Episodes

Chris Meek speaks with Shauna "Doc" Springer, one of the world's leading experts on psychological trauma, military transition and suicide prevention, in this installment of Next Steps Forward. A trusted doctor to our nation's military war fighters, Springer will discuss practical, tangible tools for suicide prevention and the importance of trust in the prevention process. A champion for the power of connection, Springer will speak on how methods and results of connection have changed over the pa...

Postpartum depression is only part of the picture. New mothers can also face anxiety, trauma, intrusive thoughts, bipolar symptoms, and, in rare cases, psychosis, often long after the six-week checkup. This week on Next Steps Forward, Dr. Chris Meek talks with Kayla O'Connor and Caitlin Merritt, two central Iowa mothers who founded TogetHER after losing people close to them to suicide. Their grassroots organization helps women handle the mental health challenges of motherhood. Kayla and Caitlin...

Athlete mental health is finally in the collective bargaining agreements, the press conferences, and the policy manuals. But has the care caught up with the conversation? In this Next Steps Forward Symposium, Chris convenes a panel of leaders in the athlete mental health space for an honest assessment of where athlete mental health and sport psychology actually stand at the professional and collegiate levels. They trace the real progress of the last 15 years and what drove it: collective barga...

Some of the most powerful stories of American service were never told on the battlefield. They were told in prison cells in Hanoi, around kitchen tables in military towns, and in the quiet persistence of families who refused to give up. This week on Next Steps Forward, Dr. Chris Meek sits down with Taylor Baldwin Kiland, a former U.S. Navy officer, third-generation Navy family member, and military nonfiction author who has written, co-authored, ghostwritten, or edited eighteen books. Raised in ...

What does leadership look like in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, big data, and behavioral science? In this episode of Next Steps Forward, Dr. Chris Meek sits down with Dr. Paola Cecchi-Dimeglio, a globally recognized expert on AI, decision science, and the future of work. A faculty member at Harvard Law School and Harvard Kennedy School, Dr. Cecchi-Dimeglio helps leaders navigate the intersection of technology, human behavior, and organizational strategy. Drawing on dec...

What does it take to lead when the stakes are highest? This week on Next Steps Forward, Dr. Chris Meek sits down with retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Milford "Beags" Beagle, Jr., whose distinguished 35-year military career culminated in leading the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and serving as Commanding General of Fort Leavenworth. Throughout the conversation, General Beagle shares the leadership principles that guided him from platoon leader to three-star general, emphasizing that true l...

Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, host Chris Meek sits down with retired Master Sergeant Chris Spence, a Green Beret who was among the first Americans on the ground in Afghanistan. In the weeks after 9/11, Spence deployed with 5th Special Forces Group as part of Operational Detachment Charlie 53, working alongside ODA 595 and Afghan Northern Alliance fighters across some of the most unforgiving mountain terrain on earth. They often traveled by horseback, calling in American air ...

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Mikaila Cruz arrived at her office on the 95th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower expecting an ordinary Tuesday. After the North Tower was struck, she and her colleagues at Fiduciary Trust Company International were told their building was secure and that they should stay where they were. She left anyway. That decision saved her life. This week, Mikaila joins host Dr. Chris Meek for a conversation that starts long before that morning. She talks a...

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...