The internet can be strange, absurd, terrifying, even surprisingly human.

Each week on Close All Taps from KQED, we cover how the digital world is reshaping how we live and who we are.

People just assume that the American internet is this like free and vast frontier.

And then when I started asking that question, it was impossible to unring that bell.

People were asking chatbots to tell them if God exists. Listen to close all tats, wherever you get your

podcast. Hi, I'm Alex Goldman, and this is hyperfixed. Each week on our show, listeners

write in with their problems big and small, and I solve them.

Or at least I try.

And if I don't, I at least give a good reason why I can't.

This week, pretzels to the people.

It is really humid in there.

It's very busy.

And it's also probably one of the densest parts of Brooklyn.

Like, that's probably as dense as it gets.

This is Jed.

He was born and raised on the Upper West Side of New York,

but he has lived in Brooklyn for the last five years.

And what he's describing right now

is the epicenter of this week's question.

His neighborhood subway stop.

The Atlantic Avenue Barclay Center Station.

To call it just a subway station, it's underplaying it a little bit,

...