Hey, it's Stephen. I have a real treat for you this week. For the last few months, we

have been working with the team at Columbia University on a new podcast called The Big

Switch. It's hosted by Dr. Melissa Lot, research director at the Columbia University Center

on Global Energy Policy. You have heard her voice. She's been a guest a couple of times

on the Energy Gang. She is one of my absolute favorite people in this field, and I think

you're really going to like her show. The Big Switch is a series about the benefits and

trade-offs of building the zero-carbon energy system. In our first season, which is

five episodes, we're looking specifically at the grid, the backbone of the zero-carbon

economy. We're going to tell stories, use metaphors, bring in Melissa's analysis, all to

walk listeners step-by-step through the energy transition. So right now, we're going to

play the first episode of The Big Switch. Give it a listen and subscribe to the podcast

on Apple, Spotify, or any place you get your shows. Again, it's called The Big Switch.

And now, here's episode 1. I don't want to say we were anticipating the worst-case scenario,

but we kind of were because we had come off of covering the blackouts in California.

This is Katherine Treywick. She's an editor at Bloomberg, covering energy and climate

change. And in August of 2020, she and her team have covered the heat wave that suffocated

the Western United States, forcing power plants to shut down and causing unexpected black

outs in California. Fast forward, and in February 2021, Katherine and her team started tracking

a massive winter storm spreading across the U.S. from the Dakota's down to Louisiana. Her

focus was mostly on Texas, but the state's grid was about to be placed under tremendous

pressure. So we already knew very recently how extreme weather could tax the grid in

really unexpected and unprecedented ways. As snow and freezing temperatures rolled in,

...