Prospecta Press – serie

“The story of Svalbard's seed vault reads as an amazingly optimistic science fiction story— but these remarkable photos remind us, happily, that's it true. For those of us struggling to keep the planet from cracking, it's a great comfort to know all about this project.” —Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New PlanetThe remarkable story of the Global Seed Vault—and the valiant effort to save the past and the future of agriculture: Now updated with a new chapter by the author and photos from recent improvements in the facilities.Author Cary Fowler, father of the Global Seed Vault, was named a 2024 World Food Prize Laureate.Closer to the North Pole than to the Arctic Circle, on an island in a remote Norwegian archipelago, lies a vast global seed bank buried within a frozen mountain. At the end of a 130-meter long tunnel chiseled out of solid stone is a room filled with humanity’s precious treasure, the largest and most diverse seed collection ever assembled: more than a half billion seeds containing the world’s most prized crops, a safeguard against catastrophic starvation.The Global Seed Vault, a visionary model of international collaboration, is the brainchild of Cary Fowler, renowned scientist, conservationist, and biodiversity advocate. In SEEDS ON ICE, Fowler tells for the first time the comprehensive inside story of how the “doomsday seed vault” came to be, while the breathtaking photographs offer a stunning guided tour not only of the private vault, but of the windswept beauty and majesty of Svalbard and the enchanting community of people in Longyearbyen.With growing evidence that unchecked climate change will seriously undermine food production and threaten the diversity of crops around the world, SEEDS ON ICE offers a personal and passionate reminder that we shouldn’t take our reliance on the world of plants for granted—and that, in a very real sense, the future of the human race rides on this frozen and indispensable biodiversity.

Joe Lazer—one of the world’s leading voices on the art and science of business storytelling—is out with a new book revealing how to master storytelling and future-proof your career in the AI Age.The conventional wisdom today says that if you want to succeed in the next age of work, all you need to do is learn how to use AI. But the future or work won’t be won by the best prompt engineers. It’ll be won by those those who lead, persuade, influence, and inspire. By the communicators and the critical thinkers. And there’s one cognitive superpower that unlocks all those crucial soft skills: storytelling.Make AI your primary skillset, and you’ll become an assistant to a machine. Master storytelling first—and then amplify your abilities with AI—and you’ll make yourself irreplaceable. The clock is ticking. Which path will you take?For the past 15 years, best-selling author, Joe Lazer has been one of the world’s leading voices on the art and science of business storytelling. In Super Skill, Lazer reveals how to become a master storyteller and win the AI Age. Through 15 science-backed principles, cutting-edge AI techniques, and real-world stories of neuroscientists, Neanderthals, founders, and filmmakers, he’ll show you how to hone your storytelling superpowers, build a following, and future-proof your career.With rave reviews, Super Skill is a must-read for marketers, salespeople, entrepreneurs, executives, and anyone else who wants to supercharge their most unique human advantages in the age of AI.

NEW CENTENNIAL EDITION FOR 2020 Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald honeymooned for five months in the summer of 1920 in a modest gray house in Westport, Connecticut. It was an experience that had a more profound impact on both of their collective works than any other place they lived.It was, for Scott and Zelda, their honeymoon. Having just gotten married and after being kicked out of some of New York city's finest hotels, they were, for the first time, in their very own place, albeit for only five months. It was a time that Scott Fitzgerald called "the happiest year since I was eighteen."He had, after all, just achieved success with his first novel, This Side of Paradise, and was suddenly awash with money. The Fitzgeralds lived a wild life of drinking, driving and endless partying while living in suburban Connecticut. As it happens, living near the beach, they were neighbors to a larger-than-life reclusive multi-millionaire, F.E. Lewis.Historian Richard Webb grew up in Westport a few doors down the street from where the Fitzgeralds had lived some forty years earlier. Fascinated with the Fitzgeralds, when Webb learned that author Barbara Probst Solomon, who grew up across the river from the F.E. Lewis estate, proposed in the New Yorker that Westport was the real setting for Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby, he was stirred to actively researching her claim.Boats Against the Current tells the real story behind the famous novel and its tragic hero, debunking the long-held belief that the book was solely inspired by the Fitzgerald’s time in Great Neck, across the Sound in Long Island, and lays out enough information about the fascinating Mr. Lewis that it is difficult not to believe that author Webb has located the true inspiration for one of the most captivating and iconic characters in American literature, the great Gatsby himself.Illustrated with a fantastic array of never-before-seen photos from the Lewis family, as well as the scrapbooks of the Fitzgeralds, period newspaper clippings, and a myriad of compelling stories about Scott, Zelda and their fantastically wealthy neighbor. A companion book to the documentary Gatsby in Connecticut: The Untold Story, Boats Against the Current also recounts Webb’s own journey of making the film with fellow Westporter and filmmaker, Robert Steven Williams. The Great Gatsby may be one of America's essential novels. Boats Against the Current is an essential document for anyone who has read the book and wondered at the fantastical world whose story it tells.

From the United Nations Security Council, through community organizing that changed the paradigm of municipal redevelopment, to the revolutionary post–Watergate Congress and his role spearheading new environmental, anti-cancer, and global vaccine health initiatives, Andy Maguire was on the front lines in seminal moments of recent American history.Ahead of the Curve is the riveting story of how Andy learned to accumulate power and leverage it for the public good. Andy’s terms in Congress coincided with the tumultuous times of the Israeli Six-Day War and the reform era of New York Mayor John Lindsay. After a successful unorthodox campaign in a staunch Republican district, he helped revive a hidebound House of Representatives and led an important new environmental movement there. Pacesetting international development work came next.Andy learned early on that no single person can create real change, discovering how to take risks, use power, build teams, spot compromises, and mobilize diverse interests to get constructive change done. His story is more than an inspiring memoir, and more than a portrait of a committed changemaker pursuing the common good. It also is a coming-of-age tale and an implementation handbook that shows others how to continue Andy’s work.This vivid insider’s view of fifty years of world history by Michael Takiff, bestselling author of A Complicated Man: The Life of Bill Clinton as Told by Those Who Knew Him, is both a compelling read and a beacon of hope for the current era.Ahead of the Curve is an exceptionally valuable and important book for those who seek to confront today’s challenges to American democracy and a stable world order.

A collection of witty, dramatic, and moving stories from twenty top lawyers, revealing the human side of landmark cases and the comical absurdities of a life in the law In Legal Briefs: The Ups and Downs of Life in the Law, editor Roger Witten takes us behind the scenes of some of the most fascinating court cases of the last few decades, while introducing us to the sometimes strange, and sometimes comical situations these lawyers have experienced during their long careers. This collection features twenty lawyers of varying backgrounds and expertise writing with pizzazz, humor, and passion about such significant events as the Watergate break-in; the 9/11 Commission; the Iranian hostage crisis, and more. They write of tackling issues concerning money in politics and Citizens United; same-sex parental custody rights; and the contempt charge against Martin Luther King Jr. And we are also treated to intimate portraits of some unique clients and towering figures in the legal world. This book will delight all readers, not just those with a specific interest in the law. As Roger Witten writes in the introduction, these stories “reveal the ups and downs of a life in the law by telling stories that are dramatic, moving, and/or amusing Some are tongue-in-cheek. Others are serious but never dull.”

A patient advocacy guide that helps you transform your fear into strength, navigate the healthcare system, and reclaim your life with dignity and hope.Sixty percent of Americans live with at least one chronic health condition and over a lifetime, many people will face multiple surgeries or life-changing diagnoses. A scary diagnosis can be overwhelming, launching patients and their loved ones into a world of fear, uncertainty, and complexity. Scary Diagnosis is a uniquely compassionate and empowering book that helps patients, families, and caregivers navigate the emotional and practical challenges that follow a serious medical diagnosis.Author Edward Rogoff draws on his own experience with chronic illness and shares compelling stories from others who have faced similar journeys. Through these narratives, he reveals how individuals can move from fear to strength, advocate for themselves, and navigate the healthcare system, while maintaining their sense of control and dignity.Scary Diagnosis is filled with real-life examples and valuable perspectives to help readers approach the challenges ahead with resilience and determination.

Ring Lardner, Jr.'s memoir is a pilgrimage through the American century. The son of an immensely popular and influential American writer, Lardner grew up swaddled in material and cultural privilege. After a memorable visit to Moscow in 1934, he worked as a reporter in New York before leaving for Hollywood where he served a bizarre apprenticeship with David O. Selznick, and won, at the age of 28, an Academy Award for the classic film, Woman of the Year, the first on-screen pairing of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. In "irresistibly readable" pages (New Yorker), peopled by a cast including Carole Lombard, Louis B. Mayer, Dalton Trumbo, Marlene Dietrich, Otto Preminger, Darryl F. Zanuck, Bertolt Brecht, Bert Lahr, Robert Altman, and Muhammad Ali, Lardner recalls the strange existence of a contract screenwriter in the vanished age of the studio system--an existence made stranger by membership in the Hollywood branch of the American Communist Party. Lardner retraces the path that led him to a memorable confrontation with the House Un-American Activities Committee and thence to Federal prison and life on the Hollywood blacklist.One of the lucky few who were able to resume their careers, Lardner won his second Oscar for the screenplay to M.A.S.H. in 1970.

During the summer of 1964, over one thousand people, including many college students went to Mississippi as part of a state wide effort to register African-American voters and to establish teaching centers that became known as "Freedom Schools." Participants began their training at a college campus in Ohio. Motivated by a strong sense of social justice, Tracy Sugarman, an artist and commercial illustrator from Westport, Connecticut, joined the volunteers in Ohio and set out to document the people and events of what turned out to be an historic period. Sugarman joined the freedom riders, and while somewhat older and more experienced than most of them, was an active participant throughout. Sugarman traveled to Mississippi and shared all the experiences of the workers as well as their fears and anxiety as they were greeted by anger and violence by many white Mississippians. Sugarman describes and beautifully illustrates the living conditions, day-to-day activities, and the interpersonal relationships that developed between the host families and the visitors.The author introduces us and vividly portrays many of the important people in the movement, including Bob Moses and many others, but he also focuses on the ordinary citizens and hosts. Other works have set forth the significant events that occurred during that summer, including especially the Goodman/Schwerner/Chaney murders that took place in Neshoba County and startled the American public. This first hand account focuses more on the human experiences and its meaning for participants. It is an essential source of information about what Freedom Summer did for those who took part in it and now, with the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, Stranger at the Gates will bring to life this momentous period for modern readers. Most of the wonderful illustrations created for the 1966 edition of Stranger at the Gates have been reproduced here, and as a special bonus, 26 illustrations that were not included in the original book are included in a gallery of Freedom Summer in brilliant drawings that bring to life, in Tracy Sugarman's powerful reportorial style, the people and places of 1964 Mississippi.