This is the memory palace. I'm Nate DeMoeu.

This episode was recorded on April 2nd, 2020, in my home in Los Angeles while sheltering

in place per the order of state and local officials. I mentioned that for the benefit of

those listening to this in the future, whether that is decades from now somehow, or merely

next week, when things may very well be very different than they are right now. As of

this state, the Centers for Disease Control recommend that everyone wash their hands frequently

and do so for at least 20 seconds. What follows are 20 stories each 20 seconds long to assist

you in that task.

One.

In Chicago, in the teens, in the nightclubs, when there was nothing sexier, nothing that

said more about status and power, about the thrill of being alive right then and there

than the automobile. The dancers and the callgirls dabbed a new perfume behind their ears

and the napes of their necks, straight gasoline.

Two.

The poet was sure he was dying, a heart attack, and then several strokes. In staring oblivion

in the face, he had to confess. So William Carlos Williams told his wife everything about

the affairs, about how he had done her so wrong so often, confessed all of it, and then

he lived for another 14 years.

Three.

The Civil War came to Wilmer McLean's house. When Union soldiers came and took over his

kitchen before the Battle of Bull Run at the beginning of the war and he was forced to

move. He found a lovely new home in Appomattox, Virginia, where five years later soldiers

...