Narratively

What neighbors in a quiet D.C. suburb might not know is that the silver-haired gardening grandmother next door is perhaps one of the greatest—if largely unknown—scientists of her generation.

In the war camps of Kandahar, antsy young soldiers turn security barriers into street art. The command culture calls it vandalism, but one senior Army vet sees poetry.

An Ethiopian immigrant reaches out to Washington, D.C., with the sweet-scented incense and hand-roasted beans of one of the world's oldest coffee ceremonies.