About this episode
The episode discusses the vulnerabilities of global internet infrastructure and the implications of its control by major tech companies.
We imagine the internet as invisible—wireless, ethereal, everywhere and nowhere. The truth is far more precarious. Nearly 95% of global data moves through 900,000 miles of fiber optic cable lying unprotected on the ocean floor, controlled increasingly by four American tech giants. When Tonga's single cable was severed in 2022, ATMs went dark and the country vanished from the world. That was an accident. Samanth Subramanian , author of The Web Beneath the Waves, reveals that what comes next might not be. Get full access to Talk Cocktail Podcast at jeffschechtman.substack.com/subscribe
People in this episode
Guest: Samanth Subramanian
Topics covered
- internet infrastructure
- global data
- fiber optic cables
- technology control
Keywords
- Tonga
- data movement
- ocean floor
- tech giants
Mentioned in this episode
Products: The Web Beneath the Waves
Books & works: The Web Beneath the Waves, Talk Cocktail Podcast
Places: Tonga
More episodes of Talk Cocktail
- Russia’s Descent Into Madness: Slowly, Then All at Once · June 11, 2026 · 34 min
- No Rules, No Order: The World on a Knife’s Edge · June 6, 2026 · 35 min
- The Democracy of Grief · June 4, 2026 · 32 min
- California's Generic Governor's Race and the End of Local Politics · May 30, 2026 · 33 min
- How Civilizations Lose the Signal · May 27, 2026 · 46 min
- Teaching Students to Navigate Algorithms and Deepfakes · May 21, 2026 · 39 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Talk Cocktail podcast page.