The Line Life Podcast

T&D World's Faces of the Future department highlights up-and-comers in the line trade. For this week's episode, we are highlighting Vincent Napolitano, an apprentice for Ameren Illinois and a competitor at the International Lineman's Rodeo. During his apprenticeship, he is learning new things every day and also helping others who are just starting in the line trade. He trains both in the classroom and the field and works out of...

For our latest episode in our ICYMI series for the Line Life Podcast, we are airing the audio story, "Investigating Power Line RFI," from the May 2025 field-focused Electric Utility Operations section in the T&D World print magazine.  In this article, Jon Backman, a journeyman lineworker with 20 years of experience in the line trade, shares strategies on how lineworkers can find and eliminate the noise. Because power companies ...

Ryan Lucas, who was born in British Columbia, Canada, grew up around the line trade and spent 15 years in the field, five years in management and then instructed line school students. During his career, he worked in remote, urban environments and also specialized in helicopter and barehand work. In March 2019, he launched the Powerline Podcast as a way to share stories about the line trade. During our podcast interview at the 2024 ...

For this Line Life Podcast episode in our ICYMI series, we are featuring the narrated version of the article, "Three Focus Areas to Build a Safer Network," by Jason Marsh, damage prevention supervisor for New York State Electric & Gas Corp (NYSEG) and Rochester Gas & Electric Corp. (RG&E). This story, which was originally published in the March print issue of T&D World magazine, shares strategies from NYSEG and RG&a...

Happy National Lineman Appreciation Day to all our Line Life Podcast listeners! To celebrate all the hard-working lineworkers out there, we are releasing a special episode today focused on Arthur William Muñoz, a journeyman lineworker for Salt River Project (SRP) in Arizona. He has been in the trade for 23 years and progressed from a trades helper to a lead lineman and working foreman to a section supervisor.

During this episode, A...

T&D World, which produces the Line Life Podcast, just launched a brand new podcast--the T&D World Podcast--to focus on the rest of the audience served by the magazine. Because one of the recent episodes is about line work, we are excited to share it with our Line Life Podcast listeners. This bonus episode features an interview between Christina Marsh, senior editor of T&D World magazine, and Alan Drew, a technical consu...

Transformer trips are a common problem, but the solution is sometimes not immediately obvious. This audio story, narrated from the April 2025 cover story of T&D World's print magazine, shares three stories from the field from Mose Ramieh of CBS Field Services. These examples illustrate that regardless of the complexity of the situation and system, it is often the simplest of solutions that is the hardest to find. Listen to the ...

To continue to provide resilient, safe and reliable power to its 1.4 million customers on the island, LUMA Energy has trained specialized lineworkers in Human External Cargo (HEC) work methods. This allows the trained lineworkers to access infrastructure in mountainous terrain, and the utility to place materials near work sites on the island.

At the heart of this program is José  Luis Campos Figueroa, director of aviation operation...

T&D World has shared stories of construction projects and best practices for decades to help its readers and subscribers to discover innovative work methods and technologies. For the cover story of the February 2025 print magazine, we featured the article, "Dominion Powers Through Tough Terrain."

A narrated version of the article is now part of our ICYMI series on the Line Life Podcast platform. The audio story shares how the u...

T&D Talk is a special series on the T&D World Line Life podcast channel. For each episode, companies can share their stories about how they are supporting the electric utility industry. Through their tools, technologies, products and services, they are helping lineworkers and fieldworkers improve their productivity and safety. 

For Part 1 of our new three-part series sponsored by Southwire, we are featuring the episode, “Em...

This Line Life Podcast episode highlights the 25-year career of Jon Backman, an IBEW journeyman lineworker, troubleman for Puget Sound Energy and founder of Making Connections, LLC. The graduate of Northwest Lineman College started in the line trade in the utility line clearance program before joining an apprenticeship program at a municipality in Washington State. When he topped out as a journeyman, he worked as a lineworker for a...

Our latest episode in our In Case You Missed It (ICYMI) series takes us to New York, where the New York Power Authority (NYPA) is streamlining its maintenance program with AI technology to detect anomalies and prioritize tasks in the field. 

This article, which was originally published in the March 2025 issue of T&D World magazine, explores how the utility is using drones and cameras to capture visual data, which is then analyz...

For Part 8 of our Faces of the Future podcast series, we are highlighting Luis Gutierrez, an underground apprentice for ComEd in Chicago. During the episode, Luis describes what it's like to work in manholes as part of the underground crew, how he is learning new skills at ComEd's underground training center and what he sees in the future for the line trade. He also shares his safety strategies while working underground and tips fo...

Tree crews and lineworkers often work side by side, especially following storms. This T&D World Line Life Podcast episode explores the impact of artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) on utility vegetation management and the electric utility industry.

Guests include Phil Swart of Clearway Industries; Jason Grossman, manager of vegetation management for Liberty Utilities and Lawrence Kahn, ...

Brian Lozano, a journeyman lineworker for Midwest Energy, shares his story of working on the line in Hays, Kansas. The 28-year-old father of two started working for a contractor in Colorado in 2016, and six years later, he moved to central Kansas to work for Midwest Energy.

In his service territory, he responds to wind and tornadoes, but he has also provided mutual aid when he worked for a contractor. He says it's rewarding to help...

This episode of the Line Life Podcast takes us to Nebraska, where Brittany Grammer is studying to become a lineworker at Northeast Community College. Todd Pfeil, an instructor of the Utility Line Courses and an alumnus from the program, shares the story of the 36-year-old mother of four and the only woman in her class of 48 future utility lineworkers. The episode, which is part of our ICYMI series, is narrated from Todd's story, "T...

For Part 7 of our Faces of the Future series for the Line Life Podcast, we are featuring Bryce Zahn, an apprentice lineworker for Capital Electric Line Builders. For this episode, he shares his story about restoring power following Hurricane Helene and spending two weeks in North Carolina helping Duke Energy get the lights back on following flooding and mudslides. Bryce describes what it was like to stay in a man camp in a semi wit...

Lineworkers and their loved ones came from all over the world to celebrate the line trade at the 40th anniversary of the International Lineman's Rodeo. While the competition is always the Super Bowl of the line trade, participants can enjoy several days of camaraderie and networking before the competition even begins on the Rodeo grounds.

Every December, T&D World celebrates this event not only online and in social media, but a...

As we continue airing new Faces of the Future podcast episodes in 2025, we are kicking off the New Year with an episode highlighting Lexie Bryant, apprentice lineworker for Omaha Public Power District (OPPD). Five years ago, she won the International Lineman's Rodeo Association's Jim Hamilton Scholarship, which was sponsored by Pacific Gas & Electric.

Today, she works as an apprentice lineworker for OPPD, and she is learning th...