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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 human answers. It was co-created by PJ Vogt and Sruthi Pinnamaneni.
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Recent Episodes
March 23, 2026
Are you a good driver?
The story of how a secret project at Google led to driverless cars on American roads. And, an answer to the question: are the robots actually safer drivers than we are? Driven: The Race to Create the Autonomous Car , Alex Dav...
March 6, 2026
Odd Lots x Search Engine
This week, we’re sharing an episode from Odd Lots. An interview with The Economist's Mike Bird about how Chinese real estate became the biggest bubble in history. You can find more episodes from Odd Lots here . To learn more ...
Feb. 27, 2026
Mysteries of a Chatbot
Anthropic hired philosophers to teach its AI to be good. In their tests, the AI blackmailed a human to keep itself alive. Writer Gideon Lewis-Kraus went inside the company to figure out what's going on with Claude, and whethe...
Feb. 20, 2026
Why don’t we eat people? (classic)
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 critic Hannah Goldfield and writer Kelefa Sanneh. To learn more about listener d...
Feb. 13, 2026
How Peptides Conquered the Internet
Two decades ago, bodybuilders on niche internet forums started injecting peptides. Now they're in the secret mini-fridges of some teenage boys. How did they get there? We track their crooked path from Silicon Valley to jaw-sm...
Jan. 30, 2026
Are flushable wipes actually flushable?
A simple question leads us on a journey from the bowels of New York City through the courtrooms of South Carolina to the disgusting truth. Support Search Engine! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices vis...
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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