Scientists, artists and some of the world’s biggest companies are carving up the visual spectrum, and claiming certain colours as their own, so who does have a right to use the colours of the rainbow?...Show More
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
Here at 99% Invisible, we think about color a lot, so it was really exciting when we came across a beautiful book called The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair It’s this amazing collection of s...Show More
One of our most popular episodes of all time was our Colors episode, where we introduced you to a sea creature that could see a rainbow far beyond what humans can experience. Peacock mantis shrimps ar...Show More
The story of a color marked by effort and desire. For more, check out Carol Mavor's book, Blue Mythologies. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Acc...Show More
Pigments color the world all around us, but where do those colors come from? Historically, they’ve come from crushed sea snails, beetles, and even ground-up mummies. But new pigments are still being d...Show More
What took blue food so long to catch on? Today it’s all over the freezer aisle, in candies for kids, in tortilla chips, and novelty foods, but it wasn’t very long ago that food experts agreed: blue fo...Show More
From the mid 1970s to the mid ‘80s, red M&M’s disappeared. American consumers had become worried about the safety of red food coloring after some questionable Russian studies prompted the FDA to look ...Show More
Through the 1800s, babies in the U.S. were dressed in gender neutral clothing — you couldn’t tell the girls from the boys based on their outfits. So why did parents start color-coding their kids in pi...Show More
It's World Pride month and all things rainbow! This week's minisode discusses the origin of the multicolored pride flag emblazoned upon innumerable garments to be worn this month. Learn more about yo...Show More
When facing a novel and uncertain situation, the brain secretly disambiguates the ambiguous without letting you know it was ever uncertain in the first place, leading people who disambiguate different...Show More