Data Centers: The Hidden Backbone of Our Modern World

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About this episode

Welcome to the third episode of the Stepchange Show —where we explore the technologies and systems that have transformed human civilization. Every time you stream a movie, send a text message, scroll a feed, or chat with your favorite AI, you’re touching an invisible, physical empire. We call it the cloud, but it isn’t in the sky. It is astonishingly physical—alive in over 12,000 buildings around the world, consuming almost five percent of U.S. electricity, and running through cables laid across the ocean floor. This is the story of data centers. From the humming punch-card rooms of the 1930s to the Cold War projects that accidentally birthed the internet, and onward to the gigawatt-scale…