Memory is the process that helps us register, store, and recall information. Storytelling and memory have always been intricately connected: sounds, smells, images and feelings from our individual and collective past float around for us to organize into the stories we tell ourselves. As Aldous Huxley once said, “every man’s memory is his private literature.” Segments in this episode include: 

Excerpt from "Swann's Way" by Marcel Proust

Swann Way is the first Volume in Proust's series, "In Search of Lost Time (Remembrance of Things Past)." This passage is about a moment of involuntary memory: the narrator finds themselves filled with images, sounds, and feelings during a simple afternoon tea. We’d like to thank Peggy Woodruff, part of our BYUradio family and announcer for Classical 89, for lending her voice talent to this passage for us. 

Interview with Nate DiMeo

The Memory Palace is a storytelling podcast devoted to stories of the past. Each story is an extremely detailed world built with personal memories, slightly obscure histories, and a thoughtful interpretation of individual people and their moments. The Memory Palace is a member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a network of narrative-driven radio shows. Recently, The Memory Palace was named a finalist for a 2016 Peabody Award.

Its creator, Nate DiMeo, is an expert storyteller having had his hand in a few different mediums over the years. Nate is the Artist in Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for 2016/2017, is the co-author of the book, Pawnee: the Greatest Town in America, and was a finalist for the 2012 Thurber Prize for American Humor. Having spent a decade or so in public radio, you may have heard him on NPR’s All Things Considered, Morning Edition, or Marketplace. You can learn more about The Memory Palace at thememorypalace.us 

A Conversation with The Payne Family

In this segment, Sam Payne speaks with his father about his extensive journalkeeping habit.