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PJ Vogt PJ Vogt

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

Beschikbare afleveringen

  • Search Engine x Better in Person

  • Bollywood Dreams

    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?

    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 plot.Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop...
  • The Killing of the Gaza Chef

    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 that mean about the future of...
  • The Chosen One

    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 be number one and the extremely...
  • A road trip through the data center debate

    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 the people living at the center of...
  • The machines are learning… to do crimes?

    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 denialism by Casey NewtonIts AI agent spent...
  • What’s in your cocaine and the questions Search Engine CAN’T answer

    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)

    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 that they have signs admonishing...
  • Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? Pt. 2 (classic)

    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...
  • Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? Pt. 1 (classic)

    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...
  • A Strange Voyage

    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 Netherlands, to its supersizing in America,...