About Notes on Pain

Notes on Pain is a newsletter and podcast (coming in 2027) about chronic pain: the science of it, the lived experience of it, and the gap between the two.

I’m Stephani Sutherland, PhD, a neuroscientist trained in pain biology and a science journalist of more than 20 years. I also live with chronic pain. What I do best is speak the language of both patients and researchers and carry information between them, with the ethics of rigorous journalism.

Nearly one in four American adults lives with chronic pain. Pain is the top reason people see a doctor, yet physicians here receive little required training in it. Researchers are making real advances, but those discoveries aren’t reaching the people who need them, and too many people can’t get the care that already exists.

Notes on Pain exists to close that gap. We follow the latest research and explain what it means in practice, in the voices of the people living with pain and the experts who study it. No influencers hawking supplements. Just pain science taken seriously, with rigor, compassion, and respect.

How it works. Joining is free and always will be. As the project grows, some deeper material will move behind a paywall to help fund the work. Subscribe now to lock in the charter rate for as long as you’re subscribed. Founding Members get live access to our expert convenings, and Patrons receive special recognition here on Substack.

Wherever you’re coming from, I hope you’ll join me here.