Consumption and the accumulation of stuff is often viewed as the path to happiness, but Simmons thinks that all consumption stems from an effort to distance oneself from pain, or steer oneself closer to pleasure. Addiction (both chemical and/or emotional) through food, sex, drugs, or other modes of excess, is the consequence of values fostered through myriad cultural touchpoints. We are programmed to expect a post-pain “reward,” for example, of a lollipop, the minute we walk out of the doctor’s office as toddlers - training us in a Pavlovian way to always expect the next dopamine-inducing reward. Whether it’s from Instagram filters, our latest big-ticket purchase, that quick-hit of sugar, or habit-forming medications that have ravished society, “Sucker for Pain” explores a syringe’s transformation from an instrument of medical practice to a simultaneously political and commercial object; idolized and idealized in our culture’s desire to escape the mundane and experience life through euphoria.