# The 9/11 Kids Washington Forgot with Lila Nordstrom. 50,000 Students in the Exposure Zone.

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff-981737/the-9-11-kids-washington-forgot-with-lila-nordstrom-50-000-students-in-the-exposure-zone
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff-981737/the-9-11-kids-washington-forgot-with-lila-nordstrom-50-000-students-in-the-exposure-zone.md
Podcast: [Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff](https://stenobird.com/podcast/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff-981737)
Published: 2026-08-14T09:45:00+00:00
Episode link: https://bleav.com/shows/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff/?post_type=gp_podcast_episode&p=627
Audio file: https://pdrl.fm/c39fb6/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/1385/injector.simplecastaudio.com/c67dcf2c-bdc6-42d2-91a1-db918b8e8626/episodes/910a3330-ba42-4c49-bcd0-0c3af6715631/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=c67dcf2c-bdc6-42d2-91a1-db918b8e8626&awEpisodeId=910a3330-ba42-4c49-bcd0-0c3af6715631&feed=8GTvjwcf
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Duration seconds: 3176

## Resource

Twenty-five years on, Washington still frames 9/11 as a story of heroes and villains — and quietly counts on the rest of us to forget the civilians in between. Paul sits down with survivor advocate Lila Nordstrom, who was a high school junior three blocks from the World Trade Center when the towers fell, and who was marched back into that building on October 9, 2001 while the fires were still burning. Her story is not a footnote to the first-responder fight. It is the part of 9/11 the political class worked hardest to bury, because acknowledging it would mean admitting the reopening of lower Manhattan was political theater with a body count.

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## Transcript

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