← Book Explained

The Day the World Came to Town by Jim DeFede: Review, the True Story of Gander and Book vs Come From Away

October 16, 2026 · Episode 7 · 19 min

Chapters

  1. Cold Open
  2. Welcome
  3. The Review
  4. The Real Story
  5. Book Versus Musical
  6. What To Read Next
  7. Outro

On September 11, 2001, thirty-eight planes landed in Gander, Newfoundland, and a town of ten thousand took in nearly seven thousand strangers. Hailey reviews Jim DeFede's book, checks the true story and the numbers, compares it with the Broadway musical Come From Away, and recommends six books to read next.

Get the book
Audiobook
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Books mentioned in this episode
Hiroshima by John Hersey
The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff
102 Minutes by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn
A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit
Humankind by Rutger Bregman
Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink

Chapters
0:00 Cold Open
0:27 Welcome
1:00 The Review
6:01 The Real Story
10:39 Book Versus Musical
15:22 What To Read Next
18:35 Outro

Scores, the full written review and the videos

Narrated by Hailey, the Book Explained host voice (AI-generated with Kokoro TTS).

Music
"Morning" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

"Fresh Air" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0