Search Engine with PJ Vogt

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.

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/9781451627015Subscribe 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.

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.