Hello, Podwalkers, and welcome back to the Goblin Lore Podcast!

cw, tw: suicide, suicidal thoughts, depression

Back in our forty-seventh and forty-eighth episodes, Chase joined us to discuss how Magic: the Gathering has handled suicide and suicidal thoughts in its stories – from Gideon Jura, to Chandra Nalaar, to the Primeval dragon Darigaaz. In an article on our website, too, previous host Joe explored some of these concepts and how they were handled in War of the Spark.

This is a sensitive topic that is extremely important to the members of the cast, and we feel like it's necessary to examine the depictions of these mental health crises in popular media. We hope those episodes can be educational for those who have not experienced these thoughts and feelings, and comfort and a resource for those who have. 

For today's episode we return to that topic while also looking at a narrative technique (so we're joined again by Reinhardt!!): The Hero's Sacrifice. This is a story element that can be done well and used effectively and also can fall pretty flat. We want to look at this topic and also leave Suicide Awareness Month with another focus on how this device may play out in Magic and in other popular media.

We also are proud to have partnered with Grinding Coffee Co a black, LGBT+ affiliated and owned, coffee business that is aimed at providing coffee to gamers. You can read more about their mission here. You can use our partner code for discounted coffee!

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As promised, we plan to keep these Mental Health Links available moving forward too. For general Mental Health the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has great resources for people struggling with mental health concerns as well as their families. We also want to draw attention to this article on stigma from NAMI's site.

If you’re thinking about suicide or just need someone to talk to right now, you can get support from any of the resources below.

• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

• Veteran's can Press 1 at anytime to be taken to the Veteran's Line

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You can find the hosts on Twitter: Hobbes Q. at @HobbesQ, and Alex Newman at @Mel_Chronicler. Send questions, comments, thoughts, hopes, and dreams to @GoblinLorePod on Twitter or [email protected].

Opening and closing music by Wintergatan (@wintergatan). Logo art by Steven Raffael