From ABC News · ABC News · · 1m 40s
He turned losing his dad on 9/11 into a podcast about grief
David Ferrugio lost his father in the September 11 attacks. Now he hosts the conversation most people avoid.
In brief
David Ferrugio lost his father in the September 11 attacks. Now he hosts the conversation most people avoid. Grief shrinks a little when you say it out loud, and someone has to go first. Originally reported by ABC News.
A father lost on 9/11
David Ferrugio's dad was killed in the September 11 attacks. That loss has shaped the rest of his life, and it is where his story starts.
Grief needed somewhere to go
Rather than keep the loss private, Ferrugio built something public out of it. He started a podcast.
The show is the journey
The podcast is not a retrospective about the attacks. It follows his own grief as he works through it, episode by episode.
“talks about his grief journey while trying to normalize talking about death”
Death is the unsayable thing
Most people change the subject when death comes up. That silence is exactly what Ferrugio set out to push against.
Normalizing the conversation
His stated goal is to make talking about death ordinary, so the people living with loss are not left to handle it alone and unspoken.
Told out loud, on camera
Ferrugio sat down with ABC News' Danny New to walk through what the podcast has done for him and why he keeps recording it.
Twenty-five years on
The interview aired as New York marked the 25th anniversary of the attacks, with ceremonies at ground zero and families gathering again.
Loss pointed outward
Anniversary after anniversary, 9/11 families keep finding ways to turn private grief into something other people can use. A microphone is one of them.
The takeaway
Grief shrinks a little when you say it out loud, and someone has to go first.
