Search Engine
Episodes
What's the best phone to do crimes on? (classic)
05 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
How to talk (or not talk) politics at family holidays
27 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, in honor of the holiday season — can you, should you change your family’s politics through holiday conversation. If so, how? A conversa...
Colossus 2
21 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In part two of our story about Elon Musk’s growing data center empire, we visit the battle between people in Memphis and xAI. And we try to understa...
Colossus 1
21 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tech billionaires have made an enormous bet on AI, the biggest bet that tech has made on anything in a very long time. Reporter Sruthi Pinnamaneni goe...
An Anthropology of Gooning
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A reporter spends a year diving into a subculture of young men online who unite around their extreme commitment to constant, unadulterated porn consum...
America vs. China
31 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
People review everything, but they almost never review what it’s like to live in another country. Until now. We interview a writer who’s lived ...
The Rage in the Cage
17 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Can you tickle your way to victory in an MMA fight? An investigation into a sports scandal with journalist Pablo Torre. Check out Pablo Torre Finds...
Cocomelon For Adults
10 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, OpenAI released an app that quickly shot to the #1 spot in Apple's App Store. Sora is like TikTok, except all the videos are AI generated. ...
Talk Easy x Search Engine
03 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we’re sharing something we loved. An interview with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross about a life made out of conversation. Check out Talk Easy...
Is my favorite new tv show this year a ripoff?
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The makers of the medical drama The Pitt have been sued. The allegation: that the show is an unauthorized copy of ER. This week, investigative repo...
The Obituary
19 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Not long after Alex’s wife Whitney dies, he looks at her obituary and discovers something strange. A sect of people online has hijacked her story an...
How does a rationalist make a baby?
05 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A member of an unusual Bay Area community decides to try to have a baby in an unusual way – by putting out a very large prize for anyone who can hel...
A Dubai Chocolate theory of the internet
22 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Garbage Day's Ryan Broderick traces the rise of this goopy green chocolate, and explains how Chinese social media is beginning to tug on US culture in...
Are microplastics really a problem?
15 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our listener Louisa is very annoyed by her sister’s preoccupation with keeping her children away from microplastics. Louisa wonders: are people with...
What does it feel like to believe in God? (classic)
25 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we try to understand an experience that 74% of Americans routinely report having. The first of many conversations (perhaps?). This one, an ...
The Cuddly Killer (classic)
18 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A question that has launched a battle between bird-loving ecologists and ardent, cat-defending activists. What should we do about an invasive species ...
Why'd I take speed for twenty years? - Part 2 (classic)
11 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In part two of our story about ADHD medications, we approach the question from a different angle. We meet a doctor who spent two decades convinced th...
Why'd I take speed for twenty years? - Part 1 (classic)
04 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One of the millions of millennials given prescription stimulants to treat ADHD decides to quit. And afterwards wonders -- how did these drugs becomes ...
The Psychic Question
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A journalist finds out that many of his vaunted mentors are seeing a psychic. The same psychic. He decides to pay her a visit. Check out the 10% Ha...
Wait, should I not be drinking airplane coffee? (classic)
20 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski has heard a disgusting rumor — that the coffee on airplanes is unsafe to drink because the onboard water tanks are onl...
The Test
13 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A woman gets a disquieting piece of information about her pregnancy, and turns to technology to try to control her future. Second Life - Amanda Hess...
The Stupid Little Yogurt Question
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A high school teacher has a question, but he wants his skeptical teenage students to answer it. Reporter Garrott Graham rides along as they investigat...
Search Engine x What We Spend
30 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we're presenting an episode of a new show we like called What We Spend, one of Vulture's best podcasts of 2025. Also, news for our Inco...
How to stop being so phone addicted (without self-discipline or meditation)
16 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week we ask a slightly absurd question – is there technology to stop you from using addictive technology – and get some surprising answers fr...
The Dave and Buster's Anomaly
09 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A small group of Americans becomes convinced they’ve discovered something strange about their iPhones: a forbidden phrase the phone will refuse to t...
Why the national debt might finally matter
25 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In a moment of deep economic uncertainty created by our tariff-loving president, suddenly, our national debt has become much more important. Important...
Why can’t we just turn the empty offices into apartments? (classic)
18 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A re-air from August 2023: Our quest for the answer to this one sends us over a hundred years into the past. We learn about the invisible rules and fi...
What are teenagers actually seeing on their phones?
11 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A group of teenagers agrees to allow a filmmaker to record the things they do on their phones for a year-long experiment. To see the world they see th...
The Russian Cake Switcheroo
04 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A beloved American rock band’s Spotify page appears to have been taken over by Russian rappers. Is this a scam? A mistake? A strange third act from ...
Planet Money: The Memecoin Casino
28 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Reporter Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi has the story of an unusual website you’ve likely never heard of. A website that has been responsible for rapidly maki...
Viruses in the Air
21 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1930s, two scientists made a very important discovery, but their breakthrough idea failed to spread. In large part because the two were conside...
The Puzzle of the All-American BBQ Scrubber
14 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why it’s so difficult to manufacture something entirely in America, and what happens if you try anyway. The Smarter Scrubber Grill Brush Destin Sand...
DOGE and the Mystery of the State Department Teslas
07 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a new president of America, and he’s doing a lot of things. How do you decide what to pay attention to? A story about reporters focusing o...
Does anyone actually like their job? (classic)
28 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
... Or, am I being lied to by a Brooklyn-based musician? At twenty-five, I had a question for The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn. This week, I finally got...
Can you cure picky eating?
21 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
An adult picky eater, ostracized by his friends, castigated by society, asks the most human question of all: can I change? Our friends Manny, Noah, an...
What should we do about teens using AI to do their homework?
14 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A teenager explains why he shouldn’t have to write homework essays anymore. Is there some way for adults to force teens to still do homework? Or to ...
What happens when a cemetery goes out of business?
07 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 li...
What’s it like to fly when you’re fat?
24 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most routine and uncomfortable miracles many of us experience, flight. Airplanes have gotten increasingly more cramped and less comfortable...
The New Zuckerberg
18 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What’s going on with Mark Zuckerberg? He recently conspicuously pivoted toward MAGA, meeting quietly with incoming Trump officials, and complaining ...
Is it ok to just work all the time?
10 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For our first episode in the new year, a reflection on how we spend our time. What we devote our life to, and the roads we choose not to take. A conve...
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
27 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An investigation into a mysterious room. A room that the most famous family in England apparently does not want you to see. Support the show at sear...
When do you know it’s time to stop drinking? (classic)
20 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ho...
What if ayahuasca made you stop podcasting?
13 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An anti-woke podcast abruptly announces its end, and in its final episode, a host offers its listeners some surprising news. She had taken ayahuasca, ...
Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
06 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If ever there was a place where every person inside was guaranteed to already have luggage, it would be inside an airport. And yet ... the airport lug...
What is jawmaxxing?
22 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The story of how an alternative theory of dentistry made its way from medicine's fringes to an audience of young men online. This week we try to make ...
The White Subaru Hell Loop
15 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A mortal human being finds himself stuck between two impressive organizations: the DMV, and an internet start-up called Carvana. He has a problem, bu...
Presenting Gone South
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Gone South, the Edward R. Murrow award-winning podcast, is back. Unlike previous seasons, writer and host Jed Lipinski brings listeners new episodes e...
How did the first democracy die?
08 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The story of the first people who invented democracy, and what it did to them. What's Wrong With Democracy? by Loren J. Samons II Support the show at ...
How do you sit quietly in the middle of a storm?
01 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What if there was an event in the future, the outcome of which you couldn’t personally control, but it was still causing you anguish? This week, we ...
Should we be worried about OpenAI?
25 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A year ago, we saw a stand-off between OpenAI's non-profit board and its leader, Sam Altman. Since then, the board has been reshuffled, Altman has con...
Why is it so hard to tax billionaires? (Part 2)
18 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We reveal the one weird trick some billionaires use to pay less in federal income taxes than you do. And we explain the consequences faced by the pers...
Why is it so hard to tax billionaires? (Part 1)
18 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A rogue IRS contractor leaks the private tax returns of the country’s wealthiest citizens to a reporter. That reporter, ProPublica’s Jesse Eisinge...
Death, Sex & Money x Search Engine
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we're sharing an episode of a show we love, Death, Sex & Money. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do. We'll be back with two new episodes ...
The Mystery of the Vape Shop Kratom
04 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week we have for you ... not a whodunnit, but a what did I do? A listener tries a substance he doesn’t know much about and not long after, his ...
Is everyone pretending to understand inflation (or just me)?
20 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The single issue that might decide the upcoming presidential election also happens to be: very confusing. Political economist Mark Blyth helps us unde...
A stubborn lunatic’s guide to making great art
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
25 years ago, The Sopranos, the best television show ever created, premiered. This week, a new documentary called Wise Guy asks the question: how did...
Can I microdose veganism?
06 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you care about animals, but don't want to stop eating them... what's the least you could do while doing the most good? That question, posed to The ...
What's the best phone to do crimes on?
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Is there a sane way to follow this election?
09 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We are in an eighty-eight day sprint to the Presidential election. How would you follow this story if you wanted to actually understand something, ins...
The End
02 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A trip to Greenland, a chance encounter with Coolio, and the end of the world. (This summer we’re publishing some of our favorite episodes from our ...
The Kidnapping of Ape #8398
26 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An art heist in the crypto world plunges us headfirst into another mystery — why did so many celebrities suddenly start selling us on NFTs last year...
Genesis
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week: Bitcoin. We trace it from its humble origins in a .PDF to the movement it has spawned, all over three days at an enormous Bitcoin conferenc...
The Bidding War
12 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A story about a strange auction for perhaps the most valuable piece of paper in America. This summer we’re publishing some of our favorite episodes ...
Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
26 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We travel to Germany to trace techno's history from Detroit to Berlin. The story of how, after the Wall fell, Berlin exorcised its brutal past with a ...
Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 1)
21 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Two Americans embark on a quest: fly across an ocean to try to get into the most exclusive nightclub in the world – Berghain. A German techno palace...
What does it feel like to believe in God?
14 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we try to understand an experience that 74% of Americans routinely report having. The first of many conversations (perhaps?). This one, an ...
How much glue should you put in your pizza?
31 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An internet breaking news story. As we told you last week, Google has begun offering AI-generated answers to search questions. But some answers, it tu...
How do we survive the media apocalypse? (Part 2)
22 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, Google announced a fundamental change to how the site will work, which will likely have dire effects for the news industry. When you use Go...
Should this creepy search engine exist?
10 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After stumbling on a new kind of search engine for faces, we called privacy journalist Kashmir Hill. She’s been reporting on the very sudden and unr...
What do trigger warnings actually do?
03 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A listener’s brother dies by suicide, and afterwards, she finds herself angered by trigger warnings about suicide. She wants to know — are these a...
Where's my flying car?
19 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Since not long after the car was invented, we have wanted to stick wings on them and fly them through the sky. This week, we interview writer Gideon L...
Do political yard signs actually do anything?
12 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s an election year and so Search Engine’s campaign desk is answering the questions you really want answers to: all the political yard signs in ...
Why are there so many illegal weed stores in New York City? (Part 2)
05 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 d...
Why are there so many illegal weed stores in New York City? (Part 1)
29 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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. Instea...
A big announcement from Search Engine plus, "What's in your cocaine?"
22 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 inclu...
How do we survive the media apocalypse?
15 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Something strange, new, and unsettling is happening in media right now. Huge institutions, both newspapers and online outlets, are being severely tran...
Who's behind these scammy text messages we've all been getting?
08 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
"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 ...
How do you make an addictive video game?
01 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode will change how you look at games. We talk to Ben Brode, the designer behind Hearthstone and Marvel Snap, about how a creative person lea...
Where did all the roaches go?
23 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cockroaches were a scourge that scuttled through the cracks and crevices of homes all throughout America. And then one day, large numbers of them myst...
What are we gonna do about all these cats?
09 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A question that has launched a battle between bird-loving ecologists and ardent, cat-defending activists. What should we do about an invasive species ...
How do you survive fame?
02 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 impos...
Why are there so many chicken bones on the street? (Part 2)
26 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the shocking finale of our investigation into who -- or what -- has been leaving chicken bones strewn across the sidewalks of American ci...
Why are there so many chicken bones on the street? (Part 1)
19 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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. On o...
When do you know it’s time to stop drinking?
12 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 h...
Am I the victim of an international sushi scam? (Part 2)
15 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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-l...
Am I the victim of an international sushi scam? (Part 1)
08 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We investigate unsettling rumors that fish purveyors may be mislabeling fish to save a buck. Our path leads us deep into the shadowy world of blackmar...
Who should be in charge of AI?
01 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the story of a very brief, very absurd revolution at the world’s leading artificial intelligence company, OpenAI. And we try to answer th...
Why don’t we eat people?
17 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 criti...
The Bull of Wall Street
10 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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. On many of...
Why'd I take speed for twenty years? (Part 2)
03 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In part two of our story about ADHD medications, we approach the question from a different angle. We meet a doctor who spent two decades convinced tha...
Why'd I take speed for twenty years? (Part 1)
27 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
One of the millions of millennials given prescription stimulants to treat ADHD decides to quit. And afterwards wonders -- how did these drugs becomes ...
Is there a sane way to use the internet?
20 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 informati...
Heavyweight x Search Engine
09 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Search Engine is VERY EXCITED to share the news that Heavyweight, one of our favorite shows, is now available wherever you download podcasts. To celeb...
The Fond Du Lac Apartment Mystery
06 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Why would the government give Korianne a coupon for a free apartment that she can’t find? We have a question from a listener who finds herself very ...
Where did the 8 billion dollars go?
29 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the story of former crypto wunderkind Sam Bankman-Fried. The government alleges he stole over eight billion dollars from the customers of t...
Why are we still buying diamonds?
22 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
They’re shiny rocks that we’ve somehow agreed embody romance and eternity. But diamonds, it turns out, are not as rare as we think. And these days...
Why’s it so hard to figure out how many people watch Stranger Things?
15 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Maya Hawke, of Stranger Things, would like to know why won’t Netflix just tell her how many people watch the show? Plus the question underneath tha...
Does anyone actually like their job?
01 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
... Or, am I being lied to by a Brooklyn-based musician? At twenty-five, I had a question for The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn. This week, I finally got...
Why are drug dealers putting fentanyl in everything? (Part 2)
18 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We speak to Luis, a former fentanyl dealer and user who tells us why a dealer might want to put fentanyl in less lethal drugs. Luis also tells us how ...
Why are drug dealers putting fentanyl in everything? (Part 1)
11 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Isn't it bad business to kill your own customers? In part one of our answer to this question, we talk to reporter Ben Westhoff, who helps us understan...