What if the electric age began... and ended the same night?

On September 4th, 1882, Thomas Edison’s Pearl Street Station lit up Manhattan—and ushered in the modern world. But in this timeline, a midnight fire consumes the station, kills Edison, and plunges New York back into darkness. As trust in direct current collapses, the path of electrification shifts, reshaping the fates of Tesla, Westinghouse, and the families caught in the current.

Told through diary entries, news clippings, and the voices of a grieving machinist’s family, this episode traces the five-year aftermath of a single missed spark. Progress is not halted—but rerouted.

Not This Time is a documentary podcast uncovering the history of other timelines—real, lived-in worlds where small changes reshaped everything.