I'm Matt Ray and I'm a sociologist at Temple University and I study the sociology of race

and ethnicity and I study cultural sociology and I study medical sociology and sort of the

sociology of health and illness.

And lately at least or in part of what you study I know you've been studying suicide

as well correct?

I have.

To sum up what I do in a word would be to say that I study losers.

And I am interested in those who lose out on societal gains and out on opportunities

and it's another way of saying I'm interested in inequalities and stratification.

From WNYC and APM, American Public Media, this is Freakonomics Radio.

The podcast that explores the hidden side of everything.

Here's your host, Steven Dubner.

If you had to guess, would you say that more people in the US die from homicide or from

suicide?

I mean homicide is certainly a lot noisier in the newspaper headlines and the cop shows

on TV.

But the fact is there are more than twice as many suicides every year, about 36.5 thousand

suicides versus about 16.5 thousand homicide.

And more people kill themselves in the western states than in any other part of the country.

The sociologist Matt Ray is studying the so-called suicide belt.

He's also written a paper about one place out west that boasts the dubious distinction

of having the highest suicide rate of any city in the country.

...