Grace at Ground Zero

Episode Descriptor

• When does a moment of ministry become a moment you must leave behind? 
• Tim Dobbins recounts the eerie walk out of Ground Zero, the moment he knew his work there was done, and why the transition was just as profound as the rescue itself.
• Philip guides Tim through one of the most emotionally charged chapters of his life, uncovering what it felt like to serve at Ground Zero through the night, witness the shift from rescue to recovery, and then step into a Lower Manhattan that felt almost abandoned. 
• What followed was not just a departure from a disaster site, but a transition into the long shadow of trauma that keeps returning in waves.

In this episode you’ll discover:

• Why Tim uses the distinction between change and transition to make sense of life’s hardest turning points
• How “slow roller” trauma can arrive long after the event, from 9/11 anniversaries to Alzheimer’s, family loss, and other delayed shocks
• What the scene around Ground Zero looked like as dawn approached, including the first responders, National Guard, and the quiet but relentless work of recovery
• How Chelsea Piers transformed from a support center for responders into a place reshaped by journalists and the public’s need to know
• Why Tim says the real story is not just 9/11 itself, but the many “9/11s” people carry through their own lives

Show Notes 

• Tim also shares the deeply human moments that stayed with him, from the silence of the walk back to Chelsea Piers to the unexpected comfort of coming home and finally letting the tears come. 
• Philip’s questions bring out not only the history of that day, but the emotional cost of carrying it for decades and the healing that can begin when the story is finally told in full.
• Essential listening if you have ever lived through trauma, helped someone through grief, or wondered how to move from survival into meaning without losing what mattered most along the way.

Websites

• Grace At Ground Zero Website: www.graceatgroundzero.com
• Jonsan Media Website: www.jonsanmedia.com

Credits

• Podcast Producer: John McBlain
• Creative Director: Barbara Bruns
• Clinical Advisor: Anne Freund, Ph.D.
• Website Production: Matthew Dobbins
• Clip Photographer: Antonio Littles

• Music: Air des Musettes by Andre Campra.
• Recorded by Barbara Bruns and Thompson Brass Ensemble.
• Copyright © 2014 Barbara Bruns and Philip Swanson.

• All photos Copyright © 2026 Timothy Dobbins
• Except "A Priest at Ground Zero" and "Churchyard" by Harald Franzen 
• Copyright © 2026 Harald Franzen. Reproduced with permission.

• Thank you: Molly Coffin, Allison Miller Dobbins, Bill Bruns, Dan Dobbins, John Dobbins.

• The Grace at Ground Zero Podcast is produced by Timothy Dobbins and Philip Patrick. 
• Copyright © 2026 by Timothy Dobbins and Philip Patrick. 
• All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this audio is strictly prohibited.

Episode Descriptor

• A haunting, deeply human account of 9/11 that goes beyond the headlines and into the sacred, the traumatic, and the unfinished work of healing.
• In this episode, Philip Patrick and Tim Dobbins revisit Ground Zero through Tim’s firsthand memories, revealing the untold hours, the enduring bonds formed amid the devastation, and the precise moment he knew it was time to walk away.
• Tim describes the surreal reality of standing in the aftermath as rescue turned to recovery, surrounded by smoke, ash, burned-out emergency vehicles, and the eerie quiet between sirens. 
• This conversation moves past the sheer devastation to focus on the people who kept showing up - first responders, clergy, volunteers, and strangers forged into a community by chaos.

In This Episode:

• The Threshold: How Tim knew he couldn’t leave until the work, and the people, allowed him to.
• The Transition: Why the painful shift from rescue to recovery changed everything.
• Captured Reality: What his personal photographs preserved that memory alone could not.
• Intersection of Worlds: How sacred sites, trauma, and memory collide in ways that still defy easy explanation.
• Crisis Leadership: Why self-awareness, wounded-healer language, and spiritual formation matter profoundly in crisis work.

Show Notes & Themes

• Philip pushes the conversation directly toward the questions listeners carry: What does it mean to be truly present in catastrophe? How do you leave a place that never really leaves you? And what does grace look like when everything around you has been torn apart?
• Tim also connects these harrowing events to the broader spiritual and historical imagination - from first responders and memorial care to the wisdom of Paul, the writings of Michael Heiser, and the enduring truth that even in the worst moments, community and redemptive love continue to take shape.
• Essential listening for anyone drawn to lived history, trauma-informed faith, and the untold human side of 9/11. This is not just a story about leaving Ground Zero; it is a story about why some places never truly leave us.

Websites

• Grace At Ground Zero Website: www.graceatgroundzero.com
• Jonsan Media Website: www.jonsanmedia.com

Credits

• Podcast Producer: John McBlain
• Creative Director: Barbara Bruns
• Clinical Advisor: Anne Freund, Ph.D.
• Website Production: Matthew Dobbins
• Clip Photographer: Antonio Littles

• Music: Air des Musettes by Andre Campra.
• Recorded by Barbara Bruns and Thompson Brass Ensemble.
• Copyright © 2014 Barbara Bruns and Philip Swanson.

• All photos Copyright © 2026 Timothy Dobbins
• Except "A Priest at Ground Zero" and "Churchyard" by Harald Franzen 
• Copyright © 2026 Harald Franzen. Reproduced with permission.

• Thank you: Molly Coffin, Allison Miller Dobbins, Bill Bruns, Dan Dobbins, John Dobbins.

• The Grace at Ground Zero Podcast is produced by Timothy Dobbins and Philip Patrick. 

• Copyright © 2026 by Timothy Dobbins and Philip Patrick. 
• All rights reserved.
• Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this audio is strictly prohibited.

Episode Descriptor

• The night Ground Zero went silent, one chaplain heard something bigger than the destruction: the world praying.
• Tim Dobbins reveals how the chaos of 9/11 became a moment of stillness, spiritual clarity, and unexpected hope, and why that silence helped save lives.
• Philip Patrick and Tim discuss what it felt like to move through Ground Zero after the towers fell, where the dark, ash-filled landscape, the rescue-to-recovery shift, and the sheer weight of trauma changed everything.
• Tim explains the difference between Kronos and Kairos, ordinary clock time versus sacred time, and how kneeling in the wreckage became the point where those two realities collided.

In this episode you’ll discover:

• Why “be still and know that I am God” took on a completely different meaning in the aftermath of 9/11
• How prayer functioned not as escape, but as action for victims, first responders, and even the person praying
• What it meant to serve as a “first responder to first responders”
• How Tim used gifts, skills, and calling to make decisions in the middle of catastrophe
• Why anger, grief, and the question “how could God allow this?” are part of the conversation, not obstacles to it

Show Notes

• Philip also shares his own experience watching the attacks from Brooklyn and admitting how prayer, even from a self-described “foxhole atheist,” became his response.
• That tension between faith and doubt gives the episode its emotional charge, while Tim’s grounded, compassionate presence turns it into something deeper than reflection - it becomes a lesson in how to show up for suffering without trying to fix it.
• The episode also follows the human connections that formed in the rubble, including Harald Franzen, a young German photographer who became part of Tim’s circle that night, and the extraordinary rescue of survivors like Officer Will Jimeno, Sergeant John McLaughlin, and Janelle Guzman McMillan.
• Tim describes the joy of hearing a living voice rise from the pile, and why those moments felt like resurrection breaking through the dark.
• Essential listening if you want to understand 9/11 not just as history, but as lived trauma, spiritual endurance, and the kind of presence that can steady other people when the world has fallen apart.

Grace At Ground Zero

• Hosted by The Reverend Timothy Dobbins with Philip Patrick.
• A Jonsan Media Production.

Websites

• ⁠⁠Grace At Ground Zero Website⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠Jonsan Media Website⁠⁠

Credits

• Podcast Producer: John McBlain
• Creative Director: Barbara Bruns
• Clinical Advisor: Anne Freund, Ph.D.
• Website Production: Matthew Dobbins
• Clip Photographer: Antonio Littles

• Music: Air des Musettes by Andre Campra.
• Recorded by Barbara Bruns and Thompson Brass Ensemble.
• Copyright © 2014 Barbara Bruns and Philip Swanson.

• All photos Copyright © 2026 Timothy Dobbins
• Except "A Priest at Ground Zero" and "Churchyard" by Harald Franzen 
• Copyright © 2026 Harald Franzen. Reproduced with permission.

• Thank you: Molly Coffin, Allison Miller Dobbins, Bill Bruns, Dan Dobbins, John Dobbins.

• The Grace at Ground Zero Podcast is produced by Timothy Dobbins and Philip Patrick. 
• Copyright © 2026 by Timothy Dobbins and Philip Patrick. 
• All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this audio is strictly prohibited.

A Prayer for 9/11

• On this special mid season episode, released on the 25th anniversary of September 11th 2001, Philip and Tim discuss what remembrance is really for - not just to look back, but to learn how to carry grief, trauma, and loss without passing them on.

• Philip and Tim revisit the sensory reality of September 11th 2001 - the smoke, ash, silence, fear, and the surreal walk home through a changed city - and ask the question so many people still wrestle with: what would I have done? 
• You'll hear Tim share what it meant to move from business owner to chaplain in a moment of crisis, why the firehouse ethos of running toward danger stayed with him, and how his own experiences with trauma shaped the way he thinks about courage, sacrifice, and service. 
• Philip and Tim also reflect on the thousands of names, photos, and voices that made 9-11 a living memorial at the World Trade Center in New York City, at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.We break down the deeper theme at the centre of Grace at Ground Zero: the idea that what we do not transform, we transmit. 
• That simple line becomes the lens for understanding 9/11, but also the smaller and quieter losses that shape every life - the accidents, diagnoses, deaths, and ruptures that leave us asking how to keep going.
• This episode is for anyone looking for meaning, perspective, and a grounded conversation about surviving tragedy with purpose. 
• If you've ever wondered how remembrance becomes healing, this one is essential listening.

Grace At Ground Zero

• Hosted by The Reverend Timothy Dobbins with Philip Patrick.
• A Jonsan Media Production.

Websites

• ⁠⁠⁠Grace At Ground Zero Website⁠⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠⁠Jonsan Media Website⁠⁠⁠

Credits

• Podcast Producer: John McBlain
• Creative Director: Barbara Bruns
• Clinical Advisor: Anne Freund, Ph.D.
• Website Production: Matthew Dobbins
• Clip Photographer: Antonio Littles

• Music: Air des Musettes by Andre Campra.
• Recorded by Barbara Bruns and Thompson Brass Ensemble.
• Copyright © 2014 Barbara Bruns and Philip Swanson.

• All photos Copyright © 2026 Timothy Dobbins
• Except "A Priest at Ground Zero" and "Churchyard" by Harald Franzen 
• Copyright © 2026 Harald Franzen. Reproduced with permission.

• Thank you: Molly Coffin, Allison Miller Dobbins, Bill Bruns, Dan Dobbins, John Dobbins.

• The Grace at Ground Zero Podcast is produced by Timothy Dobbins and Philip Patrick. 
• Copyright © 2026 by Timothy Dobbins and Philip Patrick. 
• All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this audio is strictly prohibited.

Episode Descriptor

• The untold 9/11 story is not about the towers - it's about what happened in the dark, after the collapse, when a pastor was called to stand with the first responders. 
• Philip Patrick and Tim Dobbins return to Ground Zero for a deeply personal conversation about trauma, faith, and the moment Tim dropped to his knees and felt his life shift.
• Twenty-five years later, Tim revisits the night he arrived at Ground Zero after dark, when there were no tourists, no bystanders, and no easy language for what he was seeing. 
• What he found instead was a landscape of grief, prayer, search crews, National Guard checkpoints, and a community forming in real time around loss.
• He also shares why he believes that night was less about fear and more about presence - and why the most important stories of 9/11 are still the ones we haven't fully heard.

In this epsiode you'll discover:

• Why Tim describes Ground Zero as "the valley of the shadow of death"
• How Psalm 23 became a framework for surviving terror, doubt, and responsibility
• The meaning of "never forget" versus Tim's own phrase, "always remember"
• How Jung's idea of the shadow helps explain trauma, denial, and what we carry as individuals and communities
• Why Tim says he was a "first responder to the first responders"

Show Notes

• Philip and Tim share information on the details that matter: the missing-person flyers posted everywhere, the first responders still unaccounted for, the eerie silence after the crowd was gone, and the strange holiness of a night shaped by smoke, light, and exhaustion.
• Tim answers with candour, memory, and the kind of spiritual insight that only comes from having lived through the edge of something irreversible.
• This conversation also reveals the people and principles that shaped him - his father, his grandmother, the faith phrase she passed down, "let your prayers be your roadmap," and the hard-won realisation that crisis asks each of us who we are and what we are here to do.
• Essential listening if you want a deeper, more human understanding of 9/11, pastoral care under pressure, and the unseen work of helping people hold themselves together when the world has fallen apart.

Grace At Ground Zero

• Hosted by The Reverend Timothy Dobbins with Philip Patrick.
• A Jonsan Media Production.

Websites

• ⁠⁠Grace At Ground Zero Website⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠Jonsan Media Website⁠⁠

Credits

• Podcast Producer: John McBlain
• Creative Director: Barbara Bruns
• Clinical Advisor: Anne Freund, Ph.D.
• Website Production: Matthew Dobbins
• Clip Photographer: Antonio Littles

• Music: Air des Musettes by Andre Campra.
• Recorded by Barbara Bruns and Thompson Brass Ensemble.
• Copyright © 2014 Barbara Bruns and Philip Swanson.

• All photos Copyright © 2026 Timothy Dobbins
• Except "A Priest at Ground Zero" and "Churchyard" by Harald Franzen 
• Copyright © 2026 Harald Franzen. Reproduced with permission.

• Thank you: Molly Coffin, Allison Miller Dobbins, Bill Bruns, Dan Dobbins, John Dobbins.

• The Grace at Ground Zero Podcast is produced by Timothy Dobbins and Philip Patrick. 
• Copyright © 2026 by Timothy Dobbins and Philip Patrick. 
• All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this audio is strictly prohibited.

Episode Descriptor

• What really happened at Ground Zero after the towers fell - and why the first hours of 9/11 still matter more than most people realise.
• Philip Patrick sits down with Tim Dobbins for a deeply human account of grief, rescue, faith, and the burden carried by first responders, families, and communities in the days after the attacks.
• Tim recounts the moment he met "Tommy," a fireman standing in the ash and silence of Ground Zero, and the short but pivotal conversation that helped him unburden some of the shock, anger, and responsibility he was already carrying. 
• From there, the story widens into the overlooked reality of that night - rescue mode instead of recovery, a crime scene where people were told to stay quiet and listen for any sign of life, and the immense emotional weight carried by firefighters, police, EMTs, and volunteers trying to do their jobs amid chaos.

In this episode you’ll discover:

• Why the night of 9/11 was not what most people picture when they remember Ground Zero
• How Tim and a small group of chaplains and social workers helped support thousands of traumatised people after the attacks
• The hidden scale of the loss, including the 343 firefighters, 71 law enforcement officers, 8 EMTs, and 55 military personnel killed across the sites
• How trauma echoes through families, from addiction and war to the children and spouses left behind
• Why a ten-minute conversation, a prayer, and simple presence can matter in the middle of catastrophe

Show Notes

• Tim also reflects on his larger calling as a chaplain and pastor, including the work he later did in high-stakes crisis settings, and he opens up about the role faith has played in his own life when faced with fear, family strain, and moments of profound need.
• Essential listening if you want a closer, more personal understanding of 9/11, the people who ran toward danger, and the spiritual and emotional aftermath that still shapes lives today.

Grace At Ground Zero

• Hosted by The Reverend Timothy Dobbins with Philip Patrick.
• A Jonsan Media Production.

Websites

• ⁠Grace At Ground Zero Website⁠
• ⁠Jonsan Media Website⁠

Credits

• Podcast Producer: John McBlain
• Creative Director: Barbara Bruns
• Clinical Advisor: Anne Freund, Ph.D.
• Website Production: Matthew Dobbins
• Clip Photographer: Antonio Littles

• Music: Air des Musettes by Andre Campra.
• Recorded by Barbara Bruns and Thompson Brass Ensemble.
• Copyright © 2014 Barbara Bruns and Philip Swanson.

• All photos Copyright © 2026 Timothy Dobbins
• Except "A Priest at Ground Zero" and "Churchyard" by Harald Franzen 
• Copyright © 2026 Harald Franzen. Reproduced with permission.

• Thank you: Molly Coffin, Allison Miller Dobbins, Bill Bruns, Dan Dobbins, John Dobbins.

• The Grace at Ground Zero Podcast is produced by Timothy Dobbins and Philip Patrick. 
• Copyright © 2026 by Timothy Dobbins and Philip Patrick. 
• All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this audio is strictly prohibited.

Episode Descriptor

• The most haunting 9/11 stories are not the ones everyone already knows. They are the small, human moments that reveal what courage, grief, and duty actually look like in real time.
• Philip and Tim revisit one of those moments from the first 15 minutes at Ground Zero, where a young firefighter named Tommy becomes the lens for understanding the burden carried by so many that night.
• Tim shares how the smell of smoke at St. Paul’s Chapel reopened a childhood memory of a house fire in Quito, Ecuador, and why that sensory flashback shaped the way he responded to trauma at Ground Zero. 
• From there, the conversation opens into the deeper questions behind his work: what it means to stand with the dying and the living, how first responders carry the weight of other people’s losses, and why the real challenge begins after the immediate crisis is over.
• You’ll hear how Tim reads people in moments of shock, why Tommy’s anger was never the point, and what it means to help someone prepare for the decades of questions that come after tragedy. 
• Philip and Tim also connect the story to the larger moral aftermath of 9/11, the meaning of service, and the stories that still need to be told if we want to understand what that day did to a generation.

In this episode we explore:

• the first encounter with Tommy and why it mattered
• how trauma hides behind anger, duty, and adrenaline
• why fire, smell, and memory are inseparable in crisis
• what clergy and first responders share in moments of disaster
• how 9/11 changed the way a generation thinks about war, service, and survival

Show Notes

• Philip’s perspective as a friend and storyteller keeps the conversation personal, while Tim brings the lived experience of a pastor, trauma responder, and witness to one of history’s most devastating mornings.
• The result is an intimate, sobering, and deeply human account of how people keep going after the unthinkable.
• Essential listening if you want more than the headlines - if you want the untold history, the emotional truth, and a story about finding purpose in the shadow of catastrophe.

Grace At Ground Zero

• Hosted by The Reverend Timothy Dobbins with Philip Patrick.
• A Jonsan Media Production.

Websites

• ⁠Grace At Ground Zero Website⁠
• ⁠Jonsan Media Website⁠

Credits

• Podcast Producer: John McBlain
• Creative Director: Barbara Bruns
• Clinical Advisor: Anne Freund, Ph.D.
• Website Production: Matthew Dobbins
• Clip Photographer: Antonio Littles

• Music: Air des Musettes by Andre Campra.
• Recorded by Barbara Bruns and Thompson Brass Ensemble.
• Copyright © 2014 Barbara Bruns and Philip Swanson.

• All photos Copyright © 2026 Timothy Dobbins
• Except "A Priest at Ground Zero" and "Churchyard" by Harald Franzen 
• Copyright © 2026 Harald Franzen. Reproduced with permission.

• Thank you: Molly Coffin, Allison Miller Dobbins, Bill Bruns, Dan Dobbins, John Dobbins.

• The Grace at Ground Zero Podcast is produced by Timothy Dobbins and Philip Patrick. 
• Copyright © 2026 by Timothy Dobbins and Philip Patrick. 
• All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this audio is strictly prohibited.

Episode Descriptor

• Before the towers fell, Tim Dobbins was already moving toward the centre of the storm. What happened next is not just an untold 9/11 story - it's a firsthand account of how trauma, service, and grace collided at Ground Zero, and why that history still matters now.
• Philip Patrick and Tim Dobbins open Grace at Ground Zero with a deeply personal conversation that begins with friendship and ends at the steps of St. Paul’s Chapel, where Tim arrives as a first responder to the first responders. 
• Along the way, he shares never-before-published photographs, the moment he realised New York was under attack, and the decision to put on his clerical collar and head south into the chaos.

In This Episode You’ll discover:

• How Tim read the morning in real time as the second plane hit.
• Why Father Michael Judge’s death became a defining spiritual turning point.
• What it meant to serve at St. Vincent’s Hospital and Chelsea Piers as trauma response was being organised.
• How a chance blind date, a seminarian, and a National Guard escort all became part of one extraordinary day.
• Why Tim’s guiding principle - "what we don't transform, we will transmit" - sits at the heart of this series.

Show Notes

• Philip brings the perspective of a longtime friend and former Random House colleague who knew Tim before the story was ever told.
• Tim brings the lived experience of a priest, chaplain, and trauma worker who has spent decades helping others through crisis - and now, for the first time, is telling his own.
• This episode is about more than memory. It’s about the human cost of terror, the hidden labor of first responders, and the possibility of healing after devastation.
• If you’ve ever lived through loss, carried trauma, or wondered how meaning survives catastrophe, this is where the conversation begins.

• Essential listening for anyone drawn to 9/11 history, spiritual resilience, trauma recovery, and stories of grace under unimaginable pressure.

Grace At Ground Zero

• Hosted by The Reverend Timothy Dobbins with Philip Patrick.
• A Jonsan Media Production.

Websites

• Grace At Ground Zero Website
• Jonsan Media Website

Credits

• Podcast Producer: John McBlain
• Creative Director: Barbara Bruns
• Clinical Advisor: Anne Freund, Ph.D.
• Website Production: Matthew Dobbins
• Clip Photographer: Antonio Littles

• Music: Air des Musettes by Andre Campra.
• Recorded by Barbara Bruns and Thompson Brass Ensemble.
• Copyright © 2014 Barbara Bruns and Philip Swanson.

• All photos Copyright © 2026 Timothy Dobbins
• Except "A Priest at Ground Zero" and "Churchyard" by Harald Franzen 
• Copyright © 2026 Harald Franzen. Reproduced with permission.

• Thank you: Molly Coffin, Allison Miller Dobbins, Bill Bruns, Dan Dobbins, John Dobbins.

• The Grace at Ground Zero Podcast is produced by Timothy Dobbins and Philip Patrick. 
• Copyright © 2026 by Timothy Dobbins and Philip Patrick. 
• All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this audio is strictly prohibited.