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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
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, ...
April 4, 2025
The Russian Cake Switcheroo
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 some beloved alt-rockers? Kelefa Sanneh investigates. Bye-Bye - Cake, PulyaNa...
March 28, 2025
Planet Money: The Memecoin Casino
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 making the world of Dogecoin and other memecoins become even more unhinged, all w...
March 21, 2025
Viruses in the Air
In the 1930s, two scientists made a very important discovery, but their breakthrough idea failed to spread. In large part because the two were considered so deeply annoying. Reporter Carl Zimmer brings us a story of the scien...
March 14, 2025
The Puzzle of the All-American BBQ Scrubber
Why it’s so difficult to manufacture something entirely in America, and what happens if you try anyway. The Smarter Scrubber Grill Brush Destin Sandlin’s YouTube Channel: Smarter Every Day Support Search Engine To learn more ...
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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