diff --git a/packages/lib-panoptes-js/src/experimental-auth.js b/packages/lib-panoptes-js/src/experimental-auth.js
index afa3606fdd..4c9cc50ffa 100644
--- a/packages/lib-panoptes-js/src/experimental-auth.js
+++ b/packages/lib-panoptes-js/src/experimental-auth.js
@@ -145,6 +145,7 @@ async function signIn (login, password, _store) {
     // - This "authenticity token", as it will be later be called, prevents third
     //   parties from simply replaying the HTTPs-encoded sign-in request.
     // - In our case, the CSRF token is provided Panoptes itself.
+
     const request1 = new Request(`https://panoptes-staging.zooniverse.org/users/sign_in/?now=${Date.now()}`, {
       credentials: 'include',
       method: 'GET',
@@ -160,7 +161,7 @@ async function signIn (login, password, _store) {
     // - These HTTP cookies identify requests as coming from us (or rather, from
     //   our particular session.
     // - This is how request2 (submit username & password) and request3 (request
-    //   bearer token for a logged in user) are magically linked and recognised
+    //   bearer token for a logged-in user) are magically linked and recognised
     //   as coming from the same person/session, even though request3 isn't
     //   providing any login data explicitly via the JavaScript code.
     // - HTTP-only cookies can't be viewed or edited by JavaScript, as it happens.
@@ -261,7 +262,7 @@ async function signIn (login, password, _store) {
     store.bearerToken = bearerToken,
     store.bearerTokenExpiry = bearerTokenExpiry
     store.refreshToken = refreshToken
-    _broadcastEvent('change', userData)
+    _broadcastEvent('change', userData, store)
 
     return userData
 
@@ -275,7 +276,111 @@ async function signIn (login, password, _store) {
 Checks if there's a current, signed-in user.
  */
 async function checkCurrentUser (_store) {
+  const store = _store || globalStore
+
+  // Step 1: do we already have a user in the store?
+  if (store.userData) {
+    
+    // If yes, just return the user.
+    return store.userData
+
+  } else {
 
+    // If no, let's ask Panoptes who's the current user.
+    console.log('Checking current user')
+
+    let user = null
+
+    try {
+
+      // Step 2: get the bearer token.
+      // If user has previously signed in on this web browser, (e.g. they signed
+      // in on window 1, and then we attempt to get the bearer token on
+      // window 2,) then the Panoptes API will *automagically* know that the
+      // request is coming from the same signed-in user.
+      // This appears to be the result of certain HTTP-only cookies -
+      // _Panoptes_session and remember_user_token - being passed along with the
+      // request header.
+
+      // TODO: figure out how the browser stores these http-only cookies.
+      // On Chrome 131, when opening a new window, the Applications > Cookies
+      // shows an empty list. But an initial request to /oauth/token will
+      // somehow magically contain the correct cookies in its header. 🤷‍♀️
+      // (After the first response is received, the Cookies list in Chrome is
+      // updated to list the expected cookies.) 
+
+      const request1 = new Request(`https://panoptes-staging.zooniverse.org/oauth/token`, {
+        body: JSON.stringify({
+          client_id: '535759b966935c297be11913acee7a9ca17c025f9f15520e7504728e71110a27',
+          grant_type: 'password',
+        }),
+        credentials: 'include',
+        method: 'POST',
+        headers: PANOPTES_HEADERS,
+      })
+      const response1 = await fetch(request1)
+
+      // if response is a 401, then there's no logged-in user.
+      if (response1.status === 401) {
+        return null
+      }
+
+      // Extract data and check for errors.
+      if (!response1.ok) {
+        const jsonData1 = await response1.json()
+        const error = jsonData1?.error || 'No idea what went wrong; no specific error message detected.'
+        throw new Error(`Error from API. ${error}`)
+      }
+      const jsonData1 = await response1.json()
+      const bearerToken = jsonData1?.access_token  // The bearer token is short-lived
+      const refreshToken = jsonData1?.refresh_token  // The refresh token is used to get new bearer tokens.
+      const bearerTokenExpiry = Date.now() + (jsonData1?.expires_in * 1000)  // Use Date.now() instead of response.created_at, because it keeps future "has expired?" comparisons consistent to the client's clock instead of the server's clock.
+      
+      if (!bearerToken || !refreshToken) {
+        // throw new Error('Impossible API response. access_token and/or refresh_token unavailable.')
+      } else if (jsonData1?.token_type !== 'Bearer') {
+        throw new Error('Impossible API response. Token wasn\'t of type "Bearer".')
+      } else if (isNaN(bearerTokenExpiry)) {
+        throw new Error('Impossible API response. Token expiry can\'t be calculated.')
+      } else if (bearerTokenExpiry <= Date.now()) {
+        throw new Error('Impossible API response. Token has already expired for some reason.')
+      }
+
+      return
+
+      const request2 = new Request(`https://panoptes-staging.zooniverse.org/api/me`, {
+        credentials: 'include',
+        method: 'GET',
+        headers: PANOPTES_HEADERS,
+      })
+
+      const response2 = await fetch(request2)
+    
+      // Extract data and check for errors.
+      console.log('+++ response2: ', response2)
+      console.log('+++ response2.json: ', await response2?.json())
+
+      /*
+      if (!response.ok) {
+        const jsonData2 = await response2.json()
+        const error = jsonData2?.error || 'No idea what went wrong; no specific error message detected.'
+        throw new Error(`Error from API. ${error}`)
+      }
+      const jsonData2 = await response2.json()
+      const userData = jsonData2?.users?.[0]
+      if (!userData) {
+        throw new Error('Impossible API response. No user returned.')
+      } else if (userData.login && userData.login !== login) {
+        throw new Error('Impossible API response. User returned is different from login attempt. Did you forget to sign out first?')
+      }
+      */
+      
+    } catch (err) {
+      console.error('+++ checkCurrentUser error: ', err)
+    }
+
+    return user
+  }
 }
 
 // Alias for checkCurrentUser