Next Steps Forward with Dr. Chris Meek

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