This guide is for anyone hosting a dinner after watching an episode. It is built for a table of four to eight people and about ninety minutes. You do not need training, a clinical background, or a script. You need a table, a meal, and the willingness to go second after someone else goes first.

Use as much or as little of it as you want. Most hosts read the ground rules aloud, pick three or four questions, and let the conversation find its own way from there.

Before the dinner

• Watch the episode together, or ask everyone to watch it beforehand. Twenty-two minutes, then eat.
• Put phones away, or in a bowl by the door. The conversation depends on it.
• Seat people so no one is on the outside of the table. Circles work better than rows.
• Read the support resources on the last page before you start, so you know where they are if you need them.
• Decide who closes the night. Someone should be responsible for the last five minutes.

Read this aloud to start

How to talk about hard things

Mental health, grief, and suicide come up in these conversations. The guidance below follows safe messaging recommendations from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, NAMI, and the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. The short version: talk about it plainly, keep the person at the center, leave the details out, and always name where help is.

Say this	Not this
“Died by suicide”	“Committed suicide,” “successful attempt”
“He’s living with depression”	“He’s depressed,” “she’s bipolar”
“Are you thinking about suicide?” — asked directly and calmly	Hinting, or avoiding the word entirely
“That sounds like a lot to carry”	“At least…,” “other people have it worse”
“Help is real, and it works for most people”	Describing suicide as a solution, an escape, or inevitable
“I don’t want to go into the details”	Method, location, or graphic description of a death

Questions for any episode

If you only have twenty minutes, use these five.

1. What is one thing in that conversation you recognized in yourself?
2. Who taught you how to handle hard feelings, and what did they teach you?
3. When was the last time you told someone the truth about how you were doing?
4. What do you carry that the people at this table don’t know about?
5. Who do you need to check on this week?

By episode

Four questions per episode. Pick two or three — you will not get through all of them, and you should not try.

Episode 1 — Draymond Green

Reputation and the person underneath it

1. What do people assume about you that isn’t true?
2. Where does your anger come from, and what is it protecting?
3. Who is allowed to tell you when you are wrong?
4. What would it cost you to be seen accurately?

Episode 2 — Dwyane Wade

Fatherhood and what gets passed down

1. What did you inherit from your parents that you are still deciding whether to keep?
2. When has loving someone meant changing your own mind?
3. What do you want the people you raise or mentor to say about you?
4. Who showed up for you when they didn’t have to?

Episode 3 — Damian Lillard

Pressure, loyalty, and leaving

1. Where in your life are you staying out of loyalty rather than fit?
2. What does pressure feel like in your body, and what do you do with it?
3. Who do you perform calm for?
4. What is the last decision you made for yourself and not for other people?

Episode 4 — Malika Andrews

Being the one who asks the questions

1. Are you easier to talk to than you are to hear from? Why?
2. What do you know about other people’s lives that no one knows about yours?
3. When did asking a real question change a relationship for you?
4. What would you say if someone asked you the question you usually ask?

Episode 5 — Chris Paul

Grief that doesn’t finish

1. Who are you still carrying?
2. What does your grief ask of you now, years later?
3. What have you built out of a loss?
4. Who in your life needs permission to still be grieving?

When it goes quiet

Silence is usually someone deciding whether to say something real. Count to ten before you fill it. If it holds longer than that, try one of these:

• Answer your own question first, and answer it honestly.
• Make it smaller: “Just one word. What’s the word?”
• Go around the table in order so no one has to volunteer.
• Move on. A question that doesn’t land is information, not a failure.

When someone opens up

• Let them finish. Do not rescue, redirect, or top their story with your own.
• Say what you heard back to them before you say anything else.
• Don’t offer a diagnosis, a supplement, or a book. Offer to stay in it with them.
• Ask what they need. “Do you want ideas, or do you want company?”
• Follow up in the next few days. The dinner matters less than the text on Tuesday.

How to close the night

Take the last five minutes. Go around the table once: who are you going to invite to dinner? Have everyone say a name out loud and send the text before they leave. That is the whole point of the series — one honest conversation invites the next one.

Support resources

Free, confidential, and available in the United States. Print this page and leave it on the table.

Resource	Reach it	For
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline	Call or text 988 988lifeline.org	Any crisis, any time. 24/7.
Crisis Text Line	Text HOME to 741741	If talking out loud is too much.
NAMI HelpLine	1-800-950-6264 Text HELPLINE to 62640	Information, referrals, and support for families. Weekdays.
SAMHSA National Helpline	1-800-662-4357	Treatment referrals, mental health and substance use. 24/7.
Veterans Crisis Line	Call 988, then press 1	Veterans, service members, and their families.
The Trevor Project	1-866-488-7386 Text START to 678-678	LGBTQ young people. 24/7.
AFSP	afsp.org	Loss support groups, safe messaging guidance.