Roman Mars

Roman Mars is the host and producer of 99% Invisible, a KALW radio show and podcast.

He has also contributed to radio programs such as Radiolab and Planet Money. Fast Company identified him as one of the hundred most creative people (number 63) of 2013. In and around 2004 he produced a program called Invisible Ink on KALW.

99% Invisible

Mars and his signature radio show, 99% Invisible, have been credited in the mainstream press as an innovative form of radio production, defining a new movement of independent radio and podcast creators. In 2016 Mars co-invented asynchronous podcasting with Justin McElroy creating the first episode of Smart Stuff which began in MBMBaM episode 316 and was completed in 99% Invisible episode 225.

In March 2015, Mars delivered a talk at the TED conference in Vancouver, BC, entitled "Why city Flags may be the worst-designed thing you've never noticed", revealing the five basic principles of flag design and sparking flag-change efforts across the US and Canada with over 4 million views. The talk inspired the city of Pocatello, Idaho to invite Mars to a conference to redesign their flag, voted the worst city flag in North America and highlighted in the talk. Mars maintains a personal collection of flags.

Radiotopia

In partnership with the Knight Foundation and the Public Radio Exchange (PRX), Mars also created the podcast collective 'Radiotopia'.

The Public Radio Exchange has hired Mars to curate a radio program called Remix, which is syndicated by at least 14 public radio stations across the US.

Kickstarter

Mars is also notable for having successfully used Kickstarter for 99% Invisible, raising over $170,000, making it the highest-funded journalism Kickstarter project ever, and the second highest-funded Kickstarter project across the entire publishing category.

In November 2013, 99% Invisible's season four Kickstarter campaign received 11,693 backers raising over $375,000. The e-mail marketing service MailChimp donated $20,000 once the campaign reached 10,000 backers. The original goal of $150,000 was raised in 92 hours.

2014 Kickstarter for Radiotopia

Following this success, Mars introduced another Kickstarter campaign to build Season Two of Radiotopia, a collection of seven storytelling podcasts.

• 99% Invisible
• Fugitive Waves
• Love + Radio
• Radio Diaries
• Strangers
• Theory of Everything
• The Truth

Its original goal was $250,000 which was funded within six days. However, the campaign more than doubled its original target, achieving $620,412 from 21,808 backers by the time the Kickstarter closed on November 15, 2014, making it the most-funded Kickstarter project in the publishing and radio and podcast categories.. The goal was helped by an offer of $25,000 from Hover if the campaign achieved 20,000 backers of any amount from $1 upwards.

As a result Radiotopia reached three stretch goals. Its first was to add three podcasts hosted by women to the collective when the Kickstarter reached $400,000, which happened on November 2, 2014:

• Criminal
• The Heart
• The Allusionist

The second stretch goal was set at $425,000 to host Radiotopia parties throughout 2015 in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, New York City, Dublin, and London, plus another two cities that "create the most noise on Facebook and Twitter". This was achieved within two days on November 4, 2014.

The third stretch goal was set at $500,000 and would allow Radiotopia to provide more content, wage increases and paid internships. This goal was met within five days on November 9, 2014.

The fourth stretch goal, set at $600,000, was to create a pilot development fund to find new, talented producers and hosts not covered by traditional radio. A fourth podcast, Mortified, was also added to the collective, bringing the total number of podcasts to 11. The fourth goal was reached on November 15, 2014.