I’m sure you’ve heard of shingles, right? It’s a disease. You’ve probably seen commercials for the vaccine. It’s a painful, blistering rash. I’ve never had it, but who cares. Did you know it comes from Chickenpox? I like to believe I’m not that old, but it was common to get Chickenpox when I was a kid. The vaccine was introduced in 1995. Anyway, so you get chickenpox as a child, then it just goes away. But, here’s what happens next… the virus still lives in the cell bodies of your dorsal root ganglia (and cranial nerve cell bodies). It sits there dormant for years. Then, one day, it just reactivates and it travels along the axons to the nerve endings and produces blisters in the skin… a terrible, painful, blistering rash.
You know what else was dormant for years, only to come back suddenly? Me! Eminem had a song about it.
If you’ve been in the field of neuromonitoring and neurophysiology for a while, we probably know each other, right? I mean, we go way back.
If you’re new to the field, you’re probably wondering, “who’s this cheugy simp?” I mean, nobody, really. I’m just a guy living out life on the pale blue dot of a planet, orbiting a star in the middle of nowhere… just like you. Only difference is, I started a podcast.
Truth is, I love to write, I love to teach, and I love communicating with people all around the world. I’m very passionate about brain stuff, and I will talk nerdy to you all day long. Try me!
About 7 years ago, I started a blog about neuromonitoring. It was called neurologic labs… no idea why I called it that. Maybe because the whole idea of writing a blog was an experiment. I did this in a time when there was almost nothing on the internet about neuromonitoring.
I had no idea if it would be successful, or fail. I just wanted to write, to teach, to connect with people and build a network.
I learned fairly quickly that people really liked hearing from me.
I mean, I was shocked… at the height of my writing in 2018, I had over 2,500 people reading my blog on a monthly basis. That’s over half of all people working in IONM in this country. Amazing!
Then, one day, I just shut it down and removed every trace of my website from the internet. I think a lot of my readers didn’t understand why, so I’ll tell you. I deleted the website because the IONM group I worked for was sold to a much larger company, and I just assumed the new company would make me shut down the blog. So, I wanted to make that decision on my own terms… probably because I don’t like being told what to do.
In hindsight, I don’t know if that company would have forced me to take down the blog. I learned a good lesson, though. Never make assumptions about people. Ask questions, learn, clarify. You may be surprised at what you find. Sadly, most of what I wrote on that blog is lost, never to be seen again.
I noticed over the last few years since shutting down my blog that something was missing from my life, and it became so apparent during COVID. I missed the creative outlet of writing, I missed connecting with people, I missed just being part of the world. That’s why I’m here with you today, starting a podcast… talking about the things that interest me, meeting and interviewing new people, chatting with old friends, mixing in education about everything from neurophysiology to management.
I’m calling this thing Stimulating Stuff. I mean, it’s what you do in IONM, right? Stimulate stuff? But it’s also the topics, the people, the discussions that make up this podcast… that’s also stimulating stuff… see what I did there? Nothing? Cool.
Look. All of this is to say, I’m back! Like chickenpox… because I had this itch to be creative and network. I want to connect and unite people in our field.
So listen, I’ve got a bunch of amazing guests lined up for interviews about all kinds of topics. There will be people you know and people you’ve never heard of… rising stars, has-beens, movers, shakers, troublemakers, and other alleged people of interest. I even have some super-interesting people from outside of IONM.
Aside from interviews, some days I’m just gonna roll solo and run my mouth about things that interest me. I hope you’ll join me on this adventure. Please remember to like and share my posts.
Finally, If you have ideas for episodes, specific topics, OR… if you have something you’d like to share in an interview, send an email to [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you!
I’m Rich Vogel, and that was Stimulating Stuff!