Podcast
What It Takes®
Hosted by Academy of Achievement · EN
Revealing, intimate conversations with visionaries and leaders in the arts, science, technology, public service, sports and business. These engaging personal stories are drawn from interviews with the American Academy of Achievement, and offer insights you’ll want to apply to your own life.
15episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Pete Townshend: Who I Am
Jul 20, 202400:58:38Tap to summarizeOne of the greatest and most admired rock n’ rollers of all time talks about his long and fascinating life in music. Pete Townshend, guitarist and songwriter for The Who, now 79 years old, describes the band’s formation in high school and the tension in his relationship with frontman Roger Daltrey. He recounts how he became the original smasher of guitars. He openly discusses the emotional and sexual abuse he suffered as a child, and considers how it affected his life as an artist. And he speculates on why his rock opera “Tommy” connects today with audiences, 50 years on (it has to do with COVID). Oh, and he drops plenty of f-bombs! Hey, it’s rock n’ roll.
Transcribe →
Willie Mays: For the Love of the Game_In Memoriam
Jun 21, 202400:26:20Tap to summarizeWe invite you to honor and celebrate the great Willie Mays, who died this week at the age of 93, by taking a listen to the stories he told about his life on this episode. It was one of the first episodes of "What It Takes," and it remains one of our all-time favorites:Baseball fans may argue to this day about which was the best of Willie Mays’ many spectacular catches, but nearly all agree — he was one of the most versatile, virtuosic players of all time. In this episode, featuring an intimate interview with Mays recorded in 1996, the Hall-of-Famer talks about growing up in segregated Alabama, and winning over racist baseball fans soon after he became the first African-American player on his team. He recalls the day he got the call to move up to the majors, and describes in delightful terms how he never had to actually work at being a great athlete. He also talks about the catch he swears was better than “The Catch.” Hearing his voice, you’re reminded why Willie Mays was one of America’s most beloved baseball players, as well as one of its greatest. (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2015-2024
Transcribe →
Stephen Jay Gould: This View of Life
Jun 1, 2020Tap to summarizeHe 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.(c ) American Academy of Achievement 2020
Transcribe →
Demis Hassabis: A.I. Mastermind
Apr 23, 2018Tap to summarizeArtificial Intelligence is already changing the course of society, and it’s only in its infancy. Hear one of the most innovative and successful thinkers in the field describe the coming revolutions A.I. is bringing about in medicine and in environmental science. Demis Hassabis, a neuroscientist and former game developer, describes how his company, Deep Mind, is developing technologies that can extend the power of the human brain, in order to solve some of the biggest problems facing mankind. Along the way, he hopes to unlock some of the mysteries of the universe. This episode also includes excerpts of earlier pioneers in the field of Artificial Intelligence: Marvin Minsky and Ray Kurzweil.(c ) American Academy of Achievement 2018
Transcribe →
Edward Teller: Destroyer of Worlds
Jan 1, 2018Tap to summarizeThe "Father of the Hydrogen Bomb", the force behind Reagan's Star Wars initiative, and the model for "Dr. Strangelove" was a Hungarian math prodigy who fled Hitler's Germany. In Amerlica, he became one of the scientific minds behind the creation of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, in a race against the Nazi war machine. Teller's story is told here in his own voice, and by many of the other leading scientists from the dawn of the nuclear age.(c ) American Academy of Achievement 2018
Transcribe →