Todd Sampson: ‘Under every extreme group there’s a human need – often for belonging’

‘I argue that we’re all preppers to some degree: if you carry an umbrella because you thought it might rain, you’re a prepper.’ Todd Sampson walks through Chinatown in Sydney. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

A warm and gusty afternoon in Sydney’s Chinatown. Todd Sampson is looking for a restaurant that no longer exists.

“This is roughly where it was,” he says, gesturing at Dixon Street, where he and his future wife, Neomie, went on their first date. It was a dumpling joint. The waiter described one particular dumpling as a “combination”, he recalls.