Invisibilia


Invisibilia is a radio program and podcast from National Public Radio. It debuted in early 2015 and explored "the intangible forces that shape human behavior—things like ideas, beliefs, assumptions and emotions." The program's title comes from Latin, meaning "the invisible things." The Guardian ranked Invisibilia among "the 10 best new podcasts of 2015." In its seventh season, the program was hosted by Kia Miakka Natisse and Yowei Shaw; previous season hosts included Lulu Miller, Alix Spiegel and Hanna Rosin.

Background

Alix Spiegel was a founding producer of This American Life and freelanced for NPR's Science Desk covering psychology and human behavior. At Chicago's Third Coast International Audio Festival, Spiegel met former Radiolab producer Lulu Miller and asked her to co-produce a piece she was working on. The two began collaborating on radio stories and conceived of a new long-form program that would become Invisibilia. The show's first six-episode season aired from January to February 2015, with excerpts occasionally running on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Radiolab and This American Life. This extra exposure and Miller and Spiegel's track record helped Invisibilia debut at #1 on the iTunes podcast chart and to maintain a consistent top-ten ranking in the months following its launch. Hanna Rosin from The Atlantic joined as cohost for the second season, which premiered in June 2016 and ran for seven episodes. The third season debuted in June 2017 with Spiegel and Rosin as hosts. The Atlantic included the episode "How to Become Batman" on their list of "The 50 Best Podcast Episodes of 2015".
In June 2020, NPR announced that Spiegel and Rosin would relinquish their roles by early 2021, and Kia Miakka Natisse and Yowei Shaw were named the new co-hosts of the program, which aired its seventh season in April 2021. The show aired its eighth season in September 2021.
In March 2023, NPR announced the cancellation of Invisibilia as part of larger effort to cut costs. The final episode titled The Goodbye Show, was released on April 27, 2023.

Awards

Episodes

Season 1 (2015)

  1. The Secret History of Thoughts
  2. Fearless
  3. How to Become Batman
  4. Entanglement
  5. The Power of Categories
  6. Our Computers, Ourselves

    Season 2 (2016)

  7. The New Norm
  8. The Personality Myth
  9. The Problem with the Solution
  10. Frame of Reference
  11. Flip the Script
  12. The Secret Emotional Life of Clothes
  13. Outside In

    Season 3 (2017)

  14. True You
  15. Future Self
  16. The Culture Inside
  17. Reality
  18. Bubble-Hopping
  19. Emotions
  20. High Voltage

    Season 4 (2018)

  21. I, I, I. Him
  22. The Other Real World
  23. What Was Not Said
  24. The Pattern Problem
  25. Everything Good
  26. The Callout

    Season 5 (2019)

  27. The Fifth Vital Sign
  28. Post, Shoot
  29. The Weatherman
  30. The Remote Control Brain
  31. A Very Offensive Rom-Com
  32. The End of Empathy
  33. Kraftland
  34. The Profile
  35. Back When I Was Older
  36. Love and Lapses
  37. Raising Devendra

    Season 6 (2020)

  38. Two Heartbeats a Minute
  39. The Confrontation
  40. An Unlikely Superpower
  41. White v. White?
  42. The Reluctant Immortalist
  43. The Last Sound
  44. Trust Fall

    Season 7 (2021)

  45. Eat the Rich
  46. The Chaos Machine: An Endless Hole
  47. The Chaos Machine : Wrathful Lord
  48. The Chaos Machine : A Looping Revolt
  49. The Great Narrative Escape
  50. American Slow Radio

    Season 8 (2021)

  51. A Friendly Ghost Story
  52. Nun of Us Are Friends
  53. International Friend of Mystery
  54. Friends with Benefits
  55. Poop Friends
  56. Therapy, with Friends

    Season 9 (2022)

  57. The P-Word
  58. A Little Bit Pregnant
  59. Therapy Ghostbusters
  60. Freedom Diving
  61. Power Tools

    Finale (2023)

  • The Goodbye Show