Search Engine
Episodes
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...
Why can’t we just turn the empty offices into apartments?
04 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Our quest for answers this week sends us over a hundred years into the past. We learn about the invisible rules and fights that determine what our nei...
What's it like to slowly go blind?
28 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We interview writer Andrew Leland, who has been gradually losing his sight for two decades. Andrew takes us inside the blind internet, and teaches us ...
What's going on with Elon Musk?
21 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Search Engine investigates the erratic behavior of the world’s wealthiest man with Hard Fork’s Casey Newton. The three top theories for why Elon M...
How do I find new music now that I’m old and irrelevant?
14 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We enlist a very overqualified person to answer this question, writer Kelefa Sanneh, author of Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genr...
Wait, should I not be drinking airplane coffee?
07 Jul 2023
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...
How sad are the monkeys in the zoo?
12 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
To answer this question, we’ll unpack a scientific battle centuries in the making, one that involves a serial killer elephant and a suicidal dog. We...
Introducing: Search Engine
13 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
No question too big, no question too small. A new show that’ll be out soon. You can hear it here, on this feed. The one you're on now. Question you...
09 The End
22 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A trip to Greenland, a chance encounter with Coolio, and the end of the world. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: ht...
08 The Kidnapping of Ape #8398
28 Jun 2022
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...
07 The Drug Trader
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week we follow a dollar underground. For notes, further reading, or to support this project visit pjvogt.com. To learn more about listener data...
06 The Lunatic Who Crashed Crypto
13 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week, a story of about how crypto just imploded due to one risky, financial product. And the fight-loving, Twitter-addicted founder who invented ...
05 Genesis
07 May 2022
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...
04 The Skeptic
05 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The strange journeys of Cas Piancey, a baker turned crypto skeptic. (For notes & further reading on this episode, check out my newsletter at pjvogt.co...
03 Miguel
25 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A conversation with Miguel Piedrafita. Why would a 19-year-old from Spain want to buy the US Constitution? To learn more about listener data and o...
02 ConstitutionDAO
23 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A story about a strange auction for perhaps the most valuable piece of paper in America. (Listen to introduction episode before this one, if you haven...
01 Welcome to Crypto Island
14 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An introduction to this limited series. A video of a mysterious tropical island populated entirely by Bitcoin dynasts and Dogecoin princelings sends a...