Now there's no official scientific scale of course that measures risk tolerance.

Not that I know if there were I'm pretty sure I'd be near the bottom. But even if you're the kind of

person who thinks of yourself at the upper end, I'm going to guess that the two

people you're about to hear from have got you beat. I've been a bit of a risk taker all my life,

not always in the traditional way of defining risks,

but you know it was probably when I was growing up

it was probably risky for a young girl to decide to be a scientist.

You know, it was probably even when I was in college risky for a female college graduate to go on to graduate school in physics and certainly going on to be an astronaut

was taking a risk. That's Sally Ride. On June 18th, 1983, she became the first American woman in space.

And this is Eileen Collins, who stood on Sally Ride's proverbial shoulders

and became the first woman to pilot the space shuttle and then to command it.

When I went to summer camp, I would watch the gliders fly overhead.

They would launch off the hill, they'd fly over the valley, they'd come back and land.

And I was just fascinated with the gliders and I knew that someday I wanted to maybe do that, maybe

fly. But I knew it was expensive and I knew that, you know, it's not the kind of thing that a

young girl aspires to do back in those days you were going to be a young girls would be a teacher, a nurse, or a stay-at-home mom.

This is what it takes a podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance from the audio

archives of the Academy of Achievement.

On this episode, Sally Ride and Eileen Collins talk about what led them to the highest of

heights.

Fasten your seat belts.

It's going to be a smooth ride.

...