As a tribute to Naomi Judd, who died suddenly on Saturday night at the age of 76, we are re-posting our episode from 2017. Ms. Judd's life and storied career had more ups and downs than a rollercoaster, as she talked about here. For eight glorious years, she and her daughter Wynonna were the biggest country music sensation of the 1980's, with fourteen number one hits, sold-out stadium tours, and too many rhinestones to count. But Naomi's life before and after was far from glamorous. Her early ye...
May 02, 2022•35 min•Ep. 194
Only four women have ever received the Nobel Prize in Physics. This episode features two of them! Andrea Ghez unlocked a secret of the universe when she figured out how to prove the existence of a super-massive black hole in the center of our galaxy. Donna Strickland devised a way of producing far more intense and precise lasers. Those lasers have changed manufacturing, cancer treatments, and eye surgeries, and promise to offer insights into the fundamental principles of physics. Both Ghez and S...
Apr 25, 2022•58 min•Ep. 193
Russia's war in Ukraine, and Vladimir Putin's threat to unleash nuclear weapons, has put the world on edge. In 2018 we explored the complicated history of the nuclear age, and we thought it was an opportune time to revisit that episode. Our story focuses on Edward Teller, often called "The Father of the Hydrogen Bomb". He was also the force behind Reagan's Star Wars initiative, and the model for "Dr. Strangelove". Teller was a Hungarian math prodigy who fled Hitler's Germany. In America, he beca...
Apr 11, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 192
The Tuskegee Airmen were some of the bravest and best pilots to ever fly for the United States Armed Forces. One of the last surviving members of the pioneering African-American fighting force, is Lieutenant Colonel James Harvey. He faced tremendous discrimination during his career, but he became the very first winner of the Top Gun competition. The success of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II led to the desegregation of the military. And that opened a path for fighter pilot Charles Q. Bro...
Mar 28, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 191
During March Madness, can you think of anything more satisfying to do between games than listen to an interview with legendary UCLA coach John Wooden?! Wooden led his team to more NCAA championships than any other coach in history, and he did it with a quiet, old-fashioned approach that challenged notions of what it takes to win. Even if you're not a sports fan, you can find lessons and inspiration from Coach Wooden's leadership. In this episode, which originally posted in 2016, Wooden talks abo...
Mar 21, 2022•38 min•Ep. 190
Last week, a shocking photograph was seen around the world. It showed a Ukrainian mother and her two children - lying dead on the street - killed by Russian mortar fire. The picture was taken by Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario. Addario has covered wars and humanitarian crises in 70 countries, including Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and now Ukraine. She has been kidnapped twice and has been badly injured on the job, but she is determined to open our eyes to the state of the worl...
Mar 14, 2022•53 min•Ep. 189
Andrew Young has worn many hats: pastor, congressman, ambassador & mayor, but his first role in public service was as Martin Luther King Jr’s strategist and negotiator. He was at King’s side for many of the biggest battles of the civil rights movement, and he helped draft and secure the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In this encore episode (originally published in 2016), Young shares his unique, personal stories about that turbulent period in our country’s histor...
Feb 28, 2022•46 min•Ep. 188
In the fall of 1955, Rosa Parks refused to stand for a white passenger on the bus, Martin Luther King Jr. was chosen to lead the boycott that followed, and a lawyer named Frank Johnson was appointed to be the first and only federal judge for the middle district of Alabama (also the youngest federal judge in the nation). These three people didn't know each other, and yet, their paths converged in Montgomery, at the crossroads of history. In this episode, you'll hear rare audio of Ms. Parks descri...
Feb 14, 2022•50 min•Ep. 187
Every time the Olympics roll around, we’re regaled with inspiring stories of the athletes. Well, it’s hard to imagine a more inspiring story than this one, from long ago. Tenley Albright was the very first American woman to win the Olympic gold medal in figure skating, and the first to win the World Championship. That was in 1956. It was a remarkable feat, made all the more so, because Tenley Albright was a polio survivor. After those Olympics, she entered Harvard Medical School - one of only 5 ...
Jan 31, 2022•39 min•Ep. 186
E.O. Wilson was sometimes called "the father of biodiversity," sometimes "a modern-day Darwin," and sometimes simply "Ant Man." His recent death was an enormous loss to the world of biology and environmentalism. You'll hear him tell wonderful stories here, including one about how a childhood disability gave him a great advantage in his work. You'll also get to know two major figures in a related field: ethnobotany. Richard Schultes created the field with his groundbreaking studies in the Amazon,...
Jan 17, 2022•56 min•Ep. 185
Sidney Poitier changed America’s view of black men. And he changed Hollywood. The star of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “The Defiant Ones,” and “In The Heat of the Night” became, in 1964, the first African-American to win an Academy Award (for “Lillies of the Field”). He was a leading man and box office sensation throughout the 1950’s and 60’s, portraying a huge array of characters with a dignity, courage and humanity that was radical for its time. Sidney Poitier died on Thursday, January 6th,...
Jan 08, 2022•54 min•Ep. 184
Desmond Tutu was the moral force that helped bring down Apartheid in South Africa. As a young priest, he was not very political, despite the fact that he’d grown up under the most brutal form of segregation. But his theology evolved, he says, and he realized it was a divine calling to fight for justice. Archbishop Tutu died on December 26th, 2021. In his honor, we are replaying this episode from December of 2015. In it, you’ll hear Archbishop Tutu describe his personal, spiritual and political j...
Dec 27, 2021•39 min•Ep. 183
Edna O'Brien's first novel, "The Country Girls," was banned in Ireland, and burned in her own home parish. The year was 1960, and young Irish women of that era were NOT supposed to reflect on their lot in life, or harbor sexual desires. But Edna O'Brien had one goal as a young writer - to tell the truth. Decades later, her compatriots finally came to view her the way the rest of the world did: as a trailblazer, and as one of Ireland's greatest living writers. Forty plus books and plays later, tr...
Dec 13, 2021•49 min•Ep. 182
Steven Spielberg hired Janusz Kaminski as the cinematographer for "Schindler's List” twenty-five years ago, and they have worked together, hand-in-glove, ever since. Their collaboration has produced "Saving Private Ryan," "Bridge of Spies," "Lincoln," and many others, including the new, eagerly-awaited "West Side Story," which opens December 10th. In this episode, which originally posted in 2016, both filmmakers tell how they fell in love with the movies and learned to make them. Spielberg talks...
Dec 06, 2021•52 min•Ep. 181
He grew up next door to Oscar Hammerstein and became his greatest protege. In 1957, he wrote the lyrics for "West Side Story," and for the next 60 years dominated the world of musical theater, and transformed it. His songs managed to express the most complex and vital human emotions, and touched generations of theatergoers. Stephen Sondheim was still writing and composing at 91, until Thanksgiving night, when he died suddenly, hours after dining with a group of friends. The shows he leaves behin...
Nov 29, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 180
While listening to this episode, we dare you to NOT sing out loud. Carole King and Hal David were each one half of a legendary songwriting duo, and each responsible for many of the greatest songs of the 1960’s and 70’s (too many to start mentioning here, but we packed as many as we could into the podcast). If you like a medley, you’re in the right place. Carole King worked with (and was married to) Gerry Goffin. Hal David worked with Burt Bacharach. They all worked in New York City’s Brill Build...
Nov 22, 2021•40 min•Ep. 179
Much of what we've learned over the past half-century about the ancient Egyptians, we've learned from these two archaeologists. They've both made major discoveries and have played a crucial role in protecting the pyramids and burial sites for future generations. Zahi Hawass is a National Geographic explorer, and once oversaw all of antiquities Egyptian government. But beyond that, he has drawn millions of tourists to visit Egypt, with his many books and television documentaries. He wears a signa...
Nov 08, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 178
Colin Powell, who died on October 18, 2021, wore many hats during his distinguished career in public service, among them: Secretary of State, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and National Security Advisor. And he was the first African-American to hold each of those positions. When he joined the Army in the 1950's, though, his only ambition was to be a good soldier. It was beyond the realm of possibility for the son of working class Jamaican immigrants to aspire much higher. In this episode...
Oct 25, 2021•58 min•Ep. 177
He had a voice that could make a mountain quake. And his impact on the world of music is legendary. As fans prepare to celebrate the arrival of a new Johnny Cash album -- recorded live in 1968 but never released -- we take a second listen to the very first episode of What It Takes. You'll hear the deeply introspective Cash near the end of his career (1993). He reflects on how he overcame considerable personal obstacles and turned his failures into the stepping stones to success. He also talks ab...
Oct 18, 2021•21 min•Ep. 176
The 1960's, 70's and 80's brought about a revolution in the treatment of heart and kidney disease. Dialysis, organ transplants, coronary bypass, open heart surgery and many other procedures that we think of as almost routine today - were created during those decades. Meet three of the important innovators who, between them, have saved millions of lives. Denton Cooley performed the first human-to-human heart transplant, Willem Kolff invented dialysis and is considered the father of artificial org...
Oct 04, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 175
George Lucas’s only dream as a teenager was to race cars, but he went on to create the most popular films in motion picture history. Along the way, while writing and directing Star Wars, Indiana Jones and American Graffiti, he learned life-changing lessons about humility, generosity, and the inestimable value of friendship…. as well as the secret to happiness. A not-too-subtle hint here: it has nothing to do with fame and fortune. *This episode was originally published in 2015. (c ) American Aca...
Sep 20, 2021•39 min•Ep. 174
She is one of the most recognized, respected and admired journalists in the world. Christiane Amanpour has covered just about every war and conflict of the past four decades and she has never shied from danger. She talks here about the forces that shaped her: an unusual childhood in Iran, and the revolution that upended her family's life. She describes the hard work and luck that landed her a job at CNN, when it was still a fledgling network, and the circumstances that led to her becoming a fore...
Sep 06, 2021•54 min•Ep. 173
Two decades ago, he rode into Afghanistan on a motorcycle with just three compatriots, hoping to overthrow the brutal Taliban regime. Against all odds, Hamid Karzai succeeded, and became president of his country for the next 14 years. Just before he was formally chosen as president, he made an appearance at the Academy of Achievement's International Summit, and told the miraculous tale you'll hear here. Karzai was filled with hope and optimism for Afghanistan that day, and spoke of his vision fo...
Aug 23, 2021•41 min•Ep. 172
James Michener was born to tell stories. He was one of the most popular and best-selling American novelists of all time… able to merge equal parts fiction, history, geography and culture into a perfect, page-turning blend. Here, he tells his own dramatic and mysterious life story, and he describes his very first venture into writing fiction, when he was stationed on an island in the Pacific during World War II. The book that came of that experience was "Tales of the South Pacific," which earned ...
Aug 16, 2021•38 min•Ep. 171
He’s a modern-day Captain Nemo - the person responsible for much of what we’ve learned about the Earth’s oceans over the past sixty years. He’s best-known as the person who discovered the Titanic and other historic shipwrecks. But his contributions to science and his dedication to exploration are what he’s proudest of. In the 1970’s Bob Ballard was one of the first people to explore the bottom of the sea in a submersible, and he was the first to begin mapping its geography. He later helped disco...
Aug 02, 2021•57 min•Ep. 170
These three writers used the power of their pens to expose and explore man's inhumanity to man. You'll hear the presentations they gave at the Academy of Achievement's International Summits. South African novelist and anti-Apartheid activist Nadine Gordimer was the author of "Burger's Daughter" and "July's People", and she received the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature. Playwright Athol Fugard, also South African and an outspoken critic of Apartheid, received the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement...
Jul 19, 2021•42 min•Ep. 169
On the morning of May 6th, 1954, Roger Bannister achieved what most people believed was not humanly possible: he ran a mile in under four minutes. It is considered one of the greatest athletic achievements of all time, alongside Sir Edmund Hillary's ascent of Mt. Everest. Bannister was a medical student at the time. He had already been to the Olympics, two years before. And he had spent eight years developing his own unique approach to training - one that allowed him to very gradually improve sp...
Jul 12, 2021•36 min•Ep. 168
These two choreographers have pushed dance in bold new directions and brought it to a much wider audience. Both Twyla Tharp and Justin Peck are classically-trained dancers who have created works for the ballet, for Broadway, and for the movies. Twyla Tharp, who is about to turn 80, is an icon of the dance world. She has spent six decades challenging ideas about how the body can move. In 1973 she created what is considered the first "crossover" piece, combining ballet and modern dance, but she sa...
Jun 28, 2021•59 min•Ep. 167
Coach K, as Mike Krzyzewski is best known, has had more wins than any other men's basketball coach in the NCAA... by a long shot. He's also the proud owner of three Olympic Gold Medals, from his time caching the USA Men’s National Team. Well, Coach K has announced that he is retiring, after four decades with the Duke University Blue Devils. And so we are revisiting this episode, which originally ran in 2015. Coach K's began developing his unbeatable recipe for leadership and inspiration when he ...
Jun 14, 2021•29 min•Ep. 166
What makes us human? And how did we get here? It's only human to want to know. These two renowned paleo-anthropologists have unlocked enormous gaps in our origin story. Each of them discovered some of the most significant prehistoric bones ever found in east Africa. For Donald Johanson it was Lucy. For Richard Leakey it was Turkana Boy. These skeletons helped explain how, why and when our ape ancestors evolved, grew bigger brains, and started walking on two legs. We hear the fascinating tales of...
May 31, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 165
