Search Engine
We try to make sense of the world, one question at a time. No question too big, no question too small. Hosted by PJ Vogt, edited by Sruthi Pinnamaneni.
***Named one of the best podcasts by Vulture, Time, The Economist, & Vogue. (OK, in 2023, but still...)***
***Named one of the best podcasts by Vulture, Time, The Economist, & Vogue. (OK, in 2023, but still...)***
Episodes (99)
How does a rationalist make a baby?
A member of an unusual Bay Area community decides to try to have a baby in an unusual way – by putting out a very large prize for anyone who can help her find a mate. How the internet shaped one...
A Dubai Chocolate theory of the internet
Garbage Day's Ryan Broderick traces the rise of this goopy green chocolate, and explains how Chinese social media is beginning to tug on US culture in unexpected ways.
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Are microplastics really a problem?
Our listener Louisa is very annoyed by her sister’s preoccupation with keeping her children away from microplastics. Louisa wonders: are people with microplastics anxiety kind of overdoing...
What does it feel like to believe in God? (classic)
This week, we try to understand an experience that 74% of Americans routinely report having. The first of many conversations (perhaps?). This one, an interview with Zvika Krieger.
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The Cuddly Killer (classic)
A question that has launched a battle between bird-loving ecologists and ardent, cat-defending activists. What should we do about an invasive species beloved by many Americans -- cats? We hear from...
Why'd I take speed for twenty years? - Part 2 (classic)
In part two of our story about ADHD medications, we approach the question from a different angle.
We meet a doctor who spent two decades convinced that her brain does not work correctly, and who...
We meet a doctor who spent two decades convinced that her brain does not work correctly, and who...
Why'd I take speed for twenty years? - Part 1 (classic)
One of the millions of millennials given prescription stimulants to treat ADHD decides to quit. And afterwards wonders -- how did these drugs becomes so popular, so fast? This week, the story of...
The Psychic Question
A journalist finds out that many of his vaunted mentors are seeing a psychic. The same psychic. He decides to pay her a visit.
Check out the 10% Happier podcast
See more of Dan's work at...
Check out the 10% Happier podcast
See more of Dan's work at...
Wait, should I not be drinking airplane coffee? (classic)
Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski has heard a disgusting rumor — that the coffee on airplanes is unsafe to drink because the onboard water tanks are only cleaned once a year. We investigate and learn some...
The Test
A woman gets a disquieting piece of information about her pregnancy, and turns to technology to try to control her future.
Second Life - Amanda Hess ( Bookshop )
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Second Life - Amanda Hess ( Bookshop )
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The Stupid Little Yogurt Question
A high school teacher has a question, but he wants his skeptical teenage students to answer it. Reporter Garrott Graham rides along as they investigate the motives of an international yogurt...
Search Engine x What We Spend
This week, we're presenting an episode of a new show we like called What We Spend, one of Vulture's best podcasts of 2025.
Also, news for our Incognito Mode listeners. Today, we're having an...
Also, news for our Incognito Mode listeners. Today, we're having an...
How to stop being so phone addicted (without self-discipline or meditation)
This week we ask a slightly absurd question – is there technology to stop you from using addictive technology – and get some surprising answers from The Verge's David Pierce. New developments in the...
The Dave and Buster's Anomaly
A small group of Americans becomes convinced they’ve discovered something strange about their iPhones: a forbidden phrase the phone will refuse to transmit. A crack podcasting team searches for...
Why the national debt might finally matter
In a moment of deep economic uncertainty created by our tariff-loving president, suddenly, our national debt has become much more important. Important enough that, this week, we have decided to teach...
Why can’t we just turn the empty offices into apartments? (classic)
A re-air from August 2023:
Our quest for the answer to this one sends us over a hundred years into the past. We learn about the invisible rules and fights that determine what our neighborhoods look...
Our quest for the answer to this one sends us over a hundred years into the past. We learn about the invisible rules and fights that determine what our neighborhoods look...
What are teenagers actually seeing on their phones?
A group of teenagers agrees to allow a filmmaker to record the things they do on their phones for a year-long experiment. To see the world they see through their phones, to encounter their algorithms....
The Russian Cake Switcheroo
A beloved American rock band’s Spotify page appears to have been taken over by Russian rappers. Is this a scam? A mistake? A strange third act from some beloved alt-rockers? Kelefa Sanneh...
Planet Money: The Memecoin Casino
Reporter Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi has the story of an unusual website you’ve likely never heard of. A website that has been responsible for rapidly making the world of Dogecoin and other memecoins become...
Viruses in the Air
In the 1930s, two scientists made a very important discovery, but their breakthrough idea failed to spread. In large part because the two were considered so deeply annoying. Reporter Carl Zimmer...
The Puzzle of the All-American BBQ Scrubber
Why it’s so difficult to manufacture something entirely in America, and what happens if you try anyway.
The Smarter Scrubber Grill Brush
Destin Sandlin’s YouTube Channel: Smarter Every Day
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The Smarter Scrubber Grill Brush
Destin Sandlin’s YouTube Channel: Smarter Every Day
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DOGE and the Mystery of the State Department Teslas
There’s a new president of America, and he’s doing a lot of things. How do you decide what to pay attention to? A story about reporters focusing on one mysterious line item during the DOGE headline...
Does anyone actually like their job? (classic)
... Or, am I being lied to by a Brooklyn-based musician? At twenty-five, I had a question for The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn. This week, I finally got to ask it.
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Can you cure picky eating?
An adult picky eater, ostracized by his friends, castigated by society, asks the most human question of all: can I change? Our friends Manny, Noah, and Devan, the chicken bone squad, return to answer...
What should we do about teens using AI to do their homework?
A teenager explains why he shouldn’t have to write homework essays anymore. Is there some way for adults to force teens to still do homework? Or to convince them they should want to?
More Than Words -...
More Than Words -...
What happens when a cemetery goes out of business?
We're supposed to be buried there forever, right? Right?? Answers this week from writer David Sloane, who grew up in a cemetery and spent his adult life studying them. The surprising history of the...
What’s it like to fly when you’re fat?
One of the most routine and uncomfortable miracles many of us experience, flight. Airplanes have gotten increasingly more cramped and less comfortable. What’s it like flying as a fat person, all the...
The New Zuckerberg
What’s going on with Mark Zuckerberg? He recently conspicuously pivoted toward MAGA, meeting quietly with incoming Trump officials, and complaining about the Biden administration on Joe Rogan’s...
Is it ok to just work all the time?
For our first episode in the new year, a reflection on how we spend our time. What we devote our life to, and the roads we choose not to take. A conversation with Ira Glass.
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Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
An investigation into a mysterious room. A room that the most famous family in England apparently does not want you to see.
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When do you know it’s time to stop drinking? (classic)
This week, a question a podcast has no business trying to answer. We talk to writer A.J. Daulerio about his own story of recovery, and the story of how he found himself opening a very unusual...
What if ayahuasca made you stop podcasting?
An anti-woke podcast abruptly announces its end, and in its final episode, a host offers its listeners some surprising news. She had taken ayahuasca, a powerful psychedelic, and it had contributed to...
Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
If ever there was a place where every person inside was guaranteed to already have luggage, it would be inside an airport. And yet ... the airport luggage stores persist. Who is going to these places?...
What is jawmaxxing?
The story of how an alternative theory of dentistry made its way from medicine's fringes to an audience of young men online. This week we try to make sense of jawmaxxing with help from Panic World’s...
The White Subaru Hell Loop
A mortal human being finds himself stuck between two impressive organizations: the DMV, and an internet start-up called Carvana. He has a problem, but each side insists only the other can solve it....
How did the first democracy die?
The story of the first people who invented democracy, and what it did to them.
What's Wrong With Democracy? by Loren J. Samons II
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What's Wrong With Democracy? by Loren J. Samons II
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How do you sit quietly in the middle of a storm?
What if there was an event in the future, the outcome of which you couldn’t personally control, but it was still causing you anguish?
This week, we talk to an ordained Zen priest and teacher to get...
This week, we talk to an ordained Zen priest and teacher to get...
Should we be worried about OpenAI?
A year ago, we saw a stand-off between OpenAI's non-profit board and its leader, Sam Altman. Since then, the board has been reshuffled, Altman has consolidated power, and under his leadership, some...
Why is it so hard to tax billionaires? (Part 2)
We reveal the one weird trick some billionaires use to pay less in federal income taxes than you do. And we explain the consequences faced by the person who leaked the tax returns of billionaires like...
Why is it so hard to tax billionaires? (Part 1)
A rogue IRS contractor leaks the private tax returns of the country’s wealthiest citizens to a reporter. That reporter, ProPublica’s Jesse Eisinger, learns that some of our billionaires are paying as...
Death, Sex & Money x Search Engine
This week, we're sharing an episode of a show we love, Death, Sex & Money. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do. We'll be back with two new episodes of our own next Friday.
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To learn more about...
The Mystery of the Vape Shop Kratom
This week we have for you ... not a whodunnit, but a what did I do? A listener tries a substance he doesn’t know much about and not long after, his life begins to change. Afterwards, he wonders — what...
Is everyone pretending to understand inflation (or just me)?
The single issue that might decide the upcoming presidential election also happens to be: very confusing. Political economist Mark Blyth helps us understand: how inflation starts, how inflation is...
A stubborn lunatic’s guide to making great art
25 years ago, The Sopranos, the best television show ever created, premiered. This week, a new documentary called Wise Guy asks the question: how did a show considered so risky & uncommercial even get...
Can I microdose veganism?
If you care about animals, but don't want to stop eating them... what's the least you could do while doing the most good? That question, posed to The Atlantic's Annie Lowrey, leads us to a pair of...
What's the best phone to do crimes on?
For years, the must-have phone for the discerning drug trafficker or hitman was a brand you may not have heard of: AN0M. Reporter Joseph Cox tells us the story of the AN0M phone, its sudden rise and...
Is there a sane way to follow this election?
We are in an eighty-eight day sprint to the Presidential election. How would you follow this story if you wanted to actually understand something, instead of, like me, just feeling very anxious...
The End
A trip to Greenland, a chance encounter with Coolio, and the end of the world. (This summer we’re publishing some of our favorite episodes from our previous series, Crypto Island.)
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The Kidnapping of Ape #8398
An art heist in the crypto world plunges us headfirst into another mystery — why did so many celebrities suddenly start selling us on NFTs last year? (This summer we’re publishing some of our favorite...
Genesis
This week: Bitcoin. We trace it from its humble origins in a .PDF to the movement it has spawned, all over three days at an enormous Bitcoin conference in Miami. (This summer we’re publishing some of...
The Bidding War
A story about a strange auction for perhaps the most valuable piece of paper in America. This summer we’re publishing some of our favorite episodes from our previous series, Crypto Island.
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How much glue should you put in your pizza?
An internet breaking news story. As we told you last week, Google has begun offering AI-generated answers to search questions. But some answers, it turns out, are strange. Users were told, for...
How do we survive the media apocalypse? (Part 2)
Last week, Google announced a fundamental change to how the site will work, which will likely have dire effects for the news industry. When you use Google now, the site will often offer AI-generated...
Should this creepy search engine exist?
After stumbling on a new kind of search engine for faces, we called privacy journalist Kashmir Hill. She’s been reporting on the very sudden and unregulated rise of these facial search engines. Here’s...
What do trigger warnings actually do?
A listener’s brother dies by suicide, and afterwards, she finds herself angered by trigger warnings about suicide. She wants to know — are these actually helping other people? Or is it just something...
Where's my flying car?
Since not long after the car was invented, we have wanted to stick wings on them and fly them through the sky. This week, we interview writer Gideon Lewis-Kraus about the surprisingly long history of...
Do political yard signs actually do anything?
It’s an election year and so Search Engine’s campaign desk is answering the questions you really want answers to: all the political yard signs in your neighbors’ yards … do they do anything besides...
Why are there so many illegal weed stores in New York City? (Part 2)
In part two of our story, we watch the state of New York try to pull off something we rarely see in America: a kind of reparations. A very ambitious dream encounters a thicket of details and...
Why are there so many illegal weed stores in New York City? (Part 1)
In 2021, New York legalized cannabis for adults. It was supposed to be the start of a legal market, led by people arrested during prohibition. Instead, a strange new market has flourished, seemingly...
A big announcement from Search Engine plus, "What's in your cocaine?"
We've launched a new premium feed called Incognito Mode. It includes bonus episodes of Search Engine and some other very special features. We're including a preview episode here: an interview with a...
How do we survive the media apocalypse?
Something strange, new, and unsettling is happening in media right now. Huge institutions, both newspapers and online outlets, are being severely transformed by layoffs.
As a person just trying to...
As a person just trying to...
Who's behind these scammy text messages we've all been getting?
"Hi David, I’m Vicky Ho. Don’t you remember me?"
An investigative reporter travels halfway around the world to find out who is sending him random wrong number texts and why. After you hear this story,...
An investigative reporter travels halfway around the world to find out who is sending him random wrong number texts and why. After you hear this story,...
How do you make an addictive video game?
This episode will change how you look at games. We talk to Ben Brode, the designer behind Hearthstone and Marvel Snap, about how a creative person learns to make the things they love, and about the...
Where did all the roaches go?
Cockroaches were a scourge that scuttled through the cracks and crevices of homes all throughout America. And then one day, large numbers of them mysteriously disappeared. A miracle for humankind?...
What are we gonna do about all these cats?
A question that has launched a battle between bird-loving ecologists and ardent, cat-defending activists. What should we do about an invasive species beloved by many Americans -- cats? We hear from...
How do you survive fame?
Actor Molly Ringwald joins us to talk about a time in her life when her job was to pretend to be a normal American teenager, a job which made it impossible to actually be a normal American...
Why are there so many chicken bones on the street? (Part 2)
This week, the shocking finale of our investigation into who -- or what -- has been leaving chicken bones strewn across the sidewalks of American cities. Our team of investigators returns with...
Why are there so many chicken bones on the street? (Part 1)
A team of investigators with an unusual set of skills joins us this week to solve a mystery that haunts dog owners across modern American cities. On our journey, we'll have video surveillance,...
When do you know it’s time to stop drinking?
This week, a question a podcast has no business trying to answer. We talk to writer A.J. Daulerio about his own story of recovery, and the story of how he found himself opening a very unusual...
Am I the victim of an international sushi scam? (Part 2)
We bring you the shattering conclusion to our investigation into whether a New York City sushi restaurant is swapping their tuna rolls for “the ex-lax fish.” The DNA test is in.
Can we trust anyone?...
Can we trust anyone?...
Am I the victim of an international sushi scam? (Part 1)
We investigate unsettling rumors that fish purveyors may be mislabeling fish to save a buck. Our path leads us deep into the shadowy world of blackmarket fish sales, and sends us hot on the trail of...
Who should be in charge of AI?
This week, the story of a very brief, very absurd revolution at the world’s leading artificial intelligence company, OpenAI. And we try to answer the quite real question that might be animating all of...
Why don’t we eat people?
A question from a four-year-old tips us into an investigation of one of our most fundamental taboos: cannibalism. With help from New Yorker food critic Hannah Goldfield and writer Kelefa...
The Bull of Wall Street
Every day in Manhattan, about 1,000 people will stand outside in a long line waiting for their chance to take a picture with a bronze bull. On many of those days, PJ Vogt stares at the scene trying to...
Why'd I take speed for twenty years? (Part 2)
In part two of our story about ADHD medications, we approach the question from a different angle.
We meet a doctor who spent two decades convinced that her brain does not work correctly, and who...
We meet a doctor who spent two decades convinced that her brain does not work correctly, and who...
Why'd I take speed for twenty years? (Part 1)
One of the millions of millennials given prescription stimulants to treat ADHD decides to quit. And afterwards wonders -- how did these drugs becomes so popular, so fast? This week, the story of...
Is there a sane way to use the internet?
Ezra Klein joins Search Engine this week to answer a question that's increasingly confounded us: how do I use the internet now? How do I get information about the things I care about, without getting...
Heavyweight x Search Engine
Search Engine is VERY EXCITED to share the news that Heavyweight, one of our favorite shows, is now available wherever you download podcasts. To celebrate, and to herald the release of their new...
Why are we still buying diamonds?
They’re shiny rocks that we’ve somehow agreed embody romance and eternity. But diamonds, it turns out, are not as rare as we think. And these days, they can be made in a lab. So why do we continue to...
Why’s it so hard to figure out how many people watch Stranger Things?
Maya Hawke, of Stranger Things, would like to know why won’t Netflix just tell her how many people watch the show? Plus the question underneath that question … might the internet have broken our TV...
Does anyone actually like their job?
... Or, am I being lied to by a Brooklyn-based musician? At twenty-five, I had a question for The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn. This week, I finally got to ask it.
If you have questions or comments about...
If you have questions or comments about...
Why are drug dealers putting fentanyl in everything? (Part 2)
We speak to Luis, a former fentanyl dealer and user who tells us why a dealer might want to put fentanyl in less lethal drugs. Luis also tells us how he learned the rules of dealing, and how the rules...
Why are drug dealers putting fentanyl in everything? (Part 1)
Isn't it bad business to kill your own customers? In part one of our answer to this question, we talk to reporter Ben Westhoff, who helps us understand how Fentanyl became a street drug in the first...
Why can’t we just turn the empty offices into apartments?
Our quest for answers this week sends us over a hundred years into the past. We learn about the invisible rules and fights that determine what our neighborhoods look like. We also learn about houses...
What's it like to slowly go blind?
We interview writer Andrew Leland, who has been gradually losing his sight for two decades. Andrew takes us inside the blind internet, and teaches us how you deal with anxiety about the things you...
What's going on with Elon Musk?
Search Engine investigates the erratic behavior of the world’s wealthiest man with Hard Fork’s Casey Newton. The three top theories for why Elon Musk has begun to act strangely, including one theory...
How do I find new music now that I’m old and irrelevant?
We enlist a very overqualified person to answer this question, writer Kelefa Sanneh, author of Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres. Kelefa listens to more music than practically...
Wait, should I not be drinking airplane coffee?
Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski has heard a disgusting rumor — that the coffee on airplanes is unsafe to drink because the onboard water tanks are only cleaned once a year. We investigate and learn some...
How sad are the monkeys in the zoo?
To answer this question, we’ll unpack a scientific battle centuries in the making, one that involves a serial killer elephant and a suicidal dog. We’ll also learn a new way that people who are...
Introducing: Search Engine
No question too big, no question too small. A new show that’ll be out soon. You can hear it here, on this feed. The one you're on now. Question you'd like answered? Email pjvogt85@gmail.com
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To learn...
09 The End
A trip to Greenland, a chance encounter with Coolio, and the end of the world.
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
Learn...
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
Learn...
08 The Kidnapping of Ape #8398
An art heist in the crypto world plunges us headfirst into another mystery — why did so many celebrities suddenly start selling us on NFTs last year? (To help support the show or subscribe to the free...
07 The Drug Trader
This week we follow a dollar underground. For notes, further reading, or to support this project visit pjvogt.com.
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit:...
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit:...
06 The Lunatic Who Crashed Crypto
This week, a story of about how crypto just imploded due to one risky, financial product. And the fight-loving, Twitter-addicted founder who invented that product for his adoring army of...
05 Genesis
This week: Bitcoin. We trace it from its humble origins in a .PDF to the movement it has spawned, all over three days at an enormous Bitcoin conference in Miami.
Visit Crypto Island at pjvogt.com if...
Visit Crypto Island at pjvogt.com if...
04 The Skeptic
The strange journeys of Cas Piancey, a baker turned crypto skeptic. (For notes & further reading on this episode, check out my newsletter at pjvogt.com).
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To learn more about listener data and our...
03 Miguel
A conversation with Miguel Piedrafita. Why would a 19-year-old from Spain want to buy the US Constitution?
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit:...
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit:...
02 ConstitutionDAO
A story about a strange auction for perhaps the most valuable piece of paper in America. (Listen to introduction episode before this one, if you haven't! Also for notes & further reading on this...
01 Welcome to Crypto Island
An introduction to this limited series. A video of a mysterious tropical island populated entirely by Bitcoin dynasts and Dogecoin princelings sends a reporter on a new journey.
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About this Podcast
Copyright
PJ Vogt
Language
en
Categories
Technology, Society & Culture, Business