Explore every episode of the podcast Suicidology: Data and Evidence

In the five months after Robin Williams' death in 2014, the US recorded about 1,800 more suicides than expected, most of them by the same method that was widely reported. Dr. Tyler Black goes through the history and evidence on suicide contagion, from Goethe's Werther to Vienna's subway, shares his own analyses of Robin Williams and 13 Reasons Why, and covers what clinicians, journalists and all of us can do when a famous person dies by suicide.

Corrections: In the opening, the roughly 1,800 excess deaths include all methods; about 1,150–1,400 were by the method that was reported.

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Resource list:

Our paper today: Jones SM, Garcia L, Cleland CL, et al. Environmental exposure and risk of death by suicide, attempted suicide and suicide ideation: a systematic review and meta-analysis .J Epidemiol Community Health Published Online First: 15 September 2026. doi: 10.1136/jech-2025-225491

* EurekAlert press release

* Kim et al. (2010), Am J Psychiatry

* Szyszkowicz et al. (2010), Environmental Health Insights

* Braithwaite et al. (2019), Environmental Health Perspectives

* Heo et al. (2021), IJERPH

* Persico & Marcotte (2026), Journal of Health Economics

* Frangione et al. (2022), Environmental Research

* Burke et al. (2018), Nature Climate Change

* Ro et al. (2026), Nature Mental Health

As always, please consider subscribing to this podcast, and supporting ime suicidology.substack.com, so I can continue to create content for suicidology education.

References for this show:

Bagley, C. (1968). The evaluation of a suicide prevention scheme by an ecological method. Social Science & Medicine, 2(1), 1–14.

Garnett, M. F., et al. (2025). Changes in suicide rates in the United States from 2022 to 2023 (NCHS Data Brief No. 541). National Center for Health Statistics.

Gould, M. S., et al. (2007). An evaluation of crisis hotline outcomes. Part 2: Suicidal callers. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 37(3), 338–352.

Hoffberg, A. S., et al. (2020). The effectiveness of crisis line services: A systematic review. Frontiers in Public Health, 7, Article 399.

Jennings, C., et al. (1978). Have the Samaritans lowered the suicide rate? A controlled study. Psychological Medicine, 8(3), 413–422.

Miller, H. L., et al. (1984). An analysis of the effects of suicide prevention facilities on suicide rates in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 74(4), 340–343.

Pirkis, J., et al. (2015). Interventions to reduce suicides at suicide hotspots: A systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Psychiatry, 2(11), 994–1001.

Public Health Agency of Canada. (n.d.). Suicide and self-harm: Suicide mortality. Health Infobase. Retrieved September 21, 2026.

Shin, S., et al. (2026). Effectiveness of fixed landline crisis phone boxes in preventing suicides: Evidence from Australia and the United States. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 35, e59.

Stack, S. (2015). Crisis phones – suicide prevention versus suggestion/contagion effects: Skyway Bridge, 1954–2012. Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, 36(3), 220–224.

Too, L. S., et al. (2025). Impact of interventions at frequently used suicide locations on occurrence of suicides at other sites: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Medicine, 55, e168.

Zarkowski, P. (2008). The Aurora Bridge. American Journal of Psychiatry, 165(9), 1126.