Where the Internet Lives

Plastics production has doubled in the last two decades, clogging up our oceans and showing up in our organs. The massive growth in plastics production is also increasing CO2 output and driving up fossil fuel demand. 

Meanwhile, only 8% of plastic actually gets recycled, challenging our trust in the waste management system.

But a new set of tools driven by AI, robotics, and material science are helping recycle plastics, steel, textiles, and just about everything else. And a new generation of entrepreneurs, scientists, and engineers are devoting themselves to launching those tools.

In this episode, we examine technology advances that are helping recyclers convert hard-to-recycle waste into a valuable feedstock – and what it means for building a circular economy with a singular goal of radically reducing global waste.

Guests:

• Kate Brandt, chief sustainability officer at Google
• Astro Teller, captain of moonshots, at X, the moonshot factory
• Rey Banatao, project lead at X, the moonshot factory
• Julia Mangin, head of sustainability, Recology
• Emma Lingle, project manager at X, the moonshot factory 

Watch our complementary documentary about how scientists and entrepreneurs at X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory, are inventing tools driven by AI, robotics, and material science to recycle plastics, steel, textiles, and just about everything else. It's all part of their vision to build a circular economy that will radically reduce global waste.

Last March, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket into space from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It carried more than 40 payloads on board, including a satellite called MethaneSAT, which was designed to track methane emissions around the globe. 

Cutting methane emissions is a critical step toward reducing the rise of global temperatures that climate change is spreading to communities.

In this episode, we have two stories about how data centers – and the AI they enable – are helping to mitigate the invisible threats of heat and air pollution around the world, particularly for vulnerable populations.

From satellites to tree canopies, we ask how AI can help protect human health, reduce air pollution, and temper the urban heat island effect in our cities.

Guests: 

• Mansi Kansal, Cool Roofs product manager at Google
• Dr. Monica Bharel, clinical lead for public sector health at Google
• Karin Tuxen-Bettman, Google Earth outreach manager
• Millie Chu Baird, VP, Office of Chief Scientist, Environmental Defense Fund
• Fatima Luna, chief resilience officer, City of Tucson

Watch our complementary documentary about how Google’s data centers are helping make the invisible threats of air pollution and methane emissions visible.

Dwane Roth is a fourth-generation farmer growing corn, wheat, sorghum, and sunflower in southwestern Kansas. Back in 2016, the state of Kansas launched a three-year pilot designed to test the latest water conservation technologies on three working farms. Dwane’s farm was one of them. 

Seeing the benefits, Dwane became an outspoken advocate for high-tech approaches to water conservation – approaches that could help restore the critical Ogallala Aquifer running underneath most of western Kansas. 

In this episode, we ask how data-driven predictive tools are helping farmers use less water and improve yields. Plus, we look at how data and AI are getting excess food to those who need it most. And we confront the paradox of hunger and food waste existing at the same time, in the same places. 

Guests: 

• Emily Ma, head of special projects in REWS sustainability at Google
• Prem Ramaswami, head of Data Commons at Google
• Stephanie Zidek, vice president of data and analytics, Feeding America
• Dwane Roth, farmer and water conservation advocate in Kansas
• Astro Teller, captain of moonshots at X, the moonshot factory

Watch our complementary documentary about how data and AI are getting excess food to those who need it most, and the paradox of hunger and food waste existing at the same time, in the same places.

In January 2024, winter storm Gerri swept across the Midwest, bringing subzero temperatures with it. In Omaha, Nebraska, just as everyone was turning up the heat, the city’s four thermal power plants went offline. 

Tim McAreavey is the VP of Customer Service at Omaha Public Power District. As the freeze gripped Nebraska, Tim and his team began an all-out effort to enlist the help of their biggest customers to reduce energy demand – including a Google data center.

In this episode, we have three stories about how data centers are helping decarbonize the energy system – and how to manage the growing energy needs of AI. Plus we learn about Tapestry's mission to make everything on the grid visible by using data science and AI to plan, predict, and monitor assets across the network.

And we ask how data centers and the tools they enable are helping communities accelerate clean energy while making the electric grid more resilient, literally keeping the lights on for homeowners, businesses, schools, and hospitals.

Guests:

• Page Crahan, Tapestry team lead at X, the moonshot factory
• Savannah Goodman, data and software climate solutions lead at Google
• Urs Hölze, Google fellow and former senior VP for engineering at Google
• Alexina Jackson, vice president of strategic development, AES
• Tim McAreavey, vice president of customer service, Omaha Public Power District
• Astro Teller, captain of moonshots at X, the moonshot factory

Watch our complementary documentary about how AI-assisted tools like Alphabet’s Tapestry are helping accelerate clean energy while making the electric grid more resilient—literally keeping the lights on for homeowners, businesses, schools, and hospitals.

According to NASA, nearly two-thirds of all Western wildfires recorded over the past 75 years occurred in just the last two decades. 

Firefighters and fire researchers are seeing this trend first hand. As wildfires grow more destructive and more unpredictable, fire experts need better ways to account for extreme variability.

Now, major advances in AI are helping to predict wildfire behavior, and protect communities across the globe. 

In this episode, we examine how data centers enable researchers, policymakers, and NGOs to mitigate climate threats like forest fires, reduce emissions, and enable a wide range of decarbonization solutions.

Guests: 

• Kate Brandt, chief sustainability officer at Google
• Olivia Gagliardi, smokejumper, Missoula, Mont.
• Matt Hancher, director of engineering, Geo for Environment team at Google
• LaWen Hollingsworth, fire behavior specialist, Fire Modeling Institute
• Kit O'Connor, research ecologist, U.S. Forest Service
• Prem Ramaswami, head of Data Commons at Google
• Jorge Rivera, director of data, ONE Campaign

Watch our complementary documentary on how AI is helping researchers predict and respond to fires more effectively.

Where the Internet Lives is back for a fourth season. 

In past episodes, we’ve taken you on tours of data centers, talked to people who run the supercomputers that make up the internet, and showed you a world few people get to see.

This season, host Stephanie Wong explores how data center infrastructure is critical for making the world a more resilient place.

Over the next five episodes, you'll hear stories about people who are building data-driven solutions for some of the world’s biggest challenges – from the U.S. Forest Service using AI to better predict wildfires, to utilities using AI to improve grid resiliency. 

As communities all over the world grapple with extreme weather, rising energy demand, food insecurity, and public health threats, the role of data centers is more important than ever for supporting solutions.

Subscribe to Where the Internet Lives on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get your shows. 

And this season, we’ll have some film documentaries to complement our audio stories. The new season drops October 9. We can’t wait to welcome you back.

Hanoi Hantrakul is a musician and research scientist who works on audio and artificial intelligence. He is a former AI resident at Google working on creative applications of machine learning for music. His musical nom de plume is "Yaboi Hanoi."

Project Magenta is a research group inside Google that started with a simple question: Can we use machine learning to create compelling art and enhance creative expression?

As an AI expert and musician, Hanoi has worked on many different tools that expand the possibilities of musical composition. And thanks to the underlying technical innovations inside data centers, these tools are getting much better – opening the doors for musicians and non-musicians alike.

Hanoi also won an international AI song contest with his composition titled “Enter Demons and Gods,” which mashed together AI instruments with musical influences from Southeast Asia.

Listen to a full version of Hanoi's music, plus other AI song contest entries. Find out more information about Google's Project Magenta.

Mikko Green is an operations manager at Google's data center in Hamina, Finland. In 2012, when Mikko applied to work at the facility, he was excited about the prospect of moving back to the country where his mother was born.

Over the years, Mikko has witnessed Finland's broader economic shift toward digital tech, which is now a top industry in the country. 

Finland is a top global producer of paper. But every year, paper demand falls – putting pressure on the industry. Faced with challenges in the pulp and paper industry, Finland is pursuing new forms of economic development. Data centers are one opportunity. 

For over a decade, Google has been operating a data center in Hamina, Finland, at an abandoned paper mill. The company has invested €2 billion in the Hamina data center and related network infrastructure – and hired workers who were formerly employed in paper production.

Learn more about Google's investments in communities like Hamina.

Sarah Hess is one of a million union workers in the U.S. construction industry. But she’s a rare woman in the field. About 90% of the construction workforce is male – a number that hasn't changed much over the past three decades.

Oregon Tradeswomen is an organization devoted to helping women like Sarah build careers in construction, manufacturing, mechanical, and utility trades. In 2022, Google gave $150,000 to the organization to support diversifying these industries. It's part of a multi-state effort at Google to support programs that elevate tradeswomen – some of whom will eventually build data centers.

Sarah has faced many obstacles in her life: homelessness, drug addiction, and a life-threatening tumor. Her new career in the construction trade has helped her overcome many of those difficulties. 

Learn more about the Oregon Tradeswomen program.

The Netherlands has a unique relationship with water. One-third of the country lies below sea level, and almost 20% of the mainland is water – largely due to the 6,000 kilometers of waterways that support industry and recreation.

Pumping and diverting and blocking water is what made the Netherlands possible, turning it into a vital European trading hub and top agricultural exporter. But now, the masters of controlling water are facing a new challenge: worsening drought.

That’s why Google partnered with North Water, a Dutch water treatment company, to harness water from a network of canals to cool its data center. 

The €‎45-million project featured construction of a pipeline that can carry 10 million cubic meters of water each year to the data center. It also required a new treatment plant to treat and filter the water. The project illustrates the creative, sustainable methods for cooling data centers that Google is deploying around the world.

Learn more about Google’s partnership with North Water and Google’s water sustainability commitments. After you listen to the episode, watch a short documentary film about the project here.