What It Takes®

She sent shockwaves through the world of competitive swimming, when she won a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics, beating out the favorites by a wide margin. She was 15 years old. Katie Ledecky is now training for her fifth Olympics, and is indisputably the greatest female swimmer of all time. She talks here about her unusual views on competition and about why she loves long distance races the best. She shares the unique things that inspire her. And she explains a word used only used by competitive swimmers: croggling. By the end of the episode, you'll have an understanding of why Katie Ledecky calls the water her home.

Cindy Sherman, one of the world's most renowned contemporary art photographers, started posing for her own photos in the 1970's, long before the advent of selfies. But she says her images are not self-portraits. Instead, she uses sets, costumes and makeup to create an elaborate array of characters. In this introspective interview about her journey as an individual and an artist, Cindy Sherman reveals how and why she hides herself from view.

She is one of the greatest basketball coaches in history, and an inspiration to generations of young women. Tara VanDerveer was head coach of the Stanford Women's Basketball team for 38 seasons. She led her team to three NCAA Championships. She also led the national women's basketball team to a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics. Here she talks eloquently about her lifelong love for the game and about her frustrations early in life, before Title IX, when there were no women's teams available to her.  She also talks in detail about her unique and winning approach to coaching, and describes the ways she finds basketball metaphors in everything she does!

She is a sports icon and a trailblazer for women. She won 39 Grand Slam tennis titles during her career, and she fought for equal pay and equal opportunity for women in the game. She founded the Women’s Tennis Association and was the first woman named Sportsperson of the Year by Sports Illustrated Magazine. She captivated the world when she won "The Battle of the Sexes".against Bobby Riggs. Now 81 years old, Billie Jean King has a lot of thoughts about her storied career, and many tales to tell!

As a girl in England, Jane Goodall dreamed of traveling to Africa to study animals in the wild.  In 1960, that dream brought her to Tanzania, to observe the wild chimpanzees at Gombe Stream Park. As she describes in this episode, other scientists did not believe that a young woman could survive alone in the bush, but Jane Goodall did more than survive. Her work revolutionized the field of primatology.  She was the first to document chimpanzees making and using tools, an activity that had been thought exclusively humans. Over the years she also witnessed cooperative hunting and altruism, but also brutality and even warfare among chimps. Her work, the longest continuous field study of any living creature, has given us deep insights into the evolution of our own species.  Since the 1980's, she has devoted herself single-mindedly to educating the public worldwide about the connections between animal welfare, the environment, and human progress.  
(c ) American Academy of Achievement 2017