For Immediate Release
CONTACT: Della Cassia-248-320-5680
DATE: Friday, April 17, 2015
DPTV’s Award-Winning Series, Beyond the Light Switch,
Returns With Episode 3 in Time for Earth Day
Broadcast Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at 9 p.m.
Detroit, April 17, 2015 – What kind of world will our children inherit? The energy demands to help fuel our busy lives are impacting our economic and environmental security and, in some cases, jeopardizing the lives of our military men and women on the frontline. In the third installment of Detroit Public Television’s (DPTV) award-winning series, Beyond the Light Switch airing on April 22 at 9 p.m., producers travel from coast to coast to learn about and document the shifts in thinking taking place in the U.S. military, in business and in communities and the new ideas and products that could help reduce our energy use by relying on alternative sources of electrification.
Host David Biello, energy and environment editor at Scientific American, talks to soldiers who have been on the frontline in Iraq about the dangers they faced while transporting diesel fuel to forward operating bases. From then, Biello heads to the Pentagon and then to two of the country’s busiest transportation hubs: the Port of Los Angeles and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Along the way, he meets with researchers at the Argonne National Lab near Chicago and an upstart lab near Oakland, California, as well as the X-Prize winner, Edison2, and their next-gen electric vehicle, and visits the Mueller neighborhood in Austin, Texas where residents are pioneering a new way of life.
"It's arguable that energy is one of just a few things absolutely critical to our modern way of life. What we try to do with the Light Switch series, and I think we’re succeeding, is taking all these important fragments of energy news that seem disconnected and connect them for the viewer,” said Beyond the Light Switch producer, Ed Moore. “For instance, this new episode is very much about movement—the movement of goods, of people and of data—the things that make our economy go and maintain our quality of life require a lot of energy.”
Winner of the DuPont-Columbia University award for outstanding journalism, Beyond the Light Switch episodes 1 and 2, which will also air on April 20 starting at 10 p.m.,take viewers on an enlightening and comprehensive journey of discovery into the inner workings of our existing energy infrastructure. Guided by an independent advisory panel, Beyond the Light Switch investigates whether the United States can completely transform its existing energy landscape before it's too late.
About Detroit Public Television:
Detroit Public Television (DPTV)-WTVS-TV is the non-commercial, viewer-supported PBS member station serving the nation's 11th largest television market, with 1.5 million weekly viewers in Southeast Michigan and 1.2 million weekly viewers across Canada. DPTV is a leader in programming related to health and the environment, public affairs, arts and culture and children. It is also a leading national producer and distributor of programming for Public Television, and winner of a 2012 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award, as well as the only dual PBS licensee / entertainment label in the country, operating as DPTV Media. For more information, visit www.dptv.org
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