Where the Internet Lives artwork

Where the Internet Lives

28 episodes - English - Latest episode: 9 months ago - ★★★★★ - 116 ratings

An award-winning podcast from Google about the unseen world of data centers.

Technology Society & Culture Documentary computer science data centers google internet sustainability technology
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Episodes

Machine Learning Unlocks a New Era for Music

July 12, 2023 09:00 - 24 minutes - 22 MB

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 ...

A Finnish Paper Town Becomes a Digital Hub

June 28, 2023 09:00 - 18 minutes - 16.9 MB

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 challenge...

From Despair to a Dream Job in the Trades

June 14, 2023 09:00 - 18 minutes - 17.2 MB

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-...

A Creative Water Solution for a Dutch Data Center

May 31, 2023 09:00 - 17 minutes - 15.8 MB

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 p...

The ‘Gaygler’ Fighting for Same-Sex Rights in Taiwan

May 17, 2023 09:00 - 18 minutes - 17.1 MB

Ian Yang knew he was gay at an early age. But it wasn’t until arriving at Google that he felt comfortable opening up about his sexuality – eventually lighting a spark that made him a positive force in the political discussion around LGBTQ+ rights in Taiwan. Ian is an operations engineer at Google’s data center in Changhua County, Taiwan. He ensures that management and training processes run effectively inside the facility. He is also one of the coordinators of the largest Gay Pride parade i...

From Trauma to Triumph

May 03, 2023 09:00 - 17 minutes - 16.3 MB

Note: this episode contains references to sexual assault. Please take care while listening. Data centers are the latest in a long list of big projects that Dave Moody has tackled over three decades running a construction company. But as an aspiring Black architect, he didn’t know if he’d ever have the same opportunities as his white counterparts. Racial disparities didn’t stop him. Dave started with a single $88,000 contract in the late 1980s and grew his company, CD Moody Construction, to...

Data Centers Help Fuel the Solar-Energy Boom

April 19, 2023 09:00 - 14 minutes - 12.9 MB

A solar-centric world is coming. Solar generates just over 3% of the world's electricity. By the middle of the century, it could make up nearly 40% of global electricity consumption. That growth is made possible by sophisticated manufacturing, maturing business models, and fast-dropping costs. It’s also increasingly enabled by artificial intelligence – and the data centers that power it. Samuel Adeyemo is the co-founder of Aurora Solar, a company using AI to quickly model and execute milli...

From Furniture to Fiber, a Town Changed

April 05, 2023 09:00 - 15 minutes - 14.1 MB

Lenoir, North Carolina, was once a global furniture manufacturing hub. For Rachel Scercy, the furniture industry was the center of her family life. And then the jobs vanished in the 1990s. Today, communities like Lenoir are often seen as great sites for data centers because of their strong industrial histories. In 2007, Google built a $1.2 billion data center a mile outside of Lenoir, creating over a thousand jobs to date – hundreds in construction, and hundreds of permanent jobs in operati...

Data Center on the Prairie

March 22, 2023 09:00 - 18 minutes - 16.7 MB

In Tennessee, the digital future is merging with the ecological past.  Clarksville, where Google has a data center, is home to a fragile ecosystem that has vanished across America: grasslands. What if we could use large campuses like data centers to transform land back into long-lost prairies – restoring ecological diversity and an important piece of American history? Dwayne Estes of the Southeastern Grasslands Institute is dedicating his life to making that a reality. After you listen to ...

A Preview of Season 3

March 01, 2023 10:00 - 1 minute - 939 KB

Where the Internet Lives is back for a third season.  Over the last two seasons, we’ve introduced you to the technologies and people that run data centers, unveiling a world few people get to see. This season, host Stephanie Wong explores how data centers change the world around them in surprising and transformative ways. We’ll hear stories about economic transformations, technological leaps, human rights, equity, and environmental progress – all enabled by data centers.  Subscribe to Wh...

“It Gets My Heart Beating”

January 27, 2022 10:00 - 10 minutes - 9.88 MB

Few people are ever allowed on a data center floor. Andreas van der Linden is one of those people.  Andreas is a data center technician and the maintenance lead at Google's Eemshaven data center in the Netherlands. Every day, he and his team weave through aisles of server racks, making sure all the computers are running optimally. To become an expert at fixing computers, Andreas first had to become an expert at taking them apart.  Today, Andreas leads a team that makes sure data center ma...

“The Most Important Things Are Invisible”

January 27, 2022 10:00 - 14 minutes - 13.7 MB

Each individual server stacked high inside a data center is powerful in its own right. But without a way of linking them together, they aren't much use to anyone.  It takes a vast collection of switches, cables, and software control systems to create a well-functioning global network. It is Bikash Koley’s job to connect Google’s fleet of data centers – and make that connection seamless and invisible to users. Growing up in India, Bikash first used a computer in high school. It didn’t take ...

“Scale Beyond Our Imagination”

January 27, 2022 10:00 - 13 minutes - 12 MB

Over the years, Majd Bakar has overseen several critical consumer tech advancements inside Google: Chromecast, GoogleTV, Google Nest Wifi, and the cloud gaming platform Stadia. All of them are directly linked to the growth of data centers. From the moment Majd played with his first computer as a kid growing up in Syria, he has pursued a mission of making tech intuitive and accessible. Today, Majd uses his design expertise and biomedical engineering background to focus on personal health at...

“A Big Step In Our Journey”

January 27, 2022 10:00 - 13 minutes - 12.2 MB

Storing photos, taking video calls, or streaming podcasts creates heat. To  keep servers cool, many data centers utilize water running through pipes and along server racks. Teams across Google have been working intensively for more than a decade to use water as responsibly as possible. And in September 2021, Google unveiled a comprehensive plan to replenish 120% of the water it consumes, and improve the quality of water ecosystems in the places where it operates.  Tara Varghese’s job is to...

“Holy Cow, This Is What You Are Building?”

January 27, 2022 10:00 - 11 minutes - 10.7 MB

Building a data center can be as complex as the machines inside. It requires teams of construction experts who are constantly solving football field-sized puzzles – people like Sarah Godbehere.  For Sarah, construction is a family affair. Growing up, she watched her father build schools, car washes, and office buildings.  After getting her engineering degree, Sarah realized that she wanted to work on projects with immediate and tangible outcomes. And that led her to oversee construction of...

“Challenges Are Expected”

December 09, 2021 12:02 - 14 minutes - 13.3 MB

Mamoudou “D” Diallo's life path has taken him from being a curious youngster in Guinea-Conakry, to an engineering student in Ukraine, to a technology executive in the financial industry, to his role today as a site lead for Google’s data center in New Albany, Ohio.  In that role, he addresses the staffing needs of a data center, which are as complex and diverse as the technology itself. Each facility needs the right mix of server technicians, mechanical engineers, networking experts, securi...

“I Never Thought It Would Be Possible”

December 09, 2021 12:01 - 10 minutes - 9.28 MB

A hyperscale data center can house hundreds of thousands of servers. All that digital infrastructure requires a vast and intricate set of mechanical systems to keep machines running optimally. Juliana Conroy-Hoey is a mechanical engineer for Google data centers in Europe.  She determines how to lay out the pipes and ductwork inside data centers for maximum efficiency and sustainability – the scale of which still gives her a sense of awe. Learn more about building your career at a data cen...

“We Know Who’s Here and Why”

December 09, 2021 12:01 - 13 minutes - 12 MB

People and information are two of the most valuable things inside data centers. Libby Davis helps protect both. Libby manages security at Google's data centers in Iowa. She runs a large team that monitors every movement inside the facilities – from the outer walls, to the inner sanctum where the servers sit.  Libby melded her background in law enforcement, engineering, and organizational psychology to secure one of Google’s largest pieces of computing infrastructure: a data center.  Learn...

“I Feel Like I’ve Seen It All”

December 09, 2021 12:01 - 15 minutes - 14.1 MB

Modern data centers are like small cities filled with warehouse-scale computers, bundles of cables and pipes, and colossal equipment to keep everything running.  Kenny “KP” Philpot is an environmental health and safety program manager at Google's Douglas County data center outside Atlanta.  Before running around the floors of data centers, KP was running around the football field, playing for the Detroit Lions. And before playing professional football, he learned hard lessons while growing...

“Little Pieces of a Big Puzzle”

December 09, 2021 12:01 - 13 minutes - 12.5 MB

Data centers aren't just warehouses full of computers. They also contain complex arrangements of power equipment, water treatment facilities, and cooling systems that keep computers operating smoothly around the clock.  Understanding how all these pieces fit together requires seeing the details and the big picture at the same time – something that Damian Diaz has done all his life, ever since he was a teenager fixing handheld radios in Cuba.  Damian fled Cuba to seek political asylum. His ...

Season 2: More Stories About the People Who Run the Internet

December 06, 2021 13:36 - 48 seconds - 744 KB

Where the Internet Lives is back. In our second season, host Stephanie Wong explores data centers alongside the folks who actually design, build, and operate them.  We’ll hear stories of people who’ve transformed their careers, overcome obstacles, and found inspiration working in the places where the internet lives. Subscribe to Where the Internet Lives on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get your shows.

Six: The Future

December 10, 2020 02:10 - 37 minutes - 33.9 MB

For fifty years, computer performance has improved exponentially while the cost of computing has plummeted – but this phenomenal “Moore’s Law” trend has begun to slow down. What does this mean for data centers and what lies ahead? In our final episode, we peer into the future of technology – from machine learning to quantum computing – and explore the next chapter in the story of the physical internet.

Five: What If?

December 10, 2020 02:04 - 27 minutes - 24.8 MB

 We’ll cover the mind-boggling “what-if” scenarios that security experts inside data centers prepare for — all to protect user data and keep the internet running. And we'll learn about the multi-layered systems that keep warehouse computers secure.

Four: A Quest for 24/7 Clean Energy

December 10, 2020 01:57 - 41 minutes - 37.6 MB

 In this episode, we look at the evolution of data center energy use in a world confronting the threat of climate change – and explore promising ideas that could fuel a carbon-free future.

Three: When the Data Center Came to Town

December 10, 2020 01:52 - 41 minutes - 37.8 MB

How do data centers intersect with the communities they call home? What kinds of jobs do they create and what do residents think of having a big computer in their backyard? In this episode, we hear what happens when the industrial economy meets the digital economy in rural Alabama.

Two: Inside the Walls

December 10, 2020 01:46 - 40 minutes - 37.5 MB

Data centers are some of the most secure buildings on the planet. In this episode, we invite you to step inside and take a tour with one of Google’s top engineers. As we venture into computer systems that connect the world, we meet the people who keep these warehouse-scale facilities running. Plus, a little-known story about the scrappy origins of Google’s first computers.

One: You Use Data Centers

December 10, 2020 01:31 - 30 minutes - 27.6 MB

In our first episode, we explore what data centers are – and how they keep the internet going, even when events like COVID-19 trigger historic surges in traffic.

Introducing "Where the Internet Lives"

November 20, 2020 20:43 - 1 minute - 1.06 MB

"Where the Internet Lives" is a new podcast about the unseen world of data centers.  In this series, we’ll go inside a data center and learn how the machines actually work.  We’ll hear about the early days of Google’s first data center designs — and how they set the stage for today’s hyper-scale facilities.  We’ll learn about how data centers are becoming a backbone of the clean energy economy.  And we’ll explore how quantum computing, the end of Moore’s law, and new uses of the Cloud ar...