A Curious Mind Expanded Edition

Introduction to the New Edition
Curiosity to the Rescue I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy god- mother to endow that child with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.-Eleanor Roosevelt 1

It was June 27, 2022, and I was at the United States Military Academy at West Point to deliver my son Patrick to his plebe year as a cadet.
That day was also the change-of-command ceremony for the head of West Point-the outgoing superintendent was being rede- ployed to be the head of U.S. Army forces across Europe and Africa-and I was in the audience to see the new head of West Point take command.
The ceremony was conducted by the Army Chief of Staff, Gen- eral James McConville, and all of a sudden, in the middle of this very formal, buttoned-down event, McConville said, "We have with us in the audience today an Oscar-winning movie producer-Brian Grazer." And he pointed in my direction. I couldn't have been more stunned. I smiled and nodded as people turned to look at me.
Then McConville said, "We'd really like him to make the Army version of Apollo 13."
I get ideas for movies all the time, from all kinds of people.
But not usually delivered in public by the highest-ranking officer in the U.S. Army, in front of a hundred other senior officials of all kinds.
But McConville wasn't really suggesting a movie idea. He was laying down a challenge.
After the ceremony, General McConville and another general found me in the audience, and he told me he was quite serious about trying to intrigue me with the possibility of getting the Army into the movies.
He certainly piqued my curiosity.
That's how I came to find myself-just ten weeks later-strapped into an M1 Abrams tank, maneuvering in the middle of the desert.
That morning, I'd woken up at home in Santa Monica.
I'd gone with a handful of colleagues to an airport in Burbank, where we boarded a pair of Black Hawk helicopters and flew to Fort Irwin, the U.S. Army's largest

Brian Grazer is the producer of A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, Splash, Arrested Development, 24, 8 Mile, J. Edgar, and many more. His films and TV shows have been nominated for forty-three Academy Awards and 131 Emmys. In 2007, he was named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World. Charles Fishman is the acclaimed author of The Wal-Mart Effect and The Big Thirst. He is a three-time winner of the Gerald Loeb Award, the most prestigious prize in business journalism.