meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Today, Explained

The data center war

Today, Explained

Vox

Politics, Daily News, News

4.310.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2026

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

There’s a growing disconnect between a local community that says it’s being treated as the "guinea pigs" in a new industrial revolution, and Washington politicians. This show was edited by Kasia Broussalian, fact checked by Esther Gim, mixed by Shannon Mahoney, video edited by Christopher Snyder and Shelby Smith, and hosted by Astead Herndon. A massive new data center in Vineland, New Jersey. Photo by Alex Peterson. You can also watch this episode on youtube.com/vox. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Okay, so today we're driving to Southern New Jersey.

0:06.0

I'm heading to a data center.

0:08.0

Convertible? Are we sure?

0:10.0

It's hot enough for that?

0:12.0

My man, that's a little aggressive, King.

0:16.0

Okay, so a couple weeks ago, I read a story in NJ.com.

0:20.0

And it was all about how there's a data

0:22.4

center going up in Cumberland County, the poorest county in New Jersey, that's receiving

0:27.2

some community pushback.

0:28.8

And this immediately got my attention because data centers are going up all across the country

0:34.1

and it feels like an issue more people should be talking about.

0:37.0

According to one stand I saw,

0:38.3

there's more than 4,000 data centers already across America and more than 2,000 that have been

0:44.0

announced or are already under construction. That's kind of crazy. I feel like we should be hearing

0:49.8

politicians talk more about this, but we haven't really heard a consensus. One member of Congress

0:55.6

told me that he wants to see a moratorium on data centers. But a senator told me recently that

1:00.9

he thinks they're a necessary evil as things like AI become a bigger part of our economy and our

1:07.0

society. So that led me to think, let's do some journalism ourselves and figure out what

1:11.8

people actually think. Are data centers really a necessary evil? Let's find out.

1:21.3

Recommendations can be great. Maybe someone recommended this podcast podcast and here you are but home projects

1:32.0

are a little different if the podcast isn't your thing you might lose a few minutes from your day

1:37.3

but if you hire your cousin's neighbor to mount your tv you might end up with a lopsided screen

...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 10 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Vox, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Vox and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.