An Army of Normal Folks - Nancy Carbone: The Best Friend of Firefighters (Pt 1)

Episode Date: August 5, 2025

After black snow rained down on her on 9/11, Nancy knocked on the door of local firehouses to see how she could help. When several firefighters told her that they’d need counseling, this non-therapist and normal mom got to work. 24 years later, Friends of Firefighters has provided over 1,000 firefighters and their families with mental health and wellness services at no cost to them!   Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I went to a firehouse I had never been to before and I went in and I met a firefighter, John Sorrentino, and I said, what do you need? And he goes, you have paper? And I had a legal pad, which I still have. And he said, first thing we need is bunting for the firehouse. As what? Bunting. Bunting is the dark purple and black flag that they drape outside a house to say we've

had a loss in the house. And they had a set of three for bunting for the entire firehouse, fire department rather, and they lost 343 men. So you can imagine that they needed bunting. So the second thing he said is, and this was like the day after, I mean, it was like right away. And so he blew my mind. The second thing he said he needed was a bugler.

Because one of the guys, they lost eight men and he knew that they were gone. He said one of them is military. We need a bugler at the funeral so you know if we ever recover them. The last thing he said was counselors and you could have knocked me over with a feather. So did you go to work? Hell yes. Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy.

I'm a husband. I'm a father. I'm an entrepreneur. And I've been an inner city football coach in Memphis. And the last part, well, it led somehow to a film about our team that won the Oscar. That movie's called Undefeated. I believe our country's problems are never gonna be solved by a bunch of fancy people in nice suits

using big words that nobody understands on CNN and Fox, but rather by an army of normal folks. That's us. Just you and me deciding, hey, you know what? Maybe I can help. That's what Nancy Carbone, the voice you just heard, has done. After black snow rained down on her on 9-11, Nancy knocked on the door of a local firehouse

to simply say, hey, how can I help? And when several firefighters told her that they'd need counseling, this non-therapist and normal mom, well, she got to work. 24 years later, Friends of Firefighters has provided over a thousand firefighters and their families with mental health and wellness services at no cost. And I can't wait for you to meet Nancy right after these brief messages from our generous

sponsors. Kelly Harnett spent over a decade in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit. I'm 100% innocent. While behind bars, she learned the law from scratch. Because, oh God, H her and that jailhouse lawyer. And as she fought for herself, she also became a lifeline for the women locked up alongside her. It's supposed to have been faith in God,

but I had nothing but faith in her. So many of these women had lived the same stories. I said, were you a victim of domestic violence? And she was like, yeah. But maybe Kelly could change the ending. I said, how many people have gotten other incarcerated individuals out of here? I'm going to be the first one to do that. This is the story of Kelly Harnett, a woman who

spent 12 years fighting not just for her own freedom, but her girlfriends too. I think I have a mission from God Harley Harnett, a woman who spent 12 years fighting not just for her own freedom, but her girlfriends too. I think I have a mission from God to save souls by getting people out of prison. The Girlfriends, Jailhouse Lawyer. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. American history is full of wise people. Well women said something like, you know, 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is glory.

Those founding fathers were gossipy AF and they loved to cut each other down. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history and I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history has to offer. Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption. My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said, it would have been harder to fake it than to do it. Listen to American history hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever

you get your podcasts. Check out Behind the Flow, a podcast documentary series following the launch of San Diego Football Club. We go behind the scenes and explore the stories of those involved. San Diego coming to MLS is going to be a game changer because this region has been hungry for a men's professional soccer team. We need veteran players and we need young players. Like you're building a team from scratch. And so the succession plan of long-term success needs to be defined.

We need to embrace this community. When I was 13, my uncle took me to a qualifier and we watched Paraguay against Chile, pouring rain, just watching the fans jumping up and down. I think that was definitely a watershed moment for me. Not only was that gonna be my game, but it was gonna be my life. Listen to San Diego FC Behind the Flow.

Now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When I became a journalist, I was the first Latina in the newsrooms where I worked. I'm Maria Hinojosa. I dreamt of having a place where voices that have been historically sidelined would instead be centered. For over 30 years now, Latino USA has been that place.

This is Latino USA, the radio journal of news and cultura. As the longest running Latino news and culture show in the United States, Latino USA delivers the stories that truly matter to all of us. From sharp and deep analysis of the most pressing news. They're creating this narrative that immigrants are criminals. This is about everyone's freedom of speech. Nobody expected to pokes from the American continent. To stories about our cultures

and our identities. When you do get a trans character like Ymir Pérez, the trans community is going to push back on that. Colorism, all of these things that exist in Mexican culture and Latino culture. You'll hear from people like Congresswoman AOC. I don't want to give them my fear. I'm not going to give them my fear. Listen to Latino USA as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2020, a group of young women in a tidy suburb of New York City found themselves in an AI-fueled nightmare.

Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts on my body parts that looked exactly like my own. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. It happened in Levittown, New York. But reporting the series took us through

the darkest corners of the internet and to the front lines of a global battle against deep fake pornography. This should be illegal, but what is this? This is a story about a technology that's moving faster than the law and about vigilantes trying to stem the tide. I'm Margie Murphy. And I'm Olivia Carville. This is Levertown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts,

Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope. Listen to Levertown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. ["I'm On My Way To You"] Nancy Carbone, welcome to Memphis. Thank you. Yeah, just flew in from, did you fly in from LaGuardia? Yes I did.

Did you, Delta? Yes sir. Non-stop. Come on, it has to be non-stop. Well, from Memphis, we don't get it. We used to have a hub here we were a northwest hub and we had non stops everywhere and then when Delta bought Northwest they yanked out probably 80% of our non-stops and so I

suffer with connections New Yorkers don't suffer with I'm sorry to hear that you do but I did not I watched part one of one of your you do, but I did not. I watched part one of one of your podcasts and before we got to part two, it was time to put our electronic equipment away. So it was great. Awesome. So clearly you're from New York and everybody Nancy Garbone is the founder and executive director of friends for firefighters, which has 9-11. I think you butchered that right? What's that?

Yeah. What? Friends of. What did I say? Did I write it wrong? No, I think I said it wrong. Friends of firefighters, right? Yes, sir.

Is that right? Friends of. You said friends for. See, what'd I tell you? Pain in the a- You couldn't have corrected me. We have to have a producer. I'm not going to.

Because I'm being too nice. If I say something stupid, correct me for sure. I definitely will, though. Especially, I mean- You just gave me the go-ahead. A New York woman, you don't have any fear to correct a guy. I don't have fear, but I have manners. Yeah, well, that's good. There's a difference.

All right. So founder and executive director of Friends of Firefighters, a New York gal through and through in terms of what I guess the last 25 years of her life have been so far. But I am curious, where are you from? How'd you grow up? From New York. Born in? Born in Flushing, New York. And then we moved to the island when I was about two years old. So I'm from Long Island, originally.

What did your parents do? My dad was a custodial engineer and my mom was chasing kids all day until I was about junior high school. and then she became an EEG technician. How many of you are there? I have six siblings but my aunt and uncle were raised with us as well. Your aunt and uncle what? Were raised with us as well so they were they were in and out nine kids. Your mom dealt with nine? Holy smokes. How did your dad make enough money to house, clothe, and feed that crew? He worked several jobs. He worked really hard.

He really did. He worked hard. And it was tight. It was tight. And I think that that adds to our character. We're a pretty tough group. We didn't get everything we wanted, but we got what we needed. So, what's it like? I don't want to ask you. What's it like at that time of life growing

up in New York City? I mean, that had to have been interesting, exciting, fun. Maybe you didn't know any different. Hell no, it wasn't exciting. I was on Long Island. Our house was built on a potato field. There was no excite. You know what was exciting? I had a stingray with a banana seed. That was exciting. That was exciting. A Schwinn, right? A Schwinn stingray with a banana seed. Yes. I actually have one now. But back then we would play, you know, where they were building houses, we would make, what do you call them, ramps and jump off of those.

That was exciting. But I left the city when I was two. My parents took us out to the island and it was, we made our own fun. Our house was the party house and that was later on when I was a teenager. That was a lot of fun. Well did you, I mean, did you get to venture into the city as a kid? Yeah. Yeah, as a teenager, not as a younger child.

When I say kid, teenager. Yeah. Well, I mean, I remember going to the Statue of Liberty when I was like seven. And I've lived in the city for over 40 years and I've not gone back. So, you know, I will, I've brought people. You checked the box? Yeah, I checked the box a long time ago. So like as a 18, 19, 20 year old coming up, you had the city to go sow your oats in.

Yeah, but I also sowed my oats in Plattsburgh, which is close to the Canadian border. So my sister's at, it's a college that my sisters and brother went to, and it was a great party town. So I went there. I was in a band and I was in a band there and so we would play in the neighboring areas and it was a lot of fun.

What did, were you vocals or? Yeah. You were in a band. Yes sir. Hanging around in New York in college. Yeah. What years were these? Oh really we're going there? 70, well I started singing when I was about 13.

So that would be 72, 3. Yeah, yeah you heard that guys. And then through the early 80s. I had my first in 82, I had my second child in 86 and I stopped for a while and then in 92 I started in another band. But I haven't done it in a while. Now I just do it here and there. That is so cool.

Yeah. Not a lot of people know that. I don't even think, I don't think any of the firefighters know that. Well, they will now. I guess they will. Yeah, they might. And now they're going to make you sing. What kind of music?

No one's going to make me sing. Just put a mic in front of me and I'm comfortable. I loved doing blues and swing and things like that. You're in the cradle of it. I know. Crossroads is only an hour south of here. You know, I'm not going to the crossroads. My life is up enough. I am not going to the crossroads. There's New York. Yeah. But the fact that you know what the crossroads.

I know. So no, sir. No, sir. No, that is not making any deals with anybody for anything. That is so cool. So you had kids. So I assume you had a husband somewhere. No, I'm not making any deals with anybody for anything. That is so cool. So you had kids, so I assume you had a husband somewhere. 52 years. Yeah, I've been with my husband for, we've been married 45 years, Kai. KYE is an unusual name.

KYE. Okay. So that is really a cool background story. But I mean, you grew up with a whole bunch of kids. Your parents did what they could to raise you. You had fun in college. Did you get a degree? I did not.

Okay, so you had a lot of fun in college. Well, you know what? It was all about the music for me. And it wasn't about, you know, I went on later on, but at that time, it would have been a waste of money and time for me to sit in the classroom when I came in at 5 a.m. from a gig. It just wasn't going to work. It wasn't happening.

It wasn't happening. And I was not, I didn't know how to apply myself at that time. Fair enough. So whatever. But that's, the point is, you grew up in New York, one of about 80, it sounds like. It felt like it sometimes. Bounced around, got married, started having kids, and you have this normal, really at that point, unremarkable, normal, average life.

Okay. Well, the point is, what you're doing now... Is abnormal. Yeah. Okay. And remarkable. It's not that different from growing up. My kitchen table growing up, you had to be quick.

It was a chaos, right? And my mom's Irish, funny as hell. And so humor is currency in a house like that. So that's a firehouse too. The humor is currency. If you're funny, you can kind of skirt around. Also chaos is comfortable for me. So when bad things happen, I don't shrink from that,

but keep in mind I'm not a first responder. And I've met some of those barrel-chested Irish firemen and they are absolutely hilarious. They're simply constantly breaking each other's balls. I love it. It's it's it's the greatest. It's the greatest. It's a set for a movie. Yeah, but you don't want the kitchen stuff getting out there. I get it. All right, we're jumping ahead. So, normal person, have a relatively normal life, your mom, you're married, you're leading your life. You're not out there doing anything remarkable for society.

You're taking care of yourself, your children, your life, a normal person. Yeah. Nancy, one of the things we say all the time on our show is that the magic happens, Nancy, one of the things we say all the time on our show is that the magic happens, the amazing things in our culture happens when one's passion and abilities intersect with opportunity. And what I'm saying is that intersection had not,

that collision had not happened yet, but it was about to. And up until the point that that opportunity happened, you're doing life like all of us. But your story is also an inspiration to say to all of us who kind of say we're just leading our normal lives, there's opportunity. Always. Always. Yeah.

So, as I understand it, you and your husband were at home and the windows rattled and you thought something broke upstairs or something. I thought something dropped from a plane on our roof. Really? It was that big. Where did you live? In Brooklyn, right across the water. You and your husband, what were you doing for a living?

At the time, I was actually, I had an interview that day for a job. I had been out of work for a little bit due to an injury, so I was really raring to go back to work. And I had an interview in Manhattan, which needless to say, I never went to. And what did your husband do for a living? He is an art professor and a painter. Okay, that just got even cooler. And a guitar player. Of course, why wouldn't he be?

And a chef. Okay, and you know... That's normal. Yeah, right. Does he have a renaissance tattoo across his back? Yeah, pretty much. He actually does have the Vitruvian man on his arm. So, yes. I just know that.

Okay. So he's an art professor, an artist. Y'all are sitting there and you think something fell on top of your house? Really? Your house rattled that hard? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So is it a house or a... It was a brownstone. A brownstone. Yeah. Okay. So it's across the water from the Trade Center and that was the reverberation and I called to my husband.

Now I had gotten in late the night before because I had gone, I brought my son back to school in Vermont and an interesting thing, I think it's interesting, was the night before was a light rain and I was coming down the west side highway and I stopped at a light right in front of the Trade Center. And I remember looking up and Leon Russell's song, Manhattan. Can't remember the second part of it. Manhattan Serenade came on and I was looking up and I remember looking way up and just thinking I hadn't been up there since the 70s and you know then the light changed and I went on. I went to sleep and what woke me up was that that big boom. And now a few messages from our gender sponsors but But first, don't go away. I'm excited to announce our next live interview.

And this time it's in God's country, Camelot, Oxford, Mississippi. On August 28th, I'll be interviewing Sparky Reardon, who is Ole Miss' former Dean of Students and was the Dean of Students at Ole Miss when I was there. And he's consequently one of my mentors. I genuinely love the guy. We'll be interviewing Sparky about his brand new book

titled The Dean, Memoirs and Missives. And if you're in the area, please join us for a fun night. It will be an opportunity for you to share some time with one of the wisest and most beloved human beings on this earth and certainly an icon in the recent history of the University of Mississippi. For my fellow Ole Miss fans, it's the Thursday before our first home game of the season

and so you out of towners, you have two good reasons to come to Oxford now. To learn more and to RSVP visit sparkyreardon.eventbrite.com that's sparkyreardon.eventbrite.com and I can guarantee you all I have to do is say hey Spark Sparky, how you doing? And then I won't talk anymore and just open the mic because for an hour and a half, you will be inspired, you will be entertained, you will laugh and you will learn. I hope you'll join us. We'll be right back.

Kelly Harnett spent over a decade in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit. I'm 100% innocent. While behind bars, she learned the law from scratch. Because, oh God, Harnett, jailhouse lawyer. And as she fought for herself, she also became a lifeline for the women locked up alongside her. It's supposed to have been faith in God, but I had nothing but faith in her. So many of these women had lived the same stories.

I said, were you a victim of domestic violence? And she was like, yeah. But maybe Kelly could change the ending. I said, how many people have gotten other incarcerated individuals out of here? I'm going to be the first one to do that. This is the story of Kelly Harnett, a woman who spent 12 years fighting not just for her own freedom, but her girlfriends too. I think I have a mission from God to save souls by getting people out of prison. The Girlfriends, Jailhouse Lawyer.

Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. American history is full of wise people. Well, women said something like, no, 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is glory. Those founding fathers were gossipy AF and they loved to cut each other down. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history and I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history

has to offer. Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption. My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said, it would have been harder to fake it than to do it. Listen to American History Hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Check out Behind the Flow, a podcast documentary series following the launch of San Diego Football Club. We go behind the scenes and explore the stories of those involved. San Diego coming to MLS is going to be a game changer because this region has been hungry for a men's professional soccer team.

We need veteran players and we need young players. Like, you're building a team from scratch, and so the succession plan of long-term success needs to be defined. We need to embrace this community. When I was 13, my uncle took me to a qualifier, and we watched Paraguay against Chile, pouring rain, just watching the fans jumping up and down. I think that was definitely a watershed moment for me.

Not only was that going to be my game, but it was going to be my life. Listen to San Diego FC Behind the Flow, now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, It was going to be my life. Listen to San Diego FC Behind the Flow, now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When I became a journalist, I was the first Latina in the newsrooms where I worked.

I'm Maria Hinojosa. I dreamt of having a place where voices that had been historically sidelined would instead be centered. For over 30 years now, Latino USA has been that place. This is Latino USA, the radio journal of news and cultura. As the longest running Latino news and culture show in the United States, Latino USA delivers the stories that truly matter to all of us.

From sharp and deep analysis of the most pressing news. They're creating this narrative that immigrants are criminals. This is about everyone's freedom of speech. Nobody expected to. Popes from the American continent to stories about our cultures and our identities. When you do get a trans character like Imidapérez, the trans community is going to push back on that. Colorism, all of these things that exist in Mexican culture and Latino culture. You'll hear from people like Congresswoman AOC.

I don't want to give them my fear. I'm not going to give them my fear. Listen to Latino USA as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2020, a group of young women in a tidy suburb of New York City found themselves in an AI fueled nightmare. Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts on my body parts

that looked exactly like my own. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. It happened in Levittown, New York. But reporting this series took us through the darkest corners of the internet and to the front lines of a global battle against deepfake pornography. This should be illegal, but what is this? This is a story about a technology that's moving faster than the law and about vigilantes trying to stem the tide.

I'm Margie Murphy. And I'm Olivia Carville. This is Levertown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope. Listen to Levertown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It was a boom, but-

I think I read your windows rattled. They shook. Well, they were windows anyway, but yeah, they did. They did. They did. But they did rattle. But I called my husband and I said, this is bizarre, I said, this is bizarre.

I said, check the roof. I think something fell out of a plane. And he went up on the roof. No offense, all of you guys, but you don't send men to go look at something. They open the refrigerator. They can't find anything. It was right there. He went up.

I think he opened the door and he goes, no, nothing here. And that was the patio. The roof was up another. You know, you have to go up there. But even still. So I got up because I knew he probably didn't look, you know, it just was too loud to not have hit our house. And when I went up to the next level, you know, I didn't see anything. But then my sister-in-law called from Florida saying she had been trying to reach us that

a plane hit the trade center. And I was thinking maybe it was a Piper, you know, I don't think anybody thought about that. I think everybody thought it was a Cess, you know, I don't think anybody thought about that. I think everybody thought it was a Cessna or a small private plane of some sort. But when the second one hit nobody fathomed it was a jetliner at first. The second one confirmed it for everyone that it was an attack. So could you see the, could you see it from the top of your house? I could see the smoke.

You see the smoke. Yeah, I could see the smoke. But I didn't spend too much time up there. I had a, my daughter's 15 and she went to a school that was about 22 blocks from our Yeah, I could see the smoke. But I didn't spend too much time up there. My daughter's 15 and she went to a school that was about 22 blocks from her house. So I wanted to go and get her. So I have to admit, I probably wouldn't do the same thing today, but I took a quick shower. And when I went downstairs, it started to snow black and the papers were falling.

And... All the way across the river. Oh, that was just the beginning of it. Yeah, yeah. That was the beginning of it. And then it was heavily, heavily covered with snow, black snow. It was all ash and papers. You know, we see all the images of when the buildings fell and that power plastic cloud of dust rolling down the streets of Manhattan

and between the skyscrapers. But I don't think until right now I've even asked or seen pictures or been cognizant of even the neighborhoods across the river were being rained on by the fallout. But I didn't realize how much had come our way until I saw a satellite photo, and it was covering Brooklyn Heights,

Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens. I lived in Carroll Gardens. Their home is in Carroll Gardens? It was at the time. We were there for about 40 years, and then it it became very rich and I can't afford it, so I moved out. That's like really a short story there and we'll leave it there. I went back up the stairs and I grabbed a bunch of cloth napkins and got them wet and

I started to run up to my daughter's school with my husband. And I remember passing... Cloth napkin covering your mouth, I guess? Yeah, but I wanted to cover my daughter's mouth. And I told my husband to put it over his face. And we passed a man with a baby. And I gave him two and he put them both over his mouth. And I said, you need to cover the baby's face.

You passed a dude with a baby and he put it over his mouth. I can't judge. You know what? Everybody was in shock. That's another husband thing. Totally, totally. Totally. Not being able to find anything in the refrigerator and not even considering that the infant may

need to bring it. Yes, but did I tell you my husband cooks? So, he's still alive, okay? So, you have to choose your battles. But what happened was then I got to the school and my daughter who is hearing impaired, she felt the buildings falling. She felt all of it. She's hypersensitive because of the hearing loss.

She's hypersensitive and she was inconsolable. She knew it because she felt it. She felt it first. And remember, there was a bombing before in the early 90s and she was in that same school. Now, she didn't feel that one. She was in the inner library. I think, well, they were talking about it like right away. The technology was such at that time where they could pull it right up from the news

or whatever. We had parents in the school that worked down there. So the word spread pretty quickly. But I remember picking her up, she was quite upset, and handing out the cloth dinner napkins to everybody, all the kids that were coming in the same area we were. And I brought her home and as we were going home, papers were flying. My girlfriend who lived- Papers? Oh yeah.

Like full pieces of paper? But they looked like they had BB pock marks all over them and dirt and ash. And my girlfriend... Falling literally out of the sky. Oh, yeah. All the way across the road. Yeah, landed on our deck. Holy smoke.

My girlfriend had a lot on her deck and she actually had the... There was an evacuation plan in the case of a tsunami for the trade center. I guess blew from the trade center over to her house and landed on her deck. And her son has that now, she's since passed away. So yeah, we were in that fallout. I remember my daughter asking me if we were breathing in dead people.

And I was stunned by her question and I didn't. How old was she when she had them? 15. Are we breathing in dead people? Yeah. Knowing that the building has came down. Just the thought is horrifying. Just to be in that place and time

where you would have to ask that question and probably be right. But I don't remember my answer and I hope to God I had something to give her that wasn't, oh yeah, we are, you know, it's, I don't know. I just remember the question, so. Well, I mean, you know, it's, I don't know. I just remember the question. So. Well, I mean, you're trying to be tough for your daughter, but you're in shock too.

It was the first time in my life I saw the parents became children in that none of us had answers. We were all looking for some kind of direction and we were scared to death. Everybody was scared because I thought that they were not done yet. We all did. And the F-15 started coming and we thought that that was the enemy, whoever the enemy was. We didn't know at the time. But the more they came by, the more everybody was jumping, you know. And that was for a long time. On beautiful days New Yorkers were very skittish because it was a beautiful, especially beautiful day. So, yeah, F-15s came by after that and all of us were just tense up.

What was the scene like around your neighborhood? Was everybody shut in or were people coming out trying to talk to each other? Were people trying to get a look? Were people arriving back from Manhattan? Oh yeah, covered in dust. Like covered, you couldn't make out who they were. It looked like they were just in like a chimney flow.

Covered in dust. Were they catching the ferry I guess? Because there were ferries trying to get people. There were boats, yeah ferries. In fact, my friend Tommy, Tommy was one of the guys that was a pilot on the ferry. He became a firefighter soon after and he has since died of 9-11 cancer, like so many. It's over, I think it's 415, but we just had another one two days ago, so I'm not sure. I know it's over 400. Additional to 343, we lost that day of just firefighters.

That doesn't include the other first responders and civilians. All two. And some of the cancers are, as I've grown to learn from people like Niels and other people that some of these cancers don't even have names. They're cancers unidentifiable. There was one cancer that they said was so rare that they very rarely saw it, but when they did see it, it was in minors that had been minors their whole lives, but they never saw it in the general population. And that was over 10 years ago. And now it seems that it's more prevalent, I'll put it that way. But to get back to that day, at the time you didn't pay for cable.

We had the trade center and it had the best antenna, so you didn't have to pay for cable. You got your stations. You didn't get cable stations, but that didn't matter. So we went to a friend's house who had cable and we all sat there and it was about, I would say there were about eight families and our children and we sat there and the kids went off and played and we just watched. And I think that was one of the first things I realized is we're bringing this into the living room and the kids are seeing it over and over. And I am old enough to say, I remember when Kennedy was shot. Yes, the first one. That's how old I am. And watching, they didn't have

cartoons and that's what I remember the most. But I remember the first one. That's how old I am. And watching, they didn't have cartoons. And that's what I remember the most. But I remember the funeral procession. And how many times did we actually see Reagan get shot? And how many times did you see Martin Luther King get shot? It's just a loop. Nothing came close to the 9-11. Repeated, repeated shots of what happened. I know that transmission like I know my mother's voice now. And so do the firefighters obviously and the families. And that was my question. Your neighborhood had have had people that worked in the World Trade Center had to have fire. So yeah, you're watching it on TV just like I am in Memphis.

You're seeing the same thing on the TV that I would be am in Memphis. You're seeing the same thing on the TV that I would be seeing in Memphis. You're seeing the same thing that people in LA would be seeing on the TV. But we're watching it in horror, but without any personal connection other than patriotism and things like that. Yeah. You have like interpersonal connections. Yes. Yeah. And we're breathing it in. To all of it.

We were breathing it in. And you're literally breathing in. For months. People don't realize it was burning until December. It was burning until December. Smoldering. Burning. Really?

Yeah, because the Trade Center went down about six, I think it's six stories. I thought it was smoldering down there. You're saying it was burning. Their boots were melting. The firefighters boots were melting. And yes, I think, you know, after a couple of months, it was smoldering, but they didn't. The fires did not go out until December. So I do remember of that day.

Which means everybody up there was just sucking that in all day long. Yeah, for until May when they closed the site. So, you know, as I'm sure you've heard certainly from Tim, you know, that it started out as a pile, they called it the pile, they're going to the pile and then it became the pit and yeah, but that smell is, I'll never forget the smell. We'll be right back. Kelly Harnett spent over a decade in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit. I'm 100% innocent.

While behind bars, she learned the law from scratch. Because oh God, Harnett, jailhouse lawyer. And as she fought for herself, she also became a lifeline for the women locked up alongside her. You're supposed to have faith in God, but I had nothing but faith in her. So many of these women had lived the same stories. I said, were you a victim of domestic violence? And she was like, yeah.

But maybe Kelly could change the ending. I said, how many people have gotten other incarcerated individuals out of here? I'm going to be the first one to do that. This is the story of Kelly Harnett, a woman who spent 12 years fighting not just for her own freedom, but her girlfriends too. I think I have a mission from God to save souls by getting people out of prison. The Girlfriends, Jailhouse Lawyer.

Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. American history is full of wise people. Well, women said something like, you know, 99.99% of war is diarrhea and 1% is gory. Those founding fathers were gossipy AF, and they loved to cut each other down. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, the show where you send us your questions about American history and I find the answers, including the nuggets of wisdom our history

has to offer. Hamilton pauses and then he says, the greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar. And Jefferson writes in his diary, this proves that Hamilton is for a dictator based on corruption. My favorite line was what Neil Armstrong said, it would have been harder to fake it than to do it. Listen to American history hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check out Behind the Flow, a podcast documentary series following the launch of San Diego Football Club. We go behind the scenes and explore the stories of those involved. San Diego coming to MLS is going to be a game changer

because this region has been hungry for a men's professional soccer team. We need veteran players and we need young players. You're building a team from scratch, and so the succession plan of long-term success needs to be defined. We need to embrace this community. When I was 13, my uncle took me to a qualifier, and we watched Paraguay against Chile, pouring rain, just watching the fans jumping up and down. I think that was definitely a watershed moment for me.

Not only was that going to be my game, but it was going to be my life. Listen to San Diego FC Behind the Flow, now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When I became a journalist, I was the first Latina in the newsrooms where I worked. I'm Maria Hinojosa. I dreamt of having a place where voices that have been historically sidelined

would instead be centered. For over 30 years now, Latino USA has been that place. This is Latino USA, the radio journal of news and cultura. As the longest running Latino news and culture show in the United States, Latino USA delivers the stories that truly matter to all of us. From sharp and deep analysis of the most pressing news, They're creating this narrative that immigrants are criminals. This is about everyone's freedom of speech.

Nobody expected to pokes from the American continent to stories about our cultures and our identities. When you do get a trans character like Imi Deperez, the trans community is going to push back on that. Colorism, all of these things like exist in Mexican culture and Latino culture. You'll hear from people like Congresswoman AOC. I don't want to give them my fear. I'm not going to give them my fear. Listen to Latino USA as part of the MyCultura podcast network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2020, a group of young women in a tidy suburb of New York City

found themselves in an AI fueled nightmare. Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts on my body parts that looked exactly like my own.

I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. It happened in Levittown, New York. But reporting the series took us through the darkest corners of the internet and to the front lines of a global battle against deepfake pornography. This should be illegal, but what is this?

This is a story about a technology that's moving faster than the law and about vigilantes trying to stem the tide. I'm Margie Murphy. And I'm Olivia Carville. This is Levertown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope. Listen to Levertown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I know this sounds stupid, but I played a lot of football.

And if you get your bell rung, anybody who's boxed or played football, I've done both, and get your bell rung, which means I've had my bell rung a lot, which is one of the reasons why I'm deaf in my right ear, by the way. But when you get a shot, if you ever took aluminum foil and bit down on it, you get that taste in your mouth

when you get a real noggin shot, all right? It's the only way I can explain to my wife what you taste when you get a real noggin shot. All right. It's the only way I can explain to my wife what you taste when you get a concussion. It's just bite aluminum foil. That's what it tastes like. That's fascinating. Do you have a comparison like that for what that smell and that atmosphere was? Death. It was death. You could smell death. That's for me, it probably came to symbolize death, but for me, if I smell that, I'm going to be smelling death. And the association is probably, it's a psychological thing, right? When I was breathing in that day, I don't think I was consciously saying what my daughter said of my breathing in somebody that's dead. But to me, that the memory that day, I don't think I was consciously saying what my daughter said of my breathing in somebody that's dead.

But to me, that the memory, that day is death. It symbolizes death. Was it smelly? Which that same association means the firefighters who were there after the fact doing all the work are literally breathing in their brother's death. Yeah. Yeah. So it was like a combination of rubber and burned eggs and-

Burned eggs. Just the weirdest combination. Now think about it. It wasn't your typical fire. It wasn't like a chemical fire as opposed to a wood fire as opposed to- It was steel fire kind of. It was everything. It was garland stoves from the restaurant pulverized into dust.

It was sheetrock pulverized. It was peopleland stoves from the restaurant pulverized into dust. It was sheet rock pulverized. It was people pulverized. So it was, it was really a concoction of toxins. So kind of burned rubber, burned eggs and molten steel, stench all blended. Yeah. Just death. I mean, that's, I can't, I wish I could prettify it, but I can't, you know, I mean that, I think for our listeners to fathom that the day was bad, but that stench and that smell

lingered for months. Months. Absolutely months. And it was interesting because later in the, I guess the next month, because I pretty much stayed close to home helping the local firehouses to the best of my ability. And I went to the Upper East Side for something, God knows what, I don't go up there very often, but I did. And it smelled like Chanel number five. It didn't smell like the site at all, at all. And so- Let's go to the plaza. Yeah, it was a weird dichotomy. I'll tell you what really struck me is it was someone, and I don't want to make light

of this, but I probably, it'll sound like I am, it's a woman who was distraught. Everyone was distraught, but this woman was over the top distraught. And I thought her spouse, her child was in the building, she was literally hysterical. And it turned out she was watching it on TV. She might as well have been in Memphis. She was on the Upper East Side. She couldn't smell it. You know, there was no...

But it resonated for... The reason I think it resonated with everybody in the world and the fact that it was on the island that she was on, maybe that was it. But everyone took it in different ways. And I think that's true for the firefighters as well. They were firefighters that they, I would say the majority of them, they wanted to be on the pile every single day all day. And a lot of them were, they had to be pulled off to take a four hour nap. You were probably the 10th person I've interviewed that has some correlation in what they do now to it. And every single one of you say that. That is one of the constant stories is that

you almost couldn't drag those guys off that pile. You couldn't. And I know guys that had... They just would not quit. And they had broke... I know two that had broken bones and they would not go get them set. They were not leaving. And they actually said it felt good because they knew their brothers were in the pile. And for them, it was, I don't know how you would categorize that, but that was their normal back then. And I actually understand it. Sounds strange, but I do understand it. So I told you I grew up in a party house and one of the guys that

I loved the most was my brother's friend, Kevin. And Kevin became a brother to me. He was about eight years older. And if it's younger and he sees this, he'll let me know. But he was about eight years older, just salt of the earth guy, nicest guy I ever met. And he's a lieutenant in a firehouse in the Bronx. And I didn't know if he made it out until I think it was Wednesday night when his wife called and said that he was alive. So a lot of this wife called and said that he was alive. So a lot of this was driven from knowing that Kevin was alive. Now what? And she said, go to your local house and see what they need. That's it.

That's what it took. See, this is where opportunity collided with what became a passion. So great job setting it up for us. If you're listening to this and you don't understand now, I don't know how to help you understand any better what the reality was for the folks who lived in and around Manhattan. But a wife of a dear friend who's a brother here says something this simple, go to a firehouse and see what they need. Not here's an organization, not do this, walk in the door, see what they need right and that was the beginning that was The beginning that was the pre beginning. Okay, so went to a local firehouse, which was engine 204

Which is now closed and that's another thing. I just won't talk about because closing firehouses is insane, but they did I Went there and they said we didn't lose anybody here. And I came to find out later on that every firefighter lost somebody. They lost somebody, but they meant no one that is assigned to this house died. And I found that out later on. So I walked and it was funny because I'd never- Isn't that interesting that the guy said, we don't need anything here, no one died here,

go to another one? Yeah. Although everyone in that house had a friend, a brother, a colleague that died. So they sent you to another. But they didn't tell me which one and I just kept walking and I- Are you kidding?

Yeah, they didn't- You just kept plodding along. But now this is where it gets a little, I don't wanna be like woo-woo about it, but I went to a firehouse I had never been to before even though there were some in my neighborhood. And I just kept walking and it was past my daughter's school, so it was like 28 blocks or something. And I landed at 205 and 118, which is at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge on Mid-Aws Street.

And I went in and I met a firefighter, John Sorrentino, and I said, what do you need? And he goes, do you have paper? And I had a legal pad, which I still have. And he said, the first thing we need is bunting for the firehouse. That's what? Bunting is the dark purple and black flag that they drape outside a house to say we've had a loss in the house. So when we have a fatal fire, a firefighter goes down line of duty.

It's called bunting. It's called bunting. Okay. So the second thing he said is, and this was like the day after, I mean it was like right away. And so he blew my mind. The second thing he said he needed was a bugler because one of the guys, they lost eight men and he knew that they were gone. He said one of them is military. We need a bugler at the funeral. So, you know, if we ever recovered them, which they only recovered seven and not until New Year's Day. So, the last thing he said was

counselors and you could have knocked me over with a feather. So, now I'm going to bounce back to when I was a child. My mom's uncle was killed line of duty out of 14 truck in the Bronx, in Upper Manhattan, in Harlem. And so I grew up with a knowledge that the firefighters were a cut above. My mother used to say that before women came on the job, they were a cut above all men. And they don't need... Yeah, she'd say they don't need anybody's help. They take care of each other.

And I think that was because she knew that when her Uncle Matty died, there was a funeral that you could see, you know, everybody showed up for that. And that was before I was born. So there was that. But what really struck me was that there's no guys I knew that were open to counseling. It was for weaklings. It was mandated for the guys that were drinking or had a drug problem. But they didn't want to willingly go to counseling. And... And a firehouse, people need to remember these guys live together for three, four days at a time. And I mean, let's be real, a bunch of dudes living in a firehouse cooking together, they're talking about...

Everything. Everything. You don't want to guess, they talk about everything. Everything. And these are men's men. And, you know, they're busting each other's balls, they're cussing, they're hanging out. That is not an atmosphere where someone says, my feelings are hurt. Jesus, no.

Hell no. That is why firemen take care of firemen. That is where that thing comes from. We have each other's back and all of that. Yes, that's a big part of it. But there's also, they're not very good at taking care of themselves. They're very good at taking care of other people.

They're not very good at taking care of themselves. And... It's like the surgeon who works on cancer patients but smokes two packs of cigarettes a day. It's not that... Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. Don't worry about me. I'm good. I'm good. But what you said is profound. They're great at taking care of other people. They're horrible at taking care of themselves. I stole that from Steve Buscemi. So I have to give credit where credit is to.

Forget it. Yeah, and he hit the nail on the head because. And so when this guy said we need counselors, you must have been hit in the face. I was stunned. And that concludes part one of my conversation with Nancy Carbone. And you don't want to miss part two

that's now available to listen to. Together guys, we can change this country. But it starts with you. I'll see you in part two. The Girlfriends is back with a new season and this time I'm telling you the story of Kelly Harnett. Kelly spent over a decade in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit. As she fought for her freedom, she taught herself the law.

He goes, oh God, Harnett, jailhouse lawyer. And became a beacon of hope for the women locked up alongside her. You're supposed to have faith in God, but I had nothing but faith in her. I think I was put here to save souls by getting people out of prison. The Girlfriends, Jailhouse Lawyer. Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bob Crawford, host of American History Hotline, a different type of podcast. You, the listener, ask the questions.

Did George Washington really cut down a cherry tree? Were JFK and Marilyn Monroe having an affair? And I find the answers. I'm so glad you asked me this question. This is such a ridiculous story. You can listen to American History Hotline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Our iHeartRadio Music Festival, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Lilla, Jelly Roll, John Fogarty, Lil Wayne, LL Cool J, Mariah Carey, Maroon 5, Sammy Hagar, Tate McCrae, The Offspring, Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today, AXS.com. Everyone thinks they'd never join a cult, but it happens all the time to people just like you and people just like us. I'm Lilla Blanc and I'm Megan Elizabeth. We're the hosts of Trust Me, a podcast about cults, manipulation, and the psychology of belief. Each week we talk to fellow survivors, former believers and experts to understand why people get pulled in and how they get

out. Trust Me, new episodes every Wednesday on Exactly Right. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Check out Behind the Flow, a podcast documentary series following the launch of San Diego Football Club. San Diego coming to MLS is going to be a game changer because this region has been hungry for a men's professional soccer team. We need to embrace this community. because this region has been hungry for a men's professional soccer team. We need to embrace this community.

Listen to San Diego FC Behind the Flow on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.