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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...)***
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121 episodi
The Venezuelan Curse (Part 2)
The conclusion to our story about Venezuela. How a country goes from a prosperous democracy to a poverty-ravaged dictatorship.
The End (...
The Venezuelan Curse
For the past year, there's been a steady drumbeat of headlines about Venezuela. Now the US has invaded, arrested its president, and installed itself i...
The Fediverse Experiment
Our present version of the internet is arguably the worst it’s ever been. Which means – any shot at changing things, even an unlikely one – is worth t...
Heavyweight x Search Engine
As a very special holiday treat, we are sharing a story from one of our favorite podcasts, Heavyweight.
Gregor's parents are pushing 90....
A Perfectly Average Anomaly
A man walks into an airport body scanner, and with eerie consistency, the machine flags the exact same part of his body. What could be going on? Searc...
Unlocked: The State of Search Engine 2025
As a special, one-time holiday treat, we're sharing something we only usually offer on our premium feed, Incognito Mode. Our annual board meeting! We...
What's the best phone to do crimes on? (classic)
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...
How to talk (or not talk) politics at family holidays
This week, in honor of the holiday season — can you, should you change your family’s politics through holiday conversation. If so, how? A conversation...
Colossus 1
Tech billionaires have made an enormous bet on AI, the biggest bet that tech has made on anything in a very long time. Reporter Sruthi Pinnamaneni goe...
Colossus 2
In part two of our story about Elon Musk’s growing data center empire, we visit the battle between people in Memphis and xAI. And we try to understand...
An Anthropology of Gooners
A reporter spends a year diving into a subculture of young men online who unite around their extreme commitment to constant, unadulterated porn consum...
America vs. China
People review everything, but they almost never review what it’s like to live in another country. Until now.
We interview a writer who’s...
The Rage in the Cage
Can you tickle your way to victory in an MMA fight? An investigation into a sports scandal with journalist Pablo Torre.
See...
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...