PAINDORA Podcast

Apr 09, 2020

"Two physicians unleashing the truths, evils and hope for a world with less pain amid the stress and challenges of human life."

I just wanted to share the beginning of the PAINDORA Podcast, featuring myself and Dr. Kevin Cuccaro. Dr. Cuccaro and I have several things in common including our training as anesthesiologists and as fellowship-trained pain medicine physicians. Beyond that, we also chose not to join traditional pain practices. We may have come to that decision at different times in our careers, but we both realized that there are healthier and more effective ways to help those in pain.

We intentionally played on the word Pandora, as in Pandora's box or jar. Most people recall that the Greek myth relates to the release of evils, which in some ways relates to the dangers we inflict on those in pain in the current medical system.

However, the last thing that remains in Pandora's box that was initially not released was Hope, which is exactly what we intend to instill in those who listen to us discuss topics that range from all types of health challenges including pain.

Here is a synopsis of the Pandora story according to Encyclopaedia Brittanica: 

"Pandora, (Greek: “All-Gifts”) in Greek mythology, the first woman. According to Hesiod’s Theogony, after Prometheus, a fire god and divine trickster, had stolen fire from heaven and bestowed it upon mortals, Zeus, the king of the gods, determined to counteract this blessing. He accordingly commissioned Hephaestus (a god of fire and patron of craftsmen) to fashion a woman out of earth, upon whom the gods bestowed their choicest gifts. In Hesiod’s Works and Days, Pandora had a jar containing all manner of misery and evil. Zeus sent her to Epimetheus, who forgot the warning of his brother Prometheus and made Pandora his wife. She afterward opened the jar, from which the evils flew out over the earth. Hope alone remained inside, the lid having been shut down before she could escape. In a later story the jar contained not evils but blessings, which would have been preserved for the human race had they not been lost through the opening of the jar out of curiosity. Pandora’s jar became a box in the 16th century, when the Renaissance humanist Erasmus either mistranslated the Greek or confused the vessel with the box in the story of Cupid and Psyche." *

You can find the Paindora Podcast at YouTube, which contains videos of my conversations with Dr. Kevin Cuccaro and other future guests to share our perspective and insights. We hope you find hope wherever pain or struggles lurk. We hope to bring this to iTunes and other podcast locations later in 2020.

*https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pandora-Greek-mythology