What if one of the most pressing challenges in modern life isn't money, power, or even technology, but our growing disconnection from one another?

In this week's Celebrate Your Story, I speak with Allison Gilbert about loneliness, friendship, community, and the simple but powerful habits that help us stay connected in a world that too often pulls us apart. Drawing on her work with the late Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Allison shares hard-earned insights about loss, resilience, and why connection is not something we can leave to chance.

We talk about the struggles many young people face as work and technology rapidly change, the special role grandparents and intergenerational relationships can play in shaping identity, and why "social health" deserves as much attention as physical and emotional well-being. This conversation is full of practical ideas and one question that may be worth asking more often: When will I see you again?

If you've been feeling stretched thin, isolated, or a little out of rhythm with the people who matter most, I think this episode is for you.

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In this week's Celebrate Your Story, I sat down with Haresh Tharani, who came to the United States in the early 1980s and built a career that began in apparel manufacturing and grew into global business and investing.

His journey includes time spent working across countries and through periods of instability, along with years of building and leading businesses. Today, he focuses on a life grounded in family, faith, loyalty, and purpose.

He defines success through discipline, listening, and being present for the people in your life. A lesson from his grandfather has guided him: You have two ears and one mouth, so use them in that proportion.

For Haresh, the measure of a life comes down to how we treat others. It's a simple idea, shaped by experience and practiced every day. If you're thinking about your own path, there's something here worth holding onto.

In this week's Celebrate Your Story, I speak with Josh Schneps, CEO and co-publisher of Schneps Media, one of the largest networks of community media brands in the New York region. The company began in 1985 when his mother, Vicki Schneps, started a neighborhood newspaper at their Queens dining room table. Today it includes nearly 100 publications and sites serving communities across New York and Florida.

At a time when many local newspapers are disappearing, Schneps Media prints about 600,000 papers each week. But its success isn't just about print. The company has built a broader platform centered on the communities it serves — combining local journalism with events, digital publications, and partnerships with businesses that want to reach people close to home.

Josh also shared how new tools like artificial intelligence are helping his team monitor local conversations and surface story ideas. But he was clear about one thing: Technology may assist the work, but journalism still requires human judgment and responsibility.

Our conversation reminded me that in a world increasingly dominated by global platforms, there is still value in focusing on the communities around us. Local media can still play a powerful role in bringing communities together.