Second Act Stories

Andrew Pudalov spent 15 years working his way up the ladder in the competitive ranks of NYC's financial industry. But the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center changed everything. "I was traumatized. My wife too. We have little kids. I lost good friends. One jumped. I could not believe the towers came down." Andrew, his spouse and their young family were ready for a change. So they headed west to Boulder, Colorado with very little idea what was ahead. With zero experience in the retail food industry, Andrew started Rush Bowls a company  that specializes in all-natural acai bowls and smoothies. Over the past 20+ years, the company has grown to over 50 locations across the United States with another 20 stores in development.  

What would happen if you were suddenly thrust into the role of caregiver for someone you love? Would you have any idea what to do or how to do it? It’s estimated that as many as 50 million people in the United States are caregivers, a job that virtually none of them trained for. We all know someone who became a caregiver and had to learn on the fly. Unfortunately, there are precious few resources that can help. Sue Ryan and Nancy Treaster experienced it first-hand. These inspiring women worked together in the software industry before finding themselves facing a similar life challenge: becoming caregivers for their husbands, both of whom were battling dementia. There was plenty of information about their husbands’ diagnoses. Doctors were happy to provide them with hordes of information about what to expect as the disease progressed, but nobody was there with practical information about how to be a caregiver for someone with dementia. Their lived caregiving experience gave Sue and Nancy all the training they ne

What would happen if you were suddenly thrust into the role of caregiver for someone you love? Would you have any idea what to do or how to do it? It’s estimated that as many as 50 million people in the United States are caregivers, a job that virtually none of them trained for. We all know someone who became a caregiver and had to learn on the fly. Unfortunately, there are precious few resources that can help. Sue Ryan and Nancy Treaster experienced it first-hand. These inspiring women worked together in the software industry before finding themselves facing a similar life challenge: becoming caregivers for their husbands, both of whom were battling dementia. There was plenty of information about their husbands’ diagnoses. Doctors were happy to provide them with hordes of information about what to expect as the disease progressed, but nobody was there with practical information about how to be a caregiver for someone with dementia. Their lived caregiving experience gave Sue and Nancy all the training they ne

Jonathan Schwartz was at the top of his game serving as a business manager to top stars including Beyonce, Alanis Morisette, Gwenyth Paltrow, Mariah Carey, Linkin Park and others. But this Hollywood insider had a dark secret; he was a compulsive gambler and cocaine addict. And over the course of six years, he embezzled over $7 million from his clients to fund these addictions. Jonathan's criminal behavior earned him a six-year sentence in prison. When Jonathan returned to society in 2020, he found it almost impossible to get a job. But he went back to school and got a degree in alchol & drug counseling followed by an advanced degree as a therapist. Today, he makes a living as the Director of Programing at Altus Rehab, a top-tier, luxury treament facility in Encino, California. According to Jonathan, "I make very little money, but it's the happiest I've ever been. Money never brought me happiness. And today, helping people like me with the same in the commonality and the way our brains are wired, it's the

Peggy Rowe has accomplished a lot in her 87 years. She started her career as a schoolteacher in Baltimore, where she and her husband John – also a teacher – raised three sons. It was a pretty normal life by all accounts. But life got extraordinary somewhere along the way. One common thread in the Rowe household was humor, and Peggy had a finely tuned ability to recognize funny and write about it. See, writing has always been her creative outlet. She wrote all the time. She wrote fun poems for her students, which she would later hear them recite on the playground; she wrote short stories that were published in newspapers and magazines; she wrote stories about things that happened in everyday life; and she wrote about her family. Her son Mike (yes, THAT Mike Rowe) loved her stories, but every time she called to share one, he’d tell her, “Mom, don’t TELL me about it; sit down and WRITE about it.” This happened a lot. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Peggy had a wonderful career as an educator, but it wasn’t

With an undergraduate degree from New York University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, Jon Malankar joined the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in 2018. He climbed the corporate ladder at this top managment consulting firm and became a partner in his mid-30s. But the bureaucratic burden of working for a large consulting firm with Fortune 100 clients and a strong desire to be more plugged in to his local community ("I felt like a nomad in my hometown"), Jon yearned to be his own boss. After a year of exploration, he opted to become a Mr. Handyman franchise owner in Long Branch, New Jersey. Despite no experience in home repair work, Jon is successfully managing four teams of repair professionals. According to Jon, "Owning a very local, present, visible, tangible small business really filled up the scorecard for me."

Since her mother taught her to sew at the age of eight, Vanessa Gavin always wanted to be a fashion designer. Throughout high school, she made her own clothes experimenting with different colors, fabrics and patterns. But in college she opted to study biology, went on to get her masters in public health and finally got a degree in medicine. Now Dr. Vanessa Gavin-Headen, she spent the next 25 years in a rewarding career as a family physician in Long Beach, California. It was during the Covid-19 pandemic when health professionals started wearing medical scrubs again that Dr. Vanessa returned to her fashion dream by creating a tailored product for "curvy women" in healthcare. Her new company, Valmasi, offers medical scrubs for females with a comfortable fit across the breasts, waist, hips and thighs. Click here to learn more about Dr. Vanessa and Valmasi.  

C. Scott Votaw is the Assistant Vice Chancellor of the University System of Georgia, where he is responsible for overseeing the Georgia Film Academy. After growing up in Georgia and graduating from college, Scott packed his car and headed west without a plan. With no relevant experience in film and production, he eventually networked his way onto a crew as a runner. Just by being present and paying attention, he found a way to save the production money and was rewarded with an almost immediate promotion to second assistant director. That auspicious start launched him into what would become an incredibly successful 25-year career in the film and production industry. His big break, a job working for Saban Entertainment on its new and wildly popular Power Rangers television show, set him on a course to work with Hollywood legends including George Lucas and Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt. Then came his moment of reckoning. After building a career that was largely unplanned, Scott returned home to Georgia to c

Brent Rivard had a long, successful career in advertising, working for major ad agencies in New York and Toronto. But as he entered his 50s, Brent faced an industry that is focused on youth in both it’s work and it’s staffing. The average age of an individual working in advertising is just 29 years old. Teamed with two advertising executives also in their early 50s, he is in the process of building a groundbreaking agency called “Geezer.” The new company is different from traditional agencies in two major ways: Geezer is focused on serving the 50+ market (the most lucrative segment of the population); The agency is staffed by seasoned veterans – all with 25+ years of experience in the advertising profession. According to Brent, “Ageism is a big problem in the advertising agency world and we need to do something about it.” Click here to learn more about Geezer and their unique approach to advertising.

Justin Farmer is one of the most recognizable people in Atlanta. He spent 17 years as the evening news anchor on WSB-TV, Atlanta’s top-rated news station, and one of the biggest local market news stations in the country. News was a Farmer family business; Justin’s father, Don Farmer, was an ABC news correspondent, a founding CNN anchor, and later the evening news anchor on WSB in Atlanta, a job he held until 1997. Ten years later, Justin landed the same job, at the same station. But let’s rewind: this all meant that Justin grew up with an inside track to history. While he graduated from Boston College with a degree in political science, his family legacy and several internships at WSB naturally led him to broadcasting. His first TV job was as a sportscaster in Albany, Georgia. But a life in TV news is nomadic, and Justin moved from market to market before eventually landing back home in Atlanta and working for WSB. In 2007, he finally landed at the anchor desk. Everything was going well until the early 2020s,

Kathleen Biggins is a prime example of an ordinary person doing extraordinary things. The genesis of Kathleen’s second act began in 2006 when she was asked to attend the Garden Club of America’s National Legislative Conference in Washington on behalf of her local garden club. That’s where her education about climate change began and ultimately led to the formation of C-Change Conversations. The organization is dedicated to helping people across the political spectrum understand the science behind climate change. Kathleen and her colleagues have made presentations to 21,000+ individuals across 33 states. To learn more about C-Change Conversations, you can visit their website at www.c-changeconversations.org. .

Second Act Stories Annual “Best of” Episode give us an opportunity to re-share a remarkable story from the past year and welcome new listeners by offering a taste of what we do: profile courageous individuals pursuing a more rewarding life in a second act. In the “Best of 2024” episode Scott interviews Amy Siewe, an amazing woman who left lucrative career as a real estate broker to hunt pythons in the Florida Everglades. Amy proudly shares that she’s 5’ 4”, 120 lbs., and captures pythons as big as 180 lbs. by physically jumping on them and wrestling them into submission. We hope you enjoy Amy's incredible profile and tune in for more Second Act Stories in 2025!!!  

Alonzo Bodden is one of the hardest-working and funniest working standup comics on the touring circuit today. He won Season 3 of NBC’s Last Comic Standing; he has four standup specials so far; he’s a regular panelist on NPR’s Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!; he’s played a bouncer or a security guard in countless movies and TV shows; and he even voiced monsters on the Power Rangers. He’s been around. But before he had anything to do with show business, Alonzo was an aircraft mechanic who got a job working for Lockheed Martin on the F-117 Nighthawk stealth bomber – one of the most advanced top secret aircraft in the world – when he graduated from Aviation High School in New York. At 18, he moved to Los Angeles, started making a lot of money, found himself in the throes of addiction, and wound up in jail. The sound of the cell door slamming shut was his turning point. In this episode, Alonzo shares details about his New York upbringing, his battle with addiction, his path to sobriety (36 years ago!), and how it all l

Fran Tarkenton is unquestionably one of the greatest quarterbacks ever to play the game of football. A true legend who rightfully earned his place in the NFL Hall of Fame, the College Football Hall of Fame (for his championship career with the University of Georgia Bulldogs), and on the list of the 50 Greatest Minnesota Vikings AND the 50 Greatest New York Giants. In his rookie season in 1961, Fran joined an expansion team called the Minnesota Vikings, and in the first-ever Vikings game he threw four touchdown passes and ran for a fifth, upsetting the great Chicago Bears. At the time of his retirement from the NFL in 1978, Fran owned every significant passing record: 3,686 pass completions, 47,003 passing yards, and 342 touchdowns. Legend. After retirement, Fran became a commentator alongside the one and only Howard Cosell in the Monday Night Football broadcast booth, he landed a job hosting That’s Incredible, one of the biggest sensation TV shows of the 1980s, and he became an early entrant into the software

Bruce and Mira Brach opened Toy Utopia, an independent toy store, on May 27, 2022. Based in Red Bank, NJ, their aim was to create a “magical place that sparks interest, curiosity, imagination and creativity in children and adults.” The business is a leap for both of them. Bruce had managed a landscaping business for over 25 years. Mira was – and still is – a registered nurse. A lifelong collector of vintage toys, Bruce was ready to exit his company. Mira asked him, “What do your really want to do next?” Bruce’s response…open a toy store. And that's what they did together. Click here to learn more about Toy Utopia. And if you find yourself in Red Bank, NJ, we hope you’ll give Bruce and Mira a visit.

Dan Spitz is a true pioneer in every sense of the word. As the lead guitarist of legendary band Anthrax, Dan was one of the innovators who birthed the entire genre of thrash metal music. Anthrax is one of the “Big Four” thrash metal bands, a group that also includes Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer. He sold millions of albums, played on the world’s biggest stages, and saw his music influence legions of acts that would follow. In 1995, as Anthrax continued to reach new heights, something changed. Dan realized his heart was no longer in it, so he quit the band without a plan for what was next. Dan had been exposed to watchmaking at a young age through his grandfather, who owned a jewelry store where he repaired watches in New York’s Catskill Mountains. That childhood experience came rushing back when he stumbled across an ad for the Bulova watchmaking school. The pieces fit together as perfectly as the mechanics of a complicated watch, and Dan enrolled, graduating a four-year program in 18 months. Then he became

For most of his adult life, Henry Rock working in advertising sales representing a wide range of black media . His work brought him in direct contact with a number of inspiring, African-American entrepreneurs and that gave him an idea: what if we could inspire young black males in inner cities to explore entreprenurial opportunites? After relocating to North Carolina, Henry began pursuing this idea with the help of National Urban League and it's local chapter in Charlotte. His TEDx Talk, Creating A New Class of Entrepreneurs, put the wind in his sails to launch City Startup Labs. Over the past decade, the organization has trained over 220 young men and women to get into the startup game. Recently, City Startup Labs has focused on helping formerly incarcerated individuals pursue their business dreams. Now 72 years old, Henry reports he's the happiest he's ever been. "And I owe it to not taking my hands off the steering wheel but not gripping the steering wheel and trying to steer my life but rather allowing my

Mark Greaney is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. His debut thriller, The Gray Man, was published in 2009 and became a national bestseller and Netflix film starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans. He wrote twelve subsequent Gray Man novels that have been released to date. He is also the co-author of seven Tom Clancy novels. His latest book, Sentinel, was released on June 25th, 2024. It is his 25th published work. Before emerging as a top thriller author, Mark spent 20+ years working as a bartender, waiter and midlevel office worker in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. But in his late thirties and after the death of his father, he finally got serious about writing. "I had this amazing epiphany. I was stressed about where I was in life. I didn't have a good position. And I had a lot of social anxiety. I drove a beat-up car. But it came to me one day that I loved to write and I was doing what I loved. And I realized I was successful even if I never got published...And within two years, I was published. And

Sam McKinlay experienced something a lot of people can relate to in work and in life: she spent almost 25 years married… in her case, to a career that was exciting, fulfilling and rewarding. But over time she and the career she once loved grew apart from one another. They fell out of love and split up. Sam faced plenty of adversity over the years: a series of poorly timed recessions in her native England; an initial move to America that landed her in Florida (which wasn’t a match for her); and later the clean break from a well-established career and a leap into the unknown. After dipping her toe in the real estate waters, Sam found her calling. She was able to apply a surprising amount of her PR and marketing experience to launch a new career as a concierge real estate agent. And it worked! In her first year she earned a prestigious “Rookie of the Year” award from her broker. In this engaging episode, Sam walks through the challenges she faced trying to find a meaningful career path early on; her journey thro

Dann McDorman always dreamed of writing and publishing a novel. After graduating from Columbia University, he spent a decade pursuing that dream with little impact. "Not only was I never published, I never heard back from a single publisher. I had zero success." As he hit his 30s, he found his way to a career in broadcast journalism initially working for Fox News but then climbing the ladder as a producer at MSNBC. Starting a family, his dream of being an author was put on the backburner. Today, Dann is the Executive Producer of "The Beat With Ari Melber" that airs weeknights from 6:00-7:00 pm. During the Covid-19 Pandemic and without a daily commute to the MSNBC Studios, Dann had some extra time on his hands. He started thinking about writing again. With his wife’s encouragement, he wrote a full length mystery novel called West Heart Kill. And at the age of 47, his book was published by Knopf Publishing. Dann's advice to aspiring authors and second act pursuers: "Don't give up...Stick with it and don't thin