Episode 3.23 Pain

Content warning for discussions of chronic pain and illness, drug addiction, and cancer. I jokingly tweeted a screenshot of the audio file for this episode with the caption “The telltale shape of a hard-to-record minisode.” I was referring to the long, conspicuous gaps that betray how hard I find it to talk about some topics. … Continue reading Episode 3.23 Pain

taking deep breaths through the pain

Content warning for discussions of chronic pain and illness, drug addiction, and cancer.

I jokingly tweeted a screenshot of the audio file for this episode with the caption “The telltale shape of a hard-to-record minisode.” I was referring to the long, conspicuous gaps that betray how hard I find it to talk about some topics. Episode 2.3 “On Being Seen” had a similar shape, pre-edit. The hard episodes, for me, are usually the personal ones. And this is a personal one. I’m talking about pain and how it links to trauma; and I’m talking about the incredible work of disability studies scholars and disability justice activists. And because I’m talking about a bunch of really great writing, here are a bunch of links:

I recommend everything by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, especially their newest book of poetry, Tonguebreaker
I didn’t mention this in the episode, but I also recommend The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison, which thinks in really interesting ways about the difference (or lack of difference) between “real” and “imagined” pain
Here are the pieces I read as recommended on Twitter. As usual, if there’s something you want to read but it’s paywalled, just let me know!

“Pain Scale” by Eula Bliss
An excerpt of Opium Eater: The New Confessions by Carlyn Zwarenstein
“Recovering a Cripistemology of Pain: Leaky Bodies, Connective Tissue, and Feeling Discourse” by Alyson Patsavas 
“The Bodymind Problem and the Possibilities of Pain”  by Margaret Price

And here are the things recommended on Twitter than I haven’t had a chance to read yet:

Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women’s Pain by Abby Norman
The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability by Susan Wendell
Sick: A Memoir by Porochista Khakpour (but here’s a great review)
“Face of Rhythm” by Kim Hyesoon

Read Transcript

The podcast theme song is “Mesh Shirt” by Mom Jeans off their album “Chub Rub.” Listen to the whole album here or learn more about them here. Follow me @hkpmcgregor, follow Kaarina @kaarinasaurus, and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda.

Secret Feminist Agenda is recorded and produced by Hannah McGregor on the traditional and unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.