If you’ve ever struggled to remember where you set down your phone, or how you know the person you just ran into at the grocery store, you’re not alone. Everyday forgetfulness is a part of living — and of aging.

But for neuroscientist Charan Ranganath, more compelling than what we remember is why we remember.

“The human brain is not a memorization machine; it's a thinking machine,” he writes in his new book “Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory's Power to Hold on to What Matters.”

Ranganath, a leading memory researcher, joined MPR News host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about how memory works (spoiler: we’re not designed to remember everything) and how it shapes who we are today.

Guest:

• Charan Ranganath is a neuroscientist and a director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at UC Davis. His new book is “Why We Remember.”

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