Introducing: Before & After with Lester Holt

What's it like to die? If you're going to die, you don't want to die alone.

Over the years, I've reported on people whose lives were changed forever in a single moment.

Actors.

Everything was collapsed in my lung, and I had, like, no way to get air.

It was like this breath.

It was like it was just everything.

Professional athletes.

It was just, hey, I'm going to get mine.

I would have never protested.

I would have never took a knee.

Public figures

of tracheotomy scar.

Yes.

The bullet.

Went through your head.

Yes.

And ordinary people suddenly pulled into a nightmare.

Essentially, if your photo is on the internet, it could happen to you.

A moment that arrives without warning.

I heard a

giant, enormous boom and blast.

I didn't know if I was alive or dead.

We know the headlines.

But what I've always been curious about is what happens after.

That's when the rest of the story begins.