The making of a magnificent memory
All In The Mind
ABC Australia
4.5 • 825 Ratings
🗓️ 1 January 2022
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One spring weekend a few years back, around 15 people gathered in a south Melbourne office space.
They were mostly neuroscience and maths types and there for something super niche and somewhat nerdy — the Australian Memory Championships.
Anastasia Woolmer was a first time competitor — but she’d go on to win.
On All in the Mind, she explains the techniques memory athletes use, and how you can apply them to everyday life.
This episode was first broadcast on 30 May 2021.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an ABC podcast. |
| 0:09.8 | Imagine you're at a large dinner party. |
| 0:11.7 | The wine is flowing, everyone's having a good time. |
| 0:14.6 | You've just been introduced to the person next to you, and they tell you their name. |
| 0:19.4 | Do you remember it? |
| 0:21.3 | No. No. |
| 0:22.2 | No. |
| 0:22.8 | In one ear, out the other. |
| 0:24.7 | It's a definite no for me. |
| 0:26.2 | I am terrible at names. |
| 0:27.8 | And so was Anastasia. |
| 0:29.5 | She worried she had a shoddy memory in general. |
| 0:32.5 | Sort of affected the way I felt about myself and my confidence for, you know, learning new information or sometimes |
| 0:39.0 | even, you know, giving my input in a big social setting because I might not have the facts |
| 0:43.7 | that I wanted for a story. So then I felt like I couldn't tell that story. This was a problem that |
| 0:48.1 | went back years. At school, I was always the kid who didn't feel like I picked up the information to an extent where |
| 0:56.2 | I didn't even try because I was just completely away with the fairies, if you know what I mean. |
| 1:01.5 | So I often didn't really even know what subject I was sitting in. |
| 1:05.3 | So how did she go from that to becoming an Australian memory champion? |
| 1:10.0 | I've got to admit it's pretty nerdy. |
| 1:11.8 | And how can you get better at remembering names, facts, or even a speech? |
| 1:17.7 | You're listening to All In The Mind. I'm Sonny Kadar. |
... |
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