the memory palace

Nate DiMeo

From award-winning public radio producer, Nate DiMeo, comes The Memory Palace. Short, surprising stories of the past, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hysterical, always super-great. For history buffs, fans of public radio shows like This American Life,

  • 19 minutes 38 seconds
    Nate's Favorite Episode of the Year: Emma and the Trail

    Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.

    The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Radiotopia is a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts that’s a part of PRX, a not-for-profit public media company. If you’d like to directly support this show, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. I have recently launched a newsletter. You can subscribe to it at thememorypalacepodcast.substack.com


    Music

    • Sincerely Yours by LLLL
    • Across the Other Side by Infinite Scale
    • Sunset by Resavoir
    • Mammoth by Golden Brown
    • Unassigned by Vernon Spring
    • Swimming by Explosions in the Sky
    • Pure (Ride the World) by The Brendan Eder Ensemble
    • Le Tunnel by Sylvain Chauveau
    • Floating Away by Lullatone

    Notes

    • There's a ton written about Emma Rowena Gatewood but so much of it, including this story, owes a huge debt to Ben Montgomery's book, Grandma Gatewood's Walk, which excavated the story of her life with her husband. Besides that, it is wonderfully written. Totally recommend it. 
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    18 December 2025, 8:05 am
  • 18 minutes 3 seconds
    Episode 239: Blank Pages

    Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.

    The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Radiotopia is a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts that’s a part of PRX, a not-for-profit public media company. If you’d like to directly support this show, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. 

    Music

    • The Lady With the Golden Stockings from the Sun Ra Arkestra
    • The Sage from the Chico Hamilton Quintet
    • Falling in Love with a New York Pigeon by Birb
    • Bocherini's fourth quintet as performed by the Ensemble of St. Martin of the Fields
    • From a Dream by Oregon
    • Jaybird from the great Charlie Parr
    • Pool of Love by Les Baxter
    • And House Tuner Theme from Will Bates' gorgeous score to The Sound of Silence.


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    6 December 2025, 1:12 am
  • 17 minutes 53 seconds
    From The Memory Palace Audiobook: Fine New England Granite

    Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House.

    Buy the audiobook wherever you get audiobooks (like libro.fm!)

    The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Radiotopia is a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts that’s a part of PRX, a not-for-profit public media company. If you’d like to directly support this show, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. I have recently launched a newsletter. You can subscribe to it at thememorypalacepodcast.substack.com


    Audio excerpted courtesy of Random House Audio from THE MEMORY PALACE by Nate DiMeo, read by a full cast. Excerpt read by Nate DiMeo, © 2024 Nate DiMeo, ℗ 2024 Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved.

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    26 November 2025, 3:58 am
  • 21 minutes
    Episode 238: The Crypt of Thornwell Jacobs

    Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.

    The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Radiotopia is a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts that’s a part of PRX, a not-for-profit public media company. If you’d like to directly support this show, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. 


    Music

    • Kara-Lis Coverdale's A480
    • Palimpsest from Will Bate's score to The Sound of Silence
    • Harriett Smith and Robert Martin Meet in the Rain from Isobel Waller Bridge's score to Emma.
    • The Play from Dan Romer's score to (the terrific) Station Eleven.
    • Cutting Branches from a Temporary Shelter from the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.
    • Sustainable from H. Takahashi.

    Notes

    • There's a particularly good article by Colin Dickey about Jacobs and The Crypt in American Scholar. 
    • You can read all 1100 pages of Jacobs' autobiography here, if you haven't already.
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    6 November 2025, 5:00 pm
  • 15 minutes 17 seconds
    A Teach-In for History

    On Sunday, October 26th, 2025, Nate DiMeo of this here show, The Memory Palace, and his friends and colleagues at his fellow Radiotopia show, This Day, will be holding a good, old-fashioned teach-in in defense of history and museums currently targeted by the Trump Administration. Readings and lectures from sun-up to sundown on the National Mall in Washington D.C. 

    Learn more here. 


    Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.

    The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Radiotopia is a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts that’s a part of PRX, a not-for-profit public media company. If you’d like to directly support this show, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. 

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    23 October 2025, 4:58 am
  • 12 minutes 47 seconds
    Episode 237: Vigil

    Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.

    The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Radiotopia is a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts that’s a part of PRX, a not-for-profit public media company. If you’d like to directly support this show, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. 


    Music

    • On-ness by Tom Rogerson and Eno.
    • Etude by Joep Beving
    • Ebb Tide by Houston & Dorsey
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    2 October 2025, 7:01 am
  • 14 minutes 14 seconds
    Episode 133: Antidisestablishmentarianism

    Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.

    The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Radiotopia is a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts that’s a part of PRX, a not-for-profit public media company. If you’d like to directly support this show, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. 


    This episode was originally released in October of 2018.

    Music

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    19 September 2025, 9:00 pm
  • 13 minutes 35 seconds
    Episode 236: The Times

    Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.

    The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Radiotopia is a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts that’s a part of PRX, a not-for-profit public media company. If you’d like to directly support this show, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. 

    Music

    • A couple by C. Diab: Tiny Umbrellas and Crypsis
    • The beginning of Cats Cradle (Iris) by Hannah Epperson
    • Dawning and Wind by Shida Shihabi
    • A couple from Ceeys: Neighbour II and Union

    Notes

    • I really enjoyed reading both Lew Irwin's Deadly Times: the 1910 Bombing of the L.A. Times and America's Forgotten Decade of Terror, and Bread and Hyacinths: the Rise and Fall of Utopian Los Angeles, by Lionel Rolfe
    • As an, at this point, long-time Angeleno, I highly recommend visiting the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
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    7 September 2025, 10:22 pm
  • 18 minutes
    Summer Reading: Two Transcendent Poems About Public Transportation

    Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.

    The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Radiotopia is a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts that’s a part of PRX, a not-for-profit public media company. If you’d like to directly support this show, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. 


    While Nate takes a little summer break, he reads you two poems

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    21 August 2025, 8:00 am
  • 14 minutes 18 seconds
    Episode 235: The Girls, their Teachers, their Parents

    Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.

    The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Radiotopia is a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts that’s a part of PRX, a not-for-profit public media company. If you’d like to directly support this show, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. 

    Music

    • Joy, by Jeffrey Cantu-Ledesma
    • The Cradle by Frederico Albanese
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    7 August 2025, 4:00 pm
  • 13 minutes 35 seconds
    Episode 234: Looking for Parking, Late Winter, 1996

    Order The Memory Palace book now, dear listener. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House. Or order the audiobook at places like Libro.fm.

    The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Radiotopia is a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts that’s a part of PRX, a not-for-profit public media company. If you’d like to directly support this show, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate. 

    Notes

    • Go to adoptastation.org and pitch in.
    • Listen to the incredible documentaries by Lloyd Newman, LeAlan Jones, and David Isay, at David's (Corporation for Public Broadcasting funded) Storycorps.org

    Music

    • Herbert's Story from Mark Orton's score to Nebraska.
    • Kyu from Sylvain Chaveau
    • Smygkatt by Shida Shahabi
    • Roedelius plays Rolling
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    26 July 2025, 12:26 am
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