Episode
Samanth Subramanian on the Undersea Cables That Keep the Internet Alive
Odd Lots · May 13, 2026 · 42 min
In 2006, then-Senator Ted Stevens coined an infamous term for how to understand the internet: It's a "series of tubes." The funny thing is, that's a fairly accurate description. Underneath the world's oceans, miles and miles of fiber optic-cables send packets of information from one location to the next, serving as the backbone of the internet as know it. This infrastructure is delicate, too…