Getting reliable WiFi on Thinkpad T440s with Linux

While looking around at my old devices, noticed my trusty old Thinkpad 440s (bought in 2014) which had been gathering dust for a while. Hoping to get some more use out of it, I installed Pop_OS!, but noticed that wifi would get cut-off on a regular basis, and it consistently needed a reboot to get wifi working again. Here is a fun story on how I got it working.