100 Objects #14: Basketball Sleeve
21 August - 41 minsProducer and reporter Ramtin Arablouei (co-creator of the NPR show, Throughline) has a simple question: why are so many NBA players wearing a compression sleeve on their arm? It seems like everyone has one. Do they all have elbow issues? The answer is really the story of Allen Iverson, an underdog player who went from a prison cell to international fame in just a few years. And through the story of him and his sleeve, you can see the whole history of basketball’s relationship with race, with respectability politics, and who gets to look like what on the court.
A History of the United States in 100 Objects is a production of 99% Invisible and BBC Studios.
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The Bone Wars
Two rival paleontologists turn a hunt for dinosaur bones into an all-out scientific war.
44 mins
18 August Finished
100 Objects #13: The Sand Letters
Comedian Elliott Kalan joins Roman Mars to tell the story of how a politician who owed so much to a corrupt government system became the one to dismantle it, thanks to one woman: Julia Isabella Sand.
48 mins
14 August Finished
Bamboo Is Innocent
A devastating fire put one of Hong Kong's oldest building traditions on trial, but the real story runs much deeper.
32 mins
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100 Objects #12: "Negro Cloth"
Roman Mars and historian Seth Rockman trace the strange life of so-called "Negro cloth" — a textile category defined by nothing but who it was worn by.
37 mins
7 August Finished