Doves Type
99% Invisible

Doves Type

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 15, 202637 min

A legendary typeface, a spectacular friendship breakup, and one extremely committed act of revenge. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Here at 99 PI, we do stories about all kinds of things.

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B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 37%A2 38%B1 17%B2 7%C1 1%
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  • 149 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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0:00

This is 99% Invisible. I'm Roman Mars. Here at 99 PI, we do stories about all kinds of things. Stories about architecture, about transit, about history, even the occasional sports story.

0:15

But one kind of story that always elicits a huge response from a very vocal constituency are stories about type. You guys love stories about fonts and typefaces. So a couple months ago, I was having dinner with Helen Zaltzman and her husband and collaborator

0:33

Martin Ostwick, and she told me about a story they developed for a live stage show about an epic feud over a typeface of all things. And I knew I had to get that story on the show. We're talking about two people who set up an artisanal printing press, which was kind

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