Next Steps Forward with Dr. Chris Meek

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...

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 commu...

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, volunte...

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 t...

In this milestone 250th episode of Next Steps Forward, Dr. Chris Meek is joined by two of the most consequential public servants of our time: Andrew Card and Leon Panetta. In a wide-ranging and deeply personal conversation, these former White House Chiefs of Staff reflect on lives shaped by service, leadership under pressure, and a shared commitment to preserving the lessons of September 11, 2001. From Leon Panetta's u...

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 (Re...

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 sub...

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 ...

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.

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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 his...

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 canc...

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 survi...

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 onboar...

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 respond...

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 ...

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...

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...

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 n...