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 Introduction
00:20 The machine America depends on
01:16 Examining the “9 out of 10 Americans” mortality warning
13:31 Why 9–12 transformers could cripple America
13:58 The unsolved Metcalf sniper attack
15:57 America’s grid vulnerability
28:55 Preview of Part 2

HOST: BILL WALTON

Podcast: https://the-bill-walton-show.castos.com/
Substack: https://billwalton.substack.com/
X: https://x.com/WmBillWalton

Find The Bill Walton Show on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok: @thebillwaltonshow

GUEST: LT. COL. TOMMY WALLER

Center for Security Policy: https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/
Secure the Grid: https://securethegrid.com/
Center for Security Policy on X: https://x.com/securefreedom
Secure the Grid on X: https://x.com/Secure_the_Grid

GUEST: JONATHAN HOLLERMAN

Website: https://www.jonathanhollerman.com/
Books: https://www.jonathanhollerman.com/books
X: https://x.com/GridDownPrepper
YouTube: @jonathanhollerman3854
Instagram: @griddownprepper
Facebook: Jonathan Hollerman

Chapters

(00:00:02) - Introduction: The Fragility of America's Electrical Grid
(00:01:30) - Meet the Guests: Tommy Waller and Jonathan Hollerman
(00:03:29) - What Is the Grid? Generation, Transmission, Distribution
(00:07:11) - Grid Ownership and the Three Interconnections
(00:08:38) - No Storage: Instant Delivery and the Battery Problem
(00:09:10) - Wind, Solar, and the Challenge of AC/DC Power
(00:10:29) - The Iberian Peninsula Blackout Case Study
(00:11:34) - High Voltage Transformers: America's Achilles Heel
(00:13:39) - The Metcalf Substation Sniper Attack
(00:16:14) - Who Attacked Metcalf? Speculation on Perpetrators
(00:18:19) - How Tommy Got Into Grid Security Work
(00:20:07) - Remembering Dr. Peter Pry and the EMP Commission
(00:21:14) - Jonathan's Path: From One Second After to SERE Training
(00:22:54) - Writing Survival Fiction and Joining the Task Force
(00:24:29) - Military Families, Desperation, and Lessons from Sherman's March
(00:26:05) - Why a Grid Attack Could End a War Without a Shot
(00:27:03) - Breaking Down Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape
(00:28:27) - Introducing the Threats: EMP, Solar Flares, Cyber and Physical Attacks

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

The Bill Walton Show

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