
261 episodes

the memory palace Radiotopia
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- History
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4.8 • 6.6K Ratings
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From public radio producer, Nate DiMeo, comes The Memory Palace, a finalist for the 2016 Peabody Award and one of iTunes Best Podcast of 2015. Short, surprising stories of the past, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hysterical, often a little bit of both.
"The most potent pieces of audio being produced today." - The AvClub
thememorypalace.us
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at radiotopia.fm
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Episode 204: Wolves
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Music
In My Heaven All Faucets Have Fountains by yes/and
A snippet of Runaway from Olafur Arnauld’s score to Gimme Shelter
Spectral Canon from Conlon Nancarrow from James Tenney
The Hourglass by Ben Crosland. -
episode 76: Mary Walker Would Wear what she Wanted
This episode was originally released in 2015.
Proceeds from this episode are being donated to the Transgender Law Center.
Music
*Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth’s Modesty Blaise score.
*The piece opens with Rainfall, by David Darling and Michael Jones.
*Her brief love story is scored by Nathan Johnson’s Penelope’s Theme from his score to The Brothers Bloom.
*When she lands her first gig, we start Garde a Vue, and roll into Le Roi de coeur, from Chantal Martineau.
* The vibraphone piece is “Opening” by Nathaniel Bartlett.
* The recurring violin piece is called Geometria del Universo by the one-named Colleen.
* It ends on Romain’s First Love, again by Georges Delarue, from his fantastic score to Promise at Dawn.
Notes
* I read a lot about Mary, but by far the most useful and most thorough works I came upon were: Sharon M. Harris’ Dr. Mary Walker: An American Radical and A Woman of Honor: Dr. Mary E. Walker and the Civil War, in which author Mercedes Graf does a great job walking the reader through Walker’s unpublished memoir.
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts. -
Episode 67: Every Night Ever
This episode was originally released in summer of 2015.
Music
* Under the credits is Harlaamstrat 74 off of John Dankworth’s Modesty Blaise score.
* Then, we have the most obvious crickets/summer night song ever: the fantastic, perpetually delightful Green Arrow from Yo La Tengo’s I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, which has soundtracked many crickety summer nights for me over the years.
* The cops roll in to a loop of the very beginning of the epic Ptah, the El Daoud, the title track to Alice Coltrane’s album from 1970.
* Then we have a mix of two improvisations from Charles Cohen’s “Brother I Prove You Wrong”: Cloud Hands and The Boy and the Snake Dance.
* There’s a brief dip into Dorian, by Fang Island.
* The jaunty accordion, typewriter thing is Biking is Better on Wintergatan’s eponymous album.
Notes
I researched this one primarily through old newspapers. The easiest place to find a number of them is to read the excellent site, The Museum of Hoaxes’ page on this event. Also: if you’re in the Atlanta area and ever want to have yourself a day, you can see the actual monkey. It’s preserved in a jar at the Georgia Bureau of Investigations museum in Decatur Georgia.
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts. -
Episode 148: Safe Passage
This episode was originally released in September of 2019.
Music
We start with the Opening of Craig Armstrong’s score to Far From the Madding Crowd.
Glass Houses no. 13 from Ann Southam.
Earring from Julia Wolf.
Occam II for Violin from Eliane Radigue.
Rearranging Furniture from Gabriel Yared’s score to By the Sea.
A bit of Movement II from Martynov, “Come in!” by Vladimir Martynov.
Notes
Plenty written about the Willie D.. I found Roger Branfill-Cook’s Torpedo: the Most Revolutionary Weapon in Naval History to be particularly useful.
I also enjoyed stumbling upon this day-by-day breakdown of F.D.R.’s Presidency. -
Episode 94: Numbers (rebroadcast)
This episode was originally released in August 2016
Note
* Here’s a link to watch an excerpt of the CBS news break.
* One of my favorite things I came across while reading up on the lottery was this site, which includes a remarkable page where folks send in their personal stories of their draft experience.
Music
* Elevator Song by Keaton Henson (feat. Ren Ford)
* Waves by Abby Gundersen -
Nate's episode of the year 2022: In France or in Heaven
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
A note on notes: We’d much rather you just went into each episode of The Memory Palace cold. And just let the story take you where it well. So, we don’t suggest looking into the show notes first.
Music
Blithe Field does RD 1
O Venezia, Venuga, Venusia by Nino Rota
Carthage by Hayden Perdido
Nice Breeze, Isn’t It? from Simon Rackham
Mystere by amiina
Blithe Field also does Racing Backward
as well as Prelude
Customer Reviews
The best!
This is my absolute favorite podcast. Nate tells such lovely stories about the footnotes in history. It’s 100% poetry in podcast form. It’s unlike anything else that I’ve ever heard
My favorite
This is my favorite podcast. Nate is a gifted storyteller, with a wonderful voice and delivery. I frequently (and happily) re-listen to each episode to make sure I didn’t miss anything, so subtle are the nuances in some of his beautiful sentences. The episodes are short — I wish they were longer but their brevity is part of the charm. I learn something new with every episode, and and many times after listening I will go down the Internet rabbit hole to read more about these forgotten pieces of our history.
Top 5 All-Time Best
Would you like to have your faith in goodness, real human decency, love of humanity, respect for history and story-telling? Then you found your home! Sometimes sad, always compelling, historically correct vignettes that place you in time and place are a treat for the soul and a welcome break from the daily barrage of terrible news. Nate DiMeo’s voice, whether discussing the horrors of the shirtwaist factory fire or saying”whoa dude” in an interview is a balm for the ears. An ear crush? Yes! History lover? Yes! More, Nate, more!