There’s a whole cohort of full-fledged, 21-year-old adults—including many of our generation’s children—who were born after 9/11. And when you talk to them about that day, they can’t grasp how little we knew as it was happening, because somehow we existed at a time without a constant barrage of news alerts.
Two months after the attacks, then-CNN producer Alex Walker wrote this piece about his experience at Ground Zero, as crews sifted through the still-smoldering remains. His attention to the emotion he saw and felt painted a vivid picture of everyday life for New Yorkers like Magda and Doug, who were expecting their first child and suddenly wondering what kind of life lay ahead.
Alex left CNN for Facebook, so he’s had a front-row seat for the evolution of online journalism and the social media platforms that are eating it alive. After we swap our “where-were-you” stories, we discuss our lives 22 years later, where longform news is headed, and our gratitude that no footage of our college antics exists on YouTube.
We also talk about his divorce and remarriage during the pandemic, co-parenting teenagers across two time zones, and how he would make CNN worth watching again. And will consumers of A.I.-generated content eventually be killed off by bad mushrooms?
Other links:
That lunatic who tried to parachute onto the Statue of Liberty in August 2001.
Why historians weren’t all that crazy about the Pearl Harbor movie of 2001.
Watch Come From Away on AppleTV+.
All about The Social Dilemma.
Nonstop coverage of Malaysian Flight 370
Ten hours of Harold chugging mayonnaise and Phil Collins’s drum solo
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