The memory palace
[I’m exploring 100 podcasts and writing what I learn. This is No. 30.]
You will hear a voice. A man’s voice. Quiet, soothing, melancholy. It sounds curious and world-weary at the same time.
It will fill your head, take over any other thoughts you have.
The voice belongs to a man named Nate DiMeo. He has old, forgotten stories he wants to tell you.
The voice transports you back to another time. It may be 40 years ago, it may be 200 years ago.
You might find yourself in a clothing factory in Massachusetts, where a woman named Margaret Knight dreams up U.S. patent No. 116,842.
You might find yourself with sailors on a burning ship in Manhattan, who quietly saved New York in World War II.
You might find yourself in an airplane that makes a crashing landing in Arizona, with a famous lion as your cargo.
You might find yourself trapped in the arctic, which spurs Cap’n George Fred to embark on a mad, months-long sprint to San Francisco to save his crew.
It doesn’t matter when this takes place. The only time you feel is now.
The facts and reminders of these historical events are everywhere and available to everyone. You can find them in $5 hardcover books in used books stores. On eBay and Amazon. In basements and libraries.
The pages have yellowed. They smell musty.
But there’s something else here if you pay attention.
The voice you hear makes you realize how much you missed in history class. None of what you missed is contained in the facts, the dates, the big events or even the people.
What you missed are the memories. The fears. The hopes. The desires. The regrets.
You missed the inflection in a voice. You missed what goes on in the mind 50, 100 or 200 years ago, which is captivating to wonder about but impossible to ever truly know.
What you missed is between the lines of history.
What you missed is in that voice.
