Loubna Mrie grew up in Syria, where her father was allegedly an assassin for the regime. She joined the Syrian revolution first as a protester and then as a photojournalist. Her memoir is Defiance.
Copyright 2026 NPR
Aarti Shahani is a correspondent for NPR. Based in Silicon Valley, she covers the biggest companies on earth. She is also an author. Her first book, Here We Are: American Dreams, American Nightmares (out Oct. 1, 2019), is about the extreme ups and downs her family encountered as immigrants in the U.S. Before journalism, Shahani was a community organizer in her native New York City, helping prisoners and families facing deportation. Even if it looks like she keeps changing careers, she's always doing the same thing: telling stories that matter.