The Electrical Grid (2020)

Throughline

NPR

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.7 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2021

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today, electricity in the U.S. is a utility we notice only when it's suddenly unavailable. But over a hundred years ago, electricity in the homes of every American was a wild idea and the subject of a bitter fight over who would power, and profit from, the national grid. This week, the battle that electrified our world and the extreme measures that were taken to get there.

Transcript

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0:36.0	You do that and we'll get going with today's show.
0:39.0	Thank you.
0:41.0	Hey everyone, welcome to the second episode of our History Rime series where we're bringing you episodes that speak to moments in the past that resonate with where we are today.
0:51.0	The weather in 2021 was historic. There were destructive tornadoes in the Midwest and the South.
0:57.0	An unprecedented heat wave in the Pacific Northwest severe wildfires out in California and Montana.
1:03.0	Back to back hurricanes in the Northeast and the Texas snowstorm that caused the power outage in the entire state.
1:10.0	Extreme weather puts extreme pressure on the infrastructure that we rely on every day, often without even knowing it's there.
1:18.0	Like the massive electrical grid system that powers our homes, our hospitals, and our economy.
1:24.0	But in order to understand how to protect it for the future, we have to go back to the beginning to before the lights came on.
1:32.0	So for the second episode of our series, the grid, enjoy.
1:37.0	We are surrounded by thousands upon thousands upon millions of electrical wires that are transmitting electricity nearly everywhere.
1:52.0	Most of the time we hardly notice them.
1:55.0	But sometimes when it's hot, the electrical line actually sags downward.
2:02.0	So if you get the conditions right, if there's a tree that sort of bends over in the wind,
2:08.0	the tree can touch the electrical line and there can be this moment at which the electricity in the line kind of goes wild.
2:16.0	And then the line goes out.
	...

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