From Hidden Brain Media, I'm Shankar Vedantam. This is my unsung hero, stories where one person reached

out to help another in a time of need.

My unsun hero is the kind stranger who helped me get to my grandfather's funeral.

And he just says, today you tomorrow me.

And I never...

Thank you very much for changing my life.

Today's story comes from... life.

Today's story comes from John Mo.

In the early 90s, John moved to Seattle to follow his dream of becoming a writer or an actor. But instead he found himself working full-time and customer service at a software company.

So I was working at a company called W-Q. It doesn't exist anymore and it was very detail, very dry,

wasn't anything fun, but I had undiagnosed I had been dealing with depression for a long time by then.

So I just had this inherent belief that other people got to do the cool things and I had to go get a job that I hated and worked there

till I died. I had gotten to know somebody in HR, one of the recruiting people in HR, because previous to that I had worked in a temp agency,

assigning temps, and we had sent temps to this place.

So I knew the HR department a little bit.

And to get away from my desk, I just go for walks around the building,

stopped in to see Jane, this woman in HR,

and I just say, hey, how's it going?

You know, just poking in, saying hi like you do.

And she said, oh, well, you know, I'm glad to see you.

I was thinking about you. She said you remember my husband Ryan and I had given

Ryan a temp job. She said you know Ryan's at Amazon now and they've got some jobs they have a job coming up that requires somebody who's really creative.

...