Howzat? 4.2 / 6

It feels a little ‘icky’ talking about the latest podcast by “internet celebrity” PJ Vogt and his accomplice colleague Sruthi Pinnamaneni, in what appears to be their first public creative podcast outing since, well *ahem*, their colleagues outed them for fuelling somewhat of a hostile working environment at Reply All (All Rights Reserved, Spotify, natch).  

And hey, innocent until proven guilty right? But still…

So here with Search Engine, Vogt has copied the Gimlet-esque template of Reply All and pasted ‘in perpetuum’ to make the most of his apprenticeship there: regurgitating musical presentation cadence; dusting down his soft vocal tones; titillating and tantalising us with narrative promises; and sprinkling over an almost arrogant layer of confidence akin to a sleazy Californian [read: casual] surfer type. 

And the premise? 

The show endeavours to be like a more interesting and journalistic Google, answering questions that “keeps one awake at night” – a little grandiose but, to be fair, I suppose it’s better than, ‘Reply All 2’. 

This episode is split into two parts and is the last in the current series. 

In it, we initially hear from two random Americans, Chris and Dan (“we totally looooooove partying…”) who set up the premise of the story by explaining how they tried – and failed – to get into Berlin’s (and probably the world’s) most infamous impenetrable nightclub, Berghain, which loiters on the outskirts of the city. 

Vogt then takes us on a rambling journey through his penchant for dancing – we discover that he unlocked the joys of dancing and clubs at a relatively old age but now thinks of it as a semi-religious experience – and his deeply personal insecurities around his looks. Soon after, we go into a deep dive into the history of techno and Berlin’s fractious relationship with the genre, specifically around the issue of tax before the MEGA HOOK is unveiled to us: will Vogt get into the Berghain? 

He goes to Berlin and the guessing game begins. Chris and Dan are largely forgotten.

Now then, here’s the thing. I was torn listening to this two-parter: 

On the one hand, it’s a very well put together show. The editing is beautiful at times, and the writing – although a little self-indulgent and hyperbolic – was poetic, and read in a lilting tone. Some of the history about techno intertwined with Berlin’s political past was genuinely interesting and, at times, fun. 

Pinnamaneni includes some lovely ‘actualisation’ scenes too – we hear the German announcements on the loudspeakers at the airport, as well as the heft of Vogt and Pinnamaneni trawling up some concrete stairs, testing the microphones, sounding relaxed but excited. 

The show itself is an analogy for clubbing as a transcendent experience. We, the listener, are lulled into a vortex of spiritual music ecstasy, lost into its mystical properties, imagining being swept away with a mass of other ravers into the night where the only thing that matters is the power of human connections with the DJ orchestrating it all. Clubbing in Berlin, we’re told, matters more than we could ever know. The stakes are high and, as a result, we’re invested.   

But on the other hand, and I’m sorry to say this, most of it was completely unnecessary and incredibly frustrating. 

Look, I get it, we need to be “taken on a journey” and context is everything. But at times, there was too much context. After a little foreplay – lovely music interludes, interviews with key players in Berlin, the state of Vogt’s mental health – all I really cared about here was Vogt’s central purpose: can our protagonist get into Berghain? 

Spoiler alert: we don’t find out. I idea brought to us is that it doesn’t matter but it bloody does.

I mean, the pretentiousness of this is truly outrageous. Who do you think you are, Vogt?!

Vogt and Pinnamaneni have overplayed their hand because even though I appreciate their “craft”, it all boils down to this: it’s obvious that Vogt (and maybe Pinnamaneni) did get into Berghain, so why leave us hanging indefinitely? 

Before the non-ending, Vogt is invited to the club by someone who was supporting their mate who was DJing that night and, as a result, he joins the guestlist line. So if he was rejected, that would have been reported on. Instead, we get this gut-punch and an ending more disappointing than that of Lost, the TV show that spawned a billion haters.  

Overall, it’s still a quality product and worth a listen. Yes, Vogt’s laugh is incredibly tedious; yes, it’s full of more pomp than the King’s butler; yes, some of the reporting leads us down dead ends (read: spotting Sven-the-bouncer, urgh) but hey, there’s a lot worse out there. 

Recently Alex Goldman, PJ Vogt’s old partner at Reply All, published a newsletter which contained the following:

“When I quit Reply All, I think my only goal was to make something as different from that show. I honestly feel like it’s a hard medium to innovate in — audio storytelling requires some pretty bedrock ideas that are very hard to move away from without a show starting to sound hazy and impressionistic.”

Alex Goldman from The Cool Dude Zone

Is the timing of this statement a coincidence? Possibly. 

But even if it isn’t, it certainly is true to an extent. It’s not quite the full ticket.

If this was an episode of Reply All, I have no doubt that the score would have been a glorious 6, or near to it. However, outside the editorial gatehouse of Gimlet, it fails to reach the dizzying heights of euphoric satisfaction that one must feel – rather aptly – of getting into the Berghain. 

GF