Human stories from Iran conflict:

With a team reporting across the region, our goal is to tell the personal stories of people living through crisis in Iran and — and the systems of power shaping their lives.

We cover these places not merely as sites of conflict, but regions with deep historical, cultural, linguistic and culinary traditions that are worth exploring. We aim to provide a more holistic approach to war correspondence.

Much of the news coverage nowadays focuses on human beings as merely a force that war and violence act upon, rather than individuals with profound backgrounds that happen to be in the news.

Our journalism puts human stories front and center.

Empathy and autocracy can’t coexist

We believe that when the stories of those oppressed by dictatorship are told in a compelling way, readers will find that the injustice of it all demands change, requires righting, insists upon justice. That’s the theme of our publication.

We won’t just tell you what happened today – we’ll tell you about the people who experienced it, and explore more deeply what their lives are like.

About Me

Hi, I’m Tim!

I used to be an investigative correspondent for NPR, and I am also a former U.S. Army combat medic.

My writing has been featured in Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Politico Magazine, and the L.A. Times. And you may have heard me regularly on NPR’s Morning Edition or All Things Considered. I’m also the author of a book about the inner workings of the NRA, titled ‘Misfire.’

On February 23rd, 2022, I landed in Kyiv for an assignment to cover a possible war – and, by chance, the Russian invasion of Ukraine began that same night. In 2023, we launched The Counteroffensive, our Ukraine-focused publication.

Since then, I’ve been providing regular updates for readers: deeply reported vignettes about real life during the war, combined with investigative reporting in the public interest.

Why Subscribe?

War reporting is dangerous and expensive.

Readers can’t do anything about the danger, but they can help us purchase the gear we need to mitigate risk. And they can help us not go into crushing debt in order to bring this critical news to the public.

Your support buys us what we need to report: body armor, medical kits, car rentals, recording equipment, and emergency supplies. And it’s not just gear – paying our reporting team costs thousands of dollars per month.

What you get!

You get something powerful in return: reporting that serves a public interest mission, writing that engages and educates.

This will all be combined with tenacious reporting about the battlefield situation, alternating between the forty-thousand-foot view of brigades and divisions, and the fascinating minutiae of how civilians are faring on a human level.