David W. Brown is a freelance writer whose nonfiction appears frequently in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Scientific American, and Smithsonian. His other publishers include The New Yorker, Vox, and Foreign Policy. He is an Antarctic expeditioner, an endurance runner, a former Army paratrooper, and a veteran of Afghanistan. He is a graduate of Louisiana State University and holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Arkansas at Monticello. The Mission is his fourth book. Brown lives in New Orleans.