Michael spent years fighting isolation, depression, and despair. Then he met Sam. 

If you’re having thoughts of suicide, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or the Crisis Text Line. For that, text TALK to 741741.

This episode of Radio Atlantic was reported and produced by Ethan Brooks and edited by Theo Balcomb and Jocelyn Frank. It was mixed by Rob Smierciak and fact-checked by Yvonne Kim. The executive producer of Audio is Claudine Ebeid. The managing editor of Audio is Andrea Valdez.

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