9/11: The day that changed our lives forever
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 10 September 2021
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Twenty years on from the 9/11 terror attacks, New Yorkers and those affected by the events recall where they were and how they have managed to process the horror of what happened. Presenter and New Yorker Joan Mastropaolo, now a volunteer at the 9/11 Tribute Museum, takes us on a tour of the 9/11 memorial and explains what it means to her. Former US poet laureate Billy Collins recalls how writing and performing the official memorial poem – Names. Annie Thoms, a teacher from one of the schools close to ground zero explains how High School students, forced to evacuate amid the confusion. Wajahat Ali, a 20-year-old student at the time recalls how 9/11 changed his and the lives of fellow Muslims overnight.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | millions of New Yorkers thought Tuesday, September 11, 2001 would be an ordinary day. |
| 0:11.8 | For me, the strongest memory is just taking out my agenda and looking at everything |
| 0:16.6 | I'd written down for the week and thinking to myself, this is all irrelevant. |
| 0:21.2 | It was a beautiful morning and there was nothing to suggest what was |
| 0:25.4 | about to happen. Thousands of people could be dead after several hijacked passenger |
| 0:30.4 | planes crashed into targets in New York in Washington. |
| 0:34.2 | The center of New York is still smoldering with America's two tallest buildings in ruins. |
| 0:40.0 | By the end of the day, nearly 3,000 people had lost their lives, and it seemed like the whole |
| 0:47.3 | world had changed. |
| 0:49.3 | It looked like there was a giant hole in the sky, and it was like a hole in the heart of New York. |
| 0:54.0 | My name is Joe Master Polo, |
| 0:56.0 | and 20 years ago, I witnessed the destruction of the Twin Towers. |
| 1:01.0 | Like countless others, I'm still trying to make sense of that day. |
| 1:06.0 | There's not a single story. There's not a single truth of an event. And so there were as many reactions |
| 1:12.0 | to what happened to us on 9-11 as there were people in the building. |
| 1:16.4 | Over the next hour, I'll be sharing our stories of survival, recovery, and hope. |
| 1:22.4 | I made a series of work called the World Trade Center as a survival, recovery, and hope. |
| 1:22.7 | I made a series of work called the World Trade Center as a cloud |
| 1:25.6 | by using very, very fine layers of white, translucent linen pulp |
| 1:30.1 | on a very, very, very blue field. This is 9-11, the day that changed our lives forever |
| 1:37.4 | on the BBC World Service. Yes. Ask any New Yorker over the age of 20 about September the 11th and they'll almost all have a story to tell you, me included. |
| 2:02.0 | I'm Joan Masterestropolo and I became a volunteer at the 9-11 |
... |
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