What It Takes

What do the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, a comedic newspaper columnist and an Academy Award-winning actress have in common? On the face of it, not much. But these three trailblazing women, all from humble backgrounds, reflect here on the grit and determination that led them to create their own destinies, defying any rational probability of success. And each one talks about how her personal journey was shaped by generational experiences and constraints. 

In tribute to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has died at the age of 87, we are re-posting this episode. It originally aired in September of 2016. Justice Ginsburg tells the very personal story here of her lifelong pursuit of justice and equality for women. Her tale includes trips to the library with her mother, a sixty year romance with Marty Ginsburg, her struggles to become a lawyer in a field inhospitable to women, her surprising friendship with Justice Scalia, and even her days as an aspiring baton twirler! The interview was conducted by NPR's Nina Totenberg, and explores some of the most important cases Ginsburg handled - as a lawyer and as a Justice - that helped transform the legal landscape for women and for all of America. 

Show up. Be there for your team. Play your best. These are the values that Cal Ripken Jr. embodied - every single day of his career.  His commitment to baseball was beyond compare. Ripken holds the record for the most consecutive games played in professional baseball: 2,632. He famously surpassed Lou Gehrig's long-standing record of  2130 games, 25 years ago this month, and then he just kept on going.  Ripken reminisces here about his proud life as a Baltimore Oriole, and he talks about the important lessons he learned that we can all apply to our own lives, on or off the field. 

This is a story about two of the greatest and most prolific writers in post-WWII America, who grew up in dramatically different circumstances.  Joyce Carol Oates was a hardworking farm girl from a small rural town. Gore Vidal was born into an elite political family. She is earnest, introspective & soft-spoken. He was supremely confident, sharp-tongued & provocative. Her novels (including Them, We Were the Mulvaneys, Blonde) are often about families and their struggles. His novels (including Myra Breckinridge, Burr, Lincoln) were more commonly about historical figures. Both were recognized with a National Book Award. They talk here about their lives and their approaches to literature. The contrasts are stunning! 

These two remarkable men, from opposite sides of the 30-year "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, bravely reached across the divide and waged peace. They were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998.  John Hume, who died in August, 2020, was a Catholic civil rights and political leader. In a poll several years ago, he was voted the greatest person in Irish history.  David Trimble was the leader of  the Protestant pro-British Ulster Unionist Party.   They talk here about the underpinnings of the brutal fighting that tore Northern Ireland apart, and they explain how and why they were able to negotiate a peace deal and begin the healing. They offer some important lessons to the rest of the world.  

Olivia de Havilland, who just passed away at the age of 104, was the last of the Hollywood's leading ladies from the Golden Age.  She is best known for portraying Melanie Hamilton in "Gone With The Wind" (and admit it: you liked Melanie better than Scarlett, right?), but she had starring roles in dozens of films during the 1930's, 40's and 50's. This "best of" episode, which originally posted in June of 2016,  features an extensive conversation with Ms. de Havilland about the early days of the American film industry. She explains how the studio system confined her to the role of the ingenue, and how she eventually broke out of it to play some of the more complex and fascinating women on the silver screen -- including in two films that won her Academy Awards for Best Actress: "To Each His Own" and "The Heiress".

He grew up on the tough streets of Miami in the 1980s, dealing drugs and learning how to survive.  But this first generation Cuban-American took the stage name Pitbull, and became a wildly successful rapper and music producer, who has put out dance, pop & latin hits for the past twenty years. He calls himself a hustler, and talks here about how hard work and determination have been more important to his story than talent.  And he describes the charter schools he helped start, to provide a better chance for kids low-income kids who face the same kind of challenges in life that he did.  

In honor of Congressman John Lewis, who died of pancreatic cancer on July 17th, we are re-posting this episode. It was originally published in January, 2020.  Lewis spent his whole life trying to get our nation to live up to its own ideals. He maintained faith and optimism about the future, and was inspired by the new generation of activists for racial justice. He was the son of a sharecropper, and tells the story here of how he grew up to become a legendary leader of the Civil Rights Movement and a 17-term Congressman from the state of Georgia. He describes his political and spiritual awakenings, and recounts how he learned to live fearlessly and non-violently, despite the many beatings and arrests he endured -- at lunch counter sit-ins and during the march from Selma to Montgomery.  You'll hear archival sound from those events as well, and an excerpt of John Lewis speaking at the March on Washington when he was just 23 years old.  

He has had one of the longest, most celebrated and careers in Hollywood history, and it's still on overdrive. As a director, Ron Howard has worked in almost every genre. His films include Solo: A Star Wars Story, A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, Far and Away, Splash, and Cocoon. As an actor, he made his screen debut before the age of two, and then skyrocketed to fame at five, playing Opie on the Andy Griffith Show. As a teenager, he starred in  the movie American Graffiti and the television show Happy Days, and then transitioned to directing, where he's made his mark ever since.  Ron Howard explains here how and why he made the shift. He talks about embracing criticism, and he explains why he approaches his work as a collaborator rather than a lone wolf.   OPEN SEQUENCE Opie wasn’t actually the beginning for Ron Howard. Before he was even two years old, he made his Hollywood debut - as a crying baby, in the 1956 movie “Frontier Woman.” And at the age of 5 – he spoke his first lines onscreen, in a film called The

Maya Angelou took the harshest experiences in her life and turned them into words of triumph, justice and hope. Her memoirs and her poems told of her survival, and uplifted people around the world. Her first book, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," is a classic of American literature. Angelou's voice and the rhythm of her speech were absolutely unique. In this episode, which originally ran in December of 2016, you'll be reminded why she was one of the most inspiring figures of the past century, and why her voice is missed today more than ever.

Two world-renowned novelists, from different corners of the globe, talk about why they write. Orhan Pamuk, from Turkey, is the 2006 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Carlos Fuentes, who died in 2009, was one of the most celebrated Mexican authors of all time. When Pamuk was facing a prison sentence for expressing his views, Fuentes gathered a group of international literary heavyweights to intervene on his behalf.  You'll hear both authors describe how they discovered the power of literature, and how their writing relies on a combination of dreams, magic and discipline.

Both of these men grew up under segregation, 50 years apart, and each became an important force for truth and for justice.  John Hope Franklin was a pre-eminent historian, whose scholarship focused on the central role of African-Americans in our national story.  He was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Bryan Stevenson is a human rights lawyer who fights on behalf of death row prisoners in the deep south. He's also the author of "Just Mercy" and is the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative.  Their talks, which you'll hear in this episode, are as pressing today as the day they were given. Perhaps more so. 

The United States seemed poised for a new day in 1963, when the March on Washington drew a quarter million people. And yet, throughout the intervening fifty-seven years, Martin Luther King Jr’s dream has remained elusive. George Floyd’s killing by police, two weeks ago, and the protests that have erupted in its wake, could not make that any clearer.  Over the next several weeks, we will feature some of the extraordinary voices from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s that are in the audio archive of the Academy of Achievement.  Today, we bring you our episode on Coretta Scott King. It originally posted in January of 2016. As Mrs. King says, she wasn’t just married to Martin Luther King Jr., she was married to the cause. Their partnership in life, in faith, and in the struggle for justice and human rights, changed the world. In this episode, Mrs. King describes her early aspirations in music, her courtship with Martin, and her courage in the face of violence. 

He knew from the age of five that he was going to become a paleontologist, but he also became one of the most important evolutionary theorists since Darwin. As a Harvard professor, he inspired generations of students. And as a writer, he made science understandable and exciting to the general public. Stephen Jay Gould died of cancer in 2002 at the age of 60, but during his lifetime, The Library of Congress designated him a "living legend."  In this interview, he explains his most famous contributions to evolutionary theory, he talks about how his high school choral director taught him the importance of excellence, and he makes the case against global warming, as only a paleontologist might.

In 1972, a Navy Seal named Thomas Norris carried out one of the most dangerous and daring rescue missions of the war in Vietnam. Six months later, he would be rescued himself, in an equally dramatic manner, after being shot through the head.  His rescuer was fellow Seal, Michael Thornton, who had shrapnel wounds, but swam for three hours while carrying Norris, and a South Vietnamese commando.  Both Norris and Thornton would go on to receive the Medal of Honor.  They tell their remarkable war stories here - best friends, sitting side by side.

She is best known for creating "The Lion King" on Broadway, but Julie Taymor has spent her whole career pushing the bounds of creativity - in theater, in opera and in film.  She talks here about her transformation as an artist while studying puppetry in Indonesia, about her most recent movie, "The Glorias" (a biopic about feminist icon Gloria Steinem), and about the vast differences between directing movies and theater.  She broaches a subject she has rarely addressed - the very public debacle of the Broadway show: "Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark."  And she recounts a moving story that crystallizes for her - the power of art to change lives. 

One of our very first episodes featured a rare interview with Dr. Jonas Salk, who developed the Polio vaccine at a time of tremendous panic. Today, as scientists around the world intensify efforts to come up with a vaccine for Covid-19, we thought you might find hope and inspiration in his story.  (The episode originally posted 9/21/2015.):Before Jonas Salk developed the Polio vaccine, thousands of children died every year or were left paralyzed by the virus (adults too). In 1952 alone, there were 58,000 cases in the United States. When news of the discovery was made public on April 12, 1955, Jonas Salk was hailed as a miracle worker. He further endeared himself to the public by refusing to patent the vaccine. He had no desire to profit personally from the discovery, but merely wished to see the vaccine disseminated as widely as possible. The interview with Dr. Salk featured in this episode was recorded in 1991. In it, Salk talks about being the child of uneducated immigrants, and carving his own path to medi

Millions of lives are saved each year with the vaccines developed by these two Nobel Prize recipients.  Their discoveries were some of the  greatest medical achievements of the 20th century.    Gertrude Elion was a biochemist, who unraveled the mysteries and mechanisms of leukemia, herpes, gout, malaria & meningitis in order to create effective medications. She transformed kidney transplantation, by creating the first immune suppressant to prevent rejection by organ recipients.   And her work led to the first successful HIV/AIDS drug.  Baruch Blumberg was a physician who traveled the world studying the interplay of genetics and environment on disease response, and along way discovered the virus that was causing Hepatitis B - a leading cause of fatal kidney disease and cancer.  He then created a vaccine for it, and is believed to have prevented more cancer deaths than any other human being. 

If Anthony Fauci was not on your radar before the Covid-19 pandemic, he certainly is now. Dr. Fauci is a lead member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, and a trusted daily presence in the news. Many now view him as America’s MD. We told the inspiring story of Dr. Fauci’s life and career on this podcast in July of 2018. Under the circumstances, it seemed time for an encore: This is the story of a remarkable doctor who, in 1981, became one of the first scientists to recognize that we were on the verge of a new and terrible epidemic - HIV/AIDS - and then devoted his career to understanding and finding treatments for it. Dr. Fauci has been at the forefront of HIV/AIDS research ever since. Along the way, he also became the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, overseeing research into every frightening outbreak imaginable: Ebola, Plague, SARS, Zika, Anthrax, Malaria, Tuberculosis, Influenza, etc… He talks here to Nina Totenberg, for the Academy of Achievement, about growing up

He was an outspoken proponent of the free market and small government, and one of the most influential economists of all time. Milton Friedman's ideas on monetary policy, taxation, privatization and deregulation have had enormous impact on government policies in the U.S. (and around the world) for over 50 years, including the Federal Reserve’s response to the global financial crisis. He received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1976. Friedman talks here about growing up in a home with poorly-educated, immigrant parents, and about how he fell in love with math. He explains how the Depression and the New Deal opened his eyes to the importance of economics.  And he lays out his analysis of market forces and the role of government.  Thirty years after this interview was recorded, his ideas are as provocative as ever.