Part 2 of 2: Franc D’Ambrosio talks about the sacrifices he made to chase his dreams, including routinely choosing between food and shelter, how dyslexia affected his career, how playing the Phantom changed his life, and the critical skill he learned from Barry Manilow.
Part 1 of 2: Franc D’Ambrosio talks about walking away from the security of his family’s bakery business to pursue a career as a singer and actor, the intense desire that drove him, landing the part of Anthony Corleone in THE GODFATHER PART III, and how he almost turned down the stage role that will always define him—the masked man in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.
Lawyer and former Major League Baseball executive Ulice Payne, Jr. talks about the formative values of his childhood in western Pennsylvania, landing a basketball scholarship to Marquette, where he played on the 1977 NCAA championship team, and the moment of heartbreak that opened the door to his future.
Actress and director Jodie Markell, who recently starred in the satirical play LENI’S LAST LAMENT, talks about the moment when she first realized that performing stirred something deep in her soul and why she was driven to turn a long-forgotten Tennessee Williams screenplay into the independent film THE LOSS OF A TEARDROP DIAMOND.
Concert pianist Randall Atcheson talks about the talent that propelled him from small-town Alabama churches to Julliard and performance halls on five continents, how he keeps pushing himself to excel and connect with audiences, and the near-death experience that changed his life.
Part 2 of 2: Bob Lilly talks about the mindset he brought to the field as a Hall of Fame defensive tackle for Tom Landry’s Dallas Cowboys, how it felt to become the first honoree at Texas Stadium’s Ring of Honor, and the gift that launched him on a different sort of adventure.
Part 1 of 2: Bob Lilly talks about learning from his father’s tenacity, the devastating drought that forced his family to leave Texas, how his life pivoted on landing a football scholarship to TCU, and becoming the first draft choice of the expansion Dallas Cowboys.
Urologist Richard Jadick talks about the tragedy that rocked his upstate New York family, the television show that inspired his medical career, how he became the most decorated doctor of the Iraq War, and the battlefield memories that still haunt him.
Bob Tiffin talks about the lessons he learned around his father’s home supply store, the leap he took to launch Tiffin Motorhomes, how he built the family operation into a leading RV manufacturer, and the power of a very big check.
Part 2 of 2: Eileen Collins talks about the pressure she felt to measure up at NASA, becoming the first woman to pilot and command the Space Shuttle, how traveling to space affected her, and the tragic day when Columbia disintegrated on re-entry, killing seven of her colleagues.
Part 1 of 2: Eileen Collins talks about her youthful fascination with flight, the stuttering that dented her confidence, negotiating the road from community-college math major to barrier-shattering U.S. Air Force pilot, and achieving her dream of becoming an astronaut.
Bill Hardgrave talks about becoming the first person in his family to graduate from high school, using basketball to earn a college education, and how technology powered his unlikely journey into higher education—culminating with his appointment as president of the University of Memphis.
Gabe Kallos talks about the rise of antisemitism in his native Hungary and how it affected how he saw himself, somehow avoiding the gas chambers as a teenage slave laborer at the Auschwitz concentration camp, emigrating to the United States, and carving out a good life as a Southern California dentist.
Paul Coffman talks about being shaped by the values of a small Kansas farming community, walking onto the football team at Kansas State, where he eventually earned a scholarship and a starting position, and negotiating the arduous road from undrafted free agent to Pro Bowl tight end for the Green Bay Packers.
Part 2 of 2: Norman Gaddis talks about the day he was captured by the North Vietnamese, the torture he endured, how he survived 2,124 days at the infamous prison camp known as the Hanoi Hilton, and the joy he felt when he reunited with his family and resumed his Air Force career.
Part 1 of 2: Retired Air Force General Norman Gaddis talks about the moment of initiative during World War II that changed his life, flying escorts in the Berlin Airlift, volunteering for duty as a fighter pilot in Vietnam, and the fateful day when his F-4 was blasted out of the sky.
Silicon Valley pioneer Robert Finnigan talks about losing his mother at age eight, gravitating to the then-nascent field of electronics after World War II, and betting his future on the commercial viability of the revolutionary quadrupole mass spectrometer.
Carol Bates Brown talks about being affected by the radicalization of her college campus in the late 1960s, how she and a friend developed the popular bracelet that brought attention to the issue of Vietnam War POWs and MIAs, and how the cause took control of her life.
CBS Sports football analyst Randy Cross talks about the impact of his father’s alcoholism, why his ambition to be a professional football player developed slowly, what he learned about chasing success from Bill Walsh, and how he leveraged his three Super Bowl rings with the San Francisco 49ers to achieve a long career in television.
Part 2 of 2: Susie Scott Krabacher talks about struggling to find her way after PLAYBOY, meeting the love of her life, dealing with the lingering effects of her abuse, and the purpose she has found in leading a charity dedicated to nurturing and protecting Haiti's most vulnerable children.
Part 1 of 2: Susie Scott Krabacher talks about the abuse she suffered as a child, a promise she made to God, her rocket ride to fame as a PLAYBOY centerfold, confronting the dark side of that world, and the marriage to a conman that eventually left her homeless.
Grammy-winning Bluegrass fiddler Michael Cleveland talks about battling against the limitations of blindness and hearing loss, a youthful encounter with Bill Monroe, the drinking that once dominated his life, and how he keeps pushing himself artistically.
Art Dunning talks about the love of learning that animated his youth in the segregated South and eventually led to a successful career in academia, the defining choice he faced while serving in the U.S. Air Force, and the fateful decision he made to help integrate the all-white University of Alabama football program.
Part 2 of 2: Joe Kittinger talks about reuniting with Dr. John Paul Stapp for Project Excelsior, jumping out of his balloon from a record altitude of 102,800 feet, being tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, and working with the Red Bull team to help Felix Baumgartner shatter his 52-year-old record.
Part 1 of 2: Fighter pilot and test pilot Joe Kittinger talks about the sense of independence and adventure instilled in him by his parents, the yearn to fly that led him into the U.S. Air Force in the early days of jets, his life-altering introduction to Dr. John Paul Stapp, and his pioneering high-altitude work with Project Manhigh, which took him toward the edge of space in the years before NASA.
Sports columnist Dave Kindred talks about the enduring influence of small-town Midwestern values, the impact of a childhood gift, the memorable day he shared a bed with Muhammad Ali, and the late-in-life assignment that has given him purpose and fulfillment.
Part 2 of 2: Dick Rutan talks about the obstacles he and his brother Burt faced in building the Rutan Voyager and how, over the course of a nine-day journey in 1986, battling through mechanical problems, violent weather and gathering fatigue, he and Jeana Yeager established an aviation milestone that many thought impossible: flying around the world without stopping or refueling.
Part 1 of 2: Dick Rutan talks about the airplane ride that changed his life, the admonition from his mother that altered his view of the world, the need for adventure that led him to become a decorated fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, and the origins of his historic flight around the world.
Chilean-born banker Tito Echiburu talks about escaping an abusive father and political instability to chase success in the United States, the importance of goal-setting, drive and assimilation, and how he leveraged a tennis scholarship and a life-altering telegram to find happiness in a small Mississippi town.
Part 2 of 2: Michael O'Neill talks about his breakout performance as a Secret Service agent on THE WEST WING, the one part he lost that still bothers him, the most gut-wrenching role of his career, the importance of tenacity, and how some characters have burrowed deep into his soul.
