Original subtitles

Did I mention I hate heights?

If I didn't, I f***ing hate heights.

Yeah, I'm good. I'm going down.

Pablo, let's do an interview real quick. What f***ing interview? Are you out of

your mind, dude?

Let's just go, hey, I'm Pablo without saying this is being a man. Hey, I'm

and this is being a man.

Oh my god, dude.

There you go.

Uh -oh.

Uh -oh.

F***ing. Yeah, I landed on my cojones. I'm going down.

I still want to have children.

When the power goes out, who are you going to call?

You don't need to call. Without you calling, there are guys who are coming

will make things right for you. It's electrical linemen, the men that work on

the power line. They will risk their lives in heat, rain, snow, wind. Without

you thinking about it, they keep the electricity on and society running.

Hospitals. And shit.

This is Michael West. He manages operations for Hopkinsville Electric

Electricity is like a dark magic to me, so I wanted to go and spend a day with

Mike, ask him what they do, and why they do it with so many people calling them

to complain that power is out. We're going to get you out on the power lines

let you see what it looks like to be an electric lineman today.

All right, so first thing we got to do is we got to get you outfitted. So arc

hazards are a big deal for us, so we're going to get you outfitted in some FR

clothes before we can actually go out and do anything.

You know, the energy that's created from a fault can cause an arc flash, so it

could be a ball of fire. So rubber gloves, these are what you're going to

so you can actually touch the live line and not get electrocuted. Awesome.

Have you ever been electrocuted? I have not. I have felt a little bit of tingle.

And then when you see someone electrocuted, you can't pull them

No, you're supposed to take like a piece of wood or something that's insulated

and knock them off of it.

Oh my God. Well, we're going to try not to try that experiment today.

Yeah, no, I'm really looking forward to not dying.

Yeah, yeah, I am too.

I didn't even climb anything. I'm already panicking, man.

How professional I look. All right, here's your hook.

This is what you climb the pole with? Oh, there's a knife.

Yeah.

It's hard to do it here. I'm not climbing.

I'm not doing this.

Okay, Colton, if I die, I'll kill you.

Put your leg up in it.

This is so heavy. I'm sorry for my friends, but the more gear I have on me,

more panicked I am.

Oh, my God. Okay.

Hey, you don't want to be the only one that hasn't climbed a pole. Yeah, I

I have to. If I'm not going to do it, they're going to laugh at me for the

of my life. Yeah.

First stop of the day was electrical substation. He told me what it is. And

honestly, I still don't know what it is. So I'll let him explain.

This is petrifying.

Look at this sign at this electrocuted little dude.

There's a power going through this guy.

That's you. No, that's not me. I'm never going to get electrocuted.

Anyway.

So we arrived at the substation, and we're going to try to understand this

thing. Yeah. So this thing is supplying power to the city.

Yes. The main goal of this substation is we bring our power in from TVA.

TVA gives us our power at 69 ,000 volts.

That is our transmission voltage. How many?

69 ,000. 69 ,000 volts. Yeah.

How much is that?

That's a lot.

That's 69 ,000 volts.

Our distribution voltage is 7 ,200 volts, so that's what these substations

transforming the power down to something that we can work on. A, I don't speak

English.

B, it sounds like you're speaking Chinese to me.

this is scary man there's a threat you know we get threats that are we going to

target your power grid you know if that happens to us we're going to have power

out for about an hour there's always plan b there's always a plan b we always

have another route to come around and try to feed power yeah so few terrorists

people don't see your job as a life -saving job but If there's no

going to hospital and you have people on ICU, you are saving lives. When there

are natural disasters, say a hurricane, the first people in are probably going

to be the linemen.

Because they have to go in first and make sure that the lines that are

in the road are de -energized before any first responders can go in.

But it sounds like it's a very selfless job.

Yeah, it is.

You don't hear many thank yous for that. It's usually, wow, why is it taking so

long?

You don't do it to hear somebody say thank you. You just, you know, it's more

a... It's a duty. It's an inside thing where, you know, you know you did what

you were supposed to do. You help somebody out and, you know, you go on

road to the next person to see who you can help.

So why do you personally risk your life and do the job?

The greatest feeling for a lineman is in the middle of the night when you're

looking and there's no lights on and then you fix the problem and you see all

the lights come back on. It gives you a sense of accomplishment and pride and to

know that you're helping people. You're getting their lives back to normal.

At the end of the day, I have a family I have to provide for and this job is a

great way to do it. You're providing for your family and you're providing

electricity to society.

Yeah.

When I was a kid and I was misbehaving, I would get slapped with the cable.

Now imagine mama slaps your ass with this thing.

It's no funny. It hurts like a bitch. Dude, this helmet is giving me echo.

Like I can hear my voice.

So I got my first look at the electrical pole I'm going to climb.

How high is it? 45 foot. It's about 38 foot out of the ground probably.

Oh, hell no.

Electrical linemen are safety first.

So before I learned how to work electricity, they wanted me to learn how

get up there and rescue a guy who was not a safety person.

What you're simulating is a guy's gone up climbing, he's made contact, he's

electrocuted. He cannot get himself down, so you've got to go up and rescue

Dylan here is going to show us how to get it done. So he's strapping his fall

restraint onto the pole.

Just like climbing up a ladder.

He's making it way to me.

Look how this pole is shaking.

It's in the ground good, but it is going to shake now. Oh, great.

Grab your rope.

Go under both arms, around his chest.

No, I'm not doing that. No way.

Hold the rope. You're going to cut the orange strap. Like I said, see how he

falls.

You're just going to lower him down.

Took him about 45 seconds.

Yeah, and that's not even his fastest time.

Yeah, I want to go take about four hours.

Okay. That's it.

No, that looks delightful.

Pretty easy, right?

Yeah, totally.

Good job, Dylan.

Ask me how excited I am.

I'm not fucking excited.

There's a reason why my sock stays on the ground.

I've never done climbing in my life, by the way.

You're going to grab it like this?

Oh, God.

There you go.

Now. Take a step. Take a step. Now do it again.

Oh, my.

Do you really want me to go all the way up?

All the way up, dude.

Did I mention I hate heights?

If I didn't, I hate heights.

Oh, bro, I think I'm good.

Yeah, no, that.

I want to say it loud and clear.

I appreciate you what you all do, but that.

All right, I'm like so ready to get out of here.

See,

that belt saved you then.

Sorry, guys.

Did I at least get to halfway?

You got over half. I hate heights. This is wobbly.

And I thought I'm going to break my neck the whole time.

So climbing the pole the first time, it's actually very uncomfortable and

terrifying. So I needed to change the pace a little bit before I'm going to

another attempt.

So Dustin Love will explain to me how to read a meter. Not the most exciting

thing, but very much so necessary. And we'll find out why. All right. So right

here in this cabinet, we have what we call a data collector. It's a

So it collects the data. The meter itself talks to this.

and then it sends the information back to our office so that we can calculate

your bill and your usage and know what's going on. And if someone doesn't pay a

bill, you can remotely cut it off. That's right.

Pay your bill, sorry. Yep. Are you ever worried that you're going to get, like,

call it tased here?

Should be fine.

I think it's always... Should be fine.

Let's elaborate on should be.

And this requires a lot of discipline, huh?

Yeah.

Okay, so let's go on. We're going to go over here.

When you work in this industry, you have a whole new level of appreciation for

the men who literally turn my lights on. It takes a real man to do physical

labor, hard labor, dangerous.

Why people are not talking about how important it is what you do?

The general population, I think they're so oblivious to

the luxury of...

Red, black, and yellow are your voltage wires.

When they're sitting in the warmth of their house watching the Super Bowl and

their power goes out, they don't really stop and think that that lineman didn't

get to see the Super Bowl. He left his family in the cold and the dark to go

turn our power back on. Our guys do not go home until the power's on.

They've missed birthdays. They've missed Christmas morning. They've missed

anniversaries. It's a true sacrifice, and it's a calling.

bang bang bang yeah i want to know why you guys decided to do this job not like

working in a grocery store for example i knew that i always wanted to kind of be

in public power so i just started pursuing that dream and kind of i went

school and did some things and i don't know it's just kind of a way of life you

know whether you're a farmer or a police officer or whatever it's just kind of

once you once you find it once it gets in your blood it's just kind of a way of

life so you don't really think about anything else So I don't know who knows

this but electric company also installs the fiber line for internet so you can

watch my show So I wanted to see how it works this specific table right here

There's 96 fiber optic pieces inside of it every one of those could go out and

feed 32 houses off of every strand that little thing can be for 32 houses that

little thing can be for 32 houses Yep, holy shit. Yeah, how many of those are

used for point anything?

How many are used for porn?

I'd say there's quite a bit. We joke around a lot. Whenever we have to do

maintenance outage or anything, we'll cut one and say, well, there goes their

porn.

Mid -buffer.

Do you think that we're too reliant on the Internet?

We are very reliant on the Internet.

We're actually dealing with a situation right now.

They're building a new high school out here, and they're in a very big hurry to

get their Internet connection up because they can't even turn their HVAC systems

on until the Internet's connected to it. That is insane.

After learning about where the porn comes from, they wanted to show me how

change insulator on top of the pole.

But while we're back there, I got sudden urge to redeem myself.

I don't know, I'm feeling like I should do it again.

You think so? I can't come all the way out here and not climb the damn pole.

There you

go.

there you go dude i'm on the road i'm going

i

genuinely hate that hey tighten your belt a little more

there you go this is absolutely powerful

yeah i don't know what i was thinking trying that It was hot. I was exhausted.

Just ten more steps.

I had the biggest wedgie of all time, and fear of heights is no joke.

Hey, Pablo, let's do an interview real quick.

What f***ing interview?

Are you out of your mind, dude?

Let's just go, hey, I'm Pablo Wodowski, and this is Be A Man.

Hey, I'm Pablo, and this is Being A Man.

Be a man with me.

Patrick, f***ing shut the f*** up right now.

This feels wonky.

Oh, they posted.

That pole's solid.

Am I almost there?

Hell no.

Oh my god, dude.

There you go.

Uh -oh.

Uh -oh. Get your hook back in the pole.

Dude. You got it. You got it.

I'm going down.

Hey, you come on, man. Yeah.

I quit smoking a few years ago.

So I'm going to blame it for smoking.

Look, you didn't die.

Yeah. He did pretty good for his first and second try.

When you're afraid of heights, you know, that's a big fear to overcome.

So, you know, with that in mind, I think he did great.

The second time was a little bit better. Yeah.

But...

Man, my nuts are hurting.

You know, that was the easiest part of it, was just getting up the pole. So,

know, struggling that bad getting up it, I don't have a lot of faith in the work

he was going to get done once he got up there.

But, like I said, I gave him a good grade.

Hey, you're on your way to being a lineman.

Now that's my balls.

So more height, huh?

More height.

But that bucket plays too now.

Don't think it's just solid up there.

Now it's time to write up the bucket and change the insulator.

I don't know what that means, but I'm going back up 40 feet in the air.

Man, this sucks.

I didn't like that either.

But it's better than climbing.

Well, you do that shit in the winter, snow, storm.

Windy, not windy, you do this shit. Yep.

Anytime we need to.

You got to be a man that can separate your home from your job.

If you and your wife had an argument earlier today, can't bring that to work

with you to kill you.

When I leave here, I got to turn this off.

I got to go home because I got a wife, special needs son.

Yeah, I tell my wife how my day went, but she don't need to know everything.

So I turn this off before I go home.

Tell me what makes a man.

Taking care of your family.

Making sure you come home every night.

Doing this.

You got to be careful and always got to watch yourself and make sure you come

home to them.

We did have a... a fatality here at HES.

They were just doing some routine work and went up on an energized pole and

his bucket actually made contact and he was actually pulling a ground wire up

the pole and made contact with 7200 on the back side and they say every safety

rule is written in blood and since that day HES has not had a lost time

accident, a recordable lost time accident since that day. So we take

serious. That's why we train the way we train, you know, why we put guys through

so much intensive training is we want them to know how to do the job, but more

importantly, we want them to know how to do the job safely.

Does your wife worry about you when you go to work?

I think she's used to it now.

She's used to it now? Yeah.

All right.

We did it.

Well, is it everything you hoped it would be?

Oh, yeah, and more.

Look how my wallet wasn't in my back pocket. Look how my ass is so sweaty.

all soaked.

I need to get reimbursed.

$22 .76.

So far today, I visited substation, learned about watts and watts.

Is that what it is?

So far today, I visited substation, learned about watts and

volts, switched out a meter.

You can ride in a bucket to switch out insulator, but I can't be electrical

alignment unless I climb the pain in the ass electrical pole.

It's time for one more try.

So, small steps again.

Now lean in. Step, step, flip. There you go. See?

Just like that the whole way up.

You're probably over halfway now.

One step at a time.

At this point, it clicked for me.

I got into rhythm, and I started to get better at understanding how to move.

There you go.

There you go.

Hey, reach up.

Hey!

I'm so glad I didn't bitch out.

It took me three tries, but I pushed through exhaustion and fear and climbed

freaking pole.

Being a man is not necessarily being fearless, but being afraid and doing it

anyway.

There you go. Third time was the charm, I guess. Third time was the charm. I

feel like he did it now.

I feel like I need a shot of vodka.

Like, what changed in you between that one and that one? I talked to the wood

piece. I said, it's just you and I, Paul.

He did a lot better that time.

Technique was a lot better.

Started trusting his equipment a little more, so it wasn't bear -hugging the

pole. You know, he hit his goal. He made it all the way up to the neutral, so

overall, great job.

They do that every day in the shitty weather conditions, so it would be

bitchy of me not to make it to the top.

So third time is the charm.

Off the list.

Never again. Thank you.

With the day almost over, the team has decided to let me cut some cables on the

real house.

It's time to put to work the training I've received.

So where are we going, sir?

We are going to cut up service down.

Older home and nobody's in there.

Prevent theft, prevent fire.

Service is really kind of out of code.

What kind of man does that job? Tell me.

I just want to do my part for the community and for my family.

All right, we ready?

Yeah.

It's higher than I anticipated.

Bam!

All right.

My name is Pablo.

BMN with me. Bing, bang, bang.

One is done.

Here? That's fine.

Bang, bang, bang.

So what did I learn today?

I've learned that doing something that's right, even if it's dangerous and

difficult, can make you a man. It's doing things that are scary because they

need to be done.

Real man sacrifices his time and comfort for good of society.

I'm very proud to learn from these great men, and I really respect them.

And now I'm going to go ice my bowl.

We wanted to get you a little celebratory reminder of

your PTSD.

I don't seem like it, but I shit myself here right now.

Thank you. I'm touched.

Genuinely. I wouldn't do it without you.