Since joining 99pi, Kurt has given talks about design at events like Adobe MAX in San Francisco and Nerd Nite in Oakland. He has also participated in programs at the AIA New York’s Center for Architecture and Cities@Tufts, and been featured in industry publications such as ArchDaily.

In 2018, Kurt joined the show’s six-city East Coast tour spanning Atlanta, Durham, Washington, D.C., Boston, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. Along the way, he presented to live audiences about how the invention of Kindergarten catalyzed an era of Modern art and design.

In 2020, Kurt co-authored a critically acclaimed book about the built world with show host Roman Mars, which became an overnight NYT and National Best Seller. The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design recieved glowing reviews from The New York Times and Booklist, as well as a starred review from Kirkus. Other sources of coverage have included The Architect’s Newpaper, The New York Post, SF Weekly, NPR, MPR News, Fast Company, and Slate.

The book has also been adopted into university library core collections across the United States and in other English-speaking countries. Translated editions have been published in various languages as well, including Spanish, Czech, Thai, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

Stories for the book were variously adapted from Kurt’s articles, episodes of the show, and enitrely new material. The foundational structure as well as the content of the project was informed by WebUrbanist, a publication Kurt evolved to utilize highly categorical and visual-first approaches to design coverage. Writing on WU about “desire paths” led to Kurt’s first story as 99pi’s Digital Director, which in turn became the framing metaphor used to introduce the book as a “field guide.”