3. Remembering Monsters: Can we trust memories?

Bad People

BBC

True Crime

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2020

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

John was home alone with his father when he suddenly remembers being abused as a child. In a fit of rage he strangles his father to death. In 2017 John wrote to Julia from prison. He had an unnerving inkling – maybe he hadn't been abused by his father, maybe everything he thought he knew about why he killed his dad was wrong. On this episode of Bad People, hosts Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen discuss whether we can trust our own memories and the consequences of ‘false memories’. They discuss the work of professor Elizabeth Loftus who pioneered the work on false memories, as well as the research Julia has conducted on implanting false memories of committing crime. Warning: This episode contains strong language and references to murder and child abuse. CREDITS: Presenters: Dr. Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen Producer: Louisa Field Assistant Producer: Simona Rata Music: Matt Chandler Series Editor: Rami Tzabar Commissioning Producer: Hannah Rose Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins Commissioning Editor: Jason Phipps Bad People is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds #BadPeople_BBC

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan
0:05.2	I'd really like to tell you a bit about what we do. I'm Julie Mackenzie and I commission comedy
0:10.2	podcast at the BBC. It's a bit of a dream job really.
0:13.0	Comedy is a fantastic joyous thing to do because really you're making people laugh,
0:18.0	making people's days a bit better, helping them process, all manner of things.
0:22.0	But you know I also know that comedy is really
0:24.4	subjective and everyone has different tastes so we've got a huge range of comedy on offer
0:29.6	from satire to silly shocking to soothing profound to just general pratting about. So if you
0:36.2	fancy a laugh, find your next comedy at BBC Sounds.
0:41.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:46.7	Three, two, one.
0:48.9	Welcome to Bad People from BBC Sounds. This is the podcast that explores humanity's dark side.
0:57.0	I am Criminal Psychologist Dr Julia Shaw.
1:00.0	And I'm Sophie Hagen, I'm a stand-up comedian.
1:03.0	In each episode, Julia is going to tell us about a real criminal case.
1:07.0	And then we are going to use criminal psychology to make sense of it.
1:11.0	Yes, we will explore this thing we call evil, not just by looking at other
1:15.9	people's bad behavior, but also our own. As usual in this episode, we are going to be talking
1:20.8	about potentially upsetting themes, including murder and sexual violence.
1:25.6	On today's episode, how our memories play tricks on us.
1:28.8	We're actually taking bits and pieces of experience and binding them together to produce what feels like a memory.
1:35.0	Raise your right hand please.
	...

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