From Gimlet, this is Replyall. I'm PJ Pout.

Before Atlanta tried to change the world. Before she realized exactly how

catastrophically trying to change the world could go, she was just a college kid in Ottawa.

Back then, she could still use her last name in public. She was a stats major.

I had a little office cubicle where I could do my math assignments until late at night.

And so I was doing that one night and working really hard on some difficult math problem.

And it was a lonely floor, you know, no one else was around.

But that was okay. I was used to that. It's late at night in the math department.

And then some stranger, a man I've never seen, walks up to the door of my office

and knocks and he doesn't introduce himself with a name.

He says, I'm 27 and I've never been on a date.

Wow.

What did you do?

Well, because I didn't understand much about, you know, stocking and creepy behavior.

I thought, well, that's unusual. But he clearly needs to talk to somebody.

So I kind of talked to him for a while and he was uncomfortable and a little scary

in ways I didn't understand.

But he was looking for support.

And so Atlanta listened to him.

She listened as he told her about his friend who had committed suicide.

As he told her how sad and out of place he felt at school.

The main thing seemed to just be that he was lonely. That he was afraid he'd be alone forever.

...