The White Subaru Hell Loop
Fri, 15 Nov 2024
A mortal human being finds himself stuck between two impressive organizations: the DMV, and an inter...
Presenting Gone South
Wed, 13 Nov 2024
Gone South, the Edward R. Murrow award-winning podcast, is back. Unlike previous seasons, writer and...
How did the first democracy die?
Fri, 08 Nov 2024
The story of the first people who invented democracy, and what it did to them. What's Wrong With Dem...
How do you sit quietly in the middle of a storm?
Fri, 01 Nov 2024
What if there was an event in the future, the outcome of which you couldn’t personally control, bu...
Should we be worried about OpenAI?
Fri, 25 Oct 2024
A year ago, we saw a stand-off between OpenAI's non-profit board and its leader, Sam Altman. Since t...
Why is it so hard to tax billionaires? (Part 2)
Fri, 18 Oct 2024
We reveal the one weird trick some billionaires use to pay less in federal income taxes than you do....
Why is it so hard to tax billionaires? (Part 1)
Fri, 18 Oct 2024
A rogue IRS contractor leaks the private tax returns of the country’s wealthiest citizens to a rep...
Death, Sex & Money x Search Engine
Thu, 10 Oct 2024
This week, we're sharing an episode of a show we love, Death, Sex & Money. We hope you enjoy it as m...
The Mystery of the Vape Shop Kratom
Fri, 04 Oct 2024
This week we have for you ... not a whodunnit, but a what did I do? A listener tries a substance he ...
Is everyone pretending to understand inflation (or just me)?
Fri, 20 Sep 2024
The single issue that might decide the upcoming presidential election also happens to be: very confu...
A stubborn lunatic’s guide to making great art
Fri, 13 Sep 2024
25 years ago, The Sopranos, the best television show ever created, premiered. This week, a new docu...
Can I microdose veganism?
Fri, 06 Sep 2024
If you care about animals, but don't want to stop eating them... what's the least you could do while...
What's the best phone to do crimes on?
Fri, 16 Aug 2024
For years, the must-have phone for the discerning drug trafficker or hitman was a brand you may not ...
Is there a sane way to follow this election?
Fri, 09 Aug 2024
We are in an eighty-eight day sprint to the Presidential election. How would you follow this story i...
The End
Fri, 02 Aug 2024
A trip to Greenland, a chance encounter with Coolio, and the end of the world. (This summer we’re ...
The Kidnapping of Ape #8398
Fri, 26 Jul 2024
An art heist in the crypto world plunges us headfirst into another mystery — why did so many celeb...
Genesis
Fri, 19 Jul 2024
This week: Bitcoin. We trace it from its humble origins in a .PDF to the movement it has spawned, al...
The Bidding War
Fri, 12 Jul 2024
A story about a strange auction for perhaps the most valuable piece of paper in America. This summer...
Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
Wed, 26 Jun 2024
We travel to Germany to trace techno's history from Detroit to Berlin. The story of how, after the W...
Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 1)
Fri, 21 Jun 2024
Two Americans embark on a quest: fly across an ocean to try to get into the most exclusive nightclub...
What does it feel like to believe in God?
Fri, 14 Jun 2024
This week, we try to understand an experience that 74% of Americans routinely report having. The fir...
How much glue should you put in your pizza?
Fri, 31 May 2024
An internet breaking news story. As we told you last week, Google has begun offering AI-generated an...
How do we survive the media apocalypse? (Part 2)
Wed, 22 May 2024
Last week, Google announced a fundamental change to how the site will work, which will likely have d...
Should this creepy search engine exist?
Fri, 10 May 2024
After stumbling on a new kind of search engine for faces, we called privacy journalist Kashmir Hill....
What do trigger warnings actually do?
Fri, 03 May 2024
A listener’s brother dies by suicide, and afterwards, she finds herself angered by trigger warning...
Where's my flying car?
Fri, 19 Apr 2024
Since not long after the car was invented, we have wanted to stick wings on them and fly them throug...
Do political yard signs actually do anything?
Fri, 12 Apr 2024
It’s an election year and so Search Engine’s campaign desk is answering the questions you really...
Why are there so many illegal weed stores in New York City? (Part 2)
Fri, 05 Apr 2024
In part two of our story, we watch the state of New York try to pull off something we rarely see in ...
Why are there so many illegal weed stores in New York City? (Part 1)
Fri, 29 Mar 2024
In 2021, New York legalized cannabis for adults. It was supposed to be the start of a legal market, ...
A big announcement from Search Engine plus, "What's in your cocaine?"
Fri, 22 Mar 2024
We've launched a new premium feed called Incognito Mode. It includes bonus episodes of Search Engine...
How do we survive the media apocalypse?
Fri, 15 Mar 2024
Something strange, new, and unsettling is happening in media right now. Huge institutions, both news...
Who's behind these scammy text messages we've all been getting?
Fri, 08 Mar 2024
"Hi David, I’m Vicky Ho. Don’t you remember me?" An investigative reporter travels halfway aroun...
How do you make an addictive video game?
Fri, 01 Mar 2024
This episode will change how you look at games. We talk to Ben Brode, the designer behind Hearthston...
Where did all the roaches go?
Fri, 23 Feb 2024
Cockroaches were a scourge that scuttled through the cracks and crevices of homes all throughout Ame...
What are we gonna do about all these cats?
Fri, 09 Feb 2024
A question that has launched a battle between bird-loving ecologists and ardent, cat-defending activ...
How do you survive fame?
Fri, 02 Feb 2024
Actor Molly Ringwald joins us to talk about a time in her life when her job was to pretend to be a n...
Why are there so many chicken bones on the street? (Part 2)
Fri, 26 Jan 2024
This week, the shocking finale of our investigation into who -- or what -- has been leaving chicke...
Why are there so many chicken bones on the street? (Part 1)
Fri, 19 Jan 2024
A team of investigators with an unusual set of skills joins us this week to solve a mystery that hau...
When do you know it’s time to stop drinking?
Fri, 12 Jan 2024
This week, a question a podcast has no business trying to answer. We talk to writer A.J. Daulerio a...
Am I the victim of an international sushi scam? (Part 2)
Fri, 15 Dec 2023
We bring you the shattering conclusion to our investigation into whether a New York City sushi resta...
Am I the victim of an international sushi scam? (Part 1)
Fri, 08 Dec 2023
We investigate unsettling rumors that fish purveyors may be mislabeling fish to save a buck. Our pat...
Who should be in charge of AI?
Fri, 01 Dec 2023
This week, the story of a very brief, very absurd revolution at the world’s leading artificial int...
Why don’t we eat people?
Fri, 17 Nov 2023
A question from a four-year-old tips us into an investigation of one of our most fundamental taboos:...
The Bull of Wall Street
Fri, 10 Nov 2023
Every day in Manhattan, about 1,000 people will stand outside in a long line waiting for their chanc...
Why'd I take speed for twenty years? (Part 2)
Fri, 03 Nov 2023
In part two of our story about ADHD medications, we approach the question from a different angle. We...
Why'd I take speed for twenty years? (Part 1)
Fri, 27 Oct 2023
One of the millions of millennials given prescription stimulants to treat ADHD decides to quit. And ...
Is there a sane way to use the internet?
Fri, 20 Oct 2023
Ezra Klein joins Search Engine this week to answer a question that's increasingly confounded us: how...
Heavyweight x Search Engine
Mon, 09 Oct 2023
Search Engine is VERY EXCITED to share the news that Heavyweight, one of our favorite shows, is now ...
The Fond Du Lac Apartment Mystery
Fri, 06 Oct 2023
Why would the government give Korianne a coupon for a free apartment that she can’t find? We have ...
Where did the 8 billion dollars go?
Fri, 29 Sep 2023
This week, the story of former crypto wunderkind Sam Bankman-Fried. The government alleges he stole ...
Why are we still buying diamonds?
Fri, 22 Sep 2023
They’re shiny rocks that we’ve somehow agreed embody romance and eternity. But diamonds, it turn...
Why’s it so hard to figure out how many people watch Stranger Things?
Fri, 15 Sep 2023
Maya Hawke, of Stranger Things, would like to know why won’t Netflix just tell her how many peopl...
Does anyone actually like their job?
Fri, 01 Sep 2023
... Or, am I being lied to by a Brooklyn-based musician? At twenty-five, I had a question for The Ho...
Why are drug dealers putting fentanyl in everything? (Part 2)
Fri, 18 Aug 2023
We speak to Luis, a former fentanyl dealer and user who tells us why a dealer might want to put fent...
Why are drug dealers putting fentanyl in everything? (Part 1)
Fri, 11 Aug 2023
Isn't it bad business to kill your own customers? In part one of our answer to this question, we tal...
Why can’t we just turn the empty offices into apartments?
Fri, 04 Aug 2023
Our quest for answers this week sends us over a hundred years into the past. We learn about the invi...
What's it like to slowly go blind?
Fri, 28 Jul 2023
We interview writer Andrew Leland, who has been gradually losing his sight for two decades. Andrew t...
What's going on with Elon Musk?
Fri, 21 Jul 2023
Search Engine investigates the erratic behavior of the world’s wealthiest man with Hard Fork’s C...
How do I find new music now that I’m old and irrelevant?
Fri, 14 Jul 2023
We enlist a very overqualified person to answer this question, writer Kelefa Sanneh, author of Majo...
Wait, should I not be drinking airplane coffee?
Fri, 07 Jul 2023
Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski has heard a disgusting rumor — that the coffee on airplanes is unsaf...
How sad are the monkeys in the zoo?
Fri, 12 May 2023
To answer this question, we’ll unpack a scientific battle centuries in the making, one that involv...
Introducing: Search Engine
Fri, 13 Jan 2023
No question too big, no question too small. A new show that’ll be out soon. You can hear it here, ...
09 The End
Thu, 22 Dec 2022
A trip to Greenland, a chance encounter with Coolio, and the end of the world. To learn more about...
08 The Kidnapping of Ape #8398
Tue, 28 Jun 2022
An art heist in the crypto world plunges us headfirst into another mystery — why did so many celeb...
07 The Drug Trader
Thu, 26 May 2022
This week we follow a dollar underground. For notes, further reading, or to support this project vis...
06 The Lunatic Who Crashed Crypto
Fri, 13 May 2022
This week, a story of about how crypto just imploded due to one risky, financial product. And the fi...
05 Genesis
Sat, 07 May 2022
This week: Bitcoin. We trace it from its humble origins in a .PDF to the movement it has spawned, al...
04 The Skeptic
Tue, 05 Apr 2022
The strange journeys of Cas Piancey, a baker turned crypto skeptic. (For notes & further reading on ...
03 Miguel
Fri, 25 Mar 2022
A conversation with Miguel Piedrafita. Why would a 19-year-old from Spain want to buy the US Constit...
02 ConstitutionDAO
Wed, 23 Mar 2022
A story about a strange auction for perhaps the most valuable piece of paper in America. (Listen to ...
01 Welcome to Crypto Island
Mon, 14 Mar 2022
An introduction to this limited series. A video of a mysterious tropical island populated entirely b...