Charles Fishman

journalist and author

Guest

Contact: Website

As a reporter, Charles Fishman has tried to get inside organizations, both familiar and secret, and explain how they work.

In the course of reporting about water to write The Big Thirst, Fishman has stood at the bottom of a half-million-gallon sewage tank, sampled water directly from the springs in San Pellegrino, Italy, and Poland Spring, Maine, and carried water on his head for 3 km with a group of Indian villagers.

Fishman’s previous book, the New York Times bestseller The Wal-Mart Effect, was the first to crack open Wal-Mart’s wall of secrecy, and has become the standard for understanding Wal-Mart’s impact on our economy and on how we live. The Economist named it a “book of the year.”

Fishman is a former metro and national reporter for the Washington Post, and was a reporter and editor at the Orlando Sentinel and the News & Observer in Raleigh, NC. Since 1996, he has worked for the innovative business magazine Fast Company. Fishman has won numerous awards, including three times receiving UCLA’s Gerald Loeb Award, the most prestigious award in business journalism.

Charles Fishman on KCRW

At the Democratic debate in Flint, Michigan last Sunday, presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton called for Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to resign over the lead…

Awash in Worry: Tap Water in America

At the Democratic debate in Flint, Michigan last Sunday, presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton called for Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to resign over the lead…

from Press Play with Madeleine Brand

In the fourth year of a serious California drought, you’d think the Golden State might shrivel up and keel over.

Winning the Drought

In the fourth year of a serious California drought, you’d think the Golden State might shrivel up and keel over.

from Press Play with Madeleine Brand

Yesterday’s water main break in Westwood sent millions of gallons of water flooding nearby streets and UCLA. This didn’t happen out out the blue. In 2009, L.A.

The Water Beneath Our Feet

Yesterday’s water main break in Westwood sent millions of gallons of water flooding nearby streets and UCLA. This didn’t happen out out the blue. In 2009, L.A.

from Press Play with Madeleine Brand

More from KCRW

Food scholar Darra Goldstein traces the lineage of early fermented beverages, which were offered to deities and used in rituals.

from Good Food

Philanthropy has enabled several expensive private medical schools to offer all students free tuition. Has this changed the practice of medicine?

from Second Opinion

Date: Friday, January 10, 2025 Timing: 7 PM - midnight Location: Clifton's Republic, 648 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90014

from Special Programming

Rupert Murdoch wants to update his family trust in favor of his son Lachlan, who runs the Fox News empire. What’s behind Nevada commissioner Edmund J.

from The Business

The assassination of Brian Thompson, the former CEO of UnitedHealthcare insurance company, has prompted a national reckoning of how corporate entities commit crimes on a daily basis…

from Scheer Intelligence

Should the U.S. worry about post-Assad Syria? What’s behind the support for the man who fatally shot UHC’s CEO? Plus, KCRW discusses how sports fandom crossed into politics.

from Left, Right & Center

Threatened by the Franklin Fire, Pepperdine University Professor Joel Johnson says his wife’s quick thinking and a baby monitor powering off helped them evacuate in less than an hour.

from KCRW Features

Rollins reviews 3 definitely, certainly real 12” records from 2024

from Music Special Programming

Texas sued a New York doctor who prescribed and sent abortion pills to a woman in a Dallas suburb.

from Press Play with Madeleine Brand