Michael speaks with FDNY Chief Joseph Pfeifer, who led the first fire units into the North Tower on 9/11 and later gave the order to evacuate the towers. Chief Pfeifer later served as the FDNY Chief of Counterterrorism and Emergency preparedness, is a Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School, and wrote Ordinary Heroes, which examines what 9/11 taught him about crisis leadership, resilience, and the ordinary acts of heroism. They discuss:

- Watching American Airlines flight 11 hit the North Tower

- Leading firefighters into the North Tower

- Critical decisions and lessons from inside the towers when the second plane hit

- The 60-second decision to order evacuation

- The ordinary acts of heroism that saved lives

- Lessons in resilience from 9/11

- Leading the Ground Zero recovery efforts

- The three rules of crisis leadership

- Four stages of resilience after a crisis

- Looming threats and how to prepare for them

And more …

This episode includes detailed discussion of the September 11 attacks, death, and trauma.

Two Percent is hosted by Michael Easter. Today's episode was produced by Joey Fischground, Robbie Hiser, Dana Brawer and Julia Nutter. From Kaleidoscope, our executive producers are Mangesh Hattikudur and Kate Osborn and Julia Nutter. From iHeart, our executive producers are Katrina Norvell and Nikki Ettore. Our Head of Video is Maria Paz Mendez Hodes. Our editor is Will Mayo. Our theme music is by the Heater Manager.

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