9 Out of 10 Americans Would Die If this INFRASTRUCTURE Went Down | Tommy Waller & Jonathan Hollerman

What would happen if America’s electrical grid went down—and stayed down?

On Part 1 of GRID DOWN, Bill Walton welcomes Lt. Col. Tommy Waller, President and CEO of the Center for Security Policy, and Jonathan Hollerman, former Air Force SERE instructor and bestselling author of Grid Down: Death of a Nation, to examine the vulnerabilities of America’s power grid.

The guests offer two sobering assessments: every battery in America, fully charged, could power the country for only about one hour, and the loss of just 9–12 critical transformers could potentially trigger a nationwide blackout. They explain the reasoning behind these warnings and explore why protecting the grid is essential to national security.

This conversation examines how the electrical grid works, why massive transformers are difficult to replace, America’s dependence on overseas manufacturing, and how coordinated attacks could disrupt power across interconnected systems. Walton and his guests also revisit the still-unsolved Metcalf substation sniper attack and discuss what it revealed about infrastructure security.

A prolonged power outage would reach far beyond the lights. Food distribution, drinking water, banking, medicine, communications, and transportation all depend on reliable electricity. What could happen when those systems stop functioning—and how prepared is America?

Listen or watch as The Bill Walton Show explores the infrastructure that sustains modern life, the consequences of an extended grid failure, and the urgent questions surrounding grid resilience.

Subscribe to The Bill Walton Show for Parts 2 and 3 of GRID DOWN, and share this conversation with someone who wants to understand America’s electrical grid vulnerabilities.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction00:20 The machine America depends on01:16 Examining the “9 out of 10 Americans” mortality warning13:31 Why 9–12 transformers could cripple America13:58 The unsolved Metcalf sniper attack15:57 America’s grid vulnerability28:55 Preview of Part 2

HOST: BILL WALTON

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