Where the Internet Lives
Where the Internet Lives is an award-winning podcast produced by Google, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the hidden world of data centers. It explores the technology, infrastructure, and people that keep the internet running. Listeners gain insight into the physical spaces that power online services and how these facilities are designed and operated.
Episodes
The Next Leap for Intelligence
In our season finale, Blaise Agüera y Arcas, Google’s founder of the Paradigms of Intelligence (Pi) team, offers a provocative take on what intelligence actually is, and what it could become. He predicts our collective intelligence will overcome disruptions and lead us to greater freedoms and possibilities, and a greater quality of life. And that ever-expanding, ever-wiser intelligence carries rem
New Frontiers in Farming
In an era of climate instability, two innovators are using AI to reimagine agriculture from the soil up.
Anastasia Volkova, CEO of Regrow Ag, traces her path from a family farm in Ukraine to building technology that helps farmers worldwide adopt regenerative practices. We also meet Brad Zamft, CEO of Heritable Agriculture, an Alphabet Moonshot project using advanced AI models to decode plant gene
The AI-Energy Nexus
As AI models become more powerful, their appetite for energy is soaring — creating a high-stakes tension between technological progress and sustainability.
In this episode, Lucia Tian, Google’s Head of Clean Energy & Decarbonization Technologies, helps us navigate the race to secure the carbon-free power that will fuel the next generation of intelligence.
We explore Google’s innovative approach t
Coding the Future
While educators continue to debate AI’s role in the classroom, one nonprofit is showing just how powerful this technology can be in the hands of young women around the world. Tara Chklovski, CEO of Technovation, shares her journey from growing up in India to leading a global movement that has empowered girls in more than 100 countries to build AI-enhanced apps that solve real problems in their com
Leaps in Logistics
Warehouses have long been “black boxes” where inventory disappears and logistics break down. But autonomous robots are finally illuminating the shadows. Oana Jinga, co-founder of Dexory, tells us how her company’s towering robots map warehouses in real time, transforming supply chain visibility and decision-making.We travel to a Google data center in the Netherlands to see these machines working t
Anatomy of a Modern Data Center
Behind the scenes of the intelligence revolution, data centers are working nonstop to turn ambitious, world-changing AI ideas into real solutions. In this episode, Google’s Partha Ranganathan — one of the architects of modern data center design — takes us inside the infrastructure breakthroughs that power everything from scientific milestones like AlphaFold to everyday tools like Gemini.We trace h
Reimagining Manufacturing
Manufacturing has traditionally been defined by rigid assembly lines. But Alphabet’s moonshot spinoff Intrinsic is demonstrating how factories built around flexible, intelligent robotics can rewrite that playbook and democratize advanced manufacturing for everyone.In this episode, CEO Wendy Tan White explains how Intrinsic’s software makes industrial robots far more accessible, enabling small and
Supercharging Creativity
The collision of AI and artistry has ignited intense debate about the future of creative work, the value of originality, and what it means to make something truly human. In this episode, Mira Lane, Google’s VP of Technology and Society, joins musician and filmmaker Will Hatcher (aka King Willonious) — the creator of what many consider the world’s first AI-generated hit song — to explore this rapid
Mapping New Medicines
Traditional drug discovery is a gamble where 90% of trials fail. But Recursion CEO Chris Gibson is using AI to shift the odds in humanity's favor. In this episode, Gibson explains how his Salt Lake City-based company combines massive wet-lab experiments with one of the world's most powerful supercomputers to create a "Google Maps" of human biology. We explore how this hybrid approach is decoding c
The Era of AI Innovation
AI’s meteoric rise can feel unprecedented, but it follows a familiar story. Just as the steam engine and electric motor rewired entire economies in the 1800s, today’s AI boom is setting off another society-wide transformation.In this episode, MIT professor and author Andrew McAfee draws the throughline from those earlier industrial revolutions to the one unfolding now. He explains how past breakth
Season 5: the dawn of a new era
Artificial intelligence is reshaping every corner of the global economy — and none of it is possible without the invisible infrastructure powering it: data centers.In Season 5 of Where the Internet Lives, host Stephanie Wong returns to guide listeners through the places, people, and breakthroughs defining this new era. From drug discovery and food security to manufacturing and creative expression,
Chasing Arrows
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 help
Invisible Threats
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
Growing a Better Food System
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
Keeping the Lights On
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 c
Data on Fire
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 pro
A Preview of Season 4: Resilience
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
Machine Learning Unlocks a New Era for Music
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 crea
A Finnish Paper Town Becomes a Digital Hub
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.
From Despair to a Dream Job in the Trades
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 gav
A Creative Water Solution for a Dutch Data Center
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 ma
The ‘Gaygler’ Fighting for Same-Sex Rights in Taiwan
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 effecti
From Trauma to Triumph
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
Data Centers Help Fuel the Solar-Energy Boom
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 Adey
From Furniture to Fiber, a Town Changed
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
Data Center on the Prairie
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 Southeaste
A Preview of Season 3
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 r
“The Most Important Things Are Invisible”
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 invisibl
“Scale Beyond Our Imagination”
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 us
“It Gets My Heart Beating”
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
“Holy Cow, This Is What You Are Building?”
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 o
“A Big Step In Our Journey”
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 improv
“Challenges Are Expected”
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 facili
“I Never Thought It Would Be Possible”
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 o
“We Know Who’s Here and Why”
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
“I Feel Like I’ve Seen It All”
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 De
“Little Pieces of a Big Puzzle”
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 wa
Season 2: More Stories About the People Who Run the Internet
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
Six: The Future
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 inte
Five: What If?
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
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
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
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
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"
"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 w
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