Search Engine
Dettagli canale
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...)***
Episodi recenti
108 episodi
Cocomelon For Adults
Last week, OpenAI released an app that quickly shot to the #1 spot in Apple's App Store. Sora is like TikTok, except all the videos are AI generated....
Talk Easy x Search Engine
This week, we’re sharing something we loved. An interview with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross about a life made out of conversation.
Check out T...
Is my favorite new TV show this year a ripoff?
The makers of the medical drama The Pitt have been sued. The allegation: that the show is an unauthorized copy of ER.
This week, investi...
The Obituary
Not long after Alex’s wife Whitney dies, he looks at her obituary and discovers something strange. A sect of people online has hijacked her story and...
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...
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...
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 m...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 cl...
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 -...
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 investigat...
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.
...
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 T...
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 tra...
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...
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...
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 th...
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 so...
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...
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 conside...
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
D...
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 on...
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 t...
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, an...
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 co...
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 li...
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...
The New Zuckerberg
What’s going on with Mark Zuckerberg? He recently conspicuously pivoted toward MAGA, meeting quietly with incoming Trump officials, and complaining ab...
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 conve...
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.
Support the show at...
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 ho...
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,...
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 lug...
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...
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...
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
Support...