The great podcaster Roman Mars will always be an audio legend for two reasons: 

Of course, his voice — Roman Mars has an inarguably great podcasting voice on “99% Invisible,” which explores the great and terrible design choices we are surrounded by. But he is perhaps most passionate about flag design. In his 2015 TEDTalk “Why city flags may be the worst-designed thing you’ve never noticed”, Mars says: “There is a scourge of bad flags, and they must be stopped.” 

At the time, Mars called out Cedar Rapids’ former city flag as one of the worst designs cities put forward, but it turns out Mars has been a big fan of another Iowa design: the Three Bridges of the 1974 Des Moines flag. 

(Full disclosure: There is a full-size Three Bridges flag hanging in my living room, because it looks really cool.)

On Oct. 14 the City Council approved re-adopting the Three Bridges design by Walter “Bud” Proctor. You can see the agenda item summing up the flag’s history here.

Meanwhile, it appears Mars approves this new step for the city, even if he’s a little surprised. 

“I didn’t realize the great flag of Des Moines wasn’t actually the official flag of Des Moines!” Mars tweeted.