The Memory Hole Podcast

As others have said, this hits close to home, and this is still a current issue. My family is dealing with some recovered memory accusations, and we know two other friends who have also had recent recovered memory “diagnoses” after therapy that seem to have had devastating effects on their physical and mental health. I had my suspicions about the validity of the claims before, because I’m from the Satanic Panic era, but finding out that there’s no scientific basis behind the idea that you can forget abuse or wake up with amnesia every morning was startling, and so was the realization that these ideas permeate our culture and fiction to such an extent. Excellent work!

Terrific analysis of a topic that resonates & shares parallels with other phenomena happening today. As a teenager, I experienced a similar trajectory, being sent to a boys home and having psychological treatment by a Freudian therapist including an intensive hospitalization which unearthed all manner of memories of past trauma. A seed of skepticism remained and over the subsequent decades I have been able to extricate myself from these phantoms. Thanks for this show.

Very interesting podcast about a subject I did not know much about.

Interesting series about the recovered memory movement of the 80s and 90s. Still relevant today. My wife and I saw many similarities between this phenomenon and the transgender controversy today in terms of the social contagion aspect, and unscientific horoscope-like criteria that convinced young women that maybe the source of all their problems was this “one weird trick”, either repressed memories of abuse or gender identity. Would recommend. 4 instead of 5 starts for the audio editing and narration. The narration is noticeably louder than the interviews and news/radio/TV clips, and we were frequently adjusting the volume as a result. Also it seems like the narrator tried too hard to speak in a stereotypical “podcaster” voice instead of speaking normally: monotone, almost whispering, sounding like those ASMR videos on YouTube with the lip smacking sounds. It’s a shame, because she speaks in her normal voice when conducting interviews, and she sounded completely fine. I expect if she does more podcasts this will improve, and I look forward to seeing what she does next.