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September 2026
Newsletter
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A quarter century after the devastating attack on September 11th, BSL's CEO recalls and reflects on the ghastly events of the following day, September 12th. The following is an excerpt from that recollection.
I came across the FDNY station for the combined Engine 7 / Ladder Company 1 on Duane Street. Firefighter John McConnachie was part of the crew that was likely the first to respond to the emergency, as it was just seven blocks away. As I was interviewing McConnachie for details about his experience, he was also peppering me with questions. After having been fully immersed in the emergency response for 24 hours, he had just returned from Ground Zero and was anxious for news or context. (Remember, this was the pre-smartphone era.)
Pat Zoda, another firefighter in that battalion, recalled the apocalyptic scene at the now-collapsed towers. In response to my inquiries, he noted there were “burning bodies in the lobby. There were limbs by themselves. Air pressure must have come down the elevator banks and blown out all the lobby windows. Whoever was around perished.”
Zoda, McConnachie, and fellow firefighter Steve Rogers shared other horrific details — their efforts to reach office workers trapped above the 80th floor in the North Tower had reached as high as the 30th floor when they heard a massive explosion: the second jet hitting the South Tower. They immediately started heading back to the lobby. They took long pauses as they recalled other moments they thought they themselves wouldn’t survive. “I lost my mask,” recalled Zoda, “there was dust in my mouth and caked in my eyes and nose. We saw the dust coming toward us — we all thought we were dead.” Rogers, who had punctured his hand on a nail in the black fog, noted that “My helmet was knocked off by debris — it was pitch black and I started walking quickly. I found an engine, got in, closed the windows, and waited."
But miraculously, everyone from that station made it. (It happened to be the same station that the French Naudet brother documentarians were shadowing for a film about a rookie firefighter, which transitioned into the documentary “9/11.”)
Still trying to make sense of their experiences,I started heading back to the Daily News offices to file the story about the courageous and lucky firehouse, and when I got to West and Chambers streets, I saw an EMT worker on the corner. David Langer was a Hatzolah medic, and was still somewhat in a state of shock. He had yesterday morning gotten a call from his good friend, a vice president at Fiduciary Trust Co. International, who was trapped on the 97th floor of 2 World Trade Center.
“He called me and said he was having trouble breathing,” Langer shared. “He asked what he should do. I told him to wet a towel or his T-shirt and breathe through something thin like that.” Conditions worsened, and his friend and five similarly trapped colleagues started calling their loved ones to say their goodbyes. Langer sped to his friend’s Brooklyn home to comfort his wife and family and, while they were all on the phone, they heard a final scream, the line went dead, and then the tower collapsed.
There were thousands of such stories that day, in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. As a media organization, it was our responsibility to capture the stories: of heroes, of victims, of New Yorkers, and I was in awe of my Daily News colleagues and their professionalism and skill in the coverage of the attack. But the journalistic moment I’ll remember most is the one I failed to properly record.
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Every September, as world leaders address the United Nations for the General Assembly, more than 100,000 climate experts, activists, and innovators convene with answers those leaders should be seeking. Climate Week NYC — now one of the largest climate gatherings on earth — features more than 1,000 official events, plus countless unofficial ones, spread across the city's boroughs, boardrooms, rooftops, and parks.
(This year, there's an added subplot crackling beneath the surface: an unofficial but intensely watched campaign for the next UN Secretary-General. By informal convention, the role rotates among regions, and it's currently Latin America and the Caribbean's turn — meaning most of the nine candidates are from this hemisphere. Most are also women, which would make history if one is selected. See here for the results of the second of four UN "straw polls.")
This month, we're pulling out a handful of noteworthy events from both the official and unofficial Climate Week NYC agendas — the ones worth clearing your calendar for. Links to learn more and register are included. (The rest of this month's events — the non-climate variety — are at the end of the newsletter, as always.)
9/17-9/21: Climate Film Festival 2026
9/18–9/28: UNGA 81 High-level Week
9/19-9/27: Global Goals Week
9/20-9/21: Unstoppable Africa
9/21: The Ocean Awakens
9/21: Private Sector Forum
9/21-9/24: Devex Impact House @ UNGA81
9/22: Education House UNGA 81
9/22: Impact Lounge
9/22: India Philanthropy Forum
9/22-9/23: Business Fights Poverty's Global Goals Summit
9/22-9/23: Clinton Global Initiative
9/22-9/23: UN Global Compact Leaders Summit
9/23: Carbon Newbie Summit
9/23: Tapping the Urban Mine: Incentivizing & Scaling Critical Material Supply Chains
9/23: UNGA High-Level Meeting (HLM) to Commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Declaration on the Right to Development
9/24: UNGA HLM to Address the Existential Threats Posed by Sea-level Rise
9/25: UNGA HLM on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response
9/26: Global Citizen Festival
| | ELEPHANTS, LAYOFFS, AND LEADERSHIP | | |
Leadership has always been messy, but as we're all constantly navigating the three Ds — deepfakes, disruptions, and distractions (are we really annexing Canada now?) — it's more timely than ever for a podcast built around exactly that mess.
"Through the Noise," hosted by J. Renay Loper, digs into what leadership really feels like when the path isn't clear, when systems resist, and when the stakes are real.
We were a guest on the show recently, talking through a career built on storytelling — from a formative elephant-translocation program in South Africa and Mozambique (one of Brooklyn Story Lab's first projects) to UNLEASH Innovation Lab, the "Shark Tank"-style fellowship for entrepreneurial youth that's been hosted everywhere from Denmark to Rwanda. Loper is a remarkably skilled interviewer — upbeat, warm, and unafraid to dig — and she noted that we lit up considerably more talking about elephants than answering a question like "Who are you as a leader?" (So it doubled as therapy, too.)
The conversation also covered a layoff and the scramble to find footing afterward, an unlikely run-in with an international superstar's father while wandering around Croatia, and plenty of "fake it till you make it" moments along the way.
Listen to the full episode here, and check out "Through the Noise" broadly here.
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After a summer packed with launches, awards, and new initiatives, there's plenty of news from the Brooklyn Story Lab orbit. Here's a quick roundup of recent developments from collaborators we're proud to work with, spanning documentary film, podcasting, food justice, and the energy transition.
"My Underground Mother" — filmmaker Marisa Fox spent 20 years after her mother's death unraveling a staggering secret: the woman she knew as a New York doctor's wife who'd fled Poland before the war had been trafficked at 14 into a Nazi forced-labor camp, enduring years of brutality and sexual violence. The documentary has won four awards, most recently the Audience Prize at the Râșnov Film & Histories Festival in Romania. BSL CEO Lance Gould will interview Fox next month (October 3) as part of the Eva Haller Salon series.
“Supply Chain Revolution” is a new five-episode podcast produced by Sheri Hinish (“The Supply Queen”), Pyxera Global, and the Circular Supply Chain Coalition. About 75% of the world already lives on reuse behavior — this podcast explores how to build a circular economy from coalition to community.
"We're All Going to Die!" is a serious podcast (with a tongue-in-cheek title) by journalists Edie Lush and Mike Oreskes that explores the intersection of five modern forces reshaping our world: AI, climate, health and pandemics, chemical and biological threats, and nuclear weapons. It's a survival guide for life in the Anthropocene.
What if the easiest way for a mayor to fight hunger and food waste was already growing in local backyards? AmpleHarvest.org gives civic leaders a free, ready-to-use toolkit to connect gardeners with nearby food pantries, turning surplus harvests into fresh food for neighbors in need. Earlier this summer, CEO Gary Oppenheimer was named a "Hometown Hero" by New Jersey Congressman Josh Gottheimer.
* Tip of the cap to Rolling Stone
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FRIENDS OF BROOKLYN STORY LAB
This month, we highlight five books from the extended Brooklyn Story Lab community: a raucous love letter to 1980s New York from an artist who lived it; a debut novel tracing one man's lifelong search for belonging; six decades of health activism mapped as a guide for today's organizers: a framework for inner transformation from a global change-maker: and one of America's sharpest rock critics settling scores — and inviting yours.
Note: Whenever we include a link to a book or other project, we always aim to showcase independent bookstores — and not Amazon.
"Sloane: The Art School Underworld of '80s NYC"
Kevin Banks, a graduate of the School of Visual Arts (SVA) who lived the story he tells, has written a hilarious, fictionalized memoir of dorm life at Manhattan's Sloane House in the 1980s — a bizarre mix housing art students, elderly residents, and transients near Penn Station. With the eye of a visual artist and a slapstick sensibility, Banks captures New York at its most combustible.
"Inside Henry Cato Henry Cato"
Katharine English makes her fiction debut with a bold, compassionate novel spanning several decades of American life. Henry Cato flees a Kansas childhood marked by shame, chasing belonging through San Francisco's counterculture and New York's Meatpacking District — with shoes as the tactile language of his identity. A gripping portrait of a, well, sole survivor. (Pre-order ahead of the September 22nd pub date.)
"Fighting for New York: Activism for Health and Social Justice Since the 1960s"
Nicholas Freudenberg, CUNY Distinguished Professor Emeritus, traces six decades of New York City health activism — from the Young Lords' campaigns against lead poisoning to ACT UP, Fight for $15, and Housing Justice for All. The book makes a compelling case that housing, wages, food access, and climate are all health issues shaped by policy and power, and offers practical guidance for today's organizers and policymakers.
"Inside Code"
Jacques-Philippe Piverger — founder of GoodLight Capital and co-founder of MPOWERD — explores a powerful question for anyone seeking to create meaningful transformation: How do we change what is happening within us so we can also change what is possible around us? Drawing on decades of contemplative practice, investing, entrepreneurship, and impact, Jacques-Philippe introduces the D.A.R.E. framework: Decode, Activate, Recode, Elevate. A practical guide for change-makers to cultivate the clarity, resilience, and wisdom needed to transform the world.
"Bill Wyman's Rock & Roll Lists Wyman's Rock & Roll Lists"
Bill Wyman (not the Rolling Stones bassist), veteran rock critic and former arts editor of Salon, collects his celebrated song rankings from New York magazine and Vulture into one endlessly entertaining volume. Covering everyone from the Beatles to Nirvana, he doesn't just rank the songs, he uncovers forgotten stories and delivers sharp critical verdicts. Also includes some of the scathing comments left by readers who disagree with his choices.
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Though the Trump Administration has banned references to many, there are social-awareness days or tentpole events every month that can help organizations like yours connect to a larger, purpose-driven audience. By creating content connected to these key dates, you have the potential to create viral experiences. Here are the global dates with a social-good focus that stand out to us in September.
SEPTEMBER
8/30-9/4: 55th Pacific Island Forum Leaders Meeting: Koror, Palau
8/31-9/4: Global Conscious Food Summit: Bhutan
9/1-9/30: Blood Cancer Awareness Month
9/1-9/30: National Suicide Prevention Month
9/6: World Shorebirds Day
9/7: International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies 2026
9/7-9/11: UN 2026 Climate Week Four: Baku, Azerbaijan
9/8-9/9: Climate Reality Leadership Corps: Singapore
9/8-9/11: Impact Minds — Latimpacto: Manaus, Brazil
9/8-9/22: United Nations General Assembly (UNGA): New York, USA
9/9-9/10: 14th Intl. Conference of Sustainable Development: Rome, Italy
9/12: International Day of South-South Cooperation 2026
9/12: World Dolphin Day
9/12-13: BRICS: New Delhi, India
9/14-9/18: IAH World Groundwater Conference: Budapest, Hungary
9/15: International Day of Democracy
9/15: World Lymphoma Awareness Day
9/15-10/15: National Hispanic Heritage Month
9/16: International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer
9/17: World Manta Day
9/20: World Cleanup Day
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9/20-9/27: CLIMATE WEEK NYC: New York, USA (see above item for list of events)
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9/21: International Day of Peace
9/21: Pause the World for Peace
9/22: World Rhino Day
9/23-9/25: 2026 ASHRAE Building Decarbonization Conference: Seattle, Washington
9/25: World Maritime Day
9/26: International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
9/26: World Environmental Health Day
9/27: World Tourism Day
9/27-10/2: 70th Meeting of the Intl. Whaling Commission: Hobart, Australia
9/28–9/30: WINGSForum 2026: Montréal, Canada
9/28-10/2: 28th Session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO): Rome, Italy
9/29: International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction
9/29: World Heart Day
9/30: International Podcast Day
Ask us how to create noteworthy content that connects with these dates for your purpose-driven organization or brand — or how to get more attention for your social media, digital media, or feature stories.
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