Bio
Brad Stone has served as the Silicon Valley Correspondent for Newsweek magazine since 1998, covering the rise, fall, and reincarnation of the high-tech economy. Prior to that, he was a New York-based general assignment correspondent for Newsweek, covering the historic Mark McGwire home-run chase and profiling authors Kurt Vonnegut and Louise Erdrich. He is also a frequent contributor to Meredith Publishing’s More magazine, penning recent profiles of actresses Annette Bening, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Diane Keaton, as well as authors Rebecca Wells and Ann Rule. Stone graduated from Columbia University in 1993. To learn more, visit www.gearheadsthebook.com.
Project Description
Gearheads: The Turbulent Rise of Robotic Sports (Simon & Schuster, Spring 2003) tells the unlikely story of robotic combat—an increasingly popular televised spectacle where remote-control robots fight to the death inside a bulletproof ring. Originated in 1994 by a California special-effects wizard named Marc Thorpe, the new sport quickly won a community of dedicated, mechanically obsessed robot builders. Weaving together exciting fight scenes and revealing profiles with the bumpy trajectory of the business as it moved through the courts and into the world of cable TV, Stone creates a compelling narrative of a new sport—and of a new kind of athlete who competes with brains rather than brawn.
