TED FISHMAN
(He/Him)
As seen in:
Chicago Magazine,
The New York Times Magazine,
Bloomberg News,
Financial Times,
USA Today,
The Atlantic,
Fast Company,
IEEE Spectrum,
Flipboard,
Esquire Classic,
Chicago Reader
and
Covers:
Trends, Culture, Architecture, Construction, Infrastructure, Innovation, Personal Essays, Science and Technology, Just About Anything Interesting
Author, Speaker, Macro Trend Observer, Pizza Tosser
Articles by TED FISHMAN
China, Inc. Jak Čína drtí Ameriku a svět
O knize China, Inc. Jak Čína drtí Ameriku a svět Čína je dnes vidět všude – ve zprávách, v ekonomickém tisku, na pracovištích, při každé návštěvě nákupního centra. Provokativní, aktuální a dramatický popis z pera novináře Teda C. Fishmana o proměně Číny v průmyslovou supervelmoc vysvětluje, k jak hlubokým změnám dochází v globální ekonomice a proč už dnes mají vliv na život nás všech.
The secret message of John Wilson’s debut feature documentary, ‘The History of Concrete’
Nobody who’s remotely familiar with John Wilson’s funny, angsty HBO series How To with John Wilson will be surprised to discover that his debut feature documentary, The History of Concrete, is not really about concrete. Wilson introduces us to a guy who removes tattoos from corpses and mounts the dead inked skin as mementos for loved ones. He interviews a New York park official who details how to purge poops from public swimming pools.
The secret message of John Wilson’s debut feature documentary, 'The History of Concrete'
Concrete truck driver flees after killing woman on Phoenix Highway in KwaZulu-Natal • A woman estimated to be 30 years old was struck and killed by a concrete truck on Phoenix Highway on Friday, 2 October 2026 • The driver of the concrete …
Concrete Is Wrecking the Planet, While Defending It From Climate Change
July 29, 2026 at 12:01 AM EDT “People just don’t realize we’re still in the Stone Age.
Budi Darma's Work Is Found in Translation, From Indonesia to Indiana
Indonesian novels? Short-story collections? Memoirs? Can you name any? No, this isn't an internet come-on, like clickbait that claims that "If you know the meaning of these words you're in the top one percent." Even the top 0.001 percent could not name any. There are French ("Musketeers"), Italian ("Pinocchio"), Spanish ("Quixote") and even Swedish ("Dragon Tattoo") books nearly every reading American knows. But from Indonesia, the world's fourth most-populous country? Come on, think. Nothing, right?
In “Octet,” Music Slays the Online Beast Dave Malloy's wondrous musical at Raven Theatre follows eight people in group therapy for internet addiction who use a cappella singing for healing.
Raven Theatre’s “Octet”/Photo: Joe Mazza RECOMMENDED Raven Theatre’s Chicago premiere of “Octet” is one-hundred minutes of wonder. The first moments of the musical begin silently, before the full cast of eight takes the stage. A woman comes and goes. She tidies up a bare-bones gathering space described in the program notes as a “temporary meeting location on the North Side of Chicago.” She straightens a stack of paper cups on a table against the wall, checks the standard-issue gray folding chairs.
“Fault” Is in the Scars: Battling Couple Comedy Crackles and Cracks Jason Alexander directs this world premiere at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, a “marital combat” play with tightly wound action that takes repeated shots at the intimate lives of its couple
Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s “Fault” with Enrico Colantoni and Nick Marini/Photo: Justin Barbin RECOMMENDED Rebecca Spence’s toothy smile is the most devastating weapon in “Fault.” It reminded me of the grin of a saltwater crocodile I once saw on the Kinabatangan River in Borneo; a mouth designed not for chewing, but for crushing and strangling, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly.
“Job” Is a Terreur de Force Writers Theatre's production stars Rae Gray as a Big Tech employee undergoing an evaluation with a therapist played by Christopher Donahue.
Writers Theatre’s “Job,” with Rae Gray and Christopher Donahue/Photo: Hugo Hentoff RECOMMENDED “Job” is a dream play for actors. The two actors in the hit play’s Chicago premiere, Rae Gray and Christopher Donahue, both deliver stirring and ultimately deeply terrifying performances. The verbal duels of playwright Max Wolf Friedlich’s two characters range smartly over the troubling issues of the morally unbounded, prying infoverse, the internet, which throws its users without interruption.
Shakespeare’s Raucous Farce Is Filled with Puns, Pratfalls and Pleasures Chicago Shakespeare Theater stages "The Merry Wives of Windsor," a comedy that is produced less often than others in the Bard's canon, but worth catching.
Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” with Ora Jones, Jason Simon, Rohan Ryhs Degala and Issy van Randwyck/Photo: Kyle Flubacker RECOMMENDED The online program for Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production of “The Merry Wives of Windsor” begins with a puzzling, and arguably dead wrong note from director Phillip Breen.
“The Drowsy Chaperone” Is A Balm in Giddy Act Theo Ubique turns small-scale staging into a big-hearted musical escape, where director L. Walter Stearns immerses the audience in the world of the Man in Chair’s imagination.
Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre’s “The Drowsy Chaperone,” with Steve McDonagh, Kelsey MacDonald and Colette Todd/Photo: Brett Beiner Photography RECOMMENDED Among an exceedingly strong musical cast in this fun, exuberant production of “The Drowsy Chaperone,” the most poignant, disarming performance is delivered by the show’s character who barely sings at all.
Kurt Weill's "Der Silbersee" Gets Its Chicago Premiere Nearly a Century Later
Chicago Opera Theater’s “Der Silbersee” In October 1978, when I was a college junior in New Jersey, a friend with a connection arranged for me and others to go to Lincoln Center to hear the American premiere of a Kurt Weill piece. I cannot remember which one.
"Translations" at Writers Theatre, Glencoe
RECOMMENDED This production of Brian Friel’s celebrated, poignant and cerebral play brings forth all the magic that a great playwright, a smart director—Writers Theatre artistic director Braden Abraham—and a masterful cast can wring out of a stationary set, a few props and a whirlpool of ideas that grows ever deeper with each line of dialogue. It’s a stunning production that should be seen at least once, though I, for one, wish I could see it a dozen times or more.
"The Listeners" at Lyric Opera of Chicago
RECOMMENDED “The Listeners” is a new opera. It’s an orchestral masterwork composed by American Missy Mazzoli, who from 2018 to 2021 was the Chicago Symphony’s composer-in-residence. Mazzoli has created a bright and terrifyingly complex, often startling, soundscape. Her music demands all from the Lyric’s always superb orchestra under conductor Enrique Mazzola, and gets it.
Teatro La Plaza’s "Hamlet" at Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Once I am in my seat at a theater, I generally measure a performance by what it means for us in the audience. At any other time, I do care about what shows mean for performers, creators and others in the business of theater. David Grene (1913-2002), the great translator of Greek drama and himself an actor, taught “Hamlet” at the University of Chicago extension for a few years.
Rediscovering Architect Félix Candela’s Years in Chicago
Félix Candela, the exiled Spaniard whose long, innovative career building improbably curvy, thin-shelled concrete buildings in Mexico and elsewhere put him in the pantheon of the twentieth century’s most influential architects, lived, worked and taught in Chicago from 1971 to 1978. It’s a period of his otherwise often-dissected and celebrated life that until recently was all but forgotten.
The New Face of Law and Order Original
A few days before Eileen O’Neill Burke would be elected the new Cook County state’s attorney, the top prosecutor in a jurisdiction of 5.1 million people, she tells me a story about her great-grandparents. We’re sitting in her campaign office on North Dearborn Street, where O’Neill Burke has laid out 15 old family photos on an otherwise bare table.
Cook County's New No-Nonsense Top Prosecutor
A few days before Eileen O’Neill Burke would be elected the new Cook County state’s attorney, the top prosecutor in a jurisdiction of 5.1 million people, she tells me a story about her great-grandparents. We’re sitting in her campaign office on North Dearborn Street, where O’Neill Burke has laid out 15 old family photos on an otherwise bare table.
Manual Cinema’s "Christmas Carol" at Studebaker Theater
RECOMMENDED Stage adaptations of Dickens’ novella “A Christmas Carol” seem to always work. The characters intrigue, apparitions haunt and heartstrings pull. Of course the main character, Scrooge, is a hateful hero. At the start, audiences have more reason to root against him than for him. But the story has another hero, the immaterial Spirit of Christmas. That spirit works on Scrooge, redeems him, and, by the end, convinces the rest of us that we were too unfair and uncharitable toward him.
O que se previa para o futuro há 50 anos e o que se tornou (ou não) realidade
Em 1974, a revista norte-americana “Saturday Review”, que completava 50 anos, lançou edições especiais comemorativas que refletiam sobre como o século 19 havia conduzido o mundo a um presente sombrio. Na época, a sociedade enfrentava o escândalo de Watergate, o risco iminente de uma guerra nuclear, uma explosão demográfica que parecia ameaçar os recursos e a energia do planeta, entre outras crises globais.
"The Marriage of Figaro" at Lyric Opera Chicago
RECOMMENDED Let’s begin with what’s new and exquisitely beautiful about Lyric’s relaunch of director Barbara Gaines’ 2015 staging of Figaro. It’s Italian soprano Federica Lombardi as Countess Almaviva. Well, we can’t quite begin with her because Lombardi’s character first appears in Act II, after the always dizzying Act I, which is Opera buffa’s Grand Central Station. Gaines doesn’t shy from the lusty impulses that both propel “Figaro”’s comedy and pathos.
Worried about the future? History proves it’s hard to predict
In 1974, the worthy Saturday Review, then in its 50th year, published several anniversary issues that took stock of how the century led to a grim present of Watergate scandals, impending thermonuclear war, a population boom that would soon outrun the planet’s food and tappable energy, and other world-threatening fumbles.
Worried about the future? History proves it’s hard to predict
In 1974, the worthy Saturday Review, then in its 50th year, published several anniversary issues that took stock of how the century led to a grim present of Watergate scandals, impending thermonuclear war, a population boom that would soon outrun the planet’s food and tappable energy, and other world-threatening fumbles.
Green Concrete Could Solve Big Tech’s Emissions Problem
Along the country road that leads to ATL4, a giant data center going up east of Atlanta, dozens of parked cars and pickups lean tenuously on the narrow dirt shoulders. The many out-of-state plates are typical of the phalanx of tradespeople who muster for these massive construction jobs.
Broadway In Chicago's "Some Like It Hot" at Cadillac Palace Theatre
RECOMMENDED One shouldn’t blame Broadway’s all-singing, all-dancing musical version of “Some Like It Hot,” now in its Chicago stop on a national tour, for liberally veering from its source material, Billy Wilder’s 1959 film that is often cited on lists of the funniest movies ever made. Wilder’s jazzy, Prohibition-era “Some Like It Hot” was also a liberal adaptation, from two previous films—one French and one German.
"Primary Trust" at Goodman Theatre
RECOMMENDED Apologies to the readers of reviews who like to get a sense of the plots of the shows before committing to a ticket. Saying nearly anything about the plot of “Primary Trust” would betray the primary trust you put in these pages, which is to review and recommend stage works without hijacking the joy of seeing them. This winsome, touching, Pulitzer Prize-winning play turns so many theatrical conventions upside down that the surprise twist comes nearly at the beginning. I won’t tell you.
Black Ensemble Theater's "Blue Eyed Soul Sung by Brown Eyed People"
RECOMMENDED The big idea of Jackie Taylor’s current show, “Blue Eyed Soul Sung by Brown Eyed People,” which Taylor wrote and directs, is that there have been great pop songs written in the mode of Black soul music, but created and performed by non-Black stars. Of course, the catalog of songs influenced by soul music is a kind of infinite subset in the infinite universe of pop music.
"Inherit the Wind" at Goodman Theatre
RECOMMENDED “Inherit the Wind” began life in 1950 as a script so dangerously subversive that it took playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, already a successful writing team, five years before a producer in Dallas agreed to stage it. Today it still has subversive power.
Seriously Zany: A Review of “Noises Off” at Steppenwolf
RECOMMENDED One of the thrills of being a regular Steppenwolf theatergoer is to see the company’s nearly always stellar casts, and their directors, wring laughs from dark dramas. And heighten the drama at the same time. No other company I know wrings so well. Much of that facility stems from the keen ear the company has for American cadences, especially the rhythm of Americans’ often cruel, often self-deprecating sarcasm.
"East Texas Hot Links" at Court Theatre
RECOMMENDED There isn’t much time left of the Court Theatre’s current production of Eugene Lee’s funny, tragic and revelatory drama “East Texas Hot Links.” Though the run began seating audiences on September 6, it delayed the official press opening to September 14, leaving only ten days for performances for this must-see-if-you-can-make-it show. Why the long preview? Director Ron OJ Parson has mounted the show at least five other times, including two previous runs in Chicago.
"Judgment Day" at Chicago Shakespeare Theater
RECOMMENDED “Judgment Day,” now premiering at Chicago Shakespeare, is a fast-paced, laugh-out-loud funny play with a cast that somehow ekes comedy out of nearly every line and gesture. Jason Alexander, who played one of the world’s best-known schlimazels as George on “Seinfeld,” plays against that type as Sammy Campo, a highly-effective attorney and fixer. Campo twists the law and extorts his opponents into submission.
"The Penelopiad" at Goodman Theatre
RECOMMENDED Gods give demigods life. So does Margaret Atwood. In Atwood’s retelling of the life of Penelope, the veiled, enigmatic, ever-weaving wife of Odysseus is reborn. In Homer’s “Odyssey,” Penelope is described in the early pages, sparingly, as “thoughtful.” Homer’s listeners had to conjure what that meant, though by the epic’s end it’s clear—through her actions—that Penelope is as intelligent and wily as her tricky husband. Atwood moves Penelope to the center of the story.
Home Delivery: My Father and the Midcentury House Contest that Launched His Career
Between 1945 and 1946, when the end of World War II spurred the demobilization of 7.6 million Americans who were in military service, Chicago veterans returned to a city short by more than 100,000 homes. Homes affordable to young adults starting anew were especially lacking. The G.I. Bill offered help. The benefits program for returning vets offered them extremely low-cost or free career training or higher ed.
This new cement could become America’s next big bumper crop and help save the world as we know it Original
The Bio-Block Spiral is a small, short wall, but it may be a bulwark against a giant threat: climate change. The curved, mud-colored structure is part of the current Chicago Architecture Biennial, entitled “Rehearsing the Future.” Unlike the artists’ installations filling the city’s downtown exhibit halls, the Bio-Block Spiral rises as a tight 15-foot-tall circle of concrete blocks outside the entrance to an office building that’s away from the action.
This new cement could become America’s next big bumper crop and help save the world as we know it
This new cement could become America’s next big bumper crop and help save the world as we know it Colorado-based Prometheus Materials and other emerging companies are developing new biocements that could help meet the world’s growing concrete demands and avert climate catastrophe. The Bio-Block Spiral is a small, short wall, but it may be a bulwark against a giant threat: climate change. The …
Funny Things Are Everywhere: A Review of “Oh, the Places You’ll Glow” at Second City e.t.c.
RECOMMENDED This timely, sharply clever, often riotous revue achieves the near impossible during a moment when creating topical comedy seems like something of a dare. I, for one, went to the opening wondering if the Second City’s trademark mocking of chauvinisms, social divides and political hypocrisies might fall flat. Or worse, land as grenades and push some in the audience to interrupt or storm out. The title may promise a Dr. Seuss-inspired journey into an alternate fantasy world.
Hail to the Chief: A Review of “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive” at Steppenwolf
RECOMMENDED The title character of the President of the United States never appears in “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive,” a riotous political farce with an all-women cast. The comedy does, however, begin with a crisis he created. The President’s chief of staff, Harriet, and his press secretary, Jean, are jousting over whether the president meant to call his wife the C-word when he said at a press conference that she was having a “cunty” day.
Concrete Faith: How the Creation of the Bahá’í House of Worship Changed the Course of Architecture (CAB 2023)
“How are we to get a sense of duration and permanency into our national consciousness? Is it whimsical to believe that a building material which is beautiful and lasting, and yet inexpensive, might have a considerable influence? That a medium for sculpture which is as flexible as plaster and ultimately as hard as rock might in time not only give a new character to our building arts but very greatly assist in crystallizing American ideals?
How China’s shrinking population is making it less competitive
How China’s shrinking population is making it less competitive By Ted C. Fishman September 09, 2023 China today is a tech giant, in large part because it is a giant. The country is home to the world’s largest population of capable young tech workers, all potential innovators. But China’s shrinking and aging population is on course to halve by the year 2100, while its median age is projected to climb by 18 years, from 39 to 57.
Why China's declining population may doom its innovation dominance
China today is a tech giant, in large part because it is a giant. The country is home to the world’s largest population of capable young tech workers, all potential innovators. But China’s shrinking and aging population is on course to halve by the year 2100, while its median age is projected to climb by 18 years, from 39 to 57. Nearly every industrialized country is aging and shrinking, but China’s “demographic decay” is occurring faster.
Solving the concrete paradox: How rebuilding Turkey could pave the way to a more sustainable future
In the early morning hours of February 6, 2023, Turkey experienced its most powerful earthquake in more than 80 years. The quake, 7.8 on the Richter scale, together with strong aftershocks, killed more than 50,000 people, left one and a half million people homeless, and destroyed more than 210,000 buildings. It created enough rubble to cover about 40 square miles (twice the size of Manhattan) a yard deep in debris.
Review: "The Who's Tommy" at Goodman Theatre
RECOMMENDED The biggest surprise in the engrossing staged version of “The Who’s Tommy” now at the Goodman Theatre is how strongly the work stands alone, given the indelible imprint the music by Pete Townshend and his collaborators in The Who have long had on popular culture. Ironically, the success of the musical “Tommy” as a standalone work may have its roots in The Who’s original designs on “Tommy” as a potentially lucrative concert work.
Lofty History: Architectural Historian Thomas Leslie Offers a New History of Chicago’s Ever-Evolving Tall Buildings
Thomas Leslie’s latest, deeply researched, visually handsome book on the history of Chicago skyscrapers took root in a long-ago moment of wonder and revelation beneath the Hancock building. His family was visiting the city.
Solving the concrete paradox: How rebuilding Turkey could pave the way to a more sustainable future
In the early morning hours of February 6, 2023, Turkey experienced its most powerful earthquake in more than 80 years. The quake, 7.8 on the Richter scale, together with strong aftershocks, killed more than 50,000 people, left one and a half million people homeless, and destroyed more than 210,000 buildings. It created enough rubble to cover about 40 square miles (twice the size of Manhattan) a yard deep in debris.
Solving the concrete paradox: How rebuilding Turkey could pave the way to a more sustainable future
By Ted C. Fishman9 minute Read In the early morning hours of February 6, 2023, Turkey experienced its most powerful earthquake in more than 80 years. The quake, 7.8 on the Richter scale, together with strong aftershocks, killed more than 50,000 people, left one and a half million people homeless, and destroyed more than 210,000 buildings. It created enough rubble to cover about 40 square miles (twice the size of Manhattan) a yard deep in debris.
Stiff Upper Lip: A Review of “London Road” at Shattered Globe
RECOMMENDED The American premiere of the British musical “London Road” seems to pull off the impossible. The mesmerizing but highly complex score requires singers and musicians who can manage its intricate rhythms with precision yet still act their songs in the guise of the mostly-lower-middle-class English city dwellers they portray. Director Elizabeth Margolius’ cast has mastered the accents and affects of their characters so that, to this American at least, they seemed spot-on.
At the Threshold of Forgotten Dreams: A Visit with Jaume Plensa
Jaume Plensa created the Crown Fountain in Millennium Park eighteen years ago. As the weather warms up, tourists and Chicago families with delighted, drenched children will again form ad hoc communities around the two large towers. In 2014, Plensa returned to the park to celebrate the work’s tenth anniversary with a temporary installation of several monumental heads nearby; he told me then he had not anticipated how the fountain would double as a place for play or for large gatherings.
Beauty or a Beast? What the Fight to Save a Building Means for the Future of Joliet—and for a Vital Architectural Movement Worldwide | Newcity Design
The building that commands a low hill near the center of Joliet’s downtown stirs a mix of strong emotions among locals who grew up near its formidable physical and psychic presence. Passions are especially high lately. A wrecking ball may soon swing through the now-empty 1969 courthouse, obliterating one of the region’s first Brutalist structures.
Switzerland is becoming the global center for innovation to decarbonize construction
This is the third part of a series of articles on concrete. The first installment appeared on December 3, 2022; the second on December 10, 2022. What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Switzerland? The Alps, sure. The nation consistently ranks at or near the top of “most beautiful countries” lists. But beyond skiing, it’s also known for its chocolate, its finely crafted watches, its pharmaceuticals industry, and its banking system.
Switzerland is becoming the global center for innovation to decarbonize construction
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Switzerland? The Alps, sure. The nation consistently ranks at or near the top of “most beautiful countries” lists. But beyond skiing, it’s also known for its chocolate, its finely crafted watches, its pharmaceuticals industry, and its banking system.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with TED
Contact TED, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack