One man could slow down AI. He won’t. Why?
Oct 16, 2026
Jensen Huang is CEO of the most valuable company in human history, NVIDIA. He is arguably the one person who could slow down the AI race. But he’s made a massive bet that AI is safe. Is that…
We try to make sense of the world, one question at a time. No question too big, no question too small.Hosted by PJ Vogt, edited by Sruthi Pinnamaneni. Named one of the best podcasts of all time by Time Magazine
PodSkip has analyzed 3 episodes of Search Engine, averaging 3.3 ads per episode (3% of runtime).
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Unreliable Narrator
Oct 09, 2026
An interview with a writer, Meghan O’Gieblyn, who started lying to herself about her relationship to alcohol and God. And afterwards wondered: when did it start? Why did it happen? How do you make…
Vladimir Putin's Forkiverse
Oct 02, 2026
Nine months ago, three podcasters attempted to build a better internet. Today -- they confront foreign adversaries on a digital battlefield.Watch the Machine Gods trailer.Instructions for moving your…
Search Engine x Better in Person
Sep 29, 2026
Search Engine has some exciting news about the moving image to announce, and we’re sharing an interview we loved with an unusual architect.Check out the video version on Freakonomics' YouTube page.
Bollywood Dreams
Sep 18, 2026
An email hits our inbox with the subject line: “My Dad is making a Bollywood Movie… is he being scammed?” We investigate. Become a premium subscriber.
Why’s everybody going to Japan?
Sep 11, 2026
A Japanese listener gets so many houseguests she starts a spreadsheet to try to figure out what's going on. Why has American tourism to Japan gotten so out of control? The story of a government…
The Killing of the Gaza Chef
Aug 28, 2026
Mahmud Almadhoun ran a soup kitchen in the north of the Gaza Strip. In November 2024, he was killed. A reporter tries to answer a big question. Was Mahmud intentionally targeted? And if so, what does…
The Chosen One
Aug 21, 2026
A listener asks: whose penis gets the top spot on the Wikipedia page for penis?Our quest for an answer takes us on a surprisingly philosophical journey — where we learn about the cutthroat fight to…
A road trip through the data center debate
Aug 11, 2026
The midterms are approaching, and as the discourse heats up, one of the big new villains is: a kind of building. Data centers. Reporter Jasmine Sun took a road trip through two swing states to meet…
How the Hugging Face hack happened
Aug 06, 2026
For the first time, an AI model has autonomously hacked a company. This week, an evolving story, a postcard from a strange, frightening moment in the story of our technology.A big week for AI…
What’s in your cocaine and the questions Search Engine CAN’T answer
Jul 24, 2026
An interview with a cocaine salesman about cocaine adulterants, plus – questions Search Engine can’t answer, with special guest Kelefa Sanneh. Become a premium subscriber!
How to pursue excellence … in noodles (unlocked bonus)
Jul 17, 2026
The world right now, seems tilted towards the good enough. The AI-written wedding toast, the half-assed attempt. Despite this, a handmade noodle shop is trying to make perfect noodles. Trying so hard…
Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? Pt. 2 (classic)
Jul 10, 2026
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…
Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? Pt. 1 (classic)
Jul 03, 2026
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…
A Strange Voyage
Jun 25, 2026
This month, SpaceX had the largest IPO in all of human history. In a mission to understand a bewildering moment, we trace the story of the stock market itself. From its very beginnings in the…
Why doesn’t anybody come to my parties?
Jun 15, 2026
Claire Haber-Harris has a question. When she sends out an invitation, why does she get a tidal wave of excuses and no's? How could someone claim to have had the same stomach virus three times in a…
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret? (classic)
Jun 05, 2026
An investigation into a mysterious room. A room that the most famous family in England apparently does not want you to see.Support the show!
Why do we have to pay into the new Anti-Weaponization Fund?
May 29, 2026
The President has created a 1.776 billion dollar fund of taxpayer money he can direct to whoever he wants. Huh? How did this happen, and what might happen next? We talk to Pro Publica’s Jesse…
The many lives of Taiwan
May 22, 2026
We go deep into the story of Taiwan. How a tiny island escaped demise, chartered a course from colonial subjugation through mass Barbie production and into the technological powerhouse it is…
Why are people excited about nuclear power again?
May 08, 2026
Nuclear energy was a taboo for decades, but it’s coming back, it’ll power AI data centers for Google and Microsoft. What does new nuclear technology look like, and why do the nuclear optimists…
What if the cemetery goes out of business? (classic)
May 01, 2026
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…
Where’s the best free restaurant bread in America?
Apr 24, 2026
An enterprising reporter goes on a quest to find the restaurant serving the absolute best free bread in this country, and finds it. She returns to Search Engine with her results.
Read Caity Weaver’s…
The Cost of War
Apr 17, 2026
The United States has begun a conflict with Iran that two thirds of the American public does not understand. One question we can try to answer: how much is this conflict costing us? The surprising…
What we got wrong about GLP-1s
Apr 10, 2026
Search Engine is breaking its cowardly three-year silence on GLP-1s. We have been curious about them. We have been afraid of getting in trouble. We are no longer afraid. A conversation with Dr…
The Trial of the Driverless Car
Mar 26, 2026
In blue cities throughout the country, unions and politicians are fighting to ban driverless cars. We travel to Boston, where the fight has reached a fever pitch, and where the cars themselves will…
Are you a good driver?
Mar 23, 2026
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…
Mysteries of Claude
Feb 27, 2026
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…
Why don’t we eat people? (classic)
Feb 20, 2026
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.