75. Life After 9/11 with Christina Stanton

Monte Mader (0:00)

A licensed New York City tour guide since 1995, Christina Stanton has led more than 50,000 visitors and is one of the city's longest serving guides. A 9-11 survivor who lived a few blocks from the World Trade Center, she now conducts weekly tours of the 9-11 Memorial and has written more than 40 articles about the attacks and their ongoing aftermath. She is the author of Out of the Shadow of 9, 11, which received both the 2020 IPPY Award and the Benjamin Franklin Award.

Stanton's journalism spans the history and culture of New York City, as well as stories of social justice and inspiring individuals around the world. She writes regularly for the New York Daily News, and her work has appeared in publications including The Daily Beast, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and Time Magazine. She is a member of the 9-11 Visionary Network, sponsored by the 9-11 Memorial & Museum, and the Newswomen's Club of New York. Stanton frequently speaks out about 9-11 and has addressed 5 audiences worldwide, from Tokyo to Mozambique. In 2016, she and her husband co-founded the nonprofit organization Loving All Nations, which supports vulnerable communities in countries such as Madagascar and South Africa. Christina and her husband Brian have lived for a quarter century in the same home in Manhattan's Financial District, where they love taking their rescue dog Nala on long walks through the historical streets. Today, we're going to talk about surviving 9-11, what that looked like in real time in the city. The unexpected heroes that showed up to save people's lives, the city that rebuilt itself, and how taking care of those that survived is still going on right now with Christina Stanton on Flipping Tables.

Christina, welcome to the show. Thank you for coming on.

Christina Stanton (1:46)

Thank you. It's great to be here.

Monte Mader (1:48)

And we were chatting before we started officially recording that you and I met through Redeemer Presbyterian and mission work working with victims of sex trafficking.

Christina Stanton (1:59)

Yes, yes, yes. Probably about 11 years ago, 11 or 12

Monte Mader (2:02)

I know. It's been, it feels like a very long time. A very long time. And then also I'm like, but wasn't 2003 like last year? I'm in that space of life now. I'm like, oh no, it's happening.

And so appreciative of the, obviously this week is 9-11 of this release and so appreciative of your work, keeping this memory alive. For the majority of Americans, you know, we didn't live in New York growing up. When 9-11 happened, I was in South Dakota. And I had absolutely no concept of the city, how it runs, how close things are together. It didn't sink into me until I moved to New York.

What this moment really meant. And whatever you feel comfortable with, can you talk about that day? Because you were there, you're part of this. What was that day like? Do what do you remember?

Christina Stanton (2:55)

Yeah, so my husband and I were newlyweds, and we had gotten our new apartment. We had only lived there for two months.

Six blocks away from the Twin Towers, from the World Trade Center complex. And that morning at 8.46, I was still asleep, and there was something like me because I'm an early riser and always was. But my husband was awake and working on his computer. But the impact of the first plane hitting the North Tower shook our building. We were so close. So we knew like something's gone down. We don't normally get earthquakes in New York City. So he got me up and we had this wonderful 300 square foot terrace that faced the World Trade Center complex. And it was just this wonderful terrace. And that was the reason why we got the apartment in the first place, it was amazing. But then it looked like a screen from a movie. We're watching some horror movie. And I kept wondering, am I still asleep? But we were, it was the 24th floor.

And we were watching the smoke coming out of either side of the North Tower. And I tried to call my mom, she didn't answer. My best friend in New York, she didn't answer. Listening to the screams of people running across the West Side Highway because we lived on the West Side Highway. And the ambulances going up the West Side Highway and the police cars and the sirens, and all of a sudden, right over our shoulders, the second plane came, swooped right in front of us, turned what I feel at eight o'clock and two o'clock and went into the South Tower. And that kind of started off our whole next journey.