A History of the United States in 100 Objects
5/8/20264 min
America’s 250th birthday calls for a history as sprawling and contradictory as the country itself.
A History of the United States in 100 Objects — hosted by Roman Mars and produced by BBC Studios and 99% Invisible — tells that history one thing at a time. A gold coin from an 1857 shipwreck that triggered a financial panic. An antebellum schoolbook that became an instrument of Black liberation. A ceramic dalmatian from the set of Wheel of Fortune. Or a tiny screw that shows how the US created a hidden industrial empire.
Each week, an object opens the door into an extraordinary, often shocking story — about who we’ve been, what we’ve built, and what we’ve allowed ourselves to forget. Some of these objects are well-known. Many are not. But all of them carry the story of how we got to this moment. This is not one narrative. It’s a hundred of them — forming a kaleidoscope that reveals a country stranger and more fascinating than any single telling could capture.
Launching May 19, 2026, wherever you listen to 99% Invisible.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsRoman Mars· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Wherever you are, stop for a moment and take a look around you. At all times, you are surrounded by objects that at first glance seem meaningless, but if you really think about them, they tell stories. A boarding pass that's still folded in your pocket. The book on the shelf that you were assigned in freshman seminar, only read half of, but you still held onto for 20 years. A picture of your kids at the beach, or even the paperclip that once fastened some important papers, but for the life of you, you can't remember which ones. Gather enough of these objects and they begin to form a biography of who you are through things, the precious keepsakes, the clutter on your nightstand, even the stuff you'll eventually throw away. Now, stay with me here. Imagine you are the United States of America, and it's your 250th birthday. What objects would tell your history? Of course, there's the original Declaration of Independence and Lincoln's top hat, and I don't know, like a cannon from Fort Sumter. All worthy and fascinating objects to be sure, but there is another story to be told using the objects that you don't see on sweaty field trips to museums. The equivalent of the ticket stubs and the favorite knick-knacks and the paperclips. Like a bootleg band T-shirt that tells the history