Search Engine

I was a fan of Reply All. And was in the middle of my glory with it when “The Test Kitchen” about the toxic work environment at Bon Appétit aired, and then abruptly ended before it actually ended. Host PJ Vogt and producer Sruthi Pinnamaneni were essentially canceled (in the context of 2021) because of their perceived hypocrisy around fomenting that which they tattled on. The pod hobbled along for another year, but it was never the same. And then it unceremoniously ended its run in mid-2022. I think Vogt went through some soul searching and apparently some unhealthy ideations and then eventually worked his way back to the podcasting world with a limited series called Crypto Island, which led to the ongoing series, Search Engine.

The initial conceit of Search Engine was not unlike Reply All. Vogt would take the most queried questions from the Internet — or at least the most interesting ones — and work with his team to find experts and experienced individuals to answer them. So like a real-life, investigative version of a Google. A damn good idea. It started off with questions I’ve honestly asked myself on occasion. Things like, “Why can’t we just turn empty office buildings into housing?” And “Why are drug dealers putting fentanyl in everything.” It turns out the answer is zoning and that street drugs have been so adulterated for years, addicts don’t even know what a real heroin high feels like anymore, so why not use a cheaper alternative that could kill you? Okay, that’s not at all how simple things are, but Vogt does a great job at probing the questions as a proxy for the stupid-land audience. He anticipates well, asking the same follow-ups of his experts that I would. It’s fun and informational. You feel a little less like you live in stupid-land after listening. And that’s the whole point.

Like a lot of narrowly-concepted conceits, however, the shows become a little less general and a little more personal. He and his team aren’t sitting down at the Google machine and figuring out what people are searching for. Or even really querying things sent in by listeners for the most part. Instead, Vogt seems to have turned a bit inward with his questions. The overriding question seems to be “Why am I and the world I live in like this?” I think it really kicked off with his investigation into his own ADHD, “Why’d I Take Speed for 20 Years?” Sure, it’s a specific question that turns out to be a universal answer about psychiatry and big pharma, but there is definitely a personal angle to the question. And while there aren’t episodes called “Why is PJ’s Neighborhood Overrun With Illegal Weed Stores” or “Why Have I, PJ Vogt, Never Been Cool Enough to Get Into an Exclusive Club in Berlin?” there are episodes about these two specific things that seem to come less from the Internet and more from PJ’s observations or his feelings about being an aging millennial. Or, frankly, questions like “How Do You Survive Fame?” that isn’t an Internet query really at all, but seems to be a way for Vogt to interview someone he clearly wanted to meet in interviewee, Molly Ringwald. I’m not complaining, mind you, but it kind of gets away from the concept of answering weird — even sometimes fringe — questions that people ask the Internet. It does swing back and forth on that front, but there’s a clear need to expand the concept when looking for questions that can’t just be answered by a simple Google search.

The thing that Vogt is really good at is talking like a human being. His approach is conversational and humorous. But he also chats with these experts in the same way your or I might. Either not afraid to ask what could be construed as “dumb” questions or at least doing a good job at pretending he’s as clueless about certain histories or concepts as we are in the face of a person who is clearly an area expert. But then, as an aside, he’ll always provide narrative context to the conversation, usually an historical or a non-technical breakdown of sometimes pretty complicated laws or science. And he’s good at it. It’s a talent, explaining things in language that is simple enough to understand in a purely audio format — we don’t realize how much we rely on visual aids — but also not dumbed down to the point that concepts are compromised. Most of all, though, the pod is educational and entertaining. I mean where else would you have a two-part funny mystery about “Why are there so many chicken bones on the street?” It’s honestly a question I’ve wondered about walking around NYC. I can’t say this one taught me more about how crypto works, or about the history of section 8 housing, or even why I should be worried about the future of AI (all of which are shows). But sometimes I need those stupid things that bounce around in my brain during those quiet moments to be laid bare by a podcast host who seems just as curious about the world as we are.