Tracy Kidder: A Truck Full of Money

THIS EVENT IS MOST LIKELY CANCELLED BECAUSE THE BUILDING IT WAS BEING HELD IN CAUGHT FIRE ON 9/30 AND IS STILL BURNING!

Tracy Kidder, master of the nonfiction narrative and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic The Soul of the New Machine and the bestselling Mountains Beyond Mountains, presents the inspiring story of Kayak.com founder Paul English, a kinetic, unconventional inventor and entrepreneur.

Growing up in working-class Boston, Paul English discovers the perfect medium for his talents the first time he sees a computer. Despite suffering from what is later diagnosed as bipolar disorder, he begins his pilgrim journey through the surreal ups and downs of our brave new world. Relating to the Internet as if it was an extension of his own mind, English discovers that he has a gift for building creative teams of individuals. His innovative management style, rapid success, and innate sense of fair play inspires intense loyalty. When English does make a fortune – as co-founder of the travel website Kayak.com (which sold for almost two billion dollars) – his first concern is how to give it away.

With the power of a consummate storyteller, Tracy Kidder casts a fresh, critical and often humorous eye on the way new inventions and new money are reshaping our Culture. A Truck Full of Money is a unique portrait of an irresistibly endearing man who is indefatigable, utterly original, and wonderfully unpredictable.

Presented by KPFA Radio 94.1 FM

Hosted by Mitch Jeserich, Host and Producer of KPFA’s Letters and Politics, is a veteran broadcast journalist. He got his start as KPFA’s California State Political Reporter in Sacramento before going to Washington DC to cover the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court between 2003 and 2006. In 2009 Mitch launched a pilot program called Letters from Washington, chronicling the first 100 days of the Obama administration, which became Letters & Politics.

KPFA benefit http://www.kpfa.org

$12 advance, $15 door.