd, 2019

    1 recommendation

    Reporter Andrew Leland has always loved to read. An early love of books in childhood eventually led to a job in publishing with McSweeney’s where Andrew edited essays and interviews, laid out articles...Show More

    epekilis recommended:

    The development and use of braille as the dominant tactile reading aide for the blind points to the importance of including the people who experience the need in the development of the solution.

  • 2

    A Look inside the Preservation Centre

    Discover Library and Archives Canada

    57:38 | Dec 18th, 2017

    1 recommendation

    Ever wonder where Library and Archives Canada (LAC) stores, protects and preserves Canada’s diverse and rich documentary heritage? Join us for this episode as we take you on a walking tour of LAC’s Pr...Show More

    epekilis recommended:

    For architects and design fans, absolutely fascinating discussion of the technical challenges in building Canada’s National Archives building. This must have been an architects dream project.

  • 3

    272- Person in Lotus Position

    99% Invisible

    27:57 | Aug 22nd, 2017

    1 recommendation

    Tech analysts estimate that over six billion emojis are sent each day. Emojis, which started off as a collection of low-resolution pixelated images from Japan, have become a well-established and graph...Show More

    epekilis recommended:

    Who decides what emojis are accepted? Its a consortium of big IT companies. I come from the world of standards development so found this fascinating.

  • 4

    Mouse’s Vineyard

    Undiscovered

    29:01 | Jun 27th, 2017

    1 recommendation

    Martha’s Vineyard has a Lyme disease problem. Now a scientist is coming to town with a possible fix: genetically engineered mice. An island associated with summer rest and relaxation is gaining a repu...Show More

    epekilis recommended:

    Public consultation done right: involving the community right from the beginning, in discussion of novel scientific proposals to answer community problems.

  • 5

    280- Half Measures

    99% Invisible

    25:38 | Oct 18th, 2017

    2 recommendations

    The United States is one of just a handful of countries that that isn’t officially metric. Instead, Americans measure things our own way, in units that are basically inscrutable to non-Americans, near...Show More

    epekilis recommended:

    Why hasn’t the US gone metric? Largely because they industrialized before global commercial activity was important. But blaming it on crackpot astrologers who thought that the word of God was expres...Show More

  • 6

    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....Show More

  • 7

    80- An Architect’s Code

    99% Invisible

    16:39 | May 28th, 2013

    Lawyers have an ethics code. Journalists have an ethics code. Architects do, too. According to Ethical Standard 1.4 of the American Institute of Architects (AIA): “Members should uphold human rights i...Show More

  • 8

    102- Icon for Access

    99% Invisible

    13:54 | Feb 18th, 2014

    There is a beauty to a universal standard. The idea that people across the world can agree that when they interact with one specific thing, everyone will be on the same page– regardless of language or...Show More

  • 9

    108- Barcodes

    99% Invisible

    16:57 | Apr 1st, 2014

    When George Laurer goes to the grocery store, he doesn’t tell the check-out people that he invented the barcode, but his wife used to point it out. “My husband here’s the one who invented that barcode...Show More

  • 10

    114- Ten Thousand Years

    99% Invisible

    29:22 | May 13th, 2014

    4 recommendations

    In 1990, the federal government invited a group of geologists, linguists, astrophysicists, architects, artists, and writers to the New Mexico desert, to visit the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. They wer...Show More

  • 11

    122- Good Egress

    99% Invisible

    15:46 | Jul 8th, 2014

    When designing a commercial structure, there is one safety component that must be designed right into the building from the start: egress. “Egress” refers to an entire exit system from a building: sta...Show More

  • 12

    159- The Calendar

    99% Invisible

    16:09 | Apr 8th, 2015

    A month is hardly a unit of measurement. It can start on any day of the week and last anywhere from 28 to 31 days. Sometimes a month is four weeks long, sometimes five, sometimes six. You have to buy ...Show More

  • 13

    226- On Average

    99% Invisible

    17:40 | Aug 23rd, 2016

    In many ways, the built world was not designed for you. It was designed for the average person. Standardized tests, building codes, insurance rates, clothing sizes, The Dow Jones – all these measureme...Show More

  • 14

    257- Reversing the Grid

    99% Invisible

    25:28 | May 2nd, 2017

    For most people, electricity only flows one way (into the home), but there are exceptions — people who use solar panels, for instance. In those cases, excess electricity created by the solar cells tra...Show More

  • 15

    Run for Your Life

    The Constant: A History of Getting Things Wrong

    1:15:21 | Aug 25th, 2020

    3 recommendations

    There was no Olympics this year, but it's almost the anniversary of the single worst event in the history of the games: The 1904 Olympic Marathon. Get a free trial of The Great Courses Plus by going t...Show More

  • 16

    Poison Squad: Founding of the FDA

    A Taste of the Past

    52:06 | Jan 30th, 2020

    1 recommendation

    Technology and industry put more food on the shelves and in markets by extending the life of perishable goods with canning and processing methods. But was the food safe? By the late 19th century, the...Show More

    epekilis recommended:

    Maybe I’ll start a foodie true crime playlist. We rely heavily on labeling to tell us the truth. There is a reason for that - a chemist named Dr. Wiley made it his mission to reform food safety for ...Show More

  • 17

    ≤ kg

    Radiolab

    20:34 | Jun 13th, 2014

    1 recommendation

    A plum-sized lump of metal takes us from the French Revolution to an underground bunker in Maryland as we try to weigh the way we weigh the world around us.

    epekilis recommended:

    The story of standardized measures is full of excitement. Seriously. Stick with me here. This is the stuff of revolutions - military and scientific - and the wonder of eternal mathematics. I love ...Show More

  • 18

    43: Emoji

    Ungeniused

    17:39 | Jan 24th, 2018

    1 recommendation

    Stephen is joined by Jeremy Burge, the founder of Emojipedia, to discuss the small images that define so many of our digital conversations.

    epekilis recommended:

    Unsurprisingly, the people behind the 💩 emoji had no particular meaning in mind when they created it. They just thought it was funny.

  • 19

    The power of food emojis

    The Food Chain

    26:17 | Jan 21st, 2021

    4 recommendations

    Do you give food emojis much thought? If not, perhaps you should. Emily Thomas hears how these tiny digital images can have a big social and economic impact. We reveal who decides which emojis are acc...Show More

  • 20

    Fashion History Mystery #15: Pantone

    Dressed: The History of Fashion

    13:33 | May 23rd, 2019

    This week we discuss the 'shadiest' company around, the world's leading authority on color intelligence, Pantone. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudi...Show More

  • 21

    Minute Maid and Tropicana’s decades-long tête-à-tête for orange juice dominance.

    epekilis recommended:

    It seems “Mrs. House Wife” is too dumb and shallow to understand or care about product labels, and would, in fact be actively misled by truthful packaging statements. Awesome case study on why you ac...Show More

  • 22

    The Ghost in the Codec

    Into the Zone

    39:08 | Oct 1st, 2020

    3 recommendations

    At the dawn of the digital era, a group of engineers tasked with audio compression had to decide what information to keep, and what to leave behind. What was signal, and what was noise? Fast forward t...Show More

    epekilis recommended:

    Works on so many levels: sound/noise vs information/music; the history of mp3 (the standards nerd in me is kvelling); relationship between technology, art and humanity. The part where the guy choked...Show More

  • 23

    Episode 3: (Safety) Norton Fitzwarren 1940

    Steel Wheels: Railway History, Technology and Safety.

    59:16 | Oct 26th, 2020

    2 recommendations

    In our first safety episode, we lift the lid on the terrible crash that took place at Norton Fitzwarren on the GWR in 1940, and learn how it teaches us all too clearly of the dangers of making assumpt...Show More

    epekilis recommended:

    Occupational health and safety may seem like bureaucratic red tape to some. But those rules are learnings written in the blood of horrendous accidents. So impressed by this fellow’s knowledge and obv...Show More

  • 24

    When LOL just isn't enough to respond to a friend's killer joke, emoji are there for you. But for many people, there isn't an emoji to represent them or the things they want to say. This has pushed ac...Show More

    epekilis recommended:

    More on the process of how emoji get created. I have a playlist on this topic.

  • 25

    Where Emoji Come From

    Unsung Science

    33:29 | Jan 28th, 2022

    Each year, the powers that be endow our phones with about 70 new emoji. For 2022, you’ll be getting a mirror ball, a crutch, an X-ray, coral, a ring buoy, and a bird’s nest—with or without eggs in it....Show More

  • 26

    483- Grid Locked

    99% Invisible

    49:38 | Mar 22nd, 2022

    3 recommendations

    In February 2021, Texas suffered an intense winter storm and the state power grid had a catastrophic failure that lasted many freezing cold days. To understand the situation, one has to look at the hi...Show More

    epekilis recommended:

    The story behind the big Texas power failures last winter blew my mind. They could make a 4 part Netflix mini series out of this, complete with a clock ticking down.

  • 27

    153. In Character

    The Allusionist

    37:43 | Apr 18th, 2022

    Chinese is one of the oldest still-spoken languages in the world. But when technologies arrived like telegraphy and computing, designed with the Roman alphabet in mind, if Chinese wanted to be able to...Show More

  • 28

    The Color of Money | Pantone

    Slate Business

    24:28 | Feb 26th, 2021

    1 recommendation

    Color is a beautiful thing that just exists in the world. But when color intersects with capitalism, somebody has to set some standards, make some decisions, and make some money.  Podcast production b...Show More

    epekilis recommended:

    Remember that classic Meryl Streep line from The Devil Wears Pravda? Exactly what is cerulean blue and who decides it is the colour of the year? Still not sure about the “colour of the year”, but do k...Show More

  • 29

    Data is the lifeblood of public health, and has been since the beginning of the field. We take a look at data gathering in regards to public health from the 1600s to today and how it might change in t...Show More

    epekilis recommended:

    The US government was relying (uncredited) on a grass-roots volunteer initiative’s COVID statistics about the number of cases because they literally didn’t have the linked systems and staffing to do i...Show More

  • 30

    Measurement: an unexpected history

    History Extra podcast

    48:09 | Aug 9th, 2022

    From weight and distance, to calorie-counting and calculating the depths of space, throughout history, humans have loved to measure things. Speaking to Elinor Evans, James Vincent – author of Beyond M...Show More

  • 31

    Measurements

    Patented: History of Inventions

    35:00 | Jul 17th, 2022

    A pint might be Britain’s most beloved measurement. But what’s the name for the distance a reindeer can walk before it needs to pee?The way we measure things changes the way we see the world. Measurem...Show More

  • 32

    The History of Timekeeping

    You're Dead To Me

    57:24 | Aug 26th, 2022

    1 recommendation

    Greg Jenner is joined by Dr David Rooney and Desiree Burch at the literal beginning of time to explore the history of timekeeping. Covering everything from the origins of timekeeping to time in space,...Show More

    epekilis recommended:

    Why are there 12 months in a year, 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour? The length of the day and the year are determined by natural physics, but how we split those up into time units is a purel...Show More

  • 33

    Tech's Moral Void

    Ideas

    55:03 | Mar 14th, 2019

    3 recommendations

    Lawyers and doctors have a code of ethics. Teachers have them. Even journalists have them. So why not the tech sector, the people who create and design our very modes of communication? Coders and desi...Show More

    epekilis recommended:

    There is a hopeful note in here suggesting that if we could fix unsafe food and unsafe vehicles with regulation we can fix inappropriate data collection too. But tech moves so much faster than regula...Show More

  • 34

    Thumbs up? Thumbs down. Skulls of joy. And so many expressions of pain and comfort. This, my babies, is the -ology that sparked this whole podcast. Curiology means “writing with pictures” but will ce...Show More

    epekilis recommended:

    More about emojis: are they a form of language? How are they interpreted? Who decides? I’ve added these two episodes to my Emojis and Standards playlists if you are interested in more on these topi...Show More

  • 35

    Curiology (EMOJI) Part 2 with Various Emoji Experts

    Ologies with Alie Ward

    1:11:47 | Jul 12th, 2023

    The thrilling conclusion of all-things-emoji! Eggplants, peaches, jumping ska dudes, gray hearts, family emojis, what NOT to text your Southern Italian friends, yellow hands, red hair, the birth of th...Show More

  • 36

    The spaces we live, work, play in shape our health and our psyche - and healthcare spaces are no different. In this episode, we take a deep, multifaceted look at the field of healthcare architecture. ...Show More

    epekilis recommended:

    Thoughtful in-depth conversation with some experts about the connection between patient-focused health outcomes and architecture. This would be a really good topic for 99% Invisible. The sound quali...Show More

  • 37

    Colonel John Hoffman of the Food Protection and Defense Institute has been advising companies and government on how to harden their cyber functions. Here he deconstructs how JBS came to be hacked and ...Show More

    epekilis recommended:

    Interesting analysis of cyber security threats to the food supply chain.

  • 38

    Dude, Where’s my Carbon?

    Sidedoor

    32:36 | Apr 10th, 2024

    If you’ve bought a plane ticket recently, you’ve probably had the option to pay a few extra dollars to offset your carbon emissions. That money might go toward planting some trees… but how many trees?...Show More

  • 39

    Reporter Emmett Fitzgerald was used to hearing people call his home state of Vermont a “climate haven.” But last summer, he got a wake up call in the form of a devastating flood.

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