September 11, 2001

British singer, songwriter and guitarist Lowe got his start in the '70s pub-rock era. His 2001 album, The Convincer, has been newly remastered and reissued. Originally broadcast in 2001 and 2011.

Afghan British journalist Najibullah Quraishi has had trouble sleeping for more than two hours a stretch ever since the U.S. withdrew troops from Afghanistan in August and the Taliban came back into power. Quraishi grew up in Afghanistan under Soviet and Taliban rule, and began reporting on the Taliban before the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida attacks and the onset of the U.S. Afghan war. He's currently in Kabul reporting for his upcoming PBS Frontline documentary, Taliban Takeover, (airing Oct. 12) which details life in Afghanistan now.

Journalist Peter Bergen talks about bin Laden's path to mass murder and reflects on the consequences of the recent U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Originally broadcast Aug. 4, 2021.

As the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks approaches, a new biography by journalist Peter Bergen traces Osama bin Laden's path from a shy, religious teenager to the leader of a global jihadist group dedicated to mass murder.

Saturday Night Live's Pete Davidson lost his firefighter father in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York City. Davidson explores the loss of his father in the new dramatic comedy, The King of Staten Island. In it, he plays Scott, a fictionalized version of himself who's grieving after his father dies fighting a hotel fire. Director Judd Apatow calls the film a "hopeful story about somebody who starts opening up and getting support."

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lawrence Wright predicts that the largest "red" state in the union will eventually move into the "blue" column — and change the nation's politics in the process.

The Iranian-born photographer told Fresh Air in 2015 that he was less interested in personal belief than in "what people do in the name of God." Abbas died in Paris on April 25.

In his new book, journalist Gregory Johnsen charts the rise of Yemen as a haven for al-Qaida and explores the recent history of radical Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. The death of Osama bin Laden, he says, had more of an effect on the U.S. psyche than it did on people in Yemen.

A center for scientists to study what helps dogs succeed in search-and-rescue operations opens Tuesday at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Cynthia Otto, who created the center, and Annemarie DeAngelo, the center's training director, tells Fresh Air why they depend on their canine companions.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf was once the lead cleric associated with the proposed Islamic community center some critics called the "ground zero mosque." In his new book, Moving the Mountain, Rauf calls for moderate Muslims to step up and marginalize the voices of extremists.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the New York City Police Department transformed itself into an aggressive domestic intelligence unit and monitored hundreds of Muslims in their mosques, workplaces and schools. Journalist Matt Apuzzo, who helped uncover the story, just won a Pulitzer Prize.

In Intel Wars, historian Matthew Aid details how bureaucratic polices and a glut of raw data have weakened the intelligence community in its war against would-be terrorists.

Jonathan Safran Foer's novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close has been adapted into a movie starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. Critic David Edelstein says the end result doesn't fully mesh with the story it is trying to tell.

Former FBI agent and interrogator Ali Soufan talks about dysfunction and rivalries inside the government's counterterrorism agencies that led to missed opportunities — as well as the ineffectiveness of enhanced interrogation techniques on collecting intelligence.

Reviewer Maureen Corrigan says Amy Waldman's debut novel might be the Sept. 11 novel — the one that finally does justice, artistically and historically, to the aftershocks of that day.

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, linger in our thoughts, but not so much in our speech. Linguist Geoff Nunberg says "it's striking that 9/11 and its aftereffects have left almost no traces in the language of everyday life."

Firefighter Ken Haskell was off duty on Sept. 11, 2001, when his two brothers, also firefighters, died in the World Trade Center. Haskell's story of searching the rubble for his brothers' bodies is included in A Decade of Hope: Stories of Grief and Endurance from 9/11 Families and Friends.

Washington Post national security reporter Dana Priest's book Top Secret America looks at the top-secret intelligence and counterterrorism network created after Sept. 11. "No one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, [or] how many programs exist within it," she says.

The filmmaker's documentary The Oath tells the story of two men who both worked for Osama bin Laden and then wound up in incredibly different spots: One drives a taxicab in Yemen, while the other sits in solitary confinement at Guantanamo. Poitras how she gained access to the story -- and why questions still remain about the film's protagonist.