Podcast
Lessons of Leadership (SD)
Hosted by Academy of Achievement · EN
Live presentations by the leaders, visionaries and pioneers who have helped shape our world. Learn how the core principles of passion, vision, preparation, courage, perseverance and integrity helped these leaders shape their achievements and their lives. Discover how to
apply these lessons as a roadmap to reach your own destinations. These podcasts were recorded at the International Achievement Summit, an annual program of the Academy of Achievement.
Note: Additional podcasts are available in Audio and a subset is available in HD video. Click Audio or HD on the left menu to access these formats.
11episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
What It Takes
Sep 15, 201500:00:29Tap to summarizeWhat It Takes is a podcast series featuring intimate, revealing conversations with towering figures in almost every field: music, science, sports, politics, film, technology, literature, the military and social justice. These rare interviews have been recorded over the past 25 years by The Academy of Achievement. They offer the life stories and reflections of people who have had a huge impact on the world, and insights you can apply to your own life. Subscribe to the What It Takes podcast series at iTunes.com/WhatItTakes
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Frances H. Arnold
Sep 13, 201400:07:09Tap to summarizeFrances Arnold's techniques of "directed evolution" have revolutionized the science of chemistry by creating new organisms and enzymes for use in medicine, agriculture, manufacturing and alternative energy. She came to her profoundly original research by an equally original career path, one that led her from undergraduate studies in aerospace engineering at PrincetonŮand an early career in alternative energy in the United States and BrazilŮto postdoctoral chemistry studies at Berkeley and an endowed chair at Caltech, where she directs the Rosen Bioengineering Center. A co-founder of the bio-fuel company GEVO, last year she founded a second firm, Provivi Labs, to develop green biocatalytic processes for agriculture and industry. The techniques she pioneered have already led to the development of a new treatment for diabetes and are now reducing industry's reliance on toxic chemicals in manufacturing. Proteins she has created for use in brain imaging may soon lead to improved testing and treatment for depression, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Her work has been honored with an array of awards, including the Charles Stark Draper Prize and the National Medal of Technology. This year she was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame. In this podcast, recorded at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco, Dr. Arnold recounts the unusual career path that led to her revolutionary breakthrough.
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Robert Lefkowitz
Sep 13, 201400:19:29Tap to summarize{"#":"In the late 1960s, it was already known that hormones such as adrenalin, histamine, dopamine and serotonin stimulate specific responses in the cells of human beings and other organisms. But the mechanism by which cells perceive and respond to these hormones was shrouded in mystery. In 1969, Lefkowitz successfully attached a radioactive isotope of iodine to a form of the hormone adrenaline, enabling him to track its movements within an organism. By 1974, he observed the hormone interacting with a specific protein in the cell wall, the first of many such \"G Protein coupled receptors\" (GPCRs) he would identify in the next 15 years of groundbreaking research. In 1986, he and his associates at Duke University Medical Center succeeded in cloning and sequencing the gene for one of these receptors and found that it responds to adrenaline much as receptors in the eye register light. He has since identified a superfamily of receptor proteins that circulate back and forth through the cell wall, triggering the appropriate response to hormones and other stimuli. Roughly half of all medications in use today depend on the action of the receptors Dr. Lefkowitz discovered; they are used to treat everything from diabetes to depression. His discovery has been recognized with nearly every honor in American science, as well as the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This podcast combines excerpts from the Academy of Achievement's 2014 interview with Dr. Lefkowitz with highlights from his address to the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco.","input":{"@type":"checkbox","@name":"","@value":""}}
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Reid Hoffman & Joi Ito - Part 2
Sep 13, 201400:11:13Tap to summarizeThis podcast features two of the visionaries of today's world of Internet commerce and social media. Reid Hoffman has been called "the most connected man in Silicon Valley," the "ºber-investor" who "has had a hand in creating nearly every lucrative social media startup." He was the originator of the PayPal online commerce tool and is the founder and Chairman of LinkedIn, as well as an early investor in Facebook, GroupOn and Airbnb. Joi Ito, a social media entrepreneur in his own right, is now Director of the MIT Media Lab. A techno-prodigy and onetime nightclub DJ, he founded the venture capital firm Neoteny Co., Ltd., and was an early investor in Kickstarter, Twitter and many other innovative Internet companies. One of the world's leading advocates of Internet freedom, he has described his vision of a decentralized political structure, mediated through the Internet, in the widely-disseminated essay Emergent Democracy. In this podcast, recorded at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco, the two friends engage in a freewheeling discussion of today's media landscape, with personal observations of the industry's leaders and a tantalizing peek at its future.
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David Petraeus - Part 1
Sep 13, 201400:09:50Tap to summarizePrior to his appointment as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, David Petraeus was a four-star general in the United States Army who capped a brilliant career by leading the campaigns that turned the tide of battle in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In his 37 years in the Army, Petraeus held leadership positions in airborne, mechanized, and air assault infantry units in Europe, the United States, and the Middle East. In 2003, he commanded the 101st Airborne Division in the assault on Baghdad. Hailed as źthe worldŴs leading expert in counter-insurgency warfare,Ź he literally wrote the book on the subject. His CommanderŴs Counterinsurgency Guidance is the standard work used today by military leaders facing armed insurgents. When President George W. Bush decided to change strategy in Iraq, he chose Petraeus to lead the surge. PetraeusŴs turnaround of an apparently hopeless situation made him the most admired leader in the United States military, one who has enjoyed enthusiastic support from political leaders of both parties. In 2008, he assumed leadership of United States Central Command, taking responsibility for all U.S. military operations in the Middle East, until President Barack Obama called on him to personally lead U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. General Petraeus retired from the U.S. Army in 2011, and with the unanimous approval of the Senate, assumed duties as the 20th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He retired from the CIA in 2012 and is now a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. In this podcast, recorded at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco, General Petraeus shares the knowledge of strategic leadership he gained as Director of the CIA, and as the U.S. military's leading authority on counterinsurgency warfare.
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Philip Breedlove
Sep 13, 201400:12:48Tap to summarizeThe events of 2014 drew the world's attention once again to the role of NATO in preserving the hard-won peace of Europe. No individual bears greater responsibility for the readiness and coordination of the world's largest military alliance than the SACEUR (Supreme Allied Commander Europe), General Philip Breedlove. As SACEUR, General Breedlove is commander of all U.S. forces in Europe as well as the joint collective security operations of NATO's 28 member nations and its 22 Partners for Peace. A trained fighter pilot with over 3,500 flying hoursŮprimarily in the F-16 fighterŮhe flew combat missions in support of peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and implementing the peace settlement in Kosovo. Prior to his assignment with NATO he was Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force; he previously commanded the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano, Italy and the 3rd Air Force in Ramstein, Germany. He is regularly quoted in the press regarding security in Western Europe, particularly in light of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, past scene of some of history's most vicious conflicts. Through his blog, newspaper columns and other venues, he is a forceful advocate for NATO's readiness to defend the one billion inhabitants of the member nations who depend upon the alliance for their collective security. In this podcast, recorded at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco, General Breedlove discusses NATO's mission in light of the situation in Ukraine and explicitly condemns Russia's aggressive actions against its neighbor.
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William H. McRaven (SD)
Sep 13, 201400:13:22Tap to summarizeOn May 1, 2011, President Obama and his national security team gathered in the White House Situation Room to watch a commando raid taking place half a world away. As the mission unfolded, the President was in continuous video contact with the senior military officer directing the operation from a base in Afghanistan, Admiral William McRaven. To this task, Admiral McRaven brought three decades of experience in special operations. The first officer to graduate from the Special Operations and Limited Warfare program at the Naval Postgraduate School, he has held commands at every level of the special ops community, from leading a single SEAL platoon, to his final post as Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). His experience includes commands in Desert Storm and Desert Shield, leadership of SEAL Team Three, and of NATO's special operations command (SOCEUR). At USSOCOM, Admiral McRaven oversaw and coordinated elite forces from all branches of the nation's military, including such storied outfits as the Navy Seals, the Army's Green Berets and Delta Force, and the Air Force Special Tactics Squadron. The success, that night in 2011, of the raid that eliminated Osama bin Laden without a single American casualty was due, in no small part, to the unique expertise of the man who organized and executed the plan, Admiral William McRaven. Earlier this year, Admiral McRaven retired from the Navy to become Chancellor of the nine-campus University of Texas system. In this podcast, recorded at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco, Admiral McRaven addresses a profoundly simple question, "How do you change the world, when so much lies beyond your control?" Recalling incidents from his own life and service, he demonstrates that we all have opportunities to perform numberless small acts of encouragement, courage and compassion that can have repercussions far beyond our own lives.
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Tony Fadell
Sep 13, 201400:15:11Tap to summarizeWhen the rest of the world was just waking up to the possibility of cell phones and the Internet, Tony Fadell was already creating the technology behind the smartphone. Author of more than 300 patents, he sold a microprocessor startup to Apple just as he was leaving college. He spent the next decade pioneering mobile technology for the leading electronics companies, but none would fully commit to marketing the devices he created. When investors passed on Fadell's idea for a pocket-sized digital music player, Steve Jobs recruited him to design just such a product for Apple. Fadell led the team that created the first 18 generations of the iPod and the first three generations of the iPhone, rising to Senior Vice President of the iPod division. Not satisfied with revolutionizing the way we communicate, navigate and listen to music, Fadell founded Nest Labs to bring smart technology to the most common household devices. The Nest Thermostat conserves energy by learning the habits of its users and can be managed remotely by smartphone. Nest Protect is an intelligent smoke and carbon monoxide detector that distinguishes between levels of threat and provides relaxed voice alerts instead of piercing alarms. Future products may address areas such as water conservation and home security. Last January, Nest was acquired by Google for $3.2 billion. In this podcast, recorded at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco, he is joined onstage by journalist and Academy of Achievement delegate Samantha Barry. In their conversation, Tony Fadell, still recovering from a sporting injury, describes his career as an inventor, an Apple computer executive, and as the Founder and CEO of Nest.
Transcribe →David Petraeus - Part 2
Sep 13, 201400:13:24Tap to summarizePrior to his appointment as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, David Petraeus was a four-star general in the United States Army who capped a brilliant career by leading the campaigns that turned the tide of battle in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In his 37 years in the Army, Petraeus held leadership positions in airborne, mechanized, and air assault infantry units in Europe, the United States, and the Middle East. In 2003, he commanded the 101st Airborne Division in the assault on Baghdad. Hailed as źthe worldŴs leading expert in counter-insurgency warfare,Ź he literally wrote the book on the subject. His CommanderŴs Counterinsurgency Guidance is the standard work used today by military leaders facing armed insurgents. When President George W. Bush decided to change strategy in Iraq, he chose Petraeus to lead the surge. PetraeusŴs turnaround of an apparently hopeless situation made him the most admired leader in the United States military, one who has enjoyed enthusiastic support from political leaders of both parties. In 2008, he assumed leadership of United States Central Command, taking responsibility for all U.S. military operations in the Middle East, until President Barack Obama called on him to personally lead U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. General Petraeus retired from the U.S. Army in 2011, and with the unanimous approval of the Senate, assumed duties as the 20th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He retired from the CIA in 2012 and is now a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. In this podcast, recorded at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco, General Petraeus shares the knowledge of strategic leadership he gained as Director of the CIA, and as the U.S. military's leading authority on counterinsurgency warfare.
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Anthony Kennedy
Sep 13, 201400:09:22Tap to summarizeIn today's politically charged debate over the role of the courts in American society, Justice Anthony Kennedy stands as a model of judicial temperance and objectivity. At 38, Kennedy was the youngest federal appeals judge in the country. Appointed to the Supreme Court by President Reagan in 1988, Kennedy won the unanimous approval of the United States Senate. As a Justice of the Supreme Court, he has resolutely evaluated every case on its merits, without attempting to promote an overriding political viewpoint or philosophy. Even those who disagree with his findings are compelled to admire his carefully drafted opinions. Although he has generally voted with his conservative colleagues on crime issues, he has at times sided with the Court's more liberal members on issues of free speech and privacy. His warm, unpretentious demeanor has enabled him to negotiate compromises between his fellow justices and rise above the political passions of the moment. His longtime commitment to international legal education has insured that his influence will extend far beyond his tenure on the nation's highest court. In this podcast, recorded at San Francisco City Hall during the 2014 International Achievement Summit, Justice Kennedy recalls his early career practicing law in the courtrooms that the City Hall housed when he was a young attorney.
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