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Throughline December 30, 2021 40m

The Electrical Grid (2020)

NPR

Summary

This episode of History Rhymes explores the fragility of our electrical grid, using the 2003 Northeast blackout as a case study. It highlights how minor issues like overgrown trees and software bugs, combined with a lack of communication and an interconnected system, led to cascading failures impacting millions. The takeaway is that understanding past grid failures is crucial to protecting our increasingly fragile energy infrastructure for the future.

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