Anthony Bourdain Dead at 61

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has since lived and traveled around the world several times over. Though frequently writing about politics out of a sense of duty and love of country, most of the time he would prefer discussions on history, culture, occasionally nerding on aviation, and his amateur foodie tendencies. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter @four4thefire and his food writing website Yonder and Home. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast. Subscribe to Andrew's Heard Tell SubStack for free here:

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14 Responses

  1. Jaybird says:

    It kind of makes me wonder about the ethics of covering suicides if it’s possible that their visibility might make them contagious.Report

    • Oscar Gordon in reply to Jaybird says:

      Seems right up there with the ethics of reporting on the details of mass killings/killers. Money wins out over ethics, despite growing evidence that the reporting causes others to trip their thresholds.Report

      • LeeEsq in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

        The counter-argument is that not reporting about mass shootings allows for people to avoid uncomfortable arguments that they don’t like. Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil. Even if mass shootings do cause other would be mass shooters to reach their threshold, should the public be kept in ignorance of what is actually happening for their own good? Helps to avoid any argument on guns to.Report

        • gabriel conroy in reply to LeeEsq says:

          That’s close to my view. While there may be smarter ways to report on mass shootings* than what the media currently do, they’re still news. However, I get that Oscar wasn’t saying the media shouldn’t ever report them. He was just saying the media might want to refrain from specific details. But even those details, in my opinion, may be important for compelling us to face uncomfortable discussions.

          *(I realize this sub-thread started by talking about suicide, and that may be a different thing when it comes to what the media should report and how it should report it.)Report

    • Pinky in reply to Jaybird says:

      I know that papers don’t cover teen suicides for that reason.Report

    • fillyjonk in reply to Jaybird says:

      I tend to feel the same way. (And also the same way about mass shootings).

      I know of late people have liked to blame social media for many of our culture’s ills, but I think the 24-hour news channels are also complicit. (I’m old enough to remember a time before CNN)Report

      • Pinky in reply to fillyjonk says:

        I haven’t looked at the data, but I’ve heard it said that there was an increase in mass shootings that tracks to the birth of national cable news.Report

      • Chip Daniels in reply to fillyjonk says:

        I stopped watching cable news in 2015 and discovered that I did feel much less stress and anxiety.

        Following cable news to stay informed is like watching the constant readout of the stock market to keep track of your retirement account; it tends to fixate on the minutia and ignore the larger trend lines.Report

  2. Roland Dodds says:

    Gutted. Very sad news. Bourdain made a big impact on how I see the world.Report

  3. Mike Dwyer says:

    I will second what Roland said about him and how he impacted the way I see the world. Bourdain taught me a LOT about food, culture and how it’s all connected. He also taught me that the street vendor selling tacos should be celebrated just as much as the 5-star restaurant.

    All of these suicides are tough to process, but this one floored me. He was a hero of mine, no doubt.Report

    • Yeah. For me at least, the interesting thing is I wasn’t a fan. I saw one or two episodes of one of his shows and and decided it wasn’t for me. But strangely, I’m saddened by this death beyond the usual sadness when someone dies unnecessarily (if there is such a thing as “usual sadness” in such circumstances).Report

  4. Anne says:

    This makes me so very sad. Like @roland-dodds and @mike-dwyer Bourdain was a huge influence on how I interact with food and the world. He will be missed.Report

  5. Damon says:

    Concur.

    His show’s new episodes were really the only shows I had much interest on tv. Because of his show, my “wanna go there” list increased a lot. And I’ll give him probs for doing jujitsu at his age. Dude got a blue belt.Report

  6. Due to the subject matter of this post wanted to share what happened this morning writing it.

    The TSN article for this morning was going to be based on the NPR article that just came about suicides, buttressed with @trumwill TSN article last week and also the Kate Spade news from earlier in the week. So that post was just about ready to go when I reached out to a friend to make sure I had a fact about the Kate Spade passing correct, and the response came back “Hold on Bourdain killed himself in France.” Shortly thereafter the news broke, so we scraped that and went with what you have here.

    It was flooring. Bourdain had made his fight with demons from drug usage to depression publically known, but it was still shocking the hear, especially in the context of prepping a post about suicide and to have one announced on top of it was chilling. He was a deeply flawed and in some ways tortured man who never the less managed to accomplish much and do a lot of good. I cannot recommend “Kitchen Confidential” enough as a read, because much like his programming and other ventures, food is just the vehicle; he is really telling a story about people. I will miss his contributions, and hope he and his family find peace in this tragic time.Report