Where the Internet Lives

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 genetics and shrink crop-breeding timel...

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 to this challenge, from pioneering p...

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 communities.

We also meet Aarvi Khandel...

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 to help manage the constant flow of ...

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 how data centers evolved from basic ...

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 medium-sized businesses to adopt au...

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 rapidly evolving landscape.

They unpack h...

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 complex biological relationships to ...

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 breakthroughs reshaped manufacturing, reor...

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, AI is accelerating innovation at a...

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, textil...

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 ...

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 critic...

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 – ...

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. 

...

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 buildi...

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...

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...

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 s...