On the morning of 9/11, FDNY Assistant Chief Joe Pfeifer led his firefighters to investigate a possible gas leak reported in downtown Manhattan. He had no idea what was coming. Pfeifer documented his experience as the first fire chief to reach Ground Zero in his memoir, "Ordinary Heroes." He spoke to Hari Sreenivasan about the day everything changed.

Retired U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, as chief of staff to the Secretary of State, helped prepare the now infamous 2003 speech at the U.N. Security Council in which Secretary Powell falsely claimed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The speech led the U.S. into Iraq and left Wilkerson with a lifetime of regrets. Wilkerson joins the program to discuss.

Twenty years on from the September 11th attacks, the Taliban are in power in Afghanistan. How did it turn out this way? And what, if anything, was accomplished by American intervention? Roya Rahmani, Afghanistan's first female ambassador to the United States, left her post in July. She joined Christiane from Washington.

Sandra Cisneros is best known for her acclaimed novel "The House on Mango Street." Her new novella, "Martita, I Remember You," tells a story of a struggling young writer in Paris, with many details closely resembling the author’s own life. She joins the show from Mexico.

The Taliban’s return to power coincides with the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. For many Americans, it was the first time they learned of the group and their role as hosts to Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. A new series from National Geographic gives voice to the people who survived the attack on the World Trade Center, and its director joins the show to discuss his portrait of that day.

What can life be like for the women of the Afghan countryside, who have suffered through decades of civil war and foreign occupation? New Yorker contributor Anand Gopal embedded himself among the people in places rarely covered by Western media. The result is his in-depth article “The Other Afghan Women”. He joins the show to discuss.

In the aftermath of 9/11, President George W. Bush embarked upon what quickly became known as the war on terror. What did this actually entail -- and what are its consequences today? Spencer Ackerman, a longtime national security reporter, speaks with Hari Sreenivasan about his new book, "Reign of Terror."

Will Afghanistan become a terrorist safe haven? Few people are better placed to answer than Ali Soufan, a former FBI special agent who made his name investigating Al-Qaeda plots before 9/11. He speaks with Michel Martin about why the terrorist threat is far from over, and why he believes a more dangerous phase has begun.

With Afghanistan's food supplies, finances, and public services on the point of collapse, the U.S. and its allies now must decide on a course of action. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has just concluded a congressional delegation to the region.

What is America’s appropriate role on the world stage? Kori Schake has held top jobs in the Defense and State Departments and worked as a foreign policy advisor to Senator McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. She currently is director of foreign and defense policy at the conservative American Institute Policy.

During the pandemic, one unlikely TV show has become a tonic for our troubled times. "Ted Lasso" follows the journey of an American college football coach hired by a struggling English Premier League football team. The show has won a truckload of awards and its second season is currently airing on Apple TV+. One of its stars is Nick Mohammed, who holds an Emmy nomination for his role as Nate.

Whitney Duan and her then-husband Desmond Shum were rising stars in China’s business world, but after Shum left the country, Duan disappeared without a trace. Nobody had heard a word from her for years – until Saturday when she called Shum and pleaded that he not publish his new book, which promises to pull back the curtain on Xi Jinping’s China. Shum joins the program to discuss.

The Justice Department is vowing to protect Texas clinics from prosecution for providing abortions, upping the ante after the state brought in a new law attempting to gut Roe v. Wade. Slate senior editor and legal correspondent Dahlia Lithwick has been following the Texas case closely. She joins Michel Martin to analyze the latest developments.

According to the Washington Post, nearly one in three Americans live in a county hit by a weather disaster in the last three months. As Governor of California, Jerry Brown was one of the first national politicians to address the climate crisis and joins the show to discuss what must be done.

Bestselling author Kai-Fu Lee knows the world of tech like no other. Once the president of Google China and a senior executive at Microsoft and Apple, he is now CEO of Sinovation Ventures. His new collection of short stories imagines how artificial intelligence will shape the way we live and work, for better and for worse, as he explains to Hari Sreenivasan.

With President Biden’s domestic agenda looking shaky and global allies wondering what to expect from American foreign policy, we turn to a pair of powerhouse journalists, co-authors who also happen to be married. The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser and The New York Times’s Peter Baker join the show to discuss all this as well as their biography of former Secretary of State James Baker – no relation.

A recent decision by the Supreme Court allows a new Texas law to all but ban access to abortion as guaranteed by Roe v. Wade in 1973. With similar cases pending, many are expressing fear that the decision will set a precedent. To reflect on Texas and what comes next, Christiane speaks with the U.S. Senate’s first Black female senator, Carol Moseley Braun.

To discuss the Taliban's attack on women’s rights, Christiane speaks with a youth activist who has chosen to stay in her country even as the Taliban takes control.

Washington Post sports journalist Kent Babb follows a high school football season in his new book, "Across the River." Set in Louisiana--the state that reported the highest homicide rate in the country for 2019--Babb’s book is a stark look at the fight to keep young students out of the line of fire – and George Clooney has snapped up the film rights.

In 2016 Ady Barkan was diagnosed with ALS, an incurable disease that robs him of basic abilities most of us take for granted. Instead of surrendering, Barkan fought back by launching a crusade for public healthcare. His inspiring story is told in the new documentary "Not Going Quietly." Bianna recently spoke with Barkan, who had a tracheostomy in 2019 and now communicates through voice software.