Episodes

Twenty-five years after September 11, 2001, one of the day's most remarkable rescue stories remains one of its least known. This week on Next Steps Forward, Chris Meek is joined by Jessica DuLong, award-winning author, journalist, independent historian, and former chief engineer of the historic New York City fireboat John J. Harvey. Built in 1931 and retired decades later, the Harvey was being painstakingly restored by a crew of volunteers when the World Trade Center was attacked. With water ma...

Filmmaker Eli Steele has built a career on the conversations most people would rather avoid: race, identity, culture, and opportunity. Born profoundly deaf into a family whose heritage spans Black, Jewish, white, and Native American traditions, Eli grew up outside the categories America uses to sort people. In this wide-ranging conversation with host Dr. Chris Meek, he opens a window into a world few listeners have ever considered: how a deaf child learns that objects have names, how reading ha...

What if the deepest human need isn't success, but the certainty that we matter? This week, Dr. Chris Meek sits down with researcher, speaker, and author Dr. Zach Mercurio, whose work on purposeful leadership and meaningful work began, improbably, with a conversation in the back of a Washington, D.C. taxi. That exchange with a driver who understood something profound about human significance became the seed of Mercurio's latest book, The Power of Mattering. Together, Chris and Zach explore why ...

What's the difference between happiness and joy and why do so many of us spend a lifetime chasing one while missing the other? This week, host Dr. Chris Meek sits down with Dr. La'Tesha Sampson, a nationally recognized educator, licensed psychotherapist, author, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and community leader. A New Jersey native, Dr. Sampson has spent more than two decades helping individuals and communities overcome adversity, improve mental health, and build lives filled with purpose. She...

This week on Next Steps Forward, program host Dr. Chris Meek is joined by the co-founders of 9/11 Day, David Paine and Jay S. Winuk. Together, they share the remarkable story behind how a day of national tragedy was transformed into a federally recognized National Day of Service and Remembrance, now inspiring tens of millions of Americans to honor those lost in the September 11 attacks through acts of kindness, volunteering, and community service. David and Jay discuss the origins of the moveme...

What does it take to lead under pressure: on the field, in the broadcast booth, and in the most personal corners of family life? In this episode of Next Steps Forward, Dr. Chris Meek sits down with NFL legend and MVP quarterback Boomer Esiason for a wide-ranging conversation about resilience, identity, purpose, and what it means to use your platform in service of others. Boomer led the Cincinnati Bengals to a Super Bowl appearance and earned league MVP honors in 1988 across a 14-year career. Bu...

She never asked for the nickname “Angel of Death.” But when General Abdul Rashid Dostum taunted Taliban fighters over the radio on the first night of combat operations after 9/11, warning them that America had sent its women to fly bombers and kill them, Allison Black became part myth, part warning, part green laser dot in the dark. This week on Next Steps Forward, Dr. Chris Meek sits down with Colonel (Ret) Allison Black, one of the first women to fly combat missions in Afghanistan, a veteran ...

On this week’s episode of Next Steps Forward, Dr. Chris Meek welcomes Bill Villafranco, executive director of myFace, former Wall Street executive, philanthropist, and advocate whose life story is a powerful testament to resilience. Behind professional success, Bill faced profound personal challenges, including the loss of a young child, parenting two daughters through addiction, and battling his own depression and substance abuse. In this candid conversation, he shares what despair really looks...

Twenty-five years after September 11th, the question Darryl Worley asked in song still echoes. This week, Dr. Chris Meek sits down with the country artist whose post-9/11 anthem "Have You Forgotten?" spent seven weeks at #1 and became one of the most defining songs of a generation, not because it was chasing a moment, but because it was speaking for one. Worley's story starts long before Nashville. Raised in southern Tennessee by a Methodist minister and a church-choir mother, he spent five for...

The opioid epidemic has claimed hundreds of thousands of American lives, devastated families, and challenged policymakers for more than four decades. In this compelling episode of Next Steps Forward, Dr. Chris Meek sits down with Richard Baum, a 28-year veteran of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy who served under six presidential administrations, including a stint as acting director. Drawing on nearly three decades at the center of America's drug policy efforts, Baum provi...

On this installment of Next Steps Forward, program host Dr. Chris Meek welcomes Professor Jeremy Stoddard, Professor of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a leading scholar in civics, history, and media education. Stoddard’s work focuses on how schools teach difficult and often divisive topics, including 9/11, the Global War on Terror, and other complex moments in American history. Drawing from years of research, curriculum development, and public scholarship, St...

In this inspiring episode of Next Steps Forward, Dr. Chris Meek sits down with Suzanne Stone, President and CEO of the Livestrong Foundation, to discuss the evolving landscape of cancer survivorship, advocacy, and patient-centered care. With a career spanning nonprofit leadership, health advocacy, and community impact, Stone shares how Livestrong continues to redefine what it means not just to survive cancer, but to truly live beyond it. From providing practical resources for patients and careg...

In this powerful episode of Next Steps Forward, Dr. Chris Meek is joined by retired NYPD Emergency Service Unit officer Scott Strauss, whose harrowing experience at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, stands as one of the most remarkable rescue efforts of that day. Strauss shares his firsthand account of responding to the collapse of the World Trade Center, where he and his ESU team entered the rubble in search of survivors amid an unfolding catastrophe. Working in extreme heat, darkness, and ins...

In this powerful episode of Next Steps Forward with Dr. Chris Meek, retired Lieutenant General Marc Sasseville shares a firsthand account of one of the most extraordinary, and least understood, moments of September 11, 2001. Then a fighter pilot with the D.C. Air National Guard, Sasseville was not ordered into action that morning, he was asked. With no formal tasking, no clear rules of engagement, and no weapons onboard his F-16, he made the decision to take off anyway, prepared to do the unthin...

Dr. Arash Javanbakht, a leading psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and founding director of the Stress, Trauma, and Anxiety Research Clinic (STARC) at Wayne State University School of Medicine, joins Dr. Chris Meek on this installment of Next Steps Forward. A nationally recognized expert in anxiety, trauma, and PTSD, Dr. Javanbakht shares insights from his extensive work treating civilians, refugees, and first responders. The conversation explores the complex science behind fear and resilience, from ...

Hosted by Dr. Chris Meek, the Next Steps Forward Symposium brings together thought leaders, scholars, and public figures to explore pressing issues shaping our nation and world. In this session, “America as a Cultural Mosaic,” the symposium examines how race, religion, heritage, and personal experience influence our shared civic life. Our distinguished panel includes: Dr. Sherry Molock, Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at George Washington University, who explores mental health, i...

In the inaugural Next Steps Forward Symposium: Combating Human Trafficking, Dr. Chris Meek, host of the Next Steps Forward weekly podcast, leads a solution-focused conversation with three distinguished experts: Kristi Wells, founder and CEO of Safe House Project; Dr. Stephany Powell, a human trafficking expert advisor for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation; and Andi Buerger, a survivor and founder of Voices Against Trafficking. This discussion pulls back the curtain on the $160 billion ...

Capt. Hanna Born was one of the children evacuated from the Pentagon daycare on September 11, 2001, too young to fully grasp what had happened, but old enough for it to leave a mark. Now an Air Force Captain and helicopter pilot, she carries that day not as a wound, but as a compass. In this installment of Next Steps Forward, Hanna opens up about growing up in the shadow of a national tragedy her family lived from the inside: a Marine father racing through gridlocked roads to find her, a mother ...

Dr. Robert C. Smith, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Psychiatry at Michigan State University and author of Has Medicine Lost Its Mind? Why Our Mental Health System is Failing Us and What Should Be Done to Cure It, has spent a lifetime helping physicians reclaim the human side of medicine. Bob has seen, from inside the exam room, how fragmented systems and over-documentation pull doctors away from their calling. His mission is to reconnect medicine to its original purp...

On this episode of Next Steps Forward, Dr. Chris Meek sits down with Gretchen Murphy to share a powerful story of resilience, gratitude, and legacy. As a three-time scholarship recipient of the 9.11 Promise, Gretchen’s journey is deeply personal, rooted in the lasting impact of the September 11 attacks and shaped by a community committed to honoring those who served. Now a student at Marist University pursuing both her undergraduate and master’s degrees, Gretchen reflects on how this support sys...

What if financial advice was accessible, judgment-free, and tailored to wherever you are on your money journey? In this episode of Next Steps Forward, Dr. Chris Meek welcomes Lori Atwood, CFP® and founder of Fearless Finance, a firm dedicated to bringing “money happiness” to everyone. Lori shares her unique approach to financial planning, offering hourly, virtual, fiduciary guidance with no sales, no commissions, and no minimums. Drawing on nearly 25 years of experience, from telecom investment ...

This week on Next Steps Forward, Dr. Chris Meek sits down with Donna Rice Hughes, President and CEO of Enough Is Enough, for a candid conversation about what’s really happening online and what it’s going to take to protect the next generation. Rather than looking back, this discussion focuses on the urgent challenges facing families right now: the rise of online exploitation, the normalization of extreme content, the mental health impact of social media, gaming risks, and how predators leverage ...

In next week’s episode of Next Steps Forward, Dr. Chris Meek sits down with clinical psychologist, entrepreneur, and executive coach Martin Dubin for a powerful conversation about leadership and the hidden barriers that hold even the most accomplished leaders back. Martin’s career spans clinical psychology, startup entrepreneurship, Fortune 50 healthcare leadership, and high-level executive coaching. After more than a decade in private practice, he founded and scaled a multimillion-dollar health...

In this compelling episode of Next Steps Forward, Dr. Chris Meek sits down with Clarence Singleton to explore a lifetime defined by service, sacrifice, and resilience. Clarence reflects on growing up in South Carolina under difficult circumstances, the decision to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, and the life-altering moment in Vietnam when he was severely wounded while trying to save fellow Marines, an act that earned him the Purple Heart. He shares how that experience shaped his under...