Charles Fishman

Brian Grazer

Academy Award–winning producer Brian Grazer and an acclaimed business journalist examine the weekly “curiosity conversations” that have inspired Grazer to create some of America's favorite and iconic movies and television shows—from 24 to A Beautiful Mind.

The Secret to a Bigger Life

A Curious Mind

The remarkable story of the trailblazers and the ordinary Americans on the front lines of the epic mission to reach the moon. President John F. Kennedy astonished the world on May 25, 1961, when he announced to Congress that the United States should land a man on the Moon by 1970. No group was more surprised than the scientists and engineers at NASA, who suddenly had less than a decade to invent space travel. When Kennedy announced that goal, no one knew how to navigate to the Moon. No one knew how to build a rocket big enough to reach the Moon, or how to build a computer small enough (and powerful enough) to fly a spaceship there. No one knew what the surface of the Moon was like, or what astronauts could eat as they flew there. On the day of Kennedy’s historic speech, America had a total of fifteen minutes of spaceflight experience—with just five of those minutes outside the atmosphere. Russian dogs had more time in space than U.S. astronauts. Over the next decade, more than 400,000 scientists, engineers, and factory workers would send 24 astronauts to the Moon. Each hour of space flight would require one million hours of work back on Earth to get America to the Moon on July 20, 1969. Fifty years later, One Giant Leap is the sweeping, definitive behind-the-scenes account of the furious race to complete one of mankind’s greatest achievements. It’s a story filled with surprises—from the item the astronauts almost forgot to take with them (the American flag), to the extraordinary impact Apollo would have back on Earth, and on the way we live today. Charles Fishman introduces readers to the men and women who had to solve 10,000 problems before astronauts could reach the Moon. From the research labs of MIT, where the eccentric and legendary pioneer Charles Draper created the tools to fly the Apollo spaceships, to the factories where dozens of women sewed spacesuits, parachutes, and even computer hardware by hand, Fishman captures the exceptional feats of these ordinary Americans. One Giant Leap is the captivating story of men and women charged with changing the world as we knew it—their leaders, their triumphs, their near disasters, all of which led to arguably the greatest success story, and the greatest adventure story, of the twentieth century.

The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon

One Giant Leap

Presents an analysis of Wal Mart business tactics, where the company's efforts to lower prices has had far-reaching effects on its suppliers, competitors, employees, and foreign manufacturers.

Walmart Effect

Explores every facet of water and examines the issues surrounding water scarcity and what can be done to ensure that humans have plenty of clean water in the future. By the best-selling author of The Wal-Mart Effect. Reprint.

The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water

The Big Thirst

"From Academy Award-nominated producer Brian Grazer and acclaimed business journalist Charles Fishman comes a brilliantly entertaining peek into the weekly "curiosity conversations" that have inspired Grazer to create some of America's favorite and iconic movies and television shows--from 24 to A Beautiful Mind. For decades, film and TV producer Brian Grazer has scheduled a weekly "curiosity conversation" with an accomplished stranger. From scientists to spies, and adventurers to business leaders, Grazer has met with anyone willing to answer his questions for a few hours. These informal discussions sparked the creative inspiration behind many of Grazer's movies and TV shows, including Splash, 24, A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, Arrested Development, 8 Mile, J. Edgar, and many others. A Curious Mind is a brilliantly entertaining, fascinating, and inspiring homage to the power of inquisitiveness and the ways in which it deepens and improves us. Whether you're looking to improve your management style at work or you want to become a better romantic partner, this book--and its lessons on the power of curiosity--can change your life"--

The behind-the-scenes report on how Wal-Mart has become arguably the most powerful force for environmental change anywhere. In his national bestseller The Wal-Mart Effect, award-winning journalist Charles Fishman penetrated the store’s once impenetrable wall of secrecy to chart Wal-Mart’s impact on workers, suppliers, communities, and even the way we see the world and delivered to readers a high-resolution portrait of a business that has evolved into a vast economic ecosystem. Since The The Wal-Mart Effect was published in 2006, the store has gone from being one of the most reviled—and scrutinized—corporations in America to being an outspoken proponent of sustainable practices. How did Wal-Mart pull off such a reputation overhaul? In his new introduction to The Wal-Mart Effect, Fishman chronicles the work of Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott whose mission became to reconcile how Wal-Mart shoppers feel about the store with how Wal-Mart is viewed by critics. By providing a forum for Wal-Mart watchdogs to sound off, and through a reexamination of business procedures and motivations, Scott shifted the company’s focus to sustainability and the environmental impact of capitalism. Wal-Mart has emerged from this revolution as a powerful and conscientious player in this ever-evolving economy.

A New Introduction to the National Bestseller The Wal-Mart Effect: A Penguin eSp ecial

Has Wal-Mart Found Its Soul?

How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works-- and how It's Transforming the American Economy

The Wal-Mart Effect

Negli ultimi cento anni abbiamo vissuto in una specie di età d’oro dell’acqua. Ma oggi stiamo entrando in un’era di scarsità, e non solo in luoghi tradizionalmente aridi. L’acqua sarà la storia del secolo, di questo nuovo secolo. Come ce la procuriamo, come la distribuiamo, come la usiamo, come combattiamo per essa? Ne rimarremo senza? Nel solco della grande tradizione del giornalismo d’inchiesta, il libro è un viaggio documentato, appassionante e scomodo nelle realtà, nelle mistificazioni e nelle possibilità di un futuro sostenibile.

L'era della scommessa sull'acqua

La grande sete

Walmart è la più grande azienda al mondo. Vende più merci di ogni altra catena commerciale del pianeta e dà lavoro a due milioni di persone. La sua politica always low prices (sempre prezzi bassi) ha in realtà modificato l’economia mondiale, tanto che oggi si può parlare di una Walmart economy. Si tratta di un modello di produzione, distribuzione e commercializzazione che si è imposto a livello globale e che non riguarda solo il colosso Walmart. Dal 2006, anno della prima edizione di questo libro, molte cose sono cambiate. In particolare, si è assistito a una seconda «rivoluzione Walmart», tesa a concentrarsi sulla sostenibilità e a ridurre l’impatto ambientale di questa forma spinta di capitalismo. Con risultati concreti a dir poco sorprendenti. Certo restano molte ombre e lati oscuri, che l’autore analizza. Si pensi alla gigantesca corruzione, grazie alla quale Walmart è riuscito a diventare la terza azienda per fatturato e prima per numero di lavoratori del Messico.

Walmart Story - II edizione

Praised as “an entertaining and torrential flow of a book” by Nature magazine, The Big Thirst is a startling examination of the passing of the golden age of water and the shocking facts about how water scarcity will soon be a major factor in our lives. The water coming out of your kitchen tap is four billion years old and might well have been sipped by a Tyrannosaurus rex. Rather than only three states of water—liquid, ice, and vapor—there is a fourth, “molecular water,” fused into rock 400 miles deep in the Earth, and that’s where most of the planet’s water is found. Unlike most precious resources, water cannot be used up; it can always be made clean enough again to drink—indeed, water can be made so clean that it’s toxic. Water is the most vital substance in our lives but also more amazing and mysterious than we appreciate. As Charles Fishman brings vibrantly to life in this surprising and mind-changing narrative, water runs our world in a host of awe-inspiring ways, yet we take it completely for granted. But the era of easy water is over. Bringing readers on a lively and fascinating journey—from the wet moons of Saturn to the water-obsessed hotels of Las Vegas, where dolphins swim in the desert, and from a rice farm in the parched Australian outback to a high-tech IBM plant that makes an exotic breed of pure water found nowhere in nature—Fishman vividly shows that we’ve already left behind a century-long golden age when water was thoughtlessly abundant, free, and safe and entered a new era of high-stakes water. In 2008, Atlanta came within ninety days of running entirely out of clean water. California is in a desperate battle to hold off a water catastrophe. And in the last five years Australia nearly ran out of water—and had to scramble to reinvent the country’s entire water system. But as dramatic as the challenges are, the deeper truth Fishman reveals is that there is no good reason for us to be overtaken by a global water crisis. We have more than enough water. We just don’t think about it, or use it, smartly. The Big Thirst brilliantly explores our strange and complex relationship to water. We delight in watching waves roll in from the ocean; we take great comfort from sliding into a hot bath; and we will pay a thousand times the price of tap water to drink our preferred brand of the bottled version. We love water—but at the moment, we don’t appreciate it or respect it. Just as we’ve begun to reimagine our relationship to food, a change that is driving the growth of the organic and local food movements, we must also rethink how we approach and use water. The good news is that we can. As Fishman shows, a host of advances are under way, from the simplicity of harvesting rainwater to the brilliant innovations devised by companies such as IBM, GE, and Royal Caribbean that are making impressive breakthroughs in water productivity. Knowing what to do is not the problem. Ultimately, the hardest part is changing our water consciousness. As Charles Fishman writes, “Many civilizations have been crippled or destroyed by an inability to understand water or manage it. We have a huge advantage over the generations of people who have come before us, because we can understand water and we can use it smartly.” The Big Thirst will forever change the way we think about water, about our essential relationship to it, and about the creativity we can bring to ensuring that we’ll always have plenty of it.

Charles Fishman

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