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The Power Grid: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Name: The Power Grid: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Description: John Oliver's Last Week Tonight segment on the state of the US power grid, why it needs fixing, and the risks of aging infrastructure.

LastWeekTonight

68 videos recommended on HN

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1 HN user recommended this commentary1 month2021–2025 score 1

Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Recommended as an entertaining primer on grid problems, and cited for aging equipment causing fires.

John Oliver's Last Week Tonight segment on the state of the US power grid, why it needs fixing, and the risks of aging infrastructure.

“You should probably watch John Oliver's Power Grid episode” (HN, 2021)

1 recommendations · 2 citations · Commentary · partly dated

Power grid, heating & buildings Media, journalism & propaganda Commentary Earth, Energy & Environment

3 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@daly Nov 2021 Recommends

on HN thread Scientists pour cold water on Bill Gates' nuclear plans

You should probably watch John Oliver's Power Grid episode The Power Grid: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) [this video]

John Oliver episode explaining the power grid.

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Citations, criticism and jokes

@soraminazuki Jun 2022 Cites it

on HN thread Energy crunch concerns lead Japan’s government to call for reduced AC use

Those two states are indeed what I had in mind. I was assuming that many other states are in a similar situation considering that the power grid is a frequent topic of US issues [1]. [1]: [this video]

Cited for US power grid problems.

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@cassepipe Jan 2025 Cites it

on HN thread Two fire experts interviewed about L.A. wildfires

Bad forest management or ... bad electrical equipment ? This excerpt of the last week tonight show 90 year old electric line equipment responsible for fires : [this video] I don't pretend to know anything and I don't know how common this is but it is pretty concerning and I wonder if anything has been done about that.

Segment on aging electric line equipment causing fires.

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