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 war?

Listen to The Gaza Chef.

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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 overthink-y debate that precedes the coronation.

Wikipedia page for Lane Rasberry.

Wikipedia page for penis.

Wikipedia page for human penis.

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The midterms are approaching, and as the discourse heats up, one of 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 these debates, and to understand where this all might be headed.  

no data centers in my backyard by Jasmine Sun

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 Newton

Its AI agent spent days hacking a company, but sources say OpenAI did not notice for a week by Deepa Seetharaman, Raphael Satter, and Kenrick Cai

Cheating behaviour in frontier model evaluations by AI Security Institute

More On An Internal OpenAI Model Hacking Into HuggingFace by Zvi Mowshowitz

An interview with a cocaine salesman about cocaine adulterants, plus – questions Search Engine can’t answer, with special guest Kelefa Sanneh. 

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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 their customers to ONLY EAT THEIR SPICY NOODLES THE CORRECT WAY, DO NOT TAKE THEM TO-GO, THE EXPERIENCE WILL BE RUINED.

Why do some people still want to do small things perfectly, even at the expense of profits? An interview with Jason Wang, of Xi'an Famous Foods.

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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 Berghain.

Music Credits: Original composition in this episode by Armen Bazarian. Additional Tracks: Game One - Infiniti, Dead Man Watches The Clock - Marcel Dettmann & Ben Klock, The Call - Marcel Dettmann & Norman Nodge, Quicksand - Marcel Dettmann. Full playlist here.

Sven von Thüle: https://soundcloud.com/svt // Der Klang der Familie

Gesine Kühne: https://soundcloud.com/wannadosomething 

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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 judgments. The club does not explain how it makes its decisions about who can enter, but one foolish podcaster will try to explain anyway.

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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, through the prism of crypto and widespread speculation that has led to this moment with SpaceX. What happened? 

⁠The World's First Stock Exchange⁠ by Lodewijk Petram

⁠The Wisdom of Finance⁠ by Mihir Desai

⁠Liftoff⁠ and ⁠Reentry⁠ by Eric Berger

Search Engine's earlier reporting on Elon Musk’s controversial data centers: ⁠Colossus 1⁠ & ⁠Colossus 2⁠

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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 row? Search Engine investigates why a random American mom might be annoying people in her community. 

Cartoons Hate Her on Substack

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