Twenty years ago this week, Daryn Kagan, then one of CNN’s morning anchors, was sitting in the makeup room of CNN’s Atlanta studios with her co-anchor, Leon Harris, when a producer came in, just past 8:46 a.m. on a Tuesday morning. “We’re seeing this thing out of New York,” the producer said quickly. “A plane has hit the World Trade Center. You might want to watch what’s happening.” Along with the rest of the world, Kagan and Harris spent the next several minutes assuming the crash had been, at worst, a terrible mistake, and at best, an isolated incident. As they scrambled to finish in makeup and take their places on set, the speculation was coming in quickly. Had it been a small plane that somehow veered off course? Was it conceivable that it could have been intentional? “At that point," says Kagan, “the idea that it could be anything more than a private plane was beyond the realm of possibility.” But then, at 9:03 a.m., with Kagan and Harris at the anchor desk, everything shifted in an instant. “We were on a live shot of the Twin Towers,” Kagan says, “and we saw the second plane hit live on the air. What we knew was possible changed at that moment forever.” The world itself changed forever, too. Twenty years ago this week, people around the globe watched in horror, many of them tuning in to Kagan’s broadcast on CNN, as United Airlines Flight 175 slammed into the south tower of the World Trade Center, 17 minutes after American Airlines Flight 11 had collided with the north tower. Thirty-four minutes later, at 9:37 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon, and 26 minutes after that, at 10:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. For many people around the world who watched live, Kagan, who calmly delivered the news as it unfolded, will forever be a part of their memory of that chilling morning. But while she stayed unruffled on camera, behind the scenes, Kagan was panicking. She couldn’t reach her sister, Kallan, who lived just north of the World Trade Center in Greenwich Village. “Here I was covering the biggest story of my career so far, and I was frantically trying to get in touch with my baby sister,” she says. “People forget that the people you watch on the news have their own stories too. Everyone has a story, and that was my story that day.” Kagan learned a few hours later that Kallan was safe, but as was the case with so many people, that day began to change her life. “It set me on the path on that personal journey of discovering what would become really important,” she says today. “But first, it made me hungrier to chase my career.” The next few years took her to Kuwait as a war correspondent, where, at the same time, she was struggling with a letdown in a personal relationship. When she returned from her CNN assignment in the Middle East, and she didn’t receive a promotion she expected, something in her shifted. “I was so invested in the do up until that point, the things I felt I had to do for work,” she says. “But from that point forward, it became about the be. There was still plenty to do professionally, but my perspective kind of cracked open, and I began to look at the world differently. I realized, if I keep doing things the same way, it will be like watching the same movie over and over. If I make a change, at least there will be a new movie.” In 2006, Kagan left CNN after the network failed to renew her contract, and a new journey indeed began. “I knew I didn’t want to do more traditional news at that point in my life,” she says. “I loved everything I got to do at CNN, but I realized my favorite stories were always the uplifting ones. It was my sister Kallan who said, ‘Why don’t you launch a website and become your own media company and be your own boss?’” And so she did, founding a website, DarynKagan.com, as a place to share good news—positive stories of people doing good in the world. She also launched a column, What’s Possible, which is syndicated nationally through Cox Newspapers, followed by a book of her collected columns, Hope Possible: A Network News Anchor’s Thoughts On Losing Her Job, Finding Love, A New Career, and My Dog, Always My Dog. And along the way, she found a new life, one filled with the kind of good news she shares with others. Married since 2012 to IT consultant Trent Swanson, she is also the mother to two daughters she never expected to have. “I married a single dad who was raising his young daughter alone because her mother had passed away,” Kagan says. “We married and I legally adopted Kendall. A year before I met them, I had signed up to be a mentor in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, and my little sister from the program, Ro, came to live with us full-time as well.” And now, 20 years past the day that began to change the course of her life, Kagan is about to launch a new venture: The Good News Lady, a streaming show on the brand-new streaming platform LoCo+, coming this fall. “I think it’s just as important to be inspired as it is to be informed,” Kagan says. “It’s not to suggest that bad things don’t happen. But even in the darkest times, there are heroes.” Twenty years after the September 11 attacks, with her life completely transformed, Kagan—who will forever be a part of many people’s memories of that fateful morning—is one of those heroes. She’s found a way to follow the road of a high-profile media career to a place that feels fulfilling personally as well as professionally—and in the process, she’s giving viewers a new way to look at the news. “I just think there’s something for all of us to do,” she says, reflecting on the lessons she has taken with her from her seat in the CNN anchor chair on September 11, 2001. “There were people in the towers who could have run, but who stayed to help others out. Then there were the ultimate heroes who rushed into the building. There were people who showed up and helped hang all those flyers, people who started charities afterwards, reporters who did things, people who stood up for the survivors and the children and family of the victims. There’s always something each of us can do, and sometimes, it’s just kindness. “That’s the question we get to ask ourselves,” she adds. “It’s not that we all have to be the firefighter rushing into a building, but we can all ask, ‘What’s the thing I can do?’ even if it’s just to be kind. That matters.” Next, The Most Powerful Quotes Remembering 9/11 on the Upcoming 20th Anniversary Friends & Fiction is an online community, weekly live web show, and podcast founded and hosted by bestselling authors Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey, Patti Callahan Henry, and Mary Alice Monroe, who have written more than 90 novels between them and are published in more than 30 languages. Catch them and their incredible author guests live every Wednesday at 7pm ET on the Friends & Fiction Facebook group page or their YouTube Channel. Follow them on Instagram and, for weekly updates, subscribe to their newsletter. Kristin Harmel is the New York Times bestselling, USA Today bestselling, and #1 international bestselling author of more than a dozen novels, including The Forest of Vanishing Stars, The Book of Lost Names, and The Winemaker’s Wife. Her novels are published in 29 languages. A former reporter for PEOPLE magazine and contributor to the national television morning show The Daily Buzz, she is the co-founder and co-host of the popular web series and podcast Friends & Fiction. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and KristinHarmel.com.
