Every year, millions of people attempt suicide – and thousands take their own lives. This week’s guest, Kevin Hines, understands better than most.

“Twenty-four hours before I went to leap off the Golden Gate Bridge … I was in such a devastating place of complete despair. It was worse than depression. It was a darkness and it was a place where I came to believe that all of my family, all of my friends hated me and wanted me gone. Of course, none of that was true, but I believed it. My brain told me that.”

In 2000, then 19-year-old Kevin attempted suicide by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge. Miraculously, he lived, making him one of only 36 people ever to survive the 746-foot drop.

In this episode, Kevin shares his lifelong struggle with mental health and discusses how suicide creates a ripple effect of grief and pain that affects not just parents and friends, but every single person in our lives.

“When you love someone unconditionally and they pass away, that grief is with you forever. In America, we love to sit there and go, “Oh, snap out of it, get over it. Move on.” … When someone dies by suicide that we love, it is a kind of pain that you can never shake off.”

Kevin also explores the “instantaneous regret” he felt after jumping, the life-saving act of asking “Are you okay?” and the 85-year battle to raise a net rail around the Golden Gate Bridge, which will be completed in 2023.