# 44. The Grid (w/ Molly Taft)

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/disintegrator-6686019/44-the-grid-w-molly-taft
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/disintegrator-6686019/44-the-grid-w-molly-taft.md
Podcast: [Disintegrator](https://stenobird.com/podcast/disintegrator-6686019)
Published: 2026-04-08T13:28:43+00:00
Episode link: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/44-the-grid-w-molly-taft--71183091
Audio file: https://api.spreaker.com/download/episode/71183091/taft.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/disintegrator-6686019/episodes/44-the-grid-w-molly-taft
Duration seconds: 3598

## Resource

Molly Taft, Senior Writer at Wired, joins us to talk datacenters, AI, US power infrastructure, and big energy. You've almost definitely read her work, especially if you live in the US. This episode absolutely ROCKS and is maybe the most grounded and realistic assessment of the role that all of those above forces play together in our social and political moment. A couple really relevant pieces, including some very very recent pieces. https://www.wired.com/story/a-new-google-funded-data-center-will-be-powered-by-a-massive-gas-plant/ https://www.wired.com/story/senators-demand-to-know-how-much-energy-data-centers-use/ https://www.wired.com/story/new-bernie-sanders-ai-safety-bill-would-halt-data-center-construction/ https://www.wired.com/story/karen-hao-empire-of-ai-water-use-statistics/ https://www.wired.com/story/data-centers-are-driving-a-us-gas-boom/ https://www.wired.com/story/trump-energy-industry-ai-fossil-fuels-pittsburgh-summit/ https://www.wired.com/story/ai-carbon-emissions-energy-unknown-mystery-research/ Seriously, like, this is the only person I've found to be consistently trustworthy with respect to the intersection of energy reporting and tech. Follow her on X: https://x.com/mollytaft. She also reccomends a few other pieces that we touch on a little bit: Tina Nguyen's recent piece on the Pro-Human Declaration (right-wing populism X AI backlash) https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/888841/pro-human-ai-declaration-fli Gaby del Valle on the forefront of environmentalism and the right: https://harpers.org/archive/2026/04/state-of-nature-gaby-del-valle-acc-conservative-environmentalism/ Anti-renewable energy protests and anti-data center movements: https://heatmap.news/plus/the-fight/spotlight/data-centers-renewables-opposition

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/disintegrator-6686019/episodes/44-the-grid-w-molly-taft/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/disintegrator-6686019/44-the-grid-w-molly-taft.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.