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Oct 2025
50m 47s

The Internet Under the Sea

NPR
About this episode
What powers the global internet? The answer might surprise you: not satellites, but hundreds of thin cables that run along the ocean floor. They’re an absolutely essential technology that’s also incredibly fragile — so fragile that in the beginning, most people thought they couldn't possibly work. Today on the show: the story of a man who did think they could work… and the lengths he went to to try and connect the world.

Guests:

Bill Burns, former BBC broadcast engineer and founder of atlantic-cable.com 

Cyrus Field IV, great-great-grandson of Cyrus Field

Allison Marsh, professor at the University of South Carolina and historian of technology 

Ben Roberts, strategic advisor on Subsea Cable Economics for Connectivity at UNICEF who has been building cable network in Africa for the past two decades

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