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Search Engine
Search Engine is the podcast that tries to answer the questions that keep you up at night. A podcast made by humans that provides human answers. It was co-created by PJ Vogt and Sruthi Pinnamaneni.
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149
Sept. 11, 2026
Why’s everybody going to Japan?
A Japanese listener gets so many houseguests she starts a spreadsheet to try to figure out what's going on. Why has American tourism to Japan gotten so out of control? The story of a government plot. Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. by Roland Kelts Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style by W. David Marx Become a premium subscriber!
148
Aug. 28, 2026
The Killing of the Gaza Chef
Mahmud Almadhoun ran a soup kitchen in the north of the Gaza Strip. In November 2024, he was killed. A reporter tries to answer a big question. Was Mahmud intentionally targeted? And if so, what does that mean about the future of war? Listen to The Gaza Chef. Become a premium member!
147
Aug. 21, 2026
The Chosen One
A listener asks: whose penis gets the top spot on the Wikipedia page for penis? Our quest for an answer takes us on a surprisingly philosophical journey — where we learn about the cutthroat fight to be number one and the extremely overthink-y debate that precedes the coronation. Wikipedia page for Lane Rasberry. Wikipedia page for penis. Wikipedia page for human penis. Become a premium member!
146
Aug. 11, 2026
A road trip through the data center debate
The midterms are approaching, and as the discourse heats up, one of big new villains is: a kind of building. Data centers. Reporter Jasmine Sun took a road trip through two swing states to meet the people living at the center of these debates, and to understand where this all might be headed. no data centers in my backyard by Jasmine Sun
145
Aug. 6, 2026
The machines are learning… to do crimes?
For the first time, an AI model has autonomously hacked a company. This week, an evolving story, a postcard from a strange, frightening moment in the story of our technology. A big week for AI denialism by Casey Newton Its AI agent spent days hacking a company, but sources say OpenAI did not notice for a week by Deepa Seetharaman, Raphael Satter, and Kenrick Cai Cheating behaviour in frontier model evaluations by AI Security Institute More On An Internal OpenAI Model Hacking Into HuggingFace
July 24, 2026
What’s in your cocaine and the questions Search Engine CAN’T answer
An interview with a cocaine salesman about cocaine adulterants, plus – questions Search Engine can’t answer, with special guest Kelefa Sanneh. Become a premium subscriber!
What People Say About the Show
"I love explanatory journalism, and it’s explanatory journalism at its best. Simple questions that unfold into wondrous answers and, more than that, explorations."
- Ezra Klein, host of The Ezra Klein Show
"I like that Search Engine is still figuring out what it can do with this new podcast form it's invented, and that every time I download an episode I really don't know what to expect. What's rarer than that? In podcasts or in anything?"
- Ira Glass, host of This American Life
"Search Engine’s particular spark comes from the way the team injects a sense of genuine discovery into the act of unspooling. This is a show that works to give you a good time, always hustling for your attention as it peels back layer after layer."
- Vulture, "Search Engine Is the Spiritual Successor to Reply All"
You can find our show credits, schedule, and advertising ethics policy here.
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