Rebuilding Identity and Finding Belonging After 9/11 | With Glen Beasley
What do you do when the foundation of your identity begins to crack — or even collapse entirely? In this conversation, Glen Beasley opens up about navigating the complex intersections of work, purpose, and belonging after the September 11 attacks.
As a senior executive at Verizon at the time, Glen was at Boston’s Logan Airport when the first alarms about the network failures in New York City came through. He pivoted quickly — leaving the airport and heading back to lead response efforts — just as the scale of the national crisis began to unfold. What followed was a harrowing and transformative period in which Glen and his team worked to stabilize critical infrastructure, even as his personal identity and career trajectory began to shift beneath him.
In this moving conversation, Glen and host Ben Walters talk about:
Glen’s role at Verizon during and after 9/11
The challenges of staying calm and decisive when the world is in chaos
How crisis can accelerate identity shifts
The work of rebuilding when the ground under you has changed
Finding new forms of connection, faith, and service in the aftermath of trauma
What it felt like to be at Logan Airport on the morning of 9/11
How Glen's team at Verizon responded to the unprecedented network disruption
Why major life shifts often follow moments of personal or national upheaval
What it means to “belong” after your job, title, or sense of self changes
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Chapters:
00:00 — Intro: Glen’s Life and Work Before 9/11
03:42 — At Logan Airport as the Crisis Unfolded
06:30 — Responding Inside Verizon: Restoring Communication
10:58 — Navigating Identity in the Wake of Crisis
16:25 — Career Success vs. Personal Calling
20:13 — What Faith and Service Taught Him Next
25:32 — Choosing Purpose Over Platform
30:47 — Rebuilding What Matters
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#september11 #911 #verizon #leadershipincrisis #corporateleadership #communications #crisismanagement #SuperPumpedPodcast