# The Final Obstacle to (Nearly) Infinite Energy Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/pbs-space-time-7778773/the-final-obstacle-to-nearly-infinite-energy Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/pbs-space-time-7778773/the-final-obstacle-to-nearly-infinite-energy.md Podcast: [PBS Space Time](https://stenobird.com/podcast/pbs-space-time-7778773) Published: 2026-07-22T06:30:00+00:00 Episode link: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VG9269082304.mp3?updated=1778672766 Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VG9269082304.mp3?updated=1778672766 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/pbs-space-time-7778773/episodes/the-final-obstacle-to-nearly-infinite-energy Duration seconds: 1758 ## Resource Thanks to Radiacode for sponsoring this video. Use the promo code "PBS" to get an exclusive 10% discount at: https://103.radiacode.com/PBS They say fusion is 50 years away, no matter when you ask. Then why are billions suddenly being pumped into fusion startups? Yes to train LLMs, but there's a reason the technobrats are bullish on fusion in particular. The fact is, the technological challenges have been chipped away and in many cases solved over the past decades, and there's really no one deal-breaker difficulty remaining. One of the final challenges is deciding on the physical vessel to contain our mini artificial stars--and we have some pretty sci-fi options that are nearly ready to go. PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Check out the Space Time Merch Store https://www.pbsspacetime.com/shop Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements! https://mailchi.mp/1a6eb8f2717d/spacetime Search the Entire Space Time Library Here: https://search.pbsspacetime.com/ Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Written by Matt Caplan, Jake Mitstifer, & Matt O'Dowd Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini & Stephanie Faria Directed by Andrew Kornhaber Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour Executive Producer: Andrew Kornhaber Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell Spacetime is a production of Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios. This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content. © 2024 PBS. All rights reserved. End Credits Music by… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/pbs-space-time-7778773/episodes/the-final-obstacle-to-nearly-infinite-energy/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/pbs-space-time-7778773/the-final-obstacle-to-nearly-infinite-energy.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.