Memory and Forgetting

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

Science, Natural Sciences, History, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.6 • 43.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2024

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Remembering is a tricky, unstable business. This hour: a look behind the curtain of how memories are made...and forgotten. The act of recalling in our minds something that happened in the past is an unstable and profoundly unreliable process--it’s easy come, easy go as we learn how true memories can be obliterated, and false ones added. Then, Oliver Sacks joins us to tell the story of an amnesiac whose love for his wife and music transcend his 7-second memory. Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected]. Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Lottif. I have now worked here so long that I sometimes forget about entire episodes.
0:10.0	And it feels especially ironic that I forgot about this one memory and forgetting from 2007 on
0:16.5	Realistening it was so good that I'm kind of shocked that I did forget it
0:20.1	The reason it came up recently is that one of our producers is working on a story about something extraordinary and surprising.
0:29.0	She found out about her own brain and memory.
0:34.0	I want to say more, but I can't.
0:35.7	The episode will come out soon.
0:36.6	It's super fascinating.
0:37.4	I cannot wait to share it with you.
0:40.0	Anyway, as she was reporting, she dug up this episode, which we're going to play for you now.
0:46.8	It is as classic radio lab as it gets.
0:50.1	It has cow brains, Oliver Sachs, a 1967 Chevy Nova,
0:56.3	everything you could possibly want in a podcast episode, obviously.
0:59.6	Okay, so listen to this, dig it,
1:02.0	and when the new episode comes out,
1:04.0	don't forget that you remembered it here first.
1:07.6	Yeah, wait, you're listening.
1:09.2	Okay.
1:10.5	All right.
1:11.8	Okay. All right. Okay.
1:13.0	All right.
1:14.0	Your listening to Radio Lab.
	...

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