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 21 seconds
    Episode 150: Late One Night

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

    This episode was originally released in October 2019.

    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

    17 October 2024, 7:00 pm
  • 13 minutes 48 seconds
    Episode 222: Ferminia Sarras

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

    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

    • Riverside by Ann Annie
    • Walking to Town by Lullatone
    • Alice Lake by North Americans
    • Gone for a Wander by Domenique Dumont

    Notes

    19 September 2024, 7:30 am
  • 22 minutes 53 seconds
    Episode 221: Ken Allen

    Pre-order The Memory Palace book now, pal. On Bookshop.org, on Amazon.com, on Barnes & Noble, or directly from Random House.

    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 and independent media, 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

    • Pure (Ride the World) by (the extraordinary) Brendan Eder Ensemble
    • Violette... from Philippe Sarde's score to Violette et Francois
    • Merry-go-Round and People on Sunday by Domenique Dumont
    • Dane by Nils Frahm
    • Two different versions of Debussy's Passepied, the piano one is performed by Seong-Jin Cho, the synth one by Isao Tomita
    • Love from Matthew Herbert
    • Memorial Park from Bernard Herrmann's score to Obsession.
    • Phantom Signals by Tvarvargen

    Notes

    5 September 2024, 7:00 am
  • 13 minutes 34 seconds
    Episode 220: The Zipper

    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 and independent media, 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

    • Swiming by Explosions in the Sky
    • Walking Song by Kevin Volans and the Netherlands Wind Ensemble
    • I Walk on Guilded Splinters by Johnny Jenkins
    • Seduction by the Balanescu Quartet
    • Lunette by Les Baxter and Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman
    • Running Around by Buddy Ross
    • September by Giles Lamb

    Notes

    • This episode was pieced together from a ton of little fragments but I wanted to steer folks to a couple of resources in particular: this excellent article from a few years back in the Toronto Star by Katie Daubs, and this documentary from filmmaker, Amy Nicholson, that primarily uses the Zipper as a way to talk about changes at Coney Island but has some great details from Harold Chance and his sons. 
    15 August 2024, 7:30 am
  • 11 minutes 5 seconds
    Episode 219: Lost Jobs

    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 and independent media, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate.  I have recently launched a newsletter. You can subscribe to it at thememorypalacepodcast.substack.com

    Notes

    • Read about the change in policy here. And the article that helped prompt the policy change here

    Music

    • Pipeline by H.Takahashi
    • Sad Seine by Lambert
    • Dance PM by Hiroshi Yoshimura
    3 July 2024, 4:05 am
  • 13 minutes 32 seconds
    A White Horse

    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 and independent media, you can make a donation at Radiotopia.fm/donate.  I have recently launched a newsletter. You can subscribe to it at thememorypalacepodcast.substack.com

    This episode was originally released in 2016 in the days after the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. It is re-released every year on the anniversary of the incident. 

    A note on notes: We’d much rather you just went into each episode of The Memory Palace cold. And just let the story take you where it well. So, we don’t suggest looking into the show notes first.

    Notes and Reading:
    * Most of the specific history of the White Horse was learned from "Sanctuary: the Inside Story of the Nation's Second Oldest Gay Bar" by David Olson, reprinted in its entirety on the White Horse's website.
    * "Gayola: Police Professionalization and the Politics of San Francisco's Gay Bars, 1950-1968," by Christopher Agee.
    * June Thomas' series on the past, present, and future of the gay bar from Slate a few years back.
    * Various articles written on the occasion of the White Horse's 80th anniversary, including this one from SFGATE.Com
    * Michael Bronski's A Queer History of the United States.
    * Radically Gay, a collection of Harry Hay's writing.
    * Incidentally, I watched this interview with Harry Hay from 1996 about gay life in SF in the 30's multiple times because it's amazing.

    Music
    * We start with Water in Your Hands by Tommy Guerrero.
    * Hit Anne Muller's Walzer fur Robert a couple of times.
    * Gaussian Curve does Talk to the Church.
    * We get a loop of Updraught from Zoe Keating.
    * We finish on Transient Life in Twilight by James Blackshaw

    12 June 2024, 4:56 am
  • 19 minutes 42 seconds
    Episode 218: Olga

    The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

    A Note on Notes:

    I always prefer that the listener goes into each episode cold, not knowing what it's going to be about. So, you might want to tread carefully, as there are spoilers in the notes below. 

    Music

    • L'espagne pour memoire by Michel Portal
    • Find me Tomorrow from Christophe Beck's score to Charlie Countryman
    • The old Soviet philharmonic plays some Shostakovich.
    • The London Symphony Orchestra plays The Blue Danube Waltz.
    • We hear Walt by Mother Falcon.
    • Sombolero by Luiz Bonfa

    Notes

    • Like a lot of people below, say, 55, I first heard about Olga Fikotova-Connolly when reading her obituary in the New York Times.
    • By far the best thing you can do if you want to know more about her is track down her out-of-print memoir, The Rings of Destiny, which, despite its rather puffed-up title, is so warm and detailed and intimate. It's a delight. 
    • You might also enjoy this late-in-life interview with Olga as well. 


    6 June 2024, 7:30 am
  • 12 minutes 54 seconds
    Hazel, Mark, and a One-Time Juliet

    The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

    Music

    • Traffico from Carlo Rustichelli's score to Divorzio All'Italiana and Una Braveta, from his score to Amici Miei.
    • Tema Grottesco from Giovanni Fusco's score to L'avventura.
    •  Gloving it from Moondog.
    • Musica Bionda from the score to The Sweet Body of Deborah
    • The Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra plays Natascha from the score to The Perfect Marriage. 
    • Waltz from the Brendan Eder Ensemble
    • Christa Schonfeldinger plays Grieg's Smarthold - der Kobold, on the glass armonica.
    2 May 2024, 7:30 am
  • 19 minutes 37 seconds
    Episode 216: Awake

    The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

    Music

    • A synth stab from As if it Would Have a Universal and Memorable Ending by Shane Carruth's score to his film, Upstream Color, a movie I love deeply. 
    • Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by the Platters
    • The Girl Who was Frightened of Ashtrays by Charlie Megira
    • Sambolero by Luiz Bonfa. 
    • Water by So Percussion
    • Divertimiento Fur Tenorsaxophon Und Kleines Ensemble (Part 4) from Carl Oesterhelt and Johannes Ender.
    • Ball by Duval Timothy
    • Piece 3 by the great Warren Ellis.
    • Chora tua Tristeza from Lalo Schiffrin
    • Growing Up from Ben Sollee's score to Maidentrip
    • (Vibraphone, Marimbaphone, Malletted Wood, Two Synthesizers) and (Two Bells) by Josiah Steinbrick
    • Main et lee from Michel Portal
    18 April 2024, 7:30 am
  • 13 minutes 13 seconds
    Episode 215: An Eighth Wonder

    The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

    Music

    • Momento Ritmico and Papete aru by Piero Umiliani
    • Opus 13 from Sven Libaek's score to The Set
    • French Doll by Larry Ashmore and David Francis
    • The wonderful Sewentuwa by Hailu Meriga
    • Wave I by Elor Saxl
    • Green by Hiroshi Yoshimura

    Notes

    • I originally learned about the Elephantine Colossus years ago in David McCullough's Brooklyn... and How it Got That Way, which still holds up.
    4 April 2024, 7:30 am
  • 17 minutes 20 seconds
    Episode 214: Newsboy

    The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

    Music

    • Un geant dans la mer and Triste soiree III from the score to Marie et les naufrages by the genius, Sebastian Tellier. 
    • Love is Blue by Jackie Mittoo and the Soul Vendors.
    • Rocky Passage by Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer
    • Morris Visits Dr. Pratt from John Barry's score to The Wrong Box
    • Adios Muchachos from Andre Popp
    • Moonlight in Vermont from the great Dorothy Ashby. 
    • Midnight Moon by The Portland Cello Project
    • Dance PM by Hiroshi Yoshimura
    • And we hear Blind Andy Jenkins' "Floyd Collins in Sand Cave" followed by Vernon Dalhart doing the same song under the name, "The Death of Floyd Collins." We also hear Jimmy Osbourne do Andy's, "The Death of Little Kathy Fiscus."

    Notes

    • I have a note in my years-long running list of possible story ideas that says, "event songs," but I could never remember why. Then I was reading Charles Hirschberg and Mark Zwonitzer's, Will You Miss me When I'm Gone?: The Carter Family & Their Legacy in American Music and was reminded of Andy's story (that book is great).
    • I also recommend the always-useful, Country Music USA, by Bill C. Malone for more on Andy and his era as well as Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity by Richard A. Peterson.
    • If you want more about poor Floyd Collins, you could turn to Robert K. Murray and Roger W. Bruckner's, Trapped!: The Story of Floyd Collins.
    21 March 2024, 7:30 am
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