Why does Mike Hayes ask his friends whether they have considered harming themselves?

Mike Hayes said his first SEAL roommate, Job Price, who had checked on Hayes's family throughout his 2012 deployment, took his own life in Afghanistan in December 2012 soon after taking over there. Hayes had tried to phone him the day before but could not get through, and believes he would have heard something in his voice. Since then he asks military friends directly whether they have considered harming themselves. He says dozens have said yes, and he then asks whether they have a plan and gets them to a professional.

• Hayes calls this being intrusive in other people's lives, an idea he wrote about in Never Enough.
• Hayes says the suicide of Chad Wilkinson, whom nobody saw coming, showed it can happen to anyone.

▸In their words

“It's a really uncomfortable question. But I'll take 99 awkwards for the one person that's like, yeah, actually, Mike, I have.” Mike Hayes · at 2:00:21 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on The Shawn Ryan Show (2026-10-22). Read the whole episode summary →

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