For most of us, the internet is virtual, made of Instagram posts, emails and YouTube videos. And, access to the vital utility isn’t guaranteed across the world. Glad You Asked host Cleo Abram wants to know: What is the internet actually made of? And, how does it work? Answering that question involves discovering how internet cables are laid in the sea, if 5G is really the future, and how balloons in the stratosphere are helping people connect.

Key Sources:
Submarine Cable Map https://www.submarinecablemap.com/

Code, Charles Petzold https://www.amazon.com/CodeLanguage...

Tubes, by Andrew Blum https://www.amazon.com/TubesJourney...

Internet Cable Protection Committee Report https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wpconten...

Pew Internet Fact Sheet https://www.pewinternet.org/factshee...

How Does The Internet Work? https://web.stanford.edu/class/msande...

Basic Radio Theory and Introduction to Radio Systems https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...

Federal Communications Commission Broadband Map https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/#/

InterTubes: A Study of the US Longhaul Fiberoptic Infrastructure, SIGCOMM http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~pb/tubes_fi...

Rural Broadband Economics: A Review of Rural Subsidies, COSTQUEST https://www.ntca.org/sites/default/fi...

RuralBroadbandEconomicsAReviewofRuralSubsidies_FinalV07112018.pdf

Worldwide Broadband Pricing, Cable https://www.cable.co.uk/broadband/pri...

Exploring the Relationship Between Broadband and Economic Growth, World Bank http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/39145...

ExploringtheRelationshipbetweenBroadbandandEconomicGrowthMinges.pdf

0:00 Intro
1:10 How Does The Internet Work?
3:37 Finding The Internet
6:43 An Internet Hub
8:45 The Internet Backbone
14:03 Greater Web Access