SPEAKER_02: Every kid learns differently, so it's really important that your children have the educational support that they need to help them keep up and excel. If your child needs homework help, check out iXcel, the online learning platform for kids. iXcel covers math, language arts, science, and social studies through interactive practice problems from pre-K to 12th grade. As kids practice, they get positive feedback and even awards. With the school year ramping up, now is the best time to get iXcel. Our listeners can get an exclusive 20% off iXcel membership when they sign up today at iXcel.com slash invisible. That's the letters iXcel dot com slash invisible. Squarespace is the all in one platform for building your brand and growing your business online. Stand out with a beautiful website, engage with your audience and sell anything. Your products, content you create and even your time. You can easily display posts from your social profiles on your website or share new blogs or videos to social media. Automatically push website content to your favorite channels so your followers can share it too. Go to squarespace dot com slash invisible for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use the offer code invisible to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars. Rock, paper, scissors is an elegant game dating back a couple thousand years. It hasn't always been rock, paper or scissors, but the principles were always the same. Conflicting items in opposition thrown by hand simultaneously with a zero sum outcome. You win, you lose, you draw. It's so simple and straightforward that anyone can understand it and play it, which is why it is spread everywhere in the world. The only nonintuitive aspect is the fact that paper beats rock, which defies our lived experience with both papers and rocks. But I'm not here to nitpick for as long as rock, paper, scissors has existed. It's been useful as a peaceful way to settle disputes. It's not as random as a coin toss because you're playing against another human. It has enough randomness to feel fair, but enough skill to feel satisfying. Which leads us to one of the most high stakes game of rock, paper, scissors I've ever heard of. Reported by our own Joe Rosenberg, originally for the brilliant, brilliant show Snap Judgment. Here's Joe Rosenberg.
SPEAKER_07: So our story is going to start with this guy.
SPEAKER_05: Oh Lord, I'm practically making love to this microphone now. His name is Jonathan Rendell.
SPEAKER_05: I'm a deputy chairman of Christie's in America who spent a lot of his time in the late 80s, early 90s selling material to Japan. Material meaning art. And in the mid 90s to the mid 2000s going back to Japan to get everything back that I'd sold to them 10 years before. The extraordinary thing was you'd go to a trunk room. Which looks like that last scene in the Raiders of the Lost Ark. You know, there's things in boxes going on forever. And open a box and in the box would be a work of art or several works of art. And you'd pick the object up and you'd look on the back of it and you would find your handwriting from 10 years ago. That's so surreal. It really is like kind of this weird ebb and flow of prestige between people.
SPEAKER_07: And so long as you're the middleman, you know, you'll be all right in the end. Yeah, absolutely. The beauty of the bubble market.
SPEAKER_07: But of course, Christie's did not have this wonderful pie all to itself. It's a market that is really a duopoly between two auction house giants.
SPEAKER_05: There's Christie's and then there's the other place.
SPEAKER_07: You mean Sotheby's? Yeah. It's like saying my opponent instead of, yeah. No, that's actually how one normally refers to it. The other place.
SPEAKER_05: So it's sort of friendly-ish rivalry. I wouldn't say it was entirely friendly.
SPEAKER_07: In Sotheby's and Christie's, you see, there was one collection they both had their eyes on. The Mas Prodenko corporate collection was a jewel in the crown.
SPEAKER_05: It had everything that one wanted to sell at that precise moment. You know, the Cezanne, the Picasso, the Van Gogh, their trophy names. And most importantly? It was $20 million worth of business.
SPEAKER_07: There was just one problem. Mr. Hashiyama, the CEO who had founded the collection, he was really chummy with Sotheby's. They'd known him for years. If Christie's wanted that $20 million worth of business, they were going to have to win him over.
SPEAKER_08: It was very, very hard job for me, Mr. Hashiyama. This is Kanae Ishibashi. She worked at Christie's Tokyo office alongside Jonathan.
SPEAKER_07: Just think of her as the client whisperer. She'd been paying visits to Mr. Hashiyama since almost her first day on the job. But he'd been proving tricky.
SPEAKER_08: He really doesn't sort of talk about business. We talked about art and music and, you know, his great passion for dinosaurs. You know, we could spend hours laughing. So he told me that when his company was listed in a stock market, which was a very, very important incident, he chose the insurance company by throwing dice. Yes. So when I heard that story, I found it really funny. And, you know, he's a bit sort of eccentric and all that. But we couldn't really read where his mind was. First of all, how many, over how many years?
SPEAKER_07: Were you doing this?
SPEAKER_08: I think we'd spent six years. Six years? Yeah, meeting with Mr. Hashiyama before the auction. That's incredible.
SPEAKER_07: And meanwhile, though, you're not the only person meeting with him, I would take it.
SPEAKER_08: No, no, no, no. Sotheby's, they were there all the time.
SPEAKER_07: And after both houses had finally given their big presentations on why Mr. Hashiyama should choose them and not, you know, the other place.
SPEAKER_05: He came back with this extraordinary request.
SPEAKER_08: I received a call from Mr. Hashiyama in the office. And he said, in order to determine which auction house to handle collection, I would like both of you, Christies and Sotheby's, to play the game Rock, Paper, Scissors.
SPEAKER_07: Yes, you heard her right. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. Mr. Hashiyama wanted the two biggest auction houses in the world to play a $20 million game of Rochambeau.
SPEAKER_05: I think there was a moment of silence and surprise. And then... What? That's it. I didn't really reply back to him.
SPEAKER_08: I couldn't really answer him, like, why are you doing this? And, you know, we can't really do that. I couldn't believe it. You know, it's a very difficult question.
SPEAKER_05: You know, we didn't know what to do. But it was very clear that it was a very serious request from the client. And so when a client asks you to do something, you just get on and do it.
SPEAKER_07: Here's how it would work. Each side, Christies and Sotheby's, would have the weekend to come up with their choice of, quote, unquote, weapon. Then, on Monday morning, they would meet at the mass pro dango offices in Tokyo. And there, they would duel.
SPEAKER_05: This was one game, and Kanae's job was to write down one word on a piece of paper. And that word had to be either rock or paper or scissors. So we started compulsively playing rock, paper, scissors, trying to work out, how do we win this? Is there some secret to this? How bad are you going to feel? How idiotic are you going to look in front of your colleagues when you've lost a collection for a child's game?
SPEAKER_08: I don't really remember those three days. I mean, I was under enormous pressure to think what would be the best strategy. But my struggle was always that I knew that there is no strategy because it's just a pure chance. So constantly, whenever I had some moment on a train or walking in the streets, I suddenly sort of thought about rock, paper, scissors. I had to contemplate between choices. I think it's paper. No, no, no, I think it's rock. Then I said, no, no, no, no, no, I shouldn't do it because there is no answer. There is no answer. Let's stop. But then, even though I tried not to think about it, I couldn't really forget about rock, paper, scissors from my mind. Do you think Mr. Hashiyama, do you think he was just sitting back,
SPEAKER_07: rubbing his hands together mischievously? I don't know. I don't know. I really don't know.
SPEAKER_08: And meanwhile, of course, she was getting all kinds of advice.
SPEAKER_07: Every time I walked past Kanae, I was constantly like,
SPEAKER_05: why don't we go with rock? It's the strong thing. And then there was this guy.
SPEAKER_07: My name's Nate McLean. Her boss at the Christie's offices in New York.
SPEAKER_06: Where we ran the impressionist and modern art department. Did you have an opinion about which to choose?
SPEAKER_06: No, but obviously the first thing I did when I got home, I was telling my wife about this. And my daughters.
SPEAKER_09: I'm Flora. I'm Alice. They were 11 then. They're 20 now.
SPEAKER_07: And the fun fact about them is... We are twins.
SPEAKER_09: Are you identical twins? Yeah, very identical. One's left-handed, one's right-handed.
SPEAKER_06: Miro twins. And we were in the kitchen of our home in New York.
SPEAKER_09: And he was saying, I've got a bit of an issue. Sotheby's is going to get the steal. We were like, oh yeah, we hate Sotheby's.
SPEAKER_06: And they came back to me quite promptly and said, you know, dad, everybody knows you start with scissors. Yeah, scissors is the pretty standard move.
SPEAKER_06: So I said, well, how does that work? And they said, well, most people like the idea of going with rock.
SPEAKER_09: But because they were like super clever Sotheby's, we're like, oh, they're going to bluff. So Sotheby's would choose paper.
SPEAKER_06: But you then double bluff by getting scissors and scissors cuts paper. And I said, all right, that sounds good. I said, what if they go scissors? They said, you go scissors again. Because that's what I do.
SPEAKER_09: Yeah, you just stick with scissors and see what happens.
SPEAKER_07: At which point Nick called up Kanae. And he said, Kanae, scissors.
SPEAKER_08: I think scissors is a thing. And at that point, we get into the theater of the absurd.
SPEAKER_05: You know, we're about to do this massive piece of business. And we're listening to the advice of 11-year-olds. Would you have been willing to go with Alice and Flora's choice,
SPEAKER_07: regardless of what it would have been? Would that have struck you as like a-
SPEAKER_05: At least I'd have had someone else to blame if it was wrong.
SPEAKER_08: But I wouldn't feel with my gut that scissors are the best choice. Or rather, I would say, I reached the point where the situation got beyond my capacity. I think I didn't quite sleep a few days. But on that Sunday evening, I slept for a few hours. And then suddenly, my husband came up in my dream. He said, Kanae. And he told me what choice I should come up with. Then I woke up and I saw the window and the sky was beginning to light up. I didn't look at the time, but I felt really sort of refreshed. Somehow, my husband's voice really struck me. And I didn't even think about, you know, right or wrong. But I felt that it was a choice for me and I would go for it.
SPEAKER_05: So Monday morning, the car comes to pick me up with her in it, and we start driving off towards the Mas Prodenko office.
SPEAKER_07: And did she tell you what she decided? No.
SPEAKER_05: She didn't? No. She was keeping her cards very close to her chest. Did you prod her? Like, oh, come on, can I just tell me what she wanted me to do?
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, of course. But you know, you try and get a secret out of her. She won't tell you.
SPEAKER_05: At that point, would you have... Happily got out of the car and walked away? Yes. Why would you want to walk away, though?
SPEAKER_07: I feel like the tension might be unbearable, but how could you possibly not want to be there in that room? Yeah, but it might be like watching a kitten being steam-releted as well.
SPEAKER_05: Because if the pressure was big on me, it was absolutely massive on her. So she had prepared herself and was sort of entering a semi-Zen state. So we arrive. We're shown to a waiting room. Then the two people from Sotheby's arrive. Do you recognize the two people from Sotheby's? Yeah. You know, I knew who they were. But it's hardly the moment for, you know, hi, how are you? More sort of a grunt. So we sit one side of the table, they sit the other side of the table, and there are two accountants and a fax machine. And somewhere on the other side of the fax machine, Mr. Hashiyama himself waiting for the results.
SPEAKER_07: And we're told to write down the word.
SPEAKER_05: And Jonathan actually looked at me, and beneath the table, he showed me rock with his hand.
SPEAKER_08: And his eyes were very sharp. And he nodded to me once. I think he nodded to make sure that it was a good decision. And she's just saying nothing, so...
SPEAKER_07: Nothing. Nothing.
SPEAKER_05: And she goes ahead and writes down a word. Can you see what word she wrote? It's in kanji. I don't read Japanese. But looking at the face of the accountant holding the piece of paper, you could tell nothing. He was totally inscrutable. He looks at it, what was probably 30 seconds, and your heart's in your mouth.
SPEAKER_08: And then a mass pro person opened the envelope, and he said, Sotheby's, paper, Christie's, scissors. And then they look at Kanae and say, you won.
SPEAKER_05: And it was like a huge, a huge weight had gone off her shoulders.
SPEAKER_08: But after we went outside the building, we screamed.
SPEAKER_05: Saved by Kanae. Completely saved by Kanae.
SPEAKER_07: Would you be deputy chairman of Christie's if you had gone for rock? No, I suspect I might still be there, but I probably wouldn't be quite where I am now.
SPEAKER_07: Really, it really would have had that kind of effect. It would have been a huge career block. You just lost a great big deal.
SPEAKER_05: Obviously, he should have come to us first.
SPEAKER_09: You never go paper. Paper just sounds like it's not going to win. It's a weak move.
SPEAKER_07: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, why not paper? Because the other person's going to stick with scissors?
SPEAKER_09: It's just a weak move.
SPEAKER_07: Whether Mr. Hashiyama himself would agree with that, we don't know. But Kanae would meet him again at the art auction in New York.
SPEAKER_08: And normally, clients, they demand the very best restaurants in New York. But he said, well, I would have a steak. So we went to the real New York steakhouse, having crumb chowder and steak together. And it was a very simple dinner, but it was very nice. Did he ever talk about rock, paper, scissors again? Or did you ever bring it up?
SPEAKER_08: No, he never brought it up and I didn't talk about it. But two years later, Mr. Hashiyama passed away. And that was the last time I saw him.
SPEAKER_07: Today, Kanae Ishibashi has quit the auction business entirely. She now runs a music school with her husband in Tokyo. And as for Nick's twin daughters, Alice and Flora? Shortly after the art auction, Time magazine ran a section called Quotes of the Week. The Pope was there. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
SPEAKER_06: I think the president and Alice McLean. She has a framed.
SPEAKER_09: Yep, it's framed in the house. What was her quote?
SPEAKER_06: Everybody knows you go scissors.
SPEAKER_02: This story was first reported by Karen Vogel at The New York Times. And Joe Rosenberg first produced it for Snap Judgment, a show that I love, love, love. We have a link to Snap and the original Times article on our website. Coming up after the break, in the Marvel movie Shang-Chi, there's an epic fight on a runaway bus careening down the hills of San Francisco. It is a great scene that we will make even better when we have an SFMUNI bus driver tell you how that would really go down after this. The International Rescue Committee works in more than 40 countries to serve people whose lives have been upended by conflict and disaster. Over 110 million people are displaced around the world. And the IRC urgently needs your help to meet this unprecedented need. The IRC aims to respond within 72 hours after an emergency strikes, and they stay as long as they are needed. Some of the IRC's most important work is addressing the inequalities facing women and girls, ensuring safety from harm, improving health outcomes, increasing access to education, improving economic well-being, and ensuring women and girls have the power to influence decisions that affect their lives. Generous people around the world give to the IRC to help families affected by humanitarian crises with emergency supplies. Your generous donation will give the IRC steady, reliable support, allowing them to continue their ongoing humanitarian efforts even as they respond to emergencies. Donate today by visiting rescue.org slash rebuild. Donate now and help refugee families in need. If you want to give your body the nutrients it craves and the energy it needs, there's Kachava. It's a plant-based super blend made up of super foods, greens, proteins, omegas, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and probiotics. In other words, it's all your daily nutrients in a glass. Some folks choose to take it as the foundation of a healthy breakfast or lunch, while others lean on it as a delicious protein-packed snack to curb cravings and reduce grazing. If you're in a hurry, you can just add two scoops of Kachava super blend to ice water or your favorite milk or milk alternative and just get going. But I personally like to blend it with greens and fruit and ice. You know, treat yourself nice. Take a minute and treat yourself right. You'll get all the stuff that you need and feel great. Kachava is offering 10% off for a limited time. Just go to kachava.com slash invisible, spelled K-A-C-H-A-V-A, and get 10% off your first order. That's K-A-C-H-A-V-A dot com slash invisible. Kachava dot com slash invisible. Chances are you're listening to 99% invisible on your phone, probably while you're on the go. Think of all that you do on your phone the moment you leave your front door, whether it's looking up directions, scrolling social media, or listening to your favorite podcast. It requires an amazing network. That's why you should switch to T-Mobile. T-Mobile covers more highway miles with 5G than anyone else and helps keep you connected with 5G from the driveway to the highway and the miles in between. Because your phone should just work where you are, it's your lifeline to pretty much everything you didn't bring with you. So next time you head out, whether you're taking a trip or going to work or just running errands, remember T-Mobile has got you covered. Find out more at T-Mobile dot com slash network and switch to the network that covers more highway miles with 5G than anyone else. Coverage is not available in some areas. See 5G details at T-Mobile dot com.
SPEAKER_02: I am extremely grateful that podcasting is as popular as it is. I get to have this career talking to you. It's the best. But with the rise of podcasting comes an unexpected side effect. The sudden appearance of characters in movies and TV that are podcasters. They're usually played for laughs as one dimensional parodies. I really don't care. I find it fun. I'm totally into it. That show only murders in the building. It is great. It is so funny. Not one second of it resembles actual podcasting. But I do not care at all. It is a delightful show. But there's one thing that does stick out to me when a podcaster is shown on screen that bugs me just a little bit. And it is this. They never know how to hold a microphone in the real world. If you're recording anything, you generally have to be in a quiet place and you have to put the mic right next to the sound. When you mic your voice, the mic is right next to your face. Fictional podcasters usually have bad mics and they're pointed in random directions far away from the source of sound. Plus, they often record narration in noisy environments like when they're driving a car. It's just ridiculous. And when the mic is in the wrong place on screen, it's kind of all I can see. I'm not so much of a grumpy pedant that it ruins anything for me, but it's just where my mind goes. I watch movies from the perspective of a podcaster. I assume this is true for almost any profession, be it a police officer or a doctor or a city bus driver. Which leads me to one of my favorite things to ever happen on Twitter. A couple months ago, San Francisco Muni bus driver Mac Allen tweeted one of the all-time great Twitter threads dissecting the thrilling runaway bus fight scene in Marvel's Shang-Chi. To begin with, I should say that Mac loves this whole action sequence, but like all movies, they took some liberties when it came to accurately depicting the operation of a San Francisco Muni bus. So I asked him to come on the show to talk to me about it. So the action in the scene really starts when Shang-Chi is surrounded by bad guys trying to grab his magical necklace and he summons all his power and he punches one of them in the chest. And the bad guy flies back like 10 feet. And what do you write about this shot?
SPEAKER_03: This is the moment as a bus operator, I pop my parking brake and open the doors. Once you have a fight on the bus, you don't want the bus to be moving and you want people to be able to get off. This is bus operator Mac Allen talking me through some of the highlights of his Twitter thread.
SPEAKER_03: Then we see somebody is recording a video of the fight. Yo, what up, y'all? It's your boy, Cliff, coming at you live on the bus.
SPEAKER_04: I actually did take a little bit of martial arts as a youth, so I'm going to try and grade this fight as we're going. It's my opinion that this would definitely happen for sure.
SPEAKER_03: As soon as there's a fight on the bus, people are going to be taking video. Then the action ratchets up another level when the main antagonist in the fight reveals his energy sword arm, a character named Razor Fist. And he literally is cutting through the floor of the bus. As a bus operator, I'm looking at this and I see that he's got non-slip boots that look like they're really excellent for working on a bus. So that's my comment on Razor Fist. Good shoes for a fight. And he actually cuts through the floor of the bus and cuts through the air hose that feeds the air brakes for the bus. Then we get to see my hero of the scene, the bus operator.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe a little bit of a bumbling anti-hero, Michael Anthony Taylor, who is wearing earphones, is pushing on the pedal of the brake, the treatle, and the bus will not stop. He actually takes out his earphones and throws them away. And this is where I start to hold the bus operator responsible for everything that goes wrong from here on out. So one, he shouldn't be wearing headphones.
SPEAKER_02: You know, that's not allowed at Muni.
SPEAKER_03: We're not allowed to have any personal electronic devices on our person in any way. And we're certainly not allowed to muffle sounds that we might need to hear. And you mentioned that the brake pedal is called a treatle.
SPEAKER_02: I'd never heard that term before. Yeah, there's a bunch of weird sort of inherited terms.
SPEAKER_03: I think some of them actually come from like the early days of railroads. Our schedules are called paddles and the brake is called a treatle. They are different than the hydraulic brakes in a car. The emergency function of it fails safe in a very important way that we as bus operators have to be aware of all the time. Because if that failsafe engages when we aren't ready for it, it can be very dangerous. So air brakes actually have a failsafe called the spring brake, which is a physical lever that will engage into the brakes to stop the wheels from turning. And that spring brake is held open, not engaging on the wheel by air pressure.
SPEAKER_03: So we use air pressure to engage the regular brake, the service brake that actually we use to like slow the bus and stop the bus in normal service. And that is engaged by adding air pressure to the service brake. The spring brake is held open by that same air pressure. So if you lose air pressure, then the spring brake, which a physical spring pushes on it, will engage the brakes. We really don't want that to happen normally while the bus is in motion because it will violently and immediately stop the bus. It's not something that comes on slowly, it comes on at once. So we actually have a audible and visual warning for low air pressure that alerts us before the spring brake is actually going to engage.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah. So there's air pressure in the system that makes the normal way we think of as a brake work work by using pressure.
SPEAKER_02: It makes a brake pads go against wheels and it slows down. But if the pressure is cut, if little razor arm cuts through the hose, then it then it releases all the air from the system. And then this spring brake system activates and then it's physically impossible for the wheels to move at that point. The bus just stops. It's dead. It's dead. And it doesn't move. That bus is not moving. And it doesn't matter if you're at the very peak of California pointing down, it's not going anywhere. That's right.
SPEAKER_03: And that's a perfect place to resume the thread because that's where we find ourselves on the One California. And actually, this is an excellent point about the scene is that the bus that they're using for the One California is a diesel hybrid articulated motor coach. And the actual One California is a trolley coach and uses trolley poles to draw electricity from the overhead wires. And we never see any overhead wires in Shang-Chi. I think because the overhead wires would legitimately be a very dangerous thing to try and film around if you're doing stunt driving. Trolley coaches everywhere are offended that they've been sidelined. I love trolley coaches, but I don't drive them.
SPEAKER_02: You mentioned that it was articulating, which means that it's one of those buses that has like two sections of the bus and a little accordion thing between them so that it can be a very long bus and still navigate normal sized streets. In bus operator parlance, we call those artics, which is just short for articulated.
SPEAKER_03: A lot of people like to call them bindi buses. My kids call them bindi buses. They're called accordion buses, and some people also call them slinky buses. They're all delightful, whatever their name.
SPEAKER_02: So the scene goes on and your commentary continues. And there are parts where you lay a little more blame on the bus driver for not wearing a seatbelt and such. And you heap some unexpected praise on how well Aquafina can operate the bus and also use the little lever that opens the front back to worse, which I learned from you is a pretty tricky thing to do. And it's all really fun to talk about what is realistic and what isn't. But you're very clear through all of this that it is done out of love. Like this is a great scene that you really enjoy. Oh, it's fantastic. It's phenomenal.
SPEAKER_03: I enjoyed every moment of it. And I love that the bus is a hero in the movie. You know, it really is a hero in the movie and buses really are heroes of the city. So I was extremely pleased. And, you know, we didn't mention any of the fight choreography or anything like that, but it's incredible. You know, throughout the entire scene is incredibly enjoyable. I loved it. It's so good. It's so good.
SPEAKER_02: Whenever there's a viral thread, there's this joke that people are supposed to plug their SoundCloud at the end. But you use that space to encourage people to thank their bus operator. Can you describe why you did that and what that means to you?
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, as a bus operator, it's actually sometimes kind of lonely. A lot of times you're not really aware of whether people are even aware that a person is doing this work to serve the system. So receiving just a simple thank you actually feels like a little boost. You feel a little bit better in your day as that happens. And I moved to the Bay Area 21 years ago in Oakland and riding AC Transit.
SPEAKER_03: An AC Transit operator actually taught me as like a 17 year old kid, you know, when you get off the bus, say thank you, operator. And I've I've kept that habit ever since. And now as a mani operator myself, I'm now trying to make it a habit to thank the passengers for riding me. But I do think it really sort of makes you feel more human in the operator's seat when somebody recognizes that you're that you're providing that service. And so I think, you know, thank you, operator, should be the last thing you do is you get off the bus.
SPEAKER_02: You can follow Mac Allen at that underscore MC on Twitter, where you can find this whole hilarious thread and so many more daily insights from the perspective of an SFMUNI bus driver. Thank you, operator. 99% Invisible was produced this week by Joe Rosenberg. Music by Swan Riel. Delaney Hall is the executive producer. Kurt Kohlstedt is our digital director. The rest of the team includes Vivian Lay, Chris Berube, Christopher Johnson, Emmett Fitzgerald, Lasha Madon, Jason De Leon, Martine Gonzalez, Sophia Klatsker and me, Roman Mars. Special thanks this week to Glenn Washington and Pat Mesiti Miller at Snap Judgment and Mac Allen from SFMUNI. We are part of the Stitcher and Sirius XM podcast family now headquartered six blocks north in the Pandora building in beautiful uptown Oakland, California. You can find the show and join discussions about the show on Facebook. You can tweet at me at Roman Mars and the show at 99pi.org, run Instagram and write it, too. You can find links to other Stitcher shows I love as well as every past episode of 99pi at 99pi.org.
SPEAKER_07: Coming up this year from 99% Invisible and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a new four part podcast series called The Future of...
SPEAKER_02: I like to say the dot, dot, dots. We'll be exploring how changes in the way we live, learn, work and play may shape our health and well-being in years to come. Our first episode is all about the future of the office. It turns out people have been going back and forth about what makes a healthy and productive office since there have been offices.
SPEAKER_01: Just to give one example.
SPEAKER_02: This is design writer and friend of the show, Alison Ariyev. So, you know, Facebook, when they were first emerging as a company, they bought the old Sun Microsystems building in Menlo Park and doubled the amount of people in the same office space.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, they didn't pitch it that way. They said, oh, my God, this is so amazing. We have all this collaborative collisions and spontaneous interactions because everyone's in here. And then they hired Frank Gehry to design this giant warehouse next to Sun Microsystems. And to me, that building looks exactly like the rows of desks of like little telephone banks that secretaries had in the 1950s. But it was supposed to be so radical and so amazing that everybody was on the same floor and they were all going to be so innovative. But it's like so retrograde. So I think there's always this tension between the narrative and reality about what the office is achieving.
SPEAKER_02: The 20th century was full of misbegotten fads and productivity innovations that continue to this day, even when the whole notion of what it means to be in an office has shifted during the pandemic. This special episode is part of a four part series we created exploring the future of health and well-being, imagining what the world might look like in the next 15 years. Each episode examines what we've done in the past and what we do today to create a healthier, more equitable future. The future of...from 99% Invisible and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. We'll be releasing these throughout the year. The first episode on offices premieres next week. To not miss a single episode, all you have to do is keep listening to 99% Invisible. Great sleep can be hard to come by these days and finding the right mattress feels totally overwhelming. Serta's new and improved Perfect Sleeper is a simple solution designed to support all sleep positions. With zoned comfort, memory foam and a cool to the touch cover, the Serta Perfect Sleeper means more restful nights and more rested days. Find your comfort at Serta.com
SPEAKER_04: Welcome to Hampton by Hilton. Don't forget about our free hot breakfast.
SPEAKER_03: Hilton for the stay.
SPEAKER_00: At Discount Tire, we know your time is valuable. Get 30% shorter average wait time when you buy and book online. Did you know Discount Tire now sells wiper blades? Check out our current deals at DiscountTire.com or stop in and talk to an associate today. Discount Tire. Let's get you taken care of.
