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Search Engine

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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Recent Episodes

The Cost of War
April 17, 2026

The Cost of War

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 ...
What we got wrong about GLP-1s
April 10, 2026

What we got wrong about GLP-1s

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. Rachel Bedard about the many mi...
The Trial of the Driverless Car
March 26, 2026

The Trial of the Driverless Car

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 po...
Are you a good driver?
March 23, 2026

Are you a good driver?

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 Dav...
Odd Lots x Search Engine
March 6, 2026

Odd Lots x Search Engine

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 . To learn more ...
Mysteries of a Chatbot
Feb. 27, 2026

Mysteries of a Chatbot

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 whethe...

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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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