As a budding young journalist, the prospect of being able to ask Shkreli whatever question I wanted was exciting. But I swipe right on Tinder to any familiar face, be it a former college friend or a minor celebrity (for instance, I once matched with Saturday Night Live "Weekend Update" host Michael Che).
Mostly, I wanted to have a conversation with Shkreli on Tinder because even though I thought all the negative media attention he'd received was well-deserved, I still suspected he was exceptionally unlucky. I was curious to know how he felt about being pilloried for something his industry did on a regular basis. But I also wanted to know why he did what he did. I wanted to hear him justify the price-gouging. I wanted to understand the stories that greedy people tell themselves so they can function in the world. Tinder was the perfect medium to ask him these questions.
Although I initially tried to make it seem like I was interested in a romantic tryst with him by asking him "Up to anything fun tonight?" I couldn't keep that up for very long. Perhaps it's not in my delicate nature to romantically entrap people, but more likely, I couldn't resist asking him if he was "DTGMAD," or "down to give me AIDS drugs?