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 Eisinger, an investigative reporter who has played a strange role in this whole story.  

Listen to our series with Jesse: Why is it so hard to tax billionaires? (Part 1) and (Part 2)

Check out the new ProPublica podcast Paper Trail.

Support the show!

Presenting an episode of Family Lore, a new show on the Audacy network. The granddaughter of a prolific Jewish art collector who fled Europe during World War II embarks on a quest to recover the looted art.

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.

Actor Molly Ringwald joins us to talk about a time in her life when her job was to pretend to be a normal American teenager, a job which made it impossible to actually be a normal American teenager.

How did she learn to survive? In an era when the internet has turned many more people into public figures, what can everybody else learn from her?

Plus, Sruthi Pinnamaneni tries to learn more about a rare and enchanting song.

This week, the shocking finale of our investigation into who -- or what -- has been leaving chicken bones strewn across the sidewalks of American cities. Our team of investigators returns with surveillance footage, and a recording of a superintendent with a rat-hitting stick. Plus, an exclusive interview with a public servant with a vision for a revolution in American urban trash collection.

Check out Manny, Noah, and Devan online.

And if you'd like to support Search Engine, you can sign up for our newsletter here.

A team of investigators with an unusual set of skills joins us this week to solve a mystery that haunts dog owners across modern American cities. On our journey, we'll have video surveillance, thousands of years of poultry history, and some hard truths about highway apples.

Check out Manny, Noah, and Devan online.

And if you'd like to support Search Engine, you can sign up for our newsletter here.

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.

You can find the Search Engine newsletter here.

We bring you the shattering conclusion to our investigation into whether a New York City sushi restaurant is swapping their tuna rolls for “the ex-lax fish.” The DNA test is in.

Can we trust anyone? Are our fish safe to eat? What’s the email address where you submit for the Pulitzers? We have answers.

Plus a bonus this week — the 5-second rule is put to a laboratory test.

If you'd like to support the show, head to our newsletter at pjvogt.com.

We investigate unsettling rumors that fish purveyors may be mislabeling fish to save a buck. Our path leads us deep into the shadowy world of blackmarket fish sales, and sends us hot on the trail of the infamous ex-lax fish. Plus, we look back to antiquity for the first ever recorded emergency podcast.

Support the show at pjvogt.com!

This week, the story of a very brief, very absurd revolution at the world’s leading artificial intelligence company, OpenAI. And we try to answer the quite real question that might be animating all of the drama.

Check out Casey Newton's newsletter Platformer and our newsletter, too.

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.

Support the show! at pjvogt.substack.com

Every day in Manhattan, about 1,000 people will stand outside in a long line waiting for their chance to take a picture with a bronze bull. On many of those days, PJ Vogt stares at the scene trying to decode what exactly is going on here. This week, he get answers, and a story that leads back to one of the most peculiar art crimes of the 1980s.

If you want to see the images & video referenced in this episode, or if you'd like to support the show, head to our newsletter.

In part two of our story about ADHD medications, we approach the question from a different angle.

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.

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 whether anyone can actually control it. 

Read Gideon's story here

Support Search Engine!

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.)

If you want to comment on this episode or financially support the show, head to pjvogt.com

Ezra Klein joins Search Engine this week to answer a question that's increasingly confounded us: how do I use the internet now? How do I get information about the things I care about, without getting sucked into a vortex of opinion, unearned certainty, and yelling?

If you'd like reading recommendations based on this episode, or if you'd like to support the show, head to our newsletter.

Search Engine is VERY EXCITED to share the news that Heavyweight, one of our favorite shows, is now available wherever you download podcasts. To celebrate, and to herald the release of their new season, we're sharing one of our favorite episodes of the show. We will be back with a new episode of our own on October 21.

Why would the government give Korianne a coupon for a free apartment that she can’t find? We have a question from a listener who finds herself very lost in Wisconsin. And a bonus question, from the internet’s own Taylor Lorenz: What happens when you pay someone else to surf your internet?

If you want to see the images & videos referenced in this episode, or if you'd like to support the show, head to our newsletter. 

And you can order Taylor Lorenz's new book here.

This week, the story of former crypto wunderkind Sam Bankman-Fried. The government alleges he stole over eight billion dollars from the customers of the crypto exchange he started, FTX.

Our question ... how do you blow eight billion dollars? Investigative financial reporter Zeke Faux helps us answer our question.

Be sure to check out Zeke's book, Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall. If you'd like to support the show, head to our newsletter: pjvogt.com.

They’re shiny rocks that we’ve somehow agreed embody romance and eternity. But diamonds, it turns out, are not as rare as we think. And these days, they can be made in a lab. So why do we continue to spend so much money on them? This week, the story of a century-long, international scheme. And the story of how it fell apart.

If you want to see the articles and videos referenced in this episode, or if you'd like to support the show, head to our newsletter.

Maya Hawke, of Stranger Things, would like to know why won’t Netflix just tell her how many people watch the show? Plus the question underneath that question … might the internet have broken our TV industry? We get answers with help from Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw.

Review the show! 

Check out my newsletter this week for some thoughts about how this story might relate to the podcast industry.

... 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.

If you have questions or comments about this episode, or if you'd like to support the show, head to our newsletter: pjvogt.com

We speak to Luis, a former fentanyl dealer and user who tells us why a dealer might want to put fentanyl in less lethal drugs. Luis also tells us how he learned the rules of dealing, and how the rules changed over his multi-decade career.

If you have questions or comments about this episode, or if you'd like to support the show, head to our newsletter: pjvogt.com

Isn't it bad business to kill your own customers? In part one of our answer to this question, we talk to reporter Ben Westhoff, who helps us understand how Fentanyl became a street drug in the first place. He'll share recordings taped in a Chinese Fentanyl lab, and explain why some dealers might want to poison their own customers with the drug. If you have questions or comments about this episode, or if you'd like to support the show, head to our newsletter.

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.

Our quest for answers this week 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!

If you have questions or comments about this episode, or if you'd like to support the show, head to our newsletter.

We interview writer Andrew Leland, who has been gradually losing his sight for two decades. Andrew takes us inside the blind internet, and teaches us how you deal with anxiety about the things you can't control that aren't going away.

Check out Andrew's new book, The Country of the Blind. If you have questions or comments about this episode, or if you'd like to support the show, head here.

Search Engine investigates the erratic behavior of the world’s wealthiest man with Hard Fork’s Casey Newton. The three top theories for why Elon Musk has begun to act strangely, including one theory that upset our understanding of reality itself.

If you'd like to read more about this episode or support the show financially, go here.

We enlist a very overqualified person to answer this question, writer Kelefa Sanneh, author of Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres. Kelefa listens to more music than practically anyone on earth, and this week he breaks down how even a normal person can find new stuff when they feel like their ears have rusted.

Check out the Search Engine newsletter for playlist recommendations from Kelefa, Search Engine's Noah John, and PJ Vogt.

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 here to see the images referenced in this episode.

To answer this question, we’ll unpack a scientific battle centuries in the making, one that involves a serial killer elephant and a suicidal dog. We’ll also learn a new way that people who are ambivalent about zoos can now go to zoos in good conscience. Guest: Dr. Laurel Braitman, author of Animal Madness.

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Animal-Madness/Laurel-Braitman/9781451627015

Subscribe to our free newsletter and/or support the show with a paid subscription here.

No question too big, no question too small. A new show that’ll be out soon. You can hear it here, on this feed. The one you're on now. Question you'd like answered? Email pjvogt85@gmail.com

A trip to Greenland, a chance encounter with Coolio, and the end of the world.

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? (To help support the show or subscribe to the free newsletter, check out http://www.pjvogt.com)

This week we follow a dollar underground. For notes, further reading, or to support this project visit pjvogt.com.

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-smashing influencers.

Check out Jasmine Sun's work (and her piece on peptides)

Check out Ezra Marcus' work (and his piece on peptides)

Support Search Engine!

This week, a story of about how crypto just imploded due to one risky, financial product. And the fight-loving, Twitter-addicted founder who invented that product for his adoring army of lunatics.

Visit Crypto Island at pjvogt.com if you'd like to help support this project. There's a newsletter about how these episodes are made, too. 

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. 

Visit Crypto Island at pjvogt.com if you'd like to ask questions about this episode, help support this project, or to simply view a photograph of this reporter collapsed from a panic attack. There's a newsletter about how this episode was made, too. 

The strange journeys of Cas Piancey, a baker turned crypto skeptic. (For notes & further reading on this episode, check out my newsletter at pjvogt.com).

A conversation with Miguel Piedrafita. Why would a 19-year-old from Spain want to buy the US Constitution? 

A story about a strange auction for perhaps the most valuable piece of paper in America. (Listen to introduction episode before this one, if you haven't! Also for notes & further reading on this episode, check out my newsletter at pjvogt.com).

An introduction to this limited series. A video of a mysterious tropical island populated entirely by Bitcoin dynasts and Dogecoin princelings sends a reporter on a new journey. 

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!

The conclusion to our story about Venezuela. How a country goes from a prosperous democracy to a poverty-ravaged dictatorship.

The End (our 2022 episode on Greenland)

The Many Faces of Chavismo - Alejandro Velasco

Things Are Never So Bad That They Can't Get Worse - William Neuman

For the past year, there's been a steady drumbeat of headlines about Venezuela. Now the US has invaded, arrested its president, and installed itself in charge. To understand how we got here, we talked to Venezuelan historian Alejandro Velasco, who grew up there and has spent years trying to understand why a country with so much promise has proven so difficult to govern.

The Many Faces of Chavismo - Alejandro Velasco

Hard Fork with Casey Newton and Kevin Roose

Our present version of the internet is arguably the worst it’s ever been. Which means – any shot at changing things, even an unlikely one – is worth trying out. Three podcasters who’ve spent years critiquing social media companies try to build their own small alternative social media.

A collaboration with Hard Fork’s Kevin Roose and Casey Newton: join ⁠The Forkiverse⁠ here.

As a very special holiday treat, we are sharing a story from one of our favorite podcasts, Heavyweight.

Gregor's parents are pushing 90. Gregor wants to move them out of their big Victorian home. But they refuse. So, he's come up with a bold plan.

Incognito Mode⁠, our ad-free, no-rerun, bonus episode feed.

A man walks into an airport body scanner, and with eerie consistency, the machine flags the exact same part of his body. What could be going on? Search Engine investigates a Bermuda Triangle.

Incognito Mode⁠, our ad-free, no-rerun, bonus episode feed.

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 today. 

The Tiger Leading the Dragon: How Taiwan Propelled China's Economic Rise by Shelley Rigger

Get tickets to hear PJ read live! Friends With Words at Roulette

As a special, one-time holiday treat, we're sharing something we only usually offer on our premium feed, Incognito Mode. Our annual board meeting! We talk about what shopping a podcast has been like in this environment, our internal stats, and… Yes, Yes, No.

Incognito Mode, our ad-free, no-rerun, bonus episode feed.