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Arts & Culture

America Revealed: Electric Nation

Host Yul Kwon at a gas beacon in Montana.
Courtesy of Jason Savage for AMERICA REVEALED
Host Yul Kwon at a gas beacon in Montana.

Airs Wednesday, October 30, 2013 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV

AMERICA REVEALED takes viewers on a four-hour journey high above the American landscape to reveal the country as never seen before. Technology expert and communications attorney Yul Kwon (winner of SURVIVOR "Cook Islands”) hosts this exciting new PBS series that travels through time, space and systems to reveal a nation of interdependent and intricately interwoven networks that feed and power the nation, produce millions of goods, transport people great distances and still come together to make America work.

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Explore the map and find AMERICA REVEALED stories near you. Learn more about what makes America tick through the stories of individuals who work behind the scenes to keep our country running. We have stories from all over the country, click on your city and discover the important work someone might be doing right outside your frontdoor.

These networks all rely on vast, complex and precisely calibrated systems, yet most Americans have never had the chance to observe or understand them. Until now.

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"Electric Nation" airs Wednesday, October 30 at 11 p.m. - Our modern electric power grid has been called the biggest and most complex machine in the world — delivering electricity over 200,000 miles of high-tension transmission lines.

Travel around the country with host Yul Kwon to understand its intricacies, its vulnerabilities and the remarkable ingenuity required to keep the elctricity on, every day of the year.

At New York State's governing control room, learn how a massive blackout cut power to 40 million Americans; to understand how we can protect against this type of colossal failure, join a team who makes daring repairs from the side of a helicopter in flight.

Visit the country's largest coal mine, rappel down the side of a wind turbine, take a rare tour of a nuclear plant and travel on a massive tanker — as Kwon reflects on the challenges and opportunities to keep the power flowing.

This episode originally aired in 2012.

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