British war reporter Christian Stephen has filmed conflicts inside Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. He’s been threatened by a cannibalistic warlord while on assignment in the Central African Republic, detained in Turkey, and, on several occasions, has stood a few hundred feet from the frontlines in battles against ISIS.

He also did it all before celebrating his 21st birthday.

Immersive journalism, particularly in conflict zones, isn’t new. However, Stephen brings an innovative approach to war reporting. In 2015, he traveled alone in Aleppo, Syria — at the time considered the most dangerous city on Earth — to film what is widely considered the first virtual reality documentary inside a war zone. “With VR coming in,” he says, “I wanted to use it for something important, rather than porn and video games.”

Much like a hardened soldier, Stephen has a pre-deployment routine. “First, I update my will and testament,” he says. Then, he obsessively researches his destination, calls fixers that will escort him through conflict zones, plots his travel routes based on ever-evolving battle positions, and sorts out his gear. He prepares essential items like video cameras, memory cards, and a bulletproof vest. He loads up his phone with songs from Queens of the Stone Age, Radiohead, and Everything Everything. Finally, he gets very drunk and reads a section of William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and of Experience” on the way to the airport.

“When I get on the plane,” he says, “I’m dead already and I have to think that way.”

If that all sounds a bit melodramatic, it’s because Stephen’s life is filled with unfathomable adventures and the mental anguish that accompanies them. After all, virtual reality journalism is all about empathy — literally seeing the world through someone else’s eyes.

Read the full article about the young war reporter overcoming PTSD by Eric Pfeiffer at GOOD Magazine.