Episodes

Are these actually helping other people? Or is it just something we do because we think we’re supposed to?

This week, we interview writer Gideon Lewis-Kraus about the surprisingly long history of actual, working flying cars in America.

An experiment that definitively answers this question. And … the weird conclusion you can draw from what yard signs tell us about democracy.

In part two of our story, we watch the state of New York try to pull off something we rarely see in America: a kind of reparations. A very ambitious dream encounters a thicket of details and complications. The whole time, cam...

In 2021, New York legalized cannabis for adults. It was supposed to be the start of a legal market, led by people arrested during prohibition. Instead, a strange new market has flourished, seemingly every formerly empty store...

We've launched a new premium feed called Incognito Mode . It includes bonus episodes of Search Engine and some other very special features. We're including a preview episode here: an interview with a very candid, high-level d...

Something strange, new, and unsettling is happening in media right now.

"Hi David, I’m Vicky Ho. Don’t you remember me?" An investigative reporter travels halfway around the world to find out who is sending him random wrong number texts and why. After you hear this story, you'll never look at the...

This episode will change how you look at games.

Cockroaches were a scourge that scuttled through the cracks and crevices of homes all throughout America.

A question that has launched a battle between bird-loving ecologists and ardent, cat-defending activists.

Actor Molly Ringwald joins us to talk about a time in her life when her job was to pretend to be a normal American teenager, a job which made it impossible to actually be a normal American teenager.

This week, the shocking finale of our investigation into who -- or what -- has been leaving chicken bones strewn across the sidewalks of American cities.

A team of investigators with an unusual set of skills joins us this week to solve a mystery that haunts dog owners across modern American cities.

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 how he found himself opening a very unusual community on the internet . You c...

We bring you the shattering conclusion to our investigation into whether a New York City sushi restaurant is swapping their tuna rolls for “the ex-lax fish.”

We investigate unsettling rumors that fish purveyors may be mislabeling fish to save a buck.

Reporter Casey Newton helps tell the story of a very brief, very absurd revolution at the world’s leading artificial intelligence company, OpenAI.

This week, a question from a four-year-old tips us into an investigation of one of our most fundamental taboos.

Every day in Manhattan, about 1,000 people will stand outside in a long line waiting for their chance to take a picture with a bronze bull.

In part two of our story about ADHD medications, we approach the question from a different angle.

One of the millions of millennials given prescription stimulants to treat ADHD decides to quit. And afterwards wonders -- how did these drugs becomes so popular, so fast? This week, the story of amphetamine's birth, life, dea...

Ezra Klein joins Search Engine this week to answer a question that's increasingly confounded us: how do I use the internet now? How do I get information about the things I care about, without getting sucked into a vortex of o...

Search Engine is VERY EXCITED to share the news that Heavyweight, one of our favorite shows, is now available wherever you download podcasts.