99% Invisible – Mini-Stories: Volume 21 (December 23, 2025)

Host: Roman Mars
Producers/Storytellers: Chris Berube, Vivian Le, Jason De Leon

Episode Overview

In this holiday-themed episode, Roman Mars reunites with his producer team to revive the "mini stories" tradition—quick, unexpected tales about overlooked design and architecture. Roman describes a return to the format’s roots: spontaneous stories, no heavy prep, full of curiosity and play. Across these segments, listeners are treated to tales about peculiar pyramids, a typo-magnet website, and the labyrinthine world of Vatican miracles.

Segment 1: The Battle of American Pyramids and the Vegas Luxor Sky Beam

Producer: Chris Berube
Timestamps: 02:02–10:53

Key Discussion Points

• The Pyramid Wars:
  Chris revisits the story of the Great American Pyramid in Memphis, TN (now a Bass Pro Shop), and its rivalry with the Luxor Hotel's massive pyramid in Las Vegas, which opened just two years later and stands 29 feet taller.

  • “It feels petty, right? It feels extremely deliberate, and I assume it was on purpose.” — Chris (03:48)

• Inside the Luxor:
  The Luxor pyramid features no traditional elevators; instead, it uses "inclinators" that climb the sides of the structure at a 39-degree angle.

  • “It’s almost like a roller coaster… It pulls you up the side.” — Billy Padovice, Luxor Facilities Director (04:44)

• The Famous Sky Beam:
  Atop the Luxor is the Sky Beam, a column of light as bright as 42 billion candles that can be seen from California.

  • “That is like, a little scary. Like an ominous black pyramid with light coming out of it. It’s kind of like Stargate.” — Roman (05:28)
  • The beam reportedly attracts insects, bats, and birds, creating an urban wildlife concentration.

• Bug-pocalypse of 2019:
  A record grasshopper swarm—drawn in part by city lights—descended on Las Vegas, visible swirling in the Sky Beam.

  • “At its peak, according to Dr. Tylens, there are about 45 million grasshoppers on the Vegas Strip.” — Chris (09:05)
  • “It’s more grasshoppers than Las Vegas gets human visitors over the course of a year.” — Dr. Elske Tynelens (09:28)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “It is so powerful. Apparently airline pilots can see the Luxor beam from California.” — Chris (05:41)
• [On bugs attracted to the beam]: “There is an ecosystem up there.” — Billy Padovice (07:24)

Segment 2: gale.com – Accidental Domain Fame

Producer: Vivian Le
Timestamps: 11:10–16:44

Key Discussion Points

• The Accidental Hit Website:
  Vivian introduces gale.com, a humble, retro FAQ page that receives an astonishing amount of web traffic because people mistakenly type it instead of “gmail.com.”

  • “In 2020, it received a total of 5,950,012 hits... about three times as much traffic as us. And much of that by accident, too.” — Vivian (12:32)

• The Story Behind gale.com:
  The domain was a birthday present to a woman named Gayle from her husband Kevin (who owns kevin.org) in 1996—years before Gmail launched.

  • Gayle receives over a million misaddressed emails per week.
  • She refuses to monetize or sell the site, despite the accidental gold mine of traffic.

• Typo-Squatting and Domain Speculation:
  Vivian explains the practice of "typo squatting"—registering common misspellings of popular sites to capture accidental visitors or phish for data.

  • “Gayle seems just perfectly content chilling on the domain name... She’s like, yes, I know that I can monetize this, but no, I am not interested.” — Vivian (15:29)

• Favorite Mistyped Sites:

  • guthib.com ("GitHub" with swapped letters): Simply says “You spelled it wrong.”
    • “Oh, this is a big four words that says you spelled it wrong. Period.” — Roman (16:30)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “Kevin was living in the year 2004.” — Vivian on Kevin’s prescience (13:57)
• “Long live gale.com. I’m a big fan of Gayle without knowing who she is personally.” — Roman (15:42)

Segment 3: Vatican Miracles, Bureaucracy, and Sainthood

Producer: Jason De Leon
Timestamps: 20:33–32:18

Key Discussion Points

• Papal Miracles – The Rhode Island Case:
  With the ascension of the "Chicago Pope" (Pope Leo), his first declared miracle involves the unexplained revival of a newborn in Pawtucket, RI, back in 2007.

  • “For me, I’m a hat guy. And seeing the Pope rock a White Sox hat, I was like, this dude part of NWA—what is going on?” — Jason (21:10)

• The Vatican’s Miracle Vetting Process:
  Jason interviews Father Dorian Llewellyn, who explains the Church’s rigorous, multi-tiered investigation into miracles:

  1. The healing must follow a direct prayer to a holy person.
  2. Science can’t explain the healing.
  3. The recovery is lasting.
  • Local dioceses act like investigative commissions, gathering medical and eyewitness evidence.

• Escalation to the Vatican — Dicastery for the Causes of Saints:
  After local review, the case rises to an office in the Vatican, originally famous for the "Devil’s Advocate" role—whose job was to argue against sainthood by poking holes in miracles.

  • “Vatican bureaucracy is not the most efficient in the world.” — Fr. Dorian Llewellyn (23:22)
  • “[The Devil’s Advocate] comes from this one job at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.” — Jason (27:31)

• Cost and Pragmatism in Canonization:
  The process is expensive, often requiring significant donors to maintain momentum.

  • “Getting a miracle through this process is kind of a miracle in and of itself.” — Jason (28:42)
  • With various levels of review, only "buttoned-up" and credible miracles make it.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “If you give out too many miracles, then everyone can be a saint, and you don’t want that either.” — Roman (31:02)
• “That is so interesting. It’s so fascinating to have all this apparatus around them… These are all full-time jobs. They go to the office, they do a thing.” — Roman (28:30)
• [Fun moment:] “Oh, it’s awesome. Such an awesome Pope following an awesome Pope… Two awesome popes right after the other. It means that he’ll continue the great work of Pope John Paul, I’m sure. He’ll continue World Youth Day and he’s just an awesome holy man.” — Cited from NPR tape (31:32)

Memorable Quotes and Moments: Quick Reference

• On Pyramids: “At the beam is said to have the same luminosity as 42 billion candles being lit at the same time.” — Chris (05:41)
• On Misspelling Magnetism: “According to Gail’s FAQ page, her email provider rejects around 1.2 million misaddressed emails to Gail.com a week.” — Vivian (13:57)
• On Miracle Investigations: “The role for the Devil’s Advocate was to find arguments against canonization. And one way you could do that is by poking holes in the miracles.” — Jason (27:31)
• On Process: “If someone can easily explain away one of these miracles, that’s, like, not a good look for the church.” — Roman (29:46)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Mini-Stories Tradition Explained: 01:01–02:02
• Pyramid Showdown & Luxor Inclinators: 02:13–05:07
• Luxor Sky Beam & Grasshopper Swarm: 05:28–10:28
• gale.com & Typos In The Internet: 11:10–13:10
• Typo-Squatting Explained: 15:09–15:42
• Papal Miracle Bureaucracy: 20:37–24:42
• Dicastery for the Causes of Saints & Devil’s Advocate: 25:26–27:46

Tone & Style

This episode is marked by Roman’s signature warmth and curiosity, with the producers bringing both earnest wonder and wry humor to their stories. There’s a sense of friendly banter, quick pivots from playful to profound, and the delight of discovering the unexpected, consistent with the best of 99% Invisible.

For Further Listening

Check the 99pi archives for:

• The original “Great American Pyramid” episode with Chris Berube
• More mini-stories episodes every December
• Roman Mars’s social media and Discord for real-time design curiosities

Visit 99percentinvisible.org for this episode, past stories, show notes, and more.