Lessons of Leadership (Audio)

Owner of Chez Panisse, "the nation's most widely-acclaimed restaurant," Alice Waters led a culinary revolution that has transformed modern cooking. She first became inspired by great food and the culture surrounding it on a trip to France at age 19. After earning a degree in French Cultural Studies at the University of California, she traveled throughout France, then returned to Berkeley, California. At first, she intended to be a teacher, but she soon found she preferred cooking to teaching, and decided to open a neighborhood bistro like those she had loved in the south of France. It was eight years before Chez Panisse showed a profit, but in time, food lovers sought it out, and restaurant chefs in other cities began to imitate her approach. Her interest in serving the finest produce in season taught her that foods grown organically, in environmentally sound conditions, would produce the best flavors. Today, she encourages American families to eat together and take an interest in what they eat, and in how it is grown and prepared. In her 1998 address to the Academy of Achievement at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, she discusses the values and experiences that have informed her approach to cooking and eating.

For 18 years, Alan K. Simpson represented the State of Wyoming in the United States Senate. As Assistant Majority Leader for ten of those years, he was an influential member of the body's Republican leadership. Partisanship aside, he was noted throughout his service for independent thinking, personal integrity and for a dry sense of humor that evaporated pretension on both sides of the aisle. Simpson grew up in Cody, Wyoming, where members of his family have practiced law for over a century. He was admitted to the Wyoming bar in 1958, as briefly served as Assistant Attorney General of the state. For many years, he practiced law in Cody, and served as City Attorney. In 1964, he began a 13-year career in the Wyoming House of Representatives. He was first elected to the United States Senate in 1978. In his three terms in Washington, he favored a conservative approach to fiscal matters and a moderate view of social issues. One of his proudest achievements in the Senate was the passage of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act -- the Simpson-Mazzoli bill -- which combined improved border security with a program for legally hiring temporary guest workers and a means for undocumented workers and their families to pursue legal residence and citizenship. After leaving the Senate in 1997, Senator Simpson became Director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He continues to practice law, alongside his two sons, with the family firm in Cody. In 2010, he was appointed by President Obama to lead a National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Along with his co-chair, former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, he produced a report that was widely praised for its realistic approach to restructuring the finances of the United States. In this podcast, recorded at the Academy of Achievement's 1998 Summit in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, shortly after he left Washington, Senator Simpson discusses his family background and his career in public service. He asserts his own belief in a higher authority and urges the Academy's student delegates to be forgiving of themselves and others, and to keep their sense of humor in the face of life's adversities.

Although the historian Stephen Ambrose (1936 - 2002) wrote over 30 books, he was almost as well-known to the public for his appearances on television's political discussion programs, where he was frequently called upon to discuss the American presidency, the history of the American West and the legacy of the Second World War. As a boy growing up in Wisconsin, Stephen Ambrose planned to follow in his father's footsteps as a small-town doctor; he entered the University of Wisconsin as a pre-med student, but his first day in American History class changed his life. He changed his major to history and never looked back. His first book sold fewer than a thousand copies, but it caught the eye of former President Dwight Eisenhower, who invited Ambrose to write an authorized biography. Ambrose's multi-volume lives of Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon, along with works on the opening of the American West, and on the experience of common soldiers in World War II, made him one of America's most respected historians. He saw two of his books top the best-seller lists simultaneously: Undaunted Courage, the definitive tale of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and Citizen Soldiers, an account of the European front in World War II, told from the point of view of the American GI. Publication of Citizen Soldiers accompanied a massive renewal of public interest in the Second World War and the Americans who fought it; Ambrose served as historical consultant for Steven Spielberg's film about D-Day, Saving Private Ryan. Spielberg and Tom Hanks later produced a television miniseries based on Ambrose's Band of Brothers. In this podcast, recorded at the Academy of Achievement's 1998 Summit in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Professor Ambrose discusses Lewis and Clark's voyage of discovery, and the critical role that personal friendship played in their achievement.

Growing up in a working class neighborhood in Chicago, Mike Krzyzewski learned to rely on himself to organize the games he wanted to play. When he failed to make his high school football team, he turned to basketball and became a local star. At that time, he hoped for nothing more than to teach high school and coach basketball. A recruiter from the U.S. Military Academy changed all that. At West Point and in the United States Army, Krzyzewski began playing and coaching at a higher level than he had thought possible. Today, he is the winningest coach in the NCAA. As head coach of Duke University's Blue Devils, he has placed his team in five consecutive Final Fours and won four national championships. While his teams have boasted such star players as Grant Hill, Christian Laettner and Shane Battier, the sustained success of the Duke program must be credited to Coach Krzyzewski's long-term strategy. While other schools may be willing to sacrifice their academic criteria for the sake of a winning team, "Coach K." holds his players to the highest standards on and off the court. In so doing, he has won the accolades of his peers and the affection of the entire Duke community. In this podcast, recorded at the Academy of Achievement's 1997 Summit in Baltimore, Maryland, Coach Krzyzewski discusses the nature of teaching and coaching with broadcaster Larry King.

A lifelong leader in academia and an esteemed scholar of constitutional law, Gerhard Casper was the ninth President of Stanford University, serving from 1992 to 2000. Casper was born in Hamburg, Germany, where he survived the wartime bombing of the city. He first visited the United States at age 16, as delegate to an international forum for high school students. He earned law degrees at the University of Hamburg and at Yale University, completing his Doctor of Laws at the University of Freiburg. A specialist in American constitutional law, he emigrated to the United States in the 1960s, and began his academic career as a professor of political science at the University of California at Berkeley. Professor Casper was a longtime faculty member at the University of Chicago, where he served as a professor of law, dean of the law school, and provost of the university. He joined the Stanford Law School faculty on assuming the Presidency of Stanford in 1992. As President, he was immediately tasked with rebuilding a campus still severely damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989. He led the first comprehensive review of undergraduate education at Stanford in 25 years. He was in the midst of these activities when he addressed the Academy of Achievement at its 1997 Summit in Baltimore, Maryland. In this podcast, recorded on that occasion, he reminds the student delegates that chance will play an enormous role in their lives, as it had in his. He extols the value of an open mind in responding to unexpected opportunities and challenges. Since retiring from the presidency of Stanford, he has served the university as emeritus professor and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He has held the Kluge Chair in American Law and Governance at the Library of Congress, as well as serving as a trustee of Yale University, the Central European University in Budapest and the American Academy in Berlin.

For 25 years, Larry King was the host of Larry King Live on the CNN cable television network. From an early age, he dreamed of becoming a broadcaster, but found no opportunities in his native New York. At age 23, he took a bus to Miami and found a job sweeping floors at a radio station. His first break came when a disc jockey suddenly quit, and he was asked to replace him. King eventually attracted the attention of larger radio stations, and in 1978 began hosting The Larry King Show, a live nationwide phone-in program. His unique and often controversial style quickly attracted a faithful following of millions. In 1985, he agreed to a similar program for CNN, the first live worldwide phone-in television talk show. Larry King Live became a favorite venue for celebrities and political leaders from around the world and Larry King became one of the most respected and honored personalities in broadcasting.

In 1995, Dr. Kent R. Weeks made one of the greatest archeological discoveries of the century, the tomb of the 50 sons of Pharaoh Rameses II. A vast complex, unseen by human eyes for over 3,0000 years, it is the largest tomb in Egypt's fabled Valley of the Kings. Kent Weeks was fascinated by ancient Egypt from childhood. He undertook his first field work in Egypt while earning a Master's degree in anthropology at the University of Washington. After conducting a groundbreaking x-ray study of mummies in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, he received his Ph.D. in Egyptology from Yale University. He has worked in the Egyptian collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, taught at the University of California, Berkeley and was Field Director of the University of Chicago's Epigraphic and Architectural Survey at Luxor, Egypt. Since 1988, he has been Professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo. Having previously explored and documented a group of tombs to the west of the Great Pyramid, Professor Weeks founded the Theban Mapping Project to survey and map the vast complex of tombs and temples on the West Bank of the Nile, across the river from the ancient city of Thebes. His 1995 discovery of the labyrinthine tomb of the sons of Ramesses, full of magnificent artifacts, captivated the world. This podcast was recorded the following year, when Kent Weeks was honored at the Academy of Achievement's Summit in Sun Valley, Idaho.

General Charles Krulak commanded a platoon and two rifle companies in Vietnam, was Commanding Officer of the Counter -Guerrilla Warfare School in Okinawa and Commanding Officer of the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines. He was serving as Deputy Director of the White House Military Office when he was promoted to Brigadier General in 1988. He served as Commander of Marine Forces in the Pacific until 1995, when he was promoted to full general and became the 31st man to serve as Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. After retiring from the Marine Corps in 1999, he enjoyed a second career as Chairman and CEO of MBNA Europe Bank Ltd.

Not since Dwight Eisenhower in World War II has a military man won the affection of the American public the way General H. Norman Schwarzkopf has. As commander of Operation Desert Storm, he gave the American people the satisfaction of seeing their armed forces triumph in a decisive confrontation with a hated enemy. After the frustration and heartbreak of the Vietnam war, this victory helped many Americans regain an almost-forgotten pride in our men and women in uniform. Credit for this must go in large part to General Schwarzkopf, a visionary commander who won and kept the undying loyalty of his troops. General Schwarzkopf is a second-generation West Point graduate. His father was also called General H. Norman Schwarzkopf. (The "H" stood for Herbert, a name Schwarzkopf senior hated so much he only gave his son the initial.) From West Point, the younger Norman Schwarzkopf served his country in Europe and all over the United States. He spent two separate tours of duty in Vietnam, where he was wounded twice and repeatedly decorated for bravery. He saw action again as Commander of U.S. ground forces in Grenada and capped his career with the triumphant expulsion of the Iraqi army from Kuwait in 1991. He returned home to the hero's welcome he and so many other Vietnam veterans had missed after their first experience of war. Although he is now retired from the army, General Schwarzkopf remains, for many Americans, the ideal of the American fighting man.

Not since Dwight Eisenhower in World War II has a military man won the affection of the American public the way General H. Norman Schwarzkopf has. As commander of Operation Desert Storm, he gave the American people the satisfaction of seeing their armed forces triumph in a decisive confrontation with a hated enemy. After the frustration and heartbreak of the Vietnam war, this victory helped many Americans regain an almost-forgotten pride in our men and women in uniform. Credit for this must go in large part to General Schwarzkopf, a visionary commander who won and kept the undying loyalty of his troops. General Schwarzkopf is a second-generation West Point graduate. His father was also called General H. Norman Schwarzkopf. (The "H" stood for Herbert, a name Schwarzkopf senior hated so much he only gave his son the initial.) From West Point, the younger Norman Schwarzkopf served his country in Europe and all over the United States. He spent two separate tours of duty in Vietnam, where he was wounded twice and repeatedly decorated for bravery. He saw action again as Commander of U.S. ground forces in Grenada and capped his career with the triumphant expulsion of the Iraqi army from Kuwait in 1991. He returned home to the hero's welcome he and so many other Vietnam veterans had missed after their first experience of war. Although he is now retired from the army, General Schwarzkopf remains, for many Americans, the ideal of the American fighting man.