Roman Mars is an American radio producer. He is the host and producer of 99% Invisible, a KALW radio show and podcast, and a founder of the podcast collective Radiotopia,^[1] which he describes as efforts '"to broaden the radio landscape [and] make shows that aren't bound by [the] conventions" of public radio in the United States.^[2]

He has also contributed to radio programs such as Radiolab and Planet Money.^[3][4] Fast Company identified him as one of the hundred most creative people of 2013.^[5] In 2004, he produced a program called Invisible Ink^[6] on KALW. In June 2017, Mars launched the podcast What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law with Elizabeth Joh, a professor of constitutional law at University of California, Davis, School of Law.^[7]

Mars and his 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.^[8][9][10] In 2016, Mars used asynchronous podcasting with Justin McElroy, creating the first episode of Smart Stuff, which started with My Brother, My Brother and Me episode 316^[11] and was completed in 99% Invisible episode 225.^[12]

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.^[13]

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.^[14]

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 when the campaign reached 10,000 backers. The original goal of $150,000 was raised in 92 hours.^[15]

Following this success, Mars introduced another Kickstarter campaign to build season two of Radiotopia, a collection of seven storytelling podcasts:

Its original goal was $250,000 which was funded^[16] 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:^[17]

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".^[17] This was achieved within two days on November 4, 2014.^[18]

The third stretch goal was set at $500,000 and would allow Radiotopia to provide more content, wage increases and paid internships.^[18] This goal was met within five days on November 9, 2014.^[19]

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.^[19] 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.^[20]