The Story of the ZIP Code

Did you know that the post office had to use a cartoon character named Mr. ZIP to get people to use the ZIP code? Learn about this and more in The Story of the ZIP Code. This debut issue will take you back in time with old time-y photos, radio ads, and music videos.

The History of Things is a series on the little known origins of everyday things. The elevator, the postal system, time — we’ll look back at when old ideas were new, the challenges they faced, and how they evolved to become "everyday things". These stories of invention, iteration, and paradigm shifts will make you wish you learned this in history class.

Send questions and special requests to nicole.sylianteng@gmail.com, or follow me at @nsylianteng on Instagram for updates.

"OMG I just opened my ZIP code package. It is simply delightful in an unexpected way (no spoilers). Recommend."

"It makes you think about how average everyday things we take for granted used to be novel ideas that people resisted because they don’t like change. And then you think about new ideas now going through the same pushback until you adopt and normalize it."

"It's like a 99% Invisible episode on paper."