Alphabetical Order
99% Invisible1 Des 2021

Alphabetical Order

In much of the western world, alphabetical order is simply a default we take for granted. It’s often the one we try first -- or the one we use as a last resort when all the other ordering methods fail. It’s boring, but it works, and it’s so ingrained that it’s hard to imagine not using it. But despite its endurance for most of its history, the alphabet wasn’t initially used to order much of anything. Judith Flanders, author of A Place For Everything, a history of alphabetical order, says that in societies like ancient Rome and early medieval Europe, writing implements were still rare. So what mattered most was organizing knowledge in a way that helped you to memorize it. And that was usually much easier to do in the order you naturally came across the information, like: chronologically, or by size, or geography, or region, or hierarchically.

Alphabetical Order

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Episoder(779)

12 Heads from the Garden of Perfect Brightness

12 Heads from the Garden of Perfect Brightness

The story of the twelve bronze zodiac heads that are at the center of a fight over the repatriation of Chinese cultural heritage. Most believe all such cultural artifacts should return to China, but m...

16 Feb 202136min

Judas and the Black Messiah, Episode 1: The Chairman

Judas and the Black Messiah, Episode 1: The Chairman

Proximity, 99% Invisible, and Warner Bros. present the “Judas and the Black Messiah Podcast,” an official film companion from the Radiotopia podcast network from PRX. In the “Judas and the Black Messi...

12 Feb 202136min

The Doom Boom

The Doom Boom

Bradley Garrett is the author of Bunker: Building for the Times. People have always built underground survival shelters to stay safe from things like plagues or hurricanes. But in modern history, we'v...

9 Feb 202133min

Judas and the Black Messiah Trailer from 99% Invisible and Proximity Media

Judas and the Black Messiah Trailer from 99% Invisible and Proximity Media

Proximity, 99% Invisible, and Warner Bros. present the “Judas and the Black Messiah Podcast,” an official film companion from the Radiotopia podcast network from PRX. In the “Judas and the Black Messi...

8 Feb 20213min

Stuccoed in Time

Stuccoed in Time

Santa Fe is famous in part for a particular architectural style, an adobe (mudbrick) look that came to be called Pueblo Revival. This aesthetic combines elements of indigenous pueblo architecture and ...

2 Feb 202143min

Beneath the Skyway

Beneath the Skyway

Cities around the world have distinctive modes of transportation -- the canals of Venice, the double-decker busses of London, and the Twin Cities (of Minneapolis and St. Paul) have skyways. In both do...

26 Jan 202143min

Mini-Stories: Volume 11

Mini-Stories: Volume 11

In this set of short stories, 99% Invisible producers talked with host Roman Mars about everything from the Fresh Air Movement to the lost Lenin in Antarctica. Mini-Stories: Volume 11 Subscribe to Si...

20 Jan 202149min

Mini-Stories: Volume 10

Mini-Stories: Volume 10

In this set of short stories, 99% Invisible producers talked with host Roman Mars about everything from climate-changing sheep to the persistent urban legend behind the invention of a space pen. Mini-...

12 Jan 202140min

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