Podcast
On Being with Krista Tippett
It explores Western civilization's changing views on suicide, from demonization to celebration as moral freedom. The author's personal experiences with suicidal thoughts and the loss of friends influenced her writing.
We are indebted to one another, and the debt is a kind of faith. A beautiful, difficult, strange faith. We believe each other into being.
— Episode: Jennifer Michael Hecht — 'We Believe Eac...
Episode: Jennifer Michael Hecht — 'We Believe Each Other In...
It explores Western civilization's changing views on suicide, from demonization to celebration as moral freedom. The author's personal experiences with suicidal thoughts and the loss of friends influenced her writing.
We are indebted to one another, and the debt is a kind of faith. A beautiful, difficult, strange faith. We believe each other into being.
Your staying alive means so much more than you really know or that anyone is aware of at this moment. But we're in it together in this profound way and you can take some strength from that.
I spoke with Jennifer Michael Hecht in 2014 after she published Stay, a history of suicide and the philosophies against it.
I'm grateful to you who is listening, who feels tempted to suicide. I'm grateful that you're sticking it out for the sake of other people and I know many people are and you're my hero.
We are indebted to one another and the debt is a kind of faith, a beautiful, difficult, strange faith. We believe each other into being.
Episode: [Unedited] Jennifer Michael Hecht with Krista Tipp...
Hecht's book explores Western civilization's evolving views on suicide, examining both its demonization and celebration throughout history. She shared personal experiences with suicidal thoughts and the loss of friends to suicide, influencing her work.
When the first friend did it, I had just started to come out of a very dark period myself.
And then when the second friend did it, who was also a friend with the first... Was that Rachel? Rachel? Yeah. And Rachel Whetstone.
And that's when I started to think very seriously because I was getting emails from people who were saying that these very little things I'd done had helped them tremendously.
So it was really... Then it was a mission. I had to track down... I'm a historian and I read a great deal of philosophy through history.
And so I shouldn't do it. And within seconds, I was on the other side of that, seeing that if I'm so important, if I could hurt people so much by doing this, that means if I stay, even if I get nothing done, even if I'm crying and useless, I'm doing something, I'm making a contribution, a real contribution.