This is the story of how a math prodigy became the Unabomber.

Born in Chicago in 1942, Theodore Kaczynski was a brilliant but isolated child who skipped grades, spent months in hospital isolation as an infant, and never learned how to connect with other people. By 16, he was at Harvard studying mathematics. By 25, he was an assistant professor at UC Berkeley—the youngest professor ever hired by the university’s math department.

But he quit. He walked away from academia and moved into an off-grid cabin in rural Montana, with no electricity, no running water, and no contact with society.

What happened out there changed everything.

Industrial noise invaded his silence. Logging destroyed his favorite hiking spots. The wilderness he loved was being eaten by modern society. And Ted’s resentment turned into ideology. He began wri ...