25 Years Since September 11: Jeff Jarvis's Story From Under the Towers, Plus Where We Were That Day

Recorded live on September 11, 2026

On the 25th anniversary of September 11th, Julie Roginsky, Michelle Kinney, and Jeff Jarvis share where they were that day and how the last 25 years have changed the way they see it. Jeff was under the World Trade Center that morning, on the last PATH train in before the towers fell, and stayed to report through the day — his account anchors the conversation. Julie was working in the U.S. Senate in Washington; Michelle was a college sophomore in upstate New York. Together they talk about nostalgia as a "dangerous drug," the toxic air and cancers that followed, the 9/11 Memorial, and what it means to keep telling these stories 25 years later.

Read Jeff's original reporting from that day, published in the Jersey Journal in 2001: https://www.nj.com/the_jersey_journal_remembers_911/2001/09/a_journey_through_hell.html

Read Jeff's 2025 reflection on Medium: https://medium.com/whither-news/25-years-900e543b3e52

Chapters: 00:00 – Cold open 01:10 – Show intro: 25 years after 9/11 01:54 – Jeff Jarvis: under the towers 10:03 – Jeff's reflection, 25 years later 11:27 – Michelle: watching from upstate New York 19:45 – Julie: working in the U.S. Senate 25:19 – No partisanship that day, no hot takes 28:37 – Driving past the burning Pentagon 29:07 – The ferry into Manhattan 32:02 – What 9/11 did to the country 36:56 – Bush, Iraq, and "out of chaos comes opportunity" 40:16 – The NYT headline: "Trump personifies a nation moving on" 44:04 – Conservatism, nostalgia, and false narratives 47:37 – The tourist's selfie at Zuccotti Park 53:36 – The toxic air and the cancers that followed 59:59 – Mamdani's air-quality documents and Steve Witkoff 1:01:53 – The 9/11 Memorial 1:09:14 – On patriotism and disappointment 1:12:00 – Closing thoughts: why we keep telling these stories

The Mayday Network: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/channel/the-mayday-network/id6754000270 Substack: https://substack.com/@themaydaynetwork Website: https://www.themaydaynetwork.com