# Communism = Soviets + Electrification: The Electric Grid Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/cosmopod-533620/communism-soviets-electrification-the-electric-grid Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/cosmopod-533620/communism-soviets-electrification-the-electric-grid.md Podcast: [Cosmopod](https://stenobird.com/podcast/cosmopod-533620) Published: 2026-04-09T12:02:00+00:00 Episode link: https://cosmopod.libsyn.com/communism-soviets-electrification-the-electric-grid Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/cosmopod/energy.mp3?dest-id=1365587 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/cosmopod-533620/episodes/communism-soviets-electrification-the-electric-grid Duration seconds: 5807 ## Resource Matt and Rudy join RK to discuss several facets of the electric grid. We talk about the USSR's and China's attempts at electrification, how a modern grid looks like, the current US grid and its governing authorities, and a discussion on possible futures for electricity. References: RK's thoughts con rural cooperatives: https://jnanayuddha.wordpress.com/2022/08/16/reflections-on-rural-electric-cooperatives-and-socialist-organizing/ Matt T. Huber & Fred Stafford's articles: Socialist Politics and the Electricity Grid, The Utility of Utilities and Won't Somebody Please Think of the Grid? Further recommendations, National: The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future by Gretchen Bakke, 2016 Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States by Leah Stokes, 2020 California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas & Electric, and What It Means for America's Power Grid by Katherine Blunt, 2022 The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet by Brett Christophers, 2024 International: The Low-Carbon Contradiction: Energy Transition, Geopolitics, and the Infrastructural State in Cuba by Gustav Cederlof, 2023 Recharging China in War and Revolution, 1882-1955 by Ying Jia Tan, 2021 Sinews of Power: The Politics of the State Grid Corporation of China by Yi-chong Xu, 2017 Electrifying India: Regional Political Economies of Development by Sunila S. Kale, 2014 The Electrification of Russia, 1880-1926 by Jonathan Coopersmith, 1992 Electrical Palestine: Capitalism and Technology From Empire to Nation by Fredrik Meiton, 2019 ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/cosmopod-533620/episodes/communism-soviets-electrification-the-electric-grid/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/cosmopod-533620/communism-soviets-electrification-the-electric-grid.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.