99% Invisible

That's pages 499 to 606 in my book and later in this episode our special book club guest is Mike Shorter He is the creator behind beloved sitcoms like parks and recreation the good place Brooklyn 99

I love it's such a it's such a New York II way to say it

And then the next paragraph starts the new parkways solve the problem for about three weeks and this is I love it's such a it's such a New York II way to say it

But I mean apparently probably part of the procedure who knows anyway but the I I also just like this this part of this doesn't work on me I mean I own a couple of cars you know like a big family but I do not enjoy driving

I've gone on trips where I have to drive down Canal Street and it takes more than 26 minutes because it's so incredibly traffic jam

What struck me about this book from the beginning was I knew who Robert Caro was. I had never read his books, but like I'd known a little bit about his story.

The very first thing is just it's kind of he's realizing a dream for so many of us, you know, like the idea of turning every page is a real luxury.

It kind of has the vague shape of a conspiracy theory like instead of you know infrastructure being done by committee and through goodwill and trying to make the world better place.

The truth is that real conspiracies operate like this in sort of banal ways in paper pushing and behind the scenes meetings and you know through the New York Times and it's like it takes however many pages several hundred over a thousand something.

It's almost like you are vaccinating someone against that conspiracy theory with another conspiracy that is kind of a dead conspiracy.

I love this book.

I feel great. I do think that I mean in my sort of public persona, especially on my podcast, I do talk about my love of like, you know, city subways and urbanism and you know thing like some maybe that's.

Well, I don't know. Do you want my life story here? It's not going to be that long but so I'm the child of two New York City journalists reporters.

I've been very very just adorably listening to the stuff you guys have put out so far.

I think I made the right choice, will see what life turns out. I mean dionetics is got a got a big volcano on the cover that's pretty exciting.

If you haven't already pick up a copy of The Power Broker by Robert Carroll and join our Power broker book club new episodes of the 99% visible breakdown of The Power Broker hosted by me and Elliot Kalin.

If you haven't already done so You should pick up a copy of The Power Broker by Robert Caro And join our year-long Power Broker book club New episodes of the 99% visible breakdown of The Power Broker Hosted by me and Elliot Kalin Will drop monthly right here in this feed It is so much fun I hope you can join us

You can find us on all the usual social media And we just started up a 99PI Discord server Come join me and the rest of the staff To talk about The Power Broker You know, what you've been reading Architecture, recommendations, books, podcasts You're listening to, anything As long as it is, you know, fun and nice You can find a link to that As well as every past episode of 99PI At 99PI.org

If you haven't already, pick up your copy of The Power Broker by Robert Caro, and you can join our Power Broker discussion book club.

You can talk about architecture, you can talk about books, you can talk about movies, as long as you're nice, you can talk about whatever you want to.

I learned about The Power Broker when I first started to cover cities and infrastructure on the radio, this massive book that's about 1,200 pages long is the most important and complete explanation of how cities are formed, how neighborhoods are destroyed

Bridges are erected, roads are laid down, parks are designed, fortunes are made, lives are ruined, and power is amassed.

The Power Broker, which is subtitled Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, changed all that. It is a tour de force of journalism, history, and biography.

I also think it is really fun to read and is strongly in contention for the best book ever written.

He's the man behind the parks. He's the man who builds parks, he builds bridges, he builds roads and he wants to build this enormous bridge across the Long Island Sound.

Robert Caro says how did this guy get this power?

Robert Caro is the closest thing to like a geological formation, his work, his body of work feels like we're watching this eruption of lava that takes and moving of tectonic plates that's going to build something and it's gonna last as long as civilization lasts.

I've read it once before and you've read it once before we're reading again for the project of this podcast which, thank you Roman for asking me to be part of this, because for years I said I'm gonna reread The Power Broker someday.

It's an amazing story about how power works and what one person can do to completely change the face of an American city, and I'm telling you it's riveting and it's powerful.

pages 703 to 806 in my book and later in this episode our special guest is Shiloh Frederick

pages 703 to 806 in my book

I think this is where I'm getting off the train. We're getting out of the car

I'm gonna take you talk to you about bank finances

the city section of

I've read it. It's so good. It's daunting but power through it. It really is worth it.

He has a voracious appetite for power and a voracious appetite for work

loves it like he wants it. He wants to be doing this

They did not have to evict from their homes tens of thousands of protesting voters... demolish those homes...tunnel under or cut across subways and elevated railroads...sewers and water mains and gas mains and telephone and electric conduits and cables...

You have to hack your way with a meat axe.

The only consideration that mattered was Robert Moses's will

So on the show last year as a project, we read The Power Broker over a year. That is a person in Robert Moses who both built things and bragged about them quite a lot.

This is a special bonus episode of the 99% Invisible Breakdown of The Power Broker.

One of the questions we want to start with was just about our impressions of the book. We've each read it three times... what is your favorite part of The Power Broker?

I think the end is more fun for me than previous... because I was looking for plot details of his fall and not relishing the details of it.

Also while you're at it go read his other books to Shady Characters and the book. They're all so good any 99p I fan will love them

Also while you're at it go read his other books to Shady Characters and the book. They're all so good any 99p I fan will love them

He's a returning 99 PI guest and author of the book Shady Characters.

He's the author of a book called Shady Characters, the secret life of punctuation symbols and other typographical marks.

It's got a whole chapter on this symbol. And it has a lot of other random uses as well.

This is Keith Houston, author of the book Shady Characters, The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks. He says that while punctuation crept into writing systems around the 3rd century BCE, the rules that governed them remained both complex and inconsistent well into the 11th and 12th centuries.

She's the author of The Design of Childhood. And like me, Alexandra loves Sesame Street.

It's right there in the subtitle of my book.

She's the author of The Design of Childhood. And like me, Alexandra loves Sesame Street.

It's right there in the subtitle of my book.

His other podcast and most recent book is called the Anthropocene reviewed

His other podcast and most recent book is called the Anthropocene reviewed

It is everything I love about everything if you like 99 PI you will love the Anthropocene reviewed

his other podcast and most recent book is called the Anthropocene reviewed

It is everything I love about everything if you like 99 PI you will love the Anthropocene reviewed But in the meantime, here's me guest hosting dear Hank and John with John green. Enjoy

I love this show. It's by John Green. He's the author of best-selling books like The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All The Way Down.

It is everything I love about everything if you like 99 PI you will love The Anthropocene Reviewed

His other podcast and most recent book is called The Anthropocene Reviewed

It is everything I love about everything if you like 99 PI you will love The Anthropocene Reviewed

his other podcast and most recent book is called The Anthropocene Reviewed

It is everything I love about everything if you like 99 PI you will love The Anthropocene Reviewed But in the meantime, here's me guest hosting dear Hank and John with John green. Enjoy

my book and podcast, The Anthropocene Reviewed, which is actually one of my favorite episodes.

He wrote The Grid.

Journalist Upton Sinclair's bestselling novel, The Jungle, was meant to raise the alarm of the unsanitary and appalling working conditions at meat processing plants.

There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it and thousands of rats would race about on it.

In 1904, the journalist Upton Sinclair went undercover working in meatpacking plants in Chicago. Then he wrote a novel based on his experiences called The Jungle. He described poor, newly arrived immigrants, mostly from Eastern Europe, who worked in dangerous, squalid conditions.

Even if Sinclair's book didn't do exactly what he wanted it to, it was still influential. Federal laws were enacted to enforce inspections and sanitation.

When people are deported in droves, it leaves a vacuum. When refugees aren't allowed to come, it leaves a vacuum. And when there's no one left to slaughter our cows, we're reminded of a truth Upton Sinclair tried to tell us in The Jungle.

In 1904, the journalist Upton Sinclair went undercover working in meatpacking plants in Chicago. Then he wrote a novel based on his experiences called The Jungle. He described poor, newly arrived immigrants, mostly from Eastern Europe, who worked in dangerous, squalid conditions.

But it wasn't those brutal conditions that captured the public's outrage. As Sinclair later said, quote, I aimed at the public's heart and by accident, I hit it in the stomach. Even if Sinclair's book didn't do exactly what he wanted it to, it was still influential.

When people are deported in droves, it leaves a vacuum. When refugees aren't allowed to come, it leaves a vacuum. And when there's no one left to slaughter our cows, we're reminded of a truth Upton Sinclair tried to tell us in The Jungle.

It was believed that isolation would bring the inmate closer to God so you would be locked up with one book guess what book Bible obviously and You were not allowed to talk but you were to reflect upon your sins basically

guess what book? Bible obviously and You were not allowed to talk but you were to reflect upon your sins basically

I only knew one other book that looked like that and that was the Bible. The Bible said Holy Bible, King James edition. And that's all I had on the cover.

I use an example from the book Tristram Shandy by Laurence Stern, which is a hilarious book.

I use an example from the book Tristram Shandy by Laurence Stern, which is a hilarious book.

Nowhere is this more obvious than a rambling, satirical novel called Tristram Shandy, written by Lawrence Stern in 1759.

Yeah, Death and Life of Great American Cities is sort of a city is a neighborhood is a living unit

In 1961, Jacobs compiled these observations and released a book called The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

It is hugely popular, hugely influential. The same way the concepts from The Feminine Mystique are in the air, the concepts from this book are also in the air. It's like the Bible for urbanists.

The Death and Life of Great American Cities was almost a love letter to what the city was already doing right.

In 1961, Jacobs compiled these observations and released a book called The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

It's just one of those books that becomes part of the zeitgeist. It is hugely popular, hugely influential. The same way the concepts from The Feminine Mystique are in the air, the concepts from this book are also in the air. It's like the Bible for urbanists.

The Death and Life of Great American Cities was almost a love letter to what the city was already doing right. And in it, she identified a set of conditions that she observed every thriving city was built on.

What I'm really interested in is not architecture, it's buildings.

The problem with architecture is that it's allergic to time.

Because architects keep being asked to create lasting monuments frozen in time.

Buildings live in time the same way we do.

One of Brands big ideas is that all buildings are predictions for what the future will be like and those predictions are usually wrong.

Proponents of adaptive reuse love to cite Stewart brand and his book and BBC miniseries How Buildings Learn

What I'm really interested in is not architecture its buildings The problem with architecture is that it's allergic to time Because architects keep being asked to create lasting monuments frozen in time. The buildings have no such presumption Buildings live in time the same way we do

One of brands big ideas is that all buildings are predictions for what the future will be like and those predictions are usually wrong The basic functions and uses of most buildings change in pretty radical ways over their lifespans a

In How Buildings Learn Stewart Brand talks about how for a building to be long-lasting It needs to be flexible a great example of this are old Victorian townhouses in San Francisco

Stuart Brand's really excellent book, How Buildings Learn, was actually coined by a man named Elmer Frey.

But Brand points out that these initial modules are actually rich with potential too. As he puts it, a smaller unit can become the, quote, seed around which a larger home grows.

Robert wrote an excellent book called On Trails I cannot recommend it highly enough.

you write in your book that the Appalachian Trail like it really started as this radical idea It was the first really long trail in the US

I first read Robert Moore's book On Trails when it came out back in 2017 and I was immediately pulled in, not just by the writing, which is lovely by the way, but also by Robert's attention to detail.

And I think that the key aspect of a trail is that a trail is a line that evolves. It's something that we follow where each time you walk you're leaving a slight bit of yourself behind and the next person who comes picks up on those signals that you're leaving and they leave their own signals. And over time it keeps changing subtly.

One of the most fascinating parts of On Trails is about a single-celled organism called slime mold.

I first read Robert Moore's book On Trails when it came out back in 2017 and I was immediately pulled in, not just by the writing, which is lovely by the way, but also by Robert's attention to detail.

He has this amazing way of drilling down into some of the smallest, most elemental questions about trails, including possibly the most fundamental question of all. What even is a trail?

Mary Roach author of such books as stiff Gulp and packing for Mars

You should read all of her books She's the best

I would say a couple of success stories. And one of them I don't actually talk about in this book. I talked about it in Gulp.

I would say a couple of success stories. And one of them I don't actually talk about in this book. I talked about it in Gulp. And that's the fecal microbiome transplant, which is to take somebody else's gut bacteria and put it in your own.

Absolutely. I mean, it has these connotations of, you know, Soviet era construction, sometimes third world construction, all these negative associations.

It has a bad name.

Because as soon as you tear them down, then you have a problem, first of all, what you do with the detritus that's left. And secondly, you've got to replace them with something else and use up a whole lot more energy and create a lot more CO2 in building something in that place.

This is Professor Adrian Forty, author of the excellent book, Concrete and Culture.

It has a bad name.

tearing them down is not the answer.

But, Adrian Forty says, tearing them down is not the answer.

This is Professor Adrian Forty, author of the excellent book, Concrete and Culture.

I'm Nicholson Baker, and I am a writer of books, fiction, nonfiction. And I became for a brief period of time a library activist.

We read the Nicholson Baker book in library school.

After this weeding debacle, Nicholson Baker became even more vested in philosophies and practices of archiving and went on to publish a book that touched on all this called Double Fold. It looks at these events in the much broader context of the digitization of libraries.

After this weeding debacle, Nicholson Baker became even more vested in philosophies and practices of archiving and went on to publish a book that touched on all this called Double Fold.

We read the Nicholson Baker book in library school.

It was simply let's get an idea and let's see what we can do here.

The name of my book is Der Giftschrank. Erotik, Sexualwissenschaft, Politik und Literatur. Die weggesperrten Bcher der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek. The Gift Shrunk. Erotics, Sexuality, Politics and Literature. Hidden Books of the Bavarian State Library.

The name of my book is Der Giftschrank. Erotik, Sexualwissenschaft, Politik und Literatur. Die weggesperrten Bcher der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek. The Gift Shrunk. Erotics, Sexuality, Politics and Literature. Hidden Books of the Bavarian State Library.

That's Stefan Kellner, a staff historian at the Bavarian State Library and author of a book about its gift shrunk.

The name of my book is Der Giftschrank. Erotik, Sexualwissenschaft, Politik und Literatur. Die weggesperrten Bcher der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek. The Gift Shrunk. Erotics, Sexuality, Politics and Literature. Hidden Books of the Bavarian State Library.

I mean, I'm fond of paraphrasing the famous lines from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. You know, it appears that any nation in possession of an empire must be in want of an obelisk.

One writer who used the dash in this way was Jane Austen. In Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813, the arrival of the handsome Wickham causes a stir ... Austen uses dashes to redact the letters in the name of the army regiment he is about to join.

As Herman Melville put it in Moby Dick, these brave houses and flowery gardens came from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. But in all, they were harpooned and dragged up hither from the bottom of the sea.

It's one of my favorite passages about who on the boat got to eat butter for dinner.

And, you know, the captain gets butter. And then as you go down the chain of command, eventually it gets down to Flask, who does not get butter.

And it has one of my favorite sentences in all of Moby Dick, which was, Flask alas was a butterless man.

Herman Melville was undoubtedly a fan. Moby Dick clocks in with one dash every 129 words.

Like the quintessential example from my life is that when I was a teenager, I hated The Great Gatsby. I thought it was...

I wrote a paper that I still have, that I should destroy before I die, but I wrote a paper that I still have in which I called The Great Gatsby a bunch of rich Yankees with Yankee problems.

And like the lack of understanding in that characterization of The Great Gatsby is a reminder that like one star Goodreads reviews are not necessarily reflective of the quality of a work.

Fitzgerald describes this in The Great Gatsby, it's just this nightmarish wasteland.