Podcasts about Upper East Side

City Council Speaker Julie Menin (D-5, Upper East Side) talks about the latest developments in the City Council and takes calls from listeners, in the latest installment of a new monthly series. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's the day after Norense's 31st birthday. And instead of just celebrating, he's asking a question most of us avoid: why is it so hard to let ourselves be celebrated?Recorded audio-only from his new Upper East Side apartment (sirens and all), this episode digs into the voice of doubt that convinces you that you can't clap for yourself until you've "arrived" — that you can't receive love, help, or celebration because you're not where you thought you'd be by now.Norense gets honest about his own struggle to receive — the birthday dinner he almost didn't have, the friend who pushed past his hesitation to make it happen, and the conversation that's stuck with him for years: "You serve everyone... but do you think some of it is for you?"Then he takes it to the Word: the progression of Matthew 3 and 4 — baptized, tested, then preaching, then followers — and why so many of us want the followers without ever opening our mouths.In this episode:Why the voice of doubt won't let you celebrate yourself — and why "where you are is not who you are"The "perfect product" lie: why believing you have to be finished before you date, build, or receive is demonicWhy you can't love others well without a revelation of how well you're lovedThe birthday dinner story: what happens when a friend refuses to let you say no to your own celebrationDon't say no for somebody else — why holding back your ideas robs the people they were meant for"Apathy is adjacent to death" — and why passion is proof you're aliveThe Matthew 3–4 progression: baptized, tested, preaching, then followers — and why the world wants followers without preachingHow God uses technology for His glory — from Roman roads carrying the gospel to the smartphone in your handWhy heaven celebrates the one — so what makes you think you have to earn celebration?Key Truth: "Celebrate it before you think it deserves celebrating. On your birthday, you better celebrate — because there's air flowing through your lungs, and you didn't have to be allowed to make it to this day."Key Verse: Matthew 4:17 — From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.If this episode hit you:Rate and review the Mind Bully Podcast — it helps this message reach more homes and hearts, one thought at a time.

Jerry Seinfeld was asked which joke he'd send to aliens to represent all of comedy. He picked Rodney Dangerfield. Johnny Mac looks at why — the no-respect premise as a structural achievement, the rapid-fire construction that makes the jokes work even when you already know them, the 31-year comedy club on the Upper East Side that launched Seinfeld, Roseanne Barr, Sam Kinison and Robert Schimmel, the Caddyshack role that was written for Don Rickles, and the honest question of whether the film fame softened the thing that made the early club material great. Rodney Dangerfield built jokes the way a watchmaker builds watches. It's worth understanding how."Why was Rodney Dangerfield so funny?" – "What did Jerry Seinfeld say about Rodney Dangerfield?" – "What is Rodney Dangerfield's best joke?" – "What was Dangerfield's comedy club in New York?" – "Who did Rodney Dangerfield help early in their career?" – "What was Rodney Dangerfield's real name?" – "Did Don Rickles almost play Al Czervik in Caddyshack?" – "Why isn't Rodney Dangerfield talked about more?" – "What made Rodney Dangerfield's comedy style unique?" – "Who performed at Dangerfield's comedy club?"Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/daily-comedy-news-with-johnny-mac--4522158/support.Today's DCN is brought to you by MyBookie use promo code DCN!Daily Comedy News is hosted by Johnny Mac and releases every weekday. Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite app. Part of the Caloroga Shark Media network. For transcripts and show notes visit www.dailycomedynews.comDaily Comedy News with Johnny Mac is a daily podcast covering comedians, stand-up comedy, late night television, and the comedy industry. New episodes every morning. Follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.  Contact John at John@thesharkdeck dot com For Uninterrupted Listening, use the Apple Podcast App and click the banner that says Uninterrupted Listening.  $4.99/month John's Substack about media is free. 

This week on the pod, Seth and Josh welcome Jon Cryer and Lisa Joyner! They chat about the very different paths that brought them to their careers including Lisa's podcast, Plus One, and Jon's Broadway run in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Lisa opens up about being adopted, searching for her birth family, discovering her Malaysian heritage, and connecting with relatives she never knew she had. Jon reflects on growing up on the Upper East Side, his Broadway family background, and the unique experience of being raised around the theater. They also share stories from their extensive travels, including a life-changing trip to India for a potable water project, meeting the King of Jodhpur, and navigating some unexpected adventures along the way. Watch this episode on the Family Trips YouTube or Spotify, or listen wherever you get your podcasts! Watch more Family Trips episodes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlqYOfxU_jQem4_NRJPM8_wLBrEEQ17B6 00:00 Introduction with Seth Meyers and Josh Meyers02:00 Edinburgh Fringe Memories05:32 Tech Support for Mom and Dad11:04 Meet John Cryer and Lisa Joyner15:10 Broadway Life in NYC21:47 Lisa Adoption and Finding Family39:14 Bonus Sister Moves In40:26 Sibling Fights and Trauma42:37 Vacations Growing Up45:52 India Charity Trip Chaos52:34 Bollywood and Water Station01:01:00 Malaysia Roots and Speed Round01:11:23 Grand Canyon Debate01:12:38 Farewell and Wrap Up Support our sponsors: Cologuard If you're 45 or older and at average risk, talk to your healthcare provider about screening for colon cancer and ask if Cologuard Plus could be right for you. You can also request a Cologuard prescription online today at https://Cologuard.com Ethos Get your free quote at https://ethos.com/trips IQ Bar Text TRIPS to 64000 to get twenty percent off all IQBAR products, plus FREE shipping. Message and data rates may apply. Whisker Get ten percent off a Whisker Litter-Robot at https://whisker.com/TRIPS Mint Mobile To get your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/trips Upfront payment of: $45 for 3-months, $90 for 6-months, or $180 for 12-months, plan required, $15 per month equivalent. Taxes & fees extra. Initial plan term only. Greater than 50GB may slow when network is busy. Includes up to 20GB hotspot. Capable device required. Availability, speed & coverage varies. See MintMobile.com. Song Title - Strawberry StrawberryParody of - Cherry Cherry by Neil Diamond Josh Meyers performs “Strawberry Strawberry,” a parody of Neil Diamond's “Cherry Cherry,” weaving Jon Cryer and Lisa Joyner's family stories into a playful musical trip down memory lane—from military-family moves and Trailways upgrades to a luxurious trip to India, an unexpected water-station celebrity, and Lisa discovering a sibling named Strawberry. Family Trips is produced by Rabbit Grin Productions. Theme song written and performed by Jeff Tweedy. About the Show: Lifelong brothers Seth Meyers and Josh Meyers ask guests to relive childhood memories, unforgettable family trips, and other disasters! New Episodes of Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers are available every Tuesday. Executive Producers: Rob Holysz, Jeph Porter, Natalie Holysz Creative Producer: Sam Skelton Coordinating Producer: Derek Johnson Video Editor: Josh Windisch Mix & Master: Josh Windisch Episode Artwork: Analise Jorgensen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last episode, Norense recorded from the final hours of his Brooklyn sublet with no idea where he was going next. This episode? He's recording from his new apartment on the Upper East Side.God is faithful. He's faithful. He's faithful.This is the testimony episode — the receipt of everything he spoke in faith one week ago. Norense walks through exactly how it happened: the flight back to Dallas to regroup, getting sick, the family prayer call, choosing rest and prayer over striving and stressing — and then the Facebook message that came two minutes after a post went up. A 64-year-old man named Stephen, a building he's lived in for 38 years, and a door only God could have opened.But this isn't just a story about an apartment. It's a masterclass on how God moves — slowly, then suddenly — and why He always speaks to the final version of who He's declared you to be, not how you're acting right now.In this episode:"Putting pressure on God" — what it means to speak forth His promises in expectation without forcing His handThe full apartment testimony: from nowhere to go, to the Upper East Side, in a matter of daysWhy God moves slowly, then suddenly — and how to stay faithful in the "slowly""Apathy is adjacent to death" — the phrase that convicted him and why passion is proof you're aliveWhy "that's not my personality" is not an excuse — Moses, Gideon, and David all had to step outside of themselvesConfidence comes by action: birds don't pray to fly, they exercise their right to flyPsalm 1 unpacked: the blessed man who meditates on the Word brings forth fruit in its season — which means you're not lateSpeaking directly to the oppressor: anxiety, depression, and low self-worth have no authority over youWhy God speaks to who He's declared you to be — fugitive Moses was a deliverer, forgotten David was a kingKey Truth: "He brings forth fruit in its season. That tells me you're not late. You're not behind. You have not missed it."Key Verse: Psalm 1:2-3 — His delight is in the law of the Lord... he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.If this episode hit you:Rate and review the Mind Bully Podcast — it helps this message reach more homes and hearts, one thought at a time.

Twenty-five years after September 11, I still believe that day has important lessons to teach us about fear, preparation, and leadership. This time, Michelle Abraham from AmplifYou takes over the hosting seat and interviews me about my experience escaping the World Trade Center with my guide dog, Roselle. We talk about why knowing the building and its emergency procedures mattered, how I worked to keep fear from taking control, and why focusing on what I could control helped me keep moving. I also share how September 11 changed the direction of my life, led me into professional speaking, and helped shape the Unstoppable Mindset philosophy I continue to share today. Highlights: 02:30 – The ordinary morning that became September 11. 08:04 – How preparation shaped Michael's response when the tower was hit. 18:34 – How Michael and David helped keep panic from taking over. 27:15 – Why trusting Roselle mattered during the collapse. 31:38 – The lesson of focusing only on what you can control. 41:52 – How September 11 helped shape the Unstoppable Mindset philosophy. About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson  00:00 Everyone, I am Michael Hingson, the host of Unstoppable Mindset. You've heard my voice for the last 471 episodes, but I'm calling you all out today and asking you to listen to this because we're going to make a special announcement now regarding the next four episodes, starting with 472. We're going to help commemorate the historic events of September 11, 2001. Yes, they're definitely historic, although not necessarily the most positive things that have ever happened. But as many of you may know, I was in the World Trade Center working on September 11, 2001, on the 78th floor of Tower One, and escaped with my guide dog. I've delivered a speech about that, which we put in the first episode of this podcast series back in August of 2021. But this Friday, episode 472 is going to have an updated speech that I delivered just a few years ago at the Marshfield, Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival. That festival is a yearly event celebrating different kinds of things that have happened in American history, and I was invited to come and speak, which I did. I'm going to put that speech up for you as episode 472. I think you'll find it enlightening. It'll teach you something about blindness and blind people. It'll tell you my story, and it'll give you some inspiration that I hope you will find helpful. Next Tuesday, september 8, Michelle Abraham is going to interview me. Michelle is with Amplify You, the company that does all of our back office stuff and helps me with the editing and other things regarding the podcast. Michelle owns her own podcast, and she is going to interview me about September 11th and other kinds of things relating to what I've learned and things that have happened over the past 25 years. She's also going to be putting this up on her podcast Amplify You, so you can find us in a lot of different places. On September 11th, I'm going to chat with Bob Ellis. Bob was in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and had literally just walked out the door of the Pentagon when the plane crashed into the Pentagon and did the things and the damage that it did, and of course generated all the things that occurred at the Pentagon. On the 15th of September, I'm going to come back and have a conversation with all of you about lessons that I've learned over the past 25 years, and just reminisce a little bit about all of that. While the podcast is occurring on September 11th, I will be actually in Kilgore, Texas, doing a speech about September 11th. So lots of things going on, I hope you listen to these episodes. I hope that you'll tell everyone that you can about them. I really enjoy all of the support that you've given us over the years, and we're going to continue to do things with Unstoppable Mindset. And of course, as always, if you'd like to come on or know anyone who would, please let us know. We're always looking for guests. Thanks very much. We'll see you on Friday with the first of these four episodes. What if the biggest thing holding you back isn't what's in front of you, but rather what you believe? Welcome to Unstoppable Mindset, where inclusion, diversity, and the unexpected meet. I'm your host, Michael Hingson, speaker, author, and advocate for inclusion and possibilities. This podcast explores how the beliefs we carry shape the way we live, lead, and connect with others. Each week, I talk with people who challenge assumptions, face adversity head-on, and show what's possible when we choose curiosity over fear. Together, we focus on mindset, resilience, and the small shifts that lead to meaningful change. Let's get started. Hi, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Unstoppable Mindset. When and today is a little bit different than what we normally do because I'm going to be the guest on the podcast, Michelle Abraham from Amplify You, who is also putting this particular podcast episode on her podcast, but Michelle is going to mainly be interviewing me. As many of you should know, this is the 25th commemoration or remembrance of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and we thought it would be very relevant to to spend some time on a few podcast episodes talking about that a little bit. Michael Hingson  04:46 For those of you that listened to the last episode before this one, you heard me deliver my speech talking about what happened to me on september 11. I used. A speech that we we delivered just a couple of years ago. So it's a little bit different than the one that, if you listen to the initial episodes of Unstoppable Mindset, you heard way back 472, 473 episodes ago. But this one still tells the the same story, which is which is kind of cool, and so we're going to talk about that, and we'll talk about our next episode, which will be delivered on September 11th, and that one will be a conversation between me and Bob Ellis, who was in the Pentagon on September 11th, and so that'll be a little bit fun, and then we'll talk about some other stuff as well. But I'm going to turn this over to Michelle because she's the the interviewer, the the boss, and I'm just a guest today. So hi, Michelle. Amplifyou   05:50 Hey, Michael. Well, thanks for being a guest on your own show today for us. It's great to be here with you, and we've been with you all along the Instoppable Mindset Show. It's been really fun to work with you on this show, and so I know we've had we've recorded episodes around your story, and our listeners would have just listening to your keynote. But I would like to tap into Michael 25 years later. When you think back of the morning of September 11, 2001, what comes to your mind? It Michael Hingson  06:23 was a typical day. We we did have a thunderstorm about 1230 that morning, and Roselle, my fifth guide dog, who was my guide dog at the time, was afraid of thunder. She had developed this phobia. The theory, basically, about dogs being afraid of thunder is it's not just the thunder sounds, but it's also the fact that the dogs have a static charge that builds up on their fur, and that gives them a tingly and kind of a strange feeling, and between that and the thunder, they learn to equate the two, and that just causes a lot of angst. And in Roselle's case, at 1230 in the morning, we weren't even hearing a thunderstorm, but she started getting really nervous, and so I took her down to my office. And as I was going downstairs, we started hearing thunder, and the storm actually came right over our house. So I love to say God clearly has a sense of humor of some sort because the thunder-I had never heard thunder like I heard That morning, that is, literally, it came right over our house, so we heard what were explosion sounds. It was it was different than I had ever heard before, but I didn't have any message that said you shouldn't go into the World Trade Center or go to work that day, and I had been planning on going to work that day because we were going to be conducting some sales training seminars, teaching about 50 people from a bunch of resellers under the auspices of Ingram Micro, our major distributor. We were going to be teaching them how to sell our products, so I was going to be there. David Frank, a colleague from our corporate office, was going to be there. He was flying. He flew in to deal with the pricing and distribution models that the Ingram Micro salespeople and resellers would be dealing with, but I was going to be doing the majority of the seminar. Well, anyway, at 1230, I took Roselle down and we stayed there in my office at home until 2o'clock, and then the thunderstorm had passed away and Roselle had calmed down. So we went back up and got to sleep, and woke up at five in the morning, which is what I originally planned on doing. I'd actually planned on going in a little bit earlier than usual, just to be able to spend more time preparing. And I got to the New Jersey train station in Westfield, the New Jersey Transit train station, at somewhere around 615, and I had been planning on taking a 6:18 train into the city. And at about 6:20 or 6:21, train having not arrived, an announcement came over the PA system that there was a problem with the train, and another train would be coming. The next train would be there in a little bit, and we could get on it, and and all that. The day was a calm day. It was a nice autumn day. was great. No indication of of anything to worry about. And I didn't read anything into trains not working, much less the thunderstorm before. So when the train finally arrived, I got on the train and we went into Newark. Then I caught the train that takes me directly to the World Trade Center. It's called Path Train. Path stands for Port Authority Trans Hudson, and that train went straight in from Newark Penn Station with the well to the World Trade Center, and so I got there. And by the time all of a sudden done, I got there at the normal time I would get there rather than getting there 20 or 25 minutes earlier. Go figure, but I went upstairs and I went to the office and there was a person standing outside the door with a big cart. We had ordered breakfast for all the early arrivals, and so I took him in and showed him where to set up, and then I went in. And got my laptop projector and other things that I needed to be able to set up to do the presentations, and went in and set all that up. And then David Frank, my colleague from our corporate office, got there about 8o'clock and helped do the final things, like making sure the projector was totally appropriately aimed. His aim is better than than mine was, anyway. Michael Hingson  10:21 So again, everything was proceeding just as we expected it to do. David came with some early arrivals from Ingram Micro, and we put them in the in the conference room where we were going to be doing the presentations, and the the cart was all set up so they could have breakfast. As I love to tell people, best ham and cheese croissants in the city-they're still good, as far as I remember-but all was was going well, and so we we were getting prepared. And the last thing we had to do before the seminars were to start was to create a list of all the people who would be attending that day and put it on letterhead. We had a spreadsheet with all the names, but we had to put it on letterhead and then fax the list on letterhead to the Port Authority security people so that they would have a list that they would recognize was legitimate. And then when people came into the World Trade Center, they'd go up to the security counter, they'd show their ID, and their names would be compared with a list, and if their name was on the list, then they would just be given a badge with a a barcode where they could go to the appropriate elevator and come up to our floor. So that was kind of the last thing we had to do before the seminars were to start. Amplifyou   11:34 Kind of sounds like business as a norm and business as usual kind of morning for you. It Michael Hingson  11:40 was. It was a total business as usual morning, by every stretch of the imagination. No clue about anything else. Amplifyou   11:48 So, did you guys begun your seminar when the the troy towers were hit? Michael Hingson  11:55 No, the seminar was supposed to start at 9o'clock, and literally, I was reaching for letterhead to print the list at about 845, 846. When suddenly we heard a muffled kind of explosion, the building sort of shuddered. And then, if you imagine my hand as the tower, literally as I'm tipping my hand towards the camera, that's exactly what the tower did. It started tipping and tipping and tipping, and we moved maybe about 2025 feet before the building stopped. Now the thing is that I had spent time learning all I could know about the World Trade Center, learning what to do in an emergency, learning what the fire department did, learning what the police would do, learning where the emergency exits were, learning about all the emergency evacuation procedures, and the reason that I learned all of that was I had opened this office for Quantum Corporation, and I was the Mid-Atlantic region sales manager. I was the leader. I was going to be the person who would be running the office, and I knew that I needed to do what any other leader would do difference being I didn't see stuff, so I needed to learn rather than rely on signs and other things that most sighted people would do. I actually had to learn everything to be able to function. But the difference is that by doing that, what I didn't really realize was I was creating a mindset that says you know what's going on, you know what to do. I knew why the building tipped because tall buildings like that are built with expansion joints. They're made to be buffeted in windstorms, and I had felt that happen many times at the World Trade Center. If there were a wind, we could feel it sort of shake a little bit. But who would have ever thought that somebody would fly into the building with a plane load of jet fuel, 36,000 pounds of jet fuel? But nevertheless, I knew all that I could learn about everything. I learned where different offices and built and and organizations were in the World Trade Center. I had explored the kiosks on the first floor and the shopping mall, so I knew where all the phone kiosks were and where other things were. I knew where the restaurants were, so that if we ever had guests in and we were doing demonstrations and then we were going to be negotiating contracts, we decided to take a break for lunch. I could say, "What kind of lunch do you want? "Oh, you want a deli sandwich? There's this great restaurant downstairs called Fine and Shapiro. Let me take you there, and I would take them. I would lead the way because I couldn't very well say, "Oh, I don't know how to get anywhere. I'm blind. Someone's going to have to lead me. How's that going to work a couple of hours later if we're negotiating multi-million dollar contracts? I needed to literally work, and I don't mean this in a negative way, but from a position of strength. I needed to know all of this in order to be able to do my job as the appropriate leader of the office, and so I learned all of that and put all of that together for whatever was going. On in the World Trade Center at any given time, and so when the building was struck and and the building was tipping, I was standing in my doorway, the doorway between my office and the other parts of of our facility, and the building tipped. David was holding on to my desk as it was tipping. Roselle was asleep under my desk, and finally, David and I were speculating about what was going on. He thought maybe it was an earthquake, and I said no because the building's not shaking around; it's going in one direction. I thought maybe it was just some sort of an explosion, which in a sense it was. But he said it didn't sound like it, and it didn't. But the issue was that we were 18 floors on average below where the tower was hit and on the other side of the building, but that was a calculation that came later. But the bottom line is that the building tipped and then it stopped, and it came back the other way and got vertical again. Amplifyou   15:54 That's incredible! Wow. Michael Hingson  15:56 And as soon as it got vertical, I went back into my office. I met Roselle coming out from under my desk. I took her leash. I told her to heal, which meant to come around on my left side, which she did. She sat down, and about that time, the building dropped straight down about six feet. Amplifyou   16:10 Wow! Michael Hingson  16:10 Now, the reason it dropped is because tall buildings like that are constructed with expansion joints, which is why that it tipped in the first place, and the building didn't break off, but then when it got to be vertical again, after a few seconds, literally the expansion joints contracted and the building went back to its normal configuration, which is exactly what happened. Amplifyou   16:32 Gosh, interesting like technology that that's built in there. I know you you never really I would never known that. Had you not explain that in the story? That's very interesting. That expands like that, and then the six foot drop was then it contracting Michael Hingson  16:47 again. The expansion joints were going back to normal configuration. Amplifyou   16:50 Interesting. If Speaker 1  16:55 you enjoy unstoppable mindset and would like to help us continue bringing these conversations to you each week. We've created a way for you to support the show. Your contribution helps us cover production costs and continue sharing stories, insights, and ideas that inspire people to live with purpose and possibility. If supporting the podcast feels right for you, you'll find the link in the show notes. Thank you for being part of the Unstoppable Mindset Community. Amplifyou   17:28 And so there's so then what happened? So take us to the next steps. Michael Hingson  17:32 So the building dropped about six feet, and then David turned from holding onto my desk and looked out the window, looking south toward Battery Park, and he started shouting, "Oh my God, Mike! There's fire and smoke above us! There are millions of pieces of burning paper falling outside our window! And I could hear stuff going by our window, and I was wondering what it was because normally the sound was sort of like what window washers would do if they were on their tracks washing windows, but that wasn't what was going on. It was debris falling, and David was describing it: millions of pieces of burning paper falling outside our window, and he said, "We got to get out of here right now. And I said, "Slow down, David. We'll get out, but we're not going to rush. No, we got to get out of here right now. Slow down, David. We'll get out. Don't worry about it. And finally, I I said several times, "Slow down. He kept saying we got to get out of here right now, and then he used what I call the big line: "You don't understand. You can't see it. Well, first of all, I knew everything that David was seeing and saying because he was telling me about it. So I knew we had millions of pieces of burning paper. Clearly, he said, "There's fire and smoke above us, so the building's on fire. I had all that information, but the problem was that it wasn't what I wasn't seeing that was the issue; it was what David wasn't seeing. David wasn't seeing that sitting next to me was my guide dog Roselle, yawning and wagging her tail, going, "Who woke me up anyway? I was sleeping real good here, sports fans, and and Roselle was not reacting. I wasn't smelling anything that gave me an indication that we were in such peril that we had to run for our lives, and so I kept telling David to slow down. And finally, David did. He stopped. I said, "David, get our guests to the stairs. Do not let them take elevators, because I had learned, of course, that if the building's on fire anywhere, if fire gets into elevator shafts, then anybody in elevator cars is probably going to perish, which did happen. And so David took our guests out of our office, got them to the stairs, and I made it really clear: do not let them take elevators, because there could be fire in the elevator shafts. Well, he got them to the stairs, and then he came back. Meanwhile, I called my wife Karen to let her know that something had happened, or an explosion, or something. But we didn't know. People tell me all the time, even today. Well, of course you didn't know because you couldn't see it. You know, I think all these people who tell me I didn't know because I couldn't see it need to get a. The problem is they really don't know a whole lot about blind people. The airplane hit, on average, 18 floors above us. It hit between floors 93 and 99, so I just say 96, which is 18 floors above where we were in on the 78th floor. But it also hit on the other side of the building. It hit on the north side, and we were on the south side. The last time I checked, Superman and X-ray vision are fiction, and people can't really see through buildings, see through rebar and steel and concrete. The fact of the matter is that they no one knew what was going on. I didn't know, but other people did, and I'll prove that in a moment, but the fact of the matter is, you can't see through all that stuff. Blindness had nothing to do with it, but people keep saying, "Well, you didn't know because you couldn't see it. Well, yeah, well, we'll get to that. Anyway, David got our guest to the stairs. I called Karen. I told her that something had happened. We didn't know what. She wanted to know more, but there was nothing else I could tell her, and so we we parted. I just said, "I'll call you back as soon as I can, and by that, you know, the media hadn't even gotten the story yet. Michael Hingson  21:12 So I love to joke around and say that I beat Charlie Gibson in Good Morning America by eight minutes, but I still haven't gotten a Pulitzer Prize for it. But it's very disappointing. But anyway, so I disconnected with Karen. David came back. We swept the office. We went to the stairs, and we started down. Almost immediately, I began smelling an odor, and it was a familiar odor, but I couldn't quite place it. And it took me a while to realize I was smelling the fumes from burning jet fuel. I did a lot of traveling for my company, and so I was very used to what was in airports and the smells and the odors. But it took me like four floors to figure out that I was smelling burning jet fuel. Other people were speculating, wondering what happened, why were we evacuating, what was the building doing, why did it shake, and all that. And then I observed that I was smelling burning jet fuel, and other people said, "You're right. That's burning jet fuel. We must have been hit by an airplane. But you see, we didn't know. We had no clue. Eyesight had nothing to do with it. The fact is that we only figured out we were hit by an airplane because the blind guy realized he was smelling burning jet fuel, and so anyway, we went down the stairs. A couple of burn victims passed us along the way, and a woman, when we got down about 10 floors, stopped and she said, "I can't go on, and we're not going to make it out of here. And I literally just stopped and turned around and gave her a hug right there on the stairs. Roselle gave her some kisses, and other people stopped and joined us. And we all said, "Come on, you can keep going. You can do it. Let's go. And she was able to keep going as we went down the stairs. But we knew instinctively we had to make sure that panic didn't ensue on the stairs. Amplifyou   22:56 Right. Michael Hingson  22:57 We got to about the 50th floor, and then David suddenly said, and he had been getting quieter, but suddenly he said, "Mike, we're going to die. We're not going to make it out of here. And I said, in my best sharp voice, "Stop it, David. If Roselle and I can go down these stairs, so can you. And he told me that that brought him out of the funk that he was singing into. And he said, "I want to walk a floor below you, if it's okay, and I'll tell you whatever I see on the stairs. But I got to do something to get my mind off of worrying about all this stuff. Is that okay? And I said, sure. If that's what you need to do, go ahead. Did it really matter? Well, you know, it did to David, and that's all that really counted. But anyway, David walked a floor below us, and so when I got to the 48th floor, for example, I heard, "Hey, Mike, I'm on the 47th floor. All's good here. Going on down the stairs. We went down, and finally I got to the 45th floor. And David said, '44th floor is where I am. This is where the Port Authority cafeteria is. Not stopping. Going on down the stairs, and he did that all the way down the stairs. Why is that important? And why do I even mention it? Because we all did everything we could to keep panic from taking over on the stairs, and by definition, because David was just speaking up, "Hey, Mike, 42nd floor, all's good here, and just shouting up to me what he saw on the stairs and sounding confident. By definition, anyone who was in the sound within the sound of his voice heard someone who was sounding okay and just able to go down the stairs and wasn't seeing any problem, and so they focused on him, and that certainly had to help keep panic from ensuing on the stairs as we went down, and it's so often not even mentioned, but David had to do that for maybe hundreds or 1000s of people who could hear him all the way up and down the stairwell, and I think that's just one of the most important things that I remember about the day that David had to, by definition, help keep panic from going on on the stairs. Now, meanwhile, I was up. Encouraging Roselle, what a good dog, good girl, Roselle. Keep going, let's go, good dog, doing that all the way down the stairs. And I've had people come up to me at speeches that I've given ever since. For example, one in Kansas City, and a woman came up afterward, and she said, "I came into the stairwell on the 54th floor just as you passed by, and I heard you praising your dog and encouraging your dog and sounding very confident, I and other people just followed you because you sounded really good and you didn't sound like you had a problem at all and weren't afraid. We just followed you, so you know that's why I also know that what David was doing was so important because people focused on his voice. Amplifyou   25:42 How fascinating! Someone that was right behind you that day in the stairwell, too. Michael Hingson  25:46 Yeah, yeah. So we continued down. We got to the 30th floor, and that's where we met firefighters coming up. They wanted to help me go down the stairs, and I didn't want their help. I didn't need their help, first of all, but I didn't want their help because that would have meant we were always walking at least two abreast, and they were going to grab my arm and try to lift me as we were going downstairs and do other things that sighted people think you got to do if you're helping a quote a blind person go down the stairs. But there was a more important reason that I didn't want their help, and you know when the firefighter, the first guy, came up and he said, "We're going to send somebody with you. I kept saying, "No, don't do that. We don't need that. What I knew because of all that I had learned was that they were a team. They had to carry all their equipment up the stairs with them. Why? Where would you store it? Let's say you decided to store it on the 34th floor, and fire broke out on the 33rd floor. You'd never get to the equipment. They had to carry all their equipment up with them. They were a team, all 50 of those firefighters, and so I was not about to want to break up the team when, especially, I didn't need it anyway. And I I worked at getting them finally to focus, and I said, look, I got my guide dog here, and they started petting Roselle, and it wasn't the time to give them a lecture about don't pet a guide dog in harness. And by the way, don't pet a guide dog in harness. If you see a guide dog in harness, you can ask me if you can pet the dog, and if I have time, I will stop and I'll take the harness off because Roselle likes to relax, Alamo, my current guide dog, likes to relax. The dogs all love to relax, but if I don't have time, I'll say, "Look, we're kind of in a hurry, so sorry, but we just don't have time. But the firefighters were petting her, and it wasn't the time to give him a lecture about don't pet the guide dog and harness, and it wasn't the time to give him a lecture about don't worry about the blind guy just because he can't see and you can. The reality is that blindness isn't the problem; it's your attitudes about blindness that are more of the problem. But anyway, they finally agreed. When I finally said, "Look, I got my friend David over here who can see, and David and I are going down the stairs together, and they turn to David and they go, "You're with him. And David said, "Yeah, Lee Malone, he's fine. And mention all the hundreds Amplifyou   28:06 of people that are following you. Michael Hingson  28:08 Yeah, and and they all had to stop as we're talking to the firefighters. But anyway, so they eventually started going up the stairs, and I continued down. David reassumed his scouting position, and we followed David by a floor down the stairs, and and did what we needed to do, and then we we finally got to the first floor. Well, David did, and he said the water sprinklers are on. You're going to have to run through a curtain of water to get out of the stairwell, and the the reason there were sprinklers on is if there was fire in the stairwell, the water sprinklers would be keeping the fire from getting into the lobby. But if it were in the lobby, the sprinklers would be keeping the fire from getting into the stairwell. That's part of what was supposed to happen. Well, it it all worked perfectly. So David went through the curtain of water, and I got down to the first floor, and I took Roselle's harness and said forward and hop up and let's go. And we went through this curtain of water and came out the other side into the lobby of Tower One. There was a guy with a bullhorn going, "Go this way, no, no, don't go over that way, go this way, go to the central part of the building, don't go outside, no, no, don't go that way, go this way. And that was because that if they had gone outside, they would have been below where people were jumping, and you know who knows what else, so they didn't, and and they went to the central part of the building. We got out, and I was hearing the guy with the bullhorn. This guy comes up to David and me, and he said he's with the FBI, and he'll take us where we need to go. And I asked him what's going on. He said, "There's no time to tell you. I wish he had, but he didn't know me. He didn't know that information was what I really valued more than anything else, and I wasn't going to panic just because I heard information. But he took us through the complex and eventually up an escalator by the borders books, as far away from the towers as we could be, and then we got out. And as soon as we got out, David saw fire in Tower Two. We had no idea where that came from. We speculated that maybe our building, which had been tipping toward Tower Two, had its fire sort of jump across, maybe somehow. But we didn't know what was going on, and so we were told to leave the area, which we did. We went over to Broadway, which is again what we were told to do and told to get away from the complex, so we went over to Broadway and started walking north on Broadway. So as we were walking north, on my left side was the building, on my right side was Broadway. We're on the west side of Broadway as we're going north, and we passed several streets, and then after we passed all the well, we passed a number of streets, and we finally got to Vessi Street. And David said, "You know, we're very close to Tower Two. I want to take pictures of this fire I see in Tower Two. I said, "Okay. I took out my phone. I tried to call Karen. I couldn't get through. The circuits were busy, as we now know. Of course, people were saying goodbye to loved ones, but for me, I couldn't get through, so I put my phone away. And David was putting his camera away when a police officer yelled, "Get out of here! It's coming down now! And we heard this sound, as I describe it, as kind of a combination of a freight train and a waterfall. What we heard was Tower Two collapsing like 100 yards away from us. You could hear glass breaking and shattering, you could hear metal clattering, and then the white noise of Tower Two just collapsing straight down, which is exactly what it was supposed to do. David and everyone turned and ran. I lifted Roselle by the harness, turned her 180 degrees, and started running back the way I came. David was long gone. Michael Hingson  31:36 I got to the next street back that we had crossed a little while before, and that was Fulton Street. Turned right on Fulton to get more of a building between us and what was collapsing, and we ran about 25 yards and caught up to David. It turns out that we had gone the same way he went, but he had stopped realizing that he had left me and was going to come back and find me. But I found him first, and he apologized. I said, "Don't worry about it, David. Let's keep going. And we kept running. We got caught in all the dirt and the dust and the debris from Tower Two's collapse. As David said, he couldn't see his hand six inches in front of his nose. For my part, I couldn't. With every breath I took, I could feel debris going down my throat into my lungs and settling. It was crazy, and we ran, and eventually, I decided we got to get out of this. So I started telling Roselle right, right, giving her hand signals. I don't know whether she could hear me over the noise of the building collapsing, or whether she could see my hand signals. But I kept telling her to turn right because I wanted her to, because there was a building on my right. Now that we were going the other way, I wanted her to go into the nearest opening that she could find. As we ran, I suddenly heard an opening, and Roselle obviously knew what I wanted because she turned right. She took one step. She stopped. She wouldn't move. Come on, Roselle, keep going. She wouldn't move. Come on, Roselle, you can do it. Keep going. She wouldn't move, and I realized, wait a minute, she's a guide dog. She's doing what she's supposed to do. She stopped for a reason, which she had. I checked. I stuck out my foot, stuck a hand out along the wall, discovered we were at the top of a flight of stairs. Roselle had done her job perfectly. She stopped. So when I gave her the command to go forward, she went down the stairs, and we went down into what was the Fulton Street subway station, and we were there for about 15 minutes or so. Then a police officer found a bunch of us together and said, "The air is clear up above. You need to leave now. And didn't wait for a response; just turned, and we all followed him back to the stairwell, up the stairs, through the little arcade that we had we had passed through part way down the stairs before, up the rest of the stairs and got outside. David looked around and he said, "Oh my God, Mike, there's no Tower Two anymore. And I said, "What do you mean? He said, "All I see are pillars of smoke, hundreds of feet tall. There's no Tower Two. It's gone. Are you sure, David? "Yeah, it's gone. It's not here. We stood there for a moment, and then we continued to walk west on Fulton Street. And we walked for about 10 minutes, and then we were in this little plaza area when suddenly we heard that freight train waterfall sound again, and we figured it was probably our tower collapsing. David looked back and he saw another dust cloud coming our way, and in this plaza where we were, there was a small retaining wall, probably a planter or something, but anyway, there was a retaining wall. We got behind it, we ducked down, and we just waited till everything passed us by and stopped. And then we got up, and David looked around and he said, "Oh my God, Mike, there's no World Trade Center anymore. And I said, "What do you see? And he said, "All I see are fingers of fire and flames, hundreds of feet tall, and pillars of smoke. It's gone. The towers and everything are gone. And we stood there a moment, not able to fathom it. Then I tried to call Karen again, and this time I got through because all the circuits freed up from all the loved ones saying goodbye. Needless to say, and after, as I put it, tears on both sides of the phone line. Michael Hingson  34:59 Karen was finally the first one who told us how two aircraft had been crashed deliberately into the towers of the Pentagon, hijacked aircraft towers at the World Trade Center. That is, one into the Pentagon, and a fourth was still missing over Pennsylvania at that moment. And so that's kind of what happened. The rest of the day we spent getting up toward Midtown Manhattan, and eventually was able to get trains back to New Jersey and so on. And David walked up to where he was staying with his sister, who lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Amplifyou   35:30 What an experience, Sue! Thank you for going through that with us again. And you know, there's there's a lot of things that I want to well, there's something I want to ask you. It's like we often talk about preparation of that day, like all the things you did to prepare for what what you actually were able to do during that day. What mattered on that day from all that preparation? Michael Hingson  35:55 That I knew what to do in an emergency. Also, although I really started learning to verbalize it more later, what I learned was how to control the things that I could and not worry about everything else. We what if everything to death as human beings? Yeah. And we what? Well, what if what if you were in the build in the World Trade Center and it collapsed? Well, okay. What could I have done about that? So it's no sense worrying about it, because I, you know, I didn't have access to something to hold the building up, you know, and so many different things. Well, what if Roselle had panicked? Well, that's why I encouraged her and praised her so she wouldn't. But the bottom line is, I didn't have control over that, other than the fact that I encouraged her and and worked with her so well. Well, what if other people panicked on the stairs? I didn't have control over that, other than doing all I could to try to keep panic from happening. And you know, I and other people did a number of things like what David did to keep people from panicking on the stairs. But the bottom line is, there was no sense worrying about those things because we had no control over them. And when we got home that night, I took Roselle's harness off and I was going to take her outside. She ran off. She wouldn't. She wouldn't go outside right away. She grabbed her favorite tug botobone and started playing tug of war with my retired guide dog Linnie. And they were having a good old time just playing. When I talked to the veterinarians of Guide Dogs for the Blind the next day, I asked them, "What's it going to be like for Roselle going forward? And they asked, "Did Roselle have anything that specifically threatened her? And I said, "No, not really, because nothing hit her, nothing threatened her in any way, shape, or form, and the veterinarian who I spoke with said, "Well, there you are. She wasn't threatened. Dogs don't do what if about everything. They live in the moment. It was over for her. She wanted to play, and that's what she did, which was great anyway. But we what if everything to death, and we need to learn how to stop doing that and worry about just the 5% over which we really have control, and not worry about the rest. That's one of the lessons that I learned. I learned about don't worry about what you can't control. Focus on what you can and leave the rest alone. I learned about what if you know and things like that. Amplifyou   38:18 You and Roselle really understood each other in those moments. So what she realized what her job was, and you you were a leader in keeping everyone else under under control from you know reacting. Did you ever? You seem to have been very positive right from the beginning. Were there other moments that you were not sure that you or guys were going to get out of there. Michael Hingson  38:44 No, and my response is there wasn't time to worry about that for me. I was focused on Roselle. I was focused on listening because if people started to panic, I wanted to deal with it. There was a time on the 37th floor where people just started not talking. They were getting very quiet, and I went, "Oh, they're going to be like David was, and so I said, "Hey, everybody, whether you can see me or not, my name is Mike, and I've got my guide dog Roselle here. I'm blind, but I don't want anybody to worry, because if the power and lights go out in the World Trade Center, we're offering a half-price special to get you out today only. You know, and and that's exactly what I wanted them to do was to laugh, and I got people to laugh, which, which I'm sure helped. But those are the kinds of things that that I could focus on dealing with. But I I didn't worry about what I couldn't control, even though that was sort of an instinctive thing. But the mindset kicked in. All the things that I had learned that led up to September 11th kicked in that day, that allowed me to be able to function and and also help other people, and that's the the important part about it is that they all did kick in the mindset kicked in and it all worked well. Amplifyou   39:54 You've told this story so many times. Has the meaning of the story ever changed for you over 25 years? Michael Hingson  40:00 No, I got to say that it hasn't. Well, in some, yeah, I guess in some senses it has. Maybe some of the reasoning has changed. For example, speaking today, I'm speaking to oftentimes a generation of people who have absolutely no memory of the World Trade Center because they weren't even born yet, or they were too young to remember it. Probably, if you're under 30 years old, you really don't have any memory of it. And if you're under 25, you weren't even born at the time. My job, I believe, and so I've expressed this more lately than I have in the past. But my job is to take people in as I speak to the building with me, and take them down the stairs. Take them through the experiences that I had and went through, and why I went through those experiences, and the lessons to be learned from those. And then bring them out when we get to the bottom and outside. Take them all the way through and out, so that they get the full sense of what I experienced. And I've had so many people tell me we were with you every step you took down the stairs. You tell the story so vividly and so well, and and you just you just had us with you all the way down the stairs, which is exactly what I wanted, because I want them to understand that in reality you can learn to deal with things that come along, there are going to be things that you can't deal with because you don't have the skill or whatever. But we all have a lot of skills that we don't think we do, and one of them is that we can learn to control fear. We can learn that fear is around us, but we don't have to let it overwhelm, blind, or paralyze us. We can learn to use fear in a very positive, constructive way to keep us focused and going down the stairs. Amplifyou   41:45 What made you to decide to keep using your experiences each other's? Michael Hingson  41:49 Well, after September 11th, we and and the media got the story, and then people started calling because we got very visible in the media, and people started calling and saying we'd like to hire you to come and talk to us about what we should learn from September 11th. Learn about teamwork. Learn about what happened that day. Learn the lessons of World Trade Center, and so I decided that I would would do that and teach people what they could remember and and take away from it, and people started calling and saying, "Gee, would you come and let us hire you to tell the lessons of September 11th? And by the beginning of 2002, I had so many of those kinds of requests that Karen and I decided that selling life and philosophy was a whole lot more fun than selling computer hardware and being a computer hardware sales manager, and so that's what I turned to doing full time, and learning to help people understand that the reality is that you are a lot better than you think you are, and you need to learn that. But you really can do in a more strong way what you think you can do than than a typical way. Amplifyou   43:02 That's what I was just going to ask you: is if September 11th changed the direction of your life, and it did, from the career you had into now being a professional speaker. Interesting. Michael Hingson  43:13 Oh, yeah, it's helped a lot. And you know, I I also there are other things that that helped me in terms of dealing with public speaking, I love to tell the story that when I was growing up, before I had access to braille, I had braille in kindergarten in Chicago, but then I didn't have braille in California until the fourth grade, and my parents helped me learn things, and I learned all the spelling words that you know you had every every week you had to learn words, and then on Friday you the teacher would tell you the words, and you had to write them down, and you change papers, and the teacher would write the words on the board. Except in my class, in my class the teacher didn't write the words on the board. The teacher would say, "Mike, you have to spell the words out loud for everybody. So I learned how not to fear crowds and learned that I could spell the words. I know one time I messed up a word, and I don't even remember what the word was, but I heard somebody go, "Uh-uh, and I and I went, "Oh, I must have got it wrong, and I figured it out, and then I spelled it right. But that that only happened one time that I can recall. But clearly, that helped me learn not to be afraid of audiences. And today, I don't even understand why people are afraid to speak publicly. The fact of the matter is, audiences don't come to hear you so they can joke at you, make fun of you, yell at you, and so on. They come because they value what you're you're going to talk with them about, and they want to hear it. They want you to be successful, and they'll help you be successful if you let them, Amplifyou   44:41 I think you were always destined to be a public speaker, but it seems like the September 11th really just the universe conspired to make that happen. Maybe sooner than it would have. Did you ever see yourself before that becoming a public speaker? Michael Hingson  44:57 I never thought of being a public speaker before that. Neither had I ever thought of being an author. I I was used to it because working at Quantum on any given day I could be speaking to anybody from the board of directors of a Wall Street firm to IT people to other management people and so on. So I got used to doing it, and I and I learned all about selling and being articulate in sales, so I kind of learned a lot about public speaking from that. But I never really thought I would just be speaking for a living. But given what happened on September 11th, and that I get the opportunity to talk with people and help them see that in reality, what happened on September 11th is a day of lessons that taught us, or can teach us about resilience, can teach us about dealing with things that we don't expect to happen, and that we can learn how to control fear and so on, rather than letting it overwhelm us. So it it is it's really been pretty good. Amplifyou   45:57 Yeah, and when you hear the phrase "unstoppable mindset, how much of that philosophy do you think was shaped on that day, september 11? Michael Hingson  46:05 Oh, I think a lot of it came from from that day and and beyond. You know, the mindset kicked in on september 11 because of what I knew. But I think also that when it came time to start this podcast, which someone asked me to do as part of being involved with the company. I heard a lot of people talking about resilience and so on, and I just thought of unstoppability, unstoppable mindset, because the reality is we all are more unstoppable than we think we are, and so the podcast is literally an opportunity to converse with anyone who wants to come on, and it is a conversation more, much more than an interview, but it's a conversation about them, their lives, what they've done, and including what did you do that made you realize that you're more unstoppable than you think you are, and maybe you didn't realize that, but you are, and here's let's talk about this, and so those are those are things that I talk about. But I believe that everyone has a story to tell, so I'm always looking for people to come on the podcast and tell their stories and talk with with me about their experiences and so on, and that's how you know we found Bob Ellis, who's going to be with us on the Pentagon. I had actually contacted him about speaking to his organization, and I always mentioned the World Trade Center in initial introductory letters. And he wrote back and said that he would love to help, but he also wrote back and said, you know, I was in the Pentagon on September 11th, and that opened our dialog. And the result was that we finally set up for him to come on Unstoppable Mindset. And when when we did our conversation, I learned, for example, that he walked out the door, and it just he was supposed to be in a meeting that was right near where the plane actually came through the window, and in Bob's case, he had literally just left because the meeting ended up not happening, and he had just walked outside the door when he heard the plane, and he didn't really understand what was happening. But the plane sped up, and then it just crashed right into the tower, into the Pentagon, and he ran from the area, but he was very much involved with with talents that allowed him to help acquire things to help other people survive and so on, and did that for a couple of days or four days. But Bob will tell his story on September 11th. But he was literally just out the door when the plane hit. Amplifyou   48:42 Wow! Well, your guests can look forward to that interview. Will be the next up after this one. And I want to thank you, Michael, for sitting down with me today. I oh, it's always a pleasure, and thanks for allowing me to take over the hosting seat for today on your show, so we can hear more of your story, and thank you for sharing all the lessons you've learned from this experience. Michael Hingson  49:07 Well, well, thank you, and and I hope people will take them to heart. And I would say, if anyone wants to be on the podcast, we would love to have you send me an email at speaker s p e a k e r at michael hingson m i c h a e l h i n g s o n.com. If you know of any speaking opportunities that need a keynote speaker to come in, not only to tell an inspiring story, but I want to make it very clear, but to teach also lessons about resilience, business continuity, and other things like that, email me at speaker@michaelhingson.com. Would love to talk with you about that. My website is www.michaelhinkson.com, or you can go to www.michaelhinkson.com/podcast. But we'd love to hear from you in in any way and and get to know you better and you know go from there. Amplifyou   49:57 Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Michael, for today. We'll take care and see you soon. Michael Hingson  50:02 Sounds good. Thank you for being here with me on Unstoppable Mindset. I hope today's conversation left you with a fresh perspective, a new insight, or at least something worth thinking about. If you're ready to go deeper into the ideas that shape how we see ourselves and others, I have a free gift for you. Head over to michaelhingson.com and download my free ebook, Blinded by Fear. It explores the invisible beliefs that hold us back and shows you how to reframe them so you can move forward with clarity and confidence. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, leave a review, and share this show with someone who can use a reminder that growth starts with mindset. When people think differently, we all move forward together. Thanks again for listening. Keep learning, keep questioning, and keep choosing to live with an unstoppable mindset.

Surviving September 11 took more than courage. It took preparation, trust, and the ability to manage fear. I share my experience escaping from the 78th floor of the World Trade Center with my guide dog, Roselle, and the lessons that shaped how I responded that morning. You'll hear how years of learning my surroundings, trusting my training, and understanding my role as a leader helped me stay focused during the evacuation. I also explore blindness, the limits society places on blind people, and the power of teamwork between a guide dog and handler. Most of all, this story is about focusing on what you can control, trusting the relationships you've built, and preparing yourself to act when fear shows up. Highlights: 00:10 – Why Michael is revisiting September 11, 25 years later. 11:45 – How Michael learned that blindness itself isn't the limitation. 32:50 – Why preparation inside the World Trade Center mattered when crisis hit. 36:40 – How staying calm helped Michael lead others toward safety. 44:46 – The lesson Michael heard while running from the collapsing tower. 51:59 – What Roselle taught Michael about fear, trust, and moving forward. About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Transcript: Michael Hingson  00:04 Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of Unstoppable Mindset. I am your host, Mike Hingson, and today we're doing something a little bit different. This is Friday, september 4, 20/26, and this is the first of four episodes commemorating all of the events that happened in and around September 11, 2001. As many of you know, I was in the World Trade Center working for a company. I had opened an office for them on the 78th floor of Tower One of the World Trade Center, and on September 11th, I was in my office because we were going to be doing some special sales training for people, and I was there getting prepared to do all of that when the terrorists attacked the towers, and then later the Pentagon. And as you may know, a fourth aircraft was crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, because people on the aircraft took it over from the terrorists or tried to anyway, so one of the things that we thought would be helpful would be for me to give you again a taste of what I actually went through and what occurred on September 11, 2001, when we started this podcast back in August of 2021, I played a speech that talked about some of what happened to me in the World Trade Center. But today we're going to do a different speech. In April of 2024, I was invited to be a speaker at the Marshfield, Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival. Now that festival is a yearly event celebrating and commemorating different events in American history. In 2024, I was invited to come and speak and talk about my experience at the World Trade Center and to help put some of that into context. I thought it would be very relevant for all of you if we played that speech for you, so that you would again get a taste of what occurred with me, why I was able to survive and escape, and a little bit about the lessons that we should learn about not only September 11th, but frankly, from my perspective, being the fact that I have been blind since I was born in 1950, I want you to learn a little bit more about blindness. So we're going to present to you now my speech delivered in April on April 27, 2024, at the Marshfield, Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival. I hope that you'll enjoy it. I hope that it will teach you some things, and don't forget that we have other episodes coming up. We have another episode occurring on the eighth of September where I'm going to be interviewed by Michelle Abraham from Amplify You. Amplify You is the company that I work with to get these podcasts out twice a week, and Michelle has her own podcast, and she's going to interview me to talk about lessons we've learned, to talk a little bit about what happened on September 11th. But we won't give anything away for what's going to happen later in this series of episodes. On September 11th, I will be talking with Bob Ellis. Bob was at the Pentagon on September 11th and literally just walked out the door just before the aircraft hit the Pentagon. We're going to talk about that and again, hopefully, put some of things in perspective for you. Then on the 15th of September, I'm going to come back on episode 475 of our podcast, and talk a little bit more in detail about the lessons that I've learned, and talk about things that I hope people will take away and remember from september 11. I know many of you weren't even born when the World Trade Center terrorist attacks occurred, and so this episode 472, especially, I hope will give you a little bit better sense of what occurred, and from my perspective, why things occurred the way they did, and and how we proceed. So I hope you'll enjoy this episode. Hope that you'll enjoy what it brings, and we will definitely be moving forward to talk about some other things later on. Speaker 1  04:24 There are moments in American history that changed the national conscience. Yesterday, we heard about the assassination of President Kennedy. Some of you might be old enough to remember the attack of Pearl Harbor, and for most recently in American history, of course, the terrorist attacks September 11th. Today, you're going to hear a riveting account, a a heroic story of a man whose story I believe will really pull at your heartstrings. And to moderate that panel today, or that interview, to do is conduct our interview. Today is Mary Acher, who's no stranger to this stage, good friend, presidential historian, and a great interviewer. If you'll put your hands together for Miss Mary, Speaker 2  05:11 I just am so honored to met Michael Hinkson and Alamo. You know by what you see that he came down on the 78th floor of the North Tower with his guide dog Brosel, but I have a friend named Doug Weed who always told me, "You don't brag on yourself; you get somebody else to brag on you. And I want to brag on Michael before we start this. Before I ask him to tell this story, Michael was a premature baby, and at the time when he was born, they put the babies in pre in a the premature babies in a incubator sealed with 100% oxygen, and the doctors didn't know that then, but it blinded the children, and Michael was blinded at birth. So Michael was very fortunate that he had parents that refused to allow him to even think about being disabled. They mainstreamed him before mainstreaming was even known, and they taught him to ride a bicycle. They let him drive a car, and later in his life, he actually piloted an airplane. Is that amazing? He loved mathematics. He loved physics. He was taught geometry. He solved math problems in his head. He's got a master's degree in physics and another-not a master's, but a regular in in teaching. So that is why he is such an amazing man. He's never ever let this what enough people call a disability stop him at all? As a matter of fact, he has been such an amazing gift to the unsighted community in in the Braille and things that technology that blind people can utilize to be online and be all kinds of of things that they wouldn't ever have been allowed to do even 50 years ago. So anyway, I'm just so honored to have met you, Michael. It's just been amazing. I'm going to take him to Lambert's tomorrow. He says I have to catch the rolls, or somebody else will catch them and they'll eat them and he won't get it. I promised him I'd catch the rolls. All right, my dear Michael, would you start telling us about that horrendous day? I am Michael Hingson  08:00 going to not do what I said I was gonna do. I'm gonna stand up, and I'm gonna be very interested to go to Lambert's to see what they do with me, since normally they would throw the rolls, as I understand it. And I'm gonna point out that doesn't really work. So now, what are you gonna do? Because if they all fall on the floor and the dog gets them, and the dog gets sick, you guys are in trouble. So I'll be interested to see exactly what happens. No, I'm sure it will work out. Mary, thank you for those those kind words. I'd like to start by defining a couple things to help us in all of this. Mary is absolutely right about what my parents did in their position, the doctors told my parents when it was discovered I was blind at about four months of age that I should be sent to a home because no blind child could ever grow up to amount to anything or contribute to society. If you think that's bad, it was worse in other parts of the world where, when children were born who were blind, were just drowned in a bucket of water. So, in a sense, it wasn't as bad. Not every child who was born premature and put in an incubator did go blind, and it's unfortunate, in a sense, that at the time that I was born. Dr. Arnold Papps at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University had discovered that, in fact, oxygen could cause blindness, and even a few minutes a day of a non-oxygen environment would drop the incidence of blindness down to zero. But medical science didn't believe him because they said, "Well, too much oxygen can't be a problem. And what Dr. Arnold Pats essentially really proved is that too much of anything can be a problem. So it is it is an issue. I finally actually some time ago got to meet Dr. Pats. Before he passed, it was it was fascinating to talk with him about that. The condition at the time when I was born was called retroenterial fibroplasia. If you want to know how to spell that, I wrote a book called Thunderdog: The Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero, which we plan to have here, but the publisher messed up, so it wasn't. But you can go buy Thunderdog anywhere, and you can learn how to spell retrolateral fibroplegia. It is now called retinopathyoprematurity. I guess that's a little easier to spell. I don't know still why they changed the name, but they did. So fine, I don't care. I am blind. I don't care. Blindness isn't the problem. I've learned from my parents and growing up and being alive now for yep 74 years, blindness isn't the problem. The problem is our perception of blindness, what we believe blind people can and can't do, as opposed to what they truly can and can't do. If you want to really see a story or something about a blind person driving a car, there is a website www.blinddriverchallenge.org. Blinddriverchallenge.org. The president of the National Federation of the Blind in October of 2001 challenged private industry and universities to create a vehicle that a blind person could drive, not an autonomous vehicle, but truly a vehicle that would transmit to the blind person the information necessary for them to drive the vehicle. What you will see at blinddriverchallenge.org is a video of a gentleman named Mark Riccobono. Too many marks. Mark Riccobono driving a vehicle independently without any assistance around the Daytona Speedway, right before the 2011 Rolex 24 race, he will go through an obstacle course. He will pass boxes that are being thrown out of a van to try to block his way. He will pass the van and a number of things like that. The reality is, what is driving? It's all about you having the information necessary for you to control your vehicle, and as far as I'm concerned, given what Mark Riccobono did, and given the reality that the information is available to us, given the way most sighted drivers drive, I'll take me any day, especially where I live in Victorville. My gosh! But the the reality is, blindness isn't the problem. I grew up believing that I went to public school. I went to college. Michael Hingson  12:26 I did get a master's degree in physics. As I love to tell people, I'm as good as Doc Brown from Back to the Future in building reactors and nuclear bombs. The only difference between me and Doc Brown is I won't go steal fissionable material from some source that might come after me later. So you know, I think I was a little smarter than Doc Brown, but the fact is, again, it's not the problem. I was also the program director of the campus radio station for a while, and I worked at the campus radio station KUCI 89.9 on your FM dial for seven years. I did a show playing old radio shows every Sunday night from six to nine. Didn't even know what 60 minutes was. I heard about it, and one day finally somebody from the show or from the the Orange County Jail called and said, "We really got a situation. We want you to know about it here at the jail. People who heard about you, they've heard about 60 minutes, and on Sunday nights we have to divide the jail in half. Half of the people go up to a television room to watch 60 Minutes, and the other half, which is the bigger half, want to hear your show playing old radio shows on Sunday nights. So you know we must be doing something right. That even at the jail, they liked us. I went to work in 1976 for the National Federation of the Blind. It's the largest organization of blind consumers in the country. I was offered a position because I was in in the science world, one of the few at the time in that world. And the president of the federation, Dr. Jernigan, told me in late 74, early 75, we got a situation. There's a guy named Ray Kurzweil. You may have heard of Ray. He's a futurist. He's an inventor. He's invented the singularity. I'm not totally sure I agree with everything that Ray says. You know, Ray once said the only problem with God is we haven't invented it yet. I don't agree with that. And the other part about it is Ray says that we're really going to all become part of the world when chips are created that will allow us to directly interact with computers. Well, we'll see. I don't want to chip in my brain yet. But Ray at that time had developed a piece of technology that would actually look at a printed page. It actually had to build it up line by line, so it wasn't like snapping a picture. But it would learn to recognize all the characters on that page, no matter what their type styles or print styles were, and it would read it out loud, called the Kurzweil Reading Machine for the Blind. Just like with blindness and retro-entral fibroblasia, the government didn't believe he could do it because nobody else had been able to do it, and so they wouldn't help fund it. He came to the federation, and the federation said, "Tell you what we're going to do." Ray, I'm not sure they said it quite that way, but tell you what we're going to do, Ray. We're going to send somebody up there with a bunch of material, and if your machine reads what we bring up, not what you want to read, if it reads what we bring up, then we're going to help you get funding. And Ray, I'm sure again it wasn't quite the way he said it, but he said, "Bring it on. They did. It did, and a relationship began that exists to this day-a machine that literally would read print out loud. And Ray wanted the first application of omnivore optical character recognition to be a machine that would read print out loud for blind people. We created a project where we purchased several machines, and then for 18 months, from 1976, in October through June of 1978, I lived in suitcases or out of suitcases in hotels, traveling around the country where we put machines at places like the New York Public Library, the Iowa Commission for the Blind, the San Francisco Public Library, and some other agencies for the blind around the country. Michael Hingson  15:59 The idea being that we wanted blind people to come and use the machine, read whatever they wanted to read, and then give us information about what needed to go into a final production model of the machine. I wrote training curriculum. I wrote the the technical manuals for teaching people how to use the machine. I taught people to use it. I observed people using it. Sometimes grabbed my old soldering gun and fix things that broke on the machines. These were $50,000, 400 pound machines. They weren't little things like an app on an iPhone today, right? So anyway, we finally wrote the final recommendations, and then Ray said, "I want to hire you to come and do the same sort of thing within the company. So I went to work for Ray, moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Actually, I learned I moved to Winthrop, Massachusetts, learned how to go from Winthrop to Cambridge every day, and we began a relationship. And I worked at Kurzweil Computer Products, in and that started in again October of 1978. In May of 1978, I was called into the office of the VP of Marketing, and Andrew Parson said, "We're laying you off. What? We're laying you off. Why? Oh, it's not that you're doing a bad job or anything, but unfortunately, like a lot of engineering startup companies, we've hired too many people who aren't revenue producers, and we have to have more revenue producers. And so, as important as your job is, it's not as important as making money for the company. So we have to lay you off. Then he paused and he said, "Unless you'll go into sales. Now, I'm a science guy. However, I thought about it for a micro nanosecond, and I said, "Sure, I'll go into sales. As I love to tell people, I decided I would lower my standards and go from science to sales, and did. I said I don't know anything about sales. He said we'll send you to a Dale Carnegie sales course and all that. Well, I started selling, but not the reading machine for the blind. Instead, I sold a new product they had called the Kurzweil Data Entry Machine, and unlike the reading machine for the blind that sold for $50,000, if you want one, we might be able to find one of the old machines for you for 49 995. Instead, I sold a new product called the Kurzweil Data Entry Machine, which was only $125,000. I guess they had confidence in my ability, and I was very grateful for it. The real reason that I didn't want to refuse the sales position is I knew that at that time, and it's still somewhat today, the unemployment rate among employable blind people is close to 70. That is seven 0% It's not because we can't do the work; it's because people think we won't be able to do the work and don't give us the opportunity. So the bottom line is, I lowered my standards and went from science to sales, and did that for a while. And then in 1981, while Xerox was considering and actually working toward buying the product, I was asked by Ray and the VP of Sales to move back to California, where I was from, to help integrate Kurzweil into the Xerox West Coast environment, including their research center called Palo Alto Area Research Center Park, and I did. And my thanks for that was that after the the whole sale was consummated and Xerox completely took over. I was the last salesperson in June of 1984 to receive a FedEx letter saying thank you for your service, but we don't want you anymore. Goodbye, because all Xerox wanted was the technology. They didn't want the people. Now I was confronted with the situation. How am I going to find a job? What am I going to do? 70% unemployment. and I went out and I wrote lots of cover letters, sent out lots of resumes, and I even got a headhunter who called me and said, "Love your resume. We're going to have you interview with this company up in San Jose, California. We'll send you a ticket. They sent me the ticket the night before the flight. The guy called. Back and he says, "You know, I was just looking at your resume again. I see you do a lot of things with blind people. Michael Hingson  20:04 Is there somebody in your family who's blind? You notice that? And I said, "Yeah, I'm blind. You're blind? Well, I'm going to have to call them. They're not going to want to talk to you. I said, "Nothing has changed. My resume is still the same, but you're blind. It's all changed. No, it hasn't. There were no laws to stand on. The reservation was canceled, and I didn't do the interview. Their loss. If Speaker 3  20:30 you enjoy Unstoppable Mindset and would like to help us continue bringing these conversations to you each week, we've created a way for you to support the show. Your contribution helps us cover production costs and continue sharing stories, insights, and ideas that inspire people to live with purpose and possibility. If supporting the podcast feels right for you, you'll find the link in the show notes. Thank you for being part of the Unstoppable Mindset Community. Michael Hingson  21:02 Eventually, not finding a job, I started my own company selling computer-aided design systems to architects. A blind guy selling CAD systems? Why the heck not? I didn't need to work the machine. What I needed to know was how to work the machine, so I could describe it to architects, and I could sit them down in front of a machine and talk with them and talk them through it. We also hired people to demo CAD systems, and I did that for four years. And then I went back into the workforce. And when I went back into the workforce, my wife and I were talking one day, and she said, "You know, I got this great job I just discovered in the newspaper. It's selling high-end, new, revolutionary, hot, pluggable disc technology. It's perfect for you. You should apply. And I said to my wife Karen, who I had married in 1982. By the way, Karen also had a disability. She was in a wheelchair her whole life. She reads. I push. Worked out well. I said, so do I say in my cover letter I'm blind or not? Because typically, if you say you're blind, same thing will happen with the headhunter. You won't even get a call back if you don't say you're blind. You might get a callback, but then they're going to have all their defenses go up when you show up for the interview. And she said, "You're an idiot. Wives can do that, gentlemen, and it's fine. You're an idiot. Why? What's the most important thing you always said to every salesperson you ever hired, well, I wasn't quite sure which things she was thinking of. I had several things that I always said to salespeople I hired. She said, "You always told every salesperson you ever hired turn here's the operative word perceived liabilities into assets. You ever watch those little cartoons in the newspapers and all that, where the light bulb goes on over your head. Well, that's what happened, and I went and I wrote a cover letter to send with this resume to this company. And here are the last two paragraphs of the letter. The most important thing you need to know about me is that I am blind. As a blind person, I have had to sell all my life just to be able to function and survive. I've had to sell to take my guide dog on airplanes. I didn't tell them that we had to sue one airline because they violated their own policy because they wouldn't let me go on an airplane with my guide dog. I've had to sell to convince people to let me buy a house, move into apartments, sometimes take my guide dog into grocery stores, and do anything else because I was blind, I've always had to sell. So, second paragraph: When you're hiring someone for this job, do you want to hire somebody who comes in and works for eight or 10 hours a day, and then just goes home because the job is over, or do you want to truly hire somebody who understands sales for the science and art that it is, and who sells 24 hours a day as a way of life. Sent off the letter. Waited for two weeks, wondering if I'd get a call or an email. Well, no, not an email, not back then. But in late June 19 or May 1989, I got a call. This is Doug Cooper, head of marketing for Articon. We love your letter. Would you come for an interview? And I said sure. Next day we were down there. I was hired and started on july 2, 1989. Love to start on the second of July, or actually the third of July, because then I got the next day off. It was great. So I went to work for them, and we moved from where we were living in Mission Viejo down to Vista, California. The company was in Carlsbad. I began selling to the East Coast, selling our technologies and other technologies, Sun Microsystems products, and so on. And then in 1996, the owner of the company asked me to move to New York for them because we were selling to Wall Street. Michael Hingson  24:37 Wall Street was always good at getting and demanding and getting what they demanded, and they always said, "If you are a manufacturer and you're selling products to us, we want a representative, not an agent, but we want the company in Wall Street Arena to be able to to hold responsible and deal with. So we moved to New York. And I went to work on the 23rd floor of Tower Two of the World Trade Center, and was there for about a year, and then was recruited away by another company, and it wasn't hard because Articon did not figure out how to support a branch operation. So I was recruited away, and then in 1999 I was recruited away by Quantum Corporation, and now we're getting to what Mary asked about. But I needed to give you the background. Hope it was okay. So in 1999, I was hired to open an office for Quantum Corporation on well in New York City. Quantum was a company that made products called tape libraries. They were big boxes that consisted of tape drives and lots of tape cartridges, and you would attach them to computer networks, and then you would use software like one called Veritas, which is still used today. And what you would do is you would back up all of your data over the network into these tape libraries, onto tape cartridges, and then you would take the tape cartridges out and store them off-site. Now I gotta stop and be spiteful because in New Jersey they love to say that they stored them in a town called Mountainside Under a Mountain. You ever see a mountain in northern New Jersey? I came from California where we had mountains that were eight, 910, 1000 feet tall. They didn't even have decent hills, but they still called it a mountain. That was fine, whatever. They still were able to store the tapes in safe places. But the point is that all the data was backed up off-site, which is what they needed to do. We opened the actual office on august 1, 2000. I hired a staff, and we had a staff that came in and and sold, and we also worked with resellers. And in August of 2001, our main distributor Ingram Micro said, "You know, we got a lot of resellers who are selling your products, but they don't really know how to do it. Can we hold some seminars to teach our your reseller partners, our customers, the resellers, how to sell your product? I said, "You bet. We worked it out with the folks at Quantum. David Frank, who was in charge of pricing and distribution, said he wanted to come back to be a part of the seminars, and we set up doing the seminars. The idea was that we would teach them. I would be their main point of contact since I worked and lived there. David would be the person that I or they would contact without with any pricing issues, but I would be the technical point of contact contact. Master's degree in physics helps, and so we set up the seminars. And wouldn't you know it, we set them up to be held on september 11, 2001. The evening before, or the morning of September 11th, about 12:30, Roselle, my guide dog at the time, woke me up. She was very nervous and fidgety. I knew what it was like when she was fidgety. It was usually because it was a thunderstorm. She didn't like thunder, and we went down to my office. And of course, a thunderstorm did happen, and the storm literally came right over our house. I've never been in an environment where bombs went off around me, but I got to say that in this case, the thunder claps were, as I said, literally right over us, and it had to be like what a bomb sounds like going off. Anyway, it went on till about two, and then we went back up and got a couple more hours of sleep, three more hours of sleep. I got up. We went in and got to the office at about 7:40 in the morning on September 11th. As I came to the door, somebody came up with a cart. It turns out it was a guy from the Port Authority cafeteria. Michael Hingson  28:33 We were going to be providing breakfast and snacks for the first and second seminarians. We had seminars going all day, so we went in. I showed him where I wanted to set up everything in the conference room. I went in, got my laptop computer out of my backpack briefcase. I got my PowerPoint projector, and I went into the conference room and set everything up because I was going to be doing a PowerPoint show that day to give people all the information they needed about the ATLP 3000, the ATLP 1000, and so on. Yes, blind people can do PowerPoint, folks. It's not magic. You sighted bigots. So I had a script, and my wife and I had created the script, and I'd used it many times. The script was in Braille. I knew what was on every slide. We put a couple of things in addition on the script. We put all the wording from the slides on the script, and we also put on the script descriptions of the pictures, as well as where the picture would show up on the screen. So I would, for example, when we showed this to other customers around the city, I'd blow their minds because I would be doing the presentation. My sales guys loved it when I went out and did PowerPoint presentations because I could just point over my shoulder. On the left side of your screen, you'll see the ATLP 3000 with 16 cartridge, 16 drives, 326. Cartridges, and you see the label that says Prism Technology. We could hook five of them together. On the right side of your screen, you'll see the ATLP 1000, which was a single unit with 30 cartridges and one tape drive. And people would come up to me afterwards, and they say, "You know, we're ticked at you. I go, "Why? Well, first of all, your presentation was not boring, which usually they are. But second of all, you never turned and looked at the screen. You kept looking at us, even though you were pointing right to where everything was with your laser pointer. We didn't dare fall asleep. We forgot you were blind. And my response was, "You don't get it. My dog was down here taking notes. If you'd fallen asleep, we would have got you anyway. But that was what it was about. My responsibility was to be the leader of that office, and I had to do what anyone else would do. One of the main things that I did was spend hours, days walking around the World Trade Center, learning what the kiosks were in the shopping mall on the first floor, learning where different offices were, consulting with the Port Authority police and the fire prevention people learning what to do in case of an emergency because sometimes I might be in the office all by my little self. There would be nobody else around. I didn't want my staff in the office. I wanted them out selling and working and supporting customers. Not being in the office, of course, they did usually come in at least once a week. And and so I learned never watched The Sopranos, but I got to tell you, I learned more about the Sopranos from all the Italian Americans on my staff who talked about the Sopranos constantly. Bada bing, bada boom, and I learned a whole lot about Tony Soprano without ever watching the show. But the point is that I needed to know all that stuff. I needed to know where the restaurants were. Customers come into the office. Oh, you want to go out to lunch? What kind of food do you want? There's a great deli downstairs called Fine and Shapiro. Let me take you there. How would it have looked if I didn't know how to do that, and I had to say to someone, "You're going to have to let me take your arm and lead me there because I don't know how to get there, and two hours later we're supposed to be negotiating multi-million dollar contracts? No, I needed to know it. I didn't have the luxury, and I don't regard it as a luxury. I regard it as a disability of reading signs. I needed to know all of that stuff. What I didn't realize is that was creating a mindset in me, which I'll talk about in a moment. Michael Hingson  32:15 Anyway, got all the laptop projectors and everything set up. The only thing I knew I didn't know how to do extremely well is to get it exactly aimed right, but about 8o'clock, David Frank came in and I said, "Say, David, this is all set up, but let's aim the projector just exactly where you want it on the screen. And we did have to turn it just a little bit, but not too much. But anyway, at 845, I was in my office and David was with me. We were creating a final list of all the people who were going to be attending the seminars, because the Port Authority police, the security people, needed to know who was coming. There were two ways you could get into the building: either we faxed on letterhead a list of people who were coming on any given day, and then the people coming in would show their photo IDs, and it would be verified against the list. And if they were allowed in, then they would be given a badge that they would put over their neck, and they would carry that, and they could scan barcode and go into the appropriate elevator to come onto our floor, or they'd have to call us every time somebody came in. And I didn't want a lot of phone calls coming in, so we were faxing the list. I was reaching for Letterhead to fax to to print the list on Letterhead when suddenly I heard and felt kind of a muffled thump and a vibration. And then literally, if you any blind people in the room, well, I'll do it anyway. I'm holding up my hand, and what happened was that literally, as I'm now tipping my hand toward you, the building began to tip. We probably moved about 20 feet. The building kept tipping and tipping. David and I said together, "What's going on? I don't know. What's going on? What do you think? Was it an explosion? I said. David said, "Didn't sound like it. Is it an earthquake? David was from New York, and now he's living in California. He didn't know about earthquakes. I said, "No, the building wasn't shaking around. It was going in one direction. And finally, and I went over and I stood in the doorway between my office and the the outside lobby of our our offices, and I stood there. Roselle was asleep under my desk. David was just on the other side of my desk, holding it near our windows, looking out over Manhattan, the south side of Manhattan. And finally, David and I both said goodbye to each other because we thought we had moved so far that the building was going to take a 78 floor plunge to the street. And then the building slowed down, and it stopped, and it moved back. As soon as it got vertical, I started walking back into the office. I met Roselle coming around from under my desk. I took her leash. I said "heel, which meant to come around behind me to sit and lie down, which is what I would normally have Alamo do, but he's comfortable, so we'll just leave him there. Roselle sat down, and about that time. The building dropped straight down about six feet. Why did it drop down? Because tall buildings like that literally are springs. They're made to flex in windstorms and other things like that. An Empire, an airplane hit the Empire State Building in the 1940s because it got lost in a fog bank. Tall buildings are flexible. They have expansion joints, and when the building was hit, the expansion joints took up all of the the things that were going on. And then when the building got straight again, the expansion joints dropped back down to their normal configuration. I knew that because I had talked to people about stuff like that. I'd forgotten it until later, but I knew it. What I hadn't realized is that what was happening when I was learning so much stuff was that a mindset was being developed in me that said, "You know what to do in an emergency. And as soon as the building dropped, David turned and looked out the window and started shouting, "Oh my God, Mike! There's fire and smoke over us! There were millions of pieces of burning paper falling outside the windows. Michael Hingson  35:59 We got to get out of here right now! Slow down, David. No, we got to get out of here. The building's on fire. I could hear things rushing and brushing outside our windows, and now I knew what they were. David told me millions of pieces of burning paper, right? And I didn't smell any smoke. Roselle wasn't doing anything to indicate any concern, and David kept saying, "We got to get out of here. The building's on fire. And I kept saying, "Slow down. Our guests began to scream. We had like five or six who were in our conference room. Early arrivals. They started coming out, but then they heard me say, "Slow down, stop, David. Just wait. And they waited to see what was going to happen. And finally, David used the big line: "You don't understand. You can't see Speaker 4  36:37 it. The Michael Hingson  36:38 problem wasn't what I wasn't seeing, the problem was what David wasn't seeing-a dog sitting next to me, wagging her tail, yawning, going, "Who the heck woke me up? I was comfy, not giving any indication of fear. And I eventually got David to focus, and I said, "David, get our guests to the stairs. Don't let them take the elevators, because I knew if there's fire, especially because if there's fire, the elevators could become fire traps. The fire could get into the elevator shafts, which it did, and anybody in the cars would be burned. David left with our guests, got them to the stairs. Meanwhile, I called Karen and told her that there had been an explosion or something. We had no clue. There was no way to know. I love it. Reporters, even today, and other people say, "Well, of course you didn't know you couldn't see it. Excuse me, you numbskulls. The last time I checked, Superman and X-ray vision were fiction, and the airplane hit 18 floors above us on the other side of the building. No one knew. All the way down the stairs, we didn't know because no one saw it. No one knew. Anyway, I called and told Karen she wanted to know more. I said, "I don't know anything else. I've got to go because we're not staying here. We knew instantly that we had to leave, but we got our guests out. Then David came back. We swept the offices one last time. Went to the stairs and we started down. If I knew it was the last time I was going to be in the building, I would have taken a couple of things that I didn't take. Like I had a really neat talking scientific calculator that I couldn't replace. And if I had known that I wasn't coming back, I would have taken it. It would have been a little heavier, but I would have taken it anyway. We started down the stairs. There were other people, of course, on the stairs. We got down about four floors, and I was smelling an odor. I couldn't quite figure it out, and suddenly I realized I'm smelling the fumes from burning jet fuel. I traveled 100,000 miles a year for my company. I knew what the odor of jet fuel was like. I knew the kerosene smell, but it took a while to associate it with the World Trade Center because no one would have ever thought you would have smelled it there. When I realized what it was, I observed to the other people around me on the stairs, "I'm smelling the fumes from burning jet fuel. And they said, "Yeah, you're right. That's what it is. We must have been hit by an airplane. You understand? Nobody knew. We must have been hit because of what we're smelling, so we all accepted that that was what was going on, but we had no clue. We continued down the stairs, about 10 floors down. At one point, a woman stopped right behind me, and she said, "I can't go on. I can't breathe. We're not going to make it out. And I stopped and turned around and said, "Sure, we are. Come on, this is my guide dog Roselle. He's guiding me, and and she'll encourage you. Roselle gave her kisses, and this lady gave Roselle a few pets, and so on. And other people surrounded her, and we had a group hug, and the lady was able to keep going. A few burn victims passed us on the stairs as we went down. At about the 50th floor, David, who had gotten a little quiet. Suddenly said, "Mike, we're going to die. We're not going to make it out of here. Now you heard that I have a teaching credential. What you don't know, and teachers won't generally acknowledge it, but I'm going to tell you anyway. There's a secret class we take called Voice 101: How to Yell at Students. Didn't know that, did you? And anyway, as soon as David. Said Mike, "We're going to die. We're not going to make it out of here. I just said as sharply and with a snap into my voice that I could, "Stop it, David! If Rosella and I can go down these stairs, so can you. And David told me later that that brought him out of his funk. Michael Hingson  40:12 What he then said is, "I got to keep my mind off this. I want to walk a floor below you and shout up to you what I see on the stairs. Is that okay? And I said, sure. Did I really need him to do that? No. Did it matter? No, but it did to David. However, what I came to realize over time was, David doing that was one of the most important things that I experienced on that day. So I'm going down the stairs. I get to floor 49. David, I'm on the 48th floor. All's clear here, Mike. Going on down. I get to 48 floor, 47. We keep going down. Finally, I get to the 45th floor, David. I'm on the 44th floor. This is where the Port Authority cafeteria is. Not stopping. So David was obviously doing better, and he kept going down. Why do I say what I did about David and doing that? Because David became a focal point for anyone within the sound of his voice who could hear him say, "43rd floor, all's clear, everything is good. He had to have helped 1000s of people stay focused and not panic going down the stairs, and I think that was so cool that he did that all the way down 42nd floor, all good. We kept going down the stairs. We met firefighters on the 30th floor. They wanted to escort me down, and I finally convinced them that I was capable of going down without them. And I did it by playing the sight card. I said, "Look, my friend David is here. He can see we're good, and the firefighters let us go. I didn't want them to escort me. First of all, they don't know how to work with a blind guy and do sighted guide. But second of all, I didn't want to break up their team because I knew that each of those people were carrying the equipment that they had to use to fight the fire. You couldn't store it somewhere. Where would you store it? Oh, the 34th floor. And what happens if a fire broke out on the 33rd floor, you couldn't get to it. You had to carry the equipment, so we kept going down the stairs. Finally, got to the first floor. David got there, and I was at floor two. And he said, "Hey, there are water sprinklers running. You're going to have to run through a waterfall or a down torrent of water to get out of the stairwell. Why was there all that water? Because it wanted to keep fire either in or out of the stairs, if fire was around. David ran through. Then I got to the bottom. Roselle stood there, and I picked up her harness and said, "Rosel, forward, hop up, which is a command to speed up. We went through this torrential downpour. It was a waterfall, and we came out the other side, soaking. David was there, and there were voices. Hey, don't go outside! No, no, don't go that way. Go this way. A PA system, a guy on a bullhorn. No, no, no! Don't go outside. Don't go to the outside. Go this way. What we didn't know is, if they had let people go out, they might have been right below where people were jumping. And so that was one of the reasons they didn't want anyone out. They wanted people to go through the complex and get out at the far side, as far away from where everything was occurring that they could. This guy comes up to us and he goes, "I'm with the FBI. I'll get you where you need to go. And of course, I'm sitting there with my warped sense of humor, going, "I'm sorry, I only talked to McGarrett, and I didn't do it. I'm innocent. I just thought that I didn't say any of it out loud. Anyway, he got us through out to the outside of Tower One. We passed now the empty Ben and Jerry's ice cream kiosk that was there. Darn didn't get a chance for a scoop. Kept going. Finally, went up an escalator and got outside into the sunshine outside of Tower. Well, of the whole complex, as far away from the towers as we could be, we got outside. Michael Hingson  43:44 We were told to leave the area, but David looked around and he said, "Mike, I see fire in Tower Two. And I said, "What are you talking about? There's fire in Tower Two, really? What's that all about? We didn't feel a thing going down. We were in our own little cocoon, our own little cave. We had no clue. Anyway, we were told to leave, so we went to Broadway. We walked across the plaza to Broadway, turn left, going now north on Broadway. There was a building on my left. Broadway was on my right. We crossed several streets, crossed Fulton Street, finally got to Vetsy Street. David said, "I want to stop because I can see the fire in Tower Two really clearly from here, I want to take some pictures, and I said, "Great, I'll try to call my wife. I got out my phone. David was taking pictures, which I have today. I tried to call Karen. I couldn't get through. Later, of course, we learned that people were saying goodbye to loved ones, and that was why the circuits were busy. I had just put my phone away, and a police officer, and while David was putting his camera away, and a police officer yelled out of here! It's coming down now. We heard this rumble that became this deafening roar. I describe it as kind of a combination of a freight train and a waterfall. You could hear glass breaking and tinkling, and metal crashing down, and then this white noise sound as Tower Two, 100 yards away from. Pancake down. Everyone turned and ran. David ran. He was gone. I literally lifted Roselle by the harness, turned her 180 degrees, and started running back the way we came. And the first thing I remember saying in my mind was, "God, I cannot believe that you got us out of a building just to have it fall on us. And as soon as I thought that, I heard in my head as clearly as you hear me now, a voice that said, "Don't worry about what you can't control. Focus on running with Roselle, and the rest will take care of itself. Who is God? Absolutely no question. Don't worry about what you can't control. Focus on running with Roselle, and the rest will take care of itself. And so I also had this incredible sense of peace and calm that came over me. That said, you're okay if you work together. We kept running. We got back to Fulton Street, turned right on Fulton Street, and ran about 25 yards. And suddenly we caught up to David, who had apparently gone the same way. And David suddenly realized that he had left us behind and he was going to come back, but we caught up to him first, and he apologized. I said, "David, don't worry about it. Let's just keep going. The building's coming down, you know. And we both just started to run with Roselle, and suddenly we were engulfed in all the dirt and debris and the dust cloud from Tower Two. It was so thick that David said he couldn't see his hand six inches in front of his face, and all I can tell you is that every breath I took, I felt dirt and debris and junk going down my throat into my stomach, and we knew we had to get out of that. So I started telling Roselle, "Go right, right. There was a building on our right side, and I wanted her to find the nearest opening if she could even hear me, see my hand signals, or whatever. And I was also listening for openings. Yes, I can hear when I pass an opening, and I and I can tell it's there and deal with it accordingly. Like during a time when you're running away from a collapsing building, run into it. Suddenly, I heard an opening on the right, and Roselle must have known what I wanted. She must have been able to see my hand signals or something because she turned right, she took one step, she stopped, and she would not move. Come on, Roselle, keep going. She wouldn't move. Come on, Roselle. Nope, wouldn't do it. And I realized, focus on running with Roselle, and the rest will take care of itself. So I stuck out a foot. Michael Hingson  47:13 I trailed a hand along a wall, and realized that we were at the top of a flight of stairs. Roselle had done exactly what she was supposed to do, and I knew what I was supposed to do if I wanted to get her to move. But before I did that, I gave her a big hug, good girl, and then I said, "Roselle, forward! That's the command. And we went down the stairs into an arcade area that was the entrance to the Fulton Street subway station. There were a few other people down there. Then a guy came up from the subway system and saw about eight or nine of us there. He introduced himself as Lou, an employee of the subway system, and he took us down to an employee locker room where we could sit down and and kind of hack and cough and get the dust out of our lungs. There was a water fountain and there were fans. We were there about 10 minutes. Then a police officer came, and he said, "You got to get out of here right now. The air's clear up above. You can't stay here. And so we followed him. Of course, he probably had already been told that Tower One was going to collapse. the The officials knew that each building was going to collapse probably about a half hour before it actually did. At least that was their presumption, and that's what I've been told. Anyway, we followed him back up the stairs, through the arcade, up the last two flights of stairs. We got outside. David looked around and he goes, "Oh my God, Mike, there's no Tower Two anymore. And I said, "What do you see? And he said, "All I see are pillars of smoke, hundreds of feet tall. We stood there for a moment, and then we just turned, and we kept walking. Now west on Fulton Street, we walked about 10 minutes, and we were in this little plaza area when we heard that freight train waterfall sound again, and we knew it must be our tower collapsing. We saw a little retaining wall David did, and we got behind it and ducked down, and we waited until everything stopped, and then we stood back up. And David looked around and he said, "Oh my God, Mike, there's no World Trade Center anymore. And I said, "What do you see? And he said, "I just see fingers of fire and flame, hundreds of feet tall. We see, I see pillars of smoke. It's gone. Are you sure? Yeah, it's gone. It's not there. We stood there a moment, then I tried to call my wife Karen again. That was kind of my first thought. I need to tell her we're okay. This time I did get through because clearly the circuits were were free. And after some tears on both sides of the phone, she is the one who told us how two aircraft had deliberately been hijacked and crashed into the towers, one into the Pentagon, and a fourth at that time was still missing over Pennsylvania. Who would have thought? We spent the rest of that day getting up toward Midtown Manhattan, and eventually I got to Penn Station, learned that the trains were running, and went back. Out to New Jersey, David wanted to go back up to be with his sister, who he who he was staying with. She lived on the Upper East Side, so I got on trains and I went back over toward New Jersey. I called Karen and told her what was going on, and a friend of ours, a friend that Karen had known since high school out in California, Tom Painter, was also living in New Jersey, he had come down to be with her, not even knowing at the time whether I was in the World Trade Center or working from home that day or whatever. But he drove her to the station in our accessible van, and as I came off the train, I heard the van show up. I went downstairs, climbed and went up the ramp into the van, and got to hug Karen about 7o'clock that night, for the first time since leaving home, we got home. Tom drove us home. We all went inside. I was going to take Roselle outside because she hadn't been out since like five that morning. Michael Hingson  50:53 Well, I take that back about six that morning, and I took her harness off. But before I could do anything else, she was off like a shot. She went to her toy box, found her favorite tug bone, and started playing tug of war with my retired guide dog Linny. Why? Because it was over for her. And I talked to the guide dog people later, and I said, "Will any of this affect her? And they said, "Was she threatened? Did anything hit her or injure her in any way, and I said no. They said then no. It was over for her because dogs don't do what if. It was over. It was done. She was fine. Lesson to be learned. Lesson you will learn more about if you buy our new book, Live Like a Guide Dog: True Stories from a Blind Man and His Guide his dogs about being brave, overcoming adversity, and walking in faith. That that book is available for pre-order, and I've been signing bookmarks all day. I still even have a few with me. But the point is, you can pre-order it, and and it's about something that I learned later. I thought about during the pandemic. I've talked a lot about escaping and not being afraid because I developed a mindset that said you know what to do, but what I've not done is to teach others how they can learn to recognize that fear is not something that needs to blind or overwhelm you. You can use fear as a very powerful tool to guide you and steer you in the right direction if you know how to control it, and live like a guide dog is all about that. So I hope that you'll all get that when it comes out in August. But again, you can pre-order it now if you go to michaelhinkston.com. There's a link there where you can go to a web page to get information and to go to a link where you can pre-order it. And like I said, I have some bookmarked with a QR code on it, and and I'm and I yes I am plugging the book, but I'm also saying, look, folks, the bottom line is we operate in so many ways with misconceptions about things. I've talked about blindness. Anybody could have been in the World Trade Center, and and a lot of people were. The reality is, though, if you learn what to do and how to prepare for situations in general, when it becomes something specific, you'll know what to do. People have asked a number of times, "Well, wasn't your guide dog trained to operate in an emergency like the World Trade Center? How are we going to do that? No, the dog isn't trained to do that. The guide dog's job is not to lead. Guide dogs do not lead blind people. Guide dogs' jobs are to make sure that we walk safe. It's my job to know where to go and how to get there to give the dog direction. The dog depends and relies on me to give it direction. The dog's job, as I said, is to make sure we walk safely. It's a team effort. We each have a job to do, and we develop a trusting relationship when we learn to trust each other and respect the job the other member of the team is doing, which is what it's all about. Which is what happens on any team, trust is all around us. Trust is under attack in so many ways from our politicians, and in so many ways. But the reality is, trust is all around us. I think we all trust that the roof isn't going to fall in on the church. I think that we trust that the PA system is going to continue to work, and so on. Trust is all around us. The difference between dogs and people is that dogs, while they do love unconditionally, do not trust unconditionally. But dogs are open to trust unless some incredibly traumatic thing has happened to them where they lose that ability. But dogs are open to trust, dogs want humans to give them direction to establish rules, and all too often with our pets and so on, we don't do that. We don't really develop the relationship that we should and can with them. Michael Hingson  54:54 If we would, we would have so much stronger bond and relationships with them. It would be. Amazing for for all of us, but the bottom line is that's the relationship that I get with each guide dog. That's the relationship I have with Alamo. He trusts that I am going to feed him before too awfully long. He trusts that you guys are going to buy books, so he'll have kibbles for me to feed him. Just saying, but but seriously, the the trust has to be earned with a dog or with people or whatever, and if you find that you you discover you can't trust someone, don't wish them ill will, forgive them and move on. So you don't trust them, but you know what you have, and you go off and make new friends and learn other trusting relationships that you can develop. Focus on running with Roselle; the rest will take care of itself. The reality is, we worry so much about so many things. We are always doing what if we create most of the fears that we face in our lives, and we Don't need to do that. If we would focus on just the things that we have some control over and leave the rest alone, well, we might want to be aware of them, but we don't have to worry about them. We don't have control over them. Trust and deal with the things that you have to deal with, and let the rest take care of itself. And that was what I learned on September 11th, listening to the voice of God, absolutely, and that is something that I pass on to all of you, and I think that's the most important thing that I can leave you with. Hi again, everyone. This is Mike Hingson. I hope that you found that speech to be helpful and relevant and interesting. I hope that you learn some things from it. From a personal standpoint, I hope that you learn that blindness isn't really the big problem that I face. The challenge that I face really comes from the fact that people who have eyesight tend to believe that blind people are not capable of doing much because they can't see. Wrong thing to believe. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that because we did it during the speech, but I just wanted to thank you for being here today, for listening and watching this episode. I hope that you will also tune in for our episode on Tuesday, where I'm in conversation with Michelle Abraham on next Friday, the 11th of September, that you will tune in to hear the conversation with Bob Ellis, and then episode 475, which will occur on the 15th of September, where we will talk about lessons to be learned and and give you some things to hopefully take away that maybe you haven't thought about. Thanks very much for being here with us. I really very much appreciate all of your support. If any of you have any questions or want to reach out to me, you are welcome to do so. Please feel free to email me at speaker@michaelhinkson.com. That's s p e a k e r at m i c h a e l h i n g s o n.com speaker@michaelhingson.com hope to hear from you and as you gather I do speak I continue to speak publicly I've been a keynote speaker since September 11 if anybody knows of anyone that needs a keynote speaker or you can use us in events that you have please reach out to me at speaker@michaelhingson.com let's talk about it. Let's see how we can help. I'm always looking for ways to inspire, but also to teach and help. And I'd like to be part of your world in that regard. Thanks again for being here. Thanks for listening, and come back next time for another episode of Unstoppable Mindset.

A longevity doctor? In this economy? We've got her. Dr. Amanda Kahn — affectionately known as "The Peptide Princess" — is a board-certified internist on the Upper East Side with a blocks-long waitlist. In this episode, Dr. Kahn explains what a longevity doctor actually does, what's happening in unregulated gray markets, and the troubling trends parents need to know about (and look out for). Plus: why low ferritin may be the reason you feel foggy, the supplement brand she trusts, and the simple longevity advice that costs very little at all. More from Fat Mascara Instagram: @fatmascara @jessicamatlin Shop the products mentioned on Fat Mascara: https://shopmy.us/shop/fatmascara Private Facebook Group: Fat Mascara Raising a Wand Submit a Raise a Wand product recommendation, guest suggestion, or just say hello: info@fatmascara.com Production for this Podcast Provided by Redd Rock Music IG: @reddrockmusic www.reddrockmusic.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the night of November 12, 2016, 26-year-old Joey Comunale left Stamford, Connecticut, for a night out in Manhattan. The Hofstra graduate hit a club in the Meatpacking District with a friend, then accepted an invitation to an afterparty at a luxury apartment on the Upper East Side. Apartment 4C belonged to James Rackover. Also there were Lawrence “Larry” Dilione, Max Gemma, and a small group of women they'd met that night. There was drinking. There was cocaine. By early morning the women were gone. Joey never walked out of that building again.Timestamps08:10 Joey Vanishes After a Night Out17:02 Clues From the Club Photos30:48 The Parking Garage Discovery41:26 The Canine Leads the Way59:49 Crime Scene in the Apartment1:14:17 The Recovery of the VideoUnspeakable on Patreon!CLICK HERE:

The All Local 4pm Update for Monday, September 1st, 2026

Former Barclays chief Jes Staley told House Oversight Committee investigators that he had a sexual encounter with one of Jeffrey Epstein's assistants after meeting her through Epstein. Staley said he first met the unnamed woman at Epstein's Manhattan townhouse and that their conversations eventually became flirtatious. According to his testimony, the woman later invited him to her Upper East Side apartment sometime around 2009 or 2010, where they had what he described as a single consensual sexual encounter. Staley insisted Epstein had not arranged the meeting, claimed he never told Epstein about it and said he had no knowledge of Epstein directing women to have sex with his associates. Investigators also informed Staley that the woman had later sued Epstein alleging sexual abuse and reached a settlement with Epstein's estate, something Staley said he had not known. The questioning came amid congressional scrutiny of Staley's extraordinarily close relationship with Epstein, including roughly 1,200 communications exchanged between the two from 2008 through 2012 while Staley headed JPMorgan's Private Bank and Epstein remained a client.Investigators also confronted Staley with some of the more disturbing and suggestive correspondence contained in the released Epstein material. In July 2010, Staley had written to Epstein, “Say hi to Snow White,” prompting Epstein to ask what character Staley wanted next, to which Staley replied, “Beauty and the Beast.” Another message sent to Epstein around the same time referenced a woman in a Snow White costume having sex shortly after putting it on, and investigators showed Staley a photograph Epstein had circulated of a young woman dressed as the Disney character. Staley maintained that he did not remember seeing a woman dressed as Snow White at Epstein's residence, denied having sex with anyone wearing such a costume and said he did not recognize the woman in the photograph. His testimony therefore added another uncomfortable layer to the long-running scrutiny of his relationship with Epstein: Staley acknowledged becoming sexually involved with a woman he met inside Epstein's orbit while simultaneously denying that Epstein facilitated the encounter or that he understood what was happening to women around Epstein.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonnail.comsource:Ex-Barclays chief Jes Staley details his ‘intimate encounter' with Jeffrey Epstein's assistant  to House investigatorsb

Former Barclays chief Jes Staley told House Oversight Committee investigators that he had a sexual encounter with one of Jeffrey Epstein's assistants after meeting her through Epstein. Staley said he first met the unnamed woman at Epstein's Manhattan townhouse and that their conversations eventually became flirtatious. According to his testimony, the woman later invited him to her Upper East Side apartment sometime around 2009 or 2010, where they had what he described as a single consensual sexual encounter. Staley insisted Epstein had not arranged the meeting, claimed he never told Epstein about it and said he had no knowledge of Epstein directing women to have sex with his associates. Investigators also informed Staley that the woman had later sued Epstein alleging sexual abuse and reached a settlement with Epstein's estate, something Staley said he had not known. The questioning came amid congressional scrutiny of Staley's extraordinarily close relationship with Epstein, including roughly 1,200 communications exchanged between the two from 2008 through 2012 while Staley headed JPMorgan's Private Bank and Epstein remained a client.Investigators also confronted Staley with some of the more disturbing and suggestive correspondence contained in the released Epstein material. In July 2010, Staley had written to Epstein, “Say hi to Snow White,” prompting Epstein to ask what character Staley wanted next, to which Staley replied, “Beauty and the Beast.” Another message sent to Epstein around the same time referenced a woman in a Snow White costume having sex shortly after putting it on, and investigators showed Staley a photograph Epstein had circulated of a young woman dressed as the Disney character. Staley maintained that he did not remember seeing a woman dressed as Snow White at Epstein's residence, denied having sex with anyone wearing such a costume and said he did not recognize the woman in the photograph. His testimony therefore added another uncomfortable layer to the long-running scrutiny of his relationship with Epstein: Staley acknowledged becoming sexually involved with a woman he met inside Epstein's orbit while simultaneously denying that Epstein facilitated the encounter or that he understood what was happening to women around Epstein.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonnail.comsource:Ex-Barclays chief Jes Staley details his ‘intimate encounter' with Jeffrey Epstein's assistant  to House investigatorsbBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-epstein-chronicles--5003294/support.

Rabbi Benjamin Goldschmidt grew up in Moscow as the son of the city's chief rabbi, trained in Bnei Brak and Ponovezh, and spent a decade as assistant rabbi at Manhattan's Park East Synagogue — until he was abruptly and very publicly fired. In this raw conversation with Nachi Gordon, he opens up for the first time about that moment: the New York Post headline, the car crash he got into reading about himself, and the isolation of losing not just a job but an entire community. Out of that low point came Altneu, the congregation he and his wife built from nothing — starting with 40 people in their living room, then two and a half years of renting a different Manhattan venue every single week, never knowing until Thursday's email where Shabbos would be. Rabbi Goldschmidt walks through how that instability became the shul's strength, the breaking point that nearly ended the project, his father's advice that turned it around, and how it all led to buying a $35 million building on the Upper East Side. He also gets into what it's like leading a congregation through today's political climate in New York, and the loss of a beloved member that shook the whole community.   This episode is sponsored by:   ► PZ Deals   Download the app and never pay full price again!   https://app.pz.deals/install/mpp   _________________   ► Colel Chabad Pushka App   The easiest way to give Tzedaka   https://pushkapp.cc/meaningful   _________________   ► Shopify Guru   Store looks great but not selling the way it should? Shopify Guru's Daniel gets under the hood and makes it actually work, no developer needed every time you want to make a change. Call 732-534-1404 or go to shopifyguru.io.   https://go.jcn.io/sgmp   _________________   ► Ness Vacation Homes   EDEN GARDENS' LARGEST LUXURY HOME COLLECTION. Handpicked, high-end homes available exclusively through Ness.   https://nessvacationhomes.com/   _________________   ► El Al   From the Hebrew announcements to the Israeli atmosphere onboard, flying EL AL feels like Israel before you even land. With nonstop flights to Israel and Jewish comfort from takeoff to landing, there's nothing like hearing: ברוכים הבאים לישראל. Book your next flight with EL AL:   https://www.elal.com/eng/usa?utm_source=meaningful&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=gcny_incoming_usa&cid=s:el%7Cm:what%7Ccp:gcny%7Cct:incoming%7Cau:usa   _________________   ► Rothenberg Law Firm   Personal Injury Law Firm For 50+ years! Reach out today for a free case evaluation.   https://shorturl.at/JFKHH   _________________   ► Town Appliance   Visit the website or message them on WhatsApp.   https://www.townappliance.com   https://bit.ly/Townappliance_whatsapp   _________________ Timestamps:   0:00 Intro: A Shul With No Address 2:57 Growing Up in Moscow as the Chief Rabbi's Son 8:47 Sent to Bnei Brak and Ponovezh at Twelve 11:40 Choosing the Rabbinate and the Lakewood "Freezer" Years 18:28 Becoming a Rabbi at Park East at Twenty-Four 23:52 A Decade as Assistant Rabbi at Park East 26:52 Getting Fired: The Sudden, Public Fallout 33:47 Losing a Job, Losing a Community 36:19 His Father's Parallel Story and the Birth of Altneu 44:20 Building a Shul on Wheels Across Manhattan 54:48 The Breaking Point and His Father's Advice 59:05 Buying a $35 Million Building on the Upper East Side 1:01:28 Building Altneu's Identity and Culture 1:10:01 From the Pulpit to Politics: Life in Manhattan Today 1:17:50 Confronting Antisemitism and What Makes a Movement Survive 1:22:00 Remembering Wesley 1:24:37 Closing  

Andrew and Amelia just took a Central Park West apartment to market that hadn't been touched in 55 years. Everyone expected it to sell way below ask, and they got multiple offers OVER ask, on a place needing over a million dollars in work. Their read: this is a brand new thing that's happening. Six months ago, estate-condition apartments sat. Right now, if you have the right address and light, they're going to multiple bids. "The market is not the market. It's the Upper West Side. It's the Upper East Side. It's Tribeca. It's West Village, where you almost can't overprice too much because there's no inventory at any point in time." Noah Rosenblatt and John Walkup sit down with Andrew Phillips and Amelia Gewirtz, top-producing team at Brown Harris Stevens with over $1 billion in career sales, top 1.5% of all brokers nationally, and the team that sold out 155 West 68th, the fastest-selling new development building in NYC at 200 units in 18 months. What you'll learn: Estate condition just flipped in NYC. Six months ago they sat. Today they're getting multiple offers over ask, even needing $1M+ in work. Andrew and Amelia's read on why, and what makes an estate apartment sellable right now. Parents are buying apartments for their kids. "You can't live in your stock portfolio." Rentals are so high that parents are buying instead. Real segment of the market right now. The pied-à-terre effect they're actually seeing. Buyers walking in for $5M three-beds and downsizing to studios, one-beds, and two-beds to duck the tax. Not fewer buyers, just smaller purchases. The Walmart staging hack. $200 couches, $75 coffee tables, glass tables, modern chairs. Direct Walmart and Amazon links to sellers. No rental time limits. Buyers have literally asked to buy the coffee tables. Plus the inflatable-bed-with-headboard trick for empty bedrooms. The staging move most sellers miss. Get rid of your curtains if you're not staying. Post-COVID buyers care about light and views above almost everything else. The market is not the market. West Village has zero inventory at any point in time and you almost can't overprice. Upper East is different. Tribeca is different. If your read isn't neighborhood-specific, it isn't a read. How to actually challenge an appraisal. Amelia's won these. Her method: document the exact "view break" floor with photos of the floors above and below. Actionable if you've ever felt cheated by an appraisal. How they win listings. Andrew checks every dinner-party attendee's address and last building sale beforehand. Ten minutes of prep looks like ten years of expertise. Amelia's first $6M all-cash sale. A referral from a poor musician who worked for a rich person. "Even the hotdog man knows people." A rethink of what "sphere of influence" actually means. The song hack. Amelia wrote a song for a Greenpoint wreck at 146.5 Java. 17 offers. The winning bidder's kids sang it back in their offer email. For independent pricing intelligence on a specific NYC deal, UrbanDigs Advisor gives you the read with no broker incentives in the way. Visit urbandigs.co. For live Manhattan and Brooklyn dashboards, visit urbandigs.com. Subscribe so you never miss a Talking Manhattan or a Macro Monday. #NYCRealEstate #TalkingManhattan #ManhattanRealEstate #UrbanDigs #NYCBroker #BrownHarrisStevens #AndrewPhillips #AmeliaGewirtz

Julie Menin, City Council Speaker (D-5, Upper East Side) talks about the latest developments in the City Council and takes calls from listeners, in this debut installment of a new monthly series. Photo: Speaker Julie Menin and City Council Announce Park-Webster Neighborhood Plan (Photo by Alex Krales/NYC Council Media Unit) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week on The Run-Through, Chloe Malle and the team are celebrating the launch of Dogue, Vogue's annual ode to the canines we love most. This year, that meant staging the magazine's first-ever dog wedding. On August 2nd, at the Surrey Hotel on the Upper East Side, two Vogue staff dogs, Edie Berlinger Douglas and Tux Murillo, said "I do" in a custom Rachel Antonoff gown and Susan Alexandra jewels. The wedding kicks off a bigger Dogue rollout, including a cover contest winner (an Italian greyhound named Sir Spud), a staff dog shoot inside the Condé Nast studios, and new collaborations with Alex Mill, J.Crew, and ceramicist Henry Holland. The episode's second half is a trip into old Hollywood, as Nicole Phelps sits down with Mauricio and Roger Padilha to discuss their new book, Jean Louis: Hollywood's Bombshell Designer. As research, the brothers watched all 188 films that the couture-trained costume designer worked on. Jean Louis's two most famous creations, Rita Hayworth's strapless black satin Gilda dress and Marilyn Monroe's sheer, crystal-strewn "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" gown, became touchstones far beyond their films. Some of that reporting came courtesy of Kim Novak, who wrote the book's foreword . She gave a rare window into Jean Louis's process, including an anecdote about walking in on Marlene Dietrich mid-fitting for a soufflé-silk gown so sheer it required roughly 50 to 60 layers of fabric to stay decent. That same appetite for spectacle carried through to Monroe's final dress. Listen to the full episode of The Run-Through for both stories. The Run-Through with Vogue is your go-to podcast where fashion meets culture. Hosted by Chloe Malle, Head of Editorial Content, Vogue U.S.; Chioma Nnadi, Head of British Vogue; and Nicole Phelps, Director of Vogue Runway, each episode features the latest fashion news and exclusive designer and celebrity interviews. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alex Papachristidis is a proudly old school decorator of the Upper East Side tradition—he can often be seen on Park Avenue in a crisp blue blazer, bag of samples in hand. But Papachristidis has also embraced 21st century entrepreneurship, with a popular Instagram account and the launch of a tabletop line, Everyday Elegance. On this episode of the podcast he speaks with host Dennis Scully about how growing up a city kid influenced his outlook, why he doesn't gatekeep vendors, and why being a great decorator comes down to one thing: paying attention. This episode is sponsored by Loloi and Maiden Home. LINKSAlex PapachristidisDennis ScullyBusiness of Home

This is the Morning All Local Update for Saturday, August 15th 2026.

How did a freshly looted Egyptian antiquity end up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art? Why did it take Kim Kardashian to crack the case? And how much of what you see in any museum is stolen? (Part 1 of “Stealing Art Is Easy. Giving It Back Is Hard,” first published in 2023.)   SOURCES: Andrea Bayer, deputy director of collections and administration at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Matthew Bogdanos, assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit. Patty Gerstenblith, professor emeritus of law at DePaul University College of Law. Jim Marrone, staff data scientist at StubHub. Victoria Reed, Bettina Burr chair for provenance at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.   RESOURCES: "Is the Metropolitan Museum of Art Displaying Objects That Belong to Native American Tribes?" by Kathleen Sharp (ProPublica, 2023). "More Than 1,000 Artifacts in Metropolitan Museum of Art Catalog Linked to Alleged Looting and Trafficking Figures," by Spencer Woodman, Malia Politzer, Delphine Reuter, and Namrata Sharma (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 2023). "The Art Market 2022: An Art Basel & UBS Report," by Clare McAndrew (2022). "The Tomb Raiders of the Upper East Side," by Ariel Sabar (The Atlantic, 2021). "Kim Kardashian's Met Gala Photo Helped Solve Looted Gold Egyptian Coffin Case," by Samantha Ibrahim (New York Post, 2021). "Tracking and Disrupting the Illicit Antiquities Trade With Open-Source Data," by Matthew Sargent, James V. Marrone, Alexandra Evans, Bilyana Lilly, Erik Nemeth, and Stephen Dalzell (RAND Corporation, 2020). "Provenience and Provenance Intersecting with International Law in the Market for Antiquities," by Patty G. Gerstenblith (North Carolina Journal of International Law, 2020).   EXTRAS: "The Hidden Side of the Art Market," series by Freakonomics Radio (2021). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In today's horror news commentary we're covering:Linda Cardellini's comments about her homage to Betsy Palmer in “Crystal Lake” A new “Leprechaun” movie in the worksAnd 3 books we've been sent that we'd like to shout out!Subscribe to our youtube channel and watch our videos!"Re-Animator"https://www.jefferyberg.com/"Zombies of the Upper East Side"https://jasonzeffir.com/

AMAZING Video: https://bit.ly/4wIntJi What could be more American than a juicy, delicious hot dog? … but what about eating 76 of them in only 10 minutes? We fire up the grill on NATHAN'S FAMOUS HOT DOG EATING CONTEST, held annually every July 4th in Coney Island Brooklyn, New York and broadcast on ESPN. Often called the super bowl of competitive eating, this tournament attracts the leading eaters from around the world. But is competitive eating really a sport? And are the participants really athletes? Our esteemed guests are two 10+ year judges of this holiday event, Rob from The Upper East Side, and Jason from Long Island, to help us peel back the aluminum foil on the most exciting 10 minutes in all of sports. Our music is composed, preformed and produced by the genius John Hoekstra. You Tube https://shorturl.at/i1Q8h SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/user-363005792 My co-host, Anuradha can be found on her Instagram accounts: @anuradhaduz_food and @artist_anuradhachhibber. Find us on Patreon at patreon.com/ScandalSheet with bonus content for premium subscribers. We'd love to have your generous support for only the price of one Starbuck's coffee per month. Also, please reach out to us at scandalsheetpod@gmail.com, find us on Facebook as 'Scandal Sheet' or on X at @scandal_sheet. We'd love to hear from you! As this is a summer favorite and one of our most popular episodes, this is an encore from 2023.

AMAZING Video: https://bit.ly/4wIntJi What could be more American than a juicy, delicious hot dog? … but what about eating 76 of them in only 10 minutes? We fire up the grill on NATHAN'S FAMOUS HOT DOG EATING CONTEST, held annually every July 4th in Coney Island Brooklyn, New York and broadcast on ESPN. Often called the super bowl of competitive eating, this tournament attracts the leading eaters from around the world. But is competitive eating really a sport? And are the participants really athletes? Our esteemed guests are two 10+ year judges of this holiday event, Rob from The Upper East Side, and Jason from Long Island, to help us peel back the aluminum foil on the most exciting 10 minutes in all of sports. Our music is composed, preformed and produced by the genius John Hoekstra. You Tube https://shorturl.at/i1Q8h SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/user-363005792 My co-host, Anuradha can be found on her Instagram accounts: @anuradhaduz_food and @artist_anuradhachhibber. Find us on Patreon at patreon.com/ScandalSheet with bonus content for premium subscribers. We'd love to have your generous support for only the price of one Starbuck's coffee per month. Also, please reach out to us at scandalsheetpod@gmail.com, find us on Facebook as 'Scandal Sheet' or on X at @scandal_sheet. We'd love to hear from you! As this is a summer favorite and one of our most popular episodes, this is an encore from 2023.

Funeral this morning for Queens native who was killed in the war in Iran... A seventh person has died from the Legionnaires cluster on the Upper East Side... Doctors are sounding the alarm about a dangerous new trend called 'Cyclospora Skinny' full 452 Fri, 31 Jul 2026 09:41:34 +0000 yfh3uDlicHzLp9dEmZ0J1aT2f6ZIBxQs news 1010 WINS ALL LOCAL news Funeral this morning for Queens native who was killed in the war in Iran... A seventh person has died from the Legionnaires cluster on the Upper East Side... Doctors are sounding the alarm about a dangerous new trend called 'Cyclospora Skinny' The podcast is hyper-focused on local news, issues and events in the New York City area. This podcast's purpose is to give New Yorkers New York news about their neighborhoods and shine a light on the issues happening in their backyard. 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc.

After a deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak on the Upper East Side, WNYC health reporter Caroline Lewis and investigative data reporter Joe Hong explain how the illness spreads, what went wrong during the 2025 Harlem outbreak and why major gaps in cooling tower testing and inspections remain. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images -Got any questions, comments or story ideas? Send us a message at NYCNow@WNYC.org Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The world of Influenced is one of luxury, exclusivity, and Manhattan's Upper East Side. Bringing that world to life on an independent film budget meant balancing creative ambition with production realities: making every location, every shooting day, and every production decision count. This week on Below the Line, Bruce Edward Hall joins Skid to discuss Influenced, the independent comedy directed by Rachel Israel from a screenplay by Jill Kargman. Together, they explore the planning, coordination, and adaptability required to bring an ambitious feature to the screen, and how thoughtful preparation helped the production make the most of every opportunity. Among the highlights: Scheduling a 23-day feature around child actors, animals, celebrity cameos, and a one-camera production Using Jill Kargman's relationships to secure extraordinary Upper East Side locations that would normally be beyond an independent film's reach Making intimate locations and crowded luncheon scenes feel far larger than the budget allowed Coordinating celebrity cameos and guest actors whose schedules left little room for rehearsal Navigating everything from neighborhood disruptions to approaching thunderstorms while keeping production on track Throughout the conversation, Bruce offers a behind-the-scenes look at the work audiences rarely notice, revealing how countless production decisions combine to make ambitious filmmaking look effortless on screen.

The All Local for Monday, July 20th, 2026

This is the morning All Local Update for Saturday, July 18 2026.

Air quality concerns in NYC due to Canadian willdfire smoke... Deadline arrives for 19 Upper East Side buildings to disinfect their cooling towers... 2 Manhattan dessert shops up for title of 'America's Best Ice Cream' full 455 Thu, 16 Jul 2026 09:50:45 +0000 mi3YeCKGMWJ0DhXYCLOztFjcDDifb9PN news 1010 WINS ALL LOCAL news Air quality concerns in NYC due to Canadian willdfire smoke... Deadline arrives for 19 Upper East Side buildings to disinfect their cooling towers... 2 Manhattan dessert shops up for title of 'America's Best Ice Cream' The podcast is hyper-focused on local news, issues and events in the New York City area. This podcast's purpose is to give New Yorkers New York news about their neighborhoods and shine a light on the issues happening in their backyard. 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc.

Smoke from wildfires burning in Ontario have caused air quality to reach "dangerous" levels across Canada, and the northeastern and midwestern United States. And it could get worse before conditions improve. Also, towers on 76 buildings on the Upper East Side have tested positive for the bacteria, the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said Tuesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alister Martin, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, talks about the Legionnaires' outbreak on the Upper East Side, including what the city is doing and what residents in the area should know. Photo: Townhouses along East 81st Street in the Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City - stock photo via Getty Images Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

City Council Speaker Julie Menin (D-5, Upper East Side) talks about the latest news from City Council and takes calls from listeners. Photo:  Speaker Julie Menin speaking at a rally for Hands Off NYC (Photo courtesy of New York City Council) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So many Christians wrestle with exhaustion, anxiety, and burnout all because they are striving for God's approval rather than striding with God as His loved child. In this message, Renna Nightingale helps us learn the difference between striving and striding and shares how we can walk with God from a place of being fully loved.

Many people live their lives fearful or worried that God will drop them – either by accident or because He's found something "better." But the truth is you are God's special possession and you are completely secure in His hands! In this week's message, Maria Pedone shares her experience learning this lesson and discovering that God will never drop her!

The All Local for Monday, July 13th, 2026

This is the All Local morning update for July 11th, 2026.

Mazel Morons! This week we break down Ben's disastrous haircut, debate the perfect pool temperature during New York's heat wave, and plan the most overcomplicated pizza order in birthday party history. Then things go off the rails: Josh discovers Ben ordered omakase for delivery (meshugga), which somehow leads to a full pitch for a Benihana delivery service, complete with mini onion volcanos, apartment fires on the Upper East Side, and the inevitable question - is there a market for kosher hibachi? Plus: the diet soda volume problem nobody's talking about, Wingstop's new Chamoy Tajín flavor, the philosophy of black coffee vs. Splenda (Josh is very passionate about this), and a GoFundMe story that you truly have to hear to believe. What are ya nuts?! Love ya!  Write us! Send your messages to goodguyspodcast1@gmail.com  Follow us on Instagram and TikTok!  Sponsors: Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode. Produced by Dear Media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the noon All Local for July 7, 2027

AP correspondent Julie Walker reports on what to know about Legionnaires' disease making people sick on New York's Upper East Side.

This is the All Local 4:00 P.M. update for Sunday, July 5th, 2026.

On this Tuesday edition of Sid & Friends in the Morning, Sid reacts to Barstool Sports founder & CEO Dave Portnoy saying on Fox News that he's considering a run for Mayor of New York City in 2029 against current Mayor Zohran Mamdani. In other news of the day, musical icons came out in full force to pay tribute to the late great mogul Clive Davis — including a devastated Alicia Keys who wept through her speech at an Upper East Side synagogue, Iran's almost immediate violations of the U.S.-negotiated ceasefire last week showed again the futility of relying on the Islamic Republic's commitments to the international order, Mayor Mamdani's administration announced the closure of a Rikers Island facility yesterday inching him closer to closing the prison as a whole, and Sid gets ready to partake in this afternoon's Barrett Media Audio Summit taking place at the SVA Theatre. Alex Traiman, Anthony Cumia, Bo Dietl, Jason Barrett, Joe Tacopina & Wally Backman join Sid on this Tuesday installment of Sid & Friends in the Morning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am still honoring the memory of Ethel, a tiny Chihuahua with the fierce spirit of an 80-pound Doberman who ruled the house, barked at motion detectors, and hid behind her human when things got too real. We also dive deep into the heavy, often misplaced guilt that comes with losing a pet, and discuss the practical, difficult reality of "sitting out life." While waiting for therapy or medications to reach a steady state, how do we begin to re-engage with the world? Join me for a raw, honest conversation about love, loss, and the slow climb back into life. Grief sucks and is lonely, but I look forward to each day and don't feel    #PetLoss #GriefJourney #MentalHealthMatters #HonoringEthel #ChihuahuaLove #GriefAndGuilt #PodcastLife #HealingProcess #MentalHealthSupport   Ever wonder why your premium coffee sometimes tastes overwhelmingly bitter or completely flat? In this episode, we break down the stark differences between warehouse-sitting commodity brands and small-batch, roast-to-order coffee. Discover what a "Roasted On" date actually means for your morning cup, how ethical sourcing impacts flavor profile, and why you don't have to sacrifice quality for home-brewing convenience. What We Cover in This Episode The chemical reality of coffee stales: Why "Best By" dates are lying to you. What "Convenience Plus" means for modern coffee enthusiasts. Small-batch vs. mass industrial roasting: How consistency protects your palate. The real economics of a specialty coffee subscription (breaking down the cost per cup). How to spot genuinely ethical direct-trade beans. Links & Resources Explore our Roast-to-Order Subscriptions: www.fbroasters.com Connect with us on Instagram: @tnfroisreading Follow our creator journey: https://linktr.ee/tnfroisreading Hashtags #CoffeeSubscription #RoastToOrder #SpecialtyCoffee #HomeBrewing #SmallBatchCoffee #CoffeeLover #CreatorAuthenticity #EthicalSourcing Season 4: The Toxic Era (2011) The Setup Season 4 is widely remembered as the darkest, most vitriolic, and most fractured season in Bravo history. The cast split into warring factions, creating an environment so toxic that Bravo executives famously executed a "mass firing" at the end of the run. Key Storylines & Episode Hooks The Post-Bethenny Power Vacuum: With Bethenny Frankel gone, Jill Zarin tries to regain her status as the "Queen Bee" via a highly calculated, failed apology tour. The Arrival of Cindy Barshop: The one-season wonder introduces the world to "Vajazzling" while immediately clashing with Ramona and Sonja over arbitrary Upper East Side "pecking orders." The Morocco Disaster (Episodes 8–10): The defining trip of the season. Luann acts like a colonial matriarch, Ramona complains about the country being "dirty," and Alex McCord breaks out in literal stress hives while attempting to crash a dinner party. The Real Vibe: Pre-MAGA Populist Elitism Long before the modern political landscape had a name, Season 4 was its perfect blueprint. Kelly Bensimon weaponized language to live in a post-truth reality, coining the phrase "systematic bullying" to escape accountability. Ramona Singer proudly practiced the "rules don't apply to me" philosophy—physically shoving women to grab the best bedrooms and dismissing anything outside her zip code as "the boonies."   Season 5: The Great Reboot (2012) The Setup Out with the old, in with the new. Bravo cleans house—firing Jill, Kelly, Alex, and Cindy—and introduces three brand-new housewives to shake up the mainstays (Ramona, Sonja, and Luann). Key Storylines & Episode Hooks The Enter of the Alpha (Heather Thomson): Sharp shapewear CEO Heather enters yelling "Holla!" and immediately sets boundaries with Ramona, completely refusing to bow to her bullying. The Radical Fragility of Aviva Drescher: Aviva introduces a highly glossy Upper East Side aesthetic, but her deep-seated phobias quickly take center stage. The St. Barth's Trip (Episodes 11–14): The peak reality TV crossover. Luann gets caught sneaking a French pirate into her bedroom and frantically speaks French on the phone to hide it, while Aviva arrives late and calls Ramona and Sonja "white trash" for not throwing her a party just for getting off an airplane. The Real Vibe: Weaponized Victimhood Season 5 perfected the art of using personal trauma as offensive artillery. Aviva Drescher used her prosthetic leg and medical anxieties as a bulletproof shield—positioning herself as the ultimate aggrieved underdog while simultaneously insulting her peers, demonstrating how loud privilege can completely rewrite group accountability.

If you've been feeling the pull to live for something bigger, to stop drifting and start responding, this message will meet you exactly where you are.

Margaux Anbouba, Vogue's Senior Wellness and Beauty Editor is a little bit of a guinea pig when it comes to wellness and beauty trends. “I think I am sometimes too game to try something, but it's a lot of fun,” Margaux admits, “It's a hazard of the job, I suppose.” In this episode, she sat down with Chloe to talk about everything in the space she's been trying lately and to what effect.  They started off by talking about one of the hottest and also most hotly contested wellness options on the market right now: peptides. Margaux recently visited longevity specialist Dr. Amanda Kahn, “the peptide princess” of the Upper East Side, for a lengthy introductory appointment where they covered all of her medical and personal history. “I talked to her about how I'm feeling emotionally, how I'm feeling physically, and then she came back to me with this incredible list of peptides I could try.” Margaux plans to try several different peptides in her stack; among them is an off-label microdose of GLP-1s, in hopes of reducing inflammation throughout her body. She's also trying out GHK, which is meant to help with skin regeneration, and CB-4211 for increased exercise capacity and energy. Relatively new to exercising, Margaux tells Chloe about Emsculpt, a sort of high-intensity electrical muscle stimulation used to tighten and tone. Another similar technology is EMS, which is a low-level stimulation that helps deepen contractions during workouts. “It's sort of Black Mirror-ish in a way,” she says of the device. The first time she tried Emsculpt, after removing the device from her stomach, she was incredibly sweaty. The second time, less so. Generally, practitioners recommend four sessions. The pair also discuss one of Margaux's favorite (and less sweaty) activities—the buccal massage. Buccal refers to the mid-face area right below the cheekbone, and this massage technique takes place both inside and outside the mouth—yes, there will be fingers inside your mouth. Mariam Saprichyan, an esthetician at Karine Kazarian in New York and practitioner of buccal massage, explains that it opens up the lymph nodes, helps with blood flow, and relieves much of the tension we hold in our faces. Not particularly squeamish, Margaux shares another of her latest trials: injecting RADIESSE biostimulating molecules into her scalp. At a swanky room in The Hotel Chelsea, Margaux met with Los Angeles-based Nurse Practitioner Lauren Goodman. “She talked to me about how the scalp is a way to do a lot of lifting without showing anything on the face.” It's informally referred to as a crown lift. And there will always be more to try! To hear their latest Aura ring sleep scores, preferred sunscreens, and Margaux's advice on colonoscopies, check out the episode and subscribe to her weekly newsletter, I Tried That.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In this episode of Here I Am, host Shai Davidai sits down with Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, senior rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun (KJ) on Manhattan's Upper East Side and author of Despite Everything: A Chronicle of Jewish Resilience in the Aftermath of October 7th.Rabbi Steinmetz shares what it means to be a "loving Jew" and how he balances embracing all Jews while navigating deep communal disagreements. Drawing on nearly 20 years leading a congregation in Montreal, he offers a unique perspective on the rise of antisemitism in Canada, warning that the U.S. may be heading down the same path if university-driven ideologies continue to go unchallenged among elites.The conversation dives into the tension rabbis face between staying above politics and stepping into the arena when Jewish survival is at stake, how synagogues should handle platforming anti-Zionist voices, and the importance of grounding yourself in truth when faced with bad-faith propaganda. Rabbi Steinmetz also reflects on how to engage young Jews who live in modern "cocoons," disconnected from community, history, and the generations before them, urging them to "become a butterfly" and reconnect with something larger than themselves.Guests: Rabbi Chaim SteinmetzConsider DONATING to help us continue and expand our media efforts. If you cannot at this time, please share this video with someone who might benefit from it. We thank you for your support!https://gofund.me/30c00151c BUY MERCH!https://hereiam.threadless.com/SUPPORT SHAI ON PATREON!https://www.patreon.com/shaidavidai/about?utm_source=campaign-search-results

Writer, actress, and bestselling author Jill Kargman joins Donny for a hilarious and razor-sharp conversation about her new film Influenced — a satirical comedy skewering the world of momfluencers, social media obsession, and performative wealth. Now in select theaters and streaming digitally July 10th, Influenced grew out of Jill's viral Instagram character Danielle, a kvetch-queen Upper East Side mom who took off during COVID and amassed half a million followers overnight. Jill and Donny dive deep into what it's really like growing up on the Upper East Side — from Spence School classmates who were embarrassed by their stretch limos to today's culture of private jet posting and Baby Dior. They unpack the toxic side of influencer culture, momfluencers, and the dark psychology behind aspirational social media content. They also get candid about parenting in the age of AI and social media, Jewish identity after October 7th, the collapse of the two-party system, and why neither of them can sit through a three-hour movie anymore. Plus: why Jill would rather fly JetBlue with 300 strangers than ride on someone's private jet. If you love sharp satire, New York City culture, entertainment industry stories, and honest conversations about raising kids in a screen-obsessed world — this episode is for you.

More of my interview with fashion designer Michael Kors. Michael reflects on career setbacks, including filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1993, before eventually IPO'inghis company in 2011 — a run that later put his estimated net worth near $1 billion. Plus, he tells me about going to Studio 54 as a teenager and we reflect on the importance of LGBTQ landmarks like The Stonewall Inn. This episode was recorded at Cafe Commerce on the Upper East Side in NYC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fashion designer Michael Kors joins the show. Over a club sandwich and a birthday cake, Michael tells me about showing an eye for style at 5-years-old, the surreal experience of seeing his name everywhere, and how ‘Project Runway' demystified the hard work that goes into fashion. Plus, he tells us about his involvement in an LGBTQ+ museum set to open in 2027. This episode was recorded at Cafe Commerce on the Upper East Side, NYC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

La DoubleJ founder and creative director JJ Martin joins the podcast this week with lots to celebrate. She just opened The Lighthouse, her new five-story Upper East Side flagship, which houses not only fashion and homewares but also a dedicated "Light Temple" for meditation, sound healing, and community gatherings. Martin describes the mission behind the space as creating "raise your vibration stations," where people can connect with something beyond commerce. That philosophy has become inseparable from La DoubleJ itself. Looking back, she describes the company's origins simply: "I was just kind of following the joy rocket." Her advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is equally straightforward: "Follow the joy crumbs. Anything that you would do for free at night and on the weekends has value."Martin also explains how she transformed her hobby of collecting vintage clothing into one of fashion's most recognizable print-driven brands, beginning with a single silk swing dress made with historic Lake Como manufacturer Mantero. Along the way, she became an enthusiastic ambassador for Italian craftsmanship and culture.For anyone considering a career pivot, dreaming of starting a business, or simply looking for a reminder that fashion can still be joyful, this conversation offers plenty to meditate on. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Jill Kargman is here and if you loved Odd Mom Out as much as I did, this episode is for you. Jill takes me inside the wild world of Upper East Side moms, the real-life inspiration behind the iconic show, and her hilarious new movie Influenced. We discuss social media loneliness, the insane things people do for status, and why she wanted to book an elective C-section.This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episodeVisit crocs.com or a store near you to find your perfect pair of Classic Clogs!Get $25 off your first purchase when you go to therealreal.com/notskinnyFor a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month's subscription and free shipping when you visit Nutrafol.com and enter promo code NOTSKINNY10Get your choice between free sirloin tips, ground beef, or chicken wings in every box for LIFE, plus $20 off when you go to butcherbox.com/notskinny/Go to quince.com/notskinny for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Gead to chime.com/NOTSKINNY and join the millions who are banking fee free today.You can get 20% off the Nanit Smart Baby Monitor System – including the new 8" Home display, PLUS you get a free travel case with code NSNF at nanit.comProduced by Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet my friends, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton! If you love Verdict, the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show might also be in your audio wheelhouse. Politics, news analysis, and some pop culture and comedy thrown in too. Here’s a sample episode recapping four takeaways. Give the guys a listen and then follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Preventable Crime Deaths Trump pauses the cabinet meeting to reference the killing of Sheridan Gorman, the 18‑year‑old college student murdered in Chicago by an illegal immigrant. Clay and Buck then detail another shocking case out of New York City involving 83‑year‑old Air Force veteran Richard Williams, who was shoved to his death on subway tracks by an illegal immigrant who had been deported multiple times and had an extensive criminal record. The hosts stress that both crimes were entirely preventable and argue that sanctuary policies are directly responsible. Buck explains that these incidents are not happening in high‑crime zones but in places traditionally considered safe—such as the Upper East Side of Manhattan—demonstrating how far the problem has spread. Clay and Buck argue Democrats refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities even when dealing with violent repeat offenders, choosing ideology over public safety. They stress that illegal immigrants who commit crimes should never be shielded from deportation and that the murder rate of Americans by illegal immigrants should be zero. Manipulating the System Investigative journalist Alex Berenson, who joins the program to discuss what Clay calls one of the most enraging crime stories of the year: a horrific Seattle case involving a repeat violent offender who allegedly murdered an elderly woman during a carjacking and then stabbed her dog to death, only to have his prosecution delayed indefinitely due to claims of mental incompetence. Berenson explains how the suspect, an eight‑time convicted felon with a long criminal record, is now repeatedly cycling between jail and a forensic psychiatric hospital, allegedly stopping his medication to claim incompetency and avoid trial. Berenson contrasts this with another highly publicized Seattle murder in which a man allegedly executed a pregnant woman in her car and was later allowed to plead not guilty by reason of insanity—potentially avoiding permanent incarceration altogether. The discussion highlights what Berenson and the hosts see as a broken system that fails to permanently remove clearly dangerous individuals from society, even when guilt is not meaningfully disputed. The Only Sane Democrat Clay and Buck play audio from a pro‑Iran and pro‑Hamas rally in Philadelphia, where speakers openly cheered the deaths of U.S. soldiers. They contrast that rhetoric with comments from Senator John Fetterman, who sharply criticizes his own party for being “held hostage by the far left,” condemns the DHS shutdown, and highlights the real‑world suffering of TSA agents who have gone six weeks without paychecks. The hosts discuss how devastating such a pay gap would be for most American families and argue that Democrats are deliberately inflicting airport chaos and financial pain on federal workers as leverage to block immigration enforcement. The conversation grows more urgent with breaking news that an improvised explosive device was discovered at MacDill Air Force Base, home to U.S. Central Command and Special Operations Command. Authorities link the incident to Iran‑inspired extremism, adding to a string of recent attempted terror attacks across the country. Clay and Buck argue that this makes the DHS shutdown—and weakened airport security—especially indefensible at a moment of elevated threat. Kennedy Murder/Suicide? Journalist and New York Times bestselling author Maureen Callahan dishes on the explosive popularity of the Ryan Murphy‑produced JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Hulu series, questioning why the show has captured such a large audience—particularly women—and whether its depiction of the Kennedy legacy is fundamentally dishonest. Maureen Callahan, author of Ask Not and host of The Nerve, offers a blistering critique of the Kennedy mythology, arguing that the series whitewashes a deeply dysfunctional family history and obscures decades of documented abuses, narcissism, and media manipulation. She traces how the “Camelot” myth persists despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary and explains why Hollywood continues to rehabilitate the Kennedy brand. The conversation intensifies when Callahan lays out her controversial theory regarding the death of John F. Kennedy Jr., asserting—based on official investigation records and well‑documented circumstances—that the fatal plane crash may have been a murder‑suicide driven by personal collapse, recklessness, substance use, and untreated psychological distress. She details Kennedy’s lack of qualification for the flight, warnings from other pilots, his failure to follow aviation protocol, near‑collision with a commercial jet, and the broader context of his unraveling marriage, failing business, and collapsing relationships. Clay and Buck emphasize that, provocative as the theory may sound, Callahan’s claims rely on facts contained in official reports rather than speculation. From there, the hosts and Callahan explore why the show resonates so powerfully, pointing to ’90s nostalgia, pre‑internet media culture, and the enduring Cinderella fantasy. They argue that audiences are drawn to a mythologized version of elite romantic tragedy rather than the far darker and more unsettling reality. The discussion compares the Kennedy myth machine to the fascination Americans have with the British royal family, arguing that modern audiences crave comforting narratives even when they are demonstrably false. Make sure you never miss a second of the show by subscribing to the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton show podcast wherever you get your podcasts! ihr.fm/3InlkL8 For the latest updates from Clay and Buck: https://www.clayandbuck.com/ Connect with Clay Travis and Buck Sexton on Social Media: X - https://x.com/clayandbuck FB - https://www.facebook.com/ClayandBuck/ IG - https://www.instagram.com/clayandbuck/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck Rumble - https://rumble.com/c/ClayandBuck TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@clayandbuck YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruzSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.