What We Ask Google

A Surprisingly Hopeful History of Humankind

By: Simon Rogers

Narrated by: Simon Rogers

Ever wondered what goes through other people’s minds—their silly questions, their inner anxieties, hopes, and dreams?

In What We Ask Google, Simon Rogers explores insights from the world’s biggest dataset: an epic snapshot, two decades long and counting, of our collective brain. What it reveals about us might surprise you.

Every June, for instance, the world sees a spike in searches for “How to help a bee.” Reassuringly, people consistently want to know, “Where to donate blood?” after natural disasters. And despite superficial differences (such as the deeply divided world map of cat people vs. dog people), humanity has a lot more in common than we often acknowledge. After all, everywhere around the world, it’s two a.m. when parents want to know how to get their baby to sleep.

Brimming with insights that vary from the playful to the profound, What We Ask Google delves into the momentous and the mundane secrets of what we ask when we get the chance to ask anything, offering a surprisingly hopeful picture of humankind.

Critic reviews

"A revealing look at how the questions we ask speak to who we are." —Kirkus

"This view from the other side of the search box is both charming and insightful, tapping into a deep well of curiosity." —Tim Harford, bestselling author of The Undercover Economist and The Data Detective

"What We Ask Google is a deeply human window into our shared curiosity, and the future it is already creating. By analyzing billions of the searches, Rogers reveals how those patterns—when seen at scale—offer a rare, data-driven understanding of who we are and how societies respond to uncertainty. This is the most honest portrait of humanity you’ll ever read." —Amy Webb, author of The Signals Are Talking and The Big Nine