POTSDAM -- Charles Fishman, one of America’s most celebrated investigative journalists, speaks at SUNY Potsdam this month on his latest book, “The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water.”

The writer, who specializes in covering business innovation and social responsibility, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 25 in Snell Music Theater at SUNY Potsdam.

This presentation is free and the public is invited to attend, but seating is limited. To reserve a seat, call 267-2515.

Fishman’s book explains how he believes water resources will come to define this century. “The Big Thirst” aims to redefine how we look at water, our most essential, but in many ways most misunderstood, resource.

Fishman argues that we are entering a new age of water, an era of risk, anxiety and opportunity unlike any in the previous century. But that golden age of water, where water is unlimited, safe and free, is over, to be replaced by high-stakes water, an era in which supplies and systems are under pressure from growing populations, surging economic growth and dramatic swings in weather.

Fishman is an award-winning investigative and magazine journalist who has spent the last 20 years trying to get inside, understand and explain important organizations, from NASA to Walmart. Fishman was the first reporter ever permitted inside a Tupperware factory, and he was the first reporter in 30 years allowed inside the nation’s only bomb factory. Since 1996, Fishman has been a senior writer at Fast Company magazine.

Fishman has visited dozens of Wal-Marts in 25 states, and has spent several months of his life in Bentonville, Ark., where the company is headquartered. “The Wal-Mart Effect,” his first book, made the bestseller lists of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Business Week.