We are pleased to announce the June Special Issue of BMJ Medical Humanities on “Pain and its Paradoxes,” guest edited by Daniel Goldberg, PhD, Faculty at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities, University of Colorado. This incredibly diverse issue looks carefully at the concept of pain cross-culturally and from a variety of disciplinary lenses. MH maintains a deep interest in the human story behind medicine, and we welcome perspectives on health as told from history, philosophy, literature, anthropology, the social sciences and more. We likewise desire to share these ideas in conversation with our readers and with a broad public. I hope you will join us in celebrating this rich diversity, and will read and engage with the articles for June’s issue. Watch our home page for the launch of the issue, though many of the articles can already be accessed through our ‘Online First’ section — and you can keep an eye on the blog where we will be publishing synopses of the papers and soundbites from authors throughout the month of June.