Mini-Stories: Volume 22

Summary

99% Invisible — "Mini-Stories: Volume 22" (January 6, 2026)

Episode Overview

Kicking off 2026, Roman Mars hosts the 22nd edition of "Mini-Stories," where three 99% Invisible producers share design-centric tales Roman has not heard before. This episode investigates hidden innovations and provocative design stories in the worlds of sports equipment, maritime disaster, and retrofitted art vending machines. The tone is curious, friendly—and as always, appreciative of the quietly powerful ways design shapes all our lives.

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Story 1: The Fastest Suits and Brooms in Sports

Producer: Jakob Medina Gleason
Segment: 02:32–08:25

The Speedo LZR Racer and Olympic Swimsuit Technology

• The 2008 Olympics saw the debut of the Speedo LZR Racer, a swimsuit featuring polyurethane panels to reduce drag.
• “Speedo really took advantage of the fact that World Aquatics was pretty lenient on what could be considered fabric.” (Jakob, 02:51)
• At first, World Aquatics took no action; the IOC eventually mandated the suit be available to all competitors.
• In 2008, over 90% of swimming medalists wore the LZR; 25 world records were broken at those games.
• Following, rival manufacturers made full-body rubberized suits; the 2009 World Championships saw another 43 records broken, with 147 in the year overall.
• “Well, that’s too many records at this point. That’s a problem.” (Roman, 05:49)
• In 2010, full-body tech suits were banned. Some in the swimming world argue this was an overcorrection; others felt unnerved by such rapid record-breaking.

Curling and the "Sweeping Summit"

• In 2015, new broom head fabrics in curling allowed sweepers unprecedented control of the stone, making a two-sweeper system obsolete.
• These were dubbed “performance-enhancing brooms.” (Roman, 07:23; Jakob, 07:27)
• Outcry led to the 2016 “Sweeping Summit,” where governing bodies banned the new technology to preserve fair competition.
• “And actually, Roman, in these Olympics 2026, we almost had another broom controversy. But thankfully, earlier this year, the curling world got out ahead of this one and banned a new set of brush heads.” (Jakob, 07:58)
• Roman welcomes this, declaring, “I really like to watch curling. Just pure.” (Roman, 08:16)

Memorable Moment:
“I mean, I probably could because it’s like compression, so like it would like suck in your gut. Like it looks like they’ve poured this man into this suit.” (Roman, 05:19)

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Story 2: Violet Jessop — Survivor of the Olympic, Titanic, and Britannic

Producer: Joe Rosenberg
Segment: 08:34–26:14

Background and Near Misses

• Violet Constance Jessop, born 1887 in Argentina, joined the White Star Line as a stewardess—despite a lifelong fear of drowning and not knowing how to swim.
• She was aboard the Olympic in 1911 when it collided with a navy ship—two compartments flooded, but the ship survived.

Titanic and The Pattern of Disaster

• April 1912: Jessop is on the Titanic’s maiden voyage. The ship’s starboard hull is gashed by an iceberg. Jessop escapes in a lifeboat; she survives, many others do not.

Britannic: Third Time’s Calamity

• WWI: Violet serves as a nurse on the Britannic—sister ship to Titanic and Olympic.
• November 1916: Britannic strikes a German mine. Violet recounts her experience in a rare recording:
  • “I was upstairs in the pantry…when suddenly, crash. Well, no sooner did the crash happen than everybody stood up from the table and disappeared...” (Violet Jessop, 16:53)
• The portholes had been left open after patient complaints about heat, allowing water to rush in—Britannic sinks rapidly.
• During the chaotic lifeboat launch, spinning propellers threaten survivors; Violet’s boat nears disaster, and she must leap into the sea:
  • “I was left alone… and I decided, which would it be better, to be cut to pieces or to drown… and so when I went into the water, I went down miles with the weight of, you know, clothes and came up under the boat and I got a terrible blow on the head.” (Violet Jessop, 20:45–21:47)
• Miraculously, she surfaces and clings to a life jacket. The Britannic, longer than the ocean was deep, sinks with awe-inspiring violence:
  • “All the deck machinery fell into the sea like a child’s toys. Then she took a fearful plunge, her stern rearing hundreds of feet into the air until, with a final roar, she disappeared into the depths. The noise of her going resounding through the water with an undreamt of violence.” (Joe, paraphrasing Violet’s memoir, 22:18–23:37)

Legacy and Reflections

• Violet Jessop’s memoir, Titanic Survivor, was published posthumously.
• Another crew member, Arthur Priest, outdid even her: he survived four shipwrecks and two major collisions.
• “Another one of these people where you can’t tell if they’re the luckiest person around you or the unluckiest person in the world.” (Roman, 25:41)
• Closing life lesson: “I think the lesson of Violet Jessup is you don’t know if your next ship is gonna sink. The best you can do is just grab your toothbrush and just keep your head above water.” (Roman, 25:51)

Notable and Quirky Detail:
Violet makes sure to grab her toothbrush before escaping Britannic—a lesson learned from her first Titanic sinking.

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Story 3: Art-o-mat — From Cigarette Vending to Accessible Art

Producer: Kurt Kohlstedt
Segment: 30:07–37:17

What is an Art-o-mat?

• An Art-o-mat is a retrofitted cigarette vending machine that dispenses small pieces of art instead of cigarette packs.
• “If you look closely, you can see that there are these 10 telltale columns for, you know, 10 different brands of cigarettes. But in the converted Art-o-mat, each column corresponds to a different artist.” (Kurt, 30:44)
• Artists create mini art blocks to fit precise “king sized hard pack” cigarette dimensions due to vending machine constraints.

History and Spread

• Concept originated with artist Clark Whittington in the 1990s, aiming to make art accessible via vending machines. The first installations were in Winston-Salem, “Camel City,” home of RJ Reynolds.
• As cigarette vending waned under regulation, surplus machines were adapted for art sales.

From “Dude with a Project” to Network

• Roman notes the “dude with a project” trope—a clever one-off—but Kurt explains the Art-o-mat now comprises 200+ machines, with 400+ participating artists, and an organizational structure overseeing distribution and curation.
• “You know me, I'm a big sucker for adaptive reuse, whether it be in architecture or vending machines.” (Kurt, 36:19)
• Roman concedes, “This sounds like an interesting dude with an interesting project that sort of brings out some of the things you might not notice and add some sort of color around the built world in an interesting way.” (Roman, 36:19)

Where to Find Art-o-mats

• The project’s website (artomat.org) features a map of active machines.
• “If you have any money left over at any moment in your life, you should always buy art. And why not buy it from a cigarette machine?” (Roman, 37:01)

Fun Fact:
Kurt’s local Art-o-mat is at a cat café—his recent purchases: a funky hole punch flipbook, a chicken painting, and a woodblock flower print.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “Progress is good, but like too much of it is really jarring.” (Jakob, 06:16)
• “Performance enhancing brooms.” (Jakob, 07:27)
• “Her life is like Groundhog Day meets Titanic.” (Joe, 09:50)
• Violet Jessop, recalling her escape: “It did occur to me if I get another blow like that, I'll be finished.” (Violet, 21:47)
• “You don’t know if your next ship is gonna sink. The best you can do is just grab your toothbrush and keep your head above water.” (Roman, 25:51)
• “Better than cigarettes. That’s for sure.” (Roman on Art-o-mat art, 37:10)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening and Episode Framing: 00:00–02:32
• Sports tech (swimming and curling): 02:32–08:25
• Violet Jessop and maritime disasters: 08:34–26:14
• Art-o-mat and design reuse: 30:07–37:17

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Tone and Takeaway

True to 99% Invisible’s spirit, this episode unpacks how design quietly shapes fairness, survival, and even playfulness in our environment. Whether questioning the ethics of high-tech athletic gear, marveling at a truly unlucky (or lucky) ship stewardess, or delighting in the transformation of forgotten cigarette machines into miniature art galleries, the hosts and producers share a sense of communal nerdy wonder.

For anyone who never noticed the story behind a swimsuit, a broom, a lost ship, or a vending machine—this episode makes those 99% invisible details visible, and just as remarkable as the grandest of designs.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Thanks, Roman. Happy New Year's to you, too. So I want to start 2026 off by talking about sports.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

I'm not the biggest sports fan. I'm a women's basketball fan, and that's pretty much it. But the Olympics are a few weeks away, and I have an Olympics Ish Mini for you.

[A]

I love an Olympics Ish Mini, so hit me.

[B]

Okay, so this is a story about a controversial swimsuit. It's called the Laser Racer. This is a racing suit that Speedo launched back in 2008. And the thing that made the Laser Racer so controversial is that Speedo really took advantage of the fact that World Aquatics was pretty lenient on what could be considered fabric.

[A]

Okay, what do you mean by that?

[B]

So the suit was made of, like, your pretty typical swimsuit material, but in some areas, like the abs and the lower back, the Laser Racer added a thin layer of polyurethane. And the addition of this rubbery material helps swimmers create less drag as they move through the water.

[A]

Well, interesting. So I'm no physicist, but drag slows you down. And so if you want to get faster, you want less of it.

[B]

Absolutely, yeah. It's why swimmers wear swim caps and why they're always freshly shaved.

[A]

Right. So any swimmer with a Laser Racer suit kind of immediately has this advantage in the pool. So what did World Aquatics do about it? Because I imagine they want this stuff to be fair.

[B]

Right. And that's the thing, is that at first, they didn't do anything. It was the ioc, the International Olympic Committee, that had to step in and issue a ruling, because the 2008 Summer Olympics were coming up, and as it stood, only swimmers with a sponsorship from Speedo were going to be able to wear the suit.

[A]

So if you're wearing Mizunos or whatever, you were immediately at a disadvantage.

[B]

Yeah. Because this thing had a lot of hype even before the Olympics. So the IOC ruled that the suit would only be allowed if it was made available to all competitors. So that's what happened. The suit was made available to everybody, regardless of sponsorship. And the 2008 Olympics came and records were made at an unbelievable rate.

[A]

Yeah. So this was the year that Michael Phelps won, like, eight gold medals.

[B]

Yeah. And he did it in the Speedo Laser Racer. And he wasn't the only one breaking records. At the 2008 Olympics, there were 25 world records broken. And of the swimmers who medaled, more than 90% of them were wearing this suit.

[A]

I mean, I remember that being a very exciting year for swimming. But did people suspect that the suit was causing too much of an advantage? Like, was the suit banned after that?

[B]

It started to raise some flags for sure. But what happened next is that other companies caught on to the idea that, like, hey, adding polyurethane to these suits, it kind of works. So they decided, okay, we're going to take it up a notch and they said we're going to do it to the whole damn thing. So I've got this picture for you of this so called rubberized swimsuit. And you let me know if you'd wear that, Roman.

[A]

I mean, I probably could because it's like compression, so like it would like suck in your gut. Like it looks like they've poured this man into this suit.

[B]

Yeah, I don't know how you get into something like this, like really, really suck it in and just pray. But anyways, a lot of companies caught onto this and they did their full body version of the suit. And during the 2009 World Aquatic Championships, another 43 records were broken. And in 2009 alone, 147 records were broken.

[A]

Well, that's too many records at this point. That's a problem.

[B]

Yeah. That's when world aquatics finally decided that enough is enough and they ultimately banned the suit.

[A]

But just to play devil's advocate here, which is a term I only learned the origin of when I talked to Jason for his mini stories this year, you know, these suits, you know, if they become ubiquitous, wouldn't that just sort of even the playing field again? Like, you know, if everyone's wearing them, then the sort of differential advantage is gone 100%.

[B]

And there are people in the world of swimming who feel that way, that this ban was too strict. It was maybe a bit of an overcorrection, but I think there was something about all those records falling so quickly that really freaked people out. It was like, progress is good, but like too much of it is really jarring.

[A]

Yeah, I get that. I get that.

[B]

And I have another tiny story here for you, Roman, about another controversial sports item. And this one will be more relevant when the Winter Olympics start in a few weeks. So let's talk about curling.

[A]

I always want to talk about curling. Let's talk about curling.

[B]

Yeah. So I'll start out by saying up front that I am no curling expert. So if you are, please bear with me. But from my understanding, the brooms are used to sweep away debris and clear the path for the stone. Okay. And often you'd have two sweepers working to get the stone to where it needs to go. But in 2015, new broom heads completely changed the way that the game was being played.

[C]

It all centers around high tech fabrics used use in curling brooms. It's believed certain broom heads manipulate the rock's path, speed, and even change or stop its direction.

[A]

These could be performance enhancing brooms.

[D]

Yes, it's very possible.

[B]

Performance enhancing brooms.

[A]

I love it.

[B]

Yeah. So these new heads, they kind of worked like microscopic sandpaper. And so the sweeper was able to more effectively control where the stone was going. And as a result, they didn't really need two sweepers like there had been before. And there was some outrage in the curling world, which led to the so called Sweeping Summit in 2016, where they decided that this new broom head was not going to fly.

[A]

I love the idea of a sweeping summit. That's incredible. Love it.

[B]

And actually, Roman, in these Olympics 2026, we almost had another broom controversy. But thankfully, earlier this year, the curling world got out ahead of this one and banned a new set of brush heads. So the Olympics should be an equal playing ground with no huge equipment advantage from one team over another.

[A]

Thankfully. Because I really like to watch curling. Just pure.

[B]

Absolutely. A curling purist.

[A]

Exactly. Thank you, Jacob. This is fascinating stuff. I appreciate it.

[B]

Thanks, Roman.

[A]

Okay, next up on our zoom is producer Joe Rosenberg. Joe, what do you have for me?

[D]

So, Roman, you will recall that I did a story about the Titanic last year. The ship, not the movie. And this mini story is kind of a fun offshoot of that.

[A]

Okay, so this is like the Titanic coda that never was.

[D]

Yeah. Although to be clear, no one needs to go back and listen to the Titanic episode to follow this story.

[A]

But they should. Cause it's a really good episode. It's a fun one.

[D]

Oh, yeah. No, I mean, hey, definitely. It's the Titanic. Everyone loves the Titanic. And just a quick side note that I actually have like 10 Titanic offshoot stories, because I found that if a story even just contains the word Titanic, suddenly, magically, everyone is like, fascinating. You know, like the pets of the Titanic. But really, I wanted to tell this particular side story because the Titanic episode never really had, like, characters we follow on a journey. It was very technical. So today I wanted to correct for that by telling the tale of a single remarkable person named Viol Constance Jessup.

[A]

Okay.

[D]

And Violet Jessop's biography has the two things you want in a Good story. Which is a great fact pattern. And it culminates in an incredible climactic action set piece.

[A]

Okay.

[D]

Because her life is like. It's like Groundhog Day meets Titanic.

[A]

Well, that sounds very ominous because I know what happens on the Titanic. So please continue.

[D]

Yeah, it is. It's crazy. And yes, scary things will be happening momentarily.

[A]

So set the stage for me here. Who is Violet Constance Jessup, other than a woman with an incredible name?

[D]

So, Violet Jessup is born in 1887 in Argentina to Irish immigrant sheep farmers. She is the oldest of six children. And as a young woman, she dreams of becoming a nurse. But then before she can chase that dream, her father dies and her mother gets sick. Meaning very early on, Violet has to become the family breadwinner. And so despite a lifelong fear of drowning and the fact that she has never learned to swim.

[A]

And this fact won't come into play later at all. Okay, go ahead.

[D]

Not at all. Not one bit. Roman Violet signs up to work as a stewardess on passenger ships.

[A]

Okay.

[D]

And she eventually ends up working as a stewardess specifically for the White Star Line shipping company. And sure enough, in 1911, Violet is assigned to bias stewardess on the maiden voyage of the White Star Line's newest ocean liner, the largest ship in the world, designed by famous ship designer Thomas Andrews, sailing under the command of Captain Edward Smith, and described in the press as practically unsinkable. The RMS Olympic.

[A]

Oh, not the Titanic.

[D]

Titanic hadn't been built yet, you know, or it was being built. And you know, in reality, in this period in the 1900s, these shipping companies are coming out with larger and larger ships, like every five seconds. And so at this moment in 1911, the quote unquote, largest ship ever built is the Olympic. And tell me if this sounds familiar because on one fateful trip In September of 1911, on a transatlantic voyage from Southampton to New York, a giant crash and shudder runs through the length of the ship because the Olympics steel plated hull had been severely punctured on its starboard side below the waterline.

[A]

Oh, I mean, that sounds very fire.

[D]

Yeah. And what had happened was that the Olympic had actually collided with another ship, a British naval cruiser. And the damage to the Olympic was actually very serious. But thankfully, only 2 of her watertight compartments flooded. The rest stay dry and the Olympic stays afloat. And very luckily, no one is killed.

[A]

And so what did Violet Jussup make of this near death experience or whatever it was?

[D]

Right. Yeah. We don't know her thoughts at this early stage of the story, but it's probably something like man to think I was a stewardess. During a gigantic collision on a transatlantic voyage of the largest ship in the world. What a once in a lifetime experience. But then I think you see where this is going. Fast forward seven months to April of 1912, when Violet is again picked to be on the maiden voyage of the White Star Line's newest ship, the largest ship in the world, designed by famous ship designer Thomas Andrews, sailing under the command of Captain Edward Smith and described in the press as practically unsinkable. The new sister ship of the Olympic, the RMS Titanic.

[C]

Wow.

[D]

And the Titanic is actually basically identical to the Olympic, just a tiny bit bigger. And on the Titanic's inaugural transatlantic voyage from Southampton to New York, as Violet is in her cabin getting ready for bed and has finished reciting a prayer to protect the ship from fire and water, a giant crash and shudder runs through the entire length of the ship because its steel plated hull had been severely punctured on its starboard side just below the waterline.

[A]

Only this time, it's an iceberg. At least there's a little bit of difference there. But I am seeing a familiar pattern playing out.

[D]

Yeah. And ironically, one of the reasons so many people on the Titanic thought she was gonna be fine and delayed getting onto lifeboats was because the Olympic hadn't sunk. Right, right. And so they thought the Titanic wouldn't sink either.

[A]

That makes sense. I mean, like, the Olympic had survived this collision with a gash along the starboard side. So, you know, could an iceberg be any worse?

[D]

Right, Exactly. It sounds less bad if anything. Right, yeah. But of course, the Titanic does in fact sink. And this time, a bunch of White Star officers and officials who had been on the Olympic in that first crash are also on the Titanic. And this time they do not survive. They all go down with the ship.

[A]

But I hope Violet Jessop survives. Right?

[D]

She does. She does. She actually initially stays in her cabin, but as Stewart comes down and convinces her the ship is really sinking. And Violet gets out of there, she gets on a lifeboat. And so, by the skin of her teeth, Violet Jessop lives. At which point she is like, to think I survived the collisions of the Olympic and the Titanic. Sister ships, sister ships. Surely life cannot get any crazier than this. But then, in 1914.

[A]

Oh, you were kidding me, Jo.

[D]

I'm not kidding you. World War I breaks out and Violet fulfills her lifelong dream to train as a nurse with the Red Cross, which is the good news. The bad news is that she gets assigned as a medical Stewardess on a White Star Line passenger liner which has been converted for the war effort into the newest, largest hospital ship in the world. And the name of that ship is the HMHS Britannic, which is none other than the third and final sister ship of the Olympic and the Titanic.

[A]

This is crazy.

[D]

I promised you Groundhog Day meets Titanic, and I deliver Groundhog Day meets Titanic. And once again, basically the exact same ship, just a little bigger, but like, really the same. And this time, Britannic is declared to be even safer than the Titanic because after the Titanic sank, they gave the Britannic a full double layered haul. But of course, there's just one problem. Do you want to guess what that is?

[A]

Well, Violet Jessup is on board, for one thing.

[D]

Violet Jessup is on board. Violet Jessup has entered the chat, which is how it comes to pass, and I hate to say it, one morning In November of 1916, on a voyage from Southampton to Greece, a giant crash and shudder runs through the length of the ship because its steel plated hull had been severely punctured on its starboard side below the waterline.

[A]

Okay, well, here we go. So what was it this time that they crashed into or whatever?

[D]

Well, this time they crashed into nothing this time. Well, or they did, in a sense, because the Britannic had struck a mine, a German mine. And, Roman, I promised you a big climactic action set piece. And here it is, because we actually have some tape of an interview Violet herself gave many years later describing what happened.

[E]

I was upstairs in the pantry getting this nurse her breakfast, and all the staff, medical staff, dozens of doctors, you see, and nurses, they were all in the saloon at the breakfast when suddenly, crash. Well, no sooner did the crash happened than everybody stood up from the table and disappeared. And it was so different to the Titanic, where there didn't seem to be any panicky movement.

[D]

You know, so famously on the Titanic, everyone had been, you know, kind of very unbothered by the crashing sensation and didn't believe anything was wrong. But this time around, of course, everyone knows what happened to the Titanic, but they're also like, you know, trained personnel on a medical ship in the middle of the war. And so Violet just races back to the cabin where she had been helping this very sick nurse, and she helps get both herself and this ailing nurse into their coats and then into their life jackets and they rush toward the lifeboats. But not before Violet goes to grab one highly critical item.

[E]

After the Titanic, I used to, you know, moan that on the Carpathia, that picked Us up. I couldn't buy a toothbrush and I couldn't live without cleaning my teeth, you see. And I must tell you this little joke about the family, Violet. The next time you go on a boat, for God's sake, it is going to sink. Put your toothbrush in your pocket.

[D]

So while the ship is beginning to tilt and Violet is helping get the sea sick crewmate to the deck, she's like, wait one second. I just have to grab my toothbrush.

[A]

That is an amazing detail.

[D]

I love it. I love it so much. For me, it's the high point of this whole story. And at this point, although everyone is rushing to the lifeboats, no one on the Britannic is sure yet whether the ship will ultimately sink or not, including Violet, because the ship's only tilting forward a little. But, and this is just a brutal piece of bad luck, during the voyage, the patients in the ship's hospital ward had complained about stifling heat. So against standing orders, the portholes on the side of the ship had been left open. And so after the explosion, even though only four compartments are flooded, Britannic tilts forward just enough that more water from the ocean begins flowing through the open portholes and, and into the rest of the ship.

[A]

I mean, her bad luck truly cannot be stopped at this point.

[D]

No, it's brutal. So while Violet is grabbing her toothbrush, the ship is beginning to sink faster and faster. But eventually she gets herself and her charge onto the deck and into the lifeboats. And almost everyone is now in the boats at this point, and they're still on the deck waiting for the orders to lower. But as the ship's angle gets worse, the officers in charge of two of the lifeboats panic and decide to lower their lifeboats just as soon as they're full, right away, before any order is given. And one of those boats that lowers too early contains Violet Jessup.

[E]

And as we touch the water, everybody's done. So out of the boat, out of the boat. I said, why are you doing that?

[D]

And so Violet, perplexed, looks around to see what it was that everyone else was looking at that made them jump out of the boat. And what's happening is that the ship's gigantic bronze propellers are half out of the water and they are still going at full steam, and they are sucking the two lifeboats towards them, and they are just chopping the lifeboats and everything in their path into bits. So Violet is like, oh, well, I.

[E]

Was left alone, you see, and I decided, which would it be better to be cut to pieces and drown. I mean, I had to make the decision.

[D]

So Violet has this choice, you know, get cut to pieces or drown. And so Violet says, you know what? I'll take my chances with drowning. And she jumps over the side.

[A]

But I would assume that's okay, you know, that she doesn't swim because, like, she must have a life jacket on, right?

[D]

You would think. But it's at this point that Violet realizes she has made a rookie mistake.

[E]

I had this lovely coat. Well, instead of putting the coat over the life belt, I put the life belt over the coat. I could kill the passenger if they did that. And so when I went into the water, I went down miles with the weight of, you know, clothes and came up under the boat and I got a terrible blow on the head. And, you know, it did occur to me if I get another like that, I'll be finished.

[A]

Oh, my God, this is terrifying. So she's, like, stuck underwater underneath the boat.

[D]

She is stuck underwater underneath the boat, and she is still heading along with the boat toward the spinning propellers. And she's incredibly disoriented. And she describes the noise as just being, like, beyond anything she'd ever heard. But she kicks her way clear of the bottom of the boat and clear of the suction of the propeller just as the lifeboat gets chopped to pieces.

[A]

Amazing. That's so incredible.

[D]

Finally, she reaches the surface, still waterlogged in her coat, with her nose just, like, barely out of the water, until she sees another life jacket float by, and she grabs it and. And manages to steady herself. So while she's clinging onto this life jacket in the water, Violet watches again as this time, the Britannic, the third and final sister ship of the Olympic and Titanic itself, sinks faster and faster into the water. And in some ways, this round is the most terrifying because the Britannic is sinking in much shallower seas than the Titanic had been. So in this case, the ship is actually longer than the ocean is deep. So the ship's stern is still sticking out of the water when its bow smashes into the ocean floor. And Violet watches as the whole ship just judders and groans. And writing about it later, she said, quote, all the deck machinery fell into the sea like a child's toys. Then she took a fearful plunge, her stern rearing hundreds of feet into the air until, with a final roar, she disappeared into the depths. The noise of her going resounding through the water with an undreamt of violence.

[A]

That's incredible. So for all those people who were waiting on other lifeboats, and people that were still on the ship. Like, did they get off the ship when this happened, when it hit the ocean floor? Okay.

[D]

Yes. So very, very fortunately, before the ship sank, the captain had ordered the propellers to stop so the other lifeboats could get away. And because the ship had only been on its way to pick up wounded, there's actually very few patients on board.

[C]

Oh.

[D]

So 30 people die. But it could have been far worse. And most of those who died were the ones in those two boats that Violet had been on. And so, once again, Violet Jessop is really lucky.

[A]

Yeah, well, it depends on how you look at it. Or also very, very unlucky.

[D]

No? Yes, exactly.

[A]

I like your way better, but thank you.

[D]

And, you know, some good luck continues. Cause she eventually is picked up by another boat and pulled to safety. And when she gets to shore, she does, in fact, brush her teeth with her toothbrush, which apparently never left her side. And that's how Violet Jessup manages to survive the three disasters of the White Star Line's three sister ships. The Olympic, the Titanic and the Britannic. And after that, she went on to write a beautifully written memoir, only to be published after her death under the title Titanic Survivor.

[A]

Well, that's only, like, the half of it or the third of it. Actually, like, Titanic Survivor is really underselling the whole story.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

I mean, it is quite possibly the most under informative title of all time. But I also just have to say as a final note, Violet Jessup is not the only person this happened to surviving all three of these ships. She's kind of the glamorous one. But there was one other guy. His name was Arthur Priest. He was a boiler room stoker for the White Star Lines. And we don't know much about him, but he actually outdoes even Violet because he survived. Get this, four ship sinkings and two major collisions.

[A]

Another one of these people where you can't tell if they're the luckiest person around you or the unluckiest person in the world.

[D]

Exactly. Like, is their glass of luck half empty or half full? We'll never know.

[A]

But I think the lesson of Violet Jessup is you don't know if your next ship is gonna sink. The best you can do is just grab your toothbrush and just keep your head above water.

[D]

Yeah, I think that's right. I mean, even if you don't know how to swim.

[A]

She didn't know how to swim, Joe.

[D]

It had to do. She had tuberculosis when she was young. There was a lung thing. It's not her fault.

[A]

Well that's amazing. What a great story Joe. I really appreciate it. This was fun.

[D]

Thank you so much Roman.

[A]

Stay tuned. We have one more mini story after the break. If you could stop somebody from breaking in before they got inside, why wouldn't you? Most old school systems go off after someone's already in your place. That's too late. SimpliSafe is different, is proactive with a double layer of defense that stops crimes before they start. First, AI powered cameras spot potential threats outside, then live agents step in talking to the person through the camera, letting them know they're on video and police will be dispatched if they don't leave. They can even trigger a loud siren or spotlight. There are no long term contracts or hidden fees now that five of my six kids are actual legal adults and they come and go at the house at all hours. Having Simplisafe just makes it so that I kind of know what's going on in the home. I know that they came in at 4am and it's fine this month. Only take 50% off any new system. This is one of the best prices you will ever see for SimpliSafe. Don't miss it. Hit simplisafe.com invisible again. That's simplisafe.com invisible and lock in your discount. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. Ready to give your home a stylish refresh? Article makes it easy to create a stylish, long lasting home at an unbeatable price. They offer a curated selection of mid century, modern, coastal and scandi inspired pieces that would make a perfect addition to your home. All article collections are carefully curated, focusing solely on high quality, meaningful pieces that will stand the test of time. And with Article's 30 day satisfaction guarantee, you can shop with confidence. When I got my article Dining room set about 10 years ago, I got eight mija chairs to go with it and I knew they were great. But it wasn't until Covid and I was home sitting in those chairs every day, working for hours and hours that I realized just how great they are. And still to this day, my wife Joy is upstairs right now working at that article Dining Table and Chairs. Article is offering our listeners $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. To claim, visit article.com99 and the discount will automatically be applied at checkout. That's article.com99 for $50 off your first purchase of$100 or more. This episode is brought to you by Progressive, where drivers who save by switching save nearly $750 on average plus auto customers qualify for an average of 7 discounts. Quote [e-mail] to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates national average 12 month savings of $744 by new customer survey who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all in one website platform designed to help your business stand out and succeed online. Every dream needs a domain. Squarespace Domains makes it easy to find the best name for your business at one fair all inclusive price. No hidden fees or add ons required. And with Squarespace's collection of cutting edge design tools, anyone can build a beautiful professional online presence that perfectly fits their brand or business. Start with Blueprint AI, Squarespace's AI Enhanced Design partner, or choose from a library of professionally designed and award winning website templates. The fact that a person like me can do all this stuff in one place is why I use squarespace for RomanMarris.com otherwise it just wouldn't be done. Head to squarespace.com 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. We are back. And last but not least is our Digital Director and 99% Invisible City Co author Kurt Kohlsted. Hey Curt.

[C]

Hey Roman. You know, I remember when we started doing Minis and my like small contribution was calling them like Minis Volume one and Volume two and Volume three because you get it like volume, like audio but also addition. And I just thought that was so clever. Anyway, I'm here to talk about a type of machine called an Art o mat, as in an Automat, but with art. I've got a picture of it here.

[A]

Okay, so it's like a big glitzy box. It kind of looks like a cigarette dispenser, like an old time cigarette dispenser, but a little fancier and nicer.

[C]

You're exactly right. If you look closely, you can see that There are these 10 telltale columns for, you know, 10 different brands of cigarettes. But in the converted ardomat, each column corresponds to a different artist. So you insert $5, you pick a column, you pull this lever, you see the stack shift and then you hear this like big thunk as the thing that you want like lands in the dispenser. It's just very gratifying as Like a tactile experience.

[A]

That's so cool. So tell me about these packs of art. What is contained in a pack of art?

[C]

Well, so I have one of these artomats at my local cat cafe and I went there and I picked up a funky hole punch flip book, a painting of a chicken, and a woodblock flower print. And those may all seem like very different kinds of art, but they all have one thing in common, their size. Because each artwork has to fit in this very specific set of dimensions. And we're talking precisely three, three and a quarter inches long by two and an eighth inches wide by seven, eight of an inch thick.

[A]

Very specific. I mean, but you know, cigarette packs aren't the exact same size. You can get like filterless cigarettes that are smaller. So why do these have to be the same size?

[C]

Yeah, there are definitely exceptions, but those dimensions are the most common size. And it's what's called the king sized hard pack.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[C]

And some of that, like, convergence around that size has to do with legislation. For example, back in the day, they created this minimum per pack of 20 cigarettes, which sounds kind of weird, right? Like, as a thing to legislate, but the idea was that it would make it more expensive for like youths to buy cigarettes. And so, you know, you'd get less kids smoking.

[A]

I get it.

[C]

And then, of course, with the advent and spread of vending machines, cigarette companies wanted to conform. You know, there's this incentive because if all the other brands have packs that fit and yours don't, your brand is going to get left out of this very lucrative sales venue.

[A]

Yeah, because this is where underage children buy their cigarettes.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, I remember those being on the outsides of buildings and thinking, I could use my lunch money for this.

[A]

Right. So where did this idea of the Artemet come from? Is this just at your cat cafe or is it more widespread?

[C]

No, it's more widespread. It actually started with this artist named Clark Whittington, who back in the 90s, he had this idea to make art more accessible by vending it out of machines like you would with junk food. And then he moved to Winston Salem, also known as Camel City, which is the hometown of R.J. reynolds Tobacco Company. So here he is in the heart of big tobacco land. But at a time when there are more and more regulations restricting cigarette vending.

[A]

As there should be.

[C]

Yeah, I mean, yeah, it wasn't like a bad thing. And so Whittington, you know, sought out a disused machine and he converted it to spit out Polaroid Prints that he tacked to blocks of wood and made, like part of this local art show. And that was the very first.

[A]

Well, this sounds very cool, very clever. And I'm sort of wondering, though, you know, some of our rules on this show when it comes to telling design and clever stories is that this sounds a little bit like a doo wop.

[C]

Yes, yes. The old dude with a project. Yeah, that. That old tripwire.

[A]

So for people who don't know, I kind of have a rule about these things we call dude with a project because, like, we wanted to cover everyday design that you encounter and that you don't notice. And dude with a project type design stories are often like, you know, clever, fancy things that people put out in the world. Maybe as a provocation. That's a design provocation. Maybe it's something beautiful or artistic. But it just was a thing that I felt other design, you know, shops covered well and we didn't need to cover. So why would you want us to cover art of map?

[C]

Yeah, Well, I think you are 100% right. That that is like, definitionally what we're talking about here. Like, this started as a dude with a project.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

But these artomats, they've gotten a lot bigger as a project, and frankly, a lot more interesting because that one machine led to another and another. And now, decades later, there are over 200 artomats around the country, even a few internationally, and they have works by over 400 different artists.

[A]

So it's a dude with a big project.

[C]

Yeah, it's a big project. But it's not just that because, you know, for his part, Whittington figured out that he couldn't just do it on his own. So he created this organization to also oversee the art o mats because frankly, it just, like, yeah, it outgrew his ability to manage. And so today, there's a lot of work by various people that goes into reviewing and collecting these blocks of art, pairing machines with venues, keeping them stocked, keeping them in working order. And if you think about it, they have this sort of bigger and richer design story about reuse behind them. And you know me, I'm a big sucker for adaptive reuse, whether it be in architecture or vending machines.

[A]

Well, I am sold. This sounds like an interesting dude with an interesting project that sort of brings out some of the things you might not notice and add some sort of color around the built world in an interesting way. So if people are Interested in the Artomat, where can they find out more?

[C]

Artomat.org and the site has stuff like a map of these vending machines around the country. It's a really good map. And the people who run the places with these machines are often really cool to talk to. And so it just, yeah, it gives you an excuse to go somewhere and like, interact with this thing and learn something new and, you know, maybe get a painting of a chicken while you're at it.

[A]

I'm always into buying art people that if you have any money left over at any moment in your life, you should always buy art. And why not buy it from a cigarette machine?

[C]

Why not? Better than cigarettes that are much better.

[A]

Than cigarettes, that's for sure. Thank you, Kurt.

[C]

You're very welcome, Robin.

[A]

99% invisible was produced this week by Jacob Medina Gleason, Joe Rosenberg and Kurt Kohlstedt. Edited by Jason De Leon, Mixed by Martin Gonzalez, Music by Swan Rial. Fact checking by Graham Hayshutt. Special thanks to Jesse Billingham for the recording of Violet Jessup. Kathy Tu is our executive producer. Delaney hall is our senior editor. The rest of the team includes Chris Berube, Emmett Fitzgerald, Christopher Johnson, Vivien Leigh Lashama, Dawn Kelly, Prime, Talon and Rayne Stradley, and me, roman Mars. The 99% invisible logo was created by Stephan Lawrence. We are part of the Sirius XM podcast family now headquartered six blocks north in the Pandora building in beautiful uptown Oakland, California. You can find us on all the usual social media sites as well as our own Discord server. There's a link to that as well as every past episode of [e-mail].

[F]

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