Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Dan has spent the past 15 years as the Africa Desk chief in Voice of America's central newsroom. He is a lifelong baseball fan, and one of the youngest people alive to have attended a Pittsburgh Pirates World Series game. "Baseball's Greatest What If" is Dan's latest book. The book tells the tale of Pistol Pete Reiser, Brooklyn Dodgers star of the 1940s. Reiser could've been one of the greatest players in baseball history if not for one frightful flaw—a tendency to run into outfield walls. "Last Ride of the Iron Horse" was Dan's previous work. Published in 2019, the book examines Lou Gehrig's final year in the lineup of the New York Yankees, as he struggled with early effects of the fatal disease ALS. Despite a loss of power and slowing reflexes, Loud found ways to help drive his team to another World Series title. Dan's first book, co-authored with Harun Maruf, was "Inside Al-Shabaab," an in-depth history of the Somalia-based terrorist group.