“The story of the largest machine ever built (US version) is a tight four hours. I've listened to it. It could easily have been 40 hours, and still been enthralling.”
“I'm at the Uplight Customer Conference in Denver with a room full of utility leaders and the speaker just said 'yesterday I was listening to a 4 hour deep dive on the grid…' and then went on to tell a story from your podcast.”
“By far the most interesting podcast this month was the very long (over four hours), extremely informative The Grid: The Largest Machine Ever Built. Their lively, tour-de-force narrative walks you through the dawn of electricity in the United States from the 1700s–1800s up to our present-day affordability crisis. We highly recommend taking the time to listen.”
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What listeners are saying
“This podcast episode on the grid is pretty awesome. They boiled a whole industry down to its essential features and key turning points. Policy makers should all listen to why fragmentation exists and why it hinders most of our reliability, economic, and sustainability goals. Anyone in Congress should listen to the prescriptions as they consider permitting reform.”
“If you work in and around Electricity, this is required (and thankfully very enjoyable) listening. Ben Eidelson and Anay Shah have created a podcast in Stepchange that feels like Acquired — treat the listener like they're smart, compress 10 books of research into 3-4 hours — and it's so fun. This is the perfect 101 on the US electricity system from start to today. Listen!”
“Such a great compilation of history and future challenges, and a needed continuation of Gretchen Bakke's The Grid. Ben and Anay drop some powerful take aways, potential paths forward and leave you with plenty to think about. Keeping up with China, utility ROE, grid investments, public vs private — it's all in there. Should be mandatory listening for onboarding in any energy/utility/grid company.”
“Ben Eidelson and Anay Shah share a brilliant, in-depth reflection and history of the US Electric Grid in an engaging and detailed story, educating us on what we all take for granted but is also fragile and in jeopardy. Whether you are in the industry or a curious observer, this is a must listen to.”
“Impressive — it took me the weekend to get through it but really well done. A must listen for people in the industry and for those that are on the outside looking in. Or those that are just curious about how this large machine called the grid really works. They are asking all the right questions.”
“I absolutely loved this — a story that blends history, politics, engineering, economics, with many parallels with the challenges we're seeing today. This should be part of school curriculum. Hats off to the creators.”
“This is extraordinary. So so good. Highly recommend to everyone, even if you're not naturally enthralled by the grid. An important part of this country's history and future, and you and Anay tell the story brilliantly.”
“I loved this episode from The Stepchange Show — it's one of those that sticks with you more than you expect. Claude is the new 'household servant,' much like electricity was years ago. An affordability crisis today that parallels the rural vs. city divide from a century ago. Hearing it all is incredibly motivating for our space: how do we push things forward without accidentally repeating the parts of history we don't want?”
“I've listened to a lot of long podcasts, but I'd never binged one straight through before this… whether you work in energy or just use it ⚡ this story of our grid is fascinating.”
“I am loving it. All my podcasts are on pause now until I finish The Grid. Outstanding work, guys. Grand merci.”
“It makes me very happy to tell people that one of the best podcasts I listened to last year was a ~6 hour / 2 part series on coal. Such a great show and very excited to listen to this one.”
“I didn't realise that you are on the ACQ Slack channel. Just wanted to reach out and share my appreciation of the Step Change show. It's been my fav pod after Acquired, super excited for the latest episode as well.”
“The technology / infrastructure history podcast I didn't know I needed, modeled right after my favorite business history podcast, Acquired. Great episodes, keep it up.”
“Awesome. I couldn't wait for a new episode.”