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Search Engine
Search Engine is the podcast that tries to answer the questions that keep you up at night. A podcast made by humans that provides the answers that neither artificial intelligence nor actual search engines really can. Named one of the best podcasts of 2023 by Vulture, Time, The Economist, and Vogue.
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Recent Episodes
May 29, 2025
Search Engine x What We Spend
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, for our Incognito Mode listeners, today, we're having an online, live event with Heavyweight's ...
May 16, 2025
How to stop being so phone addicted (without self-discipline or meditation)
This week we ask a slightly absurd question – is there technology to stop you from using addictive technology – and get some surprising answers. New developments in the anti-technology field, and a partial history of how our ...
May 9, 2025
The Dave and Busters Anomaly
A small group of Americans becomes convinced they’ve discovered something strange about their iPhones: a forbidden phrase the phone will refuse to transmit. A crack podcasting team searches for answers, wherever they may lead...
April 25, 2025
Why the national debt might finally matter
In a moment of deep economic uncertainty created by our tariff-loving president, suddenly, our national debt has become much more important. Important enough that, this week, we have decided to teach ourselves everything abou...
April 18, 2025
Why can’t we just turn the empty offices into apartments? (classic)
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 fights that determine what our neighborhoods look like. We also learn about h...
April 11, 2025
What’s actually on teenagers’ phones?
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 through their phones, to encounter their algorithms. The results are honest, ...
What People Say About the Show
"I love explanatory journalism, and it’s explanatory journalism at its best. Simple questions that unfold into wondrous answers and, more than that, explorations."
- Ezra Klein, host of The Ezra Klein Show
"I like that Search Engine is still figuring out what it can do with this new podcast form it's invented, and that every time I download an episode I really don't know what to expect. What's rarer than that? In podcasts or in anything?"
- Ira Glass, host of This American Life
"Search Engine’s particular spark comes from the way the team injects a sense of genuine discovery into the act of unspooling. This is a show that works to give you a good time, always hustling for your attention as it peels back layer after layer."
- Vulture, "Search Engine Is the Spiritual Successor to Reply All"
You can find our show credits, schedule, and advertising ethics policy here.
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