History is full of half-forgotten tales. That time, for instance, when the British thought Ben Franklin was helping the French build a death ray. Or when everyone in the Netherlands accidentally got high for a year on rye bread tainted by a psychedelic mold. Or how a dentist’s visit to Carlsbad Cavern inspired a doomsday weapon that could have ended World War II, if the atom bomb hadn’t done it first. Nate DiMeo has been collecting these stories, in short, wonderful podcasts, on a site called The Memory Palace. [%comments]
The Memory Palace
TAGS: history
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Cool. Looks like a place I get get interesting podcasts in between seasons of RadioLab.
Can’t help wondering if the name of the blog is a reference to the memory palace of Matteo Ricci. The biography by Jonathan Spence is a great read.
I’m feeling guilty after listening to the doomsday weapon podcast. I get more sad thinking about the poor little bats getting blown up than the hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians getting blown up. Why do I have so much empathy for BATS!?
Also, I know PETA gets a lot of flak for being animal lovers and people haters (at least from South Park they do). I wonder what they’d think about the bat bombs.
I should warn fellow listeners that these podcasts seem to be kinda depressing if you’re a sensitive soul (as I am).
This is why I majored in history. You can’t make up stuff as good as what actually happens.
Mathew R. #5;
One can also make up stuff, and put it in histories, so that people actually believe that it happened. The Texas and Kansas educational book review boards have no monopoly on it, either.
I think the Memory Palace needs little summaries below the titles. Having to guess what might be of interest is an annoyance. By the way, although Nate has done a fine job, there are a zillion similar sites online….and I love them all.
Hardly anything beats the radio/internet version of Ira Glass’ “This American Life”. Afficianatos will remember Episode 62-Something for Nothing, Hands on a Hardbody.
Mathew R. #5; Do they teach history majors to say, “…You want fries with that?….”
And finally, HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.
—Ambrose Bierce
very nice, a shorter version of This american Life.Love it.