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EXTRA: The Fascinatingly Mundane Secrets of the World’s Most Exclusive Nightclub

Freakonomics Radio

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.632K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Berlin dance mecca Berghain is known for its eight-hour line and inscrutable door policy. PJ Vogt, host of the podcast "Search Engine," joins us to crack the code. It has to do with Cold War rivalries, German tax law, and one very talented bouncer.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I'm a reporter, a writer, I try to answer questions, not unlike what you do Stephen,

0:09.4

although our questions are sometimes a bit dumber. But sometimes they're not,

0:13.4

sometimes they're smart. That is PJ Vote. He has been making podcasts for nearly as long as I have.

0:19.5

His shows are often about life on the internet and how technology changes us.

0:27.3

So your current show, search engine, despite the name, isn't a show about life online for the most part is it no the reason it's called

0:36.4

surge engine is because it's a show where it's a bit of a joke what a surge engine is

0:41.5

supposed to be is like you ask it a question and very cheaply and very quickly a machine gives you an answer that might be pretty good.

0:47.0

Where like a human-powered bespoke incredibly expensive to run a very slow search engine. It gives answers in layers and over time as

0:57.4

opposed to bang here it is. Yeah yeah oftentimes the answer is who can say.

1:03.0

But we give you like human level complicated and complex answers.

1:07.0

Today on Freck economics radio, a bonus episode with PJ Vote and Search Engine.

1:14.7

It's sort of about economics, the economics of a famous nightclub in Berlin.

1:20.3

I'd heard the basics. A decommissioned power plant turned into a multi-story nightclub. People

1:26.6

talked about this place as a kind of grimy heaven, and like traditional heaven,

1:32.0

grimy heaven was also supposedly very hard to get into.

1:36.1

One guiding principle of our show is that just about anything can be interesting if you were willing

1:41.2

to look closely enough or from the right angle. In this case, the

1:45.5

Dore policy at a Berlin nightclub is connected to municipal tax laws, the Cold War, and more.

1:54.1

But also, the Freckenomics radio crew doesn't get to go clubbing very often, like never.

2:00.5

So thanks to Search Engine and PJ Vote for letting us tag along. This is Freakonomics Radio, the podcast that explores the hidden side of everything

2:21.1

with your host Stephen Dubner.

2:25.0

So, P. J.

...

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