Reviews

This is a great regular show to have in the rotation. It approaches topics in unique ways with a voice that is honest and relatable. Some of these episodes are surprisingly intense but I always learn something. PJ puts it all out there in these shows!

PJ is funny, profound, and curious in his exploration of the world. Over the years he has kept me connected to humanity and the internet with a depth and breadth I would never have otherwise achieved. Good for dinner parties.

Incredibly well researched and prepared, great contrast of more serious vs more lighthearted content, and presented masterfully! I can't say enough good about this podcast. Has quickly become the favorite of my repertoire.

Search Engine is like being in class with that one teacher who makes learning fun!

PJ is one of the best out there. His conversational style and insights are always intriguing.

Update: I listened to the episode on trigger warnings and I had a thought that I wanted to share that I didn’t feel was expressed in the episode. I like trigger warnings because it lets me know WHEN I will chose to consume the content. There were archived episodes of another podcast that I like to listen to, called This American Life, at night to fall asleep. I appreciated it so much. I have a child with special needs and I’d stress all day and all night about ways I can try to meet her needs and help her to succeed. I listen to multiple podcasts to address this. I also occasionally listen to comedy specials that trigger warn you about foul things they may mention about when this subject (or give you a heads up in some other ways). But, this podcast I was listening to was meant to calm my brain and give me a little break and let me fall asleep. But then I came across harmful and disparaging statements made by it’s contributors about people with certain disabilities. These statements were left unchallenged in the episodes. There was no trigger warning for this and it crushed me. They had trigger warnings for curse words and lots of other content but not for their contributors making awful and untrue assertions about groups of people with certain disabilities. If they had trigger warnings that let me know that some listeners may find the some assertions expressed in these particular archived episodes about individuals with disabilities are now considered not to be based in fact and that some listeners may chose to skip these ones if it’s not something they want to hear right now then I would have simply skipped over those episodes (there were only a few out of 100s or episodes) and moved on. I reached out in several ways to try and ask the powers that be to please offer a trigger warning for those episodes but no one ever responded (not that I thought they would). I felt like I had no right to complain one hand but on the other hand I felt my voice deserved to be heard as a content consumer who helps generate ad dollars for their content. This is long and rambling but, I guess, the point I’m trying to make is that trigger warnings can be helpful by letting people decide specifically when they want to consume particular content. I don’t avoid looking at hard things but sometimes it’s just not the right time and place for it.************************************** Original Review: I really enjoy this podcast. It’s both entertaining and thought provoking. I really enjoy the way PJ’s brain works, as he takes us on many interesting detours before ultimately answering the originally posed questions. There were topics I thought I wasn't interested I. But tried the episodes anyway and it turned out that I was very interested in the tangents he went on and they pulled me in enough to where I did become interested in the original question that was posed. If you like podcasts like This American Life, Ologies, or Radiolab, as I do, then I recommend you try this one too.

Friendly, smart, approachable and informative.

Long time Reply All listener, and thrilled that PJ is back with a new show. There's great reporting, silliness, good production value, and excellent storytelling. It's everything I want in a podcast.

Search Engine answers questions I’ve always wondered about and then some. PJ is one of our best!!

I love PJs voice! And his story telling is so amazing .

I’m surprised, nevertheless, that the episode on the media apocalypse (March 15, I think) didn’t touch upon two fundamental points about why the media is struggling for oxygen: the censorship industrial complex and the amount of propaganda we’ve been inundated with for the last decade (which ramped up during the covid farce). The media stopped providing different sides to a story a while ago and now almost every article and news segment feels driven by agendas. Yeah, social media certainly is a disruptive force and not necessarily for the better but, consider how popular X is even for those that are there hating on it... could it be because people want to be able to discern for themselves what is true and discuss it openly? Consider also how a number of journalists/reporters (who lost their media jobs for not “going with the flow” of nonstop lies and propagandizing) have found a great space on X and on Substack. Well, that’s my opinion; maybe you and your guest would have had another POV and other arguments, but it seems like a purposeful omission to not have even mentioned these two critical points affecting media today.

PJ has found his own way with this great New Podcast. The outsized growing pains following the tragic fall from grace of his former co-host has seen him raise from the ashes of the podcopolypse into a sublimely seminal voice missing during his hiatus. Thanks pj for speaking to me and all of us who identify with your perspective, skeptical, critical, but deeply funny and satirical, and always fair minded.

The episodes I’ve listened to so far are extremely informative and thorough. I can tell a lot of time and research goes into each topic. I am trying to come up with a good question/topic to submit in to the show!

Pj’s a great journalist. Love that he’s back in my ears.

Search Engine is a funny, thoughtful, and thought provoking podcast that takes an almost absurd deep dive into those random questions and passing thoughts we have all had. It’s great, I’m so happy to have found it. I never fully recovered from reply all going away, and this is exactly the salve I needed.

I don't think I've listened to a bad episode, what a great podcast to learn about all sorts of things.

I have listened to Search Engine since it’s beginning and felt it was finally time to leave a review for one of my favorite podcasts. PJ Vogt’s recent work in the two-part series on illegal weed stores in New York is both well-researched and fairly presented. I learned a lot and was also constantly engaged on the overall story being told. This show is a gem of weekly investigative reporting and story-telling, with a good balance of humor, laughs, and insight into questions I never knew I had. Keep up the good work.

The “Does Anyone Actually Like Their Job?” episode was introspective, insightful, poignant, and life affirming. Search Engine is rapidly becoming one of my favorite podcasts thanks to PJ Vogt’s outstanding reporting, candid self reflection, and endless curiosity.

PJ has such a great delivery, like a friend explaining interesting things they’ve deep dived on. Look forward to many more episodes!

Loved this episode. It had me so hooked. One of my favorite so far. I cannot wait to see what is next.

I’ve been waiting for PJ to come back with a podcast and this one does not disappoint. I love all the random topics and have learned so much.

I think this is a great podcast. I like some of the topics and discussions. I do take offense at the host stating that speed/methamphetamine is almost exclusively used by society’s ne-er do wells. The definition of which is lazy and irresponsible. As a recovering meth addict I feel I have the disease of addiction. It’s not that I wanted to be “lazy and irresponsible.” I also don’t blame people for doing drugs-illegal drugs. We are human and it feels good. Other than that I am pleased with this podcast.

PJ makes great podcasts- no doubt about it. Great structure, interesting narrative- he knows what he’s doing. I just think he’s forgetting why RA purity spiraled. In the “why are there so many weed shops in NY”- something something straight white men. I’m not gonna be mean take off a star, but in X syntax, this isn’t the virtue signal you think it is- just an eyeroll. Nobody wants this anymore. Igcognito is on hold for me now, not willing to pay to be lectured.

This podcast has completely turned my world upside down in the most amazing way. I have learned the most unexpected things and I’m viewing the world so differently—in a positive way. This is a MUST listen podcast