In this episode of the T&D World Line Life Podcast, Host Amy Fischbach interviews Zane Stephenson, a student in the lineman training program at Metropolitan Community College–Kansas City. Zane shares his training experiences, early memories of his grandfather's time in the trade and what drew him to line work.

The conversation highlights safety lessons learned at the International Lineman's Rodeo's Safety and Training Conference and Zane’s future plans, including contractor apprenticeship, storm response and his motivation to give back to his family.

In the electric utility industry, lineworkers often retire with years of experience and take that knowledge with them. Eversource discovered a way to bridge the knowledge gap by overhauling its electric and gas training using multimodal digital tools, e-books and mobile apps. This episode of the Line Life Podcast features a narrated version of the article "Eversource Advances Workforce Training" from the November 2025 field-focused Electric Utility Operations section of T&D World magazine.

This audio story outlines the utility's plan to deploy roughly 85 custom training applications by 2026–27 across core programs like overhead and underground electric, substations, gas maintenance, corrosion and field communications. The episode highlights how tablet-delivered, interactive content preserves institutional knowledge, supports different learning styles and improves safety through virtual practice. It also provides scalable, just-in-time training to meet growing workforce demands and close the experience gap.

For more information, read the article on T&D World's website.

This episode of the Line Life Podcast features Susan Blaser, a 2020 International Linemen Hall of Fame inductee and the first female journeyman lineworker in Missouri. Line Life Podcast Host Amy Fischbach interviews Susan about her career in the field, her role training students at Metropolitan Community College-Kansas City and her work promoting safety and inclusion in the line trade.

Topics include on-the-job safety (hydration, heat awareness and best practices), bringing students to the International Linemen’s Rodeo for hands-on learning, encouraging more women to enter the trade and how new tools like drones and helicopters are changing line work.

Susan also shares personal highlights, including her daughter Randi’s path as a journeyman lineman at Ameren Illinois, her decades of field and teaching experience and the importance of mentorship and community in sustaining the profession.

The line trade gives apprentices the opportunity to earn while they learn and train for a lifelong career powering their communities. Before they even join an apprenticeship program, however, some high school graduates are learning the basics of line work through a pre-apprenticeship. For example, our latest ICYMI episode of the Line Life Podcast highlights the one-year Electric Utility Technology Program at Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) in Iowa.

This article, "Training for a Future Career on the Line," which originally appeared in the October 2025 issue of T&D World magazine, spotlights two former students: Trevor Grefe and Kellen Miller. Grefe became interested in the line trade because he wanted to work with his hands, found the concept of electricity fascinating and wanted to help people. Miller learned about opportunities in line work as an intern at an architectural firm after seeing a photo of a lineworker hanging out of a helicopter, working on a transmission line.

For more information, visit DMACC's training program website or read the article on T&D World's website.

For the third part of our Line Life Podcast series on Lineman Hall of Famers, we are featuring an interview with Bill Bosch, vice president of apprenticeship and client solutions for Northwest Lineman College (NLC). He has worked in a variety of different operations, safety, training and management roles over his more than 45 years in the line trade.

He also founded the National Association of Journeymen Linemen to promote the brotherhood, sacrifice and dedication of the line trade. To further honor lineworkers, Bill introduced legislation in 2012 to establish National Lineman Appreciation Day, which is now celebrated annually on April 18. He is also working to get lineworkers officially recognized as first responders with the Linemen Legacy Act. This bill is now in the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management. To push this legislation forward, Bill encourages all lineworkers to contact their local members of Congress to support H.R. 7610, the Linemen Legacy Act.

To listen to more stories of Lineman Hall of Famers, tune in to Part 1 featuring Robert Padgett and Part 2 showcasing Brandon Wylie and his song, "Highline Heroes." You can also learn about all the Hall of Famers dating back to 2006 by visiting the website for the International Lineman's Museum and Hall of Fame.

The powerline industry is entering a new era, shaped by the rise of smart grid technologies. These tools raise important questions. How will these innovations impact the job and how do line workers adapt to make the work safer and more efficient?

In this sponsored episode, managing editor Jeff Postelwait chats with Lea Maurer (Business Development Director at S&C Electric Company) about the push for more reliable, resilient power, and why utilities are turning to new technologies to modernize the grid.

This episode is sponsored by S&C Electric

By leveraging the power of AI, electric utilities nationwide are discovering ways to improve the efficiency and safety of their field crews. For example, the Grid Operations team at Southern California Edison (SCE) launched the AWARE system two years ago to mitigate outages, expedite restoration and improve productivity for the field workforce.

Listen to the narrated version of the October 2025 cover story to learn how the AWARE system monitors the health of the grid and alerts crews to early-stage faults. SCE and Edison International recently won the electric power industry's highest honor: the Edison Award from the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) for the AWARE technology. To read the full article, which went online as "SCE Accelerates Fault Detection with the Power of AI," visit T&D World's website.

If your utility is using technology in an innovative way, we'd love to hear from you. Email Amy Fischbach, Head of Content for T&D World and the host of the Line Life podcast, to put your utility in the spotlight.

Brandon Wylie, who was inducted into the International Lineman Hall of Fame in 2023, is the guest for Part 2 of our Hall of Famers series. He has more than 27 years of experience in the power line industry and currently serves as a regional director of training for Quanta Services in the Southeast. In this role, he leads workforce development, safety and leadership training initiatives across multiple operating companies.

Before joining Quanta, he served as vice president of apprenticeships with Northwest Lineman College (NLC) and director of training and safety at Electric Cities of Georgia, where he spent more than 15 years designing and leading training programs for lineworkers and safety professionals.

He has served as a chair of the APPA Safety Committee, vice chair of the National Association of Journeyman Linemen and a board member of the International Lineman's Museum and Hall of Fame. He's a certified utility safety professional, and he's proud to be a second-generation lineman. He's also the writer of "Highline Cowboy," a song inspired by his life as a lineman that was later featured in "Storm Soldiers" and "Life on the Line," starring John Travolta.

Listen to this episode to hear the excerpt of the song and learn about his life and career in the line trade. Also, tune in to Part 1 of this series featuring Robert Padgett, who retired from Lakeland Electric before starting Padgett Poleline.