I took a departure from science and nature writing to report on the 20-year + saga of Stephen Flatow, a lawyer and father in New Jersey whose oldest daughter was killed in a suicide bombing in Gaza. The story was published with The Atavist Magazine and dives into the intersection of idealism and real politik in the 1990s, a period of tumult and violence in the Middle East but also hope for a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians. Flatow's vindication for his daughter was getting legislation passed in Congress that gave individual Americans the right to sue state sponsors of terrorism in U.S. courts (Flatow succesfully sued Iran), an issue that is now being debated again as the families of victims of 9/11 fight for the ability to sue Saudi Arabia for its role in the attack. Read the whole story here