Podcast: 99% Invisible (LS 83 · TOP 0.01% what is this?)
Episode: 100 Objects #1: The Century Safe
Pub date: 2026-05-19

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In 1876, Americans filled an iron safe with objects meant to tell their story — to be opened a century later. Roman Mars and historian Jill Lepore trace its long wait, from Reconstruction to Watergate, and the surprising, unsettling contents that emerged in 1976. What do the objects we choose to preserve — or forget — reveal about how we author our own history?

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