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 of all time by Time Magazine
Episodes
May 8, 2026 • 52 mins
Nuclear energy was a taboo for decades, but it’s coming back, it’ll power AI data centers for Google and Microsoft. What does new nuclear technology look like, and why do the nuclear optimists believe this new tech is superior? Meltdowns, reactors that can fit in your backyard, and one podcaster’s heroic attempt to describe nuclear fission.
Rachel Slaybaugh
Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow (check out her book Atomic Dreams)
Adam Stein
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May 1, 2026 • 52 mins
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 place we go where we die and an answer to what happens when it runs out of money.
Is the Cemetery Dead? by David Charles Sloane
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April 24, 2026 • 42 mins
An enterprising reporter goes on a quest to find the restaurant serving the absolute best free bread in this country, and finds it. She returns to Search Engine with her results.
Read Caity Weaver’s story.
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April 17, 2026 • 51 mins
The United States has begun a conflict with Iran that two thirds of the American public does not understand. One question we can try to answer: how much is this conflict costing us? The surprising story of how the government learned to hide the costs of war, and how someone learned to get to the bottom of those costs anyway.
Check out Professor Bilmes’ work.
Additional listening: our episode on ballooning national debt and why it...
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April 10, 2026 • 49 mins
Search Engine is breaking its cowardly three-year silence on GLP-1s. We have been curious about them. We have been afraid of getting in trouble. We are no longer afraid. A conversation with Dr. Rachael Bedard about the many mistakes in how the media covered these drugs and what the research shows about their surprising effects.
Dr. Bedard’s story on the rise of Ozempic
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March 26, 2026 • 66 mins
In blue cities throughout the country, unions and politicians are fighting to ban driverless cars. We travel to Boston, where the fight has reached a fever pitch, and where the cars themselves will create some very unusual political alliances.
(This is part two of a two part series, listen to the beginning here.)
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March 23, 2026 • 70 mins
The story of how a secret project at Google led to driverless cars on American roads. And, an answer to the question: are the robots actually safer drivers than we are?
Driven: The Race to Create the Autonomous Car , Alex Davies
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March 6, 2026 • 51 mins
This week, we’re sharing an episode from Odd Lots. An interview with The Economist's Mike Bird about how Chinese real estate became the biggest bubble in history.
You can find more episodes from Odd Lots here.
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February 27, 2026 • 52 mins
Anthropic hired philosophers to teach its AI to be good. In their tests, the AI blackmailed a human to keep itself alive. Writer Gideon Lewis-Kraus went inside the company to figure out what's going on with Claude, and whether anyone can actually control it.
Read Gideon's story here
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February 20, 2026 • 60 mins
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 Sanneh.
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February 13, 2026 • 48 mins
Two decades ago, bodybuilders on niche internet forums started injecting peptides. Now they're in the secret mini-fridges of some teenage boys. How did they get there? We track their crooked path from Silicon Valley to jaw-smashing influencers.
Check out Jasmine Sun's work (and her piece on peptides)
Check out Ezra Marcus' work (and his piece on peptides)
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January 30, 2026 • 59 mins
A simple question leads us on a journey from the bowels of New York City through the courtrooms of South Carolina to the disgusting truth.
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January 20, 2026 • 62 mins
The conclusion to our story about Venezuela. How a country goes from a prosperous democracy to a poverty-ravaged dictatorship.
The End (our 2022 episode on Greenland)
The Many Faces of Chavismo - Alejandro Velasco
Things Are Never So Bad That They Can't Get Worse - William Neuman
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January 16, 2026 • 69 mins
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 in charge. To understand how we got here, we talked to Venezuelan historian Alejandro Velasco, who grew up there and has spent years trying to understand why a country with so much promise has proven so difficult to govern.
The Many Faces of Chavismo - Alejandro Velasco
Hard Fork wit...
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January 9, 2026 • 41 mins
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 trying out. Three podcasters who’ve spent years critiquing social media companies try to build their own small alternative social media.
A collaboration with Hard Fork’s Kevin Roose and Casey Newton: join The Forkiverse here.
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December 26, 2025 • 39 mins
As a very special holiday treat, we are sharing a story from one of our favorite podcasts, Heavyweight.
Gregor's parents are pushing 90. Gregor wants to move them out of their big Victorian home. But they refuse. So, he's come up with a bold plan.
Incognito Mode, our ad-free, no-rerun, bonus episode feed.
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December 19, 2025 • 59 mins
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? Search Engine investigates a Bermuda Triangle.
Incognito Mode, our ad-free, no-rerun, bonus episode feed.
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December 12, 2025 • 52 mins
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 talk about what shopping a podcast has been like in this environment, our internal stats, and… Yes, Yes, No.
Incognito Mode, our ad-free, no-rerun, bonus episode feed.
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December 5, 2025 • 62 mins
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 shocking fall, and the shadowy group behind its invention.
Joseph's new book: Dark Wire.
Incognito Mode, our ad-free, no-rerun, bonus episode feed.
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November 27, 2025 • 38 mins
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 with Ezra Klein.
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