Named a best podcast of 2023 by Vulture, Time, The Economist, & Vogue. No question too big, no question too small. On Search Engine, host PJ Vogt answers the kinds of questions you might ask the internet when you can't sleep. If you find the world bewildering, but also sometimes enjoy being bewildered by it, we're here for you. Edited by Sruthi Pinnamaneni.
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Bens was fortunate in one of the more important ways you can be fortunate and that he'd married the right person. This woman named Bertha, Berta Benz had been the primary investor in the project. She'd also helped design some of the car's components. And she felt like Carl was being too precious, tinkering with the design for too long. She thought it was ready for the world to see. And she was gonna do something about it. I read about all this in a piece by Brian Appleyard, author of the car, the rise and fall of the machine that made the world. One day, when Carl Ben's was asleep, Bertha stole the car. She took their 2 sons on the first automotive road trip in history. Birthday's road trip from Mannheim south to her mother's house in Forteheim ignited the German imagination, really the world's imagination, to the possibility of what automotive travel would be. Supposedly, there were people who saw her on the street and were annoyed who yelled, get a horse, which incredible. But there were also people who, when they heard what Birthday had done, they just got it. Birthday's drive represented the possibility of freedom. The ability, even with your kids in the backseat, to move faster and further alone than you ever could have before. Distance in our world was about to collapse. The funny thing about that trip though is everything else Bertha invented by happenstance. The prototype car runs into problems, some of which she can macgyver, she uses a hat pin to clear the fuel lines, a garter for insulation. But along the way, shorn's out of fuel. So she has to stop at a pharmacy to pick up more. That pharmacy, now the world's 1st gas station. A chain breaks, so she stops at a Blacksmith. That Blacksmith now arguably the world's first auto mechanic.
It's really nice. Sarah lives in Chatham, New York. We were talking Monday when everybody's small talk had been orbiting the same topic. What are you doing for the eclipse today? I don't know actually because the eclipse is during nap time. My kid naps really late. So I don't yeah. I don't know what we're gonna do. I guess I can, like, look outside. And with a 2a half year old, an eclipse is not a reason to rouse a child. Absolutely not. Okay. So tell me, what is your question? Yeah. So my question is, what's going on with these yard signs? Like, do they work? And why are there so many of them? And when you say yard signs, you mean, like, vote for blah blah blah, like the political yard signs? Yeah. The political yard signs. Okay. This came up last year, which was just local elections, but we had a very contentious district attorney election. And it was just ridiculous, the number of signs. In her email to the show, Sarah had said that this question, it had come up a few times when talking to her friends and family. In particular, her mom was feeling upset about these signs. The word rage was used. And how did you feel seeing the yard signs? Did you feel any way about them? I feel like it's a lot of visual clutter. Like, I'm I'm a visual artist, and so I pay attention to what I'm seeing out in the world, and it just seemed like there were a lot. There would be 4 signs for one of the candidates. And then a little bit later, like, there would be 4 for the other candidate too. And now it's like, is it canceling them out? What's happening here? Yeah. I've driven in neighborhoods where, like, you can feel, like, visually, you're seeing, like, a noisy argument happening, and it's sort of unpleasant. Yes. And it starts to feel like, is this is this something that we're doing? I don't know. Like, it's a
Self on the work you've done over the past 7 days. Rubin speaks for a bit about the importance of government agencies moving quickly. That first meeting ends shortly after, in a hopeful moment, as chair Tremaine Wright asks for the votes for her last motion, to finish hiring the staff for this board. May I have a motion to accept the resolution before us? I move approval. Seconded. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any up opposed? Abstentions? Resolution 2021 dash 4 passes. We have staff. The team is complete, and they're excited and ready to start the revolution. Everyone at home cannot see. So that first meeting, that was early fall of 2021. Let's move the ticking clock forward 9 months to the next summer, July 2022. For me, that was when I, just as a civilian, started to notice something was up. When I'd walk around, I just see a lot of people selling weed out of their cars, out of refurbished ice cream trucks, or on folding tables outside of nightclubs. They'd have little PA systems where they yelled at you about the quality of their bud. I have been in states that legalized before, and legalization had meant, like, stores. It hadn't just meant everyone suddenly starts to sell each other weed on the street. It was very funny, but it also felt like this could not have been the state's plan. That summer was also the point at which, post lockdown, it seemed like every formerly closed retail space had now opened as a weed store. That is what Noah and I'd seen back when we were walking around Manhattan in the last episode. Like, sort of, we walked maybe a 5 minute walk. We have passed, I've lost count now, but, like, 8 or 9 stores? Lot of options. What I didn't understand back in 2022 is that none of those smoke shops were legal. They were
Mean, I have always tested everything that I sell. I just have to personally test it because it's like an ethical responsibility. And so I got these Fentanyl strips. I didn't know exactly what it was. It was before it was so widespread, and people were dying left and right. What year do you think this was? 2019, maybe. Okay. Not that long ago. And the primary method of testing for fentanyl is highly flawed. It gives almost half the time a false positive. Oh, wow. Nate says that now there are new fentanyl test strips which work much better. They yield fewer false positives and are easier to use. You can find them at dancesafe.org. But in the early days, when the test strips didn't work as well, and people were very scared, Nate was feeling a lot of angry phone calls. I would get, like, 2 or 3 phone calls a week. I just tested your shit, and it has fentanyl, and it's trying to kill me. And it it would be for, like, everything. Like MDMA, no one is putting fentanyl in MDMA. It's just not a it's not the kind of market that intercedes. And if you go to dansafe.org where they do mass spectrometer testing of all samples, hey, you can just send a sample to these guys, and they're gonna tell you exactly proportionately what chemicals are in there. Yeah. And there is not a single sample of MDMA in the 1,000 and thousands of samples that come in from all over the world that has fentanyl on it. We checked this with DanceSafe. The executive director there confirmed that DanceSafe has never found an example of MDMA with fentanyl in it. Although he said there was one case that was not lab confirmed where he suspected fentanyl had been involved. Nate's experience seems to mostly track with DanSafe's. It's always coke or heroin, and a couple of times ketamine, but almost never ketamine.
Welcome to Search Engine. I'm PJ Vogt. Every week on the show, we answer a question we have about the world. No question too big. No question too small. This week, should we be concerned that the news websites all seem to be disappearing? That's after Smets. Whether you have a few weeks old puppy or a senior who's seen multiple decades, any dog person knows the most valuable thing in the world is spending time with your pet. The farmer's dog makes it easy to keep them healthy, which can give you more quality years with them. The farmer's dog makes and delivers fresh, healthy dog food. It's recommended by vets, nutritionally balanced, and made from human grade ingredients in safe, clean kitchens. I have fed my dog this dog food. I think he really likes it. It's the best option for dogs at all life stages because it's not kibble. It's not canned goo. It's just actual real food. A fresh diet has been found to have all sorts of benefits. From healthier coat and skin, to better breath, even easier digestion, and smaller, better poops. It doesn't matter if your dog is young or old. It is always the right time to begin investing in their health, helping you live more healthy, happy, and full years together. Get 50% off your first box at the farmers dog.com/search, and let the farmers dog know we sent you. Use our code or click podcast after you sign up for your first box. Okay. I'm gonna read you an intro. I realize that I haven't even totally settled on the question here, which is fine. Right now, my media fucked? Should we be concerned that the news website seem to be disappearing? Is media fucked is better, honestly? I don't know if I'm allowed to curt.
