This book is based on an in-depth conversation between Howard Burton and poet, author and historian commentator Jennifer Michael Hecht. After intriguing details about how she combines writing poetry, doing scholarly history and public writing, this wide-ranging conversation movingly embellishes upon Jennifer Michael Hecht's book Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It, which is an intellectual and cultural history of the most persuasive arguments against suicide from the Stoics and the Bible to Dante, Shakespeare, Wittgenstein, and such twentieth-century writers as Albert Camus.

This carefully-edited book includes an introduction, ..Or To Lend A Hand, and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter:

1. Different Hats - And how to combine them


2. Facing the Unthinkable - Confronting suicide


3. Historical Examinations - A litany of intriguing insights


4. Suffering - Worth recognizing


5. Meaning and Mattering - The benefits of faith

About Ideas Roadshow Conversations Series (100 books):

Presented in an accessible, conversational format, Ideas Roadshow books not only explore frontline academic research featuring world-leading researchers, including 3 Nobel Laureates, but also reveal the inspirations and personal journeys behind the research. Howard Burton holds a PhD in physics and an MA in philosophy, and was the Founding Director of Canada’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.