Good morning. Jane Polly is off this weekend. I'm Lee Cowan. And this is Sunday morning. It's Labor Day weekend.
For many of us, a time to celebrate the unofficial close of summer. with family, friends, and fun all across America. But the week ahead will also bring a time of solemn commemoration. Friday. will mark 25 years since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.
It's hard to believe that a quarter century has passed since the World Trade Center, the Pentagon. and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, became forever linked. to one of the darkest days in American history. Nearly 3,000 people perished that day. Still, time marches on.
So much has changed since then in America and beyond. Yet for those who lived through that day, and especially for those who lost loved ones, The Memories. remain as vivid as ever. Their voices. still matter.
Yeah, the the hardest part is um You know, I just lost so many people. I know. parents wanted like multiple kids, so I think I was supposed to have a bigger family. When you look on that field, it's a cemetery. Reflecting on a quarter century of a changed America.
Among those who stood up to help revitalize the city after 9-11. was actor and native New Yorker Robert De Niro. Just weeks after the Twin Towers came down, he co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival. This morning He's looking back. with Tracy Smith.
Um If New York City had a face, it might look like Robert De Niro.
So when his city was attacked on 9-11, he helped start a film festival to save it. The world didn't need another film festival. There are a lot of them, too. But did Tribeca need this? Yeah, we we did.
Film legend Robert De Niro on his city, his festival, and what makes his blood boil coming up on Sunday morning. The trial of Lindsay Clancy, the mother accused of killing her three children back in 2023. has made national headlines in recent weeks. A mistrial was declared on Friday. and the medical condition Clancy suffered from remains largely misunderstood.
They sail explores the issue. Horrible intrusive thoughts. A focus of the Lindsay Clancy trial was a rare, devastating psychiatric illness. One which Megan Cliffel knows all too well. I experienced this, you know, a decade ago.
And it's like, does it have to take a tragedy for you to care about this illness. It's just It feels devastating. Later on Sunday morning, understanding postpartum psychosis. like snow is falling. Major Garrett takes us to the elementary school.
where former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card. Gave President George W. Bush the news that the U.S. was under attack on 9-11. Connor Knighton visits the Canadian town that gave refuge to American travelers that day.
and later inspired a musical. We'll remember feminist pioneer Gloria Steinem. Adam Yamaguchi checks out a hamburger from a Japanese joint. with the grandest of ambitions. Plus commentary from journalist and former White House speechwriter.
James Fowles. All that and more. on this Sunday morning, September 6th, 2026. We'll be back in a moment.
So long ago. And yet It really Feels like yesterday. There's a flying line between never forgetting 9-11. and always reminding. Too much is distasteful.
Too little. is disrespectful. Nicholas W. Brandomarty. You might think after all this time there's no bell left unrung, no prayer unsaid.
No song that hasn't been sung. Where were you when the World stop turn.
Well that September day. After 25 years, Most fitting way we can think of to keep that day close. It's talking to those. Who were they? We understand that there has been a plane crash on the uh southern tip of Manhattan.
You're looking at the flames shooting out of You know all sides of um You know the North Tower? And every available ambulance. Everything you got to World Trade Center now. Harry Handler was on the sixty seventh floor of the other tower. to World Trade Center.
The building made an announcement that said there's been an incident in. one World Trade Center, if you're in two World Trade Center, return to your desks. Return to your desk. Return to your desk. I thought this is just a bad idea.
Seventeen minutes later. A second plane hit his tower. Right, oh my gosh, another plane has just hit another building. He began leaping down flights of stairs, twelve steps at a time. And then?
He stopped. And I ran into a woman who was leaning against the banister having an asthma attack. You know, I said, well, let me take you down. She took my arm, and even though she was breathing heavily, we went. very slowly down the stairs.
Slammed right into the building, huge explosion. They had no idea. But a third plane. had hit the Pentagon. The wounded were rushed to nearby hospitals as the fire spread and an entire section of the building collapsed.
Things were not where you would expect them to be. There was part of a desk that was sort of in the ceiling. There was a looked like a safe that was turned sideways and embedded into the wall. Marine Major Dan Pentaleo. rushed in to help.
Most of the buildings. Yeah. The fourth airplane did not hit its designated target, but crashed in rural areas. Just a half an hour later, the last of the planes, likely headed to Washington, too, crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. And sources say there is some evidence of a fight for control just before the plane went down.
Passengers, having gotten word of the attacks in both New York and the Pentagon. Storm the cockpit. On that dark day. On that dark day. Forty people did something.
That gave America hope, right? They're faced with the worst thing. And they voted to do something about it. And they did. That sort of bowl there.
where the plane was, that was your land. Yep. There. Those trees took the brunt of the explosion. Tim Lambert's family had owned that land.
since the 1930s. And then over time You saw nature start to take hold again, right? Grass was growing, wildlife was coming back. but the reminders of the what happened there were always constant. one of the names on the Flight ninety three memorial here, is First Officer Leroy Homer, Junior.
His only daughter, Laurel, was ten months old. I feel like it's something I I struggle with a lot still is like what my life was supposed to be first. what it ended up being in just not even knowing who I would have been. Over the years she attended summer camps organized for survivors. But after 25 years, those campgoers are now all adults.
I kind of grew up. with A level of shame to the whole thing, and I was bullied at points for it. This girl. Like wrote. D D on a paper and she was like, What does that stand for?
And then she said dead dad. And then ever since then, I don't think I really had a great place to grieve in a healthy way. Each sees these annual 9-11 observances. a little differently. Uh they're all Tough.
You know, you kind of sometimes I uh don't sleep well and think, Oh, that's right, it's September. You know, it's more. You know, people are thinking about it again? There's a flood of emotions. I remember things like all of the American flags on people's houses just popping up all over the place.
So I go back to that and I'm hopeful, but then I also recall the incredible devastation and destruction and And uh that it's a different experience for me. For four days, Dan recovered more than a hundred sets of remains from the still smoldering Pentagon. But he also recovered a bit of light. a scarlet and gold Marine Corps flag that remarkably was still standing upright. teetering.
on the edge of the scar. It was just incredible to see it up there on the fourth floor, pristine. untouched, unfazed by all the destruction around it. Felt like we just couldn't let that flag be another victim. In the midst of the chaos, Dan soon found himself on a lift.
inching up to get the flag. still reeking jet fuel. He brought it down to safety. Much the way Harry Handler brought that stranger down. from Tower Two, New York.
I took her to an ambulance and I said, I'll Stay with you. You know, this woman, because I gotta all the way out of the building, and they said, no, you have to leave. Minutes late. Tower 2 collapsed. right on top of the ambulance.
where he left the woman. He hoped he'd saved.
So I thought I need to find her family. There was an event that the firm held. It was like a happy to be alive event a few weeks later. And I was explaining that I was looking for this woman's family. And they said, she's right over there.
And I walked over. Her name is Vonnie Johnson. Harry says he got an email from Vonnie every September 11th. Until about ten years ago when The email stopped. I looked around, you know, I would search, try to find what happened to her, but I never did.
We didn't find her either. After all, Twenty-five years is a long time. As those years passed, The difficult but healing task of designing and building fitting memorials crept the wall. I understood that This is going to be something. Tim Lambert ended up donating part of his property in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
back to the Flight ninety three families. one of the things that I had vowed. was to never take money. for those six acres that were part of the crash site. As for that flag recovered from the Pentagon, well, it now sits in a place of honor.
at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Virginia. I think it became a symbol of Our resilience. Our refusal to quit, the idea behind we're not going anywhere, we're standing tall, we're standing strong, and all this devastation. we're going to still step forward and respond to this. That response lasted for the next 20 years.
More than 7,000 U.S. servicemen and women were killed in Iraq in Afghanistan. The cost to U. S. taxpayers was in the trillions.
Laurel Homer. paid her own price. I'll probably be in therapy for the rest of my life, still about this. I started therapy. when I was three about this.
So I'll have good days and stuff. But I don't even know. that I've ever been fully happy and I feel like even on the days that I'm supposed to be the happiest, I still am thinking about who I've lost and what I don't have. Do you think it gets the Remembrance it deserves. Probably not.
Probably not because We're so focused on what happens right now, today. And um I think sometimes we We forget to look back. For many survivors, this 25th observance He's really no different than the first, the tenth. or the twentieth. Truth is the story of nine eleven.
is still being written. It has been almost 25 years, like. Maybe I need to. Move forward a bit more. Um But it's still really hard, so.
I don't know. I don't know. Leroy W. Homer, Jr. Bradley V.
Horne. James P. Hopper. and my brother, Brian Joseph Murphy. Matching outfits, extravagant birthdays, many nicknames, a few classic moves of a dog-obsessed parent.
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For more than a month now, a high-profile trial in Massachusetts. has put a rare medical condition in the national spotlight. They say takes a closer look. Ten years ago, Megan Cliffel was a working mother in New York City. Take us back to December of 2015.
What was going on in your world? I was back at work. My second baby girl was about eight months old. I had taken out a lot of work stress and not quite feeling like myself, but outwardly I was functioning well. And it wasn't until Friday, December 4th of 2015 when things just dramatically changed for me.
On that day, Cliffle says she began to believe she was being surveilled. And from that moment on, I am just lost in a totally deluded, terrifying reality where I believe the entire city is out to get me. Then Cliffel started to hallucinate. The T V starts to change and it's the face of a male relative of mine and then he says if she thinks she's getting out of this alive, she's got another thing coming. As her husband Colin remembers, the next morning Megan's crisis engulfed the whole family.
I felt like I was interacting with a wholly different person. Coop. behavior in those like acute you know, 12 hours in particular, you know, in our apartment. Was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. What happened during those 12 hours?
It just became this sort of this. epic battles where You know, she is trying to quote-unquote rescue our girls who are happily in our bedroom playing. And I literally had to have my back. up against our bedroom door to try to keep Megan out. And then Just like that, she turns around and is trying to get to our apartment door because she's threatening to go to the roof.
And eventually, You know, I'd say she punches like Mike Tyson and came out swinging and clocked me twice. Colin called 911 and Megan spent the next two weeks in Bellevue Hospital, where she was prescribed lithium. It wasn't until two months later that she learned the diagnosis postpartum psychosis. Postpartum psychosis is a severe mental illness. Dr.
Virla Berhink, a psychiatrist and director for women's health at Mount Sinai School for Medicine, has been studying postpartum psychosis for 20 years. and says it should not be misunderstood as postpartum depression. She calls postpartum psychosis a psychiatric emergency with symptoms that can be extreme. A mania, so racing thoughts, or psychosis, losing reality, or depression with psychotic features, being so low that you think everything is your fault, or a mixture of these. And these symptoms occur within a few months after delivery.
How common are cases where a mother with postpartum psychosis harms herself or her baby? Unfortunately, suicide is a major cause of mortality. Infanticide is extremely rare. She said she heard a man's voice. telling her that if she didn't do it now Should Lose your chance.
Postpartum psychosis was at the center of the trial of Lindsey Clancy, which has riveted the country. Neither the defense nor the prosecution disputed that Clancy had killed her three children in January of 2023. The issue is whether at the time she killed Cora, Dawson, and Callan, She knew the difference between right and wrong. and whether she could conform her behaviour to the requirements of the law. But Clancy's lawyer argued that her undiagnosed psychosis rendered her legally insane.
This is a woman that was suffering from. Mm-hmm. psychosis at the time. that she went down to that basement. Yeah.
She had no motive. She loves her children. After deliberating for seven days, the jury could not reach a verdict, resulting in a mistrial. And I'm going to declare a mistrial. The condition at the center of the trial is considered rare, afflicting an estimated one to two women per thousand births a year in the US, potentially affecting up to nine thousand mothers annually.
It has been known for thousands of years. It has been described by the ancient Greek in all cultures, in all times. Yet Berkink says there are currently fewer than 10 research groups studying the illness in the U.S. We don't know how to prevent it yet. Because there is no research, there is no funding.
But then if if you You know, make that diagnosis, we can treat it. 98% in our studies really got better within weeks. Postpartum psychosis has no single known cause. Symptoms can shift dramatically over days or hours, and mothers may intermittently appear functional, which can confuse their family and clinicians. Postpartum psychosis is a much rarer presentation, and many psychiatrists have never seen a case of postpartum psychosis.
Dr. Jennifer Payne is a reproductive psychiatrist and vice chair of research at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. She hopes the tragic case of Lindsay Clancy will educate the public and legal system about postpartum psychosis. She notes there has been some change in the nearly 25 years since Andrea Yates was tried for the murder of her five children while suffering from psychosis.
However, I don't think the legal system has progressed to handle postpartum psychosis cases.
Well, I think that there continues to be an amazing amount of stigma surrounding maternal mental health. And psychiatric diagnosis. What kind of progress would you like to see with regard to postpartum psychosis? I would like the legal system, and I'm not a lawyer, but when it is clear that a patient has had postpartum psychosis and acted on delusions as part of that illness, that that particular case should not progress. To a murder trial and should instead be relegated to a mental health.
uh treatment journey. Three years after her recovery, Meghan Cliffel and husband Colin decided to have a third child. The risk of recurrence was one in three unmedicated. I actually didn't want to take medication because I felt like it had done so much work on myself and our life. My husband was, hard, no.
So I took lithium prophylactically immediately after birth in the hospital until a year after. And then honestly, it turned out more beautifully than after my first two. I had like so much more joy the third time around. Their son is now six years old. And with all the attention surrounding the trial of Lindsay Clancy, Meghan Cliffle felt she needed to share her story.
It's a real illness. There's no shame. you can get better. It is a beast and it's hard to heal from and it warrants time and attention, but take that time because this is a very real, devastating illness. It was the whisper marking the very earliest moments of that bright September day 25 years ago.
It fell to President George W. Bush's Chief of Staff, Andy Card, to walk into a classroom of second graders. to tell the President about the horrors unfolding in New York City. Major Garrett. was with the President that day.
It was a beautiful start of the day. He was light. Oh yes. He was light and he was approachable. President George W.
Bush arrived at Emma Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida on a clear September Tuesday to celebrate a surge in reading scores. Teacher Kay Daniels' second graders were eager to meet him. Moms had done hairs and uniforms were pressed and everybody was excited. The children were about to read to President Bush when the light began to turn. mister Carr came up and whispered.
In the president's ear, and my whole being just froze because I knew. That was not supposed to happen. And then something happened. To the President. Attitude.
He left us for a moment. Um Not physically. But I could tell. He left us for a moment. but he came back.
And I'm wondering what was that moment about? Oh okay. Go on. The president read the assigned book, The Pet Goat, for a few moments. Mr.
President, are you aware of the reports of the plane press in New York? Then briefly address the nation. with few hard facts. Today we've had a national tragedy. Two airplanes.
have crashed into the World Trade Center. in an apparent terrorist attack on our country. That is a part of me. That will never go away. Because it's a part of me, just like breathing is a part of me.
That day is a part of me. Me too. I'll never forget it. This is a familiar walk. Look at this.
President Bush's Chief of Staff, Andy Card, now 79, can never forget either. Though it has been twenty-five years since he was inside the classroom, It all came flooding back. That day I promised myself I was going to be cool, calm and collected and help the President.
So what do you tell them? I decided I would tell them two facts and make one obvious editorial comment. A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack. And I was praying that the president did nothing to demonstrate fear.
to those second graders. He didn't. prompting later criticism for appearing indecisive. When you've looked back on that tape, what did you see in his eyes? What did you see in his demeanor that maybe the critics miss?
First of all, I'm offended if people think he was doing it wrong because if he was doing it wrong, I had done it wrong.
So I'll take the blame. We didn't know much about what was going on at all. I do think it was the moment that he realized what the real job of being president was. The flow of information that morning to and from the President was jumbled. And the governor of New York, okay.
Reporters like me scrambled for scraps of facts as we prepared for live reports. Did Andy Andy notify him first? Did you ever feel afraid? I had fear. I'm not sure that I would call myself afraid.
I felt very mission driven. Card's whisper is now an enduring image of a moment America changed. I feel guilty that that photograph, which is iconic and defines an error, includes me. Why do you feel guilty about that? Because I'm not iconic at all.
I tried to help a president do a job. I'm sure there are millions of Americans that would stand up and do the same thing that I did, that would help the president do the right thing. My conscience is clear. But I also know Maybe I didn't do some things right. Mm.
This spring, Card and Daniels reunited for the first time since 9-11 at a commemoration held at Booker Elementary. May they never be forgotten. You'll be fine. For those who suffered up close, 9-11 carries a sacred obligation. Never forget.
It's the anthem of 9-11 and a mission to educate. those too young to know.
Okay. Part of that mission now includes a steel beam recovered from the south tower. on a nationwide tour marking 25 years. The steel, roughly 22 feet and 17,000 pounds, conveys the enormity of destruction. the gravity of loss.
Yeah. Represents so, so much. A lost few know better than Stephen Siller Jr. His father, Stephen, a New York City firefighter, was off duty when he heard the distress call on 9-11.
So he grabbed his gear, threw it in his truck, and drove to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. When he got there, it was shut down, so he grabbed his gear, put it on his back and ran to the World Trade Center, where he ultimately lost his life. Siller travels the country with the steel truck to honor his father, part of his work with the tunnel to towers foundation. We want people to go up to it. We want people to pray over it.
My father's body was never recovered. Who he is is ingrained into that steel. And for those Americans who have no living memory of this, What do you want them to know?
Well, I'm one of them. I was nine months old on September 11th, so I completely understand growing up without the. Depth of knowledge of what occurred that day. Our 25 today don't know what it is that we promised never to forget. I feel an obligation to tell the story.
Uh Pioneering feminist Gloria Steinem died on Wednesday. She was ninety-two. Seinem was known for many things, her advocacy, her books, and of course the publications she co-founded. Ms. Magazine.
A few years ago, our Rita Braver helped Stein mark the 50th anniversary of Ms. We thought this might be a good time for a second look. When do we have equality? Window and what? As the women's liberation movement was picking up steam more than half a century ago, Feminism, the idea of equality for women, was a new and controversial idea.
Why do you think that word seemed to threaten people, the word feminism? Two reasons. One, because they didn't understand it. And two, because they did understand it. Gloria Steinem was a thirty something columnist for New York Magazine when she joined with a group of other journalists to create a new magazine aiming to push feminism into the mainstream.
even the title MIS, a newly emerging designation for those who didn't want to be bound by Misses for a married woman or Miss for a single woman, was an issue. As I understand it, Even the New York Times wouldn't call you Ms. Glorious. Oh, I know. No, no, I'm so glad you know that.
It was so annoying because for years and years I was. Miss Steinem of Ms. Magazine Miz would not offer household hints or fashion tips like traditional women's magazines. We wanted to be able to write about trying to make an equal marriage. Or to write about abortion, we didn't want to just focus on women's outsides, but also our insides.
In fact, Steinem says she became an activist as well as a journalist while covering an abortion hearing. Suddenly I realized, wait a minute, I had an abortion when I was in London. And why is this common experience not been spoken about?
So in the very first issue of Ms, we had a massive petition signed by all kinds of people saying, I have had an abortion. The prominent women signed it. I have had an abortion and I demand that it become safe and legal. And of course, we're still fighting this battle in some states. Amid fears about how Ms.
would be received, Steinem's boss, legendary New York publisher Clay Felker. Volunteered to publish a sample issue within the pages of his magazine. Steinem and the Miz team hit the publicity circuit. And when I got to California, somebody called the radio show I was on and said, you know, we can't find it. And I called Clay Felker in a panic and I said, it didn't get here.
And it turned out it had sold out. That was a moment of recognition that it had an audience. An audience that's lasted more than 50 years. This is from the early 70s. Spring.
Catherine Spiller, executive editor of Ms., spent two and a half years compiling an anthology. They all want to make you just dive in. Yeah. Right? It's immodestly subtitled The Pathfinding Magazine That Ignited a Revolution.
It started trends and it amplified the trends. A lot of articles about men and marriage and relationships and childrearing and politics and violence against women and you can trace. It keeps coming back. Keep coming back. And it shows the endurance of this movement, but also the endurance of our opponents.
Published monthly, there were lots of Wonder Woman covers. and stories about women's emerging political clout. One of the most popular features has been letters from readers. Here's a great one. It's very funny.
My husband says I used to be a bitch once a month, but since I subscribed to Ms., now I'm a bitch twice a month. The letters often end with the word click. Inspired by one of the earliest articles by Ms. co-founder Jane O'Reilly. describing the moment a woman realizes she's experiencing sexism.
It's really become part of the vernacular even today. It's an automatic connection to other women who are suffering the same injustices. Long before the Me Too movement, Ms. was writing about sexual harassment on the job. The editors at the time had to use a doll.
Because it would have been too outrageous over the top to have a real woman. Exactly. And as it was, a lot of newsstands pulled this off, refusing to sell the issue. But it absolutely represented what way too many women in the workplace experienced then and now. and selling advertising for a women's magazine that covered these issues became a challenge.
You describe a lunch with the head of a major cosmetics company in which he told you that women who read Ms. didn't buy blush or makeup. Right. Took me to lunch to tell me that, yes. Car manufacturers didn't want to advertise because they didn't think women bought cars.
And that it would devalue. A car to see a woman driving it. I mean, they told me that in Detroit. I didn't, I'm not making it up. In two thousand two Ms.
started being published by the non profit Feminist Majority Foundation. Today, Ms. is a quarterly and still inspiring young woman, according to Ileana McDonald, who works for the foundation.
So to the question that some people have, which is, hey, is this 50 plus magazines still relevant. What's your answer? Absolutely. It's relevant now for the same reason it was relevant back in the 70s, because it's providing a platform. It's encouraging discourse that still needs to be encouraged.
It has been 50 years, but we still have a lot of work to do. All of us must stand up together and say, no more. Ms. co-founder Gloria Steinem couldn't agree more. Are you still optimistic about the push for equality?
Yes. We have to imagine something before it becomes reality.
So yes, I am a hopaholic. Americans from coast to coast are firing up their grills this weekend. But what if we were to tell you that the world's best burger? might not be made in America. Adam Yamaguchi.
offers us a taste of Tokyo. That was The Sensoji Temple in Japan is the oldest in Tokyo. and a favorite spot for tourists. But just a few steps away down a narrow alley is a much newer monument to Japanese culture. This is Wagy Brothers, a tiny place.
with a big ambition. to make the best hamburger on earth. There's no grinder here. Co-owner Wataru Kikuchi is hand-tropping Wagyu beef. A very high-grade meat that can cost as much as $300 a pound.
Sometimes, it's hard to imagine that hamburgers used to be humble. The hamburger as we know it today started more than a hundred years ago as German ethnic food. In the very beginning, it was something very, very simple. And it was nothing more than ground beef cooked somehow and served on bread. That was it.
I'm George Moates. Author and restaurateur, George Moats is known as one of the top hamburger experts in the country. He's also big on social media. And so are a lot of other people who are out to make and sell a better burger. Do you think social media has in turn made a better burger?
I think, yes. I think because there's now more burger knowledge out there. There's a lot of knowledge out there. And whenever you have knowledge, you have power. And you have a power to make real choices about food, for sure.
It's no surprise the Wagu brothers are also big on social media. and they say the ultimate burger. starts with the ultimate cow. Wagyu beef cattle are specially bred in a clean, calm environment. Mm-hmm.
Instead of roaming the range, these cows are hand-fed and pampered for up to 30 months. And the result? is very fatty. Very tender meat, that makes a great steak. or burger.
People often say that hamburgers don't require High quality beef. You've got sauces and cheeses and whatnot. Why waste this on a burger? There are a lot of foreign tourists here. I want to show them the highest quality beef, and serving it in a burger is the best way to express that.
Each patty is very carefully grilled. And for the final touch. a slab of wagyu steak cut into shapes like Jenga game pieces. and stacked on top. The finished product will cost you about 25 US dollars.
And you know, there's just one way to tell if it's worth it. Oh my god. Seems blasphemous to say that One of the best burgers you've ever had. What's in Japan? This just might be it.
Ships. And once you taste one of these, or some others you can find on social media. There's probably no going back. It's kind of hard to sell someone a frozen patty these days, put it that way. We have a generation of eaters now who are extraordinarily educated and worldly and want to know where their food comes from.
And that is just the greatest thing that could possibly happen to food. Discover top-rated stays loved by guests. rated highest by real guests through authentic reviews. Verbo. Book a vacation rental loved by guests.
You talking to me? You talking to me? You talking to me? Few actors are as synonymous with New York as Robert De Niro. from mean streets to taxi driver to goodfellows, and so many more.
His hometown has been the backdrop for some of his most iconic performances. And, as he tells Tracy Smith, after 9-11, He wanted to help revitalize the wounded city that had given him.
So much. Does this still feel like home this neighborhood? Uh Yeah. New New York is like different neighborhood different neighborhoods obviously but different countries. You know, the east side is another world to someone like me who's lower Manhattan and so on.
He's lived or worked here in Lower Manhattan for years, so for film legend Robert De Niro, the attacks on 9-11 hit especially close to home. What's your memory of that day? Oh, I was just about to fly to California. I was at a meeting. Midtown and instead of going to the airport I came back down here.
And um So they The the tower, um the North Tower the smoke coming out and so on. Then saw the south tower. Fall. I couldn't believe. I couldn't believe it.
I looked to my left where I had a big Television uh and so Confirmed it on CNN. You had to look on the TV to confirm what you were seeing. What I was seeing with my own eyes, yeah. It's weird. and in the weeks that followed he saw his old neighborhood become a ghost town.
Walking out here, can you envision what it was like in those days after 9-11. And the thing I remember most is right up Here it was with a the dust that was wet down as I say every Every day, every few hours maybe with the the sanitation water trucks. to keep that stuff Down, you know. In fact, most of Lower Manhattan was covered in the dust from nearby Ground Zero, a poisonous plague that drifted through the air and into people's homes and lungs. I taped up the windows.
My trainer and I were working just w were worried that uh that was That the dust was toxic. Yeah. And it was. But when the dust finally began to settle, De Niro and his longtime business partner, producer Jane Rosenthal, started to look for ways to pull Lower Manhattan out of the ashes. I was a mother of two little girls.
I was scared. What's going to happen again? I mean, it's just all those feelings, but it's also like, okay, how can we help? If we can help, if we can do something, then something. Good will come of it.
They'd kicked around the notion of starting a film festival in Tribeca before, but after 9-11, it took on a new urgency as a way to help heal a shattered city. The festival was kind of an act of defiance. We had 120 days, 1,300 volunteers, no money, no blueprint, just an idea and a neighborhood that needed people back in it. In May 2002, only eight months after the attacks, the very first Tribeca Film Festival opened, drawing big crowds and even bigger names like Nelson Mandela. We invited Nelson Mandela to open the first festival.
He really gave us a way forward. But I know that a medium. will continue to bring the world closer together. allowing us to share. in the lives.
and cultures of others. A new documentary about the festival, Tribeca 25, premieres on Netflix this coming Friday, September 11th. Did you have like something that went through your mind as you're putting this together?
Well, no, it just seemed like the right thing to do. How do you give your neighbors something to look forward to? How do you give your neighbors a hug and say this is going to be okay? How do you say to everybody, Okay, we need something to look forward to. And for the 150,000 plus people who lined up for the first festival, that's exactly what it was.
De Niro says he never had a doubt. Did you have moments where you thought I'm not sure we can pull this off. I wasn't thinking, I was just being, we're gonna do it. We're gonna do it. Yeah.
And it must do something to your heart to see that. Like, we tried to pull this off. We wanted to get a crowd down here. Yeah, and they came. He's gone.
He's gone. And that's it. They whacked them. The f ⁇ ing whacked them. Robert De Niro is famous for bringing a certain level of passion to his film roles, and he's just as fiery off-screen when it comes to politics.
Because we're going from the streets to the ballot box, and because we all deserve a country with no kings. The Tribeca Film Festival was created as a reaction to real-world tragedy, the 9-11 attacks. And the founders say they're still on a mission to use art as an antidote to what they see as real trauma in America. The documentary and the festival in general does not shy away from politics. You're very clear about how you feel about this current administration.
Why'd you feel that was important to include? in the documentary and to make part of the festival. We're a festival that was started because of an act of war. It was to say to the rest of the world, We're still here. Yeah, Bob, you've called this festival an act of defiance.
What do you mean?
Well, it is It is. It is. And we felt if anyone was going to start coming at us or doing... coming in with the nonsense, we're going to be ready for it. And we now see more and more how insane this administration is, how insane.
Donald Trump is, and he has to be gotten out. And we've got to get back on track with this country. That's all.
So However, we can do something with this festival to oppose Him and all the destruction he's responsible for, we're there. The administration. They're Usual response to you is that you have Trump derangement syndrome. Trump derangement syndrome is because of what he's done. They revert it.
He reverts things and inverts them and twists them around. It's a lot of silly nonsense. A three-year-old could do it.
So that's just a way to deflect and we all know that.
So, but the point is. things being said now here. have to be allowed to be said. De Niro's a little less willing to talk about all he's done to bring downtown back, but the city speaks for itself. Did you fear for a while it wasn't.
I always felt it would come back. It could never not come back. Uh it's just Like anything, it just takes time. It's funny because we took those old towers for granted, you know, because we saw them all the time in the skyline. You'd look out your window every day and see him, right?
Yeah, yeah. Today, Robert De Niro is taking nothing for granted, and that includes the Tribeca Festival. In 25 years, it's brought thousands of films and millions of dollars to Lower Manhattan, helped launch the careers of directors like Ryan Kugler and Damian Chazelle, among others. And yes, it also helped revive a city. How important is this to you, what you've created here?
Well, it's it's uh I'm very proud of what we've done. That's that's all. The world didn't need another. Film Festival. There are a lot of them, true.
But did Tribeca need this? Yeah, we we did. I think Yeah. From the darkness of 9-11 emerged more than a few streaks of light. moments of hope and humanity.
Among the brightest of those moments was a celebrated musical. inspired by the people in one very unlikely corner of the world. Here's Connor Knight. For all aircraft under frequency due to a recent development in the United States, U. S.
Airspace has been closed. We have been instructed to have all aircraft land as soon as possible at the nearest airport. Uh The small Canadian town of Gander isn't near much. Yeah. Located on the island of Newfoundland, Neanderthal is home to around 12,000 residents.
Even fewer people lived here on September 11, 2001, when Gander's far northeast positioning made it an ideal landing spot for grounded flights. Once she leaves Europe in the morning, once you get halfways across the nearest airport, Gander. Claude Elliott was mayor of Gander on 9-11. By the end of that day, 38 planes had landed at Ganders Airport. I can't imagine this is something you have a contingency plan for.
None. We have an emergency plan. Every municipality has it. But there's nothing in that plan to tell you what to do with 7,000 people if they decide to drop in for four or five days. Once it was clear that the planes wouldn't be taking off anytime soon, Gander had to scramble to figure out what to do with its influx of temporary visitors from all around the world.
Elliott declared a state of emergency. Calls went out for supplies. Churches and schools became shelters. Even the local hockey rink was put to use. We got truckloads of food.
And we put it all in the community centre on the ice surface. And we use it as a refrigerator to keep the food cool. There's something that's just so Canadian about hockey to the rescue. Yeah, that's right. That's our number one sport, there's no question.
Locals referred to the new arrivals as the Plain People. Offers to help started to pour in. The greatest asset that your community has is its people. And we had our people. Everybody came out.
One of those volunteers was Gander resident Beulah Cooper. I said, thank God they're coming here, because I know they will be looked after. Cooper volunteers at the Royal Canadian Legion in Gander, which housed 67 people from an aerolingus flight. She brought sandwiches, shuttled stranded passengers to pay phones around town, even invited some to sleep and shower in her home. A lot of people when they see a tragedy of that magnitude, it's easy to feel helpless.
You want to know what you can do. Was it helpful for you to be helpful? Oh my gosh, it does so good in here. to know that you're doing something to help somebody. And uh That's what I'm all about anyway.
My name's Beulah. Washrooms are just down the hall and there's food over there if you're Cooper's one of the people who provided the inspiration for characters in the musical Come From Away, which premiered on Broadway in 2017. Yeah. It tells the story of how Gander rallied together to help. Which former Mayor Elliott didn't initially think was going to make for much of a story.
I had to confess I had never seen a musical. Never seen any musical? I had never seen any musical. But I in my mind I'm trying to visualize how are you going to make a musical out of sandwiches, soup, Blankets, boxes, pillows. But the seemingly small story resonated in a big way.
Come From Away won a Tony Award. It's toured around the world, and it's created at least one new musical theater buff. How many times do you think you've seen the show? I've seen it 139 times. Wow.
I've seen it in six countries: Canada, United States, Australia, London, Madrid, Spain, and New Zealand. And, most recently, right here in Gander. They're looking for blankets and bedding and maybe some food. You know what they need? Come on, I need something to do because I can't watch the news anymore.
Come From Away has come home, with a professional production staged during the summer months at the local arts center. It's the only cast where Newfoundland characters are played by Newfoundlanders.
So that authenticity of the show is really... there and felt here. Actor Peter Halley, born just a few hours away in St. John's, plays Mayor Claude in the Gander production. The play's title, Come From Away, is a reference to people who visit Newfoundland.
You're just coming to see us and to experience the province and you are from away and you've come from away.
So CFA is just an expression that we, I think I've known forever. And now, thanks to the show's global popularity, Gander sees a lot more CFAs. The Aviation Museum in town has an exhibit that highlights those days after 9-11. Featuring thank you notes written by grateful passengers. Metal beams from the Twin Towers were sent to Gander.
Okay, The Legion regularly hosts Screech-ins for tourists. Bye. A tradition portrayed in the musical in which visitors can become honorary Newfoundlanders by taking a shot of strong rum and kissing a codfish. Welcome to our Legion. Pula Cooper is usually on hand to help out.
She's still getting used to her celebrity status. All they want, I gotta hug Beulah, I gotta hug Beulah, and the tears run down their face and I thought Take it easy, it's only me. I am here. But ordinary people stepping up in times of crisis is exactly why the story of what happened in Gander resonates. Come From Away considers itself a 9-12 musical.
It focuses on the acts of kindness that happened the next day. You talk to people like you like to be spoken to and you treat people like you like to be treated. And if you see somebody that needs help, if you can help them, you better do that.
Now, thoughts on the legacy of 9-11. from journalist and former White House speechwriter, James Fowls. We live through history's turning points, but with no idea which way history will turn. December 7, 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor.
a date which will live in infamy, marked the end of U.S. isolation. and the beginning of permanent engagement around the world. And September 11th, 2013. Yeah, yeah.
At the time, it seemed to change everything. But on this 25th anniversary, Here is my sense of changes we might have hoped would be permanent, but weren't. and others that future generations may strive to change back. The worst of times can bring out the best in people. We are all Americans, as the French newspaper Le Monde put it.
for the only time in NATO's history. its member countries all voted to come to a stricken Allies' defense. In the U.S., people honored our first responders and ordinary, brave fellow citizens. President George W. Bush, who had been caught unawares by the attack, went just days later.
to Washington's Islamic Center. There he reminded the entire country that while the attackers were Muslim, Islam itself was not the enemy. In her anger and emotion, Our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect. Too much of that unifying sentiment faded too fast. and too little of what lastingly changed in America has received the awareness and scrutiny it deserves.
Before 9-11, there was no Department of Homeland Security. no T S A, no ice. Those functions were carried out more modestly. with less overreach. Before 9-11 there was no PATRIOT Act.
and barely any of the modern structure of the surveillance state. Before 9-11, local police in the U.S. were not kitted out in combat gear. as if fighting in Fallujah. That is because before 9-11 there was no war in Iraq.
for which nine eleven was the excuse, though no Iraqis were involved. and nothing like the forever wars that have followed. Much of it was bipartisan. Most of it was step by step. And as we look back, we see a country that survived an attack and avoided a repetition.
but it is also a country whose daily life and civic culture those attackers managed to change. The U.S. has had other hinges of history. that turned in the wrong direction. in the late 1800s with a turn against Reconstruction and equal rights after the Civil War.
In the 1920s and 30s, when the U.S. closed its doors to the world, even as Nazis and fascists rose to power elsewhere. Let us hope. that twenty five years from now The US has reckoned more seriously with who we are and who we want to become than we have done so far. I'm Lee Cowan.
Thanks for listening, and please join us when our trumpet sounds again.
next Sunday morning.
Now streaming on Paramount Plus. Everyone be ready? Boldly go one step closer to where it all began. What we are about to do cannot be taken back. Star Trek Strange New Worlds, new season now streaming on Paramount Plus.
