Winner of the Overseas Press Club Award for best magazine reporting

Sebastiano Tomada and I accepted the Overseas Press Club award for best magazine reporting in New York last night, for our story on Syria's first responders, "Whoever Saves a Life," published by Matter. It's a long way from the bombed-out streets of Aleppo to the glittering hallways of the Mandarin Oriental, but I hope that we never lose sight of the people who matter. Syria's civil war is entering its fifth year, and the intractability of that conflict points to the need for a radical struggle for justice both abroad and at home, if we're to change a system based on inequality and violence. Thank you to Salam Rizek for getting us in and out of Syria safely, and to Mike Benoist and the team at Matter for taking the chance on this story. And most of all, thank you to the brave rescuers of the Syrian Civil Defense for allowing us to share their story. They continue to risk their lives daily so that others might live.