I was formatting my query poorly >:o
specifically, I was too clever by formatting my query like it appears in the URL of the response (ie: replacing spaces with +'s)
Also, the token was working the whole time, I think I was getting the error because I was attempting to access the search results by clicking the "href" in the response, and in doing was I was hitting the endpoint without providing the right header, which caused me to get the 401 error in my browser.
Yea I did, it wasn't my intention when I made the post but I basically got the rubber duck experience. I've edited the title.