Celebrity chef, author, and travel documentarian <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/anthony-bourdain" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Anthony Bourdain</a> in his final text messages before he took his own life complained about fame and told his girlfriend, Italian actress Asia Argento, that she was &#8220;careless&#8221; with his heart.
Bourdain, described by some of his closest friends as a tortured soul, hanged himself in June 2018. Some of his last correspondence by text is included in an unauthorized biography by journalist Charles Leerhsen, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/27/dining/anthony-bourdain-biography.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> Tuesday.
“I am okay. I am not spiteful. I am not jealous that you have been with another man,&#8221; Bourdain sent to Argento one day before he killed himself, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/27/dining/anthony-bourdain-biography.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reveals</a> &#8220;Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain.&#8221; &#8220;I do not own you. You are free. As I said. As I promised. As I truly meant.”
Bourdain was reportedly heartbroken over photos of Argento with another man, which were published online days before he killed himself.
&#8220;But you were careless[.] You were reckless with my heart. My life,&#8221; he wrote to the actress.
The same day, the &#8220;Parts Unknown&#8221; host told his close friend and ex-wife Ottavia Busia-Bourdain that he hated fame.
“I hate my fans, too. I hate being famous. I hate my job,” the 61-year-old texted. “I am lonely and living in constant uncertainty.”
The following day, Bourdain texted Argento, “Is there anything I can do?” After she responded, &#8220;Stop busting my balls,&#8221; the host wrote back, “OK,” and hanged himself, the book says.
Argento and Bourdain had a tumultuous relationship, which was captured in filmmaker Morgan Neville&#8217;s documentary &#8220;Roadrunner.&#8221;
According to interviews with people close to Bourdain, the chef was taken by Argento as soon as he met her. One friend told a magazine Bourdain was &#8220;absolutely lovestruck,&#8221; adding, &#8220;He would have done anything for her, and that was a little red flag for some of his friends,&#8221; Vanity Fair <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/07/anthony-bourdain-asia-argento-roadrunner" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>.
Bourdain even paid off an accuser of Argento, who is ironically a #MeToo darling. “Anthony was afraid of the possible negative publicity that such person, whom he considered dangerous, could have brought upon us,&#8221; she <a href="https://deadline.com/2018/08/asia-argento-jimmy-bennett-denial-anthony-bourdain-paid-harassment-1202449155/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
Recalling the loss of Bourdain, popular podcast host Joe Rogan this month alluded to a &#8220;terrible relationship&#8221; the chef was in, seemingly referring to Argento, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fed-for-a-while-rogan-gets-emotional-remembering-late-pal-anthony-bourdain" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a> reported.
Notably, in September 2018, the actress reacted to the backlash. “People say I murdered him. They say I killed him. I understand that the world needs to find a reason. I would like to find a reason too,” she <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6194885/Asia-Argento-reveals-open-relationship-Anthony-Bourdain-says-cheating-wasnt-problem.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the Daily Mail. “People need to think that he killed himself for something like this. He cheated on me, too. It wasn’t a problem for us.”
Rogan added that there always seemed to be a “fire burning” in Bourdain that his friend just “couldn’t put out.&#8221;
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a free hotline for individuals in crisis or distress or for those looking to help someone else. It is available 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fed-for-a-while-rogan-gets-emotional-remembering-late-pal-anthony-bourdain" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘F***ed For A While’: Rogan Gets Emotional Remembering Late Pal Anthony Bourdain</a>

The Build Series Presents Anthony Bourdain Discussing The Online Film Series “Raw Craft”

Anthony Bourdain’s Final Text Messages Revealed, Including Messages To Girlfriend Asia Argento

Anthony Bourdain’s Last Text Messages Revealed

Anthony Bourdain

Celebrities

Death

Suicide

Joe Rogan got emotional on his show when the subject of his late pal Anthony Bourdain came up, as he shared that he thinks he &#8220;could&#8217;ve helped&#8221; the late celebrity chef if he had been there.
During Spotify&#8217;s &#8220;The Joe Rogan Experience&#8221; <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/5oMbO3U75dlt9Ghy9ip2NW?si=9u4AOEhzS2ybyWxq3ZtoSA&amp;context=spotify%3Ashow%3A4rOoJ6Egrf8K2IrywzwOMk&amp;nd=1">podcast</a> Wednesday, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-rogan">the host</a> spoke with fellow comedian Sam Morril about a wide range of topics — and Rogan and Bourdain&#8217;s friendship came up. It was clear right away that the podcast host was having a hard time talking about <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnns-anthony-bourdain-hangs-himself-dead-61-paul-bois">his pal</a> who took his own life in 2018.
&#8220;He [Bourdain] was a very moral and ethical guy,&#8221; Rogan explained, as he breathed a deep sigh. &#8220;He was a tough one. He died, I was f***ed for a while.&#8221;
Morril noted that Joe and the CNN host were close and that&#8217;s when <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/they-suck-at-their-job-joe-rogan-says-after-stelter-canned-theyre-all-on-the-chopping-block">Rogan&#8217;s</a> voice changed.
&#8220;He&#8217;s just like a guy that I was so excited he was my friend,&#8221; the host shared as his voice cracked. &#8220;When I saw, when I first met him, I said, my wife says you&#8217;re my boyfriend and he was like, &#8216;okay.'&#8221;
&#8220;I was like, oh my god. F***,&#8221; the podcaster added. &#8220;I was like no, don&#8217;t f*** up. The only thing that saved me I think was I met him at a UFC and he was a giant UFC fan. And this was actually before he had gotten into jujitsu &#8230; and then he started getting into the UFC and then he started coming to the shows. And then he started coming to my stand up.&#8221;
&#8220;And then we started hanging out,&#8221; Rogan continued. &#8220;And then went to dinner with him a bunch of times. And going to dinner with Bourdain was f***ing amazing. It was like showing up at a rock show with Mick Jagger. &#8230; He just had this f***ing passion for things.&#8221;
Rogan admitted that even though he changed his number all the time, he still had an old phone and number he was not ever getting rid of because it was the one with text messages the two shared.
&#8220;I keep this number because I have text messages from him,&#8221; Rogan shared as his voice started changing again. &#8220;I&#8217;m just like, I&#8217;m not getting rid of them. I&#8217;m just going to keep that number just for that. Just to go over the text messages and see pictures and s*** he would send me.&#8221;
It was after that part in the conversation, that Morril said to Joe, &#8220;Damn, I&#8217;m sorry.&#8221;
&#8220;You know there&#8217;s a lot of photos of him and stuff around the studio to remind me but, yeah,&#8221; Rogan explained. &#8220;It sucks when you think you could have helped, that&#8217;s what sucks the most when a friend takes their own life.&#8221;
&#8220;And you&#8217;re like &#8216;God damnit I wish I was there,'&#8221; he added. &#8220;I think if I was there I could&#8217;ve helped.&#8221;
Morril told Joe that &#8220;there&#8217;s usually nothing you could do though. And you can&#8217;t blame yourself for that s***.&#8221;
Rogan noted the &#8220;terrible relationship&#8221; his pal was in before his death and admitted there always seemed to be a &#8220;fire burning&#8221; that Bourdain &#8220;couldn&#8217;t put out&#8221; no matter how hard he tried.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a free hotline for individuals in crisis or distress or for those looking to help someone else. It is available 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255.

Joe Rogan 406-2

‘F***ed For A While’: Rogan Gets Emotional Remembering Late Pal Anthony Bourdain

'F***ed For A While': Rogan Gets Emotional Remembering Late Pal Anthony Bourdain

Entertainment

Joe Rogan

On Tuesday, Italian actress &#8203;Asia Argento &#8212; a prominent #MeToo leader as the first woman to publicly accuse Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault &#8212; broke her silence over the recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/34717/bombshell-metoo-leader-paid-underage-accuser-ryan-saavedra">report</a> that she paid off an actor hundreds of thousands of dollars when he accused her of sexual assaulting him as a minor.
In a stunning statement, Argento denied the accusation of sexual assault, but confessed to paying off her accuser &#8212; which was where her taking ownership of the incident ended.
Argento suggested the accuser, child actor Jimmy Bennett, was lying about the nature of their relationship and was merely seeking money, as she noted his past dealings with his family.
&#8220;I am deeply shocked and hurt having read the news that is absolutely false,&#8221; reads Argento&#8217;s statement, which was first obtained by journalist Yashar Ali. &#8220;I have never had any sexual relationship with Bennett.&#8221;
She continued, &#8220;Bennett &#8212; who was undergoing severe economic problems and who had previously undertaken legal actions against his own family requesting millions in damages &#8212; unexpectedly made an exorbitant request of money from me. Bennett knew my boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain, was a man of great perceived wealth, and had his own reputation as a beloved public figure to protect.&#8221;
Argento also said it was actually her then-boyfriend, late television star Bourdain, who told her it was best they keep the matter private and offer Bennett a payoff to evade further harassment.
&#8220;Anthony insisted the matter be handled privately and this was also what Bennett wanted,&#8221; she said, adding, &#8220;Anthony personally undertook to help Bennett economically, upon the condition that we would no longer suffer any further intrusions in our life.&#8221;
&#8220;This is, therefore, the umpteenth development of a sequence of events that brings me great sadness and that constitutes a long-standing persecution,&#8221; added Argento. &#8220;I have therefore no other choice but to oppose such false allegations and will assume in the short term all necessary initiatives for my protection before all competent venues.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I just received this statement from <a href="https://twitter.com/AsiaArgento?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AsiaArgento</a> in response to the NYT story published late Sunday evening. <a href="https://t.co/jAOo7TAULX">pic.twitter.com/jAOo7TAULX</a>
&#8212; Yashar Ali (@yashar) <a href="https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1031915552699179009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2018</a></blockquote>
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That would be irony smacking you in the face, right now.
If those behind the #MeToo movement, which Argento helped to create, had any consistency, they would rip her apart for this statement. If Argento weren&#8217;t one of their own, the movement would have the actress&#8217; head for using the alleged victim&#8217;s past to discredit his claim against her.
This is not to say that Argento is lying, of course, but to point out that the rules of #MeToo, while ostensibly well-intended, can be severely damaging, fostering a culture that vilifies and destroys without evidence. &#8220;Believe all victims,&#8221; they are fond of saying, until they are not.
It&#8217;s predictable, almost, that the rules of the movement Argento helped to create are now being asked to be ignored in her case. As we&#8217;ve seen time and again, mob movements always eat themselves.

#MeToo Leader Releases Stunning Statement On Alleged Sexual Assault Of Minor, Shifts Blame To Late Boyfriend Anthony Bourdain

Sexual Assault

In an interview published in <a href="https://popula.com/2018/07/15/bourdain-confidential/">Popula</a> magazine weeks after he tragically <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/31618/cnns-anthony-bourdain-hangs-himself-dead-61-paul-bois">hung himself</a> in a hotel room, celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain spoke frankly about a wide range of topics and people, including the &#8220;entitled, rapey, gropey, grabby, disgusting&#8221; Bill Clinton, his enabler wife Hillary, and the disappointing Barack Obama. He also described how he imagined the death of Harvey Weinstein, whom Bourdain&#8217;s girlfriend has accused of sexually assaulting her.
Though Bourdain&#8217;s interview with journalist Maria Bustillos took place back in February, Bustillos finally published it on Sunday. Its content is not for the faint of heart, as Bourdain clearly felt free to be raw about some hot-button issues and famous people in his free-wheeling two-and-half-hour conversation with the journalist, a conversation that took place fittingly in one of his favorite Irish pubs.
&#8220;He talked about #MeToo and the powerful forces of evil arrayed against decent people, about Rose McGowan, about raising daughters, about the sexual mores of the 1970s,&#8221; writes Bustillos. &#8220;He told me how he imagined the death of Harvey Weinstein, a hilarious, weirdly specific fantasy that I&#8217;ll share with you in a moment. We talked about luxury, too.&#8221;
Below are some of the quotes that are making headlines, first his opinion on his &#8220;disappointment&#8221; with Hillary over her Harvey Weinstein statement:
<blockquote>
Bourdain: [W]atching the Clinton apology on Weinstein, and [Asia&#8217;s] watching this statement, there was a lot of anticipation. People were really hoping she&#8217;d come out with a&#8230; I don&#8217;t know. Let&#8217;s just say with something different. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2017/10/12/anthony-bourdain-calls-hillary-clintons-weinstein-response-shameful/?utm_term=.5e2143cdd4f1">I immediately tweeted my disappointment</a>, very much shaped by what I saw around me. And I will tell you, that was really f***ing frightening, the reaction to that. You know, I voted for her.
Bustillos: I did, too.
Bourdain: I was really disappointed with the statement. But even by expressing that, the way that my comment was turned, very neatly&#8212;suddenly I wasn&#8217;t expressing disappointment in her statement; I was blaming her for Harvey Weinstein&#8217;s crimes. The way that turned very nicely was a good bit of artistry and deeply frightening to me and really, really &#8230;
</blockquote>
After Bourdain admitted he had &#8220;no love for Clinton,&#8221; Bustillos asked, &#8220;Should we have gotten rid of Bill Clinton after the Lewinsky scandal?&#8221; &#8220;No,&#8221; said Bourdain. But then he said this:
<blockquote>
Bourdain: Bill Clinton, look, the bimbo eruptions&#8212;it was f***ing monstrous. That would not have flown today. A piece of sh*t. Entitled, rapey, gropey, grabby, disgusting, and the way that he&#8212;and she&#8212;destroyed these women and the way that everyone went along, and, and are blind to this! Screamingly apparent hypocrisy and venality. How you can on the one hand howl at the moon about all these other predators. And not at least look back. OK, let&#8217;s say, well, it was all consensual: powerful men, starstruck women, okay fine, let&#8217;s accept it at its most charitable interpretation. Fine. He is a very charming man, I met him, he&#8217;s f***ing magnetic. As is she. When you&#8217;re in the room, you think wow, she&#8217;s really warm and nice and funny. But the way they efficiently dismantled, destroyed, and shamelessly discredited these women for speaking their truth is unforgivable. Unforgivable. Why didn&#8217;t we get rid of them? We should&#8217;ve gotten rid of them back then.
</blockquote>
Bourdain also had some unflattering things to say about Barack Obama, whom he found &#8220;very unconvincing in public, much of the time,&#8221; though he found him in person to be &#8220;gracious, graceful, real, funny&#8221; and not calculating. &#8220;Minute one he started f***ing with us,&#8221; said Bourdain. &#8220;He promised transparency, he like&#8212;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/sep/05/obama-campaign-brags-about-whistleblower-persecutions">more whistleblowers were prosecuted</a> than at any time. There&#8217;s not one f***king banker in jail. Not one! Jail me one f***in&#8217; banker! These people stole nine million houses!&#8221;
Bourdain also described the death he imagined for Weinstein. &#8220;My theory of how he goes is he&#8217;s brushing his teeth in a bathroom, he&#8217;s naked in his famous bathrobe, which is flapping open, he&#8217;s holding his cell phone in one hand because you never know who on the Weinstein board has betrayed him recently, and he&#8217;s brushing his teeth,&#8221; he said.
On Trump&#8217;s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Bourdain said, &#8220;Does Jared tweeze his eyebrows? They look manscaped. Those are not natural eyebrows. It&#8217;s like Howdy Doody time. &#8230; Can you see eight guys standing around, and Jared&#8217;s out of the room? And they&#8217;re all co-conspirators, they&#8217;re all saying, &#8216;ey don&#8217;t worry bout Jared, he&#8217;s f***in&#8217; solid, the guy will stand up, he ain&#8217;t gonna say nothin&#8217;.&#8217; No one has ever said that! That f***in&#8217; little punk is gonna squeal, just show him a tray of jail food, the guy will f***in&#8217; sh*t himself. That kid was a born snitch.&#8221;
In response to Bustillos celebrating the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/us/politics/russians-indicted-mueller-election-interference.html">indictment of 13 Russians</a> back in February, Bourdain said, &#8220;I think this is most useful because it makes it so much more difficult for Trump to fire Rosenstein or Mueller, now that you&#8217;ve shown, in a not offensive way: Nobody&#8217;s accusing you of anything! I think Trump&#8217;s going down for the money. Collusion is tricky to prove, it&#8217;s the money. And once they get too close, in my view he will declare victory, congratulate himself on the fantastic job he&#8217;s done and resign, saying the job is too small for him.&#8221;
H/T <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5957551/Anthony-Bourdain-spoke-Clinton-Weinstein-one-final-interviews.html">Daily Mail</a>

Explosive Anthony Bourdain Interview Released After His Death: Unloads On Clintons, Obama

Barack Obama

Bill Clinton

Donald Trump

Harvey Weinstein

Hillary Clinton

Russia

A member of the media condemned CNN&#8217;s Anthony Bourdain for committing suicide on Friday, saying that there was a special place in hell for him while calling him obscenities.
David Leavitt &#8212; who describes himself as a freelance writer with bylines at CBS, AXS, Yahoo, and Examiner &#8212; began his attack by writing: &#8220;If you&#8217;re religious, then you believe there&#8217;s a special place in hell or purgatory for people like Anthony Bourdain who take their own lives.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
If you&#8217;re religious, then you believe there&#8217;s a special place in hell or purgatory for people like Anthony Bourdain who take their own lives.
&#8212; David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) <a href="https://twitter.com/David_Leavitt/status/1005128020007575553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Leavitt continued by calling Bourdain obscenities and claiming that if a person commits suicide that they aren&#8217;t allowed into Heaven:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Selfishly taking your own life and hurting your friends and family makes you the steaming, gaping asshole Anthony Bourdain. <a href="https://t.co/hBOxQ1W32e">pic.twitter.com/hBOxQ1W32e</a>
&#8212; David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) <a href="https://twitter.com/David_Leavitt/status/1005128596351004672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
You don&#8217;t go to heaven when you kill yourself. It&#8217;s incredibly selfish. Don&#8217;t do it. <a href="https://t.co/DHAFfSLa4y">pic.twitter.com/DHAFfSLa4y</a>
&#8212; David Leavitt (@David_Leavitt) <a href="https://twitter.com/David_Leavitt/status/1005151489818578944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Thousands of people reacted strongly to Leavitt&#8217;s remarks, expressing shock and disgust over the insensitive timing and nature of the attacks:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
what in the actual fuck is wrong with you
&#8212; golden state warrior blond (@goldengateblond) <a href="https://twitter.com/goldengateblond/status/1005152260484096000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
You are a piece of shit <a href="https://twitter.com/David_Leavitt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@David_Leavitt</a>. Evil. <a href="https://t.co/IGwQ9nwxsT">https://t.co/IGwQ9nwxsT</a>
&#8212; Yashar Ali (@yashar) <a href="https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1005142171626770432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
doing a Twitter victory lap on a man&#8217;s suicide&#8230; how do people like this exist? <a href="https://t.co/LenJ9YGxPI">https://t.co/LenJ9YGxPI</a>
&#8212; Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) <a href="https://twitter.com/jonathanvswan/status/1005150062316539904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Hahaha, what a ridiculous coward. Bourdain roasts you and you wait UNTIL HE&#8221;S DEAD to talk shit? You are all AB said and worse. Think your parents are somewhere thinking &#8221; So proud of what a douche-bag David has become, Yes! He mocked a dead man, we raised him to be weak AF&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/gVFza11THY">https://t.co/gVFza11THY</a>
&#8212; Christopher Titus (@TitusNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/TitusNation/status/1005154013216567296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I feel like this is in the top 5 worst things I&#8217;ve ever seen someone do on Twitter? <a href="https://t.co/UcyGfr6ArH">https://t.co/UcyGfr6ArH</a>
&#8212; Sirhan Sirsolo (@jacobtwop) <a href="https://twitter.com/jacobtwop/status/1005152705453678592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
There&#8217;s a special place in hell for anyone taking a victory lap hours after a suicide <a href="https://t.co/rc0RBW4rrQ">https://t.co/rc0RBW4rrQ</a>
&#8212; Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) <a href="https://twitter.com/NumbersMuncher/status/1005152495512023040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I truly hope you spend the rest of your life chopping weeds by the side of the highway in whatever part of the southeast has the most mosquitoes.
&#8212; Kaleb Horton (@kalebhorton) <a href="https://twitter.com/kalebhorton/status/1005149590075527169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>

Reporter Condemns CNN’s Anthony Bourdain For Committing Suicide

NOTE: If you are depressed or suicidal, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.
On Friday morning, CNN reported that host Anthony Bourdain had committed suicide at age 61. Bourdain had struggled with depression for years &#8211; just last year, he stated in an interview with The Guardian that he &#8220;was an unhappy soul, with a huge heroin and then crack problem. I hurt, disappointed, and offended many, many, many people and I regret a lot. It&#8217;s a shame I have to live with.&#8221;
Bourdain is just the latest in a string of prominent celebrities suffering from depression who have taken their own lives. Last week, Kate Spade committed suicide; she was reportedly fixated on Robin Williams&#8217; suicide. And suicide rates across America have been spiking: as of 2014, American suicide rates had skyrocketed to their highest rate in three decades, all the way to 13 people per 100,000, even as death rates from other causes declined markedly. Suicide was particularly common among middle-aged white people. The overall suicide rate climbed 24 percent from 1999 to 2014; <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36116166">in 2014</a>, over 14,000 middle-aged white Americans committed suicide. Between <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/19/teen-suicide-soaring-do-spotty-mental-health-and-addiction-treatment-share-blame/428148002/">2006 and 2016</a>, the suicide rate for white children jumped 70 percent, and the suicide rate among black children (while lower than that of white children overall) jumped 77 percent. According to USA Today:
<blockquote>
A study of pediatric hospitals released last May found admissions of patients ages 5 to 17 for suicidal thoughts and actions more than doubled from 2008 to 2015. The group at highest risk for suicide are white males between 14 and 21.
</blockquote>
What&#8217;s causing this uptick? Traditional theories regarding poverty don&#8217;t seem to hold much water &#8211; the economic recovery was well underway by 2014, and more poverty-stricken demographic groups in the United States had lower suicide rates than whites did on a consistent basis. And theories regarding bullying don&#8217;t seem to solve the question either &#8211; bullying isn&#8217;t worse in 2017 than it was in 1999, and studies seem to show that once <a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1054139X12004120">depression and delinquency are factored out</a>, bullying does not rate as an independent variable changing suicide rates.
Suicide is a complex social phenomenon, and it&#8217;s difficult to pin down cause and effect. Surely rising rates of opioid abuse have contributed to the suicide increase, but that wouldn&#8217;t explain the jump among young people. There&#8217;s a case to be made that decline of <a href="http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/8/11/238/pdf">religiosity in wealthier societies</a> has <a href="https://ac.els-cdn.com/S1877042812032430/1-s2.0-S1877042812032430-main.pdf?_tid=f7d97eb5-6046-4c8e-b1e9-2f2f94651c84&amp;acdnat=1528465255_321e3a6cfc9ff73728060eedec49201c">led to an uptick in suicide</a> (poorer societies tend to have far less of a suicide problem than wealthy societies, so religious differences matter less statistically). We are suffering a crisis of meaning in the West, and it&#8217;s having a significant impact on suicidality.
There&#8217;s one measure that we in the media can take more immediately: thinking about how we cover suicide.
In an age of mass media, the so-called Werther Effect becomes more prominent. One of the most durable findings in social science is the temporary uptick in suicide rate that often follows heavy media coverage of suicide. People who are vulnerable to suicidal thoughts are far more likely to commit suicide in the wake of such coverage. The Werther Effect is named after The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe; that book supposedly caused suicides all over the continent when it came out thanks to its rather romantic depiction of a lovelorn young man shooting himself. But the Werther Effect has been confirmed in <a href="http://www.thebiomedica.org/articles/crj.004.pdf">the aftermath of Marilyn Monroe&#8217;s suicide</a>, for example; the months after her death, there were 303 excess suicides (higher than average) in the United States. As The Atlantic reported, when Netflix released the suicide-glorying <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/08/13-reasons-why-demonstrates-cultures-power/535518/">13 Reasons Why</a>, &#8220;Google queries about suicide rose by almost 20 percent in 19 days after the show came out, representing between 900,000 and 1.5 million more searches than usual regarding the subject&#8230; Seventeen out of the top 20 searches were significantly elevated, and the biggest increases came with terms related to suicidal thoughts and ideation, like &#8216;how to kill yourself.&#8217;&#8221; Many European countries have laws regarding reporting on suicide; after implementing such laws, suicide rates declined. That doesn&#8217;t mean we should attempt such First Amendment violations in the United States. It does mean that we in the media should seriously consider our reportage.
Some suggest that media coverage can help reduce suicide by warning people about it &#8211; the so-called Papageno Effect, named after Mozart&#8217;s Magic Flute character who is dissuaded from suicide by three spirits. But that only really applies, <a href="http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/22/Suppl_2/A8.3">in the research</a>, to telling stories about suicidal people who learned not to commit suicide &#8211; it doesn&#8217;t apply to coverage of actual suicides.
Depression is horrible (I&#8217;ve had friends and family who suffer from it), and suicidality is a difficult condition to fight. It&#8217;s up to all of us, in the media or out, to reach out to those we love to help them fight against their demons, to infuse life with meaning, and to consider how we cover stories of suicide.

What Can We Do To Stop Suicide?

Just days after fashion icon Kate Spade was declared dead by suicide, celebrity chef and host of CNN&#8217;s hit show &#8220;Parts Unknown,&#8221; Anthony Bourdain, was found dead in his hotel room in France by an apparent suicide. He was 61.
CNN host Brian Stelter announced on Friday that friends of the celebrity chef discovered he had hung himself. No details have been provided as to whether a note had been left.
&#8220;Anthony was found dead this morning in his hotel room in France. He had hung himself, in his hotel room,&#8221; Stelter said.
In a statement on Friday morning, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/08/us/anthony-bourdain-obit/index.html">CNN confirmed</a> that Bourdain had committed suicide.
&#8220;It is with extraordinary sadness we can confirm the death of our friend and colleague, Anthony Bourdain,&#8221; the network said. &#8220;His love of great adventure, new friends, fine food and drink and the remarkable stories of the world made him a unique storyteller. His talents never ceased to amaze us and we will miss him very much. Our thoughts and prayers are with his daughter and family at this incredibly difficult time.&#8221;
The celebrity chef had been working on an upcoming episode for his award-winning show &#8220;Parts Unknown,&#8221; which featured Bourdain traveling to exotic locations all around the world as he indulged in local cuisine and customs.
In an email to employees, CNN president Jeff Zucker mourned Bourdain&#8217;s passing. &#8220;Tony was an exceptional talent,&#8221; said Zucker. &#8220;Tony will be greatly missed not only for his work but also for the passion with which he did it.&#8221;
Bourdain rose to international stardom in 1999 when he wrote The New Yorker article, &#8220;Don&#8217;t Eat Before Reading This,&#8221; which morphed into the top-selling book, &#8220;Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.&#8221;
Since then, Bourdain became a household name in the culinary world. He first hosted &#8220;A Cook&#8217;s Tour&#8221; on Food Network before moving on to his two-time Emmy Award-winning series &#8220;Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.&#8221;
While accepting the Peabody award in 2013 for his work on &#8220;Parts Unknown,&#8221; Bourdain said his work revolved around &#8220;very simple questions.&#8221; &#8220;We ask very simple questions: What makes you happy? What do you eat? What do you like to cook? And everywhere in the world we go and ask these very simple questions,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We tend to get some really astonishing answers.&#8221;
Bourdain also became a prominent figure in the #MeToo movement this past year with the announcement that his girlfriend, Asia Argento, had been allegedly raped by notorious movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
&#8220;I am proud and honored to know you. You just did the hardest thing in the world,&#8221; Bourdain tweeted at Argento&#8203; in response to the revelation.
Bourdain leaves behind an 11-year-old daughter, Ariane.

CNN’s Anthony Bourdain Hangs Himself, Dead At 61

Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain said this week that he&#8217;d poison President Donald Trump&#8217;s food if given the chance.
Ha ha &#8212; hilarious! What wit!
A TMZ reporter asked Bourdain, who hosts the travel show &#8220;Parts Unknown&#8221; on CNN, what he would serve to North Korean President Kim Jong Un and Trump if he were called to cater a meal. &#8220;Hemlock,&#8221; Bourdain said.
Hemlock is, of course, a highly poisonous plant, best known for being the substance Socrates drank after being sentenced to death. Death by hemlock is terrible way to die, as described by Plato: First intense abdominal pain, followed by convulsions, seizure, numbness and paralysis, then respiratory and heart failure.
Since Bourdain&#8217;s comment, there&#8217;s been no response by CNN. We&#8217;ve asked the cable network for comment &#8212; we&#8217;ll let you know if they respond.
Bourdain is not shy about his hatred for Trump: He said last year he will never eat in any Trump restaurant because of how much he hates Trump.
&#8220;I will never eat in his restaurant,&#8221; Bourdain said in December 2016. &#8220;I have utter contempt for him, utter and complete contempt.&#8221;
CNN has had quite a few episodes with Trump haters on its network. They fired comedienne Kathy Griffin, who co-hosted their New Year&#8217;s Eve specials, but only after a huge outcry over her posing with a bloody severed head made to look like Trump.
The network canceled Reza Aslan&#8217;s show &#8220;Believer&#8221; after he called Trump a &#8220;piece of sh*t&#8221; on Twitter &#8212; but again, only after an outcry.
CNN really hates Trump. A Harvard study in May found CNN&#8217;s Trump coverage was 93% negative, 7% positive. &#8220;Trump&#8217;s coverage during his first 100 days set a new standard for negativity,&#8221; wrote the authors of the Harvard study.

Will CNN Disavow Anthony Bourdain’s Threat To Poison President Trump?

Anthony Bourdain, host of CNN&#8217;s Part Unknown, told a TMZ reporter that he would serve President Donald Trump &#8220;hemlock,&#8221; a highly poisonous plant if given the opportunity.
Bourdain was approached by the reporter outside LAX airport and asked if he would do a food show in North Korea, to which he emphatically replied &#8220;no&#8221; &#8212; as he proceeded to go on a foul-mouthed rant about North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, calling him a &#8220;chubby, evil little F**k.&#8221;
However, when asked what he would serve if he were to cater a dinner for President Donald Trump, Bourdain replied &#8220;hemlock.&#8221;
<iframe loading="lazy" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gwxBVX7HZtU" width="560"></iframe>
Hemlock is a well-known poisonous plant found in North America and Europe that can be highly lethal if ingested by humans. It serves basically only one purpose: as poison.
Bourdain is certainly not shy about his hatred for President Trump as he said last year he will never eat in any Trump restaurant because of how much he hated Trump.
&#8220;I will never eat in his restaurant,&#8221; Bourdain said in December 2016. &#8220;I have utter contempt for him, utter and complete contempt.&#8221;
Bourdain&#8217;s comments are just the latest in a pattern of hateful comments and actions by CNN employees aimed at the president.
Reza Aslan, host of CNN&#8217;s Believer with Reza Aslan, tweeted earlier this year that President Trump was &#8220;a piece of s&#8212;&#8221; and &#8220;an embarrassment to mankind.&#8221;
Most notorious, however, was Kathy Griffin&#8217;s beheading video where she showed a severed head of the president. Griffin had co-hosted a New Year&#8217;s Eve show on CNN with Anderson Cooper prior to the incident &#8212; however, it took the network 24 hours to condemn her behavior and announce that she would no longer be hosting the show.
The Daily Wire reached out to CNN for comment on Bourdain&#8217;s remarks and so far has not received a response.

SHOCK: CNN Host Anthony Bourdain Says He Would ‘Poison’ Trump

In an <a href="http://reason.com/archives/2016/12/29/anthony-bourdain/1">interview</a> with Reason.com&#8217;s Alexander Bisley, famous chef/world traveller, Anthony Bourdain, offered several scathing criticisms for progressives:
Free Speech
<blockquote>
&#8220;I hate the term political correctness, the way in which speech that is found to be unpleasant or offensive is often banned from universities. Which is exactly where speech that is potentially hurtful and offensive should be heard.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Bourdain went on to condemn those who castigate comedians for being offensive or challenging, adding that he would never organize boycotts or campaigns to harm someone&#8217;s livelihood because their work offends him.
Liberal Elites
<blockquote>
&#8220;The utter contempt with which privileged Eastern liberals such as myself discuss red-state, gun-country, working-class America as ridiculous and morons and rubes is largely responsible for the upswell of rage and contempt and desire to pull down the temple that we&#8217;re seeing now.
I&#8217;ve spent a lot of time in gun-country, God-fearing America. There are a hell of a lot of nice people out there, who are doing what everyone else in this world is trying to do: the best they can to get by, and take care of themselves and the people they love. When we deny them their basic humanity and legitimacy of their views, however different they may be than ours, when we mock them at every turn, and treat them with contempt, we do no one any good.&#8221;
</blockquote>
According to Bourdain, &#8220;preaching to the converted&#8221; is a terrible practice that &#8220;does not win hearts and minds.&#8221;
Animal Rights Activists
When Bisley brought up the topic of dog meat, Bourdain made his contempt toward aggressive animal rights activists clear:
<blockquote>
&#8220;The way in which people dismiss whole centuries-old cultures&#8211;often older than their own and usually non-white&#8211;with just utter contempt aggravates me. People who suggest I shouldn&#8217;t go to a country like China, look at or film it, because some people eat dog there, I find that racist, frankly. Understand people first: their economic, living situation. I&#8217;ve spent time in the not-so-Democratic Republic of the Congo. The forests there are denuded of any living thing. It&#8217;s not because they particularly like to eat bush meat, it&#8217;s because they&#8217;re incredibly hungry, and seeking to survive.&#8221;
</blockquote>
The globe-trotting chef noted that many people in developing nations don&#8217;t have the &#8220;luxury to think beyond their immediate needs,&#8221; and although he&#8217;s against animal cruelty, he believes activists would do well to develop &#8220;a little more empathy for human beings to balance out this overweening concern for puppies&#8230;[it] would be a more moral and effective strategy.&#8221;
Bourdain, who&#8217;s an ardent liberal, was able to shine some light on several critically flawed aspects of liberal thinking. Such intellectual honesty from progressives at large would be welcome.
Since Donald Trump won the presidential election, some on the Left have begun to examine and dissect their own culture of identity politics and elitism. Unfortunately, those individuals are the exception to the rule.

Anthony Bourdain Slams Contempt ‘Eastern Liberals’ Have for ‘Working-Class America’

Liberalism

Celebrity chef and CNN host Anthony Bourdain, who hosts Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, asserts he will never partake of food restaurateur Alessandro Borgognone&#8217;s new sushi restaurant at Trump&#8217;s Washington D.C. hotel, stating he has &#8220;utter and complete contempt&#8221; for Borgognone.
Bourdain slammed Borgognone as well as chef David Burke, who took over Jose Andres&#8217; planned restaurant at the hotel after Andres pulled out in protest of Trump&#8217;s comments about Mexican immigrants. He told <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/12/21/14038332/anthony-bourdain-election-trump-interview">Eater:</a>
<blockquote>
I will never eat in his restaurant. I have utter contempt for him, utter and complete contempt. Just like David Burke &#8212; I mean, I never had the highest opinion of him in the first place, but I guess he&#8217;s the last person in this life I should look to for principles. Burke <a href="http://dc.eater.com/2016/9/16/12941794/blt-prime-opening-trump-hotel-dc">went in and took over</a> [the space Jose Andres had originally occupied], and promptly tried to poach his staff, I hear. This was after Jose reached out and said &#8220;Everyone welcome him to Washington, don&#8217;t hold it against him, just because I decided to pull out.&#8221; So Burke&#8217;s a steaming loaf of shit, as far as I&#8217;m concerned, and feel free to quote me.
</blockquote>
When asked why the chefs would work at Trump&#8217;s hotel, Bourdain added they were thinking, &#8220;I&#8217;m gonna get in good with the President and make me some money!&#8221;
In late September, <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/anthony-bourdain-dining-donald-trump-exclusive/">TheWrap</a> asked Bourdain if he would dine with Trump and got an incendiary response:
<blockquote>
Absolutely f&#8212;ing not. I&#8217;ve been a New Yorker most of my life, [and] for better or worse Mr. Trump is a New Yorker. We know him well here. We&#8217;ve watched how he does business and we&#8217;ve watched him say things and then we&#8217;ve seen whether or not he did those things, we have seen how he treats the people he does business with. I would give the same answer that I would have given 10 years ago, when he was just as loathsome.
</blockquote>

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