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145 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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Why'd I take speed for twenty years? - Part 2 (classic)
11 juli 2025 · 45 min
In part two of our story about ADHD medications, we approach the question from a different angle. Lees meer
We meet a doctor who spent two decades convinced that her brain does not work correctly, and who struggled to find someone who believed her.
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Why'd I take speed for twenty years? - Part 1 (classic)
4 juli 2025 · 56 min
One of the millions of millennials given prescription stimulants to treat ADHD decides to quit. And afterwards wonders -- how did these drugs becomes so popular, so fast? This week, the story of amphetamine's birth, life, death, and rebirth in America. (Methylphenidates, too.) Lees meer
Have We Been Thinking About A.D.H.D. All Wrong? by Paul Tough
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The Psychic Question
30 juni 2025 · 51 min
A journalist finds out that many of his vaunted mentors are seeing a psychic. The same psychic. He decides to pay her a visit. Lees meer
Check out the 10% Happier podcast
See more of Dan's work at DanHarris.com
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Wait, should I not be drinking airplane coffee? (classic)
20 juni 2025 · 49 min
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 only cleaned once a year. We investigate and learn some disgusting lessons along the way. Go to our newsletter to comment on the episode and to see the images referenced in the story. Lees meer
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The Test
13 juni 2025 · 44 min
A woman gets a disquieting piece of information about her pregnancy, and turns to technology to try to control her future. Lees meer
Second Life - Amanda Hess ( Bookshop )
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A playlist of Recommended Search Engine episodes
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The Stupid Little Yogurt Question
6 juni 2025 · 58 min
A high school teacher has a question, but he wants his skeptical teenage students to answer it. Reporter Garrott Graham rides along as they investigate the motives of an international yogurt brand. Lees meer
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How to stop being so phone addicted (without self-discipline or meditation)
16 mei 2025 · 45 min
This week we ask a slightly absurd question – is there technology to stop you from using addictive technology – and get some surprising answers from The Verge's David Pierce. New developments in the anti-technology field, and a partial history of how our phones got so oppressive. Lees meer
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Listeners' favorite Search Engine episodes
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The Dave and Buster's Anomaly
9 mei 2025 · 44 min
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. Lees meer
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Why the national debt might finally matter
25 april 2025 · 43 min
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 about it – how America first created its national debt, and how it got out of control. Lees meer
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Explore a colonial merchant ledger
Brendan Greeley
Noahpinion
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Why can’t we just turn the empty offices into apartments? (classic)
18 april 2025 · 45 min
A re-air from August 2023: Lees meer
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 houses with backyard roller coasters, tiny apartments inside of shopping malls, and then we think a little bit about death. Happy Friday!
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PJ's newsletter about the state of the show
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What are teenagers actually seeing on their phones?
11 april 2025 · 45 min
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, at times pretty upsetting, and tell us a lot about the internet that Gen-Z finds itself on. In the middle of our big, confusing, national argument about teenagers and their phones, a few answers. Lees meer
Lauren Greenfield's documentary series, Social Studies
Search Engine merch
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The Russian Cake Switcheroo
4 april 2025 · 39 min
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. Lees meer
Bye-Bye - Cake, PulyaNaVetru
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Viruses in the Air
21 maart 2025 · 39 min
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 scientific process and its very human constraints. Lees meer
Airborne by Carl Zimmer
Apply to work with Search Engine
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The Puzzle of the All-American BBQ Scrubber
14 maart 2025 · 56 min
Why it’s so difficult to manufacture something entirely in America, and what happens if you try anyway. Lees meer
The Smarter Scrubber Grill Brush
Destin Sandlin’s YouTube Channel: Smarter Every Day
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DOGE and the Mystery of the State Department Teslas
7 maart 2025 · 46 min
There’s a new president of America, and he’s doing a lot of things. How do you decide what to pay attention to? A story about reporters focusing on one mysterious line item during the DOGE headline storm, and where that led. Lees meer
Bobby Allyn
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Does anyone actually like their job? (classic)
28 februari 2025 · 41 min
... 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 to ask it. Lees meer
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Can you cure picky eating?
21 februari 2025 · 38 min
An adult picky eater, ostracized by his friends, castigated by society, asks the most human question of all: can I change? Our friends Manny, Noah, and Devan, the chicken bone squad, return to answer their own question. Lees meer
Check out Manny, Noah, and Devan's new podcast, No Such Thing
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What should we do about teens using AI to do their homework?
14 februari 2025 · 55 min
A teenager explains why he shouldn’t have to write homework essays anymore. Is there some way for adults to force teens to still do homework? Or to convince them they should want to? Lees meer
More Than Words - John Warner
Center for Digital Thriving
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What happens when a cemetery goes out of business?
7 februari 2025 · 49 min
We're supposed to be buried there forever, right? Right?? Answers this week from writer David Sloane, who grew up in a cemetery and spent his adult life studying them. The surprising history of the place we go where we die and an answer to what happens when it runs out of money. Lees meer
Is the Cemetery Dead? by David Charles Sloane
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What’s it like to fly when you’re fat?
24 januari 2025 · 45 min
One of the most routine and uncomfortable miracles many of us experience, flight. Airplanes have gotten increasingly more cramped and less comfortable. What’s it like flying as a fat person, all the invisible negotiations and strategizing. Audio Producer Ronald Young, Jr. reports on the experience, and why it’s been changing. Lees meer
Check out Weight For It! (We recommend you begin at the beginning, with episode one.)
If you want to support Search Engine, you can sign up to be a premium subscriber over at searchengine.show.
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The New Zuckerberg
18 januari 2025 · 1 uur 10 min
What’s going on with Mark Zuckerberg? He recently conspicuously pivoted toward MAGA, meeting quietly with incoming Trump officials, and complaining about the Biden administration on Joe Rogan’s podcast. This week, we trace the story of the Meta CEO, and investigate what his new persona means for the 4 billion people who use his products. Lees meer
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Is it ok to just work all the time?
10 januari 2025 · 1 uur 3 min
For our first episode in the new year, a reflection on how we spend our time. What we devote our life to, and the roads we choose not to take. A conversation with Ira Glass. Lees meer
Tickets for the Search Engine live show
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Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
27 december 2024 · 1 uur 8 min
An investigation into a mysterious room. A room that the most famous family in England apparently does not want you to see. Lees meer
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When do you know it’s time to stop drinking? (classic)
20 december 2024 · 57 min
This week, a question a podcast has no business trying to answer. We talk to writer A.J. Daulerio about his own story of recovery, and the story of how he found himself opening a very unusual community on the internet. Lees meer
Check out The Small Bow.
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What if ayahuasca made you stop podcasting?
13 december 2024 · 54 min
An anti-woke podcast abruptly announces its end, and in its final episode, a host offers its listeners some surprising news. She had taken ayahuasca, a powerful psychedelic, and it had contributed to her decision to step away. The internet, itself, now looked different. Huh? A conversation with former podcast host Sarah Haider. Lees meer
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
6 december 2024 · 47 min
If ever there was a place where every person inside was guaranteed to already have luggage, it would be inside an airport. And yet ... the airport luggage stores persist. Who is going to these places? To answer, we will of course, unpack the story of the entire airport -- how these hellish modern places of security and commerce came to be. Lees meer
Alastair Gordon's Naked Airport.
Unclaimed Baggage.
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What is jawmaxxing?
22 november 2024 · 49 min
The story of how an alternative theory of dentistry made its way from medicine's fringes to an audience of young men online. This week we try to make sense of jawmaxxing with help from Panic World’s Ryan Broderick. Lees meer
Panic World
Garbage Day
INVCEL - Reply All
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The White Subaru Hell Loop
15 november 2024 · 47 min
A mortal human being finds himself stuck between two impressive organizations: the DMV, and an internet start-up called Carvana. He has a problem, but each side insists only the other can solve it. Search Engine’s crack automotive team investigates. Lees meer
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How did the first democracy die?
8 november 2024 · 37 min
The story of the first people who invented democracy, and what it did to them. Lees meer
What's Wrong With Democracy? by Loren J. Samons II
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How do you sit quietly in the middle of a storm?
1 november 2024 · 1 uur 2 min
What if there was an event in the future, the outcome of which you couldn’t personally control, but it was still causing you anguish? Lees meer
This week, we talk to an ordained Zen priest and teacher to get some answers. Rev. angel Kyodo williams helps us learn how you could begin to quiet all the fears in your head that kidnap you from your actual life.
Rev's website.
Rev's instruction for point meditation.
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Should we be worried about OpenAI?
25 oktober 2024 · 53 min
A year ago, we saw a stand-off between OpenAI's non-profit board and its leader, Sam Altman. Since then, the board has been reshuffled, Altman has consolidated power, and under his leadership, some strange things have happened. If AI might change the world, and OpenAI is leading the field -- how worried should we be? We check in with tech reporter Casey Newton of the newsletter Platformer and the podcast Hard Fork. Lees meer
Listen to our previous OpenAI episode (https://pjvogt.substack.com/p/who-should-be-in-charge-of-ai)
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Why is it so hard to tax billionaires? (Part 2)
18 oktober 2024 · 40 min
We reveal the one weird trick some billionaires use to pay less in federal income taxes than you do. And we explain the consequences faced by the person who leaked the tax returns of billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Taylor Swift, thereby enraging some of the most powerful people in our country. Lees meer
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Why is it so hard to tax billionaires? (Part 1)
18 oktober 2024 · 46 min
A rogue IRS contractor leaks the private tax returns of the country’s wealthiest citizens to a reporter. That reporter, ProPublica’s Jesse Eisinger, learns that some of our billionaires are paying as little as zero dollars in federal income taxes. The story of how this country came up with an income tax in the first place, and how the wealthiest discovered an opt-out strategy. Lees meer
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The Mystery of the Vape Shop Kratom
4 oktober 2024 · 1 uur 1 min
This week we have for you ... not a whodunnit, but a what did I do? A listener tries a substance he doesn’t know much about and not long after, his life begins to change. Afterwards, he wonders — what was that, and why was it so easy to get? Search Engine investigates. Lees meer
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Is everyone pretending to understand inflation (or just me)?
20 september 2024 · 50 min
The single issue that might decide the upcoming presidential election also happens to be: very confusing. Political economist Mark Blyth helps us understand: how inflation starts, how inflation is stopped, and shares his theory about why the powers-that-be may be just as confused about inflation as we are. Lees meer
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A stubborn lunatic’s guide to making great art
13 september 2024 · 53 min
25 years ago, The Sopranos, the best television show ever created, premiered. This week, a new documentary called Wise Guy asks the question: how did a show considered so risky & uncommercial even get made? We’re interviewing Wise Guy director Alex Gibney about that question, and about how stubborn lunatics like him and David Chase got to make the projects they wanted to make. Lees meer
Incognito Mode, our ad-free, no-rerun, bonus episode feed.
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Can I microdose veganism?
6 september 2024 · 51 min
If you care about animals, but don't want to stop eating them... what's the least you could do while doing the most good? That question, posed to The Atlantic's Annie Lowrey, leads us to a pair of true crime stories about animals. Turkeys plummeting wildly from the sky and a private investigation involving a small brown cow. Lees meer
Links to Annie Lowrey's Reporting
Tossing a Bird That Does Not Fly Out of a Plane
The Truth About Organic Milk
Links to Live Events
Brooklyn Live Event with Freakonomics - Thursday, September 26th
Amsterdam Live Event with Podimo - Thursday, October 3rd
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What's the best phone to do crimes on?
16 augustus 2024 · 59 min
For years, the must-have phone for the discerning drug trafficker or hitman was a brand you may not have heard of: AN0M. Reporter Joseph Cox tells us the story of the AN0M phone, its sudden rise and shocking fall, and the shadowy group behind its invention. Lees meer
Joseph's new book: Dark Wire.
Incognito Mode, our ad-free, no-rerun, bonus episode feed.
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Is there a sane way to follow this election?
9 augustus 2024 · 58 min
We are in an eighty-eight day sprint to the Presidential election. How would you follow this story if you wanted to actually understand something, instead of, like me, just feeling very anxious several times a day? We talk to Ezra Klein about how he follows elections and his own strange role in this election cycle. Lees meer
If you'd like to check out some of Ezra's election coverage this year, here are some good places to start.
Democrats Have a Better Option than Biden (February, 2024)
Are Democrats Right to Unite Around Kamala Harris? (July, 2024)
Is Tim Walz the Midwestern Dad Democrats Need? (August, 2024)
And if you'd like ad-free episodes of Search Engine, and bonus episodes, head to searchengine.show!
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The End
2 augustus 2024 · 53 min
A trip to Greenland, a chance encounter with Coolio, and the end of the world. (This summer we’re publishing some of our favorite episodes from our previous series, Crypto Island.) Lees meer
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The Kidnapping of Ape #8398
26 juli 2024 · 38 min
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? (This summer we’re publishing some of our favorite episodes from our previous series, Crypto Island.) Lees meer
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Genesis
19 juli 2024 · 1 uur 6 min
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 conference in Miami. (This summer we’re publishing some of our favorite episodes from our previous series, Crypto Island.) Lees meer
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The Bidding War
12 juli 2024 · 48 min
A story about a strange auction for perhaps the most valuable piece of paper in America. This summer we’re publishing some of our favorite episodes from our previous series, Crypto Island. Lees meer
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
27 juni 2024 · 1 uur 10 min
We travel to Germany to trace techno's history from Detroit to Berlin. The story of how, after the Wall fell, Berlin exorcised its brutal past with a very strange, decade-long party. A mission that takes us all the way to the gates of Berghain. Lees meer
Music Credits: Original composition in this episode by Armen Bazarian. Additional Tracks: Game One - Infiniti, Dead Man Watches The Clock - Marcel Dettmann & Ben Klock, The Call - Marcel Dettmann & Norman Nodge, Quicksand - Marcel Dettmann. Full playlist here.
Sven von Thüle: https://soundcloud.com/svt // Der Klang der Familie
Gesine Kühne: https://soundcloud.com/wannadosomething
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 1)
21 juni 2024 · 52 min
Two Americans embark on a quest: fly across an ocean to try to get into the most exclusive nightclub in the world – Berghain. A German techno palace where the line outside can last 8 hours, and the bouncers are merciless in their judgments. The club does not explain how it makes its decisions about who can enter, but one foolish podcaster will try to explain anyway. Lees meer
Support the show: search engine.show
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What does it feel like to believe in God?
14 juni 2024 · 1 uur 4 min
This week, we try to understand an experience that 74% of Americans routinely report having. The first of many conversations (perhaps?). This one, an interview with Zvika Krieger. Lees meer
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How much glue should you put in your pizza?
31 mei 2024 · 42 min
An internet breaking news story. As we told you last week, Google has begun offering AI-generated answers to search questions. But some answers, it turns out, are strange. Users were told, for instance, that glue was an appropriate ingredient for homemade pizza. We talk to reporter Katie Notopolous, who baked and ate her own homemade glue pizza. Lees meer
Support the show: search engine.show
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How do we survive the media apocalypse? (Part 2)
22 mei 2024 · 1 uur 1 min
Last week, Google announced a fundamental change to how the site will work, which will likely have dire effects for the news industry. When you use Google now, the site will often offer AI-generated summaries to you, instead of favoring human-written articles. We talk to Platformer’s Casey Newton about why this is happening, why publishers are nervous, and about a secret new internet you may not have heard of, a paradise to which we may all yet escape. Lees meer
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Search Engine - How do we survive the media apocalypse? (Part 1)
Platformer - Google's broken link to the web
404 Media - Why Google is shit now
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Should this creepy search engine exist?
10 mei 2024 · 57 min
After stumbling on a new kind of search engine for faces, we called privacy journalist Kashmir Hill. She’s been reporting on the very sudden and unregulated rise of these facial search engines. Here’s the story of the very first one, the mysterious person who made it, and the copycats it helped spawn. Lees meer
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What do trigger warnings actually do?
3 mei 2024 · 56 min
A listener’s brother dies by suicide, and afterwards, she finds herself angered by trigger warnings about suicide. She wants to know — are these actually helping other people? Or is it just something we do because we think we’re supposed to? Lees meer
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