A man in London – who shall remain anonymous – took leave from work earlier this year, and undertook a six-month mission of offering help to anyone who asks for it.
Some requests, like walking a dog or pairing a homeless person with a generous family, have been simple. Others have been more complicated. For example, he often gets e-mails from teenage girls asking for help with problems he’s not qualified to solve.
“There are definitely some things that I think, for the respect of the people getting in touch, I need to be careful with,” he says.
In a conversation with host Dick Gordon, the Free Help Guy – he wants withhold his name until the project is over – talks about the people he’s met, the requests he can’t fulfill, and the types of favors he’s undertaken. They include being put into a trance by a hypnotist needing practice and sending a traveler on a treasure hunt across London.
Hear the full conversation at The Story's site. Also in this show: listeners respond to the story of an adjunct professor who says he’d make more money working at Starbucks; and Tio Hardiman, director of Ceasefire Illinois, says violence is down in the past weeks and he credits intensive one-on-one mediation.
