Twenty-five years on, the story of 9/11 is being hijacked again — by politicians running for cover, by a president inventing himself into the rubble, and by an algorithm that feeds our kids conspiracy theories instead of history. FDNY firefighter and first-responder advocate Rob Serra returns to Independent Americans for the conversation we’ve had every year since this show started, and this one hits different. Newly released documents confirm what Rob and every first responder already knew: the air was never safe, hundreds of thousands of civilians were lied to, and Stuyvesant students were sent back to eat lunch in a room that had been a morgue three days earlier.
Paul and Rob talk about the weight of being the person in the locker room, at the dentist, at the birthday party who has to explain what really happened — and the fact that there is still no formal curriculum to teach 9/11 in New York schools or anywhere else. They get into Mamdani, Giuliani, Bloomberg’s treatment of Detective James Zadroga, the firefighters purged under zero tolerance while burying fifty friends, Trump’s newest big lie, the ongoing fight for the Zadroga Act, and why the Ray Pfeifer Foundation is still picking up the tab for care the program should already cover. It ends, as it must, with something good — the lights, the kids, the Yankees, a Friday football pick, and the reminder that leaders like Rob are still standing twenty-five years later. Stay vigilant.
In this episode
- Rob Serra on why the newly released 9/11 documents matter — and why civilians, not just first responders, got the “royal deal”
- Stuyvesant High School students eating lunch in what had been a morgue three days earlier, covered in dust
- Why there is still no formal 9/11 curriculum in New York schools 25 years later — and what kids are learning from TikTok instead
- The 13-year-old in a hockey locker room shouting “nobody died on 9/11” — and the burden of being the keeper of the flame
- Mike Bloomberg publicly calling Detective James Zadroga a drug addict while he was dying of 9/11 cancer
- FDNY firefighters fired under zero tolerance for coping with trauma after burying fifty friends
- Trump’s newest lie about being carried out of the site by two firefighters — and why silence from politicians on 9/11 might be the only honest move
- The fight that never ended — monthly trips to Washington, Elon Musk pulling the bill, and the personal cost of advocacy
- The Ray Pfeifer Foundation and the care the 9/11 program still refuses to cover, including hospice
- Something good — the Tribute in Light through a kid’s bedroom window, Aaron Judge’s return, and Friday football picks
